Film Prem Rog Song

[Vickiana Sconyers]

PremPujari is a 1970 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film produced, directed and written by Dev Anand for Navketan Films, his directorial debut.[1] The movie stars Dev Anand, Waheeda Rehman, Shatrughan Sinha, Prem Chopra, Madan Puri and a then-unknown Amrish Puri. It has several popular songs composed and directed by S. D. Burman.[2] The songs were written by Gopaldas Neeraj. The film was a commercial failure.[3] However, the music album is regarded as a masterpiece among classical Hindi film music aficionados, particularly the songs "Shokhiyon Mein Ghola Jaye" sung by Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar, "Phoolon Ke Rang Se" sung by Kishore Kumar and "Rangeela Re Tere Rang Mein" sung by Lata Mangeshkar.

Lieutenant Ramdev Bakshi is the son of widowed army officer Durgadas Bakshi. Ram is an innocent man who has a deep interest in wildlife. Ram is in the army as per his father's choice. He loves Suman, a beautiful, cheerful lady living in Ram's village in Khemkaran. Ram and Suman spend their time together romancing.

One day, a letter comes from the Indian army stating that Ram should return to the Indo-Chinese border since his holidays are over. Ram engages in a debate with his father where he wishes to leave the army. But he ultimately bids farewell to his village and Suman. On reaching the border, he refuses to take part in the war since he believes in non-violence or ahimsa. Frustrated, the army sentences him to two years in cellular jail for not abiding to the orders of his seniors. Fortunately, Ram runs away from the police and is roaming in the mountains of the northeast.

Later, he turns himself in and seeks forgiveness for his refusal to listen to orders by spying for India. He is sent to Beijing from where he passes on many important Chinese secrets to India, helping them win the war. Later, Pandit Nehru awards him with the country's highest military honor. After the war, he marries Suman and the two live happily together.

The film was shot in Switzerland and has Grimsel Hotel in one of the song sequences. Here, Shatrughan Sinha was picked to play his part from the gathered public. Part of Prem Pujari was also shot at Astagaon near Shirdi in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra.

The music was composed by S. D. Burman, with lyrics by Neeraj.[4] Several of the songs from the film became popular, "Phoolon Ke Rang Se" sung by Kishore Kumar (music of which was reused by Burman from his earlier Bengali song Borne Gondhe Chonde Geetitey), "Rangila Re Tere Rang Mein" which was a blend of folk and modern and sung by Lata Mangeshkar, "Shokhiyon Mein Ghola Jaaye" by Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar, "Taaqat Watan Ki Hum Se Hai" (patriotic song), and the number in Burman's voice "Prem Ke Pujari Hum Hain". According to Anantharaman, Dev Anand stated that "Rangila Re" remained his all-time Navketan favourite song.[5]

While Prem Pujari did not do well at the box office, Sachin dev Burman's soundtrack became a success and was termed as "superlative" and as a "brilliant score". The songs are known for the purity of their Urdu and Hindi languages and are regarded as evergreen classics.[6]

The film is noted for its music by R. D. Burman; numbers sung by playback singers like Kishore Kumar, R.D. Burman's father S.D. Burman and Lata Mangeshkar; lyrics were by Anand Bakshi. The songs and soundtrack written by Anand Bakshi and sung by Kishore Kumar were well-received, with Chingaari Koi Bhadke topping at 5th position on the year-end chart Binaca Geetmala annual list 1972.

Pushpa is expelled from her house by her husband and his new wife. When she refuses to leave, her husband beats her and throws her out. She goes to her mother for help, but her mother too disowns her. When she tries to commit suicide, she is sold to a kotha (brothel) in Calcutta by her village-uncle, Nepal Babu. On her audition at the kotha, Anand Babu, a businessman seeking love, is attracted by her singing. Anand Babu is unhappily married and lonely and becomes her regular and exclusive visitor as love blossoms.

Later, a widowed man with his family, from the same village as her, moves in close to Pushpa's place. The new neighbour's son, Nandu, does not get any love at home, as his father works all the time and his stepmother does not care about him. Nandu's father learns about Pushpa's new life and forbids her from interacting with him and his family as he fears what people would say. However, Pushpa starts treating Nandu as her own son when she realises that he is mistreated at home, and often goes hungry. Nandu also comes to love Pushpa and starts to regard her as his mother. He visits her every day and comes upon Anand Babu, who also becomes fond of him becoming a father figure, calling him Pushpa's son, seeing the way Pushpa loves the child.

One day, Anand Babu's brother-in-law comes to see Pushpa and demands that she tell Anand Babu to stop visiting her. With great reluctance, Pushpa agrees and she turns Anand Babu away when he comes to see her. It is then that the businessman realises that he is in love with Pushpa. When Nandu suffers from fever and his treatment is too expensive, Pushpa asks Anand Babu for help and he secretly finances the treatment and does not let anybody know. When the doctor asks him why is he so keen on helping Nandu, he replies some relationships have no names. However, when Nandu's father asks the doctor who paid for the treatment, the doctor says that his mother did. Then Nandu's father discovers that it was Pushpa who saved her son's life and he thanks her and gives her the sari that he had bought for his wife, telling her that it was a gift from a brother to a sister. A touched Pushpa accepts.

