It was Sir Walter Scott, I think, who said that “Love is Heaven and Heaven is Love”. Old sages and philosophers, poets and writers have all philosophized, sung and written about this “noblest of all passions” till love sick maidens blush with an ecstatic rapture and anemic, puny looking youths saunter jauntily along the streets romancing in Byronic manners. Love seems to be the ruling passion of our times and if it has touched the hearts of our youths and maidens than why not the brains of our producers and directors?
If, according to Freud, there can be Oedipus complex, father fixations, mother fixations and sex complex, than why not love complex as well? In view of the love obsession with our movie makers I am inclined to think that they are neurotic in this respect and sooner they consult a psychiatrist the better for them. And why not? For even psychologists must live somehow. Boy meets girl, boy loves girl, boy marries or loses girl is the vicious little circle in which we have been trapped mercilessly and turn whichever way we may we are not going to find an avenue of escape from it.
I had hoped desperately that in Bawre Nain I would find some relief from the monotonous routine of seeing these boy meets girl romances. Kidar Sharma, who directed the memorable Jogan, had considerably raised my hopes since then. Well to my utter dismay and cold fury with which I sat through Bawre Nain can hardly describe the seething volcano of conflicting emotions with which I really saw that picture. Maybe I was led to expect too much of Sharma, but nonetheless Bawre Nain does not reflect very creditably on the man who made Jogan.
For one reason Bawre Nain has a very ordinary and oft seen story of a boy and a girl romance. For another, stark raving melodrama is the keynote of the picture with innumerable touches of coincidences and artificiality. And finally the picture drags on at a snails pace. That Kidar Sharma who could make Jogan should have made a picture like Bawre Nain is the greatest disappointment.
It starts of at a good pace but then lags forward with many jolts and jerks. As it proceeds one loses all interest in it and watches it with cold apathy, a listlessness born out of complete indifference.
I will not deny that there are a couple of scenes that are fine pieces of writing. But then mostly there are scenes like the deep dyed villainy of the brother and sister that seem like an Agatha Christie murder novel. They are grotesque, unnatural and out of place in a straight love story. The end of the brother and sister dying of a dreadful disease through divine retribution showed that Mr. Sharma badly lacked imagination and had recourse to artificial concoction in the development of the story.
This is also apparent in the accidental death of the heroine sister and her mother. Intercepted between all this are the sight and the moans of the heroine waiting for her lover from whom she has been separated from some time.
The picture’s greatest drawback lay in its hackneyed theme and as such the main interest in the picture was quite absent.
Mr. Kidar Sharma’s direction was too simple and too ineffective. It lacked imagination and a sense of drama. His screenplay was good in parts but on the whole it was erratic and weak. Dialogue by him was appealing and the songs were well composed.
Geeta Bali as the heroine have the best performance of her recent career, while Raj Kapoor was not much above being just satisfactory. Amongst the remaining Pesi Patel as Raj’s father , did well.
Music by Roshan was lilting in a couple of songs which have already become popular.
The picture was however characterized by good production values. Some of the outdoor shots were magnificently photographed.
Year – 1950
Language – Hindi
Country – India
Producer – Ambitious Pictures
Director – Kidar Sharma
Music Director – Roshan Lal
Box-Office Status –
Cast – Cuckoo, Vijayalaxmi, Jaswant, Majnu, Nazira, Raj Kapoor, Himmatrai, Geeta Bali, Pesi Patel
Miscellaneous Information –