Chal Chal Re Naujawan (1944)

Filmistan's much-awaited debut film from the makers of hit film <a href="https://indiancine.ma/DUQ/info">Kismet (1943)</a>. The title of this story of friendship and betrayal over two generations evokes Ashok Kumar's hit song from <a href="https://indiancine.ma/CZR/info">Bandhan (1940)</a>. The friends Thakur Jaipal Singh (Sethi) and Jamuna Prasad (Ghaznavi) fall out when Jaipal Singh's wife Savvitri (Motibai) finds she shares a common musical interest with Jamuna Prasad. Her husband accuses her of infidelity and throws her out. The framing story has Jaipal Singh's horse-riding daughter Sumitra (Banu) meet Jamuna Prasad's son Arjun (A. Kumar). They briefly work together combating an epidemic and Sumitra meets her mother without recognising her. At the end when the thakur himself arrives, his wife recognises him. Jamuna Prasad sings a song (<i>Aya toofan</i>) amid storm and thunder, and when it settles down Savitri is found dead beneath an uprooted tree. The earlier history, starting the flashback, is told with strident voice-over narrator following the example of Citizen Kane (1941), according to Filmindia. The film makes some political allusions equating the thakur's authoritarianism with Nazi rule and includes several nationalist numbers, e.g. <i>Jai bharat desh</i> and the communal harmony <i>Bolo har har mahadev allah-o-akhar</i> (both Ashok Kumar). Although a minor hit, the film is considered a disappointment compared with Kismet.