Beder Meye Josna

Beder Meye Josna (lit. 'Josna, the daughter of a Bede') is a 1989 Bangladeshi film directed by Tojammel Haque Bokul. The film stars Ilias Kanchan and Anju Ghosh in the lead roles.

This story was taken from a very old rural Bengali play of the same name. The tune of the title song, "Beder meye Jyotsna amay katha diyeche," was adopted from the song "Ek pardesi mera dil le gaya" from the film Phagun (1958).

Plot
In Bengal, Bede means a caste or group of people who make their living by catching snakes and entertaining people by making the snakes dance to the tune of there flutes. Josna is a girl from this community. One day a poisonous snake bites the foot of a local prince. A bede is called to cure the prince. He sees the wound and declares that only Josna can extract the poison from the prince's blood. The king calls Josna and asks her to save his son, in exchange for which he agrees to give her anything she wants. Josna cures the prince but becomes ill in the process. After her mother and the queen pray for her, she recovers and demands the hand of the prince as her reward, but the king balks. When the prince, now recovered, learns what has transpired, he falls in love with Jyotsna. After a long tug-of-war, the couple persuade the king to consent to their union and they marry.

Cast

 * Ilyas Kanchan - Anwar
 * Anju Ghosh - Josna
 * Mithun - Razzaq
 * Farzana Bobby - Tara
 * Saifuddin Ahmed - Bede Sardar (lit. 'Chief of Bedes')
 * Nasir Khan - Mubarak
 * Shawkat Akbar - Sagar Mudak (lit. 'King of Bengal')
 * Prabir Mitra - Apon Mudak (lit. 'Mr. Judge')
 * Rawshan Jamil - Zosner's grandmother
 * Dildar - Moni
 * Abbas - Zamindar
 * Sushma
 * Maya Chowdhury
 * Manzur Rahi
 * Nader
 * Ghulam Sharif Khan
 * Fazal Rahman

Music
Abu Taher directed the music of Beder's daughter Josna. The film has eleven songs. The film's director Tozammel Haque Bakul is composing the lyrics for ten of these eleven songs. The audio cassette of the film's songs sold one lakh copies within a month of its release. The song, written by Veda's daughter Josna Amay, became a huge hit. The song "Ami Bandi Jail" written by Hasan Matiur Rahman and sung by Mujib Pardesi is still popular.

Reception
It was the highest grossing Bangladeshi film by earning approximately BDT25 crore gross till 2023, which was surpassed by Priyotoma in 2023. It was ranked fifth among the top 10 Bangladeshi films in an audience poll a survey by the British Film Institute.

Remake
The film was remade in West Bengal in 1991 with the same name, which feature Chiranjeet Chakraborty and Anju Ghosh reprise her role. In 2019, Bongo BD bought the rights from Anandamela Cholocchitro for another remake of the film, which was later cancelled.

Cancelled sequel
In 2018, producer Nader Khan of Rajesh Film proposed a sequel to the film on the day of the reception ceremony for Anju Ghosh at Bangladesh Film Development Corporation named Josna Keno Bonobase. However, this was later cancelled.