This series is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh ji, Author and Film Historian on ‘Same Name Confusions’ that occur due to similar names of artists. Thanks to him for writing for us and supporting the website
So, Here we are again with the II part of this interesting series on Same Name Confusions.
The kind of variety in Names we find in today’s generation, was probably missing in olden times, otherwise what could be the other reason why so many “Name Alikes’ are found in Film Industry of the Yore ?
7. Pt. AMARNATH-MD / Amarnath-MD / Amarnath-Director / Amarnath-Actor
We start with the curious case of having 4 AMARNATHS-Just too many,really- operating almost at the same time. Luckily for us,2 are from the Music field and 2 are from the acting/Direction field.
Let us first tackle AMARNATHS from the Music field.
Pt. AMARNATH was a respected and a senior composer from the early 40s. He was born in 1912,in Jalandhar, Punjab. He was the eldest of the 3 brothers The other two were Pt.Husanlal and Pt.Bhagatram. Pt.Amarnath was a specialist player of Tabla and Harmonium. He used punjabi folk and traditional tunes and music, making him a class apart from others in those days. He was connected with H.M.V. and orchestrated and composed all the 8 Gazals,Thumris and Geets sung by Master Madan. We must thank him for making these songs on Records.
Many emerging composers from Punjab, like S D Batish and Khaiyyam learnt a lot from him. S D Batish was a distant cousin of these 3 brothers and they too had Batish as their surname, which was not used generally by them.
Pt.Amarnath started his film career as a MD with Nishani-42,but only after doing Daasi-44,he became very famous. Lahore’s Zeenat Begum sang her best Film and Non film songs with Amarnath. He gave music to Paapi, Sheher se door, Pagdandi, Kaise Kahoon, Sham Savera, Panchhi, Raagini, Dhamki, Aayee Bahaar, Irada (Hemant kumar sang his first Hindi film song in it), Shirin Farhad, Jhumke, Shalimar and Koyal. When Shantaram’s ‘Padosi-41 was made in Punjabi as ‘Gawandi’, the MD was Pt.Amarnath only.
In 1947, he gave music to Mirza Sahibaan. During this period,his falling health deteriorated and he died leaving the film music incomplete,which his brothers completed under his name. Two films, Rooprekha-48 and Ek teri Nishani were released after his death.
His Namesake Amarnath Chawla was also originally from Punjab’s Jhang Maghiyama(now in Pakistan). He started working in All India Radio, Delhi. He was a favourite disciple of Ustad Amir Khan and due to his expertise in classical music he was soon called Pt.Amarnath.
Pt. Ramnarayan, the great Sarangi player,was working in A.I.R. Lahore before Partition. After partition, along with others, He too was airlifted to Delhi. He then joined Delhi A.I.R. and soon became very friendly with Pt.Amarnath and his disciple Munir Khan.
In 1955,a film was to be made on the story of Rajinder Singh Bedi. The film was called GARAM COAT. Pt. Amarnath was made its Music Director. In his lifetime Pt.Amarnath Chawla did only this one film.
Few years back,it seems,in one programme of ‘Radio Farishta’ of the World Space Radio, Pt Ramnarayan was interviewed. In this interview he claimed that he had assisted Pt.Amarnath in composing tunes for the film GARAM COAT-1955.
I have checked the credits of this film and found that Pt.Ramnarayan’s name as ‘Assistant in the Music department’ is indeed mentioned.
Now, most of the Internet sites,including IMDB, include the name of film Garam Coat in the Filmography of Pt.Amarnath Batish (brother of Husnlal-Bhagatram). This is not only Wrong but also injustice to Pt.Amarnath Chawla who, in reality had given the music to Garam Coat.
Three things confirm that these two were different persons and that Pt.Amarnath Chawla of Delhi had composed the music of Garam Coat-
1. Pt.Amarnath Batish (brother of Husnlal-Bhagatram) had died in 1947 and the film Garam Coat was made in 1955.
2. Pt. Ramnarayan ji has confirmed in his interview that Pt.Amarnath Chawla of Delhi had given the music and that he had assisted him in it.
