Padosan
| Padosan | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Jyoti Swaroop |
| Written by | Rajinder Krishan |
| Based on | Pasher Bari by Arun Chowdhury |
| Produced by | Mehmood N. C. Sippy |
| Starring | Sunil Dutt Saira Banu Mehmood />Kishore Kumar Om Prakash |
| Cinematography | K. H. Kapadia |
| Edited by | D. N. Pai |
| Music by | R. D. Burman |
| Distributed by | Kailash Dossani Investments Pvt. Ltd. Mehmood Productions |
Release date |
|
Running time | 157 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
Padosan (transl. Lady Neighbour) is a 1968 Indian Hindi-language musical comedy film directed by Jyoti Swaroop and produced by Mehmood, N. C. Sippy and written by Rajendra Krishan. It is a remake of the Bengali-language film Pasher Bari (1952) based on a short story of the same name by Arun Chowdhury[1][2] starring Bhanu Bandyopadhyay and Sabitri Chatterjee. The film stars Sunil Dutt and Saira Banu. Kishore Kumar, Mukri, Raj Kishore and Keshto Mukherjee played the supporting roles. Mehmood as the South Indian musician and rival to Sunil Dutt is among the highlights of the film. Indiatimes Movies ranked the film amongst the "Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films".[3] Music was composed by R. D. Burman. Kishore Kumar sang for himself while Manna Dey sang for Mehmood. Many of the scenes were shot in Brindavan Gardens located near the city of Mysore.
Plot
Bhola (Sunil Dutt), an innocent young man lives with his maternal uncle (Mama) Kunwar Pratap Singh (Om Prakash). Bhola is enraged at Pratap Singh who has been searching for a girl to marry despite his wife being alive. Angry, he leaves his uncle's house and moves in to live with his Aunt (Pratap's wife). There, he finds a beautiful neighbour Bindu (Saira Banu) and falls in love with her. Bindu however, gets annoyed by Bhola and refutes his advances. Vidyapati (Kishore Kumar), who is a singer and theater actor and Bhola's friend and mentor comes to his rescue and spies on Bindu.
Bindu tolerates advances of her South Indian music teacher Master Pillai / Masterji (Mehmood). Vidyapathi realizes that Bindu loves music and that is the reason for her closeness with Master Pillai. He tries to teach Bhola to sing but fails miserably. Inspired by dubbed songs, he devises an idea and asks Bhola to mimic the lyrics to songs while he does the real singing in the background himself. Their plan to impress Bindu succeeds and Bindu slowly starts falling for Bhola, much to the chagrin of Pillai.
When singing at Bindu's birthday party, one of her friends becomes suspicious at Bhola's voice. She leads Bindu to discover Bhola's fake act. It makes Bindu angry and in a fit of rage, she agrees to the marriage proposal of Kunwar Pratap Singh, which she had earlier rejected upon knowing that he is Bhola's Maternal Uncle. Vidyapathi and his gang visit Pratap Singh and plead him to reject the proposal for his nephew's love, to which Pratap Singh agrees. This further enrages Bindu who decides to marry Pillai, just to get even with Bhola.
Helpless to stop the wedding, Vidyapathi comes up a last-ditch plan to fake Bhola's suicide. They arrange a suicide scene and start shouting and mourning Bhola's "death". Everyone arrives at the scene including Bindu who is deeply shocked and tries to wake him up. Vidyapathi tells her that only her unrequited love could have a chance of bringing the dead back and encourages her to try harder. After some more pretending, Bhola finally cries and wakes up, embracing Bindu. Everyone including Master Pillai is happy and shocked to see the power of true love. In the end, Bhola's Maternal Uncle and Aunt also reconcile and bless the newlywed couple. In the last scene of movie, Master Pillai is shown playing 'Shehnai' with tears in his eyes.
