Maa

This is a story of human emotions—love greed jealousy forbearance desire and forgiveness—asthey play out in the inner sanctum of the home.<br><br><i>Maa</i> revolves around four characters in a turn-of-the-nineteenth-century setting in the aftermath of the social churning caused by the Bengal Renaissance. Aurobindo Basu is the well-educated scion of a rich influential Kayastha family. He has two wives: Manorama the charming daughter of poverty-stricken parents whom he married against his father’s will and who was soon disowned by his patriarchal father; and Brajarani a beautiful wealthy strong-willed lady who Aurobindo was forced to marry due to the threat of disinheritance. <br><br>While the old patriarch also disowned Manorama’s son Ajit Brajarani was unable to produce an heir. Manorama lived in dire straits but found fulfilment in caring for Ajit; in contrast Brajaranihad everything that a woman could materially desire but was bereft of her husband’s love and wasimmensely resentful of her abandoned co-wife. What such a situation can do to a young innocentmind is reflected in Ajit’s coming of age. <br><br><i>Maa</i> is a period piece on the private world of Bengali women as viewed through the unique lens of an extraordinarily gifted writer who belonged to and knew that society intimately.