Shubha Mudgal croons in the bacground as Ajay Devgan's character boards a train to Calcutta. Thus setting the slow and langurous pace of RAINCOAT. It is a story inspired by O'Henry and Ghosh duly credits him. At a time when literature seems to have gone missing from Hindi movies, it is great to see Ghosh attempting this.

In the eighties Doordarshan used to air a show called "EK KAHANI", based on stories written by literary stalwarts. Often stories by Maupassant & O'Henry etc would be adapted and turn up as a half-hour episode. RAINCOAT fits that genre really. I take issue that it was stretched into a full length feature, but it is a weak issue only. Ironically this TV serial was produced by Yash Chopra's TV production company. Wish he could take a leaf from his own earlier life and make movies based on stories written by those famous writers.

Aishwarya Rai is extremely deglamorised and makes a serious attempt at getting it right. A clap for her efforts. Devgan is his usual self as he always is in such roles. Personally I think he is only ok, but once again that he decided to be part of this venture, is commendable. The one guy who both of them should learn emoting from is Annu Kapoor, the show stealer! What a great performer. Right from the days of his role in ARJUN, Annu Kapoor has never failed to impress and he delivers a bang-on performance.

In the end, RAINCOAT is a movie that has the ability to grow on you. Watch it in the theatre and then rent/buy the DVD to reflect once again. It has a very straight narration style, without the regular ups and downs of a drama, a drone if you will. That can seem disconcerting but perhaps Ghosh did that on purpose. It worked for me in parts.

I hope the movie recovers its investment so that Ghosh and his investors have the courage to give us more of similar fare.