Thana Thekey Aschhie
Madhabi Mukerjee, Uttam Kumar, Anjana Bhowmik
Looking at the thumbnail one would never have a clue how black this film is, between mystery - was it suicide, was it murder, who did it - and the then prevalent leftist diatribe of generally Bengal, specifically Bengal literature, that affected the films of the time, but which seems appropriate here until one questions it. One wouldn't, if one took it for granted that the world lived in this two pole struggle of West and left. But India isn't that simple, and reducing it to such black and white diminishes her wealth of cultural heritage.
For one, the easy treatment given to the rape of the main character by the fiance of the rich girl is based in an ethical assumption rooted in the droit de seigneur, something taken for granted in West and most of the world outside India, but not in cukture of India - not that it couldn't have hapoened, but that it needs moral defense, and the only possible one is him marrying her. This is all the more so since she is obviously from a decent family, albeit poor and in need of work to support herself.
The lover who wants to marry her but is easily waylaid by his father's tricky offer to send him abroad, bares less of responsibility in her descent from life to death, than either his parents or his sister, who are each responsible for a major part, but far less than the fiance. It all comes out into open only when a police inspector arrives, questioning each, and finally leaving them all guilty.
Uttam Kumar playing the mysterious inspector is superb as usual. Mysterious, because the police station he said he was from, denies his existence, and informs them that they have sent someone. The film ends with ringing of a doorbell and a view of the dead young woman in the mortuary. So his identity remains a mystery. One of them says he was their conscience, but then collective conscience couldn't play them quite so well.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7EpVAKSNRkM
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