The journey of a woman from a mere homemaker to a woman seeking her self identity. This search for self identity is sparked off by a young bohemian photographer, with whom she falls in love while he photographs her for a magazine doing her daily chores.

The first story is about Nanda, a young man who leaves Calcutta to work as a postmaster in an isolated malaria-infested village. The postmaster is looked after by a young orphan girl, Ratan. His only solace in the village is in teaching Ratan how to read and write. The second story is about a student, Amulya, who returns to his village after finishing his exams. His widowed mother is very anxious for him to marry, and has already picked out a girl. He rejects his mother's choice and, being forced to choose some girl, marries a lively tomboy who is not ready to give up her freedom.

A retired professor, Lagoo, suddenly disappears one day. His family is worried especially when he doesn’t return after months, and then years. His wife, children and friends, then try to remember him through reconstructed memory, providing the film’s flashback structure. Some critics saw this as Mrinal Sen’s most personal film. As Sen said: “Life didn’t stop even for a moment. It carried on. But his family – his wife, his children – keep looking back, into the past. Each constantly reconstructs the man in their own minds, aided by fragments of memory. That man and I, that man and you, that man and the rest of us…one among many. “…Believe me, irrespective of who you are and how talented you may be, you are possessed of mediocrity. The minute you are conscious of this within you, your ‘crisis’ deepens. This is the thought that prompted the film. And perhaps the greatest tragedy in man’s life is that he has only that one life.” Winner Best Supporting Actress, President’s Award, India, 1989

Life at home changes when a housewife from a middle-class, conservative family in Calcutta gets a job as a salesperson. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1996.