The Japanese Wife

I have seen this movie earlier but wanted to re-watch it. I did so today. 

The Japanese Wife is based on a short story from the book of the same name by Kunal Basu. 

It stars Rahul Bose as Snehamoy, Chigusa Takaku as Miyage, Raima Sen as Sandhya and Moushumi Chatterjee as Maashi.


Snehamoy and Miyage are pen friends. Snehamoy lives in a small village in Bengal while Miyage is in Japan. Both are lonely and feel a special kinship. They fall in love and get married through letters. 
Sandhya is a young widow with a 8 year old son who comes to stay with them. Maashi is trying to arrange Snehamoy's marriage with Sandhya but does not push it further when she hears about his marriage to Miyage.
 Snehamoy and Miyage struggle to keep in touch- over letters and phone. 17 years pass. Miyage is diagnosed with cancer and Snehamoy travels to Calcutta to meet an oncologist. What happens next? See it for yourself because you will be touched. 

Aparna Sen, the director, is brilliant. I love her movies. They are always so perfect. And who better than her to bring out the depth of this story. Who else could have made the relationship over letters for 17 years seem plausible?

Rahul Bose is perfect. His Bengali pronunciation is on dot. What an underrated actor. When will I get to see him again? Raima Sen is my absolute favourite. Love her in all movies. 

Go watch this one. You will never forget it. This movie is in Bengali, English and Japanese. I watched it without subtitles.