A 1936 Indian melodrama where love letters become weapons of class warfare.
Maya (Jamuna) is the poor cousin of rich socialite Shanta (Azoorie). Shanta is supposed to marry the equally rich Pratap (P. Sanyal), but he falls in love with Maya and fathers her child before going abroad. Shanta causes a seperation by intercepting Pratap's letters to Maya. When he returns, a successful lawyer, he us unable to trace her, while her efforts to meet him are foiled.
Acting
Jamuna's silent suffering as the wronged Maya.
Direction
P.C. Barua's pioneering use of close-ups for emotional impact.
Director
P.C. Barua
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
P.C. Barua was a Bengali cinema pioneer who directed the first Hindi-language Devdas in 1935; Maya continues his obsession with women destroyed by rigid social structures.
Jamuna Barua was P.C. Barua's wife in real life, making their director-actress collaborations some of early Indian cinema's most fraught on-screen marriages.
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