Synopsis
Ram
(Raj Kapoor), an impoverished law student, is dependent
on money orders from his mother. If the money orders are
late, he often pawns his things to the local moneylender
to get by. Once he saves a little boy and pays the doctor's
fee with all the money he has since the boy's family is
even more impoverished than him. As he visits there more
often he falls in love with the boy's sister Sohni (Mala
Sinha). Sohni manages to make ends meet by stitching clothes
for the neighbours. The wily Harbhanslal (Jagdish Sethi)
keeps supplying Sohni's alcoholic father Gopal (Nana Palsikar)
with liquor on credit in order to get him to marry Sohni
to him. Sohni's marriage is fixed to Harbanslal. Sohni asks
Ram to save her. He goes to the moneylender to rob his safe
but the robbery goes drastically wrong….Ram kills the
moneylender by accident. Gopal dies due to his alcoholim
while Ram's college friend Rehman (Rehman) doesn't let Sohni's
wedding to Harbanslal take place. Ram is both being eaten
up by his guilt and is being pursued by a police officer
(Mubarak) who suspects Ram to be guilty and tries to get
him to give himself up. Another man is finally caught for
the crime but as he is about to be sentenced in court Ram's
conscience catches up with him and he admits to his crime
while making a fervent plea on behalf of the dispossesseds'
rights to defend themselves against the real villains in
society. Seeing the situation, he is given a sentence of
3 years. Sohni says she will wait for him….
The film
Though
Phir Subah Hogi is loosely based
on Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment
published in 1866, the film is actually
more of an emotional plea for social justice
in 'Nehruite' India and is a fine example
of political comment combined with humanitarian
compassion.
The years following Indian Independence
saw the entire socio-political system under
stress and thousands of migrants poured
into the cities to try and make a better
life for themselves. The city became synonymous
with jobs, wealth and excitement. But this
was just one edge of the sword.  The
other edge was exploitation, crime, sleaze
and slums as the poor and dispossessed struggled
even with basic day-to-day living. This
is the aspect of city life that Phir
Subah Hogi looks at.
Phir
Subah Hogi is one of those rare films
that are able to successfully bring out
not just the external conflicts but also
more importantly the internal conflicts
of its characters extremely convincingly.
The film stays with its characters so we
can see what they are going through. It
is a fine study of the guilt and emotional
turmoil that goes through the hero's mind
following his accidental murder of another
man. In fact Raj
Kapoor gives one of the best and most
insightful performance of his career in
Phir Subah Hogi. While physical acting
is easier, it is much tougher to internalize
oneself and portray the state of the mind
and Raj Kapoor does exactly that perfectly.
It is a marvelous performance of a man fighting
with himself and his guilt and an attribute
to his great skill as an actor.
Mala
Sinha was on her way up following the success
of Pyaasa where
she had made a major impact when she did
Phir Subah Hogi. This is among the
better performances of her career as she
did have the tendency to go way, way over
the top particularly in her weepy women
pictures of the 1960s like Hariyali Aur
Raasta (1962), Anpadh (1962)
and Apne Hue Paraye (1964). Phir
Subah Hogi is also one of three films
she did with Raj Kapoor in the 1958-59 period
the other two being Parvarish (1958)
and Main Nashe Mein Hoon (1959) but
Phir Subah Hogi remains their best
and most in-depth film together.
Among
the supporting cast, Rehman has a rather
unusual and bindaas role of Rehman, Ram's
benevolent friend who tries to help him
out as much as he can and Rehman makes the
most of it creating a character you cannot
help but like and smile along with. Mubarak
uses his strong screen presence to play
the police officer trying to play on Ram's
mental turmoil and to get him to confess
to the murder even employing unorthodox
methods if he has to. Well fleshed out,
it is the scene-stealing role of the film.
