Dharmputra (1961) :
Brief Review -
Severe Hinduism against its own blood with an identity crisis amidst a partition backdrop. Too much mess to handle for young Yash Chopra. Yash Ji debuted with a bang with the classic "Dhool Ka Phool" (1959), where a Muslim man adopts a Hindu child. Dharmputra sees a swipe as a Hindu family adopts a Muslim woman's child. I somehow didn't like the idea that both films showed the mother of the child in a bad light. "Jawani ki Galti" or "Jawani ki Bhool" can't be an excuse for an educated girl and a boy. If they were uneducated and lusty, it would have been a different case. Mala Sinha plays that woman in both films. For a change, in this film, she is happy that her son has grown up to be a good guy, but as a Hindu extremist. DKP played a masterstroke by keeping the character as a kid because then we have to teach them what they don't know. Dharmputra lacks that innocence and hunger for knowledge. Half the film is already over when you see the lead actor of the film, Shashi Kapoor, a Muslim boy who is brought up by a Hindu family and is unaware of his identity. He is an extremist Hindu leader who wants to eliminate Muslims from society, not knowing that he himself has Muslim blood in his body. That's the only trick this film gets right, while the rest of the narrative seems too messy. Young Yash Chopra tried to join the scattered pieces but didn't really get what this gutsy story deserved. I am not saying that Dharmaputra is a bad film, or even an average film; it's a good film, but it does not match Chopra's previous classic "Dhool Ka Phool," which attempted a similar topic from the other end. The film won a national award, and I don't wonder why. The kind of topic it tackled was too risky at the time, even though we had Chhalia made a year ago. Nevertheless, it is stuck to the "Unity" message, and that might have wowed the people then. In my opinion, as a cinematic outing, it could have been better.
RATING - 6/10*
By - #samthebestest.
