''Chokh'' ( lit. The Eyes) is a

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

Indian

Bengali film Bengali cinema may refer to: * Cinema of West Bengal, also called Tollywood * Cinema of Bangladesh The Cinema of Bangladesh, locally known as Bangla cinema, is a diverse and vibrant entity, consisting of films produced across various regions ...

directed by

Utpalendu Chakrabarty Utpalendu Chakrabarty (1948 – 20 August 2024) was an Indian filmmaker based in Kolkata. Life and career Chakrabarty was born in Pabna District in 1948. Utpalendu graduated from Scottish Church College, of the University of Calcutta. Chakrab ...

, with

Om Puri Om Prakash Puri, (18 October 1950 – 6 January 2017) was an Indian actor who appeared in mainstream commercial Hindi films as well as Urdu, Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada, English, Punjabi, Gujarati, Telugu, and Marathi films, as well as ind ...

Anil Chatterjee Anil Chatterjee (also Chattopadhyay, ; 25 October 1929 – 17 March 1996) was an Indian actor in the Bengali cinema during the early fifties through the mid-nineties and is mostly remembered as a character actor. He acted or performed in about ...

Shyamanand Jalan Shyamanand Jalan (13 January 1934 – 24 May 2010) was a Kolkata-based Indian theatre director, and actor. He is credited for the renaissance period of modern Indian theatre and especially the Hindi theatre in Kolkata from the 1960s to 1980s. H ...

and

Sreela Majumdar Sreela Majumdar (also credited as Srila Mazumdar, 1958/1959 – 27 January 2024) was an Indian actress in the Bengali language film industry. She did voice dubbing for Aishwarya Rai in the film '' Chokher Bali'' (2003). Early life Majumdar w ...

in lead roles. The film is set in 1975 and the oppression and exploitation of

Jute Jute ( ) is a long, rough, shiny bast fibre that can be Spinning (textiles), spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', of the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ...

mill workers in Kolkata. At the

30th National Film Awards The 30th National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1982. Ceremony took place in May ...

he won the awards for

Best Feature Film Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporatio ...

as well as

Best Direction The MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction is an award given to the artist, the artist's manager, and the director of the music video. From 1984 to 2006, the full name of the award was Best Direction in a Video, and in 2007, it was briefly renam ...

award for the director.

Plot

The film is set during the

Emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

period in December 1975. Jadunath a labour union leader, of Jethia Jute Mill in Kolkata has been given a death sentence, for the murders of owner Jethia's brother, and another worker, even though he never committed them. Before dying, he pledges his eyes for donation. However, when the mill owner finds about this, he tries to maneuver the medical system to get both eyes for his blind son. Meanwhile, the doctor discovers that the donation papers provided by Jethia to be fake. Soon the mill workers get united behind the widow of Jadunath and hold a protest rally against the injustice. The film is a documentation of the time.

Cast

as Jadunath *

as Dr. Mukherjee (as Anil Chattopadhyay) *

as Factory Owner *

as Jadunath's Widow *

Madhabi Mukherjee Madhabi Chakraborty (née Mukherjee) is an Indian actress. Considered to be one of the greatest actresses of Bengali cinema, she has acted in some of the most critically acclaimed films in Bengali cinema. She won the National Film Award for B ...

(guest appearance) * Ashok Banerjee * Baidyanath Banerjee * Gautam Banerjee * Manju Banerjee * Nepal Banik

References

External links

* {{NationalFilmAwardBestFeatureFilm 1982 films Bengali-language Indian films Films whose director won the Best Director National Film Award Best Feature Film National Film Award winners Films set in 1975 Films set in Kolkata Jute industry of India Films about social realism Films about the labor movement 1980s Bengali-language films