Chhalia

<p>Shanti is married off to Kewal on the eve of . But while the two families move away to from , she inadvertently is left behind, and is forced to share a roof with the Afghan bandit Abdul Rehman, who has a sister of Shanti’s age in India. When she returns to India five years later with her son, she is first welcomed by her husband, Kewal, with open arms but disowned when the child identifies himself as Anwar, and his father as Abdul Rehman. Even her own father refuses to give her shelter, though in the years she had lived with Abdul Rehman she hadn’t even seen his face. Physically and emotionally shattered, Shanti tries to commit suicide after leaving Anwar in a , but is rescued by an outlaw, Chhalia who as time and events progress, flips for the lady. Rehman lands in Delhi to settle old scores with Chhalia and threatens to kidnap Shanti. The bloody fight that ensues between the two adversaries eventually ends in a truce. The hurried climax, set amidst festivities, has Chhalia bringing about a rapprochement between the estranged couple, Shanti and Kewal, and himself walking into infinity, while Rehman is reunited with his sister on the return train. was the debut film of director . was amongst the first of the lost-and-found-formula films that Desai went on to chisel to perfection, the most popular being (1977) (except perhaps his last two and ), was also first amongst his 13 star-studded films out of a total of 20 that Desai churned out in a career spanning 29 years. were the assistant music directors; who went on to be music directors for most of Manmohan Desai’s films. The soundtrack of is composed by the duo with lyrics by . The initial release of the soundtrack by consisted of 4 songs sung by singers and . The complete soundtrack was released by with 3 new songs and an Instrumental added to the initial soundtrack. is considered a landmark in the career of Kalyanji-Anandji. The duo composed the kind of folksy, simple tunes that had come to be associated with Raj Kapoor’s collaborations with Shankar-Jaikishan. The songs “Dum Dum Diga Diga” and “Chhalia Mera Naam” are still popular today. All lyrics are written by ; all music is composed by . was released in 1960 and was a moderate box office success. Raj Kapoor and Nutan were nominated for in the category of and respectively. Chhalia was made available on DVD from the Indian distributor Shemaroo and the international firm Baba Digital.</p>