Jaal () is a 1952

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 ...

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

noir film directed by

Guru Dutt Guru Dutt (born Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone; 9 July 1925 – 10 October 1964; also known as Gurudatta Padukone) was an Indian film actor, director, producer, choreographer, and writer.Rajadhyaksha, Ashish, and Paul Willemen. 9941998 ...

. The film stars

Dev Anand Dev Anand (; born Dharamdev Pishorimal Anand; 26 September 1923 – 3 December 2011) was an Indian actor, writer, director and producer known for his work in Indian cinema, Hindi cinema. He is considered as one of the greatest and most succes ...

, Geeta Bali in lead roles. The film was successful at box office and was the third-highest-grossing film of the year in India. Its music became popular, especially the song "Yeh Raat Yeh Chandni Phir Kahan". ''Jaal'' is considered a noir classic for its grey shade characters which were among the first of its type in Indian cinema.

Filmfare ''Filmfare'' is an Indian English-language fortnightly magazine published by Worldwide Media. Acknowledged as one of India's most popular entertainment magazines, it publishes pieces involving news, interviews, photos, videos, reviews, events, ...

listed it in Best Bollywood Noir Films of '50s. ''Jaal'' was one of the first film made in India that portrayed an Anti-Hero character in the lead. It established the idea of Anti-Hero with "''no qualms about bending moral codes''" in Hindi cinema.

Plot

After losing his vision during a storm, Carlos ( K.N. Singh) lives with his sister, Maria ( Geeta Bali), on the Indian coast in a fishing village. One day a mysterious young woman, Lisa, enters their lives, followed by a mysterious man, Tony Fernandes (

). Maria and Tony fall in love with each other, much to the chagrin of Simon, who loves Maria and wants to marry her. Lisa then warns Maria that she has known Tony, they have had an affair together, and he had betrayed her, however, this warning has no effect on Maria. Then a gypsy palm-reader also cautions Maria that she may be headed for disaster at the hands of a stranger. The question remains: who exactly are Lisa and Tony, and what is the reason behind their presence in this fishing community; and whether or not Maria is being drawn into a web of lies and deceit at the hands of Tony? Set in a fishing village of

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

, this film depicts the ties between Tony, a good-for-nothing man from the city, and Maria, a village girl who loves him innocently. The spirit of Christian love and forgiveness lies at the base of the story, and the film has a strong religious colour to it.

Cast

* Geeta Bali as Maria *

as Tony Fernandes *

Purnima Pūrṇimā () is the word for full moon in Sanskrit. The day of Purnima is the day ('' Tithi'') in each month when the full moon occurs, and marks the division in each month between the two lunar fortnights (paksha), and the Moon is aligned exac ...

as Lisa * K. N. Singh as Carlos *Ram Sing as Simon *Rasheed as *Krishna Kumari as * Johnny Walker * Raj Khosla

Songs

All the songs were composed by S. D. Burman and the lyrics were penned by Sahir Ludhianvi.

Shooting Location

One of the shooting locations for the movie was

Malvan Malvan (also written as Malwan) is a town and ''taluka'' in Sindhudurg District, the southernmost district of Maharashtra State, India, well known for the historically important Sindhudurg Fort. Malvan ''taluka'' consists of villages such as ...

Sindhudurg District Sindhudurg district (Marathi pronunciation: in̪d̪ʱud̪uɾɡə is an administrative district of the Konkan division in India, which was carved out of the erstwhile Ratnagiri district. The district headquarters are located at Oros. The d ...

, returning from where Dev Anand and Geeta Bali met with an accident. He almost broke his ribs. They spent some time in the local hospital for recovery.

References

External links

* 1952 films 1950s Hindi-language films Films scored by S. D. Burman Films directed by Guru Dutt Indian crime thriller films 1950s crime thriller films Indian black-and-white films {{1950s-Hindi-film-stub