A Bengali movie ‘Chokher Bali’ was screened at Abhirang Hall, Bharat Bhavan here on Friday.

  The film screened under the West Bengal Mahotsav, stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Prasenjit and Raima Sen. The movie is an adaptation of the novel with the same title written by the most renowned poet and author Rabindranath Tagore. The movie directed by Rituparno Ghosh was released in the year 2003, having the running time of 167 minutes. The film screenings organized under West Bengal Mahotsav at Bharat Bhavan are gaining a huge response watching different movies from Bengal.

This movie follows the story of Binodini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan). The young woman is left alone when her sickly husband dies soon after they are married. She returns to her village and lives there for a couple of months until she sees one of her relatives passing by. Binodini went to live with the woman and her son, Mahendra (Prasenjit). When the two arrive, the woman’s son and his new bride, the infatuation does not last long and Mahendra soon begins to see that Binodini, is more his type. The story details the lives of these three and Mahendra’s best friend as they deal with issues as distrust, adultery, lies, and fallings-out. The movie won the Apsara Film Producers’ Award for the Best Regional Film 2004

The film was later dubbed into Hindi and was released internationally under that language. Chokher Bali won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali and was nominated for the Golden leopard (Best Film) award at the locarno International Film Festival in 2003. The film screened at the 34th International Film Festival of India.

The movie was showcased in over 25 international festivals including the Toronto International Film Festival, london Film Festival, Palm Springs, Karlovy Vary and Washington DC International Film Festival.