Daud Chand

Dawood Chand was the first film director of Pakistan. Dawood Chand, apart from Pakistan's first film Teri Yaad (1948), was also the director of the first Golden Jubilee superhit Urdu film Sasi (1954).

A detailed article has been written on the film Teri Yaad (1948). Today's session will mention the special films and other important film events before and after the partition of Pakistan's first film director Dawood Chand.

Dawood Chand belonged to Kathiawad area of Gujarat state of India where he was born in 1907. He traveled to the film centers of Bombay and Calcutta in his passion for films. After acting in various films, he also got an opportunity to make half a dozen films in Calcutta, one of which was a Punjabi film Sassi Pannu (1939) by the famous film company Indira Movietone.

Movie: Sassi Punnu (1939)

It was Pakistan's first Golden Jubilee film. Director Dawood Chand's Calcutta-based Punjabi film Sassi Punnu (1939) was notable for starring actress Balu and her husband, Muhammad Ali Mahia. These two were the parents of the great Pakistani actress Sabiha Khanum.

Actress Balu (Iqbal Begum), the daughter of a wealthy lawyer from Gujarat, falls in love with a cheerful but jaded Kochwan who sings "Mahiya", a genre of Punjabi singing, on her way to college. When Dil Nadan became uncontrollable, she escaped with her acquaintance, breaking the walls of social customs. When the ghost of love came down, the bitter realities of the earth came to light. An ignorant, lazy and incompetent lover, in the lust of wealth, made a beautiful young woman the adornment of the beauty market, who could not bear this humiliation for a long time and took this shock at a young age by giving birth to an innocent girl. Coach was gone.

Before Sassi Pannu (1939), Balu had another Punjabi film Heer Syal (1938) made in Calcutta as the heroine, in which she played the role of Heer. Balu was also in the title role of Sasi while an actor named Muhammad Aslam played the role of Pannu. Muhammad Ali Mahia also played a secondary role in this film.

Indra Movie Tone Calcutta's Punjabi film Sassi Pannu (1939) was also notable for having Baby Noor Jahan play the role of Sassi i.e. Balu's childhood and singing a song "Mere Babul Da Makhra Pyaara, Meri Ami". O bright star." The same film also starred Haider Bandi and Aidan Bai, the two sisters of Queen Tarnam Noorjahan, who were made available to the Calcutta film industry under the name "Punjab Mail".

Movie Sassi (1954)

Fifteen years later, director Dawood Chand once again made the film Sasi (1954) on the same subject in Pakistan, in which the eighteen-year-old daughter of Balu and Muhammad Ali Mahia, Sabiha Khanum, played the title role.

It was the first Golden Jubilee superhit film in Pakistan's film history. Sudhir had rolled the dice. This song of Kausar Parveen in the tune of Baba Chishti became very famous "Neh Yeh Chand Hoga, Ni Tare Rahe Ghaye." This song is said to be a copy of an Indian song, but it could not be proved who copied whom?

After making half a dozen films in Calcutta before Partition, Dawood Chand moved to Lahore where the film business was at its peak in the mid-1940s. There were eight film studios in Lahore where Dhad Dhad films were being made. Dawood Chand has four films to his credit in just two years. Interestingly, these four films also featured Asha Posle, who also became the heroine of Pakistan's first film, Teri Yaad (1948).

Films of Dawood Chand in Lahore before partition:

On the Bus (1946)

Dawood Chand's directorial debut, made in Lahore before Partition, was Pray Bus Mein (1946) with Asha Posle as the heroine and famous Indian villain actor, Pran, as the hero. Nazr, Agha Salim Raza, Zahoor Shah and Ghulam Qadir were other important actors. Lal Karnani was a filmmaker while Shah Jahan Begum was a writer. Ehsan BA had dialogues. The lyrics of Aziz Kashmiri and Tufail Hoshiarpuri were sung by Zeenat Begum and SD Batish in the lyrics of Niaz Hussain Shami.

RC (1947)

The film RC (1947), also started in Lahore but was completed in Bombay by Dawood Chand and was released in Pakistan as an Indian film the same year after Partition. Al-Nasir along with Meena Shourie were in the lead roles while Ajmal, Zahoor Shah and Sheikh Iqbal were other important characters besides Lahore's regular artists, Asha Posle and Pran. Produced by Jeevandas Chand Ke Sarmay, the film had music by Shyam Sundar and Lachi Ram and lyrics by Zeenat Begum, Dilshad Begum and SD Batsh.

PapihaRe (1948)

The film Papiha Re (1948) was completed by Dawood Chand in just 22 days but was released in 1948 due to the partition riots. Akhtri and Amarnath were in the lead roles while Asha Posle, Sheikh Iqbal, Ajmal, Khairati and GN Butt were the other important characters. The music of this movie by Malik Raj Bakri was given by Dhani Ram. Apart from Zeenat Begum, the busiest singer of Lahore films, Amirbai and Dhani Ram sang songs.

One Day (1949)

Director Dawood Chand's film Ek Rooz (1949) was also a Lahore film and was released in Bombay etc. in the same year i.e. 1947, but it was released in Lahore as an Indian film in 1949. The special feature of this film was that its heroine was Nasreen who was the daughter of Anwari Begum and Rafiq Ghaznavi, the first Punjabi film duo of the subcontinent, Heer Ranjha (1932), and the mother of famous actress and singer Salma Agha of Dhai in 1980. While Al-Nasser was a hero