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.

Teen Murti had memories of Tapan Sinha.

Teen Murti had memories of Tapan Sinha.

Teen Murti had memories of Dada Saheb Phalke Award Winner director Tapan Sinha’s pleasant memories. Tapan Sinha’s story, screenplay and music had been given expression by director Raja Sen in the film Teen Murti.

In the film, Manoj Mitra, Dipankar Dey and Ranjit Mallick at their old age opened a tea stall. Manoj Mitra was a retired ex-station master, Ranjit Mullick was a retired professor, while Dipankar Dey was a senior official who had once worked in the corporate sector. They opened the tea-stall to give a new meaning to their own lives.

Their fight against the social barriers inspire the other generation full of worries including the lives of Joy and Paoli. Paoli had depression for her resentments in romantic life. Manoj Mitra had differences with his wife played by Sabitri Chatterji, that did not stand in the way for going ahead with the project of the tea stall. The bigger reason was to keep themselves busy with some work after the busy life had changed its course.

While the tea stall was opened, the three veterans faced a lot of resistance from the local hooligans. One of such characters was played by Subhashish Mukherjee, a local mastan. The unity between the three vetarans could not allow the hooliganism of Subhashish to outweigh the project of the tea stall. The performances of Ranjit Mullick, Dipankar Dey and Manoj Mitra were excellent. Sabitri Chatterji was one of the most versatile actresses of Bengali films and professional theatre. So nothing new is mentioned if her acting efforts are appreciated.

The new actors and actresses like Paolomi and Joy did well. Even the character artists Papiya Sen and Kanchana Mitra did a good job. The film did not have a commercial masala of entertainment.

But viewers should watch the film to appreciate the efforts of Tapan Sinha in delivering a practical story which is related to an eternal truth that everyone are supposed to be old at some point of time and fight life at that old age with dignity.

Review of Sayangsiddha

Review of Sayangsiddha.

In the mid-70s directors in Bengal experimented with masala films. Sayangsidha was an example of such type of films.

In that film Ranjit Mullick was the elder son of Satya Banerjee. He was the owner of huge amount of property but was given narcotics and remained abnormal. His younger brother was tutored by Utpal Dutt to whip his elder brother and exercise his right over the property of Satya Banerjee. Satya Banerjee’s first wife died. His second wife Chaya Devi neglected the elder son Ranjit Mullick.

Ranjit Mullick was married to the daughter of Kali Banerjee, that was Mithu Mukherjee. Mithu Mukherjee was very notorious in the village as she proved herself to be a dare devil character. Once she married Ranjit Mullick, she realized that there was nothing require wrong in him. He was beaten and terrorized, so became abnormal.

Mithu Mukherjee taught her to read and write after marriage. One day when his younger brother tried to whip him, she snatched the whip and whipped the younger brother instead. Satya Banerjee did not give his ancestral property to the younger son. So there was violence at the end of the film backed by Utpal Dutta. His men tried to kill Ranjit Mullick to allow the younger brother to be the absolute owner of the property after the death of Satya Banerjee.

They did not succeed in their attempt. The music composed by Nochiketa Ghosh was very impressive with hit songs of Manna Dey like “kichi michi kichi michi”, songs of Asha Bhosle like “mone hoy aaj aami”, etc. The performances of character artists in the film like Bhanu Banerjee were very impressive.

Bengali films shifted from the literature based classics to masala films in the late 70s. Sayangsiddha was remade in hindi with Jeetender playing the role of Ranjit Mullick and Hema Malini playing the role of Mithu Mukherjee.