''Jahan Ara'' is the 1964

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

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 ...

debut film of director Vinod Kumar. It stars

Prithviraj Kapoor Prithviraj Kapoor (born Prithvinath Kapoor; 3 November 1906 – 29 May 1972) was an Indian actor who is also considered to be one of the founding figures of Hindi cinema. He was associated with IPTA as one of its founding members and establish ...

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 ...

Mala Sinha Alda Sinha (born 11 November 1936), better known by her stage name Mala Sinha is a former Indian actress who has worked in Hindi, Bengali and Nepali films. Initially starting her career with regional cinema, she went on to become a top leading ...

Shashikala Shashikala Saigal (née Jawalkar; 4 August 1932 – 4 April 2021), better known by her first name, was an Indian film and television actress, who played supporting roles in hundreds of Bollywood films beginning in the 1940s. Early years Shash ...

in lead roles. The film is a historical romance based on the life of

Jahanara Begum Jahanara Begum (23 March 1614 – 16 September 1681) was a Mughal princess and later the Padshah Begum of the Mughal Empire from 1631 to 1658 and again from 1668 until her death. She was the second and the eldest surviving child of Emperor Shah ...

, played by

. It was the first time this character was portrayed on-screen. The movie did not do well at the box office.

Plot

Mirza Yusuf Changezi (

) and Jahan Ara (

) have been good friends since childhood. Things are not quite the same as they grow up, as Jahan Ara's father is none other than Emperor

Shah Jahan Shihab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram (5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), better known by his regnal name Shah Jahan I (; ), was the fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire, reigning from January 1628 until July 1658. Under his emperorship, the Mugha ...

, and men are not permitted to meet with the princess under any circumstances. However, Jahan and Mirza do meet secretly and promise to marry each other. Misfortune visits the emperor, when his wife,

Mumtaz Mahal Mumtaz Mahal (/'/; ), born Arjumand Banu Begum (27 April 1593 – 17 June 1631) was the empress consort of the Mughal Empire from 19 January 1628 to 17 June 1631 as the chief consort of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. The Taj Mahal in Agra, oft ...

(

Achala Sachdev Achala Sachdev (3 May 1920 – 30 April 2012) was an Indian actress who appeared in classic films of Hindi language film industry. She was from Peshawar and started her career as a child actor. She later became known for mother and grandmother ...

), passes away. The emperor gets deeply devastated, and, still mourning his wife's death, he pledges to build a memorial in her name (which would subsequently be called

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 ...

, one of the seven wonders on Earth). At her deathbed, Mumtaz makes Jahan promise that she will take care of her father, which she promises to do. This responsibility makes her sacrifice her love for Mirza, who is heartbroken and continues to believe that Jahan will sooner or later reunite with him.

Cast

as Mirza Yusuf Changezi *

as Jahan Ara *

as Karuna *

Om Prakash Om Prakash (born Om Prakash Chibber 19 December 1919 – 21 February 1998) was an Indian film actor. He was born in Jammu as Om Prakash Chibber and went on to become a well-known character actor of Bollywood. His most well-known movies are Nam ...

Sunder Sunder may refer to: *Sunder (actor) Sunder Singh as some of his earlier movies he's screen name given Sundar Lall he was a noted Indian film actor between the 1930s and 1980s. He acted in many Hindi and Punjabi language films in his career ...

as Gulley *

Aruna Irani Aruna Irani (born 3 May 1946) is an Indian actress, who has acted in over 500 films throughout Hindi, Kannada, Marathi and Gujarati cinema, playing mostly supporting and character roles. She has won two Filmfare Awards for Best Supporting Act ...

Minoo Mumtaz is a city in northwestern Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Its name is commonly romanized as "Minō" or "Minoo"; however, the city government officially uses the spelling Minoh in English. As of October 2016, the city has an estimated population of 134 ...

as Roshan Ara *

Baby Farida Farida Devi, also known as Farida Dadi or Baby Farida, is an Indian actress in Hindi-language films and television serials. Career She started her career as a child actor in films in the 60s and was the most sought-after child actress. She mad ...

Awards

* Nominated:

Filmfare Award for Best Actress The Filmfare Award for Best Actress is given by ''Filmfare'' as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Bollywood, Hindi films, to recognise the female actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role. The award was first gi ...

(1965), Mala Sinha *

Filmfare Award for Best Art Direction The Filmfare Best Art Direction Award is given by the ''Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films. Although the awards started in 1954, this category was started only in 1956. Superlatives Awards See also * Fi ...

(

Color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

) - Sant Singh

Music

The soundtrack of the film contains songs composed by

Madan Mohan Madan Mohan is a form of the Hindu god, Krishna. Krishna is celebrated as ''Madan Mohan'', who mesmerizes everyone. His consort, Radha is glorified as Madan Mohan's ''Mohini'', who can even mesmerise Madan Mohan (her Kahn). Radha is known as th ...

, while the lyrics are by

Rajinder Krishan Rajinder Krishan Duggal (6 June 1919 – 23 September 1987) also credited as Rajendra Krishan, was an Indian poet, lyricist and screenwriter. Biography Rajinder Krishan was born in a Duggal family at Jalalpur Jattan on 6 June 1919, in Gujrat ...

. The songs of the film became popular and still remain so. The album also made an attempt of reviving singing career of Talat Mahmood over rising career of Mohammed Rafi. Besides these songs, there is another song "Kabhi Aankhon Mein Teri" sung by the four sisters

Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar () (born as Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 06 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is widely considered to have been the greatest and most influential singers in India. Her cont ...

Asha Bhosle Asha Bhosle (; Mangeshkar; born 8 September 1933) is an Indian playback singer, entrepreneur and occasional actress and television personality who predominantly works in Indian Cinema. Known for her versatility, she has been described in the ...

Usha Mangeshkar Usha Mangeshkar (born 15 December 1935) is an Indian singer who has recorded many Marathi, Manipuri, Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Nepali, Bhojpuri, Gujarati and Assamese songs. Personal life Usha Mangeshkar is an Indian singer. She is the fou ...

and

Meena Mangeshkar Meena Khadikar is an Indian Marathi and Hindi language playback singer and composer. She is the second eldest daughter of Pt. Deenanath Mangeshkar and sister of singers Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Usha Mangeshkar and Hridaynath Mangeshkar ...

was neither filmed nor released on disc. Arguably, it might be the only song sung by all the Mangeshkar sisters. * The lyrics of song 'Phir wohi sham, wohi gham, wohi tanhai' are very similar to the lyrics of song 'Phir wohi Chand, wohi hum, wohi tanhai' from 1957 movie Baarish, music & sung by C. Ramchandra.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jahan Ara (Film) 1964 films Films set in the Mughal Empire 1960s Hindi-language films Films scored by Madan Mohan Cultural depictions of Shah Jahan 1960s historical romance films Indian historical romance films 1964 directorial debut films