Nagina (1951)

A man's attempt to clear his father's name leads him to a crumbling mansion inhabited by a mysterious young woman...

Director:

Ravindra Dave

Stars:

Nutan, Nasir Khan, Bipin Gupta

Cast

Cast overview:
Nutan	...	Mukta
Nasir Khan	...	Shreenath (as Nasir)
Bipin Gupta	...	Raiji
Hiralal	...	Nihal
Mohana	...	Lily
Goldstein	...	Goonga
Gope	...	Dixit
Shyamlal	...	Shreenath's father (as Shamlal)
Michael

Storyline

Twelve years ago, Shreenath's father was accused of murdering a woman and disappeared into the night. He hasn't been seen since, and is now believed to be dead himself. Hoping to prove his father's innocence and discover his ultimate fate, Shreenath returns to the scene of the crime. He discovers that a crumbling mansion and its labyrinth of underground tunnels are the hunting grounds in a search for a ring containing the priceless Nagina stone. He also meets Mukta, a beautiful and enigmatic young woman. Can she help him unlock the mystery amongst the ghostly ruins?

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Plot Keywords:

underground tunnel | ring | magical stone | ghostly voice | snake | 

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Genres:

Mystery | Romance | Thriller

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Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

By 1951 standards this film was considered too frightening for children (rated: 'A'). The film's 15 year old star, Nutan, was escorted by family friend Shammi Kapoor to the film's premier, but was not allowed into the theater.

User Reviews

Worth watching for fans of the golden age

Nutan shows much promise (if not the depth and nuance of her later roles) and of course exceptional beauty in one of her earliest films. The music by Shanker & Jaikishen is typically great: for me, this if nothing else makes the film worth watching. A couple of musical numbers, including the initial one, feature a female singer ("picturized" I suppose) with a chorus of women dancers, all in Western dress. The first one especially shows Western influence in the music and dancing, like big band boogie-woogie. Very peppy. The second number with this group features an all-girl band dressed in sailor suits. Both numbers also feature the fat comic relief male neighbor. The romantic male lead (Nasir Khan) picturizes 3 songs that are also extremely well-wrought; I wish I knew who the singer was. But honestly his songs were less to my personal taste, as they are basically of the pretty, lovesick hero variety. One has to be in the right mood.

The film has a good look. At first it seems like it's a ghost story, and there are atmospheric night scenes.

I don't speak Hindi, and the subtitles appeared to translate only the first few phrases of any speech. That was kind of annoying, but at least there were subtitles.