Meeting a dead friend through his relatives
naniwadekar
A young gentleman in England with Asian roots, aged about
30, is into acting. Recently he got a chance to act in a
local adaptation of Laila Majnu. He asked his father, who
was born in India, to brief him about the famous pair of
lovers. The father thought of doing some search on the
internet on Laila and Majnu. He was told about rmim as a
potential source of information. The elderly gentleman had
a relative, named Najam Naqvi, who was a part of Mumbai's
film world many years ago. He searched for some information
on him as well and was surprised by what he found.
Many years ago, I had read Ga Di Madgulkar's article in
Marathi on his friendship with Najam Naqvi, a skilled film
director in his day, and found the article very moving.
I came across the article again in August 2000; this time
I and some friends tried to find whether Naqvi was still
alive. We discovered that Naqvi was unlikely to be around
any longer. But a non-Marathi friend wondered whether he
could read the article, thinking that it could be in Hindi
or English. For his benefit, I translated the article into
English. Later, I posted it on rmim. The rmim post was
made in May 2001. Naqvi was duly pushed behind the curtain
of active memory in the course of things. But his cousin,
Nasim Naqvi, found this article on rmim and contacted me
over email. Some of you may recall that there was a loose
end about Naqvi which remained to be tied. I was very
happy to receive the email; I soon gathered lot of
information about Naqvi. I will post it shortly.
- dn
naniwadekar
I had written -
>
> I soon gathered lot of information about Naqvi.
>
Continuing with Najam Naqvi ...
Najam Naqvi was born in 1912. He made a name for himself
in the film industry. He was a sensitive, liberal,
cultured human being. He fled from India to Pakistan in
mysterious circumstances around 1953-55. And he used the
script of his abandoned film in Mumabi named 'Safed
Jhooth' later. Its Pakistani avatar was called 'Kunwari
Bewa'. This much we knew. Just why and how he left India
remained a matter of curiosity to me.
In late 2000, there was a concert announcement on rmic by
a woman named Naqvi who lived on the US East Coast.
I called her phone number just to explore whether she had
any connection with Najam Naqvi though I did know Naqvi is
a very common surname among Muslims. Her father answered
the phone. He said he was part of the Pakistani film
industry and might be able to help. But when I asked him
about Najam and told him he had made a film in Karachi in
1957, he said he was born in 1950 and won't know about
people in Pakistani films in the 1950s. I asked him
whether he knew any journalist who could help and he said
he was entertaining a guest that very moment who was a
film journalist in Pakistan in the 1950s. I talked with
this journalist who was also named Naqvi. He didn't know
much about Najam. But he thought Najam was dead by then
and that he lived near Income Tax Colony in Lahore 20-30
years ago. That flicker of hope to know more about Najam
was extinguished quickly. When Najam's relative Nasim
emailed me, it was my chance to follow up on Najam.
Nasim Naqvi told me in his first email that he was Najam's
cousin but much younger to him. In fact, Nasim Sahab and
Najam's son Zafar had attended college together in Lahore.
Najam's son Zafar Naqvi lives in US and I got his contact
details as well from Nasim. Both Nasim and Zafar were born
in mid/late 1930s. Nasim spent his childhood in UP and
Haryana region before going to Pakistan in 1947/48. His
family moved to Rawalpindi IIRC. For last few decades, he
has made England his home. He was very keen on visiting
India again. He said his cousin Najam never talked about
his professional world at home. Nasim gave lot of
information which I later discussed with Zafar Sahab.
Zafar Sahab grew up in Pune-Mumbai region. He repeated
that Najam never talked about films and filmi duniya at
home but Zafar's knowledge about his father's body of work
is quite good. He told me there was a famous Urdu poet
named Hali, based near Panipat. Hali had a grand-daughter
who inherited lot of land through the poet.
The grand-daughter had one child only, a girl.
