In this section, we cover the Hindi movies of the 1930s and 1940s, often described as the Studio Era. The late 1940s marked the end of the Studio Era, and Hindi films went through a major transition in several respects.
– Emergence of independent movie-makers with lasting power. No longer constrained by the shackles of the studio system, many young, talented film-makers emerged during this time, including Mehboob Khan and Raj Kapoor. They and their successors continued to turn out great movies for many years to come.
– Playback singing established as the industry standard. In 1947, the year of India’s independence, the Hindi film industry lost two of its marquee singers: K.L. Saigal (who passed away that year), and Noor Jehan (who immigrated to the newly formed nation of Pakistan). Partly because of this, playback singing became the industry norm, and the quality of Hindi film songs took a giant leap forward. Music became a key determining factor in the success or failure of a film, and movie soundtracks became very popular regardless of how well the movie did at the box office.
– Emergence of the first big stars of the Hindi film industry. Because of the transition to playback-singing, movie actors no longer needed to have singing abilities and instead could focus solely on acting. This allowed highly talented actors to establish themselves and get recognition for their sheer theatrical abilities and star power. Among the movie stars who made their debut during this period are Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Nargis and Madhubala. Also, Ashok Kumar, who had made his debut in the 1930s, established his status as the father figure of Hindi cinema.
The above trends came to a head in the pivotal year of 1949, which was truly a watershed in the history of Hindi cinema. There were three major films with great soundtracks which were highly successful at the box office: Andaz, Barsaat and Mahal. Although I have not classified any of them as GEMs (because of their inconsistent quality and meandering screenplays), they each have many brilliant sequences and by the standards of their time they stood head and shoulders above the rest. (Barsaat was also the first success of the fabled production company R.K. Films, and a scene in the movie between Raj Kapoor and Nargis was the basis for the iconic company logo which is so well-known to Hindi film aficionados.)
All the movies listed below are available for free viewing on YouTube, and a link is provided in the “Video” column.