Jab aur sab paap kar liye to yahee kyoN rah jaaye

Film : Shree 420

Year of release : 1955

Spoken by : Raj (Raj Kapoor)

Spoken to : Vidya (Nargis)

I used to quite like a couplet by a poet called Anand Narayan Mulla

Vo kaun hain jinhen taubaa kii mil gayee fursat

Hamein to gunaah karne ko bhi zindagi kam hai

वो कौन हैं जिन्हें तौबा की मिल गयी फ़ुर्सत

हमें तो गुनाह करने को भी ज़िन्दगी कम है

This line from Raj Kapoor’s Shree 420 does echo a related thought – though spoken in a slightly defeatist tone.

Raj Kapoor understood rule no 1 of the corporate world. If you want to succeed, put in place a great team. I think he put together a great team. It did pay him rich dividends.

Raj is about to jump into the sea and commit suicide. Vidya sees him and stops him. She says it is a sin to commit suicide. Raj retorts with

जब और सब पाप कर लिये तो यही क्यों रह जाये

It is a very convincing logic when someone says – ek khoon kee sazaa bhee phaansee hai aur do khoon kee bhee. It almost seems to be a different version of the law of diminishing marginal utility. These kind of statements are very difficult to argue against.

The 50s and Raj Kapoor making a debut on this blog.