Aparna Sen’s first feature is a well-tuned Indian melodrama about the relationships that define and change us as a tender-hearted teacher lends her apartment to an ex-student and her boyfriend.

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If you enjoy Indian melodrama that is done well, look no further than 36 Chowringhee Lane, the first feature by Aparna Sen. 

Shot in a mix of English and Bengali, the film centers on a veteran schoolteacher Ms. Violet Stoneham (Jennifer Kendall) who lives alone in a cosy apartment.  Chancing upon her ex-student Nandita one day, the latter deceives her into lending her residence to Nandita’s boyfriend to write a novel. 

So the naïve but tender-hearted Ms. Stoneham goes to school while Nandita has intimate sessions with her boyfriend in the teacher’s home.  Sen’s film, however, isn’t really about the licentious encounters of these young lovebirds but the emotional connection Ms. Stoneham has with them over time. 

As an Anglo-Indian living in an India that has enjoyed many decades of independence, she finds much-needed vitality from the heart-to-heart conversations with the couple, which allows her to cope with lifelong regrets in her silver years. 

“I’ll give you the keys.”

Kendall is superb with her melancholy face and affectionate voice, producing a gentle performance that goes into heartbreaking territory.  She would unfortunately pass away only three years later, with her last screen role in Satyajit Ray’s late career masterwork The Home and the World (1984). 

From its sentimental original score to the measured and dignified cinematography style that recalls the likes of Merchant-Ivory productions, 36 Chowringhee Lane is decidedly much more contemporary in its setting, though thematically it lends itself to a more classical reading—that the traditions which follow us may never disappear, and our capability to accept change shall also never wilt. 

It is easy to wallow in the hurtful past but Sen asks us to find a new world for ourselves, away from old addresses and faded memories.

Grade: B+

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