Gaban

Nostalgia of good old Rafi song 'Ehsaan mere dil pe tumhara hai dosto' pulled me to watch this movie on 'YouTube', but was rewarded with two other good songs a duet by Lata-Rafi and a solo of Lata namely:

"Tum Bin Sajan Barse Nayan" "tumhari qasam tum bahut yaad aaye "

This movie was more for soul then senses, though not dull. Acting by all the actors, specially Sunil Dutt and Sadhana was too good.

Movie is close to real events happening in one's life. Such movies may not be block busters but are worth watching, especially its music by Shankar Jaikishan. It is good to see Munshi Premchand's book of the same title got adapted on celluloid to reach wider audience. This is a Must see movie for once, to know Munshi Premchand's (Hindi heartland's Shakespeare) craft, 3 good songs, Sunil Dutt and Sadhana's acting and moral / ethical values in that order.

Gaban is based on the Munshi Premchand's classic novel "Gaban". Well as they say movie is not as good as the book, here its not the case as the movie is very close to the book.

The plot of the movie is about a young careless Ramanath, who is not morally good. He is the son of Munshi Dayanath who works at Allahabad High Court. One day he arranges his son Ramanath's wedding to Munshi Dinadayal's daughter Jalpa(Sadhna).

In order to make jewellery for the wedding, Dayanath takes a loan and is now unable to return the loan. He asks Ramanath to get his wife's Jalpa jewellery, but he steals it and then gets in debt when he gets her a Chandrahaar. Situation gets bad for Ramanath, and he takes a job as a clerk where he also starts accepting bribe. Some circumtances and situation compel him to embezzle Rs.800. He is now afraid of getting arrested and flees to Calcutta where he is indirectly involved in a freedom struggle and now he must testify against non-violent freedom-fighters.

We are all used to see the main lead as a positive role in movies. Today there is grey and negative characters for actors but back then it was not like that. Sunil Dutt surely deserve a praise for accepting such a role where his character Ramanath is not morally correct and he makes the situation from bad to even worse.

This is not a thriller movie but the treatment given to the movie has made it look like somewhat thriller and not a single scene will bore you.

Sunil Dutt has given a memorable performance by portaying the character of Ramanath with such ease. Ramanath is not an easy character to portray. There is certain charm, dazzle in Sunil Dutt's performance. Sadhna as Jalpa delivered very good performance.

The movie was released in 1966 but I guess it must have taken some years to make the movie as Sadhna looks so young in some scenes. And the movie is in black and white while in 1966 there were color movie being made.