''Zindagi'' () is a 1940

Indian film The Cinema of India consists of motion pictures produced in India, which had a large effect on world cinema since the late 20th century. Major centers of film production across the country include Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Ko ...

, directed by

Pramathesh Barua Pramathesh Chandra Barua (24 October 1903 – 29 November 1951) was an Indian actor, director, and screenwriter of Indian films in the pre-independence era, born in Gauripur, Dhubri, Assam. Early life Barua was the son of the royal family of ...

and produced by

Birendranath Sircar Birendranath Sircar (also Sarkar; 5 July 1901 – 28 November 1980) was an Indian film producer and the founder of New Theatres Calcutta. He made Bengali-language films that were noted for introducing many film directors who later became famo ...

. Starring

K. L. Saigal Kundan Lal Saigal, often abbreviated as K. L. Saigal (11 April 1904 – 18 January 1947), was an Indian singer and actor who is considered the first superstar of the Hindi film industry, which was centred in Kolkata during Saigal's time, but is ...

Jamuna Barua Jamuna Barua (10 October 1919 – 24 November 2005) was a leading Indian actress. Early life Jamuna was the fourth of the six daughters of Puran Gupta, a resident of a village near Agra, India. Each of the sisters was named after an Indian ...

Pahari Sanyal Pahari Sanyal (22 February 1906 – 10 February 1974) was an Indian actor and singer who is known for his work in Bengali cinema. Sanyal acted in many Bengali films, such as ''Harano Sur'', ''Bhanu Goenda Jahar Assistant'', and ''Shilpi''. B ...

, Shyam Laha,

Sitara Devi Sitara Devi (named Dhanlakshm; 8 November 1920 – 25 November 2014) was an Indian dancer of the classical Kathak style of dancing, a singer, and an actress. She was the recipient of several awards and accolades, and performed at several prest ...

, and Nemo, it revolves around Ratan, an unemployed university graduate, and his relationship with Shrimati, who is on the run from her cruel husband. Earning ₹5.5 million net (valued at about ₹39.78 crore in 2009), ''Zindagi'' was the highest grossing Indian film at the time of its release, before its record was broken by '' Khazanchi'' in 1941. The film has been described as one of Barua's "most beautiful films, and his last for New Theatres". It was the last film by Barua for New Theatres. Barua later married Jamuna as his second wife. This film was remade into Bengali as ''Priyo Bandhabi'' in 1943 directed By Soumen Mukherjee. No copy of the film is known to exist, making it a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...

Plot

Ratan, an unemployed graduate, who works as a gambler encounters an unnamed women, whom he addresses as ''

Shrimati Shrimati or Shreemati ( sa, श्रीमती, translit=Śrīmatī), abbreviated Smt., is a widely accepted Indian honorific (akin to Ms. in English) used when referring to an adult woman in some Indian languages, including Bengali, Hindi, ...

''. Shrimati, who has escaped from her brutal husband, teams up with Ratan and they together pretend to run a charitable trust, collecting money from people in the name of donations. The duo buy an apartment and

live together "Live Together" is a song recorded by British singer, songwriter and actress Lisa Stansfield for her debut album, '' Affection'' (1989). It was written by Stansfield, Ian Devaney and Andy Morris, and produced by Devaney and Morris. It was releas ...

. Shrimati receives news of her father's death and learn that she is the heir to his wealth. A new Shrimati shuns all forms of corrupt ways of life and starts to do good deeds as a redemption for her sins. She employs Ratan as a tutor to an orphaned girl Lakhia. Ratan realizes that he cannot live without Shrimati and approaches her. Shrimati, who feels that she must pay for her sins, rejects Ratan. A heartbroken Ratan leaves Lakhia in the care of Shrimati and returns to his old life. Shrimati gives her fortune to a now-grown Lakhia and withdraws from worldly pleasures, awaiting death. The two lovers are shown to have died and reunited in afterlife.

