Kanan Devi
Kanan Devi was a famous actress and singer during 1930 to 1950 and in fact she was the first super star of hindi films . She was very beautiful, talented and a great singer and during her hey days was the highly paid artist and was a craze for youths from 1935 to 1950 .
She was an early singing star of Indian cinema and the first star of Bengali cinema. .
Kanan devi was born on 22 April 1916 in Howrah, West Bengal in a bengali hindu family to Ratan Chandra Das and Rajobala . After the demise of her father ; a well wisher, Tulsi Banerji introduced Kanan , then only ten years old , to Madan Theatres , where first she did small roles in film Jaidev in 1926 and film Shankaracharya in 1927 as kanan bala ( child artist) followed by films Rishir Prem (1931), Jorebarat (1931), Vishnu Maya (1932 ) and Prahalad .
She then joined Radha films company and successfully transitioned from silent movies to talking films and acted in their films Manomoyee Girls School, Khooni Kaun and Maa (1934) and drew the attention of the audience.
Her other famous movies during this period were Char Darvesh (1933), Kanthahar (1935), Krishna Sudama (1936), Bishabriksha (1936)
She then in 1937 joined New Theatres, calcutta , owned by shri Biren Sircar, who established her as a superhit singer and a super actress and her films ran to packed houses . She became so popular that she had to be escorted given her huge fan following. In New Theatres, She played the lead role in film Mukti (1937), which turned out to be her finest performance .
Besides , she did films like Vidyapati, Saathi (1938), Street Singer (1938), Sapera (1939), Jawani Ki Reet (1939), Parajay (1939), Abhinetri (1940), Lagan (1941), Parichay (1941) and Jawab (1942). All these years she became kanan devi from kanan bala .
Kanan devi remained the top star of New Theatres until 1941 when she left it and began to work as a freelance in Bengali and Hindi films .
She worked with the then biggest names in Indian cinema namely K. L. Saigal, Pahari Sanyal, Chabi Biswas, Trilok Kapoor and Ashok Kumar.
All these years she learnt music and Rabindra sangeet from master Roy chandra boral , Bhishma dev chatterji and Anandi dastidar and also got engaged with gramophone company as a singer .
She then joined with MP Productions company in the year 1942 and continued with them till 1948 . M.P. Productions’s film Jawaab was her biggest hit. She repeated the same feat in film Hospital (1943), Banphool (1945) and Rajlakshmi (1946) and her last Hindi film was Chandrashekhar (1948) with Ashok Kumar.
But in between she acted in a number of bengali hit movies like :-
1944 Bideshini
1945 Path Bendhe Dilo
1945 Banphool
1945 Raj Lakshmi
1946 Tumi Aar Aami
1946 Krishna Leela
1946 Arabian Nights
1947 Chandrasekhar
1947 Faisla
1948 Bankalekha
Finally in 1949 she set up her own film company named Shrimati Pictures and till 1965 produced and acted in a dozen bengali films .
In her career, Kanan devi acted in about 56 films and earned tremendous name and fame .She was also a superfine singer and sang songs for about 40 bengali films .
Kanan devi married Ashok Maitra in December 1940 and later due to social problems took divorce in 1945 and in 1949 remarried to Haridas Bhattcharya , ADC , of then bengal governor.
While raising their son Siddharth in Calcutta, she also formed and worked as the president of Mahila Shilpi Mahal, an organization to help senior female artists and other charitable and community causes including those for the betterment of Bengali cinema.
Kanan Devi got many honours for her contribution to hindi and bengali cinema being An honorary degree from Vishwabharati, the Padma Shree in 1968 from the govt and the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1976.
She died on 17 July 1992 at Calcutta at the age of 76 leaving behind her memories as a cherished and fine actress and a superb play back singer in Bengali films .
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Five stars
