Dhumuha

In June 1942, with the Japanese army advancing on Burma, thousands of Indians flee towards Assam. Among them is the Assamese businessman Bishweswar Choudhury, with his wife and three children: twelve-year-old Pradip, five-year-old Nina and the toddler Pona. The loyal servant Mangala, who is carrying Pona, falls behind with an injured foot and loses the family.

A childless woman, Padumi, who is travelling with her husband Bharat, an oil-field worker in Burma, takes the baby in. Mangala never tells them who the child really is. They raise him as Manik. Ten years on, Bharat falls ill and the family declines, and fate sends Manik to work as a servant in Bishweswar Choudhury's own house. Meanwhile Choudhury has advertised for his lost son.

Padumi sees the advertisement in a newspaper and travels to the city to bring Manik home, while Manik, missing his mother, has gone back to the village. That night a fierce storm brings down their decayed hut on Bharat and he dies. Next day Padumi reaches the Choudhury house, where Mangala recognises her and asks about the baby. Everyone then learns that Pona, the youngest child of the house, has been working there as a servant all along.

Phani Sarma directed and Hridayananda Agarwala produced under the Sonitpur Pictures banner. The assistant directors were Amalendu Bagchi and Hiteswar Mahanta. Sound recording was by Bani Dutta and Rishikesh Mukherjee, and the scene design by Bijoy Basu.

In Phani Sarma's filmography, Dhumuha came after Siraj (1948) and Piyoli Phukan (1955) and was followed by Puwati Nishar Sapon (1959) and Kecha Son (1959).