3.Pt.Amarnath Chawla, Delhi has written a book,”Prophets of Indore”, published by the ‘Pt Amarnath Chawla memorial Trust,Delhi’. The English translation is done by his daughter Bindu Chawla. This book contains many photographs of Pt. Amarnath Chawla at the time and after the recording of songs of Garam Coat. One picture from it is shown above thanks to Eric Parker. More pictures related to Garam Coat from the book can be seen here on his flickr account.
Q.E.D. that Garam Coat-1955 Music Director was Pt.Amarnath Chawla,Delhi and NOT Pt.Amarnath (brother of Husnlal-Bhagatram Batish).
Now, Lets discuss Amarnaths of the film side.
Director Amarnath or K.Amarnath is a well known name. He has produced and directed some Hit films. His full name was AMARNATH GHELARAM KHETARPAL. He was born on 1-12-1914 at Mianwali in Punjab (now in Pakistan). He initially acted in some films in the 30s. He produced 11 films from Alif Laila-53 to Woh Din Yaad Karo-1971, co-produced three films, Mirza Sahibaan-47, Bazaar-49 and Beqasoor-50.
He directed 34 films from Matwali Jogan-1934 to Woh Din Yaad Karo-71. These are the highlights of films directed by K.Amarnath-
It was this Amarnath who made “AJIT” from Hamid Ali,in Beqasoor-50
Script writer Salim khan (father of Salman khan) debuted in Baraat-60
Sanjay Khan’s big break came in Woh Din Yaad Karo-71
Minu Mumtaz debuted in Bara Dari-55
Helen’s first solo dance in Alif Laila-53
Noorjehan’s last film in India was Mirza Sahibaan-47
Mohd. Rafi considered his first chorus song in Gaon ki gori-1945
K.Amarnath died on 14-5-1983.
Now turning to the last that is the 4th Amarnath. He was ,to start with, an actor doing side roles ,but graduated to do hero’s roles in the early 50s. Unfortunately, not much information was available about actor Amarnath. He did lead roles in films like Jalte Deep-50, Johri-50, Lachak-51 etc. His first film was Naghma-e-Sehra-1945. Then he did Cheen Le Azadi, Sheesh Mahal, Kamal Ke Phool, Nirmal, Nirmohi, Paapi, Nav Durga, Toofan, Andher Nagri Chaupat Raja, Rani Roopmati, Rambhakta Hanuman, Barsaat Ki Ek Raat, Post Box No.99, Anpadh, Badi Didi, Khoobsoorat, Bus conductor, Babul, Punarmilan, Pathar Ke Khwab, Natak, Dekha Jaayega, Bambai Ka Chor etc. The tally may go above 50 films easily.
So, remember that Pt.Amarnath (Batish) and Amarnath (Chawla) were two different persons and K.Amarnath-Director/producer was different from actor Amarnath.
8. Now we turn to another interesting Confusing Same Name Pair…
NAJMUL HASAN ACTOR AND NAJMUL HASAN DIRECTOR
Nowadays open any film magazine or the film page of a Newspaper, you will read about love affairs, some genuine, some stunts and some cooked-up ones about the stars and the starlets of Bollywood.
Way back in the 30s when films were already Taboo for members of respected families, even then,some Love Stories flourished. Some were serious and some were flirtations. Love story between Jaddanbai (mother of Nargis) and Uttamchand Mohanchand culminated in a marriage, but one Love story which created ripples in the film world in those times ended up with a sad break up.
Najmul Hasan was born into a noble family of Lucknow. He was tall and very handsome and was bitten by the urge to act in the films. He left his Law studies and headed for Bombay. There he was spotted by the owner of Bombay talkies Himanshu Roy and was persuaded to act in his films. Being very handsome, he was offered the Hero’s role opposite Devika Rani in Bombay Talkies’ first film, ” Jawani ki Hawa’-1935. (In those days there were two more Handsome actors- Nandrekar and Chandramohan).