Cast
- Sunil Dutt as Bhola
- Saira Banu as Bindu
- Mehmood as Master Pillai
- Kishore Kumar as Vidyapati
- Om Prakash as Kumar Pratap Singh
- Dulari as Mrs. Pratap Singh
- Sunder as Pandit Jankiprasad
- Agha as Bindu's Father
- Mukri as Banarasi
- Keshto Mukherjee as Kalkattiya
- Raj Kishore as Lahori
- Moolchand as Pratap Singh's servant
Music
The music was composed by R. D. Burman. The lyrics were written by Rajendra Krishan.
| Song | Singer |
|---|---|
| "Bhai Battur, Bhai Battur" | Lata Mangeshkar |
| "Sharm Aati Hai Magar" | Lata Mangeshkar |
| "Main Chali, Main Chali Dekho Pyar Ki Gali" | Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle |
| "Aao Aao Sanwariya" | Manna Dey, Mehmood |
| "Ek Chatur Naar Karke Shringar" | Manna Dey, Mehmood, Kishore Kumar |
| "Mere Samnewali Khidki" | Kishore Kumar |
| "Mere Bhole Balam" | Kishore Kumar |
| "Kehna Hai" | Kishore Kumar |
Kishore Kumar's character in the film was inspired by the personality of his uncle, Dhananjay Banerjee (a classical singer),[4] and music director Khemchand Prakash. The song Ek Chatur Naar was originally sung in the 1941 movie Jhoola by Ashok Kumar.[5][6]
Legacy
Hindi films never played in Chennai for many years because of the agitation against force-feeding the language to Tamilians. When I went to see Padosan, I went to protest against it – we had been told it was a film where South Indians were made fun of. We went in to agitate, came out smiling, as fans of Mehmood saab, imitating him. I told Mehmood saab this story many years later when I met him. And that’s how I started watching Hindi films again.
Indiatimes Movies ranked the film amongst the "Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films"[3] Amit Upadhaya of ThePrint in a retrospective article on film's 50th anniversary wrote ″As cult comedy films go, Jyoti Swaroop’s Padosan is one of the few in Hindi film history to never run out of laughs. This is an even more remarkable trophy because such a movie cannot be made again in today’s Republic of the Easily Offended, i.e., India. The trademark innocent lunacy of the lovable film turned 50 this year″[8] In a similar 50th anniversary article, Devansh Sharma of Firstpost gave credit to RD Burman's music for changing the state of comedy genre in Hindi films as he felt that ″Burman's music gave wings to the camera that was otherwise doomed to sit still. Krishan's poetry also allowed the editor and director a lot of freedom as they could choose the appropriate shot for every emotion expressed in the songs.″[9]
Characters of animated series Guru Aur Bhole which aired on Sony Yay, were inspired by Kishore Kumar's and Sunil Dutt's characters from the film. The voice artist for the character Guru is Amit Kumar, son of Kishore Kumar.[10]
References
- ^ "At the Saamne Wali Khidki - Indian Express". Archive.indianexpress.com. 23 October 2010. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
- ^ Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Paul Willemen (1998) [1994]. Rajadhyaksha, Ashish; Willemen, Paul (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (PDF). Oxford University Press. p. 396. ISBN 019-563579-5.
- ^ a b "25 Must See Bollywood Movies". Indiatimes Movies. Archived from the original on 21 August 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2008.
- ^ Filmfare (1–15 November 1987)
- ^ Bhattacharya, Roshmila (9 August 2019). "This week, that year: 'Padosan' Saira Banu on her 'guru' Kishore Kumar". Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
- ^ "Did you know the popular song 'Ek Chatur Naar' was originally sung by Ashok Kumar?". The Indian Express. 2 December 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
- ^ "Bollywood blockbuster to Kollywood classic: Kamal Haasan picks his 70 favourite movies". Hindustan Times.
- ^ Upadhyaya, Amit (2 December 2018). "Padosan is a film that can't be made in today's Republic of Easy Offended India".
- ^ "Padosan turns 50: RD Burman's music helped shape a genre-bending screenplay for the Kishore Kumar comedy-Entertainment News , Firstpost". Firstpost. 29 November 2018.
- ^ "Amit Kumar about doing voiceover for his father Kishore Kumar's resembling character in a cartoon | Firstpost". 28 May 2017.