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Aasha

1957 171’ b&w/col Hindi d M.V. Raman pc Raman Studios s Jawar Seetaraman dial/lyr Rajinder Krishen c S. Hardip, Fali Mistry m C. Ramchandra lp Vyjayanthimala, Kishore Kumar, Pran, Raj Mehra, Minoo Mumtaz, Randhir, Naina, Shivraj, Patanjal, Lalita Pawar, Om Prakash

Partly made in colour, this love story and crime drama is a comedy variation of the Hamlet theme. The story revolves around an old landowner, Hasmukhlal (Prakash), his son Kishore (K. Kumar) who is accused of murder, and the villain Raj (Pran) who is Kishore’s cousin. The love object is Nirmala (Vyjayanthimala), the niece of a millionaire coveted by Raj. Kishore, masquerading as an Arab, launches a theatre company and resolves the conflicts by performing a play in front of the ‘real-life’ characters to whom the fiction is addressed. Director Raman, star Vyjayanthimala and writer Jawar Seetaraman enlivened a standard AVM plot, with Ramchandra’s fast- paced music and Kishore Kumar’s mainly slapstick acting and relying on his pioneering singing style culminating in the foot-stomping and ever popular number Ina Mina Dika (sung in two versions, one by Kishore Kumar and the female version by Asha Bhosle).

Film