On the birth anniversary of the legendary thespian of Hindi Cinema- Dilip Kumar Saab, I want to discuss about the rare K. Asif film starring Yusuf Saab in the lead- HULCHUL-1951. This film is very old and is still a lesser watched one. I had never heard about this film till early 2000s when it was telecasted on Set Max first at 1 am in the night and finally in 2004 when it again came on Sony Max Sunday 1 pm when Max used to show old black and white classics in weekend afternoons.
The story of Hulchul, is quite interesting and has twists and turn throughout the plot. It has strong influence of Dilip Kumar's fav novel-Wuthering Heights (Both his Arzoo and Dil Diya Dard Liya were based on it), and then there is triangle, murder and finally tragedy. The director SK Ojha has kept the pace quite even except for some scenes in the second half where the film drags a bit. The story is aided by good production values. With K. Asif being the producer one can expect high production values. Although the movie is not a periodical like Mughal-E-Azam and Phool (1944) still Hulchul is a big film by any standard. It had a top star cast, well-constructed sets and though looks very old now still is interesting. The film stars Nargis, Balraj Sahani, Yakub, Sitara Devi, K. N. Singh, Jeevan and above all Dilip Kumar as lead. The music somehow was disappointing and songs dragged.
Dilip Kumar fits in the role of a young man very well. His young looks, emotions and feeble voice convey the character very well. I felt that the director wanted to cash on Dilip Kumar's popularity of Tragedy Kingand unnecessarily got him killed in the end. That apart he is terrifically restrained and shows tremendous underplaying in an era when loud acting was the norm, and very well earned the king of acting. Before pairing with Raj Kapoor, Nargis hade a successful pair with Dilip Kumar as well and they gave hits like Andaaz, Mela, Deedar and Jogan together. Hulchul released in 1951 did average business, but their scenes together are terrific. Yusuf Saab's scene with natural acting great Balraj Sahani are also treat. His rather refusal to the predator streak lady portrayed by Sitara Devi are also redtrauned. He maintains his soft-spoken charm infront of aggressive Yakub and is equally at ease as the pensive hero who gets beaten by ferocious villain K. N. Singh.
Overall an interesting movie and great to see the early charming and restrained era of Dilip Kumar!!!
