''Chitralekha'' is a 1941 Indian

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 ...

-language film, directed by

Kidar Sharma Kidar Nath Sharma, also Kedar Sharma (12 April 1910 – 29 April 1999), was an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter, and Lyricist of Hindi films. While he had great success as a director of such movies as '' Neel Kamal'' (1947), ''Bawre ...

and based on the 1934 Hindi novel of the same name by

Bhagwati Charan Verma Bhagwati Charan Verma (30 August 1903 – 5 October 1981) was a Hindi author. He wrote many novels, his best work was '' Chitralekha'' (1934), which was made into two successful Hindi films in 1941 and 1964 respectively. He was awarded Sa ...

. Its music is by noted classical musician Ustad Jhande Khan, giving popular songs like "Sun sun Neelkamal Muskaye," "Saiyyan Saware Bhaye Baware," and "Tum Jao Bde Bhagwan Bane, Insaan Bano." It was the second-highest grossing Indian film of 1941. Khan used classical

Ragas A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a melodic mode. The ''rāga'' is a unique and central feature of the classical Indian music tradition, and as a ...

Bhairavi Bhairavi ( sa, भैरवी) is a Hindu goddess, described as one of the Mahāvidyas, the ten avatars of the mother goddess. She is the consort of Bhairava. Etymology The name ''Bhairavi'' means "terror" or "awe-inspiring". She is the ...

and

Asavari Raga Asavari () is a Hindustani classical raga. It belongs to the Asavari thaat and is performed in the morning hours. In pre- Bhatkhande days this Asavari used the Komal Rishab instead of Shuddh Rishab. When Bhatkhandeji created the thaat proc ...

to the score, making it influential for classical based Hindi film songs. This was the debut of actor

Bharat Bhushan ''Bharatbhushan Bhalla'' better known as ''Bharat Bhushan'' (14 June 1920 – 27 January 1992) was an Indian actor in Hindi language films, scriptwriter and producer, who is best remembered for playing Baiju Bawra in the 1952 film of the sam ...

, who later achieved fame with ''

Baiju Bawra Baiju Bawra (Lit. "Baiju the Insane", born as Baijnath Mishra) was a dhrupad musician from medieval India. Nearly all the information on Baiju Bawra comes from legends, and lacks historical authenticity. According to the most popular legends, he ...

'' (1952). Sharma cast Mehtab as he felt she was "perfect" for the role of Chitralekha. Mehtab achieved both fame and notoriety with the famous bathing scene in the film. It was remade by Sharma in 1964, also titled '' Chitralekha'', starring

Meena Kumari Meena Kumari (born Mahjabeen Bano; 1 August 1933 – 31 March 1972) was an Indian actress and poet, who worked in Hindi films. Popularly known as ''The Tragedy Queen'', she was active between 1939 and 1972. Kumari is widely considered one of ...

and

Ashok Kumar Kumudlal Ganguly (13 October 1911 – 10 December 2001), better known by his stage name Ashok Kumar and also by Dadamoni, was an Indian actor who attained iconic status in Indian cinema and who was a member of the cinematic Ganguly family. He ...

Cast

* Miss Mehtab as Chitralekha * Nandrekar as Samant Bijgupt * A.S. Gyani as Kumargiri * Rajendra * Monica Desai as Yashodhara * Ram Dulari *

Leela Mishra Leela Mishra (1 January 1908 – 17 January 1988) was an Indian actress. She worked as a character actor in over 200 Hindi films for five decades, and is best remembered for playing stock characters such as aunts (''Chachi'' or ''Mausi''). She ...

* Ganpatrai Premi as Mrityunjay *

Soundtrack

The music of the film was composed by

Ustad Jhande Khan Ustād or ostād (abbreviated as Ust., Ut. or Ud.; from Persian ) is an honorific title used in West Asia, North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is used in various languages such as Persian, , Azerbaijani language, Azerbaijani, Urdu, Hi ...

References

;Bibliography * *

External links

* 1941 films 1940s Hindi-language films Films based on Indian novels Films set in the 3rd century BC Films set in the Maurya Empire Indian drama films Indian black-and-white films 1941 drama films Films directed by Kidar Sharma Hindi-language drama films Films set in ancient India Films about courtesans in India {{1940s-Hindi-film-stub