Baadbaan (1954)

Billed as a ‘Workers’ Own Enterprise’, the film was produced as a last-ditch attempt by its employees to keep Bombay Talkies alive. Lalan, the village headman, leaves to warn fishermen about an impending storm but he disappears followed by his wife Leela. Their child, adopted by the judge Mr Choudhury, grows up to become Naren (Anand). Educated abroad, he is to wed Bina, the daughter of a family friend. Shankar, Naren’s friend and Bina’s music teacher, also in love with Bina, keeps his feelings to himself. The marriage is called off when Mr Choudhury admits that Naren is not his son. The setting then shifts to the village where Naren decides to dedicate his life to the people, starting e.g. an ice factory and a workers’ co-operative society. He falls in love with the village girl Mohna. Naren and Bina get married anyway, but she is unhappy about his rural activism.