A couple of months back, a blog reader had remarked that Hindi cinema, during the 1930s and 40s, seemed to have a fairly unimpressive-looking lot of leading men. The good-lookers, was the theory, were the ones that came later, though there had been a very few rare exceptions, like Shyam.
While I didn’t agree that most of the leading men of the 1930s and 40s were ugly (or at best, plain), I did agree about Shyam. Shyam was one of those very handsome actors who, with his impressive height and build added to his charisma, could have posed a serious threat to the triumvirate of Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, and Dev Anand. Sadly, Shyam died tragically young, just 31 years old, after sustaining a head injury caused by a fall from a horse during the shooting of Shabistan in 1951.
Born in Sialkot on February 20, 1920, Shyam Sunder Chadha ‘Shyam’ debuted in a Punjabi film, Gowandhi (1942) and continued to work sporadically in cinema over the next few years. After Partition, Shyam shifted to Bombay, and that was when his career really took off. Over the next four years, he worked in a slew of films, including some big hits like Dillagi, Samadhi, and Patanga. One can only speculate on what trajectory his career might have taken had he lived into the 60s. (Interestingly, Shyam was a very dear friend of Sa’adat Hasan Manto: it was a friendship that outlasted Partition, and Manto was deeply affected when Shyam passed away).
I hadn’t realized, back in February this year, that it was Shyam’s hundredth birth anniversary. But the year is still the same, so in celebration of Shyam’s birth centenary year, a review of one of his biggest hit films. In Dillagi, Shyam acted the role of Swaroop, a dashing young man who falls in love with a village girl named Mala…
The story begins with Swaroop (Shyam) having a tiff with his sister-in-law (Amir Bano), who reviles him for being a wastrel, spending his days loafing around, playing his bansuri and generally living off the earnings of his brother. Swaroop’s brother (?) doesn’t seem to think the way his wife does, but matters come to a head, and Swaroop decides that it’s all for the best if he leaves home.
Armed with his bansuri, Swaroop heads off into the unknown… and bumps into Mala (Suraiya), who is roaming about the countryside playing blind man’s buff with her girl friends (this gang of girls is a feisty bunch which gets up to all sorts of mischief in the course of the story). Mala and Swaroop’s encounter results in disaster for him: he falls into a ditch and hurts his foot.
Mala is very distressed, and quickly helps Swaroop to her home, where she applies a salve to his wound. Mala’s father (?) is around, and on discovering that Swaroop is a newcomer in the area and has neither a job nor a place to stay, he offers the young man a job. Chase away the crows from the fields, and you’ll get a hut to stay in, food to eat, plus five rupees a month.
Swaroop agrees readily. Over the next couple of days, as Mala brings him his meals and listens to him play the bansuri (and, inevitably for Hindi cinema, sings and dances along), the two of them fall in love. It’s all starlit nights and gazing at the moon for these two…
… but barely have Swaroop and Mala expressed their love for each other than someone comes along who doesn’t like the idea. Mala’s Mamu, her mother’s brother Popatlal (Amar) is a nasty, malicious character who snoops around and discovers Mala visiting Swaroop. Mamu tries to throw a spanner in the works by carrying tales to Mala’s father, who gives him an earful and refuses to believe his gossip.
Mala’s friends also gang up on Mamu and make life miserable for him, to the extent of dressing up as ghosts and scaring him away from his own house. Mamu invites himself over to Mala’s home and soon makes another attempt to nip the Mala-Swaroop romance in the bud by nabbing Swaroop when he comes one night to meet Mala. But Swaroop gives him the slip, and Mamu ends up again foiled.
Mamu isn’t giving up so easily. He keeps at it, and it’s not long before he succeeds in surprising Mala and Swaroop together—and with Mala’s father as witness. Mala’s father is thoroughly disillusioned; he had not believed his daughter would be so heedless of the family’s honour. Mamu takes it upon himself to quickly arrange Mala’s wedding, and before any of them know it, the bridegroom, a young man named Jyoti (Shyam Kumar, looking young and quite different from his later self) from a wealthy family has arrived to marry Mala.
