'Sujata' tells the tale of an untouchable girl (Nutan in the title role) raised by a middle class engineer and his wife alongside their daughter. The family faces several complaints from relatives and neighbors because of raising an untouchable. they even try to put Sujata up for adoption but fate would have it that Sujata remain in their house. Though she is looked after by the maid, Sujata bonds with her foster parents's daughter, Rama and is loved by her foster father. However, the foster mother keeps her distant. Things begin to get more complicated when Sujata grows up to be a beautiful young lady and falls in love with Adhir (Sunil Dutt). Her foster parents want Adhir to marry Rama.
In spite of its flaws, I very much enjoyed watching 'Sujata'. I liked that Roy managed to bring the issue of the untouchables through his story without making the message in your face (such that it might overshadow the story). In 'Sujata' he cleverly represents how society treats untouchables without making the viewer feel as though he were having a history lesson or watching a documentary and he manages to show the film as Sujata's story.
I do think he could have developed some scenes further as they looked choppy towards the end. The romance angle between Adhir and Sujata fit very nicely into the screenplay and it avoids clichés such as the younger sister falling in love with Adhir or a bloodbath ending. Though I must say the ending is quite predictable.
The songs are beautiful, some melodious and some foot-tapping.
Nutan beautifully plays her part by balancing her emotions. She doesn't cry buckets full and nor does she remain in a passive day-dreaming state. She and Sunil Dutt share a lovely chemistry. Sunil Dutt himself makes his presence felt in a woman-oriented film and Shashikala is adorable as Rama. Sulochana Latkar is alright but in some scenes she does border on caricaturing the character. ditto for Lalita Pawar.
On the whole i found the film entertaining and I'm glad that someone like Bimal Roy had told the story of an untouchable girl and brought up the issue of untouchability within the story in a sensible way. Note this film is primarily about Sujata, not about untouchables.
