Passion4Pearl: Shakti Samanta's Cinematic Safar
Born on 13th June 1926 at Wardhman, West Bengal, Shakti Samanta's did schooling in Dehradun later returned to homeland Bengal for higher studies. Calcutta happened to him. Admission into Calcutta University for bachelors saw him rise to new level. Shaktida emerged bilingual with equal command in Hindi and Urdu. Bangla was his mother tongue. Dehradun's school environment empowered him to attain bilingual confidence. Urdu-Hindi skills made him a good critique of dialogues and lyrics. Language know-how helped him to shape quality cinema.
With passion to be a Hero in films, Shaktida like many others also moved to Mumbai. Days of struggle followed at an Urdu school as Teacher .while teaching, he developed passion for Films and talkies. The insatiable urge inside him guided Shaktida to studios of Mumbai. Bombay Talkies was the favorite spot; he soon got a chance to meet with leading actor Ashok Kumar. A brief meeting with Veteran at the Talkies transformed Shatida's fortunes forever. He was advised by the Actor to opt for direction which he took up with great enthusiasm. To start with, Shakti Samanta became an assistant to Phani Majumdar, the association emerged so fruitful that he dropped the idea of becoming hero forever and took to direction completely. From now, Shaktida would commit himself to the art of filmmaking as a director and filmmaker,In 1945, got his due as " first break "as director with the film. Bahu. "Inspector", "Hill station" and "Detective" followed in pipeline.
Shakti Films: In 1957, Shakti Samanta started his own film production unit under the banner "Shakti Films" to become a producer-director.The Golden decade of Hindi cinema, the period of 1960 to 1970, mostly belongs to Shakti Samanta, an array of super hits makes the decade a Golden one. Shaktida, under the aegis of Shakti Films delivered some of the most cherishing moments of Hindi Cinema. Shaktida had strongly felt that a good story interspersed with enchanting music and songs went a long way towards success of a film, the Golden decade proved him right. The decade of romanticism and emergence of Hindi Cinema's first superstar – Rajesh Khanna.
Although crime-suspense-thrillers were his first love, Shaktida later switched to romanticism, which with he best delivered. He would yarn out films after films with concept of social engineering and touching musical hits to boot. His great insight ignited tremendous curiosity and demand for such films among the masses. No surprise, Shakti Samanta's movies achieved huge recognition and fan following so much so that he become one among the triumvirate consisting of Bimal Roy, Hrisikesh Mukherjee and He Himself.
Howrah Bridge: Star studded with actors like Ashok Kumar, Madhubala and KN Singh, Howrah Bridge was the first Shakti Samanta film as a producer-director.Film has immortal numbers like- ‘aaiye meharban' and ‘mera naam chinchin chu'. OP Naiyar, Asha Bhonsle, Geeta Dutt contributed to a grand musical success of Howrah Bridge.
Post Howrah Bridge, for the next two decade, Shakti Films continued to churn out hits after hit .A good story with great lyric-dialogue-music combo remained a striking feature of many movies made under Shakti Films banner.
Professional Relations: Shaktida's Choice
Shakti Samanta shuffled actors as per the need of the script and screenplay. Rajesh Khanna, Shammi Kapoor, Ashok Kumar and Uttam Kumar remained prominent faces of Shakti Films, notable actors and actresses earned a Big name under Shakti Samanta and his banner.
Ashok Kumar: Shakti Samanta had great love and respect for Ashok Kumar. For Shaktida, Dadamuni was like an elder brother and they gave nine films. Howrah Bridge blossomed the long relationship.
Shammi Kapoor: Shammi Kapoor had a lifelong association with Shakti Samanta until very recently death of Shaktida separated friends. "China town" "Kashmir ki kali" and "An evening in Paris" are signposts of their fruitful association.
