''Abhagin'' (Ill-Fated Woman) is a 1938

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

film directed by Prafulla Roy for

New Theatres Ltd New Theatres is an Indian film studio. It was formed in Calcutta by producer B. N. Sircar (Birendranath Sircar, the recipient of Dadasaheb Phalke Award of 1970 And Padma Bhushan in 1972). It was formed on February 10, 1931. The company motto wa ...

., Calcutta. A bilingual, it was made in

Bengali language Bengali, also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Bangla (, , ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. ...

as Abhigyan. The film was based on a story by Upendranath Ganguly, with dialogue by A. H. Shore. R. C. Boral provided the music composition with lyrics for the Hindi version by Munshi Arzu (Arzu Lucknawi), and by Ajoy Bhattacharya for the Bengali. The screenplay was by

Phani Majumdar Phani Majumdar was a pioneering Indian film director, who worked in Bengali and Hindi cinema, most known for his film ''Street Singer (1938 film), Street Singer'' (1938) starring K.L. Saigal noted for its song, ''Babul Mora Naihar Chhooto Jaye'' ...

for whom it was his first independent film as a scriptwriter.

Bimal Roy Bimal Roy (12 July 1909 – 7 January 1966) was an Indian film director. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films such as , '' Parineeta'', ''Biraj Bahu'', '' Devdas'', '' Madhumati'', '' Sujata'', '' Parakh'' and '' Ba ...

, who was to make a name for himself as a prominent Bengali and Hindi director, was the cinematographer for the film. The cast included Molina Devi,

Prithviraj Kapoor Prithviraj Kapoor (born Prithvinath Kapoor; 3 November 1906 – 29 May 1972) was an Indian actor who is also considered to be one of the founding figures of Hindi cinema. He was associated with IPTA as one of its founding members and establish ...

, Vijay Kumar, Nemo and Bikram Kapoor. A wife rejected by her in-laws following her abduction is given shelter by the husband's friend. The story line follows the wife's ambivalent feelings for her saviour when she's accepted back into the family.

Plot

Sandhya (Molina Devi), married to Priyalal (Vijay Kumar), lives with him at his father's (Nemo) residence. The father, Jawaharlal Choudhary, is an over-bearing and ruthless landlord. When he throws one of the tenants out for not paying the rent, the tenant violently attacks Choudhary, hurting his son who comes to his defense. The tenant then kidnaps Sandhya, but she manages to escape. She initially finds shelter with a relative (Bikram Kapoor) of hers. When she reaches home, her father-in-law refuses to let her stay as she's spent time away from home in company of a man. Though her husband sides with her, he's unwilling to confront his father. Sandhya is then given shelter by a friend of her husband, Promod (

). Promod helps Sandhya find her way in life. A bond is formed between the two. The in-laws are cleared of their misunderstanding and urge Sandhya to return home. Torn between her feelings for Promod and tradition, she chooses tradition and returns to her husband.

Cast

Hindi

as Promod *

Molina Devi Molina Devi (1917 — 13 August 1977), also known as Molina Debi and Malina Debi, was an Indian Bengali actress of Bengali and Hindi film and theatre. As an actress, she played a wide variety of parts, later frequently playing matronly parts, es ...

as Sandhya * Vijay Kumar as Priyalal * Nemo as Jawaharlal Chowdhary, Priyala’s father * Bikram Kapoor as Prakash * Devbala * Menaka Devi as Nazma * Pankaj Mullick * Rajlakshmi * Chaman Puri

Bengali

* Molina Devi as Sandhya * Jiban Ganguly as Pramatha * Sailen Pal as Priyalal * Sailen Choudhury as Prakash * Bhanu Bannerjee as Suresh * Manoranjan Bhattacharya as Jawaharlal Chowdhary * Devbala as Sabita * Manorama as Manada Mashi * Pankaj Mullick as Club member * Menaka Devi as Nazma

Review

Baburao Patel Baburao Patel (1904–1982) was an Indian publisher and writer, associated with films and politics. Career Baburao: A Pioneer of Indian Cinema. Baburao was a key figure in the early days of Indian cinema. He started his career as a journalist ...

, editor of the cine-magazine ''

Filmindia ''filmindia'' is an Indian monthly magazine covering Indian cinema and published in English language. Started by Baburao Patel in 1935, ''filmindia'' was the first English film periodical to be published from Bombay. The magazine was reportedly ...

'' found the story "rather far-fetched", claiming that it "stretches the imagination unsympathetically". Photography by

was commended with the "outdoors …more satisfactory than the indoor work". According to Patel, several scenes were undeveloped with a weak direction being responsible for it. The performance of Prithviraj Kapoor was commended "Once again Prithviraj is easily the best, because he gives a natural performance. Mollina also gives a sympathetic portrayal, but she has not been directed well". Vijay Kumar's performance as Priyalal was found to be weak and uninteresting. The film did not do well at the box office as reported by Filmindia: "''Abhagin'' did not fair (sic) well at the Minerva Talkies in Bombay. It is a pity that New Theatres should have given a weak picture for the box offices".

Soundtrack

The music direction was by R. C. Boral and the singers were Molina Devi, Vijay Kumar, Kamla Jharia and Akbar Khan Peshawri.

Song List

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abhagin 1938 films 1930s Hindi-language films Indian black-and-white films Bengali-language Indian films 1930s Bengali-language films Films scored by Pankaj Mullick New Theatres films