Hero’s parents separate in his childhood, the hero lives with the “poor” parent (or the parent could be middleclass but basically has lot less money than the other parent) not having met the rich parent in all the years since his parents parted ways in his childhood/infancy. The rich parent is close to the heroine, who has grown up to be a very smart, firebrand of a girl. Then the bad guy comes along and meets the rich parent “by chance”, pretending to be the son that the rich parent has hoped to meet some day. Now the rich parent wants the heroine to marry the “bad guy” thinking he is his/her son, but in the meantime the heroine has gone and fallen in love with the hero – the real son and heir to all the “jaidaad” of the rich parent. The rich parent believes the hero to be the “fraud” till proven otherwise at the end. Then the “bad guy” either tries to kidnap the heroine (or some such), once its become obvious that he is not the real son but the bad guy; the hero then has to fight the bad guy and save the heroine. And of course the hero’s parents then get together and give their blessings to hero-heroine – who then sing away in the sunset….
Of course there are some variations in the basic plots itself –
In “Tumsa nahin dekha” Hero’s father ends up killing someone and so runs away, leaving his wife and small son. The father then goes and lives in Assam under a different name, buys land there and makes a lot of money; he adopts a girl, who grows up to be the heroine.
In “Dil Deke Dekho” Hero’s father suspecting his wife of being unfaithful to him, leaves her, taking their small son with him. In this movie, it’s the hero’s mother who is very rich – she has many estates. The heroine is a family friend’s daughter, whom the hero’s mother sends to London to study.
In “Phir Wahi Dil Laya Hoon”, hero’s father throws his wife suspecting her to be of “bad character”. She then arranges for her son to be kidnapped from her husband. The heroine is the family doctor’s daughter and her father dies in an accident leaving her all alone and so hero’s father brings her up.
But the movies seem different from each other because of many other factors too – the locations, the buildup, personality of the actors in those specific movies, the chemistry between the lead pair, the other characters in the movie (though 2 of these have Pran playing the “bad guy” – the pretend son, two of these movies also have Rajender nath playing the heroine’s would be husband, before the pretend son makes an appearance), the music and song situations – the overall feel becomes quite different with these variations. The music is good in each of these movies and must have been one of the reasons for these becoming such big hits.
But I think a big reason for these movies to do well was that the audiences loved the fun factor that was a big part of these movies – in fact good part of the movie was really hero trying various things to win the heroine over. People loved to see the hero- heroine sing and dance with abundance. They loved to see them having fun while falling in love with each other. So one does wonder, how important is the basic plot to the overall feel of the movie and the enjoyment one can get out of it… These movies and their music is as enjoyable today. You don’t watch the movie just for the plot – you anyway know the plot when you are watching it the second time. But you can watch these movies again and again and listen to the music time and again.
With these movies, the idea was not to tell a very profound story or give an important and serious message. And while there are some wonderful movies from this period that did those things too, the serious and meaningful message of a particular time, many times is relevant only in that time period and many years later, those issues and messages do not seem as meaningful. And however good a very serious and profound movie is, you can’t watch it again and again like the fun movies. And these fun movies are the ones that remain timeless and are as watchable today as they were then.
From this plot, can you guess the movie? If you thought of “Tumsa Nahin Dekha ” (starring Shammi Kapoor & Ameeta - 1957) , you are absolutely right!! But if you thought of “Dil Deke Dekho” (starring Shammi Kapoor & Asha Parekh - 1959) you are right too!! Oh and of course, you are also right if you guessed it to be “Phir Wohi Dil laya hoon” (starring Joy Mukherjee & Asha Parekh - 1963) … And maybe there are some others that would come to your mind, and you would still be correct. The basic plot of all the three movies I mentioned is the same.(All three are Nasir Hussain movies) And yet, each movie managed to be seen as “different” and managed to be a hit.
Of course there are some variations in the basic plots itself –
In “Tumsa nahin dekha” Hero’s father ends up killing someone and so runs away, leaving his wife and small son. The father then goes and lives in Assam under a different name, buys land there and makes a lot of money; he adopts a girl, who grows up to be the heroine.
In “Dil Deke Dekho” Hero’s father suspecting his wife of being unfaithful to him, leaves her, taking their small son with him. In this movie, it’s the hero’s mother who is very rich – she has many estates. The heroine is a family friend’s daughter, whom the hero’s mother sends to London to study.
In “Phir Wahi Dil Laya Hoon”, hero’s father throws his wife suspecting her to be of “bad character”. She then arranges for her son to be kidnapped from her husband. The heroine is the family doctor’s daughter and her father dies in an accident leaving her all alone and so hero’s father brings her up.
But I think a big reason for these movies to do well was that the audiences loved the fun factor that was a big part of these movies – in fact good part of the movie was really hero trying various things to win the heroine over. People loved to see the hero- heroine sing and dance with abundance. They loved to see them having fun while falling in love with each other. So one does wonder, how important is the basic plot to the overall feel of the movie and the enjoyment one can get out of it… These movies and their music is as enjoyable today. You don’t watch the movie just for the plot – you anyway know the plot when you are watching it the second time. But you can watch these movies again and again and listen to the music time and again.
With these movies, the idea was not to tell a very profound story or give an important and serious message. And while there are some wonderful movies from this period that did those things too, the serious and meaningful message of a particular time, many times is relevant only in that time period and many years later, those issues and messages do not seem as meaningful. And however good a very serious and profound movie is, you can’t watch it again and again like the fun movies. And these fun movies are the ones that remain timeless and are as watchable today as they were then.
..PHIR WOHI DIL LAYA HUN
ReplyDelete............DEKE
TUMSA NAHIN DEKHO/A
PHIR TUMSA DIL NAHIN DEKHA, DEKHO WAHI DIL DEKE LAYA HUN ... I'm sorry I had to cook up something, even if it sounded horrible. But I'm sure, this would have been a hit too :)
Ritu!! Yes, it sounds horrible!! :-) But I get your point...
ReplyDeleteHave you seen these movies? They are fun movies. And thoough I like the first two more, even Phir Wahi Dil... is an enjoyable movie. Its a movie made keeping Shammi Kapoor in mind. :-)