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Heer Raanjha (1970) - Unique film in Verse !
Chetan Anand has been pioneer in so many fields. He was teaching at Doon School but film making brought him to bombay.
His first ever film “Neecha Nagar” was screened at Cannes festival and also had won Karolvy International fim Award. He made Haqeeqat in 1964 which could be said as first authentic war film in Hindi cinema and he repeated his skill in making war films in 1971 with Hindustan Ki kasam.
Later he conceptualised and made “Param Veer Chakra”, a TV serial, for DD. He directed around 15-16 films and around 10 films can’t be ignored if history of hindi cinema is written in proper way.
Chetan Anand worked, mostly with Dev Anand, but he also joined hands with Raaj Kumar for 3 films and all three films can be said as milestones in the entire career of Raaj Kumar. All three films suggest about the vast range of Raaj Kumar as an actor. He played roles of poet lover, army officer and a rapist in Chetan Anand’s three films, Heer Raanjha, Hindustan Ki kasam and Kudarat respectively.
Given Raaj Kumar’s rough tough image, its difficult to imagine that any director would select Raaj Kumar in the role of a lover like Majnu, Farhaad, Mahiwal etc but Chetan Anand did this odd job and gave him the Role of Raanjha.
Heer Raanjha was the romantic epic written by famous poet of Punjab Varis Shah. Chetan Anand did experiment in hindi cinema and made Heer Raanjha in verse form. Chetan Anand caught the poetry residing in the voice of Raaj Kumar. Here he plays a care free villager, who is a poet by heart and who has shelter of 8 elder brothers and 8 bhabhiyan on his head. He is like Krishna, playing his flute and teasing the girls gathered at the well to fetch water.
Its story of two villages situated on two opposite banks of river Chenab and Raanjha’s family is head of one Village and Heer’s family is head of other village but both villages are old enemies.
Carefree Raanjha ignores advises of his elder brothers and goes to village of Heer to join a marriage ceremony of one of his friend and there during song and dance custom, Heer Raanjha see each other and become victims of phenomenon of “love at first sight“.
Their love, vows to live or die together, pranks, separation, re-union etc are picturised beautifully. It’s a dramatic film and does not give any illusion that there should be any reality touch in the acting. There is no scope for natural acting here. As far as synchronization with the characteristics of the character is concerned Pran steals the show. He has played the cunning uncle of Heer and his one leg is defective. He is the best actor in the film. He has truly lived the shades of the character given to him. His heart is filled with anger and frustrations towards whole world because of his physical handicapped body because people tease and riducule his handiccaped situation. He is called by a nickname of “Langda” by all the people including his elder brother, the father of Heer. He is filled with revenge and does not wish to see anyone happy in his surrounding. His philosophy is very simple,” Since world has given me nothing so I will destroy everything beautiful around me”. He knows only conspiracies, revenge, ill feelings etc. He is a complete devil. It’s a treat to watch his body language and mannerisms in this role. He gives enough glimpses here about how great actor he is. In one scene girl friends of Heer try to make him fool though they want to take revenge from him as he arranges separation between Heer and Raanjha. Girls are dancing around Pran and alluring him and he is also dancing. Girls start pushing and pulling him and he falls down and his evil mind quickly thinks that he has been trapped but soon his attraction toward girls over power this thought as they smile towards him and he again tries to get up and dance. Pran changes his facial expression so fast that it amazes the audience.
Raaj Kumar justifies the role given to him. He had a well toned body and it helps him in playing a villager. Punjabi male dress lungi Kurta befits him very well. He had one of the most attractive walking style among male actors in hindi cinema, rather he had style in everything. In this film he is shown with so much fun that its difficult to believe that this is the same great Raaj Kumar about whose strict behaviour countless stories have been flowing in the air. Audience never saw Raaj Kumar in such funful role again in any other film. Here he does everything, dancing, jumping with ecstasy, making faces, playing tricks with girls and his bhabhiyan.
