RIFLE RANGE BOY: What is the definition of 'normal'?

Paromitar Ek Din ( A day of Paromitar, Bengali; 2000)
Direction: Aparna Sen

Society has defined what is normal and what is not. It has decided social mores on how to behave and what is appropriate. It has set arbitrary levels of what is expected of a family. It determines how it should be portrayed to the world. It is all a facade, a smokescreen, the foundation that is laid on unfinished brickwork to give a final smooth concealing the imperfections beneath.

The community expects a family to be of certain expectations and to behave in a specific manner to be one of them. Human beings, being social animals, clamour to belong to a group of certain similarities that they go to great extents to showcase what the rest accepts as normality.

So, despite being trapped in a loveless marriage, we are expected to labour it through, hoping that love will conquer it all. We want to be proud of offspring, immerse in their joys and growing old, aspiring to have brought them up as perfect adults for the generation next. Despite the social etiquette, we sometimes find connections in people of the opposite sex whom we are not supposed to be intimate. We sometimes bond with people who are no longer related by society-sanctioned unions or blood or because of circumstance. Maybe because of unexplainable celestial attachments, we still find platonic relationships with the very people tabooed by society. Life is a maze with all its intricacies and no perfect answers. We make our solutions as we go on.

The story of Paromitar is unveiled as she attends her mother-in-law's (or rather her ex-husband's mother) funeral. Paromitar is now remarried and is currently pregnant with her second child. She entered the house seven years previously as a young bride. Her life turned murky after she delivered a child who was diagnosed to have cerebral palsy. Caring for the handicapped child proved too stressful for Paromitar and her husband. Their relationship grew apart. The mother-in-law also had an empty marriage. Together, they found commonality in each other and develop a strong bond. They discovered that both of them have left a joyful life in their 'previous lives' to fulfil their roles as spouses. The child dies, and Paromitar meets another man and leaves her husband.

Also in the background is the mother-in-law's old flame who showed up at the doorstep ever so regularly to chat. We soon discover that the meeting was not merely platonic.

After Paromitar's departure, the mother-in-law becomes sick, needing constant care. Breaking all conventions, Paromitar had returned to the household to care for her before her death.

Aberrations from the norm are common in families. Even though we would like the ocean of life to be smooth, we occasionally encounter high waves and inclement weather. That, in essence, is the meaning of life - to deal with the problems and the unexpected tragedy that are hurled upon us periodically. That is normal. Every family has its own quirks and skeletons up in their closets.