Baghban (1938 film)

Baghban (transl. Gardener) is a 1938 Indian romantic drama film directed by A. R. Kardar.

Kardar also wrote the screenplay based on a story by Begum Ansari. The film's music was composed by Mushtaq Hussain with lyrics by Mirza Shauq.

Baghban was the first film directed by Kardar following his return to Bombay after directing films for East India Company in Calcutta. It became a big box-office success for him. According to Rajadhyaksha and Willemen, Kardar's interest with the topic of "sexually deviant behaviour" and violence in the garb of "reformism", a theme which he would later also use in Pagal (1940) and Pooja (1940), is present in Baghban.

The film involved a love story with a mystery. The naive Saroop falls in love with the jail warden's daughter who is to marry someone else. He then finds out that she's his child-bride from the past.