This review is written by Mr Sadanand Kamath
CHAAND (1944) was produced under the banner of Prabhat Film Company and directed by D D Kashyap. The star cast included Prem Adeeb and Begum Para in the lead roles with Sitara Devi (Menaka), Sapru, Master Balakram, Ram Singh, Vatsala etc in the supporting roles. The film is a love triangle between Prem Adib, Begum Para and Sitara Devi. The first half of the film has some streak of light comedy but the second half is melodramatic with a happy ending.
Murarilal (Prem Adib) is a singer and musician in Sitara Devi’s (Menaka) theater company in Lahore. Ghungaroo (Master Balakram) is his assistance. Murarilal along with Ghoungroo leave Menaka’s theater company to join as a music director in a Bombay theater company. Menaka who loves Murarilal, tries to persuade him to remain with her theater but the lure of Bombay is far greater than Menaka’s one-sided love for him. By the time he reaches Bombay, the theater has already employed some other person as he was late by couple of days. After struggling in the streets of Bombay, he decides to start a music school for which he manages to get the paying guest accommodation in Seth Jwalaprasad’s (Sapru) house by posing as a well to do man.
After some initial hiccups with Rajkumari (Begum Para), the only daughter of Seth Jwalaprasad, Murarilal and Rajkumari starts liking each other. When things were going smooth between them, Menaka comes to Bombay and meets Murarilal in his rented house, once again asking him to join her theatre group mainly to pursue her love for him which he declines. Misunderstanding creeps in the mind of Rajkumari when she sees Murarilal and Menaka together and expels him from her house without listening to his side of the story. After being back in the streets for a few days, Murarilal and Ghungaroo manage to join Seth Jwalaprasad’s company as clerk and a peon respectively mainly to be near Rajkumari so that one day, he could explain his side of the story to her which he eventually does.
Murarilal with his hard work impresses Seth Jwalaprasad who promotes him as Manager. With this promotion, Murarilal and Rajkumari think that deck would be cleared for their marriage. However, unaware of this relationship, Seth Jwalaprasad plans his daughter’s marriage with the son of a businessman. When Rajkumari reveals her desire to get married to Murarilal, her father is furious. He creates another misunderstanding in Murarilal about Rajkumari by telling him that she is no longer interested in him. A dejected Murarilal plans to leave Bombay. Again, Menaka takes the entry at the right time and persuades him to join her theater group which is scheduled to perform at Calcutta.
When Rajkumari comes to know that Murarilal has left for Calcutta, she joins a volunteer group in Calcutta without the knowledge of her father to serve as a nurse for patients of malnutrition due to Bengal famine. She meets Menaka and tell her side of the story. Maneka becomes a good Samaritan and assures Rajkumari of all her help in bringing back Murarilal to her. Murarilal gets caught in the Japanese air bombing injuring his eyes. He is brought to the hospital where a nurse tends him after his successful eye operation. When his eye bandage is opened, it is like ‘jab aankh khule unki tasweer-e-nazar aaye’ for Murarilal as the nurse is none other than his beloved Rajkumari.
In the meanwhile, Seth Jawalaprasad’s company make huge losses and he is about to be declared as insolvent. With the twin tragedy of business losses and rejection of his daughter’s marriage proposal with a businessman’s son, he realises his folly. Now all his attention is to trace her daughter and Murarilal and keep her happy by agreeing to her marriage with Murarilal. It is once again Menaka who helps in reuniting him with his daughter and Murarilal thus making a happy ending.
For Begum Para, it was her debut film. Her expressionless dialogue-delivery was pathetic. The performances of other main actors were good. But, it is 11 years old Master Balakram whose performance impressed me the most with his natural acting.
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