As Disney releases its live-action remake of a universally popular character, it is worth remembering that the story of Aladdin has been a crucial part of India’s cultural history, especially its cinema.
The other one is the story of Aladdin and his magic lamp. The tale, part of the collection One Thousand and One Nights, known popularly as Arabian Nights, is one of the two stories that have almost become synonymous, perhaps even indistinguishable from Indian culture. Sen’s film was a dramatised retelling of a middle-eastern folk tale, a story more popularly known in the Hindi heartland as ‘Ali Baba aur Chaalis Chor’.
Aladdin aur jadui chirag archive#
Aladdin was played by actor Mahipal and the genie by Vasantrao, better known as Vasantrao Pehalwan.(Photo courtesy:Osianama Research Centre, Archive & Library, India) A poster of the Homi Wadia film, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, 1952, starring a young Meena Kumari. Unfortunately, little is known about the film or its existence apart from the fact that it was made. Hiralal Sen’s film Ali Baba and Forty Thieves (1903) might be Indian cinema’s point of genesis. You really need to go read the rest of the contributions, gathered by host Movies Silently.Though Dadasaheb Phalke’s short film Raja Harishchandra (1913) is regarded as Indian cinema’s founding moment, a number of film historians believe that Indian cinema may have been born a decade before. This post is part of Swashathon! A blogathon of swashbuckling adventure. Or, they would be if Aladdin had one in addition to his sword. I just adore their teeny conical henins, as well as the moon and the stars as ornaments in Meena Kumari’s hair (and oh, how pretty she is in this film).Īll in all, Aladdin Aur Jadui Chirag is a delightful spin on an Arabian Nights tale, and well worth the watch. The serving maids recognize that something has happened to their princess, that she’s fallen in love, and they encourage her to tell them about it.
But Sharmaa Ke Zara (“Don’t Be Shy”) (sung by Asha Bhosle and Shamshad Begum) is a particular delight.
Aladdin aur jadui chirag how to#
Tripathi who plays the magician Hikmat here) and Chitragupta! Seven in all, and they deserve a post on their own (which I think they will get, they are so good and illustrate so well how to integrate story and songs). But of all of his films, I think I love Mistry’s work on Aladdin Aur Jadui Chirag most of all - there’s something almost childlike and playful about it all, which only adds to the film’s charms.Īnd oh, the music, from S.N.
In fact, one of Babubhai Mistry’s later films (as director) is one of my absolute favourites - the delicious Hatim Tai. But Homi Wadia also directed quite a number of films either based on or inspired by Arabian Nights type tales, including three versions of the Aladdin story, and two versions of Alibaba (not to mention one version of Hatim Tai, a story that Wadia’s special effects guru, Babubhai Mistry - a pioneer of effects in Indian cinema who worked extensively both as a special effects master and as a director of fantasy, religious and mythologically themed films - would also go on to direct a version of himself). Wadia - she later married Homi Wadia, too), and it’s true that the vast majority of his films as director feature her. Homi Wadia, of course, is the man who gave the world the wonderful Fearless Nadia (the alter ego of Australian actress and stuntwoman Mary Ann Evans, introduced to Indian films by Homi Wadia’s elder brother, J.B.H. Homi Wadia’s Aladdin is filled with magic and mohabbat (romance), dopplegangers and comic sidekicks, but what makes it truly a wonderful watch are both its special effects and art design, as well as its wonderful songs.
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