indian cinema heritage foundation

Madhosh (1951)

  • Release Date1951
  • LanguageHindi
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MADHOSH is WADIA FILMS' worthy successor to Mela, Balam and Magroor.

But you may ask, what does MADHOSH mean?

For one thing, it is a beautiful word used very often in poetry and literature. It can well be translated in English as meaning "ENRAPTURED" "INTOXICATED". But MADHOSH has more than one connotation. For example, one who is drunk deep in the nectar of love is said to be MADHOSH. One who is intoxicated with power can also be called MADHOSH. One who is immersed in saintly thoughts like, say, a Suri, is also referred to as MADHOSH.

Our lyrical film, then, is a story of certain human beings who are Madhosh in one of the other sense of that delightfully thrilling word.

Sardar Rambhaji is a virtual tyrant, intoxicated with power. He has brought up his son Raya in his own image, with the result that Raya has been leading a reckless life, irresponsive to all finer sentiments and human values. But the hand of fate brings him in contact with Soni, and when he is drunk deep in the nectar of true love, his better self prevails and he atones for his misdeeds by doing the most splendid act of his mis-spent life in his last moments.

Raina, the fire-flame of the jungle and daughter of the Bhil Chieftain Shakriya, is also lost in her sublime love for Raya. But her love leads her to put away her own selfishness, and in the best tradition of noble womanhood she decides to be on the side of Soni, who is her rival in love for Raya.

Bhujba Maharaj, the Saint of Sajalpur and father of Soni, has a heart as big as the sky and as deep as the ocean. He does all that is humanly possible to end the feud of a century between his family and that of Sardar Rambhaji.

Well, then, in our most unusual film MADHOSH (which has been daringly adapted from the masterpiece and prizewinning novel called PANKALA by R.V. Dighe, B.A.LL.B.) is a story of conflicts, a saga of human souls who have been "MADHOSH" in our sense or the other. To reveal its episodes is to deprive you of all its glorious thrills.

Suffice it to say here that MADHOSH is a film, which moves on from incident to incident like a mighty avalanche, the ramblings of which are heard in the first reel and the deafening impact of which will linger in your memory much after you have witnessed its surging climax and reconciled yourself to its logical denouement

(From the official press booklets)