Aranyer Dinratri was Ray's masterpiece.

Aranyer Dinratri was Ray’s masterpiece.

Satyajit Ray experimented with classic literature of Sunil Ganguly to make the film Aranyer Dinratri in 1969. The film was based on the life of tribals of forest area in the region of Palamou and Daltongunge in Bihar.

It was Ray’s masterpiece. The film was related to the experience of four Bengali friends who went for a travelling experience in Palamou for few days. Soumitra Chatterji, Subhendu Chatterji, Samit Bhanja and Robi Ghosh were the four friends.

They met the family Pahari Sanyal who had a house in the forest region. The life of the tribals and the solitude attracted the friends and they started staying in the forest bunglow without the permission of the forest ranger. Pahari Sanyal’s daughter Sharmila Tagore fell in love with Soumitra Chatterji, while his daughter-in-law Kaberi Bose liked Subhendu Chatterji.

Samit Bhanja, a cricket player in the film was depressed about his girlfriend Aparna Sen in Kolkata and mixed with Simmi Garewal, a tribal girl. In fact it was the only film of Satyajit Ray where Simmi Garewal acted. He was beaten up by a local tribal, who he accused about stealing his purse. In fact his purse fell down in the house of Pahari Sanyal where he was playing badminton with Kaberi Bose, Subhendu Chatterji and Robi Ghosh.

They returned back after staying for few days. It was pity that Satyajit Ray could not make a coloured film in 1969, otherwise, the weird landscape of Daltongunge would have haunted the viewers. The nightlife in the tribal forest was very unique with the native people drinking a kind of desi alcohol and sleeping.

Goutam Ghosh got attracted with the film and made a sequel of it with the title Abar Aranye, few years back. He had to change the team, because although Soumitra Chatterji, Subhendu Chatterji and Samit Bhanja was alive, Robi Ghosh had died. Kaberi Bose also died in the late 70s. The film won a number of awards both nationally and internationally. The film Aranyer Dinratri should be preserved and restored.

Ajoy Kar's Bardidi amazed the viewers.

Ajoy Kar’s Bardidi amazed the viewers.

Ajoy Kar used to be considered the Genius of Camerawork. He had used his imagination and innovation in crime-thrillers like Jighansha, social dramas like Shyamali, eternal romantic stories like Saptapadi.

Bardidi was the classic literature of Sarat Chandra Chatterji, one of the most respected writers of the country. Uttam Kumar was the model of Ajoy Kar and perhaps his range of acting was best used by the legendary director. In Bardidi, Uttam Kumar was the son of Pahari Sanyal, an eminent lawyer and zamindar of Pabna district in Bengal.

Uttam Kumar did MA and was told by his friends that he should stand on his own feet. He left his parent’s house and looked for a job. He got a job of tutor of girl in Chabi Biswas’s house. Chabi Biswas’s daughter Sandharani was widow, who lost her husband came back to paternal house and fulfilled the responsibilities there. Everyone called her as bardidi, meaning the elder sister.

Uttam Kumar got engrossed in studies hardly cared about the little girl’s tution. But Sandharani gave Uttam Kumar food three times a day and also provided him a separate room to continue his own studies. After 4 months, Sandharani came to know about Uttam Kumar’s act of hardly teaching anything to the girl and told his to leave the house.

Uttam Kumar left the house and met with an accident and got hospitalized. Sandharani came to see him in the hospital. Chabi Biswas contacted his father Pahari Sanyal and took him back to Pabna. After 5 years both Chabi Biswas and Pahari Sanyal died. Uttam Kumar married Dipti Roy and left the task of managing the zamindari to his clerk played by Dhiraj Bhattacharya.

Sandharani’s elder brother got married and his wife never like Sandharani’s control over the joint family. She returned back to her deceased husband’s house. But due to non-payment of rent to the zamindar the land was auctioned and sold.

Uttam Kumar came to know about it and called up bardidi (Sandharani) while she was returning back to her paternal house. Uttam Kumar drove on horseback to let Sandharani know about the fact that the land had been returned back. Uttam Kumar was very ill and died on the spot. Sarat Chandra Chatterji’s portrayal of village life in Bengal and the odds faced by young widow in the 30s and 40s had well depicted by Ajoy Kar. Uttam Kumar, Chabi Biswas and Sandharani were brilliant in their respective roles. The film did excellent business. It should be revived to show the excellence of classic films of the 50s.

Review of Uttam Kumar's Bicharak.

Review of Uttam Kumar’s Bicharak.

