A couple of months back, my sister Swapna was invited to head a quiz team at a pub quiz (Jai Arjun Singh, who was also there, wrote about it here). Telling me about the quiz later, Swapna mentioned that there was one question that even Jai didn’t know. In Aarzoo, which place in Delhi does Rajendra Kumar’s character say he belongs to?

Nobody could answer that question. But the answer is Okhla Village.

… which sort of struck a chord with me, because till we shifted from Delhi to Noida, my husband and I had spent many years living very close to Okhla. And Noida, in case you weren’t aware of this, is actually an acronym for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority. Okhla follows us around. Or we refuse to really move away from Okhla.

This incident reminded me, though, that I have never reviewed Aarzoo on this blog, though I’ve watched the film at least twice. Time to amend that, I decided.

Newly-minted medical graduate Gopal (Rajendra Kumar) and his neighbour Ramesh (Feroze Khan) have been best friends since their childhood. Gopal’s younger sister Sarla (Nazima) and his widowed mother (Achla Sachdev) regard Ramesh pretty much the same as Gopal: a member of the family, a brother/son just as Gopal is.

Now Ramesh tells Gopal that he has booked two tickets for them to go to Kashmir. A skiing championship is being held in Gulmarg; Gopal and Ramesh had competed the previous year and not fared well. This year, therefore, Ramesh has entered them under false names: Ramesh will be Haria from Haryana and Gopal will be Sarjoo from Okhla Village.  [This makes no sense to me, especially since the assumed names are not combined with disguises].

But Ramesh’s father (Brahm Bhardwaj) throws a spanner in the works. Ramesh, who helps him out in the business, has to complete some important work here in Delhi; he can’t go off to Kashmir now. Ramesh argues his case, but Dad is adamant. He finally says that Gopal can go on his own for now, and Ramesh can join him a week later. Ramesh has to be happy with that.

So Gopal goes to Kashmir… and, in the plane, finds himself seated to Usha (Sadhana), who studies in college in Delhi but lives in Srinagar with her father Diwan Kishan Kishore (Nazir Hussain)—though these details of her life are revealed only much later in the story. For now, all Ramesh knows is that he is seated next to a pretty cantankerous female. Usha lets fly at him every opportunity she gets, and after a while, Ramesh is so fed up, he moves to another seat.

In Srinagar, Ramesh opts to stay at a houseboat owned and operated by the very annoying Mamdoo (Mehmood in one of his most irritating roles). Mamdoo, in between romancing Sabi (Malika, elder sister of Mumtaz) and singing a teeth-grittingly idiotic ditty, takes Gopal sightseeing. On the walk up to Shankaracharya Temple, Gopal runs into a familiar face.

But, in an inexplicable turn-around, Usha is now all benign smiles. She is accompanied by her aunt (Praveen Paul), who along with her husband (Hari Shivdasani) had come to receive Usha at the airport. Gopal does not, right now, give Usha the time of day, but as it happens, Usha’s uncle and aunt are going to Gulmarg and want Usha to accompany them. She has discovered that Gopal is going to be competing in the skiing competition there, and that is enough to make Usha eager to go to Gulmarg. [From snapping his head off in the plane to now being all glassy-eyed and silly smiles: why?]

Much happens. In Gulmarg, Gopal (of course masquerading as Sarjoo) wins the skiing championship [how someone who lives in Delhi and doesn’t seem to be spending any time practising pulls off this feat—after having performed really badly the previous year—is beyond me]. Usha is ecstatic, as are her uncle and aunt.

Also, Gopal and Usha bump into each other. She twists her ankle, and is mock-huffy when Gopal binds it up for her. To a remark of Gopal’s, she retorts that “It would be better to die than to be crippled” [Note]. Anyhow, they go on, he helping her onto a pony and then serenading her.

This is the start to the Usha-‘Sarjoo’ romance. They meet every day, they sing songs to each other. The moronic Mamdoo also gets to meet Usha when he rows them in his shikara. So much time they spend together, and Gopal doesn’t find two minutes to let the love of his life know who he really is. Not his real name, not his address, nothing.

Then Usha falls ill with a fever, and Gopal, unable to stay away from her, persuades Mamdoo’s now-wife, Sabi, to help him out. Sabi, pretending to be a friend of Usha’s, turns up at Usha’s home, along with her ‘father’ (Gopal in disguise). Gopal spends time ‘treating’ Usha, sings a song in praise of her, makes much of her… all under the benevolent eye of her father, Diwan Sahib, who has no idea what is happening.

Unfortunately for Usha and Gopal, Diwan Sahib happens to overhear a quick word between ‘Salma’s Abbu’ and Usha. Gopal was supposed to return to Delhi, but hasn’t been able to get a ticket. The only ticket he has been able to book is for Pathankot, from where he will have to travel by road. The plane to Pathankot leaves early the next morning. Usha is sad, but Gopal assures her: they will be together again very soon.

