Indian films and posters from 1930: film (toofan mail)(1934)
Indian films and posters from 1930: film (Toofan)(1954)
Indian films and posters from 1930: film (Toofan Aur Diya) (1956)
Indian films and posters from 1930: film (toofan)(1975)
Indian films and posters from 1930: film (Aag aur toofan)(1975)
Indian films and posters from 1930: film (Aandhi-Toofan)(1985)
Indian films and posters from 1930: film (toofan)(1989)
film (Toofan Queen)(1946)
| Toofan Queen | Ramnik Vaidya | Fearless Nadia, Prakash, Agha, Shanta Patel, Shyam Sunder | Action | Music: Chitragupta Lyrics: Shyam HIndi |
TOOFAN QUEEN (1946)
TOOFAN QUEEN
New Deepak Pictures (1946)
Director: Ramnik Vaidya
Producer: Nanabhai Bhatt
Music: Chitragupta
Cast: Fearless Nadia, Prakash, Shanta Patel, Anant Prabhu, Kamalini, Shyam Sunder, M. Elizer, Liaqat, Agha Shapoor, Mohan, Vijaykumar and his motorcyle “Champion.”
Plot: When the princess of Shyamgadh (Shanta Patel) visits Bombay she is attacked by mysterious gunmen, but thankfully is unharmed. During the train journey back to her kingdom another attempt is made on her life and this time she is saved by Kishore (Prakash), who is a member of the country’s freedom movement.
With Kishore’s help, the princess safely returns home, much to the chagrin of Shyamgadh’s Regent, who captures and tortures the young hero. To the rescue comes “Toofan Queen” (Fearelss Nadia), a masked mystery woman who swoops in and helps Kishore escape.
The Regent begins using all of his resources to stamp out the freedom movement, so the members decide to shift their headquarters out into the jungle where they can more easily hide and continue to operate. But the military locates them and a great battle ensues. The rebels are no match, and just as they find themselves down to their last bullet Toofan Queen again arrives to save the day!
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Mike Barnum
I am a lifelong lover of films, with a taste for movies of all genres, new and old=================================================
Toofan Queen - Wikipedia
Toofan Queen (1946)
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Black and WhiteToofan Queen (1946) - Review, Star Cast, News, Photos ...
Toofan Queen
Toofan Queen is a movie directed by Ramnik Vaidh featuring Fearless Nadia, Shanta Patel.
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- Hindi
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- 1946
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Toofan Queen (1946) Cast - Actor, Actress, Director, Producer ...
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Mary Evans Wadia, aka Fearless Nadia
Born: January 7, 1909, Perth, Australia.
Died: January 8, 1996, Bombay, India.
Born on January 7, 1909, in Perth, Australia, to an English father and a Greek mother, Mary Evans came to Bombay at the age of five with her father. She learnt horse riding during a stay in the Northwest Frontier Province, and then studied ballet under Madame Astrova after returning to Bombay in the mid-20's. She toured India as a theatre artiste and worked for the Zarko Circus in 1930. She changed her name to Nadia at the instance of a fortune teller.
In 1934 she got her first break in films, acting in two of them that year-- Desh Deepak and Noor-e-Yaman. The audience's response to the blue-eyed blonde was favourable, and she soon found herself starring as Hunterwali in the film of the same name.
In 1943 she appeared in Homi Wadia's sequel, Daughter of Hunterwali, to her most famous film. She had a run of hits, Tigress, Stunt Queen, Miss Frontier Mail, Diamond Queen, Jungle Princess, Baghdad ka Jadoo, Khilari and Lady Robinhood. Her only "social", Mauj, flopped. In a career spanning twenty seven years, she acted in more than 55 movies, of which 35 appearances were opposite the muscleman John Cowas.
She retired from the screen in 1961 and married her long time associate and director Homi Wadia. In retirement she took to breeding thoroughbreds. Her colt "Nijinsky" was once the greatest racehorse on Indian turf. In 1993, her grandson Riyad Vinci Wadia made a documentary on her life, called Fearless- The Hunterwali Story.
She died in the Cumballa Hill Hospital, in Bombay, on January 8, 1996.
Fearless Nadia ...with hubby wadia
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Wadia and Nadia: How love kicked in pre ...
