Synopsis:
‘Raincoat’ begins with Manoj (Ajay Devgan) leaving his mother in countryside to travel to Kolkata in search of better prospects of business. He is hopeful that the city will help him emerge from his financial crisis. He also harbors a bleak hope of meeting his estranged beloved Niru (Aishwarya Rai), who is now married to someone else.
On a rainy day in Kolkata, Manoj borrows his friend’s old raincoat as he sets out to meet Niru. What follows is a nostalgic and emotion-filled encounter between the two, set against a rainy afternoon. (written by Aparajita Ghosh on apunkachoice.com)
SPOILER:
Manoj goes to the city and stays with an old friend. He has written a letter to give to old friends from college. In it he states he is looking for money to start up a business as he is unemployed. He feels bad about begging, but he is desparate.
He manages to get 12,000 when he finally arrives at Niru's door and rings the doorbell. She finally answers and they sit and talk. Niru has to light candles as she says the electricity was out. She says the doorbell rang because it's on another line. She also does not let Manoj open the windows because the rain might get in.
The movie shows the start of the relationship and their love in flashbacks during the dialogue. During the flashbacks we see that while they are in love, Niru's parents set her marriage with a wealthy man and she can't find any reason to tell them no. She winds up marrying him despite Manoj's pleas.
Back to the present, Manoj sees she is living in a place filled with fine furniture and assumes she is well off. Manoj lies to her about what he is doing. He claims he makes TV serials and is very well off. She says that her husband is always flying around to different countries for his work.
Throughout the conversation, she occasionally goes through a glass door to a separate room to prepare his tea, etc. Manoj never can see what's through there.
Niru finally states he must eat something. She claims her regular servants have run off for the day so she needs to go to the market to get something for him to eat. She borrows his raincoat as it is raining outside.
When Niru leaves, the rain stops. Manoj opens the windows up wide and soon a man comes up to the window and asks Manoj to please let him in as he needs to go to the bathroom. Manoj lets him in and then asks him to leave. The man reveals himself to be Niru's landlord.
Through their conversation, it is revealed that Niru's husband was not rich, but conned the family into thinking that. Their house is full of furniture because they rent it out every night to films and TV shows to use. It's constantly being picked up and dropped off. The electricity was cut off due to non-payment. The doorbell only worked because it was battery operated. The landlord says they keep the windows shut and never answer the door, keeping collector's at bay.
Manoj gives the landlord the 12,000 he asked his friends for to pay for 3 months rent and asks the landlord to call him before he kicks them out after that.
After the landlord leaves, Manoj goes into the room Niru kept going into and finds a room crammed with even more furniture, clothes hanging on lines, dirty dishes stacked everywhere and cockroaches in the drawers. It's a dirty, squalid place.
Manoj writes a note to Niru telling her she should have asked him for help and he is there for her. He puts the note under a bed spread.
Niru comes back and he eats. He wipes his hands on the spread and when Niru obejcts he says to be sure to wash it. He wanted her to find the note later.
They finally part ways and Manoj is back at his friend's house. He gives the raincoat to his friend's wife and she comes back a little bit later saying there was something in the pocket. In the pocket was gold jewelry. A note from Niru was also there. In the note Niru told Manoj she found the letter to his friends asking for money. She told him he should have just asked her and gave him the jewelry to help him.
The movie ends with a scene at night, showing a cart full of furniture pull up to Niru's house and start unloading.
