Apanjan

Apanjan, or simply Aponjon (English: One's own people) is a 1968 Indian Bengali language socio-political drama film directed by Tapan Sinha. The film is produced by R.K Kapoor under the banner of K.L Kapoor Productions and is based on a short story written by Indra Mittra, which itself was inspired from the political violence taken place in West Bengal. It consists of an ensemble cast of Chhaya Devi, Swarup Dutta, Samit Bhanja, Mrinal Mukherjee, Partho Mukherjee, Kalyan Chatterjee and Shyamal Banerjee in lead roles, with Bhanu Bandopadhyay, Rabi Ghosh, Chinmoy Roy and Dilip Roy in extended cameo appearances. The soundtrack of the film is composed by Tapan Sinha himself. Set against the backdrop of the political violence that rocked India, and West Bengal in particular, in the late 1960s, it tells the story of an aged widow in a village who goes to Calcutta to stay with relatives, but faces only exploitation. She moves to a slum, and finds her "own people" in a group of educated, unemployed youth, who are caught up inexorably in the prevalent violence.

Apanjan was a blockbuster at the box office and ran 45 weeks in theatres successfully. After its release, the Government of West Bengal declared the film to be tacs-free and it eventually gained a cult status in the history of Bengali cinema. The mannerism of Robi and Chheno, two central characters from the film played by Swarup Dutta and Samit Bhanja respectively, became memorable among the masses. Later it won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali,^[1][2] as well as several BFJA Awards.^[3] The original print of the film is restored and digitised by the National Film Archive of India.

In 1971, it was remade in Hindi as Mere Apne by Gulzar and in 1984, in Kannada as Benki Birugali.^[4]