During ‘Jawani ki Hawa’-35- which was loosely based on Agatha Christie’s “Murder On The Orient Express”, published in 1934 only- Devika Rani fell in love with Najmul Hasan and they decided to elope. Their second film-” Jeewan Naiyya”-36 went on floor and the love birds flew to Calcutta. There was a great commotion in Bombay Talkies. Shashdhar Mukherjee,the production manager was close to his Bengali Boss Himanshu Roy. Mukherjee traced the couple to Calcutta, met Devika Rani and convinced her to return to Himanshu. Devika Rani returned, Himanshu Roy pardoned her, but not Najmul Hasan.
Najmul Hasan did not come back to Bombay. He joined New Theatres in Calcutta and did films like Anath Ashram-37,Dushman-38,Kapal kundala-39,Jawani ki Reet-39 and nartaki-40. Even in Calcutta, Najmul Hassan had a rocking affair with superstar Jahan Ara Kajjan. After doing film Meenakshi-42, Najmul Hasan decided to migrate to Pakistan in 1947. In Pakistan he did some films like Eid-1951, Ashiyana, Doctor, Mirza Jatt, Taxi Driver and Heer Ranjha etc.
Najmul Hasan died in 1980 in Pakistan.
When the love affair of Najmul Hasan and Devika Rani fizzled out and Devika Rani returned to Bombay Talkies two major things happened.
One- Bombay talkies,in absence of its main lead, needed to find a new hero for their film ‘Jeewan Naiyya’-36, which was on the floors already. Here, again, Mukherjee came to Himanshu Roy’s rescue. He suggested the name of ASHOK KUMAR, who was a graduate, sang well, and also could act. He was working in Bombay Talkies as an apprentice in the Photgraphy Department. Ashok Kumar was sent for Screen test. Though the Directer Franz Osten rejected him, Himanshu Roy selected Ashok Kumar as their Hero and the rest is history, as they say!
Two- The whole episode of elopement had become a matter of embarrassment for a ‘continuity man’ working in the same studio. His name too was Najmul Hasan. Because of the same name, this innocent chap -who had nothing to do with the elopment drama- had to suffer staring eyes and hush hush whisperings within the studio and the filmi circle of Calcutta !
He was Najmul hasan Naqvi, born on 11-4-1913 at Moradabad-UP. He was working in Bombay Talkies doing odd jobs-continuity man and even as an actor in ‘Achhut kanya-36’. He was a very hardworking person. After this episode he changed his name to a shorter edition- Najam Naqvi. He worked in the Direction department and his first film as an independent Director was PUNARMILAN-1940.
he went on directing films like Raja Rani-42, Tasveer-43, Naya Tarana-43, Panna-44, Prithwiraj Sanyogita-46, Nateeja-47, Parayee Aag-48, Actress-48, Nirdosh-50, Rangili-52 and last film-Samrat-54.
In 1955, Najam Naqvi migrated to Pakistan and directed 7 films from Kunwari Bewa-56 to Payal Ki Jhankaar-66.
Najam Naqvi died on 26-1-82 at Lahore. Due to same name, many sites including IMDB mix up the filmography of these two artistes.
9. Finding 2, 3, or even 4 “Same Name artistes in film industry has been seen, but what happens when you have ,say 6, 7 or 8 same name artistes in film and Music fields over a period of time ?
One such ‘Popular’ name was GAUHAR (spelt differently like Gohar,Gohar jaan,Gauhar Jaan etc).
I have come across the following Gauhars-
1. Gauhar Jan -actress of silent films
2. Gauhar Jaan of solapur
3.Gauhar Jaan of patiyala
4. Gauhar Jaan of Calcutta (1902 recording wali)
5. Miss Gauhar of Parsi Theatre (wiki, 1911 to 1931)
6. Gauhar Mamajiwala
7. Gauhar Karnataki
8. Current Bollywood starlet Gauhar khan
9. A Lyricist called Gauhar Kanpuri (1932 to 2002)
10. Singer Gauhar Sultana
The first 5 gauhars were operating almost same time between 1902 and 1930s.
