Sandhya Deeper Sikha

Even though the storyline of "Sandhya Deeper Shikha" is a bit over dramatic as it depicts the odyssey of a narcissistic and neurotic woman under the spell of a Freudian thanatos (death wish)complex, it's a film worth watching, nay worth staring at for ever! Admittedly, we never quite get to see the actual romantic relationship with her lover husband (played by the seasoned actor Bikash Roy); on the other hand, we get glimpses of her innocent coquetry with the wooden and homely Tarun (played by the producer of the film Dilip Mukhopadhyay) but never with the handsome and smart Captain Aftab (played by the inimitable Anil Chattopadhyay to the hilt). But superseding all weaknesses and fault lines of the film and towering over them we see the magnificent (truly MAGNIFICO) and superbly beautiful Jayanti (played by Suchitra Sen), literally the princess charming of femininity. I have never seen such a gorgeous combination of grandeur and gravitas--Sen's stature and visage in the movie cry out loud for justified (but sadly overlooked) acclaim as too much of a woman--an amalgam of the Urvasi and the Uma of our imagination. I get riveted on her looks in the film which I have seen at least more than fifty times in the privacy of my home. There will be another Ava Gardner, Aishwarya Rai, or Lauren Bacall, or Grace Kelly, or even another Elizabeth Taylor, but Boy! never another Suchitra Sen, a beautiful and intelligent looking human being whose maker must have fallen flat at her feet upon beholding his creation!