The Japanese Wife

My Rating: 4 stars.

Starring: Rahul Bose, Raima Sen, Chigusa Takaku, Moushumi Chatterjee

The tale is about a school teacher named Snehamoy (Rahul Bose), in a village of West Bengal earning $100 per month. He is an orphan and has been brought up by his aunt (Moushumi). During his college, he makes a pen-pal from Japan (Chigusa Takaku) whom he later marries over post only. Both are of meagre means and hence unable to meet each other though they try a lot. As the story progressed, a young widow (Raima Sen) and her son come to live with Snehamoy and his aunt who eventually starts to have some feelings towards the man. Also, after sometime, the Japanese wife falls really sick and is diagnosed with cancer. Snehamoy does everything that a husband would do in a situation like this (making allowance for the fact that they were an ocean apart).
The movie was very focussed and depicted exactly what the director wanted to. It has no sad stories about a poor family hardly able to make it through the day, or how difficult the life of a widow is. It showed a pure love and respect that a couple (should) have for each other. It is a timeless movie which as far as could gather needed no background score to make a person sit through it. It didn’t even require too much of a long story and thus wrapping it in 100 minutes. It being a bit of a drag at few points was one of its shortcomings. The movie was essentially in Bengali so subtitles are required for those who dont know it. The bond shown between two women in love with the same man can only be describes as beautiful.
The performances of all the actors were up to the hilt. They had the dialect down spat and not for even once were it faulty. It was a tremendously good effort by Aparna Sen.