1950 Year that was

CONTINUING OUR SERIES OF BEAUTIFUL WOMEN OF THE INDIAN SCREEN: Zohrabai who plays lead role in Kanmal Movietone's quot;Kaarwaan-e-Husnquo...

CONTINUING OUR SERIES OF BEAUTIFUL WOMEN OF THE INDIAN SCREEN: Zohrabai who plays lead role in Kanmal Movietone8217;s quot;Kaarwaan-e-Husnquot;. Directed by Chaudhary M Rafi in 1935.

India declares itself a sovereign democratic republic 26th, January: Population 35 million. The Republic is elected member of the UN Security Council for two years. The Assam earthquake 1st August.

The faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda, starts; 10 years later it becomes the pre-eminent centre for contemporary Indian art.

Jean Renior and Satyajit Ray meet on the shooting of The River in Bengal.

Neemai Ghosh makes Chinnamul in Calcutta.

The celebrated Tamil film Ezhai Padum Padu establishes Ramnoth, Nagaiah and Aruda.

C.R. Subraman, Samdurala Raghavacharya, Vedantam Raghavaiah and others start the Vinoda Studio.

Vijaya Pictures starts with Shavukaru.

The Pakistan government levies a tax of Re 1 per foot on all imported Indian films.

A basic scheme for the formation of a Film Federation of India was agreed upon by Film Trade organisation at a Conference convened by M P S I, at Bombay in January.

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The Film Enquiry Committee visited important film centres and recorded oral evidence.

It turned out to be a year for Kedar Sharma as he presented three films which along with being exceptionally well made also did very well at the box office. The first was Jogan Dilip Kumar-Nargis at what will forever be known as a very touching performance by them, Sundarta ke sabhi shikari 8212; a number from the film took the country by storm. The soulful bhajans by Geeta Dutt were also much appreciated. The other two 8212; Neki aur Badi Madhubala and Geeta Bali and Bawre Nain were also major hits.

Navketan8217;s Afsar based on Danial K8217;s Inspector General was a hit and so was its leading pair Dev Anannd and Suraiya. Infact this led to them clicking off off-screen too providing much grist to the gossip brigade. She is still rumoured to regret the turning down of his offer of marriage.

Kuku danced her way to the top and producers vied with each other to cast her in their films. This led to much heart-burn for Ajuri who was till then the established danseuse around.

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This was also the year of the major flop Hamara Hindustaan. Even an impressive star-cast of Prithviraj Kapoor, Jayraj, Nalini Jaywant and K N Singh which was directed by the famous German documentary film-maker Paul Jills could do little to bring in the crowds as this film crashed at the box office. Inspite the songs of the film were quite popular. The music for this film was scored by none other than Vasant Desai.

Famous for making films based on social issues V Shanrtaram made Dahej on the dowry issue. Starring Prithviraj Kapoor, Lalita Pawar and Jayshri it got a mixed response.