Pooja (1940 film)

{{Infobox film

| name = Pooja

| image = Pooja 1940.jpg

| caption =

| director = Abdul Rashid Kardar

| producer = National Studios

| writer = M. Sadiq

| narrator =

| starring = {{ubl|Sardar Akhtar|Sitara Devi|Zahur Raja|Jyoti|Sunalini Devi}}

| music = Anil Biswas

| cinematography = P. G. Kukde

| editing =

| studio = National Studios

| distributor =

| released = {{Film date|1940}}

| runtime = 191 minutes

| country = India

| language = Hindi

| budget =

| gross =

}}

Pooja (Worship) is a 1940 Indian Hindi/Urdu-language psychological drama film directed by A. R. Kardar.{{cite book|author1=Gulazāra|author2=Saibal Chatterjee|title=Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8y8vN9A14nkC&pg=PT593|accessdate=27 March 2015|year=2003|publisher=Popular Prakashan|isbn=978-81-7991-066-5|pages=593–}} The music director was Anil Biswas, with lyrics by Khan Shatir Ghaznavi. Produced by National Studios, the story, screenplay and dialogue writer was M. Sadiq and the cinematographer was P. G. Kukde.{{cite web|title=Pooja (1940)|url=https://indiancine.ma/DDL/info|website=indiancine.ma|accessdate=27 March 2015}} The film starred Sardar Akhtar, Zahur Raja, Sitara Devi, Jyoti, Sankatha Prasad, Sunalini Devi, Bhudo Advani and Baby Meena (Meena Kumari).{{cite web|title=Pooja (1940)|url=http://www.citwf.com/film275077.htm|website=citwf.com|publisher=Alan Goble|accessdate=27 March 2015}}

The story involves two sisters, Rama and Lachhi. The younger sister Lachhi, is raped by the rejected suitor of the other sister and gets pregnant. The film then follows the child being brought up by Rama while the real mother, Lachhi, works as a maid in the same house.{{cite book|author1=Ashish Rajadhyaksha|author2=Paul Willemen|title=Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rF8ABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1994-IA379|accessdate=27 March 2015|date=10 July 2014|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-135-94325-7|pages=1994–}}

Plot

File:Pooja_(1940).jpg, Sardar Akhtar and Baby Meena in a still from the film]]

Two sisters Rama (Sardar Akhtar) and Lachhi (Sitara Devi) spend their time teasing each other. Rama's marriage is fixed with Darpan (Zahur Raja). However, the marriage is called off and Rama is married off to someone else. Unable to bear the humiliation, Darpan supposedly rapes Lachhi, as it's not made clear whether she was a willing partner. In the meantime, Rama's husband dies and she is now living a widowed life. When its learnt that Lachhi is pregnant, Rama takes her in and brings up Bina (Baby Meena) as her own daughter. Bina assumes Lachhi is just a maid working in her house. Much later, Bina finds out the truth about Lachhi being her mother.

Cast

Sardar Akhtar as Rama
Zahur Raja as Darpan
Sitara Devi as Lachhi
Baby Meena as Bina
Kanhaiyalal
Bhudo Advani
Sankatha Prasad
Sunalini Devi
Sayani Atish
Satish
Amir Bano

Production

File:Filmindia1940filmPooja.jpg

Pooja deals with the "shattering consequences of feudal sexual codes".{{cite book|author=Tapan K Ghosh|title=Bollywood Baddies: Villains, Vamps and Henchmen in Hindi Cinema|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0d6GAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA12|accessdate=22 March 2015|date=26 March 2013|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-81-321-1326-3|pages=12–}}

Kardar was interested in themes involving "sexual abnormality". He had earlier used the idea in his film Pagal, which dealt with a "psychotic doctor" given to sexual obsession.

Sitara's role of the unwed mother in the film was appreciated.{{cite journal|last1=Patel|first1=Baburao|title=Screen shot|journal=Filmindia|date=September 1940|volume=4|issue=5|pages=27|url=https://archive.org/stream/filmindia194006unse#page/n535/mode/2up/search/Pooja|accessdate=27 March 2015|ref=Photo write-up}}

Soundtrack

The music director was Anil Biswas, while the lyricist was Shatir Ghaznavi. The singers were Sitara Devi, Sardar Akhtar, Zahur Raja, Jyoti, Tara Harish and Anil Biswas.{{cite web|title=Pooja (1940)|url=http://muvyz.com/moviepage/lh236482/songs/#tabs |website=muvyz.com|publisher=Muvyz, Ltd.|accessdate=27 March 2015}}