P.C. Barua

P. C. Barua's directorial debut film.

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

The poor but educated Mahim and his childhood friend, the rich but conservative Suresh, both fall in love with the same woman, the liberated Achala. Mahim marries her and they move to a village but she cannot forget Suresh. Her smoldering unhappiness takes the form of resentment towards the orphaned Mrinal, raised by Mahim's father, and receives a dramatic visual embodiment when their house burns down. Mahim falls ill, is rescued by Suresh, and nursed back to health by Achala. On a train (a metaphor for the irreversibly linear course of life) to a health resort where Mahim is supposed to convalesce, Suresh on a rainswept night gives in to temptation and elopes with Achala. At the end of the film, there is a dubious reconciliation as Achala is shown following Mahim's 'good' traditionalism with Sharatchandra's barely concealed hostility towards Achala's liberated Brahmo Samaj upbringing.

A lonely girl faces several odds in society after her mother's death. Later, she gets attracted to a witty man, who decides to marry her.

A 1941 Bengali film directed by Pramathesh Barua; the film was remade in 1963.

A 1941 Bengali Drama Film directed by Pramathesh Barua.

The wealthy, self-obsessed, and possibly crazed Manoj (Barua) is sent by his concerned family to the rural estate of his future father-in-law. Along the way, however, he gets lost and soon finds himself taking shelter in the abode of the railroad stationmaster whose beautiful, down-to-earth daughter, Meena (Kenan Devi), Manoj finds irresistible. When his haughty, progressive-minded fiancée gets wind of this, she freaks out and soon there is a showdown between the two women. In the aftermath, Manoj finds reason to go with his heart and marry Meena.

The story follows two friends, Mohan and Bhola, who stumble upon a mysterious garden house called "Mayakanan." The house is owned by Dr. Naresh Ray, a wealthy scientist with a dark secret. When Ray sets his sights on Shanta, Mohan's fiancée, he resorts to sinister tactics to win her over.

The simple-minded Rajat (Barua) loves neighbour Jayanti (Menaka Devi). He is advised on how to court her by his streetsmart cousin Bishwanath (Sanyal) and Bishwanath's friend Samir (Bannerjee). Bishwanath and Samir try to get Rajat's miserly guardian Bagalcharan (Choudhury) to loan them money so that Samir can make a 'European-style art film'. The guardian is admitted to the clinic of a doctor Gajanan where he falls into the clutches of two professional crooks Natoraj (Indu Mukherjee) and Supta (Molina Devi). Supta wants Rajat and they try to kidnap her...

Melodrama about lineage and property questions. Nikhilesh (Barua) loves heiress Indira (Jamuna). A poor orphan girl, Radha (Menaka Devi), arrives claiming to be Indira's stepsister and therefore part inheritor of the family estate. Indira agrees to share her inheritance but then Radha makes a play for Nikhilesh. Ultimately, Radha turns out to be the real and sole heir. Love proves to be stronger than material possession as Indira and Nikhilesh get married and Radha finds happiness with Ratan, a man she had known and loved during her days of poverty. As each character returns to the class of his/her birth, the message hammered home is a warning to people never to transcend their social status.

Manoj is from the aristocratic class but has some sort retrograde amnesia; he belongs to the upper-class but is also an outsider, something that enables the possibilities of movement across the class-lines for him. This trope is essential for Barua to articulate the criticism of the indolent upper class in the film. Thus Manoj is both an object of criticism and ridicule while also being one of the critics.

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.

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.

P. C. Barua's directorial debut film.

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

Maya (Jamuna) is the poor cousin of rich socialite Shanta (Azoorie). Shanta is supposed to marry the equally rich Pratap (P. Sanyal), but he falls in love with Maya and fathers her child before going abroad. Shanta causes a seperation by intercepting Pratap's letters to Maya. When he returns, a successful lawyer, he us unable to trace her, while her efforts to meet him are foiled.

Maya (Jamuna) is the poor cousin of rich socialite Shanta (Azoorie). Shanta is supposed to marry the equally rich Pratap (P. Sanyal), but he falls in love with Maya and fathers her child before going abroad. Shanta causes a seperation by intercepting Pratap's letters to Maya. When he returns, a successful lawyer, he us unable to trace her, while her efforts to meet him are foiled.

The poor but educated Mahim and his childhood friend, the rich but conservative Suresh, both fall in love with the same woman, the liberated Achala. Mahim marries her and they move to a village but she cannot forget Suresh. Her smoldering unhappiness takes the form of resentment towards the orphaned Mrinal, raised by Mahim's father, and receives a dramatic visual embodiment when their house burns down. Mahim falls ill, is rescued by Suresh, and nursed back to health by Achala. On a train (a metaphor for the irreversibly linear course of life) to a health resort where Mahim is supposed to convalesce, Suresh on a rainswept night gives in to temptation and elopes with Achala. At the end of the film, there is a dubious reconciliation as Achala is shown following Mahim's 'good' traditionalism with Sharatchandra's barely concealed hostility towards Achala's liberated Brahmo Samaj upbringing.

A lonely girl faces several odds in society after her mother's death. Later, she gets attracted to a witty man, who decides to marry her.

The story of an unemployed graduate who falls in love with a woman who ran away from her cruel husband.

The story of an unemployed graduate who falls in love with a woman who ran away from her cruel husband.

A 1941 Bengali film directed by Pramathesh Barua; the film was remade in 1963.

A 1941 Bengali Drama Film directed by Pramathesh Barua.

