Ritwik Ghatak’s final film (made two years before his untimely death) features Ghatak himself in the role of Nilkantha Bagchi, an alcoholic intellectual nearing the end of his life who journeys forth through Bengal, deep into the fabric of his past life, loves, and friendships. With Nilkantha travel a Bengali refugee, a once-respected writer who is now a literary hack, an unemployed trade unionist, and a penniless teacher of Sanskrit. The encounters and adventures that transpire during the pilgrims’ painful progress express the director’s disillusionment with organized politics and the loss of his bedrock faith in even the everyday politics of experience.