Neel Kamal

About the film

Neel Kamal (lit. 'Blue Lotus') is a 1947 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Kidar Sharma and starring Begum Para, Madhubala and Raj Kapoor. The first film to feature Madhubala and Kapoor in leading roles, Neel Kamal follows two separated royal sisters (Para and Madhubala), whose mutual love for a self-absorbed artist (Kapoor) ultimately leads the younger sister to suicide.

The film earned ₹2.5 million at the box-office. It was not successful, according to director Kidar Sharma.

Plot

Set in the royal court of Janakgarh, the film opens with the palace coup led by the villainous Mangal Singh against his sister's husband, the king of Janakgarh, Maharana Pragat Singh. The mortally wounded king escapes from the palace with his queen and their two daughters. They take shelter in a temple disguised as ordinary citizens. The elder princess ventures out on her horse disguised as a young boy to get help from her uncle, the king's brother Maharana Kharak Singh who rules another state. She succeeds in escaping treacherous attacks by Mangal Singh's men on her way. In the meanwhile Mangal Singh learns the whereabouts of the king. He goes to the temple and kills the king and the queen. His soldiers inform him that the two princesses were killed on their way to get help from their uncle. The younger princess Kamal who was present in the temple with her parents is a toddler and escapes the villainy of Mangal Singh by walking out of the temple alone. She is found by an "untouchable" man who brings her home and adopts her as his daughter despite his wife's objections. She is named Ganga. In the meanwhile, the older princess is helped by her uncle who raids Janakgarh, kills Mangal Singh and appoints the princess to rule the kingdom of Janakgarh until her father can be located.

One day while helping her father clean the city premises outside a temple, little Ganga, enters the inner chamber of the temple and incurs the priest's wrath for breaking the rule that untouchables can not enter temples. The childless couple leaves Janakgarh after running into trouble with the priest and raise Ganga in a nearby town while the older princess rules over Janakgarh. In their newly adopted town - Ganga's adoptive parents do not tell anyone about their social status of "untouchables" nor engage in their low caste work of public cleaning. They make a living by doing labor jobs. Ganga is cherished by her adoptive father but his wife remains negative towards her.

Teenager Ganga (Madhubala) meets and falls in love with Madhu Sudan (Raj Kapoor), a rich but skeptical artist from Janakgarh who is in town to carve stone artifacts in a temple. Having lost his parents, he lives in a mansion in Janakgarh with guru ji, his mentor, spiritual guide and the teacher who taught him sculpting. While working, Madhu Sudan slips and falls down from the upper level of his work site one day. Ganga and her father bring him home and the family looks after him until he recovers from his injuries. Ganga's simplicity and doting love both worry and overwhelm Madhu Sudan who tells her "the harder I close the doors of my heart, the louder you knock .." However, he allows her to follow him to Janakagarh along with her parents since he feels obligated to help the family for their hospitality. He employs the family as laborers in his art workshop in Janakgarh.

Production

The production of Neel Kamal began in 1946 under Ranjit studio. The film was initially titled "Bichara Bhagwaan" and featured actors Jairaj and Kamla Chatterjee in major roles. The latter, who was also director Kidar Sharma's wife, died unexpectedly midway the filming, leading a devastated Sharma to shelve the production infinitely.

Months after the incident, Sharma restarted the production in Chatterjee's memory and cast a 14 year-old Madhubala, a child actress popularly known as "Baby Mumtaz", as the leading lady. Madhubala, who had earlier collaborated a few times with Sharma, already remembered most of the lines of her offered role and was never absent from work, which impressed the director highly. Following Jairaj's withdrawal, Sharma employed his clapper-boy Raj Kapoor to play Madhu Sudan—his first lead role in a film.

When Sharma announced the cast publicly, it evoked immense criticism from the industry; furthermore, the financiers were apprehensive of the film's potential at the box-office for it did not feature any established star of the time. To compensate their losses, an adamant Sharma sold his plot and financed Neel Kamal himself. Madhubala was given the star-billing as "Mumtaz". Neel Kamal was her last film before she assumed her screen name on the suggestion of actress Devika Rani.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of Neel Kamal was composed by Snehal Bhatkar (credited as B. Vasudev) and lyrics were written by Kidar Sharma.

Box office

Neel Kamal earned about ₹2.5 million (₹25 lakhs) at the box office in its initial theatrical run. According to Hindustan Times, it was a commercial failure. In the words of Sharma, the film "did not achieve much success."

Key details