1.Street Singer
Street Singer is a 1938 Hindi film directed by Phani Majumdar. It was produced by New Theatres Calcutta and was Phani Majumdar's first Hindi film as a director.[2] The film was made in Bengali as Sathi in the same year.[3] It starred K. L. Saigal, Kanan Devi, Jagdish Sethi and Bikram Kapoor.[4] The music was composed by R. C. Boral with lyrics written by Arzu (Arzoo) Lucknavi.[5] Two street urchins dream of singing and making it big in the glamorous world of theatre in Calcutta. They grow up with the girl being employed while the boy is not. The story follows them through first their enchantment and then the disillusionment with the theatre. Finally both choose to return to their roots in the village.
Bhulwa helps Manju escape from a burning orphanage and from the care of the tyrannical manager of the orphanage. The two street urchins go from village to village, singing and making money. Bhulwa’s big dream is to someday sing in a theatre in Calcutta. Several years later both are singing on the streets in Calcutta and Manju (Kanan Devi) is employed by a theatre to sing. Bhulwa (K. L. Saigal) encourages her through her nervousness and she becomes a popular singer. However her attitude towards servants and other people changes and Bhulwa is disappointed and tells her off. Bhulwa is still struggling but manages to get a chance to sing on the radio. Manju comes to know of his singing assignment when she listens to him sing on the radio. Feeling slighted she decides to sing Bhulwa’s song in a new style, the way the actor-manager Kailash wants. She leaves a message with the servant asking him to send Bhulwa to the theatre. Bhulwa gets drenched in the rain and is feverish but he goes to listen to Manju. On hearing the new tune given to his favourite song he gets aggressive on the stage and then leaves from there. Manju by now is repentant and decides to search for him. She asks the manager-actor Kailash to drive her and searches the roads by which both had travelled to come to the city. She spies Bhulwa in a boat which is being tossed around due to the wind and storm. The boat crashes against the banks. Manju rushes to Bhulwa and cradles his head on her lap. Kailash leaves them, while both look towards the road leading to the village.
Cast
K. L. Saigal,Kanan Devi,Jagdish Sethi,Bikram Kapoor,Shabir,A. H. Shore,Shyam Laha
Production
Street Singer. was Phani Majumdar's first and most famous Hindi film. Saigal and Kanan Devi were a sensation nationwide following this film. The film helped establish Kanan Devi’s popularity and her ‘melody queen’ status. It is also ranked as one of Saigal’s greatest hits, where his rendition of Wajid Ali Shah’s Bhairavi thumri "Babul Mora Naihar Chhooto Jaye" is considered a classic. Majumdar considered Saigal an exceptional artist. He felt he could pan the camera on his face irrespective of who was giving the dialogues. When Saigal sang "Babul Mora', he requested Majumdar not to use recording and playback (his own song) on him, but to let him sing live on the sets. He sang the song pacing the streets with the harmonium.
Soundtrack
The songs became popular making K. L. Saigal and Kanan Devi a craze in India. Saigal's song Babul Mora Naihar Chhooto Hi Jaaye is associated with him as "an immortal singer". The music was by R. C. Boral and lyrics by Arzu Lucknavi. The bhairavi thumri "Babul Mora" is by Wajid Ali Shah.
2.Dharti Mata
Dharti Mata is a 1938 Hindi social film directed by Nitin Bose. The film was also made and in Bengali as Desher Mati in the same year by New Theatres. It starred K.L. Saigal, Uma Shashi, Jagdish Sethi, Kamlesh Kumari, and K. C. Dey. The music was by Pankaj Mullick and lyricist and dialogue writer was Pandit Sudarshan. The story, screenplay and cinematography was by Nitin Bose. The story is about two friends Ashok and Ajay, one interested in agriculture and the other in technology. Ashok goes to the village to help the farmers while Ajay goes to UK for higher studies in engineering. The film highlights the need of technology and new concepts for effective farming.
Ashok (K. L. Saigal) and Ajay (Jagdish Sethi) have different notions about the progress of the country. Ashok supports agriculture and going back to the villages while Ajay is in favour of industrialisation and technology. Ajay is from a rich family and has to go to UK for further studies in engineering. He asks Ashok to come with him. Ashok refuses and decides to go the village and help the farmers. Ajay’s sister Pratibha (Kamlesh Kumari) is in love with Ashok who is unaware of her feelings. When Ashok faces hardships in the village she secretly assists him by sending money to buy new machinery for the farm. Ashok and his colleague are frustrated in their attempts several times by Chowdhary, the village headman. Ashok meets and falls in love with a village girl Gauri (Uma Shashi) who stays with her blind father (K. C. Dey). Ajay returns from abroad and is told of a rich coal mine. This is located under Ashok’s field. Ajay forgoes mining the land and decides to buy the land that Ashok has been farming to safeguard it for him. Ashok tells Ajay his plans of marrying Gauri. Ajay is stunned and upset for his sister. For the farmers there is distress when the monsoons fail. They face a drought situation. This is when Ajay decides to mine the field for coal. However the disagreements are sorted out and Ajay helps out with new ideas and approves Ashok’s method of co-operative farming.
