() is a 1946 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 film, directed by Chetan Anand, written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas and Hayatullah Ansari, and produced by Rashid Anwar and A. Halim. It was a pioneering effort in

social realism Social realism is work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers, filmmakers and some musicians that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structures ...

Indian cinema The cinema of India, consisting of motion pictures made by the Indian film industry, has had a large effect on world cinema since the second half of the 20th century. Indian cinema is made up of various film industries, each focused on p ...

and paved the way for many such

parallel cinema Parallel cinema, or New Indian Cinema, is a film movement in Cinema of India, Indian cinema that originated in the state of West Bengal in the 1950s as an alternative to the mainstream commercial Indian cinema. Inspired by Italian Neorealism, ...

films by other directors, many of them also written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas. It starred Chetan Anand's wife Uma Anand, with Rafiq Anwar, Kamini Kaushal, Murad, Rafi Peer, Hamid Butt, and Zohra Sehgal. (Lowly City) was a Hindi film adaptation in an Indian setting of Russian writer

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...

's 1902 play ''

The Lower Depths ''The Lower Depths'' (, literally: ''At the bottom'') is a play by Russian dramatist Maxim Gorky written in 1902 and produced by the Moscow Arts Theatre on December 18, 1902, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski. It became his first ma ...

''. became the first

Indian film The cinema of India, consisting of motion pictures made by the Indian film industry, has had a large effect on world cinema since the second half of the 20th century. Indian cinema is made up of various film industries, each focused on pr ...

to gain recognition at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

, after it shared the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film (Best Film) award at the first Cannes Film Festival in 1946 with eleven of the eighteen entered feature films. It is the only Indian film to be ever awarded a . Ironically, the film was never released in India. However the film was telecasted on

Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...

, (India's national broadcaster) in 1980s.

Overview

It was based on a Hindi story, , written by Hayatullah Ansari, which in turn was inspired by Gorky's ''

''. It took an expressionist look at the gulf between the rich and poor in society.Maker of innovative, meaningful movies
''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'', 15 June 2007. was the debut film of actress Kamini Kaushal and for

Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitar, sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known expert of Hin ...

as a music director.

Cast

* Rafiq Anwar as Balraj * Uma Anand as Maya * Kamini Kaushal as Rupa * Murad as Hakim Yaqub Khan Sahab * Rafi Peer as Sarkar * S.P. Bhatia as Sagar * Hamid Butt as Yaqoob Chacha * Mohan Saigal as Raza * Zohra Sehgal as Bhabi * B. M. Vyas as Balraj's brother

Soundtrack

The music of the film was composed by

with lyrics by Mammohan Anand and Vishwamitra Adil. #"Utho Ke Hame Waqt Ki Gardish" - chorus #"Kab Tak Gahri Raat Rahegi" - Lakshmi Shankar #"Birha Ki Aag" - Geeta Dutt #"Dil Mein Samaake" - N/A #"Ek Nirali Jyot Bujhi Hai" - N/A #"Haiya Ho Haiya" - N/A #"Hum Rukenge Bhi Nahi" - N/A #"So Na O Nanhi" - Lakshmi Shankar

Awards

;

1946 Cannes Film Festival The 1st annual Cannes Film Festival was held from 20 September to 5 October 1946. Twenty-one countries presented their films at the "First Cannes International Film Festival", which took place at the former Casino of Cannes. Only one year after t ...

* Grand Prix du Festival International du Film

Citations

References

at the ''New York Times''

Remembering Chetan Anand and Neecha Nagar
''

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media Limited, an entity controlled by the Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia, the daughter o ...

'', 29 September 2007

External links

*

on YouTube {{The Lower Depths 1946 films 1940s Hindi-language films 1940s Indian films Palme d'Or winners Films based on The Lower Depths Films directed by Chetan Anand Films about social realism Films about poverty in India Films scored by Ravi Shankar Films with screenplays by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas Indian drama films 1946 drama films Indian black-and-white films Hindi-language drama films