Neel Akasher Neechey

1959 Indian film

20 February 1959 (1959-02-20)

Running time

133 minutesCountryIndiaLanguageBengali

Neel Akasher Neechey (Bengali: নীল আকাশের নীচে Nil akasher niche, "Under the Blue Sky") is a 1959 Bengali language drama film directed by Mrinal Sen and produced by Hemanta Mukherjee, starring Kali Bannerjee, Manju Dey, Bikash Roy in lead roles. The film was based on the Mahadevi Verma short story Chini Feriwala.^[3]

Set in the background of the last days of the British Raj in Calcutta, the film explores the lives of a number of characters, including the platonic relationship between an immigrant Chinese wage worker, Wang Lu, and the main female character Basanti. The film had overt political overtones and was the first film to be banned by the Government of India.^[4]^[5] The ban was effective for two months.^[6]

Plot

Set in the 1930s, the film tells the story of an honest Chinese hawker, Wang Lu, who sells silk in Calcutta's streets while refusing to get involved in the opium trade run by his fellow countrymen. He feels a sisterly affection towards Basanti, the wife of a lawyer who is engaged in a nationalist political group. Basanti is arrested and imprisoned causing Wang Lu to get involved with her political group. He later returns to China to join the resistance movement against the Japanese invasion of China in 1931.^[7]

Cast

Kali Bannerjee as Wang Lu
Manju Dey as Basanti
Bikash Roy as Basanti's husband
Smriti Biswas as Maki
Suruchi Sengupta
Ajit Chatterjee
Rasaraj Chakraborty
Mei-Lin Jiang as Mei-Lin in special appearance

Soundtrack

All lyrics are written by Gauriprasanna Mazumder; all music is composed by Hemant Mukherjee

Songs
No.	Title	Playback	Length
1.	"O Nadi Re"	Hemant Mukherjee	4:13
2.	"Neel Akasher Neechey Ei Prithibi"	Hemant Mukherjee	3:48

References

^ https://www.totalnewsbd.com/tag/indian-cinema/^{[permanent dead link]}
^ "Neel Akasher Nichey".
^ Ma, Joy; D'Souza, Dilip (23 January 2020). The Deoliwallahs. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-5290-4886-5.
^ "Know about the first movie banned in the independent India!". India TV. 11 March 2015.
^ "Mrinal Sen's 'Neel Akasher Neechey' the first film banned in independent India". The Times of India. 14 May 2019. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
^ "Clamping down on creativity". The Hindu. 29 March 2017.
^ "Did you know Mrinal Sen's 'Neel Akasher Neechey' was banned initially?". The Times of India. 14 May 2020. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 5 July 2024.