RMIM Archive Article "161".


From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian

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# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Year in Hindi Films
#		years covered - 1946
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# Posted by: Surjit  Singh,  dussh@ttacs.ttu.edu
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------------------------------------------------------------ 1946 - So many firsts!!! ------------------------------------------------------------ This was the year of the firsts. Nirupa Roy, Geeta Bali, Geeta Roy, K. A. Abbas, Ravi Shankar, Balraj Sahani, Damay- anti Sahani, Mina Kapoor, Sudhir Phadke, P. L. Santoshi, Dev Anand, Rahaman, Rehana, Chitragupt, Ram Ganguly, Abhi Bhat- tacharya, Chetan Anand, Uma Anand, Kamini Kaushal, Hans Raj Bahal, Majrooh, S. D. Burman, and, Kishore Kumar started their career in Hindi movies in 1946. Here a summary of the various firsts of Hindi cinema that happened this year. Some of the details will be provided later. ------------------------------------------------------------ amar raaj This was the first Hindi movie to be released, starring Nirupa Roy, the goddess of the silver screen. She was born as Kokila on Jan. 4, 1931 in Bulsar (Gujarat). She married Kishorechand Lallubhai Bulsara in 1945 and they came to Bombay. She was so successful in the gujarati picture, "guNasundarii" that she soon became a top-notch gujarati star. Her husband gave her the screen name, Nirupa Roy, and changed his name to Kamal Kishore Roy. After the monumental success of "har har mahaadev" (1950) in which she played paarvatii to shiv played by Trilok Kapoor, Prithviraj's younger brother, she was a goddess in dozens of movies. badanaamii A solo dance in this movie introduced Geeta Bali. She was born in Amritsar on Nov. 30, 1930 to Sardar Kartar Singh, a well-known Sikh missionary preacher. Geeta, whose real name was Harikirtan Kaur, took dancing les- sons and did stage shows and sang on the Radio as a child artiste. She shot to fame in Kedar Sharma's "suhaag raat" (1948) with bhaarat bhuushaN as the hero. She hit the headlines after her marriage to Shammi Kapoor and their son Mickey (aadityaraaj) made his debut at the age of four months in the arms of Prith- viraj Kapoor in the popular stage production, "kisaan". bhakta prahlaad Geeta Roy (later Dutt) made her debut in a song in this movie, under the musical direction of Hanuman Prasad. She was 16 at the time. She became famous with her songs in "do bhaaii" (1947) with S. D. Burman (a god) as MD. She married Guru Dutt (another god) in 1953 and died in July 1972. dharatii ke laal K. A. Abbas (director), Ravi Shankar (MD and a god), Balraj Sahani (hero) and his wife, Damayanti Sahani (heroine) got a break in this movie, although Balraj had a small role in "insaaf" (1946). Was the first of the three movies produced by Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), a leftist drama company, this year. Abbas, a grandson of the well-known Urdu poet, haalii, was born in Panipat (Harayana) in 1914. Was a journal- ist who ran the longest running weekly political column, the Last Page, in the Bombay Chronicle and Blitz (1941-86). Sold his first screenplay "nayaa san- saar" (1941) to Bombay Talkies. He brought Amitabh Bachchan into Hindi movies. Ravi Shankar, the famous sitarist known all over the world, also gave music for "niichaa nagar" (1946), "anuraadhaa" (1960), "godaan" (1963) and "miiraa" (1979). Other well-known classical musicians who gave music for Hindi movies include, Panna Lal Ghosh, Ali Akbar Khan, Alla Rakha Qureshi, Ustad Vlilayat Khan, Professor Nararayan Rao Vyas, Gyan Prakash Ghosh, Vijaya Raghav Rao, Anand Shankar, Raghunath Seth, Shiv Kumar Sharma and Hari Prasad Chaurasia. Balraj Sahani was born at Rawalpindi (Pakistan!) on May 1 (!), 1913 to a staunch Arya Samaji Harbans Lal Sahani. At D. A. V. College Rawalpindi, two