Kismet (1943 film)

Kismet
Poster
Directed byGyan Mukherjee
Written byAghajani Kashmeri
Screenplay byGyan Mukherjee[1]
Produced byBombay Talkies
StarringAshok Kumar
Mumtaz Shanti
Shah Nawaz
Mehmood
CinematographyR.D.Pareenja
Edited byDattaram Pai
Music byAnil Biswas
Kavi Pradeep (lyrics)
Release date
  • 9 Jan. 1943 (9 Jan. 1943)
Running time
143 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageHindustani[2]
Budget₹200,000[3]
Box office₹1.65 crore[4]
Kismet

Kismet (transl. Fate) is a 1943 Indian drama film, directed by Gyan Mukherjee, written by Mukherjee with Aghajani Kashmeri.[2] It stars Ashok Kumar, Mumtaz Shanti, and Shah Nawaz. The film came with some bold themes for the first time in the history of Indian cinema, showing an anti-hero character with two roles and an unmarried girl getting pregnant.

It was produced by Bombay Talkies, during the Second World War,[1] while it was in a succession battle between Devika Rani and Sashadhar Mukherjee after owner Himanshu Rai's death. The film was the first big hit in the history of Bombay cinema, and the first blockbuster in Indian cinema.[5][6] It had patriotic songs which resonated with the then ongoing freedom movement, which became the major catalyst in the box-office success of the film.

It was remade in Tamil as Prema Pasam (1956),[7] and Telugu as Bhale Ramudu (1956).[8]

  1. ^ a b Kismet (1943 film) Archived 3 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine National Film Archive of India; accessed 15 October 2017.
  2. ^ a b Gahlot, Deepa (2015). Take-2: 50 Films That Deserve a New Audience. Hay House. p. 245. ISBN 9789384544850.
  3. ^ "B-Town rewind: The tale of the first Bollywood crore". Mid-Day. 16 March 2014.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference boi was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ one of the biggest hits..[usurped], The Hindu, 7 January 2002.
  6. ^ "The ones who dared..." Sify. Archived from the original on 23 May 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  7. ^ GUY, RANDOR (15 May 2009). "A void on the film firmament". The Hindu. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  8. ^ Narasimham, M. L. (25 December 2014). "Bhale Ramudu (1956)". The Hindu. Retrieved 7 August 2019.