Love and God

Based on an old Arabic fairy tale. Not the usual Bollywood chore. A part of the charm is it's oddness but its oddness wears a crown - its music. The film and music are one, it is not a film spiced with music. But the character is in its music. It does have ant-religious sentiments, it tackles faith vs individual faith and how individual faith here expressed as romantic faith conflicts. This has become a controversial subject with so many terrorist attacks, with the Obama counter-attack on our internet freedom which was enclosed by a whistle-blower given a Visa in Russia. Reference the mad song, when the hero is judged to death by stones - he questions the madness of the whole world! Consider also in Shree 420 when he stands on his head to make the world sane also Bowie in Man Who Sold The World, where questions of insanity are questioned. How does religious faith rest on Individual faith it is question that all religions face, the work is Jungian fantasy in this context it does not have too many cooks, but it has aged well in the rare film kitchen.

If you have too many cooks (in case of directors more than one is too many) that spoils the dish. Frankly both the directors have their own styles. K Asif died many years ago, so this was a half cooked dish on unlit stove, cooked later by KC Bokadia (who had incedently more experience as financiar).

Sanjeev Kumar died while movie was not complete so they had to use the stills (of Sanjeev Kumar) and Nimmi was long forgotten as heroine.

But this movie has great acting - very good photography - good music (which was 2 decade too old when movie was released). This is perhaps one of very few movies where you have all great playback of 50's assambled together and great Mukesh ended up singing in chorus.

This movie was Nostaligic to me, but on the story I think Rishi Kapoor did a more entertaining movie, though Sanjeev Kumar had much deeper role for Kais.

Overall mnixed stuff, old movie buffs like me can enjoy!

Love And God review :

After the all time great classic Mughal-E-Azam (1960), legendary director K Asif started his next ambitious venture titled Love and God with Guru Dutt and Nimmi in lead roles. A retelling of the Laila Majnu saga, Love And God was jinxed project right from the start.

K Asif filmed a few sequences from 1963 until Guru Dutt's untimely death in 1964. The film was shelved for some time after this before Asif Saahab revived it in late 60s with young Sanjeev Kumar replacing Guru Dutt as Qais Majnu and Nimmi retained as Laila.

Jayant and Nasir Hussain played their warring fathers while Pran played the prince who marries Laila only to be spurned by her. Interestingly, Amjad Khan played a small role of an African slave which would've been his debut before Sholay (1975). Simi Garewal too appeared in a cameo towards the end.

Asif Saahab completed about 80% of the film before he passed away in 1971. The film lay in the cans after that till mid 80s when producer KC Bokadia showed interest in reviving it. He collaborated with Asif's widow Akhtar and the salvaged portion of the film was edited and dubbed. Sanjeev Kumar was approached to complete some portions and dubbing but he too died in 1985 and then Sudesh Bhosle completed his dubbing.

After 23 years in production (a record in itself!!), Love And God released in its incomplete form without a proper climax at the same Maratha Mandir cinema in Mumbai where Asif Saahab's Mughal-E-Azam had premiered and ran successfully for two long years. Unfortunately, it couldn't replicate the success of its predecessor and was a box office disaster.

Despite being incomplete, Love And God bears Asif Saahab's stamp all over it and certain portions are sheer magic. Its a pity that a film on the immortal tragic love of Laila Majnu itself had such a troubled and tragic story of its own.

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.