Wadia and Nadia: How love kicked in pre-Bollywood filmdom
Meet the father of Indian stunt movies, Homi Wadia, and his fearless stuntwoman wife
bollywood Updated: Dec 03, 2016, 21:13 IST
It’s called riding the zeitgeist. And in the ’30s, in pre-Bollywood Bollywood, two filmmaking and action-film junkies, Homi and JBH Wadia, did just that.
It was the era of the swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks in Hollywood. At home, a wrestler, Master Vithal, was the hero of the silent stunt films rolling out of the trend-setting Sharda Studios. Nadia — the blue-eyed, ballet-trained, big-hipped, blonde Scot — became crucial to the Wadia brothers’ attempts to the turn the stunt into an art form.
Nadia was a JBH discovery. But it was Homi (May 22, 1911 - December 10, 2004) who gave this memsahib with a thick Scottish accent, a voice. “Homi realised her language was her ‘body’,” says film theorist and curator Amrit Gangar. “He kept Nadia’s dialogue to a bare minimum because of her difficulty with Hindi.” He directed her in six films — Hunterwali, Pahadi Kanya, Miss Fronter Mail, Lutaru Lalna, Punjab Mail and Diamond Queen — combining his brother’s inclination for social messages (JBH was a follower of Radical Humanist MN Roy) and his own preference for unadulterated action films.
Nadia was not just a stunt heroine, she was the stunt queen of the new sound era. When Indians lined up to watch a Homi Wadia film with Nadia as heroine, they got the works — kicks, whips, chairs thrown about, the puff-puff of train engines, horse races, a stuntwoman nuzzling lions. Her fierce yell — “Hey-y-y” — at stray animals, bandits, and bad boys in general, as she cycled down the road on her way to new adventures, was her signature.
Homi moulded Nadia into a Wadia Movietone (a company the brothers founded in 1933) heroine. Certainly, in the Wadia scheme of things, she was no less than Devika Rani, the star and mistress of the major production house, Bombay Talkies.
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Entire costume-dramas and Oriental fantasies with nationalist undertones were thought of with Nadia in mind. She was tutored in Hindi and in sari-wearing. The Wadias’ best stuntmen, Boman Shroff and Ustad Haqu, taught her to kick and punch. In many of her films, she beat up government servants in Her Majesty’s service. In the films’ promotion material, she was packaged as a ‘Bombay-wali’ and a ‘Brave Indian girl who sacrificed royal luxuries in the cause of her people and country’ — truth be damned. (Nadia, the daughter of a Scottish World War II soldier, was among the floating population of British citizens who streamed into Bombay from various posts after the War.) This build-up ensured that her complexion remained a non-issue.
But was it enough to ensure the stunt films’ success or make its leading lady, a non-Indian, acceptable to the movie-going masses? Initially, Homi was a Nadia sceptic, says film historian Mihir Bose, in his book, Bollywood: A History. A White woman giving Indian men a thrashing at the time of the freedom struggle could not be good for business. Producer MB Billimoria agreed. Hunterwali (1935), Nadia’s best-known film and her ticket to eventual stardom, was therefore strategised to the last detail.
Bose writes in his book that “Indianising her was a project from the beginning”. A foreign journalist who interviewed Nadia, he notes, had commented on the Wadias packaging her as if she was India’s Pearl White [the American stage and film actress]. This was meant to “attract all the glamour of the Pearl White brand while simultaneously constructing an all-India Nadia and thereby conflate traditions — the stunt queen tradition with that of legendary Indian warrior women”. Say, Rani Laxmibai or Durgawati.
A Homi-directed Nadia film also appealed in other ways. She was the male-villain-conquering heroine, says Gangar. Several American actresses “proved that the ‘weaker sex’ could perform amazing physical feats. So did Nadia without a stunt double. Large sections of movie-going Indians liked a woman fighting oppression and helping the poor like Robin Hood,” he adds.
Nadia and Wadia (Homi) married in 1961. According to some accounts, love struck after their fourth movie. Homi gave her the name Fearless Nadia after she sportingly jumped off the roof of a studio set during a shoot. The marriage was, for both, a happy landing.
Mary Evans Wadia, aka Fearless Nadia
Born: January 7, 1909, Perth, Australia.
