Connection
The Test is a indian film of genre Drama directed by Bimal Roy with Sadhana Shivdasani
The Test (1960)
If you like this film, let us know!
Add to a movie listThis article is written about the 1960 film; for the 1937 film or the 1944 film, see Parakh (1937 film) or Parakh (1944 film).
Parakh is a 1960 Hindi film, based on a story by famed music director Salil Chowdhury, that displays Bimal Roy's lighter side and is a satirical look at Indian democracy in its early years. Roy received the Filmfare Best Director Award for the film. The ensemble cast was led by Sadhana and Bengali cinema actor Vasant Choudhury. The film has music by Salil Choudhury, featuring Lata Mangeshkar's hit "O Sajana Barkha Bahaar Aai".
The film became a "semi-hit" at the box office.
Synopsis
The central character is the Post Master who is given a mysterious cheque for ₹500,000 to be given to anyone who will use it to benefit the people of the village. There is a postman who pretends to be lame and is secretly rich and may have sent the cheque. Then there is the postmaster's wife, who is sick and would rather use the money to cure her illness, and his beautiful daughter Seema (played by Sadhana), who has a crush on the village school master. Meanwhile all the greedy and influential people of the village are busy trying to convince everybody why they are most deserving of the money; they include the village priest, the land lord, the money lender, the village doctor and the school master, who is by far the most respected. They all decide democracy is the best means and decide to hold an election where the winner gets the money. The movie is a satirical look at democracy through various twists and turns in the plot, interweaved with a simple love story.Actors
Sadhana Shivdasani
(Seema (Nivaran's daughter))
Motilal
(Haradhan / Sir Jagdish Chandra Roy)
Nazir Hussain
(Postmaster Nivaran)
Durga Khote
(Sir Jagdish Chandra Roy's Mother)
Leela Chitnis
(Nivaran's Wife)
Comments
Leave comment :
Suggestions of similar film to The Test
There are 178 films with the same actors, 12 films with the same director, 61430 with the same cinematographic genres, to have finally 70 suggestions of similar films.If you liked The Test, you will probably like those similar films :
Devdas (1955)
, 2h39Directed by Bimal Roy
Origin Inde
Genres Drama, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about alcoholism, Medical-themed films, Films about music and musicians, Films about drugs, Films about sexuality, Erotic films, Films about prostitution, Musical films, Bollywood
Actors Dilip Kumar, Vyjayanthimala, Suchitra Sen, Motilal, Nazir Hussain, Iftekhar
Rating76%
Set against the backdrop of rural Bengal during feudal times, Devdas is a young man from a wealthy Bengali Brahmin family in India in the early 1900s. Paro alias Parvati is a young woman from a middle class Bengali Brahmin family, but belonging to a slightly lower status in terms of caste, affluence and status. The two families lived in a village, and Devdas and Paro were childhood friends.
Maa (1952)
, 2h20Directed by Bimal Roy
Genres Drama, Romance
Actors Bharat Bhushan, Shyama, Leela Chitnis, Nazir Hussain, Mehmood Ali, Achala Sachdev
Rating68%
Chanderbabu (Nazir Hussain), a retired postmaster, lives in the village with his wife and two sons, Rajan (Paul Mahendra) and Bhanu (Bharat Bhushan). He continues to live there and work for the Zamindar (landowner), while his children are getting their education. Rajan is studying for his law exam. He is married to a girl (Padma) from a wealthy family whose haughty ways alarm and frighten him. Bhanu, the younger brother is fun-loving but studious. He gets influenced by the Nationalist Movement in the campus and stops his education in the last year of college. His father is disappointed and feels that Rajan is the one they can depend upon in their old age. Bhanu meets Meena (Shyama), and the two fall in love. Meera's father, Ramnarayan, is the school Principal and is impressed by Bhanu. He decides to get Meera married to Bhanu.
Yahudi (1958)
, 2h50Directed by Bimal Roy
Origin Inde
Genres Drama, Action, Peplum, Romance
Themes Films set in Africa, Films about religion, Political films, Films about Jews and Judaism, Films based on plays, Films about royalty
Actors Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari, Sohrab Merwanji Modi, Nazir Hussain, Nigar Sultana, Helen Khan
Rating70%
Ezra (Sohrab Modi) is a jeweller who has a son called Elijah. He also has a friendly butler/child minder called Emmanuel. In the beginning, Ezra is due to leave. As he does, Elijah becomes upset and stands at the balcony. In the roads of the Jewish area, Brutus (Nazir Hussain), Governor of Rome, is passing, making an announcement. Watching over the balcony, is Elijah. A stone slips from his hand and hits Brutus on the head. Brutus immediately gets Elijah arrested, and as Elijah is a Jew, sentences him to death. Hearing this, Ezra rapidly returns from his trip and arrives at the doorstep of Brutus. He begs Brutus to free Elijah but Brutus feeds Elijah to hungry lions. Ezra sadly returns to his house. In revenge, Emmanuel kidnaps Lydia, motherless daughter of Brutus, and takes her to Ezra. Ezra declines to kill Lydia and adopts the child.
Prem Patra (1962)
Directed by Bimal Roy
Genres Drama, Romance
Actors Shashi Kapoor, Sadhana Shivdasani, Seema Deo, Rajendra Nath, Kanu Roy, Satyen Kappu
Rating74%
Sujata (1959)
, 2h41Directed by Bimal Roy
Origin Inde
Genres Drama, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films, Bollywood
Actors Nutan, Sunil Dutt, Tarun Bose, Sulochana, Lalita Pawar, Shashikala
Rating72%
Sujata is a romance between a Brahmin young man, Adheer (Sunil Dutt) and an untouchable woman, Sujata (Nutan). The movie has Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's fight against untouchability and the myth of Chandalika in hinduism as its subtexts on the basis of which it tries to criticize the practice of untouchability in India.
