Indrani Mukherjee the only daughter of a staunch brahmin in a village studies at Kolkata and stays in a girls' hostel. She meets Sudarshan Dutta, who had a brilliant career as a student and is doing his PhD. They fall in love, and Indrani wants to get married with him as soon as possible. She goes back to her village and informs her father of her intention to get married, Indrani's father takes umbrage as Sudarshan is not a Brahmin and also unemployed. Sudarshan too warns Indrani that he won't be able to provide for her. Indrani marries Sudarshan and is tormented at Sudarshan's house by his mother and sisters in law because of several emotional strains at play. To avoid further complications at home, Indrani gets a job as a teacher in Dinajpur. One day, after a heated exchange between two people that started their journey fiercely loving and trusting one another, Sudarshan leaves Indrani and goes in search of a job elsewhere.
Acting
Suchitra Sen's devastating silences speak volumes
Direction
Lahiri balances social commentary with pure emotional wreckage
Cinematography
Evocative black-and-white compositions of 1950s Bengal
Director
Nirendranath Lahiri
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was one of twenty-plus pairings of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen, Bengali cinema's most iconic on-screen couple whose chemistry defined romantic idealism for generations.
The film dramatizes the bhadralok crisis—educated Bengali men facing unemployment despite academic achievement, and the Brahmo marriage debates that challenged caste endogamy in 1950s Bengal.
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