This great-grand-daughter of Hali was Najam's wife. The
couple had 11 children. Najam's wife was orthodox and wore
Burqa. Najam's involvement with the film world started in
his 20's with Bombay Talkies. At the time of partition,
Najam's wife's land was taken away wiping off her
inheritance. Najam lacked enterpreneurial spirit and
preferred working on monthly salary. But later he invested
his money in Rangeelee in 1952 and incurred heavy debt
when the film proved a disaster at the Box Office. He
couldn't pay off the debt fast enough and was being
harassed by lenders. It was this that prompted him to run
away from India to Pakistan. Since Madgulkar was a good
friend of Naqvi's, one would expect him to have known
about Naqvi's financial woes. But Madgulkar's article
doesn't suggest he knew about them. The article mentions
that Naqvi had sold his belongings and left back only the
cats and dogs in his house. The rumour about Naqvi running
away disguised as faqir was also mentioned. Naqvi ran away
in late 1953 or early 1954. By then, his son Zafar was
quite old and could be expected to remember the secrecy
which was maintained about their move to Pakistan. But
Zafar did not seem to weigh his words carefully while
recounting the move from India during our talk. According
to him, their last journey in India was quite openly
undertaken. The entire family boarded a train from Mumbai
to Gujarat and entered Pakistan by land from Gujarat or
Rajasthan. If at all there was any hush-hush about the
journey, probably Zafar did not know about it. Najam did
not seem unusually tense or downcast while leaving Mumbai.
Zafar also mentioned that the family owned no pets to be
left behind. Nasim had mentioned that there was threat to
Najam's life in India. After my talk with Najam's son,
I don't think it was as bad as that. But it looks that in
some branches of Naqvi family, there was talk of Najam
having faced dire threats.
Naqvi's mother-in-law had stayed back in India and some
branches of the big Naqvi family from Amroha are still in
India.
Najam Naqvi made Karachi his home after moving to Pakistan
and directed or produced Kunwari Bewa in Karachi in 1956.
Later he was invited to be part of Lahore film world and
moved there. He was associated with a few films in Lahore,
including Qaidi. But he was tired of the film world. The
last two decades of his life were spent away from that
world.
He had bought a house in Lahore but it is not in Income
Tax Colony. His son Zafar moved to US long ago. Naqvi
family still owns that house in Lahore.
We have now addressed the personal side of Naqvi's life.
Zafar gave me some information about his life in films as
well. I will cover it in my next post in this thread.
- dn
Srinivas Ganti
>"naniwadekar" <nani3...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:bfucat$ivtvq$1...@ID-75735.news.uni-berlin.de...
>. But later he invested
> his money in Rangeelee in 1952 and incurred heavy debt
> when the film proved a disaster at the Box Office.
Incidentally this was the debut movie of Raaj Kumar.
sg.
Nimish
news:bfucat$ivtvq$1...@ID-75735.news.uni-berlin.de...
>
> named Hali, based near Panipat. Hali had a grand-daughter
> who inherited lot of land through the poet.
>
This must be the same Hali who was a shagird of Mirza Ghalib. He was also from
Panipat and the timeline also matches. (And I haven't heard of any other Hali
who was a famous Urdu Poet.) He is known (to me) for his Ghazal 'aage ba.Dhe
na kissaa-e-ishq-e-butaa se ham' sung splendidly by Mehdi Hassan. I have also
read elsewhere that he has done a great work of bringing a lot of Ghalib's
poetry into light. I think he was a renowned poet but Ghazal was not exactly
his forte. Also, experts observe that Ghalib's poetry has had very little
effect on Khwaja Altaf Haali's work.
- Nimish
Rirfan6
Khwaja Altaf Hussain Haali is considered
to be one of the pioneers of modern Urdu
poetry-particularly the Nazam.
Khwaja Ahmed Abbas(K.A.Abbas) was
the grandson of Haali.
Irfan
naniwadekar
Coming to the last instalment on Najam Naqvi in this thread,
the focus will mostly be on his years in the films in this post.
This post/thread is based on the information supplied to
me by Najam Naqvi's son Zafar who lives in US now. I have
not bothered to submit any draft to him for discussion.
A sentence or two may be coloured by how I heard things
but in essence this was what I was told. The story is
fairly simple and I see no need to split hairs on the
verbiage.
Najam Naqvi was born on 11 April 1913 (not 1912 as
mentioned earlier) at Muradabad in Uttar Pradesh. He was
a Syed from Amroha which has given Indian films another
famous figure in Kamal Amrohi. He joined Bombay Talkies
in his early 20's. Himanshu Rai had gathered some
skilled people from abroad. Achhut Kanya's German(?)
director Franz Austen, was among them. Naqvi was made
director of continuity and also assisted Austen. Naqvi,
whose full name was Najamul Hasan Naqvi, acted in
Achhoot/Achhuut Kanyaa under the name Anwar.
