On the occasion of Independence Day I look back at the impact that the political changes of 1947 had on the Indian cinema.The impact of partition was not only the loss of human lives and property but the near-fatal blows on cultures that mark its distinctively hideous features.As the year 1947 witnessed the birth of two new nations, it also saw the emergence of two distinct film industries.Both in India and Pakistan, cinema as a cultural production wields immense influence in the lives of the people and mainstream cinema has been deeply affected by Partition.For us there was loss as well as gain. The Partition affected film production and many great performers had to make choices about their location. It affected the Indian film industry by destabilizing two major film centers of undivided India – Bombay (now Mumbai) and Lahore. Legendary film personalities like Noor Jehan, Zia Sarhadi and Ghulam Mohammed left for Pakistan. Similarly, prominent Indian filmmakers such as Gulzar and Govind Nihalani, B R Chopra and Yash Chopra migrated to India.
. The migrations caused a great deal of professional insecurity in the film industries, especially in India for those Muslims who chose to stay back. Ian Talbot notes that even in secular India the Muslim actors felt apprehensive of the audience’s acceptance and therefore functioned with Hindu names. He cites the example of Dilip Kumar who adopted this screen name and even refused to perform roles of Muslim characters with the exception of Mughal-e-Azam.
After the partition in 1947, prominent music directors like Ghulam Haider, Khwaja Khursheed Anwar, G A Chisti, Feroze Nizami, Rafique Ghaznavi , Innayat Hussain migrated to Pakistan. Most of them were born or brought up in western part of Punjab of undivided India which became a part of Pakistan. So rather than calling the process as migration, they actually returned to their original places.
Noor Jehan-She is also thought to be one of the most prolific singers of all time, alongside her protégé: renowned Indian playback singer Lata Mangeshkar. She is also considered to be the first female Pakistani film dire ctor.She was at the top in 40s.In 1942, she played the main lead opposite Pran in Khandaan (1942). It was her first role as an adult, and the film was a major success. Khandaan's success saw her shifting to Bombay, with director Syed Shaukat Hussain Rizvi. whom she married.In 1947, Rizvi and Jehan decided to move to Pakistan. They left Bombay and settled in Karachi with their family.
Roshan Ara Begum-Roshan Ara Begum was born in 1917 in Calcutta. Roshan Ara Begum visited Lahore during her teens to participate in musical soirées held at the residences of affluent citizens of Chun Peer in Mohalla Peer Gillaanian at Mochi Gate. During her occasional visits to the city she also broadcast songs from the then All India Radio station and her name was announced as Bombaywali Roshan Ara Begum. She had acquired this popular nomenclature because she shifted to Mumbai, then known as Bombay, in the late 1930s to live near Ustad Abdul Karim Khan, from whom she took lessons in Hindustani classical music for fifteen years.. Migrating to Pakistan in 1948 after the partition of India, Roshan Ara Begum settled in Lalamusa, a small town from which her husband hailed. She died on 6 December, 1982.
Mumtaz Shanti-Shwas a very popular movie star of the 40′s and her film Kismet (1943) is regarded as one of the biggest hits of Hindi cinema. Mumtaz started her career in the early thirties in Lahore, by working in a local theatre. She got a break in Lahore’s Mangti and was lured to Bombay. With the success of Basant (1942) and Kismet (1943) (in which she played a lame girl opposite Ashok Kumar) Mumtaz Shanti became one of the top actresses of Bombay Talkies.In the mid-fifties, she migrated to Pakistan along with her famous writer-director husband Wali-Saheb. Wali, who started his career as a writer in the early thirties in Lahore, used to write songs and stories for others before getting his first assignment as a director. Of the few films he directed in Bombay including Dekho-ji, Heer Ranjha and Putli,
Meena Shorey -Meena Shorey was born in 1921 in Raiwind, Pakistan. She was the silver screen temptress of the 40′s and the 50′s. One of Meena’s sisters married and moved to Bombay, and she and her mother followed.She started her acting career playing a character role, as Ambhi, Raja of Taxila's sister in Sohrab Modi's Sikandar (1941). Married to her third husband, Roop K. Shorey, by the mid-1940s, she found fame when she acted in her husband's film Ek Thi Ladki (1949), opposite actor Motilal. The story was written by I. S. Johar, who also starred in the film. She was one of the first women to be recognized in Indian cinema as a "comedienne of caliber"In 1956, she went to Lahore, Pakistan with her husband, where they were invited by Pakistani producer J.C. Anand to make a film there following her mass popularity with the public in both India and Pakistan..
Ghulam Ahmed Chishti-He is also sometimes referred to as Baba Chishti.
Working with filmi music, Chishti excelled at Punjabi compositions and was apt at weaving the design of influences around Punjabi music. With almost 5,000 tunes to his credit, he composed scores for 140–150 films and was the first musician to reach the 100s threshold. Chishti is responsible for bringing Noor Jehan to the Lahore stage when she was 9-years old in 1935. He gave music to films in Bombay but after the independence came back to Lahore. He died on 25 December, 1995, in Lahore.
