Charulata

The Lonely Wife

This touching story about a lonely wife is regarded as Ray’s finest achievement.

  • Director

    Satyajit Ray

  • With

    Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Sailen Mukherjee

  • India 1964. 117min

  • Digital

  • Certificate

    U

  • Bengali with English subtitles

The adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s novella centres on an inquisitive yet lonely wife. The arrival of her husband’s cousin sends gentle ripples through Charulata’s quiet existence and emotionally suppressed household. Ray’s sublime portrait of a woman’s artistic and romantic awakening, set in a late-19th-century Bengali middle-class mansion, is beautifully realised through its stunning cinematography, atmospheric soundtrack and riveting central performance by Chatterjee.