The wealthy, self-obsessed, and possibly crazed Manoj (Barua) is sent by his concerned family to the rural estate of his future father-in-law. Along the way, however, he gets lost and soon finds himself taking shelter in the abode of the railroad stationmaster whose beautiful, down-to-earth daughter, Meena (Kenan Devi), Manoj finds irresistible. When his haughty, progressive-minded fiancée gets wind of this, she freaks out and soon there is a showdown between the two women. In the aftermath, Manoj finds reason to go with his heart and marry Meena.

The wealthy, self-obsessed, and possibly crazed Manoj (Barua) is sent by his concerned family to the rural estate of his future father-in-law. Along the way, however, he gets lost and soon finds himself taking shelter in the abode of the railroad stationmaster whose beautiful, down-to-earth daughter, Meena (Kenan Devi), Manoj finds irresistible. When his haughty, progressive-minded fiancée gets wind of this, she freaks out and soon there is a showdown between the two women. In the aftermath, Manoj finds reason to go with his heart and marry Meena.

Set across a single, fateful night in mystical Iran, this drama weaves together elements of romance, destiny, and suspense as central characters navigate emotional turmoil that will determine their fate.

The story follows two friends, Mohan and Bhola, who stumble upon a mysterious garden house called "Mayakanan." The house is owned by Dr. Naresh Ray, a wealthy scientist with a dark secret. When Ray sets his sights on Shanta, Mohan's fiancée, he resorts to sinister tactics to win her over.

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.

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.

The simple-minded Rajat (Barua) loves neighbour Jayanti (Menaka Devi). He is advised on how to court her by his streetsmart cousin Bishwanath (Sanyal) and Bishwanath's friend Samir (Bannerjee). Bishwanath and Samir try to get Rajat's miserly guardian Bagalcharan (Choudhury) to loan them money so that Samir can make a 'European-style art film'. The guardian is admitted to the clinic of a doctor Gajanan where he falls into the clutches of two professional crooks Natoraj (Indu Mukherjee) and Supta (Molina Devi). Supta wants Rajat and they try to kidnap her...

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.

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.

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.

Melodrama about lineage and property questions. Nikhilesh (Barua) loves heiress Indira (Jamuna). A poor orphan girl, Radha (Menaka Devi), arrives claiming to be Indira's stepsister and therefore part inheritor of the family estate. Indira agrees to share her inheritance but then Radha makes a play for Nikhilesh. Ultimately, Radha turns out to be the real and sole heir. Love proves to be stronger than material possession as Indira and Nikhilesh get married and Radha finds happiness with Ratan, a man she had known and loved during her days of poverty. As each character returns to the class of his/her birth, the message hammered home is a warning to people never to transcend their social status.

Manoj is from the aristocratic class but has some sort retrograde amnesia; he belongs to the upper-class but is also an outsider, something that enables the possibilities of movement across the class-lines for him. This trope is essential for Barua to articulate the criticism of the indolent upper class in the film. Thus Manoj is both an object of criticism and ridicule while also being one of the critics.

A lonely girl faces several odds in society after her mother's death. Later, she gets attracted to a witty man, who decides to marry her.

A lonely girl faces several odds in society after her mother's death. Later, she gets attracted to a witty man, who decides to marry her.

A 1941 Bengali Drama Film directed by Pramathesh Barua.

A 1941 Bengali Drama Film directed by Pramathesh Barua.

The story follows two friends, Mohan and Bhola, who stumble upon a mysterious garden house called "Mayakanan." The house is owned by Dr. Naresh Ray, a wealthy scientist with a dark secret. When Ray sets his sights on Shanta, Mohan's fiancée, he resorts to sinister tactics to win her over.

The story follows two friends, Mohan and Bhola, who stumble upon a mysterious garden house called "Mayakanan." The house is owned by Dr. Naresh Ray, a wealthy scientist with a dark secret. When Ray sets his sights on Shanta, Mohan's fiancée, he resorts to sinister tactics to win her over.

A 1941 Bengali film directed by Pramathesh Barua; the film was remade in 1963.

A 1941 Bengali film directed by Pramathesh Barua; the film was remade in 1963.

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.

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

The poor but educated Mahim and his childhood friend, the rich but conservative Suresh, both fall in love with the same woman, the liberated Achala. Mahim marries her and they move to a village but she cannot forget Suresh. Her smoldering unhappiness takes the form of resentment towards the orphaned Mrinal, raised by Mahim's father, and receives a dramatic visual embodiment when their house burns down. Mahim falls ill, is rescued by Suresh, and nursed back to health by Achala. On a train (a metaphor for the irreversibly linear course of life) to a health resort where Mahim is supposed to convalesce, Suresh on a rainswept night gives in to temptation and elopes with Achala. At the end of the film, there is a dubious reconciliation as Achala is shown following Mahim's 'good' traditionalism with Sharatchandra's barely concealed hostility towards Achala's liberated Brahmo Samaj upbringing.

The wealthy, self-obsessed, and possibly crazed Manoj (Barua) is sent by his concerned family to the rural estate of his future father-in-law. Along the way, however, he gets lost and soon finds himself taking shelter in the abode of the railroad stationmaster whose beautiful, down-to-earth daughter, Meena (Kenan Devi), Manoj finds irresistible. When his haughty, progressive-minded fiancée gets wind of this, she freaks out and soon there is a showdown between the two women. In the aftermath, Manoj finds reason to go with his heart and marry Meena.