''Meri Bahen'' (also called ''My Sister'') is a

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free France, Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command First Army (France), French Army B, part of the Sixt ...

Hindi language film. It was the fourth highest-grossing

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n film of 1944. Produced by

New Theatres New Theatres is an Indian film studio. It was formed in Calcutta by producer B. N. Sircar (Birendranath Sircar, the recipient of Dadasaheb Phalke Award of 1970 And Padma Bhushan in 1972). It was formed on February 10, 1931. The company motto was ...

, Ltd. Calcutta, and directed by Hemchander Chunder. It starred

K. L. Saigal Kundan Lal Saigal, often abbreviated as K. L. Saigal (11 April 1904 – 18 January 1947), was an Indian singer and actor who worked in Hindi cinema, which was centred in Calcutta (Kolkata) during his time, but is currently based in Bombay (Mumba ...

, Sumitra Devi, Akhtar Jehan,

Chandrabati Devi Chandrabati Devi was an Indian actress who worked in Hindi and Bengali cinema. Born on 19 October 1909, in Muzaffarpur, she moved to Kolkata, where she graduated in Bengali literature and trained in music under Dinendranath Tagore. She entered ...

, Nawab, and

Tulsi Chakraborty Tulsi Chakraborty (also Tulsi Chakrabarti; 3 March 1899 – 11 December 1961) was an Indian actor and comedian who worked in Bengali cinema in the 1940s and 50s. His most notable role could be the lead role in ''Parash Pathar'', directed by S ...

. The music direction was by

Pankaj Mullick Pankaj Kumar Mullick (10 May 1905 – 19 February 1978) was an Indian music composer, playback singer and actor, who was a pioneer of film music in Bengali cinema and Hindi cinema at the advent of playback singing, as well as an early exponen ...

with lyrics by Pandit Bhushan. The film is cited as Saigal's best film at New Theatres technically. Set against the backdrop of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

, it was the story of a schoolteacher and his young sister. The film followed his rise to fame as a singer and the changes in his relationships following a bomb-raid.

Cast

as Ramesh * Sumitra Devi as Krishna * Devi Mukherjee as Shankar, Ramesh's friend * Akhtar Jehan as Bimala, Ramesh's sister *

Hiralal Hiralal is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Hiralal (actor), Indian film actor * Shirish Hiralal Chaudhari, member of the 13th Maharashtra Legislative Assembly * Hiralal Datta (born 1959), Indian cricketer *Hiralal Gaekwad (1923 ...

as a Naib, Munshi * Chandravati Devi as Rekha, drama lead heroine *

as Chaudhary *

Madan Puri Madan Puri (30 September 1915 – 13 January 1985) was an Indian actor of Hindi and Punjabi films. His brothers were actors Chaman Puri and Amrish Puri. As a character actor mainly in negative roles (villain), he acted in about 430 films in ...

as a doctor who treat Bimla in the hospital * Nawab as drama company owner * Devika Mukherjee as * Tandon as * Rajlaxmi Shorey as

Soundtrack

The film had music composed by

, assisted by Biran Bal and Hiten Bannerji, with lyrics by Pandit Bhushan. The singers were

, Pankaj, Rekha Mallick, Vimala, Ila Ghosh, and Utpala Sen. According to Vijay Ranchan, Pankaj had composed two versions of the song "Piya Milan Ko Jana" in ''Kapal Kundala'' (1939), directed by

Phani Majumdar Phani Majumdar was a pioneering Indian film director, who worked in Bengali and Hindi cinema, most known for his film ''Street Singer (1938 film), Street Singer'' (1938) starring K.L. Saigal noted for its song, ''Babul Mora Naihar Chhooto Jaye'' ...

. Mullick used one version of the song in ''Meri Bahen'' in his and Ila Ghosh's voice.

Music

All music was composed by Pankaj Mullick.

References

External links

* 1944 films 1940s Hindi-language films 1940s Indian films Indian black-and-white films Films scored by Pankaj Mullick {{1940s-Hindi-film-stub