Neel Kamal (1947)

Interesting facts

Neel Kamal is a 1947 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Kidar Sharma and starring Begum Para, Madhubala and Raj Kapoor. The first film to feature Madhubala and Kapoor in leading roles, Neel Kamal follows two separated royal sisters, whose mutual love for a self-absorbed artist (Kapoor) ultimately leads the younger sister to suicide.

Production

The production of Neel Kamal began in 1946 under Ranjit Studios. The film was initially titled Bichara Bhagwaan and featured actors Jairaj and Kamla Chatterjee in major roles. The latter, who was also director Kidar Sharma's wife, died unexpectedly midway the filming, leading a devastated Sharma to shelve the production infinitely.

Months after the incident, Sharma restarted the production in Chatterjee's memory and cast a 14 year-old Madhubala, a child actress popularly known as "Baby Mumtaz", as the leading lady. Madhubala, who had earlier collaborated a few times with Sharma, already remembered most of the lines of her offered role and was never absent from work, which impressed the director highly.

When Sharma announced the cast publicly, it evoked immense criticism from the industry; furthermore, the financiers were apprehensive of the film's potential at the box-office for it did not feature any established star of the time. To compensate their losses, an adamant Sharma sold his plot and financed Neel Kamal himself. Madhubala was given the star-billing as "Mumtaz".

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