Punjab Post Daily Online Newspaper & Print Media
Harjap Singh Aujla
If during the first half of the nineteenth century, Emperor Ranjit Singh’s bold and brave General Sham Singh Atariwala was conquering fortress after fortress in the hinterland of Punjab to extend the boundaries of the Sikh Empire, his fourth generation daughter in law Kuldip Kaur was making it big in the Bombay filmdom in the middle decades of the twentieth century.
Actress Kuldip Kaur’s life story cannot be separated from erstwhile united Punjab’s premier twin cities of Lahore and Amritsar. She was the daughter of a wealthy landlord family of Punjab and the daughter –in –law of the Emperor of the Sikh Empire Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s daredevil military commander General Sham Singh Attariwala’s grandson. Her in-law’s place of residence was in village Attari (Atari) located on Amritsar district’s border with Lahore district just off the Grand Trunk Road and was eighteen miles away from both Amritsar and Lahore. To start with this lady called Kuldip Kaur was a very shy and simple but beautiful looking fair skinned upper class traditional Sikh girl. But the affluent lifestyle of the elite in Punjab changed her life forever.
Her rich landlord husband Mohinder Singh Sidhu (also called Mohinder Singh Pompa or Mohinder Singh Atari) was a thoroughly spoiled, but by nature a very nice young man. He was fond of enjoying the good life offered by Punjab’s both premier cities of Lahore and Amritsar. He became a member of Amritsar Club Amritsar, Lumsden Club of Amritsar, Service Club of Amritsar as well as the Punjab Club, Gymkhana Club of Lahore, Service Club of Lahore and the Golf Club of Lahore. He will love to have lunch in one club in one city and dinner in the other club sometimes in a different city. He was very much fond of owning the newest models of European and American cars. Amongst the smaller cars at different times he owned Renault, Baby Morris, Volkswagen and Austin. Amongst his favorite larger cars were the top models of Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, Dodge, Ford and Studebaker.
The car dealers of Lahore and Amritsar always spread a red carpet in his honor. He hardly spent a day without visiting either Lahore or Amritsar. He was a good friend of Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala and visited his French style palace as well as the magnificent Jagatjit Club several times during the winters. During the summers the Maharaja himself was often away on a tour of France and other European countries and was seldom available in Kapurthala.
Kuldip Kaur was born sometime between 1926 and 1928 and was brought up like a princess. Her spoiled Sardar husband always wanted his charming wife Kuldip Kaur to live and act like a modern westernized lady of any metropolis of India. He wanted his wife to learn, horse riding, swimming and rub shoulders with the club going English elite based in Lahore and Amritsar. Once exposed to the club culture, Kuldip Kaur also started getting impacted by its dark side. Since Lahore was a popular film city, Kuldip Kaur started dreaming about becoming a film actress. Her first film called “Gardish” was started way back in 1943 while she was still in Lahore and she was paid a whopping sum of rupees seventy five thousand for it. Its first financier was Colonel Chand, who got the money from his provident fund. Once the money ran out he backed out. Incidentally, the hero was shorter than Kuldip Kaur and had to be replaced.
Then Niranjan Das Kapoor of Punjab Mutual Insurance Company Lahore was roped in. His cousin Mulkh Raj Kapoor, a song and film script writer from Bombay was persuaded to come to Lahore to take care of the movie. After Mulkh Raj Kapoor’s demise, the film was given to the famous producers the Pancholis of Lahore. In 1948, even the reels of whatever was shot in Lahore, were retrieved and it needed rupees thirty thousand more. Niranjan Das Kapoor had lost everything in Lahore and could not even afford rupees thirty thousand to complete the movie. This was told to me by Parul Kapoor of Bombay via e-mail.
According to one story, Kuldip Kaur started admiring the professionalism of actor Pran Nath, who was in film acting in Lahore since 1940, when he successfully performed the role of a hero in Punjabi film “Yamla Jatt”. Pran himself loved the modern and permissive lifestyle of Lahore.
By July and August of 1947, communal violence erupted into a full-fledged exercise in ethnic cleansing, primarily between the Muslims and the Sikhs and both Lahore and Amritsar were engulfed in the worst sectarian violence in recent history. Kuldip Kaur had no ill will against the Islam as a religion and several Muslims were her and her husband Mohinder Singh Pampa’s good friends. But things were fast getting out of control in Lahore and Amritsar. Both Pran and Kuldip Kaur were compelled by the quickly changing circumstances to leave Lahore in a jiffy, leaving virtually every belonging behind. Her own village being right on the border was also not peaceful either. So Kuldip Kaur decided to leave straight for Bombay. According to one story, in order to impress actor Pran, Kuldip Kaur decided to bring Pran’s stranded car from Lahore to Bombay. In a gesture of unprecedented daredevilry, which she was known for, she travelled all the way from the safety of Bombay and Amritsar to Lahore, found Pran’s parked car and drove it through the rampaging rioters first to Amritsar and then, after the night’s rest, she drove it all the way to Bombay, where she handed over the keys to a surprised but thankful Pran.
