Naya Sansar

1941 Indian film

1941 (1941)

Running time

158 minutesCountryIndiaLanguageHindustani

Naya Sansar ("New World") is a 1941 Indian Hindustani-language film on radical journalism, directed by reporter turned director, N. R. Acharya (1909–1993), and written by a journalist himself, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, who started his film career with this film. It won him the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Award for the best story and screenplay.^[1]^[2]

It features dialogues by Shaheed Latif and J. S. Kashyap; and stars Renuka Devi (1918–1989) and Ashok Kumar in the lead roles.This film later inspired Khwaja Ahmad Abbas to name his production house as "Naya Sansar" Productions

Overview

The film was written by Abbas, who was a film critic at that time. He used his journalistic background to create a story about the rising radicalism in Indian society and journalism. The story addressed the conflict between a dynamic young reporter and his cautious, yet idealistic, editor of the fictional progressive newspaper, 'Sansar'. The story line revolved around the editor, Premchand (Mubarak), who is in love with a beautiful orphan named Asha (Renuka Devi), whom his family has raised from an infant. Soon after Asha starts working for the paper, she falls in love with Sansar's star reporter and dedicated radical-journalist, Puran (Ashok Kumar). Asha, however, still feels indebted to Premchand's family.

When Premchand starts to hedge on his radicalism by dealing with the evil Dhaniram, Puran quits, and starts his own newspaper, "Naya Sansar". Premchand quickly sees the error of his ways, and not only returns to the paper's previous left-wing stance, but also condones the marriage of Asha and Puran.

Cast

Credits adapted from the film's pressbook:^[3]

Renuka Devi as Asha
Ashok Kumar as Karanpriya
Mubarak as Prem Chand
Shahnawaz as Shamsher Singh
V. H. Desai as Chacha
Jagannath as Dhaniram
David as Mr. Sharma
Suresh as Bhola
P. F. Pithawala as Kallu
Azurie as Zarinah

Songs

Mera Mann Kho Gaya; singer: Ashok Kumar.^[4]
Mai Harijan Ki Chori ; singer: Rajkumari Dubey, Arun Kumar

Awards

1942: BFJA Awards: Best Screenplay: KA Abbas^[5]

References

^ "Gomolo.com". Archived from the original on 2 March 2021. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
^ Rajadhyaksha, Ashish; Willemen, Paul (1999). Encyclopaedia of Indian cinema. British Film Institute. ISBN 9780851706696. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
^ "Naya Sansar (1941 film) Pressbook". Endangered Archives Programme. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
^ Naya Sansar
^ 5th Annual BFJA Awards - Awards For The Year 1941 Archived 8 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine BFJA Awards Official website.