Sapera (1939)
Directed by: Debaki Kumar Bose
Written by: Lalchand Bismil, Debaki Kumar Bose, Kazi Nazrul Islam
Primitivist love story and popular musical set among the Shaivite clan of snake-charmers. Renouned snake-charmer Jahar (Nawab), the survivor of 99 snakebites thanks to rigorous self-discipline including sexual abstinence, rescues a young girl from snakebite and raises her as a boy called Chandan (Kanan Devi). As he starts feeling sexually attracted to 'him', the clan discovers that Jahar is sheltering a young woman and so they seek to depose him as chief. Meanwhile, the young Jhumro (Sanyal) elopes with Chandan and in a fit of fury Jahar sends a deadly snake in pursuit of the couple. The snake bites Jhumro and only Jahar's powers can save the boy...
