Aaina (1944)

“Aaina”(1944) was an R D Production movie. This movie was directed by S M Yusuf. The movie had Trilok Kapoor, Husn Bano, Kaushlya, Yakub, Gope etc in it.

Gulshan Soofi and Fateh Ali Khan were the two music directors of this movie.

Anban (1944)

This review is written by Mr Arunkumar Deshmukh

ANBAN-pronounced un-bun-(1944) was a Bharat production film, directed by Niren Lahiri. Music Director was Gyan Dutt and Lyrics were by Pt. Madhur.

The cast was Nargis, Shobhana Samarth, Jagirdar, Shahnawaz, Mubarak,Pahadi Sanyal, David etc.

The story is of 2 friends-Madhav Pandit(Jagirdar) and Pande(Shahnawaz) and their ego fight.

Pandit had two daughters Madhavi(Shobhana Samarth) and Malati(Nargis) and a son Yadav(Mubarak). Pande has a son Vijay(Pahadi Sanyal-his real name was Nagendra). Vijay is friendly with Yadav and loves Malati. They open a school with Pandit’s help. Pande also wants to help the school, but Pandit refuses because Pande favours western culture, while Pandit is orthodox minded. There is a rift between friends and the marriage of Malati and Vijay is broken. Madhavi is married off to Ranjan- a drunkard- inspite of opposition from everybody. Malati’s marriage is fixed with an aged Zamindar. On the day of Barat arrival, Malati disappears.

The story unfolds how a lesson is taught to Pandit, and how everything is well at the end.

Bhanwra (1944)

This review is written by Mr Sudhir Kapur

BHANWRAA (1944) was produced under the banner of Ranjit Movietone and it was directed by Kidar Sharma. The star cast included K L Saigal, Monica Desai, Arun Ahuja, Kamala Chatterjee, Yakub, Brijmala etc.

Two young friends, Pancham (played by KL Saigal) and Rekhab (played by Arun Kumar Ahuja) come to the city in search of employment and to make a fortune. The time period is the first half of 1940s. The only accommodations they can find and afford are single rooms on rent basis. Rekhab gets a room that is just underneath a room rented by a body builder pehalwan (played by Yakub). And Pancham gets a room underneath another room, rented by two sisters Bindu (played by Kamla Chatterjee) and Indu (played by Monica Desai), both having a keen interest in dance. Pancham gets a job as music and singing teacher only to discover that Indu is also employed at the same place to teach dance. So what follows is a romantic comedy of sorts, on expected lines. Pancham and Indu falls for each other. Rekhab falls for Bindu, but is hesitant to express himself. So the pehalwan comes to his help; with his help, Rekhab builds a great physique and then woos his lady love Bindu. And the two couples finally end up living happily ever after.

Bharthari (1944)

This review is written by Mr Arunkumar Deshmukh

BHARTHARI-1944 was a movie by Navin pictures. It was directed by Chaturbhuj Doshi with music by Khemchand Prakash. The correct name is Bhartrihari, but the common name is Bharthari.

Raja Bharthari was a king of Ujjain either in the 1st or 7th century. There are many folk tales about him in North india where he was famous as a saint. He was also a subject matter of many films like-
Bharthari-1922
Bharthari-1932
Bharthari-1944
Rajyogi Bharthari-1954
PBharthari-1990 and
Raja Bharthari(Gujarathi)-1973

The music of this film was very popular. The story is, King Bharthari goes on a Hunt when he sees a young woman jumping on the burning pyre of her dead husband(Sati). He comes home and asks his queen Pingala if she would also do the same after his death. The queen replies No, because she will die the moment she hears about his death. The king wants to test this and goes for hunting once again. From there he sends a false message of his death. Hearing the news, the queen dies instantly. The king is repentent and mourns very much. Hearing this episode, Guru Gorakhnath comes and creates 750 images of pingla and also makes her alive. The king realises the futility of this mortal world, renounces everything and becomes a saint.

The film cast was Surendra as Bharthari, Mumtaj Shanti as Queen Pingala and Nagendra (who later became pahadi Sanyal) as guru Gorakhnath, Kajjan, Sulochana, Dave, Babar etc.

The music was outstanding, particularly Amirbai-Surendra duet ‘Bhiksha dede maiyya pingala…’

Caravan (1944)

This review is written by Mr Arunkumar Deshmukh

CARAVAN-1944 was yet another roll out from the stable of Ranjit’s assembly-line production of 1944. It was produced by Chandulal Shah and was directed by Aspi Irani. The cast was-Arunkumar,Kesari, Kamala Chatterjee(Chatopadhyaya), Premlata, Sylvie st.Clair etc. The music was by Bulo C Rani and the Lyrics were by Swami Ramanand, Kidar Sharma, Pt.Indra and Munshi Aziz.

It had 15 songs,sung by the big names of the times, Amirbai, Zohrabai, Arunkumar, Bhola Shreshtha etc. This was the only plus point of this movie.

There is a Gypsie caravan, led by an old Nayak-Sheroo. He decides to hand over the reigns of the caravan in the hands of his son-Shankar, who is slightly literate and very good looking. Naturally all the eligible girls around surround him to get his attention. He has to win the Chief’s post by doing something brave and full of valour.

