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Directed by: Mehboob Khan
Music: Naushad
Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri
Starring: Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Dilip Kumar,
Cuckoo, Murad |
Continuing with film reviews to celebrate 'Women's Month' here at Conversations over Chai, let me turn the spotlight on one of the most acclaimed films of the next decade - the 40s. Producer-Director Mehboob Khan had already made a name for himself as a pioneering film-maker with several hits to his credit. In 1949, he reunited with the heroine he had picked and trained and presented in her debut film, Taqdeer - Nargis. Alongside her, he cast two promising, upcoming actors - Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar, signed on music director Naushad, and gave us a flawed, yet modern classic that raised a very important question - no, not whether a woman has a right to have an opposite-sex friend if she is married, or otherwise engaged, but whether platonic relationships can exist between two people of the opposite sex.
In an era where the 'Indian model' of womanhood was a certain stereotype (have things changed all that much in the intervening years?), Nargis' Nina was completely unconventional. She is conflicted herself, and is the root of the interpersonal conflict between the two men who both share a very important part of her life. So, from the fiery forties comes this tragic tale of a woman, who's caught between a suspicious husband and a male friend who wants more than just her friendship. What about her? What does she want?
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