Ghory and Dixit were a comedy duo comprising Nazir Ahmed Ghory and Manohar Janardhan Dixit. They were active in Indian cinema during the 1930s and 1940s. [1] They were called the Indian Laurel and Hardy. [2] [3] The duo had starred in several films including Do Badmaash, Sitamgarh, Toofani Toli and Bhola Raja. Most of their films were produced by Ranjit Studios. [4] Unlike Laurel and Hardy they played only supporting roles in their films. [5]
Ghory was born on 11 August 1901 in Bombay. [6] He started his film acting career with Bhagwati Prasad Mishra-directed Alladin and His Wonderful Lamp and Scented Devil in 1927. [7] Before joining Ranjit Film Company, Ghory had worked with several other production companies. [6] His last Indian film was the 1948 Duniyadaari. After Dixit's death Ghory migrated to Pakistan. He continued acting there and died on 9 December 1977 aged 76. [8] He was buried in Rawalpindi where his daughter was an officer. His son lives in Canada and his daughters live in Karachi. His brother's family left in Mumbai (India) and his nephew Ashraf Butt still lives in Mumbai. [9]
Dixit was born on 12 November 1906 in Sinnar, Nasik district of Maharashtra. He was the eldest child of a district magistrate. [10] He made his debut with the 1930 film [7] His last film was Mahatma which was released in 1953. He died on 29 June 1949 in Mumbai after suffering a severe heart attack aged 42. [8] One of friends Baburao Patel described him as "a 220-pound-bundle of nerves, with a hypochondria-cal mind that constantly imagines various illnesses, not to speak of several imaginary grievances." [10] Dixit entered the film industry as a cameraman's assistant at Navjivan studios. When someone suggested that he would look good as a nawab, he was cast in the 1930 film Sharkling Youth alongside Jairaj and Madhav Kale. After starring in 3 more films –Badmash, Bijli and Vandevi (all released in 1930) he joined Ranjit Film Company. [6] During the principal photography of Puggree in 1947 he suffered a heart attack. [8]
Dixit was obese while Ghory was a lean man and their pair served as a comic element in several of the early talkies. The duo first starred together in the 1932 Jayant Desai-directed talkie Char Chakram. [6] They acted in several other films directed by Desai –Bhola Shikar, Do Badmaash, Bhool Bhulaiyan and Vishivamohini. They continued to act in Ranjit Film's production's till 1947. [3]
Marathi Cinema, also known as Marathi Chitrapat, is the segment of Indian cinema, dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Marathi Language widely spoken in the state of Maharashtra. It is based in Mumbai. It is the oldest film industry of India and one of the leader in Filmmaking in India's film industry. The first Marathi talkie film was Ayodhyecha Raja, released in 1932, just one year after Alam Ara the first Hindi talkie, before releasing the Aayodhyecha Raja, all the Marathi films until then were Silent films with Intertitles.
Agha was an Indian actor of Bollywood films. He was known for comic roles and modeled himself on Bob Hope's style of acting. He appeared in over 300 Hindi films in his career between 1935 and 1986. His son, Jalal Agha, also became an actor, mostly known for the song Mehbooba Mehbooba in Sholay (1975).
Dhoon is a 1953 Bollywood film directed by M. Kumar. The film was produced by Silver Kings, a production company formed by Kumar and his then wife, actress Pramila. The film stars Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Motilal, Kumar, Pramila, E. Bilmoria, Leela Mishra and Kamal Mehra. Mehra was a lesser known comedian who started his career in 1951 with Naujawan. He went on to act in several films before starting his own production company Pride Of India under which he made films like Kismat (1968), Mahal (1969) and Naami Chor (1977). The music was composed by Madan Mohan.
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.
Raja Nawathe; 14 October 1924 – 15 November 2005) was an Indian film producer, director, assistant film director, in Bombay's Hindi film industry, long before it came to be known as Bollywood. He is known for films like Raj Kapoor-Nargis starrer Aah (1953) and thriller Gumnaam (1965).
Master Vithal or Vithal (1906-1969) was an actor in Indian cinema, best known as the hero of India's first talkie Alam Ara (1931) and of Marathi and Hindi silent stunt films, which gave him the epithet as the Douglas Fairbanks of India.
Lal Haveli is a Bollywood film. It was released on 15 December 1944. The film was directed by K. B. Lall, for whom it was a debut directorial venture. Lall had started his career playing a villain in Sohrab Modi's Bharosa (1940), and as a "storywriter" with the V. C. Desai directed film Radhika (1941), finally producing Savera (1942) directed by V. C. Desai, before turning his hand at direction with Lal Haveli.
Yakub Khan, known as Yakub, was an Indian actor born into a Pathan family in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India. He is best known for his comic and comic villainous roles.
