Passport

About the film

Passport is a 1961 Indian Bollywood drama film directed by Pramod Chakravorty. The film stars Madhubala and Pradeep Kumar.

Passport was released in October 1961 and became a commercial success. It was the last film to star Madhubala and Kumar together, and also one of the last films of Madhubala.

Plot

The film starts with a smuggler Samson D'Mello, bringing some jewellery illegally to India from Nairobi. However the customs police detect it, as soon as he crosses the customs barrier. A chase starts, at the end of which D'Mello dies as his car meets an accident. It soon turns out that he was smuggling jewellery for Shamsher Singh (K N Singh), who was a partner of Bhagwandas (Nazir Hussain) who owns a jewellery shop.

While assisting the Bombay Police in arresting jewellery smugglers, Shekhar (Pradeep Kumar) suspects Bhagwandas (Nazir Hussain). But soon, he discovers that Bhagwandas is the father of Rita, his love interest (Madhubala).

Meanwhile, an accountant of Bhagwandas dies mysteriously. This accountant had knowledge of all ill deals of the duo. Shekhar tries to find the guilty man. He comes across Shamsher Singh and tries to catch him. Bhagwandas's daughter Rita tries to help Shekhar. When he tries to inform the police, Singh starts to blackmail him. Shekhar tries to stop Singh from smuggling but instead, Singh tries to kill Shekhar.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of Passport was composed by Kalyanji–Anandji and lyrics were penned by Qamar Jalalabadi and Farooq Kaiser. "Saaz-E-Dil Chhed De" was a chartbuster.

Reception

Passport was released at the peak of Madhubala's popularity and craze. The film consequently emerged as one of the biggest commercial successes of the year 1961, according to Filmfare.

Key details