In the later part of her career Nargis did a few movies with different actors and Lajwanti is one of them with Nargis paired with Balraj Sahani. The story is about a happy family of Lawyer Nirmalo Kumar, his lovely wife Kabita ( Nargis ) and their baby daughter Renu. World falls apart when Nirmal's younger brother Sunil starts a portrait session with Kabita and eventually Nirmal throws her out of the house because of suspicion of an affair. The acting performance of Balraj Sahani and Nargis is commendable specially Nargis displayed a very restrained woman in distress but never really broke down and took things at her own terms. When they get together again and Nargis gets introduced to now grown up Kumari Naaz , we see a superb performance by Kumari Naaz as the angry young daughter refusing to accept Nargis as her real mother. After she did a splendid role in Raj Kapoor's Boot Polish, I think this is the movie where she displayed her best acting performance. She was just marvelous as the young uncompromising Renu. The music though from the master S.D. Burman did not click that much and can be said as so so. Radhakishan was excellent as the side kick. Sachin Bhowmick's story and the script is admirable. The movie is enjoyable with good story and camera work.
4 Reviews
An extremely matured family drama for 50s bollywood which holds powerful feminist perspective too.
SAMTHEBESTEST18 May 2021
Lajwanti (1958) :
Brief Review -
An extremely matured family drama for 50s bollywood which holds powerful feminist perspective too. While watching Lajwanti, i wanted to call it a powerful feminist drama until it turned into a complete family in the second half. That still didn't let me forget how powerful feminist perspectives it showcased earlier so i think that's something which separates Lajwanti from other typical family dramas of old bollywood. The film is about Kavita, a loyal housewife, who is wrongly accused for illicite activities by her husband and society had to leave the house and her daughter. Soon after she leaves, the husband realises his mistake and tries to reconcile but fate has planned something different for them. After 10 years they reconcile but only to see bad implications on their daughter. Lajwanti presents the leading lady in very powerful avatar which was missing in family dramas of that time. We used to see only crying and enduring faces then, but thankfully Lajwanti shows us the sensibile, motivating and fighter side of a woman. On the other side, it brings maturity in that immature character of a daughter which is again a very sensible move and quite progressive idea too. Nargis never fails to deliver the promises and Lajwanti is no different. She is fab as Kavita in every scene. The child artist Kumari Naaz gives a remarkable performance that will be remembered for years. How confident she was and how matured her acting skills were. Balraj Sahni is good as always, this man never disappoints. Lajwanti has nice situational music, fine dialogues, high-end emotions of matured sense and great direction of Narendra Suri. Overall, Lajwanti is a Classic combo of Family Drama and Powerful Woman orientation. A deserving National Award.
RATING - 8/10*
By - #samthebestest.
An extremely matured family drama for 50s bollywood which holds powerful feminist perspective too. While watching Lajwanti, i wanted to call it a powerful feminist drama until it turned into a complete family in the second half. That still didn't let me forget how powerful feminist perspectives it showcased earlier so i think that's something which separates Lajwanti from other typical family dramas of old bollywood. The film is about Kavita, a loyal housewife, who is wrongly accused for illicite activities by her husband and society had to leave the house and her daughter. Soon after she leaves, the husband realises his mistake and tries to reconcile but fate has planned something different for them. After 10 years they reconcile but only to see bad implications on their daughter. Lajwanti presents the leading lady in very powerful avatar which was missing in family dramas of that time. We used to see only crying and enduring faces then, but thankfully Lajwanti shows us the sensibile, motivating and fighter side of a woman. On the other side, it brings maturity in that immature character of a daughter which is again a very sensible move and quite progressive idea too. Nargis never fails to deliver the promises and Lajwanti is no different. She is fab as Kavita in every scene. The child artist Kumari Naaz gives a remarkable performance that will be remembered for years. How confident she was and how matured her acting skills were. Balraj Sahni is good as always, this man never disappoints. Lajwanti has nice situational music, fine dialogues, high-end emotions of matured sense and great direction of Narendra Suri. Overall, Lajwanti is a Classic combo of Family Drama and Powerful Woman orientation. A deserving National Award.
RATING - 8/10*
By - #samthebestest.
Great drama do not miss it . . .
Shailesh-220 December 2000
The greatest thing about this family drama is that the story to my knowledge has not been repeated in any other Hindi movie. The child actress Naaz has given performance of her life time. Only weak link in the movie may be the music which is partly good partly average. Other than that you are guaranteed a great time.
More appreciable 😲😲😲😲😲
akc-0385022 December 2020
I think give must watch title to this movie, and it's acting should be appreciated, wow 😲😲😲 what a great movie 🎥🎥🎥,
But I got disappointed when I saw its rating on IMDb, no more users rated it,
And I think I would not be controversial to say that no more audience are in India.
Well I will more appreciate it, and I'm so lucky that I got a chance to watch this.
I will give it ten in ten
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