Movie: Mahal Pictures’ Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayi (1960) was produced by S A Bagar and directed by Kishore Sahu. The movie starred late Meena Kumari, late Raaj Kumar, late Nadira, late Tun Tun, late Shammi (not Shammi Kapoor, this is a female actor), late Om Prakash, Baby Naaz, etc.
Surgeon Sushil Verma (Raaj Kumar) lives in his quarters on the hospital grounds with his aging mother and younger sister Munni (Kumari Naaz). Sushil’s father died years ago and he is indebted to his father’s close friend, who paid for his medical education. Sushil’s mother feels that they need to repay the debt in some way.
Nurse Karuna (Meena Kumari) comes to the hospital and assists Dr. Verma during an emergency surgery. Both of them fall for each other but keep their feelings under control.
During a beach picnic with the other nurses, Karuna sees Munni injure herself while playing. Karuna takes Munni back to the latter’s house. Munni turns out to be Dr. Verma’s sister. She dresses Munni’s wounds. Then, she does some work at his home, – the normal routine work like cleaning and cooking since his mother is ill. Dr. Verma comes out of the bathroom and sees her taking care of his home. He falls even more in love with her.
Things are going smoothly, until the time Dr. Verma’s mother decides a family trip to Kashmir and convinces him to marry Kusum (Nadira), the daughter of the man who paid for his medical education. They return home and though Karuna is devastated when she finds out about Dr. Verma’s marriage, she manages to hide the fact. Kusum is a spoilt brat. She throws tantrums at the drop of a hat. She creates a lot of problems for Dr. Verma in his line of duty as a doctor.
When the hospital celebrates the silver jubilee function, Dr. Verma and Karuna’s closeness becomes apparent. Kusum does not like it. Kusum’s tantrums increase and she goes to the extent of injuring Munni. Dr. Verma gets frustrated with his wife. One day, one of the in-patients (Om Prakash) dies because Dr. Verma cannot reach on time, though Karuna had informed Kusum about it. Kusum had lied that he had gone out. The couple was actually leaving for the club at that time.
Dr. Verma gets to know about Kusum giving Karuna wrong information about him and he comes home and hits Kusum. Feeling insulted, she goes back to Kashmir. On Diwali, Munni brings Karuna back to her home. Dr. Verma’s mother is ill and unable to cook, so Karuna takes over. She does all the household work and Dr. Verma’s mother realizes that Karuna would have made a better wife for Dr. Verma. When Munni says the same thing to Dr. Verma in front of Karuna, Karuna runs away from there.
Karuna tries to resign to get away from it all. But, the head of the hospital Dr. Malhotra (Kumar) insists that they still need an efficient nurse like her and rejects her resignation. Soon, she gets to have a change at least for a couple of days. Some distance away from the hospital a railway accident had occurred and the hospital had selected her as the nurse to accompany the ambulance. But, Dr. Verma is going with them. She realized this when it was too late.
The journey is very uncomfortable for her because Dr. Verma keeps looking at her all the while. They reach the station and begin their treatment to the injured. Karuna is given a room for the night and Dr. Verma has to make do with a seat in the station. It rains and in the rain, Dr. Verma is tempted to knock the door of Karuna’s room. Karuna gets worried. But, Dr. Verma goes away. When the rain subsides, she goes out to see him. He is laying on a seat outside wet and unconscious. Karuna breaks down and takes him back to the hospital.
Dr. Verma is delirious and keeps calling Karuna. Kusum, who had left Dr. Verma, returns and hears her husband calling a mere nurse as his love. She compels Dr. Malhotra to shift her husband to Dr. Verma’s quarters. Dr. Malhotra insists that if she does so, they would not be responsible if anything happens to the patient.
After Dr. Verma recovers, Kusum insists that he resign. But, he goes to the hospital to look for Karuna. No one tells him anything. He goes to the rocky beach to spend time in his depressed and sorrowful condition. Here a street singer sings this song st this time.
Song: The award-winning music score is by Shankar-Jaikishan and the lyrics penned by Shailendra.
The gist of the song is, “Where did she go? She has taken my heart with her.”
Video: Cinematography is by Josef Wirsching. Dance choreography by Surya Kumar-Satyanarayan-Sohanlal.
The video opens with Raaj Kumar sitting on the rocks and the music beginning. A female singer plays the harmonium and a male one strums the guitar. As the man, holding the guitar, begins to sing, another man with a dholak comes close to him. All the 3 begin to dance, as well. The next shot shows Raaj Kumar thinking in the same vein.
Soon, Raaj Kumar looks helpless as the song continues. A crowd has collected around the singers. Raaj Kumar has tears in his eyes. There is a little boy as well, who is dancing with them. The song peters out. Raaj Kumar is still sorrowful and the video ends there.
Artists: Mohammad Rafi sings the playback and Raaj Kumar and others have performed onscreen.
Cultural Influence: This is a sad song in the guise of a happy one. The hero is depressed that the heroine has left the hospital. The song sung by a street singer expresses the same feelings. The song and the artists are good. The video is watchable for the same.
