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{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2018}}
{{more citations needed|date=January 2018}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Strir Patra
| image = Strir Patra DVD cover.jpg
| caption =
| director = [[Purnendu Patri]]
| producer = Dhrupadi
| writer = Purnendu Patri (screenplay); [[Rabindranath Tagore]] (original story)
| starring = {{ubl|[[Madhabi Mukherjee]]|[[Rajeshwari Raychowdhury]]|Smita Sinha}}
| music = Ramkumar Chatterjee
| cinematography = Shakti Banerjee
| editing =
| distributor =
| released = {{Film date|1972}}
| runtime = 98 minutes
| country = [[India]]
| language = [[Bengali language|Bengali]]
}}

'''''Strir Patra''''' (also '''''Streer Patra'''''; English: ''A Wife's Letter'') is a 1972 Bengali film, directed by [[Purnendu Patri]], based on a short story by [[Rabindranath Tagore]]. [[Madhabi Mukherjee]] plays the lead role. Tagore's story, first published in 1914, has been considered to be a path-breaking feminist text.<ref name="silhouette">{{cite web|last1=Chakraborty|first1=Sridarshini|title=On Streer Patra|url=https://learningandcreativity.com/silhouette/streer-patra-bengali-film/|website=Silhouette Magazine|access-date=30 May 2017}}</ref><ref name="indianexpress">{{cite news|title=Tagore and his women: Works that conveyed feminism very strongly|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/out-of-their-confines-a-look-at-the-unbound-women-of-tagore-on-his-155th-birth-anniversary-2790716/|access-date=30 January 2018|work=The Indian Express|agency=IANS|date=7 May 2017}}</ref> The film won the [[National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali]],<ref name="dff">{{cite web|title=Twentieth National Awards for Excellence in Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|url=http://iffi.nic.in/Dff2011/Frm20thNFAAward.aspx?PdfName=20NFA.pdf|website=Directorate of Film Festivals|access-date=19 May 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721170649/http://iffi.nic.in/Dff2011/Frm20thNFAAward.aspx?PdfName=20NFA.pdf|archive-date=21 July 2011|df=}}</ref> as well as a number of BFJA Awards.<ref name="gomolobfja">{{cite web|title=BFJA Awards (1974)|url=http://www.gomolo.com/7/bfja-awards-1974|website=gomolo.com|access-date=31 January 2018}}</ref>

== Plot ==
Tagore's story is written in epistolary form - the letter from the wife forms the entire text. The film uses the letter as a frame for the narrative. It tells the story of Mrinal ([[Madhabi Mukherjee]]), a young woman from a poor family, married into an aristocratic joint family of [[Calcutta]]. She is chosen as a bride because of her beauty. However, it is her intelligence that turns out to be the key factor in the story. Women in the family lead a life that is confined to the kitchen and the bedroom. Mrinal's sister-in-law (Smita Sinha) accepts the system unquestioningly. Mrinal is different; she takes an independent stance on several domestic matters, and secretly writes poetry. Her daughter dies soon after birth. Mrinal's life changes when Bindu (Rajeshwari Roychowdhury), her sister-in-law's sister, comes to stay. The family is not happy at this development. They treat Bindu like an unpaid servant, with Mrinal alone standing up for her. To get rid of the problem, the men force Bindu into an arranged marriage, and even her sister considers this to be the best solution. However, Bindu's husband (Nimu Bhowmick) turns out to be mentally unstable and violent. Once again, Bindu seeks shelter with her sister. Now, however, the situation has become untenable, and Bindu commits suicide. Meanwhile, Mrinal has managed to get permission to go on a pilgrimage to Puri with relatives. Through these tragic events, she has come to realise that women have no freedom in a patriarchal society. Standing on the seashore at Puri, she makes up her mind, and writes a letter to her husband declaring that she would never return to their house.

