''Mumtaz Mahal ''is a

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in Nor ...

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 ...

-language historical epic film, directed by

Kidar Nath 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 ...

and starring

Khursheed Bano :''This is about the Indian performer. For people so surnamed, see Khurshid.'' Khursheed Bano ( ur, ) (14 April 1914 – 18 April 2001), often credited as Khursheed or Khurshid, was a singer and actress, and a pioneer of the Indian cinema. He ...

and Chandra Mohan.

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, ...

also stars, in one of her earliest pictures. The film opened to negative reviews due to its distortion of history, but became a commercial success, and the sixth highest grossing Indian film of 1944.

Plot

''Mumtaz Mahal'' showcases the love story of

Mughal emperor The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled t ...

Shah Jehan 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 his favourite 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 ...

, and the former's efforts to create

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 ...

for housing the

tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...

of Mahal after her death.

Cast

* Chandra Mohan as

Jahanara Begum Jahanara Begum (23 March 1614 – 16 September 1681) was a Mughal Empire, 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 o ...

(Credited as "Baby Mumtaz) *

Kajjan Jahanara Kajjan (15 February 1915 – December 1945), or "Miss Kajjan", was an Indian singer and actress active during the 1920s and 1930s, often referred to as the "Nightingale of Bengal".Orsini 2006: 272 The reigning queen of early talkie ...

Noor Jehan Noor Jehan ( Punjabi: ) (born () Allah Rakhi Wasai ; 23 September 1926 – 23 December 2000; sometimes spelled Noorjehan),Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen, ''Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema,'' British Film Institute, Oxford University Pres ...

* Rajendra as Lala Yacoob

Production

''Mumtaz Mahal'' was

's second film after '' Basant'' (1942). It was also her first of the five films she made under

Ranjit Movietone Ranjit Studios, also known as Ranjit Movietone, was an Indian film production company with studio facilities located in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It produced films between 1929 and mid-1970s. The studio was founded by Chandulal Shah along wit ...

as a child artist.

Soundtrack

Release

Critical reception

''Mumtaz Mahal'' opened to overwhelmingly negative reviews. A review published 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 ...

'' magazine 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. ...

read: "It is difficult to say exactly how bad ''Mumtaz Mahal'' is. Stretch your imagination to its widest and see if you can fit in this dirty picture." An audience named Ammunuddin's reaction to the film was: " n''Mumtaz Mahal'', history has been mercilessly murdered, facts have been deliberately distorted, the story is crudely conceived and the acting and even the music is intensely boring. Historical records reveal that it was during

's time that the

Mughal empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

was at its height of power. When will our producers and other big guns of the

Indian Film Industry The Cinema of India consists of motion pictures produced in India, which had a large effect on world cinema since the late 20th century. Major centers of film production across the country include Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Ko ...

put art before Mammon worship?"

Box office

Nevertheless, ''Mumtaz Mahal'' was a commercial success. The film earned an estimated amount of 3.5 million at the box office.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0141622, title=Mumtaz Mahal 1944 films 1940s Hindi-language films Films set in the Mughal Empire Indian epic films Indian historical films Films scored by Vinod Indian black-and-white films 1940s historical films Cultural depictions of Shah Jahan Films directed by Kidar Sharma Cultural depictions of Indian women