Chirag kahan Roshni kahan (1959)

 

Chirag kahan Roshni kahan (1959)

Sunehri Yaadein's wonderful list on her favourite Meena Kumari songs in remembrance of the 38th anniverasy of her death made me dig up this movie for review, its one of my favourite Meena Kumari films

Following the death of his wife after childbirth Dr Anand (Rajendra kumar) gives his child away to Ratna (Meena Kumari) a widow whose child died at birth, he keeps this as a secret between himself and fellow Nurse Sarla (Nilambai)

Anand becomes increasing attached to the child now named Raju (Honey Irani) by Ratna, he goes around visiting him constantly,

he and Ratna also seem to be falling for each other

Anand's constant visits to Ratna's house and his friendliness with her gets her sister in law Kamla suspicious about the two of them

she starts stirring stories of a possible affair between her & Anand, her mother in law (Mumtaz Begum) warns her not to drag the family honour down and advices her not to see him any more

Meanwhile Maya (Minoo Mumtaz) a nurse at the hospital where Anand works falls for in love with Anand and would like him to be hers

with the help of S.P. Prakash (Sunder) who is fact Ratna's brother in law, traps Anand into marrying her when she sets him up in a compromising situation, as such Anand is left with no choice but to marry her

She movies in with Anand and becomes a diva of the worst kind, running huge amount of bills and throwing lavish parties for her cat (actually she threw a birthday party for her cat to be precise)

When Maya hears news of Anand's dad leaving a vast inheritance for his grandchild, she strives to adopt a child as she's unable to conceive a child, her motives however her exposed and Anand refuses to adopt

Maya later comes to know of Anand's secret love child and makes plans to become his guardian just so she can have access to the inheritance left by his grandfather. She challenges Ratna to court for Child Custody

Will the truth be revealed that Ratna is not Raju's real mother? How will Ratna take the news? Will Ratna & Anand ever reveal their feelings for one another, watch Chirag Kahan Roshni Kahan to find out

Overall a fantastic and entertaining melodrama, with great songs, as well as good direction by Devendra Goel, i seem to enjoy a lot of his films. I watched it on a lovely sunny Saturday afternoon and loved each and every moment of it, 50's melodrama movies are fast becoming my favourites. Chirag Kahan Roshni Kahan (Where is the lamp Where is the light) reminded me an awful lot of another Meena Kumari starrer i reviewed a while a go on here Ek hi Rasta

I had a new found respect for Meena as an actress after watching this film what a great actress she really is, i felt every bit of her emotion, she actually acted like Raju was her real child. Meena seems to be really good with children, i loved her chemistry with the wonderful Honey Irani

And what a beauty she was

Minoo Mumtaz was so hateable in this movie, she really played the part of the contemptuous greedy Maya to a T,the fact i wanted to flip my remote at her shows what a beautiful and great actress she was

Asides from the performances another reason i shall be rewatching this film are the beautiful songs by Ravi, there's the seductive 'ab to aankh lad chuki' the playful 'aaye ho to dekhlo' the sad 'bada bedard jahan hai' my favourites are 'Chal mere gode tik tik' which is one of my all time favourite Meena Kumari songs, it simply shows how playful & good Meena was with kids

and the beautiful 'Tim Tim Karte Taare' (slow version) and embedded below is the fast version