Railsong

Bhattacharya (The Sly Company of People Who Care) serves up an illuminating tale about a woman fighting for her agency in India. The daughter of a railway worker in the township of Bhombalpur, Charu Chitol is five in the 1960s when her mother dies from a fever. As the only sister to two boys, Charu is burdened by domestic chores during the ensuing years of famine, drought, and workers’ strikes against inflation. At 16, she runs away from home, boarding a train to Bombay with aspirations of making something of her life by enrolling in college. She moves in with her maternal uncle and takes a job as a saleswoman, which she keeps secret because her family looks down on working women. When her uncle finds out, he and the rest of her family pressures her to get married, but Charu stands firm and moves into a women’s hostel. Eventually, she becomes a welfare inspector and learns how those belonging to lower castes are exploited and mistreated. Through Charu’s experiences, Bhattacharya provides a wide-angle view of India’s inequality and patriarchal gender roles, all while depicting in intimate detail how his protagonist struggles to live on her own terms. This satisfies. (Feb.)