Phir Subah Hogi (1958) :
Brief Review -
A dramatic Indian adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel minus criminology features. Dostoevsky's novel, Crime and Punishment, has been adapted on screen many times and was perfectly suitable for the criminal activities in America and the UK. However, the Indian setup of crime was different, and so the adaptation needed many changes. Ramesh Saigal's Phir Subah Hogi did exactly that. He added several Indian dramatic motions and conflicts that are accessible to mass audiences despite their dark theme. Our Indian audiences weren't very familiar with such dark crime noirs at the time, and yet Phir Subah Hogi turned out to be a commercially successful film. That's indeed notable. Making such a movie a box office hit must have been so difficult (and it is difficult even today). So, kudos to the team and the audiences too for showing a slight shift in the mainstream mindset. Phir Subah Hogi has many changes from the original novel, with the main change being that there are no mother and sister's characters here. The protagonist isn't a successful criminology author either. We have Ram, an intelligent LLB student who doesn't have money for his studies. He falls in love with Soni and then commits murder to save her from a disastrous marriage. As expected, his conscience starts eating him, and the police officer keeps taunting him with his criminological tricks until he finally surrenders himself. The speech Ram gives in front of the judge in the climax scene is another additional change-for the better only. Some songs are really meaningful and good, while others, which appear in the second half, go mostly flat. Raj Kapoor, Mala Sinha, Rehman (extended role), and Mubarak's performances lift the film further. Ramesh Saigal and Mubarak's writing misses a couple of must-be-there metaphors; rest assured, it's a fine script and a nice film considering contemporary mainstream cinema.
RATING - 7/10*
By - #samthebestest.
