Three Daughters
About Three Daughters
Satyajit Ray's Teen Kanya sets three Rabindranath Tagore stories in a row. In The Postmaster, Calcutta clerk Nandalal (Anil Chatterjee) teaches the orphan Ratan (Chandana Banerjee) to read, then resigns and leaves; she refuses his tip. In Monihara, Manimalika (Kanika Majumdar) hoards the jewels her husband Phanibhusan buys, flees with them, and returns as a ghost. In Samapti, Amulya (Soumitra Chatterjee) marries the village tomboy Mrinmoyee (Aparna Sen) instead of the bride his mother chose, and she comes back to him after a night she spends up a tree.
Cast & crew
More about Three Daughters
Ray wrote the screenplays, produced the film, and composed the music. Soumendu Roy was the cinematographer. The Indian release, on 5 May 1961, ran all three stories. The export version dropped Monihara and later appeared on VHS in 1997 as Two Daughters.
Themes
Background
A 1961 Bengali anthology released in the middle of Ray's early 1960s run of films drawn from Bengali literature.
In film history
The full Indian print keeps Tagore's ghost story Monihara between two village comedies of attachment. Most viewers outside India first saw only the other two, under the title Two Daughters.
Making
Ray shot three separate Tagore stories as one Bengali feature and then cut the jewel story out of the print sent abroad.
Look
Soumendu Roy photographed the three stories, moving from the post office village to the jewel household to Amulya's wedding.
Music
Satyajit Ray composed the music.
Preservation
The Academy Film Archive preserved the international version in 1996 and Monihara in 1998. A copy of the Bengali film is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The Bengali title Teen Kanya means three girls. The English release title is Three Daughters.
- It won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali, the Selznick Golden Laurel at the 13th Berlin International Film Festival, and Best Director plus Best Indian Film at the 25th Bengal Film Journalists' Association awards.
- The Academy Film Archive preserved the two-story international version in 1996 and preserved Monihara in 1998.
- Kali Banerjee plays Phanibhusan in Monihara. Gobinda Chakravarti plays the schoolteacher who tells that story, and the hooded listener then says he is Phanibhusan.
- Aparna Sen's first important film role is Mrinmoyee, called Paglee in the village.
Awards
- National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali (1961)
- Selznick Golden Laurel, 13th Berlin International Film Festival
- Best Director and Best Indian Film, 25th Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards
Scenes
- Ratan refuses Nandalal's money as he leaves the village.
- Manimalika's ghost rushes Phanibhusan when he holds out a jewel box.
- Mrinmoyee spends the wedding night in a tree, then climbs one again when Amulya returns.
Influenced by
- Short stories by Rabindranath Tagore
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons
- Two Daughters (VHS, 1997), the two-story international version
