User reviews

I saw 2 hour version of Choker Bali. I cannot say that is long. The movie has a certain natural pace to it and does not seem to lag at any time. The costume and the set are reminiscent of what we would see in old movies.

Aishwarya Rai has done a good job of acting. It is indeed a mature role with enough scope for acting within the story. The script also supports the story very well. Aishwarys acts as the unfortunate widow whose husband dies in the first year of marriage. The movie is about the passions and desires of such a character and the conflict she faces with the downtrodden condition of widows in those times.

Her best friend in this movie is played by Raima Sen has also been well-handled. Her innocence and her admiration of Aishwarya's capability to speak English and act educated has been done very well. These are indeed some of the prevailing mindsets of those times. We can see how far we have come from such an era!

The movie speaks of womens liberation as subtle line of the story. I found the development of the story very similar to Ghare Bahire also written by Tagore. It does rope in some action from the independence struggle and puts in contrast the struggle for Indian Independence against the silent struggle for womens rights.

A well made movie definitely worth watching. Aishwarya's acting: par excellence. Rituparna has handled the story with great care. Yet another classic from Rabindranath Tagore.

Chokher Bali – A passion play.

Based on Rabindranath Tagore's novel of the same name, this is a classic tale of deception, adultery and relationship exploitation. Set in 1900 Bengal, director Rituparno Ghosh transformed the Nobel Laureates' acclaimed literature into a delightful visual treat.

Tagore's story elaborately deals with the Bengali society, through his central character, the rebellious widow, who wants to live a life of her own. We are taken into the picturesque part of Bengal, where we meet our heroine, the beautiful, young widow Binodini (Aishwarya Rai).

Despite her gorgeous looks, two handsome men, the rich Mahindra (Prosenjit Chatterji) and his friend Behari (Toto Roychowdhury), denied marrying her.

Mahindra chooses a naive Ashalata (Raima Sen) over Binodini and marries her. Leaving behind the country life, the free-spirited Binodini accompanies Mahindra's mother to Calcutta as a caretaker. Soon, her friendship with Ashalata flourishes. It looks like, the two, addressing each other as 'Chokher Bali' (sand in the eyes), share an enduring bond. The English-speaking Binodini captures a special place in the house. But, soon, she unmasks her real face. Manipulating good-natured Ashlata, Binodini gets closer with Mahindra and fulfills her sexual desires.

When, she is thrown out by the enraged mother of Mahindra, Binodini seeks solace from a reluctant Behari. The remaining part of the story shows how the lives of these four characters crisscross and culminate in an unimaginable climax… Aishwarya walks through the role—a manipulative, rebellious lady, still gaining the viewer's sympathy—with a ballet dancer's elegance. The other lead artistes—Prosenjit Chatterjee, Raima Sen and Toto Roychowdhury—are equally brilliant, in enacting their characters.

While Tagore penned this 'mould-breaking' story at the turn of the 20th century, the very idea of widow marriage was a taboo, even among the upper class! Narrating the nations' freedom movement in parallel, the author asserts the importance of individual freedom from the caged life. Kudos to the art director, who gave life to the early 20th century Bengal, and applause to the cinematographer for capturing those sets with verve.

This 'passion play,' by Tagore, has been fervently converted to the screen by the ablest filmmaker without loosing its originality.

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!

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.

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. :/

It seems a lot of Europeans and Americans see Indian movies for the wrong reason; I see some people are complaining that this movie did not have any dance sequence! A class apart from their Hindi counterparts, Bengali movies tend to be more realistic. Rituparno Ghosh is one of the best young directors in India, being widely known for his choice of subjects for the movies and the strength of his scripts. 'Chokher bali' is a perfect example. A faithful adaptation of the Nobel laureate Tagore's novel dealing with the pursuit of sexual pleasure of a Bengali widow, the director gives a new dimension to the much acclaimed and controversial work.

This is a typical Bengali story.

Dark, depressing with an overwhelming air of gloom.

It was interesting enough but dragged and went on and on a bit too much.

In the original language it is probably very good. The Hindi version was not quite up to the mark.

Aishwarya did not do justice to her role. Apart from looking like a beautiful young widow, and beautiful she certainly is.

Everyone else acted admirably. The period settings were very good as were the costumes.

Overall, I found it a bit too gloomy. Not sure what exactly was lacking, but the film could have been shorter and more tight.

First, I would like to admit that Chokher Bali was not my cup of tea. This movie was evidently not targeted toward the masses. It's the type that critics would enjoy watching. The hype and publicity were quite misleading.

I was expecting something very dramatic like Devdas. Understanding that the story and time-period demand it, I found the movie extremely slow-paced.

I'm a die-hard Aishwarya fan, and I regret to say that I thought she was miscast. The role of Chokher Bali required an actress who can portray herself as subversive, not innocent and naive. Everyone else gave a good performance. Tagore's depiction of the human condition does come across the celluloid to give the movie an interesting theme.

I am going to be honest. I have seen at least more than 200 bengali culture based movies in both bengali and Hindi languages from all ages, of all authors. And I am myself fan of many bengali authors. This was one of my biggest disappointments. First - The story is ill directed, based on adultery, Tagore has done great work in Charulata, Ghare Baire. But both had certain direction. In fact this was one of worst work of Tagore , where in entire movie I kept wondering where it is going? A story does not have to have direction - for example - Apur Sansar, but it all makes sense when it ends. It is story of Apu at least. But this one - tells nothing.

Second - Offering Bengali culture - no , again you won't get much more than other movies in both Bengali and Hindi I have seen. The scenes are very swallow. Not made with depth.

