''Teen Batti Char Raasta'' () is a 1953

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 ...

-language comedy drama film on national integration directed by

V. Shantaram Shantaram Rajaram Vankudre (18 November 1901 – 30 October 1990), referred to as V. Shantaram or Shantaram Bapu, was an Indian filmmaker, film producer, and actor known for his work in Hindi and Marathi films. He is most known for films such ...

. The film was made under the

Rajkamal Kalamandir Rajkamal Kalamandir was a noted film production company and studio in Mumbai. It was established by V. Shantaram in 1942, after he left Prabhat Films. The studio produced films both in Hindi and Marathi, and it was best known for '' Dr. Kotnis Ki A ...

banner and produced by Shantaram. The story and dialogue were by Diwan Sharar while the cinematography was by G. Balkrishna. With music composed by Shivram Krishna, it had lyrics by Pyare Lal Santoshi. The star cast included

Karan Dewan Karan Dewan (born Dewan Karan Chopra; 6 November 1917 - 2 August 1979) was an Indian cinema actor in Hindi films. He worked in over seventy films from 1941 to 1979. He started as a journalist while still in college, editing a film-based magazin ...

, Sandhya,

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 ...

Nirupa Roy Nirupa Roy (born Kokila Kishorechandra Bulsara; 4 January 1931 – 13 October 2004) was an Indian actress who had appeared in Hindi films. Noted for her portrayals of tragedy and sorrow, Roy was known for her acting ability, and was uncharitab ...

Sheila Ramani Sheila Ramani (2 March 1932 – 15 July 2015), also known as Sheila Kewalramani, was an Indian actress who was introduced into Bollywood by the film-maker Chetan Anand. She is known for her role in the movie ''Taxi Driver''. She was born in Sin ...

, Dewan Sharar and Lalita Kumari. The film, which portrays national integration, involved a family, whose patriarch Lala Gulabchand (Diwan Sharar), is a Punjabi married to a woman from

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. He lives near a crossroads with three lights and four streets. The crossroads is used symbolically as a union of the different states and religions in the country, as mentioned in the film. Their five of six sons then marry girls from five different states in India and the story follows the chaos that ensues. The film had a sub-plot weaved into it in the form of a dark-complexioned girl, Shyama (Sandhya), who is first humiliated by the hero Ramesh (Karan Dewan), and then accepted by him as he falls in love with the "real person".

Plot

Lala Gulabchand, is a Punjabi and his wife is from Uttar Pradesh. They live at the corner of a crossroads with three lights and four roads. He is a firm believer in national unity and has had five of his six sons, each married to a girl from a different state; a

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

, Sindhi,

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

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 ...

and a

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

. His sixth son Ramesh (Karan Dewan), works in the press and is a writer and an artist. He is a bachelor but falls in love with a woman named Kokila whose singing he hears on the radio. He draws a portrait of Kokila from imagination just listening to her sing. Unbeknownst to him, Kokila, called Shyama, is the dark-complexioned maid who works in their home and is proficient in all the different languages that the wives of the brothers speak and is very efficient at her chores. However, he rejects her as she's dark and Shyama leaves the house despondent. The turmoil the household goes through with the absence of Shyama and a repentant Ramesh finally makes for a happy ending by everyone getting together again.

Cast

Female Cast

* Sandhya as Shyama / Kokila *

as Lalita, Marathi wife *

as Kanta, the Gujarati wife *

as Kamla, the Sindhi wife * Smriti Biswas as Sadhona, the Bengali wife * Meenakshi as Laxmi, the Tamil wife * Lalita Kumari as Roopa * Sofy * Meera

Male Cast

as Ramesh * Dewan Sharar as Lala Gulabchand * Parshuram *

Keshavrao Date Keshavrao Date (1889–1971) was an Indian film actor, who worked in both silent and sound movies. He tried to run his own drama company but found it difficult to perform the dual roles of manager and actor. Career His role in the drama ''An ...

