Shatru was the first hit film of 80s.


Shatru was the first hit film of 80s.

Superstar Uttam Kumar died on 31st July, 1980. The Bengali film industry came to a stand still for few years. People say time is the best healer. It took four years for the bengalies to realize the fact that Uttam Kumar was no more. Whichever film was released during 1980 to 1984 only ran for seven days each.

Eminent director Anjan Choudhury appeared at that time. He initially wanted to provide the role of the honest police-officer to Uttam Kumar. But Uttam Kumar died. So the role was offered to Ranjit Mullick. According to the story of the film, he came to a jurisdiction where all the previous police officers were corrupted.

He came to know that a small child named Chottu became orphan, because his father Paran Mondol was kidnapped by Manoj Mitra’s men and there was no evidence of his existence. Ranjit Mullick came to know about the affairs of the place from the subordinate officer played by Chiranjit. Manoj Mitra used a lot of gundas in the film to dominate the rural folk including Prasenjit Chatterjee.

Ranjit Mullick got attached to the little child Chottu and asked Shakuntala Barua to take care of him. The relationship of Ranjit Mullick and Chottu was well presented by Anjan Choudhury. The reason why every operation of Ranjit Mullick was revealed before Manoj Mitra was because a subordinate officer in the same police station played by Anup Kumar informed Manoj Mitra about all the affairs.

At the end of the film, Anup Kumar was caught by Ranjit Mullick leaking the confidential information and he arrested Manoj Mitra for the criminal activities. The film became super hit. After that film most of Anjan Choudhury’ s films like Guru Dakhina, Choto Bou, etc., became hit one after the other. Ranjit Mullick went on playing important roles in the films of Anjan Choudhury. The police department of Kolkata was asked to see the film to ensure honesty and commitment.

Other directors can learn from Anjan Choudhury that good stories and proper script can reach the middle-class mass who can associate themselves with those films.