Rajesh Khanna: First superstar of Hindi cinema--Shakti Samanta's Aradhana (1969) gave popular cinema the first superstar in Rajesh Khanna. Shaktida brought the idea of popular cinema with his films. His cinematic efforts and ventures provided immortal space for social-romanticism. The release of Aradhana became a turning point in history of romantic films. Kati Patang (1971) and Amar Prem (1972) followed
Aradhana, Kati Tatang and Amar Prem placed Rajesh Khanna at the citadel as the first superstar of Hindi Cimema , overwhelming response and success of these films and many other films that followed enhanced the image of the Rajesh Khanna tremendously.Khanna's superb acting skills with lyricist Anand Bakshi, playback Kishore Kumar, musicians SD and RD Burman composed the dream team.
"Anuraag" "Awaaz" "Ajnabi", "Anurodh", "Mehbooba", "Alag Alag" are other notable films Rajesh Khanna did with the ace director. However, even the efforts of Shaktida failed to sail through the superstar's sinking innings in later years. Salim-Javed's action hero, the angry young man diminished further hope for Rajesh Khanna and romanticism for good.
Average and not up to the mark film successes, Shakti Samanta took a break. Those days were the days of litmus test for Khanna, then struggling to keep his super star status impact. He failed Shaktida's expectations and the great association suffered, it got even bitter with the star not looking, searching, and caring for his mentor.
Sanjeev Kumar (Charitraheen), Sunil Dutt (Jag Utha Insan), Manoj Kumar (Sawan ki Ghata), Uttam Kumar (Amanush) are other top actors to work with Shakti Samanta in his 2nd phase which also saw Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty.
Sharmila Tagore:Shakti Samanta's wining efforts gave stars of Bangla films and Stars like Sharmila Tagore, Uttam Kumar and Mausmi Chatterjee an entry to Hindi cinema.
Actress Sharmila Tagore was the choice of Shakti camp,she did Kashmir ki kali, aradhana,Amar Prem, An evening in Paris, Amanush and Anand Ashram under the ShaktiFilms banner.Sharmila Tagore's onscreen chemistry with Rajesh Khanna and Shammi Kapoor formed the most hit jodis of Hindi Cinema.
Anand Bakshi: Post super hit Aradhana (1969), lyricist Anand Bakshi continued as lyricist for most of Shakti Samanta films and wrote some of his most sweet numbers for films such as aradhana, amar prem, kati patang, mehbooba.Immortal hits like ‘kuch to log kahenge' chingari koi bhadke' yeh shaam mastani' and ‘mere naina saawan bhado' saw Anand Saheb at his best.
Kishore Kumar:Close to Shakti Samanta, singer Kishore Kumar emerged a more popular entity with super hit Aradhana. The film transformed the fortunes of all associated with it. Playback Kishore Kumar was one. He continued as lead playback singer for most of Shakti Samanta films, some of his most touching numbers are for films under Shakti banner.
Quest for quality:Shakti Samanta devoted his time in search of hit concepts and committed himself towards making meaningful social Cinema with romanticism at the center stage. A search of stories, suitable faces to match characters; impressive musical chords remained his quest throughout his lifetime.
Ear for music:Music is essential to a story line in a Hindi film – this concept may not be appropriately appreciated if one were not privy to Shakti films. His films contributed significantly to the totality of film music, music meant a lot to Shaktida. A committed cine activist, Shaktida devoted lot of his time to bring out suitable music and lyrics suiting his characters , situations and storyline.
OP Naiyar, Shankar- Jaikisan, Burmans,Madan Mohan and Laxmikant Pyarelal composed some of their most sweet compositions for Shaktida.
With the onset of eighties, mainstream cinema gradually transformed with action replacing romanticism. Salim-Javed's creation, the angry young man – Amitabh Bachchan replaced Rajesh Khanna as next superstar,Shakti Samanta ceased as a film maker as the audiences went for the new genre of action cinema with antihero taking center stage and the idea of romantic cinema going into the oblivion.
Bangla cinema:
Most of Shatida's Films were Bilingual, Anand Ashram, Amanush are some of memorable bilingual films.He encouraged many talents, shaktida films provided them platform to actualize their potential. He was truly the mind behind the great array of ideas in Golden Period of Hindi cinema.
