By Shoaib Ahmed (http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C05%5C02%5Cstory_2-5-2006_pg13_8)

LAHORE: Many high profile Indian actors and singers lived in the Walled City in the 1940s and Lakshmi Chowk was where the film fraternity got together in tongas decorated with maroon flowers, foot bells and lamps on the side.

The tonga was the primary means of transport for the ordinary and elite in the 40s. Most tongas were undecorated, but the ones used by the elite were special and fascinating.

Indian superstars Pran, Muhammad Rafi, Om Parkash, Balraj Sani, Dev Anand and many less known artistes started their film careers from Lahore. The film life in Lahore was very high profile and animated in those days. Lakshmi Chowk was the hot spot for formal and informal film gatherings.

Pran, who mostly played the role of a villain in films, lived in Qilla Gujjar Singh. He was a skilled photographer and took photographs of famous artistes. One day – while standing at a pan shop in Lakshmi Chowk – he met Wali, a leading film director of the time. Wali asked Pran if he was interested in acting and Pran said yes. Wali wrote the address of Pancholi Studios (one of the most famous film studios of Lahore in Muslim Town) on the back of a cigarette pack and asked Pran to see one of his friends there.

Pran started his film career with ‘Chaudhry’ and later appeared as a hero in ‘Khaandaan’, a film by Shaukat Hussain Rizvi. The heroine was melody queen Noor Jahan. Pran migrated to Bombay in 1947.

The subcontinent’s legendary singer Muhammad Rafi lived in Bhaati Gate. He was from a family of barbers and ran his own barbershop. Rafi had a beautiful voice and most of his customers would often ask him to sing for them while they got their hair cut or got a shave. A man from the film industry introduced Rafi to film director Gul Baloch who gave Rafi the opportunity to sing three songs for ‘Gul Zaman’. The film proved a launching point for Rafi’s film career in Lahore and by the time he migrated to India in 1947, he was an accomplished singer. In Bombay Rafi got a breakthrough in ‘Jugnoo’. The hero was Dilip Kumar and heroine Noor Jehan. Om Parkash was also one of the great names of Bombay. He lived at Matti Chowk, Lohari Gate and always rented out a decorated tonga to take him from Matti Chowk to Lakshmi Chowk every day. Parkash did many small and large roles in films made in Lahore and also migrated to India in 1947.

Balraj Sani also lived at Matti Chowk and was the secretary general of the All India Communist Party. He studied at Government College. Sani also acted in pre-Partition films in Lahore. Dev Anand lived in Lohari Gate, but later moved to Bhaati Gate. He also studied at Government College. Dev Anand participated actively in politics in Lahore. His brother Chaitan Anand was a famous film director in Lahore and was considered quite influential in film studios when it came to casting and other affairs.

Meena Shori was one of the leading female actors of her times. She lived in Bhaati Gate and married the owner of Shori Film Studio (now Shah Noor Studio). She acted in several pre-Partition films made in Lahore and migrated to India in 1947. In 1956 she returned to Pakistan to act in ‘Ms 56’ and never went back to India. She accepted Islam and started living in Lahore. BR Chopra is a leading name in production and direction in the Indian film industry. Chopra lived in an area where at present Chuburji Quarters exist. He produced a film in Lahore called ‘Chandni Chowk’. Khayam, one of the leading music composers of the Indian film industry, was his assistant and served him and his guests tea.

Khurshid Begum was an outstanding singer from Lahore who migrated to India in 1947. She also lived in Bhaati Gate. She sang several famous songs for various Indian films. She sang a great song for film ‘Tan Sain’ with singer Sehgal. She returned to Pakistan after a few years and started living in Karachi.

Tanveer Naqvi was a noted lyricist of his times. He lived in Faqirkhana Museum inside Bhaati Gate. He wrote ‘Awaz Dey Kahan Hai’ and ‘Jaan-e-Baharan, Rashk-e-Chaman’. He migrated to India in 1947. Naqvi also returned to Pakistan after a few years and spent the rest of his life in Lahore. Lakshmi Chowk was the focal point of Lahore’s film industry crowd. By the evening, Lakshmi would be full of tongas, with film stars, top film directors and producers thronging teahouses and discussing filmy affairs. Pran, Om Parkash and Al Nasir, another Lahori film hero, would spend their evenings chatting and playing billiards.

There also was a hotel called King Circle at Lakshmi Chowk where film stars gathered. A bank has taken its place these days. Even today Lakshmi Chowk is a major centre of filmi Lahore.

Very Nice Article Pardep Bhai...............................At Last I Want To Say That I M also From Lahore..........................

Jis Ne Lahore Nahi Dekha Woh Paida Hi Nahi Hua

The writer appears to be a novice and ill-informed about most of the things
he has written about.

