Reviews

Nargis (Meena kumari) is a tawaif (entertainer) based in the Muslim quarter of Lucknow. She dreams of marrying Shahbuddin, (Ashok Kumar) the man she loves, but his family's patriarch Hakim Saab strongly opposes their relationship because he finds it unacceptable to welcome a tawaif as a daughter-in-law into his respected family. Dejected, Nargis flees to a nearby qabristan (cemetery) and lives there, giving birth to a daughter. " (Wikipedias starting of the story)

The acting was good, Meena kumari and Veena acted well, Rajkumar was good too, even the side characters did well, storyline was good but not great and it did have some problems and also some confusing scenes, the movie was also long, the songs were GREAT very memorable and melodious, Lata Mangeshkar sang beautifully and the Lata Rafi duet "chalo dildar chalo" was great too, music composer ghulam mohammed was beautiful, Naushads background score and alaps were also good, lyrics by Kamal amrohi majrooh kaifi and Kaif bhopali are great, Josef wirschings cinematography was beautiful, the choreography by lacchu maharaj was great, the sets were also beautiful, Costumes by Meena kumari was beautiful but abit inaccurate, The cast includes Meena kumari Rajkumar Veena Ashok Kumar D. K sapru and nadira, The making of pakeezah itself could be movie but I'm not gonna explain everything but just abit about how it was made in the facts i put if you scroll down more, if you also want a detailed story of how it was made check Wikipedia.

Overall it's a good movie and everyone should watch it even though it's abit long.

Here are some facts about pakeezah.

Meena kumari was the costume designer.

The pond Meena kumari soaked her hair in the flim was filled with attars.

The fountain in the chalte chalte song was filled with rose water.

The candels are from Belgium

The carpets are from Persia/Iran

The carpet she danced on had real gold threads woven on it.

Most of the flim was made from Meena kumaris money.

Meena kumari charged only 1 rupees for this flim.

All the jewellery in the flim is real no one is wearing artificial they got the jewellery from Hyderabad Varanasi Bangalore and Jaipur.

Meena kumari also wore her private jewellery in the songs and flim.

The film's shooting started in 1956 or 1958 but it was abandoned in 1964 because Meena kumari and Kamal amrohi separated filming was started again in 1969 and the movie was finished in 1972 that is why Meena kumari sometimes look older and younger in the movie.

Nargis and sunil dutt recommend Meena kumari and Kamal amrohi to start making the movie again because they liked the idea of the movie and because of nargis and sunil the shooting started again in 1969.

Meena kumari had to get a body double in the song teer-e-nazar and chalo dildar chalo because she couldn't dance and stand because of her alcohol addiction.

They only used Meena kumaris close ups in teer-e-nazar song.

Meena kumari was healthy and well in inhi logon ne thade rahiyo and chalte chalte that's why she was the one dancing in these three songs and also because she was younger too.

The composer ghulam mohammed died before the movie released.

The cinematographer Josef wirsching also died before the release.

Ghulam Mohammad made 12 songs but only 6 were used.

The album of the other 6 songs was released in 1977 and it's name is pakeezah rang barang.

Kamal amrohi was asked to change the songs because they were outdated by 1969/1972 and ghulam mohammed had died in 1968, but kamal didn't change it saying it would be injustice to a dead man.

Lata Mangeshkar sang thade rahiyo inho logon ne and chalte chalte for the flim when the movie was being made in late 50s.

The flim was made between rs 12 million to rs rs 15 million.

"A newspaper editor, Shrivastav, is wounded when he was about to expose the underworld links of a rich and influential man. He calls over his friend, Inspector Shekhar from C. I. D to talk to him about the threat he receives from the underworld." (Wikipedias starting of the story)

The movie was good, acting was good too, dev Anand did great acting in this flim, Shakilas acting was okay in the start, it got better as the movie went on, the best acting in the movie was definitely waheeda rehmans in my opinion, storyline was good but i didn't really see any chemistry between hero and the main heroine Shakila, music and songs were great especially "leke pehla pehla pyar" sung by shamshad begum and picturised on Sheela Vaz, "kahin pe nigahe" sung by shamshad begum, "yeh hai Bombay meri jaan" sung by Mohammad Rafi Geeta Dutt and aankhon hi aankhon mein also sung by Rafi and Geeta lyrics were also good, the movie has abit of problems and some unrealistic stuff too, but the last 30 minutes were very entertaining and suspenseful.

