''Manoos'', also called ''Life's for Living'', is a

1939 This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidden to ...

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 ...

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

social melodrama film directed by

V. Shantaram Shantaram Rajaram Vankudre (18 November 1901 – 30 October 1990), referred to as V. Shantaram or Shantaram Bapu, was an Indian filmmaker, film producer, and actor known for his work in Hindi and Marathi films. He is most known for films such ...

. The movie was simultaneously made in

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 ...

as ''Aadmi''. The film was based on a short story called "The Police Constable". The story was by A. Bhaskarrao, with screenplay and dialogue by Anant Kanekar. The cinematographer was V. Avadhoot and the music was composed by Master Krishna Rao, with lyrics by Kanekar. The cast included

Shahu Modak Shahu Modak (25 April 1918 – 11 May 1993) was an Indian actor who acted in many Hindi as well as Marathi movies. Shahu Modak was mostly famous for the mythological characters that he played. He mostly played the roles of Krishna, and Jñāneś ...

Shanta Hublikar Shanta Hublikar (14 April 1914 – 17 July 1992), was an actress and singer from early years of Indian cinema. Shanta worked in Marathi, Hindi and Kannada films from 1934 to 1963. Her songs ''Ab kis liye kalki baat'' from Aadmi and its Marathi ve ...

Sundara Bai Sundara (सुन्दर) is a Sanskrit term meaning ''beautiful'', ''lovely'' (of a person), or generally, ''noble''; ''well'', ''right''. As a personal name, it may refer to: * Sundara Ramaswamy (1931–2006), Tamil poet and writer * Ajahn Su ...

Ram Marathe Ramchandra Purushottam Marathe (23 October 1924 – 4 October 1989), also known as Pandit Ram Marathe, was a Marathi music director, singer, and actor on stage and in films. As a child actor, he performed the title role of Krishna in Prabhat Film ...

, Narmada, Ganpatrao and

Raja Paranjpe Rajabhau Dattatraya Paranjpe (24 April 1910 – 9 February 1979), known as Raja Paranjape, was an Indian actor, director, producer and writer in the Marathi film and Hindi film Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and former ...

. ''Manoos'', termed as a "reformist social melodrama", involved the subject of an honest policemen's love for a prostitute and his attempts to rehabilitate her, and the rejection by society.

Plot

plays the role of an honest policeman, Ganpat, who on his beat round meets a prostitute, Maina (

). He saves her when there is a police raid on the sex-workers. Over their several meetings, he falls in love with her. He attempts Maina's rehabilitation by getting her out of that atmosphere by marrying her. In this endeavour, he takes her to meet his mother to get her approval. The social disapproval brings misery. Modak resorts to drink and descends into alcoholism. Maina is driven by guilt and is unable to bear the jeers and snide remarks. She finally kills her evil uncle and refuses Ganpat's help when arrested.

Cast

as Ganpat / Moti *

as Maina / Kesar *

as Ganpat's mother / Moti's mother * Budasaheb as Megharam *

as Mannu * Chhottu as Old Man * Gauri as Bijli * Manju as Shama * Narmada Shankar as Radha * Ganpatrao Tambat as Police Inspector *

as Mama * Manajirao as Motel Keeper

Review

Shantaram was "admired" as a visionary for his social reformist films like ''Shejari'' in Marathi or ''

Padosi ''Shejari'' (Marathi: शेजारी) is also known as ''Padosi'' in Hindi version as (पड़ोसी, پڑوسی ''Neighbour''). Padosi is a 1941 Hindi social drama film directed by V. Shantaram. It was produced by Prabhat Film Compa ...

'' in Hindi is about Hindu-Muslim unity, ''Manoos''/'' Aadmi'' for the topic of alcoholism as well as upliftment of women, and ''

Kunku ''Kunku'' (Marathi title) is a 1937 Marathi classic social drama film directed by V. Shantaram, and based on the novel, ''Na Patnari Goshta'' by Narayan Hari Apte, who also wrote film's screenplay. The film was simultaneously shot and relea ...

''/''

Duniya Na Mane Duniya may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Duniya'' (1968 film), a Hindi romantic thriller * ''Duniya'' (1984 film), a Hindi film * ''Duniya'' (2007 film), an Indian Kannada-language film * ''Duniya'' (album), a 1997 album by Raageshwar ...