Meena Shori lived in a locality called Mohini Road. She died here in her
old house.

Khurshid Begum was an outstanding singer from Lahore who migrated to India in 1947. She also lived in Bhaati Gate. She sang several famous songs for various Indian films. She sang a great song for film ‘Tan Sain’ with singer Sehgal. She returned to Pakistan after a few years and started living in Karachi.

Her correct name was Khurshid Bano. Khurshid Begum of 30s and 40s and 70s were
different persons. KB did just one movie (Swarg Ki SiDi 1935) in Lahore and moved
to Calcutta/Bombay. She did not sing any song in SKS. A few years after partition
she returned to Pakistan because she was not getting any work in India.

B R Chopra did not produce any movie in Lahore. Only paper work had been done
of Chandni Chowk and three songs written for it by his close friend Saif-ud-Din Saif.
These songs were used one by one in films he produced in India. His main business
in Lahore was publishing an English filmi magazine.

urzung khan
...............................................................................................
gar nashtar ban kar chubhte hai.n chubne de ai dil uf na kar
phoolo.n ke tale hii gulshan me.n kaa.nTo.n kaa baseraa hotaa hai

Hello Urzung Khan Sahib,
Khurshid Begum of 30s and 40s (Swarg Ki SiDi 1935) and Begum Khurshid Mirza (Renuka Devi of Bombay Talkies who sang Jhuki aayey re badariya sawan ki and wrote her autobiography in 1982 called The Uprooted Sappling) are one and same person or different persons?

I read somewhere that Meena Shori raised her sister's daughters, then how come she died alone, in poverty and her burial was met with charity money. Where were her sister daughters? If you have any information please share.

Ummer.

Let us put the position this way:

Khurshid Bano, singer/actress (Tansen fame) acted in SKS-1935. Its lwading lady
was Umraozia Begum.
Khursheed Begum of 30s-40s was a non film singer.
Khurshid Begum of 70s. She has sung some songs in films.
Khurshid Mirza/Renuka Devi. In films she was always named as RD. She did
one film in Lahore.. Sahara 1943-44...

As to Meena Shori, I would say... ba.Dhaa bhii dete hai.n kuchh zab-e-daastaa.n
ke liye. Check a discussion on her interview (last one ?) in rmim a few years ago.

Urzung Khan Ji,

Thanx for the information. There is one more singer Khurshid Shirazi who sang some film songs. I didnt know actress/singer Khurshid Bano started her career so early

I think you are talking about the interview translated by Afzal Khan (from some magazine) on RMIM, I have that interview.

I think the source of that interview is the book "Out of date", published in 1986, in which the journalist Munir Ahmed Munir interviewed eight faded out film stars including Meena Shorey , Najmul Hasan (Bombay talkies - most handsome hero of his time), Ragini, M Ajmal, Luqman and Hasan Din (one of the last surviving actors from the silent movie era). The book is out of print now and I cant get hold of the copy.

It is just very selfish of her sister's daughters not to attend her funeral or present at the time of her death, when she raised them and married them off.

Ummer.

I am not sure of the year, may be 83-84, but I read that interview
in a local urdu daily. It was one sided accusitions. Those accused
were not there to defend themselves. They might have told a
different story.
Ummer, please confirm the name of that book. Was it in Urdu or English ?
Name of publisher, if you can recall ? It must have been a book worth
reading. I will try to find it.

urzung khan

Hello UK ji,
I first read about that book on this article from Friday Times by Khalid Hasan (who translated some of the Manto's work into English including Stars from Another Sky). I am posting the article here :-






Little of value is allowed to stand whole any longer. Old homes and buildings, built in happier, less frantic times, are torn down when with less effort they could have been reconstructed as they once were. I spent the better part of a late October morning driving around Lahore’s Model Town and gasped as I went past some of the monstrosities that had replaced the gracious homes that once stood there. Perhaps this was the only way: if there were a choice between demolishing things and rebuilding them, most of us would choose the easier and more brutal course.

In the West, the old is preserved and maintained with great care and much pride. We, being an older society with a longer and more eventful – though chequered – history, should have had greater reason to preserve what we once had. But we have not done that. The old has been allowed to perish or be vandalised, while its replacement is vulgar, extravagant or unimaginative.

This culture of indifference extends to people. Those who are gone are quickly forgotten. With the famous few, after the prime minister, the president and assorted worthies have expressed “shock” through cliché-studded newspaper statements, the departed is consigned to oblivion. Those who were once famous are seldom noticed, which is what makes the effort made some years ago by journalist and writer Munir Ahmed Munir to seek out faded film stars and record their memories so valuable.

