Based on Satyajit Ray’s 1969 film Days and Nights in the Forest, director Goutam Ghose provides a superb update of the original story of a group of young men who leave civilisation for a journey of self-exploration in the forest. The men are now much older and more wealthy, but one of them is dying. In search of their youth they plan to revisit their original adventure, but this time taking with them their wives and grown up children.The party set off into the sumptuous, misty forests of Northern Bengal, the older generation fixed in their nostalgia for the past, the younger of the group anxious about home and the world. The journey seems one of healing until one of the women gets lost with terrible consequences. Ghose, expertly plays out the subtle nuances of their emotional lives as they descend deeper into the forest, while sensitively cutting in Ray’s original footage. He is aided by the fine cast of players, with actresses Sharmila Tagore and Tabu giving powerful performances.

Cary Rajinder Sawhney