The caravan finds a ‘Gori Mem’-Marie(played by an Anglo indian- Sylvie St. Clair), half dead in the way. They revive her and the responsibility of finding her relatives falls on Shankar, since he is somewhat literate among all. The lovebird-Shanno(Premlata) of the caravan gets jealous of Marie, who gets cosy with Shankar.

The confusion is removed after few reels and in the end Marie goes away and the Hero/Heroine live happily ever after.

Chaand (1944)

This review is written by Mr Sadanand Kamath

CHAAND (1944) was produced under the banner of Prabhat Film Company and directed by D D Kashyap. The star cast included Prem Adeeb and Begum Para in the lead roles with Sitara Devi (Menaka), Sapru, Master Balakram, Ram Singh, Vatsala etc in the supporting roles. The film is a love triangle between Prem Adib, Begum Para and Sitara Devi. The first half of the film has some streak of light comedy but the second half is melodramatic with a happy ending.

Murarilal (Prem Adib) is a singer and musician in Sitara Devi’s (Menaka) theater company in Lahore. Ghungaroo (Master Balakram) is his assistance. Murarilal along with Ghoungroo leave Menaka’s theater company to join as a music director in a Bombay theater company. Menaka who loves Murarilal, tries to persuade him to remain with her theater but the lure of Bombay is far greater than Menaka’s one-sided love for him. By the time he reaches Bombay, the theater has already employed some other person as he was late by couple of days. After struggling in the streets of Bombay, he decides to start a music school for which he manages to get the paying guest accommodation in Seth Jwalaprasad’s (Sapru) house by posing as a well to do man.

After some initial hiccups with Rajkumari (Begum Para), the only daughter of Seth Jwalaprasad, Murarilal and Rajkumari starts liking each other. When things were going smooth between them, Menaka comes to Bombay and meets Murarilal in his rented house, once again asking him to join her theatre group mainly to pursue her love for him which he declines. Misunderstanding creeps in the mind of Rajkumari when she sees Murarilal and Menaka together and expels him from her house without listening to his side of the story. After being back in the streets for a few days, Murarilal and Ghungaroo manage to join Seth Jwalaprasad’s company as clerk and a peon respectively mainly to be near Rajkumari so that one day, he could explain his side of the story to her which he eventually does.

Murarilal with his hard work impresses Seth Jwalaprasad who promotes him as Manager. With this promotion, Murarilal and Rajkumari think that deck would be cleared for their marriage. However, unaware of this relationship, Seth Jwalaprasad plans his daughter’s marriage with the son of a businessman. When Rajkumari reveals her desire to get married to Murarilal, her father is furious. He creates another misunderstanding in Murarilal about Rajkumari by telling him that she is no longer interested in him. A dejected Murarilal plans to leave Bombay. Again, Menaka takes the entry at the right time and persuades him to join her theater group which is scheduled to perform at Calcutta.

When Rajkumari comes to know that Murarilal has left for Calcutta, she joins a volunteer group in Calcutta without the knowledge of her father to serve as a nurse for patients of malnutrition due to Bengal famine. She meets Menaka and tell her side of the story. Maneka becomes a good Samaritan and assures Rajkumari of all her help in bringing back Murarilal to her. Murarilal gets caught in the Japanese air bombing injuring his eyes. He is brought to the hospital where a nurse tends him after his successful eye operation. When his eye bandage is opened, it is like ‘jab aankh khule unki tasweer-e-nazar aaye’ for Murarilal as the nurse is none other than his beloved Rajkumari.

In the meanwhile, Seth Jawalaprasad’s company make huge losses and he is about to be declared as insolvent. With the twin tragedy of business losses and rejection of his daughter’s marriage proposal with a businessman’s son, he realises his folly. Now all his attention is to trace her daughter and Murarilal and keep her happy by agreeing to her marriage with Murarilal. It is once again Menaka who helps in reuniting him with his daughter and Murarilal thus making a happy ending.

For Begum Para, it was her debut film. Her expressionless dialogue-delivery was pathetic. The performances of other main actors were good. But, it is 11 years old Master Balakram whose performance impressed me the most with his natural acting.

Chal Chal Re Naujawaan (1944)

This review is written by Mr Arunkumar Deshmukh

CHAL CHAL RE NAUJAWAN(1944) was actually a land mark film because it was the DEBUT movie for Filmistan, established by people who had left Bombay Talkies. The moviegoers were awaiting their film.

Chal Chal Re Naujawaan was directed by Gyan Mukherjee who also did the story and screenplay. The dialogues were written by the famous Urdu writer Saadat Hassan Manto. One more special feature was that Rafiq Gazanavi, who was a singer and Music Director of repute in later days had acted in this film.

The cast was Ashok kumar, Naseem Banu, Jagadish Sethi, V.H.Desai, Motibai, Navin Yagnik, Rafiq Gazanavi etc.

The story was of friendship and Betrayal in 2 generations.