Cast

Credits adapted from the films's pressbook: * Saigal as Ratan, The Vagabond *

as Ratan's friend * Asalata as Ratan's friends's mistress * Jamuna as Mrs. X. (Shrimati) * Sham Laha as Shrimati's husband * Nemo as Shrimati's father * Sitara as Shrimati's sister * Dhruba Kumar Shrimati's officer * Bikram Kapoor as Shrimati's lawyer * Rajnirani as Shrimati's companion * Manorama as Lakhia, Shrimati's mother-in-law * Ramkumari as Shrimati's sister-in-law ;The Sonthal Dancers * Brajabasi, Lakhmi, Kalo & the crowd

Promotional activities

An advertisement of Zindagi compares Gothe and Voltaire's notions of life with that of Baura's.

Release

Critical reception

''Zindagi'' generally received positive reviews for critics. ''

The Bombay Chronicle ''The Bombay Chronicle'' was an English-language newspaper, published from Mumbai (then Bombay), started in 1910 by Sir Pherozeshah Mehta (1845-1915), a prominent lawyer, who later became the president of the Indian National Congress in 1890, a ...

'' lauded the film for Pankaj Mullick's "divine music", two songs of Segal that are "the soul of melody and pathos," the "cynical" humour of the first half of the film and the "subtle, heart-wrenching" emotionalism of the second half. They also praised the "haunting" performance of Jamuna. ''

Filmindia ''filmindia'' is an Indian monthly magazine covering Indian cinema and published in English language. Started by Baburao Patel in 1935, ''filmindia'' was the first English film periodical to be published from Bombay. The magazine was reportedl ...

'' called the film an "all smoke" and described it as generally "too intellectual" for the average audience.

Bhagwan Das Garga Bhagwan Das Garga, also known as B. D. Garga (14 November 1924 in Lehragaga, Punjab - 18 July 2011 in Patiala, Punjab), was an Indian documentary filmmaker and film historian. Bhagwan Das Garga was born on 14 November 1924. He was enrolled to stu ...

writes, "The plot is slight but Barua's nuanced characterization and wealth of observation makes it a richly rewarding work."

Controversies

In a frame sequence of the 1939 film '' Aadmi'' by

V. Shantaram Shantaram Rajaram Vankudre (18 November 1901 – 30 October 1990), referred to as V. Shantaram or Shantaram Bapu, was an Indian filmmaker, film producer, and actor known for his work in Hindi and Marathi films. He is most known for films such ...

, which was simultaneously released along with ''Zindagi'', the romantic "pessimism" of Barua was caricatured. According to Garga, this incident provided enough "grist" for the news media. An unnamed Gujarati weekly remarked, "Shantaram's eye is on life, Barua's on death." Jamil Ansari, a critic, strongly defended ''Zindagi''.

Khwaja Ahmad Abbas Khwaja Ahmad Abbas (7 June 1914 – 1 June 1987) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, novelist, and journalist in Urdu, Hindi and English. He won four National Film Awards in India. Internationally, his films won the Palme d'Or (Golden ...

compared the two films and wrote:

Music

The music composer was

Pankaj Mullick Pankaj Kumar Mullick (10 May 1905 – 19 February 1978) was an Indian music composer, playback singer and actor, who was a pioneer of film music in Bengali cinema and Hindi cinema at the advent of playback singing, as well as an early exponent ...

with lyrics by

Kidar Sharma Kidar Nath Sharma, also Kedar Sharma (12 April 1910 – 29 April 1999), was an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter, and Lyricist of Hindi films. While he had great success as a director of such movies as '' Neel Kamal'' (1947), ''Bawre ...

and Arzu Lucknavi. One of the memorable songs from the film was "So Ja Rajkumari Soja". This lullaby was made famous in this film. All songs are sung by K. L. Saigal.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0156192, title=Zindagi 1940 films 1940s Hindi-language films Indian black-and-white films Indian drama films 1940 drama films 1940 lost films Lost drama films Lost Indian films Hindi-language drama films Films directed by Pramathesh Barua Films scored by Pankaj Mullick