Jump to content

Mahal (1949 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 2409:4053:2199:d85b::1996:a5 (talk) at 04:36, 11 July 2021. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Mahal
Film poster
Directed byKamal Amrohi
Written byKamal Amrohi
Screenplay byKamal Amrohi
Story byKamal Amrohi
Produced byAshok Kumar
Savak Vacha
StarringAshok Kumar
Madhubala
Vijayalakshmi
CinematographyJosef Wirsching
Edited byBimal Roy
M. Shanker
R. M. Tipnis
Music byKhemchand Prakash
(lyrics Nakshab Jaarchavi)
Production
company
Distributed byBombay Talkies
Release date
  • 19 October 1949 (1949-10-19)
Running time
165 min.
CountryIndia
LanguageHindustani
Budgetest. ₹9 lakh (est. ₹12.1 crore as of 2016)[1]
Box officeest. ₹1.45 crore (est. ₹198 crore as of 2016)[2]

Mahal (transl. "Mansion") is a 1949 Indian Hindi-language horror film produced by Savak Vacha and Ashok Kumar under the banner of Bombay Talkies, and directed by Kamal Amrohi as his directorial debut. The film centres on a screenplay written by Amrohi, while its music is composed by Khemchand Prakash, with lyrics being penned by Nakshab. The film has been often cited as Bollywood's first horror film.

Ashok Kumar and Madhubala star as the protagonists. The film revolves around a man who moves into an ancient mansion and learns about his previous life. Things take a turn when he gets visions of a woman claiming to be his lover.[3]

Bombay Talkies studio made Mahal on a modest budget, for it was suffering with major losses at the time. Amrohi, who made his directorial debut with the film, faced difficulty casting the female lead in the film. After being turned down by many major female stars, then fledgling actress Madhubala was put on the board to play a spirit. The film took a relatively long time filming, and while it was being made, it was ridiculed by film-related magazines who described it as a "huge failure".

After several delays, Mahal was released in theatres in October 1949. Despite mixed-to-negative critical reviews, it proved to be hugely popular among the audience and paved the way for Indian gothic fiction. The film's success also launched Madhubala and playback singer Lata Mangeshkar, who had lent her voice to three songs, into super-stardom. Moreover, it turned out to be the biggest hit for Bombay Talkies, though it was shut down only a few years after Mahal's release.

Long after its release, Mahal continues to "haunt" audiences and is considered a cult classic. Hailed as one of the most successful and influential films of Indian cinema, the film found a place in the British Film Institute's list of "10 great romantic horror films" and Scoopwhoop's of "14 Bollywood Horror Movies That You Just Can’t Watch Alone".[4][5]

Plot

Mahal

Mahal is a story of reincarnation and a ghost story. In Allahabad, there is a beautiful abandoned palace. When a new owner, Hari Shankar (Ashok Kumar), comes to live in this palace, the old gardener narrates the story of incomplete love.

40 years ago, a man built it and his lover, Kamini (Madhubala), began to live in it. She would wait all day long for the man to come to her at midnight, but he always left before it was morning. One stormy night, the man's ship sank and he drowned. Before leaving Kamini, he tells her that their love will never fail. A few days later, Kamini also died.

When Shankar goes to a bedroom, a photograph falls from the wall and Shankar is astonished to find the man in the photograph looks exactly like him. Then, a woman is heard singing and Shankar follows her voice. He finds her sitting in a room, but she flees when she sees him. Shankar's friend Shrinath (Kanu Roy) arrives and Shankar expresses suspicion on his being the man of the incomplete love story in a previous life. Shrinath tries to calm him, but then the woman reappears. They follow her to the terrace, where she jumps off into water and the two men find nothing when they look down. The next day, Shankar heads back to Kanpur. At Naini, he gets off from a train and goes to the palace. Kamini tells him that she is real, but Shrinath interferes and warns Shankar that she will draw him to death. The ghost appears again and tells Shrinath to stay away from them. Enraged, Shrinath tries to shoot her but fails. Kamini tells Shankar that if she could enter into a body of a woman whom Shankar likes, she could return to life. She tells Shankar to see the gardener's daughter's face to check if she's beautiful and he can accept Kamini in that face. Meanwhile, Shankar's father arrives after hearing everything from Shrinath and takes him home. Shankar marries Ranjana (Vijayalaxmi). He decides to move far away with his wife in order to forget Kamini. After two years, a disturbed Ranjana wanting to know where Shankar goes every night, follows him when he goes to meet Kamini. Kamini tells him to kill the gardener's daughter so that she can use her body. Knowing everything, Ranjana drinks poison and goes to police station to give a deathbed confession against Shankar of betrayal and poisoning her. Shanker is submitted to the court and the daughter of the gardener, Asha, is also called upon there being accused of the cause of distance between Shankar and Ranjana. Later Asha is revealed to be Kamini. She then accepts that she has played Kamini because she had fallen in love with the man in the photograph, who looks like Shankar. But Shankar is sentenced to death. Later, the police come to know about Ranjana's letter and free Shankar. Shankar rushes to Shrinath's place but dies. The credits roll as a grieving Kamini and Shrinath walk away.

Cast

File:1949 mahaal.jpg
Mahal proved to be first major hit of Madhubala and helped her establish herself as a leading lady of Hindi Cinema.

Many established actresses and new faces were screen-tested for the coveted female lead. The part was written with the then-reigning superstar, Suraiya in mind. However, after two screen tests, the fledgling Madhubala, only 16 at the time, was selected. The film was key in defining her screen persona and establishing her as one of the most successful as well as illustrious actresses of the 1950s and an iconic actress of Indian cinema.

  • Madhubala as Kamini/Asha
  • Ashok Kumar as Hari Shankar
  • M. Kumar as Hari Shankar's father
  • Vijayalaxmi as Ranjana
  • Kanu Roy as Shrinath
  • S. Nazir
  • Eruch Tarapore
  • Sheela Naik
  • Leela Pandey
  • Neelam
  • Kaneez
  • Jagannath
  • Mohsin
  • Laxman Rao
  • S.A. Baker
  • Ramastri
  • Raja Salim

Production

Mahal was produced by Savak Vacha and Ashok Kumar under the banner of Bombay Talkies, and written and directed by Kamal Amrohi, who made directorial debut with the film.[6] It was Kumar who suggested the story recalling a real life incident: in 1948, he was shooting near Jijiboy House at a hill station when in midnight, the actor saw a headless corpse in a mysterious woman's car.[7] The woman vanished from the scene soon after, and Kumar's servants believed the he might have dreamt. When Kumar went to a nearby police station to register a complain, a policeman told him that 14 years ago a similar incident happened at the same place—a woman had committed a murder and later died in road accident.[7]

Kumar narrated the story to Amrohi, who had previously written dialogue the 1939 Sohrab Modi's blockbuster Pukar, but never directed a film. Amrohi partly modified and further developed the story and named the film Mahal, meaning a mansion or a palace.[8] The film's plot was rejected by Vacha, who was apprehensive that suspense films do not always find a repeat audience, while Bombay Talkies was already suffering financially due to the box office failure of its previous films: Ziddi (1948) and Asha (1948). However, Kumar insisted that the film may become interesting if directed well and appointed Amrohi as the film's director.[9] Kumar himself agreed to co-produce, bear the losses if any and even star in the film. He entrusted Amrohi to choose a suitable actress for playing Kamini.[9]

The casting of female lead role became complex—several established actresses refused the role and those who accepted it asked high prices. At one point, Suraiya was considered and almost finalized by Vacha, who believed that she and Kumar would together make a marketable pair together, but her grandmother appeared unenthusiastic about the film's unconventional story.[10] Meanwhile, Madhubala, a 15 years old rising but not exactly popular actress expressed her interest in Kamini's role. Vacha rejected her outrightly due to her age and relative inexperience, but Amrohi demanded to audition her.[11] "She wasn't a celebrity when I met her first, and since I was looking for someone new, she fit the bill," Amrohi explained later.[12]

According to India Times, in her first screen test, Madhubala "looked terrible. Buzz is, German cinematographer Joseph Wirching, who was on the studio's payroll, had been instructed to shoot the teenage actress at her worst."[13] Amrohi helmed the second audition himself and arranged the lights to his own convenience while photographing Madhubala. The young actress now appeared "stunning, even in black-and-white, and everyone agreed that she was the perfect Kamini," states India Times.[13] She secured the role soon after, despite the fact that the film's lead actor, Kumar was more than double her age. The actor said years later: "Madhubala was just about 15 and so raw that she needed several retakes for almost every shot. [...] But Mahal was different, and I was convinced that we wouldn't be miscast."[13]

Throughout the filming of Mahal, the unit suffered financial crisis from the beginning and Amrohi had to contribute antiques and costumes from his own home because there was not enough money to buy props.[13] Khemchand Prakash was roped in to compose the music, while Nakshab wrote the lyrics. Female singers Lata Mangeshkar, Rajkumari Dubey and Zohrabai Ambalewali were chosen to sing the soundtracks. "Aayega Aanewala" was sung by Mangeshkar in the same ancient mansion where the film was shot.[10] Another track titled "Mushkil Hai Bahut Mushkil", which is about four-minute long was completed by Amrohi and Madhubala in a single take.[14] Despite everyone else's disapproval, Amrohi held Madhubala's talents in high regard, proclaiming that "it was with this film that her true capabilities came to the fore."[12]

The film's ending scene initially saw the main characters (Shankar and Kamnini) uniting in their next birth, but the scenes were removed a day before the release on Kumar's suggestions; the reasons are unknown today.[15]

