The Three Reigning Queens, Albums of Madhubala, Meena Kumari & Nargis Options

[swarapriya]

(Meena) Sharada (1957)

This was the first Hindi film from the venerable L.V. Prasad under his own home production banner. His is a story of rags to riches and in between filled with many many struggles and uphill battles. Here is his brief biography.

(This article is condensed and adapted from an article I wrote earlier for the savithri.info website.)

L.V. Prasad (his photo is attached below), whose full name was Akkineni Lakshmi Vara Prasad, was born in Andhra Pradesh in 1908. As a child he did not show much interest in studies. He was attracted to dramas and movies and wanted to be part of them.

Prasad married young at 17, and soon thereafter had a daughter. He had a strong urge to act in movies, and one night he quietly slipped away from his home without telling his wife.

After he arrived in Mumbai, Prasad who spoke only Telugu, found it difficult to find employment in the film industry. But after months of struggle, he found a job running errands with the Venus Film Company. He landed finally a small role in the first India Talkie (a talkie is a talking movie as compared to a silent one) cinema in Hindi, “Alam Ara” in 1931. While working on “Alam Ara,” Prasad met H.M. Reddy, now known as the “Telugu Cine Pitamaha” or the grandfather of the Telugu cinema. Reddy was making arrangements for a Tamil film, “Kalidas”, and offered Prasad a small role in it. This was the first Tamil Talkie. Coincidentally, he landed a role in the first Telugu Talkie, “Bhaktha Prahlada”. Thus, Prasad is the only person who had the distinction of appearing in the first Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu Talkies.

After this Prasad was in and and out of jobs and worked either in Chennai or in Mumbai wherever he found work. During one of his Mumbai stints he met the great stage and film actor Prithviraj Kapoor. Prasad worked at Prithvi Theatres and during this time he met and befriended young Raj Kapoor, the oldest son of Prithviraj.

After the War, Chennai was busy again making movies. Prasad decided to move to Chennai. He was immediately hired not only to act in the film “Griha Pravesham” but also to direct it. The movie became a hit and it is now considered to be one of the landmark movies of 40’s. Following this success, Prasad acted in or directed several movies. One of these movies “Mana Desam,” made in 1949, introduced young N.T. Rama Rao in a supporting role. Rao later became a much sought after actor and a successful politician.

Prasad directed Vijaya Pictures first film “Shavukar” in 1950, which became a hit and established him as one of the premiere directors. In that same year he also directed “Samsaram,” another hit that introduced Savithri in a bit role. Subsequently, Prasad directed Sivaji Ganesan in the Tamil film “Manohara,” which elevated Sivaji to unprecedented heights of stardom.

Prasad started his own company in 1956 and made “Ilavelpu” in Telugu. He later remade this in Hindi as “Sharada (1957)” with Raj Kapoor. It was the first of many successful Hindi films to come out of the Prasad Pictures banner. Prasad produced films in various Indian languages, including Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Tamil, and Telugu.

In 1982, Prasad received Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his distinguished service to the Indian cinema.

Prasad -- an actor, director, camera assistant, story writer, and producer passed away in 1994.

Songs of "Sharada" start in the next post...

[swarapriya]

Songs of "Sharada (1957)"

This film was based on a hit Tamil and Telugu film. I will upload some of the songs from the Telugu film, "Ilavelupu (1957)", immediately following uploads of the Hindi songs in this section.

There are quite a few songs in this film. I will upload them in two back-to-back posts. Here are the songs in the first post...

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Sharada (1957)"...

Here are the rest of the songs from this album...

[swarapriya]

Ilavelupu (1956) - A Telugu Film

This film and the Hindi film "Sharada (1957)" were made from a hit Tamil film. I am uploading some of the songs from this movie below. Requesting members to share the missing songs if they can. Thank you.

Here are the songs I have...

[swarapriya]

(Nargis) Mother India (1957)

“Mother India (1957)” when released was a blockbuster. It broke all box office records and remained a champion for the next three years until "Mughal-E-Azam" was released in 1960. This movie is one of the monumental achievements in Indian film history. Even though Mehboob was the architect of this masterpiece, the person who made it amazingly realistic with an unmatched and absolutely brilliant and rustic performance was the great actress Nargis. It is one of those gut wrenching performances that will be remembered for ages to come. This was even more significant if one considers that Nargis hitherto portrayed mostly urban and sophisticated lady roles (Mehboob's "Andaz (1950)" is an example). It was a stroke of genius by Mehboob Saab that he saw what Nargisji can do. He should know. It was Mehboobji who introduced Nargis in his movie "Taqdeer" in 1943.