Ghulam Haider-He was a well-known music composer who worked both in India and in Pakistan after independence. He changed the face of film songs by combining the popular Raags with the verve and rhythm of Punjabi music, and also raised the status of music directors. He is also known for giving a break to the well-known playback singer, Lata Mangeshkar. He started his career in 1935. Some of his hits are Gul Bakavli, Yamla Jat, Khzanchi, Humayun, Majboor, Shaheed, etc.
After independence, he returned to Lahore and his first Pakistani film was Shahida (1949). He composed music for many other films like Beqarar (1950), Akeli (1951) and Bheegi Palken (1952) but the films flopped. He died just a few days after the release of Gulnar. He died o 9 November, 1953.
Nazir Ahmed Khan-He was the first successful film hero in Pre-independent India and later in Pakistan. Nazir was one of the pioneers of the film industry in India. He is the only hero in history to have been cast opposite 35 actresses most of whom were the reigning queens of their time. In the turmoil of partition he lost everything and moved to Lahore. And was one of the pioneers who established Pakistan film industry.
Gohar Mamajiwala-She was also known as Miss Gohar, was an Indian singer, actress, producer & studio owner. Gohar started her career at the age of sixteen with the film Fortune and the Fools (1926) directed by Kanjibhai Rathor and the role of the hero was portrayed by Khalil and the film was produced by Kohinoor Films. The film was a Hit.
Patience Cooper-She was one of the early superstars of Bollywood. Cooper is credited with the first double roles of Indian cinema—as twin sisters in Patni Pratap and as mother and daughter in Kashmiri Sundari. She married Mirza Ahmad Ispahani Saheb, a well-known Indian businessman. In 1947, they migrated to Pakistan.
Khawaja Khurshid Anwar-He was a great filmmaker, writer, director and music composer. He got fame and success both in India and Pakistan. He is widely credited as being one of the most original and inventive music directors of his generation. He started his career from All India Radio, Delhi and then entered the film industry. His first film as a music director was, Punjabi movie Kurmai, released in 1941 in Bombay.During his days in Bollywood he achieved the status of top composer and musician. In 1952 he migrated to Pakistan.
Khursheed Bano- She was born as Irshad Begum on 14 April, 1914, in Chunian, district Kasur. a singer and actress, and a pioneer of the Indian cinema. Her career ran through the 1930s and 1940s, before she migrated to Pakistan in 1948. She is most known for her film Tansen (1943) with actor-singer K. L. Saigal, which featured many of career's best hits. Her last film in India was Papeeha Re (1948), which was a great hit, prior to her migration to Pakistan, leaving her mark in the Indian film industry.
Malika Pukhraj -She was among the greatest singers of British India in the 1940s, and after Partition of India in 1947, she migrated to Lahore, Pakistan, where she received much more fame, through her radio performances with composer, Kale Khan at Radio Pakistan, Lahore.her fans remember her with the song " Abhi To Mein Jawan Hoon".
Shaukat Hussain Rizvi- Shaukat Hussain, a personable and handsome man with a good taste of dressing for occasions, was noted early and received a huge amount of attention from renowned showmen of the Indian film industry. Famous filmmaker and financier Seth Dalsukh M. Pancholi noted him and brought Rizvi to Lahore from Calcutta, where he edited films such asGul Bakavli (1939), Khazanchi (1941), etc. After editing a few films, he was chosen by Dalsukh Pancholi as the director of their next venture, Khandaan. Rizvi's Khandaan, released in 1942, became one of the greatest hits of the era,After the success of Khandaan, Rizvi and Noor Jehan moved to Bombay together, where Rizvi directed his next venture, Naukar (1943), based on an Urdu story written by Saadat Hassan Manto. In the same year, Rizvi and Noor Jehan were married.After the couple's marriage, they began a revolution with many superhit films, which Rizvi directed or produced and Noor Jehan acted in, like Zeenat (1945) and Jugnu (1947).He shifted to Pakistan along with Noor Jehan in 1947.
Nisaar Bazmi-There were two music directors who had started their filmy career in the 1940s but decided to migrate to Pakistan in early 1960s. They were Nashaad from Delhi and Nisaar Bazmi from Jalgaon, Maharashtra. They did very well in Pakistani film industry. While Nashaad was reportedly persuaded by producer-director-lyricist, Nakhshab Jarchavi to accompany him to Pakistan, Nisaar Bazmi migrated to Pakistan after getting an offer from Producer Fazli to compose songs for his films ‘Aisa Bhi Hota Hai’ (1965).Nisaar Bazmi is known for his iconic song chanda kaa dil toot gayaa hai from ‘Khoj’ (1953) among his songs from Indian films.
Nashad- He composed music for Hindi films in 1940s and 1950s, credited under the names Nashad or Shaukat Haideri and then migrated to Pakistan in 1964.In the earlier films he kept his original name Shaukat Haideri. The story behind the name change has been written in the book "Naushad: Zarra Jo Aaftaab Bana" (Penguin). The director initially approached Naushad Ali for composing the music for his film. When Naushad Ali refused, the irate director Nakshab Jarchavi then changed Shaukat Ali's name to Nashad, to make it sound like Naushad. Nashad composed for Jarachavi's 1953 film Naghma, starring Nadira and Ashok Kumar.
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