''Bari Behen'' (lit. 'Elder Sister') is a

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...

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 ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed, written and produced by D. D. Kashyap, starring

Suraiya Suraiya Jamal Sheikh (15 June 1929 – 31 January 2004), mononymously known as Suraiya, was an Indian actress and playback singer who worked in Hindi films. She is regarded as one of the greatest and finest actresses in the history of Indian c ...

, Rehman, Ullhas and Pran.NFAI adds Suraiya's 1949 film Bari Behen to collection
Times of India (newspaper), Published 26 February 2017, Retrieved 23 May 2020 The film was remade in Sinhalese as '' Sujatha'' (1953).

Plot

Shyama (Suraiya) gets a job as a servant so she can pay for her younger sister, Kiran's (Geeta Bali) education in the city. Kiran, though, is in love with a rogue, Ajit (Pran). Ajit makes Kiran splurge all the money Shyama sends her on them. Meanwhile, Shyama meets and falls in love with Shyam (Rehman), the son of the family she works for and who is a doctor who wants to treat the poor. With both of being ill-treated by the woman of the house, who is Shyam's step-mother, they decide to elope. However, Kiran comes to her, abandoned and pregnant. Shyama goes along with her without informing Shyam in order to find Ajit. They find Ajit, but he escapes from them. The two sisters then relocate to another town. Kiran has the child, Shyama works in another house, where in order to get Kiran settled with the young man of the house and to prove her to be without blemish, she takes it upon herself to claim to be the mother of the child. This causes further complications with Shyam, who has managed to trace her out and now believes that she has been unfaithful to him. Wallowing in grief, he falls ill. Finally, with the help of a kindly army colonel, also Ajit's uncle (Ulhas), all's well that ends well, with a repentant Ajit marrying Kiran and Shyama reunited with Shyam.

Cast

as Shyama * Rehman as Shyam * Ullhas as Colonel * Geeta Bali as Kiran * Gulab * Pran as Jeetu /Ajit * Roop Kamal * Niranjan Sharma as Amar Nath * Baij Sharma * Shanti Madhok * Ram Avtar as Seth Amrit Lal * Amar Kumar * Gyani Sarang * Mrs. Paul * Papoo * Baby Tabassum as Munni

Soundtrack

Music composed by Husnlal Bhagatram and lyrics by Rajendra Krishan & Qamar Jalalabadi.

References

External links

* 1949 films 1940s Hindi-language films 1940s Indian films Hindi films remade in other languages Indian black-and-white films Indian drama films 1949 drama films Films scored by Husnlal Bhagatram Hindi-language drama films {{1990s-Hindi-film-stub