Shri D. N. Madhok was a multi-faceted, well rounded personality in the world of Indian film making. While he is best known as a lyricist, his portfolio also boasts of Direction, Story, Screenplay, & Dialogue writing, Acting, as well as Production of a few films. Very few film personalities can claim such versatility and well-roundedness, imho. Yet, he is a relative unknown for the cine-goers of today – such is the travesty! He was born on October 22, 1902, at Gujranwala (now in Pakistan) to the modest family of a First Class Post Master. He worked for the Railways for some time before moving to Bombay in 1931. Thus started the thirty eight year (1931**-69) long, active association with the Film Industry in various capacities. His first film as a lyricist was Radhey Shyam (alternate title Zulm-e-kans) in 1932. He wrote 29 songs for that one!!! He also wrote the screenplay for that film – a practice that became very prevalent in the initial two decades of Hindi cinema and was to some degree practiced later too. He played a small role in this film as well as “helped” with composing the music though there is no official credit given to him as a composer. In the same year, he also directed 3 ventures – Lure of Gold, Flame of Love and Three warriors (likely re-released or released in 1937 as Dilfarosh). In 1933, he directed and wrote lyrics and songs for a film called Khoobsurat Bala. For the next three years, he wrote screenplays and dialogues as well as directed a few films but there was no output as a lyricist. His next films as a lyricist were Dilfarosh (possibly re-released) and Lahari Lutera in 1937. He also continued to direct Hindi and Punjabi films during these years
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 03:04:56 +0000
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