Ek-Hi-Rasta

Ek Hi Raasta is really Daisy Irani's movie, centering around the brat Raja who is the apple of everyone's eye. If only all children around the world are doted on as this child. Very much over the top and a bit too saccharine. The film stars Daisy Irani but the movie credits list her as Roop Kumar. A stellar star cast of a young and beautiful Meena Kumari, along with a dashing young Sunil Dutt. But the second half of the film belongs to Ashok Kumar. The villains are never brought to justice, the film focuses on widowhood, remarriage and issues of step fathers and step children. The black and white photography is good, the music not quite memorable.

B.R. Chopra has made many legendary movies on important social issues like Gumrah, Insaaf Ka Tarazu, Nikaah, and Tawaif. The specialty of his films can be seen as the literary qualities seldom witnessed in Hindi movies. In that aspect, "Ek Hi Raasta" can't be slated among his top movies for the story and subject which resembles the common tear jerkers from 50s and 60s. Despite the film isn't short of the sweetness it provides for which the film remains compulsively watchable till the very end. The story somewhat forms a triangular relationship between the protagonists, Sunil Dutt, Meena Kumari and Ashok Kumar which results into a complex drama. But the whole film gets overshadowed by the child artist's performance for which the film deserves a huge applaud. The music isn't very memorable. What you would remember in the film is the sweetness in the characterization and the drama. Overall, not the best classic from BR Chopra but still a good one.

Rating: 3 stars out of 4

Ek Hi Raasta (1956) : Brief Review -

Widow remarriage, stepfather, and the man who marries a window-BR Chopra solved three issues together. Ek Hi Raasta is 2 hours and 24 minutes long, and the first 1 hour and 20 minutes go into telling us how happy the characters are before the tragedy strikes. Amar and Malti are a happy couple and have a son, Raja. Amar is the manager at Prakash's company and is a very good friend of his. Amar has to pay for his honesty with his life, and Malti is left as a sorrowful widow. It's difficult for her to tell Raja that his father is dead. Raja is told that his father is still in the hospital and will come back. Prakash helps Malti take a new start in life and set up her own dance academy. However, his constant visits to her house become the talk of the town, and Prakash and Malti are boycotted for being filthy. To shut their mouths, Prakash marries Malti but is unable to make up with Raja for the place of his father. The second half of the film is focused on three issues. 1) widow remarriage because society wouldn't accept a helpless woman being helped by a family friend; 2) the man who has to marry her because all he wanted was to help her; and 3) the son, who is unable to accept his mother's second husband as his father. The people who have suffered through these problems must have saluted BR Chopra for breaking the silence on these issues through his cinematic brilliance. V. Shantaram had already made a film on a widow's life back in the 30s, so obviously Mr. Chopra had to show some updates. Using the child as the main tool to describe the family mindset was a masterstroke. Though it looks excessive at times, we still believe it since he is just a child-an immature boy yet. The performances are good, the music could have been better, and the technical aspects were grand. Chopra somehow made me believe that even hard-core family dramas can be so big and lavish. Hats off to the master for thinking about society and cinema at the same time.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.