''Dawlat'' () is a 1949

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

film directed by

Sohrab Modi Sohrab Merwanji Modi (2 November 1897 – 28 January 1984) was an Indian stage and film actor, director and producer. His films include ''Khoon Ka Khoon'' (1935), a version of Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'', '' Sikandar'', ''Pukar'', ''Prithvi Va ...

, produced by Minerva Movietone and starring

Madhubala Madhubala (born Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi; 14 February 1933 – 23 February 1969) was an Indian actress and producer who worked in Hindi-language films. She ranked as one of the highest-paid entertainers in India in the post-independence era, ...

and Mahipal in lead roles. The music for the film was composed by Hanuman Prasad. It revolves around a young man trying to impress a rich father in order to marry his beautiful daughter. ''Daulat'' was the first time Madhubala was cast in a lead role, but the film, which began filming in 1947, was not completed until 1949, by which a number of her films in starring roles had been already released. Released on 1 April 1949, ''Daulat'' failed commercially and received criticism for its direction and story. No print of the film is known to survive today, thereby making it a

lost film A lost film is a feature Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing char ...

Plot

An old wealthy man (

Jankidas Jankidas Mehra (1910 – 18 June 2003) was an Indian actor of Hindi cinema, cyclist, production designer, and writer. He made over 1000 film appearances between the 1930s and 1997. Biography Sports Jankidas served as the only Indian member of ...

), who lives with his wife and young and beautiful daughter Nirmala (

), does not allow any other man to enter his house. He thinks that Nirmala's beauty would attract the man. On the other hand, Nirmala has too many suitors, one of them being Suresh ( Mahipal). She is in love with Suresh, and so is he. When meeting her father to ask for Nirmala's hand for marriage, he ends up creating a bad impression in front of him. The rest of the film revolves around how Suresh tries to please Nirmala's father, which leads to hilarious situations.

Cast

as Nirmala * Mahipal as Suresh *

as Mr. Sinha *

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 ...

as Mrs. Sinha *Ghulam Hussain

Production

''Daulat'' was the first time Madhubala was cast in a lead role in a film. Although she failed her auditions, she secured the role after director

and Jankidas found her sobbing in a train to

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

. The filming began in 1947, but was not finished until April 1949. In the meantime, Madhubala acted in a number of films as the leading lady, including

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 N ...

's '' Neel Kamal'' (1947) and K. B. Lall's ''

Lal Dupatta ''Lal Dupatta'' () is a 1948 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by K. B. Lall and produced by Akash Chitra. Starring Madhubala, Rajan Haskar and D. K. Sapru, the film tells the story of Shobha, a headstrong village girl whose romance with ...

'' (1948).

Soundtrack

The music director was Hanuman Prasad and playback singing was given by

Zohrabai Ambalewali Zohrabai Ambalewali (1918 – 21 February 1990) was an Indian classical singer and playback singer in Hindi cinema in the 1930s and 1940s. She was considered one of the most popular female playback singers of early and mid 1940s. She is best k ...

, Shankardas Gupta and Lalita Deulkar.

Reception

''Daulat'' was a commercial failure and badly received by critics. In ''

filmindia ''filmindia'' is an Indian monthly magazine covering Indian cinema and published in English language. Started by Baburao Patel in 1935, ''filmindia'' was the first English film periodical to be published from Bombay. The magazine was reportedl ...

s review,

Baburao Patel Baburao Patel (1904–1982) was an Indian publisher and writer, associated with films and politics. Career He was the editor and publisher of India's first film trade magazine, ''Filmindia'', the first edition of which was published in 1935. ...

titled it as "A Damn Idiotic Picture". Patel wrote, "The whole picture is a criminal waste of celluloid with everything from the story to direction down to acting being of third class standard." He said the Modi has a "crude and peculiar taste of comedy", and Madhubala is cast in a role in which she has "got nothing to do."

References

External links

* {{Sohrab Modi 1949 films 1940s Hindi-language films Films directed by Sohrab Modi Indian black-and-white films