Kapurush

This is the story about regretting one's past life choices. Amitabha Roy is traveling from Calcutta to the country to visit his brother-in-law and to write, he's a tv screenwriter. Along the way he has car trouble and while at the mechanic's a friendly and rather round tea plantation owner named Bimal Gupta, insists on hosting him at his home while his car is being prepared.

"You want shelter and I want company."-Bimal

"You won't believe this but we get on average less than one Bengali in distress per year."-Bimal

They have a congenial drive in the rain to Bimal's plantation where Amitabha meets Bimal's wife who is none other than his ex-girlfriend Karuna. The two don't say anything to Bimal about knowing one another and have to endure an evening of Bimal pushing smokes and alcohol on Amitabha while Karuna knits quietly by the fire.

We see the end of their (Amitabha and Karuna's) relationship in a flashback. Then Amitabha asks Karuna if she is happy in her marriage. He tells her he must know, he never got married and he never could ask her forgiveness...he told her that everything seemed so pointless and Calcutta so boring.

"There's just one thing I couldn't do, fall in love again."-Amitabha "I didn't have the courage then, but now I do. Leave him...and come with me."

"You think you know my husband after one day? You don't know him."-Karuna

The next day is probably my favorite section of the film as Bimal and Karuna take Amitabha for a tour and picnic via their Jeep. It's the most visually appealing part of the film...and emotionally it adds to the ache as you can feel Amitabha's pain and regret and you can just about hear his what if.

While not my first Indian film by any means, it was only my second Satyajit Ray film as I had seen his film Devi (The Godess) previously. Like Devi, there is wonderful cinematography in this film and I enjoyed the slow moments...especially those that focused on facial expressions. Beautiful film that expresses ache and regret in such a straightforward way. I feel like it is an excellent cautionary tale.

After watching two rather lengthy, rambling Ray films, "Big City" and "Charulata", it was nice to see this concise, 70 minute parable about the folly of turning one's back on love because one is scared to commit. Felt like a combination of DeMaupassant, with the twist of the knife at the end, and Maugham, with the tawdry, tea plantation setting. Add a dash of James M Cain (the lonely, alcoholic husband) and you've got a most satisfying movie. Give it an A.

(1965) The Coward/ Kapurush (In Bengali with English subtitles) DRAMA

Adapted from the short story ""Janaiko Kapurusher Kahini" by Premendra Mitra music, co-written and directed by Satyajit Ray that tells about an inspiring screenwriter, Soumitra Chattopadhyay as Amitabha Roy (also known as the Coward) by chance meeting an ex-former flame, Karuna (Madhabi Mukhopadhyay), and he continues to pursue for her affections despite her already married with an already successful owner Bimal Gupta (Haradhan Bandyopadhyay). Throughout the entire movie, viewers get to witness flashbacks how the two first met and what drove them apart.

It is not just a movie about a young man vying affections for a former flame, for it is also about class, culture and principle. I love the civil discussions that does not involve murder. This is the sixth of fourteen films actor Soumitra Chatterjee collaborated with writer/ director Satyajit Ray.

This Satyajit Ray movie, made in 1965, is virtually unknown here and while it's not one of his great masterpieces it is very fine and well worth seeing. "The Coward" is very much a chamber piece with really only three main speaking parts. The great Soumitra Chatterjee is Amitabha Roy, the screenwriter who finds himself stranded in a remote backwater after his car breaks down. He is 'rescued' by a friendly plantation owner, (Haradhan Bannerjee),, who invites him home for the evening but when he gets there he discovers the plantation owner's wife, (the equally great Madhavi Mukherjee), is his old love he let go years before. He still carries a torch for her but she seems indifferent to him.

Is Chatterjee the coward of the title for not committing himself to Mukherjee when he had the chance or is she the coward, unable or unwilling to face up to her feelings in the present? In just seventy minutes Ray presents us with a devastating character study as he peels away layers from each of the three protagonists revealing the feelings and the frustrations beneath. (He's also not afraid to tackle issues like colonialism and the caste system). In the grand scheme of things this may be 'minor' Ray and yet it is a film that will stay in your memory long after it's over.

Two years after Jean Luc Godard's brilliant "Contempt" ("Le Mepris," 1963), about a feckless screenwriter, who loses his wife to a wealthy and powerful man, Satyajit Ray released his film about a feckless screenwriter, who lost his college girl friend to a wealthy and powerful man. I wonder what these directors have against screenwriters. Could it be that they did not like the scripts they were getting and had to sweat over their own? A car driven by Soumitra Chatterjee breaks down in a remote village and the local garage will have to send away for a part. But it just so happens that a friendly man of substance is in that same garage at that same time and offers the writer the hospitality of his home. The writer agrees and when they reach their destination, it just so happens that the man of substance is married to the writer's college girl friend (Madhavi Mukherjee), who he rejected but never got over. Perhaps a professional screenwriter would be uncomfortable with all these coincidences, but, once accepted, there's much suspense in how this ends.