Devdas, the son of a zamindar, and Parvati, his neighbour's daughter, are childhood sweethearts. However, class and caste differences prevent their marriage. Devdas is sent off to Calcutta, while Paro is married off to an aged rich widower. In Calcutta, as remorse drives him to alcohol, Devdas meets Chandramukhi, a tawaif.
In a family where relations have deteriorated to the worst level, even affecting professional lives, an outsider tries to rebuild the lost love and compassion.
The story revolves around the 15th century poet-saint Chandidas who acts out against the deep-rooted bigotry against caste, untouchability and the hypocrisy of society, as he falls in love with a washer woman.
Set against the backdrop of WW II in Calcutta, "Meri Bahen" is the story of a schoolteacher and his young sister. The film followed his rise to fame as a singer and the changes in his relationships following a bomb-raid.
When a local mining company dares to provide its workers a fair wage for a fair day's work, and lets its workers unionize, the kingdom's villainous potentate is less than pleased. After considerable pressure, the company agrees to blame unrest in the region on a blameless worker collective.
Badi Bahen aka President is a 1937 Hindi social romantic drama film (the Bengali version was called Didi and starred several different actors). The story according to the credit roll of the film is "A tale of love and greater love" developed on an idea by M. M. Begg. It was a love triangle with a social content that highlighted the conditions of the mill workers. It was also the first film to show a liberated educated woman managing her own factory
A famous radio singer Mohan (Saigal) is in love with Geeta (Leela Desai). When he goes to his friend a doctor, TB Specialist, Bijoy (Bhanu) for a check-up, he is found to be in an advance stage of TB. Meanwhile Leela's dominant mother and aunt (Nibhanani and Manorama) had been against the poor Mohan and had set their eyes on same Dr. Bijoy, the son of a family friend. When Mohan comes to know of it, and also his sickness, he decides to walk away from them. He is intercepted by a doctor who ran a sanatorium for TB patients, with some new method of treatment. Geeta couldn't forget Mohan and waited, but in the end she had to relent. Then it was known that Mohan was alive and cured. What would now Bijoy and Geeta do? There wedding was the next day, and they have to go ahead with it, the honour of both the families were at stake. Mohan too aware of his being exposed, disappears from the sanatorium and is untraceable.
It was 1943. Burma was under Japanese control. In Pegu, a small place near Burma lived two Indian families. They were neighbors Kumar and Lata loved each other. Their parents were also willing to see them engaged. Suddenly one day, it came out in the news paper the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had called on the people to give him blood so that he could give them freedom. Kumar was reluctant but later on he decided to join the INA.
Classic celebration of Mithila's King Shiva Singha's (Bannerjee/Kapoor) love for his wife while chronicling the influence of the pacifist court poet Bidyapati (Sanyal). Invited to the royal court by the king, Bidyapati arrives with his faithful follower Anuradha (Kanan Devi). Queen Laxmi (Chhaya Devi) falls in love with the poet, much to the distress of the king. The king falls ill and starts neglecting his royal duties until Anuradha persuades him that true love does not need reciprocation. The queen, equally distressed by her divided loyalties, contemplates suicide, encouraged by the prime minister who is worried by the nefarious impact of Bidyapati's poetry on the king.
Bug-budget saint film on the life of Meera (Chandrabati Devi/Khote), a princess of the Rajput kingdom of Chittor married to the king of Mewad (Bannerjee/Kapoor). She is persecuted by her husband and her brother-in-law when she abandons worldly possessions to become a devotee of Krishna. She undertakes a journey of penance and performs a miracle which the king attributes to the machinations of the evil army chief Abhiram.
A remake of the Bengali film Bhagya Chakra, it was the first Hindi film to use playback singing. It was director Nitin Bose who came up with the idea of playback singing.
The manufacture of kerosene tins in an Indian factory.
Devdas, the son of a zamindar, and Parvati, his neighbour's daughter, are childhood sweethearts. However, class and caste differences prevent their marriage. Devdas is sent off to Calcutta, while Paro is married off to an aged rich widower. In Calcutta, as remorse drives him to alcohol, Devdas meets Chandramukhi, a prostitute. All Indian prints of this Bengali version were destroyed in a fire that ravaged New Theatre’s studios. Today, only one copy of the film survives which belongs to the Bangladesh Film Archives. Of that copy almost forty percent is destroyed.
The legend of Prince Puran, born under King Silwan of Sialkot's curse which binds his parents never to set eyes on him until he is 16. Accused of leading a debauched life by an evil general and by the king's second wife, Puran is sentenced to death. Rescued by the mystic Gorakhnath, he becomes an ascetic. When the king is overthrown, Purna rises from his meditations to depose the general who has seized power, before returning to his life of renunciation.
A father worries for his younger son and asks his elder son to promise that he will do everthing in his power to ensure Arun does not go astray, educates himself and becomes an independent man. However, fate has other plans. When Arun commits an unthinkable crime, his brother fulfills the promise made to their father and shields his younger sibling from all harm.
A famous Saigal musical narrating a strange love story set against 1930s industrialization and worker-management relations. The 16-year-old Prabhavati inherits a mill and turns it into an extremely profitable enterprise. Prakash is a worker who designs a more efficient machine for the factory for which he first gets sacked and then is re-employed. He falls in love with Prabhavati's sister Sheila, who later makes way for Prabhavati who is also in love with Prakash. Her withdrawal distresses Prakash, causing him to bully the workers who then go on strike.
A drama set amid an earthquake in Bihar. Miss Renee (Khote) looks after the victims while her lover, the businessman Sardar (Mohanned), wants to make money from the disaster.
Melodrama about lineage and property questions. Nikhilesh (Barua) loves heiress Indira (Jamuna). A poor orphan girl, Radha (Menaka Devi), arrives claiming to be Indira's stepsister and therefore part inheritor of the family estate. Indira agrees to share her inheritance but then Radha makes a play for Nikhilesh. Ultimately, Radha turns out to be the real and sole heir. Love proves to be stronger than material possession as Indira and Nikhilesh get married and Radha finds happiness with Ratan, a man she had known and loved during her days of poverty. As each character returns to the class of his/her birth, the message hammered home is a warning to people never to transcend their social status.
A 1953 Bengali Drama Film directed by Subodh Mitra.
This is the story of the wanderlust in a teenage boy, Tarapada, who often ran away from his home for days to join groups of wandering players, musicians and acrobats. Based on a story by Rabindranath Tagore.
