Saheb Bibi Golam (Film)

Saheb Bibi Golam (Film)
Directed by	Kartik Chatterjee
Produced by	Sarkar Productions
Written by	Bimal Mitra
Starring	Sumitra Devi (actress) Uttam Kumar Chhabi Biswas Chhaya Devi
Music by	Rabin Chattopadhyay
Release date	1956 (1956)
Country	India
Language	Bengali

Saheb Bibi Golam is a 1956 Bengali film directed by Kartik Chatterjee.^[1][2] It is based on a Bengali novelist Bimal Mitra's novel of the same name. The film explores the tragic fall of feudalism in Bengal during the British Raj. The title of the movie and the story is a reference to the plot simultaneously exploring a platonic relationship between a beautiful, forlorn wife of an aristocrat and a career-driven clerk. The film stars Sumitra Devi, Uttam Kumar and Chhabi Biswas in the lead.^[3][4]

Plot

The film opens at the ruins of an old haveli in Calcutta, where a group of labourers are busy pulling down what remains. When the workers break off for lunch, the overseer (Uttam Kumar) wanders through the mansion.^[5] As he sits at a place there begins a flashback to the end of the 19th century.

The lower-class and educated Bhutnath arrives in colonial Calcutta looking for work. He is granted to stay in the grand mansion of an aristrocratic family. He works at the Mohini Sindoor factory run by Subinay Babu (Pahari Sanyal), a dedicated member of the Brahmo Samaj. Subinay Babu's daughter Jaba (Anubha Gupta) is amused by Bhutnath whom she considers an unsophisticated rustic. Bhutnath becomes fascinated with the goings-on in the mansion and every night observes the decadent lifestyle of the Choudhury brothers.

One night the servant, Bansi (Kanu Banerjee), takes Bhutnath to meet the younger landlord's beautiful wife Pateshwari (Sumitra Devi) who implores him to bring her Mohini Sindoor believing it will keep her unfaithful husband home.^[6] Bhutnath is struck by her beauty and sadness and inadvertently becomes Pateshwari's secret confidante. A bomb explodes in the marketplace and Bhutnath is injured in the ensuing crossfire between freedom fighters and British soldiers. Jaba looks after him.

Pateshwari's repeated attempts to appease her husband fail until she becomes his drinking companion to keep him by her side. Jaba's marriage is finalised with Supavitra (a member of Bramho Samaj) but after her father's death she declined the marriage. Bhutnath becomes a trainee architect and goes away to work on a training project. After his return he find the mansion in partial ruins. Pateshwari is now a desperate alcoholic and her husband, paralysed. Meanwhile, he learns that he and Jaba were betrothed as children. One night Pateshwari asks Bhutnath to accompany her to a nearby shrine to pray for her ailing husband. Their plan to go to the shrine is informed to the elder landlord (Chhabi Biswas), who suspects that Pateshwari is having an affair with Bhutnath. He orders his henchmen to chase them. As Bhutnath and Pateshwari travel in the carriage, it is stopped by the henchmen. Bhuthnath is knocked unconscious and Pateshwari is abducted. When he wakes up in hospital, Bhutnath is informed that Pateshwari has disappeared and the younger landlord is dead. The flashback ends.

Bhutnath's workers inform him that a skeleton is found buried in the ruins of the mansion. From the bangles around the hand of the corpse, Bhutnath realises it is the remains of Pateshwari.

Cast

Sumitra Devi as Pateshwari

Uttam Kumar as Bhutnath

Chhabi Biswas as Mejo Babu

Nitish Mukherjee as Choto Babu

Chhaya Devi as Boro Bou Rani

Padma Devi as Mejo Bou Rani

Pahari Sanyal as Subinay Babu

Anubha Gupta as Jaba

References

External links

• Saheb Bibi Golam (1956)
• Saheb Bibi Golam (1956)