Edge Rewrite
everything Source code View original
// HTMLRewriter · presentation

This page was redesigned at the edge.

Cloudflare fetched the original article and streamed it through HTMLRewriter to apply an entirely new visual system without rebuilding the source page.

// request.cf · coarse context

A page that knows where it met you.

Only coarse request metadata is shown. This demo does not display or persist visitor IP addresses.

Country
US
Cloudflare location
CMH
Connection
HTTP/2
Language
Not provided

Ray ID: a41ea6bf6cf4fad4

Jump to content

Shirin Mohammad Ali

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shirin Mohammad Ali
Shirin in Passing Show (1936)
Other nameShirin Banu
OccupationActress
Years active1933–1939
PartnerNanabhai Bhatt
Children6, including Mahesh
RelativesPurnima (sister)
Bhagwan Das Varma (brother-in-law)
Bhatt family

Shirin Mohammad Ali, also referred to as Shirin Banu, was an Indian actress and playback singer who worked predominantly in Hindi-language films. Her films include Bala Joban (1934), the bilingual Hindi-Gujarati film Snehlata (1936), His Highness (1937), and Leather Face (1939), directed by Vijay Bhatt, in which she played Dulari.

Shirin was the sister of actress Purnima and was the partner of filmmaker Nanabhai Bhatt, with whom she had six children, including Mahesh and Mukesh.

Background and personal life

[edit]

Shirin's sister was actress Purnima, born as Meherbano Mohammad Ali, who married filmmaker Bhagwan Das Varma.[1][2]

Shirin was the partner of filmmaker Nanabhai Bhatt.[3] They had six children: four daughters, Sheila, Purnima, Kumkum, and Heena, and two sons, Mahesh and Mukesh.[4] During his lifetime, Nanabhai insisted in media interactions that he had privately married Shirin and that his children with her therefore should not be termed illegitimate.[5]

According to her son Mahesh, Shirin was a Shia Muslim who privately practised Islam while living with Nanabhai, a Brahmin Hindu.[6] He recalled that she practised both Islamic and Hindu religious customs at home. He also said that she feared discrimination because of her religious identity and concealed aspects of it in public, including by giving her children Hindu names.[6][7] Before her death, Shirin asked Mahesh to bury her in her mother's grave in a Shia cemetery in Byculla, Mumbai, a request he fulfilled.[6]

Through Mahesh, Shirin is the grandmother of actresses Pooja Bhatt and Alia Bhatt.[8]

Career

[edit]

Shirin began her acting career in the early 1930s, appearing in minor roles in films such as Sati Mahananda (1933), Seva Sadan (1934), and Bala Joban (1934). Although initially untrained in singing, she was taught music by Shankarrao Vyas,[9] and subsequently sang for herself in some of her films.[10]

She received greater recognition during this period, when she played supporting characters in the high-profile productions Bambai Ki Sethani (1935) and the Hindi-Gujarati bilingual Snehlata (1936).[11][12] Shirin also appeared in the action thriller Shamsheer-e-Arab (1935) as Hasina, a gypsy dancer. A review published in Filmland described her as attractive but "little weak" in her acting performance.[13]

Under the banner of Prakash Pictures, Shirin subsequently appeared in three action films: Passing Show and Tope Ka Gola (both 1936), followed by Challenge (1937).[14] The Moving Picture Monthly remarked that the rise of Prakash Pictures had also brought her into prominence.[15] Shirin continued her association with the company through His Highness (1937), Khwab Ki Duniya (1937), and State Express (1938), all of which starred Sardar Akhtar. In His Highness, however, Baburao Patel strongly criticized her performance as Akhtar's maid Kala, calling her "just awful" and disparaging her singing and dancing.[10]

In 1939, Shirin played Dulari, a tavern girl who assists P. Jairaj's character in his fight against an oppressive warlord, in Vijay Bhatt's stunt film Leather Face.[16]

Filmography

[edit]
YearFilmRoleSource
1933Sati Mahananda[17]
1934Maharani[18]
Seva Sadan[19]
Vehmi Duniya[20]
Bala Joban[21]
1935Bambai Ki Sethani[22]
Pardesi Saiyan aka Chand Ka Tukra[23]
Shamsheer-e-ArabHasina[13]
1936Azad Veer aka Revenge[24]
Passing Show[25]
Snehlata[26]
Tope Ka Gola[14]
1937Challenge[27]
His HighnessKala[28]
Khwab Ki Duniya aka Dreamland[29]
1938Purnima[30]
State Express[31]
1939Leather FaceDulari[16]
Sardar-e-Awwal aka Hero No. 1[32]
[edit]

