''Leather Face'', also known as ''Farzand-e-Watan'', is a 1939 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

action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

produced and directed by Vijay Bhatt for his production company Prakash Pictures. Bhatt cast the young Mahjabeen, then six years, who went on to become the famous actress,

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 ...

. The story writers were Batuk Bhatt and Sampatlal Srivastava. The music direction was by Lallubhai Nayak and Shankar Rao Vyas with the lyrics written by Pandit Anuj. It starred

P. Jairaj Paidi Jairaj (born 28 September 1909 – 11 August 2000) was an Indian actor, director and producer known for his works majorly in Hindi; few Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu language films, and Telugu theatre.Luminaries of 20th Century, Potti Sreeram ...

, Mehtab, Jal Writer, Shirin, M. Zahur, Lallubhai Nayak, Bholaram and Baby Mahjabeen (

). ''Leather Face'', cited as one of Bhatt's successful "stunt" films along with

State Express ''State Express'' is a 1938 Indian Hindi-language action film directed by Vijay Bhatt for his production company Prakash Pictures. The film's music was composed by Lallubhai Nayak and the dialogues were written by Sampatlal Srivastava. Zakaria K ...

made a year earlier, had features similar to it. The use of a masked protagonist (Jairaj), the dog Tiger, and the stunts made the film popular with the public.

Plot

A state chieftain (M. Zahur) rules over his people in a despotic manner. Samar (

) becomes the hero-bandit to fight the chief. He dons a leather mask, and along with the help of his dog Tiger and horse Bahadur he ventures out to set things right. He also has the help of a group of wayfarers, and Dulari (Shirin), the inn-keeper. Samar falls in love with the Chieftain's sister Ila ( Mehtab). Following several action scenes, Samar is able to rid the state of its tyrannical ruler and marry Ila.

Cast

* Mehtab * Jal Writer * Shirin * M. Zahur * Baby Mahjabeen (

) * Lallubhai Nayak * Munshi Khanjar * Bholaram * Putli * Faizy

Meena Kumari

''Leather Face'' is also famous for being Meena Kumari's debut role. Meena Kumari was just a six-year-old when her father Ali Bux brought her to Vijay Bhatt, who cast her as Baby Mahjabeen in the film. In the film she plays the daughter of actor Jairaj. She was later to play a lead role opposite him as his lover in the film '' Magroor'' (1950)

Review And Box Office

According to Rajadhyaksha and Willemen ''Leather Face'', along with ''State Express'' made a year earlier was one of the "best Known" of Bhatt's "stunt" films, doing well at the box office.RajadhyakshaWillemen2014, p. 277

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Lallubhai Nayak and Shankar Rao Vyas, with the lyricist being Pandit Anuj.

Song List

References

External links

* {{Vijay Bhatt 1939 films 1930s Hindi-language films Indian action films Indian black-and-white films Films directed by Vijay Bhatt 1930s action films Hindi-language action films