General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Anupama (अनुपमा)

Anupama (अनुपमा) is a 1966 Hindi-language drama film directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, starring Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore, Shashikala, Deven Verma, and Tarun Bose¹. It tells the story of Uma Sharma, a young woman whose father blames her for her mother's death in childbirth, and of the poet Ashok who helps her come out of the shell her father has built around her². The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi at the 1966 National Film Awards and the Filmfare Award for Best Cinematography in the black-and-white category³^•⁴.

Key fact	Detail
Director and story	Directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who also wrote the story; screenplay by Bimal Dutta and D.N. Mukherjee, dialogue by Rajinder Singh Bedi⁵
Lead cast	Dharmendra as Ashok, Sharmila Tagore as Uma Sharma, Shashikala as Anita Bakshi 'Annie', Deven Verma as Arun, Tarun Bose as Mohan Sharma¹
Music	Composed by Hemant Kumar (Hemanta Mukherjee), lyrics by Kaifi Azmi⁵
Production	L.B. Films, produced by L.B. Lachman; cinematography by Jaywant Pathare, editing by Das Dhaimade⁵
Awards	National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi (1966); Filmfare Award for Best Cinematography, B&W³^•⁴
Dedication	Dedicated to Mukherjee's mentor Bimal Roy, who died in 1966⁶
IMDb rating	7.4/10¹

Spoilers

Plot

Mohan Sharma (Tarun Bose) is a successful Bombay businessman who marries late in life. His wife dies giving birth to their daughter Uma (Sharmila Tagore), and Mohan cannot bear to look at the child except when he is drunk⁴. Uma grows up withdrawn, quiet, and submissive, longing for a father's acceptance she never receives⁷. As Mohan's health fails from overwork and alcoholism, doctors send him to the hill station of Mahabaleshwar, where Arun (Deven Verma), the son of Mohan's friend Hari Mehta who is set to marry Uma, arrives with his friend Ashok (Dharmendra), a writer and teacher⁴.

Ashok slowly draws Uma out of her shell, and the two fall in love². Uma, afraid of further damaging her fragile relationship with her father, agrees to marry the man of Mohan's choice rather than the man she loves; eventually she finds her voice and elopes with her lover⁴^•⁸. Mukherjee told Filmfare that he deliberately made Ashok build Uma's confidence without actually rescuing her, so that her victory is her own⁹.

Production and origins

Mukherjee wrote the story himself, with screenplay by Bimal Dutta and D.N. Mukherjee and dialogue by Rajinder Singh Bedi, a major Urdu short-story writer who had also worked with Bimal Roy and Sohrab Modi⁵^•¹⁰. In a Filmfare interview, Mukherjee said the story was based on a real-life incident in his own family: his aunt had died in childbirth, his uncle became an alcoholic and could not stand his daughter, and Mukherjee had seen this with his own eyes; the romance with the poet was his invention⁹.

Casting Sharmila Tagore drew protest at the time, since she was then appearing in An Evening in Paris; Mukherjee defended the choice, saying she had the expressive eyes his silent heroine needed⁹. The film was dedicated to Bimal Roy, Mukherjee's mentor, who died that year⁶.

Music

Hemant Kumar composed the score, with lyrics by Kaifi Azmi⁵. Songs cited by critics include Kuch dil ne kaha, Bheegi bheegi faza, and Ya dil ki suno duniyawalon, the last picturized on Dharmendra in a kurta-pyjama⁶. The Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema also lists Lata Mangeshkar's Dheere dheere machal among the classic songs¹¹. Sharmila Tagore recalled shooting the Kuch dil ne kaha sequence at 5 a.m. in Khandala, with Mukherjee explaining shots calmly and returning to chess between takes¹².

Reception and legacy

The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi and was nominated for four Filmfare Awards, winning Best Cinematography (Black and White) for Jaywant Pathare; it did "Above Average" business at the Indian box office³^•⁴. Critics have described it as a sombre exploration of a fractured father-daughter relationship that stood out at a time when the mother-son bond dominated Hindi family drama, and as a film that questions patriarchy through its narrative⁵^•¹³. MUBI's editorial note praises its "poetic black & white images" and the performances of Tagore and Dharmendra¹⁴.

The film was the first screen pairing of Dharmendra and Sharmila Tagore, who later worked together in Satyakam (1969) and Chupke Chupke (1975)¹⁵. Its treatment of childhood emotional damage was later echoed in Mahesh Bhatt's Daddy (1989)⁹, and Mukherjee quoted it repeatedly in his own 1971 film Guddi¹⁶. In 2025, Mukherjee's family organized a special screening of Anupama in Los Angeles so that American audiences could see the 1966 film¹⁷.

Versions and availability

Sources disagree on the film's exact length: Apple TV and ShemarooMe list 2 hours 18 minutes¹⁸^•⁷, Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, and JustWatch list 2 hours 28 minutes (148 minutes)²^•¹, MUBI lists 138 minutes¹⁴, and a Kolkata festival catalog lists 139 minutes¹⁹. Release dates also vary across databases, from 6 January to 21 January 1966, with Moviebuff giving 4 March 1966 for the Indian wide theatrical release²⁰^•¹^•⁴. As of the most recent listings, the film streams in India on Amazon Prime Video and ShemarooMe, and is free with ads on Hoichoi²¹.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Hindi films before 1970

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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