Mughal-E-Azam with Nargis as Anarkali: The movie which never saw daylight....

Mughal-E-Azam with Nargis as Anarkali: The movie which never saw daylight....

All of us know the magnum opus epic movie Mughal-E-Azam released in 1960, with much extravagance. Director K.Asif had left no stone upturned to make the movie with lavishness. The legend of Royal romance between a persian nomad Nadira or Sharf-Un-Nissa (Later awarded title of Anarkali due to her pink complexion and mesmerzing beauty) and Prince Saleem is haunting the historians, bollywood and people in General. Mughal-E-Azam had all the ingradients of a epic movie. The pairing of legendary Dilip Kumar and Madhubala, the royal romance, the affectionate and tender moments of their love, the might of Mughal Emperor Akbar, , the rebellion of would be emperor of Mughal Sultanat against the Emperior , the dramatic confrontation, the awe inspiring battle sequences, melodious music by Naushad and the victory of love over authorities, albeit after the ultimate sacrifice of life.  Many books have been written and reams of analysis has been done about the film.



 However this was not the film about the legendary Anarkali-Saleem love. In silent movie era a movie Anarkali was made in 1928, with Ruby Myers as Anarkali. It was a commercial hit. Another  movie was made in talkie era in 1935. Then came Filmistan's Anarkali in 1953, with Bina Rai in the title role. It was also commercial hit due to it's heavenly music by composer C.Ramchandra.  

Before that sometimes during 1944-45, K.Asif hit an idea of producing a movie  based on Imtiaz Ali Taj's play about the doomed romance between Prince Saleem (Later Emperor Jahangir) and Anarkali. According to legend, (The story has no historical credence, nor it is mentioned in Jahangir's own " Taareequi Jahangiri") Emperor Akbar disapproved the love and ordered Anarkali to be burried alive for her supposedly crime of seducing the prince and aspiring for Malika -E- Hindustan throne.

Asif teamed up with Shiraz Ali Hakeem of Famous Cine Studio Bombay. Earler they have given India's first multistarrer film Phool, having dazzling star-cast of Prithviraj Kapoor, Durga Khote, Veena, Yakub, Wasti, Suraiya, Sitara Devi and Mazhar Khan. 

The announcement of Mughl-E-Azam appeared in Filmindia Magazine 1945 issue. Chandramohan was named for Akbar, Nargis for Anarkali, Veena for Bahar, .The film was to be shot at the Bombay Talkies Studio in Mumbai’s Malad suburb. The production controller of Bombay Talkies, Hiten Chowdhary suggested the name of a some new comer Mohammad Yusuf Khan for Saleem's role. However K.Asif rejected the new comer, whose screen name was Dilip Kumar.

The shooting started in 1946, the star-cast expanded. Sapru was taken for Saleem's role and Durga Khte for Emperor Akbar's Rajpoot wife Jodhabai. An up-coming actor Himalaywala was considered for Saleem's friend Durjan Singh, who sacrifices his life for Anrkali's escape from the Emperor's prison. For story writing, names of Kamal Amrohi, Aman , Wajhat Mirza and Ehsan Rizvi were engaged. Composer Anil Biswas was assigned for music department.

The shooting was going smooth, a quarter of the film was in cans, huge amount of money was poured, when the disaster struck. The political turmoil spreading in the subcontinent due to partition played spoiler for the film. Hakeem and Himalaywalla decided to migrate to West Pakistan. In one stroke, Asif lost his financier and a key actor. To make matter worse, Chandramohan ,who was to play Akbar, died due to excessive alcoholism. Around Ten truckloads of raw film stock went to garbage. The whole project was shelved. Thus Sapru- Nargis romance witnessed premature death. A classic case of "Man proposes but God disposes"......

Post Script : Before departing to Pakistan, Hakeem suggested the name of Builder Developer Shapoorji Palanji's name as financier and indeed with his finance the final version of  Mughale-E-Azam ,released on August 5, 1960 ,with a cost of unbelievable Rs. 1.55 crores.

Across the border, Himalaywala portrayed Akbar in a screen version of Imtiaz Ali Taj’s play. Anaarkali (1958), saw singing star Malika -E- Tarannum Noor Jehan play the doomed courtesan Anarkali and also sing some of her finest songs ever.

Here are photographs of some of the rare photographs of Mughal-E-Azam with Nargis as Anarkali.....

@ Vinay Kulkarni
Pune.






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