Nanubhai Vakil (23 May 1902 – 29 December 1980) was a

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

and

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

film director. He was the first to make a Gujarati talkie film with a biopic on the saint

Narsinh Mehta Narsinh Mehta, also known as Narsinh Bhagat, was a 15th-century poet-Saint#Hinduism, saint of Gujarat, India, honored as the first poet, or ''Adi Kavi,'' of the Gujarati language. Narsinh Mehta is member of Nagar Brahman community. Narsinh becam ...

in 1932. ''

's'' (1932) star cast included the actress Mehtab.

Career

Vakil frequently collaborated with

Zubeida Zubeida Begum Dhanrajgir (1911 – 21 September 1988) was an Indian actress. She starred in the first Indian talkie movie ''Alam Ara'' (1931). Her credits include early hits ''Devdas'' (1937), and Sagar Movietone's first talkie, ''Meri Jaan''. ...

and

Patience Cooper Patience Cooper was an Anglo-Indian actres, and one of the early superstars of Bollywood. She was the daughter of Phoebe Stella Gamble (born in Calcutta in 1881; daughter of John Frederick Gamble and Phoebe Stella Clement whose mother was Armen ...

. The twelve-year-old

Suraiya Suraiya Jamal Sheikh (15 June 1929 – 31 January 2004), popularly known by the mononym Suraiya, was a popular actress and playback singer in India's Hindi-language films. She was active from 1936 to 1963, and was the most celebrated actress ...

, who had done minor roles as a child artist in films like ''Usne Kya Socha'' (1937) was cast as the young Mumtaz in ''

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...

'' (1941) by Vakil. Vakil later remade several of the silent films "based on Parsi theatre plays". W. M. Khan, who became famous as the first person to sing in an Indian film, "De De Allah Ke Naam Pe Pyare" in ''

Alam Ara ''Alam Ara'' () is a 1931 Indian Hindustani-language historical fantasy film directed and produced by Ardeshir Irani. It revolves on a king and his two wives, Navbahaar and Dilbahaar, who are childless; soon, a '' fakir'' (Muhammad Wazir Khan) ...

'' (1931) was made to reprise that song and role when he was seventy-one years old by Nanubhai Vakil. The film was Vakil's version of ''Alam Ara'' (1973), produced by Maffatlal Shah, with music by Iqbal Qureshi.

Filmography

As a director

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vakil, Nanubhai Gujarati-language film directors Film directors from Gujarat Indian male screenwriters 1902 births 1980 deaths Hindi-language film directors People from Valsad district Hindi film producers 20th-century Indian film directors Indian silent film directors 20th-century Indian screenwriters 20th-century Indian male writers