Siraj

Savitri, a girl from a poor family, falls for Kandarpa, the son of a rich family. Before the romance goes far, Kandarpa's family sends him to Kolkata and fixes Savitri's marriage to someone else. On her wedding night she runs away and finds shelter with Siraj, a Muslim, and his sister Fatema discovers that Savitri is pregnant. Savitri dies after giving birth to a daughter, whom Fatema names Nur and Siraj names Sita. Kandarpa's mother lies to him about Savitri and he marries Saraju, a rich man's daughter. By chance he meets Sita and learns the truth about Savitri.

In 1946 Phani Sarma planned a public film company to give the industry a lasting foundation, Chitrawali Pictures Limited, and raised money by selling shares. Bishnu Prasad Rabha and Sarma wrote the screenplay from Deshpran Lakshidhar Sarma's story and were given the direction as well. Exteriors were shot near Tezpur and interiors at Kali Film Studio in Kolkata, in the tense months before independence when communal violence had broken out in Calcutta and Noakhali. Rabha was given the music, but his tunes did not suit the script, so at the last moment two songs each by Bhupen Hazarika and Shiva Bhattacharya were included. When money ran short Chandradhar Goswami sold his ship Nipon to contribute 20,000 rupees, and Kashiprasad Bihani of Nagaon provided the rest.

Siraj, released on 16 January 1948, was the only commercially successful Assamese film of its year and made a strong mark on Assamese society. No print survives, and the negative was lost from a Kolkata studio in the 1960s.

In Phani Sarma's filmography, Siraj was followed by Piyoli Phukan (1955) and Dhumuha (1957).