Died: January 8, 1996, Bombay, India.
Born on January 7, 1909, in Perth, Australia, to an English father and a Greek mother, Mary Evans came to Bombay at the age of five with her father. She learnt horse riding during a stay in the Northwest Frontier Province, and then studied ballet under Madame Astrova after returning to Bombay in the mid-20's. She toured India as a theatre artiste and worked for the Zarko Circus in 1930. She changed her name to Nadia at the instance of a fortune teller.
In 1934 she got her first break in films, acting in two of them that year-- Desh Deepak and Noor-e-Yaman. The audience's response to the blue-eyed blonde was favourable, and she soon found herself starring as Hunterwali in the film of the same name.
In 1943 she appeared in Homi Wadia's sequel, Daughter of Hunterwali, to her most famous film. She had a run of hits, Tigress, Stunt Queen, Miss Frontier Mail, Diamond Queen, Jungle Princess, Baghdad ka Jadoo, Khilari and Lady Robinhood. Her only "social", Mauj, flopped. In a career spanning twenty seven years, she acted in more than 55 movies, of which 35 appearances were opposite the muscleman John Cowas.
She retired from the screen in 1961 and married her long time associate and director Homi Wadia. In retirement she took to breeding thoroughbreds. Her colt "Nijinsky" was once the greatest racehorse on Indian turf. In 1993, her grandson Riyad Vinci Wadia made a documentary on her life, called Fearless- The Hunterwali Story.
She died in the Cumballa Hill Hospital, in Bombay, on January 8, 1996.
Mary Evans Wadia, aka Fearless Nadia
Born: January 7, 1909, Perth, Australia.
Died: January 8, 1996, Bombay, India.
Born on January 7, 1909, in Perth, Australia, to an English father and a Greek mother, Mary Evans came to Bombay at the age of five with her father. She learnt horse riding during a stay in the Northwest Frontier Province, and then studied ballet under Madame Astrova after returning to Bombay in the mid-20's. She toured India as a theatre artiste and worked for the Zarko Circus in 1930. She changed her name to Nadia at the instance of a fortune teller.
In 1934 she got her first break in films, acting in two of them that year-- Desh Deepak and Noor-e-Yaman. The audience's response to the blue-eyed blonde was favourable, and she soon found herself starring as Hunterwali in the film of the same name.
In 1943 she appeared in Homi Wadia's sequel, Daughter of Hunterwali, to her most famous film. She had a run of hits, Tigress, Stunt Queen, Miss Frontier Mail, Diamond Queen, Jungle Princess, Baghdad ka Jadoo, Khilari and Lady Robinhood. Her only "social", Mauj, flopped. In a career spanning twenty seven years, she acted in more than 55 movies, of which 35 appearances were opposite the muscleman John Cowas.
She retired from the screen in 1961 and married her long time associate and director Homi Wadia. In retirement she took to breeding thoroughbreds. Her colt "Nijinsky" was once the greatest racehorse on Indian turf. In 1993, her grandson Riyad Vinci Wadia made a documentary on her life, called Fearless- The Hunterwali Story.
She died in the Cumballa Hill Hospital, in Bombay, on January 8, 1996.
Mary Evans Wadia, aka Fearless Nadia
The documentary on Mary Evans Wadia's life, Fearless: The Hunterwali Story was NOT made by her grandson, Riyad Vinci Wadia- he is, in fact, her great-nephew, and my brother. Our grandfather and grandmother were the late J.B.H. and Hilla Wadia, who founded Wadia Movietone/Wadia Films in the early years of Indian Cinema. It was Jamshed (or J.B.H. as his closest friends affectionately called him) who gave Mary her first break.
Jamshed's younger brother, Homi, followed Jamshed into films - working as his sidekick for a few years, and learning the skills necessary. Jamshed often put Homi's name in the director's slot, to give his kid brother the chance to make a name for himself.
Soon, Homi fell in love with Nadia- but the two did not marry until the early 1960's, after the death of Homi and Jamshed's orthodox Parsi mother who wouldn't let her son wed a parjat!! A sad story, in a way, because by the time they married, they were too old to have their own children. Instead, Homi adopted Nadia's son by a previous marriage.
