Munawwar Sultana

Munawwar Sultana (not to be confused with Pakistani playback singer from the same time period) was a Bollywood actress who was popular in the late 40s. She started her career probably around early 40′s under the filmi name of Asha in films like Khazanchi (1941). She first gained some recognition in Pehli Nazar (1945), where she was seen in close-ups of the superhit song sung by Mukesh in Saigalesque style- Dil jalta hai to jalne de.

Mehboob Khan casted her in his controversial  and most stylized Muslim social Elaan (1947). 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 Indian Muslims backwardness and lack of education. Elaan met with official disfavor because it showed Quranic reform as the way out and it was banned temporarily during 1947.

The same year, she acted in A.R. Kardar’s Dard – a love triangle between Munawwar Sultana, Nusrat Kardar and upcoming actress Suraiya. The film proved to be money maker at the box-office especially because of its songs sung by Suraiya and Uma Devi (Tun Tun) and music by Naushad. One of the songs Afsana likh rahi houn picturized on her was very popular in those days.

The highpoint of her career proved to be Babul (1950), where she was cast opposite Dilip Kumar and Nargis. Munawwar played the role of haughty daughter of zamindar, with whom Dilip Kumar falls in love. Munawwar’s role, though initially vain and shallow, proved to be the more complex as the plot progressed, and she rendered it effectively. Despite the presence of great stalwarts like Nargis and Dilip, it was Munawwar Sultana who stole the show.

Inexplicably, after Babul, Munawwar’s career went into sharp decline and she was reduced to B-Grade films Babooji (1950), Tarang (1952), Apni Izzat (1952), Watan (1954), Toofan (1954) and Ehsan (1954). After completing her last film Deewar (1955), she married a jewellery merchant named Sarafali Bhagat and settled down in Bombay – Ummer Siddique

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

Munawar Sultana and Dilip Kumar in Babul (1950)

Synopsis

Set in a small village, Babul is a story of a young postmaster Ashok (Dilip Kumar). He stays in the house of a former postmaster and meets his daughter Bela (Nargis). Bela falls deeply in love, dreaming of a life with him. Meanwhile Dilip develops feelings for the Zamindar’s daughter Usha (Munawar Sultana), who reciprocates his affection.

But the heartbroken Bela intervenes, revealing to Usha her own (misguided) belief that Ashok has already professed his love for her; this causes Usha (in a surprising show of class-transcending compassion) to renounce her love for Ashok in favor of Bela’s prior claim, and to accept a pending proposal from the aristocratic son of one of her father’s cronies. As Usha’s wedding approaches, both she and Ashok lapse into depression, while Bela exults (despite recurring nightmares of a black-veiled rider coming to carry her away); a happy ending appears increasingly unlikely, and happily the director makes no last minute attempt to manufacture one.

Review

Babul was one of the first films to establish Dilip Kumar’s  ’doomed lover’ image, best remembered in the iconic Mela. Others like Aan, Andaaz, Deedar, Uran Khatola and Devdas followed, resulting in his being known as the King of Tragedy.

There appears to be no moral to this story, apart from the fact that Fate can be Cruel (and urban boys should be careful about what they say to rural girls?).

The many tropes present—the dispirited DEVDAS-type lover, the rivalry between two women who respectively suggest “tradition” and “modernity,” the sacrifice of personal happiness in order to maintain family honor, and a ludicrous and greedy munshi (the manager of the zamindar’s estate) and his family thrown in for comic relief—appear to be peripheral to the director’s main agenda, which is the evocation of romantic mood.

Though the soundstage sets are sometimes hokily theatrical, the cinematographer achieves great things through atmospheric lighting, especially during night scenes, creating hauntingly beautiful effects suggestive of German expressionism (incidentally, Fali Mistry was the guru of V. K. Murthy, Guru Dutt’s brilliant cinematographer, and it shows).

A score of fifteen musical numbers, mainly devoted to the joys and pains of love, makes this essentially a ghazal anthology in which brief dialogs serve largely to connect and frame each successive lyric. Especially notable are the thrice-refrained Chod babul ka ghar (“Now you must leave your father’s house”), which evokes the vidai (leave taking) songs performed when a newly-married girl departs from her maternal home and village, the lovesong Nadi kinare (“On the bank of a river”) performed by Ashok and Usha backed by a chorus of dramatically-picturized boatmen, and their mournful duet-in-separation Duniya badal gayee (“My world has changed”).

Nargis is pleasing in an ingénue role, but Sultana’s character, though initially vain and shallow, proves to be the more complex, and she renders it effectively. Kumar, well enroute to earning his twin 1950s titles as “King of Tragedy” and “Darling of Millions,” delivers his usual stellar performance, exuding charm and sensuality while still managing to seem like the boyish Postman Next Door.

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 1950, Genre – Drama, Producer – Naushad, Director – S.U. Sunny, Music Director – Naushad, Language – Hindi/Urdu, Country – India, Cast – Dilip Kumar, Nargis, Munawwar Sultana, Tun Tun