Uttar Falguni

1963 137’ b&w Bengali d Asit Sen pc Uttam Kumar Films sc Nripendra Chattopadhyay c Anil Gupta, Jyotish Laha m Robin Chatterjee lp Suchitra Sen, Bikash Roy, Pahadi Sanyal, Dilip Mukherjee, Chhaya Devi, Jahar Ganguly, Ajit Bannerjee, Kalipada Chakraborty

The unhappily married Debjani (Sen) escapes from her drunken husband Rakhalbabu (Chakraborty) and becomes the courtesan Pannabai. Her former lover, the lawyer Manish Roy (Roy), comes to her rescue when he adopts her daughter Suparna. The adult Suparna (Sen in a double role) also becomes a lawyer, unaware of her real parentage. Debjani’s husband, who had blackmailed his wife for several years, reappears on Suparna’s wedding day, demanding money. Debjani shoots him dead and appears in court, where she is defended first by Manish and then by her daughter, who learns the truth. One of Suchitra Sen’s famous roles appearing both as a Thumri-singing courtesan and her emancipated daughter. The film makes extensive use of Asit Sen’s characteristic panning shots and lap dissolves as narrative bridges, most notably in the montage sequences that show Suparna growing up. The director remade the film in Hindi as Mamata (1966).

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