The Great Biopics Of Bollywwod

We all love to watch movies of varied genres out of which Biographies play a special role in the hearts and minds of people.In the past few years many Biopics have been made. The success of the films like Dangal,Bhagh Milkha Bhagh,M S Dhoni The Untold Story,Merry Com and others has set a trend in Bollywood to make more such movies.
The initial successful biopics comes in my mind were Sikandar(1941) and Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani (1946) by V Shantaram. In this Blog I am discussing such great films.Let us have a read on some of the greatest biographical movies made of time:

Sikandar -1941  Bollywood film directed by Sohrab Modi and starring Prithviraj Kapoor as Alexander the Great.The battle sequences featuring thousands of extras along with horses, elephants and chariots were picturised in Kolhapur However, its appeal to nationalism was so great and direct, it remained popular for years. It was revived in Delhi in 1961 during the Indian march into Goa. After the movie was a huge box office success.

Tansen - A 1943 Indian Bollywood film directed by Jayant Desai and featuring K. L. Saigal and Khursheed Bano in the lead roles. The film was based on Tansen, the 16th century musician in the court of Mughal emperor, Akbar.The film featured 13 hit songs, performed by the leads, including More Balapan Ke Saathi, Rum Jhum Rum Jhum Chal Tihari, Kahe Guman Kare Gori, Bina Pankh Ka Panchhi, Sapt Suran Teen Gram, Diya Jalao and Baag Laga Doon Sajni. It was the second highest grossing Indian film of 1943

 Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani- It is a 1946 Indian film in Hindi-Urdu as well as English, written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas and directed by V. Shantaram.The film is based on the life of Dwarkanath Kotnis, an Indian doctor who worked in China during the Japanese invasion in World War II.The role was played by v Shantaram and the heroine's role played by Jayshree who latter married him.

Shaheed (1948) A Bollywood  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.

Another Shaheed in 1965 was made.based on Bhagat Singh's life. One of the most prominent Indian patriotic movies based on the Indian independence movement, it was produced by Kewal Kashyap and directed by S Ram Sharma and stars Manoj Kumar, Kamini Kaushal, Pran, Iftekhar, Nirupa Roy, Prem Chopra, Madan Puri and Anwar Hussain in lead roles.

Mirza Ghalib (1954) -Based on the life of well-known poet Mirza Ghalib, the film was acclaimed upon release. It stars Bharat Bhushan as Ghalib and Suraiya as his courtesan lover. The film won (1) the President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film and (2) the President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Hindi in the 2nd National Film Awards for 1954. Suraiya's singing (of Mirza Ghalib's ghazals) and her acting was specially applauded by the Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru.The film was produced and directed by Sohrab Modi.

Mughal e Azam (1960) -A film directed by K. Asif and produced by Shapoorji Pallonji. Starring Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Madhubala, and Durga Khote, it follows the love affair between Mughal Prince Salim (who went on to become Emperor Jahangir) and Anarkali, a court dancer. Salim's father, Emperor Akbar, disapproves of the relationship, which leads to a war between father and son. It broke box office records in India and became the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time, a distinction it held for 15 years. 

Taj Mahal (1963)- The film based on the historical legend of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. As per the legend, Shah Jahan created the Taj Mahal in fond remembrance and as a tomb for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. It was a commercial hit, but is remembered mostly for its music..Pradeep kumar acted as Shsahjehan and Bina Rai acted as Noorjehan.

Amrapali (1966)- It was based on the life of Amrapali (Ambapali), the nagarvadhu (royal courtesan) of Vaishali in present-day Bihar, the capital of the Licchavi republic in ancient India around 500 BC and Ajatashatru, the Haryanka dynasty king of the Magadha empire, who falls in love with her. Though he destroys Vaishali to get her, she in the meantime has been transformed by her encounter with Gautama Buddha, of whom she becomes a disciple and an Arahant herself.The film was directed by Lekh Tandon, starring Vyjayanthimala and Sunil Dutt as leads. Music of the film was by Shankar-Jaikishan.

