Nutan and Shashikala in Sujata (1959)

Cast: Nutan, Sunil Dutt, Shashikala

Director: Bimal Roy

Music: S.D. Burman

Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri

Capsule Review: Nutan and Bimal Roy gave cinema their first stunner in Sujata. The humanist drama about a harijan (untouchable) girl’s fight for identity was replete with subtle sensitive touches that defied the mood of cinema in those melodramatic times. The muted stabs at social reformation were further mellowed down by Nutan’s incredibly articulate performance that is now rightly regarded as a classic of shaded sentimentality. The other performances are also adequately underplayed. It is a relief beyond what mainstream cinema generally affords audience to see the protagonist’s stepsister (Shashikala) portrayed as anything but a shrew. Sunil Dutt in a gallantly supportive role to the leading lady plays the man who rescues Sujata from her socially debased destiny. The film’s classic numbers were sung by Lata Mangeshkar’s sister Asha Bhosle.

Mujhe Jeene Do (1963)

Cast: Sunil Dutt, Waheeda Rehman

Director: Moni Bhattacharya

Music: Jaidev

Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi

Capsule Review: Sunil Dutt produced and played the lead in this pioneering dacoitdrama. Like Nitin Bose’s Ganga Jumna and Raj Kapoor’s Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai—the two other famous dacoit dramas of the 1960s—Mujhe Jeene Do pitches its passionate plea at a socially conscious level. The central plot about the seismic romance between the dacoit Sunil Dutt and the prostitute played by Waheeda Rehman is played out at an intensely lyrical pitch. The two social outcastes’ efforts to set up ^-a home and ensure a safe future for their child makes for a poignant drama, heightened by Sahir’s poetry and Jaidev’s music. Lata Mangeshkar singing Tere bachpan ko jawani ki dua deti hoon is particularly expressive of the film’s plea to let every individual live with dignity.

Sadhana in Waqt (1965)

Waqt was a landmark in many ways: it is a multi-starrer with four main heroes and two major heroines; it set a trend for showing the lifestyles of the super-rich; it is a ‘lost and found’ film, a storyline that became a favorite in the 1970s; and it has memorable songs.

A prosperous merchant, Lala Kedarnath (Balraj Sahni), believes nothing can disrupt his happy family life until an earthquake tears his world apart and he loses everything including his loved ones. He is on the verge of finding his eldest son but, hearing he has just escaped from an orphanage where he was beaten, Kedarnath kills the warden and goes to jail for twenty years. The eldest boy, Raja (Raaj Kumar), is raised by a criminal and becomes a professional thief, while the second son, Ravi (Sunil Dutt), is adopted by a rich couple and trains as a lawyer. They both live in Bombay, while the youngest, Vijay (Shashi Kapoor), looks after their mother in Delhi, where he falls in love with Renu (Sharmila Tagore), a rich college girl.

Raja and Ravi both love Meena (Sadhana) but Raja, finding a childhood picture of Ravi, realizes that he is his long lost brother and sacrifices his relationship with Meena. Vijay has moved to Bombay, where he is hired as a chauffeur by Renu. Ravi reproaches Renu

for having an affair with his driver, then Meena’s parents object to Ravi marrying their daughter when they do not know who his parents are.

Raja throws a party to announce the identity of Ravi’s parents. Although other members of the family bump into one another — such as Vijay and Kedarnath — no connections are made.

When Raja is framed in a murder, he hires Ravi as his lawyer. A courtroom drama ensues, in which Vijay appears as a witness; then his mother comes into court. Kedarnath recognizes her and is reunited with Vijay, after which Raja reveals that he and Ravi are his other two children. The family returns to open a shop, with the two future laughter-in-laws settled into the family.

The film is an example of an early ‘lost and found’. Although Waqt hows the family separated by an earthquake, probably referring to the Quetta earthquake of 1935, it requires only a little imagination to see its as a partition story, where the earthquake is a metaphor for a far greater human upheaval. The line of migration from Punjab to Bombay is the one followed by many in the Hindi film industry.

Waqt is justly famous for its whole new glamorous ‘look’ in clothing and lifestyle. While the outdoor locations were in Kashmir, Simla, Nainital, Bombay and Delhi, the film spares the viewer no detail of the lifestyle of the super-rich, who have motor boats, American cars, throw lavish parties and live in houses adorned with fountains, circular beds, sunken seating and grand pianos. This set the style for a whole ‘look’ for Hindi films, away from the drama of feudal riches to newly upwardly mobile social groups. The women are glamorous in every respect, displaying highly stylish outfits, diamond jewellery and elegant grooming. The men wear the tight suits that were fashionable at the time, while only the older generation appears in ‘traditional’ clothes.

Waqt has enduringly popular songs, composed by Ravi with lyrics by Sahir, including ‘Ai meri zohrajabeen’ (Manna Dey) (which Yash Chopra’s son Aditya includes in his debut film, Dilwale dulhaniya le jayenge, as a love song for the older generation) and ‘Aage bhi jaane na tu’ (Asha Bhosle).

Waqt was the first colour film made by B. R. Films and established Yash Chopra as a major film-maker, a position he still holds nearly forty years later after directing films such as Dhool ka phool (1959), Daag (1970), Deewaar, Kabhi kabhie, Trishul, Silsila, Chandni, Lamhe, Dil to pagal hai and Veer-Zaara (2004), and producing other films, such as Dilwale dulhaniya le jayenge – Rachel Dwyer

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 1965, Genre – Drama, Country – India, Language – Urdu/Hindi, Producer – B.R. Films, Director – Yash Chopra, Music Director – Ravi, Cast – Sunil Dutt, Sadhana, Balraj Sahini, Achla Sachdev, Raj Kumar, Rehman, Sharmila Tagore, Shashi Kapoor, Shashikala