Abhijeet Ganguly

It's a political satire which revolves around the annexation of Awadh and the decaying of the House of Wajid Ali Shah and their inability to stand up to the creeping moves of the East India Company. What stood out for me in this film is the performance of Amjad Khan as Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. After having seen him play the rough characters in various films, to see him capture the nuances of a very sensible man was remarkable. Only a master like Ray could have got such a masterful performance out of Amjad Khan.

The detective film does what it is supposed to achieve which is to keep the suspense till the very end and Ray does it with minimal background score. That's a master at work.

Although it's directed by Gulzar but it's presentation is an out and out Rishikesh Mukherjee film. Simple and mundane day to day life situations presented in such a gripping way that you want to watch over and over again.