things happened. One of his teachers, Prof. Jaswant Rai, transformed him into a leftist and, secondly, he started to play female roles in college dramas. (Don't laugh, one of my uncles, Om Prakash Rahi Jamalpuri, a keshadhari Sikh, despite the name, played female roles in his drama club as late as 1956.) He married Jaswant Rai's daughter, Damayanti, who may have been one of the first few girls in Panjab to act in dramas in those days. He took no interest in the family business and became a writer of short stories in Hindi. Later, in 1937, he and his wife landed in Calcutta in search of a suitable career. He ran out of money. His father sent him a hundred rupees (like lakhs now) and ordered him to come home. He went to Shantiniketan and landed a job as a teacher of Hindi and English. Here, Tagore (also a god) told him something that he never forgot. He said that if you, a panjabi, do not care for your mother- tongue, nobody else will. In 1940, he took up a job in the Indian service of BBC in London. He came back to India in 1947. Damayanti died in 1947. More later. eight days Mina Kapoor, who married Anil Biswas (also a god), made her debut by singing a solo,"kisii se merii priit lagii ab kyaa karu.N", written by Gopal Singh Nepali and MD'd by S. D. Burman. gokul Sudhir Phadke's first Hindi movie all by himself as an MD. Produced by Prabhat, lyrics by Qamar Jalalabadi, had five songs, sung by G. M. Durrani, Mohanatara Ajinkya and Manik Varma. hum ek hai.n Pyare Lal Santoshi (director), Dev Anand, Rahman, Rehana debuted with this movie. Santoshi started his career as an assistant to Jaddan Bai and later esta- blished himself as a lyricist in "basant" (1942). He also wrote a Hindi qavaalii, " mai.N musaafir huu.N merii subah kahi.n shaam kahi.n" in the Marathi movie, "dhanaJNjay" (1966). Dev Anand (real name Devdutt Pisorimal Anand) was born in Gurdaspur (Panjab) on Sept. 26, 1923, in a national- istic family. On passing B.A. with honors from Govt. College, Lahore, in 1942, got a job in the British Navy. Had to quit because of his father, took a job in the Censor department in Bombay. Used to entertain his friends by singing Saigal's melodies. After "hum ek hai.n" his salary jumped from Rupees 400 to 1500 a month. He looked so realistic as a taxi driver, while shooting for "taxi driver" (1954) near Taj Mahal Hotel, that a foreigner hailed him and he obliged by driving him to Marine Drive! On January 3, 1954, he married his co-star, Mona Singh, a cousin of Uma, the wife of Che- tan Anand, elder brother of Dev. When his friends ask him if he sings Saigal now, he answers, of course I do but only in the bathroom. Oh, by the way, Mona Singh's screen name is Kalpana Kartik. Rahman was a popular hero at one time, changed to vil- lany later. Rehana did not act in too many movies, I will mention some later. lady robinhood The first Hindi movie as an independent music director by Chitragupt. He used to entertain his friends by singing songs when he was a college student in Bihar. After finishing his M. A. he came to Bombay vowing to himself that if he did not get work in 365 days, he would go back to Bihar. He sang in a chorus under Hari Prasann Das and acted as assistant to S. N. Tripathy before landing his own film. His complete filmography is available from the RMIM automailer maintained by Prince and Satish. mahaaraaNaa prataap Music director Ram Ganguli made his debut in this movie. Songs were written by Swami Ramanand and sung mostly by Khurshiid. He became famous with Raj Kapoor's "aag" (1948). He was born on Aug. 5, 1928 and learnt music from Ustad Allaudin Khan. At age 17, he played sitar in an All India Congress Function. He was assis- tant to R. C. Boral and gave music for many dramas of Prithviraj Kapoor's theater comapny. milan Abhi Bhattacharya's first Hindi movie, was also a turn- ing point in Dilip Kumar (another god)'s career. He says that before this movie, acting for him was, 'turn