Heer Ranjha (1970 film)

Heer Ranjha (Punjabi/Urdu: ) is a 1970 Pakistani Punjabi film, based on the classic epic story of Heer Ranjha by the Sufi poet Waris Shah.

The film is ranked among the critics and users' poll of "Top Ten Pakistani films" conducted by British Film Institute.

Plot
The film revolves around Heer (Firdous), a girl born into a wealthy rural family, and Ranjha (Ejaz Durrani) the youngest of four brothers and his deceased father's favorite son, whose journey from his own village takes him to the village where Heer lives after the wives of his brothers refuse him food and mock him.

He meets and falls in love with Heer after she offers him work tending to her family's cattle. However her jealous uncle Kaido has other plans and will stop at nothing to prevent the two from being together. When Heer is subsequently forced by her father to marry another man, Saida Khera, she broken-heartedly enters a shrine. Ranjha, reciting the name of "Allah", eventually finds her and they are reunited. Their happiness does not last long, as Ranjha is arrested by the local ruler, although he is soon freed and permitted to marry Heer.

On their wedding day, however, Heer's jealous uncle Kaido poisons her. Ranjha, after hearing the calls of Heer's soul screaming his name, comes to realize that her uncle Kaido has killed her. Ranjha kills Kaido with the latter's walking stick and then collapses and dies, to be together with Heer in the afterlife.

Cast

 * M. Ajmal as Kaido
 * Ejaz Durrani as Ranjha (played the lead role and was the film producer also)
 * Firdous as Heer
 * Najmul Hassan
 * Zamurrad
 * Tani Begum
 * Munawar Zarif as Saida Khera
 * Rehana
 * Salma Mumtaz
 * Rangeela
 * Seema

Awards

 * Nigar Award for Best Punjabi-language Film (1970)
 * Nigar Award for Best Director (Punjabi-language films) (1970)
 * Nigar Award for Best Music Director (Punjabi-language films) (1970)
 * Special Nigar Award to supporting actor M. Ajmal (1970)