Hajar Bachhor Dhore 2005

In the present-day, Mokbul presides over an old, creaking house where his younger brother Montu, a cluster of cousins, and three wives share the space. The youngest wife, Tuni, is still a teenager and harbors a secret ache: she loves Montu, who also feels drawn to her, yet their feelings are tempered by their loyalty to Mokbul. Montu is also loved by his neighbor Ambia, a bond the whole neighborhood notices and sometimes mocks or whispers about. When Ambia’s family is struck by a devastating disease, no one volunteers to bury the dead for fear of contagion. Montu, showing unusual kindness, goes ahead and buries the bodies, a moment that reveals his capacity for mercy and forges a stronger connection to Ambia.

Watching this, Mokbul hatches a plan to claim Ambia’s property by marrying her off to Montu, hoping the alliance would secure his grip on the estate. Tuni resists the idea with fervor and engineers a counter-strategy: persuade Mokbul to take Ambia as his fourth wife, arguing that such a union would fulfill a superstition that every man should have four wives. Mokbul, swayed by her argument and the chance to control more wealth, agrees, and the plan sets in motion a fierce backlash within the household. The wives cry out in protest, arguing that their husband is too old to take another wife; the cousins also voice opposition. Tuni stirs the flames, driving a wedge between Mokbul and his family.

In a fit of anger, Mokbul divorces his first two wives. A cousin strikes him on the head with a rock, leaving him sick and weak. The older two wives depart in tears, lamenting their vanished status, while the second wife’s brother announces his intention to wed a richer man soon. Not long after, Mokbul dies, and Tuni finds herself alone as his sole widow, since the divorces already removed the others from his side. Consumed by guilt, she fears that the ruin of his family is a consequence of her plotting. When Montu sees Tuni clad in a white widow’s sari, he asks her to marry him, only to hear her reply that this tragedy is her punishment for causing the downfall.

The narrative then leaps forward to reveal that Montu and Ambia have wed, and that Tuni has grown into an elderly, solitary widow. A separate thread follows a younger cousin of Mokbul, who has already beaten two wives to death. He brutally abuses a third wife, and Montu—seeing himself as a guardian of their welfare—tells him to mind his own business. Montu later witnesses the third wife’s suicide attempt and is moved by the resolve to live she demonstrates. Upon Montu’s return, he learns that the third wife has died at the hands of his cousin. When the family contemplates a match between Ambia and Mokbul, the cousin jokes about marrying Ambia himself, and Tuni snaps back that he would beat Ambia to death as well if given the chance.