It takes an actor of Irrfan Khan's stature and magnetism to turn an intimate separation drama into something special, and a writer-director like Bangladesh's happy maverick Mostofa Sarwar Farooki to layer on subtleties and shades of meaning with realistic detachment that never slips into melodrama... Its visual style and pacing make as much of an impression as the head-shaking story.

[28] — Deborah Young, The Hollywood ReporterDirected with an assured and graceful touch that evokes the elegiac tone of a requiem, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki proves he's a singular voice in Bangladeshi cinema.

With Irrfan Khan delivering another sublime lead performance (while being billed as co-producer), the film should bloom at festivals and secure a limited release in India, despite some censorship issues back home…..Other actors in the mixed cast of Bangladeshis and Indians are equally absorbing, especially Tisha.

While the story is salacious, Farooki's nuanced screenplay avoids cliche — sex scenes are notably absent — to instead focus on the very real pain of the situation... Alongside Khan, who will be familiar to Western audiences, the cast is universally strong... the evolving relationship between mother and daughter in the wake of Javed's seismic betrayal provides the emotional heart of the narrative, along with Saberi's feelings towards her father, and it's refreshing to see this age-old story told from the equal perspective of the women involved.

Farooki handles the piece with grace and sensitivity; an approach augmented by Pavel Arin's evocative score, which mixes the traditional and the contemporary, and debut cinematographer Sheikh Rajibul Islam's arresting, contemplative visuals.

[30] — Nikki Baughan, Screen InternationalFarooqi never quite ventures to spoon-feed us with an explanation of exactly why and how Javed Hasan reached the tipping point of leaving his family and marrying the girl who had broken his home.

[31] Earlier, writer Humayun Ahmed's wife Meher Afroz Shaon had brought to the government's notice that part of the film resembles a period of her deceased husband's life.