Key Points
While Ashok Kumar, Naseem Banu, Noor Jehan, KL Saigal, Nargis, Suraiya, Shobhana Samarth, Motilal, Sohrab Modi, Prithviraj Kapoor and Prem Adib were a few of the greatest names who dominated the 1940s after the advent of the talkies with Ardeshir Iranis Alam Ara (1931), 1947 saw the emergence of a new generation of younger stars who would go on to define the coming decades, especially the 1950s..
This almost happened by accident. Although as Prithviraj Kapoors son it was a given that he would some day face the camera (and he did, as a child artiste way back in the 1930s, like nearly everyone in the Kapoor clan had at some point in their lives) it was Kidar Sharmas Neel Kamal that somewhat unexpectedly turned the clapper boy of the unit into the films hero..
His taboo-breaking Kismet from 1943 has become best known as a movie of many firsts first blockbuster of Hindi cinema, first time a hero is portrayed with darker shades and first cinematic outing to use the lost-and-found formula that seems to have provided some of Bollywoods true originals (Manmohan Desai, Yash Chopra, Nasir Hussain) with much-needed ammunition..
It is worth remembering that this is an era that also gave us KA Abbas, Chetan Anand, Balraj Sahni, Dev Anand, Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy, Sahir Ludhianvi, Shailendra and Shankar-Jaikishan who played an integral role in shaping the hopes and aspiration of a newly independent era throughout the 1950s, which is generally considered as the golden age of Hindi cinema..
Recognising cinemas increasingly influential role in mass culture, Jawaharlal Nehru, in his inaugural speech at the first International Film Festival of India in 1952, argued that movies can educate them rightly or wrongly I mean that they should introduce artistic and aesthetical values in life and encourage the appreciation of beauty in all its aspects..
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