# Sujata (सुजाता) (1959 film)
**Sujata** (सुजाता) is a 1959 Hindi-language drama directed and produced by [Bimal Roy](https://www.edgepedia.org/bimal-roy), based on a [Bengali short story](https://www.edgepedia.org/bengali-short-story) of the same name by [Subodh Ghosh](https://www.edgepedia.org/subodh-ghosh), about an orphaned "untouchable" (Dalit) girl raised in an upper-caste Brahmin household.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053319) • [2](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/sujata-1959/research-centre/all/sujata-1959-cinema-photographic-lobby-card-3084) Starring Nutan in the title role and Sunil Dutt as her Brahmin suitor Adheer, the film uses a love story to examine caste discrimination in post-Independence India, and it won four Filmfare Awards and was entered in competition at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival.[3](https://www.filmfare.com/features/100-filmfare-days-day-24-sujata-6151.html) • [4](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/sujata/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and producer | Bimal Roy, under his banner Bimal Roy Productions[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053319) |
| Source | Bengali short story "Sujata" by Subodh Ghosh; screenplay by Nabendu Ghosh, dialogue by Paul Mahendra[2](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/sujata-1959/research-centre/all/sujata-1959-cinema-photographic-lobby-card-3084) • [1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053319) |
| Lead cast | Nutan as Sujata, Sunil Dutt as Adhir, with Shashikala, Tarun Bose, Sulochana Latkar, and Lalita Pawar[5](https://www.justwatch.com/in/movie/sujata) |
| Release | 20 March 1959 (India); 161 minutes; black and white[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053319) |
| Music | S. D. Burman; lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri[6](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Sujata?hl=en_US&id=74D8CC34D1458AC9MV) |
| Filmfare Awards (1960) | Best Film, Best Director (Bimal Roy), Best Actress (Nutan), Best Story (Subodh Ghosh)[7](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/sujata-1959/research-centre/library) |
| Cannes | Entered in competition for feature films at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival[4](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/sujata/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The film opens on the birthday of Rama, the only child of Upendranath Chowdhury, a district railway engineer, and his wife Charu. That evening, villagers bring a newborn girl whose parents, an "untouchable" couple, have died in an epidemic, and no one else will take her in. The Brahmin couple reluctantly agrees to keep her and names her Sujata.[8](https://iaac.us/NYIFF2016/three-generations-filmmakers.htm) • [9](https://nfaindia.org/images/pdf/7th%20National%20Film%20Award%20Catalogue.pdf)
Sujata grows up alongside Rama, and the two girls feel no difference of birth or parentage. The distinctions come from the adults: Upendranath treats her as a daughter, while Charu, fearing social ostracism, introduces her only as "like a daughter" (beti jaisi, not beti).[9](https://nfaindia.org/images/pdf/7th%20National%20Film%20Award%20Catalogue.pdf) • [10](https://southasia.ucla.edu/culture/cinema/directors/bimal-roy/) The film shows the discrimination in small domestic details: when visitors arrive, Sujata, who normally serves tea to her foster parents, is told to let the household servant make and serve it instead.[11](https://utw11109.utweb.utexas.edu/caste-race-relations/) In an early scene, [Lalita Pawar](https://www.edgepedia.org/lalita-pawar)'s character, the orthodox family friend Giribala, flings the baby aside the moment she learns her caste, and an upper-caste guest leaves the house because a "low-caste girl" is under its roof.[12](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/bollywood-rewind-sujata-nutan-sunil-dutt-bimal-roy-7555296/)
As adults, Sujata falls in love with Adheer, a well-educated young Brahmin man, which forces her untouchable status to the forefront; Adheer's aunt opposes the match and wants him to marry Rama instead.[13](https://www.telegraphindia.com/entertainment/love-untouchable-how-bimal-roys-sujata-embodied-caste-inequality-six-decades-ago/cid/2044989) • [14](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053319/plotsummary/) The crisis resolves through a blood transfusion: Charu falls down the stairs, and only Sujata's rare blood group matches. When Charu learns that Sujata's donation saved her life, she accepts her as a daughter, and Sujata and Adheer marry.[15](https://d1f72a6kha0tf8.cloudfront.net/sujata) Filmfare described the message as "that we're all united by blood," a soft blow against casteist beliefs.[3](https://www.filmfare.com/features/100-filmfare-days-day-24-sujata-6151.html)
