Director: Chetan Anand; Writer: Chetan Anand, N. Gogol’s The Inspector General; Cinematographer: V. Ratra; Cast: Dev Anand, Suraiya, Ruma Devi, Kanhaiyalal, Rashid, Mohan Segal, Krishna Dhawan, Anand Pal, Zohra Segal, Manmohan Krishna
Summary: Chetan Anand’s 2nd film (after Neecha Nagar, 1946), launching Navketan, continues his engagement with classic Soviet literature, although a Filmindia review suggested the film was based on the Henry Koster-Danny Kaye version (1949) of Gogol’s play. The journalist Kapur (Dev Anand) comes to a village run by corrupt politicians led by the village tehsildar (Kanhaiyalal). They mistake him for a government inspector and treat him like a VIP. The expose of rural politics is intercut with a love story between Kapur and the tehsildar’s sister Bimala (Suraiya). The film substantially determined the style, and the key unit, characteristic of Navketan’s 50s productions.
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