My Sister

Set against the backdrop of WW II in Calcutta, "Meri Bahen" is the story of a schoolteacher and his young sister. The film followed his rise to fame as a singer and the changes in his relationships following a bomb-raid.

President

Badi Bahen aka President is a 1937 Hindi social romantic drama film (the Bengali version was called Didi and starred several different actors). The story according to the credit roll of the film is "A tale of love and greater love" developed on an idea by M. M. Begg. It was a love triangle with a social content that highlighted the conditions of the mill workers. It was also the first film to show a liberated educated woman managing her own factory

Devdas

Devdas, the son of a zamindar, and Parvati, his neighbour's daughter, are childhood sweethearts. However, class and caste differences prevent their marriage. Devdas is sent off to Calcutta, while Paro is married off to an aged rich widower. In Calcutta, as remorse drives him to alcohol, Devdas meets Chandramukhi, a prostitute. All Indian prints of this Bengali version were destroyed in a fire that ravaged New Theatre’s studios. Today, only one copy of the film survives which belongs to the Bangladesh Film Archives. Of that copy almost forty ...

Shahjehan

Shahjehan (a raw Rehman in one of his first releases) is approached by a Rajput chieftain, Jwala Singh, narrating the plight of his foster daughter, Ruhi (Ragini), who is blessed with unheard of beauty. This gives rise to an army of suitors, who indulge in violence to prevent her from getting married by scaring her to-be grooms. Her beauty, confined to four walls of Jwala's haveli becomes part of folklore, and street gossip, through the poetry of Sohail (Saigal) who accidentally catches her glimpse, and falls in love with her.

Devdas

Devdas, the son of a zamindar, and Parvati, his neighbour's daughter, are childhood sweethearts. However, class and caste differences prevent their marriage. Devdas is sent off to Calcutta, while Paro is married off to an aged rich widower. In Calcutta, as remorse drives him to alcohol, Devdas meets Chandramukhi, a tawaif.

Didi

A famous Saigal musical narrating a strange love story set against 1930s industrialization and worker-management relations. The 16-year-old Prabhavati inherits a mill and turns it into an extremely profitable enterprise. Prakash is a worker who designs a more efficient machine for the factory for which he first gets sacked and then is re-employed. He falls in love with Prabhavati's sister Sheila, who later makes way for Prabhavati who is also in love with Prakash. Her withdrawal distresses Prakash, causing him to bully the workers who then g...

Tadbir

Jayant Desai directs this melodrama centering on Kanhaiyalal (K. L. Saigal) who, according to a fortuneteller at his birth, will consort with a prostitute, grow skillful with a knife, and be sentenced to the gallows. As the film progresses, this unpromising prediction comes true, but in an unexpected manner. After a family tragedy, Kanhaiyalal and his mother find shelter in the home of a kindly whore named Saguna (Suraiya) who eventually sacrifices her life for that of the protagonist. Later, he becomes handy with a knife when he goes to med...

Roop Lekha

For the first time in Indian cinema, flashback was used for storytelling.

Bhakta Surdas

Bhakt Surdas was a great saint and devotee of Lord Krishna. He was a 16th-century poet who was blind.

The Devoted

The legend of Prince Puran, born under King Silwan of Sialkot's curse which binds his parents never to set eyes on him until he is 16. Accused of leading a debauched life by an evil general and by the king's second wife, Puran is sentenced to death. Rescued by the mystic Gorakhnath, he becomes an ascetic. When the king is overthrown, Purna rises from his meditations to depose the general who has seized power, before returning to his life of renunciation.