''Said-e-Havas'' (Prey To Desire) or (Greed) also known as ''King John'' is a
1936
Events
January–February
* January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...
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 ...
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
Sohrab Modi
Sohrab Merwanji Modi (2 November 1897 – 28 January 1984) was an Indian stage and film actor, director and producer. His films include ''Khoon Ka Khoon'' (1935), a version of Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'', '' Sikandar'', ''Pukar'', ''Prithvi Va ...
Agha Hashar Kashmiri
Agha Hashar Kashmiri (born Muhammad Shah, 3 April 1879 – 1 April 1935) was an Urdu poet, playwright and dramatist. A number of his plays were Indian Shakespearean adaptations.
Early life
He started to show interest in stage dramas and mo ...
, published in 1908.
Produced by Modi's Stage Film Company, the film was a "stage recording" of the play, similar to Modi's first stage adaptation to screen of ''
Khoon Ka Khoon
''Khoon Ka Khoon'' () also called ''Hamlet'' is the first Hindi/Urdu 1935 sound film adaptation of the Shakespearen play Hamlet. Directed by Sohrab Modi under his Stage Film Company banner, it is cited as one of the earliest talkie versions o ...
''. It was written by Agha Hashr, based on an adaptation of ''King John'' and of ''Richard III''. The music was composed by Bunyad Husain Khan. The film starred Sohrab Modi, Gulzar, Sadat Ali, Fakir Mohammed, Shama and E. Tarapore.
Trivedi and Bartholomeusz record that the film incorporated scenes and acts from ''King John'', mainly Act 2 Scene 5, and made use of ''Richard III'' as general reference. Modi played the role of the "ethnically black" Kazal Beg (Hubert). Agha Hashr had written the play in 1907 and according to Bishop and Chaudhuri, there is very little similarity between the play ''King John'' and Agha Hashr's adaptation, except for those mentioned earlier.
Cast
*
Sohrab Modi
Sohrab Merwanji Modi (2 November 1897 – 28 January 1984) was an Indian stage and film actor, director and producer. His films include ''Khoon Ka Khoon'' (1935), a version of Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'', '' Sikandar'', ''Pukar'', ''Prithvi Va ...
* Sadat Ali
* Gulzar
* Shama
* Chandra Kumar
* Fakir Mohammed
* E. Tarapore
* Ghulam Hussain
* Sarla Devi
Soundtrack
The film had music composed by Bunyad Hussain Khan and included eleven songs.
The song "Maston Ko Ain Farz Hai Peena Sharab Ka" was sung by legendary singer
G. M. Durrani
Ghulam Mustafa Durrani (1919 – 8 September 1988; sometimes known as G. M. Durrani) was an Indian radio drama artist, playback singer, actor and music director.
He was a radio drama artist and full-time singer of Lahore station, Delhi statio ...