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!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ------------------------------------------------------------ Posted by Surjit Singh, a movie fan period. dussh@ttacs.ttu.edu
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian