Rahi (1953)

A rather confused attempt to equate a nationalist politics (well after Independence) with class politics. Set in pre-Independence Assam, it tells of oppressed, mostly women, tea plantation workers. The villainous English manager (Michael) employs the hero, a former army officer (Anand), to run the plantation with brutal discipline. He is eventually humanised by one of the workers, Ganga (Jaywant), and when the workers rise in revolt the hero joins them. However, Ganga has to pay for the film’s simplifications with her life. It was made simultaneously in English and a dubbed Russian version called Ganga was released in the USSR.