It's interesting to note that J.B.H. was truly one of the film industry's most daring pioneers - he not only introduced a foreign woman to Indian Cinema, but did so in such a way that could have shocked and scandalized people at the time - but instead charmed and captivated them.. no easy feat. J.B.H. was also responsible for giving several major stars their early breaks - among them Dilip Kumar and Nargis in Mela.. Helen in Veer Rajputani.. Sunil Dutt in Duniya Jhukti Hai.. and many more.
Information supplied by Roy Vinci Wadia.
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Homi Wadia – Master of the Stunt Film
J.B.H. Wadia (left) and Homi Wadia
Not to be confused with the Gujarati actor of the same name, Homi Wadia (May 22, 1911 – December 10, 2004) was one of the most popular and prolific creators of Hindi language B-grade films of the 20th century. Although he had many rivals in the field, he is one of the few still remembered by fans and historians alike, and often with a reverence generally reserved for the likes of Guru Dutt or Satyajit Ray.
Hailing from a Parsi family, he worked as a cameraman on several of his brother J.B.H. Wadia’s directorial efforts at Young United Players such as Diler Daku (1931), Toofan Mail (1932) and Vantolio (1933) before he and J.B.H. decided to set up their own production house, Wadia Movietone in 1933. This was at the height of popularity for stunt films and the Wadia brothers ground them out non-stop beginning with the fantasy picture Lal-E-Yaman (1933) starring Jal Khambatta and Padma, which was quickly followed by action flicks like Veer Bharat (1934) featuring Boman Shroff and Gulshan, and Hind Kesari (1935) with Husn Banu, Master Mohammed, and Sardar Mansoor. The Wadia’s hit pay dirt when they cast Australian actress Mary Evans, rechristened Fearless Nadia, as the star of Hunterwali (1935), the story of a beautiful young princess who sidelines as a masked avenger.
DIAMOND QUEEN (1940) was one of many Homi Wadia films to star stunt actress Fearless Nadia.
Wadia Movietone continued its winning streak with several more hit films directed by Homi like Miss Frontier Mail (1936) starring Fearless Nadia and Sardar Mansoor, Jai Bharat (1936) starring Sardar Mansoor and Husn Banu, Toofani Tarzan (1937) starring John Cawas and Gulshan, as well as Punjab Mail (1939), Diamond Queen (1940) Bambaiwalli (1941), and Jungle Princess (1942) all starring Fearless Nadia and John Cawas.
In 1942 Wadia Movietone ceased production and Homi Wadia started Basant Pictures, which continuing the tried and true format of action films with an emphasis on mythologicals, jungle pictures, and Arabian Nights style fantasies. Some of his popular titles were Flying Prince (1946), Stunt Queen (1947), Shri Ram Bhakta Hanuman (1948), Circuswale (1950), Alladin and the Wonderful Lamp (1951), Jungle ka Jawahar (1952), Alibaba and Fourty Thieves (1954 and 1966 versions), Hatimtai (1956), Zimbo (1958), Char Dervesh (1964), Khilari (1968), and Toofan Aur Bijlee (1976).
In 1961 Homi married his longtime star, Fearless Nadia, and in 1971 they opened Basant Talkies, a theatre in Chembur whose first film shown was the Richard Burton/Clint Eastwood picture Where Eagles Dare (1968) in 70 mm. He left the film business after producing the mythological Mahabali Hanuman in 1981 and passed away in 2004 at the ripe old age of 93.
Shiv Kumar (Indira’s husband), Indira, Homi Wadia, Mary (Fearless Nadia) Wadia, and Sanjeev Kumar at the premier of ALIBABA AND 40 THIEVES (1966)
Homi Wadia’s films were wildly popular with the masses, and he was well respected in the industry, even if his studio’s output was considered lower tier. Babarao Patel, editor of Filmindia magazine, had this to say in 1939 “If you see the Wadia balance sheet at the end of the year, you will realize that the Wadias have a lot of commercial sense, which earns good money. Do you know that the Wadia Movietone is one of our really financially sound companies? Wadias may not help art, but they do help themselves. An industry needs all sorts of people for it to be called an industry. And yet, I wish that Wadias, with their huge resources, had taken a turn for good social pictures.”
Homi Wadia with his wife Mary (aka Fearless Nadia) in 1984
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