Sadhona Bose - Two Write-ups

[Afzal A. Khan]

In compliance with what the good Professor suggested in a recent
thread, here is a write-up on Sadhona Bose :

It would be most appropriate, however, if I first quote the bio
put up on the IMDB site by our worthy friend, Dr. Jyoti Prakash
Guha. RMIMers' thanks are due to him. Here is what he has to say:
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"Granddaughter of Brahmakesari Keshab Chandra Sen, Sadhona was
born in a prosperous Brahmo family and received education as was common
with Brahmo girls of those days. Her father was Saral Chandra Sen and
she was the second of his three daughters. Her elder sister Binita was
married into a royal family of Chittagong (now Bangladesh)and settled to
household life, while the youngest Nilina pursued a career in Indian
Classical music and earned herself a position of eminence and was known
in record circles as Naina Devi. Sadhona married Madhu Bose, film maker
working in Bengal, British India, at a young age, and joined the
Calcutta Art Players, a theatrical company owned by husband Modhu Bose
and took part as heroine in the plays produced by the unit. Later on
Sadhona joined films and played Marjina in Alibaba (1937), made in
Bengali under the banner of Bharatlakshmi Pictures. This film was a
runaway hit and is remembered well by film enthusiasts. Modhu Bose had
earlier directed a number of films but he tasted real success with
Alibaba. For Sadhona this film meant a permanent place in the history of
Bengali films. This was followed with Abhinoy (Bengali-1938), another
major success for the couple. They migrated to Bombay and again created
history with the immensely popular Kumkum (1940), made in two languages,
Hindi and Bengali and thereafter went on to create the first triple
version (English, Bengali, Hindi) film of India, Rajnartaki (1941).
Sadhona did come back to Calcutta for a double version Bengali movie
Meenakshi (1942)with the handsome Jyoti Prakash as the hero. Going back
to Bombay soon after the completion of this film where she starred in
major films like Shankar Parvati, Vishkanya, Paigham and others and
firmly established herself as a heroine in her own right without the
backing of husband Modhu Bose. In fact they had fallen quite apart by
the mid forties and most unfortunately Sadhona started living much too
abandoned a life heavily engaged in drinks,parties and men and slowly
lost her carefully earned position. She came back to Calcutta after a
reconciliation with Modhu Bose but had by this time lost her magic hold
over the audiences and acted in films again directed by her husband like
Shesher Kabita and Maa O Chhele, without remarkable success. Sadhona was
a dancer in the first place and all her film successes were in dancing
roles, although she was also a very fine actress and sang her own songs
in some of her films including her first Alibaba. With film offers
becoming too infrequent, she formed a dance troupe of her own and made
all India tours with plays like Whither Now, Hunger and others and met
with success again as she was bound to be, as a personality trained in
dancing. She passed into oblivion slowly. Even in retired life she could
not part with the bottle and without any income worth the name she found
herself in the most difficult conditions financially. Modhu Bose was ill
and it was difficult to get treatment for him. She lost her husband in
1969 and had no money to sustain herself and thereafter came the
greatest tragic period of her life when she had to resort to begging in
the streets, in and around Park Street of Calcutta. It was during this
phase of her life that passers by and street walkers came across an old
lady, looking distinguished, dressed in clothes that were expensive at
one time but now showing the wear and tear asking for help. Some
recognised her and gave her enough to go on for some days while some
others gave her a rude rebuff. She took all that with a smile. Just
before her death she got appointed as dance trainer in Calcutta's
prestigious Star Theatre, courtesy her one time boy friend Timir Baran.
She trained junior artistes for the play Janapad Bodhu and once again
her name featured in the newspapers in the advertisements of the play.
However, the end had come very near and she passed away in
September,1973. A very tragic and unfortunate way indeed for an all-
India star who at one time had captured the heart and imagination of
millions.
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Now, here is what the old Urdu book has to say about her :

Her real name is Sadhona Bose and she is known in the film industry
by the same name. She was born in a well-known and affluent family
of Calcutta on 14th April 1914. Right from her childhood, she was
very interested in music and dance. When her Bengali parents saw
her interest, they encouraged and assisted her in acquiring profi-
ciency in these arts, which she did at a very young age. After
completing her Senior Cambridge, her parents sent her to England to
further her learning of these art forms. Now, she tended to excel
even the European artistes in the field of dance.

As she belonged to a highly respected family, her parents urged her
to get married, when she returned from England. Accordingly, she
got married to Modhu Bose {son of the late Mr. Pramatha (?) Bose}.
Her husband was a director in a film company. Sadhona herself was
keen on joining the film industry so as to put her dancing and
singing skills on display. Her husband did not object and readily
permitted her to do so. In 1937, she joined Bharat Laxmi Pictures.
Her popularity with the film-goers soared after the great success of
her film "Kum Kum, The Dancer".

Now most film companies and directors were keen on casting her in
their movies. It was Wadia Movietone who selected her for their
film "Court Dancer" or "Raj Nartaki". It was made in all three
languages --- Urdu, English and Bengali --- and was stupendously
successful. Her dancing skills came to the fore in this film and
she became known as the queen of Indian dance.

Her latest film is "Paigham" made by Amar Pictures.

She has good command over all three languages --- Urdu, English and
Bengali. Her English accent and pronunciation is particularly good.

Today, the Indian film industry needs more noble-hearted actresses
like her. Her standards of film-making are very high. Any
conversation with her is spiritually uplifting.
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And now for some graphic description in the original Urdu language :

"...baizwi chehra, sahar~aNgez aaNkheN, hilaali peshaani, gulaab kee
paNkh'Ri kee tarah haseen hoN'T, nikhra huwa joban, miyana qad,
sheereeN aawaaz, naseem-e-subh kee si mast aur dilfareb chaal,
adaaeN manaazir-e-fitrat se ziyaada haseen....

Is sarv~qad raqqaasa ne baRi sur'at ke saath ayyaam-e-tifli KHatm
karna shuru' kar diye, yahaaN tak ke us ne waadi-e-shabaab men
qadam rakha...Europe ki sard fizaaoN ne is garm mulk ki laRki par
KHoob KHoob jila ki...

Jab woh Inglistaan se waapas aayee to woh ek behtareen raqqaasa hi
na thi balke husn-o-shabaab ki ek ziNda jaaved moorat thi, jo aksar
shu'ara ke taKHaiyulaat ki raNgeen duniya men raha karti hai. Ab
us ki fitna~parwar raftaar se hazaaroN fitne bedaar hone lage. Jab
yeh m'ashooqaana aN'daaz men chalti to us ke pairoN tale hazaaroN
pur~armaan dil masal jaane ke liye taiyyaar ho jaate. SaiNkRoN
aaNkheN is ki raah men bichhee rehteeN. SaiNkRoN quloob, ubhre
huwe seene ko dekh kar, apni dhaRkan bhool jaate. Aur KHud us ka
dil hazaar~ha tamannaoN ka markaz ban raha tha....AaKHir~kaar is
bulbul-e-sheereeN~nawa ne baaGH-e-mohabbat men qadam rakha...

JinhoN ne is ka raqs dekha hai, woh jaante haiN ke yeh jab raqs
karti hai to aisa m'aloom hota hai ke is ke saath manaazir-e-
qudrat bhi raqsaaN haiN, ya baaGH-e-bahesht ke haseen tuyoor
raqs kar rahe haiN....."
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I would like to add here that she was one of the earliest artistes
to model for Lux Soap advertisements. So much so that these ads
appeared in the comparatively staid Urdu magazines of the time also.

Afzal

[shooganpr...@yahoo.co.in]

Well done, Sir.

Regards
Sukesh