Nandu's family has to move to the village and Nandu plants a sapling of night-flowering jasmine (Harsingaar or Parijat) at Pushpa's home, making her promise to always take care of it. Pushpa cries and agrees.

Several years later, Nandu grows up to become a government engineer posted in the same town. Anand Babu meets Pushpa, now working as a maidservant who is ill-treated and they both reconcile. Nandu unsuccessfully searches for her and gives up after inquiring in the neighbourhood. Nandu's son gets sick and they go to the same doctor. Meanwhile, having met Pushpa, Anand Babu decides to catch up with all his old friends and meets the doctor. During the conversation, he reveals that he has stopped drinking and visiting brothels once he left Pushpa. He also tells him that he is now divorced/separated due to his wife's partying ways, but is finally at peace and is happy with Pushpa's love and affection in his heart. They talk about Nandu and the Doctor informs him that Nandu is in town. Nandu meets Anand Babu when he comes to meet the doctor to ask regarding the medicine, who takes him to meet Pushpa. Both of them, unable to see Pushpa ill-treated, stand up for her and in the end Nandu takes Pushpa home with him, like a son who is reunited with his long lost mother with Anand Babu looking on, crying happily.

The story was first published in Bandopadhyay's short story collection, Galpa Panchashat (Fifty Stories, 1956).[9] His stories had previously been adapted by Satyajit Ray as Pather Panchali (1955) and the Apu Trilogy. Shakti Samanta asked Mukherjee who also wrote Nishi Padma's screenplay to write a Hindi version, with Ramesh Pant, a longtime-collaborator with Samanta penning the Hindi dialogues.[3] The famous dialogue, "Pushpa, I hate tears" though also there in the original, was merely part of a dialogue, Samanta decided to use it to great effect, delivered in Rajesh Khanna's trademark style.[7] Later, both the writers of the film won Filmfare Awards in their respective categories.

Once the script was ready, Samanta approached Sharmila Tagore, with whom he had done a string of films, like Kashmir Ki Kali (1964), An Evening in Paris (1967) and most recently Aradhana (1969), with Rajesh Khanna. Tagore found her character "Pushpa", "a very strong role in the iconic mould of Mother India" and instantly agreed, thus it was one of the first films she signed on after the birth of her son Saif Ali Khan. For the role Anand, actor Raaj Kumar was Samanta's first choice, as he believed Khanna who had become a super star after the hit Aradhana, wouldn't be interested in doing a film that focussed on the female lead. However, Khanna convinced Samanta that would do justice to the role. However, Khanna changed the character's name from Ananta to Anand to draw connection to his character in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's critically acclaimed Anand (1971).[3]

The film was shot in Eastmancolor, entirely at Natraj Studios in Mumbai, including the famous song, Chingari koi bhadke, which was set on a boat on the Hooghly River, with Howrah Bridge of Kolkata in the background. Earlier authorities in Kolkata didn't give the film crew permission to shoot under the bridge, as it would be a crowd problem. Thus the song was shot in a water tank in the studio, with the crew filming in knee-deep water.[3][10] Samanta has been using music directors like O. P. Nayyar and Shankar-Jaikishen, but chose R. D. Burman once again after Kati Patang (1971), who also laboured to produce one of his best scores; later in an interview Samanta recalled: "Pancham (R. D. Burman) would go into his room and work from 9 o'clock in the morning till 9 o'clock in the night for Amar Prem."[11]

Amar Prem takes forward the popular genre of self-sacrificing mother or woman prevalent in the decade as seen in Aradhana (1969) and Kati Patang (1971), though seen as early as in 1957 in Mother India, though here it places a wronged wife Pushpa in the narrative. When her husband marries the second time, due to her apparent infertility, she is kicked out of her home, her mother and community both abandon her, subsequently she is tricked into prostitution.[12][13] Thus the fallen women ends up as courtesan, with a heart of gold; though the original version Nishi Padma (1970), clearly portrays her as a common prostitute, in Samanta's version she is a tawaif who sings to her customers for a living.[14] As Pushpa is introduced to the audience singing a genteel mystic Meera Bai-like bhajan, Raina Beeti Jai, Shyam Na Aaye (Night is passing, Shyam (Krishna) hasn't arrived), calling on to Krishna; however in many part of the film she is treated by her environment as common prostitute. This blurring in representation of a courtesan and a common prostitute has been a recurrent feature in mainstream Bollywood cinema, just as the theme of the fallen woman is.[14][15][16] However, things were changing rapidly, only a few years later, Sharmila Tagore herself portrayed a far more realistic and feisty prostitute in Gulzar, directed, Mausam (1975),[15] meanwhile, B.R. Ishara had already made the bold film Chetna (1970), with Rehana Sultan, clearly ringing in the end of monochromatic filmi-version of prostitutes and courtesans, which was seen in films like Bimal Roy's Devdas (1955), B. R. Chopra's Sadhna (1958) and even in Guru Dutt's classic Pyaasa.[17][18]

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