Kanan Devi

Two street urchins dream of singing and making it big in the glamorous world of theatre in Calcutta.

Classic celebration of Mithila's King Shiva Singha's (Bannerjee/Kapoor) love for his wife while chronicling the influence of the pacifist court poet Bidyapati (Sanyal). Invited to the royal court by the king, Bidyapati arrives with his faithful follower Anuradha (Kanan Devi). Queen Laxmi (Chhaya Devi) falls in love with the poet, much to the distress of the king. The king falls ill and starts neglecting his royal duties until Anuradha persuades him that true love does not need reciprocation. The queen, equally distressed by her divided loyalties, contemplates suicide, encouraged by the prime minister who is worried by the nefarious impact of Bidyapati's poetry on the king.

This classic adultery story tells of an artist, Prasanta (Barua) presented in the stereotypically romantic image: dedicated to his vocation, paying no heed to his scandalous reputation (he paints nude models) and with a cavalier attitude to his conservative father-in-law's (Choudhury) demands for a good social behaviour.

Pratima (Kanan Devi), a nurse, is persuaded by Jayant (Ganguly) to pretend to be his wife for a day, in order to convince his father Dr Dindayal (Choudhury) of his need for money. Dr Dindayal likes his new daughter-in-law very much and wants her to accompany him to the country where he runs a charitable hospital in the name of his late wife. There Dr Bhatt, Dindayal’s rival, finds out by hiring detectives that Pratima and Jayant are not married. He uses the information to try to oust Dindayal from the hospital. The solution eventually links with Pratima’s growing sense of responsibility towards Dr Dindayal’s medical endeavours.

Manoj is from the aristocratic class but has some sort retrograde amnesia; he belongs to the upper-class but is also an outsider, something that enables the possibilities of movement across the class-lines for him. This trope is essential for Barua to articulate the criticism of the indolent upper class in the film. Thus Manoj is both an object of criticism and ridicule while also being one of the critics.

Sreegouranga

Mejdidi

Kanthahaar

A comedy adapted from a successful play. The zamindar Damodar Chakraborty (Chakraborty) starts a school named after his wife and recruits a married couple as teachers. Manas (Ganguly in the role which had made him a stage star) and Niharika (Kanan Devi) pretend to be married in order to get the jobs. Their imposture, together with the fact that he is Hindu while she is Christian, produces complications.

Ananya

The wealthy, self-obsessed, and possibly crazed Manoj (Barua) is sent by his concerned family to the rural estate of his future father-in-law. Along the way, however, he gets lost and soon finds himself taking shelter in the abode of railroad stationmaster whose beautiful, down-to-earth daughter, Meena (Kenan Devi), Manoj finds irresistible. When his haughty, progressive-minded fiancee gets wind of this, she freaks out and soon there is a showdown between the two women. In the aftermath, Manoj finds reason to go with his heart and marry Meena.

The 1946 Indian film.

The Hindi film starring Kanan Devi and Krishnankant.