This movie was a remake of Mehboob's earlier movie "Aurat (1940)". That starred Sardar Akhtar in the mother's role. Surendra (Rajendra's role) and Yaqoob (Sunil Dutt's role) played sons. Arun (father of actor Govinda) played Raaj Kumar's role. Kanhaiyalal played the same role in both the movies. It had some magnificent music by Anil Biswas. Many critics are of the opinion that this original version with its rustic backdrop was much more engrossing than Mehboob Khan's later version.

“Mother India” made stars out of Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar, and Raaj Kumar. That is quite an impressive list. It won all kinds of laurels for Nargisji and many other significant awards too. She won the best actress award for her performance at the Karlovy Vary film festival. The movie fetched Filmfare awards for the Best Picture (Mehboob Khan), the Best Director (Mehboob Khan), the Best Actress (Nargis), the Best Cinematography (Faredoon Irani), and the Best Sound (R. Kaushik). It also has the distinction of being selected as the first Indian movie for Oscars in the Best Foreign film category. It lost by one vote to that famous Italian film by Fredrico Fellini "Nights of Cabiria" on the third count. Not for another 31 years, another Indian film will be nominated for Oscars. That movie was "Salaam Bombay (1988)".

Khan Saab was described by many as Cecille B. DeMille (the maker of "The Ten Commandments") of India. In fact, after watching "Mother India" DeMille contacted Mehboobji to congratulate him for the magnificent job he did.

Nargis broke away with Raj Kapoor during the shooting of this movie. Sunil Dutt, who plays her son in the movie, displaying real life heroics, rescued her from the burning fire when the climax was being shot. In the process Dutt himself suffered several burns but Nargis was safe. This bravura act was enough to tilt her heart for Nargis towards Dutt. They got romantically involved after that incident and within a year got married. Incidentally, Mehboobji considered offering the role Sunil Dutt played to the Hollywood actor Sabu. However it didn't pan out and the role eventually went to Dutt.

This movie was banned in Turkey because Mehboob's banner has hammer and sickle in it. Because this represents communist and social leanings, Turkey didn't allow the movie to be screened in that country. When this movie was sent for Oscar competition, Mehboobji made sure that his banner's symbol was cut out.

Naushadji's music didn't win any awards but it was a major part of the success enjoyed by the movie. Here Naushadji uses very few and simple instruments but very effectively. Almost all songs are catchy and stayed popular for a long time.

The movie was made in Telugu in 1971 as "Bangaru Thalli" and in Tamil in 1978 as "Punya Bhoomi".

I will upload songs from an original soundtrack album in back-to-back two posts. Here is the first set of songs...

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Mother India (1957)"...

Here are the rest of the songs from this great album...

[swarapriya]

(Meena) Madhosh (1951)

I am re-uploading these songs from an original soundtrack on request. Here they are...

[memsaab]

Thank you again swarapriya for your efforts on my behalf

[swarapriya]

(Madhubala) Phagun (1958)

This is one beautiful album from the master OP. There are 12 songs in this musical with Asha starring in all of them. There are seven solos and five duets with Rafi Saab. But what is beautiful about this album is that all songs are chart-busters, some more than others, but all were very popular.

I am uploading these songs in three back-to-back posts. First two posts contain songs from the album. Almost all of these are from an original soundtrack album. The third post contains extended versions of some of the songs. These all are from a DVD.

Here are the songs in the first post...

[swarapriya]

Continuing Songs from "Phagun (1958)"...

Here are the rest of the songs from one of the best from OP...

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Phagun (1958)"...

Here are some of the extended version songs from this great album...

[yogihit]

thanks a lot SP for very nice albums..
Request to upload
Saat Samundaron Ki Malika (1947) / Amar Prem (1948) / Desh Sewa (1948)

[swarapriya]

thanks a lot SP for very nice albums..
Request to upload
Saat Samundaron Ki Malika (1947) / Amar Prem (1948) / Desh Sewa (1948)

Yogi, your request are sometimes very daunting. I am sorry to disappoint you once more but the fact is that I don't have a single song from any of these albums. Hopefully someone can come forward and help us out.

Cheers,
S

[yogihit]

no worries SP
i must give you many thanks because of your thread, i can put request to others too.

[swarapriya]

(Meena) Ardhangini (1959)

Here are the songs from this fine album...