''Parshuramer Kuthar'' is a

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

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 ...

film by

Nabyendu Chatterjee Nabyendu Chatterjee (21 November 1937 – 14 January 2009) was an Indian Bengali and Hindi film director and producer. A director of twelve feature films and three documentaries, Nabyendu has curved out a sure niche for him in the field of serio ...

. The lead actress,

Sreelekha Mukherji Sreelekha Mukherji is a National Film Award-winning Indian actress, with predominant works in Bengali films. She is known for her lead role in the 1989 film ''Parshuramer Kuthar'', for which she won the National Film Award for Best Actress an ...

, won the

National Film Award for Best Actress The National Film Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role is an honour presented annually at the National Film Awards of India since 1968 to an actress for the best performance in a leading role within the Cinema of India, Indian film industry. ...

for her role. The story was written by author

Subodh Ghosh Subodh Ghosh (14 September 1909 – 10 March 1980) was a noted Indian author of Bengali literature and a journalist associated with the Kolkata-based daily newspaper ''Anandabazar Patrika''. His best known work, ''Bharat Premkatha'', is about t ...

Synopsis

The film is about Lakkhi (

), a Bengali village woman who was expecting her first baby when her husband fell from a roof and remained crippled. She lost her baby from the shock, and as a meagre compensation, is offered work as a

wet-nurse A wet nurse is a woman who breastfeeds and cares for another's child. Wet nurses are employed if the mother dies, if she is unable to nurse the child herself sufficiently or chooses not to do so. Wet-nursed children may be known as "milk-siblin ...

in middle-class families where presumably women have other things to do than feed their children. Perhaps because of the social difference, she is in no position to resist the advances from the "gentlemen" who take advantage of her presence, and she soon finds herself caught in a system whereby if she wants to bring some cash home and feed an ailing husband, she needs to continue to breast-feed. This can only be achieved if she delivers again, and so she does. But she has no children. One day, before important elections, in addition to a pre-election street-cleaning programme, she is asked to leave town because she's a prostitute. She tries to meet the "gentlemen" who used to be pleased with her in more than one way, but all of them reject her now that the word "prostitute" has been pronounced publicly. She ends up a pensioner in the brothel and the last scene is that of one young man coming to look at her, a young man whom she had lovingly suckled when he was a baby.

Cast

as Lakkhi *

Asit Bandopadhyay Asit Bandopadhyay (or Banerjee) (1936 – 17 September 2020) was a Bengali playwright, screenwriter, actor and director. He was associated with the Nandikar theater group. He lived and worked in Kolkata, India. Early life and theatre He devel ...

Awards

References

External links

* 1989 films Bengali-language Indian films 1989 drama films Films featuring a Best Actress National Award–winning performance Second Best Feature Film National Film Award winners 1980s Bengali-language films Films directed by Nabyendu Chatterjee {{1980s-Bengali-film-stub