Chetan Anand has used beautifully Raajkumar’s baritone voice for the purpose of saying dialogues in verse form. It is interesting to see the scene when Heer is playing hide and seek with her friends and by mistake she catches Raanjha who is sitting under a tree. When a girl friend of Heer asks him his name he says “Raaaaaaaaaanjha mera naam hai” He drags sound of “Raa” too long and it appears quite sweet in ears.
Same girl asks Raanjha what he wishes to say to Heer and he says a long poetry which is wonderful to listen.
If one is fan of Raaj Kumar then this film is a treat. S/he will get enough of Raaj Kumar in different shades.
If one has not seen the film then can imagine the poetic dialogues in Raaj Kumar’s deep voice.
Matakna Chhor de Ladki ye jawani chaar din ki hai
roop ki, ada ki, rang kee kahani chaar din kee hai
Or
Jo hai teri mushkil wahi meri mushkil
Ek hee teer se dono ghayal
Meri ankh mein tere ansoo bhare hain
Tujhe kya maloom kiski japta hun mein mala
usee ka hun aaj jogi, kal tak tha jiska gwala
Or
Jahan dafan hain mere massom ansoo
Usee makbare mein meri raat hogee
Jamai hai ye jaan ke dhooni
Wahin atma se mulakat hogee.
He is shown several times in close ups and its astonishing to see his eyes. He has brought the innocence in his eyes, which was required for this role. His eyes are so clear which is normally not possible with elders. No red thread at all, no yellowish impact. As if he was completely satisfied with his life, only dreams, hopes and energy peeps out of his eyes. Though he was not an actor of close ups and he uses mostly his voice to bring the required impact but he does not disappoint here. Only his hairs look bit odd in some scenes. May be he used a wig.
It was good to see father of Amjad Khan, Jayant playing the role of father of Heer and he delivers well.
Prithviraj Kapoor, Ajit, Jeevan, A.K.Hangal, Ullhas, Tun Tun, Indrani Mukherjee, Sonia Sahni, Kamini Kaushal, Achala Sachdev, Shaukat Azami, Tabbasum etc all actors do justice to their small roles. Nana Palsikar impressed a lot in his 5 minutes long role. He plays Deewan in the court of king (Prithviraj Kapoor).
His performance provokes to think why noone thought to make a film by casting him in the role of Tenaliram, the famous intelligent minister of Raja Krishna Dev Ray of Vijay Nagar or Beerbal, the minister of Akbar. He could have perfected these two roles.
Weakest actor trophy goes here to the actress Priya Rajvanshi who played the role of Heer. She had foreign looks and her face does not express any emotions except some happiness. Her beauty was capable to get her the role but her acting ditches her and some how Chetan Anand has managed to cover this weakness. She is fine till she is playing love game with Raanjha but after her separation from Ranjha she looks very weak actress.
Madan Mohan’s music is superb. Every song has countless repetition value and Chetan Anand’s song picturization is equally praise worthy. It seems that both the brothers, Vijay and Chetan Anand , were champion of song picturisation.
Jal Mistry’s cinematography is A1. Every scene looks like part of a wonderful painting. As children used to read about agriculture based Punjab, that has become alive before the audience. Sets are very authentic. Recently Omkara has presented sets of village with such an authenticity. Its beautiful to see musterd crops and cotton plants.
Here Punjabiyat is in true form. Here bhangra look like a bhangra dance. And scenes of baishakhi are wonderful. Gopi Krishna and Sudarshan Dhir do wonderful job.
Famous painter Shobha Singh’s paintings were used as reference point to create the sets and in few scenes his huge paintings are used in real to give impression of sets. Here cinematographer does wonder.
Anyone has seen Mac Mohan (Sambha of Sholay) doing a Bhangra dance? Watch Heer Raanjha and you will get full does of Mac Mohan. Perhaps this was first and last time Mac Mohan was given the role of friend of the Hero of the film.
Heer Raanjha not only a must watch film but a collector’s item.
