Jackie Shroff, Soha Ali Khan, Roopa Ganguly, Abhishek Bachchan
The bottom line here is that you can't go wrong with a brilliant director. Rituparna Ghosh does take quite a bit of liberties with the plot but the master storyteller does not let it go haywire.
There are many issues dealt with in the film; oppression of women at their husbands' hands, zamindars, and priests, of aged husbands raping wives half their age, society making fun of wives unable to bear children, priests taking advantage of helpless housewives and so on; it's all there for you. This is Ghosh's perception of the nineteenth century Bengal.
Bhubaneswar Chowdhury (Jackie Shroff) is a wealthy and tyrannical zamindar. His has two obsessions in life; a desperate need of an heir, which his wives Mahamaya (Roopa Ganguly) and Jashomoti (Soha Ali Khan) seem unable to deliver; and the other one is competing with his regional rivals to produce the most magnificent effigy of a goddess for the annual Durga Puja.
In an effort to belittle his rival, Chowdhury hires a potter Brijbhushan (Abhishek Bachchan) from Krishnanagar and orders him to make the Goddess' face resemble Queen Victoria. He hopes to earn the title of 'Rai Bahadur' with this.