Ishti Kutum

Ishti Kutum
Genre	Drama Family Comedy
Created by	Magic Moments Motion Pictures
Written by	Story Leena Gangopadhyay Screenplay Leena Gangopadhyay Dialogues Leena Gangopadhyay
Directed by	Saibal Banerjee Sujit Pyne
Creative director	Leena Gangopadhyay[1]
Presented by	Bright Advertising Pvt. Ltd.
Starring	Ranita Das Rishi Kaushik Ankita Chakraborty Sudipta Chakraborty
Opening theme	Dhitang Tuli Tala
Country of origin	India
Original language	Bengali
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	1332
Production
Executive producers	Sumit Kumar Roy, Satyajit Chakraborty (Magic Moments), Kastuvi Ghosh (STAR Jalsha), Sriya Basu (STAR Jalsha)
Producer	Saibal Banerjee
Production location	West Bengal
Cinematography	Siddhartha Mukherjee
Editors	Sameer Soumen
Running time	22 minutes (approx.)
Release
Original network	Star Jalsha
Picture format	576i SDTV 1080i HDTV
First shown in	India
Original release	24 October 2011 (2011-10-24) – 13 December 2015 (2015-12-13)
Chronology
Preceded by
Followed by	Potol Kumar Gaanwala
Related shows	Mohi Neelakkuyil Neelakuyil Imlie

Ishti Kutum is a Bengali TV serial that aired from 24 October 2011 to 13 December 2015 on Star Jalsha Mon to Sat at 6:30pm IST.^[2] The show was produced by Magic Moments Motion Pictures company.^[3] This is the first serial by Magic Moments Motion Pictures in Star Jalsha as well as the longest running serial by Magic Moments Motion Pictures till today among all of the serials by Magic Moments Motion Pictures. The show was launched on 24 October 2011 and went on to become one of the most popular, talked about serials of that time. This show was so popular and audience gave a good response, and the show has created a history in the Bengali television industry. Apparently, Ranita Das left the serial in 2014 due to weight issues and Sudipta Chakraborty was cast instead of Ranita till the end of the show. It got 16.5 TRP (Highest), which is 4th TRP record of Star Jalsha. It is the third longest-running Bengali show in Star Jalsha after Star Jalsha's Maa....Tomay Chara Ghum Ashena and Ke Apon Ke Por. After running successfully for 4 years, the show went off-air on 13 December 2015 to make way for Potol Kumar Gaanwala.

Plot[]

Under forced circumstances, Baha and Archi get married. On reaching the city, she gets to know that her husband is already engaged to his girlfriend Kamalika.

