“One of the most hauntingly personal works the cinema has ever produced, Reason, Debate, and a Tale stars Ghatak himself as an alcoholic and frustrated intellectual who, after being abandoned by his wife, sets off on an extraordinary journey across war-torn East Bengal. He is joined on his trip by Bangabala, a young refugee from Bangladesh; Nachiketa, an unemployed engineer; and Jagannath, a penniless teacher of Sanskrit. Their trip brings them into contact with other, similarly distinguished members of the educated class, striking workers, exponents of classical Chhau culture, and a band of Naxalite guerilla fighters. At the center of this maelstrom, however, is always the image of Ghatak himself, a lonely, deeply despondent figure who celebrates his demise through the ravages of alcohol in a series of thinly-disguised, autobiographical monologues. A fascinating, boldly experimental work whose effect on many young Indian filmmakers has been profound.” Richard Peña, The Film Center
“‘This will be my most serious and my most complex film,' Ghatak had said beforehand and there is little doubt that it makes a fascinating epitaph. His own performance is certainly a revelation. Kumar Shahani has written...‘In all the fifteen years that I knew (Ghatak) every crisis brought to him a sense of euphoria.... But like most other poets he had not the ability to organize. He chose instead to sing.' Ghatak died two years after the completion of his last film.... (His) small group of films...can be accounted among the most lively, committed and passionate to be made in postwar India.” Derek Malcolm, Sight & Sound