Meenakshi 1942

Meenakshi is a 1942 Indian Bollywood social film released on Jan 01, 1942. The film is directed by Madhu Bose.
It wa past midnight when Amitabha returned to his bachelor quarters at the Lake Mansion, which overlooked Calcuttas famous beauty-spot-the Lake. . His bachelordom together with a comfortable bank-balance had enabled Amitabha to live in accprdance with the best-known codes of modern Bohemia. On this particular night he had been to a cinema show and had perhaps prolonged his stay at the bar over "One Too Many" pags of whisky. . But drinks had never before conjured up such an entrancing vision of loveliness that greeted his eyes as he entered his flat. On the spacious divan of his drawing room stretched out a perfect specimen of young womanhood-fast asleep-looking more beautiful than a girl one falls in love with in a dream! . Amitabhas first impulse led him to ring up the telephone exchange and asccertain whether her was in the right flat. A sarcastic reply from a pert operator brought back his self-assurance to some extent. The sleeping beauty had in the meantime woke up. But she did not greet Amitabha in the language of love, however much he would have wished it On the contrary, she peremptorilly ordered him to leave the flat-his own flat! . No wonder, both had to offer to each other a string of explanations for what seemed to them a comedy of errors. . It transpired that Meenakshi, for that was the name of the charming midnight inttuder, was the victim of the greed of an unscrupulous guardian, who had planned to sell her in the name of matrimony to an old man fit to be her grand-father. This old man was Dr.Subhankar, a reputed eye-specialist, who was stung by the love-bug when Meenakshi went to him for treatment of her persistent eye-troubles. Dr.Subhankar proposal of marriage was readily accepted by Meenakshis uncle, Radha Govinda, a veritable wolf in sheeps clothing, when the love-stricken doctor had drawn in his favour a cheque for Rs. 5,000/-. . A modern educated girl as she was, Meenakshi could not acquiesce in the arrangement that called for a sacrifice of her womanhood at the altear of an old mans lust. This was to be her wedding night. But with the help of an understanding aunt, wife of the devilish Radha Govnda, she managed to slip unnotice out of her uncles house, which was in a vearby village, carrying only a suitcase containing a few clothes and some money. She came straight to Calcutta-to flat No. 13 of the Lake Mansion, where a distant relative named Bipad Baran used to live, thinking the same to be the safest place beyond the reach of her uncles vicious tentacles. . Meenakshi did not know that Bipad Baran had long ago moved from the flat, which had since been rented by Amitabha. The latters over- credulous servant had readily admitted her into the parlour mistaking her her for one of his mastes many girl-friends who often came to see him. On Meenakshis part, she was easily led to belive that the absent master of the flat was her own realtive and so had dicided to wait unsuspectinghlt in the drawing room, where she had fallen asleep due to sheer exhaustion. . Never before in his life had Amitabha felt such a strog compassion for any fellow-begin as he ecperienced just then, on hearing Meenakshis pathetic story. His first concern was to make the poor girl as much comfortable as possible for the rest of the rest of the night and search out her reative Bipad Baran on the next morning. With a hastily requistioned meal Amitabha sought ot cheer up the poor girl, who had practically been without food since that morning. But in the midst of the meal came a knock on the door and Radh Govindas voice was heard from outside. . The devil of an uncle had lost no time in extorting from his wife a sufficient clue to track down his runaway niece and had come straight in search of his prey! . Hastily hiding Meenakshi in his bedroom, Amitabha let Radha Govinda come in. The old rogue was not a little surprised to encounter Amitabha where he had expected to find Bipad Baran. Amitabhas vehement remonstrations, however, cut short his unwelcime visit, but while leaving the drawing room, the searching eyes of the crafty uncle did not fail to spot the suit-case that Meenakhsi had brought along with her. . After Radha Givnda had departed, Amitabha was faced with a new problem He knew that it would be ruinous for an unmarried girl like Meenakshi to spend the night under the same roof with a playboy of his reputaion An easy solution to the problem was found in their spending the night in the open-on a bench beside the waters of the Lake. As a matter of fact, Amitabha confessed to Meenakshi, he had spent a lot of nights on that particular bench whenever his Bohemina urge had driven him out of the narrow confines of the four-walled rooms. . And those few hours they spent together on that Lake-sides bench did something to both of them. Perhaps it was destined that love should speing up in the most unlikely of spots! . But it was all changed when Radha Govinda paid another visit to Amitabhas flat on the following day. The roguish uncle made no secret of his willingness to unite his niece in marriage with Amitabha, provided the latter made ti worth while of him to do so in cash! In his blind raga Amitabha musjudeged the whole situation. On a previous occasion, a set of Blackmailers had extorted a lot of money from him by similarly implicating him whih a girl. Meenakshis distress-story now seemed nothing better than a clever trap for framing him up. He hurriedly made out a cheque and handing it over to Radha Govinda asked bothe the uncle and the niece to clear out of his flat immediately. . But Meenakshi snatched away the cheqe from his uncles hand and tore it into pieces, giving him no opportunity to offer resistance. Before Amitabha coulf recover from the chock of this unexpected behaviour, the police arrived to investigate into the false complaint, lodged by Radha Govinda previously. Meenakshis unequivocal statement helped to clear Amitabha from any complicty in her alleged abduction, as was sought to be established by Radha Govinda. Moreover, she exposed the latters nefarious motives to the full and then calmly walked out of the flat, she had been insultingly asked to leave a few moments ago. . When Amitabaha extricated himself from the fire of police cross examination and went out in search for her, Meenakshi could nowhere be found. She was, in fact, hiding herself in a nearby bush by the Lake, in whose waters she threw away her suit-case to avoid easy detedtion. . A few days later Meenakshi managed to secure a teaching job in a nursery school at a place called Kartickpur. Here also Fate played a cruel trick upon her. For Kartickput was Amitabhas native village and Durga Devi, the kindly old lady who provided Meenakshi with a home in her own house, was Amitabhas own mother. But Meenakshi had not the faintest idea of this-until Amitabha paid a visit to his village-home. It was now too late for Meenakshi to back out of the situation that Fate had forced her into. Neither she nor Amitabha could deny this time that they had fallen in love. And the motherly instincts of Durga Davi made no mistake in hurrying up preparations for an early wedding. It was one of her fondest dreams to marry his son to a girl like Meenakshi. . But happiness was perhaps not for Meenakshi. As the day of marriage was fast approaching, Meenakshis old eye troubles started troubling her with a renewed ferocity. She shuddered to realize that complete blindness was gradually overtaking her. How could she impose herself on Amitabha, knowing fully well that she would be a life-long burden to him? This question never left her alone, until she could no more stand this mental torure. So the girl who had once run away from the marriage altar again repeated the same trick-but this time for a wholly different reason. Check out this page for more updates on Meenakshi.