''Neel Kamal'' is a 1968

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

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 romantic thriller directed by Ram Maheshwari, starring

Waheeda Rehman Waheeda Rehman (born 3 February 1938) is an Indian actress and dancer. Regarded as one of Hindi cinema's finest actresses, Rehman's accolades include a National Film Awards, National Film Award and three Filmfare Awards. Rehman was honoured wi ...

as the eponymous lead,

Raaj Kumar Raaj Kumar (born Kulbhushan Pandit; 8 October 1926 3 July 1996) was an Indian actor who worked in Hindi films. He appeared in the Oscar-nominated 1957 film ''Mother India'' and starred in over 70 Hindi films in a career that spanned over four ...

Manoj Kumar Harikrishan Goswami (born 24 July 1937), better known by his screen name Manoj Kumar, is an Indian actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, lyricist and editor who worked in Hindi cinema. He is known for acting and making films with patriotic theme ...

Mehmood Mahmud is a transliteration of the male Arabic given name (), common in most parts of the Islamic world. It comes from the Arabic triconsonantal root Ḥ-M-D, meaning ''praise'', along with ''Muhammad''. Siam Mahmud *Mahmood (singer) (born 1 ...

Balraj Sahni Brigadier Balraj (born Balasegaram Kandiah) was a senior commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Early life Balraj was the fifth and youngest child of Kandiah and Kannagias. He received his primary education in Kokkuthoduwaai ...

Lalita Pawar Lalita Pawar (18 April 1916 – 24 February 1998) was a prolific Indian actress, who later became famous as a character actress, appearing in over 700 films in Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati cinema. She holds a Guinness world record of longest ac ...

and

Shashikala Shashikala Saigal (née Jawalkar; 4 August 1932 – 4 April 2021), better known by her first name, was an Indian film and television actress, who played supporting roles in hundreds of Bollywood films beginning in the 1940s. Early years Shash ...

. ''Neel Kamal'' received highly positive reviews from critics upon release and proved to be a huge commercial success at the box-office, becoming the third highest-grossing film of 1968. At the 16th Filmfare Awards, ''Neel Kamal'' received 8 nominations including

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

(Maheshwari). Best Supporting Actor (Raaj Kumar), Best Supporting Actress (Shashikala) and Best Comedian (Mehmood), and won

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 aw ...

for Rehman, her second win in the category after ''Guide'' (1965).

Plot

Sita and her friends go on a college trip. Sita sleepwalks and when she is about to be hit by a train on the railway track, Ram saves her. Impressed, her father decides to get her married to him. After marriage, Sita discovers that her sleepwalking is not the usual kind, as it takes her to the story of her past life. Chitrasen, an artisan, was in love with the princess Neel Kamal (Sita in her past life). The king rejects his alliance for his daughter and as a punishment, buries him alive. Chitrasen's love for Neel Kamal remained immortal and his

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

survives for centuries in hopes to meet her and be with her. One night, while sleep walking, Sita is invited to Chitrasen's burial by a song. Her mother-in-law, a very cross person, believes that Sita is having an

affair An affair is a sexual relationship, romantic friendship, or passionate attachment in which at least one of its participants has a formal or informal commitment to a third person who may neither agree to such relationship nor even be aware of i ...

and gives her a tough time at home along with her sister-in-law Chanchal. Her only supporter in the house is Giridhar, Chanchal's husband, who is a ''ghar jamai'' and saves her from committing suicide with the help of a Pujari (David). Sita's father also comes in search of his daughter at Ram's house to whom he clarified her sickness of sleepwalking several times earlier. Now the family prepares for a second marriage of Ram after Girdhar informs them that Sita is dead, but Giridhar secretly informs Ram that Sita is alive and now pregnant. One night while traveling by train, she stops the train by pulling the chain at the same Chitrapur station. Sita reaches Chitrasen's place and they have a brief past conversation with his immortal soul. Finally, Chitrasen's soul becomes free and Sita falling

unconscious Unconscious may refer to: Physiology * Unconsciousness, the lack of consciousness or responsiveness to people and other environmental stimuli Psychology * Unconscious mind, the mind operating well outside the attention of the conscious mind a ...

