''Sagina Mahato'' is a 1970 Bengali film. Produced by Shri J. K. Kapur and directed by

Tapan Sinha Tapan Sinha (2 October 1924 – 15 January 2009) was one of the most prominent Indian film directors of his time forming a legendary quartet with Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen. He was primarily a Bengali filmmaker who worked both ...

, the film stars

Dilip Kumar Mohammed Yusuf Khan (; 11 December 1922 – 7 July 2021), better known by his stage name Dilip Kumar, was an Indian actor who worked in Hindi cinema. Credited with pioneering method acting in cinema, he dominated the Indian movie scene from lat ...

and

Saira Banu Saira Banu (born 23 August 1944) is a former Indian actress who mainly worked in Hindi language films. She was one of the most popular actresses in her heyday in the Indian film industry in the 1960s and early 1970s. Career Saira Banu was the ...

. The film is based on the true story of the labour movement of 1942–43, told through with fictional characters, and the mock trial of Sagina Mahato, the trade union leader of a factory in

Siliguri Siliguri, ) is a major tier-II city in West Bengal. It forms twin cities, "Twin Cities" with the neighboring district capital of Jalpaiguri. The city spans areas of the Darjeeling district, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts in the Indian sta ...

. It was entered into the

7th Moscow International Film Festival The 7th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 20 July to 3 August 1971. The Golden Prizes were awarded to the Italian film ''Confessions of a Police Captain'' directed by Damiano Damiani, the Japanese film ''Live Today, Die Tomorrow!'' ...

. The film was shot on locations in

Kurseong Kurseong is a town and a municipality in Darjeeling district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Kurseong subdivision. Located at an altitude of , Kurseong is from Darjeeling and has a pleasant climate throughout ...

, near

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal, ...

. A diamond-jubilee hit, it created box-office records in

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

. The film was remade as a Hindi film titled ''

Sagina ''Sagina'' (like ''Colobanthus'' called "pearlworts") is a genus of 20–30 species of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae. These are flowering herbs native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere extending south to tropical m ...

'' in 1974, by Sinha with the same leads, produced by the same producers team J.K. Kapur and Hemen Ganguly, though this version wasn't commercially successful. Film music composed by legendary playback singer

Anup Ghoshal Anup Ghoshal is an Indian playback singer, composer in Hindi films and other vernacular Indian films, especially Bengali language films. He is known in his native Bengal primarily as one of the foremost Nazrulgeeti exponents, and was one of th ...

Plot

This is story of a

tea estate Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

labour leader in the north eastern region of India during the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

. Sagina Mahato fights for the rights of the labourers and has the courage to face the tyranny of the British bosses. He is helped by a young communist Amal who comes to the place to upraise the poor and downtrodden masses. Amal, an outsider, turned Sagina as a leader and thus alienated him from the mass by elaborating, appropriating, codifying, approximating his social hierarchy. The story by Gour Kishor Ghosh (first published in ''Desh''25:12, 18 January 1958, reveals the problems of vulgar

vanguardism Vanguardism in the context of Leninist revolutionary struggle, relates to a strategy whereby the most class-conscious and politically "advanced" sections of the proletariat or working class, described as the revolutionary vanguard, form organi ...

from the radical humanist standpoint.

Casts

as Sagina Mahato *

as Lalita *

Anil Chatterjee Anil Chatterjee (Chattopadhyay) bn, অনিল চ্যাটার্জী (চট্টোপাধ্যায়) (25 October 1929 – 17 March 1996) was an Indian actor in the Bengali cinema during the early fifties through the mid-ni ...

* Romi Chowdhury *

Swarup Dutta Swarup Dutta (22 June 1941 – 24 July 2019) was a Bengali actor. His son Saron Dutta is a director in Bengali film industry. Early life Dutta was born in famous Dutta family of Hatkhola, Kolkata in 1941. In 1958 he passed Matriculation from th ...

Sumita Sanyal Sumita Sanyal (9 October 1945 – 9 July 2017) was an Indian actress who is known for her work in Bengali and Hindi cinema. She made her debut opposite Uttam Kumar in Bibhuti Laha's ''Khokababur Pratyabartan'' (1960). She subsequently appeared ...

* Kalyan Chatterjee *

Bhanu Bandopadhyay Bhanu Bandyopadhyay, also known as Bhanu Banerjee (born as Samyamoy Bandyopadhyay; 26 August 1920 – 4 March 1983), was an Indian actor, known for his work in Bengali cinema. He acted in over 300 movies, in numerous plays and performed freque ...

Awards

;

BFJA Awards Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards commonly referred as BFJA Awards, is given by The Bengal Film Journalists' Association. The BFJA is the oldest association of film critics in India, founded in 1937 to serve the developing film journalism ...

in 1971 * Best Actor: Dilip Kumar * Best Actor in Supporting Role: Anil Chatterjee * Best Art Direction: Suniti Mitra * Best Music:

* Best Male Playback Singer Award:

;

8th Moscow International Film Festival The 8th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 10 to 23 July 1973. The Golden Prizes were awarded to the Soviet film '' That Sweet Word: Liberty!'' directed by Vytautas Žalakevičius and the Bulgarian film '' Affection'' directed by L ...

* Best Afro-Asian Film

References

''Sagina Mahato'', Promotional Booklet (1970)

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

External links

Sagina Mahato in Gomolo.in
* 1970 films Bengali-language Indian films Films directed by Tapan Sinha Films about the labor movement History of tea Films set in the British Raj Indian films based on actual events Films set in the 1940s 1970s Bengali-language films Bengali films remade in other languages Tea industry in India {{1970s-Bengali-film-stub

Plot

Casts

Awards

See also

References

External links