The only way….

For a reason that I’ve never quite understood why Bollywood needs to repeat storylines, film names, songs much more than any other film industry in the world. As if they can’t just lay their hands on anything original. The song for today is from a movie whose name has been used twice after the movie was made in the mid 50s. Once in the 70s and then once again in the 90s.

Ek hi raasta was the very first movie made by B R Chopra. Having directed a few films earlier, B R Chopra formed his own production house B.R. Films in 1955 and Ek Hi Raasta was the first film ever produced under this banner. He has made several absolutely unforgettable movies which broke mould and unburdened themselves of several holy cows. This film was remade in Telugu and Tamizh , both exactly 4 years later as Kumkum Rekha and Pudhiya Pathai respectively.

The movie has Sunil Dutt and Meena Kumari as the notional lead pair. Ashok Kumar and Daisy Irani have important roles in the movie. Jeevan is the thieving accountant who is caught by Sunil Dutt (who gets killed by Jeevan for the favour), & who then goes on rumour mongering about a dalliance between Meena Kumari (Sunil Dutt’s widow) & Ashok Kumar (the rich bachelor owner of the factory). What follows can only happen in Bollywood: to save Meena Kumari’s “abroo” , Ashok Kumar marries the lady but isn’t accepted by the earlier husband’s (Sunil Dutt) son (why did Bollywood always have Daisy Irani in a boy’s role??) who even ignores the fact that Ashok Kumar and Meena Kumari have now had a child together, gets carried away by Jeevan‘s lies and believing that Ashok Kumar has bumped off Sunil Dutt, actually tries to shoot him (Don’t know if the US 2nd Amendment was temporarily applied in India at the time) & having failed to do that, actually kidnaps the baby and runs out onto the railway tracks. It needs the denouement where Ashok Kumar saves both kids from the oncoming train to convince Daisy that this guy is actually good at heart. Jeevan meets his just desserts and all ends the way it should.

Amidst this crazy plot (which incidentally was lapped up by the audience and the movie enjoyed a silver jubilee in several places and got remade in Telugu as well as Tamizh) the music was scored by Hemantakumar Mukherjee. The lyrics were by Majrooh Sultanpuri. I love this romantic duet by Hemantada and Latadidi, apart from the unforgettable Chali gori pee ke milan ko chali based on Bhairavi. https://youtu.be/rUV7ypQpmoE

It’s good to see Meena Kumari savour a few happy moments before the inevitable rona dhona.

Enjoy the song, folks and take care during the summer heat. Have a wonderful day ahead.