Bhuli Naai (1948)

Ex-terrorist Gupta’s first film in his best-known style (cf. ’42, 1949) celebrates the patriotic terrorist movements in pre-Independence Bengal. Markedly different from the film biographies of political personalities, Gupta’s angry tone conveys opposition to the nationalist leadership coming into power at the time. Faithfully following Manoj Bose’s original story, it opens with the 1905 Swadeshi upsurge: the burning of imported garments, the anti- Partition rallies etc. Mahananda, Ajit and Anandakishore are in a procession which is attacked by the police. Their leader Masterda (borrowed from the chronologically later Surya Sen) absconds with Anupama when Mahananda betrays the group of insurgents. The young Anandakishore is killed and Ajit is arrested. He escapes from jail, kills the informer and is sentenced to death, reaffirming his faith in nationalism shortly before he is hanged. The episode, evoking the real-life incident of a terrorist vendetta against Naren Gosain, is followed by documentary shots of Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose (apparently added following censor strictures) that remain somewhat out of place in the main drama.