The Coward (Kapurush) is a 1965 film from India written and directed by Satyajit Ray.
Amitabha Ray is a screenwriter. He is on a road trip through Bengal looking for ideas and background info for a story he's working on. Or rather, he was on a road trip. As the story opens Amitabha is stuck at a mechanic's shop, getting some bad news: his car is broken, and, given that they are in a remote region, the part needed to fix it won't be coming anytime soon.
Also at the mechanic's shop is a boastful tea merchant, Bimal Gupta. After telling Amitabha that the only hotel in town isn't fit, Bimal spontaneously offers an invitation to stay in his own home. Amitabha agrees, comes home with Bimal, meets Bimal's wife Karuna—and is shocked. It turns out that Karuna was, several years ago, Amitabha's girlfriend. His fear of commitment led to their breakup. Amitabha, carried away both by passion and his feelings of regret, asks Karuna to leave her husband.
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Bimal drinks, a lot. He talks of his boredom on the tea plantation and Amy's "You know what this place does to you? It drives you to drink." Amitabha cites "all that drinking" when telling Karuna that she can't possibly be happy with her husband.
- Arranged Marriage: What happened to Karuna after Amitabha chickened out on her: an arranged marriage, typical Indian style, in this case to a prosperous man twice her age. Whether or not it's a Happily Arranged Marriage is deliberately left ambiguous.
- Bait-and-Switch: Amitabha leaves Karuna a note suggesting that she meet him at the train station so they can run away together. Later, he dozes off while waiting for his train, and then he wakes up, and there she is! But she only wants the bottle of sleeping pills that she gave to him earlier. With a final twist of the knife she calls him "darling", takes back the pills, and leaves.
- Contrived Coincidence: India's a pretty big country, but sure, Amitabha can randomly meet his ex-girlfriend's husband.
- Did Not Get the Girl: At the end Karuna decisively rejects Amitabha, abandoning him on the train platform and going back home.
- Downer Ending: As far as Amitabha's concerned, anyway. Karuna rejects his invitation to run away with him, and they are parted forever after she leaves him at the train station.
- Dramatic Irony: In a flashback, Amitabha takes Karuna's hand, and she says "When the time comes, we won't let anyone stand in our way." This comes after the audience has seen that exactly the opposite happened.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The story covers about 24 hours, as Amitabha spends an evening and night with the Guptas, and leaves on the train the next evening.
- Flashback: There are three. The first shows the moment that caused the breakup and earned the movie its title. Karuna came to Bimal's little boarding house room in a panic, because her family was moving her away in a matter of days. She clearly wanted to cut ties with them and be with Amitabha, but he panics himself, clearly not ready to make a commitment and interrupt his easy life as a student for one of struggle and work. She realizes this and leaves, and their relationship is over. The second flashback shows their earlier relationship and their Meet Cute on a bus, and the third shows them on a date.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Bimal and Amitabha joke about the simple "boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl" plot of so many movies, including apparently the one Amitabha is writing. That of course is exactly the premise of the film.
- Letting Her Hair Down: Karuna had her hair up in a prim bun during dinner, but when she comes back to the guest room to talk with Amitabha, her long hair is down and she's brushing it. It comes across as flirting with more than a bit of taunting to it.
- Match Cut: Amitabha sees Karuna put her hand on Bimal's shoulder in an intimate manner, which bothers him. The movie cuts to a flashback of Amitabha and Karuna out on a date. She extends her hand to him, and the film cuts back to her hand on Bimal's shoulder.
- Meet Cute: How Amitabha and Karuna met, as shown in a flashback. They were on a tram and Karuna turned out to not have any money for the fare in her purse, so Amitabha paid for her.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Satyajit Ray, director and screenwriter, wrote a movie about a screenwriter named "Ray." Bimal is very interested in Amitabha's work and suggests that he could be written into Amitabha's next movie.
- The Oner: The opening shot in the film, at the mechanic shop, runs about 4 1/2 minutes without a cut. The camera doesn't run very much but zooms in and out, as Amitabha is first outside finding out what's up with his car, then inside asking what he should do.
- The One That Got Away: Amitabha clearly feels that way about Karuna, regretting their breakup and asking her to leave her husband and go away with him. There is however a suggestion that this is a matter of Wanting Is Better Than Having, and for her part Karuna seems to believe this.
- Revealing Hug: In a flashback Karuna comes to Amitabha's room and tells him that her family wants to move her away. She's talking about getting a job and she clearly expects the two of them to get married. She hugs Amitabha, but the look of panic on his face shows that he clearly is not on board with committing to married life.
- Smart People Play Chess: Amitabha has a chess set in his boarding house room, marking him off as an intellectual.
- Switch to English: Bimal is telling Amitabha in Bengali that there's a hotel when he then says in English, "Which I wouldn't recommend to my worst enemy." From there on about every fourth sentence out of his mouth throughout the film is in English. Notably when Amitabha and Karuna speak to each other, they speak almost entirely in Bengali.
- Unable to Support a Wife: In a flashback, Amitabha alluded to this, noting how Karuna comes from money as he says that it's a bad time for them to get married. But this is clearly an excuse, and Karuna knows it.
