The Japanese Wife (2010)

India/ English | Bengali | Japanese

Director: Aparna Sen

Writers: Kunal Basu, Aparna Sen

Cast :

Rahul Bose/... Snehamoy

Chigusa Takaku/... Miyage

Raima Sen/... Sandhya

Moushumi Chatterjee/... Mashi

Paran Bandopadhyay/... Ayurvedic doctor

Kharaj Mukhopadhyay/... Kite shop owner

Rudranil Ghosh/... Fatik

Debranjan Nag/... Fatik's friend

Jagannath Guha/... Oncologist

Sagnik Chowdhury/... Paltu

Sourodip Bhattacharya/... Young Snehamoy

Ranu Bandhopadhyay/... Sandhya's mother

Arindoi Bagchi/... Mailman (as Arindol Bagchi)

Khagendra Nath Das/... School clerk

Sutapa Ghosh/... Khendi

The final lap in this lyrical but contrived tale of unfufilled love shows two women coming together after the tragic death of the man they both loved. One, the Japanese wife of the title, the other a silent widow of meagre means. This story of a long-distance 'marriage' between a Bengali bhadra-lok from rural Bengal Snehmoy (Rahul Bose) and his Japanese pen-pal Miyage (Chigusa Takaku) suffers from an incurable disease known as Inherent Silliness. Based on a true story by Kunal Basu, this is the ultimate non-romance between two people who thoroughly deserve each other.