Waqt

1965 206’ col Hindi d Yash Chopra pc B.R. Films st F.A. Mirza sc B.R. Films Story Dept. dial Akhtar-ul-Iman lyr Sahir Ludhianvi c Dharam Chopra m Ravi lp Sunil Dutt, Raaj Kumar, Sadhana, Sharmila Tagore, Shashi Kapoor, Balraj Sahni, Shashikala, Motilal, Rehman, Achala Sachdev, Madan Puri, Jeevan

A contribution to the ‘lost and found’ genre (cf. Kismet, 1943; Awara, 1951) later associated with Manmohan Desai’s films. The old and prosperous merchant Lala Kedarnath (Sahni) sees his family split and his house wrecked by an earthquake. Trying to trace one of his sons, he learns that the boy was ill treated by an evil orphanage warden (Jeevan) and he kills the warden, earning himself a 20- year stretch in jail. The son is raised by the crook Chinoy (Rehman) and becomes the suave thief Raja (Kumar). Kedarnath’s other sons are the fun-loving Ravi (Dutt) who becomes a lawyer and the hard-working but poor Vijay (Kapoor) who looks after their ailing mother. Vijay is hired as a chauffeur by his girlfriend Renu (Tagore) while Ravi and Raja love the same woman, Meena (Sadhana). After advocating a fatalist approach to the passage of time, the film turns into a suspense and courtroom drama when Chinoy frames Raja for murder. Raja is defended in court by Ravi. Eventually the family is reunited. The film was a major hit, exemplifying a kitschy colour aesthetic (denoting wealth) that was to become popular in Hindi films: a series of living-rooms in pink and blue, with fountains and circular beds in bedrooms, motor boats and fancy cars in which the rich race each other to get the girl in between attending huge parties. Hit songs included Ai meri zohrajabeen (sung by Manna Dey), Din hai bahar ke (sung by Asha Bhosle and Mahendra Kapoor) and Aage bhi jane na tu (sung by Asha Bhosle).

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