''Aah'' is a 1953

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

romantic drama film starring

Raj Kapoor Raj Kapoor (pronunciation: �aːd͡ʒ kəpuːɾ born Shrishti Nath Kapoor; also known as Ranbir Raj Kapoor; 14 December 1924 2 June 1988) was an Indian actor, film director and producer, who worked in Hindi cinema. He is considered one of th ...

and

Nargis Nargis Dutt (born Fatima Rashid; 1 June 1929 – 3 May 1981) was an Indian actress and politician who worked in Hindi cinema. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in the history of Indian cinema, she made her screen debut in a minor role ...

in lead roles. The film was produced by Raj Kapoor and directed by

Raja Nawathe Raja Nawathe (; 14 October 1924 – 15 November 2005) was an Indian film producer, director, assistant film director, in Bombay's Hindi film industry, long before it came to be known as Bollywood. He is known for films like Raj Kapoor-Narg ...

. This was Nawathe's first independent directorial venture. He had previously worked as assistant director to Kapoor in '' Aag'' (1948), '' Barsaat'' (1949) and ''

Awaara ''Awaara'', also written ''Awāra'', ur, , Āvārā, group=n, name=HindiUrdu and known overseas as ''The Vagabond'', is a 1951 Indian Hindi crime drama film, produced and directed by Raj Kapoor, and written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas. It stars Raj ...

'' (1951). The film was rated "Below Average" at the box office but has various hit songs like "Raja Ki Aayegi Baaraat", "Aaja Re Ab Mera Dil Pukara" and "Jaane Na Nazar". The song "Chhoti Si Yeh Zindagani" sung by

Mukesh Mukesh is an epithet for the Hindu god Shiva, and literally means "conqueror of the Muka demon". It also means god of 3 worlds, heaven, hell & earth, which in turn represents Hindu god Shiva. It is commonly used as a male given name in India. Peopl ...

was also picturised on him. Subsequently, the film was later dubbed in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

as ''Avan'' (Dialogues by

S. D. Sundharam S. D. Sundharam ( ta, சே. து. சுந்தரம்) also written as S. D. Sundaram, (22 July 1921 – 10 March 1979) was an Indian Tamil playwright, dialogue writer and lyricist. He also co-directed one Tamil feature film and produ ...

) and

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

as ''Prema Lekhalu'' . The film was remade in Turkish as ''Ah Bu Dünya'' (1965), ''Boş Çevçere'' (1969).

Plot

Raj Raibahadur (

) lives a wealthy lifestyle with his father, a widowed businessman. One day Raj is sent to work in the countryside, Saraswati Dam. One day, his father visits to Raj his deceased mother wished for him to marry Chandra (Vijayalaxmi), the daughter of his rich family friend. Raj decides to write a letter to Chandra, which she completely ignores. But Chandra's younger sister Neelu (

) acknowledges the letter and responds to it in Chandra's name. After few letters, Raj and Neelu fall in love, but Raj is still unaware that it is Neelu who writes to him. Just then Raj is diagnosed with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

, the same disease that killed his mother. Raj decides to pretend that he never loved Neelu and also insists that she should marry his physician friend, Dr. Kailash ( Pran). He also flirts with Chandra to make Neelu believe that he does not love her. Chandra decides to end the suffering of her heartbroken sister. Upon learning the truth, Neelu accepts Raj as he is. Miraculously, Raj also turns well and both lead for a happy life.

Theme and plot change

The theme of the tragic hero and the sufferings of the heroine was inspired from

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, alternatively spelt as Sarat Chandra Chatterjee ( bn, শরৎচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়; 15 September 1876 or ৩১ শে ভাদ্র ১২৮৩ বঙ্গাব্দ � ...

's famous novel

Devdas ''Devdas'' ( bn, দেবদাস, transliterated as ''Debdās'') is a Bengali romance novel written by Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. The story pivots a tragic triangle linking Devdas, an archetypal lover in viraha (separation); Paro, his forbidden ...

, which has also been inspiration to various other films. The end of the film originally showed Neelu marrying Dr. Kailash at Raj's insistence; Raj dies while Neelu's wedding procession is passing by. But at the premiere, Kapoor realised that this film would not work. Kapoor said The end of the film was then changed from a tragic one to the happy one, but the change destroyed the thematic unity of the text. Bunny Reuben, who wrote Kapoor's biography ''Raj Kapoor, The Fabulous Showman'', gives his rationale for the change: "The film had some of Shankar-Jaikishan's loveliest music, and a 'Devdas'-ian tragic ending which was changed to the conventional happy ending because the film didn't do well in its first release." The

dubbed version of the film Premalekhalu, 1953 was so well received that

was elated and showed his gratitude for Telugu audiences by having a song in

Shree 420 ''Shree 420'' (also spelled as ''Shri 420''; ) is a 1955 Indian Hindi comedy-drama film directed and produced by Raj Kapoor from a story written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas whose use of Shree with the negative connotations of 420 caused controversy. ...

beginning with the lines

Ramaiya Vastavaiya ''Ramaiya Vastavaiya'' () is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film directed by Prabhu Deva and produced by Kumar S. Taurani, under Tips Industries. The film stars debutant Girish Kumar alongside Shruti Haasan in lead roles. The ...

(Lord Ram, you will come).

Cast

as Neelu Rai *

as Raj Raibahadur * Vijayalaxmi as Chandra Rai * Pran as Dr. Kailash * Ramesh Sinha * Bhupendra Kapoor *

Leela Mishra Leela Mishra (1 January 1908 – 17 January 1988) was an Indian actress. She worked as a character actor in over 200 Hindi films for five decades, and is best remembered for playing stock characters such as aunts (''Chachi'' or ''Mausi''). She ...

as Mrs. Rai * Rashid Khan as Dr. Yusuf * Sohanlal * Kusum *

as Carriage Driver (Cameo role)

Music

Composed by the musical duo

Shankar Jaikishan Shankar may refer to: People *Shankar (name), including a list of people with the name * Sankar (writer) (Mani Shankar Mukherjee), Bengali writer *L. Shankar, Indian violinist *S. Shankar, Indian film director commonly credited as Shankar *Sankar ...

. Hindi songs for the film are written by Shailendra and

Hasrat Jaipuri Hasrat Jaipuri, born Iqbal Hussain (15 April 1922 – 17 September 1999) was an Indian poet, who wrote in the Hindi and Urdu languages. He was also a renowned film lyricist in Hindi films, where he won the Filmfare Awards for Best Lyricis ...

. Tamil lyrics for the film are written by

Kambadasan Kambadasan (1916–1973) was an Indian writer, poet and film lyricist who worked mainly in Tamil-language films. Early life Kambadasan was born as Appaavu a.k.a. Rajappa at Ulagapuram, a village near Tindivanam in the then South Arcot District ( ...

. Telugu songs for the film are written by

Aarudhra Arudra (born Bhagavatula Sadasiva Sankara Sastry; 31 August 1925 – 4 June 1998) was an Indian author, poet, lyricist, translator, publisher, dramatist, playwright, and an expert on Telugu literature. He is also known for his works in Telugu cin ...

. Amongst them ''Panditlo Pellauthunnadi'' song is an evergreen track played at many marriage functions even today.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0045467, Aah 1953 films 1950s Hindi-language films Films scored by Shankar–Jaikishan R. K. Films films 1953 directorial debut films Films directed by Raja Nawathe Hindi films remade in other languages Hindi-language romance films Indian romantic drama films 1953 romantic drama films Indian black-and-white films