''Chhalia'' is a 1960 Indian

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

-language

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Manmohan Desai Manmohan Desai (26 February 1937 – 1 March 1994) was an Indian film producer and director. He was one of the most successful filmmaker of the 70s and 80s. Desai is now considered one of most influential film director of Bollywood and a pionee ...

. It stars

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 ...

Nutan Nutan Samarth Bahl (4 June 1936 – 21 February 1991), known mononymously as Nutan, was an Indian actress who worked in Hindi films. In a career spanning nearly four decades, she appeared in more than 70 films, mostly as a protagonist, in both bi ...

, Pran,

Rehman Rehman may refer to a Muslim surname which means, "Merciful", "King", " Lord". It's an honorary title used by some Muslims of Sheikh or Sayyid Caste of Middle Eastern Origin, it is a common surname or middle-name among some Pashtun tribemen. It is a ...

and

Shobhna Samarth Shobhana Samarth (17 November 1916 – 9 February 2000) was an Indian actress, director and producer who began her career in the early days of talkie movies in the Hindi film industry and continued in lead roles into the 1950s. She started i ...

. The story is loosely based on the 1848 short story "

White Nights White night, White Night, or White Nights may refer to: * White night (astronomy), a night in which it never gets completely dark, at high latitudes outside the Arctic and Antarctic Circles * White Night festivals, all-night arts festivals held in ...

" by

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...

, but is focused on the issue of estranged wives and children in the aftermath of

Partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

. Chhalia was shot in black-and-white. Music by Kalyanji-Anandji, played a part in the film's box office success.

Plot

Shanti (

) is married off to Kewal (

) on the eve of

. But while the two families move away to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

from

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

, she inadvertently is left behind, and is forced to share a roof with Abdul Rehman ( Pran), who has a sister of Shanti's age in India. When she returns to India five years later with her son, she is first welcomed by the husband with open arms but disowned when the child identifies himself as Anwar, and his father as Abdul Rehman. Even her own father refuses to give her shelter, though in the years she had lived with Abdul Rehman she hadn't even seen his face. Physically and emotionally shattered, Shanti tries to commit suicide after leaving Anwar in a remand home, but is rescued by an outlaw, Chhalia (

) who as time and events progress, flips for the lady. Rehman lands in Delhi to settle old scores with Chhalia and threatens to kidnap Shanti. The bloody fight that ensues between the two adversaries eventually ends in a truce. The hurried climax, set amidst Dussera festivities, has Chhalia bringing about a rapprochement between the estranged couple, and himself walking into infinity, while Rehman is reunited with his sister on the return train.

Cast

as ''Chhalia'' *

as ''Shanti'' * Pran as ''Abdul Rehman'' *

as ''Kewal'' * Bupet Raja as ''Anwar'' * Shobhana Samarth as Shanti's mother

Production

''Chhalia'' was the debut film of director

. ''Chhalia'' was amongst the first of the lost-and-found-formula films that Desai went on to chisel to perfection, the most popular being Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) (except perhaps his last two ''Ganga Jamuna Saraswati'' and ''Toofan''), ''Chhalia'' was also first amongst his 13 star-studded films out of a total of 20 that Desai churned out in a career spanning 29 years. Laxmikant Pyarelal were the assistant music directors; who went on to be music directors for most of Manmohan Desai's films.

Release

''Chhalia'' was released in 1960 and was a moderate box office success. Raj Kapoor and Nutan were nominated for 1961 Filmfare Awards in the category of Best Actor and

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress awar ...

respectively. Chhalia was made available on DVD from the Indian distributor Shemaroo and the international firm Baba Digital.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of ''Chhalia'' is composed by the duo Kalyanji-Anandji with lyrics by

Qamar Jalalabadi Om Prakash Bhandari (9 March 1917 – 9 January 2003), better known as Qamar Jalalabadi, was an Indian poet and lyricist of songs for Hindi movies. He composed the title track of the popular television serial Vikram Aur Betaal. Early life He w ...

. The initial

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

ep release of the soundtrack by

Angel Records Angel Records was a record label founded by EMI in 1953. It specialised in classical music, but included an occasional operetta or Broadway score. and one Peter Sellers comedy disc. The famous Recording Angel trademark was used by the Gramophon ...

consisted of 4 songs sung by singers

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 ...

and

Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar () (born as Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 06 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is widely considered to have been the greatest and most influential singers in India. Her cont ...

. The complete soundtrack was released by

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

with 3 new songs and an Instrumental added to the initial soundtrack. ''Chhalia'' is considered a landmark in the career of Kalyanji-Anandji. The duo composed the kind of folksy, simple tunes that had come to be associated with Raj Kapoor's collaborations with Shankar-Jaikishan. The songs "Dum Dum Diga Diga" and "Chhalia Mera Naam" are still popular today.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1960 films 1960s Hindi-language films Films directed by Manmohan Desai Films scored by Kalyanji Anandji Films based on White Nights Films set in the partition of India India–Pakistan relations in popular culture