Wikipedia (not the most reliable of sources) pegs Dillagi as an adaptation of Wuthering Heights, along with the comment that AR Kardar used this again as a theme in Dil Diya Dard Liya. While Dil Diya Dard Liya is definitely heavily inspired from Wuthering Heights, Dillagi has absolutely no resemblance to the Brontë novel (unless you consider the element of a poor man falling for a wealthy girl in a rural setting as sufficient resemblance). What it is, is a fairly standard story of doomed love. There’s nothing that’s new here, nothing that isn’t fairly predictable.
What I liked about this film:
Naushad’s music. Ghulam Mohammad assisted Naushad for Dillagi, and the pairing produced some superb songs, including the classic Tu mera chaand main teri chaandni, Is duniya mein ae dilwaalon, and Meri pyaari patang. Interestingly, while Mohammad Rafi sang playback for Shyam in several of the songs, for Tu mera chaand main teri chaandni, the man who sang playback for Shyam was none other than Shyam Kumar, the actor who played Jyoti in the film.
And, the gang of girls. Mala’s friends in this film are a bunch of very loyal and feisty young women. Unlike the usual sahelis of Hindi cinema, whose role seems to be limited to teasing the heroine about her romance with the hero, here the sahelis play a much more important part. They take matters into their own hands, they are steadfastly loyal to Mala, and they have no qualms about taking up cudgels (quite literally) on her behalf. True, their good intentions sometimes lead them into taking impulsive decisions that go awry at times, but they’re among the spunkiest women I’ve seen onscreen.
Interestingly, another important female character—Paro, Jyoti’s younger sister—emerges as a strong, principled woman too. Paro is the only one in whom Mala ends up confiding, and Paro’s sympathy and sense of justice are exemplary. The way she takes charge, even at risk to herself, was unusual. Full marks to director and writer AR Kardar for at least empowering some of this female characters (even if Mala herself doesn’t come across as very different from the run-of-the-mill Hindi film heroine).
What I didn’t like:
The fairly predictable, melodramatic story. There’s little here that isn’t par for the course. The bolt-from-the-blue romance, the disapproving and nasty relative, the vows of undying love. Nothing new, really.
But, there’s Shyam, who’s a sight for sore eyes. Imagine, if he had lived on, would his status perhaps have reached (even surpassed?) that of men like Dev Anand and Shammi Kapoor, who had pretty much come to dominate the scene as debonair leading men in the 50s? Would the films they got have gone to Shyam instead, at least for some of the time? Would Hindi cinema have had a different history?
We will never know, sadly.
Dustedoff 
Shyam was my father’s elder brother by two years
Yes! Dillagi 1949 was a big grosser of it’s time
Shyam, as a person, I remember, was very good looking, fair, tall and presented himself a cultured humble man. Educated person.
A totally out and out a family man.
Humble, kind and generous with a Golden heart., as remembered by his family and friends.
Died too young at the peak of his Career.
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Thank you so much for reading, and for commenting. Shyam sounds like a wonderful man. My father, reading this post, was yesterday remembering how he had gone to watch Shabistan as a 13-year old, and how sad everybody had been that Shyam had passed away in such a tragic way during its shooting. Really sad and untimely death.
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I do not think that Shyam would have posed a challenge to Dilip/Raj/Dev.
He is handsome no doubt but in a Ajit kind of way. He would have made a better villain.
