Buddhadeb Dasgupta's Tahader Katha is really up there with the best of Tarkovsky (maybe a slight exaggeration though). The lateral tracking shots are incredibly beautiful. Like Tarkovsky, Dasgupta likes to have his camera wander off to capture the still lives of inanimate objects that are given poetic significance: swings, mirrors, puddles. Like Tarkovsky, Dasgupta likes the sound of cuckoo in the background, and the presence of wandering horses in the distant. To sample Dasgupta's masterful stroke, look no further than the scene with the wife and the husband during a night of pouring rain. I have never seen the environment used to such evocative power, not since Tarkovsky's Sacrifice.
The film runs approximately 91 minutes, half of what IMDb promises, although according to John Hood this running time seems to be correct - at least identical to what he has seen.
