Story, Synopsis, Trivia, Dialogues for Benarasi (1962)
Sona(Ruma Devi) & Ratan(Soumitra) were childhood friends who were supposed to get married. But the young girl was kidnapped when she had gone to take a bath in the Ganges along with Ratan and his family members. Ratan & others failed to find any trace of her. Many years passed. Ratan started working. He had a friend Montu (Tarun Kumar) in Kolkata. One day Ratan discovered Sona near a pan-shop.He told this to Montu but Montu said that he must have been mistaken as the lady he was referring to was a nautch-girl. But Ratan was conviced that she was Sona. He went to meet her in spite of Montu's prohibitions. Sona had a new name, Benarasi and she led a difficult life. But when Ratan promised to marry her, her hopes & long cherished dreams were revived once more. They started a new life in a place far away from their acquaintances. Nagen (Anup Kumar )the young colleague of Ratan treated her with love and respect. An old employee in the office (Tulsi Chakraborty) was a superstitious man and yet he too appreciated Sona as an ideal woman. Ratan was apprehensive that the truth would be revealed one day and true to his fears, the past started haunting them. On the last day of Durga puja an old client revealed her identity before everyone. Naturally they all started condemning her and ostracised her. Only Nagen felt ashamed of the insensitiveness of his counterparts & he tried to save the couple from further humiliation. In the meanwhile Sona decided to leave home without informing her ill husband. But Ratan woke up & accompanied her in another new journey. Nagen silently wished for their well being & bid them farewell with a heavy heart. Thus, the film is a clarion call for a more humanist approach & is about the triumph of life & dignity over the narrow-mindness & age-old superstitious nurtured by our society.
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