Incidentally, Bombay Talkies had a hero with a similar
name in the mid-'30s. His name was Najamul Hussain (as
against Hasan). This hero was notorious. He snared Devika
Rani and the couple ran away. She was brought back to
Himanshu Rai with difficulty. This was after they had
paired as lovers in 'Jawani Ki Hawa' (1935). After the
episode, Hussain's Bambai Ki Hawa was punctured and he
went to New Theatres in Kolkata. Later, Hussain was part
of Lahore's film industry as actor (Daasii - 1944),
producer (Chupke Chupke - 1948) etc. Chupke Chupke was
made in Lahore but released in Bombay.
Coming back to Najam(ul Hasan) Naqvi, he was assistant to
Franz Austen for Bhabhi (1938) and he probably acted as
well in the film. During the making of Kangan (1939) on
the eve of the World War, Britain's relations with
Germany worsened. Franz Austen was taken into captivity
and later asked to leave the country. Naqvi completed the
picture. (Naqvi's son was too young at this time to have
any personal recall of the film's making.) Punarmilan
(1940) was entrusted to Naqvi. And this time, he was
officially credited as its director.
A break for an aside at this point : Though I had used
the spelling 'Najm' for his name on a learned friend's
advice in my rmim posts in May 2001, it looks Naqvi
himself preferred the spelling 'Najam'.
Naqvi continued to do work in Mumbai-Pune area in the
1940s. He was associated with Navyug's Master Vinayak and
Acharya Atre and with Pune based Shalimar Studio of W Z
Ahmad. His films were MDed by R C Pal, S K Pal, Amir Ali.
(His filmography was posted on rmim in May 2001.)
Naqvi's son Zafar remembers the time the family spent in
Pune quite well. They had stayed as tenants in one of
Shantaram's bungalows. He says Shalimar's people resented
the influence of W Z Ahmad's wife, actress-singer Neena
(real name Shaheeda), who was always ready to throw her
weight around. Given time and luck and a crusty-old
fellow in Pune for company, juicy gossip about the years
can probably be extracted and enjoyed. His last four
films in the 1950s were with Rashid Atre, and two of our
great giants : Shyam Sunder and Ghulam Mohammed. Naqvi
lacked enterpreneurial spirit completely and preferred to
work on salary. He kept receiving the advice about using
his talents to become rich himself rather than helping
others get rich. Finally, he took the bait and invested
lotof money in Rangiilii (1952). The film was a disaster
at the box office and Naqvi incurred heavy debt. His
precarious finances must have made more acute his
dissatisfaction with the film industry which Madgulkar
has mentioned in his article on Naqvi. He must have
decided in late 1953 to run away from the debt and escape
to Pakistan. His last film in India was Samrat. It is a
1954 film. Hereabouts, Naqvi and Madgulkar were working
on a film named 'Safed Jhooth'. Its mahurat was performed
but the film was stuck for one reason or other
(read - money). In late 1953 or early 1954 (I could not
get the exact date), Naqvi bolted from Mumbai with his
family to Pakistan, or to borrow from the the delightful
Victorian parlance, 'the family shot the moon'.
He entered Pakistan by road and made Karachi his home. He
produced (or directed) a film named 'Kunwari Bewa', a
1956 Karachi release. Its story was the one Madgulkar had
written for 'Safed Jhooth' which was abandoned for good.
(Madgulkar later won some National award for the
story/script of Do Aankhen Baarah Haath.) He received
invitation from Lahore's film industry and was involved
in a couple of films there. I had noted some names during
my phone talk with Naqvi's son : Naghma-e-dil, Ek teraa
sahaaraa. I don't remember whether these refer to films
or songs. He gave break to the actress Shamim Ara. He was
director of the Pakistani 1960s film Qaidi (1962?) which
features Noor Jehan's very famous and very boring song :
"mujh se pehli si muhabbat mere mahaboob na maaNg".
