You all must have heard of the film
Saudagar. This is not the Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar film Saudagar but the
producer of the film is same. SubhashGhai and Tarachand Barjatya had produced this film under the production company
Rajshri Productions.
Welcome you to an episode of AmitabhBachchan’s filmy journey. Today we will tell you the story of his film Saudagar
released on October 26th 1973.
Though the film did not do too well at
the box office, but Amitabh Bachchan, Nutan and Padma Khanna were much appreciated
for their fabulous acting. It was
nominated for the Film Academy Award.
This beautiful film on the screen was
directed by Sudhendu Roy and the story is based from Bengali story Ras by
Narendranath Mitra.
Now we talk about Moti essayed by
Amitabh Bachchan who is a trader of ‘Gur’(Sweet unrefined sugar or also called
Jaggery) and is made seasonal. Moti
falls in love with Phoolbhanu ( Padma Khanna) whose father asks for bride price
that is called Mehar which he does not have.
Majubee essayed by Nutan is an widow in the same village who is married
to Moti and she helps with his business by preparing the gur for him to sell.
Her gur is very famous and people thronged to buy it from Moti hence his
business flourishes and thus collects the money for the Mehar to marry his lady
love Phoolbanu and divorces Majubee. Majubee and the village is shocked at his
decision. All is fine until the season
for the gur. Now an inexperienced
Phoolbanu turns out to be a terrible at making the gur. Moti’s business sees a downfall and his
customers stop buying from him. He does not make any profit. Meanwhile a fish trader asks Majubee to
marry him as he has three small children.Majubee is treated with respect by
him.
Once in the gur season, Phoolbanu with
her negligence burns the entire lot due to which Moti is very angry , he
approaches Majubee requesting her to make some gur for him and seeing his
pitiful condition she willingly helps Moti and also understands Phoolbanu. The
film ends on a good note..
Saudagar was the only film in which
Amitabh Bachchan and Nutan paired together. After this film Big B and Nutan’s
onscreen chemistry was not to be seen Many years later in 1994, Nutan played
the role of a mother to Amitabh Bachchan in the film Insaniyat.
It was also known that Barjatya was not
fond of Amitabh Bachchan for his films due to his long torso and height but after seeing the film Anand his views
changed.
Padma Khanna an item girl doing small time roles in films had got this big break to sign along with good stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Nutan. In Saudagar she has acted very well with all seriousness for the role as Phoolbanu. The song Sajna hai mujhe sajna ke liye. The song was picturized on Padma Khanna.