Adhikar (1938)

Melodrama about lineage and property questions. Nikhilesh (Barua) loves heiress Indira (Jamuna). A poor orphan girl, Radha (Menaka Devi), arrives claiming to be Indira's stepsister and therefore part inheritor of the family estate. Indira agrees to share her inheritance but then Radha makes a play for Nikhilesh. Ultimately, Radha turns out to be the real and sole heir. Love proves to be stronger than material possession as Indira and Nikhilesh get married and Radha finds happiness with Ratan, a man she had known and loved during her days of poverty. As each character returns to the class of his / her birth, the message hammered home is a warning to people never to transcend their social status. Barua continues his emphasis on the contrast between poverty and wealth, stylising the opulence of the wealthy interiors. Radha becomes 'unnatural' away from the realism of her slum while Indira's problem, threatened with the potential loss of her property, is seen mainly as one of alienation. The film also continues Barua's fascination with showing the urban-rural (real modern-traditional) split through the contrasting personalities of two women, a device inaugurated in <a href="http://indiancine.ma/BQL/info">Devdas (1935)</a> and repeated even in his last major film <a href="http://indiancine.ma/DQZ/info">Shesh Uttar / Jawab (1942)</a>, although Adhikar is probably the most confused and cynical of its many versions.