Diwan Sahib is horrified and heartbroken: his daughter, whom he’s always trusted so much, is carrying on an affair with some ne’er-do-well? [thankfully, he does not suspect Usha of actually having an affair with Salma’s old father]. He is so angry, in fact, that he locks Usha up in her room, and refuses to hear anything she might have to say.

The next morning, at the airport, Mamdoo has come to see Gopal off, and since there’s no sign of Usha, Gopal decides to write a note for her which Mamdoo can pass on. He only manages to write that his real name is not Sarjoo, when Usha [who has shown a bit of spirit and climbed down from the window of her room] arrives.

The plane is about to take off, so all Gopal has the time for is to reassure Usha (who tells him that Daddy knows all) that he will return within two days, and then he will talk to her father to ask for her hand in marriage. He runs off, leaving his half-written note in Usha’s hand.

When Usha gets home, there is a big scene. Daddy is frustrated and prone to use emotional blackmail, but Usha shows him she can blackmail like the best of ’em. If my mother were alive, she cries, she would understand my pain. This, of course, makes Daddy start bawling that he wishes God had taken him rather than her mother, and then both of them have a good cry and make up. So much so that Daddy agrees to come to the airport to receive ‘Sarjoo’ (since Gopal never did get around to writing his real name on his note, they still think of him as Sarjoo) when he arrives.

Meanwhile, other things have been happening in Delhi. Gopal has written to Ramesh, telling him about the girl he’s fallen in love with (though not giving her name, or anything else about her).

Also, Ramesh’s father has finally allowed Ramesh to leave for Kashmir—but with a caveat. Ramesh has to go and ‘see’ (with a view to marrying, naturally) a girl, the daughter of his father’s good friend. The girl’s photo has been sent for his perusal, and Ramesh is smitten at first glance.

Of course.

Two men, in love with the same woman. Two men, furthermore, who are best friends.

Remember: Usha said “It would be better to die than to be crippled”.

Note that Gopal, whom Usha knows only as Sarjoo, has gone to Pathankot, and intends to go from there to Delhi by road. Note that this is a wealthy man; he won’t go by bus. He’ll take a cab. It’s a long way from Pathankot to Delhi, and a cab driver may sing to pass the time… and may get distracted.

This is not the first time I’ve watched Aarzoo, and I remembered a good chunk of it well enough to remember why I have not watched it more often.

What I liked about this film:

The songs. Shankar-Jaikishan’s music and Hasrat Jaipuri’s lyrics come together to create a stellar score. The songs, really, are what stand out: each of them is good. Jab ishq kahin ho jaata hai is probably the least of the songs, but the others are all top-notch: Ae nargis-e-mastaana, Aji roothkar ab kahaan jaaiyega (and its male version, Aji humse bachkar kahaan jaaiyega), Ae phoolon ki raani bahaaron ki mallika, Chhalke teri aankhon se sharaab aur zyada, and Bedardi baalma tujhko.

And, Sadhana. So pretty, and so gorgeously dressed (her costumes were designed by Bhanu Athaiya).

Lastly, Kashmir, which is lovely. Four of the songs showcase the beauty of Kashmir in the picturization, and one that especially stands out because of its unusualness is Bedardi baalma tujhko, filmed during autumn, with chinar leaves covering the ground and flaming red and gold in the background.

What I didn’t like:

Pretty much everything else.

Mehmood is at his most irritating here. Mamdoo is a halfwit, and he has this extremely annoying habit of adding ‘aandis’ to every other word. “Tum aandis, hum tumhe houseboat dikhaandis.” And so on and so forth. As if that’s not enough, he almost continuously sings a frightful ditty which goes “Ya Ilahi, mit na jaandis, dadr-e-dil” (note: not dard-e-dil). Also, he ends up as part of a thoroughly idiotic and pointless comic side plot involving Dhumal, who is Ramesh’s father’s munshi and for whose benefit (for no really good reason) Mamdoo dons drag.

Ugh.

Then, the melodrama. I know that’s par for the course for many, many Hindi films. But Aarzoo takes the melodrama to stratospheric levels. Shortly after Gopal reaches Pathankot, an incident occurs after which there’s just people weeping and sobbing hysterically or screaming at each other. And Rajendra Kumar, always a one for high drama, is at his peak here. The crying, the insistence on self-sacrifice, the quivering lip…

And, the belief that a woman cannot possibly be considered an intelligent, mature person. The way Gopal insists on cutting Usha out of the decision about her own life made me see red. Usha does snap back briefly, but only very briefly. If I had been in her place, I would have been happy to say goodbye to a man who didn’t think I knew what was good for me, didn’t trust me, and didn’t credit me with the maturity to decide my own fate. 

Honestly, unless you’re a fan of Rajendra Kumar, don’t even watch Aarzoo. The songs are available easily on YouTube; go watch them, instead.

And this was the same Ramanand Sagar who, just three years down the line, made the kitschy but utterly enjoyable Aankhen…