Cast
K. L. Saigal,Uma Sashi,Kamalesh Kumari,Jagdish Sethi,K.C. Dey,Shyam Laha,Bikram Kapoor,
Nemo,Nawab
Production
New Theatres ushered in a renaissance period with films based on social issues. These were most commonly addressed in Nitin Bose’s films.In Dushman (1939) he dealt with tuberculosis and in Dharti Mata he used the idea of collective farming and need of machinery and tube wells in agriculture. This was one of the first films to deal with innovative methods of farming and the need for modernisation.
Soundtrack
Pankaj Mulick used western elements in his music without losing the melodious Indian appeal in "Duniya Rang Rangili Baba".The songs were sung by K. L. Saigal, Uma Shashi and K. C. Dey. The lyrics were by Pandit Sudarshan.
3.Gopal Krishna
Gopal Krishna is a 1938 Hindi mythological social film from Prabhat Film Company. The film was a remake of Prabhat Film Company's first silent film Gopal Krishna (1929). It was made in Marathi and Hindi simultaneously. The film was directed by Sheikh Fattelal and V. G. Damle and starred Ram Marathe, Shanta Apte, Parshuram, Prahlad, Ulhas and Ganpatrao.The story was written by Shivram Vashikar and the music was by Krishnarao.
Based on the young Lord Krishna, the story is less mythology and more about a social awareness for change. The film was made during the pre-independent India era when the resentment against British rule was high. The film makers metaphorically used the story of the boy Krishna and the cowherds against the oppressive King Kamsa, portraying the feelings of the Indians against the British mainly through dialogue.
The story is based in Gokul where the young playful Krishna resides with his foster mother Yashodha and father Nanda. He tends cows along with other young cowherds. Gokul is ruled by the despotic King Kamsa who has Krishna’s real parents in custody. He is intent on killing Krishna to prevent the prophecy of his death trough Krishna coming true. Krishna incites the village people against Kamsa’s oppressive regime. He prevents 500 cows being sent to Kamsa who demands that the people of Gokul do so. He battles Kama’s General Keshi and defeats him when he is sent to kill him. The only miracle shown in the film is when Kamsa unleashes rain (unlike the other Puranic stories where the rain is brought about by the Rain God Indra) and Krishna lifts the Govardhan hill to shelter the people under it.
Production
The sets for the filming were constructed in Poona where the Prabhat film Company was situated. The cows needed for the shoot were transported from Dombivili a suburb in Bombay to Poona by train. The cattle were allowed to roam freely on the sets.
Soundtrack
Master Krishnarao was the music director and some of the songs are still popular today. The songs were sung by Hansa Apte, Ram Marathe and Parshuram and the lyricist was Pandit Anuj.
4.Baghban
Baghban (Gardener) is a 1938 Hindi/Urdu family drama film directed by A. R. Kardar. The story was by Begum Ansari with script and screenplay by Kardar. Film's music was composed by Mushtaq Hussain with lyrics by Mirza Shauq. The cast included Nandrekar, Bimla Kumari, Nazir, Sitara Devi, K. N. Singh, Wasti and Ashraf Khan.
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.
Saroop (Nandrekar) is a young innocent man who gets lost in romantic thoughts when he hears a Sadhu singing a love-song (prayer) to God. The holy man asks him to attend the Janamasthami fair. Through circumstances beyond his control he gets arrested for loitering and is put in jail. He is made to work in the garden area of the warden's house, where he meets Durga (Bimla Kumari), the warden's daughter. A prison riot occurs and Saroop is injured. He is brought into the house by Durga and her friend Shanta (Sitara Devi). The attending doctor is Shanta's father, Doctor Hansraj. Saroop is freed from jail, and over several meetings Durga and Saroop fall in love. However, Durga's marriage gets fixed with Ranjit (K. N. Singh) and Saroop is helpless. Ranjit has spurned his old flame Kammo (Yasmin), who is angry at the rebuff. Durga had been married off as a child, but it is believed that her boy-groom is dead. Ranjit has spread stories of her being a child-widow, in order to be the only one willing enough to marry her. On the day of the marriage, Kammo shoots Ranjit, and the Sadhu informs Dr. Hansraj that Saroop is his long-lost son who was married to Durga. Finally, Durga and Saroop get together again.
Cast
Bimala Kumari as Durga,B. Nandrekar as Saroop,Sitara Devi as Shanta,Nazir,K. N. Singh as Ranjit
Yasmin as Kammo,Putlibai,Ashraf Khan as the Sadhu (holy man),Ram Avtar,Lala Yakub,Wasti, Mirza Mushraff
Baghban was a "tremendous success" at the box-office.
