Parbat

Directed by: O. P. Dutta
Country: India
Elsewhere: IMDb

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How it feels

A man's obsessive love for a woman leads to conflict and danger. The story follows the woman as she becomes the target of his unhealthy fixation.

obsessivetensemelodramaticemotionaldarkintenseclassic

What happens

Parbat (Hindi for "The Mountain") is a 1952 Bollywood film starring Nutan, Prem Nath, K. N. Singh and Purnima. The film was produced and distributed by Varma Films and directed by O.P. Dutta. Central to the plot of Parbat is the issue of obsessive love. As recognized by Levitan and Warner, “movies about obsession definitely have an allure—it's that mixture of excitement and terror, similar to the suspense of a quality scary movie.” While movies about obsessive love have always been popular, Parbat’s notability in dealing with this issue arises from the remarkable cast and crew of the film. For example, Nutan, the female lead of the film and the object of obsessive love, held the record of five wins of the Best Actress at Filmfare for over 3 decades. As noted by Dhawan “Through her path-breaking roles, Nutan endeavored to change the mindset of the audience about the place of women in our society. She was a pioneer in the depiction of women, particularly, tortured and tormented women, on the screen.” K.N. Singh who plays the person in obsessive love, was a noteworthy and scary villain. In his own words, "Even off-screen I was a bad man. One day on my way back from shooting, I had to deliver an envelope at an address given to me by my friend. I pressed the doorbell and, from the moving curtains, I could see a woman hurrying to open the door. When she saw me standing in front of her, she screamed out in fright and ran inside leaving the door open.” Finally, O.P. Dutta, the movie's director, was the director for as many as 9 movies during his career. In his sample of the careers of 3129 movie directors, De Vany (2003) finds that 1990 out of 3129 (63%) directors made only one movie, and only 23 out of 3129 (less than 1%) directors made 9 movies. With O.P. Dutta’s career including 9 movies as a director, the above comparison benchmark is an indicator of his remarkable directorial ability. Parbat joins the ranks of lost films, with no surviving copies, but its musical soul persists in the form of audio tracks—an indispensable factor in the box-office success of Indian films. Also, some film stills of Parbat still survive and are available from the external links below and elsewhere. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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