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Kala Pani

1958 164’ b&w Hindi d Raj Khosla pc Navketan st Anand Pal sc G.R. Kamat dial Bappi Sonie lyr Majrooh Sultanpuri c V. Ratra m S.D. Burman lp Dev Anand, Madhubala, Nalini Jaywant, Kishore Sahu, Nasir Hussain, Sapru, Krishna Dhawan, M.A. Latif, Rashid Khan, Beer Sakhuja, Mukri, Agha

A crime movie about institutionalised corruption. Hero Karan (Anand) discovers that his father, believed dead, is in fact in jail for a murder he did not commit. Karan sets out to prove his father’s innocence with the help of a fearless journalist, Asha (Madhubala). The villain is the corrupt public prosecutor (Sahu). The key witness is a dancer, Kishori, played by Nalini Jaywant who elevates the film beyond its plot. Her own desire, rendered in the hit Asha Bhosle number Nazar laagi raja tore bangle pe, makes for an ambiguous love triangle that also provides other reasons to that of the hero’s vendetta for seeking out the truth. The other song hit Hum bekhudi me tumko pukare (sung by Mohammed Rafi), in which Kishori unleashes her charms on the drunken hero, was described by Mahesh Bhatt (1993) as ‘a typical example of a Raj Khosla song and his unique attitude towards sex on the Indian screen’.

Film