Hindi cinema is growing day by day; significant number of contributors made Hindi cinema what it is now. A gradual journey and star-studded growth of Hindi cinema has had the privilege of services from able, creative, innovative minds, Shakti Samanta was one such pearl!!
With passion to be a Hero in films, Shaktida like many others also moved to Mumbai. Days of struggle followed at an Urdu school as Teacher .while teaching, he developed passion for Films and talkies. The insatiable urge inside him guided Shaktida to studios of Mumbai. Bombay Talkies was the favorite spot; he soon got a chance to meet with leading actor Ashok Kumar. A brief meeting with Veteran at the Talkies transformed Shatida's fortunes forever. He was advised by the Actor to opt for direction which he took up with great enthusiasm. To start with, Shakti Samanta became an assistant to Phani Majumdar, the association emerged so fruitful that he dropped the idea of becoming hero forever and took to direction completely. From now, Shaktida would commit himself to the art of filmmaking as a director and filmmaker,In 1945, got his due as " first break "as director with the film. Bahu. "Inspector", "Hill station" and "Detective" followed in pipeline.
Shakti Films: In 1957, Shakti Samanta started his own film production unit under the banner "Shakti Films" to become a producer-director.The Golden decade of Hindi cinema, the period of 1960 to 1970, mostly belongs to Shakti Samanta, an array of super hits makes the decade a Golden one. Shaktida, under the aegis of Shakti Films delivered some of the most cherishing moments of Hindi Cinema. Shaktida had strongly felt that a good story interspersed with enchanting music and songs went a long way towards success of a film, the Golden decade proved him right. The decade of romanticism and emergence of Hindi Cinema's first superstar – Rajesh Khanna.
Although crime-suspense-thrillers were his first love, Shaktida later switched to romanticism, which with he best delivered. He would yarn out films after films with concept of social engineering and touching musical hits to boot. His great insight ignited tremendous curiosity and demand for such films among the masses. No surprise, Shakti Samanta's movies achieved huge recognition and fan following so much so that he become one among the triumvirate consisting of Bimal Roy, Hrisikesh Mukherjee and He Himself.
Howrah Bridge: Star studded with actors like Ashok Kumar, Madhubala and KN Singh, Howrah Bridge was the first Shakti Samanta film as a producer-director.Film has immortal numbers like- ‘aaiye meharban' and ‘mera naam chinchin chu'. OP Naiyar, Asha Bhonsle, Geeta Dutt contributed to a grand musical success of Howrah Bridge.
Post Howrah Bridge, for the next two decade, Shakti Films continued to churn out hits after hit .A good story with great lyric-dialogue-music combo remained a striking feature of many movies made under Shakti Films banner.
Professional Relations: Shaktida's Choice
Shakti Samanta shuffled actors as per the need of the script and screenplay. Rajesh Khanna, Shammi Kapoor, Ashok Kumar and Uttam Kumar remained prominent faces of Shakti Films, notable actors and actresses earned a Big name under Shakti Samanta and his banner.
Ashok Kumar: Shakti Samanta had great love and respect for Ashok Kumar. For Shaktida, Dadamuni was like an elder brother and they gave nine films. Howrah Bridge blossomed the long relationship.
Shammi Kapoor: Shammi Kapoor had a lifelong association with Shakti Samanta until very recently death of Shaktida separated friends. "China town" "Kashmir ki kali" and "An evening in Paris" are signposts of their fruitful association.
Rajesh Khanna: First superstar of Hindi cinema--Shakti Samanta's Aradhana (1969) gave popular cinema the first superstar in Rajesh Khanna. Shaktida brought the idea of popular cinema with his films. His cinematic efforts and ventures provided immortal space for social-romanticism. The release of Aradhana became a turning point in history of romantic films. Kati Patang (1971) and Amar Prem (1972) followed
Aradhana, Kati Tatang and Amar Prem placed Rajesh Khanna at the citadel as the first superstar of Hindi Cimema , overwhelming response and success of these films and many other films that followed enhanced the image of the Rajesh Khanna tremendously.Khanna's superb acting skills with lyricist Anand Bakshi, playback Kishore Kumar, musicians SD and RD Burman composed the dream team.