Million thanks to Late Chetan Anand who dared to make this beautiful film.
22 Responses to “Heer Raanjha (1970) - Unique film in Verse !”
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Between you and WB, I can’t watch movies fast enough. I may have to quit my job to keep up. Thank’s for this review!
Thanks RK for throwing light on one of the brilliant works in our cinema.
You forgot to mention Kaifi Azmi, who wrote the film in the form of ‘nazm’ (verse).
Some info about Priyarajvansh- She was one of the few or the only actress of her time who studied at royal academy of arts, London. She was very beautiful, who never worked for anyother director other than Chetan Anand, who discovered her! She was found mudered not so long ago, supposedly by Chetan’s son.
t!
what/who is WB? u dont have to quit job to watch movies, use public transport instead of driving and use ur small DVD player while travelling or watch on ur bossom friend, mean lap top:)
thanks for ur comment
Hi Manjit,
Yes I could forget Kaifee saab’s contribution to Heer Raanjha. Two reasons when started then it was in mind and then I wrote his wife’s name so later I missed to mention him. I also thought to write a post about partership of Chetan Anand+Madan Mohan+Kaifee Azami.
Thanks for correcting me.
Chetan Anand loved so much Priya Rajvansh that insipite of her obvious lacking in acting always signed her in his every film.
Pyar ho to aisa!!! he did not care about BOX Office success, criticism from world etc etc
RK, Priyarajvansh was offered roles by leading director’s like Raj Kapoor and others but refused them coz of Chetan Anand.
Manjeet: thats why I said Pyar ho to aisa.
else in other cases one of the lover (male or female), selected to join films in famous banner and broke the relationship. Too many stories are there. :)
Ooh, Priya Rajvansh - thanks for reminding me of that horrible monotonic diction! Nice looking and unique voice, but the woman couldn’t act for shit. Will always remember her in “Kudrat”, where she says “Daddy main haar gayi” like a robot, devoid of any emotion…Good times!
Unko khuda mile hai khuda ki jinhe talash
mujhko to bas ek jhalak mere dildar ki mile
ye duniya ye mehfil
mere kaam kin nahi
RK, nice 2 read you post. I c u have been missing from last month till 16th of this month.
Catching up on movies I presume?:d
//RK, it’s quite possible that when t! said wb, she could have meant your’s truly - the *nacheez*. :-b
//t! it’s an honor to be mentioned in the same breath as RK. The reality is that I have a life time to able to catch up with my learned friend. RK was right - “what” is more like it. Thanks for your comment though. <:-p
= RK, Today you disappointed me… by saying who/what is WB??? Khallas… there is no point in living further… slash slash… :(( ;)
Anyways to give you the “gyan” on who WB is… you could start here…
http://passionforcinema.com/author/wanderbeyonder/
@ wb - of course it was you I was speaking about! You and RK are two big reasons I am here!
RK - I wish I could watch more films, but the problem with working with films is that I am too busy to watch them right now.
Except, for the stack of independents I have at home. Too bad none of them are good enough to write about :(
Zahur :
I see Priya Rajvansh ( second wife or lover of Chetan Anand) andf Kalpana Kartik (wife of Dev Anand) as two women who either joined films for sake of their lover or to earn bread and butter for survival. Priya comes in first category and worked only in few films of Chetan and later only 2-3 films with Dev Anand and left films once she married Dev. These two women were forced actresses but not exactly bad.
Anand family’s contribution to hindi cinema and world cinema (Shekhar Kapur) has not been assessed properly, they are always sidelined by mainstream filmi people or say big families who have captured filmi world.
