Charulata
- IMDb link: 0057935
- IMDb rating: 8.1 (7,958 votes)
- Genres: Drama, Romance
- Director: Satyajit Ray
- Cast: Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Shailen Mukherjee, Shyamal Ghoshal and others
- Release date: 17 Apr 1964
- Release year: 1964
- Runtime: 117 minutes
- Country: India
- Keywords: character name as title, forename as title, india, 1870s, bored housewife, year 1879, newspaper editor, reference to god save the queen, arm wrestling, indian literature
Plot:
Set in British India in the 19th century, the film revolves around Charulata, the beautiful wife of a learned Calcutta intellectual. She sits at home alone while her wealthy husband Bhupati runs his English language newspaper. Upon recognizing her profound loneliness, Bhupati invites his brother-in-law Umapada and wife Mandakini as house guests. Amal, his handsome younger cousin also comes for a visit following his graduation from college. Charu and Amal spend hours reminiscing over literature, poetry and the arts while Bhupati works on his paper. For a short time everyone is content. Then, a tragedy occurs. Umapada absconds with Bhupati's savings, leaving the entrepreneur in terrible debt. But the betrayed man soon realizes that something much more precious than his money is lost.