Paying Guest

1957 157’ b&w Hindi d/s Subodh Mukherjee pc Filmistan dial Nasir Hussain lyr Majrooh Sultanpuri c Dronacharya m S.D. Burman lp Dev Anand, Nutan, Gajanan Jagirdar, Sajjan, Shubha Khote, Gyani, Dulari, Rajinder, Chaman Puri, Sailen Bose, Yakub

A mixture of romance and crime with Nutan giving an uninhibited performance in one of her best roles outside Bimal Roy’s socials. Hero Ramesh (Anand) masquerades as an old man to be near his beloved Shanti (Nutan). The crime plot in the latter half of the film concerns the faithless Chanchal (Khote) who is disinherited by her husband Dayal and teams up with Shanti’s brother-in-law, the villainous Prakash. Shanti is later accused of having murdered Prakash but her innocence is finally established. Dev Anand’s antics include an elaborately staged fight between his two guises: as the old man Mirza and as the frisky Ramesh. Kishore Kumar sings some of his best-known Dev Anand playback numbers including Mana janab ne pukara nahin, Chhod do aanchal zamana kya kahega (with Asha Bhosle) and O nigahen mastana. Chand phir nikla was sung by Lata Mangeshkar.

Film