Pankaj Mullick Movies, TV Shows, and Filmography
Pankaj Mullick
Sound
Biography
Pankaj Mullick, also known as Pankaj Kumar Mullick (10 May 1905 – 19 February 1978), was a Bengali Indian music director, who was a pioneer of film music in Bengali cinema and Hindi cinema at the advent of playback singing, as well as an early exponent of Rabindra Sangeet. Pankaj Mullick earned legendary fame and popularity as a singer and teacher of Rabindrasangeet. He devoted his whole life to this cause using the media of the film, the radio and the gramophone – he succeeded in endearing himself to music loving Indians all over the country.
Filmography Movies
Acting
Abhigyan
A wife rejected by her in-laws following her abduction is given shelter by the husband's friend. The storyline follows the wife's ambivalent feelings for her savior when she's accepted back into the family.
Doctor
An early example of social realism that reached its height with 'Udayer Pathey' and more memorably with 'Chhinnamul', 'Doctor' was meant as a stringent critique of practices that were beginning to be deemed as persistant evils that plague society, namely superstitions, religious dogma and discrimination on the basis of caste. However, that would be a far too simplistic reading of the multiple thematic elements that tie together the narrative of 'Doctor'. The idea of caste based discrimination, violence and upper-caste hypocrisy is placed alongside the notions of generational conflict in a father-son relationship and the idea of a ever-widening generation gap especially in the historical and socio-political context of the film.
Adhikar
Melodrama about lineage and property questions. Nikhilesh (Barua) loves heiress Indira (Jamuna). A poor orphan girl, Radha (Menaka Devi), arrives claiming to be Indira's stepsister and therefore part inheritor of the family estate. Indira agrees to share her inheritance but then Radha makes a play for Nikhilesh. Ultimately, Radha turns out to be the real and sole heir. Love proves to be stronger than material possession as Indira and Nikhilesh get married and Radha finds happiness with Ratan, a man she had known and loved during her days of poverty. As each character returns to the class of his/her birth, the message hammered home is a warning to people never to transcend their social status.
Mukti
This classic adultery story tells of an artist, Prasanta (Barua) presented in the stereotypically romantic image: dedicated to his vocation, paying no heed to his scandalous reputation (he paints nude models) and with a cavalier attitude to his conservative father-in-law's (Choudhury) demands for a good social behavior.
Production
Maya
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.
Grihadaha
The poor but educated Mahim and his childhood friend, the rich but conservative Suresh, both fall in love with the same woman, the liberated Achala. Mahim marries her and they move to a village but she cannot forget Suresh. Her smoldering unhappiness takes the form of resentment towards the orphaned Mrinal, raised by Mahim's father, and receives a dramatic visual embodiment when their house burns down. Mahim falls ill, is rescued by Suresh, and nursed back to health by Achala. On a train (a metaphor for the irreversibly linear course of life) to a health resort where Mahim is supposed to convalesce, Suresh on a rainswept night gives in to temptation and elopes with Achala. At the end of the film, there is a dubious reconciliation as Achala is shown following Mahim's 'good' traditionalism with Sharatchandra's barely concealed hostility towards Achala's liberated Brahmo Samaj upbringing.
Zindagi
The story of an unemployed graduate who falls in love with a woman who ran away from her cruel husband.
My Sister
Set against the backdrop of WW II in Calcutta, "Meri Bahen" is the story of a schoolteacher and his young sister. The film followed his rise to fame as a singer and the changes in his relationships following a bomb-raid.
Nartaki
Roop Kumari (Leela Desai) a famous court dancer is forbidden entry into a temple monastery run by a strict disciplinarian Priest. The cast listed here is for the Hindi version, there is also a Bengali version with a different cast, but same director and release year.
Two Generations
One of the early films of Chhabi Biswas featuring him as a leading man, before he came to be associated with the dominating patriarch roles that have become iconic in Bengali cinema, the film is a tale of the love, relationships and ideals of two generations. Nutubihari is an idealist who has given up his love for Kalyani for the sake of his beliefs. He marries Bimala and becomes a lawyer, fighting for the rights of the poor against the feudal lords. Meanwhile, Kalyani comes to ask refuge after she becomes a widow and is inexplicably accepted by Bimala with a lot of warmth. As the years pass Kalyani's daughter Mamata and Nutu's oldest son Arun fall in love and wish to get married. However, the new-found fame and fortune turns his head and Nutu begins to resemble all the ideals and vices that he had always despised. On the other hand in an ironical turn of events, Arun comes to occupy the position once held by his father, highlighting the generational conflict of ideals.
Zalzala
Bengal's struggle to get rid of British domination by terrorism and underground intrigue.
President
Badi Bahen aka President is a 1937 Hindi social romantic drama film (the Bengali version was called Didi and starred several different actors). The story according to the credit roll of the film is "A tale of love and greater love" developed on an idea by M. M. Begg. It was a love triangle with a social content that highlighted the conditions of the mill workers. It was also the first film to show a liberated educated woman managing her own factory
Baradidi
Suren, prevented by his family from pursuing a university career, leaves home and becomes a tutor to Pramila. He falls in love with her widowed elder sister Madhavi who, although returning his love, has him sacked to save the situation.
Dikshul
Dikshul is a 1943 Bengali film produced by New Theatres Ltd. Directed by Premankur Atorthy, the film featured music by Pankaj Mullick and cinematography by Rabi Dhar. Notably, the film's lyrics were penned by the renowned poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, and it marked the playback singing debut of actress Binota Roy.
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