Asit Baran Asit Baran (19 November 1913 – 27 November 1984) was an Indian actor, singer and theater personality. Early life Asit Baran was born as Asit Baran Mukherjee in 1913 in Kolkata, British India. His nickname was Kalo. He took up a job in the tele ...

Moolchand Moolchand was a prolific character actor in Hindi and Panjabi cinema, who was active from 1950 to his death in the late 1980s. He appeared in over 250 films. These films spanned the parallel cinema of Guru Dutt to the wrestler films of Dara Sing ...

as share broker * Vikas * Surendra * K. Mohan * Shankardas Gupta * Kamal * Ishwar

Crew

* Director:

* Producer: V. Shantaram * Banner:

* Audiography: A. K. Parmar * Art Direction: D. S. Kale * Editing: Chintamani Borkar * Music: Shivram Krishna * Lyrics: Pyarelal Santoshi * Background Music:

Vasant Desai Vasant Desai (1912–1975) was an Indian film music composer, most remembered for his score in V. Shantaram films like '' Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje'' (1955), '' Do Aankhen Barah Haath'' (1957), Vijay Bhatt's '' Goonj Uthi Shehnai'' (1959), ''Samp ...

* Make-up: Vardam * Choreographer: Gauri Shankar * Still Photography: Kirtiwan

Soundtrack

The music director was Shivram Krishna and the lyrics were written by Santoshi. One song in the film was composed by

and he also provided the background music. The singers were

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 con ...

Asha Bhosle Asha Bhosle (; Mangeshkar; born 8 September 1933) is an Indian playback singer, entrepreneur and occasional actress and television personality who predominantly works in Indian Cinema. Known for her versatility, she has been described in th ...

Zohrabai Ambalewali Zohrabai Ambalewali (1918 – 21 February 1990) was an Indian classical singer and playback singer in Hindi cinema in the 1930s and 1940s. She was considered one of the most popular female playback singers of early and mid 1940s. She is best k ...

Talat Mahmood Talat Mahmood (24 February 1924 – 9 May 1998) was an Indian playback singer who is considered one of the popular male Indian film song and ghazal singers. Although he tried his luck as a film actor, he did not succeed a great deal in act ...

and S. Balbir. The two songs by Talat, "Ek Do Teen Chaar Paanch" and "Tumse Hai Pyar Mujhe" were picturised on Karan Dewan. A "multilingual, multicultural song" was shown at different parts in the film. The song had different singers, lyricists, and composers representing the different languages from different states. The song started with the Bengali part "O Re O Poraan Bondhu Re" and its singers were Mangeshkar, Zohrabai, Balbir and others. The music and lyrics for the Bengali part was by Kanu Ghosh; for Tamil, the lyrics and composition was by Natraj; for Sindhi, the composer was Gulshan Sufi with lyrics by Ram Panjwani; for Marathi the music was by

with lyrics by G. D. Madgulkar; for Gujarati, the music and lyrics were by Avinash Vyas; for Punjabi, music was by Shivram Krishna with lyrics by Feroz; the Hindi part had music by Krishna with lyrics by P. L. Santoshi.

Songlist

Trivia

In Mumbai, near the sacred

Banganga Tank The Banganga Tank is a temple tank which is part of the Hindu Walkeshwar Temple complex in the Malabar Hill area of the city of Mumbai, India. History The tank was built in AD 1127 by Lakshman Prabhu, a minister in the court of Silhara dynas ...

area on

Malabar Hill Malabar Hill (ISO: Malabār Hill ələbaːɾ is a hillock and upmarket residential neighbourhood in South Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Malabar Hill is the most exclusive residential area in Mumbai. It is home to several business tycoons and f ...

, past the Birla Balika Vidhya Kendra girls school, is a cross-roads still called "Teen Batti" (Three Lights), which became famous after the release of Shantaram's film ''Teen Batti Char Raasta''.

References

External links

* {{V. Shantaram 1953 films 1950s Hindi-language films Films directed by V. Shantaram Films scored by Avinash Vyas Indian black-and-white films 1953 comedy-drama films Indian comedy-drama films