Upahar

Upahar is a Bengali drama film directed by Tapan Sinha based on a novel Krishna of Sailajananda Mukherjee.^[1] This film was produced by the Bani Chitram and release in 1955. It's starring Uttam Kumar, Manju Dey and Sabitri Chatterjee in lead. Music director of the film was Kalipada Sen. This was the second film and first collaboration for Sinha with Kumar. Film was critically acclaimed but did moderate success at the box office.

A professor (Uttam Kumar) and his wife (Manju Dey) comes to live as tenants in the house of one Kanhali-babu (Kanu Bandopadhyay). They develop a soft corner for Krishna, the daughter of the landlord (Sabitri Chaterjee). Kanhali-babu eked out a livelihood from the rent that his house fetched. He was a strict father, and his daughter had no independence of her own. Krishna used to pass on the nutritious portion of her diet surreptitiously to her father and subsisted on the remnants. The professor’s wife discovers it and replenishes her diet sparing something for her from their meal. Kanhali-babu’s nagging trait infuriates Bhola (Johar Roy), the Professor’s servant. Krishna is in love with a certain gentleman (Nirmal Kumar) but her father has arranged her marriage to a retarded man in lieu of a paltry sum of money. After a lot of melodrama, Krishna unites with her paramour (Nirmal Kumar). The film doesn’t rise to any great heights, but nonetheless remain watchable. Towards the end Krishna suddenly discovers that beneath the stern exterior, Kanhali-babu was a very caring father and had stashed away huge wealth in order to marry off his daughter in grand style. Why then did Kanhali-babu tried to marry off Krishna by accepting a paltry amount from the bridegroom’s family.

• Uttam Kumar as Professor Ashok Sarkar
• Sabitri Chatterjee as Krishna
• Manju Dey as Neela
• Nirmal Kumar Chattopadhyay as Sunil
• Chabi Biswas as Sunil's father
• Kanu Banerjee as Kangalibabu
• Aparna Devi as Sunil's mother
• Tulsi Chakraborty as Ghatak
• Anubha Gupta as Sunil's aunt
• Jahar Roy as Servant
• Shyam Laha as Sethji

This was only the second Bengali film from director Tapan Sinha. His first film Ankush did not perform well. This was also the first collaboration by Uttam and Sinha. This film performed average at that time, but Uttam's performance was considered as one finest and ahead of the time. Sinha wrote in his autobiography that "Uttam's future is promising. There is lot of potential hidden in him." This film was a milestone.^[2]

Upahar at IMDb