The ‘50s, historically rated as the Golden Era of Hindi Cinema, was the most fascinating decade in the annals of Indian Cinema. It consolidated the process of re-building after the ravages of Partition, which had begun in the late ‘40s. Among the most significant participants in this critical process were a dynamic bunch of new directors who gave the struggling industry a fresh shot of creativity. Like Bimal Roy (who shifted to Mumbai from Kolkota’s New Theatre), Raj Kapoor, B. R. Chopra, V. Shantaram and Mehboob Khan. On the parallel track were an extremely innovative breed of young directors who had just made their way to the centre stage: Guru Dutt, Raj Khosla and Vijay Anand. They made highly entertaining films without resorting to the conventional claptraps of the commercial idiom.

Another new entrant to the directors’ league was Bimal Roy’s brilliant editor, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who was to become major star-maker in the years to come just like Nasir Hussain. Hussain had scripted a few blockbusters for Filmistan before launching himself as an independent producer-director with Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957) which marked a sensational comeback for a written-off actor by the name of Shammi Kapoor.

Three actors, who had entered the scene rather unobtrusively in the mid-‘40s, found their individual niche in the ‘50s to reach great heights. They were Dilip Kumar (debut: 1944), Dev Anand (debut: 1946) and Raj Kapoor (debut: 1947). Popularly known as the Big Three they made films of contrasting genres which reflected their individual persona and style. On their heels was a new breed of actors like Rajendra Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Manoj Kumar and Dharmendra, who were fighting hard for individual space. Rajendra Kumar, who was branded as a Dilip Kumar clone, led the pack with a series of blockbusters. But the one to really break into the cordon of the Big Three was ‘rebel’ star Shammi Kapoor, Raj Kapoor’s younger sibling. Kapoor had bounced back from the brink of oblivion with Tumsa Nahin Dekha to create a niche for himself. He broke the conventional mould of the Hindi film hero and gave him a brand new aggressive identity with a hint of machismo.

Among actresses, the reining queen was South’s glamour queen Vyjayanthimala, but the actor par excellence was Meena Kumari. She was challenged in the later years of the decade by a brilliantly versatile newcomer, Nutan Samarth. Also in the fray were Suraiya, Nargis, Madhubala, Bina Rai and Mala Sinha, each with an individual profile. Two emerging new faces were Waheeda Rehman and Asha Parekh. The sex symbols were, Helen, Sheila Ramani and Begum Para.

The ‘50s also saw Hindi film music acquiring new notes. Naushad, S. D. Burman, Salil Choudhary and Roshan raised the bar by ‘refining’ the sounds of the ‘40s. They came up with path-breaking scores in films like Baiju Bawra (1952), Nau Do Gyarah (1957), Madhumati (1958) and Barsaat Ki Raat (1960). Shanker-Jaikishen, who had arrived with a flourish with Raj Kapoor’s blockbuster Barsaat (1949), gave a new dimension to orchestra in the ‘50s with a series of chart-busting scores. Their amazing range in Awara (1951), Anari (1959) Basant Bahar (1956) and Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai (1960) set new trends. Adding equally exciting new notes was a lesser know composer, Om Prakash Nayyar, popularly known as O.P. Nayyar.

The year 1957 saw some sensational happenings. Like a historic release (Mother India, which all but won an Oscar), a sensational marriage (Nargis-Sunil Dutt), a stunning re-emergence (Shammi Kapoor) and some significant debuts (Vijay Anand, Nasir Hussain)