Agradoot had great contribution in shaping bengali films during golden age with Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen.

Agradoot had great contribution in shaping bengali films during golden age with Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen.

Agradoot, group of directors were formed in 1946 by director Bibhuti Laha, sound recordist Jatin Dutta, Laboratory specialist Sailen Ghoshal, script writer Nitai Bhattacharya and producer Bimal Ghosh. They came, saw and conquered. Most of the films directed by Agradoot were produced by MP Productions. Agradoot competed against other eminent commercial directors of the 50s, including Sukumar Dasgupta, Nirmal Dey, Niren Lahiri, Chitto Basu, Haridas Bhattacharya and others.

In 1951, they made the film Sahajatri with Uttam Kumar and Bharati Debi. Music was composed by Robin Chatterji. The bond of Agradoot with Uttam Kumar just grew and grew. Very significantly Agradoot gave the maximum number of super hit Bengali films with the pair of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen. If Ajoy Kar had directed the biggest blockbuster of the century namely Harano Sur and Saptapadi, Agradoot gave series of hit films with the eternal pair Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen. The way Bengali film industry blossomed in the 50s, it was never reciprocated in the next 30s, due to the brilliance of the commercial directors, use of immortal literature of Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, Tarashankar Banerjee, Samaresh Bose, etc., excellent music composed by Robin Chatterjee, Anupam Ghatak, Kalipada Sen, Pabitra Chatterjee, strong performances of Uttam Kumar Suchitra Sen, and the backup given by versatile character artists like Chabi Biswas, Nitish Mukherjee, Dhiraj Bhattacharya, Malina Debi, Chandrabati Debi, Bhanu Banerjee, Tulsi Chakraborty and others. The list included Agniparikkha in 1954, Sabar Upare in 1955, Pathe Holo Deri in 1957, Surjo Toron in 1958, Bipasha in 1962. In Agradoot’s film composer Robin Chatterjee created the combination of singer Sandhya Mukherjee with Suchitra Sen. The rest was history. The legendary songs sung by Sandhya Mukherjee for Suchitra Sen in Agradoot’s films included “ghum ghum chand jhikimiki tara” in film Sabar Upare, “tumi na hoi rohite kache”, “e shudhu ganer din”, “ei saanjh ghera logon aaj” in Pathe Holo Deri, “klantir poth bujhiba furabe mor” in Bipasha, to name a few.

Uttam Kumar acted in other films of Agradoot namely Anupama in 1954 opposite Sabitri Chatterjee, Nayika Sangbad in 1967 opposite Anjana Bhowmick, Choddobeshi in 1971 opposite Madhabi Mukherjee, to name a few. At the same time Agradoot made realistic films which became award winning Bengali films. One of the examples included the film Lalu Bhulu in 1958. The film was related to two boys one being blind and the other being handicapped. Their story mesmerized the audience. The music composed by Robin Chatterjee in that film was excellent and Manobendra Mukherjee’s songs were classical in nature including “jar hiya akasher neel nilimay”, “sorjo tomar prothom toron kholo”, “dukher pathe naamly Jodi”, “dukkho amar shesh kore dao probhu”, “ei pranjharona jaaglo”, to name a few. The film was remade in hindi with the title Dosti which also became super hit.

Agradoot was sublime in the film Babla in 1951, Badsha with Kali Banerjee and Khokababur Protyaborton with Uttam Kumar. Agradoot showed the risk of casting Uttam Kumar in the role of a servant in the film Khokababur Protyaborton and murderer in the film Kuhak. Uttam Kumar’s Uttarayan, Agnisangaskar are the other masterpieces of director Agradoot.

One article is too small to highlight the achievements of Agradoot. They had shaped the destiny of Bengali celluloid during 1950s and 1960s. Their films should be preserved and restored.