Bandini (1963)
, 2h37Directed by Bimal Roy
Genres Drama, Romance
Themes Prison films
Actors Nutan, Ashok Kumar, Dharmendra, Tarun Bose, Asit Sen, Sulochana
Rating76%
The film is set in a prison in around 1934 in pre-Independence India, where Kalyani is serving life imprisonment prison for committing a murder, and we learn the circumstances of her crime in flashback as she divulges it to the jailor. The film is set in Bengal in the 1930s, during the British Raj, where Kalyani (Nutan) is the daughter of the postmaster (Raja Paranjpe) of the village, who falls in love with a freedom fighter, Bikash (Ashok Kumar), who later leaves her in the village promising to come back but never does. The society treats them harshly. Broken by her father's misery and that of her own, Kalyani moves to the city, to the singing of the sad song "O Jaanewale Ho Sake To Laut Ke Aana". In the city she works as a caretaker of an obnoxious and mentally unstable woman, who turns out to be the wife of Bikash. Kalyani learns that her father came to the city looking for her and died in an accident. That prompts her to poison her lover's wife, identifying her as the cause of her miseries in a moment of insane rage. Director Bimalda captures her emotions as she resolves to commit the crime, with light and darkness falling on her face due to a welder's torch and the thumping of Iron in the background, and the ambient sounds as she inches towards the decision, pumping vigorously into a kerosene stove, without uttering a single word through it all. And subsequently confesses to the crime with equal passion.
Two Acres of Land (1953)
, 2h22Directed by Bimal Roy
Genres Drama, Musical
Actors Balraj Sahni, Nirupa Roy, Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Jaffery, Nana Palsikar, Meena Kumari, Mehmood Ali
Rating82%
The story revolves around a farmer Shambu Mahato (Balraj Sahni), who lives with his wife Parvati 'Paro' (Nirupa Roy) and son Kanhaiya (Rattan Kumar) in a small village that has been hit badly by a famine. After years of drought, the region finally gets rain, leading the farmers to rejoice. Shambu owns two bighas (two-thirds of an acre of land) of land, which is the only means of livelihood for the whole family. The local zamindar (landlord) Thakur Harnam Singh (Murad) partners with some city business men to construct a mill on his large parcel of land, which in return would profit them and bring prosperity to the village. The only problem is that in the middle of Harnam singh's land lie Shambu's meager two bighas of land.
Parineeta (1953)
Directed by Bimal Roy
Genres Drama
Actors Ashok Kumar, Meena Kumari, Nazir Hussain, Aachi Manorama, Manorama, Shashi Kapoor
Rating72%
Naukari (1954)
Directed by Bimal Roy
Genres Drama
Actors Kishore Kumar, Sheila Ramani, Achala Sachdev, Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Jaffery, Nirupa Roy, Balraj Sahni
Rating70%
Rattan Kumar Choudhury (Kishore Kumar) stays with his widowed mother (Achala Sachdev) and sick sister, Uma/Umi (Noor) in the village. He is waiting for his college results and dreams about the day when he has a job and a house and can look after his family. Rattan passes his BA and leaves for Calcutta where his father's colleague had promised him a job where his father had worked. In Calcutta he takes up boarding in a lodge where he is neighbour to three other unemployed youth (one of whom is Iftekhar) in the 'Bekar' (unemployed/without work) wing of the lodge. At his father's office he finds out the manager has given the job to a relative. Rattan doesn't give up and perseveres applying wherever he can. His sister, suffering from TB is put on the waiting list at the sanitorium. Meanwhile in Calcutta Ratan also finds love with Seema (Sheila Ramani) who stays in the house in the next compound much to her father's chagrin. Rattan struggles to get a job but to no avail. One day even as he gets the news that his sister has been accepted at the sanitorium, he gets a telegram informing of her death. One of the other youth in the lodge, Shankar, tries to kill himself but Rattan stops him. Shankar gets a job later and is grateful to Rattan. Rattan finally gets a job in Bombay. He sends his appointment letter to Seema's father to prove he has now got a job but the old man tears up the letter and now Rattan has to leave for Bombay but he cannot remember the name of the company. Rattan reaches Bombay and ultimately does make his way to the company. He gets the job but one day takes up the side of an old employee and the manager fires him. Meanwhile Seema runs away from Calcutta to be with Rattan in Bombay. He cannot bring himself to tell her he is jobless. He tries to commit suicide but Seema stops him and they decide they will face life together.
Biraj Bahu (1954)
Directed by Bimal Roy
Genres Drama
Actors Kamini Kaushal, Abhi Bhattacharya, Pran Krishan Sikand, Iftekhar, Manorama
Rating64%
Biraj (Kamini Kaushal) is married off to Nilambar Chakraborty (Abhi Bhattacharya) when she was a little girl. The couple is childless. Nilambar is pious, generous and loving, but unemployed. His devious younger brother takes advantage of Nilambar's naiveté to force a partition of the home and buy off their joint land under an assumed name from the lender it was mortgaged to. Nilambar and Biraj are reduced to a wretched existence. To make matters worse, Deodhar, a wealthy young contractor who arrives in the village, is captivated by Biraj's beauty and tries to bribe her erstwhile maid Sundari, to lure her to his boat. After several dramatic twists and turns, Biraj is kidnapped but she jumps off the boat before he can do anything. She runs away from the hospital in the middle of the night to see her husband one last time. He had promised that he would bless her at the time of her death and that she would die at his feet.