RMIM Archive Article "145".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
#
# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Year in Hindi Films
# years covered - 1944
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# Posted by: Surjit Singh, dussh@ttacs.ttu.edu
#
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1944 - Dilip Kumar!!!
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The following is based on the book,"Star-Portrait". Born at
Peshawar on December 11, 1922, he was brought to Deolali at age
6. His father Ghulam Sarwar Khan was a successful fruit trader
and had 12 children, of which the child at number 3 was named
Yusuf Khan. As a school kid, he liked to play football and chess.
In 1936, he came to Bombay and went to the Anjuman-e-Islam High
School near VT Station. He was very good in sports but mediocre
in studies. A friend of his used to get the exam questions by
some mysterious method, and shared these with him. Both of them
passed many exams this way. Yusufbhai does not know even now how
his friend managed to get the questions!
After passing from high school, he joined Wilson College and
excelled in Football and English. In one of his essays on
"Christmas" preserved by one of his friends, Yusuf wrote,"In Xmas
the special movie attractions help to remove the rest of the
money from one's pocket." Amazingly, he saw only two Hindi
movies, Mehboob's Ek Hii Raastaa and Bombay Talkies's Basant
before he debuted in jvaar bhaaTaa in 1944.
After college, he went to Poona and took up the job of a
canteen manager with the British Army. He started at Rs. 35 a
month but was making Rs. 800 in the third month because he became
a successful contractor.
In the meantime, Bombay Talkies under the guidance of Devika
Rani was looking for new young talent. She met Yusuf through a
mutual friend and was so impressed by him that she hired him on
the spot even without the usual screen test, for BT's new venture
jvaar bhaaTaa opposite another newcomer Mridulaa. For obvious
reasons, many screen names were proposed including, jahaa.ngiir,
vaasudev and diliip kumaar, the last by the famous Hindi writer
Bhagavaticharan Varma.
After the movie was released, one reviewer wrote, "do not
give up your business yet". But veteran Motiilaal told him that
he is quite good and should make acting his career. He was given
a two-year contract at Rs. 625 a month. The two pictures in which
he was universally admired and established him as a box-office
star were jugnuu (1947) and shahiid (1948).
He created new fashions among youth and the famous Dilip
Kumar hair-style, with his zulfe.n falling over his forehead and
blowing freely in the wind. The reviewers made fun of his hair-
style but the audiences adored it. This was explicitly referred
to in a famous song much later, "u.De.n jab jab zulfe.n terii
kanvaariyon kaa dil machale". Here is what he said about his
zulfe.n in 1956,"the much-maligned Dilip Kumar hair-style is more
a creation of necessity than any new-fangled vogue of fashion".
To illustrate his point to the interviewer he combed his hair in
different ways, but little later the zulfe.n fell into their
place as if by magic!
Thanks to his reputation as a "dukhii aadamaii" (his own
words) his fans usually did not bother him in the early days.
Once a 50 year old lady approached him for an autograph and he
politely asked where the shy teenager who was the real owner of
the autograph book was. The woman replied blushingly that she was
the owner of that little autograph book and was a big fan of his!
We will surely pick up his career later.
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Some other movies of 1944 are as follows.
bha.nvaraa
Directed by Kedaar Sharmaa, music by Khemchandra Prakaash.
Saigal sings six songs among which are,"diyaa jisane dil luT
gayaa vah bechaaraa","muskaraate huye yu.N aa.Nkh churaayaa
naa karo", "ham apanaa unhe.n banaa naa sake" and a duet
with amiirbaaii and chorus,"kyaa hamane bigaa.Daa hai kyo.n
hamako sataate ho".
