''Jeevan Prabhat'' (Dawn Of Life) is a

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Fe ...

Hindi film Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

social drama, produced by Bombay Talkies and directed by

Franz Osten Franz Osten (23 December 1876 in Munich – 2 December 1956) was a Bavaria, Bavarian filmmaker who along with Himansu Rai was among the first retainers of Bombay Talkies. Osten partnered with Rai on a number of India's earliest blockbuster film ...

. The music director was

Saraswati Devi Saraswati ( sa, सरस्वती, ) is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom, and learning. She is one of the Tridevi, along with the goddesses Lakshmi and Parvati. The earliest known mention of Saraswati as a go ...

with lyrics and dialogues by J. S. Casshyap. The screenplay was by Niranjan Pal. The film's "star value" was Devika Rani, with Kishore Sahu making his debut as an actor in the film. The cast included another debutant,

Renuka Devi Begum Khurshid Mirza (Urdu: بیگم خورشید مرزا ), also known by her screen name as Renuka Devi (1918 – 1989), was a Pakistani television actress and a film actress in the pre-partition era. Early life, Family and Educa ...

, with Mumtaz Ali, Maya Devi and M. Nazir. The film deals with the social evils of the

caste system Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...

, and remarriage. Uma is sent back to her father's home after her husband remarries, as she is unable to bear children. Her renewed friendship with a childhood friend, Ramu, a Harijan, bings censure and misunderstanding from her husband and society.

Plot

Set in a village, a young Brahmin couple Nandlal ( Mumtaz Ali) and Uma ( Devika Rani) are unable to have any children. The husband plans to take another wife, Padma. Ramu ( Kishore Sahu) belongs to the potters family, where Uma normally spent most of her time before marriage. The friendship has been frowned upon as Ramu is from the Harijan caste. Nandlal sends Uma to her father's house, where she renews her friendship with Ramu. Nandlal sees Uma talking to Ramu ( Kishore Sahu). While at her father's house, Uma discovers that she is pregnant. Misunderstandings arise when Nandlal gets suspicious about Uma and Ramu, but all is set right by Padma, Nandlal's second wife. She clears Uma's name, and gets Nandlal and Uma together before walking out of their lives.

Cast

* Devika Rani as Uma * Mumtaz Ali as Nandlal * Kishore Sahu as Ramu *

*Chandraprabha *Maya Devi *Vimala Devi *Aloka Aloka *Tarabai Solanki *Saroj Borkar *Kamta Prasad *

P.F. Pithawala P. F. Pithawala was an actor who appeared in several movies made by Bombay Talkies Bombay Talkies was a movie studio founded in 1934. During its period of operation, Bombay Talkies produced 40 movies in Malad, a suburb of the Indian city o ...

*M. Nazir *N. M. Joshi *G.S. Vaishampayan

Review

Jeevan Prabhat was released on 2 November 1937, at Minerva Talkies, Bombay. Baburao Patel, the '' Filmindia'' editor, in his review of December 1937, called it Osten's "better work than ever before". Saraswati Devi's music composition and Wirsching's cinematography were praised, as was Niranjan Pal's screenplay, "a good story with plenty of entertainment". Devika Rani was hailed for scoring "another triumphant". Renuka Devi was praised for her looks but criticised for her acting. Kishore Sahu was stated to be a "big disappointment". The audience reception was good with the film running for over 17 weeks in Bombay, while doing good business in the rest of the country too, becoming a commercial success.

Production

The film starred Kishore Sahu with Devika Rani, who was cited as a "bankable star". Bombay Talkies was producing a large quantity of films in a short period of time. ''Jeevan Prabhat'' was completed in two months, while '' Achhut Kanya'' was made in six weeks. In a little over four years, Osten had directed about sixteen films for Bombay Talkies.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

, with lyrics by J. S. Casshyap. The singers were Devika Rani, Balwant Singh, Mumtaz Ali, Saroj Borkar and Saraswati Devi.

Song List

References

External links

* {{Franz Osten 1937 films 1930s Hindi-language films Indian black-and-white films Films directed by Franz Osten Films about the caste system in India Indian drama films 1937 drama films Hindi-language drama films