Raj Kapoor’s ‘ Barsaat’ remains a watershed movie in the Hindi cinema.

Raj Kapoor’s ‘ Barsaat’ remains a watershed movie in the Hindi cinema.

The title literally means ‘rain’ but Raj Kapoor’s interpretation was different. The film’s theme was the flow of human desire that resembled the constant fall of rain, drenching the earth that symbolized the man and woman.

Raj played the Pran, who loves Reshma (Nargis), and his love is reciprocated. Reshma, a poor girl, defiles her father who opposes their romance. On the way to meet her lover, she drowns on the way-or so it is thought. Pran’s friend Gopal (Premnath) has a more casual approach to love and he jilts the village girl Neela (Nimmi) who kills herself. Gopal is repentant. A short while later, Pran and Gopal are driving through the countryside when they stumble upon Reshma, who is married off to a fisherman (K N Singh). Pran deliberately crashes his car, and love triumphs at the eleventh hour.

The thundering success of this love story put the R K Films on the road to glory as Bollywood’s premium production company of all time. After the lukewarm reception to the maiden venture ‘ Aag’, Raj Kapoor became a commercial-cum-artistic force to reckon with as a filmmaker with this film. his leitmotif- the depiction of love as mere passion with just the right mix of physicality and the sublime spirituality – was first seen in this film, to evolve as the stamp of a titanic film maker all the way to his 1985 swan song, ‘ Ram Teri Ganga Maili.’

Barsaat signaled the coming together of the greatest team ever in Hindi films- Raj Kapoor, Mukesh, Shanker, Jaikishen, Hashrat Jaipuri and Shailendra. After ‘ Aag’, Raj Kapoor had already signed music director Ram Ganguly again but due to some problems with Kapoor, Ganguly’s two assistants, with whom he had already formed a distinct tuning, the tabla player Shanker and harmonium man Jaikishen were signed as composers. Raj’s father Prithviraj Kapoor had introduced him to a bus conductor whose simple shaayari at a mushaira had impressed him- Hasrat Jaipuri. A little later, an Indian Railway employee who wrote poetry and needed the money- Shailendra –came in.

The result was some of the most fantastic music that Hindi film sangeet buff have ever heard-including nuggets like Lata’s ‘ jiya beqaraar his’, ‘ Hawa mein udtaa jaye’, ‘ O mujhe kisse pyar ho gaya’, ‘ Ab mera kaun sahara’, ‘ Barsaat mein humse milen tum sajan’, ‘ and the Lata- Mukesh duet, ‘ Chhod gaye balam’ and ‘ Tirchi nazar hai’, besides the plaintive Rafi gem ‘ Main zindagi mein hardam rota hi raha hoon.’ 1949 was the breakthrough year for Lata Mangeshkar and ‘ Barsaat’ led her parade of hits that year to make her emerge forever as Hindi cinema’s supreme female singer.

Above all, with ‘ Barsaat’, debutantes Shanker Jaikishen ushered in a revolution in film music. The fresh, vibrant score was devoid of those monotonous thekas and droning cadences that characterized Hindi film music till then. It heralded the onslaught of cerebral orchestration or arrangements, as they are known today in Hindi film music. As a debut score, it was also compositionally fabulous- and the records sold phenomenally.

It was this music that opened up a new avenue of commerce for Hindi cinema- of a musical score that made big money independently of the film. Though ‘ Barsaat’ the film, was a rage on its own, its music got it both the initial value and its repeat audience. Legend has it that when Naushad was fishing for compliments from his producer- the late Mehboob Khan- for the success of songs of their collaboration ‘Andaaz’ (released in the same year), Khan looked at the rain outside and quipped, ‘ Lekin aapke gaano ko to ‘Barsaat’ ne dho dala’! (Your songs have been washed away by ‘Barsaat!’)

With ‘ Aag’ and ‘ Andaaz’ as predecessors, Raj and Nargis had already established an on-screen chemistry that made the distributors ecstatic. But ‘ Barsaat’ clinched the team that was to do 15 more films and emerge as the icons of screen romance in Hindi cinema. The film also marked the debut of cinematographer Jal Mistry and the entry of actress Nimmi and writer Ramanand Sagar into the R K fold.

The film has one more significance for R K Films- the famous RK emblem of a man holding a woman by her waist in a near ballet pose was derived from a still of Raj and Nargis from this film. Launched on the day of Dassera in 1948 within weeks of release of ‘ Aag’, ‘ Barsaat’ was completed in nine months-with shoots in places like Kashmir and Mahabaleshwar-and premiered on 30th September 1949.

(Courtesy: Stardust Classics)



-- k k rai