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In 1953, The New Wave was launched in Hindi cinema with the release of Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zamin, based on a short story by Salil Chowdhury, who was also the music director of the film. In the first Indian Filmfare awards in 1954, Do Bigha Zamin was adjudged as the best picture and Bimal Roy as the best director. It also became the first Indian film to win the Prix Internationale in the 1954 Cannes Film Festival.

In Do Bigha Zamin, Roy explores the familiar problems of unregulated debt, high interest rates, and land-grabbing. Inspired by Vittorio de Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (1948), a film considered to be one of the finest examples of Italian Neorealism, Bimal Roy shot most of the film on location, taking advantage of the natural light to emphasise the sense of the real. Balraj Sahni played the role of a farmer in distress to perfection. We were surprised to find Nirupa Roy, typecast to act in mythological films since the success of Har Har Mahadev (1950), playing the role of the farmer’s wife as if she was born for it. Bimal Roy's mastery was evident in the small details that made every scene like a slice from life. Salil Chowdhury’s music breathed life into the characters as well as the locations. While we enjoyed Hariyala sawan dhol bajata aya and Dharti kahe pukar ke, for me a memorable moment was the unexpected appearance of well dressed, attractive, Meena Kumari, as against the drab appearance of other characters, singing Aa ja ri aa in Lata Mangeshkar’s voice when the narrative became heavy with emotion.

After leaving Bombay Talkies, Ashok Kumar floated his own production company and invited Bimal Roy to direct its first film Parineeta based on a story by Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. We students were familiar with Hindi translations of Sarat Chandra Chatterjee’s works. When the film was announced, there was a rush in college and University libraries for the book. It was an engrossing film with excellent direction, superb portrayals by Ashok Kumar and Meena Kumari and a cameo by Baby Tabassum. Ashok Kumar’s cousin and playback singer Arun Kumar Mukherjee scored the music for Parineeta. He gave us three memorable melodies, Asha Bhonsle’s delightful doll wedding song gore gore hathon mein, Manna De’s folksy chali radhe rani and Geeta Roy’s heart touching chand hai wohi. The first two became my mother’s favourites. My wife still likes to hum chand hai wohi. However, Arun Mukherjee did not enjoy this success for long. Soon afterwards, he died of a heart attack, while driving home with Ashok Kumar by his side. He was only 45 years old.

Ashok Kumar also appeared in BR Chopra’s Shole, which failed, unlike Chopra’s first film Afsana, but we loved Ae dil tu kahein le chal, sung by Hemant Kumar and composed by Naresh Bhattacharya for the film, “a record to beg, borrow or steal” according to Raju Bharatan. During the COVID-19 pandemic lock down our family formed a group to sing and share film songs. At one stage, my late brother AVR Murty asked me to sing a song from Shole. Everyone in the group thought of the better-known Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay (1975) but I recalled the old Shole, which my brother and I had watched together in 1953.

Filmistan was going through a lean time following the tragic death of leading man Shyam during the shooting of Shabistan. Filmistan’s owners decided to make a costume drama to attract viewers and chose the legend of Anarkali for the purpose. To control the cost of production, none of the reigning stars were signed up. Instead, Pradeep Kumar, who was on contract with Filmistan was chosen to play Salim and Bina Rai, who had an indifferent start with Kishore Sahu’s Kalighata (1941), despite being noticed for her beauty, was signed up to play Anarkali. Direction was entrusted to old timer Nandlal Jaswantlal, who was associated with an earlier, successful, version of Anarkali (1935). Basant Prakash, younger brother of reputed music director Khemchand Prakash (Tansen, Mahal), who had composed for Filmistan’s earlier films Badnam and Shrimatiji was the music director. Jan Nissar Akhtar, Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri were chosen as lyricists. When Basant Prakash fell ill after recording one song in the voice of Geeta Roy, Filmistan turned to C Ramchandra, who had quit Filmistan in a huff during the filming of Shabistan. C Ramchandra wasn’t interested in the offer, but Filmistan got Lata Mangeshkar to persuade him to agree. However, he insisted that Lata Mangeshkar would sing all the songs and asked Filmistan to drop the song already recorded by Geeta Roy. C Ramchandra got his way, but Geeta Roy’s song was retained. Lyrics for most of the songs were written by Rajinder Krishan who had teamed up with C Ramchandra earlier in Albela (1951).

When Anarkali was released in January 1953, the future of Filmistan was at stake. The producers were shocked when cinema halls in Mumbai where the film was released ran empty in the first two weeks. But the film’s songs soon began to circulate and attract attention. Crowds began to collect at the cinema halls and Anarkali became the highest grossing film of 1953. Anarkali’s songs are legendary, among the best of the Golden Era of Melody. They are perhaps C. Ramchandra's biggest success with Ramchandra and Lata Mangeshkar at their best ever together.

Unlike other music directors, C Ramchandra did not compose a tune before he had the lyric. But once he had the words, he lost no time in converting it into a song, as Salil Chowdhary would find to his amazement, at the recording of Dua kar ghame dil, where he happened to be present. C Ramchandra composed Yeh Zindagi Usiki Hai by adapting the tune of a Marathi opera song his father used to sing. In the course of a tribute to Roshan after that music director’s death, Lata Mangeshkar revealed that C Ramchandra had become terribly stuck in the closing notes of the lines sunayegi ye dastan shama mere mazaar ki, of the song until Roshan helped to extricate him. Majrooh Sultanpuri considered that the Ghazals in Anarkali, Mujhse Mat Poochh Mere Ishq Main Kya Rakha Hai, Dua kar ghame dil and Mohabbat Aisi Dhadkan Hai, showed Naushad the way to compose ghazals for Mughal-e-Azam, which was based on the same legend. High praise from highly knowledgeable people. Hemant Kumar’s melodious voice added to the bounty with Ae bad-e-saba aahistha chal and the exquisite duet with Lata Mangeshkar Jaag Dard-E-Ishq Jaag.

AVM Productions Madras followed up Bahar (1951), its megahit entry into Hindi films, with another MV Raman directed film Ladki. This time round Kishore Kumar was seen as the second lead opposite Vyjayantimala. He was his ebullient, jocular self on and off the sets. The actress recalls in her biography Bonding …A Memoir that when she was shooting for a song riding on horseback, Kishore stood right in front of her and made faces making her laugh uncontrollably and forcing a series of retakes. His Tamil would have Vyjayantimala holding her sides with laughter and she would try out her Bengali on him. Ladki was Kishore Kumar ‘s first silver jubilee film. The audience loved his yodelling and the way he sang Shaadi shaadi. wielding a cane. Music directors R. Sudarsanam and Dhaniram composed another hit in Baat chalat Nai chunari.

Apart from Ladki Kishore Kumar also appeared in HS Rawail’s Lahren and Shahid Latif’s Fareb. C Ramchandra and actor Om Prakash had joined hands to produce Lahren under the banner of New Sai Films. While there were no significant compositions of C Ramchandra in Lahren, Anil Biswas composed a solo Mere sukh dukh ka sansaar tere do nainan mein and a duet Aa mohabbat ki basti for Fareb. Anil Biswas invited Ashok Kumar and Dilip Kumar to listen to his tune for the duet. They applauded the tune and were curious to know who would sing the male part. While Ashok suggested Talat, Dilip thought that Mukesh’s voice was more suitable. When Anil Biswas told them that it would be Kishore Kumar, Dilip Kumar said ‘If Kishore sings such a serious song, toh aapka joota aur mera sar’ (then it’ll be your shoe and my head). Kishore sang it very well and the song went on to become a hit.

Dilip Kumar vowed his fans with his histrionics in Zia Sarhadi’s Footpath co-starring Meena Kumari and Ramesh Sehgal’s Shikast co-starring Nalini Jaywant. Footpath had an all-time great Talat Mehmood number Shamegam ki kasam composed by Khayyam. Shikast had another soulful Talat number Toofan me ghiri hain meri composed by Shankar Jaikishan and delightful Talat- Lata duet Jab jab phool khile.

Only two of the four films in which Dev Anand appeared in 1953 were successful at the box office, namely Amiya Chakravarthi’s Patita, in which he had an innocuous role, and KA Abbas’s Rahi based on Mulk Raj Anand’s novel Two leaves and a bud. The other two films, Navketan’s Humsafar and Fali Mistry’s Armaan did not make much impact, either as movies or for their music, despite having Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and SD Burman as music directors respectively. As an ardent fan of Talat Mehmood, I liked Bharam teri wafaon ka from Armaan.

Patita was a woman centric film with Usha Kiran in the central role and good music score by Shankar-Jaikishan. Talat Mahmood song, picturised on Agha, Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar duet and Talat-Lata duet Hain sabse madhur woh gee remain our favourites. Rahi was a tale of the hardships of tea plantation workers under British rule. It was also released in English as The Wayfarer. Balraj Sahni impressed us in his role of an English doctor. It was amusing to hear the dialogues in the dubbed English version, like the heroine’s friends calling out to her, “Ari oh ganga, hurry up”.

Buoyed by the tremendous success of Albela (1951), Bhagwan teamed up with C Ramchandra to produce another entertainer, with a similar formula but the film and the music failed to recreate the magic of Albela.

The year 1953 was marked by some major box office disasters and several new entrants making their debuts as actors and actresses with mixed fortunes. More about them in my next article.

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