'The Angry Young Man' was a term that came into effect after the rise of 'Big B': Amitabh Bachchan in the mid 70's. His was a character which belonged to the deprived lower class of the society and fought against the injustice of the prevailing establishment. And all this with a constant grim look on his face.But even during the simultaneous period, such 'angry young' heroes were hard to find in Tollywood. Bengali heroes have always been the traditional 'bhadrolok', far too gentle for such characters. Yet way back in 1958, the 'mahanayak' of Bengali cinema, Uttam Kumar had portrayed a character which exactly matched the definitions that would be set by 'Big B' two decades later!From the opening scene we get a taste of his 'anger' when he refuses his engineering degree by alleging his professor of partiality. After his property is usurped by his uncle, he is left to dwell in a slum. Miffed by the establishment, he becomes a trainee under an architect who himself is cornered by the society for his unconventional thoughts. After his death, the hero takes up the challenge of proving a point to the society. With a deglam look, tattered clothes and a pointing glare, Uttam exudes iron-will determination in his portrayal of this 'angry young man' avatar. This is a very rare kind of appearance for the screen-icon, who would be seen in such a get-up only once more 17 years later in Shakti Samanta's 'Amanush'.But not just Uttam, there is another aspect that connects this film to 'Big B'. The back-drop of Bikash Roy's character seems to be an absolute replica of 'Big B's 'angry-young hero' in 'Trishul' (1978)! After the death of his mother at the hands of Kamal Mitra, he decides to take revenge by usurping all his property to leave Mitra at his mercy; just what Bachchan had done to Sanjeev Kumar! In fact, one could term this film a 'sequel' to the Yash Chopra classic; only that it got made exactly 20 years before!The film has a gripping 1st half which is extremely fast-paced with the screenplay shuffling across a whole bunch of characters. This is in stark contrast to the languid pace of films back then; and so was a welcome departure.But post interval, it all falls apart! The film takes a dynamic shift in narration and all of a sudden becomes a routine monotonous 50's romantic affair. It was as if the directors were forced to devote adequate screen-space to the Uttam-Suchitra pair, not wanting to annoy their huge fan-following. Although, the film has a very nicely executed climax, the film could never regain the riveting feel of the 1st half.The film has a wide array of reputed artistes (although most of them are barely to be seen post interval). From Bikash Roy, Asit Baran, Kamal Mitra, Chobi Biswas, Kali Bannerjee, Bhanu Bannerjee to Tulsi Chakraborty, all do justice to their roles. Still it's Uttam who is the show-stealer. But surprisingly it's Suchitra Sen who is the biggest weak-link. A member of the higher strata, she was intentionally motivated to think about the slum-dwellers. But through her behaviour she never seemed to be really sympathetic towards them (it seemed more like mercy) and particularly her treatment towards Uttam at the start seemed to express a sort of pride regarding her position. From there why did she ultimately start to think of Uttam as her saviour never really becomes clear till the end...There are too many songs; especially in the 2nd half which makes the film quite boring at places. But even there a couple of them scored by Hemanta Mukherjee are hummable.This was another superhit of the Uttam-Suchitra pair; and just like many films of old times, I am compelled to say quite 'undeservingly' so! Probably the concoction of the lead-pair's chemistry, Uttam's new 'angry young-man' look and a Salim-Javed kind 1st half did the trick. Agradoot had made some gripping thrillers like 'Sobar Upore' and 'Kokhono Megh' where they had dared to break away from the conventional standards. Here also they could have done the same... but instead what they ended up making, was just another typical Uttam-Suchitra romantic tale!