12 select Bangla Films that released during Durga Puja
Many people wait eagerly to watch Bengali films during Puja. Lately, Puja releases have become quite a sensational affair. On this occasion, we wanted to recall 12 famous films that were released during the Puja season itself.
For now, we have selected these 12 from films across various decades and by different directors. Needless to say, a complete list would be extremely long. In our selection, we have found films by 12 directors spanning from the 1930s to the 1980s. From the 1930s, there are two films: 'Chandidas' from 1932 and 'Jiban Maran' from 1939, directed by Debaki Bose and Nitin Bose respectively. The next film is from the early 1950s — 'Babla', released during the Puja of 1951 and directed by Agradoot. Right after that is Satyajit Ray's 'Aparajito', which was released during the Puja of 1956.
Can the presence of Uttam-Suchitra be left out from the list? Absolutely not. Therefore, the next film is 'Indrani', a 1958 film directed by Niren Lahiri. Keeping Sarat Chandra's 150th birth anniversary in mind, we have also chosen the film 'Indranath, Srikanta O Annadadi', from 1959, directed by Haridas Bhattacharya.
Ritwik Ghatak's 'Subarnarekha' was released during the Puja of 1965, making it the seventh film on our list. Following that comes the unforgettable music-rich 'Anthony Firingee', a 1967 Puja film directed by Sunil Banerjee. The angry mood of the 1970s was also captured in Puja films; both Mrinal Sen's 'Calcutta 71' and 'Padatik' (1973) were Puja releases. We have chosen 'Calcutta 71', which was released in 1972, because another film from 1973 is already on our list—Tarun Majumdar's evergreen film 'Sriman Prithviraj'.
Uttam Kumar's 'Sanyasi Raja' arrived during the Puja of 1975, directed by Pijush Bose. Representing the 1980s is Tapan Sinha's 'Atanka' (1986).
To reiterate, this list is not exhaustive—it is at best a selective curation. In the future, we may return with a different selection of other Puja films.