''Chhalia'' is a 1960 Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-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. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

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 filmmakers of the 70s and 80s. Desai was an influential and sought-after film director of Bollywood and a pioneer of ...

. It stars

Raj Kapoor Raj Kapoor (; born as Shrishti Nath Kapoor; 14 December 1924 2 June 1988; also known as Ranbir Raj Kapoor) was an Indian actor, film director and producer, who worked in Hindi cinema. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most influen ...

Nutan Nutan Samarth-Bahl ( Samarth; 4 June 1936 – 21 February 1991), known mononymously as Nutan was an Indian actress who worked in Hindi films. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in the history of Indian cinema, Nutan was noted for her natu ...

Pran PRAN-RFL Group () is a Bangladeshi conglomerate, founded in 1981 by Amjad Khan Chowdhury. It is one of the largest conglomerates in Bangladesh Pran-RFL Group is headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and employs over 1,00,000 people worldwide ...

, Rehman and

Shobhna Samarth Shobhana Samarth (née Saroj Shilotri; 17 November 1916 – 9 February 2000) was an Indian director, actress 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 1 ...

. 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. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian literature, Russian and world literature, and many of his works are consider ...

, but is focused on the issue of estranged wives and children in the aftermath of partition. ''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 partition. 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, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

from

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

, she inadvertently is left behind, and is forced to share a roof with the Afghan bandit Abdul Rehman, 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 her husband, Kewal, 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 In criminal justice systems, a youth detention center, known as a juvenile detention center (JDC),Stahl, Dean, Karen Kerchelich, and Ralph De Sola. ''Abbreviations Dictionary''. CRC Press, 20011202. Retrieved 23 August 2010. , . juvenile dete ...

, 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 Vijayadashami (), more commonly known as Dassahra in Hindi, and also known as Dashāhra or Dashain in Bhojpuri, Maithili and Nepali, is a major Hindu festival celebrated every year at the end of Durga Puja and Navarahtri. It is observed on ...

festivities, has Chhalia bringing about a rapprochement between the estranged couple, Shanti and Kewal, and himself walking into infinity, while Rehman is reunited with his sister on the return train.

Cast

as Chhalia *

as Shanti *

as Abdul Rehman * 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 ''Amar Akbar Anthony'' is a 1977 Indian Hindi-language masala film directed and produced by Manmohan Desai and written by Kader Khan. Released in India on 27 May 1977, the film stars an ensemble cast of Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Amitabh Bac ...

'' (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 Laxmikant Nishad also known as Pappu Nishad is an Indian politician from the Samajwadi Party. He was the Minister of State for Fertilizers and Logistics with independent charge in Akhilesh Yadav's Uttar Pradesh Government and a member of the U ...

were the assistant music directors; who went on to be music directors for most of Manmohan Desai's films.

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 ...

. 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 ...

ep release of the soundtrack by

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

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 is commonly used as a male given name in India. People with the name Mukesh include: * Mukesh (singer) (1923–1976), Indian playback singer from ...

and

Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar (; born Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential singers of the Indian subcontinent. He ...

. The complete soundtrack was released by

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

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.

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 award ...

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

Awards and nominations

;

8th Filmfare Awards The 8th Filmfare Awards were held in Bombay to honor the best films in Hindi cinema in 1961. K. Asif's magnum opus ''Mughal-e-Azam'' led the ceremony with 11 nominations, followed by '' Chaudhvin Ka Chand ''with 6 nominations and ''Parakh' ...

(Nominations) *

Filmfare Award for Best Actor The Filmfare Award for Best Actor is an award, which is presented annually at the Filmfare Awards to an actor via a jury; it is given by ''Filmfare'' for Hindi (Bollywood) films. The award was first given in 1954. The most recent winner, as of 2 ...

for

Filmfare Award for Best Actress The Filmfare Award for Best Actress is given by '' Filmfare'' as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to recognise the female performer who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role. The award was first given in ...

for

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1960 films 1960s Hindi-language films 1960s Indian films Films about dysfunctional families Films about father–son relationships Films about feuds Films about immigration Films about internal migration Films about kidnapping in India Films about mother–son relationships Films about religious violence in India Films about suicide Films based on White Nights (short story) Films directed by Manmohan Desai Films scored by Kalyanji Anandji Films set in the partition of India Indian family films Indian romantic drama films Indian romantic musical films India–Pakistan relations in popular culture Melodrama films Cultural depictions of Afghan people Films shot in Mumbai