Kismet (1943): The Ashok Kumar film introduced bold themes like an anti-hero character, a single pregnant girl to the 1940s Indian audience. It is also notable to feature the dual role concept, a first of its kind for Hindi cinema. 'Kismet' was a tremendous success at the box office, being declared an 'All Time Blockbuster' and ran in the theatres for 3 straight years. Ashok Kumar, came to be addressed as Indian cinema's first Superstar after the film's success.

A still from 'Kismet'

The movie also attracted controversy in the form of the patriotic song 'Door hato O Duniya walon, Hindustan hamara hay', which translates to, "Step away, People of the World, Hindustan is ours", penned by Kavi Pradeep. A negative reference to Japan was used in a lyric from the song, "Tum na kisike aage jhunkna, German ho ya Japani", "Don't you bow in front of anyone, be it the Germans or the Japanese". Although it slipped past heavy British censorship earlier the English soon realised their mistake and wanted to ban the film. An arrest warrant was issued for the film's lyricist Pradeep, who had to go underground to avoid arrest.

This history-making film is now available for free viewing on many online video websites like YouTube. (Click here to view the film). Video courtesy YouTube.