Meghe ḍhaka tara videorecording directed, produced and written by Ritwik Ghatak.

Videodisc release of the 1960 motion picture

Based on the story by Shaktipada Rajguru

Meghe Dhaka Tara is a 1960 film written and directed by Ritwik Ghatak, based on a social novel by Shaktipada Rajguru with the same title. The film revolves around Nita (played by Supriya Choudhury), a young girl who lives with her family, refugees from East Pakistan, in the suburbs of Calcutta. Nita is a self-sacrificing person who is constantly exploited by everyone around her, even her own family, who take her goodness for granted. Her father has an accident and is unable to make a living. Her elder brother Shankar (played by Anil Chatterjee) believes that his craft (singing) needs to be perfected before he can make any income from it and therefore the burden of taking care of the family falls on Nita. Her life is ridden with personal tragedy: her lover Sanat leaves her for her sister Geeta, her younger brother is injured while working in a factory and finally she herself becomes a burden for her family by contracting tuberculosis. Her mostly absent would-be singer brother is the only person who cares about her in the end. At the end of the film, she screams out her agony, throwing herself into her brother's arms. She utters her last words: "Brother, I want to survive.

"A dark melodrama set in late fifties Calcutta about a refugee family and the struggle of Nita, the oldest daughter, to keep them afloat and together. It is a bitter critique of the family as an institution and also of the harsh social and economic conditions arising from Partition" (container notes).

DVD

In Bengali with English subtitles.