Plot
Debjani (Suchitra Sen) is forced to marry the rakish Rakhal (Kalipada Chakraborty) who then tries to initiate her into prostitution. Pregnant with Rakhal’s child, she escapes from him and while on the train, she tries to commit suicide but is rescued by the madam of a singing house (Chhaya Devi) and brought to her kotha in Lucknow, where she gives birth to a daughter, Suparna, and becomes the tawaif Pannabai.As Rakhal traces her out continues to harass and blackmail her, she escapes once again to Calcutta and has Suparna admitted in a missionary school and distances herself from her so that her daughter can grow up in a good, clean environment. She meets her former lover, a barrister, Manish Roy (Bikash Roy) who, after hearing her tragic tale, wants to marry her but Debjani will not let him soil his name. She however asks him to take care of Suparna. Manish agrees, becoming Suparna’s guardian. Years Pass. Pannabai is now older with a heart ailment. The adult Suparna (Suchitra Sen again), brought up by Manish as his niece, returns from abroad, also having become a lawyer, who is in love with her senior Indranil (Dilip Mukherjee), Manish’s assistant. When Rakhal realizes that Suparna is his daughter, he comes back to blackmail Debjani, threatening to expose Suparna’s true identity. Debjani shoots him dead. In court, she is defended by Manish. Suparna is against Manish taking this case of a characterless, fallen woman whom she despises but when Manish tells her Debjani’s true story and reveals her true identity to her, she defends Debjani in court…Cast
* Suchitra Sen as Debjani / Pannabai and Suparna * Bikash Roy as Manish Roy * Chhaya Devi as Baijee * Dilip Mukherjee as Indranil * Padmadevi as Indranil's mother * Kalipada Chakraborty as Rakhalbabu * Pahari Sanyal as Barrister * Jahar Ganguli as Debjani's father * Sita Mukherjee as Mother Mamen * Ajit Bandyopadhyay * Renuka RoySoundtrack
Reception
This is the fourth film produced by Uttam Kumar but for the first time he did not act in his home production. He gave the opportunity to Bikash Roy as he felt that the story and audience perspective favoured Bikash Roy for the role. The film became a blockbuster hit at the box office and ran for 105 days in theatres.Awards
*Remakes
The film was remade in Hindi in 1966 as '' Mamta'' where Asit Sen directed again and Suchitra Sen reprised her role. Later the film remade in Tamil as '' Kaviya Thalaivi'' in 1970 and in Malayalam as '' Pushpanjali'' in 1972.References
External links
* {{National Film Award Best Feature Film Bengali 1960s Bengali-language films 1963 films Bengali films remade in other languages Best Bengali Feature Film National Film Award winners Bengali-language Indian films Films based on works by Nihar Ranjan Gupta Films scored by Robin Chatterjee Films about courtesans in India