Filmed while Ritwik Ghatak was ill and suffering from alcoholism shortly before his death, Arguments and a Story is an inventive and lucid though pessimistic testament film. It is the story of Neelkantha Bagchi, a drunken and frustrated intellectual (played with elegance and irony by the director himself), who goes on a picaresque journey through Bengal to reconcile himself with his wife. He is accompanied by Nachiketa, an unemployed engineer, Bangabala, a young refugee from Bangladesh, and Jagannath, a penniless Sanskrit teacher. The strange foursome begins an extraordinary journey, marked by episodic encounters with a pornographer, a ranting trade union leader, and an old man who makes masks for Chhou dancers. Towards the end, Neelkantha finds his wife, Durga, but she greets him with mixed emotions. He retreats into a neighbouring forest and encounters a group of Naxalite students wanted by the police. He argues politics with them as the film steers towards a harsh and tragic conclusion.