Charulata

The great Indian director Satyajit Ray considered this 1964 adaptation of the Rabindranath Tagore novella The Broken Nest to be his personal favorite. Set in Calcutta, circa 1879, the film follows Charulata (Madhabi Mukherjee), lonely wife of wealthy political newspaper publisher Bhupati Dutta (Shailen Mukherjee). Belatedly recognizing Charulata's isolation, Bhupati arranges for her ne'er-do-well brother, Umapada (Shyamal Ghoshal), and his unsophisticated wife, Manda (Gitali Roy), to join their household. But when Bhupati's poet cousin Amal (Soumitra Chatterjee) arrives as well, tensions emerge as Charulata responds to the young man's energy and artistic abilities. The friendship between Charulata and Amal eventually begins to detour, threatening to create an emotional crisis that neither can handle. Arriving on DVD and Blu-ray, the exquisite new digital transfer boasts pristine image quality that was significantly lacking in previous presentations—highlighting Subrata Mita's crisp cinematography and the creative production design by Bansi Chandragupta. Extras include interviews (with Mukherjee, Chatterjee, and an archival one with Ray), a featurette on “Adapting Tagore,” and a booklet. Among the year's finest retro offerings, Charulata is a mature tale of self-discovery and the gradual breakdown of relationships situated within the social confines of Victorian-era India. Also newly available is Ray's 1963 film The Big City. Highly recommended. (P. Hall)