Thakur Jaipal Singh (Jagdish Sethi) and Jamuna Prasad(Rafiq Gazanavi) are friends, but fall out when Jaipal’s wife Savitri(Motibai) is attracted to Jamuna Prasad’s musical skill. She is called Bewafa and thrown out by Jaipal Singh.

Jaipal’s daughter Sumitra(Naseem Banu-mother of Saira Banu) falls in love with Arjun(Ashok kumar) son of Jamuna Prasad.
Matters clear, but not before Savitri dies in front of Jaipal, who repents.

The film had lot of background voice over, advising that authoritarianism-like Nazis- is not good for mankind, and the country. Some Nationalist songs are also sung by Ashok kumar.

All this however was not very appealing to viewers and the film was proved to be a disappointment, as people were comparing it with Kismet.

Daasi (1944)

This review is written by Mr Arunkumar Deshmukh

DAASI(1944) was a Pradhan Picture film directed by Dhiren Bose.
The cast was Najam ul Hasan, Raagini, Kalawati, Gyani, Omprakash, Khairati etc.

The younger generation may not know anything about Najamul Hasan or Raagini.
Raagini was the most charming and beautiful heroine of the 40s. Originally Irshad Begum (pet name Shaada) was born in 1925 at Gujranwala.in Lahore,her neighbour mr Shori,a producer introduced her in films.Her first film was Dullah Bhatti.before moving to Bombay in 1945,she did few more films in Lahore like Himmat, Nishani, Poonji etc.

Kardar’s Nek Parveen was her first famous film. Then came Naila,Mundri,Patan,Sarhad,Shahjehan etc.She was the first Heroine to charge 1 Lakh rupees per film.

She was married in 1943 and had 2 sons. In1947 she migrated to Pakistan and married a producer.She acted in many hit films.unfortunately,her last days were very sad.She was left alone and bed ridden due to Arthritis in just one room.Despite many appeals on Radio and TV in Pakistan,nobody helped her,except one fan from India who went all the way to Pakistan and helped her to some extent.She died in misery and lonelyness on 27-2-2007 at Lahore.

Najmul Hasan was the most handsome Hero of the 30s-40s.he was studying Law,but left it to go to Bombay.He met Himanshu Roy of Bombay Talkies at C.C.I.,who offered him Hero’s role in Jawani ki Hawa(35).Devika Rani,H.Roy’s wife fell in his love and both eloped.H.Roy tracked them and broght Devika Rani back.

Najmul went to New Theatres in Calcutta and did many films there.His last film in India was Parwana with KLSaigal.He migrated to Pakistan in 1947.He died in 1980,a pauper and in pitiable condition,where his body was identified in the municipal Morgue at Lahore.

Gaali (1944)

This review is written by Mr Arunkumar Deshmukh

The film GAALI-1944 was available till atleast 1950, around which time I must have seen it.

The film, produced by N R Desai Porductions, was directed by R.S.Chaudhari, who started his career from Imperial film company.

Born on 8-6-1903, Chaudhari jumped into the film world and started directing silent films with Neera in 1926. He did well in this and directed some 15 films in the silent era. His first Talkie film was Khuda ki Shan-1931. He was a screenplay writer also and wrote screenplay for famous films like Rattan-44 and Baiju Bawra. Rama Shankar Chaudhari continued directing films till 1953, after which he worked only as a writer and Screenplay writer upto 1971. He died at Bombay 0n 22-8-1972.

Gaali was a film with a strange story of a young blind widow, who thinks that her husband comes and talks to her.

Mangala (Nirmala) loses her husband soon after marriage and she also becomes blind, without any medical reason. She stays with her Father in law Jagat Narayan Chakrawarty who also has an unmarried daughter Lali (Manju Dewan). One day he meets Tilak, son of a zamindar from nearby village. He wants Tilak(Karan Dewan) to marry his daughter Lali,but surprisingly,Tilak starts getting attracted by Mangala. She also talks to him and imagins as if her husband is talking to her.

A village ruffian takes advantage of this and people attack Jagat’s house demanding that the friendship of Tilak and Mangla be stopped. In the melee, Jagat gets killed. At the same time Mangala and Tilak are in a Temple getting intimate. Suddenly her eyesight comes back and she realises the truth that it is not her husband.

Finally, Tilak marries Lali and Mangala becomes a Sadhwi in a temple for rest of her life.

I do not remember the songs of this film,but most songs were shot on Lali(Manju).

This was , according to me, a hopeless film.

Police (1944)

This review is written by Mr Arunkumar Deshmukh

POLICE -1944 was a prakash pictures film.It was directed by Shanti Kumar.The Lyricist was Ramesh Gupta and the MD was Pannalal Ghosh.The cast was Prem Adib,Ratnamala,Jeevan,Ranjana,Shah nawaz,Amirbai karnataki,Badri prasad,Baby tara ,Alaknanda etc etc.
There were 13 songs in the film and they were sung by Amirbai Karnataki,Rajkumari,Shrimati Ghosh(must be Parul Ghosh,who was wife of pannalal Ghosh and younger sister of Anil Biswas),prem Adib and chorus.