It's a fascinating Indian take on Gilda also borrowing bits from Destry Rides Again and Casablanca among others. The print is in a wobbly condition after all these years and even looks at times like it might have been close to combustion, but the poetry and the poetry of the music by S. D. Burman shines through. I don't do gambling, so I'm glad that even with the title of The Gamble there wasn't much gambling – but I'd still bet most people on the planet will never watch this. It was the first film Guru Dutt directed – he even gave himself a bit part smoking away at the start of the picture.
The previous post gives it nearly all away, but Dev Anand plays a basically honest young buck prone to gambling employed by dodgy boss of dingy nightclub to entice in and then fleece rich suckers. He does this to make sure he has enough money to pay for his sisters' recovery from TB, simultaneously he falls in love with a lady doctor (Kalpana Kartik, his real-life future wife) with a rather dodgy and forbidding father. I found the playful performance of Geeta Bali portraying prostitute Nina delightful – she danced well to some superb tunes - made both by the lovely music and the honourable emotions aroused within her by Anand. Years ago I used to smoke 30 a day but never blew cigarette smoke so forcibly into other people's faces as do a lot of the characters a lot of the time in here! The police inspector was no sluggard either, he was almost too noble to be true. Was this skinny Johnny Walker's first film ever? Geeta Dutt did most of the singing, my favourite of course being the philosophical Tadbir Se Bigdi Hui Taqdeer Bana Le – such a perfect jolly fusion of East & West pop. Also nice and jolly was Dekh Ke Akeli Mohe Barkha Sataaye. Wheeee, talk about catchy tunes!
All in all, a lovely little film with a lot of interesting musical and dramatic scenes, cheaply churned out but still entertaining all these years later.
