ABSTRACT
Parama is a devoted housewife who lives in an urban, affluent middle class family in Calcutta. Aparna Sen's Parama perfectly fits into this genre of films, where the societal notions of a woman's role were revisites to finally initiate her on a journey to her own 'self'. The portrayal of women in Indian films, in general, and Bengali films, in particular, has traversed a path which has often posed questions at her, demanding answers about her integrity, responsibility, morality as well as her exposure to the outer world. In Indian society socializing of girls are so complete that most women feel that they are socially, emotionally and politically unfulfilled and incomplete without a marriage. Marriage is ideally thought of as a relationship between two equal partners based on love and companionship. Sociological research over several decades, however, shows that marital relationships often fail to live up to this ideal.
