Rahul Bose Movies

A shy schoolteacher struggles to reconcile his marriage to the Japanese wife he never met with his relationship to a widow who helps him realize his fleeting dreams of fatherhood and domestic bliss. Snehamoy Chatterjee was a student at Serampore College when he saw an ad for a pen-pal in a magazine. Unable to relate to his extroverted classmates, he sent a letter and soon got a response from Miyage, a friendly Japanese girl hungering for human contact. Unable to communicate in their native tongues, the two exchange letters in English, forging an intimate bond on the written page. Eventually, Snehamoy and Miyage agree to marriage, exchanging gifts through the mail as symbols of their union since they can't afford to meet for an actual ceremony. Years later, Snehamoy is teaching arithmetic in West Bengal when a young widow named Sandhya and her eight year old son Poltu come to stay with him while Sandhya attempts to find a new husband. Meanwhile, Snehamoy discovers the joys of parenthood while acting as a surrogate father to Poltu, and finds out what it's like to share a home with a spouse as Sandhya starts helping out around with the housework. But when Miyage falls ill, Snehamoy takes a leave from work in a desperate attempt to find a doctor who can save her. Later, Snehamoy falls ill with pneumonia, drifting into a delirious fever dream about his far-away wife as Sandhya dutifully cares for her ailing host. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A soft-spoken Kolkata office clerk finds his thoughts drifting into his peaceful past as his powerful father and newly successful wife spawn feelings of social inadequacy in this playful but satirical family drama from acclaimed Indian dramatist Buddhadeb Dasgupta. The presence of Sumanta's (Rahul Bose) influential father looming constantly over his every move, the lowly clerical worker soon finds his home life bearing down on him as well. As Sumanta's wife, Supriya (Sameera Reddy), basks in the success of her new book about France, which she researched entirely by watching a videotape about the City of Lights, the underachieving Sumanta becomes increasingly lost in his memories. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The sophomore feature effort of documentary filmmaker Dev Benegal is this portrait of the changing culture of modern-day Bombay. KP (Rahul Bose) is a small-time hustler working for the "Water Mafia," which sells well water from poor neighborhoods to the rich. He adores his ten-year-old adopted sister, who ekes out a meager living selling flowers at traffic intersections. When KP runs afoul of the Water Godfather, he is promptly dumped from the ring and beaten to a pulp. More frighteningly, his sister mysteriously disappears. Meanwhile, British-educated Nandita (Laila Rouass), who has just returned to India, hosts a popular talk show in which anonymous participants reveal their most intimate sexual secrets. As KP continues his desperate search for his missing sibling, he and Nandita begin an affair that never could have happened during India's more tradition-minded past. Split Wide Open was screened at the 1999 Venice Film Festival and the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

A New Yorker, an Australian, and an Englishman return to their birthplace, Bombay India, in hopes of finding their identities and reorganizing their lives. All three arrive at the same time and end up sharing the same flat. Krishna, the American, has come back in hopes of launching a successful acting career in movies. He gets his big break when local gangster-turned-producer Matsana hires Krishna to appear in a musical extravaganza. Kris has no idea that Matsana desperately wants the movie to flop so he can reap big profits. The Englishman Xerxes is a flautist wrestling with his sexual identity. He knows that he is gay but is having trouble deciding whether or not to be open about it. The lonely apartment owner Persi is definitely homosexual and finds himself attracted to Xerxes. The third roommate, former Sydney resident Fernandes, has come to Bombay to search for his estranged brother. A complex mixture of slapstick, violence and sentiment coupled with a spoof on Indian masala movies, the film follows the three disparate protagonists as lives collide and split apart in increasingly chaotic ways. The first feature of NYU Film School-trained Kaizad Gustad, the film casts an eye upon the Bollywood (Bombay-based Indian Hollywood) film industry via an "A"-rate gangster and a "B"-Grade producer. The whole point is to show that India is not what it is supposed to be. Mobile phones have replaced Mantras, and Coca-Cola has taken over Karma. Bombay Boys has received attention in Toronto, Vancouver and London Film Festivals, but its real success is bound to be in the circuit it parodies, namely the commercial Bollywood cinema. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Confronted with the Kafka-esque complexity of the Indian bureaucratic hierarchy after being transferred to the provinces, an open-minded urbanite struggles with the hopelessness and despair of being dislocated and misunderstood in this semi-absurdist drama starring Indian art-house icon Rahule Bose. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi