Four friends from Calcutta who have very different personalities make a holiday excursion into the country, to a tiny village in the state of Bihar where they set themselves up in a bungalow. A series of minor events, all connected to their respective reactions to their new environment, reveals their characters more deeply.
Direction
Ray finds entire universes in a glance between friends.
Acting
Soumitra Chatterjee's smug fragility is unbearably perfect.
Cinematography
Bihar landscapes that make restlessness look gorgeous.
Director
Satyajit Ray
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Ray adapted this from a Sunil Gangopadhyay novel and reportedly fought to keep the unlikable edges of these Calcutta elites intact—unusual for 1970 Bengali cinema's romanticization of the bhadralok class.
The film's structure deliberately withholds a traditional plot, which frustrated contemporary critics expecting another 'Pather Panchali.' Ray was essentially making an Indian 'L'Avventura' about men who cannot articulate their own emptiness.
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