Pramathesh Chandra Barua was in many ways a cult director. He was the man who was mostly responsible for the rising fortunes of the New Theatre in the 1930s. The talkie revolution had just taken films and the Indian film was just shaping up. At this juncture emerged the Bengali director PC Barua and he delivered, unknowingly the first cult film of the Indian cinema, Devdas in 1935. Even today the Devdas cult is popular in Indian cinema.
After Devdas a number of fantastic films followed: Manzil (1936), Mukti (1937), Adhikar (1938), Rajat Jayanti (1939) and Zindagi (1940). In Mukti, Barua played the role of a young artist. It was one of those first films where the songs from Rabindranath Tagore were being played. Adhikar brings forth Barua`s interest with the conflict between tradition and contemporary. Rajat Jayanti displayed to the world Barua`s forte for comic flicks. Zindagi once again brought together Barua and KL Saigal. This romantic film deals with lovers living together. The film is best known for the song "Soja Rajkumari Soja."
Not only was PC Barua a great director but he also wrote his own screenplays. One of the last films of PC Barua is Shesh Uttor in 1942. The film was also made in Hindi, titled, Jawab. This film was known for the song by Kanan Dev, "Toofan Mail."
The filmmaker passed away in the year 1951.
