Choker Bali: A Passion Play

I bought the DVD a long time ago and finally got around to watching it.I really enjoyed watching this film as you don't get the chance to see many of the more serious better quality bollywood films like this. Very well done and but I would say you need to pay attention to what is going on as it is easy to get lost. When you start watching the movie, don't do anything else! I would actually advise people to read all the reviews here...including the ones with spoilers, before watching the movie. Raima Sen gave her first great performance that I have seen. Aishwarya was easily at her best. All performances were strong, directing and cinematography...go watch it!

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.

The strength of this Tagore novel was the simultaneous portrayal of the baser human instincts and its destructive effects and the nobler human emotions and its uplifting purifying effects in its central protagonist- Binodini. Binodini's deliberate enticement of Mahendra was a result of hurt ego that Mahendra would choose the far inferior Ashalata to lavish his affections, greed for all she could have possessed had he married her, and is provoked her to break their marriage.Bihari, however, inspired her abiding love and respect and this gave her strength to resist Mahendra's lust and also Bihari's marriage proposal as this would have led to the latter's defamation and social ostracisation. Unfortunately Rituporno's film was unable to portray this duality of emotions I don't blame the viewers who are unfamiliar with the novel for thinking that this is about a widows sexual lust. Shame on Rituporno for so defaming that great writer 'TAGORE.'

Visually beautiful. With good messages. I not sure if I understand it fully but still I like it.

P.S. Most unrealistic part- 2 guys rejected Aishwarya just by looking at her photo. :/

this is one of the best bengali movies i've seen in my life and the director has to get all the credit. Tagore's novels are one of the hardest to execute on the big screen and the director handles it with aplomb. if i remember correctly, a lot of people questioned the casting of Aishwarya Rai as Binodini, but after watching the movie I can say that she was the best person for the role. as for the previous comment, i agree that the movie was a bit slow at certain points, but we have to remember that the director had to remain faithful to the original novel and the novel wasn't written with 21st century audiences in mind. as for the lack of dancing, this is not a masala hindi movie expecting dancing in a movie like this is similar to expecting Adam Sandler in a David Lynch movie, they just don't go together. the movie also has one of the best soundtracks and the songs fit the movie. Overall 9/10.