Synopsis
Shaheed
is a Nationalist film set in the context of the Quit India
Movement and the ensuing wave of terrorist actions in the
mid 1940s. Ram (Dilip Kumar) is the nationalist son of the
colonial Rai Bahadur Dwarkadas (Chandramohan). He leaves
home against his father's wishes to join a freedom fighters
group…. His childhood sweetheart Sheela (Kamini Kaushal)
repeatedly protects him from being caught. She is however
forced to marry the evil policeman Vinod who in turn lets
her brother Gopal free and promises to save Ram's life…In
the end accused of terrorist activities, Ram is defended
in court by his now repentant father but is found guilty
and eventually hanged. Sheela dies as well and is reunited
with Ram in death.
The film
Even
as India gained independence in 1947, it
was but natural that films be made on the
freedom struggle. Earlier films like Sikander
(1941), Kismet (1943) or Dr.
Kotnis ki Amar Kahani (1946) made during
British rule packaged their films in such
a manner so as to arouse Nationalism in
an indirect manner but perhaps the first
film looking wholeheartedly at the Nationalist
Movement and India's struggle for Independence
was this Filmistan film releasing the following
year after Indian Independence.
 Based
on a story by Ramesh Saigal with dialogues
by Ramesh Saigal and Qamar Jalalabadi, the
film is directed by Ramesh Saigal. Ramesh
Saigal was known for his films dealing with
issues of National concern be it Railway
Platform (1955) a melodramatic parable
set in a social-realist idiom or expressing
total disillusionment with Nehruian politics
a decade after Indian Independence in Phir
Subah Hogi (1958). Shaheed takes
a sympathetic look at a young man who bravely
sacrifices his life for the country. The
film manages to work well as a thriller
set against the background of the Quit India
movement of 1942. It is, interestingly,
a very different sort of film that came
out from Filmistan, a studio that was known
for making frothy entertainers like Shehnai
(1947) and Nadiya ke Paar (1948).
Shaheed is perhaps Filmistan's first
effort at making a serious film with some
substance and depth to it and an extremely
successful one at that.
Shaheed
is held together by an extremely strong
performance by Dilip
Kumar as the revolutionary who becomes
a martyr. Dilip Kumar was steadily becoming
a superstar at this stage following the
success of Jugnu released the previous
year where he had starred opposite the great
Noorjehan.
With films like Mela (1948) and Shaheed,
he was fast building his reputation as the
tragedy king who either died on the film
or lost out in love. In Shaheed too
he not only loses the love of his life but
also sacrifices his life for the nation.
Kamini
Kaushal complements Dilip Kumar perfectly.
Having made her debut in Chetan Anand's
IPTA supported Neecha Nagar (1945),
she was at the peak of her career when Shaheed
released. Along with Nargis,
Kamini Kaushal was the earliest actress
who initiated a sense of natural acting
among heroines. Shaheed is more than
enough proof of her ability as an artiste
as she effortlessly matches Dilip Kumar
scene for scene. There is a strong sense
of chemistry between Dilip Kumar and Kamini
Kaushal who were regarded as a hit pair
of the day from 1948 to 1950 wherein they
also co-starred in Nadiya k Paar,
Shabnam (1949) and Arzoo (1950).
The
main cast is supported strongly by Chandramohan
and Leela
Chitnis. Chandramohan was an extremely
popular star having played the lead in films
like Shantaram's
Amrit Manthan (1934), Sohrab
Modi's Pukar (1939) and Mehboob
Khan's Roti (1942) and was initially
essaying the role of emperor Akbar in Mughal-e-Azam
(1960) before he died. Chandramohan
makes full use of his robust voice to create
an extremely strong character that opposes
his son joining the freedom movement. Consequently
the father son conflicts give the film several
moments of high voltage drama. The one scene
of Chandramohan that stands out is the scene
in court where he defends his son as he
'switches sides' and is now repentant. The
scene got much applause in its time and
rightly so. Leela Chitnis, who had been
a top heroine at Bombay Talkies and formed
an extremely successful partnership with
Ashok Kumar
in films like Kangan (1939), Bandhan
(1940) and Jhoola (1941), is
in one of her earliest mother roles setting
the tone for her subsequent suffering mother
roles..