For this film, he had teamed up again with Rashid Attre
with whom he had worked on Nateeja in 1947. Naqvi hated
Lahore's film world, probably more heartily than
Mumbai's, and Karachi was even worse than Lahore. There
were people all around ready to pull back the leg of a
successful and talented fellow. He found that the
industry was marked by extreme sloppiness. This time, he
quit for good and settled into semi-retired life in
Lahore.
I don't know when Madgulkar wrote his superb article on
Naqvi. I am tentatively guessing 1965/68 range. It was
included in his book 'Mantaralele Divas' (The Magical
Days). The world wasn't as small then as it is today;
Naqvi may never have heard about the article on him.
Naqvi's wife died in the late 1970s. Naqvi himself
suffered from heart trouble. Madgulkar died
on 14 December 1977 at the age of 58. Naqvi probably
never heard this news either. But then the world was not
THAT small then and maybe my guess on this point is wide
off the mark. A few years later, in January 1982 to be
precise, Najam Naqvi passed away in Lahore
at the age of 68.
- dn
Rirfan6
Bombay Talkies hero was Najamul Hassan - not Najamul Hussain.
The same Najamul Hassan later worked in
may be more than hundred films in Pakistan.
The year Najam Naqvi left Bombay must be 1953 as in the same year W.Z.Ahmed
engaged him for his film Sitamgar for which
Khurshid Anwar recorded six songs.
The project ran into financial problems
resultantly it was abandoned.
Sa'adat Hassan Manto has called W.Z.Ahmed a great schemer in his
article 'PurIsrar Neena', a sketch of Neena,
real name Shahida. Neena was wife of
Mohsin(brother of Renuka Devi) who was
working in the Cine Lab of Shalimar
Studios. Ultimately WZ succeded in getting Neena as his wife Safia(daughter of
Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullh- Chief Minister Sindh) eloped with famous Communist
intellectual- Sibte Hassan.
I think Dr. Surjit has got the Hindi version
of Manto's works which contains some
very interesting sketches of film personalities.
Kanwari Bewa was produced by Saeed
Haroon and a new faced was discovered
from Karachi 'bazar' - Patli Bai - to be
known as Shamim Ara.
Irfan
naniwadekar
"Rirfan6" <rir...@aol.com> wrote -
>
> Bombay Talkies hero was Najamul Hassan - not Najamul Hussain.
> The same Najamul Hassan later worked in
> may be more than hundred films in Pakistan.
>
This correction has been offered before on rmim (probably
by you only). Now you could be correct. But let me point
out that Geet Kosh has spelt his name as Najamul Hussain
(not Hasan or Hassan) in the credits of Jawaanii Kii Hawaa (1935)
as well as for some other films. In Daasii's (1944) credits,
he is mentioned simply as Najam.
> Studios. Ultimately WZ succeded in getting Neena as his wife.
> Safia(daughter of Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullh- Chief Minister Sindh)
> eloped with famous Communist intellectual- Sibte Hassan.
>
Who is/was Safia and why has she jumped on the rmim stage
while eloping? Is she W Z Ahmad's sister? I remember reading
that WZA's father had been Sindh's Chief/Prime Minister. (In the
British Raj, the term used was *Prime* Minister, I think.)
- dn
Rirfan6
Safia was WZ's first wfe . Infact she was the daughter of Sindh Prime
Mintster,
Ghulam Husain Hidayatullah. You are right
about this term during British Raj.
WZ is a Punjabi of Lahore.
Irfan
naniwadekar
"Rirfan6" <rir...@aol.com> wrote -
>
> Safia was WZ's first wfe . Infact she was the daughter
> of Sindh Prime > Mintster, Ghulam Husain Hidayatullah.
>
Thanks for the information.
You had earlier written :
"Ultimately WZ succeded in getting Neena as his wife Safia(daughter
of Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullh- Chief Minister Sindh) eloped with
famous Communist intellectual- Sibte Hassan."
Now I see that there is no full stop after 'as his wife' in the quote.
Since I (wrongly) thought of WZA as the Sindh Minister's
son, it was my reflex action to insert the full stop where it
did not exist.
- dn
Satish Kalra
news:20030726191358...@mb-m19.aol.com...
This is also mentioned by Gulzar in his tele-serial "Mirza Ghalib" at its
end.
Happy Listenings.
Satish Kalra