Bishorjan 2017

Padma, Jaya Ahsan, a Hindu widow living in a quiet border village on the Bangladeshi side, refuses to witness Durga Bishorjon with her son. The festival, a grand tradition that travels across borders, culminates in the immersion of huge Durga idols into the Ichamati River, a watercourse that literally divides two lands and two communities. As the crowd cheers and colors spill into the current, Padma’s mind drifts back to a Bishorjon from years past, revealing how memory and place shape her choices in the present.

After the partition of India, Bengal is carved into East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) and West Bengal, India. Border tensions sharpen, and neighbors grow distant as lines on a map harden into everyday life. In this fragile atmosphere, Padma saves Nasir Ali, Abir Chatterjee, a West Bengali Muslim man who had nearly drowned in the river during Bishorjon, and shelters him in her home. To conceal his uncertain citizenship, they claim he is her cousin, hoping the truth can stay hidden in the village.

Ganesh, Kaushik Ganguly, a middle-aged jamidar who admires Padma, grows suspicious of Nasir. The two men, bound by different destinies, confront how a river can split people who share a history and a homeland, turning kinship into a question of borders rather than blood.

Padma dreams of sending Nasir back to India. Nasir confides that his drowning story was a lie and reveals ties to the black market that complicate his stay. Padma’s father-in-law dies, and Nasir worries for her safety now that Ganesh keeps a watchful eye over the village. Still, Padma urges him to stay calm, and to ready himself for a possible return to West Bengal.

Ganesh declares his love for Padma and vows to wait. To help, Padma agrees to marry Ganesh in exchange for his assistance in smuggling Nasir across the border.

On Bijoya Doshomi, the night before Nasir’s departure, Padma loosens her restraint, drinks, and bares her pain to Nasir. The moment of passion complicates their vow, and the next day Padma parts from Nasir with a tearful goodbye, sending him away with a gift for Ayesha. Nasir promises to end his black-market business. Ganesh escorts Padma to his home as Nasir departs. Padma marries Ganesh, and she refuses to go to see Bishorjon in Ichamati; her little son leaves with Ganesh. In a final, shattering reveal, the boy carries Nasir’s birthmark, proving that he is Nasir’s son.