Do Ustad (1959)

Now, Do Ustad was a lot of fun!  And as with a few other movies that I’ve seen, my favorite things about this were the music and the leading actress. The music is by O.P. Nayyar – and this one has some real, classic, signature O.P. Nayyar tunes, sung by Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhosle. The actress is someone I haven’t praised all that much – but a whole lot of other people sure have… So now can I?  She is utterly delightful in this.

Yes, I think this was a great film for Madhubala.  But Raj Kapoor is pretty good here too (though this next scene also owes a lot to Mohammed Rafi’s rock’n’roll singing and many bopping kids) …

And when they’re together…very nice!

As for the plot, well, it’s got quite a few familiar things about it… Two brothers separated as children who end up fighting with each other without knowing they’re brothers… Two brothers who also happen to have had cruel childhoods, being orphans and growing up in poverty, and being cheated and exploited, all of which hardships turned them into dacoits.  (Yes, at times it is a very sad melodrama… But half of the film is also a joyous and hysterical comedy.  That’s the kind of contradiction that I love about some of these old Indian films.)  And one dacoit who finally turns good, mainly because of the influence of a good and beautiful woman (who also happens to be rich and be under the care of an evil uncle, who at one point tries to arrange a marriage, and posts a big reward for her capture when she runs away)…  And so on…  Would it be a stretch to say this is full of cliches?  Even by 1959, I guess some of these plot elements were cliches.  (Although I’ve seen these ideas in movies that came out later that I didn’t call cliches – but now that I’ve seen enough of these…)  Nonetheless, they’re cliches that I like.  

And there are some funny surprises, too…  Like the character who is played by Raj Kapoor being able to con some people (including his future love interest) because he looks like the famous actor named Raj Kapoor…  Especially near the beginning, there are a lot of deceptions and mishaps that result from the main characters disguising themselves as other people, sometimes of the other gender, leading to some embarrassing predicaments and strange dialogue including, even, a prescient reflection on a social issue of our time…

Now, I might add that this is the kind of zany Hindi comedy that I might not have found to be so funny or appealing in another movie, but these actors together helped to make it work for me.  And all this – if I might repeat myself here – amidst the most serious melodrama, with heatrbreak, treachery, murder…and romance…and singing and dancing…

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P.S.  Directed by Tara Harish – a name I don’t think I’ve seen much, if at all.

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