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Subjective, of course, so that’s there. :-)
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Yes, and it’s not because his acting skills were lacking in any manner. It’s because his physique and somewhat “aristocratic type persona just wouldn’t have suited the kind of versatile “common-man” roles that the above above trio got famous for (vagabond, rustic, cabbie, journalist etc.). Even in Dillagi, it was awkward to see a person of his bearings being insulted so badly in the starting few minutes. He might just have been typecasted later into roles like cop, soldier, zamindar, historic characters, hero’s muscular friend etc. In “Patanga”, he might have been the hero, but it was plain-man Yakub whom the audience would have rooted for (like I said, he was in Jagirdar role in that movie, the kind of roles he might have been typecasted in later). But yes, looks-wise, the above trio were nowhere near him.
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Interesting point, I hadn’t thought of that. Yes, makes sense.
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Great to see Dustedoff is active and doing fine (after I watch an old movie, I then google to check if Dustedoff has analyzed that movie, then I read). You are doing a great favor for movie enthusiasts who are interested in movies 50 years and older. I am impressed by the way you dissect and analyze these movies in detail, and also because you provide information and trivia about lesser known actors, many of whom are sadly lost in oblivion. For people like me who “research” old movies as a hobby, your website is a treasure trove. There used to be another lady almost a decade back, with her site “Memsaab story”, haven’t checked that for long, hope that website and that nice lady is doing well too. She writes just like you. Please keep up the good work. And yes, too many of your fans were not even born in the decades these movies were released in, so you see you have fans across a very wide range of age demographic :-)
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Thank you so much for the appreciation and the kind words! It is encouragement like this that keeps me going. :-) To be honest, even I was not born when any of the films I review on this blog were made.
Greta, the memsaab of Memsaabstory, stopped blogging several years back, by the way. She’s fine, just too busy with being married and looking after her dogs and doing knitting and whatnot, I think, to blog any more. She was the one who inspired (and encouraged) me to blog, so I have a lot to be grateful to her about!
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Thanks for taking the time to reply back. Please please don’t stop blogging like your friend Greta. Bollywood classic era fandom is huge, and they look for the kind of information you provide (sadly one can’t find them even in IMDB), all that remains to be done is increasing visibility for your content. I remember how Tabassum Talkies Youtube channel started few years back with very views and now it has exploded in popularity, I am sure same will happen to yours if you can find some “Search Engine Optimization” guy to give his services to your site. But yes, I know you do it for your interest rather than for commercial purpose, but still, you can give it a thought so that your quality content can reach out easily to people who are really interested in it. All the best and keep it up!!
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Thanks. And no, I’m not stopping any time in the foreseeable future. To be honest, besides being a labour of love, this blog also helps showcase my writing, so – in an indirect way – (and occasionally a direct way!) I use it to draw attention to my books.
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That’s a very good and highly objective review of this movie which I had watched two decades back on Zee Cinema in the wee hours. Though I am a very big fan of Suraiya, I agree with your assessment of Shyam. The music of this movie (especially the songs mentioned by you) is timeless. Despite melodrama, Dillagi is a fairly good movie for typical Bollywood movie buffs.
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Thank you, glad you liked the review! I agree that despite the melodrama, it’s a fairly good film for those who love standard Hindi cinema.
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As a movie buff, I have been fascinated by Shyam’s tragic ending. So, I made it a point to seek out his movies to watch them. I often find actors from the 19040s-50s to be quite stiff and melodramatic. But Shyam seemed easy in front of the camera. For example, in a song like ‘Hum hain tere deewane’ from “Shabistan” the effortless chemistry between him and Naseem Banu struck me as quite modern. It didn’t hurt that they were both easy on the eyes.😀 It is a pity that most of his movies are not available for our viewing.
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Good point! Yes, he seems very much at ease in front of the camera: very natural.
Since I hadn’t seen Hum hain tere deewaane, and since I watched it in the wake of your comment, I thought I may as well post a link for the benefit of others. :-) Yes, they’re both great eye candy, and their chemistry is wonderful too.
Such a pity that his films seem to have mostly disappeared, or are at least not freely available commercially.
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A tragic and untimely end. :( He was quite easy on the eye, and at ease in front of the camera. I do wish Dillagi didn’t just taper off into a melodrama at the end, though.
