indian cinema heritage foundation

Parwana (1971)

  • Release Date25/06/1971
  • GenreRomance, Thriller
  • FormatColour
  • LanguageHindi
  • Run Time93 min
  • Length3631.39 meters
  • Gauge35mm
  • Censor RatingU
  • Censor Certificate Number83980
  • Certificate Date02/05/1971
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They say that Love is a many-splendoured thing. It comes to different people in various shapes and forms. “Parwana” is the story of one such strange love, a tale of a magnificent but terrible obsession.

Kumarsen was an artist of eminence, a talented painter, and a renowned sculptor; and like the majority of his clan, he was a sensitive introvert. But no artist can achieve any degree of brilliance in his work without a strong inspiration. And herein lay the secret of Kumar’s success. He was in love with Asha. It was a blind, unreasoning love, and it had started the day Kumar had first seen Asha, when she was but a chit of a school-girl. But it was also a deep, silent love, for Kumar had never got up the nerve to tell Asha of his madness for her.

Miss Asha Varma was the only neice of a retired, jovial old pensioner, Ashok Varma, and she was truly the light of his life. As Ashok often told his good friend and neighbor, Mr. Ghosh, he was all of three things to her. He was her uncle, her father and her mother.

Kumar was a regular visitor to Ashok’s household, and in many ways, Ashok had a soft corner for this quiet, delicate artistic man. Perhaps Ashok even had a secret desire that one day Kumar would marry Asha, but he wanted Nature to take its own course. He had decided not to influence Asha’s decision in any way, for according to him this was the modern age, where girls and boys had to make up their own minds regarding their marriage partners.

But here Fate took a hand. For Asha travelled to Bangalore to take part in a musical competition, organized by the family of a distinguished tea magnate of Ooty. Asha won the competition as well as the heart of the young tea-magnate, Rajeshwar Singh. The first prize included a free trip to Ooty, and so Asha accompanied Rajesh and his family for an exciting fortnight’s holiday. Rajesh’s mother was a discerning old aristocrat, and she made no secret of her liking for Asha, while her daughter, Kamla, mischievously encouraged her bother, Rajesh in his courtship of Asha.

It was a whirlwind romance, and before the fortnight was over it was decided that Rajesh would shift his headquarters to Bombay, and everything looked rosy and bright to the young couple. When Asha returned home, Kumar immediately sensed something was amiss. Considering him to be her good friend and well-wisher, Asha told him the entire story of her romance, and asked him to intercede with her uncle on her behalf, since she was shy to talk to the old man herself.

At this disclosure, the world of Kumar crashed around his ears, and now, when it was too late, he revealed to Asha his own great passion for her. Asha sympathized with him, but told him that she was helpless, and expected of him as a gentleman to try and get over his weakness for her.

In time, Rajesh arrived in Bombay, and was given a rightly royal reception by Asha and her uncle. Kumar tried his best to suppress his surging emotions for Asha, but as the days progressed, and Kumar was forced to witness the growing nearness of Asha and Rajesh, he could not control himself. A little seed of jealousy deep in his heart, grew with every passing moment till it had assumed such proportions that a violent outlet seemed the only solution.

One stormy night, Kumar tried to hold Ashok Varma to his unsaid promise of giving him Asha’s hand in marriage, but the interview ended in unpleasantness for both of them, as angrily the old man ordered Kumar never to darken his door-step ever again.

Soon after Ashok Varma was strangled to death.

It was a shocking and brutal murder that hit the morning headlines, and the finger of guilt pointed unswervingly to Rajesh. A conscientious police force and a dominating public prosecutor completed the work started by Kumar, and it was a foregone conclusion that the maximum penalty would be levied on Rajesh for his heinous crime against society.

Was Rajesh really the killer of Ashok Varma? What became of Asha’s love? How did Kumar straighten out the problems of his life? See all the answers in “PARWANA”.

(From the official press booklet)

Cast

Crew

Films by the same director