''Achhut Kannya'' ( en, Untouchable Maiden, italic=yes) is a

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

Indian

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

film. Among the early super-hits in the Bombay film industry, the film deals with the social position of

Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming ...

girls and is considered a reformist period-piece. The film was one of several successful

Bombay Talkies Bombay Talkies was a movie studio founded in 1934. During its period of operation, Bombay Talkies produced 40 movies in Malad, a suburb of the Indian city of Bombay. The studio was established in 1934 by Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani. After R ...

collaborations between Franz Osten,

Niranjan Pal Niranjan Pal (17 August 1889 – 9 November 1959) was an Indian playwright, screenwriter, and director in the Indian film industry in the silent and early talkie days. He was a close associate of Himanshu Rai and Franz Osten, with whom he was a fo ...

Himanshu Rai Himanshu Rai (1892 – 16 May 1940), one of the pioneers of Indian cinema, is best known as the founder of the studio in 1934, along with Devika Rani. He was associated with a number of movies, including ''Goddess'' (1922), ''The Light of Asia ...

, and their leading lady,

Devika Rani Devika Rani Choudhuri (30 March 1908 – 9 March 1994), usually known as Devika Rani, was an Indian actress who was active in Hindi films during the 1930s and 1940s. Widely acknowledged as the first lady of Indian cinema, Devika Rani ha ...

. Music is by Saraswati Devi and lyrics by J.S. Kashyap and this was Ashok Kumar's debut film The movie stars

Ashok Kumar Kumudlal Ganguly (13 October 1911 – 10 December 2001), better known by his stage name Ashok Kumar and also by Dadamoni, was an Indian actor who attained iconic status in Indian cinema and who was a member of the cinematic Ganguly family. He ...

and

in the lead roles.

Plot

The movie is set in the 1900s. Mohan, a Brahman by caste, sells daily essentials to villagers. He is a kind soul and helps those really in need. Dukhiya, a kacchu by caste, is a railway crossing guard. Though an untouchable, he saved Mohan's life from a snake-bite and since then Mohan and Dukhiya develops deep friendship. As such, Pratap, son of Mohan (Ashok Kumar) and Kasturi, daughter of Dukhiya, (Devika Rani) also become friends since childhood. Growing up together, they fall in love with each other. Babulal, the village doctor, holds severe grudges against Mohan and always looking for any chance to slander his reputation in village. Pratap being a Brahmin boy and Kasturi being an untouchable girl (''achhut''), social conventions of that time preclude any possibility of these two lovers uniting. Thereafter, due to many evil twists and turns of fate and instances, Pratap ends up marrying Meera (Manorama), while Kasturi marries Mannu (Anwar). Both of them are unable to forget their first love, but tries hard to make their respective marriages work. Unfortunately, the situation gets compounded by the fact that Mannu also has a first wife, Kajri, with whom he is estranged due to excessive interference from his in-laws. The hitherto smug Kajri suddenly feels threatened by the arrival of a new woman in her husband's life and arrives at Mannu's house unannounced. Meera tries hard to win Pratap's attention towards herself and confesses her troubles to her friend, Kajri. Kajri who is also unable to gain attention of Mannu towards her blames Kasturi for their similar misfortune. Thus, she poisons Meera's mind. The two of them hatch a diabolical conspiracy to discredit Kasturi in the eyes of Mannu and villagers. They take Kasturi along to a fair mela in the neighbouring village, and then abandons her there. While searching for them in fair, Kasturi meets Pratap, who has a food stall there and both of them decides to return to their village. Meanwhile, Meera and Kajri as per their plan upon reaching their village tell Mannu that Kasturi has eloped with her lover Pratap. Seeing Pratap and Kasturi returning together, misguided and enraged Mannu attacks Pratap, exactly when his Bullock-cart just arrives at the railroad crossing. There ensues a fisticuffs between the two, even as a train rushes towards them and the bullock-cart. Desperate to save all lives at stake, Kasturi rushes towards the train, signaling and imploring the driver to stop and in the process gets herself killed. That act of selflessness makes her a martyr in the eyes of the villagers, despite her lowly origins.

Cast

as Kasturi *

as Pratap * Manorama as Meera *Anwar as Mannu * Pramila as Kajari *Kamta Prasad as Dukhia *Kusum Kumari as Kalyani * P. F. Pithawala as Mohan *Kishori Lal as Babulal *N. M. Joshi as Inspector of Police *Ishrat as Sukhlal *Khosla as Patient ;Principal Dancers *

Mumtaz Ali Mumtaz Ali (15 March 1905 – 6 May 1974) was an Indian dancer and character actor in Hindi cinema from the 1940s to 1970s. He was the father of Indian actor Mehmood. He also had his own dance troupe "Mumtaz Ali Nites" which performed all ...

*Sunita Devi

References

External links

*
Full movie on YouTube
als

an

''Achhut Kannya'' at National Film Archives Pune

Watch ''Achhut Kanya'' entirely annotated with archival material at Indiancine.ma
{{Franz Osten 1936 films 1936 romantic drama films 1930s Hindi-language films 1930s Urdu-language films Indian black-and-white films Films directed by Franz Osten Films about the caste system in India Articles containing video clips Indian romantic drama films Films scored by Saraswati Devi