# Chaudhvin Ka Chand (चौदहवीं का चाँद)
**Chaudhvin Ka Chand** (चौदहवीं का चाँद, "Moon of the Fourteenth Day", that is, the full moon) is a 1960 Hindi-Urdu film directed by M. Sadiq and produced by Guru Dutt for Guru Dutt Films, set in the Muslim culture of Lucknow and telling of two friends who unknowingly love the same woman.[1](https://indiancinema.sites.uiowa.edu/chaudhvin-ka-chand) It is a leading example of the "Muslim social" genre of Bombay cinema, and its title song, "Chaudhvin ka Chand ho, ya aftaab ho", sung by Mohammad Rafi, remains one of the best-known romantic songs of Hindi film.[2](https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/salaam-bombay/) • [3](https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/chaudhvin-ka-chand-1960/LgGQL_VTCoyIkQ)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | 1960, India; IMDb lists the India release as October 6, 1960, while Bollywood Hungama lists January 1, 1960[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053706/releaseinfo/) • [5](https://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movie/chaudhvin-ka-chand/cast/) |
| Director / producer | M. Sadiq (director); Guru Dutt (producer, Guru Dutt Films)[1](https://indiancinema.sites.uiowa.edu/chaudhvin-ka-chand) |
| Writing | Screenplay by Saghir Usmani from his story "Jhalak" ("A Glimpse"); dialog by Tabish Sultanpuri[1](https://indiancinema.sites.uiowa.edu/chaudhvin-ka-chand) |
| Music | Music by Ravi, lyrics by Shakeel Badayuni; title song in Raga Pahadi, sung by Mohammad Rafi[1](https://indiancinema.sites.uiowa.edu/chaudhvin-ka-chand) • [3](https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/chaudhvin-ka-chand-1960/LgGQL_VTCoyIkQ) |
| Cast | Guru Dutt (Aslam), Waheeda Rehman (Jameela), Rehman (Nawab Pyare Miyan), Johnny Walker (Shaida), Minoo Mumtaz[1](https://indiancinema.sites.uiowa.edu/chaudhvin-ka-chand) |
| Length | 169 minutes per the University of Iowa notes; Apple TV lists 2 h 45 m and IMDb 2 h 49 m[1](https://indiancinema.sites.uiowa.edu/chaudhvin-ka-chand) • [6](https://tv.apple.com/in/movie/chaudhvin-ka-chand/umc.cmc.5t2xtzxie7ahlvlqtjta0xard) |
| Commercial result | Guru Dutt's biggest box-office hit, made after the failure of Kaagaz ke Phool (1959)[1](https://indiancinema.sites.uiowa.edu/chaudhvin-ka-chand) |
| Awards | Filmfare Awards 1961: Best Playback Singer and Best Art Direction (Biren Nag)[7](https://15th.biffes.org/public/assets/images/pdf/14th%20Biffes%20Book%20Final%2019th%20March%202023.pdf) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story is set in Lucknow, a city renowned for its [Islamic culture](https://www.edgepedia.org/islamic-culture), and turns on the practice of purdah, which forbids women to show their face to men outside their immediate family.[8](https://indiancine.ma/JLB/info) The nawab Pyare Miyan (Rehman) catches a brief glimpse of Jamila's ([Waheeda Rehman](https://www.edgepedia.org/waheeda-rehman)) face in a market and falls in love with her.[8](https://indiancine.ma/JLB/info) At his sister's party he obtains a torn fragment of Jamila's veil and gives it to a maidservant to trace its owner, but Jamila has exchanged veils with her friend Bano, so the nawab identifies the wrong woman.[8](https://indiancine.ma/JLB/info)
The mistake becomes a tragic irony. The nawab, having refused to marry the woman chosen by his ailing mother, persuades his close friend Aslam ([Guru Dutt](https://www.edgepedia.org/guru-dutt)) to marry the maternal choice instead, and that woman turns out to be Jamila.[8](https://indiancine.ma/JLB/info) When Aslam later realizes that his friend the nawab loves his wife, he pretends to tire of her, hoping she will demand a divorce and be free to marry the nawab.[8](https://indiancine.ma/JLB/info) The nawab learns of Aslam's attempted sacrifice and, in the tradition of male friendships on the screen, chooses to die for his friend and commits suicide.[8](https://indiancine.ma/JLB/info) The narrative is driven by misunderstandings and bad luck, and at its center is the importance of sacrifice and friendship.[6](https://tv.apple.com/in/movie/chaudhvin-ka-chand/umc.cmc.5t2xtzxie7ahlvlqtjta0xard)
