| Starring Madhubala, Guru Dutt, Johnny Walker, Yasmin, Lalita Pawar, Kumkum, Cuckoo, Agha, Uma Devi |
Though widely labelled as a romantic comedy, the film sought to raise various social issues.
In fact, the loose script succeeds largely because of nine interspersed songs.
This was Guru Dutt’s fifth film as a director, and third as a hero. Having earlier tested turbulent waters without success as a hero in “Baaz” and “Aar Paar”, the reluctant actor dared to make another attempt, looking more confidently into the camera. The film was originally meant to be released on 25 October 1954, but the delay made the actor-producer re-title the film, and it thus accidentally turned out to be more relevant because of the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955.
In a quick montage-kind of opening sequence, the camera quickly shifts from a gathering crowd around a newspaper hawker: a girl picking up a copy and taking it inside a palatial house where a lady is addressing a motley crowd of supposed feminists; a young woman darting to a huge tennis court trying to catch the attention of man who is not interested in marrying her.
Anita Verma (Madhubala) is under the strict surveillance of a daunting feminist aunt, Sita Devi (Lalita Pawar) who is against marriage itself. While trying to escape from the eye of a domestic hand she happens to land in a shed temporarily habited by a struggling cartoonist, Preetam Kumar (Guru Dutt).
Anita’s father bequeaths Rs.70 lakhs to his daughter but with a rider: she has to marry within a month otherwise the inheritance would go to charity. So Sita Devi devises a scheme to get her conditionally married to the jobless cartoonist for a certain reward. In an interesting introductory kind of a scene the landlady, Lily D’Silva (Uma Devi who later came to be known as Tuntun), asks Preetam (while R K Laxman’s sketches adorn the wall in the background): “Are you a communist?” Prompt comes the answer, “No, I am cartoonist.”
Social issuesThough widely labelled as a romantic comedy, the film sought to raise various social issues. In fact, the loose script succeeds largely because of nine interspersed songs. The narrative picks up from the moment the civil marriage takes place, with Anita unaware of the conditions of the marital bond to the guy who she had been running into accidentally. Some dramatically thrown messages bring in a certain change of heart in the heroine, who, now in love, refuses to divorce but subsequently not only concedes Sita Devi’s demand but also provides fabricated evidence of his low moral character, infidelity and torture to help speedy divorce.
Nostalgic The famous stills from the film.
The standard twists takes place. The heroine gets to know the truth; has a confrontation with the aunt before the day; gets locked but escapes in the nick of time to reach her estranged lover who in a fit of frustration has already left to catch the flight to Delhi. The dramatic climax has the heroine reaching the airport with the help of Johnny (Johnny Walker) and his girl (Yasmin)…and they walk away happily from the camera. Johnny Walker performs credibly in an almost parallel role, while others perform competently.
Lively musicalO.P. Nayyar’s lively musical score added substantially to the film’s success, so also Majrooh Sultanpuri’s eight lyrics— Saroj Mohini Nayyar having been credited with the number “Pritam aan milo”.
Except for a solo “Ab to ji hone laga kisi ki soorat” by Shamshad Begum, Geeta Dutt lent her voice to five solos and two duets with Mohammed Rafi who otherwise only had “Meri duniya lut rahi thi.”
V.K. Murthy’s riveting camera work, especially during the swimming pool song, sequences with girls holding umbrellas, “Thandi hawa kali ghata”, provides colour to Guru Dutt’s inventiveness in song picturisation, even in a black and white movie which is two hours 37 minutes long. And there is never a dull moment.
source: http://www.hindu.com/fr/2009/10/23/stories/2009102350200400.htm
