Shob Charitro Kalponic

The film swirls around a poet, Indranil and his attractive wife, Radhika (Bipasha Basu). Indranil is reckless while being a genius and Radhika is constantly picking up the pieces of their life behind him. His recklessness drives her in to the arms of her colleague and thoughts of divorce enters her mind. But the sudden death of Indranil takes the decision out of her hand. She soon starts re-discovering her relationship with her husband when a publisher asks her to finish one of his works. There are fantastic performances all around including Ms.  Basu for a change. But the standout is Sohag Sen as the maid, Nador Ma who stands like a rock next to Radhika. Another masterpiece from Rituparno Gosh.

Rating: * * +

Dosar

Kaushik (Prasenjit Chatterjee) and Mita (Chandrayee Ghosh) dilly dally over breakfast before a ride back from a vacation. In spite of the frustration and irritation in their interaction there is a strong undercurrent of love. The sequence culminates in a horrific accident and setups the rest of the film. Kaushik's wife Kaberi (Konkona Sen Sharma) discovers his infidelity in the aftermath of the accident. Torn between anger over his actions and her husband's need for care, she soldiers on, anger being the only emotion she betrays. Rather than just focusing solely on the couple and their situation, the director introduces friends of Kaberi who are also in an extra-marital relationship. Shot entirely in black and white, centers around pain but with a subtlety that makes it immensely watchable. Only few directors like Rituparno Ghosh could make such a tragedy interesting instead of depressing.

Rating: * * * +

Raincoat

Mannu (Ajay Devgan) with a heavy heart and an empty wallet leaves his small town of Bhagalpur for Calcutta in an effort to raise money for his business. As he wanders around Calcutta he finds himself at the doorstep of Neeru (Aishwarya Rai), his childhood love...

Mr. Devgan is decent in this unusual stoic and pensive role which he underplays. Ms. Rai is breathtaking as always and even acts for a change. But the actor who steals the show is Annu Kapoor in his ten minute cameo. And while giving kudos let us not forget 0. Henry and Rituparno Ghosh without whom the film would not be possible.

Rating: * * * *