Just perfect...

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

What a wonderful little film this is. Using essentially just three actors and 70 minutes of film, director Satyajit Ray is masterfully precise in telling a haunting story. The premise is quite simple: a man's car breaks down and a wealthy stranger lets him stay in his remote house for the night. To the guest's great surprise, the stranger's wife turns out to be his former lover, unbeknownst to her husband. We find out through flashbacks that the two had actually been very close to marrying, but he wasn't ready, and let her slip away. The film reunites Soumitra Chatterjee and Madhabi Mukherjee, who had played in Ray's 'Charulata' the year before, which also featured a love triangle with a married woman. While that story was about temptation and forbidden love, this one is about the torture of regret, and on top of that, seeing the love one lost later in life, content with a new partner. Is it possible to get a second chance?Mukherjee turns in a great performance, and the flashbacks allow us to contrast her loving expressions from the past with the cool and measured looks she gives Chatterjee in the present. Neither time period is as simple as that, and she's especially good at portraying her conflicting emotions in the latter. Chatterjee may be a little dramatic in his expressions at times, but overall, it's in keeping with his character. Haradhan Bandopadhyay, who plays the husband, is quite good as he unwittingly tortures his guest, criticizing Bengalis while drinking too much early on, and then later commenting on how the remoteness of his bungalow made it a perfect spot for their honeymoon. Ray also allows him to make a point about India's caste system, as he says that while he was bothered by the system the British had employed for 150 years, he came to terms with it because if one was rich, it made things convenient. It was simply a matter of 'drowning the conscience' with alcohol. It's in moments like these that we really see the character of the individuals. Chatterjee's character is sensitive but indecisive, and Bandopadhyay's is friendly enough to give a stranded traveler a place to stay, but boorish and entitled. Perhaps we can also see that in the tiger pelts he has prominently displayed in his home. Then again, he did act to get what he wanted, and got the girl. We also have to ponder small moments in order to understand Mukherjee's emotions. As Chatterjee questions her and presses the issue, she often returns questions with questions, and it's hard to understand how she feels. She gives him sleeping pills it what seems like a minor gesture the night he stays with them, but there is so much meaning to it when she says "I don't think you will" in response to him asking what will happen if he takes more than two. She knows his timidity. This also comes out in his flashbacks. In one frustrated moment, she says "What's the use, Ami? What you really need isn't more time...but something else." Earlier in their relationship, she says "Where there's no courage, one resorts to excuses."The ending is brilliant and slightly ambiguous. For what it's worth, my interpretation is that by showing up for her sleeping pills, she not only makes her decision known, but also that despite outward appearances, she is sad in her marriage, and needs those pills to cope. She, too, is haunted - and yet the time is past, and there's no going back.Clean, concise, wonderfully understated, and yet, emotionally impactful.