## Production
The film followed the critical and commercial failure of Kaagaz ke Phool (1959), which caused financial upheaval in Guru Dutt's production company.[9](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/guru-dutt/research-centre/highlights/chaudhvin-ka-chand-1960-cinema-song-synopsis-booklet-1114) According to the film historian Nasreen Munni Kabir, author of *Guru Dutt: A Life in Cinema* (Oxford, 1996), Guru Dutt may have avoided signing his name to another film after that failure, and he chose M. Sadiq to direct because he felt a Muslim subject demanded a Muslim director; Dutt nevertheless supervised the picturization of the songs, employing color cinematography for the first time.[1](https://indiancinema.sites.uiowa.edu/chaudhvin-ka-chand) The offer to Sadiq, the director of Rattan (1944), was also a way to help a commercially unsuccessful director, and the project may have grown from Guru Dutt's fondness for the qawwali, the Sufi musical form.[1](https://indiancinema.sites.uiowa.edu/chaudhvin-ka-chand) • [8](https://indiancine.ma/JLB/info)
The technical crew included the cinematographer Nariman A. Irani, the editor Y. G. Chawhan, the art director Biren Nag, and the costume designer Bhanu Athaiya.[10](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/chaudhvin-ka-chand-1960/research-centre/all/chaudhvin-ka-chand-1960-cinema-photographic-still-mounted-on-lobby-card-269) The regular Guru Dutt cinematographer V. K. Murthy was in Europe studying color photography at the time, which is one reason Irani took the assignment.[9](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/guru-dutt/research-centre/highlights/chaudhvin-ka-chand-1960-cinema-song-synopsis-booklet-1114)
## Music
Ravi composed the score and Shakeel Badayuni wrote the lyrics.[1](https://indiancinema.sites.uiowa.edu/chaudhvin-ka-chand) The title song, "Chaudhvin ka Chand ho, ya aftaab ho" ("Whether you are the full moon or the sun"), is a Mohammad Rafi solo composed in Raga Pahadi, in which the singer compares the beloved's beauty to the moon of the fourteenth day of the lunar month.[3](https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/chaudhvin-ka-chand-1960/LgGQL_VTCoyIkQ) • [11](https://ndtv.in/bollywood/66-year-old-mohammad-rafi-song-chaudhvin-ka-chand-guru-dutt-sang-for-waheeda-rehman-do-you-know-meaning-of-chaudhvin-ka-chand-12145141/amp/1) Other remembered songs include "Mera Yaar Bana Hai Dulha", "Mili Khaak Me Mohabbat", and "Yeh Lucknow ki Sarzameen" sung by Rafi, "Balam Se Milan Hoga" by [Geeta Dutt](https://www.edgepedia.org/geeta-dutt), and "Sharma ke agar yun pardanashin" by [Asha Bhosle](https://www.edgepedia.org/asha-bhosle) and Shamshad Begum.[3](https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/chaudhvin-ka-chand-1960/LgGQL_VTCoyIkQ)
The film was shot in black and white, but two song sequences, one being the Rafi title solo, were rendered in color in later release prints although designed for black and white.[8](https://indiancine.ma/JLB/info) MUBI describes the film as featuring the first use of color photography in [Hindi cinema](https://www.edgepedia.org/hindi-cinema), a claim that refers to these color sequences.[12](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/full-moon) The title song sequence shows Guru Dutt serenading Waheeda Rehman as the camera sweeps past an arched window to a garden pool that mirrors the lovers, a scene that scholars [Ira Bhaskar](https://www.edgepedia.org/ira-bhaskar) and [Richard Allen](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-allen) cite as a classic of the Muslim social's Indo-Islamic imagery of gardens, domes, mehfils, and tehzeeb (refinement).[2](https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/salaam-bombay/)
