This was Bimal Roy's final feature as a director and regarded by many as his crowning achievement. After casting her, in his previous women-centric film "Sujata" (1959), now the key laid in persuading Nutan out of her post-nuptial retirement to play the strictly raised, poetry-loving village girl, Kalyani. Nutan is strongly supported by Ashok Kumar and Dharmendra, just beginning to make an impact in the film industry and directed by award-winning director Bimal Roy, who ventures into the life of a convict and reveals his/her humanity and the circumstances that often force an ordinary person to commit a crime. This deep social concern is however conveyed subtly without being didactic, through the predicament of the main protagonist, Kalyani lodged in the prison through the majority of the film and her longing for freedom. The film also highlights the spirit of sacrifice in the youth during the freedom struggle when a youth would even sacrifice his future wife, at his party's command. Despite having a dramatic turn of events throughout the film, the melodrama never overpowers the narrative, the pace remains engrossing yet easy, and cinematography highlights the stillness and vacuum of prison life. Nutan remains understated through the film, and the director employs irony and symbolism throughout the film to make his statement instead.