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    Houston's diversity

    MFAH celebrates work of Indian Nobel Prize laureate Rabindranath Tagore in movieseries

    Ruchi Mukherjee
    Jun 19, 2011 | 9:00 am
    • Rabindranath Tagore
    • Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, left,Marian Luntz
      Photo by Ruchi Mukherjee
    • Moviegoers browse therough handicrafts and books from Santiniketan
      Photo by Ruchi Mukherjee
    • TSH president Raja Banga, left, Debleena Banerji
      Photo by Ruchi Mukherjee

    As the first Asian to receive the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913, Rabindranath Tagore influenced many notables, including Mahatma Gandhi, Audrey Hepburn, Satyajit Ray, Albert Einstein, and Indira Gandhi. Yet he is quite unknown to many.

    However, Tagore's anonymity was bridged during recent events at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. To mark the 150th anniversary of his birth, the museum hosted the works of Tagore and of legendary film director Satyajit Ray. The event, which also celebrated the 90th anniversary of Ray's birth, kicked-off last week with Ray's documentary about Tagore and a screening of Ray's most famous work Charulata (The Lonely Wife), based on a Tagore novel, on Friday night.

    MFAH curator of film and video Marian Luntz and Houston-based writer Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni introduced the intercultural audience to Ray and Tagore. In a conversation, Divakaruni, who hails from Calcutta now called Kolkata, said the movie had made a great attempt to explain the rich cultural heritage of the state of Bengal. "For instance, the main protagonist might be a simple bored housewife but she is very intelligent and a vivid reader who discovers her passion as a writer," Divakaruni explained.

    Tagore, who was born in 1861 in India, started his career with a brief stay in England in an attempt to study law, but he returned to India, and instead pursued a career as a writer, playwright, songwriter, poet, philosopher and educator. His most acclaimed work is a selection of poems, Gitanjal, that has been translated into English from his native language Bengali. Also a social reformer, Rabindranath started an experimental school at Shantiniketan where he instilled his Upanishadic ideals of education.

    He participated in the Indian nationalist movement which made Gandhi, the political father of modern India, his devoted friend. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honor in protest against British policies in India. Although Tagore wrote successfully in all literary genres, he is remembered mostly as a poet.

    The Lonely Wife (Charulata) is based on "Nastanirh (The Broken Nest)," a story by Tagore and set in Kolkata in the late 19th century when the Bengal renaissance was at its peak and India was under British rule. The film was Ray's twelfth feature film and the director's favorite. It was a stand out among Ray's films and explores the emergence of the modern woman in the upper-class of colonial India. One can not help but draw parallels with Ibsen's A Doll's House.

    The context is suggestive with details like the opening sequence where the young wife Charulata is moving from one window to another in her house, observing the activities of the outside world through the window blinds using opera glasses. She feels like a caged bird in her mansion with a keen curiosity and desire to know the outside world.

    The evening, which drew an audience of more than 300, was made possible through The Tagore Society of Houston. Surajit Dasgupta from The Tagore Society told the audience that a scholarship program started by the society helps graduate students in the Department of English at the University of Houston study Tagore for a semester. The Tagore Scholarship Grant program sponsors 11 students this year.

    During a reception after the movie, the crowd discussed the movie, sipped wine and browsed through handicrafts from Santiniketan, including Indian tunics, jewelry and books of Tagore.
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    Movie Review

    New movie Friendship pairs Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in a bizarre bromance

    Alex Bentley
    May 16, 2025 | 3:30 pm
    Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in Friendship
    Photo courtesy of A24
    Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in Friendship.

    Comedian Tim Robinson has gained a cult following thanks to series like Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave, in which his brand of cringe comedy is on full display. The former Saturday Night Live writer/performer has had a few small movie roles over the years, but he’s now getting his first starring role in the off-kilter Friendship.

    Robinson plays Craig, a mild-mannered suburbanite with a wife, Tami (Kate Mara), and son, Steven (Jack Dylan Grazer). Craig has a boring life that involves little more than going to his middle manager job while wearing the same clothes day after day, anticipating the next Marvel movie, and helping Tami out with her at-home floral business.

    He gets a jolt of energy when Austin (Paul Rudd) moves into the neighborhood. The two men seem to hit it off, with Austin — a weatherman at a local TV channel — even taking Craig on a couple of impromptu adventures. But when Craig commits a couple of faux pas at a group gathering at Austin’s house, their bond starts to fracture.

    Even though the film is written and directed by Andrew DeYoung, it’s clear that Robinson had a big influence on the style of comedy it features. There are no big set pieces with a slew of jokes coming one after another. Instead, the film forces the audience to try to vibe with the very particular type of wavelength it’s giving off, one that could almost be called anti-comedy for the way the laughs come out of left field.

    The 100-minute film is full of random comedic moments, like Steven kissing Tami on the lips, Craig being obsessed with his plain brown clothes, a group sing-along, and more. More often than not, it’s the way Craig reacts to both normal and abnormal situations that gets the laughs. The character is needy and oblivious, two traits that combine to make many of his actions cringeworthy.

    Perhaps most importantly for this type of movie, many things in the story go unexplained or don’t make sense. Seemingly crucial elements are brought up only to fade away just as quickly, while other parts that appeared to be throwaway sections get callbacks later in the film. DeYoung and Robinson are determined to keep the audience on their toes the entire time, never knowing what to expect next.

    Robinson has the perfect face for a story like this, one that’s bland enough to blend into the background but memorable enough to sell the jokes. His demeanor is also excellent, never becoming too expressive, even when he gets angry. With long hair, a mustache, and a certain swagger, Rudd is a great complement to Robinson. Only in a film like this would an everyman like Rudd be considered the suave and cool one.

    There will be some that will see Friendship and come away wondering what the hell they just watched. But anyone who goes in knowing that they’re about to witness a comedy that challenges their sensibilities will likely have a great time.

    ---

    Friendship is now playing in select theaters.

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