6th, 7th and 8th were in the 40s.
The first Gauhar Jaan, actress of silent films started her career with Bilwamanga-1919.She also did Rama or maya, Boodha Boobukh, Ratnavali, Gulshan -e-Arab, Jayant and Magic Flute. She seems to have disappeared with the silent era.
The second gauhar jan, whose ghazal records were with me and we used to hear them, not for the Ghazal, but for the last announcement “My name is Gauhar jan of Sholapur’. This must be somewhere in the late 40s. Now I do not have those records with me.
About Gauhar Jan of Patiyala, I know not much but she is mentioned at several places like ‘wiki’ or Warren Sanders blog.
Singer Gauhar Sultana sang three solos for composer Khurshid Anwar in Ishara (1943), “Sajanwa Aa Ja Re, Khelen Dil Ke Khel”, “Humen Gham De Ke Na Jaao Sajan, More Aao Sajan” and “Shabnam Kyun Neer Bahaaye, Shabnam Kyun Neer Bahaaye” and disappeared afterwards.
Actually, noteworthy are only 3 Gauhars, no, 4, 5,and 6.
Gauhar Jaan of Calcutta is famous in history for her First recording of a Ghazal in India in 1902 at a Calcutta hotel. Gauhar jaan (26-6-1873 to 17-1-1930) was an Indian singer and Dancer (Tawaif) from Calcutta.
She was born as Angeline Yeoward in Azamgarh-UP. Her father was an engineer and mother was Victoria Hemmings. Victoria was an Indian, trained in music and dance. After the parents separated, both daughter and mother came to Banares with the mother’s friend Khursheed. They converted to Islam. Mother became Malika Jaan and daughter was named Gauhar Jaan.
Malika was a trained kathak dancer, made huge money, bought properties in Calcutta and trained her daughter in pure Hindustani and bangla music. She wrote several Ghazals too. She became Court Musician at Durbhanga state (Bihar).
Soon Gauhar jaan too became famous nationwide, by giving performances at Benares, Calcutta, Madras, Bombay and Delhi. Finally, She worked in Mysore as a Palace Musician and died at Mysore on 17-1-1930.
In her Lifetime, she recorded more than 6oo records from 1902 to 1920,in 10 Languages, including English and French. This prolific singer actually made light classical music popular. (Hundreds of her songs are available on Dr. Surjit Singh ji’s site,for interested music lovers shared by music lover Roberto Jangbahadoer.).
I quote here a part of the article by Dr. Suresh Chandwankar’s article,about India’s First recording in 1902……..
“November 14,1902: A very rudimentary and makeshift recording studio had been set up in two large rooms of a hotel in Kolkata by the Gramophone Company. Frederick William Gaisberg and his assistants had arrived just three weeks before from England on their first Far East recording expedition for the Gramophone Company, which had been founded in England in 1898. They had appointed a local agent for selecting and training artists for recording on gramophone discs. However, the agent selected Anglo-Indian artists and completely ignored local talent. Gaisberg then sought the help of the local Police Superintendent, visited several theaters, attended mehfils at wealthy Zamindars’ palaces, and thus found at least one promising artist to begin with. The artist was a very famous dancing girl, and her voice was very sweet; although not for European ears. She agreed to a recording session for the handsome fee of 3,000 rupees. Such an artist was necessary in order to build a firm business foundation on the Indian scene, especially when several other German, French and American recording companies were also planning to capture the Asian market in general and the Indian market in particular.
At around 9.00 a.m. a young lady entered the studio with all her paraphernalia, including accompanists and relatives. Loaded fully with very expensive ornaments and jewelry, this 30 year old, fair, medium-built lady went onto the stage prepared for the recordings. Sarangi, harmonium, and tabla players began to tune their instruments. Gaisberg personally checked the equipment. A thick wax master record was placed on the turntable rotating at 78 rpm. A huge recording horn was fitted on the wall behind her and close to her face, and she was asked to sing loudly into the horn. At the narrow end of the long horn a diaphragm fitted with a needle was connected to the recording machinery, with a needle placed on rotating disc for cutting the grooves. Gaisberg requested her to sing for three minutes and announce her name at the end of the recording. At the end of the trial recording she announced – “My name is Gauhar Jan”. (sound clip – Bhairavi ) This announcement was necessary since the wax masters were sent to Hanover in Germany for pressing the records and the technicians would make proper labels and confirm the name by listening to these announcements at the end of the three minutes performance. “
Now we turn to Gauhar Mamajiwala.
In this Mayanagari called Bombay, the film industry has seen many love affairs, but no affair is greater in real love, honesty, fidelity, loyalty and truthfulness than Chandulal Shah and Miss Gohar Mamajiwala. There was nothing common in them. She was beautiful, born into a rich family and well educated He was not at all good looking, a rustic, moderately educated and a Gambler to the core. Still they met, fell in love and spent 48 years together (albeit without marriage).
They remained united in Happy Times when their Ranjit Studios worked like a well-oiled mill churning out huge profits and also remained together when times were so bad that all the mortgaged property of Chandulal and Gohar had to be sold with Chandulal being spotted standing in Bus queues in Bombay.
They dealt in Crores, employed an army of the best artistes of film Industry and flaunted” Ranjit has more stars than there are in the sky”, and they also digested the the news of Chandulal Shah losing 1 cr.25 lakhs in cotton trading, on one single day while Chandulal was playing cards with his friends. (Nonchalantly, Chandulal continued his play even after his assistant conveyed this news to him over telephone).
Gauhar Abdul Qayoum Mamajiwala was born on 19-11-1910 at Lahore, in a family of Bohra Muslims of Saurashtra in Gujarat. Her family shifted to Bombay. She was beautiful, well educated, soft spoken and liked to read books. Soon she became proficient in Hindi, Urdu, English, Gujarati and Marathi.
When her father’s business crashed and they had financial crisis, Homi Master, one of their family friends suggested that she work in films. Homi was a director in Kohinoor studios. She joined films at 15 years age and her first film(silent) ‘Fortune and Fools aka Baap Ki Kamayi’-1925 was a hit film. She had a 2 year contract with Kohinoor. Many of her films were hits. (She was popularly called Glorious Gohar).
Chandulal Shah, who was also directing films for Kohinoor, was attracted by her performance and gave her a role in “Typist Girl”-1927, in which the Heroine was Sulochana (Ruby Myers). Thus, began their partnership. Soon after the contract was over few people, Gohar, Chandulal, Jagdish Pasta, Hero Rajah Sandow and cameraman P.Naik left kohinoor and established Shree sound studio making films for Jagdish films. Here, they made 10 popular films and in 1929 separated to form their own RANJIT studios.
Their first Silent film for Ranjit (shot in krishna studios) was Pati Patni. Very soon, Ranjit had own four shooting stages and an equipped studio. Ranjit’s first Talkie was “Devi Devyani’ in which Gohar acted opposite Bhagwandas as her Hero.
Ranjit studio became very big and films were made at the rate of every 16-20 days, one film was made. They had employed the best Talent of the industry and Chandulal seemed to convert anything into Gold, whatever he did !
Gohar was the partner, manager, Producer and star actress of Ranjit. She maintained very good relations with her collegues and would use the common make up room with all other artistes. Gohar did 28 silent and 19 talkie films in her career. Her last film was “Achhut” -1940, directed by Chandulal and Hero was Motilal. (This movie was inspired by Gandhiji’s welfare activities for the Untouchables whom he had called Harijans and was one of the top grosser of the year). Chandulal shah also stopped directing films for the next fourteen years. Gohar now only looked after the Studios and Chandulal shah.
Though she was with Chandulal for 48 years, they never married. Actually, Chandulal was already married to Kesarbai and had a son NAVEEN. His family stayed with him in Bombay, but Gohar never objected to that,
In 1944, one day Chandulal lost 1.25 crores in cotton trading, in one day and their days changed. every thing ,including their properties had to be mortgaged and sold later. Even in this crisis, Gohar did not leave him and stayed attached till Chandulal Shah died in 1975. She helped him at every step and also maintained a good relationship with Kesarbai. If it had not been for her, Chandulal would have had to beg on the streets. When he was ill, She took care of him and even sold her jewellery for his treatment.
In the early 50s, out of the 153 films,of Ranjit, barring 7 films, all other films were destroyed in a fire, without any records left.
Gohar mamajiwala died on 28-9-1985. The industry came to know about it only a week later in a news item in Film Information magazine. It is sad that such a great artist did not get the Dada Saheb Phalke Award when her compatriots Ruby Myers (Sulochana) and Durga Khote both got it.
Let us now look at the last important Gauhar- Gauharbai karnataki-
Tabla player Hussain khan, living in a small town Belagi, near Hubli, had 6 daughters. The first was Allamma(Ahilya), then Amirbai, next was Gauhar(Born in 1908), then a series of badi Munni, Chhoti Munni and Nanhi Munni. Son was Dastgir.
Being from a singing family, Amirbai and gauhar(Gauramma) worked in a drama company called Vanivilas Natak mandali. Since Hubli, Dharwad, Belgaum came under Bombay Presidency and also near Sangli/Miraj and Kolhapur, the sisters were experts in Marathi too.
Brother Dastgir went on to study B.Sc and did a job in AIR,Belgaum. From the beginning itself, Amirbai and gauhar did not get on well with each other. May be this was due to professional jealousy. Gauhar got classical music training from a blind teacher Nilkanth Panchakshari Buwa. Great classical singer Mallikarjuna Mansur’s brother Basavanna wrote songs for gauhar and also accompanied her on Harmonium.
Marathi singer actor Chaphekar took the sisters to Bombay for working in films. Gauhar and Chaphekar stayed as companions in Bombay for few years. Meanwhile, Gauhar got a daughter Ashamma. her father’s name is not known. Ashamma remained with Gauhar till her death.
Gauhar started acting in Marathi and Hindi films. She acted, sang and also composed her own songs, but no records were brought out.
Gauhar was mesmerised by the famous Marathi singer actor BAL GANDHARVA. She first met him in 1937,in actor Himalayawala’s flat(Amirbai karnataki’s cruel Husband). It is widely believed that Gauhar used Black magic to attract Bal Gandharva to her. As expected he fell in her love and Gauhar joined his Balgandharva natak mandali in 1938. After her
arrival into the mandali, all senior artistes left the company as they were afraid of Gauhar’s black magic.
From 1938, Gauhar remained with Balgandharva till she died in 1964. Balgandharva’s wife died in grief in 1940 and Gauhar married Balgandharva in 1951.
She acted in films like Raas Vilas-32,Kala Pahad and Sohni mahiwal-33,Kala Vagh and Shak Karta Shivaji(M)-34, Pyar ki Maar-35, Bansriwala, Gol Nishaan (The Mark of Zero) and Graduate-36, Kala Bhoot and Chabuk Sawaar-37,Vijay Danka-38, Hawai Khatola and Swadesh Sewa-46. Chabuk Sawaar-37 was a stunt film a-la Fearless Nadiya style wherein she did some stunts and fencing too.
Gauhar is mentioned as Gauhar karnataki or gauhar from Bijapur in the HFGK. She must have sung atleast 100 songs but since there were few records, there is little information (one record from Gol Nishaan is known to be available). As her many films were C grade, no records were issued even for them. However she has sung many Marathi natyageet and Bhajans.
Thus we have seen how these Gauhars were different. Next time you come across name Gauhar,you know exactly who she is. Right?
10. ACTOR PREMNATH AND MUSIC DIRECTOR PREMNATH.
It is an old dictum that ” one who shouts is heard”. The more famous always overshadows the less known making them further obscure. Something like this happened in case of the name Premnath.
5′ 10″ tall,handsome,robust and carefree looking Premnath acted in some 120 films in his career.
he was born at Peshawar, but spent his childhood and youth in Rewa state in C.P. and Berar (Central provinces and Berar,i.e. todays M.P. and Vidarbha-Nagpur areas). His father Kedarnath malhotra was a Police officer there. Ke graduated from Morris college,Nagpur and after a short stint in Army, headed for Bombay.
In Bombay, he joined Prithwi Theatres ,which was established in 1946 and acted in its many plays, before Mohan Bhavnani selected him as a Hero for his Ajit aka Rangeen Zamana-1948. Then came Aag and then Barsat-49. Now there was no looking back.
He was very fond of music and learnt classical music for two years under experts like Ustad Jagannath prasad.
he fell in love with actress Bina Rai and they got married. They floated a production company,P.N.Films and produced 4 flop films, Shagufa, Prisoner of Golkonda, Samunder and Watan. Like many other married couples, their pair on the screen never succeeded, but when premnath acted separately, the films did better. Throughout his career he NEVER got any Filmfare award, though he was nominated 4 times.
His last film was Kishen Kanhaiya-1990.
He died on 3-11-1992,after a heart attack.
A less known fact about Premnath- when his relations with wife Bina Rai spoiled, he was so upset that he left everything in 1960, became a Sanyasi and went to Himalayays. There he wrote one book,” Tears of the Heart” (Dil ke aansoo,in Hindi). After a year he came back.
His dances and songs in Bobby will always be remembered.
PREMNATH the Music Director was born on 5-7-1918 in Gujranwala, Punjab. He learnt music from experts in Amritsar, Multan and Lahore.He acted in films like Shahr-e-khamoshi and also sang in Sohni Mahiwal-1938.
After marriage, he moved to Bombay. His first film as a Music Director was Rangbhoomi-1946. In this film,a novice Mohd. Rafi sang many songs for him. His other films were Dehati-47, Chandrahas-47, Sagar’s Pehla Pyar-47. He then produced a film “Chand sitare”-48 under the banner of Ravindra Art productions. Mukesh,Lata and Geeta Roy sang in it. In film ‘Alakh Niranjan’-50, He used Mohd. faruqi, Sulochana kadam and Rajkumari.
Premnath gave music to many films of Super pictures of Aspy irani like Bade Bhaiya-51 (whose Shamshad and Durrani sung songs were popular at the time) and Maya Machhindra-51, in which Surendra, Geeta, Rafi and Shamshad sang. Another film, ‘qatil kaun’ in late 50s remained unreleased. For this film, Rafi, Asha, Manna Dey, Mubarak Begum and Shamshad had given songs.
His films diminished. Sati Vaishalini-59,Main Hoon Jaadugar-65 and Tarzan in Fairyland-68 were his last films.
After he stopped work as MD, he devoted his time for the welfare of Cine Artists as a trade union leader. As a Secretary, he served the music Directors Assn. for 30 years.
He died in the first week of may-1993 at the age of 75 years.
I find that many people mistakenly credit actor premnath as a MD for his films. Some sites include these films to the filmography of actor Premnath
It is now clear that actor Premnath and MD Premnath were 2 different persons.
We stop here in this part. We will meet again in the concluding III part in few days. Till then, Bye.
Credits:
My thanks to the following for information used here-
1.K Amarnath.com
2.IMDB
3.Cineplot
4.atulsongaday
5.Roshni nair-TBIP
6.RMIM discussions
7.Out of Date-munir ahmed Munir
8.20 superstars of indian cinema-Bhaichand patel
9.Dhunon ki yatra-pankaj Raag
10. stairs of the indian screen-baburao patel
11. Life ki dhun
12. warren sanders blog
13.Wiki
14.HFGK/LBs
15.Moving beyond themselves-mrinal pandey
16.Cinevision II
17.jmionline
18.Filmography-Dr.R.K.Verma
19. flicr.com
20.Shri Harish Raghuvanshi ji,Surat.
21. My Notes.
22. Beete Kal Ke Sitaare by Shriram Tamrakar
Thanks are also due to following for photos:-
Najam Naqvi’s photo courtesy site Najam Naqvi-pakistani Film Director
Najmul Hasan-actor’s photo courtesy Cineplot.