Soundtrack
The music direction was by Mushtaq Hussein with lyrics by Mirza Shauq (Mirza Musharraf), Hafiz Jalandhari. The singers were Sitara Devi, Ashraf Khan, Vimla, Sharda Pandit.
Sitara Devi
In an era when men wore women's costumes in theatre, dramas, songs and even the fledgling film industry, one young Indian dancer shattered stereotypes. She was Sitara Devi.
Sitara Devi came from an ordinary but talented Brahmin family of Varanasi which lived in Kolkata and later in Mumbai. Sitara Devi was born in Kolkata (then Calcutta) on the Dhanteras, 8th November 1920, the eve of the Indian festival of Dipavali. Being born around Dipavali, she was named Dhanalakshmi (nicknamed Dhanno), an epithet of goddess Lakshmi who is worshiped especially during Dipawali.
Like the tradition of the time, Sitara was to be married when she was a small girl of eight, and her child bridegroom's family wanted to solemnize the marriage. However, she resisted, and wanted to be in a school. While at school, a dance drama based on the mythological story of Savitri and Satyavan was to be enacted in a cultural program to be conducted by the students of the school. The school was searching amongst the students for someone to do a dance sequence embedded in the dance drama. Dhanno prevailed upon her teacher by showing her an impromptu dance performance. The impressive performance clinched the role for her and she was also assigned the task to teach the dance to her co-performers in the sequence. After the dance drama, a local newspaper named the Aaj reported about the cultural program emphasizing that a little girl name Dhanno had enchanted the audience by her dance performance. Her father saw the news, and this changed his perception about his girl with the "twisted mouth". Dhanno was re-christened as Sitara, the star, and she was entrusted into the charge of her elder sister, Tara for imparting her dancing lessons. Incidentally, Tara is the mother of famous kathak dancer, Gopi Krishna.
By the time Sitara had turned ten, she was giving solo performances, mostly during the fifteen-minute recess during movies in a cinema of her father's friend. Her commitment to learning and perfecting dancing left her with very little time, and she did not continue her schooling. By the time she was eleven, her family shifted to Bombay (now called Mumbai). Soon after reaching Bombay, Sitara gave a kathak performance in Atiya Begum Palace before a select audience, which included Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu and Sir Cowasji Jehangir. She immensely impressed Tagore who wanted her to give a special performance in Tata Palace of the Tata Group. There the eleven-year-old dancing damsel performed kathak, with all its nuances, for three hours. Tagore called her to felicitate her in the traditional Indian style of giving her a shawl and a gift of Rs. 50 as a token of her appreciation. Her debut was at Jehangir Hall (Mumbai), and then the nerve centre of metro’s cultural life. This was the beginning of a dancing career spanning more than six decades.
When she was just a twelve-year-old girl, Sitara Devi was recruited by Niranjan Sharma, a filmmaker and a dance director, and she gave dance sequences in some Hindi movies including her debut in Usha Haran 1940, Nagina 1951, Roti, Vatan 1954, Anjali 1957 (directed by Chetan Anand, brother of Dev Anand). In Mother India 1957, she performed a Holi dance dressed as a boy, and this was her last dance in any movie. She stopped performing dances in movies, as the same were adversely affecting her passion for excelling in the classical dance, kathak.
Sitara was married to Nazir Ahmed Khan, K. Asif, and then to Pratap Barot, with whom she had a son, Ranjit Barot.
For decades, she performed at many concerts and festivals in India and abroad, including her performances in the royal Albert and Victoria Hall, London; and the Carnegie Hall, New York. Over the years, she was conferred a number of awards.
All through her dancing career she taught kathak dancing to many persons, including Bollywood celebrities such as Madhubala, Rekha, Mala Sinha, and Kajol. She envisioned formalizing her teaching, and planned to set up a Kathak training academy.
She died on 25 November 2014, at Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai, after a prolonged illness.
If you wish to read more,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sitara-Devi-was-a-star-on-the-stage-and-big-screen/articleshow/45278072.cms
http://www.ndtv.com/people/sitara-devi-a-dancing-star-fades-away-703959
http://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/dance/Kolkata-to-honour-dancer-Sitara-Devi/article16919496.ece
5.Jailor
Jailor is a 1938 Hindi psychosocial melodrama film produced and directed by Sohrab Modi. Produced by Minerva Movietone, the story and lyrics were written by Kamal Amrohi and Ameer Haider with screenplay by J. K. Nanda. The film had music direction by Mir Sahib, while the cinematographer was Y. D. Sarpotdar. The film starred Sohrab Modi, Leela Chitnis, Sadiq Ali, Eruch Tarapore, Abu Bakar, Baby Kamala and Kusum Deshpande.
The film shows the transformation of a tolerant, kind-hearted jailor into a ruthless, intolerant tyrant when his wife leaves him for another man. Modi in his psychodramas tended to use a "misogynist viewpoint" regarding problems in marriage. The role, as cited by Rishi, was "chillingly portrayed" by Sohrab Modi. The film was remade with the same title in 1958 with Modi playing the same role, that of the Jailor with a different supporting cast.
Sohrab Modi is the benevolent prison warden whom everyone likes except his wife Kanwal (Leela Chitnis). The wife elopes with a doctor, Dr. Ramesh, leaving her young daughter behind. This turns the normally kind-hearted Jailor into a tyrannical man of whom everyone is scared. Circumstances make him bring his wife home when she and her lover meet with an accident and the lover turns blind. The Jailor keeps her imprisoned in a room, where she eventually kills herself due to his ill-treatment of her. The Jailor meets a blind girl and starts changing his despotic ways. On realising that the blind girl too loves Dr. Ramesh he helps unite them.
Cast
Sohrab Modi as Jailor,Leela Chitnis as Kanwal,Sadiq Ali,Eruch Tarapore,,Abu Baker,Kumari Kamala
Kusum Deshpande,Sheila,Sharifa
Soundtrack
The music was composed by Mir Saheb with Lyrics by Kamal Amrohi. The singers were Sheela, Leela Chitnis and Sadiq Ali.
Leela Chitnis
Ms. Chitnis began her acting career onstage at a time women seldom worked as actors. She did not care, nor was she abashed by these prejudices when she moved on, in the 1930's, to India's large and lively movie industry in Bombay, now known as Bollywood. She began playing romantic leads and became one of the best-known heroines in the country.
Ms. Chitnis was born on Sept. 9, 1909, in a small town near Bombay. Her father was an English professor who adhered to Brahmo Samaj, a religious movement that rejected caste. She married a much older man at 15 or 16, and quickly had four children. The couple supported India's struggle for independence from Britain and once risked arrest by harboring Manabendra Nath Roy, a Marxist freedom fighter. After they divorced, she worked as a schoolteacher and began acting onstage in melodramas typical of the time.
Chitnis' early stage work included comedy Usna Navra (1934) and with her own film group Udyacha Sansar. She started acting to support her four children. She started as an extra and went on to stunt films. Talkie films were a fledgling art form in the 1930s and Leela gravitated towards cinema with minor roles. Her obvious felicity with histrionics won her notice. Soon, she was working with major names like Master Vinayak in Chhaya (1936), Prabhat's Narayan Kale in Wahan (1937) and Sohrab Modi in Jailor (1938). Willing to experiment with her roles, Leela even donned a man's guise in Gentleman Daku (1937). In 1939, Leela became a major star. Ranjit Studios took actor Vishnupant Pagnis (of Prabhat's Sant Tukaram) and made Sant Tulsidas with the actor. Leela played Pagnis' wife, whose love distracts him from his goals. The same year, Leela hopped to Bombay Talkies, where Kangan was being made under S Mukherji's supervision. It costarred Ashok Kumar. The friendly competition between the two young stars translated well on screen and this bucolic love story became a thumping hit.
With Kangan's success, Leela replaced Bombay Talkies' ravishing leading lady Devika Rani. Leela made a particularly good partner with Devika Rani's leading man Ashok Kumar for a series of box-office hits such as Azad (Free, 1940), Bandhan (Ties, 1940) and Jhoola ("Swing", 1941) that broadly deal with societal issues.. Ashok Kumar was so impressed by her acting abilities that he admitted to having learnt how to speak with his eyes from her.
In 1941 Chitnis, at the height of her popularity and glamour, created history of sorts by becoming the first Indian film star to endorse the popular Lux soap brand, a concession then only granted to top Hollywood heroines.
By the mid-1940s her career went downhill as the new leading ladies came in. Leela accepted the reality and in 1948 entered the next, and perhaps most renowned, phase of her career in Shaheed ("Martyr"). Cast as the hero's suffering, ailing mother, she played this role to perfection. For 22 years, Chitnis played the mother of the later leading men including Dilip Kumar, often playing an ailing mother or a mother going through hardships and struggling to bring up her offspring. In fact she created the archetype of the Hindi Film mother, which was continued by later actresses. Leela's maternal histrionics were portrayed in a range of films such as Awaara (The Vagabond, 1951), Ganga Jumna (The Confluence, 1961) and, in 1965, the runaway success Guide, based on the award-winning novel of the same name by R.K. Narayan. She was busy through the 1970s, but cut down her appearances thereafter before taking the final curtain call in Dil Tujhko Diya ("I Give My Heart to You") in 1985. She then emigrated to the United States in the late 1980s to join her children. She died in Danbury, Connecticut at a nursing home, at age 94.
6.Nirmala
Director:Franz Osten
Cast:Devika Rani, Ashok Kumar, Maya Devi, Balwant Singh, Sankatha Prasad, Mumtaz Ali, Nazir Bedi, P. F. Pithawala, Saroj Borkar, M. Nazir, Gulab
*Youtube full movies Bhabhi, Jailor, Nirmala & Gopal krishna available
Street Singer is a 1938 Hindi film directed by Phani Majumdar. It was produced by New Theatres Calcutta and was Phani Majumdar's first Hindi film as a director.[2] The film was made in Bengali as Sathi in the same year.[3] It starred K. L. Saigal, Kanan Devi, Jagdish Sethi and Bikram Kapoor.[4] The music was composed by R. C. Boral with lyrics written by Arzu (Arzoo) Lucknavi.[5] Two street urchins dream of singing and making it big in the glamorous world of theatre in Calcutta. They grow up with the girl being employed while the boy is not. The story follows them through first their enchantment and then the disillusionment with the theatre. Finally both choose to return to their roots in the village.
Bhulwa helps Manju escape from a burning orphanage and from the care of the tyrannical manager of the orphanage. The two street urchins go from village to village, singing and making money. Bhulwa’s big dream is to someday sing in a theatre in Calcutta. Several years later both are singing on the streets in Calcutta and Manju (Kanan Devi) is employed by a theatre to sing. Bhulwa (K. L. Saigal) encourages her through her nervousness and she becomes a popular singer. However her attitude towards servants and other people changes and Bhulwa is disappointed and tells her off. Bhulwa is still struggling but manages to get a chance to sing on the radio. Manju comes to know of his singing assignment when she listens to him sing on the radio. Feeling slighted she decides to sing Bhulwa’s song in a new style, the way the actor-manager Kailash wants. She leaves a message with the servant asking him to send Bhulwa to the theatre. Bhulwa gets drenched in the rain and is feverish but he goes to listen to Manju. On hearing the new tune given to his favourite song he gets aggressive on the stage and then leaves from there. Manju by now is repentant and decides to search for him. She asks the manager-actor Kailash to drive her and searches the roads by which both had travelled to come to the city. She spies Bhulwa in a boat which is being tossed around due to the wind and storm. The boat crashes against the banks. Manju rushes to Bhulwa and cradles his head on her lap. Kailash leaves them, while both look towards the road leading to the village.
Cast
K. L. Saigal,Kanan Devi,Jagdish Sethi,Bikram Kapoor,Shabir,A. H. Shore,Shyam Laha
Production
Street Singer. was Phani Majumdar's first and most famous Hindi film. Saigal and Kanan Devi were a sensation nationwide following this film. The film helped establish Kanan Devi’s popularity and her ‘melody queen’ status. It is also ranked as one of Saigal’s greatest hits, where his rendition of Wajid Ali Shah’s Bhairavi thumri "Babul Mora Naihar Chhooto Jaye" is considered a classic. Majumdar considered Saigal an exceptional artist. He felt he could pan the camera on his face irrespective of who was giving the dialogues. When Saigal sang "Babul Mora', he requested Majumdar not to use recording and playback (his own song) on him, but to let him sing live on the sets. He sang the song pacing the streets with the harmonium.
Soundtrack
The songs became popular making K. L. Saigal and Kanan Devi a craze in India. Saigal's song Babul Mora Naihar Chhooto Hi Jaaye is associated with him as "an immortal singer". The music was by R. C. Boral and lyrics by Arzu Lucknavi. The bhairavi thumri "Babul Mora" is by Wajid Ali Shah.
2.Dharti Mata
Dharti Mata is a 1938 Hindi social film directed by Nitin Bose. The film was also made and in Bengali as Desher Mati in the same year by New Theatres. It starred K.L. Saigal, Uma Shashi, Jagdish Sethi, Kamlesh Kumari, and K. C. Dey. The music was by Pankaj Mullick and lyricist and dialogue writer was Pandit Sudarshan. The story, screenplay and cinematography was by Nitin Bose. The story is about two friends Ashok and Ajay, one interested in agriculture and the other in technology. Ashok goes to the village to help the farmers while Ajay goes to UK for higher studies in engineering. The film highlights the need of technology and new concepts for effective farming.
Ashok (K. L. Saigal) and Ajay (Jagdish Sethi) have different notions about the progress of the country. Ashok supports agriculture and going back to the villages while Ajay is in favour of industrialisation and technology. Ajay is from a rich family and has to go to UK for further studies in engineering. He asks Ashok to come with him. Ashok refuses and decides to go the village and help the farmers. Ajay’s sister Pratibha (Kamlesh Kumari) is in love with Ashok who is unaware of her feelings. When Ashok faces hardships in the village she secretly assists him by sending money to buy new machinery for the farm. Ashok and his colleague are frustrated in their attempts several times by Chowdhary, the village headman. Ashok meets and falls in love with a village girl Gauri (Uma Shashi) who stays with her blind father (K. C. Dey). Ajay returns from abroad and is told of a rich coal mine. This is located under Ashok’s field. Ajay forgoes mining the land and decides to buy the land that Ashok has been farming to safeguard it for him. Ashok tells Ajay his plans of marrying Gauri. Ajay is stunned and upset for his sister. For the farmers there is distress when the monsoons fail. They face a drought situation. This is when Ajay decides to mine the field for coal. However the disagreements are sorted out and Ajay helps out with new ideas and approves Ashok’s method of co-operative farming.
Cast
K. L. Saigal,Uma Sashi,Kamalesh Kumari,Jagdish Sethi,K.C. Dey,Shyam Laha,Bikram Kapoor,
Nemo,Nawab
Production
New Theatres ushered in a renaissance period with films based on social issues. These were most commonly addressed in Nitin Bose’s films.In Dushman (1939) he dealt with tuberculosis and in Dharti Mata he used the idea of collective farming and need of machinery and tube wells in agriculture. This was one of the first films to deal with innovative methods of farming and the need for modernisation.
Soundtrack
Pankaj Mulick used western elements in his music without losing the melodious Indian appeal in "Duniya Rang Rangili Baba".The songs were sung by K. L. Saigal, Uma Shashi and K. C. Dey. The lyrics were by Pandit Sudarshan.
3.Gopal Krishna
Gopal Krishna is a 1938 Hindi mythological social film from Prabhat Film Company. The film was a remake of Prabhat Film Company's first silent film Gopal Krishna (1929). It was made in Marathi and Hindi simultaneously. The film was directed by Sheikh Fattelal and V. G. Damle and starred Ram Marathe, Shanta Apte, Parshuram, Prahlad, Ulhas and Ganpatrao.The story was written by Shivram Vashikar and the music was by Krishnarao.
Based on the young Lord Krishna, the story is less mythology and more about a social awareness for change. The film was made during the pre-independent India era when the resentment against British rule was high. The film makers metaphorically used the story of the boy Krishna and the cowherds against the oppressive King Kamsa, portraying the feelings of the Indians against the British mainly through dialogue.
The story is based in Gokul where the young playful Krishna resides with his foster mother Yashodha and father Nanda. He tends cows along with other young cowherds. Gokul is ruled by the despotic King Kamsa who has Krishna’s real parents in custody. He is intent on killing Krishna to prevent the prophecy of his death trough Krishna coming true. Krishna incites the village people against Kamsa’s oppressive regime. He prevents 500 cows being sent to Kamsa who demands that the people of Gokul do so. He battles Kama’s General Keshi and defeats him when he is sent to kill him. The only miracle shown in the film is when Kamsa unleashes rain (unlike the other Puranic stories where the rain is brought about by the Rain God Indra) and Krishna lifts the Govardhan hill to shelter the people under it.
Production
The sets for the filming were constructed in Poona where the Prabhat film Company was situated. The cows needed for the shoot were transported from Dombivili a suburb in Bombay to Poona by train. The cattle were allowed to roam freely on the sets.
Soundtrack
Master Krishnarao was the music director and some of the songs are still popular today. The songs were sung by Hansa Apte, Ram Marathe and Parshuram and the lyricist was Pandit Anuj.
4.Baghban
Baghban (Gardener) is a 1938 Hindi/Urdu family drama film directed by A. R. Kardar. The story was by Begum Ansari with script and screenplay by Kardar. Film's music was composed by Mushtaq Hussain with lyrics by Mirza Shauq. The cast included Nandrekar, Bimla Kumari, Nazir, Sitara Devi, K. N. Singh, Wasti and Ashraf Khan.
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.
Saroop (Nandrekar) is a young innocent man who gets lost in romantic thoughts when he hears a Sadhu singing a love-song (prayer) to God. The holy man asks him to attend the Janamasthami fair. Through circumstances beyond his control he gets arrested for loitering and is put in jail. He is made to work in the garden area of the warden's house, where he meets Durga (Bimla Kumari), the warden's daughter. A prison riot occurs and Saroop is injured. He is brought into the house by Durga and her friend Shanta (Sitara Devi). The attending doctor is Shanta's father, Doctor Hansraj. Saroop is freed from jail, and over several meetings Durga and Saroop fall in love. However, Durga's marriage gets fixed with Ranjit (K. N. Singh) and Saroop is helpless. Ranjit has spurned his old flame Kammo (Yasmin), who is angry at the rebuff. Durga had been married off as a child, but it is believed that her boy-groom is dead. Ranjit has spread stories of her being a child-widow, in order to be the only one willing enough to marry her. On the day of the marriage, Kammo shoots Ranjit, and the Sadhu informs Dr. Hansraj that Saroop is his long-lost son who was married to Durga. Finally, Durga and Saroop get together again.
Cast
Bimala Kumari as Durga,B. Nandrekar as Saroop,Sitara Devi as Shanta,Nazir,K. N. Singh as Ranjit
Yasmin as Kammo,Putlibai,Ashraf Khan as the Sadhu (holy man),Ram Avtar,Lala Yakub,Wasti, Mirza Mushraff
Baghban was a "tremendous success" at the box-office.
