इंसान

Insaan ('Human') is a 1944 Hindi social drama directed by Babubhai Jani for Bombay's Jayant Films, headlined by the gifted actor-director Kishore Sahu opposite Shobhana Samarth, one of the leading screen heroines of the era. Made in the difficult wartime years, the film belongs to the socially-conscious strand of 1940s Hindi cinema, with a cast that also drew on the Bengali-rooted talents of Pahari Sanyal and the blind singer-actor K. C. Dey.

The score was composed by Gyan Dutt with lyrics by Pandit Indra. Among the documented numbers are Zohrabai Ambalewali's 'Gehoon Ke Phulke Khila De' — remembered for the way it wrapped a stinging comment on wartime food shortages and the government inside a playful domestic song — and Parul Ghosh's 'Bhai Roothe Bhabhi Manaawe', a homely song built around the sister-in-law / brother relationship.

Insaan is one of several films that placed the writer-director-actor Kishore Sahu and the actress Shobhana Samarth — already established stars by the mid-1940s — in the orbit of Gyan Dutt, a prolific composer of the period whose work spanned mythologicals, socials and the popular song idioms of pre-Independence cinema. The film is notable for songs that, in the tradition of the wartime years, slipped pointed social and economic commentary into seemingly light-hearted numbers.