Achhut Kanya(1936)

Himanshu Rai made ‘अछूत कन्या’ way back in 1936. His in-house team comprised of actor Ashok Kumar, His German Director Franz Ostein and his star-wife Devika Rani.

‘Achhut Kanya’ is a story told in flashback of a man waiting at a railway crossing wanting to kill his wife when he spins into his past. A love story unfolds –that of Pratap, the son of a Brahmin grocer Mohan and Kasturi, the daughter of a Harijan railway crossing guard. The tragic series of events as the repercussions (including mob violence) lead to a violent emotional and social conflagration in a village graphically showed how the lovers were trapped in the social milieu of pre-independence rural India in the ‘30s. Rebellion was impossible and conformism equally unthinkable as the lovers could not suppress their own emotions, though they had to agree to marry others within their own respective strata.

It was with ‘Achhut Kanya’ actually that the stereotyped Indian village girl of Hindi films was born. The film made the spectacularly lovely star, Devika Rani, achieve the reputation of an actress. She did just 14 films ih her entire career, but ‘Achhut Kanya’ remains her signature film for all time. Ashok Kumar too became star and came to roost in Hindi Cinema with this film.

‘Achhut Kanya’ was a much-talked film that marked the emergence of committed social films in India. It made a potent comment on the rampant casteism prevalent in society at that time. Ashok Kumar’s duet with Devika Rani, “Main ban ki chidiya banke ban ban dolun re” became a rage.

‘Achhut Kanya’ was shown at a special screening for the then Congress President Jawaharlal Nehru and other Congress leaders including Sarojini Naidu.