Khursheed Bano, often credited as Khursheed or Khurshid, was 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. Making her debut with Laila Majnu (1931), she acted in over thirty films in India. She is best known for her film Tansen (1943) with actor-singer K. L. Saigal, which featured many of her memorable songs.
Achhut is a 1940 social Indian Bollywood film based on untouchability. It was the third highest grossing Indian film of 1940. The film was produced by Chandulal Shah for his Ranjit Studios. He also wrote the story and screenplay, and directed it. Achhut's premiere was attended by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on 23 December 1939, who stated: "If the picture helps India to remove this curse, it can be said to have helped India to win Swaraj as untouchability is one of the chief obstacles in the road to freedom".
Badi Maa , also called Bari-Ma, is a 1945 Indian Hindi-language war drama film. It was produced and directed by Master Vinayak. Made under the banner of Prafulla Pictures, Kolhapur, it had story written by V. S. Khendekar. Zia Sarhadi wrote the screenplay and lyrics for six songs. The other lyricists were Anjum Pilibhiti and Raja Badhe. The music director was K. Datta.
Musafir is a 1940 social Hindi language film directed by Chaturbhuj Doshi. Produced by Ranjit Studios, the music was by Gyan Dutt and it starred Noor Mohammed Charlie, Khursheed, Ishwarlal and Yakub.
Sasural is a Bollywood film. It was released in 1941. The film was directed by Chaturbhuj Doshi for Ranjit Movietone. The story was by Gunvantrai Acharya with dialogues by R. S. Rammyae. Cinematographer was G. G. Gogate with audiography by C. K. Trivedi. Gyan Dutt was the music director, with lyrics by D. N. Madhok. The cast included Motilal, Madhuri, Nurjehan, Miss Iqbal, Kantilal, Tarabai, Bhagwandas, and Urmila.
Aankh Micholi is a 1942 Hindi social film. The music direction was done by Gyan Dutt with lyrics written by Pandit Indra, Satyakam Sharma and Shatir Ghaznavi. The cast included Nalini Jaywant, Sulochana, Satish, Jilloobai, Hadi, Pratima Devi and Anand Prasad Kapoor.
Maheman is a Bollywood film. It was released in 1942. The film was produced by Ranjit Studios and directed by Chaturbhuj Doshi. The film starred Madhuri, Ishwarlal, Mubarak, Bhagwandas and Shamim Bano. The music was directed by Khemchand Prakash, with lyrics by D. N. Madhok.
Aabroo is a Bollywood film. It was released in 1943. The film was directed by Nazir and starred Sitara Devi, Yakub, Masud, Nazir Ahmed, Laddan and Chandabai. The music was composed by Pandit Gobindram.
Aadab Arz is a Bollywood film directed by V. C. Desai. It was released in 1943. It was produced by "Amar Pictures" which was a company started by Chimanlal Desai after he left National Studios. The film starred Nalini Jaywant, Karan Dewan, Mukesh, and Dulari. The music was composed by Gyan Dutt and the lyricists were Rammurti Chaturvedi, Pandit Indra and Kailash Matwala.
Bansari is a Bollywood social film. It was released in 1943. Music composition was by Gyan Dutt with lyrics written by D. N. Madhok. The film was produced by Chandulal Shah for Ranjit Studios. Directed by Jayant Desai, it starred Ishwarlal, Noor Mohammed Charlie, Dixit, Shamim Bano, Kesari and Urmila.
Gyan Dutt was one of the most prominent music directors in Bollywood in the 1940s. He was music director for films such as The Secretary, Thokar (1939), Achhut (1940), Bhakta Surdas (1942), Sunehre Din (1949) and Ghayal (1951). Many of his songs were sung by K. L. Saigal. In 1948 he composed seven songs for a young Geeta Dutt in the films Chanda Ki Chandani and Hua Savera, although their most notable collaboration was Dilruba (1950) in which Dutt wrote eight songs, six of which were solos for Geeta Dutt.
Aap Ki Marzi is 1939 Hindi romantic comedy film directed by Sarvottam Badami. The film was produced under the Sudama Productions banner. The music composer was Gyan Dutt with lyrics credited to Pyare Lal Santoshi and S. P. Kalla. It starred Motilal, Sabita Devi, Khursheed, K. N. Singh, Mazhar Khan, Vasanti and Sunalini Devi. This was director Badami's second comedy film; he had earlier directed the comedy Teen Sau Din Ke Baad (1938) which turned out be a box office success. Aap Ki Marzi was based on the MGM produced, Edward Buzzell directed film Paradise for Three (1938) from Erich Kastner's novel.
