Dahan (1997 film)

Dahan (Crossfire) (1997) is an Indian Bengali social drama film directed by Rituparno Ghosh. The film is based on Suchitra Bhattacharya's story of the same name.

Plot
A newly wed couple Romita and Palash are attacked on the open road. The goons molested Romita, but nobody came forward to help, except a schoolteacher, Jhinuk, who rushed to the spot to help. She is later hailed a heroine by the press. One day, Palash, due to a misunderstanding and in a feat of rage, ends up raping his wife. Romita wants to stay at her parents house. There, she meets her elder sister, to whom she shows an interest to leave the in-laws and to shift to Canada. Her sister wishes to give a tour to Romita-Palash both, but Romita insists that she needs to come alone. Depressed, Romita is unable to meet Jhinuk or connect to her via telephone, so they do not know how to face the case in court together. Due to her conservative in-laws, Romita is pressured much to leave the goons or to stop the case there; she admits unclear statement in the court. On the other side, Jhinuk also having requested from her fiancé, the family of the goons started to influence with many offers, even a promotion abroad to dominate Jhinuk personally. She was reluctant to face those proposals and an uneasiness had grown between them. Jhinuk was rigid in her decision to punish the criminals. She was honest in her thoughts. On the contrary, threats from the goons and lack of police support for the case was becoming tough. She was steady and clear about the criminals in the court, but faced insults by humiliating questions. The two different female characters lost the case, the criminals got release afterwards. Romi-Jhinuk have feelings towards their life in such different tests. They are not under the same light, but turn experienced about life, family and narrowness of the society. They became stronger enough to go on to the future alone in their own way. Romi wrote letters to her sister about her changed status. Jhinuk was determined to punish the assailants, and helped police. However, the experience of Jhinuk turns out to be a frustrating experience for her when the victim's family turn away.

Cast

 * Rituparna Sengupta as Romita Chowdhury
 * Indrani Halder as Srabana "Jhinuk" Sarkar
 * Aditi Chatterjee as Trina
 * Pradip Mukherjee as Jhinuk's father
 * Shakuntala Barua as Jhinuk's mother
 * Shiboprosad Mukherjee as Jhinuk's brother
 * Abhishek Chatterjee as Polash Chowdhury
 * Suchitra Mitra as Jhinuk's thammi
 * Subhendu Chatterjee as Romita's father
 * Mamata Shankar as Romita's sister-in-law
 * Sanjeev Dasgupta as Jhinuk's fiancé
 * Dibya Bhattacharya as Romita's father-in-law

Awards
45th National Film Awards
 * National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali - Rituparno Ghosh
 * National Film Award for Best Screenplay - Rituparno Ghosh
 * National Film Award for Best Actress - Rituparna Sengupta & Indrani Halder

Trivia
Rachna Banerjee disclosed that Ghosh wanted to cast her as the protagonist of the film. She had to refuse his proposal since she had some prior commitments in South Indian film Industry. She did not ask him which role he was interested to cast her in. Banerjee often regrets the circumstances that made her refuse the film.