Pardesi 1957

Pardesi is a 1957 Indian Bollywood historical film released on 1957. The film is directed by V. M. Pronin.

The memoirs of a traveller. Perhaps the first Russian to visit India. Afanasi (Oleg) is a young and restless Russian man who has travelled far across other countries and he wants to travel further. His family consists of a blind father, an old mother and two young sisters who have tried everything to make him a family man but in vain. His fiance has also given up on him. Finally, the day comes when he gets the opportunity to visit India, the rich country no Russian has ever succeeded in reaching. However, it is not an easy trip. It is said that only an insane person would venture into such a land. Three oceans, deserts, pirates are some of the hurdles in his path. Afanasi and one of his friends leave for India. Afanasi is very confident and optimistic about reaching the Indian shores. He also notes down all the details in his diary that he keeps updating. But his culprit friend has other plans. He abandons Afanasi and proceeds forth on his own. Overcoming all the hurdles, Afanasi finally reaches Indian shores. He is amazed to see the Indians, their culture and lifestyle. His horse is confiscated and Afanasi is asked to present someone who will vouch for him. In his hunt, the disillusioned foreigner comes across a crying old couple whose beautiful daughter Champa (Nargis) is dying of a snake bite. Afanasi is kind enough to offer them the medicine that he is carryin. Afanasi has found a friend in Sakharam (Balraj Sahani) who lives away from society, sings songs and earns his living. They both give good company to each other, but Afanasi has to move on. He needs to meet the Sultan to discuss the trade associations between the two countries. However, it is not easy to find access to the Sultan (Prithviraj Kapoor) and his only hope is the courtesan Laxmi. During the Indian monsoon, Afanasi is stranded in a village which happens to be Champa's village. Her family welcomes the stranger who saved their daughter's life. He takes shelter in their home till the end of the monsoon. During his stay, he and Champa fall in love with each other , but they can't marry each other due to the differences in their culture, religion and lifestyle. Also Champa was already engaged to someone else since her childhood. On his way back to Russia, after completing his assignment, Afanasi falls into trouble again and that is when Sakharam again comes to help his friend. A beautiful story without any melodrama.

A Nehruite Indo-Soviet co-production made in the wake of the Kuschow thaw about the first Russain to set up a trading mission in India in the 15th C. The Muscovite Afansasi (Oleg) travels to Indian down the Volga, across Irans deserts and the Arabian sea. In India he meets the fair maiden Champa (Nargis) through whom he discovers Indian civilisation. The film was shot on numerous tourist locations in India. The Russain version ran for 76 only. Pronoin is known mainly for making an early Tadzhik feature in 1947 (Son of Tadhazikistan) and the first Kirghiz feature, Saltanat (1955). *.* Up to the fifteenth century, no travellers from Europe had arrived in India. But, through the trade routes of central Asia, the fame of India, of the high level of her culture and civilization, had already spread to all the great cities of the Western world, to Rome and Venice, Athens and London and even to far-off Moscow. . Afanasi was a dreamer, who was also endowed with a practical common sense and the will and energy necessary to turn his dreams into reality. His mother wanted him to give up his wanderlust, to get married and settle down, but the lure of India was irresistible for Afanasi. And so, he sailed down the Volga, braved no less than three seas, encountered robbers and pirates, walked across the waterless of Iran and Arabia, sailed in an Arab dhow across the Indian Ocean, and eventually landed on the west coast of India at Chaul, then a flourishing port, a few miles from the morden city of Bombay. . Afansais discovery of India was through the simple Indian people he met and befriend during the three years he stayed in this country. . On the same day that he landed at Chaul, he earned the greatitude of an old peasant couple by saving the life of their only daughter who had been bitten by a snake. But before they could thank him he quietly and unobtrusively slipped away, only to find that meanwhile someone had stolen his horse. The `thief turned out to be no less than the Governor of Junnar, and it was only with the help of his two friends, the wise wandering bard Sakharam and Hasan Beg, the Iranian Ambassador with whom Afanasi had travelled upto Hormuz and who now providently turned up in India, that he was able to recover his horse and to set out on his Indian Travels. . As he was riding through a village, the monsoon broke out and he was obliged to take shelter in a peasants house-it turned out to be the same family he had met at Chaul. They insisted on their benefactor staying with them during the season of the rains, as the roads would be impassable for many months. It was now that Afanasi met Champa, the daughter of the house and she too at last saw the stranger who had saved her life. And that night as, dressed in the Indian clothes of Champas father, Afanasi sat down to taste his first Indian meal, he was a member of the family. . During the weeksand monthd that he lived with his poor but kind hosts, Afanasi learnt that the real India indeed, lived in the villages. And as he listened to Champas song of The Rain which she sang as she went about her daily chores, he left that he was listening to the melodious voice of India herself. Unknown even to himself he was developing a tender feeling for the Indian girl, but it was only in his dream that he could think of her as the bride that he would like to take to his in far-off Russia! On her part, as she came to know his ideals, his friendly amiable nature, and his strong up-right character, she too could not help admiring the daring young man who had traversed half the world to come to her country. . But when Afanasi came to know that Champas parents had already arranged her marriage, he decided unobtrusively to take his leave, preferring to suffer a broken heart than cause embarassment to his Indian hosts. . And so Afanasi and Champa parted, each resolved to sacrifice their happiness and to sublimate their love for the sake of the good name of their families, their countries and their people. . Leaving the village, Afanasi wandered all over the country, he saw great cities with magnificient temple, mosques and places, he met Lakshmi the beautiful Court-dancer who was so fascinated by the handsome stranger that she was prepared to sacrifice everything for his shake; he met the great scholar-stateman Mahmood Gawan, the Prime Minister of Bidar-but all through his wanderings the image of Champa was ever with him, for Champa was not just a beautiful girl he loved, she was the embodiment of the beauty and grace, the modesty and simple wisdom of her country and her people whom Afanasi had learnt to love like his own. . To Champa, Champas family, to his friend Sakhram, and to thousands of other Indians whom he had befriended during the three years he spent travelling in India, Afanasi, when he left, was no longer a `Pardesi a stranger or a foreigner. He had secured a place in their hearts, even as he was leaving behind a part of his own heart with them. . Across five centuries, the song that Sakharam sang when Afanasi sailed away, comes to us with a new significance: "Far away you shall go, but only far from our eyes, In our heartsyou shall dwell for ever- A hundred times you will come back to us in the ages to come, We shall meet again, my friend, we shall meet again!" Check out this page for more updates on Pardesi.