Saptapadi (Coaster)

Saptapadi (transl. Seven Steps) is a 1961 Indian Bengali-language Epic romantic drama film by Ajoy Kar, starring Suchitra Sen, Uttam Kumar, Chhabi Biswas and Chhaya Debi. Music direction and playback singing for Kumar’s voice was by Hemanta Mukherjee and in Sen’s voice by Sandhya Mukherjee. The story is based on a 1958 same name novel by Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay. This is regarded as one of the greatest romantic films in the history of Bengali cinema. The film went on to become the highest grossing Bengali film in 1961. It was featured retrospectively at the 45th IFFI in the “homage section” of Indian panorama. Set in pre-independence India in the early 1940s, the story follows young Indian students competing equally with Anglo-Indians in all fields, from education to sports. The protagonist, Krishnendu Mukherjee, is a young Bengali Hindu medical student who falls in love with an equally talented Anglo-Indian Christian woman named Rina Brown. They are both students at Calcutta Medical College and grow close while attending many sporting and cultural events together. There is an interesting rendition of Othello in the film, directed by Utpal Dutt. However, marriage is out of the question due to their different religions. Krishnendu’s father, a staunch, conservative Hindu, particularly opposes it, and the couple go their separate ways, only to meet again unexpectedly later in life. Most of the film is presented in flashbacks, with Krishnendu pondering the past after he unexpectedly encounters a drunk and unconscious Rina in a military hospital.