Stree (1972 film)

Stree is a 1972 Indian Bengali language romantic action film directed by Salil Dutta. Based on the novel of Bimal Mitra as same title and the era of the plot showing during the Second World War. Produced by Baby June Productions marking their second venture, it stars Uttam Kumar, Soumitra Chatterjee and Arati Bhattacharya in lead roles. The soundtrack of the film was composed by Nachiketa Ghosh, with the lyrics penned by Gauriprasanna Mazumder and Pulak Bandyopadhyay.

The film showed Uttam's another one of the best performance and clash with Soumitra. The film become blockbuster hit at the box office. The films was dominated at the BFJA Award 1973 and goes to win seven awards. It was later remade in Hindi in 1982 as Ayaash starring Sanjeev Kumar, Arun Govil and Rati Agnihotri in lead roles.

Plot
Sitapati (Soumitra Chatterjee), a homeless youth, comes to landlord Madhav Dutta's (Uttam Kumar) house and gets a job as his cameraman. Sitapati discovers his former girlfriend Mrinmoyee (Arati Bhattacharya) is now Madhav Dutta's wife. Madhav's polygamy and Mirnmoyee's loneliness prompt her extramarital relationship with Sitapati. Baiji dance and alcoholism, love, betrayal, hatred - Sitapati's lens captures it all. Finally, Sitapati leaves the house, Mrinmoyee dies, and gradually Madhav learns about their relationship. Madhav cannot bear the fact that his wife has committed adultery. He goes to take revenge and shoots Sitapati who is already dead, then becomes mad and shoots himself.

Cast

 * Uttam Kumar as Madhab Dutta (Zamindar)
 * Soumitra Chatterjee as Sitapati
 * Arati Bhattacharya as Madhab Dutta's Wife
 * Bhanu Bandyopadhyay
 * Jahor Roy as Gobardhan Choudhury
 * Tarun Kumar as Sitapati's Brother-in-law
 * Subrata Chattopadhyay as Sitapati's Sister
 * Sulata Chowdhury as Maid Servant
 * Moni Srimani
 * Amarnath Mukhopadhyay as Lawyer
 * Ashok Mitra
 * Rasaraj Chakraborty
 * Parijat Bose
 * Ajay Bandyopadhyay
 * Kalyani Ghosh
 * Arindam Ganguly
 * Jhuma Mukhopadhyay

Reception
The Times of India wrote "Stree, one of the finest works of Uttam Kumar, reminds us that icons like him are rare. Uttam Kumar stepped out of his romantic image and tried something just the opposite. A drunkard Bengali zamindar without any sense of chastity – he was unrecognizable in this negative character. Yet he bamboozled everyone with this persona. Even critics admitted only Uttam Kumar can do this. The Uttam-Soumitra movie remains a classic one and Uttam's dialogues still haunt us. The film become blockbuster at the box office and ran for 24 weeks in the theaters.

Awards

 * BFJA Awards (1973)


 * BFJA Best Actor - Uttam Kumar
 * BFJA Best Actor In a Supporting Role - Soumitra Chatterjee
 * BFJA Award Best Dialogue - Salil Dutta
 * BFJA Award Best Lyrics - Pulak Bandopadhyay
 * BFJA Award Best Music Direction - Nachiketa Ghosh
 * BFJA Award Best Playback Singer (Male) - Manna Dey

Remake
The film was remade in Hindi in 1982 as Ayaash directed and produced by Shakti Samanta and starring Sanjeev Kumar in lead.