Nana Palsikar plays the suffering retired
patriarch who cannot take care of his family
and so drowns himself in alcohol while Leela
Chitnis plays his long suffering wife. Here
is an extremely interesting characterization
of a woman who actually chides her husband
and unbelievably for a Hindi film even expresses
relief at his death after what he has put
the family through.
Phir
Subah Hogi has an absolutely brilliant
musical score by Khayyam with telling lyrics
by Sahir
Ludhianvi. Khayyam had worker with hit-music
directors of the 1940s Husnlal Bhagatram
and came to Bombay initially to be an actor
but then worked in Lahore. Credited as Sharmaji
for his first 4 films, he came into prominence
with Zia Sarhady's Footpath (1953)
with the Talat Mehmood gem Shyam-e-gham
ki Kasam. Khayyam worked traditionally
in the ghazal format seen to particularly
great effect in Footpath, Kabhi
Kabhie (1976), Umrao Jaan (1981)
and Razia Sultan (1983). His collaboration
with Sahir Ludhianvi in Phir Subah Hogi
are definitive of 50s Hindi Cinema's engagement
with existential realism.
The highlight of the musical score is the
haunting Woh Subah Kabhi to Aayegi
sung by Mukesh
and Asha Bhosle.
This beautiful melody of two lonely destitute
people looking for a better world exemplifies
Sahir's leftist leanings and is simply and
evocatively picturised with just close ups
and mid close ups of Raj Kapoor and Mala
Sinha seaking solace in each other's arms.
Today when one sees such songs one cannot
but rue at the total loss of emotion in
our songs today. Songs are picturised at
some exotic location with 100 dancers doing
pelvic thrusts. Woh Subah Kabhi to Aayegi
shows how a simple song with sensitive lyrics
and simply picturised brings out human feelings
so beautifully.
The
other stand out song from the film is the
Chino Arab Humara number by Mukesh
where though brilliantly composed, admittedly
here the lyricist Sahir is more prominent.
The song looks at the disillusionment that
had set in, in the decade following the
euphoria of Indian Independence in 1947.
Sahir strongly condemns the Nehru vision
of a new India, which in his eyes had totally
failed. Actually Sahir had actually made
this statement earlier on itself with Guru
Dutt's Pyaasa released in 1957
with Jinhe Naaz Hai Hind Par Woh Kahaan
Hai and Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaaye
To Kya Hai. Chino Arab Humara
is but a reemphasis on the plight of the
common man as he struggles with his day-to-day
life. This song with the references of China
and Arabia being references to Zhou En-Lai
and Nasser is picturised at night at the
Victoria Terminus where even today hundreds
sleep on the pavement.
The
other songs include Phir na Kije,
Us Pyaar Ka Tauba, Do Boondein
Saawanki, Aasmaan Mein hai Khuda
Aur Zameen Mein Hum and the refrain
modified from Woh Subah Kabhi To Aayegi
at the end of the film - Woh Subah
Hum Hi Layenge. Again the last shows
Sahir's inclinations of the people having
to collectively bring about a change - This
was also echoed earlier in Naya Daur
(1957) with Saathi Haath Badana.
Incidentally,
initially Raj Kapoor was most unhappy with
Khayyam's choice as music director of the
film as he wanted his old regulars Shankar-Jaikishen.
He finally agreed to Khayyam on the condition
that he would hear the tunes first before
okaying them for the film. Khayyam thus
composed multiple tunes for each song and
presented them to Raj Kapoor. On hearing
them Raj Kapoor told Khayyam that each and
every tune was so good that he couldn't
choose one at the expense of the other and
thereafter left the music dept. free to
Khayyam to choose the tunes he thought best
for each song.
Released
in 1958, Phir Subah Hogi continues
to be as relevant in today's time. The same
problems of poverty, homelessness, exploitation
of the poor, corruption plague the nation
today in fact more so. In fact for millions
even today it is a fact of life that Sone
ko Ghar Nahin Hai Sara Jahan Humara.
Today 56 years after Independence one cannot
help but still pray Woh Subah Kabhi to
Aayegi…
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