Bhumika (1977)-The film is broadly based on the Marathi-language memoirs, Sangtye Aika of the well-known Marathi stage and screen actress of the 1940s 'Hansa Wadkar', who led a flamboyant and unconventional life, and focuses on an individual's search for identity and self-fulfilment. The film stars Smita Patil, Amol Palekar, Anant Nag, Naseeruddin Shah and Amrish Puri.Directed by Shyam Benegal.

Meera (1979)-The film is based on the life of Meera, a Hindu saint-poet who renounced princely comforts in pursuit of her love for Lord Krishna. The film portrays the life and times of Meera from a historical perspective rather than a mythological one. Meera role was played by Hema Malini directed by Gulzar.The film did not perform well at the Indian box office, though it received critical acclaim.

 Gandhi (1982)-  based on the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the leader of India's non-violent, non-cooperative independence movement against the United Kingdom's rule of the country during the 20th century. Gandhi was written by John Briley and produced and directed by Richard Attenborough. It stars Ben Kingsley in the title role.It was nominated for Academy Awards in eleven categories, winning eight, including Best Picture and Best Director for Attenborough, Best Actor for Ben Kingsley, and Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Briley

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Razia Sultan (1983)-The film is based on the life of Razia Sultan (1205–1240), the only female Sultan of Delhi (1236–1240) and her speculated love affair with the Abyssinian slave, Jamal-ud-Din Yakut.written and directed by Kamal Amrohi, and starring Hema Malini, Parveen Babi and Dharmendra in lead roles.

Naache Mayuri (1986)-dance biographical Hindi film directed by T. Rama Rao. It is a remake of the Telugu film, Mayuri (1984), about classical dancer-actress Sudha Chandran who stars as herself in both films.This film was based on Sudha Chandran herself.She lost her leg in an accident on her way to Trichy to Chennai on June 1981. The story depicts how she received an artificial Jaipur Foot and eventually learned to dance again, triumphing over her fate, and ultimately becoming very successful in her life.

Bandit Queen (1994)- Based on the life of Phoolan Devi  the decoit. It was directed by Shekhar Kapur and starred Seema Biswas as the title character. The music was composed by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi, Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie and Best Direction for that year.

Mangal Pandey (2005)-based on the life of Mangal Pandey, an Indian soldier known for helping to spark the Indian rebellion of 1857(also known as "The First War of Indian Independence"The role was played by Aamir Khan.It is directed by Ketan Mehta, produced by Bobby Bedi, and with a screenplay by Farrukh Dhondy.It was the fourth highest-grossing film of 2005.
Guru (2007)- the film is loosely based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani, a business magnate who founded Reliance Industries. The film was co-written and directed by Mani Ratnam. It stars Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, R. Madhavan, Vidya Balan, Arya Babbar, and Mithun Chakraborty in the leading roles. 

The Dirty Picture (2011)-film inspired by the life of Silk Smitha, a South Indian actress noted for her erotic roles. The filmmakers have clarified that the story is not officially or literally based on Smitha alone, but on many of her southern contemporaries such as Disco Shanti.The film was directed by Milan Luthria and co-produced by Shobha Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor,The heroine was Vidya Balan  It won three National Film Awards including Best Actress, three Filmfare Awards and six Screen Awardsincluding Best Picture and Best Director. Box Office India declared the film Super Hit. 

Paan singh Tomar (2012)-based on the true story of the athlete of the same name. A soldier in the Indian Army, he won a gold medal at the Indian National Games, but was forced to become a bandit. The film is directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia and produced by UTV Motion Pictures. Irrfan Khan plays the title role, with Mahie Gill,

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013)-The story is based on the life of Milkha Singh, an Indian athlete who was a national champion runner and an Olympian. It stars Farhan Akhtar in the lead role with Pavan Malhotra and Art Malik in supporting roles. Sonam Kapoor makes a cameo appearance. Directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra from a script written by Prasoon Joshi. . It performed very well at the box office, eventually being declared a "super hit".

Mary Com (2014)-The film stars Priyanka Chopra in the lead role of the eponymous boxer, with Darshan Kumar and Sunil Thapa in supporting roles of her husband and mentor, respectively. Mary Kom depicts Kom's journey of becoming a boxer to her victory at the 2008 World Boxing Championships in Ningbo. The film won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment and was nominated for Filmfare Award for Best Film and Best Actress for Chopra.

