Runaway Bride:
As a tribute to Waheeda Rehman for winning this year’s Dadasaheb Phalke Award, a flashback to one of her early films:
Dev Anand was already a top star in 1958, but Solva Saal was Waheeda Rehman’s first major lead role and she was not just dazzlingly beautiful but also a superb actress.
Directed by Raj Khosla, Solva Saal was loosely inspired by Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night, and takes place in the span of a few hours. Laj (Waheeda Rehman) is in love with Shyam (Jagdev), who is only interested in her money. He sulks, she sings Yeh bhi koi rooth ne ka mausam hai to pacify him and then agrees to elope with him that night.
Her father (Bipin Gupta) has decided to arrange a match for her, and is planning to leave for Bangalore the next morning to meet the man’s mother. He asks Laj to wake him up at five for him to catch his flight and meet the groom to be at the airport.
Laj has already decides to run away. She takes a necklace of precious pearls that once belonged to her mother and meets Shyam at the station. In the train, a passenger dozing on the next berth, overhears their conversation and his ears perk up. He is a journalist, Pran Kashyap (Dev Anand) and is travelling with his photographer friend Gogi (Sunder). Once Pran prevents Shyam from slipping away with the necklace, by pulling the chain. He also sings the playful Hai apna dil to awaara just to annoy the two. As soon as he gets a chance Shyam decamps with the necklace..
Laj gets off the train to follow him and Pran follows her. He saves her from being hit by a train, but an annoyed and frightened Laj does not want his help– he offers it anyway. He takes her to a taxi stand to trace the driver who took Shyam as a passenger. (Another great S. D. Burman number, Yahi to hai woh.)
The cab had dropped Shyam at a film studio, so Laj and Pran make their way there. At the studio, Shyam is flirting with an actress, Neena (Kammo) and showing off the necklace. She tells him to sell it to a jeweller and get married with the money. Pran tells Gogi who is also at the studio to keep a look out for Shyam, while he takes Laj to the police station. To his surprise, Laj refuses to make a complaint and leaves, with Pran following close behind. Sorry for the distress she will cause her family, Laj jumps into the river to commit suicide.
Pran rescues her and coaxes the story out of her. They go to a washerman’s hut to dry their clothes and are given spare clothes by the dhobi and sent to a room to change, in the belief that they are husband wife. Drawing the curtains to change shyly, this is the moment when love strikes. Outside the washerwoman (Sheila Vaz) sings Mohe laaga solva saal.
Pran promises Laj that he will help her retrieve the necklace and take her back home before her father wakes up. At the studio, Neena conspires with the jeweller to tell Shyam that the necklace is fake. But she wears it anyway, and on the way to give her shot, gets rid of the jeweller too, planning to keep the booty for herself.
Pran and Laj are recruited as extras for a dance number and Gogi spots Shyam in Neena’s room. The plan to retrieve the necklace is afoot on the studio floor, where Raj Khosla plays the director of the film being shot. Tun Tun makes an appearance as a South Indian actress saving Laj from a lecher. She also sings a bhajan so well that an assistant director tells her to go in for playback singing. In real life, Tun Tun had been a singer called Uma Devi before she became typecast as the fat comedienne.
There is a really thrilling chase over the studio catwalks and it is not a spoiler to reveal that Laj does get back home with the necklace before her father wakes up. It is not a surprise either to see Laj’s intended at the airport, who sees her and exults, Yehi to hai woh.
The film was entertaining and dripped with charm; the chemistry between the lead pair was sparkling. There was a kind of innocence to the film—the audience could be sure nothing bad would happen to Laj with Pran watching over her, and that she will get the happiness she deserves.
(This is an edited version of chapter in my book, Take 2: 50 Films That Deserve A New Audience, published by Hay House in 2015)
