Charulata or The Lonely Wife, film by Satyajit Ray

Charulata, or The Lonely Wife, cinema produced in 1964 in the Bengali language, West Bengal, India. Directed by Satyajit Ray, this film was based on a story by Rabindranath Tagore titled “Nastanirh”, or “The Broken Nest”.

Set in Calcutta in the nineteenth century, this film features a time when the Renaissance was climaxing and India was under British control. The storyline revolves around a beautiful, smart and independent woman by the name of Charulata, or Charu, who is the wife of a young upper class political newspaper publisher named Bhupati.

The film stars Madhabi Mukherjee as Charulata, and Sailen Mukherjee as Bhupati. Other characters include Amal, played by Soumitra Chatterjee, Umapada by Syamal Ghosal, Mandakini by Gitali Roy, Braja by Bholanath Koyal, Nisikanta by Suku Mukherjee, and Sasanka by Dilip Bose.

This film was produced by RDB & CO, and was directed by Satyajit Ray based upon the short novel “Nastanirh” by Rabindranath Tagore. Cinematography was supervised by Subrata Mitra, the film was edited by Dulal Dutta, Art Direction by Bansi Chandragupta, and sound by Nripen Pal, Atul Chatterjee, and Sujit Sarkar. The soundtrack was composed by Satyajit Ray.

Awards given to this film include the President's Gold Medal at New Delhi in 1964, the Silver Bear for Best Direction at Berlin in 1965, the Catholic Award at Berlin in 1965, and the Best Film at Acapulco in 1965.