this side', 'smile', 'heave a sigh of relief', 'laugh heartily' etc. Nitin Bose taught him a new conception of acting which he has not forgotten to this day. niichaa nagar Another IPTA production, launched the careers of Chetan Anand, his wife Uma, and Kamini Kaushal. Chetan, the elder bother of Dev, and of the young kid of the family Vijay (nicknamed Goldie), was born in Lahore (like so many other famous people) in 1915. He worked for BBC, played the leading man in Abbas's "zubaidaa", a stage play directed by Balraj Sahani. "niichaa nagar" was the first Indian movie to be given the prestigious Grand Prix (French for Grand Prize) at the first Cannes film festival in 1946. More about him later. Kamini Kaushal (real name Uma Kashyap) was also born in Lahore on Feb. 24, 1927 to Rai Bahadur S. R. Kashyap, Dean of the University of Punjab. She played leading roles in col- lege dramas and married B. S. Sood, an Engineer with Bombay Port Trust. Chetan, who was an old family friend from Lahore, asked her to play an important role in his first movie. She did. She shot to fame in Filmistan's "shahiid" (1948) with Dilip Kumar and Bombay Talkies "ziddii" (1948) with Dev Anand. Kids may remember her as the mother of Manoj Kumar (one of a number of people who, early in their carrer, were influenced by Dilip Kumar's acting) in many movies. pujaarii The first movie of the well-known MD, Hans Raj Bahal. He was born on Nov. 19, 1916. Learnt music from Pandit Chunilal of Ambala and opened a music school in, where else, Lahore. Also made some records for HMV. He was an assistant to Gobind Ram, Rashid Atre and Khemchandra Prakash, before landing "pujaarii". Baby Mumtaaz (later Madhubala, a goddess) sang a song, bhagavaan mere pyaar ke diipak ko jalaa de, under his direction in this movie. He gave music to many famous panjabi movies in which Hindi-movie-singers sang. Some of them are, "lachchhii" (1949), "chhaii" (1950), "juganii" (1953), "bhanga.Daa" (1959), "do lachchhiaa.n" (1960) and "pinD dii ku.Dii" (1963). Asha Bhosle sang her first song in a chorus in 1948 and, her first solo in 1949, for ha.Ns raaj bahal. shaahajahaa.n The first movie for the lyricist, Majrooh Sultanpuri. Has excellent music by Naushad (yet another god). It appears that Naushad managed to get extremely succesful songs out of Saigal without Saigal having to touch even a drop of ethyl alcohol. Saigal told Naushad, kaash, aap mujhe pahale mile hote. Perhaps the most famous Saigal song, jab dil hii TuuT gayaa, written by Majrooh is from this movie. There was, and still may be, a radio program from the Ceylon Broadcasting Company's foreign service. It was called puraanii filmo.n ke giit and started at 7:30 a.m. On every weekday, at exactly three minutes and fifteen seconds before eight, a Saigal song erupted on shortwave radios all over India. Most of the time, it was, jab dil hii TuuT gayaa. This tradition of having a Saigal song to end the program was started by the announcer, Vijay Kumar Dubey in 1954. After Rafi died, they replaced Saigal by Rafi, on the day of his death once each year. Much info on Majrooh is available on the automailer. shikaarii The first Hindi movie by S. D. Burman (real name Kumar Sachin Dev Burman) and Kishor Kumar, one of the trinity of the latter-day singing gods of Hindi movies. SDB's father, Nabdveep Chandra Dev Burman Bahadur, Raja of Tripura state, was an accomplished singer and sitarist. SDB was born on Oct. 10, 1902 in Komilla (Bangladesh) and his gurus were K. C. Dey and Badal Khan. He sang in many music programs and became music director of bangali dramas aroubd 1932. He gave his first radio program and first ever musical direction, in a bangali movie "raajashrii" in 1937. He gave music for four more bangali movies before doing Hindi movies. It appears that he seldom sat down with a harmonium to compose music. He used to roam around on the roads to get inspiration for his tunes. He got lost once and