Shap Mochan

Shap Mochan is a Bengali romance drama film directed and produced by Sudhir Mukherjee based on a novel Sandhyaraag of Falguni Mukhopadhyay. This film was released in 1955 under the banner of Production Syndicate starring Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen in lead.^[1][2] Music director of the film was Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay.^[3]

Shap Mochan
Directed by	Sudhir Mukherjee
Written by	Falguni Mukhopadhyay
Screenplay by	Nripendrakrishna Chatterjee (Dialogues)
Based on	Sandhyaraag 1955 Story by Falguni Mukhopadhyay
Produced by	Sudhir Mukherjee
Starring	Uttam Kumar Suchitra Sen
Cinematography	Deoji Bhai
Edited by	Baidyanath Chatterjee
Music by	Hemanta Mukherjee Lyricist - Poet Bimal Chandra Ghosh
Production company	Production Syndicate
Distributed by	Mehta Pictures
Release date	27 May 1955 (1955-05-27)
Running time	172 minutes
Country	India
Language	Bengali

Plot

Young Mahendra belongs to a family of musicians, but once the family is cursed by their teacher. Mahendra's elder brother becomes blind and to avoid the same fate he goes to Kolkata and lives in the house of his father's friend Umeshchandra. He gets romantically involved with Umeshchandra's daughter Madhuri. Madhuri tries to make Mahendra modern and pursue his musical career. In spite of having good singing ability, Mahendra refuses to accept this due to his family values. He leaves their home and takes shelter in Kolkata. But the curse strikes him also and he falls seriously ill.

Cast

• Uttam Kumar as Mahendra
• Suchitra Sen as Madhuri
• Pahari Sanyal as Debendra
• Kamal Mitra as Umeshchandra
• Bikash Roy
• Jiben Bose
• Amar Mullick
• Tulsi Chakraborty
• Gangapada Basu
• Suprobha Devi
• Tapati Ghosh

Production

At first director Sudhir Mukherjee wanted to Sachin Dev Barman as music director for the film but Barman rejected the offer to give time from his busy schedule. Then Hemanta Mukherjee who is in Mumbai that time he wanted to return to Kolkata showing any reason when he heard this news he immediately meet to Sudhir Mukherjee and signed for the film. This is marked beginning of Uttam Kumar Hemanta Kumar duo, but many people said this not the first time that Hemanta sing on Uttam's leap. They first worked in Sahajatri in 1951. But there is no footage available of Sahajatri. So Shapmochon officially recognized as their beginning.^[4]

Soundtrack

Shapmochon
Soundtrack album by Hemanta Mukherjee
Released	1955
Recorded	1954
Studio	Production Syndicate
Length	0:20:00
Label	Sa Re Ga Ma Pa
Producer	Sudhir Mukheejee
Hemanta Mukherjee chronology
Swapno O Samadhi (1952) Shapmochon (1955) Surya Mukhi (1956)

The songs become very popular. Hemanta Mukherjee was the music director of the movie and composed tunes for the songs. Lyrics were written by Bimal Ghosh (as Kavi Bimal Chandra Ghosh).^[5]

Songs

No.	Title	Playback	Length
1.	"Tribeni Tirthapathe Ke Gahilo Gaan"	Pratima Banerjee, Chinmoy Lahiri	2:50
2.	"Shono Bandhu Shono"	Hemanta Mukherjee	2:31
3.	"Surer Aakashe Tumi Je Go"	Hemanta Mukherjee	2:54
4.	"Jhar Uthechhe Baul Batas"	Hemanta Mukherjee	3:17
5.	"Kaliyan Sang Karat Rang Raliyan"	D.V.Paluskar	5:01
6.	"Bose Achhi Path Cheye"	Hemanta Mukherjee	3:27
Total length:			20:00

All lyrics are written by Poet Bimal Chandra Ghosh; all music is composed by Hemanta Mukherjee.

Reception

The film became a blockbuster hit and ran near 100 days in theater. The songs become popular and contributed a lot to the film's success. After the film, The Uttam-Hemanta combination became iconic and hugely successful and regarded as the most popular singer-actor duo in the history of Bengali Cinema.^[6]