M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story is a 2016 Indian biographical sports film written and directed by Neeraj Pandey. It is based on the life of former Test, ODI and T20I captain of the Indian national cricket team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The film stars Sushant Singh Rajput as Dhoni.The film was released on 30 September 2016 by Fox Star Studios and received the widest release ever for a Bollywood film across 61 countries..It was the fifth highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2016 in India.

Neerja (2016)- The story centers on the Libyan-backed Abu Nidal Organization's hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi, Pakistan, on 5 September 1986. The film is shown from the point of view of the flight's head purser, Neerja Bhanot, who thwarted the hijack attempt by alerting the pilots, thus grounding the plane; Bhanot died trying to help save 359 of the 379 passengers and crew on board. The film features Sonam Kapoor as the title character, with Shabana Azmi, Yogendra Tiku and Shekhar Ravjiani in supporting roles.

Dangal (2016)- The film is loosely based on the Phogat family, telling the story of Mahavir Singh Phogat, an amateur wrestler, who trains his daughters Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari to become India's first world-class female wrestlers. Aamir Khan stars as Mahavir Singh Phogat, while Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra portray the adult versions of the two Phogat sisters, Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar their younger versions, Sakshi Tanwar their mother, and Aparshakti Khurana their cousin.The film was a record-breaking commercial success, becoming the highest-grossing Indian film ever, the fifth highest grossing non-English film ever,

K L Sehgal-The Ultimate Zenith of the Singing Voices of Bollywood

K L Sehgal – the divine, the inimitable, the ultimate zenith of the singing voices. He came on right in the beginning of the age of talking cinema in India, and departed all too soon. This year, it is seventy years that he left this mortal existence. And to wit – no other singer since then, has ever been able to match his singing abilities, nor has been able to achieve the quality and the depth / breadth of renditions.  He was a class unto himself, with none other besides him.
Many singers tried to imitate Saigal’s style, tone and tenor. If Talat Mahmood’s first song ‘Sab din ek samaan nahin thha..’ reminds us of Saigal, so does Mukesh’s ‘Dil jalta hai to jalne de..’. C.H. Atma sounds like Saigal in ‘Preetam aan milo..’, Surrender in ‘Aawaaz de kahan hai..’ and Kishore Kumar in ‘Jagmag jagmag karta nikla chaand punam ka pyara..’ could not resist trying a Saigal style. The young Rafi virtually requested to Naushad to allow him to sing with Saigal the last lines of ‘Mere sapno ki Rani..’.

