''Rani '' (Queen) also called ''Ranee'' is a

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

. It was released in

1943 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 – ...

and directed by

P.C. Barua Pramathesh Chandra Barua (24 October 1903 – 29 November 1951) was an Indian actor, director, and screenwriter of Indian films in the pre-independence era, born in Gauripur, Assam, Gauripur, Dhubri district, Dhubri, Assam. Early life Barua wa ...

. Barua produced, scripted and acted as the lead in the film. Jamuna and

Patience Cooper Patience Cooper was an Anglo-Indian actres, and one of the early superstars of Bollywood. She was the daughter of Phoebe Stella Gamble (born in Calcutta in 1881; daughter of John Frederick Gamble and Phoebe Stella Clement whose mother was Armen ...

were his co-stars. The music direction was by Kamal Dasgupta with lyrics by Pandit Madhur. The film was a bilingual made simultaneously in Hindi and in the

Bengali language Bengali ( ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (, ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and the second m ...

as ''Chandar Kalanka'' ( The Taint On The Moon). The rest of the cast included Jahar Ganguly, Bikram Kapoor and Kalavati. ''Rani'', a social romantic drama revolved around the character of Malti, a village girl, who escapes to the city when she is targeted by malicious gossip on the eve of her marriage. She adopts the name Rani and starts working in a hotel as a maid.

Synopsis

On the eve of her marriage, Malti, a village girl, finds herself a target of hateful gossip spread by some of the villagers, questioning her chastity. To evade the disrepute caused to her and her family, Malti runs away to the city. The villagers and her family assume her to be dead. In the city Malti finds job as a maid in a hotel where she meets Raj, the Zamindar's (Landowner) younger brother. He has come to the city to learn music. Soon he gets into the habit of drinking. Rani, who has been looking after him, has fallen in love with him. She tries to discourage him from drinking. Raj returns home to his village, and at the same time Rani leaves her job at the hotel and trains to be a nurse. When Raj's drinking becomes a problem, Rani is called to nurse him back to health. The Zamindar now realises he had wrongly believed the village gossip, and he is happy to have Raj and Rani marry.

Cast

P. C. Barua Pramathesh Chandra Barua (24 October 1903 – 29 November 1951) was an Indian actor, director, and screenwriter of Indian films in the pre-independence era, born in Gauripur, Dhubri, Assam. Early life Barua was the son of the royal family of ...

* Jamuna *

* Jahar Ganguly * Bikram Kapoor * Kalavati

Review

The review in the July 1938 issue of ''

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 ...

'' was negative of P. C. Barua. The editor of the cine-magazine,

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 ...

found the story with its social implications good, but he censured it for its weak script. He felt that Barua "turned the story into an ordinary romance between a rich idler and a poor street girl and skipped clear of the social values which were inherent in the theme". Barua's looks, acting and "nervous dialogues" "all contribute to create a ludicrous effect". Actress Jamuna gave a "polished" performance and "provides the only saving grace in the picture".

Soundtrack

Music director was Kamal Dasgupta with lyrics by Pandit Madhur.

Songlist

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id =0156007 , title =Rani (1943 film) 1943 films 1940s Hindi-language films Indian black-and-white films