Mehboob Khan – Film Director of the iconic Indian film, ‘Mother India’

Mehboob Khan (1907 – 1964) was a legendary filmmaker associated with Hindi cinema since the era of early talkies in 1930s. He has produced and directed many iconic films which contributed towards the growth of Indian cinema during its infant stage in the 1940s and 1950s. He is best known for the iconic film, ‘Mother India’, regarded as one of the best films ever made in Indian cinema. It also received India’s first Oscar nomination. Aurat (1940), Taqdeer (1943), Anmol Ghadi (1946), Andaz (1949), Aan (1952), Amar (1954) and Son of India (1962) are other major works as a film director. His second wife Sardar Akhtar was a famous Hindi actress.

Mehboob Khan was born in Bilimora of Baroda state, now a part of Gujarat. Sarar is his native village. He ran away from his home during his younger days, and after he reached Mumbai he did odd jobs to earn a living. He joined film industry as an assistant at Ardeshir Irani’s Imperial Film Company in the silent era of late 1920s. In many occasions he worked as an extra for silent movies. Al Hilal, also known as Judgement of Allah in 1935 marked his debut as a filmmaker and he rose to prominence in the 1940s with his social dramas. Deccan Queen (1936), Watan (1938), Ek Hi Raasta (1939), Alibaba (1940), Aurat (1940), Bahen (1941) and Roti (1942) are some of his early best works.

Khan has been influenced by filmmaking of Hollywood films where he introduced lavish and expensive film sets to Indian cinema for the first time. He set up his own production house, Mehboob Productions in 1945, and a film studio, Mehboob Studios in 1954. He married twice and had four children, including one adopted son. His first marriage happened in his teens, and he became a father at a very young age.

Mehboob Khan – 25 interesting and less-known facts about him

During the film shooting of ‘Mother India’

1. His birth name is Mehboob Khan Ramzan Khan.

2. At the age of 16 he fled to Mumbai to pursue a career in films. He was brought back and got married as well. He had only little formal education.

3. Mehboob’s blockbuster Anmol Ghadi gave a big break to Naushad’s career as a music composer, and after that Mehboob used only Naushad to compose his film songs. Naushad’s finest compositions of 1950s exclusively belongs to Mehboob Khan films.

4. Mehboob Khan is known for his long term association with cinematographer Faredoon Irani, right from his debut film Al Hilal, also known as Judgement of Allah in 1935 to his last release, Son of India in 1962.

5. He and his wife adopted Sajid Khan – the young actor who played the childhood role of Sunil Dutt in Mother India, and gave him his name. Sajid was a boy in slum who was offered 750 rupees to appear in the film. He had three other children also.

6. Sajid also played the title role of Son of India, sequel to Mother India, and the last film of Mehboob Khan. This melodrama was not accepted by Indian audiences. The song ‘Nanna Munna Rahi Hoon’, which features Gopal got noticed.

7. He played one of the thieves in the silent version of Ali Baba And The 40 Thieves, marking his screen debut. He was hidden inside a wooden vat for one of its sequences, For the next three years he did several background roles.

8. He was considered for the lead role in India’s first talkie Alam Ara, but got replaced.

9. He is one of the early filmmakers to make woman centric films in Indian cinema, thus creating new benchmarks.

10. His movie, Mother India was India’s official nomination to Oscars, and it lost Academy Award for best foreign film by just one vote to Italian movie Nights of Cabiria. Even after 60 years of its release, India is still to earn an award in this category. What an irony!

11. Mother India also own won the Filmfare Awards for Best Film and Best Director and two National Film Awards.

12. Mother India was the remake of his own directorial venture ‘Aurat’ (1940) and one such rare occasion when a director remakes his movie because he was not satisfied with previous work. Also it’s one of the rare occurrences when remake is better than original and a big hit as well.

13. Dilip Kumar was supposed to play the rebellious Birju in Mother India, but the role went to newcomer Sunil Dutt. He also insisted to play the role of father, which went to Raaj Kumar.

14. Mehboob’s 1952 blockbuster Aan was India’s first technicolour release, and the most expensive Indian film till then. It was the first Bollywood release to be subtitled in 17 languages, and got release in 28 countries. Obviously the film was a huge hit. ‘Aan’ was one of the early Indian movies to have a world wide release. The English version was entitled Savage Princess.

15. He directed 21 movies between 1935 and 1962, which includes a few Urdu films too.

16. He introduced iconic actress Nargis Dutt at the age of 14 to silver screen in a lead role through his Taqdeer in 1943, and later they worked together for Andaz and Mother India, regarded as the career best movie of both these icons.

17. His movie Ek Hi Raasta (1939) gave break to actor Arun Kumar Ahuja, best known as film star Govinda’s father, and also Sheikh Mukhtar – the first antihero of Hindi silver screen. He also introduced actress Nadira through Aan in 1952.

18. He introduced actress Nimmi to big screen through Barsaat in 1949. Despite playing second lead in the movie, this single role helped her to establish as an actress.

19. His movies played an important role in grooming the careers of big stars of Bollywood like Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Noor Jehan, Suraiya, Nadira, Sunil Dutt , Nimmi and Raaj Kumar.

20. Mehboob turned down Naya Daur (1957), which later became a huge blockbuster of B. R. Chopra.

21. Legendary Kathak dancer Sithara Devi has featured in his films – Judgement Of Allah (1935), Watan (1938) and also a holi dance sequence in Mother India (1957), where she appeared for the last time.

22. He leased out his studio at Bandra to other filmmakers. Guru Dutt’s famous film, Kaagaz ke Phool was shot there.

23. He has served as the president of Film Federation of India.

24. He died at a comparatively young age of 56 after a glorious innings as a filmmaker. He died one day after the death of Jawaharlal Nehru, then Prime Minister of India. It’s said that he was shattered with the death of PM.

25. After the disaster of Son of India at box office, he was thinking to make a film based on the legendary queen and poet, Habba Khatoon. But his sudden death brought curtains to his dreams.