Manoos (1939)

A love tragedy featuring a policeman, Ganpat (Modak) and a prostitute, Mainal (Hublikar). Ganpat saves Maina from a police raid on a brothel and they fall in love. Her reputation and sense of guilt resist his attempts to rehabilitate her. Ganpat's respectable middle-class mother (Sundarabai) symbolizes all that Maina would like to be, but she is arrested for murdering her evil uncle and refuses Ganpat's offer to release her from prison.

Date of release
1939-03-19
TMDB
4.8 / 10 (5)
Runtime
2h 40m
Genres
Romance, Drama
Director
Shantaram Rajaram Vankudre

Casting

Interesting facts

Manoos, also called Life's for Living, is a 1939 Indian Marathi social melodrama film directed by V. Shantaram. The movie was simultaneously made in Hindi as Aadmi. The film was based on a short story called "The Police Constable". The story was by A. Bhaskarrao, with screenplay and dialogue by Anant Kanekar. The cinematographer was V. Avadhoot and the music was composed by Master Krishna Rao, with lyrics by Kanekar. The cast included Shahu Modak, Shanta Hublikar, Sundara Bai, Ram Marathe, Narmada, Ganpatrao and Raja Paranjpe.

Production

Shantaram had initially decided to take Shanta Apte as the sex-worker and had auditioned the music director Vasant Desai for the hero's role. Desai's screen test was successful, however, he was disappointed when Shantaram informed him that he was taking the newcomer Shahu Modak for the part. Modak's debut role had been as a child star opposite Shanta Apte in Shyam Sunder (1932), where he played the child Krishna.

Shantaram visited the red light areas of Bombay in order to achieve accurate sets, which were recreated by S. Fattelal at Prabhat Studios. Director Shyam Benegal stated in the news report that "it was hard to believe" the scenes were shot in a studio. A retired army officer was hired to give training to Modak and the other cast playing policemen. The training sessions turned out be vigorous and lengthy and Modak had to ask them to be stopped.

The film bore some similarity to Waterloo Bridge (1931), directed by James Whale.

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