Chokher Bali (2003)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Rituparno Ghosh

Writers:

Rituparno Ghosh (screenplay)
Rabindranath Tagore (novel)

Release Date:

23 August 2006 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The book, Binodini, is the story of a young woman, who is left to her own devices when her sickly husband dies soon after they are married...

Plot Keywords:

Doctor | Beautiful Woman | Based On Novel

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Aishwarya Rai	...	Binodini
Prasenjit Chatterjee	...	Mahendra
Raima Sen	...	Ashalata
Lily Chakravarty	...	Rajlakshmi, Mahendra's mother (as Lilly Chakraborty)
Tota Roy Chowdhury	...	Behari
Sonali Chakrabarti
Sudeshna Roy
Mousumi Saha
Suchita Ray Chaudhury
Zarin Chowdhury
Abhishek Bose
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bharati Devi	...	Dying woman at varanasi

Also Known As:

Choker Bali: A Passion Play (International: English title)
Sand in the Eye (India: English title)

Runtime:

167 min | Switzerland:120 min (Locarno Film Festival) | Germany:145 min (Bollywood Festival Stuttgart) | Germany:120 min (DVD)

Country:

India

Language:

Bengali

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:PG | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Calcutta, West Bengal, India

Company:

Shree Venkatesh Films

Trivia:

Though she is one of the highest paid actresses, Aishwarya Rai did this film for free.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Binodini comes to Kolkata before the Ambubachi festival, which falls in the month of June. But while talking to Behari in the picnic scene she says that she has been here since Shravana (mid July to mid August).

Movie Connections:

Version of Chokher Bali (1938)

A nearly satisfying period drama

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.