1. Home
2. Education

13 January 1926: Shakti Samanta, film director, was born

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 1/13/2021 11:35:01 AM

An Indian film director who made such memorable films as ‘Aradhana’, ‘Amar Prem’, ‘Kati Patang’, and ‘Howrah Bridge’ in a career spanning five decades, Shakti Samanta was born on January 13, 1926 in Burdwan,West Bengal. After completing his education in Dehradun and Calcutta he took up a teacher’s job near Bombay so that he could be close to the film industry and try his luck at becoming an actor. But he became a part of the film world in 1948 as an assistant director to Satish Nigam in the film ‘Sunhere Din’. He worked with other directors as well in films like ‘Tamasha’ and ‘Dhobi Doctor’, eventually directing his first film ‘Bahu’, which released in 1955 and starred Karan Dewan and Usha Kiron. He followed this with films like ‘Inspector’ and ‘Hill Station’. In 1957 he started his own production company Shakti Films. The first film under the new banner ‘Howrah Bridge’, starring Ashok Kumar and Madhubala, did well at the box office. Featuring such memorable songs as “Mera Naam Chin Chin Choo” (picturised on Helen and sung by Geeta Dutt) and “Aaiye Meherbaan” (picturised on Madhubala and sung by Asha Bhosle), ‘Howrah Bridge’ was a crime thriller. The film critic Anupama Chopra writes: “Madhubala plays Edna, a club dancer who falls for the mysterious man fromRangoon, played by Ashok Kumar…O.P. Nayyar’s delightful soundtrack included ‘Mera Naam Chin Chin Choo’, which propelled a young Helen to fame. Howrah Bridge’s other pleasures include beautiful, soaring shots of Kolkatta and Madan Puri as the oriental villain Mr. Chang sparring with K.N. Singh…” In a 2009 piece in The Hindu on the film Vijay Lokapally wrote: “There are some rare shots of a sleepy Calcutta but surprisingly not one involving a tram, which was the most popular mode of transport in those days. In keeping with the cinema of the 50s and 60s, most shots have been caught by a static camera but then the close-ups of Madhubala make up for the drudgery that creeps in when Shakti Samanta struggles to maintain the pace in the second half.” In the 1960s Samanta made entertainers like ‘ChinaTown’ (1962), ‘Kashmir Ki Kali’ (1964) and ‘An Evening in Paris’ (1967). It was towards the end of the decade, however, that he made one of the most memorable films of his career. ‘Aradhana’, released in 1969, starred Rajesh Khanna (playing the role of Arun/Suraj, an air force officer in a double role as father and son),