Satyajit Ray wrote and directed this 19th-century drama which, although fascinating in isolated sequences, is by no means his best. Saeed Jaffrey (a familiar face to western audiences) and Sanjeev Kumar play two cowardly chess-obsessed noblemen who will resort to anything to finish the game, even playing with fruit and nuts when their pieces are destroyed. Richard Attenborough is the baffled General playing a rather different kind of chess with the court of Oudh, and Victor Bannerji, later to star in 'A Passage to India', is also in the cast. Classic moments of the film include a neglected wife hurling chess pieces at her incorrigible husband.


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