Tagore’s third film with Satyajit Ray is this delightful, underappreciated character study. She plays an urbane journalist who encounters the movie star Arindam (played by matinee idol Uttam Kumar) on the Delhi-Calcutta Express. He is on his way to receive an award, and at first resists her attempts to interview him. Soon enough, however, he finds himself pouring out his life story to his new companion, as well as confessing his artistic ambitions and dissatisfactions along with (unwittingly) his anxieties. Tagore masterfully underplays her role as an intelligent woman unexpectedly faced with masculine insecurity. All the while, Ray surrounds his protagonists with a panoply of keenly observed supporting characters. – DP