A rare instance of a reformist and movie maker.
B R Chopra started his career as an investigative journalist, today he is known better as a moviemaker. B.R. Chopra is a rare instance of a social reformer, who took to movie making as he felt that movies were a better and richer media to project and propagate his views.
He has done so in film after film with tremendous courage. He advocated the cause of widow remarriage in Ek Hi Rasta, conflict between man and machine and the eventual triumph of man in Naya Daur, exploiting children castigated by society in Dhool Ka Phool, Hindu-Muslim unity in Dharamputra.Abolition of capital judgement in Kanoon, man-woman relationship in Gumrah, man and his destiny and the eventual triumph of destiny over man in Waqt. All this coupled with small-budget, start-to-finish movies like Ittefaq, Dhund and Insaaf Ka Tarazu demonstrate more than anything else his commitment to life and mankind. B R Chopra then made the most expensive film The Burning Train, this film had one of the biggest star ever in Indian cinema and it highlighted man's confrontation with nature and the triumph of nature and science. A bold purposeful theme once again, highly appreciated, but it did not do well at the box-office. Nevertheless, he continues making film after film, mostly on his own social-reforming ideas, including Nikaah. He even directed the great mega-epicMahabharat for DD.Even his Mazdoor (1983), Agni Pareeksha (1981), Kirayadaar, Aaj Ki Awaz, Dahleez, Awaam, Chunni, Sauda, Bahadur Shah Zafar and his Kal Ki Awaz all bubbled with human emotions and there is the message of social reformation embodied in each picture. Archives
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