Soundtrack

For the lyrics written by Nakshab Jaarchavi for all the songs of the film, the music of the songs was composed by Khemchand Prakash. Tun Tun was initially offered to sing "Aayega Aanewala", but she refused the offer because of her contract with Kardar Productions.[16]

  • "Aayega Aanewala" - Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
  • "Chun Chun Gunguruva Baje Jhumba" - Singers: Rajkumari, Zohrabai Ambalawali
  • "Ghabrakar Ke Jo Hum Sir Ko Takraayan" - Singer: Rajkumari
  • "Dil Ne Phir Yaad Kiya" - Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
  • "Main Wo Hansi Hun Lab Pe Jo Aane Se Rah Gayi" - Singer: Rajkumari
  • "Ek Teer Chala Dil Pe Laga" - Singer: Rajkumari
  • "Mushkil Hai Bahot Mushkil" - Singer: Lata Mangeshkar

Themes

The movie was a groundbreaking supernatural suspense thriller and one of the earliest known films dealing with reincarnation. Mahal became one of the biggest box office hits of 1949 in India[17] and paved way for Indian gothic fiction.[18]

Release

Box office

Mahal was theatrically released on 13 October 1949, in Bombay.[10] Due to negative reviews, the film opened to poor box office returns, which led The Motion Picture Magazine to believe that Bombay Talkies' shutdown was imminent.[19] However, a week later the film's collections picked up as audience thronged into theatres to watch it.[10]

With the help of its soundtrack and the hype surrounding Madhubala at the time, the film "capture[d] the imagination of audience".[20] As Mahal's viewership continued escalating, it was released at Roxy[disambiguation needed] and Liberty theatre and swiftly became a "glorious success".[21] Subsequently, trade site Box Office India declared it a "Super Hit".[2] Although exact figures for Mahal's box-office earnings are not available, film-trade websites provide estimates. Box Office India cited the gross as ₹14.5 million (US$170,000), and said that it was the third highest-grossing Hindi film of 1949 (after Barsaat and Andaz).[22] In February 2009, the website gave Mahal's adjusted gross as ₹410 million (US$4.9 million), and called it the tenth highest-grossing film of the decade (1940—49). As of 2020, Mahal remains one of the hundred highest-grossing Indian films in the history when adjusted for inflation.[23]

Critical reception

Mahal initially received a lukewarm and mixed-to-negative response from critics.[24] Those who were praised included Madhubala and Wirching; the former's beauty enamoured writer Baburao Patel to the point that he titled her "The Venus of Indian screen",[25] and the latter's cinematography prompted a journalist for The Motion Picture Magazine to describe Mahal as "a milestone in the annals of the Indian film industry".[26] However, most of the reviews conatained vilification and criticism due to the movie's perceived disparagement of Hindu philosophical themes and unordinary plot.[1] While Patel found the theme "fantastic nonsense—pure and unadultrated",[1] The Motion Picture Magazine called the film "a story of ghosts, spooks, apparitions, jitters, quivers, bats and snakes", adding that "it succeeds in giving one the creeps, but through more causes than one."[26]

Over time, Mahal's reputation has improved greatly, and modern-day critics have often called it a classic, "benchmark" or "milestone".[27] Although Filmi Geek termed its storyline "bizzare" in its 2012 review,[28] in 2016, Karan Bali of Upperstall.com lauded the film's "richly textured and moody visuals, the imaginative use of sound, its tantalizing ambiguity and [...] its haunting music."[29] Writer Vijay Mishra wrote in his book Bollywood Cinema: Temples of Desire that Mahal "remains the final achievement precisely because it lacks closure and has ambiguous moments built into its very structure. [...] The use of the Hindu story of reincarnation [...] expands the capacities of the gothic form and ultimately connects it with an underlying impulse toward the sublime that characterizes Hindu aesthetic theories generally."[30] In 2020, Gayathri Prabhu reviewed similarly: "Mahal brings together romance and architecture on screen in a way that is distinctly its own. The dynamics between romance and space is also the romance of space, and the only way to bring it to any cinematic fruition would be to give that interplay of romance and space a unique visual syntax. This is what Mahal accomplishes with uncanny exactitude for the entire duration of the opening sequence."[31]

Influence

File:Portrait Madhubala.jpg
The success of Mahal turned Madhubala (left) and Lata Mangeshkar (right) into overnight stars.

