Aan

I saw it for nostalgic reasons! As swash-buckling drama, this is a strange period piece. I remember the buzz Nadira's introduction in Indian film industry had created. Throughout the movie her eyebrows are arched and eyes are bulging! For what reason, I can't tell. It is not surprising that she always got vamp's roles after this film.Dilip Kumar has seemed to enjoy his role of a villager who can run down fifty soldiers. Designated as tragedy king, he tried his hand at comedy and was successful. Nimmy dies early and then reappears in a dream scene! I understand because of her popularity at the time, distributors forced the producer-director Mehboob Khan to bring her to life. Naushad's music is evergreen and still memorable. The clever use of 16 mm camera to shoot the film and then blowing it up to 32 mm is remarkable. It shows the ingenuity of the camera men and photographers. In those days Indian film producers had limited capacity to import cameras and film.

Extremely poor quality DVD transfer, with a digital "watermark" in the lower-right hand corner of the screen for the entire film. Indians and fans of Bollywood need to learn to demand more from distributors of classic Indian films such as this one. Colors are inconsistent and the print used to make the DVD transfer is severely damaged. No effort was made to restore the print before making the DVD. As is it, this DVD is a rip-off.

Very good. No problem.

GOOD