Charitraheen - Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay

I never thought I could ever read Sarat's literature....Perhaps it may sound a bit weird,but I hate 'Devdas'..I had a tough arguement with my brother that Dev is a hopeless and useless character..Ofcourse I haven't read the novel yet.Then my brother convinced me that Sarat never portraited  'Devdas' as a hero,but the way he depicted his life and love is the real 'Hero' of the novel..I really felt ashamed of myself for judging a novel by its movie...

Copy right A Homemaker's Utopia

I kept all my doubts afar and made up my mind to pick up this book..Coming to the novel 'Charitraheen',it is a story of human lives in typical Bengali society...There are several characters in the novel having different identies and unique qualities.Its hard to find a single hero/heroin like character in the novel..The fluctuating relationships of Satish,Upendra and Diwakar with the four women Savithri,Kiranmayi,Sarojini and Surabala is the main concept of the novel...Satish and Upendra are childhood friends.Upendra is purely orthodox and follow every ritual of Bengali society,he is married to Surabala who admires her husband as a God,like a typical hindu woman...The homeo doctor Satish loves Savithri,who is a servent in a mess.She is a brahmin girl but fate forces her to live a life of a low caste girl..She quitely admires Satish..But Satish have some misunderstandings about her character,caste and creed.The couple got separated for some time but finally Satish's honest servent Bihari brings the truth in to light about Savithri..There is another parallel story about Kiranmayi..She is a victim of childmarriage..A well educated but distressed woman with her lonely life.Her youthful dreams were never fulfilled by her old husband Haran babu and her nagging mother-in-law Aghormayi..After being a widow of Haran,she falls in love with Upendra..But after severely insulted by him she elopes with Diwakar,who is a young man of no proper maturity and also a brother of Upendra..Finally all the misunderstanding comes to an end with the deaths of Upendra and Surabala.Satish marries Sarojini and the responsibilities of his brothers were taken by Savithri...

The novel depicts the typical hindu society in Bengal under Britishers rule..Where people consider  foreign studies as a horrible sin..Those who dare to commit the sin were casteaway from the society..The different positive and negative shades of woman were wonderfully described..The strength of a woman to protect her self-esteem is portraited by Savithri's character..The barriers they can easily cross to fulfill their dreams is very well portraited by Kiranmayi's role..And their eternal love is reflected by Sarojini and Surabala..Like this,Sarat gave different shades to wonderful woman in his novel..I can say the book is 'Soul of Bengali woman'.The novel is an image of conflict of a tranforming hindu society with western society.