After leaving for Bombay, Kuldip Kaur’s contact with her parents and in-laws got diminished. On arrival in Bombay, Kuldip Kaur made up her mind to plunge headlong into the film industry. She was prepared to act in Hindi/Urdu as well as Punjabi films. The experts of film industry were of the opinion that her large piercing eyes, robust build and her flat chin made her an ideal choice for the role of a vamp. The first ranking heroines of the time included Durga Khote, Naseem Bano, Madhubala, Nargis, Suraiya and Nutan. Other heroines included Binarai, Shyama, Nimmi, Nirupa Roy, Meena Shori, Nigar Sultana, Veena, Shyama and Kamini Kaushal to name a few. There was a real shortage of ladies willing to perform the role of vamps. One of Kuldip Kaur’s first films in Bombay was a Punjabi blockbuster “Chaman” (1948). Within the same year Kuldip Kaur acted in two Hindi/Urdu films Ziddi and Grahsthi. All her 1948 films did well at the box office. After that she never looked back and went from strength to strength. At one stage she was so busy in her film roles that for a long duration she did not have time to visit Punjab.
In 1949, Kuldip Kaur worked in at least two films “Ek Thi Ladki” and “Kaneez”. “Ek Thi Ladki” was a blockbuster. Music Director Vinod composed some great tunes for this movie. “Kaneez”, featuring the music of Ghulam Haider did not do too well. In 1950, Kuldip Kaur acted in two great musical Hindi movies “Samadhi” and “Adhi Raat” and did two Punjabi movies “Madari” and “Chhai”. 1951 was a great year for Kuldip Kaur, she played the roles of vamps in six movies “Stage”, “Rajput”, “Nai Zindagi”, “Ek Nazar”, “Afsana” and “Mukhra”. Her role in film “Afsana”, which featured a brilliant actor Ashoke Kumar was critically appreciated.
1952 was another great year for Kuldip Kaur. She worked in four movies “Shisham”, “Nau Bahar”, “Baiju Bawra” and “Anjaam”. Again her role was highly praised in film “Baiju Bawra”. In 1953 again Kuldip Kaur had four films “Mashooka”, “Baaz”, “Anarkali” and “Aabshar”. Out of these “Anarkali” was a super hit and her role stole the limelight. 1954 was another great year for Kuldip Kaur. She was featured in three movies “Lal Pari”, “Gul Bahar” and “Daak Babu”.
1955 was one of the busiest professional years for Kuldip Kaur. She played the bad girl’s role in “Teer Andaz”, “Miss Coca Cola”, “Mast Qalandar” and “Jashan”. 1956 was sort of a lean year for Kuldip Kaur, she worked in two films, but none was released. Two of Kuldip Kaur starrer movies, spilled over from 1956 and were released in 1957. These were “Sheroo” and “Ek Saal”. In 1958 Kuldip Kaur had her roles in two films “Sahara” and “Panchayat”.
In 1959, Kudip Kaur had her roles in three more films “Pyaar Ka Rishta”, “Mohar” and “Jagir”. Out of these, one film “Mohar” was a great musical, its music composed by Madan Mohan was simply outstanding. When she had fewer Hindi films in hand, she worked in Punjabi films.
1960 started as a reasonably good year for Kuldip Kaur. She had already completed a Hindi film “Maa Baap” and a Punjabi film “Yamla Jatt” and more pictures were on the way.
But during this very year, her life was cut short when during a session of outdoor shooting, she got some thorns in her feet and legs and she tried to pull those out by herself. True to her character of a daredevil woman, she took her injuries lightly and did not seek medical advice immediately. Her sores became not only septic, but she got Tetanus too, which is incurable. Kuldip Kaur died in 1960. She led a fast paced life and her end came as abruptly too. Her husband, who even in separation loved her immensely, was left a heart broken man. A few years later one day, while blessing a newly married couple, he told them to live together until death puts them apart and not abandon each other while still living. This message reflected his extreme pain at the desertion by his beloved wife.
I thought it will be appropriate to record, at least a partial history of Kuldip Kaur. Her fascinating life story has several lessons for the present readers and the unborn posterity.
