Waqt, a powerful tale of lost and found was one of the earliest multi-starrers on India screens which started the later day trend for the same. Produced by B.R. Chopra and directed by his brother Yash Chopra, Waqt is remembered for the classic song ‘O meri Johrajabin’ picturized on Balraj Sahani serenading his lady love and wife in the movie.
B.R. Chopra is a film maker known for his movies with a social message like Naya Daur, Hamraaz etc. This movie also had the message that Waqt or time is most powerful, it makes or breaks fortunes and that one should not be proud of one’s own achievements as they can easily be destroyed by time as it can change anytime. One gets the glimpse of the Yash Chopra style opulent lifestyle of the characters like clubs, high society bungalows etc. as early as in this film which he followed up in movies made by his own YRF studio in the later years.
The dialogue exchange between Raaj Kumar’s and Rehman’s character in the film are now legendry. Initially B.R. Chopra had planned the film with the Kapoors in mind with Prithviraj playing the father to his real life sons but finally only Shashi Kapoor made the cut as the youngest son. Not only the main but even the character actors were in good numbers and were known faces in the Industry. It was released on 30th July 1965.
Waqt is the story about Lala Kedarnath (Balraj Sahni) and sons. A successful businessman and a proud father of three sons and a loving wife Laxmi (Achala Sachdev) boasts that he is a self-made man and has big plans for his sons for the future but his dreams are shattered when an earthquake hits the town and everything is destroyed. When he comes to he has lost everything, house, business as well as family. The eldest son Raju ends up in an orphanage which Lalaji is able to track only to find he has run away because of the tortures of the warden whom he kills and himself goes to jail. Here Raju has now become Raja (Raj Kumar) a high class thief and swindler working for Chinoy (Rehman). Middle son adopted by a rich family grows up to be Ravi-a lawyer and the youngest Vijay (Shashi Kapoor) is with his mother but lives in poverty. There is a love triangle between Raja, Ravi and Meena (Sadhana) but Ravi and Meena are to marry, Raja goes to Ravi’s house to finish him but finds out he is his own younger brother. Rai’s foster sister Renu is in love with Vijay and after an argument about that with Renu, Ravi leaves the house. Here Raja and Chinoy are at loggerheads and Chinoy frames him for murder of one of his employees whom he himself has done away with. The scene then shifts to the courtroom for the climax where the whole family assembles for one reason or the other and finally the truth is revealed and are reunited. All’s well and that ends well, it is just a matter of time…Waqt.
Apart from the ‘O meri Johra Jabin’ the other songs too sung by Asha Bhosle are memorable like the ‘Aage bhi Jane na tu’ or the chirpy ‘Kaun aaya ki nigahon’. This was Raj Kumar’s one of the better performance and his dialogues were killers and still resound to the day like the one ‘jinke apne ghar sheeshon ke ho wo doosron ke ghar pe patthar nahin phenka karte’ or the one where he tells Madan Puri’s character ‘ye bacchon ke khelne ki cheez nahin haath kat jaye toh khoon nikal aata hai. The biggest blockbuster of ’65 it won Raj Kumar the Filmfare best supporting actor and Best Director to Yash Chopra and other technical awards too. It was also remade in other Indian Languages. Sadhana’s dresses were a rage.
Revisited by PAWAN GUPTA
