(I was trying t find a cover picture of the story but didn’t get any, so this is the poster for the movie “Charulata” based on “Nastanirh)
Charulata is based on a story by Rabindranath Tagore, Nastanirh (The Broken Nest) and set in Calcutta in the late nineteenth century. Bengal Renaissance is at its peak and India is under British rule. The film revolves around Charulata / Charu (Madhabi Mukherjee), the childless, intelligent and beautiful wife of Bhupati (Sailen Mukherjee). He edits and publishes a political newspaper. Bhupati is an upper-class Bengali intellectual with a keen interest in politics and the freedom movement. Charu is interested in the arts, literature and poetry. Though Bhupati loves his wife, he has no time for her. She has little to do in the house run by a fleet of servants. Sensing her boredom, Bhupati invites Charu's elder brother Umapada and wife Manda to live with them. Umapada helps in running of the magazine and the printing press. Manda with her silly and crude ways is no company for the sensitive and intelligent Charulata. Amal (Soumitra Chatterjee), Bhupati's younger cousin comes on a visit. Bhupati asks him to encourage Charu's cultural interests. Amal is young, handsome and is of the same age group as Charu. He has literary ambitions and shares her interests in poetry. He provides her with much needed intellectual companionship and attention. An intimate relationship develops between Charulata and Amal. There is a hint of rivalry when she publishes a short story on her own without his knowledge. He realizes that Charulata is in love with him but is reluctant to reciprocate due to the guilt involved. Meanwhile, Charu's brother and sister-in-law who were guests in the housing swindle Bhupathi of his money and run away. It destroys Bhupati's newspaper and the press. The episode shatters Bhupati who admits his hurt to Amal. He tells Amal that now Amal is the only one he can trust. Amal is overcome with the guilt of betraying his cousin. He is also uncomfortable with Charu's higher intellect that he has helped nurture. He leaves unannounced, to marry and go away to England for higher studies. He leaves behind a letter to Charu. Charu is heartbroken but hides her disappointment. Bhupati accidentally enters her room and finds her crying over Amal. Bhupati realizes Charu's feelings for Amal. He is broken, shocked and bewildered by it. He rushes out of the house, wanders aimlessly in his carriage. On his return, Charu and Bhupati make a hesitant gesture to reach out, but their extended hands remain frozen in a tentative gesture. Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted. "Fair Use" guidelines: www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

Satyajit Ray's Charulata [1964] IMDb Rating 8.3/10 [Full Movie][4K-Full HD]

The story takes place in the late 19th century India and tells the tale of a lonely housewife Charu (short for Charulata). Charu and her rather detached, older husband Bhupati live a quiet, well-to-do life. She is a very beautiful woman, with tons of money and all the time in the world to enjoy her passions – the arts, literature and poetry. Yet her workaholic husband seems to be more concerned with his job than his marriage. And alas, she is all alone, ailing from that distasteful disorder of ennui that seemingly plagues so many kept women.
However, the sun shines a bit brighter for our heroine when Bhupati’s young, handsome cousin Amal arrives for a visit. Bhupati, who is far from a heartless man and feels sympathy for his wife’s cheerless plight, encourages his cousin to befriend his wife as they both have so much in common (he loves poetry and the arts as well).  Finally, we see Charulata happy, singing, playful, and tending to Amol, mending his clothes and inspiring him to continue writing. Her innocent flirtations catch her off-guard as she becomes deeply attached to Amol. Amol also realizes that his emotions are leading him astray. After Bhupathi is ruined when his brother in law, whom he trusted and loved, makes off with the newspaper’s money, Amol decides to leave, not wanting to take away from Bhupati his “other” wife. Charulata is crushed by Amol’s departure and inadvertently betrays her emotions to Bhupati. Bhupati is completely disillusioned by these reversals of trust and love. Their marriage is severed.
MY THOUGHTS:
I really don't have the heart or the audacity to review the writing skills of Rabindranath Tagore…so I will just write what I felt like after reading this particular story…
This story instantly takes you back to 1879 Calcutta to explore the seeds of India’s early movement for independence from England and to examine the restrictions placed on educated Indian women. It’s like Victorian England but instead, it’s Victorian India in which a neglected wife, on the point of breaking through to self-awareness, begins to perceive male dominion as a hollow façade of beards, braces and boredom.
 The unadulterated love and longing of an intelligent woman, Charulata, for her younger brother-in-law, while the husband is pursuing his intellectual hobby of running a radical English newspaper in Calcutta , Charaluta is left to confide her creative passions with her artistic and poetic brother-in-law ,it is difficult to define where this crosses the line from admiration to love….. but the emotion evolves naturally to blossom into something more than matronly affiliation, whether there is an element of lust is left for us readers to decide with small trivial domestic details,but the relationship is a satire on the security of the indian marriage where any such thought, much less act can become a blasphemy.
It’s a story to be read and interpret in your own way…