| Mahal | |
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| Directed by | Kamal Amrohi |
| Produced by | Ashok Kumar Savak Vacha |
| Written by | Kamal Amrohi |
| Starring | Ashok Kumar Madhubala |
| Music by | Khemchand Prakash |
| Cinematography | Joseph Wirsching |
| Editing by | Bimal Roy M. Shanker R. M. Tipnis |
| Release date(s) | 1949 |
| Running time | 165 min. |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi / Urdu |
Mahal (Hindi: महल; Urdu: محل; English translation: The Mansion) is a 1949 Indian Hindi film directed by Kamal Amrohi and starring Ashok Kumar and Madhubala.
Produced by Bombay Talkies studio, along with being Kamal Amrohi's directorial debut, it is also the movie which launched both playback singer Lata Mangeshkar and leading lady Madhubala into super-stardom. The songs, particularly "Aayega Aane Waala" sung by Lata Mangeshkar, are perennial favorites. Rajkumari sang two other well known songs from the film "Mein woh dulhan hon" and "Yeh raat phir na aayge". The lyrics were written by Nakshab. Rajkumari also sang these songs live on a Channel 4 (a UK TV station) programme called 'Mahfil' aired on 24 March 1991.
Mahal made Lata Mangeshkar a popular name. Prior to Mahal, the records used to feature only the character name on the record. Hence the first lot of records had “Aayega aane wala” credited to Kamini, the character played by Madhubala. The first time when the song was played on All India Radio many calls were received by AIR to know the singers name. AIR had to in turn ask the record company and announce Lata Mangeshkar's name on air.”.[1]
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The movie was a groundbreaking supernatural suspense thriller and one of the earliest known films dealing with reincarnation. Mahal became one of the biggest box office hits of 1949 in India [2] and paved the way for Indian gothic fiction.[3]
For lyrics written by Nakshab, the music of the songs was composed by Khemchand Prakash.
Bimal Roy, who was the editor for Mahal, would later go on to direct Madhumati,[3] which itself went on to become the source of inspiration for many later works dealing with the theme of reincarnation in Indian cinema, Indian television, and perhaps world cinema. It may have been the source of inspiration for the American film The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975) and the Hindi film Karz (1980), both of which dealt with reincarnation and have been influential in their respective cultures.[4] Karz in particular was remade several times: as the Kannada film Yuga Purusha (1989), the Tamil film Enakkul Oruvan (1984), and Om Shanti Om [5][6]
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