Kamal Amrohi

Claim Page

A slap from elder brother changed his life Young Kamal was a naughty boy and the family was upset with his daily pranks. Once there was a marriage ceremony in the house and young Kamal as per his characteristic nature was making a lot of amusing antics. His elder brother could not tolerate his pranks and slapped him hard on his face, in public. Kamal felt disgraced and at night when everybody was sleeping he ran away from house to Lahore. He had command in Urdu literature hence he worked as editor in Urdu newspaper in Lahore. Soon he left Lahore as his creative mind took him to the city of cinema in Kolkatta.

The tragic love story of Kamal Amrohi and Meena Kumari Kamal Amrohi first met Meena Kumari on the sets of Anarkali, a movie which he was making and hunting for a heroine for the film. Actor Ashok Kumar who was signed to play an important role in the film introduced Meena Kumari to Kamal Sahab! It was love at first sight! Kamal Amrohi was bowled over by Meena’s beauty who was then just 19 years and Kamal Amrohi 34.Nevertheless Meena Kumari too was spellbound by Kamal Sahab’s mesmerizing Urdu and his command over poetry. Soon they started dating and fell in love and married in 1952. However soon the marriage started having cracks and one night o March 1964 during the shooting of the film Pinjre Ke Panchhi at Filmistan Studios there was a big showdown between Meena Kumari and Kamal Amrohi’s secretary Baqar, who used to follow Meena Kumari at all film shots. In the tussle Baqar slapped Meena Kumari and this angered Meena Kumari so much that she left the house!! Later Kamal Sahab made many attempts to meet her but the family members of Meena Kumari did not allow him to meet her and the same family members poisoned Meena Kumari’s mind against Amrohi. Thus the two could never meet and remained separated till Meena Kumari expired!!!

The story of Kamal Nagvi becoming Kamal Amrohi Eminent film star and singer K.L.Saigal noticed Kamal Amrohi’s writing skill in Kolkatta and invited him to Mumbai. At Saigal’s insistence Kamal came to Mumbai and met Saigal, who in turn recommended him to meet filmmaker Sohrab Modi. In an interview Kamal Amrohi said, “When I met Sohrab Modi I could gauge his mastery over Urdu. Hence when he asked me to narrate a scene I narrated a scene having fiery dialogues laced in chaste Urdu. Listening to my dialogue Modi’s face enlightened with excitement and his eyes began to gleam. He hugged me and immediately appointed me as script writer for his film production company Minerva Movieton.” Thus Kamal Naqvi became Kamal Amrohi and began working as a permanent writer for Sohrab Modi films like Pukar, Jailor, Sikandar etc Kamal Amrohi stuns Indian Cinema with Mahal After establishing his forte as a writer par excellence with Sohrab Modi’s Minerva Movieton, Kamal Amrohi stunned Indian film critics and the audience alike with his masterpiece movie Mahal (1949). It was his first directorial movie and produced by Ashok Kumar. In an age when Indian cinema was in its cradle and made mythological, historical and love stories Kamal Amrohi wrote an unusual script of reincarnation with a hunting music and horror that took the audience by their seat! Mahal is regarded as India’s First horror film. Deftly directed, Amrohi made excellent use of melodious music to charm the audience and employed hunting background music to startle the audience by their seats. In nut shell Mahal is a classic gothic story, packed with horror elements like clinging ancient wall clock, stray black cats and a mysterious girl in white rowing on boat in the moonlight, swinging on swing and vanishing in the dark! The hunting hit song Aayega aanewala… sung superlatively by Lata Mangeshkar still sends chill down the spine of listeners. The movie was a blockbuster and immortalized Kamal Amrohi among the legendary film directors like Mehboob Khan, Bimal Roy, K. Asif, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor etc in the annals of Indian cinema. Kamal Amrohi lived up to his reputation in Razia Sultana but film buffs rejected the film After the mega success of Pakeezah, Kamal Amrohi was very happy but his happiness soon fade away with the death of his wife Meena Kumari. In depression he quit filmmaking for 10 years. However once when he was in Paris he saw a picture of India’s First Lady Ruler Razia Sultana and was charged with the idea of making a film. He thus launched the film with Hema Malani in the lead role. Dharmendra played a black youth, Abyssinian slave, Jamal-ud-Din Yakut, with whom Razia Sultan falls in love. Amrohi blew huge amount of massive sets re-living the Mughul Era and working on every nuances of the film. It took over six years to complete the film. The film had good music, excellent sets and the lovely Dharmendra –Hema Malani Jodi. Yet the film failed. The critics loved the film and Amrohi was applauded for his brilliant work but the audience rejected the film because it was released in 1983 when Amitabh Bachchan and Mithun Chakraborty action film had taken centre stage! Also the Dharmendra –Hema Malani Jodi too had faded!