Sajani is a 1940 Hindi social film directed by Sarvottam Badami for Sudama Productions. Scripted by Zia Sarhadi, the film had music by Gyan Dutt and starred Prithviraj Kapoor, Sabita Devi, Snehprabha Pradhan, Noor Jehan, Dixit, and Ghory. Badami left Sagar Movietone where he had made satirical comedies to join his "mentor" Ambalal Patel at Sudama Productions to make "socially relevant film(s)", where Sajani was one of the first. Snehprabha Pradhan acted in several films produced by Chimanbhai Desai in 1940, including Sajani.
Khilona is a 1942 social Hindi film directed by Sarvottam Badami. The film was produced at Ranjit Studios by Amar Pictures. It had music by Khemchand Prakash with lyrics by Pandit Indra Chandra. Khilona was one of the major films which brought the actress Snehprabha Pradhan into prominence. The cast included Snehprabha Pradhan, P. Jairaj, Prabha, Satish, Kanhaiyalal and Pratima Devi.
Holi is a 1940 Hindi/Urdu social drama film directed by A. R. Kardar. Holi was produced by Ranjit Movietone and had music composed by Khemchand Prakash with lyrics by D. N. Madhok. It had Khursheed and Motilal starring in the lead with Sitara Devi, Ishwarlal, Keshavrao Date, Dixit, Ghory and Manohar Kapoor.
Thokar also called The Kick is 1939 Hindi/Urdu film directed by A. R. Kardar. Produced by Chandulal Shah for his production banner Ranjit Movietone, it had music by Gyan Dutt. The story writer was M. Sadiq, with cinematography by Gordhanbhi Patel. The cast included Kumar, Ishwarlal, Madhuri, Yakub, Noor Mohammed Charlie, Ram Marathe, Waheedan Bai and Dixit.
Chaturbhuj Doshi (1894–1969) was a Hindi and Gujarati writer-director of Indian cinema. He was one of the top Gujarati screenplay writers, who helped script stories for the Punatar productions. He is stated to be one of the leading figures who launched the Gujarati film industry with work on notable films like Gunsundari (1948) and Nanand Bhojai (1948). Doshi, was “well known” for his family socials and had become “a celebrity in his own right”. He made a name for himself as a journalist initially and was referred to as the "famous journalist" and publicist by Baburao Patel, editor of Filmindia.
Sabita Devi (1914–1965) was a Hindi film actress in Indian cinema. She is stated to be one of the "prominent" leading ladies of the "pioneering era" of Indian cinema along with Mehtab, Bibbo, Durga Khote, Gohar, Devika Rani and Seeta Devi. A Jewish by birth, she changed her name to find acceptability in Hindi cinema like the other Anglo-Indian and Jewish actresses of her time, Sulochana, Seeta Devi, Madhuri, and Manorama. After initially working with British Dominion Films Ltd., Calcutta, she shifted to Bombay and performed mainly in films produced by Sagar Movietone with her co-star in most films being Motilal. Some of the popular films with Motilal were Dr. Madhurika (1935) and Kulvadhu (1937) directed by Sarvottam Badami. Their first film together was Shaher Ka Jadoo (1934), which was also Motilal's debut film, and then Lagna Bandhan (1936) both directed by Kaliprasad Ghosh. She acted in Silver King (1935) with Motilal. It was an action film directed by C. M. Luhar, which became a "huge success".
Mazhar Khan was an actor, producer, and director in Indian Cinema. He started his career as a police officer, which he left to study law for a short period. After abandoning his studies, he came to Bombay and started his career in cinema with the silent film Fatal Garland (1928) opposite the top actress of the time, Ermeline. He became a popular actor, gaining success in several silent films. During his stint in silent films he worked with well-established directors such as Bhagwati Prasad Mishra, Ezra Mir, Moti P. Bhagnani, R. S. Chowdhary, and M. D. Bhavnani. Magazines in the 1940s compared Khan to Hollywood actors such as Paul Muni, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.
