Uttam Kumar was outstanding in Nagardarpane.
By mid-70s Uttam Kumar transformed himself from a stylish romantic actor to a powerful character artist. Nagardarpane was an experiment done by director Dilip Mukherjee under the banner of Jatrik in 1975. Ashutosh Mukherjee, the epic writer wrote a challenging story which was directed by Dilip Mukherjee.
Uttam Kumar played the role of the elder brother of the family. He was asked to stay in his uncle’s house after the death of his father. He sacrificed his childhood to establish himself to take care about the family. He got a decent job in Kolkata and also continued his career as a novelist.
He brought up his two brothers, Dilip Mukherjee being the second brother. Dilip Mukherjee joined the police. He married Kaberi Bose and got a child. But in his office he could not compromise against the evil practices of his boss played by Haradhon Banerjee who misused his PA played by Supriy Choudhury. He had to resign from his job.
Uttam Kumar’s mother Chaya Debi died. He took pains to send his youngest brother abroad after paying all the money he had saved for his life. But his brother returned back abroad after failing in all the subjects in higher studies.
The youngest brother also developed illicit relationship with the wife of Dilip Mukherjee. At every level of the society Uttam Kumar found only corruption and lack of human values. When he tried to protest about all this back in the house he was beaten up by his younger brother played by Dilip Mukherjee. Uttam Kumar wanted to send his child to RK Mission to learn discipline. Instead his brother Dilip Mukherjee send him to Convent School in Darjeeling.
His wife Kaberi Bose also did a job to support the family. At the end of the family when Uttam Kumar was send to a mental asylum, he told everyone in the house that was there a bigger mental asylum where each and every family member could not send because he found lack of values in all of them. The film got box-office success inspite of being related to philosophical thoughts of Asutosh Mukherjee. Uttam Kumar was unparallel and brilliant in his role. For those reasons the film should be restored.
