Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra made his mark early with his student diploma film, 'Murder at Monkey Hill' which won the National Award for the best short experimental film. His next film, 'An Encounter with Faces', was nominated for an Oscar in the short, not fiction film category, the first Indian film to be so honoured. A substantial body of work followed SAZA-E-MAUT, KHAMOSH, PARINDA, 1942-A LOVE STORY, KAREEB, MISSION KASHMIR.
He turned writer-producer with MUNNABHAI MBBS, which apart from winning numerous popular awards was also honoured with the National Award for the most popular film of 2003.
Sarat Babu, lovingly known in Bengal as the Immortal Wordsmith, brought modern literature to the masses. His piercing analysis of human love, faith and frailties and his intimate understanding of the social on-goings are unparalleled... In the classic novels, Devdas, Parineeta, Biraj Bou, Srikanta and Palli Samaj, the carefully crafted characters and events captured the flavours of late 19th and early 20th century Bengali society.
His characters were real and his stories had such universal appeal that a large number of them had been translated in other languages... Especially in the case of PARINEETA another uniqueness is its how the core story still holds good in today’s date and time...
Once in a while comes a story that transcends the boundaries of time, space and nationality. PARINEETA - The married woman... Sarat Chandra Chottopadhyaya’s labour of love is one such tale. A classic in every sense of the word, this intense love story resonates in every young heart with as much depth today as it did in the early 20th Century. Incidentally the classic by Sarat Chandra Chottopadhyaya DEVDAS was recreated in the recent past and won accolades for almost everyone in the project.
Characters
Vidya Balan - LOLITA
The heroine every young girl wants to be. Strong yet resilient, innocent, but blessed with an intuitive wisdom... child, woman, girlish and dignified diva in turn.
Sanjay Dutt - GIRISH
The outsider, who spins the story off into another direction altogether. Sensitive and gallant, Girish is just the guy every girl wants to bring home to Mama.
Saif Ali Khan - SHEKHAR
The hero every young man will identify with. Madly in love but a victim of his own ego, Shekhar is flawed but ever so real.
Raima Sen - KOEL
Free spirited and carefree, she is the breath of fresh air in the otherwise emotionally intense drama. Vivacious and bubbly throughout, she rises up to be a mature character during the latter half of the film.
Synopsis
They fell in love before they knew what the word meant...
A young girl, Lolita... Orphaned at an early age... a young boy, Shekhar... who reaches out and gives her the security she craves. Shared joys and sorrows. Through childhood and adolescence... and unknown to them the relationship of an unspoken right they held over each other metamorphosed into a love so intense, they couldn’t even sense it’s coming.
It took an outsider, Girish... for them to discover that there’s something in the air between them that's bigger than the two of them. The chemistry between them sizzles and sparkles till it explodes in a psychedelic shower of cosmic significance. But events twist and turn beyond their control, and spin them into a maze of suspicion, misunderstandings, exploding tempers till even their love cannot stop them being torn as under.
Can true love conquer these insurmountable obstacles, or will it succumb to them?
Will Lolita and Shekhar be swept apart by these tumultuous events or can they fulfill their destiny?