Third- Aishwarya - I mean why why why she had to be in the movie? - She just does not go into the character. I kept seeing her and her only in entire movie. She does not fit into the character from any angle. Her body language. I tried to remember Kiron Kher, She does not know bengali and someone dubbed for her. And it totally worked. But for Aishwarya it failed. She fails as badly as Lisa roy failed in water to portray a sad widow.

Fourth - Complete lack of leaving an impression as a good movie - Movie goes very slow for no good reasons. Best acting offered by Sen, lily and the guy who played bihari. Others failed to impress. It won't enjoy it watching - direction, story and acting wise. Unless you are fan of Rituporno and Aishwarya.

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.'

The Hindi version of the film is 121 minutes. Set in Bengal in the early 1900's, the film (based on Tagore's novel) draws an analogy between the British colonization of India and the subjugation of women. An educated and beautiful woman, Binodini becomes a widow within a year of her marriage, but she does not accept the constraints imposed on her as a widow by her society. The film has a beautiful look to it but perhaps Aishwarya Rai is out of her depth in portraying Binodini's strong character with its subtle combination of idealism and deviousness. Binodini's idealism does not come across, and as a result, the analogy between women and colonization remains somewhat buried.

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.

May be this is my most favourite film otherwise how could i saw this movie for 100 times? Each and every sequence is excellently portrayed. 4 major cast did tremendous job. I specifically liked the work of tota as Bihari. When Binodini went to Bihari's place alone, omg what a beautiful conversation they had. I can see this movie at any time, plus this movie also shows the Bengali culture and the context of colonial period in india. Another special part is the poetry used in this film and background music.we a mild criticism should come for the dubbing done for ashwariya. Apart from it everything is perfevt

Absolutely love this movie. Thanks to ritu for gifting us this piece of art.

Tagore, again. This was one of the first big budget movies produced by Venkatesh Films. Technical department - camera and editing - actually outdid direction here. Also the music from Debajyoti Mishra got his full due in it. Not a favourite movie of mine but, again, the dubbing over Aishwarya Rai's beautiful lips was something to recommend to others.

When i watch this movie i too get excited when seen bed scenes of miss world. She has beautiful and charming body. When cute lady do bed scenes and show her fully nude body... i think male have hard to resist....i think its time for cute girls like hrishita bhatt also do nude scenes. At least no one wants to c nude body of ugly women like Seema biswas to c in bandit queen.I concur with what mallicka.b has said. The movie is portrayed in a way which appears to be a kind of vilification on the original content. Emotions aren't conveyed properly. I guess a couple of not-so-good performances also contributed to its mediocrity. In my view, Tabu would have been a much better choice for such a role instead of Aishwarya Rai. In some of her scenes, she looks a bit lusty, which is not ultimately what the movie should have portrayed. I also noticed a bit of over-acting in some of her scenes. I'm a bitter critic of Aishwarya Rai :) Can't help it; sorry for that. 'Raincoat' was a good movie by Rituparno Ghosh. And I saw Choker Bali after seeing Raincoat; I was not at all impressed

Ghosh's new film has source material of high pedigree (Rabindranath Tagore's novel), sumptuous production design and gorgeous sepia-toned photography, but is self-indulgently, unnecessarily long. The big crime—-in my eyes—-was not using that time to properly tie up the narrative threads. It ends with a couple of unresolved plot points, and new unrelated themes introduced in the final minutes...probably meant to demonstrate the mysteriousness of the inscrutable East, but which reeks of shoddy film-making. I am annoyed by directors who hide behind cultural exoticism (you know: how could you foreigners understand it all because we Indians are from a culture where there are many unanswered questions, and other such nonsense) and are needlessly opaque in their narrative. Anyway, former-Miss World Aishwarya Rai looks ravishing without tops (it's a period piece; none of the women wear blouses for most of the three hours...in fact, the Brits are credited with introducing the fashion of blouses, according to the film) and turns in a decent performance as the manipulative, victim-of-circumstance young widow Binodini. Not a "powerhouse, tour-de-force performance", as the Indian press is giddily trumpeting, but merely a decent one. Just a minute: do not get too excited about the topless bit; the actress is demurely covered by her saree, save for one scene where you see her bare back.

Chokher Bali is one of Rabindranath's notable fictions. It's very brave of Rituporno to capture the sound and environment of that age in his movie. It revolves around the life of a Hindu widow who makes a friend and becomes an enemy of some. The widow is young, she is beautiful and she is educated. But she is a widow. Among her many identities given by society, does she have a choice?

I would say, this is Aishwarya's most beautiful work. And also, no other director presented Aishwarya as beautifully as Ritupornon did in this movie. Man, she doesn't need any fashionable dress or any makeup on her face. A woman can look irresistible when she wears boldness, you have to agree on this after seeing her here.

Also loved Tota Roy Chowddhury's acting. Loved every scene! Who would say this isn't the 19th century. The wind was even of that era. So classic, so artistic, hard to move your attention from screen. Rituporno just raised the bar of his art in this one.

I sense that Rituparnao Ghosh has a potential of good Film-maker. I also sense that he is not so good at choosing a story. Rabindranath Tagore was a prolific author but his novels do not transcend well to Cinema-at least this particular novel. The problem I reckon is too many characters that have too many speaking parts that hoover too long. A typical movie more than three characters has to be an Epic like "Gandhi" to make an impact on the audience or has to be brilliant narration to tell the story. Then there is Ashwairya Rai, who in all respects to her talent is the least eligible to relate to a character from a Tagore Film. She just does not have what it takes to be a good actress. She is more a liability than an asset. All said and done the movie is boring amidst some smirks of attempt at good Film-making by Ghosh.