Stree is a 1972 Indian Bengali-language period action drama film directed by Salil Dutta. The film is based on the novel of Bimal Mitra by the same title and the era of the plot showing during the Second World War. Produced by Baby June Productions marking their second venture, it stars Uttam Kumar, Soumitra Chatterjee and Arati Bhattacharya in lead roles. The soundtrack of the film was composed by Nachiketa Ghosh, with the lyrics penned by Gauriprasanna Mazumder and Pulak Bandyopadhyay.
The film showed Uttam's one of the best performance and clash with Soumitra. The film became a blockbuster hit at the box office. The film had dominated at the BFJA Award 1973 and went on to win seven awards. It was later remade in Hindi in 1982 as Ayaash starring Sanjeev Kumar, Arun Govil and Rati Agnihotri in lead roles.
Contents
Plot
Sitapati, a homeless youth, comes to landlord Madhav Dutta's house and gets a job as his cameraman. Sitapati discovers his former girlfriend Mrinmoyee is now Madhav Dutta's wife. Madhav's polygamy and Mirnmoyee's loneliness prompt her extramarital relationship with Sitapati. Baiji dance and alcoholism, love, betrayal, hatred - Sitapati's lens captures it all. Finally, Sitapati leaves the house, Mrinmoyee dies, and gradually Madhav learns about their relationship. Madhav cannot bear the fact that his wife has committed adultery. He goes to take revenge and shoots Sitapati who is already dead, then becomes mad and shoots himself.
Cast
Uttam Kumar as Madhab Dutta, a landlord
Soumitra Chatterjee as Sitapati, a cameraman
Arati Bhattacharya as Mrinmoyee / Meenu, Madhab's wife and Sitapati's ex-girlfriend
Bhanu Banerjee as Sansar Chatterjee
Jahor Roy as Gobardhan Sarkar
Tarun Kumar as Balaram / Bolu, Sitapati's brother-in-law
Subrata Chattopadhyay as Aruna, Sitapati's sister
Sulata Chowdhury as Sarala, Meenu's maid-servant
Shankar Ghosh as Brindaban, Madhab's son
Arindam Ganguly as child Brindaban
Mani Srimani as Madhusudan
Amarnath Mukhopadhyay as Hemadakanta, Madhab's lawyer
Ashok Mitra as Prankeshto
Rasharaj Chakraborty as Shibkali
Parijat Bose as Adalat Ali, Madhab's servant
Ajay Banerjee as Hemadakanta's assistant lawyer
Kalyani Ghosh
Jhuma Mukhopadhyay
Reception
The Times of India wrote "Stree, one of the finest works of Uttam Kumar, reminds us that icons like him are rare. Uttam Kumar stepped out of his romantic image and tried something just the opposite. A drunkard Bengali zamindar without any sense of chastity – he was unrecognizable in this negative character. Yet he bamboozled everyone with this persona. Even critics admitted only Uttam Kumar can do this. The Uttam-Soumitra movie remains a classic one and Uttam's dialogues still haunt us. The film become blockbuster at the box office and ran for 24 weeks in the theaters.
Awards
BFJA Awards (1973)
BFJA Best Actor - Uttam Kumar
BFJA Best Actor In a Supporting Role - Soumitra Chatterjee
BFJA Award Best Dialogue - Salil Dutta
BFJA Award Best Lyrics - Pulak Bandopadhyay
BFJA Award Best Music Direction - Nachiketa Ghosh
BFJA Award Best Playback Singer (Male) - Manna Dey
Remake
The film was remade in Hindi in 1982 as Ayaash directed and produced by Shakti Samanta and starring Sanjeev Kumar in lead.