The story revolves around the life of an 18 year old tribal love-child Bahamoni Soren from a secluded region called Palashboni in rural West Bengal. Bahamoni (Baha), who had just completed her 10th standard upon scoring star marks and wants to attend college, is brought up by her mother Konkamoni (Konka) and stepfather Satyakam who is also a tribal activist and leader. Baha and her mother Konka had to face a lot of humiliation from her grandmother, who always yelled at her and Konka. A famous journalist from the city of Kolkata, Archisman Mukherjee, visits Palashboni to interview Satyakam. One stormy night Baha is forced to spend the night in the Tourist Lodge in Archi's room. Though both are innocent, the locals force Archisman to marry Baha. On the day of Bidaai, Baha goes to a washroom of a local dhaba to clean away the vermillion from her forehead and opened her shakha pola and all the marriage signs from herself. Archi, previously engaged to his girlfriend Kamalika in the city, refuses to recognise the ceremony and asks Baha to decide what she wants to do. Baha then comes to Kolkata with Archi as a maidservant. She begins to study in the city. Gradually, she becomes comfortable and happy in the city, living with the Mukherjee family, who also begin to love her cheerful ways. Initially, Archi thinks of Baha as a nuisance. He continues his engagement to Kamalika Majumdar, a college professor, whose father Dibyojoti Majumder, who also happens to be Baha's biological father. Archi slowly falls in love with Baha, realising he considers Kamalika merely a close friend. An unhappy Kamalika tries to commit suicide but eventually divorces Archi and arranges for his wedding to Baha. Archi and Baha are married in the eyes of the law. Baha continues her studies and performs brilliantly. Kamalika's mother attempts to murder Baha out of rage, aware of the fact that her husband is Baha's father. Kamalika forces her father Dibyojoyti to accept Baha as his daughter. Dibyojoti regrets his past behavior and tries to build a relationship with Baha. Meanwhile, Archi's elder brother, Dhritiman, returns home and is suffering from leukemia. He breaks off his engagement with Sanjbati, a singer, because of his illness. With Baha's help, Dhritiman and Sanjhbati resolve their differences and marry. Archi grows jealous of Baha's intimacy with Prakash, her friend and professor, but later realises she is innocent and becomes possessive of her. Dhrubo Sen, a lawyer, falls in love with Kamalika. Kamalika takes his help in getting bail for Satyakam. Finding a good friend in Dhrubo, Kamalika agrees to marry him. But Dhrubo's first wife Rusha, who had run away and was missing for many years, suddenly returns. Kamalika attempts suicide again. She is saved by Archi but loses her mental balance temporarily. Baha and Archi try to fight for Rusha, unaware of her criminal connections. Rusha returns to Dhrubo and Kamalika leaves him becoming lonely. As a result, Dibyojyoti disowns Baha as his daughter. Later on, Baha travels abroad for higher studies. Kamalika is pregnant with Dhruba's child but hides this from him. She meets Bikram who falls in love with her and accepts her unborn child. Meanwhile, Archi discovers that Bikram is his cousin brother. Kamalika finally decides to marry Bikram and gives birth to a son, Aasmaan. Rusha steals the baby who is rescued and returned to Kamalika by Bikram and Archi. Baha unintentionally causes Archi's sister Nilu to miscarry. Archi threatens to divorce Baha. Kamalika sees Baha and her colleague on the street and informs Archi suspecting Baha is having an affair. An angry Baha threatens Kamalika with filing a case if she interferes between her and Archi. Archi reminds her of Kamalika's sacrifices and Archi and Baha end up separating with Baha moving away. Kamalika is diagnosed with a terminal disease. She goes to Palashboni and donates her money to build a hospital there. She dies in Archi's arms on her birthday and leaves her child in his care. Baha feels Archi will never forget Kamalika and leaves. Elsewhere, Mithai later marries Dibakar.

5 years later

Baha and Archi meet at a function and Archi talks about Kamalika's son who wants to see Baha. Baha decides to stay with him happily again and the serial ends.

Cast[]

Main[]

• Ranita Das/Sudipta Chakraborty as Bahamoni Mukherjee (née Soren) aka Baha - Kamalika's half-sister; Archi's wife; Konkamoni and Dibyo's daughter; Satyakam's step-daughter.
• Rishi Kaushik as Archisman Mukherjee aka Archi - a journalist; Baha's husband and Kamalika's ex-husband.
• Ankita Chakraborty as Kamalika Mukherjee (née Majumdar) aka Mun - an Economics professor; Anu & Dibyo's daughter; Baha's half-sister, Archi's and Dhruba's former wife; Bikram's wife. (Deceased)

Recurring[]

• Goutam De as Pallab Mukherjee aka Polu - Archi's father
• Tanuka Chatterjee as Parnabai Mukherjee aka Parna - Archi's mother
• Santu Mukherjee as Hiranmoy Mukherjee aka Hiru - Archi's elder paternal uncle, Rani's husband, Dhritiman's mother, Sanjhbati's mother in-law
• Saswati Guha Thakurta as Radharani Mukherjee aka Rani - Hiru's wife, Dhritiman's father, Sanjhbati's father in-law
• Arindam Sil as Debraj Mukherjee aka Debu -Archi's younger paternal uncle
• Manjusree Ganguly as Doyel Mukherjee / Doyel Ghosh / Doyel Pakhi, Debraj's ex-wife later married to Tamojit
• Surojit Banerjee as Tamojit Ghosh -Doyel's second husband and a scientist by profession
• Unknown as Sondesh - Archi's brother, Polu and Parna's younger son
• Badshah Moitra as Dhritiman Mukherjee aka Dhriti - Hiranmoy & Radharani's son, Archi's elder cousin brother (Deceased)
• Bidipta Chakraborty as Sanjhbati Mukherjee -Dhriti's wife and a singer by profession
• Rupsha Guha as Nilanjana Banerjee (née Mukherjee) aka Nilu - Hiranmoy and Radharani's daughter, Prabuddha's wife
• Sandip Chakraborty as Prabuddha Banerjee -Nilu's husband
• Sahana Sen as Rupanjana Chatterjee (née Mukherjee) aka Rupu - Hiranmoy and Radharani's daughter, Dhriti's younger sister, Arjyo's wife and Archi's younger cousin sister.
• Suman Banerjee as Arjyo Chatterjee -Rupu's husband
• Aishi Bhattacharya as Chini - Doyel's daughter with Debraj, Tamojit's stepdaughter
• Sonal Mishra as Suranjana Ghosh(formerly Suranjana Hembram) (née Mukherjee) aka Mithai - Polu and Parna's daughter, Archi's younger sister, Prakash's ex-wife and Dibakar's wife.

