Sangam

A very stretched film, still makes compulsive watching. Beautiful songs, beautiful cinematography and very beautiful colours. And of course, the beautiful Vyjayantimala. With only three principal characters moving on screen, the director in Raj Kapoor still manages to avoid boredom with amazing skill. Hats off to him.

Who can forget "Dost Dost Na Raha," Bol Radha Bol Sangam Hoga Ke Nahin," "O Mere Sanam, O Mere Sanam" and "Mein Kya Karron Ram Mujhe Budha Milgaya" all excellent, meaningful songs with so much emotion from the playback singers, Lata Mangeshkar, Mukesh, Mohd. Rafi, Mahendra Kapoor and Hemant Kumar with "I Love You." Sunder, an illiterate and poor boy, Gopal, rich and a millionaire's son and Radha, also from a rich family, are childhood friends and play games together but Gopal and Radha, oblivious to Sunder, love each other until one day he sees them playing a game in which Gopal purchases a toy House for Radha. He's furious and decides to purchase a toy aircraft in which he promises Radha that he will show her the world. After a while Radha tries to make him realise that she doesn't love him - but he's still oblivious to this and in turn gets hurt by and decides to join the air force. In the meantime, Radha and Gopal's parents decide that its time for their spouses to get married.

Raj Kapoor's "Sangam," which was first released in the mid 1960's changed Hindi cinema. Not was it only one of the first Hindi films in a long time to be produced in colour after Mehboob Khan's "Aan," but it was also filmed in places like France and Switzerland. This was also one of the first love - triangle stories. The music by Shankar - Jaikishen is still memorable today as are all the songs in the movie. The acting by the three - Raj Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar and Vyjayantimala, is also superb and involves a lot of expressions and emotions. There have been a lot of love - triangle stories after this but not one of them have match it. This is definitely one film that can be viewed over and over again. The other actor who does make a brief appearance in the film is Raj Kapoor's eldest son, Randhir Kapoor, father of Karishma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor.

For a matter of interest, the late Raj Kapoor and the late Rajendra Kumar were good friends, not just on screen, but of it as well. Rajendra Kumar's son, Kumar Gaurav, whose first film was "Love Story," was engaged to Raj Kapoor's daughter but the engagement broke and he married Namrata Dutt - daughter of actor Sunil Dutt and Nargis, whose son is Sanjay Dutt, famous for his roles in "Munnabhai M.B.B.S" and "Lage Raho Munnabhai." Nargis, as an actress, had also worked with the late Raj Kapoor in movies like "Barsaat", "Awara", "Aah", "Aag" and "Shree 420." The pair made such a good couple on the screen that there were rumours of them being romantically involved. Today, Raj Kapoor's grandson, Ranbir, son of Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh, has made his debut in Sanjay Leela Bansali's "Saawariya" and has also said to have kept his name as "Ranbir Raj Kapoor."

I have seen this movie during quarantine occurred in COVID 2019. So, basically was going through many memes of being an introvert or an extrovert. And what i found in this movie is two lead actors Raj Kapoor (Sunder) and Rajendra Kapoor (Gopal) of the movie are extrovert and introvert respectively. And this nature of human created Chaos in the lives of three including Vjjayantimala(Radha). The extrovert one was obviously so much open but he never tried to get the minds of his friends and an introvert was obviously not expressing his thoughts of love to either of his friends. This gives turn to the life of three but it hitted hard to the character of Radha. She not being introvert or extrovert but a woman whose life gets direction after men or family of her own. It is confusing that how she did not opposed Sunder when she had to. So, she has no option but to choose whatever comes in her way and she finds happiness in it. The songs played nice role in the movie. "Har Dil jo pyar karega wo gana gayega" is best for all of us who have fallen in love. The people from this era of movie had good tour of Europe from the honeymoon scenes of the couple. Because those were days when we even could not wander through our own country. Due to this, length of the Sangam has risen but it was ok with the 60s. O mehbooba song shooted in Ooty is eye vitamin as it has shown beautiful nature.

Gopal (Rajendra Kumar), Sunder (Raj Kapoor) and Radha (Vyjayanthimala) have been friends since childhood. When they become adults, both men fall in love with Radha - she loves Gopal. But Gopal, out of a flawed understanding of friendship and commitment, doesn't dare to speak his mind as Sunder, his best and closest friend, is also in love with Radha and is courting her. Many misunderstandings follow (especially by Sunder who seems to be completely blind to everyone around him and their feelings) that has as consequence that Gopal sacrifices both his love for Radha and her love for him. But the problem of the threesome remains by the close relationship of the two men with each other. Thus the ensuing conflicts can only be solved by a final breakup of this threesome...

On the surface a rather exasperating melodrama, but in depth one of the most unsettling stories of traffic in women between males (though I am not sure that the movie was really meant to be that critical). In this story, two men rather sacrifice a woman's happiness (and at least one of them his own) than bringing their own relationship - the emotional depth of which seems to go well beyond "ordinary" friendship - into jeopardy. They indulge in their own martyrdom and commitment to each other, while they use the (ostensibly beloved) woman as a gift to each other and as a proof of their mutual friendship/love. Though she sometimes speaks out her mind in quite a bitter way, she can never get what she really wants, no-one is interested in her feelings and wishes.

Though not a perfect film and sometimes even a bit unnerving by the constant misunderstandings in the plot, still very interesting (and unsettling) psychologically. Great food for feminist/gender analysis... :)

One of the best parts of "Sangam" is the honeymoon sequence in Europe, that is - in contradiction to the melancholy and fatality of most of plot - very lighthearted, with some pricelessly lovely and funny moments (Vyjayanthimala dancing in sexy "Western" clothing in a Paris hotel room) - and even a kissing scene (though enacted by non-Indians). The playback singers (Mukesh for Raj, Lata Mangeshkar for Vyjayanthimala, Mohd. Rafi for Rajendra) are great as always, the songs are beautiful.

When I first saw Sangam back in 1965 on its initial release in Malaysia, I was a young boy whose deep impressions of the film was the lady in a white sari. I saw it again in 1974 on its re release. For the second viewing, it was the music and the songs. Unfortunately I had seen "Bobby" by then and thought all the three leads looked far too matured for the "teenage" and "young" characters they were playing on screen. But that was the trend of those bygone days when older actors played younger roles. It is rare for any musical that every single tune is as enduring to the ears as in Sangam. Only "My Fair Lady' "The Sound Of Music" and "Bobby" (1973) comes to mind. Since then with the convenience of television and now the DVD I had seen watched it once every few years and I revisited the film again last night. The male bonding and the sacrifice of Rajendra Kumar is very Asian and may well be on its way to be extinct. This sense of Asian obligation and moral value was and to some extend still is prevalent is a sense of maintaining a status quo and not rock the boat in a bad situation for want of not turning it worse. It is not a wrong or right decision. Everything that needs to be said about the acting, about the cinematography and its importance in Hindi cinema by taking the musical numbers out of the studios to exotic locations has been elaborated in these pages. What strikes me is the way in which Raj Kapoor with the use of music and only three principal characters hold our attention for more than three hours. All other characters appear briefly solely for narrative development. Although it is not a masterpiece, it is an enduring example of a simple love story (which has been done a million times over); with its chemistry between the characters and its music does not seem dated and still shine above others more than 40 years after its premier.