Saheb (1981 film)

Saheb is a 1981 Indian Bengali-language sports drama film co-written and directed by Bijoy Bose. Produced by Shyamal Chatterjee under the banner of Basanta Pictures in their first venture, the film is based on a radio play of the same name written by Ranjan Roy. It stars Tapas Paul in the titular role, alongside Utpal Dutt, Madhabi Mukherjee and Mahua Roy Chowdhury in lead roles, while Shambhu Bhattacharya, N. Vishwanathan, Nimu Bhowmik, Kaushik Banerjee, Shakuntala Barua, Ratna Ghoshal and Rekha Chatterjee play supporting roles, with Anil Chatterjee in a special appearance. It plots a promising football player Saheb, the youngest son of his father, who stands like a saviour at the time of financial crisis during his sister’s marriage, by giving his kidney up without informing his family members.

The film marks Bijoy Bose's first collaboration with Tapas Paul. Music of the film was composed by Abhijit Bandyopadhyay, with lyrics penned by Rabindranath Tagore and Gauriprasanna Mazumder. The cinematography and editing of the film were handled by Gour Karmakar and Pranab Ghosh respectively. It released theatrically on 2 October 1981, coinciding with Durga Puja, opening to huge positive response. The film was a box office hit and also became a breakthrough for Paul to be established as a leading star in Bengali cinema.

Saheb has been an inspiration for a number of remakes including Saaheb (1985) in Hindi, Vijetha (1985) in Telugu, Karna (1986) in Kannada and Chekkeranoru Chilla (1986) in Malayalam. The film was also felicitated in another Bengali films like Champion in 2003 and Chaamp in 2017. Tapas Paul won a Filmfare Award for his performance in the film in 1981 and is considered to be one of the best films in his career.