Remembering Indurani, Actress & Singer of 1930’s & 40’s on her 96th birth anniversary.
Remembering #Indurani Actress & Singer ...bollywoodirect.medium.com
Ishrat Jehan Imamuddin aka Indurani was born in a middle class family of Delhi, on the 22nd of June, 1922. Her mother Munawar Jehan was one of the first female students of the then newly opened Hakim Ajmal Khan school of Jamia Millia University of Delhi. After graduating from the school as a Lady Doctor and Hakim, she had worked in the princely states of Zanzira and Tonk. Her father Shaikh Imamuddin was the owner of a fleet of 17 horse carriages (Victorias and tongas) and one of his contracts was for transporting female students to the Mission Girls Urdu School in Delhi. Therefore, Ishrat and her sisters Afroz and Roshan got a good education in that school. They were 7 children in all. Ishrat was the third child. Naseem Bano (whose real name was also Roshan)–the actress and the mother of Saira Bano–also studied in the same school for a short period.
Ishrat’s sister Roshan was adventurous and she corresponded with a film studio and sent her photo. They wrote back offering her a job of Rs.300 per month. When their father came to know this, he first admonished and bashed her. At that time, due to his gambling habit, he was in debts and financial difficulties, so he thought that his daughters could earn money for him as film stars.
sarojiniWhen
Ishrat was about 12–13 years old and was studying in Eighth Standard,
her father brought her and her elder sister Roshan Jehan to Poona to
find work in films. Talkie films had just started and film makers were
on the look out for good looking boys and girls who could speak
Urdu/Hindi fluently. The sisters got work in Dadasaheb Torne’s
They both were renamed as Indurani (Ishrat Jehan) and Sarojini (Roshan Jehan).
In Poona, Indurani first worked in a Marathi film called Savitri in a minor uncredited role of a younger sister. Unfortunately the Marathi film of Dadasaheb Torne flopped and his studio closed down. The sisters decided to shift to Bombay to seek work prospects. Vasantrao Pehelwan got them a flat on rent in Dadar’s Hindu Colony in Bombay.
While in Bombay, Indurani got work in films of Daryani Productions like Fida E Watan (1936), Pratima (1936), Bulldog (1937) and Insaaf (1937). While doing films Pratima and Insaaf, she fell in love with her handsome co-star Prem Adeeb. However, when it became clear that he could not muster enough courage to marry her in opposition to his family (he was a Hindu Kashmiri Pandit and she was a Muslim), she refused to continue relations. She was a very strong woman indeed.
Soon the word spread around that two sisters were available for work. The sisters did not know much of anything in Bombay and could not go anywhere. So producers came to them. First was V. Shantaram who offered Indurani a job at Rs.300 per month. She insisted that her sister and “Uncleji” should also get work. Shantaram agreed for Sarojini but refused Vasantrao Pehelwan, so the job did not materialize. “Uncleji” went away soon after that. One day Sohrab Modi and Keki Modi came looking for them. Sohrab Modi offered them contracts for Rs. 450 per month and invited them to the studio. When they reached Minerva Movietone, they saw Leela Chitnis smoking with a long holder. Young Indurani was impressed and also tried to copy her; but Sohrab Modi, who treated her like his daughter, told her that it did not suit her and she gave up.
One day Ramniklal Shah of Mohan Pictures and his friend Nanabhai Bhatt (father of Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt) came calling. By that time Nanabhai Bhatt
had already got involved with his star Shirin Bano
At the age of 17 in 1939 Indurani married Ramniklal Shah,
secretly. Her elder sister Sarojini
the lead director of Mohan Pictures (Azra is their daughter)
. Indurani had six children. One of them died at birth. The shock was too much for her and after 1943, her career started slowing down. By 1949, her last film was released.
In my opinion, Indurani was a “one of a kind” woman. In those days and for her age, she showed exemplary planning, foresight and had the right priorities for her future. Being from an educated family, she knew and understood the importance of education. She ensured that all her children got the best possible education to enable them to lead comfortable lives. Her children went to the prestigious missionary school in Santa Cruz, The Sacred Boys’ High School. Saira Bano’s brother Sultan, Shashadhar Mukherjee’s sons Rono, Joy, Debu and Shomu Mukherjee, as well as Milan Roy Choudhary (Geeta Dutt’s younger brother) also studied in the same school. All her children settled successfully in the United States.
She understood the three basics of life: food, shelter and clothing. She did work in double shifts and saved enough money to build her own bungalow in Santa Cruz (a western suburb of Bombay) in 1940–at the age of about 18 years! In a front page story, The Times of India called her the youngest house owner in Bombay in those days. The house was designed by the famous architect Noorani.
She also saved enough to spend her twilight years happily. She spent her last 35 years in the US, enjoying life with her entire family. This, when we have hundreds of stories of artistes who died in penury and neglect!
Salim ji has many stories, anecdotes and interesting tidbits from the Bombay film world of those days. Indurani’s brother Naseem Siddiqui was a producer and a director of films made by Mohan Pictures. His friend Hasan Sehrai was a dialogue writer and editor of a film magazine called “Kahkashan”. Lyricist Shevan Rizvi was also his friend. Naseem Siddiqi’s younger sister Shirin got married to Hasan Sehrai. Indurani’s sister Sarojini (Roshan Jehan) worked in films at the same time. She worked in about 17 films according to the Hindi Film Geet Kosh (HFGK) and sang a few songs. Sarojini and Indurani worked together in three films, namely Jadui Kangan (1940), Hatimtai Ki Beti (1940) and Tajmahal (1941).
Indurani acted in 21 (including 1 Marathi) films according to HFGK and as researched by both Salim ji and Harish ji. Her Filmography is given at the end; please note that she was credited variously as Indu, Indurani and also as Indubala. There was another Indubala also, but she worked in films made in Calcutta and by Calcutta producers. Those films are excluded from this list, based on Salim ji’s information.
Indurani worked with several well known heroes of her times, like Prem Adeeb, Jayant, Jeevan, Yaqub, Mubarak, Sushil Kumar, Yusuf Efendi, Nazir, Navin Yagnik, Yashwant Dave etc. She had good directors for her films, like G.R. Sethi, Ram Daryani, Dwarka Khosla, J.P. Advani, K. Amarnath, Mohan Sinha, and Nanubhai Vakil. She had training in classical music while she worked in Daryani productions and with this background, she sang two songs each in three films. She sang four songs under the baton of Anil Biswas and two under Madholal Master.
Both Ramniklal Shah and Indurani were very generous and helpful in nature. When child artist Meena Kumari was in financial distress and her father approached Ramnikbhai, without thinking he gave Rs. 5000 and never asked for its return. Meena Kumari never forgot this kind gesture and always respected Ramnikbhai.
was Indurani’s friend and her husband (actor Govinda’s father) Arun Ahuja
was
her “Rakhi Brother”. When the Ahuja family lost everything, it was
Indurani who paid for their monthly expenses for two months. Later the
Ahujas sold their house in Juhu and shifted to Virar, but they paid back
all the money to Indurani. Exactly opposite was was the case of
director-producer-actor Nazir
and his wife, actress Swarnalata
In the early 1960s, Salim ji and other siblings one by one left for America for studies, and then all settled in the US. Ramnikbhai Shah died in 1973. Later Indurani also shifted to the US and stayed with her sons by turns. She spent her time happily with twelve grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Indurani died in the US on February 17, 2012 at the ripe age of 90 years, after a fruitful and contented life. Her grave is in the Ventura County, California town of Camarillo.
Courtesy- Arunkumar Deshmukh & memsaabstory
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