bharatharii
Music by Khemchandra Prakaash, lyrics by Pandit Indra, has
many famous songs. The most popular was the duet by surendra
and amiirbaaii,"bhikshaa dede maiyyaa pingalaa, jogii
kha.Daa hai dvaar". I have heard two others by
amiirbaai,"moraa dhiire se ghuunghaT haTaaye piyaa,"
and,"chandaa desh piyaa ke jaa". Another was used in the
recent movie mirch masaalaa,"kuukat koyaliyaa kunjan me.n",
by kajjan.
chal chal re naujavaan
First movie from the newly-established Filmistaan Limited,
directed by gyaan mukherjii, music by ghulaam haider, lyrics
by pradiip. A story of friendship over two generations, the
earlier one told in flashback in the manner of "Citizen
Kane"which is a great and a famous debut picture by Orson
Welles, so says an article in Filmindia, a contemporary
magazine. Not a very big hit. I have two pleasant duets by
Ashok Kumar and nasiim baano,"mujhe madhur lagataa hai unase
pyaar chhupaanaa" and, "chamako chamako bijaliya.N haa.N
bijaliyaa.N".
chaa.Nd
First movie by two brothers, husnalaal and bhagataraam, sons
of MD panDit amaranaath. It was a hit movie with songs by G.
M. durraanii and ziinat begam. The most popular was,"do
dilo.n ko ye duniyaa milane hii nahii.n detii" by ziinat.
durraanii sang,"ai dil mujhe rone de" in two parts. They had
even bigger hits later in pyaar kii jiit (1948) and ba.Dii
bahan (1949). husnalaal was the more famous of the two; he
personally taught music to lataa mangeshakar for six years.
Like many others, he could not adjust to the commercialism
in Hindi movies and came to live in Delhi, where he died on
December 28, 1968. On the other hand, bhagataraam stayed in
Bombay and had to work in the orchestra of his earlier music
assistants, Laxmi-Pyare to earn a living. He died in
November 73.
dost
Sajjaad Hussain gave music and Noorjehan sang at least 5 out
of 9 songs. Two are quite well-known,"badanaam muhabbat kaun
kare" and, "ab kaun hai meraa".
iraadaa
Hemant Kumar sang his first song for panDit amaranaath. The
words of his first song are not known.
merii bahan
Another hit from Saigal, music by pankaj mulliick. There are
8 songs, 4 by Saigal,"do nainaa.n matavaare","chhupo naa
chhpo naa ai pyaarii sajaniya","haay kis but kii mohabbat
mai.n","ay qaatibe taqadiir mujhe itanaa batta de". Oversha-
dowed were 2 beautiful songs by utpalaa sen,"mai.N in
phuulo.n sang Doluu.n re","jal jaane do is duniyaa ko".
pagalii duniyaa
First movie for Bulo C. Rani (full name bulo chanDiiraam
raam-chandaanii), all by himself. He started his career as
an assistant to Khemchandra Prakaash in 1941. His best known
movie is jogan (1950) which has 12 hit songs by Geeta Dutt.
pannaa
Hit songs by raajakumaarii, MD was amiir alii. The popular,
"saa.Nvariyaa re kaahe maare" can be heard in the recent
movie mirch masaalaa. Another one is,"jo ham pe guzaratii
hai".
ratan
Extremely succesful movie which established naushaad's repu-
tation as a first-rate MD. All ten songs were written by
diinaa naath madhok.
Here they are:
rumjhum barase baadarvaa - zoharaabaai, chorus
akhiyaa.n milaa ke - zoharaa
paradesii baalam aa saavan - zoharaa
jab tum hii chale parades - karan diivaan
anga.Daaii terii hai bahaanaa - maN^juu
saavan ke baadalo, unase ye - zoharaa, kaaran diivaan
aaii diivaalii, aaii diivaalii - zoharaa
o jaane vaale baalamavaa - amiirabaaii, shaamkumaar
mil ke bichha.D gaii - amiirabaaii
jhuuThe hai.n sab sapan - maN^juu
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Posted by Surjit Singh, a movie fan period.
dussh@ttacs.ttu.edu
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian