Bahar 1951

[Latrina Mosely]

Manyheroines of that era like the famous trio of Meena Kumari, Madhubala and Nargis started their career as child artistes and had to resort to working in films from a very young age to help provide for their family. Vyjayanthimala, who was the daughter of a popular star of Tamil cinema Vasundhara Devi (who herself was a good dancer and singer), did not go through the process of becoming a child artiste. She made her debut directly as a heroine and was catapulted to fame from her first film itself.

Unknowingly and without any predetermined agenda not only did Vyjayanthimala become a national heroine because of all the three debut films in different languages becoming super-hits, she ended up revolutionizing the image of the Hindi film heroine in a major way. With her thorough grounding of classical dancing, she became the first heroine who could dance like a dream and set a new bench mark which made any actress entering the industry to have dancing skills. She also became the first South Indian actress to reach the top of the Hindi film industry after which we have had many talented and beautiful actresses dominating the Hindi film industry from time to time like Waheeda Rehman, Rekha, Hema Malini, Sridevi, Jaya Prada, Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone etc.

Meanwhile Pran pays a visit to his grandfather in the village and through his niece Baby Tabassum, manages to befriend a lovely village belle Pandari Bai. But Pran being Pran, he is never up to any good and his intentions are very clear to the audience right from the beginning. But our innocent Pandari Bai falls prey to his charms and ends up sleeping with him. Having accomplished his mission Pran leaves the village promising to return and once back he becomes busy pursuing Vyjayanthimala.

Now reading the above story may make one wonder as to how the film became a hit. But we must remember that it was released in 1951 and seventy years back the societal values were different and such stories with dollops of drama kept the audience engaged and were accepted wholeheartedly. The film does offer an insight into the position of women at that time. Direction by M V Raman was good and a fresh cast was a plus point. The songs and dances were the added bonus.

In the acting department, Pran was just brilliant! He looks very handsome and his acting is top-class. It is little wonder that he reigned supreme in these negative roles with no one even remotely giving him any competition. Vyjayanthimala brought a freshness to the screen and her expressive eyes, graceful dancing and confident dialogue delivery made it a very attractive debut for her. She was quite effortless in her role.

Baby Tabassum was a delight to watch and quite a star in her own way. Om Prakash added his touch and class and makes the role memorable. Sundar as the servant was quite maddening and Karan Dewan somehow did not suit the role at all. He had no expressions. Pandari Bai in her debut film got stuck with a not-so-likeable role and her annoying actions as the character made no sense but she got all the dramatic scenes and also had two sad Geeta Dutt songs picturized on her.

Well done Sharda. Very informative and detailed . Vyjanthimala has been around from since I was a child and I ever hearing about her virtuosity from my dad. I really enjoyed reading rhisnoiece

Keep them coming

Interesting post. Kudos to vijayanthimala. She must have had great charisma and screen presence, apart from talent and dancing skills to have made it yo the top effortlessly. And when, in the midst of do many iconic releases, she made her presence felt, she must be extraordinary. Lovely blog, nice pictures, beautiful songs. In the last song, she changes so many dresses and looks stunning in each one of them.

Welcome to the complete cast and crew page for Bahar (1951) on Cinestaan.com. Here you will find the full list of cast and crew who have worked on Bahar (1951). You can also view the crew by department using the drop-down menu. If you are aware of any name that ought to be here but is not, please get in touch with Cinestaan.com using the Feedback link at the bottom of this page.

This is probably the least known song from Bahaar. But Shamshad Begum is a singer who always draws attention. She is known more for full throated songs with fast rhythm and beat. But this one is extremely melodious and Vyjayanthimala complements it with her graceful dance.

Ashokji,

The year 1951 is interesting how SD Burman created landmark songs for three distinct singers: Lata Mangeshkar, Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum, as we have seen in the previous post. Of the three, while the first two go on to sing many more gems under his baton, Shamshad Begum almost disappears from his radar screen. But there is no doubt, had he chosen he would have continued to do similar wonders with her.

Before she did her first song/film with S D Burman, Shamshad Begum must have rendered more than 100/125 songs. She made her debut in the film Himmat in the year 1941 under Pt Gobindram. Besides Pt.Gobindram and Ghulam Haider, Pt. Amarnath was another leading composer for whom she had performed in her initial 5 years. Thus when she rendered her first song for S D Burman in 1946, she was an established and leading playback singer.

70% of the songs, composed by S D Burman in his career, had female singers (solo, duet and others), which is more or less 480-500 songs. Lata Mangeshkar(40%), Asha Bhosle(25%) and Geeta Roy/Dutt (15%) were his lead female singers, while Shamsad Begum got to sing only 30 songs in all for S D Burman. Out of this she sang 11 songs in 1946-50. Out of this 11, she rendered 8 songs for the film Shabnam alone. Among the rest of the three songs (one solo and two duets), which were rendered for three different films, you have presented two. Both of them were good especially the lilting number Kuchh rang badal rahi hai meri unki baatcheet from Shikari (1946). Between 1951 and 1955 she sang only 16 songs for S D Burman. Out of this 9 songs were rendered for two films Bahar (1951) and Chalis Baba aur Ek Chor (1954). Shamshad Begum did not disappoint S D Burman, especially her performance in Bahar was excellent. That leaves us with 7 songs in 6 films during this period.

In conclusion, after listening to the songs, especially the eight presented by you, I felt we could have had more. Well that was not to be. Thanks to you Akji for responding to my request, and for yet another good presentation and a bouquet of delightful songs.

No matter how we see it, after a brief flirting SDB does give up Shamshad Begum altogether. As I have observed in my earlier post, SDB warmed to Lata Mangeshkar comparatively late, that is why she is inconspicuous in 1946-50. But once he is charmed by her, he is even able to overcome the five year black-out and make Lata her No.1 singer by a big margin.

You have mentioned that she debuted with Himmat. I think it is universally accepted that her debut in Hindi films was with Khazanchi in the same year. (She sang for Punjabi films earlier.)

Srinivasan,

Thanks a lot for adding so many of Shamshad Begum songs and the additional information you have provided. Her duets with Mukesh in Shabnam have appeared in another post on SDB-Mukesh songs.

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