Inquilab

Inquilab 1935

6.00

A drama set amid an earthquake in Bihar. Miss Renee (Khote) looks after the victims while her lover, the businessman Sardar (Mohanned), wants to make money from the disaster.

1935

Wapas

Wapas 1943

1

Two young friends bond when they visit the village fair. They fall in love. What seems like a simple story soon turns into a conflict zone between families and when pride is hurt love is sure to suffer. Wapas is a tale of wronged love. Will the young lovers be able to bury their differences and find love again?

1943

Devdas

Devdas 1936

4.80

Devdas, the son of a zamindar, and Parvati, his neighbour's daughter, are childhood sweethearts. However, class and caste differences prevent their marriage. Devdas is sent off to Calcutta, while Paro is married off to an aged rich widower. In Calcutta, as remorse drives him to alcohol, Devdas meets Chandramukhi, a tawaif.

1936

Galpo Holeo Satti

Galpo Holeo Satti 1966

7.50

In a family where relations have deteriorated to the worst level, even affecting professional lives, an outsider tries to rebuild the lost love and compassion.

1966

Nartaki

Nartaki 1940

1

Roop Kumari (Leela Desai) a famous court dancer is forbidden entry into a temple monastery run by a strict disciplinarian Priest. The cast listed here is for the Hindi version, there is also a Bengali version with a different cast, but same director and release year.

1940

President

President 1937

5.00

Badi Bahen aka President is a 1937 Hindi social romantic drama film (the Bengali version was called Didi and starred several different actors). The story according to the credit roll of the film is "A tale of love and greater love" developed on an idea by M. M. Begg. It was a love triangle with a social content that highlighted the conditions of the mill workers. It was also the first film to show a liberated educated woman managing her own factory

1937

Vidyapati

Vidyapati 1937

1

Classic celebration of Mithila's King Shiva Singha's (Bannerjee/Kapoor) love for his wife while chronicling the influence of the pacifist court poet Bidyapati (Sanyal). Invited to the royal court by the king, Bidyapati arrives with his faithful follower Anuradha (Kanan Devi). Queen Laxmi (Chhaya Devi) falls in love with the poet, much to the distress of the king. The king falls ill and starts neglecting his royal duties until Anuradha persuades him that true love does not need reciprocation. The queen, equally distressed by her divided loyalties, contemplates suicide, encouraged by the prime minister who is worried by the nefarious impact of Bidyapati's poetry on the king.

1937

Pehla Aadmi

Pehla Aadmi 1950

1

It was 1943. Burma was under Japanese control. In Pegu, a small place near Burma lived two Indian families. They were neighbors Kumar and Lata loved each other. Their parents were also willing to see them engaged. Suddenly one day, it came out in the news paper the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had called on the people to give him blood so that he could give them freedom. Kumar was reluctant but later on he decided to join the INA.

1950

Sapera

Sapera 1939

1

Adapted from a story by Kazi Nazrul Islam this film concerns love and revenge among a tribe of snake charmers led by Jahar (Nawab) who is searching for his 100th poisonous snake so as to show how he can magically cure its deadly bite.

1939

Palli Samaj

Palli Samaj 1932

1

Sisir Kumar Bhaduri's Palli Samaj. A 1932 Bengali Talkie Film directed by Sisir Kumar Bhaduri.

1932

Dhoop Chhaon

Dhoop Chhaon 1935

1

A remake of the Bengali film Bhagya Chakra, it was the first Hindi film to use playback singing. It was director Nitin Bose who came up with the idea of playback singing.

1935

Devdas

Devdas 1935

1

Devdas, the son of a zamindar, and Parvati, his neighbour's daughter, are childhood sweethearts. However, class and caste differences prevent their marriage. Devdas is sent off to Calcutta, while Paro is married off to an aged rich widower. In Calcutta, as remorse drives him to alcohol, Devdas meets Chandramukhi, a prostitute. All Indian prints of this Bengali version were destroyed in a fire that ravaged New Theatre’s studios. Today, only one copy of the film survives which belongs to the Bangladesh Film Archives. Of that copy almost forty percent is destroyed.

1935

Tins for India

Tins for India 1941

5.00

The manufacture of kerosene tins in an Indian factory.

1941

Mukti

Mukti 1937

1

This classic adultery story tells of an artist, Prasanta (Barua) presented in the stereotypically romantic image: dedicated to his vocation, paying no heed to his scandalous reputation (he paints nude models) and with a cavalier attitude to his conservative father-in-law's (Choudhury) demands for a good social behavior.

1937

Atithi

Atithi 1965

1

This is the story of the wanderlust in a teenage boy, Tarapada, who often ran away from his home for days to join groups of wandering players, musicians and acrobats. Based on a story by Rabindranath Tagore.

1965

Jiban Maran

Jiban Maran 1938

5.00

A famous radio singer Mohan (Saigal) is in love with Geeta (Leela Desai). When he goes to his friend a doctor, TB Specialist, Bijoy (Bhanu) for a check-up, he is found to be in an advance stage of TB. Meanwhile Leela's dominant mother and aunt (Nibhanani and Manorama) had been against the poor Mohan and had set their eyes on same Dr. Bijoy, the son of a family friend. When Mohan comes to know of it, and also his sickness, he decides to walk away from them. He is intercepted by a doctor who ran a sanatorium for TB patients, with some new method of treatment. Geeta couldn't forget Mohan and waited, but in the end she had to relent. Then it was known that Mohan was alive and cured. What would now Bijoy and Geeta do? There wedding was the next day, and they have to go ahead with it, the honour of both the families were at stake. Mohan too aware of his being exposed, disappears from the sanatorium and is untraceable.

1938

Roop Lekha

Roop Lekha 1934

1

For the first time in Indian cinema, flashback was used for storytelling.

1934

My Sister

My Sister 1944

1

Set against the backdrop of WW II in Calcutta, "Meri Bahen" is the story of a schoolteacher and his young sister. The film followed his rise to fame as a singer and the changes in his relationships following a bomb-raid.

1944

The Devoted

The Devoted 1933

1

The legend of Prince Puran, born under King Silwan of Sialkot's curse which binds his parents never to set eyes on him until he is 16. Accused of leading a debauched life by an evil general and by the king's second wife, Puran is sentenced to death. Rescued by the mystic Gorakhnath, he becomes an ascetic. When the king is overthrown, Purna rises from his meditations to depose the general who has seized power, before returning to his life of renunciation.

1933

Didi

Didi 1937

1

A famous Saigal musical narrating a strange love story set against 1930s industrialization and worker-management relations. The 16-year-old Prabhavati inherits a mill and turns it into an extremely profitable enterprise. Prakash is a worker who designs a more efficient machine for the factory for which he first gets sacked and then is re-employed. He falls in love with Prabhavati's sister Sheila, who later makes way for Prabhavati who is also in love with Prakash. Her withdrawal distresses Prakash, causing him to bully the workers who then go on strike.

1937