This was a year of marriages in Bollywood. Nargis and Sunil Dutt tied the knot on March 11 and Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kendall got married on July 2, 1958.
On the flip side, the founder of Kohinoor Studio’s Dwarkadas N Sampat passed away. Character artiste Yakub also died in the same year.
Bimal Roy had his first commercial success this year with Madhumati. Casting Vyjayantimala in the title role worked wonders. `Aa jaa re pardesi’, sung by Lata Mangeshkar proved that the singer could also carry a haunting melody — extending her versatility. The film also gave a new lease of life to Mukesh. After `Suhana safar’ he is once again restablished as the voice of Dilip Kumar. An interesting fact about the film is that the original version had Vyjayantimala assuming four different ghost forms. But Roy finally scaled it down to three. Madhumati has an out-of-this-world music score by Salil Chouwdhury — it gets the composer his first Filmfare award.
The Ganguli brothers — Ashok, Kishoreand Anoop — get together to provide side-splitting comdey in Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi. A rollicking musical, the film’s heroine, Madhubala was already Mrs Kishore Kumar. He wooed and wed her on the rebound — his first wife Ruma (today, Ruma Guha Thakurta) has run away to Calcutta with Rs seven lakh, leaving behind in her wake a desolate Kishore and their son Amit Kumar (a singer in his own right, now). Ruma returned several years later to attend the first birthday of Kumar’s son, Sumeet, with Leena Chandavarkar.
The long-awaited pairing of Vyjayantimala and Dev Anand — something filmgoers wanted to compare and contrast with the pairing of Madhubala and Dev Anand — comes about in the Madras-made Amar Deep. The public verdict: "If Madhubala brooks no equality, Vyjayanthimala admits no superiority!" Still, Amar Deep fails to turn the Vyjayanthimala-Dev Anand team into a hit pair.
It was a calamitious year for the Southern siren as she was imbroilled in a feud with Padmini for the spot of numberone dancer. They are pitted against each other in Gemini’s Raj Tilak. Also known as Rekha’s wouldn’t-be- father, Gemini Ganesan — sandwiched between the two — sees the movie collapse within a week, at the box office.
Meanwhile, there was a silver lining to the dark clouds threatening Vyjayantimala’s horizon. Two years ago, she had refused to accept the Best Supporting Actress award (Filmfare) for her role as Chandramukhi in Devdas. Her patience paid off. In 1958, she walked on to the stage to receive the Best Actress award for a similar role — as a dancing girl — in B R Chopra’s Sadhna.
Coming in the the wake of Ek Hi Rasta and Naya Daur, Sadhna made Chopra financially the most-viable banner. Now, top heroes and heroines were prepared to work with him at half their asking price for the box-office cushioning his banners offered.
Stars of 1958
Raj Kapoor (Phir Subah Hogi), Dilip Kumar (Madhumati, Yahudi), Dev Anand (Amar Deep, Kala Pani), Kishore Kumar (Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi), AshokKumar (Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Howrah Bridge), Sunil Dutt (Post Box 999).
Vyjayanthimala (Amar Deep, Madhumati, Raj Tilak, Sadhna), Meena Kumari (Yahudi), Madhubala (Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Kala Pani, Howrah Bridge), Nutan (Sone Ki Chidiya), Mala Sinha (Phir Subah Hogi), Padmini (Raj Tilak), Nalini Jaywant (Kala Pani).
(All archival material and pictures courtesy Subhash Chheda)
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