Naya Daur

About the film

Naya Daur (transl. The New Era) is a 1957 Indian Hindi-language social drama film directed and produced by B. R. Chopra. It was written by Akhtar Mirza. It stars Dilip Kumar, Vyjayanthimala in lead roles, along with Ajit, Jeevan, Johnny Walker, Chand Usmani, Nazir Hussain, Manmohan Krishna, Leela Chitnis, Pratima Devi, Daisy Irani, Radhakishan form an ensemble cast. The film narrates the story of Shankar and Krishna, two best friends who fall for the same woman, Rajni.

For this film, Dilip Kumar won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for the third time in a row, being his fourth overall. The film was later dubbed in Tamil as Pattaliyin Sabatham (The Proletariat's Vow) in 1958. Naya Daur also inspired Aamir Khan's Academy Award nominated film Lagaan (2001).

Plot

The tongawala Shankar and the woodcutter Krishna are best friends in a poor village. At a train station, Shankar meets Rajni, who arrives there with her mother and brother. Shankar and Rajni fall in love with each other. At the same time, Krishna also sees Rajni and falls for her.

Kundan from the city arrives in the village and wants to modernize and mechanize the business which he does so by getting an electric saw thus making several workers at the mill lose their jobs. When Shankar and Krishna both come to know that they both love Rajni, they plan on deciding on who will marry her; if Rajni offers white flowers when she goes to the temple, she will marry Shankar and if she offers yellow flowers, she will marry Krishna. Manju, Shankar's sister who is in love with Krishna, hears the conversation and stealthily switches Rajni's yellow flowers with white flowers at the temple. Krishna, who sees Manju switching the flowers, thinks that Shankar has told her to do this and it leads Krishna and Shankar into a fight. The saddened Shankar tells Rajni that he would not have fallen for her if he had known that his friend also loved her. Rajni becomes heartbroken after hearing this and tells him that she can not change her feelings for him, but he can if he wants and goes away.

Kundan introduces a bus in the village thus taking away the tongawalas' livelihood. They ask him to remove it, but he refuses. Shankar says that what he has done is for the betterment of himself only. Kundan, however, tells Shankar that if he can drive his tonga faster than the bus then he will remove the latter. Shankar agrees to do it but the rest of the tongawalas tell him not to as the bus will be faster. Shankar consents to the race and asks for three months to prepare for the race. He makes a plan to build a road, which is six miles shorter than the road which leads to the temple. The disturbed villagers tell Shankar that he has gone mad with his stubbornness and do not support him in making the road, letting him do it alone.

Production

Naya Daur was directed and produced by B. R. Chopra under his banner B. R. Films, which was established by him in 1955 and had produced the commercially and critically successful family drama Ek Hi Raasta, starring Meena Kumari and Sunil Dutt, in the next year.

During filming, the Naya Daur production was involved in a highly controversial and widely publicised court case. Initially, the actress Madhubala was cast as the female lead. An advance payment was given to her and shooting began and continued smoothly for 15 days. B.R. Chopra, the director, wanted the unit to travel to Bhopal for an extended outdoor shoot. Ataullah Khan, the father of Madhubala, objected to this and claimed that the entire Bhopal schedule was a ruse to give Dilip Kumar the opportunity to romance his daughter (Kumar and Madhubala were in a relationship at the time). With Madhubala no longer completing the film, Chopra sued for the cash advance she received from him. Madhubala supported her father, while Kumar testified against Madhubala and her father in favour of B.R. Chopra in open court. The case was lost by Madhubala and her father amid much negative publicity. During the case, the film was released and declared a success. Chopra eventually dropped the court case.

Music

All the songs were composed by O. P. Nayyar and the lyrics were penned by Sahir Ludhianvi, with playback by Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Shamshad Begum and S. Balbir.

The lastly mentioned solo song by Asha Bhosle, is neither in the film, nor in the film soundtrack.

All the songs in Tamil were composed by O. P. Nayyar and lyrics were penned by Kambadasan. Playback singers are T. M. Soundararajan, Seerkazhi Govindarajan, P. Susheela and T. V. Rathnam.

Release

Naya Daur collected around ₹5.4 crore, becoming the second highest-grossing film of 1957 behind Mother India. This was equivalent to $11.34 million in 1957, or $130 million (₹9.63 billion) adjusted for inflation.

Critical reception

Naya Daur received positive reviews from critics, with the screenplay and performances gaining the most attention. On 13 September 1957, Filmfare wrote, "A powerful and vibrantly gripping picture, B. R. Films' Naya Daur is a distinctly successful combination of pertinent social education and moral and top-rate entertainment." The critic appreciated Kumar's performance and noted that he "[turns] in a portrayal which is utterly magnificent in every phase and mood". The Times of India called the film "a picture with a purposeful and distinctly impressive theme ... from almost the beginning to the end", saying that it "remains a brilliant, beautiful and very entertaining". Bombay (present-day Mumbai) newspaper Bharat Jyoti found the film to be "one of the most ambitious and unusual subjects ventured in India". Screen said that it was "one of the most important films made in this country" at the time. A critic from the magazine Eve's Weekly believed that it "truly a [Mahatma] Gandhi among films".

Key details