Kalpana

Kalpana is a story about an artist and principal of a dance academy Amar (Ashok Kumar)falling in love with dance artist Kalpana (Padmini)but everything goes topsy turvey when Kalpana's past is disclosed being a courtesan. However the entire story was very nicely paced with some of it in picturesque Kashmir reminding some of the scenes from Madhumati with Bimal Roy being the editor of Kalpana and the opening scene resembled almost the same as in Madhumati where Vyjainthimala was singing "Aja re pardesi" and Dilip Kumar was looking her in the hills. Ashok Kumar played the role of Amar in a very dignified way and handled some of the romantic scenes very well. Ragini as Asha Devi was wonderful with her acting as well as the dance numbers. The film has some classic dance sequences with Padmini and Ragini being two of the famous Travancore sisters and with mastero O.P, Nayar's music these dance sequences were extremely well done and entertaining. The film shows Padmini's talent as a dancer with having command of almost every type of dancing including baiji, religious, Shib Jatra and Bharatnatyam. The sequence with Ragini in the dream sequence reminded me of the great competition between her and Vyjainthimala in the Telegu movie "Vanjikkootai Vaaliban :" I give Kalpana seven out of ten.