Charulata

Charulata
Film poster
Directed by	Satyajit Ray
Screenplay by	Satyajit Ray
Based on	Nastanirh by Rabindranath Tagore
Produced by	R. D. Bansal
Starring	Soumitra Chatterjee Madhabi Mukherjee Sailen Mukherjee Syamal Ghosal
Cinematography	Subrata Mitra
Music by	Satyajit Ray
Production company	R. D. Bansal & Co.
Distributed by	Edward Harrison (US)
Release date	17 April 1964 (1964-04-17)
Running time	117 minutes
Country	India
Language	Bengali

Charulata (Bengali: চারুলতা, romanized: Cārulatā, lit. 'The Lonely Wife') is a 1964 Indian drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray. Based upon the novel Nastanirh by Rabindranath Tagore, it stars Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee and Sailen Mukherjee. The film is considered one of the finest works of Ray and is often featured in the lists of the greatest films ever made.

Both the first and the last scenes are critically acclaimed. The first scene, with almost no dialogue, shows Charu's loneliness and how she looks at the outside world through binoculars. In the last scene when Charu and her husband are about to come closer and hold hands, the screen freezes. This has been described as a beautiful use of freeze frames in cinema.^[1]