Overall it's a movie worth watching.

Neelofur (Salma Agha) is a student who studies at osmania university Haider (Raj Babbar) is also a student and a young poet who loves neelofur but neelofur does not, she gets engaged to Wasim (Deepak parashar) who neelofur loves, they get married but he doesn't spend time with her, he doesn't even spend time with her on there honeymoon because he got a buisness contract, he also fights with her on stupid things and he fails to show up at there wedding anniversary, neelofur doesn't face the guests and the guests leave, Wasim out of anger says triple talaq, neelofur meets Haider now a accomplished poet and a editor, she tells him her story and they fall in love again and marry, however Wasim wants to remarry her.

The acting and songs were great, the story was good it shows the problems women faced and why triple talaq is wrong the message was nice I'd recommend you to watch it definitely it also is entertaining even though something's the heroine does is questionable.

The film is set in Lucknow, where a windowed man who is a nawab lives with his daughter zeenat (Meena kumari) they pretend to be wealthy while they are not wealthy at all, zeenat who wants jewellery and clothes can't fulfill her desire for them, while her friend takes her to a jewellery shop but zeenat still can't afford bangles, a rich man named nawab Mirza (Ashok Kumar) falls in love with zeenat meanwhile zeenat loves nawab Yusuf (pradeep kumar) and they meet at a darga (Sufi temple/shrine) every Friday or other day

Meanwhile Yusuf's evil uncle fixes her marriage with Nawab Mirza, though zeenat doesn't know it's not Yusuf, Yusuf's uncle also tricks Yusuf and makes him go somewhere else, Watch to see what happens next.

The acting was ok, songs were ok aswell, storyline was ok not good, the movie is watchable although it's not very entertaining but some parts are good, I liked Johnny Walker and his chicken, Zeb rehman and Leela mishra.

On a stormy and rainy night a doctor named anand (Manoj Kumar) is driving and he suddenly sees a woman (Sadhana) on the road and decides to give her a lift as soon as she steps in the car the wipers stop and what makes him even more scared is that she guides him through the road even though the road is not visible in the rain he also asks her name and she says she's no one, she steps out of the car and the hero sees a graveyard the woman enters and the gates open by itself, the hero also hears a melodious voice sing a part of the song "Naina barse rimjhim rimjhim"

Meanwhile Anand's girlfriend Seema is found dead and its because of a cyanide injection, find out what happens next by watching the flim.

The flim keeps suspense to the end, the acting was great especially Sadhanas the storyline was great but I have some problems with it but I feel like it will spoil the movie, the songs were great aswell and ofcourse the most famous of them all "lag ja gale" sung by the late Lata Mangeshkar no scenes in the movie were boring and the flim was filled with suspense it is the first of the three suspense flims Sadhana did with Raj khosla and its also the best, I'd recommend you to watch it you won't be disappointed.

Neelima (Meena kumari) runs away from her house after her guardian sold her to a man, she gets a job as a governess for a girl named munni who lives with her Ill aunt pushpa (Kamini Kaushal) munni has no mother and her father Anand (Ashok Kumar) has been in London since, meanwhile Ajay (pradeep kumar) a painter and sketcher who ran away from his house so he could not be married to vineeta (shashikala) a rich brat who his father arranged his marriage to for money, Ajay and neelima met and fall in love he even rents a house right next to the house neelima lives in anand arrives from London and he falls in love with her too pushpa and anand also agree she looks like Anand's deceased wife and the love triangle starts.

The story was too predictable the acting was nice but the story was just to predictable some scenes were nice but the boring ones were more the songs were nice too but this movie is definitely not very good.

Aarti played by Meena kumari is a doctor, she develops feelings for Deepak a unemployed man (pradeep kumar) after he saves her life but she is already engaged to Dr Prakash (Ashok Kumar) who works only for money not for people, Later she breaks her engagement with dr prakash and marries Deepak dr prakash also has married but he wants revenge.

