Swashbuckling and Sincerity

Aashiq Hussein (Sanjeev Kumar), hero of Husn Aur Ishq (1966), is so moved by reports of the beauty of the Princess Rukshana (Sabina) that he immediately sets off for Baghdad hoping to win her hand, despite the fact that she’s a princess and he’s a common man with no apparent source of income.

En route, Aashiq literally stumbles across a group of soldiers plotting to assassinate the Sultan on behalf of the evil Vizier (Jeevan). The soldiers chase Aashiq through the desert and then through the city before he swashbuckles his way to freedom and finds himself face to face with Rukshana herself.

Rukshana is not impressed by his attempts at flirting, but she does take his warning about the assassination plot seriously. She warns her father, but while the plot is foiled, he refuses to believe that the Vizier could be involved, and he won’t listen to anything else she says on the subject because she’s a girl.

When Aashiq returns, Rukshana is much more receptive to wooing, and the two are soon in love. The Vizier, on the other hand, is less enamored; Aashiq is an obstacle to his new “Marry the Princess and become the official heir to the throne and then kill the Sultan” plan, so he has the young man captured and placed into the worst deathtrap ever. (Seriously, I know it’s a trope of the genre, but shouldn’t you at least look to see if the hero has stopped moving before automatically dumping the body in the ocean?)

Aashiq is, naturally, still alive, and finds himself in a mysterious cave, where he’s given a magical lamp containing a genie. With the jolly genie’s help, Aashiq disguises himself as a prince, returns to the city, and if this is all starting to sound familiar, it’s because Husn Aur Ishq is a remarkably faithful adaptation of Aladdin.

Apart from the changed names, the big difference between Husn Aur Ishq and other Aladdins is the focus on the human characters; the genie doesn’t appear until fairly late in the film, and mostly serves as a sidekick and a tool to further Aashiq’s romance, rather than the romance serving as an excuse for wacky genie hijinks.

Husn Aur Ishq is practically reviewer proof; it’s one of the most straightforward movies in the history of ever. It’s a simple story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back with the help of a supernatural creature, without a trace of irony or any heavy handed moralizing.