'' for women's emancipation. The film completed 75 years in 2014, and still "remains fresh". The film is stated to be "classic" along with his other two films ''

'' (1937) and Shejari or ''

'' (1941), and cited as one of the "best social films" that became successful. ''Manoos'' was appreciated by the audiences and commended by

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...

Production

Shantaram had initially decided to take

Shanta Apte Shanta Apte (1916–1964) was an Indian actress-singer who worked in Marathi and Hindi cinema. Renowned for her roles in films like ''Duniya Na Mane/Kunku'' (1937) and '' Amar Jyoti'' (1936) under the Prabhat Films banner, she was active in In ...

as the sex-worker and had auditioned the music director

Vasant Desai Vasant Desai (1912–1975) was an Indian film music composer, most remembered for his score in V. Shantaram films like ''Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje'' (1955), ''Do Aankhen Barah Haath'' (1957), Vijay Bhatt's ''Goonj Uthi Shehnai'' (1959), ''Sampoorn ...

for the hero's role. Desai's screen test was successful, however, he was disappointed when Shantaram informed him that he was taking the newcomer Shahu Modak for the part.Gavankar2011, p. 43 Modak's debut role had been as a child star opposite Shanta Apte in ''Shyam Sunder'' (1932), where he played the child Krishna. With ''Manoos''/''Aadmi'' he became a "top level star". Shantaram visited the red light areas of

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

in order to achieve accurate sets, which were recreated by S. Fattelal at Prabhat Studios. Director

Shyam Benegal Shyam Benegal (born 14 December 1934) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Often regarded as the pioneer of parallel cinema, he is widely considered as one of the greatest filmmakers post 1970s. He has received ...

stated in the news report that "it was hard to believe" the scenes were shot in a studio. A retired army officer was hired to give training to Modak and the other cast playing policemen. The training sessions turned out be vigorous and lengthy and Modak had to ask them to be stopped. The film bore some similarity to ''

Waterloo Bridge Waterloo Bridge () is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at the ...

'' (1931), directed by

James Whale James Whale (22 July 1889 – 29 May 1957) was an English film director, theatre director and actor, who spent the greater part of his career in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood. He is best remembered for several horror films: ''Fran ...

Soundtrack

The music composer was Master Krishnarao and the lyricist was Anant Kanekar. The song, "Kashala Udyachi Baat- Hi Sarun Chalali Raat" (Why do you worry about tomorrow, the night is slipping away)' became popular. It contained a mix of six Indian languages, Marathi, Hindi,

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

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- ...

and Punjabi. According to Anil Damle, grandson of

Vishnupant Govind Damle Vishnupant Govind Damle (14 October 1892 – 5 July 1945) was an Indian production designer, cinematographer, film director and sound engineer for Marathi films. His 1937 film ''Sant Tukaram'' was the first Indian film to be screened at an inte ...

, the music composer Anil Biswas and other regional composers were hired to get "the correct lyrics and pronunciation". It was critically acclaimed by

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. B ...

in his review of the film in the cine-magazine ''

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 ...

'' of October 1939. Another notable song cited was "Man Paapi Bhoola Kaun Ise Samjhaye" sung by Bai Sundrabai. There is also a parody of the famous

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 ...

and

Devika Rani Devika Rani Choudhuri (30 March 1908 – 9 March 1994), usually known as Devika Rani, was an Indian actress who was active in Hindi films during the 1930s and 1940s. Widely acknowledged as the first lady of Indian cinema, Devika Rani ha ...

song from

Achhut Kanya ''Achhut Kannya'' ( en, Untouchable Maiden, italic=yes) is a 1936 Indian Hindi film. Among the early super-hits in the Bombay film industry, the film deals with the social position of Dalit girls and is considered a reformist period-piece. T ...

(1936) "Main Ban Ka Panchhi" to "Main Panch Ban Ban Dolu Re" sung by Shanta Hublikar.

Marathi Songs

Hindi Songs

References

External links

* {{V. Shantaram 1939 films 1930s Hindi-language films Films directed by V. Shantaram Prabhat Film Company films Articles containing video clips Indian drama films 1939 drama films Indian black-and-white films Melodrama films 1939 multilingual films Indian multilingual films 1930s Marathi-language films