Pukar
About Pukar
At Jahangir's court, Mangal Singh and Kanwar love each other across a feud. Kanwar's father and brother attack Mangal, who kills them defending himself, and his own father, Sardar Sangram Singh, hands him over. Jahangir sentences Mangal to death. A washerwoman then says Queen Nur Jahan has killed her husband with an arrow by mistake, and Jahangir offers his own body as the matching target. The washerwoman takes compensation instead. Nur Jahan asks for a general amnesty, Jahangir grants it, and Mangal and Kanwar are allowed to marry.
Cast & crew
More about Pukar
Sohrab Modi produced and directed it at Minerva Movietone in Bombay. Kamal Amrohi, Vishnupant Aundhkar, and S. Ameer Hyder wrote it. Y. D. Sarpotdar photographed it. The film runs 165 minutes and was released in 1939.
Themes
Background
The plot uses the Mughal court of Jahangir and Nur Jahan and the story, told in later histories, of the emperor offering himself when the queen kills a man by accident.
In film history
Histories of Indian film have called Pukar the earliest Muslim social.
Making
Modi played the father who delivers his own son to the emperor, and he kept the Urdu dialogue long and loud, the house style of his historicals.
Look
Y. D. Sarpotdar was the cinematographer.
Music
S. Fernandes and Mir Saheb composed the music. Kamal Amrohi wrote the lyrics.
Notes
- Sohrab Modi plays Sardar Sangram Singh. Chandra Mohan plays Jahangir, and Naseem Banu plays Nur Jahan.
- Sheela plays Kanwar, Sadiq Ali plays Mangal Singh, and Sardar Akhtar plays the washerwoman Rami Dhoban.
- S. Fernandes and Mir Saheb composed the music.
- Kamal Amrohi, later the director of Pakeezah, wrote the story and lyrics.
- Modi followed it at Minerva with Sikandar (1941) and Prithvi Vallabh (1943).
Scenes
- Jahangir tells the washerwoman she may shoot him, because he is the husband of the queen who killed her husband.
- The amnesty lets Mangal and Kanwar marry.
