The highest-grossing films at the Indian Box Office in 1959:
1. Anari
Raj Kapoor, Nutan
Raj Kumar is an honest, handsome and intelligent young man. He works as a sole trader and being a painter by trade, he is unable to earn a living and unable to pay rent to his kind-hearted but talkative landlady, Mrs. D'sa. One day, Raj finds a wallet containing money and returns it to the owner, Mr. Ramnath. Ramnath admires Raj and pleased with his honesty, and employs him to work in his office as a clerk. Raj meets with Ramnath's maidservant Asha and soon both fall in love. This all ends when Raj finds out that Asha is really Aarti, the niece of his employer. Unfortunately, his landlady dies consuming medicine manufactured by his employer, Mr. Ramnath, and she passes away suddenly, leaving Raj Kumar alone. The police conduct a post-mortem and as a result find out that Mrs. D'sa was poisoned. Raj became the prime suspect and is subsequently taken for questioning and is arrested and held in a cell. In the trial that he faces, however, Ramnath reveals the truth and thus Raj is saved.
2. Paigham
Dilip Kumar, Vyjayantimala, Raaj Kumar
The movie traces the lives of the family of a widowed lady, her two sons and daughter.
Mrs. Lal, a widowed lady lives with her two sons, Ram and Ratan, her unmarried daughter, Sheela; Ram's wife, Parvati and her children. Ram works in a mill and Ratan is studying engineering in Calcutta. When Ratan returns, he is offered a job at the same mill, falls in love with a typist named Manju, much to chagrin of Malti, the daughter of the mill-owner, Sewakram.
When Ratan finds out that Sewakram has been defrauding the mill employees, he decides to form a union, a move that is opposed by his brother Ram, who is devoted and loyal to Sewakram. Things go from bad to worse when the workers decide to go on strike, while Ram decides to throw Ratan out of the house. Word gets around that Ratan is against Sewakram, and soon he gets blacklisted. Sheela who was supposed to marry Kundan, the son of Sitaram, has her marriage canceled, and the family lose their prestige and credit in the community. The question remains, will the workers continue to be at the mercy of Sewakram, and will the Lal family be re-united again and is answered during the latter half of the movie.
3. Navrang
Mahipal, Sandhya
Diwakar is a poet and loves his wife Jamuna above everything. But Jamuna does not agree that Diwakar lives out of sheer poetry in a fantasy world and in the real world is less and less responsible. Diwakar goes so far that he is a fantasy woman in his wife's body creates what he calls Mohini. Diwakar will soon become a recognized poet and Jamuna gives birth to a boy. Unfortunately, the happiness does not last long: Diwakar loses his job because of a critical song against the British. Now he can no longer feed his sickly father nor his son, who is starving. All this makes Jamuna angry, but above all, Diwakars growing obsession with Mohini.
As Jamuna decides to live apart from Diwakar, she is destroyed internally and is no longer capable of proof. Jamuna slowly realizes that she can not live without Diwakar and forgives him.
4. Dhool Ka Phool
Rajendra Kumar, Mala Sinha
Meena (Mala Sinha) and Mahesh (Rajendra Kumar) are madly in love with each other. One day, both of them get carried away and Meena becomes pregnant. On the other hand, Mahesh gets married to Malti Rai (Nanda), who belongs to a good family. Meena gives birth to a little boy and takes the baby to his father, Mahesh Kapoor. Mahesh disowns both of them, saying that it was his mistake.
Meena leaves the 5 month old baby boy in a dark forest, where a snake guards the baby's life. On the way back from the city, Abdul Rasheed (Manmohan Krishna) sees the child and protects him. Abdul also gets disowned by society because the baby is illegitimate and nobody knows about the parents and religion. In spite of all the odds, Abdul fights with the entire society and raises the child wholeheartedly. He names him Roshan.
On the other hand, Meena starts working as assistant to a lawyer, Ashok Kumar (Ashok Kumar). Ashok Kumar starts developing a soft spot for her. They both get married without Meena revealing her past. Mahesh is now a judge and is blessed with a baby boy. One fine day, both Meena's son Roshan (raised by Abdul) and Mahesh's son meet each other in school with their respective parents. In the presence of Mahesh, Abdul tells the principal of the school that he found Roshan in a forest 8 years ago.
