SPECIAL FOCUS ON FAVOURITE GENRE OF OUR CINEMA!

Beautiful Ranjeeta & romantic Rishi Kapoor in H.S. Rawail's 'Laila Majnu' (1976)

"Sangemarmar se tarasha hua ye shokh badan..
itana dilkash hai ki apanane ko dil chahata hai!
..Tumse kya rishta hai, kabse hai..malum nahi
lekin is husn par mar jane ko jee chahata hai!"

Roomani shayari comes in beginning of song sequence "Is reshmi pazeb ki jhankar.."
which Majnu passionately express in front of sleeping Laila in her royal bedroom!

Famous for making romantic costume dramas..H. S. Rawail.. 

filming 'Laila Majnu' (1976) with Rishi Kapoor, Ranjeeta & others!

This is ninth - picture of costume drama scene.. of 'Laila Majnu'(1976) acted by beautiful Ranjeeta & Rishi Kapoor..romantic actor of our cinema ..left us recently!

This film was made by Harnam Singh.. H. S. Rawail who was famous for making romantic Muslim Socials like 'Mere Mehboob'!

Here is a brief history about this immortal love epic & films made on it..

Name of that original Arabic story is 'Majnum Layla' which is about 7th century Najdi Bedouin poet Qays ibn al-Mullawah and his ladylove Layla bint Mahdi (Layla al-Aamiriya). Then during 584-1188 Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi composed this narrative poem as the third part of his 'Khamsa'. It's a popular poem praising their love story! Famous English poet Lord Byron called it "The Romeo and Juliet of the East"!

Shammi Kapoor & Nutan in 'Laila Majnu'(1953)

There are about ten films made on this love epic in various languages 
and regions made on this love epic. 
In 1937 'East India Film Studios' produced this romantic Iranian film with title similar to the original..
'Layla and Majnun!..Pioneer of - Persian sound cinema Abdolhossein Sepanta directed this film and Haji Abed, Manouchehr Arian & Abed - Basravi acted in it!

Then in our South India..three films made on this story. First in Telugu as 'Laila Majnu' (1949) which was - produced & and directed by P. S. - Ramakrishna Rao. In this hit film Akkinei Nageswara Rao & Bhanumathi Ramakrishna portrayed these characters. After that in 1950 Tamil film with same title made by F. Nagoor and..T. R. Mahaligam & M. V. Rajamma did these roles. Then in 1962 Malayalam film with same name made by poet-lyricist P.Bhaskaran and famous stars of those days Prem Nazir & L.Vijayalakshmi played the romantic lead in it!

Rishi Kapoor-Ranjeeta's romantic image

on Rawailji's 'Laila Majnu's(1976) poster.

In 1953 'Laila Majnu' came in 'Hindi.. For that Munshi Dil wrote screenplay and Tabish Sultanpuri written the dialogues. P. N. Arora produced this film directed by K. Amarnath. And Rishi Kapoor's uncle Shammi Kapoor (with mustache) acted with Nutan in it. Shakeel Badayuni wrote the lyrics for this film and..Sardar Malik and Ghulam Mohammad composed the music. Memorable songs in this were Mohammed Rafi sung "Bulbul mein naghme tere..", Talat Mahmood sung "Chal diya karwan.." and Lata - Mangeshkar sung "Aasman wale teri duniya se.."


But as an admirer of H. S. Rawail's cinema.. he made Hindi/Urdu film 'Laila Majnu' (1976) is my favourite! Sahir Ludhiyanvi wrote the songs and Madan Mohan and Jaidev composed the music of it. In this, excellent - natural performances of Ranjeeta-Rishi (as immortal title characters) touched heart! Can not forget their emotional expressions in songs like..

Lata Mangeshkar's "Husn hazir hai.." & Mohammed Rafi's "Barbad-E-Mohabbat.."

That Arabian romantic atmosphere and nazakatdar izahar-e-mohabbat..I love it!!

- Manoj Kulkarni