Missed the notification for this post I don’t know how.
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Yes, if Dillagi hadn’t tapered off into melodrama near the end, it would have been a much better film. :-(
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This film is primarily known for Suraiya. I know the post is dedicated to the unfortunate Shyam but surprised that no one mentioned much of her or this trivia which has been floating on the net for years. ‘Dharmendra is a great fan of the singer and actor Suraiya. In an interview, he revealed to have watched her film ‘Dillagi’ (1949) more than 40 times, after walking several miles on foot to the nearest cinema hall in his hometown, Sahnewal.’
Dharam also named 2 of his home productions ‘Dillagi’, one in 1978. a decent film directed by Basu Chatterjee (one of those films which taught me to never judge films by their box office/hit status and ‘visibility’ or lack of it in the media). The other Dillagi was from 1999, a version of ‘Sabrina’ directed by his son.
coming back to Suraiya, is she underrated now? Have always liked her singing better than Noor Jahan (though only in hindi/urdu, in punjabi songs Noor Jahan was unmatched in my view, even though I don’t even understand that language fully). She was a a good actress as well. Watch ‘Jeet’ (1949). All I see is her connection with Dev Anand in the recent years in the media, nothing else.
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You make a good point about Suraiya now being remembered only in the context of Dev Anand. Pity, because I do agree that she was a good actress and of course a very good singer (which reminds me, I must do a Suraiya list someday!)
Thank you for the Dharmendra trivia. I hadn’t known that! Very interesting.
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While checking 40s Bollywood movies, I used to avoid Noor Jehan’s movies (Reason: anti-Pakistan sentiment). But of late have got time (and maturity) to watch movies like Anmol Ghadi, Lal Haweli, Andaz, etc. and she was indeed a fine actress. She found fame in Pakistan too (unlike many actors who migrated to Pakistan), maybe due to her superb singing skills in Punjabi. If just acting was her forte, she may not have found so much fame. She is compared more with Lata Mangeshkar than with any actress.
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“But of late have got time (and maturity) to watch movies…”
I am so glad you realized that people of a nationality should not be equated with the idiocies and atrocities of their governments. :-D
If you haven’t watched it yet, I’d like to recommend one Noorjehan film (besides the ones you’ve already mentioned). Dopatta is a Pakistani film, and one I liked a lot. I’ve reviewed it here on the blog as well:
https://madhulikaliddle.com/2012/07/08/dupatta-1952/
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Sure, it’s now on my this weekend watchlist then. Surprisingly I had planned to view “Saheli (1960)” this weekend as my first Pakistani film. (Present day Pakistani movies are sure-shot migraine though, one reason their movie industry going bankrupt).
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Oh, nice. I hadn’t heard of Saheli, so will put that on my watchlist. Thank you!
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Thanks Madhu for the review. I watched this movie a month or so back. ‘Tu mera chand main teri chandni’ was Suraiya one of the biggest hits.
The character Paro either you didn’t recognise or forgot to mention is played by very young Shyama.
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I didn’t recognise Shyama as Paro! My goodness, I need to go back and look at her scenes again. Thank you for alerting me to that – I’m wondering how I didn’t see that.
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Here’s an interesting trivia for those who are no aware: In Dillagi, there was another actor by the name “Shyam Kumar”, the one the actress is forcibly married off to (kind of), someone who played roles as villian’s henchmen in many movies till 70s. And the MOST surprising part – He is the singer for the hero in the hit song “Tu mera chand main teri chandni”. Till today I had the misconception that the hero Shyam Kumar Chaddha was the singer for the song.
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Yes, I’ve mentioned that in the review…
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I haven’t watched Dillagi. But does the story not sound like that of Heer Ranjha?
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I have to admit I have never read (or watched) Heer Ranjha, so I wouldn’t know.
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Isn’t this more like a version of the Heer-Ranjha story?
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You’re right. I hadn’t realized that.
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