Amanat (1955)

A Bimal Roy Productions picture, directed by Aravind Sen, and it turns on a promise made to a stranger. A dying man hands his life savings to Purushottam, whom he has only just met, and asks him to carry the money to his wife and his son Pradeep in a remote village. Bharat Bhushan plays Pradeep, Chand Usmani is Meena, Nazir Hussain is Purushottam and Pran is Naresh, with Achala Sachdev as Pradeep's mother. The crew is very nearly the one that had just made Do Bigha Zamin. Salil Chaudhury wrote the music and Shailendra the words; Nabendu Ghosh did the screenplay from a story and dialogue by the Bengali writer Premendra Mitra; Kamal Bose photographed it. Four of the songs are Banke Adayen Dekhna Ji and Jab Se Mili Tose Ankhiyan, both Geeta Dutt's, the second shared with Hemant Kumar; Chhal Chhal Pani Hamari Zindagani, sung by Manna Dey and Asha Bhosle; and Jab Tumne Mohabbat Chhinli, Asha's. The censor card at the head of this print is not the original. It is marked DUPLICATE and dated 22 May 1976 - the Board re-certifying a 1955 film for another decade in the halls, twenty-one years after it opened.