Muzzy:
Thanks for comments. The lines you have quoted from one of the best song Mohd Rafee sang says almost all things about content and spirit of Heer Raanjha film. Did you notice the special emphasis given to the picturisation of this song by Chetan Anand? Perhaps only Vijay Anand could match the same phiolosophy of song picturisation in the song “Piya tose naina lage re” in Guide.:)
You are right I missed PFC between 8th dec 2006 till morning of 15th January 2007. Did not watch a single film in that period. Last I had seen Dhoom 2, in dec. and now Baabul in January. These old films I saw years ago, thats why I miss several details, while writing .:o and friends correct and add missing parts:)
Wb and OZ: sorry friends. Curse my eyes or PFC format, which looks strange for few hours these days, I looked in authors list but could not see WB’s name. and fact that I was away for more than one month, reduced my memory about all authors and when I re joined WB was not active.
and honestly when I could not find WB’s details then I assumed WB as world bank where t! may be working:)
But memory is starnge thing when I read Oz’
s comment I instantly recalled WB’s post on Kamal Hasan and the post first film which changed your views.
I am not sure if both of you (WB and OZ) are knowing but I saw on TV, cant recall the channel,(Perhaps star TV or NDTV) but this fat guy presents something on films and he presented same one episode on same topic. It cant be coincidence , its certainly that he picked up the topic from WB’s post on PFC.:d
Sorry guys again for my bad memory. I certainly need memory plus or atleast Shankh Pushpi:)
t!:
Thanks for comments. Are you making some film also? apart from dealing with films?
Hope this anyone from PFC will really enter in to real film making.:d
Yes, I work in films, and right now I am working with three small, independent films. One, in post-production, we have just started the CGI. One in pre-production, we are working on lining up music, locations, product placements, actors, etc., and shooting will start late spring. The third, a movie that just went into DVD distribution.
This, on top of the film festival, my day job, and my contract work for a MAJOR computing company. It is any wonder that I get to see films at all! Let alone read books….
t! how about a post from you about working in independent films on the west coast? very few know that the independent movie scene is a thriving business and has a very niche market.. i myself just had a film release straight-to-DVD and having acted in only independent films thus far, i’m still learning about the market.. though the demographic is quite clear: college-goers and young adults. but how about an insight as to how these films are produced, marketed and distributed? i’d love to read your take on it, as i’m sure others would, since the market is more prolific at your end.. it would also help clarify the notion that just because these films are made on a lower budget, that doesn’t necessarily make them bad films. it would also help clear up that same and many other stereotypes about B and C-cinema..
also, are most of your films shot on HD/DV as opposed to film?
RK, saw heer ranjha last night on zee classic.
what a wonderful and unique movie!
sets, costumes, choreography everything was wonderuful. rememeber the scene where rajkumar’s baarat is going with priya’s doli and reddish background of sunset. Superb.
generally i don’t like majnu type song but after watching “yeh duniya yeh mehfil” i liked it very much.In that song when rajkumar enters into temple in costumes of sadhu and when he enters into masjid in costumes of fakir - the change in music quite unique and appropriate to place and culture.
The fast bhangra music in climax and pran’s body
language and expressions with music was also superb. I felt the climax was short.(there was no dialogue of raanjha after death of heer- rona dhona and all that) but may be it made more sense and impact.
Shailesh:
Priya Rajvanshi perhaps gave one of the best best acting moments after she died, means just see her stand still face and eyes with no feelings. She looked like a dead person.
Film is wonderful. It needs courage and vision to make such a film. Thats why few shortcomings dont produce hurdles.
[...] own independent status. He has made an indigenous film. Film has inspiration from Chetan Anand
Dushmano ke gaon ka tu rehna wala hai
abhi dekhi nahi hai talware tune sayaalo ke.
uthao talware mein sir ko juka du ga..
kushi se heer ke khatir mein gardan katwa dunga.
Khabardar Jubaon keench longa liya jo naam tune heer.
Juban tum keench lo mein usko jakhmo se sada dunga…
bulao gaon walo ko.. uthan talware.. bhuja le pyaas apni
pee jaye laho ke dhare.
i saw the film, i feel that what kind of imagination were created in the film about heer raNJHA. i don’t know that ranjha was a poet or not but i feel if he was, than he is chetan anand type.
i feel proud to read tghis review. thanks