## Reception and legacy
The film was an instant hit and became Guru Dutt's most commercially successful film, saving his company from financial ruin after Kaagaz ke Phool.[9](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/guru-dutt/research-centre/highlights/chaudhvin-ka-chand-1960-cinema-song-synopsis-booklet-1114) It was also his first film to play at an international film festival; the [University of Iowa](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-iowa) notes place this at Moscow in 1962, which Guru Dutt attended, while IMDb lists a July 1961 Moscow Film Festival screening and the Bengaluru International Film Festival catalog records a Moscow International Film Festival 1961 nomination for Best Director.[1](https://indiancinema.sites.uiowa.edu/chaudhvin-ka-chand) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053706/releaseinfo/) • [7](https://15th.biffes.org/public/assets/images/pdf/14th%20Biffes%20Book%20Final%2019th%20March%202023.pdf) At the [Filmfare Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/filmfare-awards) of 1961 the film won Best Playback Singer and Best Art Direction, the latter going to Biren Nag over [Mughal-e-Azam](https://www.edgepedia.org/mughal-e-azam).[7](https://15th.biffes.org/public/assets/images/pdf/14th%20Biffes%20Book%20Final%2019th%20March%202023.pdf)
Critics have placed the film between two better-remembered Guru Dutt productions, Kaagaz ke Phool (1959) and Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam (1962), and Kabir's biography calls it "most conventional in story and in treatment"; the University of Iowa's notes nevertheless argue that it deserves critical rediscovery as an extended study of vision and veiling.[1](https://indiancinema.sites.uiowa.edu/chaudhvin-ka-chand) On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.9/10 from about 650 users.[13](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053706/ratings/) The film has been restored in 4K by NFDC-NFAI as part of the restoration of Guru Dutt's major films, and Pyaasa and Chaudhvin Ka Chand were scheduled for renewed theatrical exhibition in 2025.[14](https://www.cinemaexpress.com/hindi/news/2025/Jul/09/guru-dutts-pyaasa-chaudhvin-ka-chand-to-be-shown-in-theatres-again)
## References
1. [Chaudhvin ka Chand, Indian Cinema, University of Iowa (notes by Corey K. Creekmur)](https://indiancinema.sites.uiowa.edu/chaudhvin-ka-chand)
2. [Salaam Bombay, The Indian Express (July 14, 2009)](https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/salaam-bombay/)
3. [Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960), National Film Archive of India, Google Arts & Culture](https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/chaudhvin-ka-chand-1960/LgGQL_VTCoyIkQ)
4. [Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960) - Release info, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053706/releaseinfo/)
5. [Chaudhvin Ka Chand Cast List, Bollywood Hungama](https://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movie/chaudhvin-ka-chand/cast/)
6. [Chaudhvin Ka Chand, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/in/movie/chaudhvin-ka-chand/umc.cmc.5t2xtzxie7ahlvlqtjta0xard)
7. [14th Bengaluru International Film Festival catalog (2023)](https://15th.biffes.org/public/assets/images/pdf/14th%20Biffes%20Book%20Final%2019th%20March%202023.pdf)
8. [Chaudhvin Ka Chand (M. Sadiq) 1960, Indiancine.ma](https://indiancine.ma/JLB/info)
9. [Guru Dutt, Tuli Research Centre for India Studies](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/guru-dutt/research-centre/highlights/chaudhvin-ka-chand-1960-cinema-song-synopsis-booklet-1114)
10. [Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960), Tuli Research Centre for India Studies](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/chaudhvin-ka-chand-1960/research-centre/all/chaudhvin-ka-chand-1960-cinema-photographic-still-mounted-on-lobby-card-269)
11. [आखिर क्या होता है 'चौदहवीं का चांद'?, NDTV India](https://ndtv.in/bollywood/66-year-old-mohammad-rafi-song-chaudhvin-ka-chand-guru-dutt-sang-for-waheeda-rehman-do-you-know-meaning-of-chaudhvin-ka-chand-12145141/amp/1)
12. [Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960), MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/full-moon)
13. [Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960) - Ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053706/ratings/)
14. [Guru Dutt's Pyaasa, Chaudhvin Ka Chand to be shown in theatres again, Cinema Express](https://www.cinemaexpress.com/hindi/news/2025/Jul/09/guru-dutts-pyaasa-chaudhvin-ka-chand-to-be-shown-in-theatres-again)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Hindi films before 1970*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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