Sing songs of joy

The year 1949 was marked by big blockbuster releases in Bollywood, both with the same leading man. The first turned into the biggest blockbuster of all time (for the moment) when released only to have its record broken by the other, the very same year. Very unusual to have this happen in the same year. Both had the same lead pair: Raj Kapoor (pretty much the blue eyed boy and heartthrob of the leading lady) & Nargis. The first was made by Mehboob Khan and had music by Naushad. The second one (released just 2 months later) was produced and directed by the leading man himself, Raj Kapoor’s Barsaat and had a very memorable score by Shankar-Jaikishan.

Andaz was made based on a triangle between Raj Kapoor, Nargis and Dilip Kumar. Dilip Kumar saves Nargis from possible grievous injury when her steed becomes uncontrollable, is welcomed to her home & she strikes up a friendship with him against the father’s wishes. Yusuf bhai thinks he owns Nargis but doesn’t know she is engaged to Raj Kapoor who is studying abroad ( Vilayat was the famous destination those days for all the filmwallahs). Raj Kapoor duly returns and marries the lass. Dilip Kumar is now left holding a lemon. A power outage is the (in) opportune moment that Nargis chooses to tell Dilip Kumar she doesn’t love him at all and loves “the other one”. The big goof up is that she whispers the confession into Raj Kapoor’s ears. He takes it as an admission of infidelity, takes his daughter and leaves hurt and angry. Dilip Kumar has a fit of madness and a rush of Pathan blood and tries to physically assault Nargis who shoots him dead. The testimony by Raj Kapoor about his wife’s (perceived) infidelity leads to a conviction and a life imprisonment that is not overturned by the discovery of a letter inside a doll Dilip has gifted Nargis telling the truth.

The movie had a divine score by Naushad. This one song had lyrics by Prem Dhawan, all the rest had Majrooh’s words. This is the party celebrating Cuckoo’s birthday when Dilip tries to profess his love for Nargis. https://youtu.be/XI6NPFm1i2k

Incidentally this was the only movie which had Raj Kapoor and Yusuf Saab together on-screen. Cuckoo looks great, dancing with gay abandon.

A lovely song from a superhit movie that saw it’s record last just 2 months. https://youtu.be/LGOUpeLbMD4

https://youtu.be/LGOUpeLbMD4

Have a fantastic Friday, folks as I get ready for the weekend.

Advertisement