Guwahati: Bhabendra Nath Saikia released his second film, Anirban, on 6 February 1981. It won a Rajat Kamal, continuing the director's streak of earning that award for every film he produced. Despite the accolades, the work remains obscured, existing today only in fragmented YouTube uploads. The film is a domestic production, written by Saikia based on his 1960 story Prahari, and produced by his wife, Preeti Saikia. Dhirendra Nath Bezboruah, the founder of The Sentinel, provided the English subtitles.
The plot follows Rajani, a school teacher played by Bhola Kotoky, and his wife, played by Runu Devi. They suffer the repeated loss of three newborns before eventually welcoming a daughter, Nisha. After losing his school job, Rajani works as a private tutor for an affluent family. This placement exposes his daughter to the sharp realities of class difference. Nisha grows up wearing the family’s hand-me-down clothes and finishing their leftover face creams. These gifts, while intended to be kind, serve as constant reminders of her family’s poverty. Nisha eventually falls for a former student of her father, Dibakar, but her parents reject the match. The affair ends abruptly when Dibakar stops visiting. Nisha falls ill with a fever and dies. Years later, at Dibakar’s wedding, the mother presents the bride with silks she had purchased for her deceased daughter.
The film rejects traditional cinematic tropes. There are no musical numbers. The story moves without melodrama or villains. Bhola Kotoky, a native of Jamugurihat in Sonitpur, delivers a grounded performance as a stern teacher softened by tragedy. The film utilizes symbols like the sacred Ahot tree and the ritual of feeding crows to ground the narrative in local culture. Saikia understood that poverty wounds through small humiliations as much as through hunger. The author writes of the film's legacy: "Anirban means unextinguished, and that is exactly what this film has proved to be." The work now waits for proper restoration and a legitimate rerelease to ensure it is remembered in its entirety.
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