A Year In Hindi Movies, 1934 Options

[harihar]

1934 A Year in Hindi Movies

The number of movies crosses one hundred, 121 were made
this year. Two of them deserve special mention.

The Mill - The story and dialogues were written by the famous
Hindi and Urdu author Munshi Premchand. It took one lakh
Rupees to make. It was the first Hindi talkie to be
banned by the British rulers of India. The ban was lifted
and it was reissued as Gharib Parwar and released on
May 9, 1936. Munshiji wrote the story and dialogs for
another movie Sevaasadan in the same year.

Seeta - Prithviraj Kapoor was Rama, Durga Khote was Seeta,
Govind Ram Tembe was Balmiki and Mukhtar Beghum
was Dharatimata. S. D. Burman sang a few songs.
Director was Debaki Bose and music was by K. C. Dey.
This was the first film to win an international award.
It won the Gold Medal at the Third International
Exhibition of Cinematographic Art in Venice, Italy in
1935.

Other notable movies were:

Amrit Manthan - The first talkie to celebrate silver jubilee.
The first silent movie to do so was "Kapaal Kundala"
in 1925.

Chandidas - Another hit from R. C. Boral. Saigal, Uma Shashi and
Pahadi Sanyal sang the nine beautiful songs.
Unfortunately, only two are generally available.
"Prem nagar mein banaungi ghar" by Shashi and Saigal
and "Tadpat beete din rain" by Saigal. [Check!]

Dharti Kamp - It has the traditional song, "Sanwariya re kahe mare
najariya". Music was by Moolraj Kapadaia and Sagir, but
in spite of monumental efforts by "Hamraaz" the singer
remains unknown. The song was sung later in "Panna"
released in 1944, by Rajkumari under the musical
direction of Amir Ali. This is the version that many of
us enjoyed so much in the "recent" movie Mirch Masala, in
which Nasiruddin Shah and his wife acted.

Rooplekha - Saigal sang a Surdas bhajan, "Sab din hot na ek saman".

Sant Tulasidas - Professor G. N. Joshi was hero and Gajanan
Jagirdar, B. A. provided the lyrics.

Shahar Ka Jadu - Motilal's first movie [Check!].

Vaaman Avtaar - The future music director Jaidev was
Nard Muni in this movie. His first as an actor.

Veer Bharat - Jaidev acted and sang two songs, "Rakkho jo aag
daman mein" and "Prayi peed jane veer bharat ho to aisa ho"

Noor Mahal - One of the earliest movies in which Jeewan,
the villain in many Dev Anand movies acted. He was
known as O. K. Dar Kashmiri or simply Dar
Kashmiri in those days.

Most of the info comes from the following books:

1. The Encyclopaedia of Hindi Film Songs, volume 1,
compiled by Mr. Har Mandir Singh "Hamraaz", published
by Mrs. Satinder Kaur, his wife.

2. Listeners' Bulletin, a monthly, edited by Hamraaz Saahib and
published by the Secretary, the Flying Listener's Club, Kanpur.

3. Limca Book of Records, 1993 edition, edited by Vijaya Ghose,
published by Bisleri Beverages Limited.

Reproduced here with the kind permission of Shriman Surjit Singh