Chokher Bali

It seems a lot of Europeans and Americans see Indian movies for the wrong reason; I see some people are complaining that this movie did not have any dance sequence! A class apart from their Hindi counterparts, Bengali movies tend to be more realistic. Rituparno Ghosh is one of the best young directors in India, being widely known for his choice of subjects for the movies and the strength of his scripts. 'Chokher bali' is a perfect example. A faithful adaptation of the Nobel laureate Tagore's novel dealing with the pursuit of sexual pleasure of a Bengali widow, the director gives a new dimension to the much acclaimed and controversial work.

Its very tough to portray a Tagore novel along cinematographic lines.And if you forget an obscure production of 1967 then its the first time that chokher bali has been done on a grand scale. Overall the sets looked fantastic with the right touches for making a successful period drama.Prasenjit,so used to doing crass commercial stuff made a good effort.I saw the Bengali version and found that Aishwariya's voice was dubbed,which made her dialog delivery a bit poor. While the director did a good job portraying each of the characters with finesse,yet there was very little in the way of meaningful plot,probably a lack of the story itself.However the development of the characters including those with minor roles seem to be the strongest point.Its tough to make some Tagore stories into films,as only the visual parts seem to get realized.

Has RabindraNath ever thought about the person, he's writing? Why it is so important to write a story about the lead character and glorifying it without showing any consequences.

Has He ever thought about the Person who rejected someone and then somehow he agrees to open his heart and... Writer burns his soul.. Favouring insight to the main lead.

Why wasn't she understood it? Why did she throw something the moment she get it?

Why?

Why?

Why?

This is mental illness that a person just run away breaking someone's soul.

This is most disgusting story anyone can write about.

I don't care about any character, I only care about the guy who had nothing and Binodini stripped him and run away.

This is disgusting.

I bought the DVD a long time ago and finally got around to watching it.I really enjoyed watching this film as you don't get the chance to see many of the more serious better quality bollywood films like this. Very well done and but I would say you need to pay attention to what is going on as it is easy to get lost. When you start watching the movie, don't do anything else! I would actually advise people to read all the reviews here...including the ones with spoilers, before watching the movie. Raima Sen gave her first great performance that I have seen. Aishwarya was easily at her best. All performances were strong, directing and cinematography...go watch it!

this is one of the best bengali movies i've seen in my life and the director has to get all the credit. Tagore's novels are one of the hardest to execute on the big screen and the director handles it with aplomb. if i remember correctly, a lot of people questioned the casting of Aishwarya Rai as Binodini, but after watching the movie I can say that she was the best person for the role. as for the previous comment, i agree that the movie was a bit slow at certain points, but we have to remember that the director had to remain faithful to the original novel and the novel wasn't written with 21st century audiences in mind. as for the lack of dancing, this is not a masala hindi movie expecting dancing in a movie like this is similar to expecting Adam Sandler in a David Lynch movie, they just don't go together. the movie also has one of the best soundtracks and the songs fit the movie. Overall 9/10.