Pooja (1954 film)

Pooja (Hindi for "Worship") is a 1954 Bollywood film starring Bharat Bhushan and Purnima, produced and distributed by Varma Films. It was directed by Bhagwan Das Varma, one of the founders of Varma Films, who had earlier also directed the film Aurat (1953) for Varma Films. Bharat Bhushan, who was playing the lead role in Pooja, had previously worked as the lead actor in two films distributed by Varma Films: the box-office hit Suhaag Raat (1948) and Thes (1949). Pooja was the first film in which Purnima, who had previously worked in supporting roles for several movies for Varma Films, worked as the leading actress in the film.

Pooja’s notability arose from the filmmakers casting Bharat Bhushan in the key lead role of a singer in the film. Bharat Bhushan’s “mellow looks matched by a soft voice” gave him a non-threatening physical persona with modulated vocal characteristics that strategically aligned with the role he played in Pooja. Remarkably, even before the release of Pooja, Bharat Bhushan had already displayed his talent portraying a singer in two of the period's most acclaimed musicals: the box-office sensation Baiju Bawra (1952) and Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1953), for which he won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor. It was widely believed that Mohammed Rafi's role as the playback singer for Bharat Bhushan was instrumental in the success of the above two films. Interestingly, Rafi was the playback singer for all the songs sung by Bharat Bhushan in Pooja.

Further contributing to the cinematic significance of Pooja was its subject matter. Bold for its time, Pooja's narrative tackled the controversial issue of remarriage for Indian women, particularly child widows. The film was a passion project for its director Bhagwan Das Varma, and the making of such projects can be challenging as well as require a good deal of creative control, which extant academic research indicates can be achieved when the director also serves as a producer and writer of the film. As one of the founders of Varma Films, Bhagwan Das was able to take on multiple roles for "Pooja," serving as the director, producer, and screenplay writer and thereby exercise the needed creative control for the making of the film.

Pooja has vanished into obscurity, becoming a lost film; nevertheless its musical legacy endures through preserved audio recordings of its songs, a vital component of Indian cinema's box-office success.