Sunghursh
Sunghursh ("Struggle") is a 1968 Indian Hindi film directed and produced by Harnam Singh Rawail. It is based on Layli Asmaner Ayna ("Layli Does Not Go To Heaven"), 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. Sunghursh was an "Average" grosser at box-office and was the tenth highest grossing film of the year.
| Sunghursh | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Harnam Singh Rawail |
| Screenplay by | Anjana Rawail Dialogue: Gulzar and Abrar Alvi |
| Story by | Layli Asmaner Ayna by Mahasweta Devi |
| Produced by | Harnam Singh Rawail |
| Starring | Dilip Kumar Vyjayanthimala Balraj Sahni Sanjeev Kumar |
| Cinematography | R. D. Mathur |
| Edited by | Krushna Sachdev |
| Music by | Naushad |
Production company | Rahul Theatre |
| Distributed by | Shemaroo Entertainment |
Release date | 18 October 1968 |
Running time | 158 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
The music is by Naushad and lyrics for the songs are by Shakeel Badayuni. Naushad and Badayuni had worked together on many films previously and were "the most sought after" composer-lyricist duo of the time in Bollywood. Sunghursh was popularly mistaken to be a debut film of Sanjeev Kumar.
The director Harnam Singh Rawail's son Rahul Rawail, who is also a director, paid a tribute to this film by titling one of his as Jeevan Ek Sanghursh (1990) starring Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit.