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Monday, January 22, 2018

Magic of Movies -1948

The five highest-grossing films at the Indian Box Office in 1948:
1. Shaheed

Shaheed is a 1948 Bollywood Indian film, directed by Ramesh Saigal and written by Wajahat Mirza. The film depicts India's struggle for independence. It starred Dilip Kumar, Kamini Kaushal, Chandra Mohan, and Leela Chitnis. It had lyrics by Qamar Jalalabadi and music by Ghulam Haider. Songs like "Watan ki Raah Men Watan Ke Naujawan Shaheed Ho" and "Badnaam Na Ho Jaaye Mohabbat Ka Fasana" have not lost their appeal even after 60 years of the film's release.

This was actor Chandra Mohan's last screen appearance. He had earlier appeared in Pukar, directed by Sohrab Modi, Humayun and Roti, both directed by Mehboob Khan, and Stree, directed by V. Shantaram.



2. Chandralekha

Chandralekha (also spelt Chandraleka) is a 1948 Indian Tamil-language historical adventure film directed and produced by S. S. Vasan. Starring T. R. Rajakumari, M. K. Radha and Ranjan in the lead roles, the film follows two brothers (Veerasimhan and Sasankan) who fight over ruling their father's kingdom and marrying the village dancer, Chandralekha.

Its development began during the early 1940s when, after two successive box-office hits, Vasan announced that his next film would be entitled Chandralekha. However, when the producer launched an advertising campaign for the film he only had the name of the heroine from a Gemini Studios storyline he had rejected. Veppathur Kittoo (one of Vasan's storyboard artists) developed a story based on a chapter of George W. M. Reynolds' novel, Robert Macaire: or, The French bandit in England. Original director T. G. Raghavachari left the film more than halfway through because of disagreements with Vasan, who took over in his directorial debut.

Originally made in Tamil and later in Hindi, Chandralekha spent five years in production (1943–1948). It underwent a number of scripting and cast changes, and was the most-expensive film made in India at the time. Vasan mortgaged all his property and sold his jewellery to complete the film, whose cinematographers were Kamal Ghosh and K. Ramnoth. The music, largely inspired by Indian and Western classical music, was composed by S. Rajeswara Rao and M. D. Parthasarathy with lyrics by Papanasam Sivan and Kothamangalam Subbu.

Chandralekha was released on 9 April 1948. Although the film received generally-positive reviews, it did not recoup its production costs. Vasan directed a Hindi version with some changes, including some re-shot scenes, a slightly altered cast, and Hindi dialogues from Agha Jani Kashmiri and Pandit Indra. The Hindi version was released on 24 December of that year, becoming a box-office success. South Indian cinema became prominent throughout India with the film's release, and it inspired South Indian producers to market their Hindi films in North India. Dubbed in English, Japanese, Danish and other languages, it was screened at Indian and international film festivals.

Veerasimhan (M. K. Radha) and Sasankan (Ranjan) are the sons of a king. When Veerasimhan rides through a village, he meets a local dancer named Chandralekha (T. R. Rajakumari) and they fall in love. At the palace, the king decides to abdicate his throne in favour of Veerasimhan. This enrages Sasankan, Veerasimhan's younger brother, who forms a gang of thieves; they embark on a crime spree. Chandralekha's father is injured in the ensuing chaos, and dies shortly afterwards. The orphaned Chandralekha joins a band of travelling musicians, whose caravan is raided by Sasankan's gang.

Sasankan orders Chandralekha to dance for him (which she does only after being flogged), but she soon escapes. He later ambushes Veerasimhan and takes him prisoner. Chandralekha watches Sasankan's men imprison Veerasimhan in a cave and seal its entrance with a boulder. She rescues him with the aid of elephants from a passing circus troupe. Veerasimhan and Chandralekha join the circus to hide from Sasankan's men. When Sasankan returns to the palace he imprisons his parents, declares himself king and sends a spy to find Chandralekha.

The spy sees Chandralekha performing in the circus, and tries to capture her. Veerasimhan saves her; they escape and join a group of gypsies. When Veerasimhan goes to find help, Sasankan's men capture Chandralekha and bring her to the palace. When Sasankan tries to woo Chandralekha, she pretends to faint every time he approaches her. One of her circus friends comes to Sasankan disguised as a gypsy healer and claims that she can cure Chandralekha of her "illness". Behind locked doors, the two women talk. Sasankan is pleased to find Chandralekha miraculously cured and apparently ready to accept him as her husband; in return, he agrees to her request for a drum dance at the royal wedding.

Huge drums are arranged in rows in front of the palace. Chandralekha joins the dancers, who dance on the drums. Sasankan is impressed with Chandralekha's performance but, unknown to him, Veerasimhan's soldiers are hiding inside the drums. As the dance ends, they rush out and attack Sasankan's men. Veerasimhan confronts Sasankan, and their lengthy sword fight ends with Sasankan's defeat and imprisonment. Veerasimhan releases his parents and becomes the new king, with Chandralekha as his queen.

Cast
T. R. Rajakumari ... Chandralekha,M. K. Radha ... Veerasimhan,Ranjan ... Sasankan,M. S. Sundari Bai ... Circus performer,N. S. Krishnan ... Circus artist,T. A. Madhuram ... Circus artist,L. Narayana Rao ... Circus manager,V. N. Janaki ... Gypsy dancer,T. E. Krishnamachari ... The king

During the making (of Chandralekha), our studio looked like a small kingdom ... horses, elephants, lions, tigers in one corner, palaces here and there, over there a German lady training nearly a hundred dancers on one studio floor, a shapely Sinhalese lady teaching another group of dancers on real marble steps adjoining a palace, a studio worker making weapons, another making period furniture using expensive rosewood, set props, headgear, and costumes, Ranjan undergoing fencing practice with our fight composer 'Stunt Somu', our music directors composing and rehearsing songs in a building ... there were so many activities going on simultaneously round the clock.
 – Kothamangalam Subbu on the film's production at Gemini Studios

Chandralekha began filming in 1943. Raghavachari directed more than half the film, but after differences of opinion with Vasan over the shooting of scenes at the Governor's Estate (now Raj Bhavan, Guindy) he left the project. Vasan took over, for his directorial debut.

Music
Chandralekha's soundtrack was composed by S. Rajeswara Rao, with lyrics by Papanasam Sivan and Kothamangalam Subbu. R. Vaidyanathan and B. Das Gupta collaborated with M. D. Parthasarathy on the background music.

3. Pyar Ki Jeet

Pyar Ki Jeet (Love's Victory) is a 1948 Indian Bollywood film. It was the third highest grossing Indian film of 1948. The film was directed by O. P. Dutta for Famous Pictures. It had music composed by Husnlal Bhagatram. The film starred Suraiya, Rehman, Gope, Raj Mehra, Manorama, Leela Mishra, Yashodhara Katju and Niranjan Sharma.










4. Mela

Mela (The Fair) is a 1948 romantic tragedy Urdu/Hindi film. It was produced by and directed by S.U. Sunny for Wadia Movietone. It starred Dilip Kumar, Nargis, Jeevan, Rehman and Nur Jehan. The film's music was composed by Naushad. Mukesh gave playback for Dilip in this film and one of the "Mukesh hits" was "Gaye Ja Geet Milan Ke". Mohammed Rafi's voice was used just once, for the popular song "Ye Zindagi Ke Mele", set in a fair-ground and picturised on a wandering mendicant at the start of the film. Lyrics of the songs were written by Shakeel Badayuni with story and dialogue by Azam Bazidpuri.

Manju lives in the village with her father a school teacher and step mother. Mohan (Dilip Kumar) and Manju (Nargis) live in the same village and are friends since childhood. The friendship develops into love and they are both excited about their wedding. Mohan decides to go into town to buy jewelry for the marriage. On the way he is robbed and becomes unconscious with his injuries landing him in a hospital.

Mehkoo (Jeevan), is a no-good retired from the army man, who lusts after one of the young village girls. He is influential with Manju's stepmother and, with her by his side he calls the village panchayat. Here he denounces Mohan as a cad who has run way with a girl, telling them that he won't return for the marriage. Since th wedding day has been fixed, the panchayat agrees with Mehkoo that Manju should get married on the day decided. A supposedly suitable groom is found for Manju, who turns out to be a seventy-year-old sickly man. When he enters the wedding chambers, he finds that Manju is too young to be his bride. Remorseful, he asks forgiveness but pleads with her to care for his children. Manju takes on the role of the old man's wife. The man dies with Manju now left a young widow in charge of the children.