In school, Roshan and judge's son become close to each other. They become the best of friends. When other kids make fun of Roshan, the judge's son supports him. One day, he takes Roshan to his home, where his mother Malti welcomes him with love and affection, but Mahesh throws the boy out of his house, saying that he is not worth our respect and love, as he is illegitimate.
After all this, Roshan gets depressed and falls into bad company. Mahesh's son tries to stop him and dies in a car accident. This leaves Roshan under more depression. He gets involved in a theft, but he is innocent. The case comes into the court of Mahesh Kapoor. Abdul goes to Ashok Kumar to fight this case, as he is a lawyer. He tells Ashok, in front of his wife Meena, as to who actually is the mother of Roshan, and that when and under what circumstances he found Roshan. She immediately recognizes Roshan as her son. She testifies in his favour, in the court. Mahesh, recognizing Meena and the son, admits his fault.
Next day, Malti tells Mahesh to go to Abdul's house and bring Roshan, since he is his son. On the other hand, Meena is ready to leave the house sneakingly, but Ashok stops her, saying that he respects her even more now. She can bring the child home. Both Meena and Mahesh go to Abdul's house to ask for Roshan. He first says no, but after that, he gives Roshan to Meena and Ashok Kumar.
5. Goonj Uthi Shehnai
Rajendra Kumar, Ameeta
Childhood sweethearts Gopi and Kishen hope to get married when they are grown up. Gopi dances to the magical tunes of Kishen's clarinet (shenai), and both are virtually inseparable. Years pass by, both have grown up and Gopi's mom, Jamuna, would like Gopi to get married to a young man from Lucknow, by the name of Shekhar, who works for All India Radio. Shekhar visits them, meets Gopi, and approves of this marriage, and asks Jamuna to finalize a day for the marriage. When this news reaches Gopi and Kishen both are heartbroken, as much as Kishen would like to marry Gopi he knows that he is unemployed and poor, and hence not considered a good suitor. Additionally, his mentor and guardian, Raghunath, would like him to marry his daughter, Ramkali, and may ask him to make the ultimate sacrifice by demanding this as his guru-dakshina (teacher's fee). Then the villagers ask Kishen to leave the town as he has brought shame on them all by continuing to meet with Gopi, who has now been promised to Shekhar. Kishen leaves town, re-locates to Lucknow, meets with Shekhar, who gives him a job at the Radio Station. Soon Kishen's music reaches every corner of India and he becomes a rich man overnight. He returns home to wed Gopi, but finds out that Shekhar is to wed her, and he is just in time to play the clarinet at their wedding. It looks like Gopi and Kishen's romance is fated to end tragically - unless and until a miracle occurs that will unite them forever.
6. Dil Deke Dekho
Shammi Kapoor, Asha Parekh
Neeta is an heiress, the only daughter of U.K. based Industrialist Jagat Narayan. She is of marriageable age, and is being wooed by Kailash, Chandra, and Raja. She prefers Chandra over Kailash and Raja, but subsequently changes her mind and falls in love with Raja. Things take a dramatic turn when Jagat and Neeta find out that Raja is not who is claims he is. When Raja defends himself, and calls himself Roop, his very own mother denies this claim, and instead states that Chandra is Roop, her only son. Raja, alias Roop must now make attempts to prove himself, and realizes that this is indeed an uphill task.
7. Sujata
Sunil Dutt, Nutan
Sujata is a romance between a Brahmin young man, Adheer (Sunil Dutt) and an untouchable woman, Sujata (Nutan). The movie has Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's fight against untouchability and the myth of Chandalika in Hinduism as its subtexts on the basis of which it tries to criticize the practice of untouchability in India.
Brahmin couple Upen and Charu bring up the orphaned Sujata. Although Upen is fond of the adopted child, his wife Charu and mother can never fully embrace Sujata because she is an untouchable. They never fail to remind Sujata that she doesn't belong amongst Brahmins. One day, Upen's wife falls down the stairs and is rushed to the hospital. The doctors tell the family that in order to save Charu, they need blood of a rare group. Only Sujata's blood matches, and she willingly donates blood. When Upen's wife knows that her life was saved by Sujata, she realizes her mistakes and accepts her as her daughter. Sujata and Adheer are finally married.
8. Chhoti Bahen
Nanda, Balraj Sahni, Rehman
Rajendra (Balraj Sahni) lives a poor lifestyle along with his younger collegian brother Shekhar (Rehman), as well a younger sister Meena (Nanda). He is in love with a school-teacher, and both hope to get married after Meena and Shekhar's marriages. Luck shines upon them and Meena's marriage is arranged with Dr. Ramesh (Sudesh Kumar), while Shekhar decides to wed Shobha (Shyama), the only daughter of a wealthy man obsessed with horse-racing. Rajendra mortgages his house with his paternal uncle. Then things turn sour after Meena loses her vision; the wedding gets canceled, and Rajendra is humiliated by Ramesh's dad. Rajendra decides to remain single to look after Meena, and permits Shekhar and Shobha to get married. The marriage takes place, and Shobha moves in. Shortly thereafter misunderstandings crop up, and lead to arguments, with Shekhar and Shobha moving out to live with Shobha's dad. Then Rajendra is fired from his job, his paternal uncle takes over the house, and asks him to leave. Homeless, they turn to Shekhar for help, but he refuses to assist them in any way. Then Rajendra falls ill and gets separated from his sister, while Shekhar takes to horse-racing and alcohol, and a path that will only lead to self-destruction.
9. Chirag Kahan Roshni Kahan
Rajendra Kumar, Meena Kumari
Before giving birth to her child, Ratna (Meena Kumari) loses her husband, and eventually gives birth to a son, Raju. Four years later, Dr. Anand, who treated her while she was giving birth to Raju (Honey Irani), re-enters her life and soon becomes a frequent visitor, much to the displeasure of Ratna's mother-in-law (Mumtaz Begum) and her husband's sister Bela, both of whom start maltreating her and making her life miserable. Anand stops visiting thereafter. Anand soon marries a nurse called Maya Verma (Minu Mumtaz). Maya is a squanderer, and her relationship with Anand falters. Moreover, he later finds out that she cannot conceive. When Anand's dad passes away, he leaves considerable wealth to Anand's child, including a fair monthly allowance. Maya plots with an advocate, S. Prakash (Sunder), who happens to be Bela's husband, to fabricate a story that Anand's father was mentally unbalanced while writing the testament. This plan fails, and along with her aunt, Nurse Sarla Verma (Nilambai), make a false statement claiming that Ratna's son is actually Anand's biological son, leading to their lawyer filing a custodial case in court. What will happen next?
1. Anari
Raj Kapoor, Nutan
Raj Kumar is an honest, handsome and intelligent young man. He works as a sole trader and being a painter by trade, he is unable to earn a living and unable to pay rent to his kind-hearted but talkative landlady, Mrs. D'sa. One day, Raj finds a wallet containing money and returns it to the owner, Mr. Ramnath. Ramnath admires Raj and pleased with his honesty, and employs him to work in his office as a clerk. Raj meets with Ramnath's maidservant Asha and soon both fall in love. This all ends when Raj finds out that Asha is really Aarti, the niece of his employer. Unfortunately, his landlady dies consuming medicine manufactured by his employer, Mr. Ramnath, and she passes away suddenly, leaving Raj Kumar alone. The police conduct a post-mortem and as a result find out that Mrs. D'sa was poisoned. Raj became the prime suspect and is subsequently taken for questioning and is arrested and held in a cell. In the trial that he faces, however, Ramnath reveals the truth and thus Raj is saved.
2. Paigham
Dilip Kumar, Vyjayantimala, Raaj Kumar
Mrs. Lal, a widowed lady lives with her two sons, Ram and Ratan, her unmarried daughter, Sheela; Ram's wife, Parvati and her children. Ram works in a mill and Ratan is studying engineering in Calcutta. When Ratan returns, he is offered a job at the same mill, falls in love with a typist named Manju, much to chagrin of Malti, the daughter of the mill-owner, Sewakram.
When Ratan finds out that Sewakram has been defrauding the mill employees, he decides to form a union, a move that is opposed by his brother Ram, who is devoted and loyal to Sewakram. Things go from bad to worse when the workers decide to go on strike, while Ram decides to throw Ratan out of the house. Word gets around that Ratan is against Sewakram, and soon he gets blacklisted. Sheela who was supposed to marry Kundan, the son of Sitaram, has her marriage canceled, and the family lose their prestige and credit in the community. The question remains, will the workers continue to be at the mercy of Sewakram, and will the Lal family be re-united again and is answered during the latter half of the movie.
3. Navrang
Mahipal, Sandhya
Diwakar is a poet and loves his wife Jamuna above everything. But Jamuna does not agree that Diwakar lives out of sheer poetry in a fantasy world and in the real world is less and less responsible. Diwakar goes so far that he is a fantasy woman in his wife's body creates what he calls Mohini. Diwakar will soon become a recognized poet and Jamuna gives birth to a boy. Unfortunately, the happiness does not last long: Diwakar loses his job because of a critical song against the British. Now he can no longer feed his sickly father nor his son, who is starving. All this makes Jamuna angry, but above all, Diwakars growing obsession with Mohini.
As Jamuna decides to live apart from Diwakar, she is destroyed internally and is no longer capable of proof. Jamuna slowly realizes that she can not live without Diwakar and forgives him.
4. Dhool Ka Phool
Rajendra Kumar, Mala Sinha
Meena leaves the 5 month old baby boy in a dark forest, where a snake guards the baby's life. On the way back from the city, Abdul Rasheed (Manmohan Krishna) sees the child and protects him. Abdul also gets disowned by society because the baby is illegitimate and nobody knows about the parents and religion. In spite of all the odds, Abdul fights with the entire society and raises the child wholeheartedly. He names him Roshan.
On the other hand, Meena starts working as assistant to a lawyer, Ashok Kumar (Ashok Kumar). Ashok Kumar starts developing a soft spot for her. They both get married without Meena revealing her past. Mahesh is now a judge and is blessed with a baby boy. One fine day, both Meena's son Roshan (raised by Abdul) and Mahesh's son meet each other in school with their respective parents. In the presence of Mahesh, Abdul tells the principal of the school that he found Roshan in a forest 8 years ago.
In school, Roshan and judge's son become close to each other. They become the best of friends. When other kids make fun of Roshan, the judge's son supports him. One day, he takes Roshan to his home, where his mother Malti welcomes him with love and affection, but Mahesh throws the boy out of his house, saying that he is not worth our respect and love, as he is illegitimate.
After all this, Roshan gets depressed and falls into bad company. Mahesh's son tries to stop him and dies in a car accident. This leaves Roshan under more depression. He gets involved in a theft, but he is innocent. The case comes into the court of Mahesh Kapoor. Abdul goes to Ashok Kumar to fight this case, as he is a lawyer. He tells Ashok, in front of his wife Meena, as to who actually is the mother of Roshan, and that when and under what circumstances he found Roshan. She immediately recognizes Roshan as her son. She testifies in his favour, in the court. Mahesh, recognizing Meena and the son, admits his fault.
Next day, Malti tells Mahesh to go to Abdul's house and bring Roshan, since he is his son. On the other hand, Meena is ready to leave the house sneakingly, but Ashok stops her, saying that he respects her even more now. She can bring the child home. Both Meena and Mahesh go to Abdul's house to ask for Roshan. He first says no, but after that, he gives Roshan to Meena and Ashok Kumar.
5. Goonj Uthi Shehnai
Rajendra Kumar, Ameeta
Childhood sweethearts Gopi and Kishen hope to get married when they are grown up. Gopi dances to the magical tunes of Kishen's clarinet (shenai), and both are virtually inseparable. Years pass by, both have grown up and Gopi's mom, Jamuna, would like Gopi to get married to a young man from Lucknow, by the name of Shekhar, who works for All India Radio. Shekhar visits them, meets Gopi, and approves of this marriage, and asks Jamuna to finalize a day for the marriage. When this news reaches Gopi and Kishen both are heartbroken, as much as Kishen would like to marry Gopi he knows that he is unemployed and poor, and hence not considered a good suitor. Additionally, his mentor and guardian, Raghunath, would like him to marry his daughter, Ramkali, and may ask him to make the ultimate sacrifice by demanding this as his guru-dakshina (teacher's fee). Then the villagers ask Kishen to leave the town as he has brought shame on them all by continuing to meet with Gopi, who has now been promised to Shekhar. Kishen leaves town, re-locates to Lucknow, meets with Shekhar, who gives him a job at the Radio Station. Soon Kishen's music reaches every corner of India and he becomes a rich man overnight. He returns home to wed Gopi, but finds out that Shekhar is to wed her, and he is just in time to play the clarinet at their wedding. It looks like Gopi and Kishen's romance is fated to end tragically - unless and until a miracle occurs that will unite them forever.
6. Dil Deke Dekho
Shammi Kapoor, Asha Parekh
Neeta is an heiress, the only daughter of U.K. based Industrialist Jagat Narayan. She is of marriageable age, and is being wooed by Kailash, Chandra, and Raja. She prefers Chandra over Kailash and Raja, but subsequently changes her mind and falls in love with Raja. Things take a dramatic turn when Jagat and Neeta find out that Raja is not who is claims he is. When Raja defends himself, and calls himself Roop, his very own mother denies this claim, and instead states that Chandra is Roop, her only son. Raja, alias Roop must now make attempts to prove himself, and realizes that this is indeed an uphill task.
7. Sujata
Sunil Dutt, Nutan
Sujata is a romance between a Brahmin young man, Adheer (Sunil Dutt) and an untouchable woman, Sujata (Nutan). The movie has Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's fight against untouchability and the myth of Chandalika in Hinduism as its subtexts on the basis of which it tries to criticize the practice of untouchability in India.
Brahmin couple Upen and Charu bring up the orphaned Sujata. Although Upen is fond of the adopted child, his wife Charu and mother can never fully embrace Sujata because she is an untouchable. They never fail to remind Sujata that she doesn't belong amongst Brahmins. One day, Upen's wife falls down the stairs and is rushed to the hospital. The doctors tell the family that in order to save Charu, they need blood of a rare group. Only Sujata's blood matches, and she willingly donates blood. When Upen's wife knows that her life was saved by Sujata, she realizes her mistakes and accepts her as her daughter. Sujata and Adheer are finally married.
8. Chhoti Bahen
Nanda, Balraj Sahni, Rehman
Rajendra (Balraj Sahni) lives a poor lifestyle along with his younger collegian brother Shekhar (Rehman), as well a younger sister Meena (Nanda). He is in love with a school-teacher, and both hope to get married after Meena and Shekhar's marriages. Luck shines upon them and Meena's marriage is arranged with Dr. Ramesh (Sudesh Kumar), while Shekhar decides to wed Shobha (Shyama), the only daughter of a wealthy man obsessed with horse-racing. Rajendra mortgages his house with his paternal uncle. Then things turn sour after Meena loses her vision; the wedding gets canceled, and Rajendra is humiliated by Ramesh's dad. Rajendra decides to remain single to look after Meena, and permits Shekhar and Shobha to get married. The marriage takes place, and Shobha moves in. Shortly thereafter misunderstandings crop up, and lead to arguments, with Shekhar and Shobha moving out to live with Shobha's dad. Then Rajendra is fired from his job, his paternal uncle takes over the house, and asks him to leave. Homeless, they turn to Shekhar for help, but he refuses to assist them in any way. Then Rajendra falls ill and gets separated from his sister, while Shekhar takes to horse-racing and alcohol, and a path that will only lead to self-destruction.
9. Chirag Kahan Roshni Kahan
Rajendra Kumar, Meena Kumari
Before giving birth to her child, Ratna (Meena Kumari) loses her husband, and eventually gives birth to a son, Raju. Four years later, Dr. Anand, who treated her while she was giving birth to Raju (Honey Irani), re-enters her life and soon becomes a frequent visitor, much to the displeasure of Ratna's mother-in-law (Mumtaz Begum) and her husband's sister Bela, both of whom start maltreating her and making her life miserable. Anand stops visiting thereafter. Anand soon marries a nurse called Maya Verma (Minu Mumtaz). Maya is a squanderer, and her relationship with Anand falters. Moreover, he later finds out that she cannot conceive. When Anand's dad passes away, he leaves considerable wealth to Anand's child, including a fair monthly allowance. Maya plots with an advocate, S. Prakash (Sunder), who happens to be Bela's husband, to fabricate a story that Anand's father was mentally unbalanced while writing the testament. This plan fails, and along with her aunt, Nurse Sarla Verma (Nilambai), make a false statement claiming that Ratna's son is actually Anand's biological son, leading to their lawyer filing a custodial case in court. What will happen next?
No comments:
Post a Comment