The collection Out of date, first published in 1986, has been out of print for over a decade. My efforts to get hold of a copy only met success because I sought out Munir much as he had sought out film stars Meena Shorey (the Lara lappa girl), Najmul Hasan, Ragni, M Ajmal and Hasan Din, one of the last surviving actors from the silent movie era. Munir maintains a one-room office behind a row of shops on the Mall that overlooks the forlorn headquarters of the essentially fictional Awami Qiadat Party of Mirza Aslam Beg.

Munir pulled out for me, from a pile of files, papers and packets wrapped in plastic, a copy of Out of date, not a happy name. Only film star Ragni, one of the seven people Munir interviewed in the 1980s, is now alive. The rest are gone, including Mukhtar Begum, the flame of Agha Hashr, the Indian Shakespeare, and Farida Khanum’s older sister, though some still think she was her mother. The great virtue of Munir’s work is that he has reproduced exactly what he was told. He did not add a word of his own and he did not embellish or edit what had been said. Because of this, we hear the authentic voice of those he interviewed. Had it not been for this admirable effort, which he later expended on a number of politicians and political observers like Rao Rashid, we would have been deprived of these fascinating vignettes.

Meena, once the hippest girl in the Indian movie industry, was born in Raiwind in a small rural household. Her father, she told Munir, moved to Multan and after burning his boats there, back to Lahore. He lived a wayward life and beat his wife brutally. One of Meena’s sisters married and moved to Bombay, and she and her mother followed. Sohrab Modi at the time was looking for a young girl who could play the lead in Sikandar, Nasim, the most beautiful woman of her time, having walked out. The movie was an all-India hit and there was no looking back for Meena. Following independence, she moved to Lahore and made many films, but Lahore was not Bombay and Pakistan was not India. None of her marriages, except the one with Roop K Shorey, brought her any happiness. One of her Pakistani husbands, the B-grade actor Asad Bokhari, used to beat her as if it were part of his husbandly duties. Her last years were spent in poverty. She told Munir that she felt like a dried up tree in a grove of green saplings that everyone is out to chop down and burn.

Najmul Hasan, who died unsung in Lahore in 1980, was easily the most handsome actor of his time. He was studying law but did not finish and went to Bombay where Himansu Roy, founder of Bombay Talkies, persuaded him to become an actor. He was cast in the hit Jawani ki hawa. Roy’s wife, Devika Rani, who was related to Rabindranath Tagore, fell in love with Najmul Hasan and the two ran away, which many say brought on the heart attack that killed Roy. Najmul Hasan also had a roaring love affair with Jahanara Kajjan, another cinema beauty. He told Munir, “It is regrettable that our movie industry has failed to establish a fund for those who were once great and famous, men like Sadiq Ali, one of the renowned heroes of his time, who spent his last years begging.”

Another great figure was the director Luqman who ran off to Bombay to go into movies (where do young boys run off to these days, Mir Mohammad Ali of Sialkot used to ask). He was hired as a painter, then worked as a bit player, clapper boy, director’s assistant and, finally, a director of note, both in India and in Pakistan. He was Shaukat Hussain Rizvi’s assistant in Zeenat, a runaway success. The year was 1944. He recalled meeting the 18-year-old Bhutto on a movie set, because young Zulfi had a crush on Nargis. His older brother Imdad Ali Bhutto had married the actress Bibbo, who moved to Karachi after independence and was sometimes to be seen in the Central Hotel whose bar was the hangout of the painter Sadequain.

If only people would write or confide in those who write, we would have no need to read fiction because truth is stranger than fiction. Always.

(Friday Times)

Ummer.

Nice artcle. Thanks.
In the meantime I have traced out the book 'Out of Date'. Munir used to publish a mag named
'aatishfishan' , conducted many many interviews and printed in that mag. The book has some
of those in it. I hope to get the book in the next few days.

urzung khan

Great! If there are any interesting ancedotes in this book, please share

Ummer.

Hello All
Request to upload Sahara 1944 full album.

Details as below
MD: Govind Ram
Actors: Renuka Devi, Narang, Pran
Lyricist: Kamr Jalalbadi, Najim panipati, Swami Ramanand Swarswati, S.S. Sahrahi

Songs:
1) Rut rangili aayi, khabariya pyari pyari layi
2) Kargar ho gayi sochi
3) Kya waqt suhana hai
4) main to lahenga nahi pahanoo
5) sabro karar chin ke aankhe chura gaye
6) woh bhola balam kya jane
7) rakhi ka din aya
8) yeh kisane may aragvani pila di
9) nayi umenge aayi
10) Bekason ki zindagi
11) Gori kara le har singar

main to lahenga nahi pahanoo - courtesy by HFM
Payload Size: 2059702 bytes
Header found at: 26 bytes
Length: 129 seconds
MPEG-1 layer 3
128 kbps, approx. 615 frames
44100 Hz Mono

Thanks in advance

re-requesting..