Char Dil Char Rahen

Char Dil Char Rahen (English title: Four Hearts, Four Roads) is a 1959 Hindi film directed by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, and starring two big stars of the era, real-life brothers Shammi Kapoor and Raj Kapoor. The movie is based on a novel of the same name.

Char Dil Char Rahen
Directed byKhwaja Ahmad Abbas
Produced byKhwaja Ahmad Abbas
Written byKhwaja Ahmad Abbas[1]
Inder Raj Anand
V. P. Sathe
Screenplay byKhwaja Ahmad Abbas
Based onChar Dil Char Rahen
StarringRaj Kapoor
Ajit
Shammi Kapoor
Meena Kumari
Nimmi
Music byAnil Biswas
Sahir Ludhianvi
CinematographyS. Ramachandra
Production
company
Naya Sansar
Release date
1959
Running time
160 min.
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Box officeest. ₹ 5.27 crore (est. ₹ 337.28 crore as of 2019)

Plot

Three young man Govinda (Raj Kapoor), Dilwar (Ajit Khan) and Jhonny (Shammi Kapoor) waiting at the crossroads for their lovers. Govinda was prevented from marrying Chavi (Meena Kumari) as she is untouchable and driven out from village. Govinda then waits for her at the crossroads. Dilwar rescues Pyari (Nimmi) from Nawab (Anwar Hussain (actor)) but she refuses to escape without her mother. She then sets up a shop and waits near crossroad for Dilawar. Jhonny in love with Stella (Kumkum (actress)) is framed by his boss Fereira (David Abraham) and jailed he later joins group of crossroads and starts a garage. Nirmal Kumar (Paidi Jairaj) the union leader then asks the trio to blast a hill at crossroad to build a road.

Cast

Box office

It was released simultaneously with other big films, Devendra Goel's Chirag Kahan Roshni Kahan and V Shantaram's Navrang, while Navrang was a hit, Chirag Kahan Roshni Kahan broke even and Char Dil Char Rahen failed at the Indian box office in 1959.[2][3]

However, it later went on to become an overseas blockbuster at the Soviet box office, where it drew 39.8 million viewers in 1962.[4] In the Soviet Union, the film grossed 9.95 million SUR[n 1] (US$11.06 million,[n 2] ₹5.27 crore),[n 3] equivalent to US$93 million (₹591 crore)[8] in 2016. Its overseas Soviet gross exceeded the domestic Indian gross of all films released in 1959[9] and 1962.[10]

Controversy

Shammi Kapoor received a legal notice from director Abbas when he refused to act for one of the songs in the film, and many other controversies with the stars of that era caused director Abbas to vow to stop making movies with mainstream movie stars.[2]

Notes
  1. 39.8 million tickets sold,[4] average ticket price of 25 kopecks)[5]
  2. 0.9 Soviet rubles per US dollar from 1961 to 1971[6]
  3. 4.7619 Indian rupees per US dollar from 1950 to 1965[7]

References
  1. Char Dil Char Rahen at IMDb
  2. "Char Dil Char Rahen (1959)". 6 March 2009. Retrieved 21 February 2018 – via www.thehindu.com.
  3. 1959: Year that was Archived 11 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Sergey Kudryavtsev. "Зарубежные популярные фильмы в советском кинопрокате (Индия)".
  5. Moscow Prime Time: How the Soviet Union Built the Media Empire that Lost the Cultural Cold War, page 48, Cornell University Press, 2011
  6. Archive of Bank of Russia http://cbr.ru/currency_base/OldDataFiles/USD.xls
  7. http://fx.sauder.ubc.ca/etc/USDpages.pdf#page=3
  8. "Yearly Average Rates - OFX". Archived from the original on 13 July 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
  9. "Boxofficeindia.com". 30 October 2013. Archived from the original on 30 October 2013. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
  10. "Boxofficeindia.com". 14 October 2013. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
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