Cinema
Neel Kamal
नील कमल
Kidar Nath Sharma · 1947
Synopsis
At the Rajput court of Janakgarh, Mangal Singh seizes the throne and has the king and queen killed. Their elder daughter reaches the kingdom of an uncle, who restores her to the throne; the younger, Kamal, still a small child, is taken in by an untouchable sweeper who raises her under the name Ganga. As a young woman, she tends, together with her father, an unbelieving sculptor, Madhusudan, who has fallen from scaffolding, and falls in love with him. He takes her to Janakgarh, where the reigning princess commissions statues from him and in turn falls in love with him, neither knowing who the other is.
Context
Begun in 1946 at Ranjit under another title, with Jairaj and Kamla Chatterjee, the director's second wife, the film was abandoned on the actress's death, then resumed a few months later. As the financiers feared a poster without a star, the director produced it himself under his Oriental Pictures banner and wrote the screenplay and the songs; the music is by Snehal Bhatkar, credited as B. Vasudev. Madhubala, fourteen, was emerging from child roles; Raj Kapoor, his assistant who worked the clapperboard, replaced Jairaj. The film was released on 24 March 1947.
Who it is for
Two hours in Hindi, with no French release; worth seeing above all for its two young performers.
Prizes and reception
A commercial failure according to its director, but regarded as a foundational melodrama; the first major role of Raj Kapoor and Madhubala.
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