Cinema
Pukar
पुकार
Sohrab Modi · 1939
Synopsis
At the court of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, severe but just, two love stories cross. Mangal Singh loves Kanwar despite the hatred between their families; attacked by the young woman's brother and father, he kills them in self-defence, and his own father, the loyal Rajput chief Sangram Singh, hands him over to the emperor. Then a washerwoman comes to accuse the empress Nur Jahan of having killed her husband by accident with an arrow, and the emperor must prove that his law knows no rank.
Context
The film opens the Minerva trilogy of historical epics, before Sikandar and Prithvi Vallabh. Kamal Amrohi wrote its dialogue and songs from a story by Vishnupant Aundhkar; Chandra Mohan plays Jahangir, Naseem Banu plays Nur Jahan, and Modi himself plays Sangram Singh. Several scenes were shot in the Mughal palaces, which gave the film an authenticity that studio sets did not offer.
Who it is for
Nearly two and a half hours in Hindustani, with no French release; the dialogues are long and declaimed in the manner of the theatre.
Prizes and reception
A great success in its day, carried by its two stars and by Kamal Amrohi's dialogue; regarded as the first film of the genre known as the Muslim social.
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