A Year in Hindi Movies 1944
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 many
reasons, many screen names were proposed for him including,
jahaa.ngiir, vaasudev and diliip kumaar, the last by the famous
Hindi writer BhagavatiicharaN Varmaa.
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 Kidaar 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, brothers
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 mullick. 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 bata 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
raamchandaanii), 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:
rumajhum 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, shaamakumaar
mil ke bichha.D gaii amiirabaaii
jhuuThe hai.n sab sapan maN^juu
Most of the info comes from the following:
"The Encyclopaedia of Hindi Film Songs," vol. II.
"Listeners' Bulletin,"
"Star-Portrait", by Harish S. Booch and Karin Doyle.
"Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema," by A. Rajadhyaksha
and P. Willemen.
Posted by SS=Surjit Singh, a movie fan period.
and
formatted by SS=Satish Subramanian
A Year in Hindi Movies 1945
1945 - Many firsts
LATA MANGESHKAR, born on September 28, 1929 at Indore, sings
and acts for the first time in a Hindi movie, called ba.Dii
maa.N, produced by prafull pictures, Bombay, directed by
vinaayaak, music by dattaa koragaa.nvakar. The movie starred
Noorjahan, Ishwarlaal and Lata was mentioned at the end at
number 11. The movie had 10 songs, 4 by Noorjahan, 3 by baby
Alkaa, one by Miinaakshii. The two songs which Lata sang
were:
maataa tere charaNo.n mai.n ...... ham chho.D ke
with others,
written by ziyaa sarahadii,
janani janmabhuumii ......tum maa.N ho ba.Dii maa.N
with miinaakshii and others,
written by anjum piiliibhiitii,
These are the only songs by Lata that are in movies released
in 1945. Her total numbers of songs for the next few years
are
1946 - 5,
1947 - 5,
1948 - 54,
1949 - 161,
1950 - 147,
1951 - 225,
the last of which (1951 - 225) is her largest number of
songs in any given year. Her first song ever was a playback
song in the maraaThii movie kitii hasaal (1942), MD
sadaashivaraav nevarekar, "gaDe kheLuu saarii, manii haus
bhaarii". She has acted in 5 maraaThii and 5 hindii movies.
Quite a lot of info on her and many other singers is already
available on the RMIM Automailer. For the sake of com-
parison, I mention the following.
RAFI
was born in koTalaa sultaan sinha on December 14, 1924
and sang first for the panjaabii movie, gul baloch
(1944) under the music direction of shyaam sundar. In
hindii, he sang and acted for the first time in lailaa
majanuu (1945), with svarNalataa and naziir. The song
was a qavvaalii:
teraa jalavaa jisane dekhaa vo diivaanaa ho gayaa
with baatish and others,
written by tanaviir naqavii,
music by gobindaraam.
Apparently his name was not mentioned in the credits at
all. Curiously, he sang two male duets, "tum dillii
mai.n aagaare mere dil se nikale haay" and, "ek baar
unhe.n milaa de phir merii taubaa maulaa" with shaam,
in the movie pahale aap, which was released earlier in
1944, had music by naushaad and lyrics by d. n. madhok.
It may be presumed that the song from lailaa majanuu
was recorded earlier. In this movie too his name is not
mentioned in the credits. His name appears for the
first time in the credits of arab kaa sitaaraa (1946)
at number 4, right after the famed dancer Cuckoo, whose
second movie this was, her first being circus king
(1946). Unfortunately, no info on the singers of any of
the 10 songs of arab kaa sitaaraa is available [Check!].
MANNA DEY
sang for the first time in a hindii movie in 1942 for
the movie tamannaa, with music by his uncle K. C. Dey.
But even he does not remember which of the 10 songs it
was! Interestingly, he does remember that "baby"
surayyaa sang a duet with him in the same movie and
that she had to stand on a stool! He became famous
after he sang, "tyaagamayii tuu gayii terii amar
bhaavanaa" in the all-india hit movie raam raajyaa
(1943), music by shankar raav vyaas, lyrics by ramesh
guptaa.
HEMANT
sang his first songs for a hindii movie in 1944 for MD
amarnaath in the movie iraadaa, produced by indrapurii
studios, Calcutta. He sang two solos,"phir muhabbat ke
pyaam aane lage", and, "aaraam se jo raate.n kaaTe.n vo
ashq bahaanaa kyaa jaane.n" written by aziiz kaash-
miirii, and a duet with raadhaaraanii,"nit nit ke
ruuThane vaale saajan, tum diip bano".
MUKESH
shot to fame with two movies released in 1945. His
first ever playback song was, "badariyaa baras gayii us
paar," with hamiidaa and khurshiid for the movie muur-
tii (1945), starring khurshiid and motiilaal. Accord-
ing to the music director Bulo C. Rani, the song was so
popular that in a "faramaishii" radio program of 20
minutes, this song was played again and again for about
16 minutes. In pahalii nazar (1945), he again gave
playback for his cousin motiilaal and sang two duets
and two solos, of which, "dil jalata hai to jalane de"
with lyrics by Dr. Safadar "Aah" and music by Anil
Biswas has become a classic.
