Padosan
Padosan is a 1968 Indian Hindi-language musical comedy film directed by Jyoti Swaroop and produced by Mehmood, N. C. Sippy and written by Rajendra Krishan. It is a remake of the Bengali film Pasher Bari based on a short story of the same name by Arun Chowdhury, starring Bhanu Bandyopadhyay and Sabitri Chatterjee. The short story it was is considered to be an adaptation of the French play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. The film stars Sunil Dutt and Saira Banu. Kishore Kumar, Mukri, Raj Kishore and Keshto Mukherjee played the supporting roles.
Indiatimes Movies ranked the film amongst the "Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films". Music was composed by R. D. Burman. Kumar sang for himself while Manna Dey sang for Mehmood. Many of the scenes were shot in Brindavan Gardens located near the city of Mysore.
Plot
Bhola is an innocent young man who lives with his maternal uncle Kunwar Pratap Singh. Bhola is enraged at Pratap Singh who has been searching for a girl to marry, even though his wife is alive. Angry, he leaves his uncle's house and moves in to live with his Aunt. There, he finds a beautiful neighbour Bindu and falls in love with her. Bindu however, gets annoyed by Bhola and refutes his advances. Vidyapati aka Guru, who is a singer and theater actor and Bhola's friend and mentor comes to his rescue and spies on Bindu.Bindu tolerates advances of her South Indian music teacher Master Pillai aka Masterji. Guru realizes that Bindu loves music and that is the reason for her closeness with Masterji. He tries to teach Bhola to sing but fails miserably. Inspired by dubbed songs, he devises an idea and asks Bhola to mimic the lyrics to songs while he does the real singing in the background himself. Their plan to impress Bindu succeeds and Bindu slowly starts falling in love with Bhola, much to the chagrin of Masterji.
When singing at Bindu's birthday party, one of her friends becomes suspicious at Bhola's voice. She leads Bindu to discover Bhola's fake act. It makes Bindu angry and in a fit of rage, she agrees to the marriage proposal of Kunwar Pratap Singh, which she had earlier rejected upon knowing that he is Bhola's Maternal Uncle. Guru and his gang visit Pratap Singh and plead him to reject the proposal for his nephew's love, to which Pratap Singh agrees. This further enrages Bindu who decides to marry Masterji, just to get even with Bhola.
Helpless to stop the wedding, Guru comes up a last-ditch plan to fake Bhola's suicide. They arrange a suicide scene and start shouting and mourning Bhola's "death". Everyone arrives at the scene including Bindu who is deeply shocked and tries to wake him up. Guru tells her that only her unrequited love could have a chance of bringing the dead back and encourages her to try harder. After some more pretending, Bhola finally cries and wakes up, embracing Bindu. Everyone including Masterji is happy and shocked to see the power of true love. In the end, Bhola's Maternal Uncle and Aunt also reconcile and bless the newlywed couple. In the last scene of movie, Masterji is shown playing 'Shehnai' with tears in his eyes.
Cast
Soundtrack
All lyrics are written by Rajendra Krishan, all music is composed by R.D. Burman. Kishore Kumar's character in the film was inspired by the personality of his uncle, Dhananjay Banerjee, and music director Khemchand Prakash. The song Ek Chatur Naar was originally sung in the 1941 film Jhoola by Ashok Kumar.Reception
Padosan was the sixth highest-grossing film of 1968, earning ₹2.8 crore worldwide.Critical response
Padosan received positive reviews from critics upon release, with major praise directed at its direction, soundtrack, and performances by the cast. Amborish Roy Choudhury of Firstpost reviewed the film, writing that Sunil Dutt had built an impressive body of work, Saira Banu’s comic timing was evident, and Kishore Kumar—who had stopped acting to focus on singing—took on the role of Vidyapati after remarking that it reminded him of his uncle Dhananjay Bannerjee. Padosan created history with its phenomenal music by R. D. Burman and the impeccable comic performances of the principal cast. He further wrote that Dutt was always eager for experimentation and accepted the role of Bhola, a challenging role since he had not done comedy before. Manish Gaekwad of Scroll.in observed that Kishore Kumar conveyed humour visually in "Mere Samne Wali Khidki", while "Ek Chatur Naar" played out as a vocal challenge between him as an autodidact and the classically trained Manna Dey. A writer in Bollywood Hungama praised Sunil Dutt’s comedic performance, stating that his role surprised the audience, as he was primarily known for serious roles and marked a successful transformation of his screen image. In 2020, Asjad Nazir of Eastern Eye wrote that the film’s biggest strengths were Dutt’s portrayal of Bhola; a simpleton role which was differed from his traditional heroic image, Mehmood’s performance as Master Pillai, Kumar’s energetic turn as Guru, which lit up the screen, and the memorable portrayals by the supporting cast. The film was filled with witty dialogues, slapstick comedy, situational humour and larger-than-life characters.Legacy
Padosan has been widely regarded as one of Bollywood’s funniest and most entertaining films. The film was re-released on 13 September 2024. On the occasion, Banu stated that Padosan was close to her heart, describing it as "not only dearest to me but also a cherished piece of cinematic history" that the new generation should experience. She also praised it as a brilliant showcase of artists including Sunil Dutt, Mehmood, and Kishore Kumar.Padosan has been included in several listings—"IMDB's Top 100 Indian Films", "Top 8 evergreen Hindi comedy movies that will always make you laugh", and "Top 42 Comedy Films Made In Bollywood". Indiatimes Movies ranked Padosan among the "Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films". Devesh Sharma of Filmfare included the film in the list of "Best Bollywood Comedies Set in Homes". Film Companion included the film in its "Top 100 Bollywood Albums". Dinesh Raheja referred to Padosan as a "perennially popular" romantic comedy film of 1960s. He also remarked that Dutt gave a warm performance as the bumbling Bhola, a role that many heroes of the 1960s would have been reluctant to play. Banu portrayed a cheeky, light-hearted glam doll with delectable airiness and Kumar displayed a rare comic talent. He further appreciated the choreography, direction and soundtrack.
Amit Upadhaya of ThePrint in a retrospective article on film's 50th anniversary wrote, ″As cult comedy films go, Jyoti Swaroop’s Padosan is one of the few in Hindi film history to never run out of laughs. The trademark innocent lunacy of the lovable film turned 50 this year″. In a similar 50th anniversary article, Devansh Sharma of Firstpost praised RD Burman's music for changing the state of comedy genre in Hindi films. He felt that Burman's music gave "wings to the camera that was otherwise doomed to sit still". Krishan's poetry also provided the editor and director considerable freedom to select appropriate shots for each emotion expressed in the songs.
The character ″Muranchand Swami″ played by Satish Kaushik in 1996 film Saajan Chale Sasural, which was inspired from character Master Pillai, played by Mehmood. In an interview, Kaushik stated that Mehmood's performance in Padosan inspired him to become an actor. He further said, "I was lucky enough to recreate that kind of role in Saajan Chale Sasural and I got the Filmfare Award also. That was a vital inspiration for me." Characters of the animated series Guru Aur Bhole which aired on Sony Yay, were inspired by Kishore Kumar's and Sunil Dutt's characters from the film. The character Guru is voiced by Amit Kumar, son of Kishore Kumar. The song "Ek Chatur Naar" was recreated in the 2017 film Machine, and was sung by Tanishk Bagchi.
Actor Kamal Haasan recalled that Hindi films had not played in Chennai for many years due to the agitation against the imposition of Hindi. While reminiscing about Padosan, he said, "When I went to see Padosan, I went to protest against it – we had been told it was a film where South Indians were made fun of. We went in to agitate, came out smiling, as fans of Mehmood saab, imitating him. I told Mehmood saab this story many years later when I met him. And that’s how I started watching Hindi films again."