Sheer visual poetry

I have heard the movie songs for decades before I chased the movie down on YouTube after the advent of the www.

Insaan Jaag Utha is a movie made by the man with the Golden Touch, Shakti Samanta. No other producer has enjoyed a run of superhits with the same male lead, as Shaktida and Rajesh Khanna did. They contributed the largest chunk of his 19 superhits in a row, although their last 3 films together didn’t quite meet the same degree of success.

A movie made immediately after the heady success of Howrah Bridge, by Shakti Samanta, the movie had the beauteous Madhubala, one of the most worshipped faces on the silver screen , once again, but in an entirely different role. In Howrah Bridge she acts as Edna, the Anglo Indian cabaret dancer who went from her Aaiye Meherbaan entry directly into the mindspaces and dreams of hundreds of millions of adult Indian males who just could do no better than fall head over heels in love with the lady’s irresistible and infinite charm, hypnotic smile, and the mole on her left cheek. There was no way anyone could escape the entrapment in the web woven by her effervescent smile, her gaze and world wise body language. The movie Insaan Jaag Utha has her as a naïve village belle who is entrapped by a gold digger (pun intended) played by Sunil Dutt.  What Sunil Dutt possessed in his voice, he didn’t quite have in the acting department. But those days male leads who could raise the possibility of a quiver of the eyebrow and show three-fourths more emotion and animatedness than the reigning pumpkins and ash gourds who were passed off as male leads (remember Premnath started life as a male lead), stood out in comparison. The real actors like Balraj Sahni, The Ganguly brothers, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Sahab, Dev Anand had a free run.

The movie has an absolutely fabulous musical score by the man-who-didn’t-want-to-be-King, Sachindev Burmanda. What better example of the quality of the score and his creative musical genius than this amazing duet between Rafisaab and Asha Bhosle? Ashatai gets so much naughtiness and a teasing tone into her voice, it is truly enviable and a learning for other singers who can’t emote by way of their singing. Interestingly both Jaidev and Pancham are credited in the movie for assisting Burmanda. Who else but Shailendra can write such poetry? https://youtu.be/EHzpSvXrl3s

Sunil Dutt poor guy was stuck with the goofy expression that served him so well as Bhola, the country bumpkin who has more brawn than brain, in Padosan. Watching him on-screen with the divine Madhubala was a conundrum easily solved by all eyes (gender insensitive statement) focussing throughout on the lady. It might as well have been a scarecrow or a marionette or a ventriloquist’s dummy in the song with Madhubala, it would have not made any difference, I am sure.

Have a wonderful weekend folks as I escape into the mountains after a hiatus thanks to my shenanigans in Delhi last weekend. Stay safe

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