''Biraj Bahu'' is a

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

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 produced by Hiten Choudhury and directed by Bimal Roy, and based on a Bengali novel by Saratchandra Chattopadhyay. The film stars Kamini Kaushal, Abhi Bhattacharya and Pran and has music by Salil Chowdhury. The film won the All India Certificate of Merit for Best Feature Film. Madhubala, the highest-paid actress of that time, was eager to play the lead role in the film. She had visited Bimal Roy's office several times for this purpose. However, thinking that she would ask for high fee for doing the film, he cast Kamini Kaushal instead of her. Learning that her fee lost her the role, she had said that she would have acted for even one rupee in ''Biraj Bahu.''

Plot

Biraj (Kamini Kaushal) was married off to Nilambar Chakraborty (Abhi Bhattacharya) when she was a little girl. The couple is childless. Nilambar is pious, generous and loving, but unemployed. His devious younger brother takes advantage of Nilambar's naiveté to force a partition of the home and buy off their joint land under an assumed name from the lender it was mortgaged to. Nilambar and Biraj are reduced to a wretched existence. To make matters worse, Deodhar, a wealthy young contractor who arrives in the village, is captivated by Biraj's beauty and tries to bribe her erstwhile maid Sundari, to lure her to his boat. After several dramatic twists and turns, Biraj is kidnapped, but she jumps off the boat before he can do anything. She runs away from the hospital in the middle of the night to see her husband one last time. He had promised that he would bless her at the time of her death and that she would die at his feet.

Cast

* Kamini Kaushal as Biraj Chakravorty * Abhi Bhattacharya as Nilambher Chakravorty * Shakuntala as Punnu Chakravorty * Pran as Deodhar * Randhir as Pitambar Chakravorty * Manorama as Sundari (Maidservant) * * * * Iftekhar as Kishorilal, Deodhar's assistant * Moni Chatterjee as Bholanath * * * * * * * *

Music

The music for the film was composed by Salil Chowdhury, with lyrics written by Prem Dhawan # "Meraa Mann Bhula Bhula Kahe Dole" -

Hemant Kumar Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989), known professionally as Hemanta Mukherjee and Hemant Kumar, was an Indian music director and a playback singer who primarily sang in Bengali and Hindi, along with several other India ...

# "Jhum Jhum Manmohan Re Murali" -

# "Suno Seeta Ki Kahani Ke Wo Mahlo Ki Rani" -

Mohammed Rafi Mohammed Rafi (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980) was an Indian playback singer. He is considered to have been one of the greatest and most influential singers of the Indian subcontinent. Rafi was notable for his versatility and range of voice ...

# "Na Jane Re Na Jane Re, Saiya Man Ki Battiya" -

Shamshad Begum Shamshad Begum (Urdu: شمشاد بیگم, IAST: ''Śamśād Bēgam''; 14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013) was an Indian singer who was one of the first playback singers in the Hindi film industry. Notable for her distinctive voice and range, sh ...

# "Tera Ghar Aabad Rahe Ja Ri Dulhaniya Ja Jaha Rahe" - Shyamal Mitra,

Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar (; born Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential singers of the Indian subcontinent. He ...

Awards

: National Film Awards for All India Certificate of Merit for Best Feature Film * 1955: Filmfare Best Director Award for Bimal Roy * 1955: Filmfare Best Actress Award for Kamini Kaushal * 1955:

Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

: Nominated.Biraj Bahu awards
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Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

References

External links

Biraj Bahu
Upperstall * {{Bimal Roy 1950s Hindi-language films Films directed by Bimal Roy Films scored by Salil Chowdhury Indian black-and-white films Films based on works by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Filmfare Awards winners Indian drama films 1954 drama films