Saat Bhai Champa


Saat Bhai Champa or Sat Bhai Chompa is a popular folk tale in the Bengal region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. The story was first officially published by Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumder in the book Thakurmar Jhuli in 1907. The introduction to Thakurmar Jhuli was written by Nobel-Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore. More detailed version of the story was published by Bishnu Dey under the name "Sat Bhai Champa" in 1944. Several Bengali movies were made based on the Saat Bhai Champa story. Sat Bhai Chompa movie is ranked by British Film Institute as one of the top ten Bangladesh film of all time.

Plot

Once upon a time, there lived a king. The king was not able to produce any heir to the throne through his three wives. The king was depressed and spent large amount of time by himself in the forest. A priest in the forest saw the king's misery and gave him mangoes of bearing. The priest instructed the king to feed the fruits to his wives and then they would conceive children. The king gave his three wives the fruits as instructed by the priest. Two elder queens did not produce any children, as they ate it with disbelief. However, the younger queen gave birth to octuplets: seven boys and one girl, when the king was on a voyage. The elder queens became jealous and buried the babies in the garden before the younger queen gained consciousness from pregnancy. The babies magically blossom into seven champak flowers and a trumpet flower. The last baby, the girl, was born some time after first seven babies in a time when the elder queens left the room with seven babies and this enabled the maid to hide the baby from the elder queens and named the child Parul. Elder queens, then, placed seven puppies on the younger queen's bedside and claimed the queen gave birth to seven puppies. Parul grew up in the forest. After learning her origin from her maid, she helped to revive her brothers into princes.
Another variant of the story has it that seven babies turned into seven puppies.

''Sat Bhai Chompa'' 1968 movie

The movie was made in East Pakistan, what is now Bangladesh. The director of the movie is Dilip Shome and main casts are Kabori and Khan Ataur Rehman. The movie is ranked by British Film Institute as one of the top ten Bangladeshi film of all time.

''Saat Bhai Champa'' 1978 movie

The movie was made in West Bengal, India. The movie was directed by Chitrasarathi and music of the film was composed by Raghunath Das. The actors starring are Biswajeet, Sandhya Roy, Mrinal Mukherjee, Gita Karmakar, Biswanath Chattopadhyay and Chhanda Chattopadhyay

''Saat Bhai Champa'' 1994 movie

This movie was made in Bangladesh. The movie is a remake of 1978 movie.

Arts

Saat Bhai Champa painting by Gaganendranath Tagore is considered a masterpiece in contemporary Indian painting. The painting is currently located at Academy of Fine Arts of Calcutta.

Song

– Saat Bhai Champa Serial – Zee Bangla