“When it comes to adaptation, I prefer a short story to a novel,” said Sen. “In a novel, you don’t know what to leave out.” With Basu’s story, the challenge was in filling in the blanks. The sparse tale is about an unusual marriage between Snehamoy Chakrabarti, a mathematics teacher in the Sundarbans, and his Japanese pen friend Miyage. The proposal, its acceptance and the 20-year-long marriage happen entirely through letters. “It was all very well for Kunal to talk about intimacy without domesticity. But how was I to show it on screen since the two never meet?” laughed Sen. Basu did not name most of the characters, so that job was also Sen’s. Thus, the widow who comes to live in Snehamoy’s house becomes Sandhya. In the movie, Rahul Bose becomes Snehamoy and Raima Sen, Sandhya.

As Aparna Sen lengthened the 12-page story to fit into her reels, she introduced wistful instances and funny scenarios, like the long-distance telephone conversation in Snehamoy’s Bengali-accented English and Miyage lisping in Japanese-flavoured sounds. The result is hilarious, although the language barrier between the two adds a wisp of poignancy. Unlike Basu’s heroine, Sen’s Miyage never succeeds in pronouncing his name correctly. He remains Sinemoy for her.

“Aparna’s screenplay captured the essence of my story. I watched a clip of the film and it was simply mind-blowing,” said Basu, who nevertheless admitted that he found “the process of filmmaking boring” and was never too involved in Sen’s film.