Gaban (ग़बन)

Released in 1966
9/10
Genre- Drama, Romance, Crime
Main Cast: Sunil Dutt, Sadhna
Music- Shankar-Jaikishan
Screenplay: Based on Munshi Premchand’s much-acclaimed 1931
classic, “Gaban (ग़बन)”.
Direction- Krishan Chopra, Hirshikesh Mukherjee

BRIEF INTRODUCTION Based upon Munshi Premchand’s gripping classic, the story revolves around Ramanath (played by Sunil Dutt), a not-too-useful guy who uses his habit of lying to get his way in life. This habit of Ramanath is not just restricted to his friends but he also lies to his wife to make her happy. He promises her an expensive piece of jewelry that he can’t afford, and in the process of buying it becomes debt-laden. To pay the debt, he takes a terribly wrong and hasty decision and gets himself involved in nothing short of embezzlement (“ग़बन”) in his workplace. This whole incident of embezzlement then starts a series of unfortunate events and he is on the run now. What happens next forms the second half of the film.

Twists and Turns The first half of the film mostly involves the elements of romance and drama which form the basis of the so-called embezzlement but the second half is very unexpected and exciting. The embezzlement thing was just the beginning, Ramanath gets entangled in far more complicated matters which makes the second half more interesting than the first.

Performances Worth-watching performances from the leads. Sunil Dutt delivered a memorable performance as Ramanath, he peaked in his performance in all the court scenes. Sadhna delivered a confident performance as Jalpa (Ramanath’s wife). Natural performances by the rest of the cast also supported the film.

P.S. I also recommend reading the original novel “ग़बन” by Munshi Premchand along with the film.