Soundtrack
The music direction was by Mushtaq Hussein with lyrics by Mirza Shauq (Mirza Musharraf), Hafiz Jalandhari. The singers were Sitara Devi, Ashraf Khan, Vimla, Sharda Pandit.
Sitara Devi
In an era when men wore women's costumes in theatre, dramas, songs and even the fledgling film industry, one young Indian dancer shattered stereotypes. She was Sitara Devi.
Sitara Devi came from an ordinary but talented Brahmin family of Varanasi which lived in Kolkata and later in Mumbai. Sitara Devi was born in Kolkata (then Calcutta) on the Dhanteras, 8th November 1920, the eve of the Indian festival of Dipavali. Being born around Dipavali, she was named Dhanalakshmi (nicknamed Dhanno), an epithet of goddess Lakshmi who is worshiped especially during Dipawali.
Like the tradition of the time, Sitara was to be married when she was a small girl of eight, and her child bridegroom's family wanted to solemnize the marriage. However, she resisted, and wanted to be in a school. While at school, a dance drama based on the mythological story of Savitri and Satyavan was to be enacted in a cultural program to be conducted by the students of the school. The school was searching amongst the students for someone to do a dance sequence embedded in the dance drama. Dhanno prevailed upon her teacher by showing her an impromptu dance performance. The impressive performance clinched the role for her and she was also assigned the task to teach the dance to her co-performers in the sequence. After the dance drama, a local newspaper named the Aaj reported about the cultural program emphasizing that a little girl name Dhanno had enchanted the audience by her dance performance. Her father saw the news, and this changed his perception about his girl with the "twisted mouth". Dhanno was re-christened as Sitara, the star, and she was entrusted into the charge of her elder sister, Tara for imparting her dancing lessons. Incidentally, Tara is the mother of famous kathak dancer, Gopi Krishna.
By the time Sitara had turned ten, she was giving solo performances, mostly during the fifteen-minute recess during movies in a cinema of her father's friend. Her commitment to learning and perfecting dancing left her with very little time, and she did not continue her schooling. By the time she was eleven, her family shifted to Bombay (now called Mumbai). Soon after reaching Bombay, Sitara gave a kathak performance in Atiya Begum Palace before a select audience, which included Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu and Sir Cowasji Jehangir. She immensely impressed Tagore who wanted her to give a special performance in Tata Palace of the Tata Group. There the eleven-year-old dancing damsel performed kathak, with all its nuances, for three hours. Tagore called her to felicitate her in the traditional Indian style of giving her a shawl and a gift of Rs. 50 as a token of her appreciation. Her debut was at Jehangir Hall (Mumbai), and then the nerve centre of metro’s cultural life. This was the beginning of a dancing career spanning more than six decades.
When she was just a twelve-year-old girl, Sitara Devi was recruited by Niranjan Sharma, a filmmaker and a dance director, and she gave dance sequences in some Hindi movies including her debut in Usha Haran 1940, Nagina 1951, Roti, Vatan 1954, Anjali 1957 (directed by Chetan Anand, brother of Dev Anand). In Mother India 1957, she performed a Holi dance dressed as a boy, and this was her last dance in any movie. She stopped performing dances in movies, as the same were adversely affecting her passion for excelling in the classical dance, kathak.
Sitara was married to Nazir Ahmed Khan, K. Asif, and then to Pratap Barot, with whom she had a son, Ranjit Barot.
For decades, she performed at many concerts and festivals in India and abroad, including her performances in the royal Albert and Victoria Hall, London; and the Carnegie Hall, New York. Over the years, she was conferred a number of awards.
All through her dancing career she taught kathak dancing to many persons, including Bollywood celebrities such as Madhubala, Rekha, Mala Sinha, and Kajol. She envisioned formalizing her teaching, and planned to set up a Kathak training academy.
She died on 25 November 2014, at Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai, after a prolonged illness.
If you wish to read more,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sitara-Devi-was-a-star-on-the-stage-and-big-screen/articleshow/45278072.cms
http://www.ndtv.com/people/sitara-devi-a-dancing-star-fades-away-703959
http://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/dance/Kolkata-to-honour-dancer-Sitara-Devi/article16919496.ece
5.Jailor
Jailor is a 1938 Hindi psychosocial melodrama film produced and directed by Sohrab Modi. Produced by Minerva Movietone, the story and lyrics were written by Kamal Amrohi and Ameer Haider with screenplay by J. K. Nanda. The film had music direction by Mir Sahib, while the cinematographer was Y. D. Sarpotdar. The film starred Sohrab Modi, Leela Chitnis, Sadiq Ali, Eruch Tarapore, Abu Bakar, Baby Kamala and Kusum Deshpande.
The film shows the transformation of a tolerant, kind-hearted jailor into a ruthless, intolerant tyrant when his wife leaves him for another man. Modi in his psychodramas tended to use a "misogynist viewpoint" regarding problems in marriage. The role, as cited by Rishi, was "chillingly portrayed" by Sohrab Modi. The film was remade with the same title in 1958 with Modi playing the same role, that of the Jailor with a different supporting cast.
