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On This Day

29 Jun, 2021

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films

Milan Ki Raat (1967)

LanguageHindi

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Criminal assault on a helpless girl is a most heinous crime. In U.S.A. a rapist is sent to the gallows by law and his victim is treated with universal and unreserved sympathy. This is the law in most civilised nations of the world. In India, too, a woman is protected against a rapist, who, if found guilty, is sentenced to heavy punishment. But Indian society, governed, as it is, by man-made law, very often exonerates the offender and condemns the victim to untold miseries.

India, after all is a land of Rama, who is idolised because he had the 'guts' to cast his devoted wife Sita on frivolous charges made against her by a washer man. "Milan Ki Raat" is also such a story.

Parvati, a young virgin returns to her hometown after he college education and is greeted by her brother Govinda and her shrewish sister-in-law, who desires to marry her to his delinquent and deformed brother. Parvati somehow meets Shankar a handsome lawer and both fall in love. A dominant person in the town is Prakash, a way-ward and lecherous Zamindar, who excels in seducing and at times even kidnapping young girls at his will.

Parvati is forcibly kidnapped by Prakash one evening and is subjected to a fate worse than death.

Now a ruined woman, Parvati attempts to commit suicide but is saved. She, therefore, renounces the world to dedicate herself in Janseva Ashram, a charitable hospital as a nurse under the charge of a kindly Swamiji. She is lost to her relations and to Shankar.

One day a young man, severely injured in an accident, is brought to the charitable hospital. The injured young is Shankar. Parvati is overwhelmed by her love for Shankar and without caring hide her identity she starts nursing him with love and dedicated care. Shankar recovers fast and forces Parvati to quit the hospital.

Parvati returns home and now Shankar insists on early marriage. Parvati now decides to reveal her 'past' to Shankar before her marriage. Somehow fate plays a trick with the letter, she writes to Shankar. Shankar and Parvati are married. In course of time a lovely male-child is born to them.

One evening Shankar and Parvati celebrate their wedding anniversary and presto! There appears on the scene Prakash, the villain of the piece. The villain, drunk with ego, power, pelf and the civil within him, reveals Parvati's "past" with a bravado.

The man-dominated society, instead of prosecuting Prakash and punishing him for his misdeed, pounces upon the helpless victim, Parvati. She is driven from the house and is named a 'Kulta' (an adultress).

One day Parvati faces the court of law on a charge of murder. She has murdered Prakash to save her child from death and she is not sorry for what she has done. She has to redeem her honour. She must punish the wrong-doer in the man-made society, which tends to protect a criminal if he is a male and persecute his victim if she is a female.

The film MILAN KI RAAT, like a trial of a woman, who redeems herself against a rapist, is a drama in which you, with every member of your family have to participate.

You must see this film not only as a cinegoer but also as a member of the jury to pass your independent judgment on the trial and tribulation of an accused like Parvati and hundreds and thousands like her who are subjected to a similar fate. "MILAN KI RAAT" should not only be a film-entertainment but also a provocation for every cinegoer to think.

(From the official press booklet)