Shakha Proshakha

aka Branches of the Tree 1990 130’ col Bengali d/s/m Satyajit Ray p Daniel Toscan du Plantier, Gerard Depardieu pc Erato Films, DD Prod, Soprofilms c Barun Raha lp Ajit Bannerjee, Haradhan Bannerjee, Soumitra Chatterjee, Dipankar Dey, Ranjit Mullick, Lily Chakraborty, Mamata Shankar

Following the unsatisfactory Ganashatru (1989) and his critique of contemporary corruption, Ray’s first international co- production looks more like a TV movie and continues the realist Ibsenite idiom with this story about a Bengali joint family. The honest old patriarch Ananda Majumdar (A. Bannerjee), who rose from government clerk to real-estate developer building a small township, has a heart attack on his 70th birthday, causing the large family to gather: his four sons, their wives and children. The eldest son, Probodh (H. Bannerjee), is a corrupt businessman, to the great disappointment of the old man who finds he is closest to his mentally retarded second son, the music-loving Prashanto (S. Chatterjee).

Film