Ramola Devi (7 July 1917 – 10 December 1988) was an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

actress of Baghdadi origin. Born Rachel Cohen, she became famous in the movie "The Cashier" ( Khazanchi) from 1941. She was a very successful movie star throughout India in the 1940s until 1951 when her acting career ended.

Early life

Ramola Devi was born as Rachel Cohen in 1917 in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the '' de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the sec ...

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, to a Jewish family whose roots are in

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. Her father Haim Cohen, a school principal, who moved the family to

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

where she graduated from school. Together with her two sisters, Ramola acted on stage as an amateur before entering films. Ramola was drawn to the stage profession from a young age, and immediately after graduating she decided to pursue her dream.

Career

She appeared in theater plays and a number of short and local Bengali films, such as Graher Pher in 1937 but tried to break as an Indian national actress. Ramola approached various producers, until the producer

Kidar Sharma Kidar Nath Sharma, also Kedar Sharma (12 April 1910 – 29 April 1999), was an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter, and Lyricist of Hindi films. While he had great success as a director of such movies as '' Neel Kamal'' (1947), '' Bawre ...

, who was very well known in the industry, agreed to give her a chance. Jedgish Sethi was the one who introduced between them . Sharma was at that time a producer,

lyricist A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income de ...

and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

, mainly wrote dialogues for films but did not direct. Kedar Sharma pitched her to director

Nitin Bose Nitin Bose (26 April 1897 – 14 April 1986) was an Indian film director, cinematographer and screenwriter of the nation's film industry. He was born in Calcutta and died in the same city. In the 1930s and early 1940s, he worked with New Theatre ...

, who was a very famous director at that time. Bose made fun of her hight and she was heart broken, then Sharma promised her that once he became a director he will give her the main role in his film. Kidar Sharma kept his promise and cast her in his first film as a director in 1939 Dil Hi To Hai, a film about a middle-class father who sacrificed his whole life to educate his son and daughter, Ramola played the role of the daughter who broke her father's heart. Her big breakthrough came in 1941 with the very successful black and white film Khazanchi, in the film which was a murder mystery, she played the main character "Madhuri". The film was one of the biggest hits of the early 1940s in India. The film's music composed by Ghulam Haider was a big part in revolutionizing Hindi film music from the theatrical style of the 1930s to a more of a free style using

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folk rhythms in the 1940s as in the famous song from the film "Sawan Kai Nazare hain". After the big succes of her film Ramola kept acting in many movies which became very popular among the Indian audience. Ramola's acting career took off quickly, winning both the sympathy of the Indian audience and the sympathy of the critics. Her famous movies were: Khamoshi (1942), Shukria (1944), Albeli (1945), Hum Bhi Insan Hain (1948) and more. Her last three films were released in 1951 and thus ended her film career.

Personal life

Ramola was married and had a one son, she died in her apartment in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

on 10 December 1988.

Filmography

* Graher Pher 1937 * Dil Hi To Hai 1939 * '' Qaidi'' 1940 * '' Khazanchi'' 1941 * '' Albeli'' 1945 * Shukria 1944 * Jhooti Kasmen 1948 * '' Hum Bhi Insaan Hain'' 1948 * Do Baten 1949 * ''

Sawan Aya Re ''Sawan Aya Re'' (The Monsoon Has Come) is a 1949 Hindi romantic drama film, directed by Kishore Sahu. Produced by Sahu under his "Hindustan Chitra" banner, it had Khemchand Prakash as the music director. The cast included Kishore Sahu, Ramola ...

'' 1949 * Rim Jhim 1949 * Maang 1950 * Basera 1950 * Jawani Ki Aag 1951 * Actor 1951 * ''

Stage Stage or stages may refer to: Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly British theatre newspaper * Sta ...

'' 1951

References

External links

Ramola&Wasti_G M Durrani_ Lata_Saghir Usmani_Ghulam Mohd

The song Sawan Ke Nazare Hai from the movie Khazanchi.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Devi, Ramola 1917 births 1988 deaths Indian film actresses Actresses from Mumbai