The Birth of Punjabi Cinema As mentioned in Wikipedia the efforts of producing a Punjabi film started in 1934 itself. In this year films like Heer Ranjha, Mirza Sahiban and Raja Gopi Chand were 47 started but due to one reason or the other they could not see the light of the day. Heer Ranjha featured Anwari, Walaiti Begum, Rafiq Ghajnavi, Gul Hamid, M. Isamail Fazal Shah and Lala Yakub. But it was never released. It is note worthy that like the first attempts in Hindi and other Indian languages, the initial themes of Punjabi films were also related to historical and love-legends. The credit of producing the first Punjabi film aptly goes to K.D. Mehra who made the first Punjabi film Sheila. 2 It is also known as Pind Di Kudi and it was a super hit in its times. Baby Noor Jehan made her debut as an actress and singer in this film. While Sheila was made in Calcutta, it was released in Lahore, the capital of united Punjab. From the business point of view it was a huge success and was a hit across the province. Its success allured many more producers for making films in Punjabi language. K.D. Mehra joined hands with M.M. Billoo to make his second film Heer Sial. 3This film gave break to the artists like Balo and M. Ismail. Baby Noor Jehan remained an integral part of this film. Heer Sial also got extraordinary public support. 4 It can safely be counted as a successful movie. While some regional cinemas started with flop films, Punjabi cinema made its debut with thumping success.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 15:48:58 +0000
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