Sohrab Modi is the benevolent prison warden whom everyone likes except his wife Kanwal (Leela Chitnis). The wife elopes with a doctor, Dr. Ramesh, leaving her young daughter behind. This turns the normally kind-hearted Jailor into a tyrannical man of whom everyone is scared. Circumstances make him bring his wife home when she and her lover meet with an accident and the lover turns blind. The Jailor keeps her imprisoned in a room, where she eventually kills herself due to his ill-treatment of her. The Jailor meets a blind girl and starts changing his despotic ways. On realising that the blind girl too loves Dr. Ramesh he helps unite them.
Cast
Sohrab Modi as Jailor,Leela Chitnis as Kanwal,Sadiq Ali,Eruch Tarapore,,Abu Baker,Kumari Kamala
Kusum Deshpande,Sheila,Sharifa
Soundtrack
The music was composed by Mir Saheb with Lyrics by Kamal Amrohi. The singers were Sheela, Leela Chitnis and Sadiq Ali.
Leela Chitnis
Ms. Chitnis began her acting career onstage at a time women seldom worked as actors. She did not care, nor was she abashed by these prejudices when she moved on, in the 1930's, to India's large and lively movie industry in Bombay, now known as Bollywood. She began playing romantic leads and became one of the best-known heroines in the country.
Ms. Chitnis was born on Sept. 9, 1909, in a small town near Bombay. Her father was an English professor who adhered to Brahmo Samaj, a religious movement that rejected caste. She married a much older man at 15 or 16, and quickly had four children. The couple supported India's struggle for independence from Britain and once risked arrest by harboring Manabendra Nath Roy, a Marxist freedom fighter. After they divorced, she worked as a schoolteacher and began acting onstage in melodramas typical of the time.
Chitnis' early stage work included comedy Usna Navra (1934) and with her own film group Udyacha Sansar. She started acting to support her four children. She started as an extra and went on to stunt films. Talkie films were a fledgling art form in the 1930s and Leela gravitated towards cinema with minor roles. Her obvious felicity with histrionics won her notice. Soon, she was working with major names like Master Vinayak in Chhaya (1936), Prabhat's Narayan Kale in Wahan (1937) and Sohrab Modi in Jailor (1938). Willing to experiment with her roles, Leela even donned a man's guise in Gentleman Daku (1937). In 1939, Leela became a major star. Ranjit Studios took actor Vishnupant Pagnis (of Prabhat's Sant Tukaram) and made Sant Tulsidas with the actor. Leela played Pagnis' wife, whose love distracts him from his goals. The same year, Leela hopped to Bombay Talkies, where Kangan was being made under S Mukherji's supervision. It costarred Ashok Kumar. The friendly competition between the two young stars translated well on screen and this bucolic love story became a thumping hit.
With Kangan's success, Leela replaced Bombay Talkies' ravishing leading lady Devika Rani. Leela made a particularly good partner with Devika Rani's leading man Ashok Kumar for a series of box-office hits such as Azad (Free, 1940), Bandhan (Ties, 1940) and Jhoola ("Swing", 1941) that broadly deal with societal issues.. Ashok Kumar was so impressed by her acting abilities that he admitted to having learnt how to speak with his eyes from her.
In 1941 Chitnis, at the height of her popularity and glamour, created history of sorts by becoming the first Indian film star to endorse the popular Lux soap brand, a concession then only granted to top Hollywood heroines.
By the mid-1940s her career went downhill as the new leading ladies came in. Leela accepted the reality and in 1948 entered the next, and perhaps most renowned, phase of her career in Shaheed ("Martyr"). Cast as the hero's suffering, ailing mother, she played this role to perfection. For 22 years, Chitnis played the mother of the later leading men including Dilip Kumar, often playing an ailing mother or a mother going through hardships and struggling to bring up her offspring. In fact she created the archetype of the Hindi Film mother, which was continued by later actresses. Leela's maternal histrionics were portrayed in a range of films such as Awaara (The Vagabond, 1951), Ganga Jumna (The Confluence, 1961) and, in 1965, the runaway success Guide, based on the award-winning novel of the same name by R.K. Narayan. She was busy through the 1970s, but cut down her appearances thereafter before taking the final curtain call in Dil Tujhko Diya ("I Give My Heart to You") in 1985. She then emigrated to the United States in the late 1980s to join her children. She died in Danbury, Connecticut at a nursing home, at age 94.
6.Nirmala
Director:Franz Osten
Cast:Devika Rani, Ashok Kumar, Maya Devi, Balwant Singh, Sankatha Prasad, Mumtaz Ali, Nazir Bedi, P. F. Pithawala, Saroj Borkar, M. Nazir, Gulab
*Youtube full movies Bhabhi, Jailor, Nirmala & Gopal krishna available
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