Charulata (1964) (Blu-ray) (UK Import)

Satyajit Ray’s exquisite story of a woman’s artistic and romantic yearning takes place in late nineteenth-century, pre-independence India, in the gracious home of a liberal-minded, workaholic newspaper editor and his lonely wife, Charulata (Madhabi Mukherjee). When her husband’s poet cousin (Soumitra Chatterjee) comes to stay with them, Charulata finds herself both creatively inspired and dangerously drawn to him. Based on a novella by the great Rabindranath Tagore, Charulata is a work of subtle textures, a delicate tale of a marriage in jeopardy and a woman taking the first steps toward establishing her own voice.

Specials

New, restored 2K digital film transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
New interview program with actors Madhabi Mukherjee and Soumitra Chatterjee
Adapting Tagore, a new interview program featuring Indian film scholar Moinak Biswas and Bengali cultural historian Supriya Chaudhuri
Archival audio interview with director Satyajit Ray, conducted by film historian Gideon Bachmann
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Philip Kemp and a 1980s interview with Ray by his biographer Andrew Robinson
Cover illustration by Satyajit Ray, design by Marian Bantjes