In 1998, Mahesh Bhatt directed the semi-autobiographical film Zakhm, in which his daughter, Pooja, played the role based on Shirin.[33]

The 2015 film Hamari Adhuri Kahani, directed by Shirin's grandson Mohit Suri, drew on elements of the relationship between Shirin and Nanabhai Bhatt.[34]

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ Ali, Maaz; Khan, Maaz; Hussain, Anum (24 March 2021). Bollywood For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-119-78070-0.
  2. ↑ Gahlot, Deepa (1 October 2015). Take-2: 50 Films That Deserve a New Audience. Hay House. p. 91. ISBN 978-93-84544-85-0.
  3. ↑ Thomas, Rosie (1 March 2015). Bombay before Bollywood: Film City Fantasies. State University of New York Press. p. 282. ISBN 978-1-4384-5675-1.
  4. ↑ Dubey, Bharti; Mirza, Almas (10 November 2023). "ETimes BFFs: Did you know Faraaz producer Sahil Saigal is Alia Bhatt's cousin? Check out the long and complicated filmy lineage of the Bhatts!". The Times of India. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
  5. ↑ Cine Blitz. Blitz Publications. 1999. p. 36.
  6. 1 2 3 Bhatt, Mahesh; Bansal, Sunita Pant (17 May 2026). "Mahesh Bhatt on his mother Shrin: 'The woman who belonged everywhere'". Scroll.in. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
  7. ↑ Sawhney, Anubha (18 January 2003). "The Saraansh of Mahesh Bhatt's life". The Times of India. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
  8. ↑ "On Alia Bhatt's birthday, tracing her Kashmiri, Gujarati, German roots". Hindustan Times. 15 March 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
  9. ↑ Chandvankar, Suresh (2007). "Gramophone Celebrities: Shankarrao Vyas (1898–1956)". The Record News. Annual: 16.
  10. 1 2 Patel, Baburao (1938). "His Highness". Filmindia. 3 (9): 44, 47.
  11. ↑ Filmland 1935, p. 32.
  12. ↑ Thanki, Harsukh. "સ્નેહલતા". Gujarati Vishwakosh. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  13. 1 2 Filmland 1935, p. 21.
  14. 1 2 Dwivedi 1937, p. 7.
  15. ↑ Dwivedi 1937, p. 29.
  16. 1 2 Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 1999, p. 279.
  17. ↑ Rangoonwalla & Das 1970, p. 92.
  18. ↑ Rangoonwalla & Das 1970, p. 97.
  19. ↑ Rangoonwalla & Das 1970, p. 101.
  20. ↑ Rangoonwalla & Das 1970, p. 103.
  21. ↑ Rangoonwalla & Das 1970, p. 94.
  22. ↑ Rangoonwalla & Das 1970, p. 104.
  23. ↑ Rangoonwalla & Das 1970, p. 112.
  24. ↑ Rangoonwalla & Das 1970, p. 117.
  25. ↑ Rangoonwalla & Das 1970, p. 124.
  26. ↑ Rangoonwalla & Das 1970, p. 127.
  27. ↑ Rangoonwalla & Das 1970, p. 128.
  28. ↑ Rangoonwalla & Das 1970, p. 130.
  29. ↑ Rangoonwalla & Das 1970, p. 132.
  30. ↑ Rangoonwalla & Das 1970, p. 125.
  31. ↑ Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 1999, p. 277.
  32. ↑ Rangoonwalla & Das 1970, p. 147.
  33. ↑ "Pooja Bhatt talks playing her grandmother in Zakhm: 'A Muslim woman who took me to Siddhivinayak temple'". Hindustan Times. 15 December 2019. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
  34. ↑ Iyer, Sanyukta (4 May 2015). "Mohit Suri shoots in real spaces for 'Hamari Adhuri Kahani'". The Times of India. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 27 September 2026.

Sources

[edit]
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shirin_Mohammad_Ali&oldid=1376973739"