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Elaan (1947)

Munawwar Sultana in Elaan (1947)

Story of two half-brothers, the evil Sajjad (Himalaywala) and the good Javed (Surendra). Exploited since his childhood by the richer and crueller branch of the family, represented by Sajjad and his mother (Zebunissa), Javed loses his beloved (Munawar Sultana), bought by Sajjad’s family wealth. The fortunes of the two brothers change; Sajjad gambles away his wealth while Javed becomes a noted lawyer. In a fit of desperation, Sajjad wants to kill his son but is himself killed by his mother. His widow turns down Javed’s offer of marriage and instead starts a school in her family palace, partly to make amends for the family’s vile behavior. This was Mehboob’s most stylized Muslim social with quasi-expressionist acting enhanced by an ornate decor and Irani’s heavily shaded camerawork. The final song, Insaan ki tahzeeb carried the film’s anti-feudal message, addressed to the camera by a purdah-clad Munawar Sultana.

Mehboob’s Elaan was the first and last film to look at Indian Muslims from the inside. It was melodramatic and rhetorical. But it did go into ‘forbidden’ areas and make statements which would be considered controversial even today. For instance, it legitimized marriage with a foreigner. It laughed at traditional Muslim reactions to women’s bare legs, it dealt in detail with Muslim backwardness and lack of education. These things continue today in a worse fashion. But no one has the courage to make a film on them. The ogre of insult to ‘minorities’ stands in the way.

All the same Elaan met with official disfavor because it showed Quranic reform as the way out. It was banned temporarily during 1947.

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 1947, Genre – Drama, Producer – Mehboob Prod., Director – Mehboob Khan, Music Director – Naushad, Language – Hindi/Urdu, Country – India, Cast – Surendra, W. M. Khan, Shah Nawaz, Munawwar Sultana, Himalayawala, Rita, Leela Misra, Zebunissa, Agha

Drama