''Lal Dupatta'' () is a 1948

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

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 K. B. Lall and produced by Akash Chitra. Starring

Madhubala Madhubala (born Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi; 14 February 1933 – 23 February 1969) was an Indian actress who worked in Hindi films. She is considered as one of the greatest and finest actresses in the history of Indian cinema. One of the country ...

, Rajan Haskar and

D. K. Sapru Daya Kishan Sapru (16 March 1916 – 20 October 1979), was an Indian actor famed for a variety of character roles in Hindi cinema, particularly villains, judges and aristocrats in crime thrillers and dramas. His most notable performances were in ...

, the film tells the story of Shobha, a headstrong village girl whose romance with a zamindar goes into awry due to some misunderstandings. ''Lal Dupatta'' premiered in theatres on 10 December 1948, and proved to be a commercial and critical success, with critics praising Madhubala's performance and Lall's direction. The success of ''Lal Dupatta'' marked a major turning point in the career of Madhubala. The film's print was lost by the studio just after few years of its release, making it a

lost film A lost film is a feature film, feature or short film in which the original negative or copies are not known to exist in any studio archive, private collection, or public archive. Films can be wholly or partially lost for a number of reasons. ...

Plot

The film revolves around Kanwar, a young zamindar of Amirpur, who falls for a farmer's daughter named Shobha. When the Manager of Amirpur, who is a close relative of Kanwar and is jealous of his riches and property gets to learn this, he tries creating misunderstandings between Shobha and Kanwar. On the day of their marriage, the Manager gets Shobha's father murdered by his goons. Moreover, he declares Shobha as the illegitimate child of her father, and pays an old lady to act as her mother. Kanwar, on learning that Shobha is a "sin", throws her out of his house. She is now left with nothing to eat and nowhere to live. Other villagers refuse to provide her shelter and food. Shobha, with the help of her friend Sukhiya manages to learn the truth of Manager. When she confronts him about this, he tries to molest her. She soon gets the grip of a gun and shoots him. As the film ends, she is seen standing happily on a hill with Kanwar, her red scarf "''Lal Dupatta''" flying and a sense of triumph on her face.

Cast

The main cast of the film was: *

as Shobha * Rajan Haskar as Kanwar * D.K. Sapru as Manager * Ulhas as Mukhiya * Ranjeet Kumari as Sukhiya * Kesari as Sawan, one of Manager's goons * Miss Gulzar as the lady who acts as Shobha's mother

Crew

Dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...

: Manohar Khanna *

Photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

Fali Mistry Fali Mistry (1919–1979) was an Indian cinematographer, who worked in Bollywood films, from the 1940s to 1980, both in black and white and colour cinema, and along with younger brother Jal Mistry, he was one of the most acclaimed cinematograph ...

Audiography Audiography ("writing sound") within Indian-style filmmaking, is the audio engineering performed by the sound department of a film or TV production; this includes sound recording, editing, mixing and sound design (formerly sound effects laying) b ...

: Moolgaavkar

Production

The film was initially named ''Apna Raj'' but was renamed ''Lal Dupatta'' to make it seem a woman-centric film. The closeup scenes of busts and hip movements of Sukhiya after she taking a bath in second song were removed on the instructions of the

Central Board of Film Certification The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is a statutory Motion picture content rating system, film-certification body in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of ...

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by

Gyan Dutt Gyan Dutt was one of the most prominent music directors in Bollywood in the 1940s. He was music director for films such as The Secretary, ''Thokar'' (1939), '' Achhut'' (1940), ''Bhakta Surdas'' (1942), '' Sunehre Din'' (1949) and '' Ghayal'' (19 ...

and D.N. Madhok, Shams Lakhnawi and Manohar Khanna wrote song's lyrics. "Jahan Koi Na Ho" was a popular song.

Release

''Lal Dupatta'' was initially released on 10 December 1948 at the Royal Opera in

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

(today

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

Reception

The film received positive reviews by critics. In ''

Filmindia ''filmindia'' is an Indian monthly magazine covering Indian cinema and published in English language. Started by Baburao Patel in 1935, ''filmindia'' was the first English film periodical to be published from Bombay. The magazine was reportedly ...

s review,

Baburao Patel Baburao Patel (1904–1982) was an Indian publisher and writer, associated with films and politics. Career Baburao: A Pioneer of Indian Cinema. Baburao was a key figure in the early days of Indian cinema. He started his career as a journalist ...

wrote, "K.B. Lall has given us a good picture. It is excellent in parts and good all around." Patel praised

highly for her performance. He stated that "Madhubala acquires a new screen personality

n the film N, or n, is the fourteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages, and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

and plays Shobha beautifully. She also proves herself at once competent and versatile in both light and pathetic sequences." The film was a box office success and helped Madhubala in "attain ngstardom". ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' said that her work in ''Lal Dupatta'' established her as a leading lady.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 0141534 1948 films Indian black-and-white films Lost Indian films 1940s lost films 1940s Hindi-language films 1940s Indian films Indian drama films 1948 drama films Lost drama films