The success of Mahal played a major role in the career developments of playback singer Lata Mangeshkar and lead actress Madhubala, as both of them were struggling to get a big break in the film industry. Mahal remained Madhubala's highest-grossing release for the next six years till Mr. & Mrs. '55 (1955), and Mangeshkar often cited "Aayega Aanewala" as one of her favourite songs.[citation needed]

Bimal Roy, who was the editor for Mahal, would later go on to direct Madhumati,[18] which itself went on to become the source of inspiration for many later works dealing with the theme of reincarnation in Indian cinema, Indian television, and perhaps world cinema. Many of its themes were repeated in the Hindi film Karz (1980),[32] which was remade several times: as the Kannada film Yuga Purusha (1989), the Tamil film Enakkul Oruvan (1984), and Om Shanti Om.[33][34]

See also

Sources

  • Abbasi, Yasir (2018). Yeh Un Dinoñ Ki Baat Hai: Urdu Memoirs of Cinema Legends. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9387471055.
  • Akbar, Khatija (1997). Madhubala: Her Life, Her Films. Hay House. ISBN 9788174761538.
  • Deep, Mohan (1996). The Mystery and Mystique of Madhubala. Magna Books. ISBN 1906574219.
  • Ghosh, Nabendu (1995). Ashok Kumar: His Life and Times. Indus. ISBN 8172232187.
  • Mishra, Vijay (2013). Bollywood Cinema: Temples of Desire. Routledge. ISBN 9780415930154.
  • Prabhu, Gayathri (2020). Shadow Craft: Visual Aesthetics of Black and White Hindi Cinema. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9789390176267.

References

  1. ^ a b c Roshmila Bhattacharya (6 May 2013). "Testing times for Madhubala". Pune Mirror. Archived from the original on 2 July 2013. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
  2. ^ a b "Top Earners 1940s". 16 October 2013. Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  3. ^ "Testing times for Madhubala". Pune Mirror. 6 May 2013. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  4. ^ Blyth, Michael (22 May 2015). "10 great romantic horror films". BFI. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  5. ^ Kurian, Danny (16 May 2015). "14 Bollywood Horror Movies That You Just Can't Watch Alone". www.scoopwhoop.com. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  6. ^ Deep 1996, p. 144.
  7. ^ a b "When Ashok Kumar saw a headless corpse and Mahal was born". Top Lead India. 13 October 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ Deep 1996, p. 37.
  9. ^ a b Deep 1996, p. 37–39.
  10. ^ a b c d Akbar 1997, p. 53.
  11. ^ Deep 1996, p. 37–38.
  12. ^ a b Abbasi 2018, p. 152.
  13. ^ a b c d May 6, Updated:; 2013; Ist, 09:00. "Testing times for Madhubala". Pune Mirror. Retrieved 11 July 2021. {{cite web}}: |last2= has numeric name (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ Rag, Pankaj (1 January 2006). Dhuno Ki Yatra (in Hindi). Rajkamal Prakashan. p. 125. ISBN 978-81-267-1169-7.
  15. ^ Kumar 1995, p. 74–79.
  16. ^ Manish Gaekwad (24 March 2016). "Redemption song: 'Afsana Likh Rahi Hoon' by Tun Tun". Thereel.scroll.in. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  17. ^ Mahal (1949) Archived 13 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine Classic Films at upperstall
  18. ^ a b Mishra, Vijay (2002), Bollywood cinema: temples of desire, Routledge, pp. 49–57, ISBN 0-415-93014-6
  19. ^ Kumar, Prashant (August 1950). "Mahal fails to create a hype; is this the end of Bombay Talkies?". Motion Picture Magazine: 5–19.
  20. ^ Akbar 1997, p. 52.
  21. ^ Deep 1996, p. 46.
  22. ^ "Box Office 1949". web.archive.org. 22 September 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  23. ^ "Biggest Blockbusters Ever!". web.archive.org. 22 April 2006. Retrieved 24 January 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  24. ^ "Thus wrote Filmindia (and Mother India) - II". Upperstall.com. 9 April 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
  25. ^ "Madhubala's 85th birth anniversary: Beyond her arresting beauty, a look at her life's tragedies". Hindustan Times. 14 February 2018. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
  26. ^ a b "Bombay Talkies' Mahal—Madhubala and Ashok Kumar—The Motion Picture Magazine". Retrieved 23 April 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  27. ^ Akbar 1997, p. 49.
  28. ^ "Mahal (1949)". Filmi Geek. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  29. ^ Bali, Karan (23 June 2016). "Mahal". Upperstall.com. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  30. ^ Mishra 2013, p. 55.
  31. ^ Prabhu 2020.
  32. ^ Doniger, Wendy (2005), "Chapter 6: Reincarnation", The woman who pretended to be who she was: myths of self-imitation, Oxford University Press, pp. 112–136 [135], ISBN 0-19-516016-9
  33. ^ Ashanti nags Om Shanti Om Archived 24 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine Mumbai Mirror, 7 August 2008.
  34. ^ Shah Rukh, Farah Sued: Writer Claims SRK stole his script for Om Shanti Om Archived 13 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Mahal_(1949_film)&oldid=1033029023"