Synopsis
Gopal kills his partner and has to go on
the run abandoning his wife and baby son.
Twenty years later safely hidden as a reclusive
landlord in Assam, he betrays his whereabouts
to his wife via a job advertisement. His
grown up son Shankar (Shammi Kapoor) who
hates his father for having abandoned his
family applies for the job carrying a letter
of introduction from his mother. Meanwhile,
he also woos Meena (Ameeta), Gopal’s
adopted daughter. However the villainous
Sohan (Pran), who covets Gopal’s property
intercepts and copies the letter and also
lands up at Gopal’s doorstep claiming
to be his son…
The film
 Tumsa
Nahin Dekha was one of the most popular
films of 1957, coming from Filmistan’s
stable. Interestingly its title was in fact
determined after a competition was held
among the staff of Filmistan! The film marked
the auspicious debut of Nasir
Hussain as a film director and bears
a lot of the trademark elements that one
has come to associate with Nasir
Hussain particularly the lost and found
formula. Husain had already made a mark
for himself as a writer when he took on
the directorial reins of Tumsa Nahin
Dekha. Having briefly worked with the
great A.R. Kardar in the 1940s, he had joined
Filmistan as scenarist in 1948 and had written
films like the Dev
Anand starrers Munimjee and
Paying Guest for them.
Tumsa Nahin Dekha is a frothy,
easy on the eyes and mind film so typical
of most Filmistan films. Filmistan, the
breakaway studio from Bombay Talkies was
known as ‘the film factory’
and had revolutionized distribution with
mid-budget genre productions selling mainly
on their star value and music, plots being
secondary. Filmistan's style launched the
'Bollywood idiom' as we know it today. Their
films clearly indicated Filmistan's growing
consciousness of genre production and their
awareness of the 'Hollywood mode.' Filmistan's
policies really paved the way for present
day commercial film making in India as we
know it today and was a major influence
on the cinema of Manmohan Desai who has
always acknowledged his gratitude to Nasir
Hussain.
With this film, Hussain reveals a natural
fun loving streak and flair for the medium
as he confidently makes this complex story
of lost and found intrigue move briskly
forward with witty dialogue and repartee.
Nasir Hussain always maintained that it
was more interesting to show the process
of falling in love rather than have the
hero and heroine in love and that is what
makes his films special as he made romance
and the process of boy chasing girl a most
enjoyable affair. In fact, if anyone could
say he had a hit formula on hand, it was
Nasir Hussain. He practically re-made the
same film over and over again but the new
product always found flavour with the audience.
In fact he had a set of ‘items’
that were repeated in film after film albeit
in different combinations and permutations.
For e.g. the clash in train sequence between
Shammi
Kapoor and Ameeta in Tumsa Nahin
Dekha was repeated in Teesri
Manzil (1966) with Shammi Kapoor again
and Asha Parekh, beating up the drummer
Rocky from Dil Deke Dekho (1959) was
repeated in Teesri Manzil, imposters
coming to claim the missing son’s
place was repeated in Tumsa Nahin Dekha
and Manzil Manzil. The Bhang song
of Jab Pyar Kisi se Hota Hai(1961)
was repeated in Hum Kissi se Kam Nahin
(1977) and Manzil Manzil (1984),
while maintaining the lost and found track
throughout.
Tumsa Nahin Dekha finally made
a star out of Shammi Kapoor. Up to then
though he had worked with most of the major
actresses of the day his career hadn’t
taken off at all. Oscillating between cheap
Errol Flynn swashbucklers (a phase he described
as playing a male starlet) or so called
soulful romances which sank at the box-office
he was all but written off. To top it all
he was a married man and a father. It was
wife Geeta Bali who felt that Shammi needed
‘to open’ his personality to
succeed. The soft romantic image was going
nowhere. So when the opportunity came his
way with Tumsa Nahin Dekha, he
shaved his pencil moustache and cut his
hair in the famous ducktail style of the
50s and started evoking James Dean and Elvis
Presly while following the more freewheeling
approach elaborated by Dev Anand. He also
wore leather jackets and T shirts at a time
when T shirts were not part of Bollywood's
vocabulary. With the film he became known
as ‘The Rebel Star’ rebelling
against the reigning trio – Raj
Kapoor, Dilip
Kumar and Dev Anand! Despite Shammi's
overt maleness and aggressive courtship
style, he was perhaps the only star who
almost never manhandled his heroines. He
could melt their resistance by merely looking
at them. This image was further re-inforced
in Dil Deke Dekho and Junglee
(1961) of course saw Shammi Kapoor
become the definitive icon of the swinging
60s!
Ameeta unfortunately makes a weak heroine
while the rest of the cast really just act
as perfect foils to Shammi Kapoor as Tumsa
Nahin Dekha is Shammi Kapoor’s
film all the way. Following the success
of the film when he bought his second jeep
he named it ‘yahoo’ as he had
used this expression first in Tumsa
Nahin Dekha and it was his first superhit
film even though it is more synonymous with
Junglee!
Filmistan played a great emphasis on the
music of their films and in this regard
Tumsa Nahin Dekha is no exception.
In fact a major reason for the success of
Tumsa Nahin Dekha was its hip free-wheeling
musical score by OP
Nayyar. OP Nayyar composed some extremely
special hip Mohd.
Rafi solos on Shammi Kapoor –
Jawaniyaan Yeh Mast Mast Bin Piye, Yoon
To Humne Lakh Haseen Dekhein Hain, Chupnewaale
Saamne Aa, not forgetting those evergreen
Asha-Rafi duets – Aaye Hain Doorse
Milne Huzoorse, Sarpe Topi Lal Haath Mein
Resham ka Rumaal O Tera Kya Kehna and Dekho
Qasam se. While 1957 proved to be a
golden year for OP Nayyar who also had a
huge success with Naya Daur for
which he won the Filmfare Award, it was
also Asha
Bhosle’s breakthrough year in
the Film Industry. With OP Nayyar using
her to sing the heroine’s songs in
Naya Daur and Tumsa Nahin Dekha
and SD
Burman also choosing to groom her after
his rift with Lata
Mangeshkar. Asha finally arrived after
years of singing the vamp’s song or
the saqi’s song or some cheap B-grade
heroine’s song and subsequently went
on to dominate the playback scenario with
elder sister Lata!
The success of Tumsa Nahin Dekha
proved to be a genesis of a great career
for Nasir Hussain who after directing Dil
Deke Dekho following Tumsa Nahin
Dekha formed his own production house,Nasir
Hussain Films, making some of the most popular
musical romances in Hindi Cinema like Phir
Wohi Dil Laaya Hoon (1963), Yaadon
ki Baraat (1973) and Hum Kisi se
Kam Nain!
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