Shesh Anka

It was a time when I was of that age that movie watching was a privilege to me and so it surprised me when my parents insisted that I watch this one telecasted in Doordarshan (DD1 I think). My mother had a love of mystery movies and my father also shared the same sentiment. So while watching this movie for the 1^st time I was prepared to watch something of a suspense sort following the clear cut format of a case presented to a detective and the way he solves it through clues collected from odd places. That the same can be done in a completely different way with the viewers baffled as not only to the identity of the criminal but also to that of the investigator shows the ingenuity of both the story writer Raj Kumar Maitra and the director Haridas Bhattacharya. So when my mother presented this movie to my father as a birthday gift we were also equally thrilled to shelf this permanently in our house.

The story starts with the marriage arrangements between the wealthy Sudhangshu Gupta, a handsome but widowed young man and Soma Roy, the only daughter to Sir Haraprasad Roy, an honoured citizen of Calcutta. Parallel to that it is also shown that the butlers in Sudhangshu’s and Haraprasad’s house with an apparently fishy dealings with a Mr. Samaddar and Ms. Lata Bose. Samaddar seemed to possess more than one identity and appears to be the leader of the team who continuously instructs the three and also steals some documents from Sudhangshu’s house. Also in their conversation Burma and Imphal is mentioned very frequently and it is cited that both Sudhangshu and Haraprasad’s family had once been either the residents or had visited at least one of the two places. As the preparation of the marriage proceeds Lata is seen to appear in the guise of a distressed Kalpana Gupta and gets herself admitted to a cheap hotel very near the resident of an expert veteran criminal lawyer Suren Bannerjee. On the day of the marriage, Lata receives an anonymous letter, already a pre-planned move of Samaddar and reading it, rushes to Suren Bannerjee’s chamber where Samaddar was again present in the guise of Bannerjee’s client. The next scene takes us to the place of the marriage and as the rituals are about to be started Bannerjee enters and orders it to be stopped claiming that Sudhangshu’s 1^st wife is not dead and brings forward Lata adorned with Kalpana’s ornaments and asks Haraprasad to look into the matter. Samaddar too manages to involve himself in the confusion and insists the marriage to be stopped immediately. A rapid informal query ensues and the ACP, a close associate to Haraprasad is called. He soon finds that some ornaments from Sudhangshu’s house is missing but the post mortem report, death certificate and inquest report of Kalpana’s death is still present. But the Kalpana’s photographs and diaries have been replaced with Lata’s photographs and diaries whose handwriting does not match those of Kalpana. A terrible confusion ensues and a case is presented in the court against Lata’s claim and also charges of theft and illegal entry is brought against her. Samaddar finances Bannerjee to take up Lata’s case while Haraprasad employs another expert, Mitra against her. Curiously as the case proceeds, it becomes increasingly difficult to disprove Lata’s identity while shadows of doubt seems to form between Soma and Sudhangshu. As a final measure the distressed and apparently crestfallen Sudhangshu suggests, Kalpana’s brother, Debesh be called in. But before Mitra could ask for the permission of seeking Deben, Bannerjee surprises them by asking the judge to give them a week to call Deben as a witness on the defendant's side. In this situation the audience awaits in true suspense what happens when Deben comes but I assure you something dramatic await them as the movie closes. This outstanding movie seems to be based on the English film, “Chase a Crooked Shadow” but be it a adaptation the excellent acting gives the viewers more than a two hours entertainment.

Bikash Roy (Samaddar), Uttam Kumar (Sudhangshu) both are excellent and so are Kamal Mitra (Suren Bannerjee), Sabitri chattopadhyay (Lata) and Tarun Kumar (Deben) in their shorter roles. Pahari Sanyal (Haraprasad), Sharmila Tagore (Soma) and Utpal Dutta (Mr. Mitra) are also equally well in their characterization.