This flim is average it could be made better, By leaving out the sister-in-law drama some scenes were boring Meena kumaris acting was great as usual, the other casts acting was alright mehmood scenes felt super boring the story was ok it didn't impress me like sahib Bibi aur ghulam and other flims Meena kumari did I felt disappointed but I do like the songs they were good honestly I'd recommend it but don't be surprised if you don't like it.

The movie starts with Vijay (guru dutt) a failed poet who is seen as a failure by his family except his mother he leaves his house searching for his poetry that his brother sold as waste he sees a woman (waheeda rehman) singing his poetry and she sings a nice song and he follows her and asks if she can give it back because he has no money she yells at him and says 'why havee you come to my khota (brothel) if you don't have money!" Guru dutt runs away waheeda rehman finds out his the one who wrote the poetry and they meet again and she apologizes and says her name is gulabo and that she's a fan of him and understood what situation he is in through his poetry then the story continues to be super long.

The story is kind of slow but itactually portrays how the world is like greedy and evil, the song at the end "duniya agar mile bhi jaye" sung by Mohammad Rafi is very good the other songs sung by Geeta Dutt hemant kumar and also Mohammad Rafi are great I disliked mala Sinha and rehman khans character alot along with the hero's so called friend and brothers I also felt that mala Sinha was abit unnecessary but her story adds up to the plot the acting was great Johnny Walker was funny and I think the ending was nice.

In Calcutta (Kolkata) a group of labourers is demolishing the ruins of an old haveli(mansion) When the workers have a break for lunch, the overseer atulya chakrabortya also known as bhootnath is played by guru dutt walks around the ruined and almost demolished mansion he hears a voice of someone similar he sits in a room and a flashback to the late 19th century when the mansion was very grand and even had marriages for cats begins

It shows Bhoothnath a poor but educated man comes to the haveli and is received by his brother in law who once worked for the Chaudharys. As a teacher he has retired but the rich people still give him shelter and food he arranged a stay for bhootnath in the mansion and he also gets him a job at mohini sindoor (vermilion company)the owner of company suvinoy is a brahmo samaj believer (something religious)his daughter jaba played by waheeda rehman makes fun of bhoothnath for his nick name, suvinoy gets surprised by his real name and where bhoothnath says he came from and the secret is revealed later on bhoothnath and jaba soon become friends and eventually fall in love bhootnath also meets bansi who's a servant of the house he also hears a loney voice in the night the same one he heard in the present he asks a servant bansi who that is bansi tells him it's chotti Bahu (played by Meena Kumari) is neglected by her husband even after she tries to do everything to win his heart bansi also tells bhootnath that chottay sarkar (rehmaan Khan) goes to brothels every night leaving chotti Bahu lonely after a day bansi tells that chotti Bahu has called to meet him in secret he is scared but he goes there he meets Meena Kumari and they both become friendly with eachother (not romantically) and she tells him the reason she called him is because she wants the sindoor because she heard it helps relationships and he gets her sindoor the next day and then we see Meena Kumari getting dressed up for chottay sarkar hoping he will stay with her I won't tell you the story any further.

The acting in this was very good especially Meena kumaris the story is abit slow at the start but it was good it's also a adaption of Bengali novel by Bimal Mitra and meena Kumari doesn't appear until 45 minutes most of us probably think it's about bhootnath but it's not it's about chotti Bahu every actors acted were well and in my opinion its one of the best old Hindi movies in acting the costumes were delightfull to see to the songs were amazing one of the best songs in the movie include Piya aiso jiya mein na jao Saiyan and bhanwara bara nadan hai both Geeta Dutt and asha bhosle sang very well it hemant kumar was great as a music director the movie also won 4 or 5 flimfare awards and 3 or more nominations the wins were best actress for meena Kumari best cinematography best director for abrar alvi and best flim award it also won best actor Bengal journalist award and also won a berlin award for abrar alvi waheeda rehman got nominated for best supporting actress guru dutt got nominated for flimfare best actor and rehman got nominated for best supporting actor and meena kumari also got nominated for aarti and main chup rahungi for the year 1963 and she also won the 1963 flimfare awards best actress award by her role as chotti Bahu in 1963 overall I'd recommend you to watch it.