. Ram rescues her and they live happily ever after.

Cast

as Rajkumari Neel Kamal / Sita *

as Ram *

as Chitrasen *

as Thakurain *

as Girdhar Gopal Agarwal *

as Chanchal *

as Mr. Raichand *Ramayan Tiwari *

P. Jairaj Paidi Jairaj (born 28 September 1909 – 11 August 2000) was an Indian actor, director and producer known for his works majorly in Hindi; few Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu language films, and Telugu theatre.Luminaries of 20th Century, Potti Sreeram ...

*David Abraham as Guruji *

Murad Murad or Mourad ( ar, مراد) is an Arabic name. It is also common in Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Turkish, Persian, and Berber as a male given name or surname and is commonly used throughout the Muslim world and Middle East. Etymology It ...

as Emperor *Chhaya *Nasreen *Nandini *Gopal Sehgal *Jagdish Raj *

Ruby Mayer Ruby Myers (1907 – 10 October 1983), better known by her stage name Sulochana, was an Indian silent film actress of Jewish ancestry, from the community of Baghdadi Jews in India. In her heyday she was one of the highest paid actresses of h ...

as Dean of the girls' college * Mumtaz Begum *Sheela R. *Sophia *Shenaaz *Apsara *Abhimanyu Sharma *Rajan Kapoor *

Nazir Kashmiri Nazir Kashmiri was a prolific character actor in Hindi cinema who appeared in over 100 films. His career extended from 1941 to 2008 spanning 67 years. He started his career in Lahore. He appeared in several Lahore productions before moving to Bo ...

*V.P. Verma *Dev Chand *Shribhagwan *

Bhushan Tiwari Bhushan Tiwari or Chandrabhushan Tiwari (12 February 1935 - 3 October 1994) was an Indian character actor in Hindi films, who largely played negative roles in many Bollywood movies. e.g. of a villain's henchman in films, like '' Zanjeer'' (1973) ...

*Vijay Maria

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of ''Neel Kamal'' were composed by

Ravi Shankar Sharma Ravi Shankar Sharma (3 March 1926 – 7 March 2012), often referred to mononymously as Ravi, was an Indian music director, who had composed music for several Hindi and Malayalam films. After a successful career in Hindi cinema, he took a break ...

and lyrics were provided by

Sahir Ludhianvi Abdul Hayee (8 March 1921 – 25 October 1980), popularly known by his pen name (takhallus) Sahir Ludhianvi, was an Indian poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described ...

. The soundtrack is widely notable for the song, "Baabul Ki Duaayein Leti Jaa" sung by

Mohammed Rafi Mohammed Rafi (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980) was an Indian playback singer and musician. He is considered to have been one of the greatest and most influential singers of the Indian subcontinent. Rafi was notable for his versatility and ...

, which became popular as a Hindi wedding song during the actual ''bidaai'' ritual (the departure of the bride from her parental house).Neel Kamal
''

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

''.

Awards and nominations

; 16th Filmfare Awards: Won *

–

Nominated *

– Pannalal Maheshwari *

– Ram Maheshwari * Best Supporting Actor –

* Best Supporting Actress –

* Best Comedian –

* Best Male Playback Singer –

Mohammad Rafi Mohammed Rafi (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980) was an Indian playback singer and musician. He is considered to have been one of the greatest and most influential singers of the Indian subcontinent. Rafi was notable for his versatility and ...

for "Baabul Ki Duaayein Leti Jaa" * Best Story –

Gulshan Nanda Gulshan Nanda (1929 – 16 November 1985) was an Indian novelist and screenwriter. Many of his novels were adapted into Hindi films in the 1960s and 1970s, including more than a dozen big hits of the period — ''Kaajal'' (1965), ''Kati Patang'' ( ...

References

External links

* 1968 films 1960s Hindi-language films Films about reincarnation Films scored by Ravi Indian ghost films Indian romantic thriller films Films about sleep disorders {{1960s-Hindi-film-stub