## Themes and context
The film's subtexts include Dr. [B. R. Ambedkar](https://www.edgepedia.org/b-r-ambedkar)'s fight against untouchability and the myth of Chandalika (Hindu myth of an untouchable woman, central to the film's theme) in Hinduism, which it uses to criticize the practice of untouchability in India.[15](https://d1f72a6kha0tf8.cloudfront.net/sujata) The Tuli Research Centre notes that [Mahatma Gandhi](https://www.edgepedia.org/mahatma-gandhi)'s campaign against untouchability forms the backdrop of the plot.[2](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/sujata-1959/research-centre/all/sujata-1959-cinema-photographic-lobby-card-3084) A Hindi-cinema survey by the Center for the Advanced Study of India places Sujata against earlier films on untouchability, Dharmatma (1935) and [Achhut Kanya](https://www.edgepedia.org/achhut-kanya) (1936), which it characterizes as dramatic tradition rather than commentary on social justice; Sujata it reads as a new beginning for the genre.[16](https://casi.sas.upenn.edu/hindi/iit/elusive-idea-impressions-social-justice-hindi-cinema-1940s-70s-1)
**Bimal Roy's approach.** Roy (1909–1966) was known for socially conscious films such as Do Bigha Zameen (1953) and Bandini (1963), and his wife Manobina Roy said in the documentary Remembering Bimal Roy that he "only believed in humanism" and did not want to be a preacher.[17](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/bimal-roy-the-filmmaker-who-inspired-satyajit-ray-showed-mirror-to-the-society-seven-decades-ago-8830671/) The film scholar Vinay Lal of UCLA places Sujata in the realist strand of Roy's cinema and reads it, with some simplification, as concerned with women's oppression, noting that Roy cast Nutan in the title role and that she delivered "a performance of immense dignity and control."[10](https://southasia.ucla.edu/culture/cinema/directors/bimal-roy/) A cognitive film-theory study by Patrick Colm Hogan, a professor at the [University of Connecticut](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-connecticut), argues that Roy uses staging in depth and graphic matches to advance the critique of untouchability, drawing on ideas from Hindu metaphysics.[18](https://filmoterapia.pl/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/On-the-Meaning-of-Style-Cognition-Culture-and-Visual-Technique-in-Bimal-Roy%E2%80%99s-Sujata.pdf)
## Music
[S. D. Burman](https://www.edgepedia.org/s-d-burman) composed the score and [Majrooh Sultanpuri](https://www.edgepedia.org/majrooh-sultanpuri) wrote the lyrics.[6](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Sujata?hl=en_US&id=74D8CC34D1458AC9MV) The songs include "Jalte Hain Jiske Liye," sung by Talat Mahmood, in which the two lovers exchange feelings over the telephone; the lullaby "Nanhi Kali Sone Chali" sung by [Geeta Dutt](https://www.edgepedia.org/geeta-dutt); the birthday song "Tum Jiyo Hazaron Saal"; and "Sun Mere Bandhu Re," sung by Burman himself.[3](https://www.filmfare.com/features/100-filmfare-days-day-24-sujata-6151.html) • [19](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/sujata-1959/research-centre/all/sujata-1959-cinema-photographic-lobby-card-3080) The Telegraph calls "Jalte Hain Jiske Liye" one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs in Hindi cinema.[13](https://www.telegraphindia.com/entertainment/love-untouchable-how-bimal-roys-sujata-embodied-caste-inequality-six-decades-ago/cid/2044989)
## Reception and legacy
Upon release, Sujata was a major success. It won the Filmfare Awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress (Nutan), and Best Story, and it received the All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film at the 1959 [National Film Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-film-awards).[7](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/sujata-1959/research-centre/library) • [9](https://nfaindia.org/images/pdf/7th%20National%20Film%20Award%20Catalogue.pdf) It was entered in competition at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival.[4](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/sujata/) Roy won the [Filmfare Award for Best Director](https://www.edgepedia.org/filmfare-award-for-best-director) three years in succession, for [Madhumati](https://www.edgepedia.org/madhumati), Sujata, and Parakh.[10](https://southasia.ucla.edu/culture/cinema/directors/bimal-roy/)
