Raincoat

About the film

Raincoat is a 2004 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film directed by Rituparno Ghosh, starring Ajay Devgn and Aishwarya Rai. It tells the story of two lovers, separated by destiny, who meet again one day. This encounter allows each to realize the truth about the lives they are living. It is an adaptation of the short story Protihingsha (by Manoj Basu), although unacknowledged. Rather, the credits mention it to be based on The Gift of the Magi (by O. Henry).

The shooting for the film was completed in only 16 days. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi, and Aishwarya Rai was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.

Plot

Manoj is a countryman with very little money who lives in Bhagalpur. He has recently lost his job and ventures to start a business of his own. He goes to the city to see if he can arrange some money. While there, he stays with two friends, Alok and Sheela, who are very helpful in his desperate quest to find money. Alok makes some phone calls and writes a letter for him to send to his former classmates. The letter explains Manoj's plight and asks for any money to spare. Manoj, ashamed, tells Alok to forget the letter and that he will go out the next day and ask for money personally.

The next morning, Alok talks about his career. He has gotten quite wealthy as a producer for TV serials. Also, as a part of a diet, he has Herbalife for breakfast. Manoj asks Alok about an address that he plans to stop at while looking for money that day, and the address turns out to be of a woman that Manoj was supposed to marry. Alok remembers what he had to go through to get Manoj over her and insists he not go there and upset himself. Sheela tells Alok not to get so angry and let Manoj go where he pleases. The woman is supposed to be quite wealthy, and Manoj hopes not only to see her again (for the first time since her marriage), but perhaps to get some money as well. Alok finally backs off.

To prepare Manoj for his journey out in the pouring rain, Alok gives him an address book of the people he may be able to collect money from, while Sheela gives Manoj a mobile phone, teaches him to use it, and a raincoat to keep him dry. On his journey, Manoj manages to collect 12,000 rupees before stopping at the home of his lost love, Neerja. Being there, he gets a memory of being a doorstep before, when they were together and happy, but is interrupted by Neerja's voice. She doesn't believe it is really him at first, and takes quite a while to open the door. When she does, she tells him that she fell asleep and warmly invites him to stay until the rain stops. Neerja's husband is away, and the servants are out playing cards.

Soundtrack

Debajyoti Mishra experimented with the music of the film. The songs are all background numbers. Classical singer Shubha Mudgal provided her voice for the title track.

Reception

The Times of India gave a three stars out of five. Rediff cited "Some films attempt to showcase a series of wonderful moments and tend to go overboard. Raincoat captures just one poignant moment and tells it as simply it can, leaving you with a wow. For someone heralded as the most beautiful woman in the world, Aishwarya Rai looks terrifyingly depressing in the film. Her Neeru looks cynical to the point of suicide. And that's a compliment. Her body language is a strange mix of a passive housewife and a passionate girlfriend. Though the effort to sound rustic shows, the restraint in her dialogue delivery and performance is commendable. Hesitation, desperation, humiliation -- Ajay Devgan conveys them eloquently. He particularly stands out in the scenes where he cries in the bathroom, or begs Neeru not to marry someone else".

The Hindu stated "Raincoat... essentially a chamber piece, it weaves a narrative with just two characters in most of the frames. Raincoat can easily be Aishwarya Rai's best performance, and as Neerja, the former beauty queen appears to have shed her inhibitions about looking unglamorous. In fact, most of time, Rai looks quite plain. What is more, she seems to have made an earnest effort to emote, using less of her body and limbs and more of her face, and eyes in particular. Ajay Devagan as Manoj is Devagan, as we have seen him in an umpteen number of parts earlier, although Ghosh draws the actor out of a certain woodenness that he is known for".

Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama said "On the whole, Raincoat will appeal to a handful of critics and connoisseurs of art house cinema who'll heap lavish praises/lustrous words, but from the box-office point of view, Raincoat will face stormy weather at the ticket window".

Key details