Nishi Padma (Bengali pronunciation: transl. The Night-Lotus) is a 1970 Indian Bengali-language drama film co-written and directed by Arabinda Mukhopadhyay. Produced by Shantimoy Banerjee under the banner of Chirantan Chitra, the film is based on Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay's short story Hinger Kochuri. The film portrays the decline of human values and relationships and contrasts it by presenting an illustrious example of a boy's innocent love for a neighbourhood tawaif (courtesan).
The film stars Sabitri Chatterjee playing a hooker with a heart of gold, with Uttam Kumar in the role of a lonely businessman and Anup Kumar as adult Nanda, the young child, who they both come to care for. It also stars Jahar Roy, Gangapada Basu, Gita Dey and Nripati Chatterjee in other supporting roles. Music of the film is composed by Nachiketa Ghosh, with lyrics penned by Gauriprasanna Mazumder and Mukhopadhyay himself. The cinematography of the film is handled by Sailaja Chatterjee, while Amiyo Mukherjee edited the film. The film marks the first collaboration between Mukhopadhyay and Kumar and the 30th film of the lead pair.
Nishi Padma theatrically released on 23 October 1970, opening to a critical and commercial success, running for over 250 days in theatres. It emerged as the highest-grossing Bengali film of the year and gained a cult status among the audiences. At the 18th National Film Awards, the film won two awards – Best Male Playback Singer (Manna Dey) for "Ja Khushi Ora Bole Boluk" and Best Female Playback Singer (Sandhya Mukherjee) for "Ore Sakol Sona Molin Holo".
Nishi Padma was remade into Hindi in 1972 as Amar Prem by Shakti Samanta, starring Rajesh Khanna, Sharmila Tagore and Vinod Mehra, where Mukhopadhyay served as its screenwriter, in his debut in Hindi cinema. It is included in India Today's "100 greatest Indian films of all time".
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
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