''State Express'' is a 1938 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 ...

directed by

Vijay Bhatt Vijay Bhatt (born Vrajlal Jagneshwar Bhatt; 12 May 1907 – 17 October 1993) was a producer-director-screenwriter of Hindi cinema, who made such films as '' Ram Rajya'' (1943), ''Baiju Bawra'' (1952), ''Goonj Uthi Shehnai'' (1959) and ''Himalay ...

for his production company Prakash Pictures. The film's music was composed by Lallubhai Nayak and the dialogues were written by Sampatlal Srivastava. Zakaria Khan, named

Jayant Jayanta ( sa, जयन्त, "victory"), is a character who appears in Hindu literature. He is the son of Indra, the king of the devas (gods), and his wife, Shachi (Indrani). He has a sister called Jayanti. He appears in various Hindu scri ...

by Vijay Bhatt, and who was to become a famous character artist, started his career as a leading man in several of Bhatt's earlier films from ''Bombay Mail'' (1935) to ''Bijli'' (1939), including ''State Express'' The film starred Jayant, Sardar Akhtar, Umakant, Lallubhai Nayak, Shirin and Ismail. ''State Express'' involved a masked heroine (Sardar Akhtar) who performed several stunts, a young prince (Jayant), and his scheming uncle. The film had the basic ‘stunt’ film features, masked characters, a gorilla, two dogs Tommy and Tiger (given poster credit) and crashing trains.

Cast

Sardar Akhtar Sardar Akhtar (1915–1986) was an Indian actress who worked in Hindi and Urdu films. She started her acting career on the Urdu stage. Her early films were with Saroj Movietone, where she did a majority of stunt (action) roles. She came into pr ...

* Umakant * Shirin * Zaverbhai * M. Zahur * Lallubhai Nayak * Ismail * Jehangir * Chhotejaan * Vithaldass * Athavale *

Review And Box office

''State Express'' is cited by Rajadhyaksha and Willemen as a "successful film" doing well at the box-office. The main draw of the film was a "performing gorilla" and Sardar Akhtar's songs and performance. The film was one of the "best stunt films" from Bhatt, who normally made mythologicals.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Lallubhai Nayak, with the lyricist being Pandit Anuj. The singers were Sardar Akhtar, Jayant, Lallubhai Nayak and Rajkumari.

Song list

References

External links

* {{Vijay Bhatt 1938 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