Being poor is a full-time job and - with its continual need to defer gratification - difficult to convey cinematically without getting either dull, sentimental or melodramatic. The later stages of 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' opt increasingly towards the latter with a fanciful combination of expressionistic visuals and weird sound effects.
The passage of time is inclined to render vintage films depicting poverty picturesque to later audiences, and the sympathetic characters, superb photography by Dinen Gupta and the beauty of the two sisters and of the rural setting further conspire to make 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' as engrossing a cinematic experience as the reality of the genteel poverty experienced by Neeta's family would have been soul-destroying to experience on a day-to-day basis.
SPOILER COMING: That Neeta's brother Shankar actually achieves his dream of success would seem a concession to the need to provide a happy ending; except that the family's salvation has been achieved only at the cost of sacrificing Neeta, having wrecked first her hopes and then her health.
The passage of time is inclined to render vintage films depicting poverty picturesque to later audiences, and the sympathetic characters, superb photography by Dinen Gupta and the beauty of the two sisters and of the rural setting further conspire to make 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' as engrossing a cinematic experience as the reality of the genteel poverty experienced by Neeta's family would have been soul-destroying to experience on a day-to-day basis.
SPOILER COMING: That Neeta's brother Shankar actually achieves his dream of success would seem a concession to the need to provide a happy ending; except that the family's salvation has been achieved only at the cost of sacrificing Neeta, having wrecked first her hopes and then her health.