SUSHILA

Ashok Kumar Sikri brings home an allen bride, Barbara, to his village in northern India; their daughter is Sushila whose genius for painting ""a resurgent India"" is comparable to her devouring ego. Sushila Chandralekha Barbara knows what she wants to do, knows too that men must not interfere, and, studying with Harbans Singh in Delhi, exhibiting there and in Calcutta, to a mixed press, the finds her creative life entangled with Rajendra Kamat, whose physical appeal and artistic integrity break down her isolation. Her growing fame, with its national overtones, her dedication to her work, consume her and she dies, still young, of . The Indian landscapes are vividly memorable, the insects of Barbara's and Ashok's mixed marriage are tantalizing, the setting of an upper bracket of the late 20's, 30's in India, native and white, have an on the spot reportage -- but the whole slides off into indefiniteness.