He appeared in 36 full length feature films (28 Hindi + 7 Bangla + 1 Tamil). The stature of his persona, and the standing of the production houses, has ensured that majority of the body of his work is available today in public domain. There are a few films in the period 1932 to 1935 – namely ‘Mohabbat Ke Aansoo’ (1932), ‘Subah Ka Sitaara’ (1932), ‘Zinda Laash’ (1932), ‘Daaku Mansoor’ (1934), ‘Rooplekha’ (1934), ‘Pooran Bhagat’ (1933), ‘Raajrani Meera’ (1933), ‘Yahudi Ki Ladki’ (1933), and ‘Kaarwaan e Hayaat’ (1935), which seem to have been lost forever. Of these nine films the first five have been erased, with even no music / songs / records traceable. A few songs of the remaining four films is the priceless legacy that has survived to attest a substantive existence of these films.
Sehgal was born in Jammu(11 April 1904), where his father Amarchand Saigal was a tehsildar at the court of the Raja of Jammu and Kashmir. Saigal dropped out of school and started earning money by working as a railway timekeeper. Later, he worked as a typewriter salesman for the Remington Typewriter Company, which allowed him to tour several parts of India.
Once on his travel to Lahore  he befriended Mehrchand Jain (who later went on to start the Assam Soap Factory in Shillong) at the Anarkali Bazaar. Mehrchand and Kundan remained friends when they both moved to Calcutta and had many a mehfil-e-mushaira. In those days Saigal was a budding singer and Mehrchand encouraged him to pursue his talent. His passion for singing continued and became more intense with the passage of time. 
In Calcutta he was introduced to R. C. Boral. who liked his talent of singing and acting. Those days all actors used to sing their own songs.Soon Sehgal was hired by B. N. Sircar's Calcutta-based film studio New Theatres on a contract of Rs. 200 per month. There he came into contact with contemporaries like Pankaj Mullick, K. C. Dey and Pahari Sanyal.
The first film in which Sehgal had a role was the film Mohabbat Ke Ansu, followed by Subah Ka Sitara and Zinda Lash, all released in 1932. However, these films did not do very well. Sehgal used the name Saigal Kashmiri for his first three films and used his own name Kundan Lal Sehgal (K. L. Sehgal) from Yahudi Ki Ladki (1933).In 1933, four bhajans sung by Saigal for the film Puran Bhagat created a sensation throughout India.
In 1935,he played the role that would come to define his acting career: that of the drunken title character in Devdas, based on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel of the same name and directed by P.C. Barua. His songs in the film Devdas (1935), "Balam Aaye Baso Moray Man Mein" and "Dukh Ke Ab Din Beetat Naahi", became popular throughout the country.
His association with New Theatres continued to bear fruit in the successful films Didi (Bengali), President (Hindi) in 1937, Desher Mati(Bengali), Dharti Mata (Hindi) in 1938, Saathi (Bengali), Street Singer (Hindi) in 1938, Dushman (1939), Jiban Maran (1939) and Zindagi in 1940, with Sehgal in the lead. In Street Singer, Sehgal rendered the song "Babul Mora Naihar Chhooto Jaye" live in front of the camera, even though playback was becoming the preferred method of singing songs in films.
In December 1941, Saigal moved to Mumbai to work with Ranjit Movietone. Here he acted and sang in a number of successful films. Bhukt Surdas (1942) and Tansen (1943) were hits during this period. The latter film is still remembered for Saigal's performance of the song "Diya Jalao" in Raga Deepak; in the same movie, he also sang "Sapta Suran" and "Tin .. Gaa-o Saba Guni Jan". In 1944, he returned to New Theatres to complete My Sister. This film contained the songs "Do Naina Matware" and "Ae Qatib-e-Taqdeer Mujhe Itna Bata De".
In 1945 his film Tadbeer with Suraiya released which was a hit.Its song Mein Panchhi Azad was a huge hit.When Suraiyya got a chance to act with Saigal in Parwana, she was so overawed that she could not sing even one duet with him. In a career of fifteen years, Saigal acted in 36 feature films – 28 in Hindi, seven in Bengali, and one in Tamil. In addition, he acted in a short comedy Hindi film, Dulari Bibi (three reels), released in 1933.
 Sehgal died in his ancestral city of Jalandhar on 18 January 1947, at the age of 42. However, before his death, he was able to churn out three more hits under the baton of Naushad Ali for the film Shahjehan (1946). These are "Mere Sapnon Ki Rani", "Ae Dil-e-Beqaraar Jhoom" and "Jab Dil Hi Toot Gaya". Parwana (1947) was his last film, released after his death, in which he sang under the baton of Khawaja Khurshid Anwar. The four songs which Saigal sang in Parwana are: "Toot gaye sab sapne mere", "Mohabbat mein kabhi aisi bhi haalat", "Jeene ka dhang sikhaae ja", and "Kahin ulajh na jaana"
.Sehgal's distinctive singing was revered and idolised by the first generation of post-independence Hindi Film playback singers, including Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, and Mukesh. Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar have even gone on record in an interview that they consider Kundan Lal Saigal to be their music Guru.  
However, the appeal of Saigal’s songs is eternal and enduring. The freshness of his songs is undiminished by time. Music lovers would cling to his memory for all time to come.

Song from Yahudi Ki Ladki’ (1933)

Song from Devdas (1935)

Song from Street Singer (1938

Song from Zindagi (1940)

Song from Zindagi (1940)

Song from Tansen (1943)

Song from My Sister (1944)

Song from Shahjehan (1946)

Song from Shahjehan (1946)