Career
He ran away from home to work small jobs in the studios of Bombay. He started as an assistant in the silent era and an extra in the studios of the Imperial Film Company of Ardeshir Irani, before directing his first film, Judgement of Allah (1935), when he started he started directing films for the Sagar Film Company. Directorial features like Aurat followed, with the studios Sagar Movietone and National Studios. In 1945, Khan set up his own production house, Mehboob Productions.
Throughout his career, Khan produced and directed many blockbuster films, the most notable being the romantic drama Andaz (1949), the swashbuckling Aan (1951), the dramatic Amar (1954) and the social epic Mother India (1957), the latter of which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1957 and was a remake of his own 1940 film Aurat. He has directed 21 other films dating from the late 1930s. His earlier works were in Urdu, but his later material, including Mother India, were in Hindi although many say he utilized Hindustani, a friendlier and softer spoken version of Hindi and Persian. Several of his films, especially his earlier films Humayun, the story of a Mughal emperor who ruled India, Anmol Ghadi and Taqdeer, in which he introduced Nargis, who would later marry Sunil Dutt, were written by Aghajani Kashmeri also Kashmiri and Agha Jani. Kashmeri was responsible for picking and training Nargis in Hindustani and Urdu dialogue delivery. His last film as a director was the 1962 film Son of India. He died in 1964 at the age of 57, and was buried at Badakabarastan in Marine Lines, Mumbai. His death occurred the next day after the death of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India.
Khan introduced and helped establish the careers of many actors and actresses who went onto become big stars in the 1950s and 1960s such as Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar, Raaj Kumar, Nargis, Nimmi and Nadira. In 1961, he was a member of the jury at the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival.
Khan was known for having been influenced by Hollywood films and his films often featured lavish sets in the style of the Hollywood era at that time. The oppression of the poor, class warfare and rural life are recurring themes in his work. Mehboob Khan was awarded the title of Hidayat Kar-e-Azam by the Indian government.
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