Gope was an Indian actor of Hindi cinema. Starting his career with a small role in Insaan Ya Shaitaan (1933), directed by Moti Gidwani and produced by Eastern Arts Production, Gope went on to act in over one hundred forty films in a career spanning twenty-four years from 1933 to 1957. Several of his films were released following his death. Best known for his comedy roles, he is stated to be one of Hindi cinema's "most popular comedians". His acting in comic roles won him "critical and popular acclaim" and he soon became "the leading comedian of his time". His popularity assured him of being mentioned in the credit roll of films along with the main cast. He became famous for lip-syncing the popular number "Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon" from Patanga, playbacked by C. Ramchandra for Gope and by Shamshad Begum for Nigar Sultana.
Jayant Desai was an Indian film director and producer. After graduating from the University of Bombay Desai joined Ranjit Studios in 1929 where he directed numerous films including Toofani Toli (1937), Tansen (1943), Har Har Mahadev (1950) and Amber (1952). Tansen was the second highest grossing Indian film of 1943. Besides film direction he also acted in several films. In 1943 he left Ranjit Studios to found his own production company, Jayant Desai Productions. In 1960s he founded Jupiter Films and Hemlata Pictures.
Noor Mohammed Charlie, popularly known as Charlie, was an Indian/ Pakistani actor born in 1911 in Ranavav village, Porbandar, Saurashtra, India. Best known for his comedy roles, he was the first 'star' comedian and has been referred to as India's first comedy king. He acted with several top actresses of those days as a comic hero. Being a great fan of Charlie Chaplin, he took the name "Charlie" as his screen name following the release of his popular film The Indian Charlie (1933). He had a successful career in pre-partition India from 1925–1946. His shift to Pakistan following partition saw his career going down with less than 12 films. He shifted to the US to live with his son and returned later to Pakistan where he died in 1983.
Sarvottam Badami (1910–2005) was an Indian film director of Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil films. He started his career as a sound recordist for the first talkie in India, Alam Ara (1931). In 1948 he helped set up the Films Division for news-reel and documentaries, where he worked as the chief producer in the newsreel department and also made documentaries. His active years were from 1932 to 1952 when he retired from the Films Division and from making feature films to settle in Bangalore.
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.
Mehtab (1913–1997) was an Indian actress of Hindi/Urdu films who worked from 1928 to 1969. She was born in Sachin, Gujarat, to a Muslim family and named Najma. Her father, Nawab Sidi Ibrahim Mohammad Yakut Khan III, was the Nawab of Sachin, near Surat in the state of Gujarat. Starting her career in the late 1920s with small roles in films like Second Wife (1928), Indira B. A. (1929) and Jayant (1929), she went on to do character roles before acting in the lead opposite Ashraf Khan in Veer Kunal (1932). After almost a decade of doing mainly action-oriented roles, she came into prominence with the Kidar Sharma-directed Chitralekha (1941).
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.
Bhabhi (Sister-in-Law) is a 1938 social family drama Hindi film directed by Franz Osten. The film was based on a Bengali novel written by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay called "Bisher Dhoan". Bandyopadhyay was a famous Bengali novelist and short story writer also known as the creator of the fictional detective Byomkesh Bakshi. The cinematographers were Wirsching and Pareenja. Dialogues and lyrics by J. S. Casshyap. V. H. Desai, the comedian, got his "big break" in Bhabhi when he joined Bombay Talkies. He became popular as the nervous father of the heroine Renuka Devi. S. N. Tripathi started his acting with a small role in the film. The film had the new found Renuka Devi in the lead.
Karan Dewan was an Indian cinema actor in Hindi films. He worked in over seventy films from 1941 to 1979. He started as a journalist while still in college, editing a film-based magazine in Urdu. His brother was the film producer and director Jaimani Dewan.
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.
Sagar Movietone also Sagar Films, Sagar Film Company and Sagar Productions was an Indian film production company involved in the making of films for Indian cinema. It was launched by Ardeshir Irani with Chimanlal Desai and Dr. Ambalal Patel in 1929 in Bombay, Maharashtra, India. Sagar was initially started as a branch company of Ardeshir's Imperial Film Company. Several key figures from Imperial, such as Mehboob Khan were shifted to Sagar. The studio was in operation from 1930 to 1939. In 1940, it combined with General Pictures to form National Studios. It made "Parsi theatre based films, mythologicals and stunt movies". Sagar fostered the career of many artists who rose to prominence. Early directors such as Prafulla Ghosh, Sarvottam Badami, Ezra Mir and Nanubhai Vakil were promoted by the company. Mehboob Khan got his first break as a director in Al Hilal in 1935. He was referred to as "the most important alumnus" from Sagar, who went on to become one of Indian cinema's "most influential film-makers".
