In the final sequence, as Bhupati returns home after wandering aimlessly, Charu opens the door. Gently and with hesitation, she asks him to enter. A wavering Bhupati enters the door and reaches toward her hand. The shot is frozen and is followed with still images of Charu's half-lit face, Bhupati's half-lit face, a servant holding a lamp, a mid-shot of Charu and Bhupati and finally a long-shot of them. As the music rises the words "Nastanirh" (Bengali, The Broken Nest) fill the screen. It was ray's cinematic answer to Tagore's original ending in which Bhupati has to go out of town and Charu asks him to take her with him. He hesitates to which Charu says "Thak" meaning "Let it be". As Ray explained later, it was his visual equivalent of the word "Thak". "The two are about to reconcile and then prevented from doing so."
(From satyajitray.org)