"Anuraag" "Awaaz" "Ajnabi", "Anurodh", "Mehbooba", "Alag Alag" are other notable films Rajesh Khanna did with the ace director. However, even the efforts of Shaktida failed to sail through the superstar's sinking innings in later years. Salim-Javed's action hero, the angry young man diminished further hope for Rajesh Khanna and romanticism for good.
Average and not up to the mark film successes, Shakti Samanta took a break. Those days were the days of litmus test for Khanna, then struggling to keep his super star status impact. He failed Shaktida's expectations and the great association suffered, it got even bitter with the star not looking, searching, and caring for his mentor.
Sanjeev Kumar (Charitraheen), Sunil Dutt (Jag Utha Insan), Manoj Kumar (Sawan ki Ghata), Uttam Kumar (Amanush) are other top actors to work with Shakti Samanta in his 2nd phase which also saw Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty.
Sharmila Tagore:Shakti Samanta's wining efforts gave stars of Bangla films and Stars like Sharmila Tagore, Uttam Kumar and Mausmi Chatterjee an entry to Hindi cinema.
Actress Sharmila Tagore was the choice of Shakti camp,she did Kashmir ki kali, aradhana,Amar Prem, An evening in Paris, Amanush and Anand Ashram under the ShaktiFilms banner.Sharmila Tagore's onscreen chemistry with Rajesh Khanna and Shammi Kapoor formed the most hit jodis of Hindi Cinema.
Anand Bakshi: Post super hit Aradhana (1969), lyricist Anand Bakshi continued as lyricist for most of Shakti Samanta films and wrote some of his most sweet numbers for films such as aradhana, amar prem, kati patang, mehbooba.Immortal hits like ‘kuch to log kahenge' chingari koi bhadke' yeh shaam mastani' and ‘mere naina saawan bhado' saw Anand Saheb at his best.
Kishore Kumar:Close to Shakti Samanta, singer Kishore Kumar emerged a more popular entity with super hit Aradhana. The film transformed the fortunes of all associated with it. Playback Kishore Kumar was one. He continued as lead playback singer for most of Shakti Samanta films, some of his most touching numbers are for films under Shakti banner.
Quest for quality:Shakti Samanta devoted his time in search of hit concepts and committed himself towards making meaningful social Cinema with romanticism at the center stage. A search of stories, suitable faces to match characters; impressive musical chords remained his quest throughout his lifetime.
Ear for music:Music is essential to a story line in a Hindi film – this concept may not be appropriately appreciated if one were not privy to Shakti films. His films contributed significantly to the totality of film music, music meant a lot to Shaktida. A committed cine activist, Shaktida devoted lot of his time to bring out suitable music and lyrics suiting his characters , situations and storyline.
OP Naiyar, Shankar- Jaikisan, Burmans,Madan Mohan and Laxmikant Pyarelal composed some of their most sweet compositions for Shaktida.
With the onset of eighties, mainstream cinema gradually transformed with action replacing romanticism. Salim-Javed's creation, the angry young man – Amitabh Bachchan replaced Rajesh Khanna as next superstar,Shakti Samanta ceased as a film maker as the audiences went for the new genre of action cinema with antihero taking center stage and the idea of romantic cinema going into the oblivion.
Bangla cinema:
Most of Shatida's Films were Bilingual, Anand Ashram, Amanush are some of memorable bilingual films.He encouraged many talents, shaktida films provided them platform to actualize their potential. He was truly the mind behind the great array of ideas in Golden Period of Hindi cinema.
Hindi cinema is growing day by day; significant number of contributors made Hindi cinema what it is now. A gradual journey and star-studded growth of Hindi cinema has had the privilege of services from able, creative, innovative minds, Shakti Samanta was one such pearl!!
