This may be Ray's favorite of his films but it's not mine. For the first time I find myself in partial agreement with this great director's critics who find his films too damn slow and feel there are simply too many extended scenes, like the one between Charulata and Amal in the garden and the party thrown by the Indian liberal intellectuals, without tension or verve or, indeed, much happening at all. Another problem I had with this film is similar to the bone I had to pick with "The Big City", namely that Ray tries to tackle too much and in the process waters down or leaves unexplored key elements. I'm referring, of course, to the sub plot about the treacherous brother who absconds with the newspaper's funds. Not only is this sibling conflict another movie but it occurs out of nowhere, with no motivation given for the brother's nefarious actions, and it takes the focus away from what should be the vital center of the film, the adulterous passions of Charulata for her cousin. Similarly, the rather artsy fartsy, triple freeze frame ending features, as its third leg so to speak, a horrified servant who we have seen for maybe two minutes, max, of the film. If his reaction is so vitally important as to be prominently featured in the denouement then why in the name of all that is cinematically holy was he not given more screen time? So count me distinctly underwhelmed by "Charulata" although there is no denying the excellence of the performances from the three leads, especially Madhabi Mukherjee who was so affecting as the liberated wife in "The Big City" and is almost as charmingly effective here, in the title role Give it a C plus.