Synopsis
Chori Chori looks at Kammo
affectionately called Baby (Nargis) who
runs away from home when her father Seth
Girdharilal (Gope) refuses to agree to her
marriage with pilot Suman (Pran) whom he
suspects is just after her for her money.
Kammo runs away from home and decides to
go to Suman in Bangalore. She decides to
board a bus for Bangalore and here she encounters
impoverished journalist Sagar (Raj Kapoor).
After the initial bickering he decides to
help her to get to Bangalore provided he
gets exclusive rights to her story. And
along the way as they make their way to
Bangalore without getting caught, the inevitable
happens. The two of them fall in love….
The film
The key character in this battle of the
sexes would be the heiress. She was often
dizzy, saucy, flighty who fled from homes,
jilted bridegroom at the altar and generally
carried on with total disregard for the
existence of breadlines and unemployment.
Thus she was used humorously in such films
as an object of contempt and ridicule. Of
course by the end of the film not only does
the hero snag the heiress but through him
she is also humanized to see normal life
and normal people quite unlike herself.
And when she has to escape with the hero
when her father's detectives land up there
is by behaving normal, as the normal wife
of the normal hero. And during the film
the hero takes on the weight of becoming
the very image of the people revealing them
in the process of revealing himself to the
haughty, upper class heroine.
Chori
Chori is a typical example of what constitutes a road
film. While a popular genre in Hollywood, India has never
really embraced this format and the efforts have been few
- Bombay to Goa (1972) or Dil Hai ki Maanta Nahin
(1992) which incidentally was also a remake of It Happened
One Night. Perhaps this is so because the road is an enduring
theme in American culture. The road movie I in this regard
like the musical or the Western, a Hollywood genre that catches
peculiarly American dreams, tensions and anxieties.
 Nargis
is a revelation in the film as the dizzy
heiress. She proves she can play screwball
comedy as effectively as she could her intense
dramatic roles. It is a fine perfomance
with her sense of comic timing spot on.
See her as the puppet in the Jahaan Main
Jaati Hoon song. It is Nargis's sense
of razor sharp timing that offsets her inability
to dance and it is a sequence she carries
off marvelously well. Raj
Kapoor of course had born comic talent.
He is absolutely perfect in the role of
the impoverished journalist Sagar. Chori
Chori marks yet another feather in Raj
Kapoor's illustrious acting career. Pran
does his familiar bad man turn with relative
ease. They are more than strongly supported
by the comic element of the film - Gope,
Johnny Walker
and Bhagwan.
Chori
Chori represents some of the finest work of Shankar -
Jaikishen in their entire career. The evergreen musical score
with lyrics by Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri ensured Shankar-Jaikishen
their first ever Filmfare Award for Best Music. The film has
brilliant songs with each song better than the other. First
and foremost are the two all time great Lata
Mangeshkar - Manna Dey romantic duets Yeh Raat Bheegi
Bheegi and Aaja Sanam Madhur Chandni Mein Hum.
With Mukesh trying his
hand to be an actor this was the phase when
Manna Dey briefly sang as the voice of Raj
Kapoor in films like Shree 420 and
Chori Chori. As one hears Manna Dey
one cannot but think sadly that the film
industry never really gave this great singer
his due. He was always regarded a poor second
to Rafi,
Mukesh, Kishore,
Talat or Hemant Kumar which is a pity because
Manna Dey was such a fine singer with an
extremely strong classical base himself.
Lata Mangeshkar of course leaves her stamp
on the film with perhaps her greatest sad
song ever - Rasik Balma. It is perhaps
technically the best composition of the
film and the emotion and pathos with which
Lata renders this song is unbelievable.
Only such a gifted singer could give such
expression to words like Lata could.
On
the other side Lata is equally at home in the bubbly Panchhi
Banoon Udke Chaloon Door Gagan Mein and the boat song
Us Paar Sajan. The film having a strong line up of
comedians is echoed in its music with All Line Clear
and Sawa Lakh ki Lottery. The film also sees an early
duet by the Mangeshkar sisters - Lata and Asha
- the wedding song Man Bhavan ka Ghar. Other songs
include the Lata - Manna Dey duet Jahaan Main Jaati Hoon
picturised extremely innovatively with Raj Kapoor and
Nargis as puppets and the M.L. Vasantakumari solo Tillana
Chori Chori proved extremely popular
at the box office. With the film however,
a glorious era of romance came to an end
in Indian Cinema. Sadly the film sees the
last teaming of two legends who were soon
to go their respective ways - Nargis and
Raj Kapoor. Chori Chori sees them
paired romantically for the last time though
Nargis did appear at end of Jagte Raho
(1956) singing Jaago Mohan Pyaare
Jaago more as a final tribute to signify
her collaboration with RK films. Nargis
moved on to Mother
India and settles down to a life of
domesticity with Sunil Dutt while Raj Kapoor
continued to act and make films with the
likes of Padmini and Vyjayantimala.
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