''Stree'' is a 1972 Bengali film directed by

Salil Dutta Salil Dutta (30 November 1931 – 20 September 2004) was an Indian Bengali director, screenwriter and actor. He is well known for his films Surya Sikha (1963), Stree (1972) and Seyi Chokh (1976). Career Dutta was born in 1931 in British India. H ...

starring actors

Uttam Kumar Uttam Kumar ( bn, উত্তম কুমার; born Arun Kumar Chattopadhyay; 3 September 1926 – 24 July 1980), popularly known as the Mahanayak, was an Indian actor, producer, director, Screenwriter, script writer, composer, and sing ...

Soumitra Chatterjee Soumitra Chatterjee (also spelt as Chattopadhyay; 16 June 193515 November 2020) was an Indian film actor, play-director, playwright, writer, thespian and poet. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of ...

and

Arati Bhattacharya Arati Bhattacharya is an Indian Bengali actress, writer and director who is recognized for her work in Bengali cinema. Career She is known for films like Preyasi, '' Stree'' and ''Suryatrishna''. She also sang in the movie ''Anandamela'' i ...

in lead roles.

Nachiketa Ghosh Nachiketa Ghosh (28 January 1925 – 12 October 1976) was a Bengali music director in India. He mainly composed for Bengali, Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan ...

composed the music. The film was remade in Hindi as '' Ayaash''. Film was based on the novel of Bimal Mitra as same title and the era of the plot showing during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Plot

Sitapati (Soumitra Chatterjee), a homeless youth, comes to landlord Madhav Dutta's (Uttam Kumar) house and gets a job as his cameraman. Sitapati discovers his former girlfriend Mrinmoyee (Arati Bhattacharya) is now Madhav Dutta's wife. Madhav's polygamy and Mirnmoyee's loneliness prompt her extramarital relationship with Sitapati. Baiji dance and alcoholism, love, betrayal, hatred - Sitapati's lens captures it all. Finally, Sitapati leaves the house, Mrinmoyee dies, and gradually Madhav learns about their relationship. Madhav cannot bear the fact that his wife has committed adultery. He goes to take revenge and shoots Sitapati who is already dead, then becomes mad and shoots himself.

Cast

as Madhab Dutta (Zamindar) *

as Sitapati *

as Madhab Dutta's Wife *

Bhanu Bandyopadhyay 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 ...

Jahor Roy Jahar Roy (19 September 1919 – 1 August 1977) was an Indian actor and comedian in Bengali cinema. He was known for his comedy films with Bhanu Bandyopadhyay. Early life Roy came from a Bengali Baidya family having its root in Mahilara, B ...

as Gobardhan Choudhury *

Tarun Kumar Tarun Kumar (born 8 January 1980) is an Indian actor known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He has also appeared in few Tamil and Malayalam films. He has received three state Nandi Awards and the National Film Award for his works. H ...

as Sitapati's Brother-in-law *

Subrata Chattopadhyay Subrata Chatterjee (1941–2004) was an Indian actress, who is recognized for her work in Bengali cinema. Her on-screen pairings with actors such as Uttam Kumar, Soumitra Chatterjee, and Anil Chatterjee were popular. Career Subrata Chatterjee ...

as Sitapati's Sister *

Sulata Chowdhury Sulata Chowdhury (1945 – 16 September 1997) was a Bengali actress and theatre personality. Chowdhury made her film debut with ''Debarshi Narader Sansar'' (1960). As a leading actress her first film was Sudhir Mukherjee's ''Shesh Paryanta'' (1 ...

as Maid Servant *Moni Srimani *Amarnath Mukhopadhyay as Lawyer *Ashok Mitra *Rasaraj Chakraborty *Parijat Bose *Ajay Bandyopadhyay *Kalyani Ghosh *Arindam Ganguly *Jhuma Mukhopadhyay

Soundtrack

Reception

This is one of the third film where two legendary actor Uttam and Soumitra work together. Uttam Kumar performance as Madhab Dutta being one of the best performance in his life.

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

wrote "Stree, one of the finest works of Uttam Kumar, reminds us that icons like him are rare. Uttam Kumar stepped out of his romantic image and tried something just the opposite. A drunkard Bengali zamindar without any sense of chastity – he was unrecognizable in this negative character. Yet he bamboozled everyone with this persona. Even critics admitted only Uttam Kumar can do this. The Uttam-Soumitra movie remains a classic one and Uttam's dialogues still haunt us.

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 ...

(1973) * BFJA Best Actor - Uttam Kumar * BFJA Best Actor In a Supporting Role - Soumitra Chatterjee * BFJA Best Dialogue - Salil Dutta * BFJA Best Lyrics - Pulak Bandopadhyay * BFJA Best Music - Nachiketa Ghosh * BFJA Best Playback Singer (Male) -

Manna Dey Prabodh Chandra Dey (May 1, 1919 − October 24, 2013), known by his stage name Manna Dey, was an internationally acclaimed and celebrated Indian playback singer, music director, and a musician. As a classical vocalist, he belonged to the Bhen ...

Remake

The film was remade in Hindi as '' Ayaash'' starring by Sanjeev Kumar substitute on

role. The film is directed and produced by

Shakti Samanta Shakti Samanta (13 January 1926 – 9 April 2009) was an Indian film director and producer, who founded Shakti Films in 1957, which is most known for films such as ''Anand Ashram'' (1977), Anusandhan /'' Barsaat Ki Ek Raat'' (1981), ''anay abhi ...

References

1972 films Indian black-and-white films Bengali-language Indian films Bengali films remade in other languages 1970s Bengali-language films Films directed by Salil Dutta Films based on Indian novels {{1970s-Bengali-film-stub