This time debutante director Pradeep Sarkar takes on the adaptation of Parineeta by joining hands with Vidhu Vinod Chopra production house. Chopra has a remarkable past record of good films to his credit and Sarkar comes from a background of advertising and directing music videos.

The film starts with Amitabh Bachchan’s poetic voiceover introducing 1962’s Calcutta(as called then) with sepia color tone welcoming us to the City of joy, of laureates, of processions & strikes, of the section of moderns highly influenced by British raj, of those eating paan & rasgullas, of the banks of Ganga river overlooking the symbolic Howrah bridge sliding into the world of Shekhar Rai(Saif Ali Khan) who is getting married to Gayatri Tantiya(Dia Mirza),a high society resident but his heart belongs to Lolita(debutante Vidya Balan) with whom he had shared the most memorable childhood and and many priceless moments.

He chooses to drift back in time taking the film in flashback mode when he as a kid was first introduced by his neighbour Koel(Raima Sen) to her cousin Lolita who after a sad demise of her parents was invited to stay with her maternal uncle. They hit it off from the very first moment… they evolve from neigbours to friends to lovers, an evolution so effortless and non-prentious.

A kind and favourite of all Lolita is free to walk into Shekhar’s room at any time of the day and has a key to his personal savings and he is free to call her anytime of the day to listen to his new musical score and even expects her to give inputs to make the tune more lilting which she happily does. Outside the world of this deep relationship of trust and unspoken rights over each other, there is a world where Shekhar’s aristocratic father(Sabyasachi Chakravarthy) , a very shrewd businessman lives and there is also Girish babu(Sanjay Dutt), a suave London-returned bachelor whose cheerful & generous heart falls for Lolita at first sight. Lolita’s call for her family duties and Shekhar’s transition from ‘just a Musician’ to ‘just a Buisnessman’ results in friction.

Some more trying times fall ahead which force one and all to take some stand in their lives which necessarliy not be pleasing to the other or oneself. So does one make a compromising decision and live with it for lifetime or is there some chance to revert back to where one’s soulmate resides?