Goynar Baksho 2013

The film centers on a wooden box containing 500 bharis of gold ornaments that becomes the quiet heartbeat of a family’s history. Its owner is Rashmoni, the fiercely protective daughter of a Bengali Hindu zamindar family from Faridpur. She was married off at the age of 11 and widowed within months, a life that left her highly possessive of her jewelry. Her tempers and warnings keep others away from the precious box, and even as time passes, that stash of gold symbolizes power, memory, and unresolved debts.

After the partition of Bengal, Rashmoni migrates with her brothers’ families to a suburb called Nababganj near Ichapore in West Bengal. In 1949, Somlata Somlata, the daughter from a poor family, enters Rashmoni’s household as the wife of Chandan, the younger son of Rashmoni’s younger brother. Because Somlata isn’t greedy for jewelry, Rashmoni initially takes a liking to her. Yet fate intervenes when Rashmoni dies a few months into Somlata’s marriage, and her lingering attachment to the jewelry gradually turns into a haunting presence—her ghost lingers in the house, wary of those who would misuse or steal the box.

To shield the family wealth from increasingly greedy relatives, Rashmoni’s spirit hands the jewelry over to Somlata. As years pass, the male members of the family drift away from work, choosing instead to preserve a fading aristocratic lifestyle. Legal fees to resolve disputes between Rashmoni’s brothers, along with the gambling temptations of Chandan’s elder brother, erode what wealth remains. Yet Somlata manages to hold the line, keeping the jewelry hidden under Rashmoni’s watchful eye. She even pawns a portion of the jewels to finance a new venture: a sari shop she runs under her own name and, symbolically, in Rashmoni’s honor, ensuring that the legacy survives in a practical, modern way. When the pawned pieces are repurchased, the tension shifts to the personal sphere: Somlata discovers Chandan’s mistress, and Rashmoni’s ghost nudges her toward pursuing a complicated, morally fraught path.

In this tangled web, Somlata is drawn toward Rafique, a Bengali Muslim poet who becomes a beloved but ultimately impossible romance. The relationship tests Somlata’s loyalties and her sense of duty to her husband and to Rashmoni’s memory. Yet conscience ultimately guides her back toward the sanctity of marriage to Chandan, and heartbreak follows when Rafique takes his own life after the affair is exposed. Rashmoni’s ethereal presence becomes wary of Somlata’s vulnerability, stepping back and then reappearing later in the life of Somlata’s daughter, Chaitali, who is growing up in a world where the past and present collide.

As time moves forward, Chaitali—now a modern student in college—befriends Rashmoni’s ghost. Her resemblance to Rashmoni convinces Somlata that Rashmoni may have reincarnated in the young woman. Trusting this intuition, Somlata hands Rashmoni’s jewelry box to Chaitali, hoping to safeguard the legacy once again. The narrative then shifts to a new era: 1971 and the Bangladesh Liberation War. Rashmoni’s former lover Banwarilal (also known as Benu) crosses the border again to aid the Mukti Bahini. He is shot by the Pakistani army, and Chaitali donates all the jewelry to the liberation cause, a gesture that transforms the box into a symbol of national struggle as well as personal salvation.

In an abandoned house where Chaitali once met with Rafique, she uncovers the last poems and letters that reveal the depth of Rafique’s love and Somlata’s own past with him. Chaitali anonymously passes these letters to Somlata, triggering a quiet reckoning. Somlata—the woman who once guarded Rashmoni’s wealth and guarded her own hidden desires—realizes the depths of Rafique’s devotion, while Rashmoni’s spirit, strengthened by these revelations, finds the peace she long sought. The film closes on a note of liberation: Rashmoni’s soul is finally freed from the burden of lingering unrest, and the jewelry box—once a symbol of possessive power—is transformed into a testament to love, memory, and the resilience of a family across generations.

Notes on performances and presence:

• Rashmoni anchors the story’s supernatural thread, her possessive love for the jewelry driving much of the early conflict and moral tension.

• Somlata embodies the bridge between old and new Bengal, balancing loyalty to family with the pragmatic steps she takes to survive and prosper.

• [Choto Pola] is part of the family dynamic teased by the backdrop of Rashmoni’s influence, with the cast’s energy contributing to the atmosphere of shifting loyalties.

• Father and the other elder relatives appear as the living embodiment of tradition, duty, and conflict within the larger arc of wealth, memory, and upheaval.

• Rafique represents a path of passion that tests the bounds of propriety and obligation, leaving a lasting impression on the family’s story.

The narrative remains faithful to its core: a treasure trove of gold, a haunted maternal legacy, and a lineage whose choices ripple through decades of history, culminating in a reconciliation that grants peace to Rashmoni’s spirit and clarity to Somlata’s heart. Bold in its imagery and patient in its pacing, the film invites reflection on how memory, love, and history intertwine to shape a family’s future.