Mehboob Khan
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Mehboob Khan (1907 – 28 May 1964) was a pioneer[citation needed] producer-director of Hindi cinema, best known for directing Mother India (1957), which won the Filmfare Awards for Best Film and Best Director and was a nominee for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He set up the Mehboob Studio in Mumbai.
Khan was born Ramjan Khan in Bilimoria, Gujurat. He ran away from home to work small jobs in the studios of Bombay. He played bit parts and supporting characters before directing his first film, Judgement of Allah (1935). Directorial features like Aurat followed, with the studios Sagar Movietone and National Studios. In 1945, Khan left set up his own production house, Mehboob Productions.
Throughout his career, Khan produced and directed many blockbuster films, the most notable being the romantic drama Andaz (1949), the swashbuckling Aan (1951), the dramatic Amar (1954) and the social epic Mother India (1957), the latter of which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1957 and was a remake of his own 1940 film Aurat. He has directed 21 other films dating from the late 1930s. His earlier works were in Urdu, but his later material, including Mother India, were in Hindi although many say he utilized Hindustani, a friendlier and softer spoken version of Hindi and Persian. Several of his films, especially his earlier films Humayun, the story of a Mughal emperor who ruled India, Anmol Ghadi and Taqdeer, in which he introduced Nargis, who would later marry Sunil Dutt, were written by Aghajani Kashmeri also Kashmiri and Agha Jani. Kashmeri was responsible for picking and training Nargis in Hindustani and Urdu dialogue delivery. His last film as a director was the 1962 film Son of India. He died two years later at the age of 57. He introduced and helped establish the careers of many actors and actresses who went onto become big stars in the 1950s and 1960s such as Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar, Raaj Kumar, Nargis, Nimmi and Nadira.
Khan was known for having been influenced by Hollywood films and often his films featured lavish sets in the style of the Hollywood era at that time. The oppression of the poor, class warfare and rural life are recurring themes in his work. He was the adopted father of Sajid Khan who had appeared in his last two films Mother India and Son of India.
[edit] External links
- Mehboob Khan at the Internet Movie Database
- Mehboob Khan@SPICE
- Biography of Mehboob Khan
- Mother India - The Cinema of Mehboob Khan
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