• Shankar Chakraborty as Dibyajyoti Majumdar aka Dibyo / Chhabi Babu -Kamalika and Baha's biological father, Anu's husband and Kankamoni's concubine
• Madhabi Mukhopadhyay as Ashapurna Majumdar - Mun and Baha's paternal grandmother, Dibyo and Jaya's mother
• Rajasree Bhowmick as Jayasree Majumdar aka Jaya - Dibyo's younger sister

• Suchismita Chowdhury as Anushree Majumdar aka Anu - Dibyo's wife, Mun's mother, Baha's stepmother
• Anushree Das as Kankamoni Hembram (née Soren) aka Kanka - Dibyo's concubine, Baha's biological mother, Archi's mother in-law, Mithai's ex mother in-law, Kamalika's stepmother, Satyakam's wife.
• Chandan Sen as Satyakam Hembram - a tribal activist, Kanka's husband, Prakash's father, Baha's stepfather, Archi's step father in-law, Mithai's ex father in-law
• Bhaswar Chatterjee as Dhrubo Sen aka Piklu - Kamalika's second husband and the father of her son, Aasman
• Sudip Sengupta as Prakash Hembram - Baha's former love interest, Mithai's ex-husband, Satyakam's son, Konkamoni's stepson
• Koushik Roy as Bikramjit Mukherjee aka Bikram - Kamalika's third husband, Archi's cousin brother.

• Dipankar De as Babiya - Sanjhbati's uncle
• Anuradha Roy as Sanjhbati's mother
• Dola Chakraborty as Arjyo's mother
• Kunal Padhi as Arjyo's father
• Dwaipayan Das as Dibakar Ghosh - Mithai's second husband
• Diganta Bagchi as Arghya Uncle
• Koushani Roy as Rusha Sen - Dhrubo's first wife
• Dr. Basudeb Mukherjee as Jyotishmaan Sen -Dhrubo's father
• Chaitali Dasgupta as Dhrubo's mother
• Kalyani Mondal as Dhrubo's aunt
• Sagarika Roy as Sokhimoni aka Sokhi - Baha's friend in Palashboni.
• Arup Roy as Monglu, Baha's friend
• Priyam Chakraborty as Monojaba / Dodul
• Rita Koiral as Kumudini / Kumu
• Sujata Daw/Moyna Mukherji as Mishti
• Pushpendu Roy as Krishanu
• Surjya Kar as Anjan
• Sourav Chatterjee as Arjun
• Sanchita Bhattacharya as Srimoyee
• Sourav Chakraborty as Rusha's Boss
• Arghya Mukherjee as an Inspector
• Kamalika Banerjee
• Suparna Patra

Guest appearance

• Prosenjit Chatterjee
• Aryann Bhowmik
• Srikanta Acharya
• Sabitri Chatterjee
• Soumitra Chatterjee

Adaptations[]

Though Mohi was the first Hindi remake of the show, the story line has been taken again for the second time in the Hindi show Imlie in 2020 by Gul Khan.^[4]

Reception[]

This show has been highly controversial, because of its poor and misleading content. This has also enraged the tribal community of West Bengal for hurting their sentiments and portraying tribal characters poorly. A lawsuit was filed by the tribal community in July 2014 in Kolkata High Court against the channel for portraying tribal women's characters in poor light as well as ridiculing their language and culture. Though the channel denied all charges, there was a huge uproar from the audience towards the themes of cheating women, and domestic violence, provocation of suicide etc. by the lead characters of Archi and Baha.^[5]

References[]

External links[]

• Ishti Kutum on Hotstar
• Ishti Kutum on STAR Jalsha

See also[]

• Ichche Nodee
• Kusum Dola
• Jol Nupur
• Magic Moments Motion Pictures