Baiju Bawra (1952)

Baiju Bawra is a 1952 Hindi film directed by Vijay Bhatt. Produced by Prakash Pictures, with story by Ramchandra Thakur and dialogues by Zia Sarhadi, Baiju Bawra was a musical "megahit". Bhatt's decision to make a film based on classical music was met with scepticism by the Indian film industry due to its "lack of mass appeal", but the film and music turned out be an "overwhelming success". The film's music director was Naushad, who had become popular giving folk-based music in films like Rattan, Anmol Ghadi, Shahjehan (1946) and Deedar (1951). With Bhatt's Baiju Bawra, Naushad introduced classical component in Hindi film songs. The soundtrack based on light classical ragas, made use of folk, thumri or dadra, with a stronger raga used in the last contest song between Tansen and Baiju. The lyricist was Shakeel Badayuni, a Naushad discovery. For Baiju Bawra, he had to forgo Urdu, and write lyrics in pure Hindi, with songs like the bhajan, "Man Tadpat Hari Darshan Ko Aaj", becoming popular.

The film starred Bharat Bhushan as Baiju, with Meena Kumari playing his love interest Gauri. Meena made her acting debut in Bhatt's Leatherface (1939) as a seven-year-old. Surendra portrayed Tansen, one of the Navratans (music) in Akbar's court. Kuldip Kaur played the role of the dacoit queen Roopmati. The rest of the cast included Bipin Gupta, Manmohan Krishna, B. V. Vyas and Baby Tabassum.

The film merges the legend of Baiju Bawra with the historic setting of Mughal Emperor Akbar's court in India. Baiju (Bhushan) is the son of a musician who also grows up to be a musician. He comes to believe that Tansen, the famed musician at the court of Akbar, is responsible for his father's death. The movie then follows Baiju's attempt to avenge his father's death by challenging Tansen to a musical duel.

Even though there were many changes in the storyline from the original life of Baiju Bawra, the film was both a commercial and critical success and catapulted both its lead actors into stardom. Meena Kumari went on to win the first-ever Filmfare Best Actress Award in 1954, the first of four Best Actress trophies she won in her career. The film's music director, Naushad, also received the inaugural Filmfare Best Music Director Award for the song "Tu Ganga Ki Mauj"; this was Naushad's first and only Filmfare Award win.

Synopsis

Tansen is known to be the greatest classical vocalist ever to have existed in India, and was one of the nine jewels (Navaratnas) of Emperor Akbar's court. Nobody could sing in the city unless he or she could sing better than Tansen. If this was not the case, he or she was executed. Baiju Bawra is the story of an unknown singer, Baiju, who is on a mission to defeat Tansen in a musical duel to avenge the death of his father.

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