The music is by Ghulam
Haider with lyrics by Raja Mehdi Ali
Khan and Qamar Jalabadi. If one man revolutionalized
the Hindi Film song it was Ghulam Haider.
With Khazanchi released in 1941,
he introduced Punjabi folk into Hindi film
Music. By then Music Directors of the 1930s,
who had embellished films with their exquisite
compositions set in classical ragas, were
beginning to sound commonplace. Khazanchi's
refreshingly free wheeling music not only
took the audiences by storm but also made
other music directors sit up and take notice.
Khazanchi, combining popular ragas with
the rich verve and rhythm of Punjabi folk
music, ensured that the Indian film song
would never be the same again. And that
is not all. Ghulam Haider also introduced
singers like Shamshad Begum, Noorjehan,
and with Shaheed, Surinder Kaur.
With the advent of the partition, the Film
Industry lost stalwarts like Khursheed,
Noorjehan and Feroz Nizami to Pakistan.
But perhaps the biggest blow was losing
Ghulam Haider. Ghulam Haider initially resisted
migrating and stayed back in Bombay composing
music for films like Majboor, Padmini,
Pathjad, Barsaat ki Ek Raat
and Shaheed all coming in 1948. However
admittedly it was no longer the same Ghualam
Haider seen in films like Khazanchi,
Khandaan (1942) and Zamindar (1942).
His musicians had migrated to Lahore in
spite of him offering them two months salary
and a secure shelter and the new Bombay
Musicians with western instruments found
it difficult to translate his ideas. But
Shaheed still showed glimpses of
the Maestro at his best. Its standout song
Watan ki Raah Mein Watan ke Naujavan
Shaheed Ho is one of the finest patriotic
songs on the Indian screen. This
patriotic song was used in two versions
in the film - the first in brisk tempo,
intended to raise the morale of revolutionaries
and then again slowly and solemnly as the
revolutionary's dead body is carried to
the cremation ground, perhaps the first
use of a sad version of a song in a Hindi
Film! The first part had Mohd.
Rafi leading Khan Mastana and vice versa
in part II. It is one of life's biggest
ironies that while one of the singers of
this song went on to become one of the most
popular singers Hindi Cinema has seen, the
other died a beggar at the Haji Ali Dargah
in Bombay…Following Kaneez in
1949 Ghulam Haider too finally left for
Lahore where he launched his own film company
'Filmsaaz' with director S. Nazir Ajmeri
and actor S. Gul. Today Ghulam Haider's
name is all but forgotten. A genius is gone
- what remains is the work of others influenced
by him.
An
interesting aside. Ghulam Haider took a
young struggling Lata
Mangeshkar to producer S. Mukherjee
to sing the songs of Shaheed but
was vetoed by producer S. Mukherjee saying
her voice was too thin and squeaky and would
never suit Kamini Kaushal! Haider warned
Mukherjee that this girl would one day overtake
Noorjehan and so it happened. Even Kamini
Kaushal in arecent interview maintained
that the one singer whose voice suited her
best was Lata! In Shaheed with Lata's
absence Ghulam Haider introduced Surinder
Kaur and used a young Geeta
Roy (Aaja Bedardi Balma) to render
the songs.
Shaheed
went on to fare extremely well at the box
office. The film endures till today as one
of the best films made on the freedom struggle.
In fact according to reputed Filmindia owner
and critic Baburao Patel, for the first
time with Shaheed did Filmistan make
a sensible film! With Shaheed's success,
Filmistan tried to combine making other
films of Nationalistic Importance among
their regular entertainers - films like
Samadhi (1950) using the INA as a
backdrop, or Anandmath (1952) and Jagriti
(1954) even as they continued to make a
Sargam (1950), Anarkali (1953),
Nagin (1954) or Munimjee (1955)!
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