''Neel Akasher Neechey'' (

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

: নীল আকাশের নীচে ''Nil akasher niche'', "Under the Blue Sky") is a 1958

Bengali language Bengali ( ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (, ), is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and the second most widely spoken o ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Mrinal Sen Mrinal Sen (''Beng.'' মৃণাল সেন; 14 May 1923 – 30 December 2018) was an Indian film director, and screenwriter known for his work primarily in Bengali, and few Hindi and Telugu language films. Regarded as one of the finest Ind ...

and produced by

Hemanta Mukherjee Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989), known professionally as Hemant Kumar and Hemanta Mukherjee, was a legendary Indian music composer and playback singer who primarily sang in Bengali and Hindi, as well as other Indian ...

, starring

Kali Bannerjee Kali Banerjee (20 November 1920 – 5 July 1993) was an Indian actor, who worked in the 1950s–1970s in Bengali cinema. He is best known for his work with film directors like Satyajit Ray in '' Parash Pathar'' (1958) and Ritwik Ghatak in ' ...

Manju Dey Manju Dey (7 May 1926 — 30 September 1989) was a Bengali actress and director. She received the award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the 25th Annual BFJA Awards for the film '' Carey Saheber Munshi'' in 1962. Career Dey was born in B ...

Bikash Roy Bikash Roy (16 May 1916 – 16 April 1987) was an Indian actor and filmmaker who is known for his work in Bengali cinema. He is well known for his character roles and for his own style of acting in Bengali films from the late 1940s until the mi ...

in lead roles. The film was based on a short story ''Chini Feriwala'' of Mahadevi Verma. Set in the background of the last days of 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 him ...

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, the film explores the lives of a number of characters, including the

platonic Plato's influence on Western culture was so profound that several different concepts are linked by being called Platonic or Platonist, for accepting some assumptions of Platonism, but which do not imply acceptance of that philosophy as a whole. It ...

relationship between an immigrant Chinese wage worker, Wang Lu, and the main female character Basanti. The film had overt political overtones and was the first film to be banned by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. The ban was effective for two months.

Plot

Set in the 1930s, the film tells the story of an honest Chinese hawker, Wang Lu, who sells silk in Calcutta's streets while refusing to get involved in the opium trade run by his fellow countrymen. He feels a sisterly affection towards Basanti, the wife of a lawyer who's engaged in a nationalist political group. Basanti is arrested and imprisoned causing Wang Lu to get involved with her political group. He later returns to China to join the resistance movement against the

Japanese invasion of China The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

in 1931.

Cast

as Wang Lu *

as Basanti *

as Basanti's husband * Smriti Biswas as Maki * Suruchi Sengupta * Ajit Chatterjee * Rasaraj Chakraborthy * Mei-Lin Jiang(1936-2006) as Mei-Lin in special appearance.

Soundtrack

References

External links

* * 1958 films 1958 drama films Bengali-language Indian films Indian drama films Films directed by Mrinal Sen Films set in Kolkata Censored films Film censorship in India Film controversies in India Films set in the British Raj 1950s Bengali-language films Films based on Indian novels {{1950s-Bengali-film-stub