Not unlike Hollywood of today, Jews were quite prominent in Bollywood in the early 20th century. [TabletMag]
The TableMag, a Jewish magazine, has an interesting take on actors of Jewish origin in Bollywood movies, in the early half of the 20th century, particularly two leading ladies, Ruby Myers (Sulochana) and Farhat Ezekiel (Nadira).
Of course, we all know that Raja Harishchandra by Dadasaheb Phalke, was the first Indian movie. A side story to this movie is the fact that the movie had an all male cast, even the female characters were male, largely due to the restrictions placed on Hindu and Muslim women by Indian society in those days. To alleviate this issue, movie makers started featuring women from Anglo-Indian and Baghdadi Jewish backgrounds. Ruby Myers who went by the artiste name, Sulochana, was one such Jewish female actor, who was popular in the 1920s and 1930s. The irony of Ruby a.k.a Sulochana’s Bollywood career is that she played the chaste Hindu woman in a lot of movie because Hindu women were “too chaste” to act in movies.
Farhat Ezekiel a.k.a Nadira, came along in the 1950s but she was a trendsetter in her own right. For starters, her debut movie Aan was Hindi cinema’s first technicolor movie. She was known for her choice of, what in those days were, unconventional roles.
The feisty and boisterous Nadira not only took leading roles, but also went on to accept negative roles, for example the one in “Elaan”, and the one in “Shri 420″ containing the song “Mud mud ke na dekh mud mud ke…”, which continues to be popular even now. And who can forget “Ajeeb dastaan hai yeb…” from “Dil Apna aur Preet Parai”, picturized on Nadira, Raaj Kumar and Meena Kumari.
Nadira thus reigned supreme in the 1950s and 1960s. Thereafter, she appeared in character roles where she played the mother, an aunt, or older woman, adding poise and dignity to these roles. And it was in “Julie” (1975), in which she played the leading lady’s (Laxmi) Anglo-Indian mother that she bagged the award for “Best Supporting Actress”.
For our readers’ viewing pleasure, a trip down memory lane to one of Nadira’s greatest hits, “Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh” from the movie “Shree 420″.
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