The film has remained a reference point for caste in mainstream [Hindi cinema](https://www.edgepedia.org/hindi-cinema). A 2019 peer-reviewed study of Dalit representation in popular Hindi cinema takes its title from the film, "From Sujata to Kachra," and a 2025 journal article analyzing Dalit narratives in Bollywood begins its arc with Sujata (1959) as one of the early films to deal explicitly with caste discrimination, ending with Article 15 (2019).[20](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14746689.2019.1673544) • [21](https://www.socialsciencejournal.in/assets/archives/2025/vol11issue6/11166.pdf) The Indian Express, reviewing the film in 2021, judged that it conveys the ills of caste discrimination effectively but resolves the conflict "a little too simplistically," and noted that the film still speaks to a world where caste remains a basis of identity.[12](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/bollywood-rewind-sujata-nutan-sunil-dutt-bimal-roy-7555296/) The film streams in India on ShemarooMe, free with advertisements.[5](https://www.justwatch.com/in/movie/sujata)
## References
1. [Sujata (1959), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053319)
2. [Sujata (1959), Tuli Research Centre for India Studies](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/sujata-1959/research-centre/all/sujata-1959-cinema-photographic-lobby-card-3084)
3. [100 Filmfare Days: Day 24 – Sujata, Filmfare (2014)](https://www.filmfare.com/features/100-filmfare-days-day-24-sujata-6151.html)
4. [SUJATA, Bimal Roy, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/sujata/)
5. [Sujata streaming: where to watch movie online, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/in/movie/sujata)
6. [Sujata, Google Play Movies](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Sujata?hl=en_US&id=74D8CC34D1458AC9MV)
7. [Sujata (1959), Tuli Research Centre library page](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/sujata-1959/research-centre/library)
8. [NYIFF 2016: Three Generations of Filmmakers, Indo-American Arts Council](https://iaac.us/NYIFF2016/three-generations-filmmakers.htm)
9. [7th National Film Award Catalogue, National Film Archive of India](https://nfaindia.org/images/pdf/7th%20National%20Film%20Award%20Catalogue.pdf)
10. [Bimal Roy (1909–1966), by Vinay Lal, MANAS, UCLA](https://southasia.ucla.edu/culture/cinema/directors/bimal-roy/)
11. [Caste, Race and Relations course page, University of Texas](https://utw11109.utweb.utexas.edu/caste-race-relations/)
12. [Bollywood Rewind: Sujata, The Indian Express (2021)](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/bollywood-rewind-sujata-nutan-sunil-dutt-bimal-roy-7555296/)
13. [Love Untouchable: How Bimal Roy's Sujata embodied caste inequality, The Telegraph (2024)](https://www.telegraphindia.com/entertainment/love-untouchable-how-bimal-roys-sujata-embodied-caste-inequality-six-decades-ago/cid/2044989)
14. [Sujata (1959) – Plot, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053319/plotsummary/)
15. [Sujata on Moviebuff.com](https://d1f72a6kha0tf8.cloudfront.net/sujata)
16. [Social justice in Hindi cinema, 1940s–70s, Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania](https://casi.sas.upenn.edu/hindi/iit/elusive-idea-impressions-social-justice-hindi-cinema-1940s-70s-1)
17. [Bimal Roy: The filmmaker who inspired Satyajit Ray, The Indian Express (2023)](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/bimal-roy-the-filmmaker-who-inspired-satyajit-ray-showed-mirror-to-the-society-seven-decades-ago-8830671/)
18. [Patrick Colm Hogan, "On the Meaning of Style: Cognition, Culture, and Visual Technique in Bimal Roy's Sujata," Projections 3(2), 2009](https://filmoterapia.pl/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/On-the-Meaning-of-Style-Cognition-Culture-and-Visual-Technique-in-Bimal-Roy%E2%80%99s-Sujata.pdf)
19. [Sujata (1959) lobby card record, Tuli Research Centre](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/sujata-1959/research-centre/all/sujata-1959-cinema-photographic-lobby-card-3080)
20. [Vishal Chauhan, "From Sujata to Kachra: Decoding Dalit representation in popular Hindi cinema," South Asian Popular Culture 17(3), 2019](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14746689.2019.1673544)
21. [From Sujata to Article 15: changing Dalit narratives in mainstream Bollywood, International Journal of Social Science (2025)](https://www.socialsciencejournal.in/assets/archives/2025/vol11issue6/11166.pdf)
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*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 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license