MOVIE

Kumkum the Dancer

1940 · 142 min ·

A dance film idealising poverty made mainly to showcase Bose's talents. Labour leader Suryashankar is jailed for trade union activities and, when released, finds that his friend Jagdish has stolen his property and plagiarised his play Bhookh (Hunger). To take revenge on behalf of the poor, Suryashankar's daughter Kumkum (Bose) marries Jagdish's son Chandan (Bhattacharya). Later she collaborates in staging a play meant to expose Jagdish's evil past. The film's publicity slogan was 'She robbed her husband to feed the poor!'