''Dhanraj Tamang'' is a 1978 Indian

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

-language

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating, and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice ...

action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

co-written and directed by Pijush Basu. Produced by Asim Sarkar under the banner of Usha Films, the film is based on a story by Charuchandra Chakraborty. It stars

Uttam Kumar Uttam Kumar (born Arun Kumar Chattopadhyay; 3 September 1926 – 24 July 1980), widely known as Mahanayak (), was an Indian film actor, producer, director, screenwriter, composer, and playback singer who predominantly worked in Bengali cinema ...

in the

titular role The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piëce. The title o ...

, alongside Sandha Roy,

Utpal Dutt Utpal Dutt (; 29 March 1929 – 19 August 1993) was an Indian actor, director, and writer-playwright. He was primarily an actor in Bengali theatre, where he became a pioneering figure in Modern Indian theatre, when he founded the "Little The ...

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 ...

, Dilip Roy and

Chhaya Devi Chhaya Devi (; 3 June 1914 – 25 April 2001) was an Indian actress known for her work in Bengali and Hindi cinema. She appeared in over two hundred films for over five decades. Her first lead role was in Debaki Bose's Bengali film ''Sonar ...

in lead roles. Plotted in Simtang tea estate, a faithful worker Dhanraj Tamang, who gets prisoned for discovering the predation of local girls including his wife by his boss, escapes from the jail to take revenge and ultimately goes mad. Predominantly shot in

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a city in the northernmost region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the Koshi Pr ...

Jalpaiguri Jalpaiguri (), is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Jalpaiguri district as well as of the Jalpaiguri division of West Bengal, covering the jurisdiction of the five districts of North Bengal. The city is ...

and

Alipurduar Alipurduar (), is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Alipurduar district and Alipurduar railway division of NFR. It is situated in the Western Dooars natural region, on the banks of Kaljani River in the ...

with a sporadic schedule, the film marks the eleventh collaboration between Basu and Kumar, and also the debut of

Prosenjit Chatterjee Prosenjit Chatterjee (born 30 September 1962) is an Indian actor and producer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading actors of modern Bengali cinema. He predominantly works in Cinema of West Bengal, Bengali cinema. He is the son of Bollyw ...

as the assistant director. Music of the film is composed by

Shyamal Mitra Shyamal Mitra (14 January 1929 – 15 November 1987) was an Indian versatile playback singer and music director along with Hemanta Mukherjee and Manna Dey. Mitra worked in many Hindi and Bengali films as a music director and film producer. He w ...

, with lyrics penned by

Gauriprasanna Mazumder Gauriprasanna Majumdar (5 December 1925 – 20 August 1986) was an Indian lyricist and writer known for his work in Indian cinema. He is most commonly associated with the black and white era of Bengali cinema, when he penned several enduring cla ...

. Ganesh Ghosh handled its cinematography, while Baidyanath Chatterjee edited the film. ''Dhanraj Tamang'' theatrically released on 29 September 1978, coinciding with

Durga Puja Durga Puja (ISO 15919, ISO: , ), also known as Durgotsava or Shaaradotsava, is an annual festival originating in the Indian subcontinent which pays homage to the Hinduism, Hindu goddess Durga, and is also celebrated because of Durga's victo ...

. Opening to positive reviews, the film was a blockbuster at the box office and after a number of commercially unsuccessful films, it redefined Kumar's stardom with a long run consisting of 210 days in theatres. The song "Ekti Sudhu Naam Dhanraj Tamang", sung by

Hemanta Mukherjee 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 ...

, became very popular among the masses, upon its release. At the 16th Filmfare Awards East, it received the Best Actor award for Kumar.

Plot

In a tea estate close to Darjeeling, Dhanraj Tamang is a well-liked and trustworthy worker. He is always willing to assist and encourage locals. He defends women from sexual predators but is unable to save his own wife. His tea estate boss allegedly sexually assaults his wife, leading to the sentencing of the man to prison. Dhanraj comes back to exact revenge.

Cast

as Dhanraj Tamang, the leader of the workers of Simtang tea estate *

Sandhya Roy Sandhya Roy is an Indian actress and politician. One of the most successful actresses of Bengali cinema, she reigned as a leading actress for approximately 30 years. She has received numerous awards including four BFJA Awards and a Filmfare A ...

as Phoolmaya, Dhanraj's wife *

as Mr. Mackengy, the assistant manager of Simtang tea estate *

as Dr. Nibaran Majumder * Dilip Roy as Moloy Chakraborty, the Deputy Jailer *

as Burima *

Tarun Kumar Tarun Kumar (born 8 January 1983) is an Indian actor known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema, with appearances in a few Tamil and Malayalam films. Tarun began his career as a child actor and received the National Film Award for Bes ...

as Ghosh Da, owner of local wine shop *

Shambhu Bhattacharya Shambhu Bhattacharya (1935 – 26 January 2018) was a Bengali actor and stage artist. Career Bhattacharya started his acting career in theatre in Kolkata. He worked in several stage productions of Utpal Dutt, Jahor Roy and Rabi Ghosh. He was a ...

as Naga, a local goon * Tarun Mitra as Kishan Thapa

Soundtrack

Music of the film is composed by

, in his third collaboration with Pijush Basu after ''Jiban Jigyasha'' (1971) and ''Rajbangsha'' (1977). The album contains five songs, all of which are penned by

in his sixth collaboration with Basu after ''Swarna Shikhar Pranganey'' (1970), ''Jiban Jigyasha'' (1971), ''

Sanyasi Raja ''Sanyasi Raja (''trans... ''The Monk King)'' is a 1975 Indian Bengali language period action thriller film directed by Pijush Bose and produced by Ashim Sarkar, under the banner of Usha Films. Based on the real life incident of the Bhawal cas ...

'' (1975), ''Banhishikha'' (1976) and ''Rajbangsha'' (1977).

Award

; Filmfare East Awards *1979: Filmfare East Awards - Best Actor - Uttam Kumar.

Shelved remake

Superstar M.G Ramachandran, initially wanted to remake it in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

starring himself in lead, but got shelved. Later

K. Raghavendra Rao Kovelamudi Raghavendra Rao (born 23 May 1942) is an Indian filmmaker known primarily for his work in Telugu cinema, besides a few Hindi film and Kannada films. Over a career spanning more than four decades, he has directed over a hundred films ...

showed his interest to remake it in both

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 ...

and

Telugu language Telugu (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. Spoken by about 96 million people (2022), Telugu is the most widely spoken member of ...

starring

Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan (; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema. He is often considered one of the greatest, most accomplished and commercially successful actors in the history of Indian cinema.* * * * * With a cinemati ...

and NTR in the titular role respectively, but due to rights issues, it also couldn't come to the board.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 1520862 1978 films Bengali-language Indian films Indian action drama films Films based on Indian novels 1970s Bengali-language films 1978 drama films Films scored by Shyamal Mitra