Synopsis
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 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 courtesan Pannabai.As Rakhal traces
her out continues to harrass 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 laywer in love with
her senior Indranil (Dlip Mukherjee) who
works as Manish's assistant. When Rakhal
realizes that Suparna is his daughter, he
comes back to blackmail her 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, revealing her own true identity
in the process...
The film
Uttar Falguni is undoubtedly one
of Suchitra
Sen's most famous films and one in which
she made a great impact in the dual role
of a mother-daughter and is one of the two
landmark Bengali that she did with Director
Asit Sen, the
other being Deep Jweley Jai (1959).
The film sticks to good, simple basic storytelling,
as Asit Sen made it a point to never use
obviously flashy technique to tell his stories.
He always maintained that if you have to
resort to technical gimmickery to prop up
your film, it means you have nothing of
substance to say! According to him if you
haven't known pain, how can you call yourself
a filmmaker? To him filmmaking was about
sharing emotions which Uttar Falguni
has in plenty. Though the film falls
into the classic weepy women's picture so
popular in the 1950s and 60s, Sen treats
the subject with restraint , maturity and
sensitivity. In fact much of Asit Sen's
style as a filmmaker was in the vein of
Bimal
Roy in its simultaneous assimilation
of romantic Bengali literature, Hollywood
and neo-realism.
 Though
the film is produced by Uttam
Kumar, Uttar Falguni came at
a time by when Suchitra was hunting for
a distinct histrionic identity of her own
and wanting to go beyond just her romantic
pairing with Uttam Kumar. In fact, if one
looks at her films in the period from 1959
to 1967, there is a drastic reduction in
her work with Uttam Kumar as in several
heroine-centric films, she was paired with
other heroes like Soumitra
Chatterjee (Saat Pake Bandha (1963)),
Basanta Choudhury (Deep Jweley Jai (1959)),
Bikash Roy (Smriti Tuku Taak (1960),
Sandhya Dweeper Sikha (1964)) and
Ashok Kumar
(Hospital (1960)). It is to
her credit that Suchitra proved she could
ably carry all these films on her shoulders.
In Uttar Falguni too, Suchitra
Sen single-handlely carries the film all
on her own from beginning to end. Though
a dual role and where admittedly she brings
individuality to both roles, she doesn't
have much scope at all in the role of the
emancipated daughter, her only moments coming
right towards the end as she realizes that
Pannabai, a woman she despises is her mother
and on finding out her true story, defends
her in court thus admitting her own identity
in the process. It is as Pannabai that she
really scores in the film though again as
in Saptapadi (1961)
she is a trifle loud to start with as she
establishes herself as a courtesan with
the make-up, mannerisms and gestures overdone
but then she settles down into the film
and into the character beautifully, never
hitting a false note subsequently. Also,
by then Suchitra Sen had perfected her cult
image in Bengali Cinema as the embodiment
of the ultimate self-sacrificing Bengali
woman and she brings much poise, grace and
dignity in the role of a fallen woman determined
to see her daughter grow up in a good,clean
environment. She is, in fact, particularly
good as the older Pannabai expertly capturing
some extremely poignant moments such as
her excitement over the phone on trying
to find out how her daughter looks having
returned from abroad, since she is too nervous
to go to the airport to get a glimpse of
her; or the scene of her observing Suparana
and Indranil from afar at a party held in
Suparna's honour. Suchitra as Debjani/ Pannabai
is able to connect directly with the viewer
and make him or her feel deeply for all
that she goes through the course of the
film thus giving her death at the end of
the film a solid, emotional wallop.
Of the rest of the cast, special mention
has to be made of Bikash Roy who lends perfect
support to Suchitra investing his ever supportive
character with much sensitivity, understanding
and dignity. The relationship of Manish
and Debjani spread over the years is a key
part of the film and extremely well handled
by Asit Sen. Their relationship is heartwarming
to say the least and in their interactions
together you see how well they were suited
for each other and feel for them that they
could never marry and have a normal family
life together. In fact, their scenes together
have an element of depth totally missing
in the comparitively frivolous romantic
track of the younger lovers, Indranil and
Suparna. It doesn't help either that Dilip
Mukherjee as Indranil is totally ineffectual
but then there is not much in the character
either which is undoubtedly the weakest
written role in the film giving him just
a single scene of some merit where Indranil
convinces Suparna she has to do what is
right. Otherwise it is a totally undemanding
role which Mukherjee's wooden acting fails
to rescue. Chhaya
Devi, as usual, makes a strong impact
as the strong, motherly madam with a heart
of gold who is fiercely protective of Pannabai
while Kalipada Chakraborty plays the obnoxious,
despicable rakish husband Rakhal to perfection.
Actually, Rakhal's track is extremely well-worked
out in the film as it is he who is the catalyst
for all the major actions of Debjani/ Panna
Bai right through the film and the one who
makes the film move forward - her becoming
Pannabai, her distancing herself from Suparna,
his re-entry years later at the court as
he spots a grown up Suparna and threatens
to expose her true identity causing Debjani
to finally murder him thus leading to the
court case and the cathartic climax.
Music is used extremely well in the film
and is most effectively integrated into
the narrative flow of the film, in particular
the three classical pieces. The first at
the beginning of the film establishes Sen
as a courtesen, the second shows us her
musical training in a flashback sequence
over a period of time as from Debjani she
becomes Pannabai and the third - a brilliant
mixture of music and sound at 3 particular
instances (the church bells, thunder and
the wind) over slow dissolves of Pannabai
singing juxtaposed against Suparna and Manish
in school; Pannabai juxtaposed singing against
the dark monsoon clouds and then finally
against a tree bereft of leaves signifying
the passing years during which Suparna grows
up and also symbolising the entry of Pannabai
into old age. The tempo of the music and
the classical piece too is much slower at
the end here as we are introduced to a now
greying Pannabai who has a heart ailment.
In fact, not just here but right through
the film, Asit Sen uses these slow dissolves
most effectively as transitions between
scenes like for instance we have the shot
of Pannabai shooting at Rakhal dissolving
to a close shot of jail bars that seem to
appear to be in front of her and even as
the first shot fades out, the camera tracks
back from the bars and we see her with Manish
in her cell.
The film was both a huge critical and commercial
success. Suchitra Sen won the Bengal Film
Journalists' Association (BFJA) Award for
Best Actress while Bikash Roy won the BFJA
Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film
also won a BFJA Award for its Audiographers
Nripen Paul and Sujit Sarkar and was placed
6th on the BFJA list of Best Indian Films
of the Year.
1963 was a wonderful year for Suchitra
Sen as apart from Uttar Falguni,
she made an even stronger impact in Saat
Pake Bandha going on to win the Best
Actress Award at the Moscow International
Film Festival for the same. This was the
second award for an Indian Actress at an
international film festival following Nargis's
award for Mother India
(1957) at the prestigious Karlovy Vary
Festival.
Suchitra and Asit Sen got together again
to remake Uttar Falguni in Hindi
as Mamta (1966) with Suchitra repeating
her dual roles opposite Ashok
Kumar and Dharmendra
respectively. The film is one of her better
forays into Hindi and is aided tremendously
by one of Roshan's best ever musical scores
including the still popular Rahein Na
Rahein Hum and Chhupa Lo Yoon Dil
Mein.
|