This movie might not be a good watch for those who call a movie good because it entertained them and they could laugh throughout the film. It is better to call this movie a study of human emotions and how the conscious and unconscious mind functions, than a cinema. Good movies like these must not only be watched as a motion picture and a story put into the television but as a documentary perhaps, with each shot of the camera unique in itself. I shall give a few examples.1)THE SURPRISE EFFECT:When Amitabha realizes that the wife of the jolly gay tea-estate owner is his long-lost girlfriend Karuna, another director would have taken advantage of this opportunity that prominently presented itself to the director, and would have turned that scene into an eye-catcher. But Ray dealt with it rather subtly. It was but natural for Amitabha's feelings to be taken by tremendous surprise but his consciousness stopped him. We notice both Karuna's and Amitabha's hearts skip a beat, but neither the camera nor the actors make any special effort whatsoever to help the audience realize it.2) THE SIMPLE LINE THAT TOLD THE AUDIENCE VOLUMES ABOUT AMITABHA:A night scene. Amitabha cannot relax; he cannot sleep peacefully after seeing Karuna, married to another man. He tries hard to understand whether Karuna is happy with her married life or not, but can't. In this situation, as he admires Karuna's picture hanging from the wall, Karuna comes out of her room, combing her hair. The failed attempt of Amitabha of making conversation with Karuna and trying to rectify things that have been wronged in the past, ended with a question as worthless as that-- - would Karuna happen to have some sleeping pills? Karuna brings it for him and says, "Not more than two." Amitabha tries to threaten her, but cannot bring up much courage to do so, the same downside of his character responsible for all the mistakes he has committed throughout his life, and is only able to say, "what if I do?" Karuna outsmarts him, "I don't think you will." That one line "Mone to hoena" told the audience the "kapurush" that dwelled in Amitabha, the coward that haunted him all the time. It also told us the chemistry that still existed between the broken couple and how well Karuna understood Amitabha.3. THE VEILED LADY: As they were going out for picnic, Amitabha sat in the backseat of the jeep. He could only see Karuna's head from behind, that too veiled, literally and metaphorically speaking. She hid herself from Amitabha completely, and was really trying her best. Her hand touching her husband's shoulder and the ring on her finger made a chill run down Amitabha's spine.4. THE BURNING CIGARETTE: Picnic Spot. Karuna's husband has fallen off to sleep; but with a burning cigarette in his hand. Amitabha makes use of this opportunity, trying to convince Karuna to leave her husband as he says that he has understood that she is not happy. But Karuna refuses. Whether she did not love Amitabha any more or whether she herself was not brave enough to make such an unconventional move, we do not know. But as the cigarette burns out, we know that very soon the butt of the cigarette will burn the husband 's hand and he will wake up. Though Amitabha knows that there is no time to lose, he has forgotten that the right time has already been lost. A Kapurush like him does not deserve to be happy in a world too ruthless to such people.5. THE LAST SCENE: Amitabha waits for Karuna to come and meet him at the station where he is waiting till the moment the train leaves. He had previously made it known to Karuna to make her decision by the time the train leaves. At the last moment, in the brilliant shades of darkness and light and the fixed position of the camera, we see Karuna coming. She comes. Amitabha rises. He smiles. But his smile fades away. Karuna casually asks for the sleeping pills that Amitabha must have forgotten to return. He gives it to him. She says, "Ashi" (Farewell). Now whether it was the real Karuna or only Amitabha's hallucination, we do not know. Also, why she came, we do not know. But Ray lets his watchers ponder over that scene as the movie ends, as to what the last scene actually signified. I would say that it was a tremendously brave and successful attempt. And perhaps, in my opinion, Karuna did make a decision; and wanted Amitabha to know about it. She might have made up her mind to give up her life, and that is why she asked for the pills. We also remember, what she had said to Amitabha earlier, "But not more than two" and maybe that is what she would now do.

Satyajit Ray's 'Kapurush' is a film that is set one night till the next. A writer Amitabha Roy (Soumitra Chatterjee) is waiting for his train but that's a very long wait. He meets a gentleman, Bimal Gupta (Haradhan Bannerjee), who offers him an invitation to spend the night at his place instead of waiting in the station all night. After arrival at Gupta's residence, Roy is surprised to see Mrs. Gupta. She happens to be his ex-lover.Ray tells the story in a very concise way. It is very much a character centred piece. Chatterjee gives a brilliantly underplayed performance as the younger lover and the desperate man hoping to win back his one time girlfriend. Madhabi Mukherjee does very well as she keeps her emotions balanced and Haradhan Bannerjee is good too.I was surprised to see that it was such a short feature film. The plot is quite simple, as it proceeds with Roy remembering the old days with Karuna, his rejection of her and now he wants her back. He's desperate to believe that Karuna is unhappy and that she will come back to him. The ending is beautifully shot and it makes one wonder whether she actually came to the station. A great movie for a rainy day.

This can be categorized as another Ray short-of-a-full-length venture! The title could not be more apt, as COWARD is written all over the young writer(Soumitra Chatterjee)- especially after we are told of the past sequence. Some years ago, Amitabh had refused to marry lover Karuna in haste. He needed 'time' to think it over, the city was big, he was starting to work, he wasn't even established properly- how could he marry Karuna suddenly?Many years later, his car breaks down and he is given shelter for the evening in Bimal Gupta's house- a successful tea planter somewhere in Darjeeling. The tea-planter is lonely in that part of the world with no neighbors nearby, hence he talks garrulously about his takes on life. Amitabha is now an established screen-writer who talks less but is astounded to meet Bimal's wife- Karuna.A breakthrough performance by Madhabi Mukherjee, this is a wonderful movie which will not fail to appeal anyone.