Nimila Anka

Harakanta Kakati is a retired clerk who cannot manage the household on his pension and works at a private firm. He has two wives and a houseful of children. The only son from his first wife is a graduate but ill and earns nothing. The first son of his second wife is a poet but unemployed, the second is a rudderless revolutionary, and the third and fourth are unruly and foolish. His second wife Bimala is caught up in public causes and careless of household duties. A comedy of light humour and sad humour follows.

By 1948 four Assamese films had been made, and only Siraj by Bishnu Rabha and Phani Sarma had been a commercial success, so production had stalled. Lakshyadhar Choudhury, whose play Nimila Anka had been staged at the Kumar Bhaskar Natya Mandir in Guwahati on 13 and 14 March 1954 for the fifth annual meeting of the Pragjyotish Kala Sangha, decided to film it, encouraged by the musician Purushottam Das. As no producer would take the risk, he founded Nilachal Chitrapith to raise money through donations. About three thousand rupees came first, and then Badiuzzaman of Machkhowa gave ten thousand, eventually adding up to twenty-two thousand. The cast and crew paid their own fares to Kolkata and, except for the actress Anupama Bhattacharya, were paid nothing, receiving gifts of cloth instead. Outdoor scenes were shot at Six Mile, Panjabari, Rajgarh and Fatasil near Guwahati, and the final cost was 64,000 rupees.

The film proved very popular. Its negative has been lost; a print kept by the animal husbandry department was once broadcast on Guwahati Doordarshan.

In Lakshyadhar Choudhury's filmography, Nimila Anka was followed by Lachit Borphukan (1961).