Bicharak was Uttam Kumar’s successful film based on the story of legendary writer Tarashankar Bandhopadhyay and director Prabhat Mukherjee. Prabhat Mukherjee was the husband of Aristocrat actress Arundhuti Debi. He died at an early age and Arundhuti Debi married renowned director Tapan Sinha later.

Bicharak was the story where Uttam Kumar was unhappy with his marital life with the wife played by Deepti Roy. Arundhuti Debi was the cousin sister of Deepti Roy, who was highly educated, and upstart. She played tennis with Uttam Kumar. Deepti Roy became jealous about Arundhuti Debi and created unrest in the family with Uttam Kumar.

One day when fire broke out in the room of Deepti Roy, Uttam Kumar saved himself and fell to help his wife to come out of the fire. Uttam Kumar married Arundhuti Debi and settled as judge later one. One day he witnessed a case filed in his court having the same type of fact situation. Chabi Biswas made submission before the Court explaining the fact situation. The performance of Chabi Biswas in the respective role was brilliant by every acting standard.

He submitted before the judge that two brothers were attached to a girl and loved her equally. When both the brothers well travelling on boat, the brother who new swimming threw the other brother into the river knowing that he could not swim. He died as a result of it. In plain eyes it was a case of accident, but the circumstances proved the fact that it was a murder. There was motive present in the mind of the younger brother, that was to marry the girl, and for that reason he killed his brother.

While adjudicating this case Uttam Kumar recollected his experience, when his first wife Deepti Roy stretched her hand when fire broke out and he felled to save her. He shared his experience with Arundhuti Debi who asked him to pray to God to forgive him.

The film was based on reflections of mind and the intellectual crowd appreciated the film. Uttam Kumar, Arundhuti Debi and Deepti Roy were sublime in their respective roles. The music given by Timir Boron was also impressive with Rabindrasangeet like “jokhon prothom meliche koli amar mollikabone”.

The film should be restored to mark the grand creation of Prabhat Mukherjee, a creative director of Bengali films of the 50s.

Review of Bhanu's Personal Assistant.

Review of Bhanu’s Personal Assistant.

Bhanu Banerjee used to be considered the greatest comic hero to have born in Indian films in the 50s and 60s. Personal Assistant was one of his biggest blockbusters during the black and white era. Chitrakar directed the film and Nochiketa Ghosh gave the brilliant music.

In that film Tarun Kumar, the friend of Bhanu Banerjee introduced him to many employers as he was jobless. He lost the job in a shop used for repairing radios. Then he applied in a firm named Gargi and Sons owned by Ruma Guhathakurta. Ruma only wanted female candidates in the post of personal assistant. But as Bhanu’s name was Rama Gupta, she thought it was a female name and called him for interview. He was both BSC, BCom. So qualified in the interview and got the job.

The terms of the company was that if the employee left the job within 5 years of appointment he had to return all his salary. If the employer sacked him he was supposed to pay the entire salary for the 5 years. Bhanu was a poet and asked Tarun Kumar to consult Tulshi Chakravarty, a Publisher who published written works of renowned writers. Tarun Kumar told a lie to Tusi Chakravarty that the poems were written by Minoti Mitra (Bhanu) who admired Tulsi Chakravarty. He agreed to publish his poems.

In the mean time Renuka, a rich lady appointed Bhanu Banerjee to play piano that she bought for her own liking. Bhanu tried to teach her to play the piano, but she failed. She organized a show where Bhanu was supposed to actually play the piano from the backstage and she was supposed to do playacting in front with another piano. Bhanu agreed to do it with the consideration of Rs 1000, the amount he had to return back to Ruma as he wanted to leave the job.

The entire drama ended in a mess, when Tulsi Chakravarty came to Bhanu’s house to give the Book of Poems, when Tarun Kumar told him that Minoti Mitra had died. A public gathering was organized where Tarun Kumar declared before the people that Bhanu was the poet who wrote with the petname Minoti Mitra.

All the comedy sequences ended up with romantic relationship between Bhanu and Ruma Guha Thakurta. The music of Nochiketa Ghosh was excellent with hit songs of Hemant Kumar and others like “k choleche kolkatae”, “tomade notun kuri”, “srichoronkomoleshu noi”, “ei besh bhalo”, etc. Bhanu gave excellent lips in those songs.

All the artists in the film including Ruma Guha Thakurta, Tarun Kumar, Tulsi Chakravarty, Mita Chatterji, Pahari Sanyal, Renuka were sublime and the film ended up being super hit. It is still considered as a black and white classic. New directors should learn to create comedy pictures without any cheap sequence or vulgarity.

The film and the songs stand out as a landmark of Bengali film industry of 1959 and for those reasons should be preserved and restored.