Bhuvan Shome

Bhuvan Shome is a 1969 Hindi film directed by Mrinal Sen. The cast includes Utpal Dutt (Mr Bhuvan Shome) and Suhasini Mulay (Gauri, a village belle). Sen based his film on a Bengali story by Banaphool (Balai Chand Mukhopadhya) and is considered a landmark in modern Indian cinema.

This is a debut film for Suhasini Mulay.

Plot

Bhuvan Shome, a widower and a dedicated civil servant - strict, uncompromising – takes a holiday which transforms him irreparably though at the same time heightening his sense of isolation.

Bhuvan Shome is a "big officer" in the Indian Railways. The background of the film is constructed in the context of a few railway ticket checkers discussing him as a strict, unreasonable officer ("afsar"). It continues of him being described, by a narrator, as a man whose "Bengali"-ness has not been affected by his travels.

His apparent age, late 50s, is an important element of his psychology.

Inspired by hunting, Bhuvan Shome is seen to take a "hunting holiday" to Gujarat. It's quite clear that his expedition is amateur. It is portrayed as an aspiration of an inept "hunter" rather than of a man who knows how to acquire a skill.

His encounter with the young Gouri is fortuitous because it is she who takes care of him and helps "hunt" birds. She helps him through a barren wilderness, takes him home and takes care of him. When he is made to change his clothes because otherwise the...
Read More