Underplayed Gems

Aar Paar (1954)

Aar Paar poster
Original title
आर पार
Directed by
Guru Dutt
Genre
drama film, comedy film, musical film, romance film
Country
India
Runtime
2h 26m
Rated
U
Rating
5.6 of 10 from 8 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A taxi driver gets involved with a wealthy heiress and the criminal underworld. The film follows his adventures as he tries to win her heart while navigating scams and romance in Bombay.

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What happens

Aar Paar (transl. This or That) is a 1954 Indian Hindi-language noir comedy film. Directed by Guru Dutt, it has music by O.P. Nayyar and lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri. Aar-Paar stars Johnny Walker, Shyama, Shakila, Jagdeep, Jagdish Sethi. Raj Khosla and Atma Ram, Guru Dutt's brother assisted Guru Dutt in film direction. It is written in an article by ThePrint, which states "the beauty of Aar Paar's dialogue is that every character speaks in a language that reflects where they're from, their upbringing and education. Instead of one-size-fits-all Hindi, there's a bit of Punjabi, a bit of Parsi, inflections of Urdu, a smattering of street Bambaiyya, some heartland Hindi mixed with clumsy English. That attention to detail not only made the dialogue more authentic to the character, but also to the city of Bombay, long known for its cosmopolitan population." The film had very popular music. The album of the film was ranked #34 in the list of "Best Bollywood Albums of all time" by Film Companion. It was also named the "Best Album of Golden Era" for the year 1954 in the 7th Mirchi Music Awards, 2014. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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