Parineeta takes place at the turn of the 20th century during the Bengal Renaissance. The story centers around a poor thirteen year old orphan girl, Lalita, who lives with the family of her uncle Gurucharan. Gurucharan has five daughters and the expense of paying for each dowry has impoverished him. He is forced to take a loan from his neighbor, Nabin Roy. Roy's son Shekhar, is a twenty five year old successful lawyer who is close friends with Lalita. While she is infatuated with him, the differences in wealth and class (and later religion) preclude marriage (as Swagato Ganguly states in the introduction to the 2005 English translation, "child marriages were the norm during much of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's life time...and did not attract any penalties from the law at the time of Parineeta's publication in 1914", pp.v-vi).<br/><br/>Shekhar is nonetheless jealous of Girish, a student who is the uncle of Lalita's friend, Charubala (her mother's cousin). Girish, Charubala and the rest of their family are Brahmos and Girish exerts a great deal of influence over Lalita's family. Girish helps Gurucharan repay the loan to Nabin Roy. He also convinces Gurucharan to convert himself and his family from Hinduism to Brahmoism as it forbade the giving of dowry in a marriage (a move which so enrages Nabin Roy that he builds a wall between the two houses). As a triangle develops between Girish, Shekhar, and Lalita, tragedy ensues in the wake of a number of misunderstandings.

Starring

Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan, Raima Sen, more..

Director

Pradeep Sarkar

Language

Hindi

Genre

Release Date

Fri Jun, 10 2005

---

Sanjay Dutt

... Girish Sharma

Saif Ali Khan

... Shekhar N. Roy

Raima Sen

... Koyal - Lolita's sister

Vidya Balan

... Lolita - Gurcharan's daughter

Dia Mirza

... Gayetri Tatya

Vidhu Vinod Chopra

... Producer

Vidhu Vinod Chopra

... Story / Writers

Pradeep Sarkar

... Story / Writers

Howard Rosemeyer

... Choreographers

Subarna Rai Chaudhuri

... Costume Designers