Insan Jaag Utha

<p>Gauri lives in a small village in India with her crippled ex-army-man and freedom fighter dad, Laxmandas, and a younger brother, Gulab, and makes a living working as a laborer. One day she notices a man lurking around their house, this man subsequently introduces himself as Ranjeet, who has just arrived from Bombay. Ranjeet and Gauri become friends after he treats a wound on Gauri’s foot, and then both fall in love with each other. Ranjeet starts working for the Government which is in the process of building a dam, where Gauri also works. Ranjeet starts work as a laborer also, but is subsequently promoted as a crane operator. What Gauri and Laxmandas do not know is that Ranjeet is in this village for a reason – greed for the suitcase of gold that he himself had buried in Gauri’s front-yard – the very same gold that he was caught smuggling five years ago and the very same gold that he had spent five years in prison for. It was a tiring yet refreshing experience to get so close to nature and witness the lives of hundreds of people who are helping to build the new . — on working in , Early in his career, Samanta had directed only crime thrillers including (1956) and (1958). A few days after the success of (1958), which was directed and also produced by him, he began working on . was a film with social and patriotic themes, and this was an attempt by Samanta to shift to making social films. A large part of the film was shot on location at the , and the whole crew stayed in several guest rooms situated near the dam. The soundtrack of the film was composed by , with lyrics by . It is noted for the duet sung by and , which was shot on location at the under-construction . All lyrics are written by ; all music is composed by S.D. Burman. of found the film’s storyline to be “powerful” and its songs to be “beautiful”. had mentioned Madhubala’s performance as Gauri in the film among her best performances. was a hit with audience and eventually emerged as the thirteenth highest-grossing film of 1959, taking 0.52 crore at the box office. However, since the film was made on a big budget, its earning brought Samanta only a little profit. In an interview he gave several years after the film’s release, he recalled as a “mediocre success”. Discouraged by the little box-office returns of , Samanta shifted back to make entertainment-oriented, crime films for another decade, beginning with the highly successful (1960), before attempting the socially relevant film genre with films like (1969), (1971) and (1971).</p>