The First Indian Movie I Heard About

My earliest memory of Dosti was my mother telling my sisters and me little bits and pieces of the story each night before we fell asleep. As a child, I loved stories so I struggled to stay awake each night to find out the next thing that would happen in the movie, as narrated by my mother. I remember those nights clearly. We were always on our best behaviour. Not a sound could be heard in the quietness of the night, except my mother’s voice talking excitedly about the movie, as the kerosene lamp flickered nearby in the dark house.  

Although electricity was widely available in Trinidad at the time, there was no electricity at home, as we lived a little distance away from the main electricity lines. I could not imagine what a cinema was like. I had previously seen a few TV shows such as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Hogan’s Heroes, Bonanza etc. at the homes of neighbors, so I had a vague idea that one could see “moving pictures” at a cinema.  

I don’t believe my mother saw Dosti when it was first released because I would have been too young to remember her nightly stories. As was the custom in those days, an Indian movie would first be displayed at the two biggest towns in the country, Port-of-Spain and San Fernando. In the weeks and months after, the movie would be shown in smaller towns around the country, finally ending up in the least populated towns. This was because there were only two or three physical “prints” of the movie in the country so the cinemas throughout the country had to wait their turn to receive one of the prints. 

Pepper Village, where we lived is about 8 miles from the closest town, Couva. There were two cinemas in Couva, the Metro and the Reno. Indian movies were mostly shown at the Metro. Regular show times were around 4:30 pm and 8:30 pm. Since the taxis from my village to Couva stopped their operations after dark, it was difficult to go to a movie in Couva unless it was on a Saturday, when there was an early show around 12:30 pm. 

Even so, with three little children on her hands, it would have been difficult for my mother to travel to Couva to see Dosti when it was first released. However, there would be other opportunities to see the movie in future years since it was common for cinema operators to repeat the showing of successful movies in later years. This is probably how my mother got to see Dosti, about three years later with my sister. 

Although I longed to see Dosti, I didn’t get a chance to see it until many more years had passed. Apart from my mother’s nightly segments, my only other memory of Dosti was the songs. Of all the Indian movie song albums that I am familiar with, I rank the songs of Dosti in the top 5. The songs of Mohammed Rafi were simply unforgettable. After more than 60 years, there is probably no one in the East Indian community who is not familiar with “Chahunga Mai Tujhe Sanjh Sawere”. Mohammed Rafi was awarded Fllmfare’s Best Playback Singer of 1964 for this song (he had already won two, one in 1960 and one in 1961). 

Two songs from Dosti will now be featured. The first song is “Chahunga Mai Tujhe Sanjh Sawere”, which Mohan sings as he wanders aimlessly from place to place after being rejected by his friend, Ramu. Mohan makes it abundantly clear in the song that he will never again call out the name of his friend, Ramu, even though he longs for Ramu day and night.