“To suddenly confront a film study of a movie star, scrutinized under the microscopic eyes of Satyajit Ray, is a delightful and profoundly effective experience. Mr. Ray's creation is not meant to be an exposé, but rather a close, unspectacular look at the emotional insecurity and artistic dilemmas faced by a popular idol during his chance meeting with a girl on the Delhi-Calcutta Express. In the dining car Arindam finds the urbane lady-journalist, Aditi, a perfect catalyst for his reminiscences, but the entire spectrum of characterization is here - there are other travelers too, and they are not neglected by the director's perceptive camera-eye. In this realistic film about the unreality of films, the brilliant imagery, the lyricism, the delicate balance between dream and awakening all comprise an exceptionally rich and satiric work.... Uttam Kumar is actually a matinee idol of the Indian cinema, and he plays Arindam with intelligence and subtlety; Sharmila Tagore, already known for her previous roles in Ray's The World of Apu and Devi, gives a cool, sagacious portrait of a woman quite familiar with men whose egos force them to shadow-box with their mindless ennui.” --Albert Johnson, San Francisco Film Festival, 1967