composed, jaaye.n to jaaye.n kahaa.n. Looking through a window on a moonlit night, he gave us, ye raat ye chaa.ndanii phir kahaa.n. Looking far away at nothing in particular, as if looking for some lost treasure, he gave us the treasure, tum naa jaane kis jahaa.n me.n kho gaye. More about him later. Kishore Kumar was born on Aug. 4, 1929 at Khandwa (M.P.), the youngest of the three Ganguly brothers, the other two being Ashok and Anup. His father wanted him to become a lawyer. He went to college at Indore and carried a harmonium singing, imitating his brother Ashok Kumar's voice. After finishing college, he went to Bombay and announced to Ashok that he wanted to become a famous stunt-movie actor. Ashok consulted his horoscope and told him that he could never be an actor of any kind. Nevertheless, he got acting jobs and his first was in "shikaarii" (1946). He was listed at number 7, his brother was the hero. He gave his first sound test for Khemchandra Prakash to sing for "ziddii" (1948) and was allowed to sing only after his brother approved too. In "ziddii" he sang for Dev Anand. His very first songs, a solo, marane kii duaae.n kyo.n maa.ngu.n, and a duet with Lata, ye kaun aayaa re kar ke ye solah singaar, became immensely popular. He appears uncredited in "ziddi" a few times as a gardener, makes a funny remark or two and then disappears. He sang and appeared in many movies but his biggest break as an actor came with AVM's "la.Dakii" (1953) with Vyajyantimala. It was a box office hit. He made many hit movies after that, but kept giving playback for Dev Anand. More later. subhadra Lata, a newcomer sang with an established Shanta Apte, in a duet, mai.n khilii khilii phulavaarii. She did quite well. anamol gha.Dii Another top-notch movie produced by Mehboob, with music by Naushad. Had immensely popular songs. Four solos by Noor Jahan: aa jaa merii barabaad mohabbat ke sahaare, mere bachapan ke saathii mujhe bhuul naa jaanaa, javaa.n hai mohabbat hasii.n hai zamaanaa, kyaa mil gayaa bhagavaan tumhe.n dil ko dukhaa ke, three solos by Surayya: mai.n dil me.n dard basaa laaii, man letaa hai ang.Daaii, sochaa thaa kyaa kyaa ho gayaa, two solos by Surendra: kyo.n yaad aa rahe hai.n guzare huye zamaane, ab kaun hai meraa, and a duet by Surendra and Noor Jahan: aavaaz de kahan hai, a solo by Rafi: teraa khilaunaa TuuTaa balak, and, a duet by Shamshaad and Zoharabai: u.Dan khaTole pe u.D jaauu.n. All songs were written by tanaviir naqvii, except kyaa mil gayaa bhagavaan, which was by anjum piiliibhiitii. doctor koTaniis kii amar kahaani The third movie produced by IPTA in 1946. It is based on a novel, "And One Did Not Come Back" by Abbas, and tells the story of Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis (V. Shantaram) who went to China to help the chinese against the Japanese invaders, and got married to a chinese girl (Jayashrii). hamajolii Noor Jahan sang 6 out of 10 songs. Among them are: raaz khulataa nazar nahii.n aataa, dukh dard se jag me.n koii aazaad nahii.n hai, ye desh hamaaraa pyaaraa hindustaan jahaan se nyaaraa. Music was by Hafiz Khan (Khan Mastana) and lyrics by anjum piiliibhiitii. Mehboob, who did not direct this movie, sang a song, jag kii sevaa kar le bande. jiivan yaatraa Lata appears in the movie and is mentioned at number 5. She sang one solo, chi.Diyaa bole chuu.n chuu.n chuu.n. Music by Vasant Desai and lyrics by diivaan sharar. nargis First of the four original Hindii movies I know that are named after their stars. Kids, name the other three now. Nargis was the heroine and Rahaman the hero. The duo Husnlal -Bhagtram provided the music. Most of the songs were sung by amiirbaai, who also played a role. umar Kayyaam Second movie pairing Saigal and Surayya. Music by Lal Mohammad and lyrics by Dr. Safdar Aah. 7 songs, three by Saigal and 4 by Surayya. Posted by Surjit Singh, a movie fan period. dussh@ttacs.ttu.edu
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian