Bimal Roy was an Indian film director. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films such as Do Bigha Zamin, Parineeta, Biraj Bahu, Devdas, Madhumati, Sujata, Parakh and Bandini, making him an important director of Hindi cinema. Inspired by Italian neo-realistic cinema, he made Do Bigha Zamin after watching Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves (1948). His work is particularly known for his mise en scène which he employed to portray realism. He won a number of awards throughout his career, including eleven Filmfare Awards, two National Film Awards, and the International Prize of the Cannes Film Festival. Madhumati won 9 Filmfare Awards in 1958, a record held for 37 years.
Salil Chowdhury was an Indian music director, songwriter, lyricist, writer and poet who predominantly composed for Bengali, Hindi and Malayalam films. He composed music for films in 13 languages. This includes over 75 Hindi films, 41 Bengali films, 27 Malayalam films, and a few Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Gujarati, Odia and Assamese films. His musical ability was widely recognised and acknowledged in the Indian film industry. He was an accomplished composer and arranger who was proficient in several musical instruments, including flute, the piano, and the esraj. He was also widely acclaimed and admired for his inspirational and original poetry in Bengali.
New Theatres is an Indian film studio. It was formed in Calcutta by producer B. N. Sircar. It was formed on 10 February 1931. Motto of this company was– Jivatang Jyotiretu Chhayam. Sircar preferred to function roughly analogous to what in USA was known as an executive producer. He built a processing laboratory... and got around him a devoted band of people.... Having decided on or approved a story or a subject for a film and the team to make it [Sircar] ensured that adequate funds were provided... but refrained from interfering with its execution. He made New Theatres a symbol of Bengali cinema's artistic good taste and technical excellence.
Madhabi Chakraborty is an Indian actress. She won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in the Bengali film Dibratrir Kabya. She has acted in some of the most critically acclaimed films in Bengali cinema and is considered one of the great actresses of Bengali cinema.
Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam is a 1962 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Abrar Alvi and produced by Guru Dutt, who also co-stars in it alongside Meena Kumari, Rehman, and Waheeda Rehman. The film is based on Bimal Mitra's Bengali novel Saheb Bibi Golam (1953) and was the second adaptation of the novel after the 1956 Bengali film of the same title, starring Sumitra Devi, Uttam Kumar and Chhabi Biswas. Having seen the novel and its staged version, Dutt wanted to adapt Saheb Bibi Golam into a film. It is set in the 19th century during the British Raj and focuses on Bhoothnath (Dutt), who meets Chhoti Bahu (Kumari), the lonely wife of a zamindar (Rehman). The film follows Chhoti Bahu's effort to keep her husband—who likes drinking and watching tawaifs perform—at their home by drinking with him. She becomes addicted to alcohol, leading both of them into bankruptcy.
Subodh Ghosh 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 the romances of epic Indian characters and has remained very popular in the Bengali literary world. Many of his stories have been adapted in Indian films, most notably Ritwik Ghatak's Ajantrik (1958) and Bimal Roy's Sujata (1959). He won the Filmfare Award for Best Story twice, for Bimal Roy's Sujata (1960) and for Gulzar's Ijaazat in 1989. He was selected as a recipient for the Bharatiya Jnanpith Award (1977) but he refused it.
Tarun Majumdar was an Indian film director, documentary filmmaker, author, illustrator and screenwriter who is known for his work in Bengali cinema. He received five National Awards, seven BFJA Awards, five Filmfare Awards and an Anandalok Award. In 1990, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award. He is recognized as one of the greatest influential filmmakers of India. His few movies were restored and digitized by the National Film Archive of India, along with his Contemporaries Arabinda Mukhopadhyay, Goutam Ghose. He is Legendary filmmaker for Ganadevata in 1978, Nimantran in 1971,Palatak in 1963.
Hemendra Kumar Roy was an Indian Bengali writer noted for his contribution to the early development of the genre of children's literature in the language. He was a noted contributor to the early development of Bengali detective fiction with his 'Jayanta-Manik' and adventurist 'Bimal-Kumar' stories, dealing with the exploits of Jayanta, his assistant Manik, and police inspector Sunderbabu. Roy also translated the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám into Bengali. Roy's 'Ajab Deshe Amala' is a well-known translation of Alice in Wonderland.
