Char Dil Char Rahen, 1959
Director: K.A. Abbas
Music Director: Anil Biswas
Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi
Playback: Lata Mangeshkar, Meena Kapoor, Mahendra Kapoor, Mukesh, Manna Dey
Choreography: Badri Prasad, Prem Dhawan
Cast: Raj Kapoor, Meena Kumari, Kumkum, Nimmi, Naaz, Shammi Kapoor, Ajit
English subtitles are included. Anu has taken inferior subtitles and created from them a thing of beauty. These are Criterion-quality subtitles and those of us needing them (me) owe her a huge debt of gratitude.
In Anu's blog, Conversations Over Chai, you'll also find a review of the film:
anuradhawarrier.blogspot.com/2024/04/char-dil-char-raahein-1959.html
You might also want to look around the blog to see if any of her other reviews and articles appeal to you.
The Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema has this to say about the film:
Abbas’s only venture into the star-studded
Hindi film mainstream. It tells a parable about
love and community using three stories, each
featuring a hero, his lover and a villain. The
Ahir youth Govinda (Kapoor) is prevented
from marrying his childhood sweetheart Chavli
(Kumari) because she is an Untouchable.
Chavli is driven out of the village but Govinda
goes and waits for her at a crossroads. Dilawar
(Ajit), a Pathan chauffeur, rescues the dancing-
girl Pyari (Nimmi) from the clutches of his
employer, a villainous nawab, but Pyari refuses
to escape without her mother. Pyari then settles
down at the same crossroads and starts a small
shop, waiting for Dilawar to relent and to
accept both of them. The hotel employee
Johnny Braganza (S. Kapoor) falls in love with
Stella D’Souza (Kumkum) who is coveted by
his boss Ferreira (David). Ferreira frames
Johnny and has him jailed. Johnny later joins
the group at the crossroads and starts a garage.
The trade union leader Nirmal Kumar (Jairaj)
eventually enlists the trio at the crossroads to
help build a road. Blasting through a hill,
Govinda finds Chavli again and the whole
community walks down ‘their’ road singing the
socialist song Sathi re kadam kadam se dil se
dil mila rahe. Later, in an interview with
Vasudev and Lenglet (1983), Abbas blamed the
film’s failure on the stars’ lack of screen
glamour: ‘Meena Kumari was blackened, Raj
Kapoor was put in a dhoti, Shammi Kapoor
was made into a waiter, Nimmi was made into
a prostitute’. He never worked with major stars
again.
I chuckled upon reading that.
Here's a playlist of the songs from the film:
studio.ua-cam.com/users/playlistPLA_A9T_Uj7IyMgLlSKQNfL2pzBoHtnxno/edit
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:
The Indian copyright law:
copyright.gov.in/Documents/Cop...
INDIAN COPYRIGHT ACT, 1957 CHAPTER I Preliminary (f)
"cinematograph film" means any work of visual recording on any medium produced through a process from which a moving image may be produced by any means and includes a sound recording accompanying such visual recording and cinematograph shall be construed as including any work produced by any process analogous to cinematography including video films.”
"CHAPTER V Term of Copyright 26.Term of copyright in cinematograph films.
In the case of a cinematograph film, copyright shall subsist until sixty years from the beginning of the calendar year next following the year in which the film is published."
My words:
Indian film copyright (including video, dialog, music, lyrics, songs) lasts for sixty years and any film and its songs released more than sixty years ago is in the public domain. No extensions, no renewals, no exceptions. This film is no longer protected by copyright.