Gunga Jumna

Gunga Jumna
Film poster
Directed byNitin Bose
Dilip Kumar (ghost director)
Written byWajahat Mirza (dialogue)
Screenplay byDilip Kumar
Story byDilip Kumar
Produced byDilip Kumar
Starring
CinematographyV. Babasaheb
Edited byDas Dhaimade
Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Music byNaushad
Production
companies
Distributed byCitizen Films
Release date
  • 1961 (1961)
Running time
178 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageAwadhi dialect of Hindustani[1]
Box officeest. ₹11.27 crore ($23.63 million)

Ganga Jamna (ISO 15919: Gaṅgā Jamunā), also transliterated as Ganga Jamuna[2] or Gunga Jumna,[3] is a 1961 Indian crime drama film, written and produced by Dilip Kumar, and directed by Nitin Bose, with dialogues written by Wajahat Mirza; Kumar later said that he also ghost-directed and edited the film.[4] It stars Dilip Kumar with Vyjayanthimala and his real-life brother Nasir Khan in the leading roles. Set in the rural Awadh region of Northern India, the film tells the story of two impoverished brothers, Ganga and Jamna (Kumar and Khan), and their poignancy and sibling rivalry on opposing sides of the law, one a dacoit criminal and the other a police officer. The film was also notable for its Technicolor production, use of the Awadhi dialect, and its rustic setting, being a defining example of the dacoit film genre. It was ranked 11th in Outlook Magazine's poll considering 25 leading Indian directors' vote for Bollywood's greatest films in 2003.[5]

After six months of delay, the film was finally released in January 1961. The film was well received by the critics and the audience. It was one of the biggest hits of the 1960s and one of the most successful Indian films in terms of box office collection, domestically in India and overseas in the Soviet Union, with an estimated footfall of over 84 million tickets sold worldwide. According to various accounts, it is still among the 10 highest grossing Indian films of all time, adjusted for ticket-price inflation.[6] In 2011, with an adjusted net gross of 736 crore, the film was ranked at number 2 by Box Office India magazine behind Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and ahead of Sholay (1975) in their list of "Top 50 Film of Last 50 Years" which feature all-time highest-grossing Bollywood films adjusted to gold-price inflation, which according to the magazine was a relatively more appropriate method for comparison.[7]

The film received critical acclaim and was regarded as one of the best films of all time. Critics praised its story, screenplay, direction, cinematography, and the music along with the performances of the lead actors Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala. Upon release it was nominated in seven categories at the 9th Filmfare Awards, including Best Film and Best Director for Kumar and Bose, respectively, while winning three, Best Actress for Vyjayanthimala, Best Cinematography for V. Balasaheb and Best Dialogue Writer for Wajahat Mirza. It also emerged as the biggest winner at the 25th Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards, where it won nine awards in the Hindi film category. In addition, the film also won Certificate of Merit at the 9th National Film Awards. It also won prizes at international film festivals, including the Boston International Film Festival and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

The film was a trendsetter in Indian cinema and inspired numerous filmmakers. Dilip Kumar's performance as Ganga is considered one of the finest acting performances in the history of Indian cinema, and inspired future generations of Indian actors, most notably Amitabh Bachchan who called it "the ultimate performance".[8] In the West, artists like Academy Award winner Sophia Loren were profoundly influenced by his performance.[9] For his performance, Kumar also received the "Special Honour Diploma" as an actor from the Czechoslovak Academy of Arts, Prague.[10] The film's plot also inspired screenwriter duo Salim–Javed, who wrote scripts exploring similar themes in later Bachchan-starring hits such as Deewaar (1975), Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) and Trishul (1978). Ganga Jamna also had South Indian remakes, including the Tamil film Iru Thuruvam (1971) and the Malayalam film Lava (1980).

  1. ^ Aḵẖtar, Jāvīd; Kabir, Nasreen Munni (2002). Talking Films: Conversations on Hindi Cinema with Javed Akhtar. Oxford University Press. p. 49. ISBN 9780195664621. most of the writers working in this so-called Hindi cinema write in Urdu: Gulzar, or Rajinder Singh Bedi or Inder Raj Anand or Rahi Masoom Raza or Vahajat Mirza, who wrote dialogue for films like Mughal-e-Azam and Gunga Jumna and Mother India. So most dialogue-writers and most song-writers are from the Urdu discipline, even today.
  2. ^ "Ganga Jamuna (DVD)". Amazon. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  3. ^ Ashish Rajadhyaksha; Paul Willemen (1999). Encyclopaedia of Indian cinema. British Film Institute. pp. 658–14. ISBN 978-0-85170-455-5. Retrieved 22 December 2011.
  4. ^ Subhash K. Jha (4 May 2007). "˜No one can tell the whole truth". Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  5. ^ "Bollywood's Best Films | May 12, 2003". 8 January 2016. Archived from the original on 8 January 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  6. ^ Thombare, Suparna (23 July 2019). "Which is the Highest Grossing Indian Film of All Time?". TheQuint. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  7. ^ "Top 50 Film of Last 50 Years | Box Office India : India's premier film trade magazine". 17 March 2012. Archived from the original on 17 March 2012. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  8. ^ "Why You Need To Watch Dilip Kumar's 1961 Blockbuster Gunga Jumna". Film Companion. 22 January 2018. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  9. ^ Ganguly, Prithwish. "Dilip Kumar's 88th birthday". The Times of India. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  10. ^ https://www.pressreader.com/india/hindustan-times-lucknow-live/20210708/281517934114388. Retrieved 29 September 2021 – via PressReader. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)