TALAT MEHMOOD
sang two solos, "jaago musaafir jaago" and, "tuu sun le
matavaale" [Check!] and acted (name mentioned at the last,
eleventh place in the credits) in the movie raaj
lakshamii (1945) produced by M. P. Productions, Cal-
cutta. MD was either robin chatterji or dhiren mitra,
lyrics were by suresh chaudharii. These two appear to
be his first two songs for a hindii movie. Before join-
ing the film business, he was already an established
radio singer of Gazals of Galib, iqabaal, daaG and oth-
ers. He sang from the radio stations in Delhi, Lahore,
Peshawar and others. His first musical broadcast was
in 1939 from All India Radio, Lucknow.
Following in the footsteps of vish, it may not be out of
place here to record the early history of radio in India.
All of the info below on radio comes from, The Limca Book of
Records, 1993.
1921:First broadcast was from Bombay, in English and it was
a music program.
1924:First regular service of two and a half hours daily, by
the Madras Presidency Radio Club. It lasted until 1927.
1927:First broadcasting company was the Indian Braodcasting
Company, Calcutta.
1936:The name All India radio is adopted.
1942:The maharaja of Mysore called his radio station
aakaashavaaNii. The AIR took this name in 1958.
1957:Vividh Bharati starts on October 3.
1967:The first commercial service of AIR starts.
1970:Appropriately, the first sponsored radio program was
called "saridon" ke saathii, started on May 3. Some
kids may know that "saridon" is a headache medicine.
A discussion on radio in India cannot be complete without
mentioning Ameen Sayani, whose elder brother Hameed was a
bit actor. [You can see Hameed in Taxi Driver (Dev, Kalpana)
as the guy who performs magic tricks for Kalpana Kartik and,
quite naturally, gets into trouble with his wife.] Ameen
started his radio carreer in 1951. He has compered over
10,000 commercial radio programs and produced over 38,920
publicity programs for movies. He has participated in more
than 52,700 radio programs of all kinds.
At the end of 1945, the score is as follows: Lata 2 songs,
Mukesh 14 songs, Manna Dey 15 songs, Rafi 12 songs, Talat 2
songs, Hemant 4 songs. Kishor and Geetadutt are still wait-
ing in the wings, as are Asha, Usha and Mina.
Here are some more movies that happened in 1945.
dhannaa bhagat
Baby mumtaaz, later Madhubaalaa sang two duets, "merii
mayyaa mai.n gayyaa.n charaauu.N", "manamohan bansii
vaare re" with brijalaal, MD Khemchandra Prakash, lyri-
cist Pandit Indra.
hamaraahii
First hindii movie by Bimal Roy, starred raadhaamohan
bhaTTacharya, binataa bose. Music by Raichandra Boraal,
lyrics by munshii zaakir hussain. It was a remake of
his banglaa movie udayer paathe (1944).
kurukshetra
Saigal sings four solos, which include, "kidhar hai tuu
ai merii tamannaa" and "muhabbat ke gul haay tar guun-
dhataa huu.n", music by Pandit gaNapat raav, lyrics by
jamiil mazaharii.
laakhaaraanii
Gurudutt appears for the first time, he is mentioned at
number 9. Much more about him later.
nala damayantii
Nutan debuts as a child actress, in a movie directed by
her father kumaarsen samarth starring her mom shobhanaa
samarth and prithviiraaj kapuur. She is not mentioned
in the credits even though a bird called raajahans is.
Everybody knows the important role played by a swan in
this mythological story.
phuul
K. Asif directs his first movie, he made only two in
his life time and the third was completed in 1986.
tadabiir
Saigal and surayyaa sing their hearts out. He sang six
solos which include "janam janam kaa dukhiyaa", "mai.n
qismat kaa maaraa bhagavaan". She sang 3 solos which
include "jaag o sone vaale", and "tumane naa sunaa
jisako jo hamane sunaanaa thaa". They sang a popular
duet,"raanii khol de apane dvaar milane kaa din aa
gayaa". Songs were written by svaamii raamaanand and
music was provided by laal muhammad.
village girl
Noorjahan shines brightly under the musical direction
of shyaam sundar and sings 4 songs,"ye kaun hansaa
kisane sitaaro.n ko hansaayaa", "sajan paradesii balam
paradesii man ko sataaye", "kis tarah bhuulegaa dil
unakaa Kayaal aayaa huaa" and "baiThii huu.N terii yaad
kaa le kar ke sahaaraa". Lyricist was valii saahib. Rafi
durraanii and chorus sing,"mai.n kheto.n kaa panchhii." [Check!]
ziinat
This was a very popular movie starring Noorjahan, Yakub
and Bibbo. Noorjahan sang 4 solos including the
classic,"bulabulo mat ro yahaa.N aa.Nsuu bahaanaa hai
manaa" and "naacho sitaaro nacho ab chaa.Nd nikalane
vaalaa hai", "aa.Ndhiyaa.N Gam kii yuu.N chali.n baaG
uja.D ke rah gayaa", "aa jaa rii aa nindiyaa". The
music director for these solos was hafiiz Kaa.N. The
center-piece of the movie was the first all-female qav-
vaalii for a hindii movie, "aahe.n naa bharii shikave
naa kiye" by kalyaaNii, zoharaabaaii and Noorjahan. It
was written by nakshab and MD was again hafiiz Kaa.N. A
very young shashikalaa and Baby Khurshiid, later known
as shyaamaa can be seen in this qavvaalii.
Most of the info comes from the following:
"The Encyclopaedia of Hindi Film Songs," vol. II
"Listeners' Bulletin"
"Star-Portrait"
"Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema"
"Limca Book of Records 1993"
Posted by SS=Surjit Singh, a movie fan period.
and formatted by SS=Satish Subramanian
Share this post
