Suprava Mukherjee

The story of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu .

Based on the 'Arabian Nights', this film tells of the Baghdadi woodcutter Alibaba (M. Bose) and his magic 'Open Sesame' formula; of the hero's jealous brother Kasim and the slave girl Marjina (S. Bose). The film adapts the 1897 play, giving it a Hollywood-derived exotic flavour. An improvised 'modern' dance is inserted. The slow, mannered acting with the frontally framed tableau shots are enlivened by the dance scenes, especially the Marjina-Abdallah sequence.

A father worries for his younger son and asks his elder son to promise that he will do everthing in his power to ensure Arun does not go astray, educates himself and becomes an independent man. However, fate has other plans. When Arun commits an unthinkable crime, his brother fulfills the promise made to their father and shields his younger sibling from all harm.

Niren Lahiri directs this social-minded melodrama about the complicated relationship between a traditional Hindu family headed by Madhab Thakur (Choudhury) and their progressive next-door neighbor Mukherjee (Chhabi Biswas). Thakur's daughter, Malati (Sheila Haldar), and Mukherjee's son, Robi (Robin Majumdar), run a school teaching traditional Hindu values which they hope will become a countrywide franchise. Their planned nuptials are impeded when Malati's older sister is forced to marry a Brahmin against her will, resulting in a full-scale revolt in both households. Eventually, the rift is settled, the hero and heroine marry, and a sort of Hindu-laden modernity reigns in the two families.