Biraj Bahu 1954

Biraj Bahu is a 1954 Indian Bollywood social film released on 1954. The film is directed by Bimal Roy, produced by Hiten Chaudhury under banner named Hiten Choudhury Productions.

Nilambhar Chakravorty belongs to a poor family, and lives in a joint family with his married brother, Pitambar, unmarried sister, Punnu, and wife, Biraj. Since his sister is of marriageable age, he arranges her marriage, and borrows some money. When Pitambar comes to know about this, he refuses to share any expense in his sister's marriage, and decides to separate, resulting in a fence being put up between their homes. Nilambher, unable to find employment, is unable to pay back the loan, and soon both he and his wife barely have enough to live on. To complicate matters further, Deodhar, a wealthy young contractor has his eye on Biraj's beauty and would like to be intimate with her, in return for money and a better life. He even hires Biraj's maidservant, Sundari, to lure Biraj to him. One day when Nilambher goes to attend a funeral in a nearby town, and does not come home for two days. When he returns he is told that Biraj had been seen hear Deodhar's place. When he questions her, she refuses to explain and he asks to get out of his house, which she does, and eventually disappears from his life altogether. All Nilambher hears is rumors that Biraj has run away with Deodhar and is leading a comfortable life, but no one knows for sure where she is or why she refused to explain to Nilambher where she was that night.

Beauty is a gift of God; yet it burns and destroys. Many a war has been waged for beautiful woman; often beauty is a curse. . Biraj possessed such outstanding beauty. She had unflinching devotion for her husband and was extremely proud of her husbands love for her. . Nilambar the tall handsome husband of Biraj had Gods gift in his voice. He was famed for his devotional songs and respected for his selfless service to his community, be it to nurse sick or cremate the dead and was not wordly at all. . Pitambar, his younger brother was quite and opposite, both in physical appearance and in worldy matters. A greedy miser and a grabber he wouldnt trust his own wife. When it came to share the heavy dowry and expenses for the marriage of their only sister Punnu, he separeted from his brother and partitioned their ancestral property. Nilambar mortaged his share of the property and his tender loving wife gave her jewels and the marriage happily passed off. . Even gradual financial hardhsips that followed, could not tarnish their days- such was the completeness of love and faith that they had for each other. Without her husbands knowledge, Biraj smilingly started making dolls and maintained her household from the sale proceeds, but no conflict came in their life till there appeared in the village a new comer, a lusty young debauch in the person of the new Zamindar. Dazed by Birajs beauty he soon made it his sole occupation to engineer means to possess her and Sundari, Birajs maid servant of easy virtues proved very useful to him. . The utter shame that her beauty, which won tributes for her from her husband, should arouse the vulgar carnal desire in a man and their utter helplessness against the all powerfull zamindar on account of the adverse situation they were placed in, arouseda silent mad anger in her and what the years of privation and poverty could not achieve the anger achieved. Bitterness gradually crept into her life. She started getteing conscious of her husbands material failings about which before she wouldnt even sparea thought and the woman who one day asked, as the greatest boon form her husband, that she may die at his feet, opened her eyes one day a stormy night to find herself in the housecoat of the zamindar drifting away fast from their village. Did she run wasy with the zamindar? Was it accidental? Did fate bring her back to the feet of her husband, the greatest boon she asked for in her life........... [Source: Booklet] Check out this page for more updates on Biraj Bahu.