‘Tora’s Husband’ movie review: Rima Das tells a delicate, haunting pandemic story
Elevated in pitch than her previous two films, Rima Das’s ‘Tora’s Husband’ tells a haunting story about a quiet storm that brews in the minds of a married couple as they grapple with their changing realities
(Originally published in The Hindu on September 25, 2023)
Even before we could begin to learn to process grief, the pandemic demanded we learn of the several ways one could lose their loved ones.. other than in death. In her latest feature, Tora’s Husband, filmmaker Rima Das (also the writer, producer, editor, and cinematographer) paints a delicate and layered image of a family crumbling under the weight of what the pandemic left behind.
Tora (Tarali Kalita Das) a loving housewife, witnesses the withering away of her husband, Jaan (Abhijit Das), a simple but flawed man. Rima lets the camera be a static witness to show how the global calamity has changed life in Chhaygaon, Assam, along with that of Jaan. She captures the air of a town getting back to its feet after a lockdown, with prevailing tension with the distribution of rations, statutory warnings over speakers, ambulances whirring past, and the paranoia over COVID-19 tests and isolation centres.
For Jaan, his Snow White restaurant and bakery isn’t doing enough business to keep his employees happy, payments owed to him are deferred, he’s answerable to the people he owes money to, and a nagging headache adds to the woes. But Jaan is the jaan of Chhaygaon; so even when he struggles to carry the weight of it all, he still….
Read the full review here: