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.
Shekhar is a pickpocket and con man, who is released from jail after serving his third sentence. It is at once evident that he has no intention of mending his ways, as he relieves a pickpocket of his catch, which happens to be an old, priceless watch.
Shekhar goes to a fence, where he meets the original pickpocket, Banke. Impressed by Shekhar's prowess, Banke makes him an offer: he is a small-time thief currently working in the house of a very rich man, who has a considerable fortune stashed away in the safe at his house. Banke, who does not have the expertise to break the lock, asks Shekhar if he would be interested in helping him out. Uninterested in the plan, Shekhar leaves.
As he steps out of the fence's establishment, Shekhar bumps into the original owner of the watch, an old man desperate for money, who intended to sell the watch and raise the money to see a live performance by Rani. Out of compassion Shekhar takes him to the theatre. There the old man points out a prosperous looking man called Indrajit (Mubarak). It turns out that Rani is the daughter of this old man, who was once a rich man and the owner of that theatre while Indrajit was once his employee.
Fortune (kismet) turned things around and today the old man is indebted to Indrajit, from whom he is on the run. The moment the show ends, he flees, but not before he's seen in the company of Shekhar by Rani, from whom he has fled in shame and remorse. Unknown to them, the tormentor Indrajit is himself a tormented man, after his elder son Madan ran away after a fight with his authoritarian father several years ago.
Due to a combination of circumstances, Shekhar ends up staying in Rani's house as a paying guest. There he discovers that she is struggling with a limp, that's affecting her ability to perform on stage. The limited means is a great problem for Rani, the sole breadwinner in the house, having to support her younger sister Leela. To make things worse, she is constantly troubled by the ruthless Indrajit, who threatens to turn her out of the house if she cannot repay the next instalment of the money owed by her father.
Things take a turn for the worse when Rani discovers that Leela is pregnant out of wedlock by her lover Mohan, who happens to be the son of Indrajit. Shekhar, who is falling in love with Rani, decides to help her out. Desperate to raise funds for her medical treatment, he takes up Banke's offer to break the vault of his employer, who is none other than Indrajit. The attempted robbery goes awry, but Shekhar escapes, dropping behind the chain he always wears. Indrajit immediately recognises that as that of his long lost son Madan.
Desperate to get back his son, Indrajit organises a live programme featuring Rani, knowing that his love for the young lady will impel Shekhar to come. Rani's father turns up at the theatre, as does Indrajit's entire family. As expected, Shekhar turns up at the theatre, where he is immediately recognised as Indrajit's long lost son Madan. Delighted to find his beloved son, Indrajit immediately turns a new leaf, cancelling his former boss' debts and asking him for the hand of both his daughters for his two sons.
Prahlad, Jagannath Aurora, S. Gulab, Surve, Fateh Mohamed
Soundtrack
The music of the film by Anil Biswas introduced the "full chorus" for the first time in Hindi cinema.[9] The film gave memorable hits like the patriotic "Aaj Himalay Ki Choti Se", the sad "Ghar Ghar Mein Diwali" and a soothing lullaby, "Dheere Dheere Aa". The last was a duet between Amirbai Karnataki and Ashok Kumar, which added to the success of the film that is still known as one of his finest works.[10]
In the patriotic song, "Door hato O Duniya walon, Hindustan hamara hay" ("Step away o foreigners, Hindustan is ours"), penned by Kavi Pradeep, a negative reference to the Germans and Japanese was used (with whom the British rulers were at war then)– "Tum na kisike aage jhunkna, German ho ya Japani" ("Don't you bow in front of anyone, be it the Germans or the Japanese") – which allowed it to get past the heavy British censorship of the time.[9][11] But the hidden meaning got through to the people and backed by Anil Biswas's uplifting score, the song became an instant hit amidst the atmosphere of rising nationalistic fervour, it was an immensely popular song in the mid 40s, coming as it did less than 6 months after Mahatma Gandhi called for the Quit India Movement.[12] At screenings of Kismet, the reels would be rewound and the song played multiple times on public demand.
The British authorities soon realized their mistake, after the unprecedented popularity of the song, and wanted to ban the film. An arrest warrant was issued for the film's lyricist Pradeep, who had to go underground to avoid arrest by the British authorities for sedition .[13]
Reception
Kismet was subjected to criticism by Babu Rao Patel of the Filmindia magazine for glorifying crime and portraying a criminal in good light. Despite the criticism, the movie shattered all box office records, becoming the first Indian movie to collect net ₹1 crore at the box office.
The film went on to become the highest-grossing Indian film at the time of its release and gave Indian cinema its first superstar, Ashok Kumar.[14] According to Box Office India, it has been given the status of 'All-Time Blockbuster', which reports that the film collected a nett gross of ₹1crore[4] ($3.32million).[a][4] Its gross amounts to over ₹500crore ($58 million) if adjusted for inflation today.[b] This record was beaten in 1949 by Barsaat.
Records
The film's premiere was held on 9 January 1943 at Roxy Talkies in Bombay. It ran for over 50 weeks at Roxy Bombay and was the first film to celebrate a silver jubilee in its re-run in the same city. The film was released on 24 September 1943 at Roxy Cinema in Calcutta and ran for 187 continuous weeks, a record that stood for 32 years and earned more than 12 lakhs nett from a single theatre which was also a record.
One of the earliest all India blockbusters of Hindi cinema, it introduced double-role acting for the first time through its first superstar, Ashok Kumar. It presented some bold themes for the first time in Hindi films in the '40s–an anti-hero and an unwed pregnant girl, for instance.
Kismet was also the first Indian movie to use the lost and reunited formula used in several Hindi movies in the 1960s and 1970s, notably Waqt (1965), Yaadon ki Baraat (1973), and Amar Akbar Anthony (1977). The unprecedented success of Kismet established Ashok Kumar as the first superstar of Hindi cinema. He remained the most popular actor in Hindi cinema until the early 50s. In the 1968 movie Padosan, when asked to think of a romantic song, Bhola immediately remembers the "O jane wale balamwa, laut ke aa, laut ke aa" song from Kismet.
