''Sujata'' is a 1959

Hindi language 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 de ...

Bimal Roy Bimal Roy (12 July 1909 – 8 January 1966) was an Indian film director. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films such as '' Do Bigha Zamin'', '' Parineeta'', '' Biraj Bahu'', ''Devdas'', ''Madhumati'', '' Sujata'', '' ...

film. It stars

Nutan Nutan Samarth Bahl (4 June 1936 – 21 February 1991), known mononymously as Nutan, was an Indian actress who worked in Hindi films. In a career spanning nearly four decades, she appeared in more than 70 films, mostly as a protagonist, in both bi ...

and

Sunil Dutt Sunil Dutt (born Balraj Dutt; 6 June 1929 — 25 May 2005) was an Indian actor, film producer, director and politician. Dutt was one of the major stars of Hindi cinema in the late 1950s and 1960s and continued to star in many successful film ...

in lead roles, supported by

Shashikala Shashikala Saigal (née Jawalkar; 4 August 1932 – 4 April 2021), better known by her first name, was an Indian film and television actress, who played supporting roles in hundreds of Bollywood films beginning in the 1940s. Early years Shash ...

Lalita Pawar Lalita Pawar (18 April 1916 – 24 February 1998) was a prolific Indian actress, who later became famous as a character actress, appearing in over 700 films in Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati cinema. She holds a Guinness world record of longest ac ...

Sulochana Latkar Sulochana Latkar (born 30 July 1928) known by her screen name Sulochana, is a well-known actress of Marathi and Hindi cinema and has acted in 50 films in Marathi and around 250 films in Hindi. She is most known for her performances in Marathi ...

and

Tarun Bose Tarun Bose (14 September 1928 – 8 March 1972) was an Indian actor, active in Bollywood during the 1960s and 1970s. Early life and education Bose was born in Kolkata, though he grew up in Nagpur, where he studied at St. Francis High School. ...

. Based on a Bengali short story of the same name by writer

Subodh Ghosh Subodh Ghosh (14 September 1909 – 10 March 1980) was a noted Indian author of Bengali literature and a journalist with the Kolkata-based daily newspaper '' Ananda Bazar Patrika''. Born at Hazaribagh on 14 September 1909, now in Jharkhand, he s ...

, the film explored the situation of

caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The music is by

S. D. Burman Sachin Dev Burman (1 October 1906 – 31 October 1975) was an Indian music director and singer. A member of the Tripura royal family, he started his career with Bengali films in 1937. He later began composing for Hindi movies and became one o ...

and the lyrics by

Majrooh Sultanpuri Asrar ul Hassan Khan (1 October 1919 − 24 May 2000), better known as Majrooh Sultanpuri, was an Indian Urdu poet and lyricist in India's Hindi language film industry. He wrote Hindustani lyrics for numerous Hindi film soundtracks. He was ...

. The film was highly praised by critics. It was entered into the 1960 Cannes Film Festival. The story, screenplay, music, and all the performances especially that of

received high critical acclaim and even today, her performance in Sujata is considered to be one of the best by any female actress ever in the history of

Hindi cinema Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

Plot

''Sujata'' is a romance between a

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...

young man, Adheer (

) and an untouchable woman, Sujata (

). It's also a story of intense emotional conflict of a mother in fully accepting an adopted daughter. The film has Mahatma Gandhi's fight against untouchability and the myth of Chandalika in

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

as its subtexts on the basis of which it tries to criticize the practice of untouchability in

. Brahmin couple, Upen and Charu bring up an orphaned child and name her Sujata. Although Upen is fond of the adopted child, his wife Charu and Aunt (Adheer's mother) can never fully embrace Sujata because she was born in an untouchable's family. They keep hinting to Sujata at times that she doesn't belong amongst Brahmins. Adheer falls in love with Sujata but Charu & Aunt want Adheer to marry Charu's real daughter Rama. Sujata also admires Adheer but finding her reality of being an untouchable by birth feels at discomfort. One day, Upen's wife falls down the stairs and is rushed to the hospital. The doctors tell the family that in order to save Charu, they need the rare group blood. Only Sujata's blood matches and she willingly donates blood. When Charu become aware that her life was saved by Sujata, she realizes her mistake and accepts her as her daughter. Sujata and Adheer are then married happily by everyone's consent.

Cast

as Sujata *

as Adhir *

as Rama Chowdhury *

as Giribala *

as Upendranath Chowdhury *

as Charumati Chowdhury * Asit Sen as Pandit Bhavani Shankar Sharma *

Cuckoo Moray Cuckoo Moray, also credited as Cuckoo or Cukoo (1928 – 30 September 1981), was an Anglo-Indian dancer and actress in Indian cinema. Cuckoo was the queen of film dancing in Hindi cinema of the 1940s and 1950s. Though unfamiliar in name, she wa ...

as Rama's friend singing the song "Tum Jeeoo Hazaaron Saal"

Awards

Golden Palm The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

- Nominated Awards

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

. *

Filmfare Best Movie Award The Filmfare Award for Best Film is given by the ''Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films. The award was first given in 1954. Here is a list of the award winners and the nominees of the respective years. Eac ...

- Won *

Filmfare Best Director Award The Filmfare Best Director Award is one of the main awards presented given by the annual Filmfare Awards to recognise directors working in Hindi cinema. It was first presented in 1954 in the inaugural year. Superlatives Bimal Roy has the re ...

- Won * Filmfare Best Actress Award -

- Won *

Filmfare Best Story Award The Filmfare Award for Best Story is given by ''Filmfare'' as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to recognise a writer who wrote a film's story. List of winners 1950s * 1955 Mukhram Sharma – '' Aulad'' * 1956 Rajinder Singh ...

- Won *

National Film Awards The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorat ...

(

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

) All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film

Soundtrack

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sujata (Film) 1959 films 1950s Hindi-language films Films scored by S. D. Burman Films directed by Bimal Roy Films about the caste system in India Films based on short fiction Social realism in film Third Best Feature Film National Film Award winners