Uttam Kumar and Anil Chatterji complimented each other in Agnisangskar.

Uttam Kumar and Anil Chatterji complimented each other in Agisangskar.

Director Agradoot played a pivotal role in the early success of Uttam Kumar in films like Agniparikkha, Sabar Opore in the mid-50s. From that time onwards the main director of Agradoot Bibhuti Laha tried to make realistic films with Uttam Kumar.

In Agnisangskar, Uttam Kumar was the Chief Engineer of the industrial firm owned by Anil Chatterji. Just because Anil Chatterji had partial amount of insanity, his mother Chaya Debi ran the firm with the responsible officers. As the manager Bikash Roy ill-treated the workers, she made Uttam Kumar, the manager. She also asked Supriya Debi to go to the industry and check the working regularly, as she herself was ill. Supriya Debi admired the working of Uttam Kumar and fell in love with him.

Supriya Debi had no relationship with Chaya Debi, but was brought by her with the aim of making her daughter-in-law. In the meantime Uttam Kumar was given the responsibility of bringing back Anil Chatterji from Kolkata, as never liked the native place. Anil Chatterji came back and got involved with Supriya Debi. But she was not interested to marry Anil Chatterji, she asked Uttam Kumar to leave the job. After Uttam Kumar got settled elsewhere Supriya Debi got entangled marriage according to hindu rites.

At that time Anil Chatterji called Uttam Kumar in his native place and after communication left him. He committed suicide and implicated Uttam Kumar for his death. All the evidence went against Uttam Kumar and he was awarded death penalty. At that time the diary of Anil Chatterji was recovered and due to insistence other Board Members of the company like Chabi Biswas, the Judge stopped the sentence and Uttam Kumar was released.
While Uttam Kumar was effortless in his romantic performance, Anil Chatterji showed his range in playing the mentally deranged character. Anil Chatterji already gathered fame by playing brilliant characters in Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara, Tapan Sinha’s Nirjan Saikate, Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar. In this film he balanced the romantic appeal of Uttam Kumar with his aggressive acting. The film became successful and attracted the attention of educated viewers. Hemant Kumar’s music was impressive with Sandhya Mukherjee’s song “tomar duarkhani” becoming hit. The film should be preserved

Review of Uttam Kumar's Kuhak.

Review of Uttam Kumar’s Kuhak.

Uttam Kumar was considered to be the greatest romantic actor to have been born in Indian soil in the golden age, that is 40s, 50s, and 60s. But after giving legendary romantic films with Suchitra Sen (both of them acted in 30 films), Uttam Kumar tried to change his image in some of the films.

In Goli Theke Rajpoth he was involved in unlawful activities, in Abak Prithibi, he was a thief who was reformed by a small child, and in Kuhak he was a thief again. He broke his image in Kuhak directed by Agradoot.

In Kuhak, the film opened with a scene in the jail where Uttam Kumar met Tarun Kumar. Uttam Kumar spoke about his activities relating to theft. Tarun Kumar disclosed about his capabilities relating to opening any lock in any almirah or cupboard and he was imprisoned for those activities.

Uttam Kumar after being released from jail came to the same village where Tarun Kumar lived with his two sons and sister played by Sabitri Chatterji. Uttam Kumar was a singer and with the team of Premangshu Bose used to perform in the role of Chaitanyadev in village plays (jatras).

Most of the villagers started thinking that Uttam Kumar was actual Chaitanyadeb. Tarn Kumar told Uttam Kumar that he stole Rs 30000 from a locker in a nearby house, but when he tried to escape from the police, he was fired by the police and died. He showed the place where he kept the money to his son. Both Uttam Kumar and Premangshu Bose stayed back in the village to take that money that was kept by Tarun Kumar.

Uttam Kumar fell sorry for Sabitri Chatterjee, the sister of Tarun Kumar and fell in love with her. The last part of the film showed the fight between Uttam Kumar and Premangshu Bose in extracting the stolen money.

The music of the film was impressive, with Uttam Kumar giving brilliant lips in Hemant Kumar’s song “bishnupriya go”. There were many other songs sung by Hemant Kumar for Uttam Kumar and the character of Uttam Kumar being a singer was bolstered with the music.

The film should be restored for the young generation to show them that director Agradoot had the skills of making crime thrillers with the background of stories based on village life of Bengal.

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