One night in stormy weather, she goes out to meet Mohan, and is killed when she falls off a cliff. Mehkoo and other villagers arrive to convict Mohan of murdering Manju. Mohan says nothing in his defense and is sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. On release from jail, Mohan goes to the same place where Manju had died. He sees her spirit, who beckons him to follow her. As he does, he falls off the cliff edge and dies.

Cast
Dilip Kumar ..... Mohan,Nargis ..... Manjo,Jeevan,Rehman,Amar,Roop Kamal,Alauddin Abbas
Nurjehan,Chandabai,Khalil,Baby Zubeida

The film was released on 8 October 1948 at Excelsior cinema, Bombay. The music of the film was a main part in the commercial success at the box-office, with it being reportedly referred to as Naushad's "Golden jubilee (fifty weeks) Mela". According to Meghnad Desai, a weak story was camouflaged by the "stunning melodies" in Mela and other films. The reported box-office gross for the film according to IBOS was ₹. 50 lakhs in 1948. The adjusted gross as of 2015 is roughly estimated at ₹. 340.44 crores.

Music
Composer Naushad had Shamshad Begum singing some memorable songs, in the process getting the "best out of Shamshad" for this film. "Dharti Ko Aakash Pukaare" and "Taqdeer Bani Banke Bigdi" by Shamshad are both notable songs, reportedly showing her growth as a "serious singer".The song "Dharti Ko Aakash Pukaare" was originally put in as a title song, but it became extremely popular forcing the producers to have the full song added in the film. Another popular song was the Bidai (Farewell) number, "Gaaye Jaa Geet Milan Ke" (Sing Songs Of Meeting) sung by Mukesh, at the time of Manju's departure from home after marriage. It was used in the film to show Manju's feelings, which highlight her "secret sorrows" that "cannot be voiced but are palpable" through the medium of the song.[10] The song is sung by Mohan (Dilip Kumar) as he's racing home in his bullock cart to meet Manju (Nargis), whereas Manju is leaving for her husband's home. Mohammed Rafi's popularity as a singer rose with the single song sung by him in Mela, "Ye Zindgi Ke Mele".

Remake
Chiranjeevulu (1956), a Telugu language film, was a remake of Mela. In the Telugu version, the hero is turned blind, and the old man who marries Manju is changed to a young bachelor, Dr. Krishna. The film was made under the Vinoda Productions banner, produced by D. L. Narayana (Dronamvajhala Lakshmi Narayana) and directed by Vedantam Raghavaiah. The dialogue writer and lyricist was Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry. The film starred N.T.Ramarao, Jamuna, Gummadi Venkateswara Rao, Peketi Sivaram, C.S.R. Anjaneyulu. For actress Jamuna, it was cited as her "career-best performance"; Peketi Sivaram played the negative role of Mehkoo, originally played by Jeevan. The film "was a box office grosser".

5. Ziddi

Ziddi  is a 1948 Hindi film directed by Shaheed Latif. It was based on a story written by Ismat Chughtai which launched the career of Dev Anand as the lead hero. The film helped establish its actors Dev Anand, Kamini Kaushal and Pran in Hindi films. The playback singers - Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar recorded their first duet - "Ye Kaun Aya Re" together in this 1948 film Ziddi.

Cast
Dev Anand,Chanda (as Chandabai),Kamini Kaushal,Kuldeep Kaur,Nawab,Pran
Music
The music of the film was composed by Khemchand Prakash. The soundtrack featured the first film song sung by playback singer Kishore Kumar, "Marne ki duayen kyon mangu", a solo picturised on Dev Anand. The film also included Lata Mangeshkar's solo, "Chanda re ja re ja re, piya se sandesa mora kahiyo jaa" picturised on Kamini Kaushal.
Songslist
Chanda Re Ja Re Ja Re, Piya Ko Sandesa Mera Kahiyo Ja
Zindagi Ka Aasra Samjhe
Ab Kaun Sahara Hai, Jab Tera Sahara Chhut Gaya
Jaadu Kar Gaye Kisike Naina
Ye Kaun Aaya Re
Marane Ki Duaaen Kyon Maangun
Ruth Gaye More Shyaam Sakhi Ri
Ek Baat Kahu Tumse
Chali Pi Ko Milan Ban Than Ke

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