Sunghursh

Sunghursh (1968)

संघर्ष

Bhavani Prasad is a powerful thug, who masquerades as a priest. His son Shankar refused to follow his path so he wants his grandson Kundan to carry on the legacy. When his son protests, in a fit of rage, Bhavani gets Shankar killed and passes the buck to his cousin Naubat Lal. When Naubat Lal spills the beans he gets him killed as well, which deepens the family feud.

Date of release
1968-07-27
TMDB
8.0 / 10 (1)
Runtime
2h 38m
Genres
Drama, Action, Crime
Director
Harnam Singh Rawail

Casting

Interesting facts

Sunghursh ("Struggle") is a 1968 Indian Hindi film directed and produced by Harnam Singh Rawail. It is based on Layli Asmaner Ayna, a short story in Bengali language by Jnanpith Award-winning writer Mahasweta Devi, which presents a fictionalised account of a vendetta within a thuggee cult in the holy Indian town of Varanasi. It stars Dilip Kumar, Vyjayanthimala, Balraj Sahni, Sanjeev Kumar, Jayant, Deven Verma, Durga Khote and Iftekhar. The film was the last one to see Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala working together.

Production

Director Rawail had considered Sadhana to play the lead actress of the film. He had waited for months to sign her in his Mere Mehboob (1963). But now the actress had developed thyroid problems and took a break from acting for treatment in Boston. Eventually, Rawail signed Vyjayanthimala for the role. Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala who had worked together for Naya Daur (1957) were then said to have a romantic affair.

When the film was near completion, it was rumoured that with the increasing conflicts between the two leading actors, Vyjayanthimala would be replaced by another actress, Waheeda Rehman. Rehman had already replaced Vyjayanthimala in another Hindi film starring Kumar, Ram Aur Shyam, (1967) which was being shot simultaneously with Sunghursh. Vyjayanthimala readily declined the claim of her leaving the film when it was about to finish its shooting.

Sanjeev Kumar, who had previously acted in theatre and other smaller film productions, was noticed through his performance of a negative role in Sunghursh, and he then shot to fame. He was commended for his role while a newcomer as compared with established actors like Dilip Kumar and Balraj Sahni. The film was popularly mistaken to be his debut.

As Sunghursh was set in Varanasi during the 19th century, Rawail took special care about the costumes and sets to create the look for the period. The actor-director Rajesh Roshan had worked as an assistant director on the film.

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