Birendra Krishna Bhadra (1905–1991) was a radio broadcaster, playwright, actor, narrator and theatre director from Kolkata, India and a contemporary of Pankaj Mallick and Kazi Nazrul Islam. He worked for the All India Radio, India's National Radio broadcaster for several years during its early, starting 1930s, and during this period he produced and adapted several plays.
Nabendu Ghosh was an Indian author in Bengali literature, and screenwriter. He has written screenplays of classic Bollywood movies like, Sujata, Bandini, Devdas, Majhli Didi, Abhimaan and Teesri Kasam. He has written stories for movies like Baap Beti, Shatranj, Raja Jani. He has also acted briefly in Do Bigha Zameen, Teesri Kasam and Lukochuri. Later in his career, he directed four movies as well.
Saheb Bibi Golam is a 1953 Bengali novel written by Bimal Mitra (1912–1991) and is set in Calcutta, India during the last years of the nineteenth century. It was serialised in the Bengali-language literary magazine Desh in November 1952.
Sahib Biwi Gulam is an Indian television series aired on Sahara One channel. The series is based on the 1953 Bengali novel Saheb Bibi Golam by Bimal Mitra. The star of the series is Raveena Tandon. The series was shot in Kolkata, West Bengal, and was directed by Rituparno Ghosh.
Pratim D. Gupta is an Indian journalist, film critic, screenwriter and film director. He reviewed films for The Telegraph newspaper and later for online platform Film Companion. His first film as writer-director is Paanch Adhyay, starring Priyanshu Chatterjee and Dia Mirza. His subsequent films Shaheb Bibi Golaam and Maacher Jhol have been big box office hits besides being critically acclaimed.
Sudhendu Roy (1921–1999) was a noted Indian film director, art director and production designer in Hindi cinema, most known for his realistic art direction in auteur Bimal Roy's films, like Sujata (1959), Madhumati (1959) and Bandini (1963), and glitzy work in films Subhash Ghai's Karz (1980) and Karma (1986) to Yash Chopra's Silsila (1981), Chandni (1989) and Lamhe (1991). He won the Filmfare Award for Best Art Direction thrice for, Madhumati (1959), Mere Mehboob (1964) and Sagina (1975).
Shaheb Bibi Golaam is an Indian Bengali thriller film directed by Pratim D. Gupta and stars Anjan Dutt, Swastika Mukherjee and Ritwick Chakraborty in the lead roles. The film depicts the story of a contract killer, a housewife and a taxi driver from a Metropolitan city. The music was released by Amara Muzik.
Mujrim Haazir is a TV show based on Bimal Mitra's classic novel Asami Hazir. It aired on Doordarshan in 1988. The show was directed by Rakesh Chowdhary, and produced by Samvaad Video Private Limited. The story was adapted for television by writer Mir Muneer. The secondary theme "Gun Guna" was played whenever Nutan's character rode a Palki. This was Navni Parihar's debut serial.
Hamrahi (transl. Companion/Partner), is a 1945 Hindi social drama film of Indian Cinema. The film was a bilingual, and was a remake of its popular Bengali version called Udayer Pathey (1944). Bimal Roy, after working as a cinematographer with New Theatres, Calcutta, launched into feature film direction. Udayer Pathey was Roy's debut film as a director in Bengali films, while Hamrahi was his first directorial venture in Hindi cinema. The original story and dialogues for Bengali version were written by Jyotirmoy Roy, with the dialogues in Hindi written by Mohanlal Bajpai. Produced by New Theatres, Calcutta, the cinematographer was Bimal Roy. The music direction was by Raichand Boral and the lyrics were by Zakir Husain. The film included Rabindranath Tagore's song, "Jana Gana Mana", even before it became the national anthem of India.
Sumitra Devi was an Indian actress who is recognised for her work in Hindi as well as Bengali cinema during the 1940s and 1950s. Widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses of her time, she is best remembered for her role in the 1952 Hindi film Mamta directed by Dada Gunjal. She was the recipient of BFJA Award for Best Actress for two times. She was one of the exquisite beauties of her time and has been regarded as the most beautiful woman of her time by veterans such as Pradeep Kumar and Uttam Kumar.
Saheb Bibi Golam is a 1956 Bengali film directed by Kartik Chatterjee. It is based on a Bengali novelist Bimal Mitra's 1953 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, Chhabi Biswas, Pahari Sanyal.
