Sujata was made in 1959 and has a strong storyline – about an untouchable girl, who is adopted by a Brahmin family, though very reluctantly.
All the characters are very real and sketched very lovingly. There are really no bad people or villains in the movie. The villain is the custom of treating people as untouchables – the custom which had become such a strong belief that even good people find it extremely difficult to move away from it.
Sujata comes to the Brahmin couple, Upendra & Charu on the first birthday of their daughter Rama, as an orphan, when both her parents die in an epidemic. Upendra & Charu keep her reluctantly and decide to find someone from her cast as soon as possible to hand her over to. When a person of her cast is found, they refuse to hand Sujata over to him because he is a drunkard and a useless slob. So Sujata stays with the family. They take her along with them, when XYZ gets transferred. The maid in the house is the one taking care of Sujata, not Charu. But slowly, both Upendra and Charu get more and more attached to Sujata. Once again, when she is a child of about 6-7, they try to send her to an orphanage. But both of them find it difficult to send her, and in the end she grows up at their place.
Sujata and Rama are close. They are like sisters, with Sujata treating Rama as her younger sister. But there are differences – Rama goes to college to study, Sujata does not. Rama plays badminton and piano while Sujata is busy in housework and gardening. Sujata is aware that she is not Upendra & Charu’s daughter because she has heard them say “She is like our daughter” many times, but she does not know that she is an untouchable.
For Charu the biggest blow is delivered by Adhir, the person she hopes would like Rama and marry her. He instead falls in love with Sujata, and wants to marry her, even after he finds out that she is actually an untouchable. His grandmother too finds it almost impossible that her grandson is willing to leave her to marry an untouchable. In the end, she accepts her defeat and quite gracefully.
The movie is directed so well – but then it’s a Bimal Roy movie. Even when you don’t agree with the character’s point of view, like Adhir’s grandmother when she is trying to stop him from marrying Sujata, you can actually feel her pain too. All her beliefs that she lived by all her life are being turned upside down by the one person she loves the most.
The movie has a good pace throughout. It does get rather melodramatic in the end, but its for a short while only.
Music is melodious. Two most famous songs from this movie are – “Ore Manjhi” sung by S.D. Burman himself and “Jalte Hai jis ke liye” sung by Talat Mehmood. In the movie Adhir sings this to Sujata on phone.
Everyone has acted well – Tarun Bose & Sulochana as Sujata’s adoptive parents are very good. Their growing attachment for the untouchable girl and their turmoil is well presented. Lalita Pawar as Adhir’s grandmother is wonderful! Shashikala as Rama is really lovely and charming. Rama’s character itself is lovely – she is not jealous about the fact that Adhir is interested in Sujata instead of her. Sunil Dutt as Adhir is just right for the role! He looks very handsome and sensitive. His role too is very good - a strong character - someone who knows what he wants to do and is willing to go against the customs and traditions of the society.
But the movie belongs to Nutan. She is tremendous as Sujata. Sujata, who is playful with Rama, respectful with her parents and very shy with Adhir, is portrayed skillfully by Nutan. You can feem her happiness when she realizes that Adhir likes her as well as her pain when she finds out that she is untouchable. No one else could have done this role, but Nutan.
So watch this movie for –
- A beautiful presentation of a societal problem, and yet a lovely love story that it is
- Wonderful acting by everyone, but most specifically Nutan
- Great direction
- Melodious music
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