== Cast ==
* [[Madhabi Mukherjee]] as Mrinal
* [[Rajeshwari Raychowdhury]] as Bindu
* Nimu Bhowmick as Bindu's husband
* [[Santosh Dutta]] as the doctor
* Asim Chakraborty
* Smita Sinha as Mrinal's sister-in-law
* [[Rudraprasad Sengupta]]
* Ayan Bandyopadhyay <ref name="gomolocastcrew">{{cite web|title=Streer Patra (1973) Cast and Crew|url=http://www.gomolo.com/streer-patra-movie-cast-crew/14160|website=gomolo.com|accessdate=1 February 2018}}</ref>

== Crew ==
* Direction - [[Purnendu Patri]]
* Screenplay - Purnendu Patri
* Music - Ramkumar Chatterjee
* Cinematography - Shakti Banerjee
* Art direction - Purnendu Patri
* Editing - Arabinda Bhattacharyya <ref name="silhouette" /><ref name="gomolocastcrew" />

== Production ==
===Casting===
The choice of [[Madhabi Mukherjee]] to play the lead role was perhaps automatic, given her stellar performance as a Tagore heroine in [[Satyajit Ray]]'s ''[[Charulata]]''. Apart from her and [[Santosh Dutta]], who were well-known in Bengali cinema, the cast of the film included several prominent stage actors such as [[Rudraprasad Sengupta]], who was with the theatre group [[Nandikar]] and would later become its leader, and Asim Chakraborty, who had set up Chaturmukh theatre group.<ref name="gomoloasim">{{cite web|title=Asim Chakraborty Biography|url=http://www.gomolo.com/asim-chakraborty-biography/137|website=gomolo.com|accessdate=3 February 2018}}</ref>

===Shooting===
Purnendu Patri not only wrote the screenplay for the film, but also handled the art direction. The film was shot on location in Dhurjati Dham, an iconic old building in North Calcutta (now declared a heritage building), which had earlier been used by Satyajit Ray for ''[[Jalsaghar]]''.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Das|first1=Soumitra|title=Romancing the stone|url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/1071005/asp/frontpage/story_8399415.asp|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071208210432/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071005/asp/frontpage/story_8399415.asp|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 December 2007|accessdate=8 June 2017|work=The Telegraph|date=5 October 2007}}</ref>

===Music===
The choice of [[Ramkumar Chattopadhyay]] as Music Director was an unusual but appropriate one. Chatterjee had not composed music for films prior to ''Strir Patra'', but was well known as a classical singer with a unique repertoire of ''puratani'' (old Bengali) songs.<ref name="instablogs">{{cite web|last1=Ghosh|first1=Pallab|title=Ramkumar Chatterjee, Noted Classical Singer Passes Away|url=https://instablogs.com/ramkumar-chatterjee-noted-classical-singer-passes-away.html|website=instablogs.com|accessdate=30 January 2018}}</ref>

== Awards ==
* Twentieth National Film Awards: [[National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali]]<ref name="dff" />
* Tashkent Film Festival: Award for Best Direction<ref name="silhouette" />
* International Film Festival of India, 2011: Selected for screening in the section "Classics from Tagore"<ref name="iffi2011">{{cite web|title=IFFI 2011 - 1st Phase Screening Schedule|url=http://iffi.nic.in/ScreeningSechedule2011phase1.asp|website=International Film Festival of India|publisher=Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India|accessdate=3 June 2017}}</ref>
* BFJA Awards 1974 <ref name="gomolobfja"/>
** Best Indian films
** Best black-and-white cinematography - Shakti Banerjee
** Most outstanding work of the year - Ayan Bandyopadhyay

== References ==

{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{IMDb title|0252018}}

{{National Film Award Best Feature Film Bengali}}


[[Category:1972 films]]
[[Category:Bengali-language Indian films]]
[[Category:Films set in Kolkata]]
[[Category:Films based on works by Rabindranath Tagore]]
[[Category:Indian black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Films about women in India]]
[[Category:Best Bengali Feature Film National Film Award winners]]
[[Category:1972 Bengali-language films]]

Strir Patra - Revision history

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