URDU means war camp in turkish, it was the lingua franca that evolved in the army of moguls who were turkish but they employed persian and indian soldiers, with time it became the courtly language and reached a zenith with galib who can be compared to any poet globally as is mr ruswa as a novelist who penned umrao jan.
Now till 1947 urdu was the state language but after wards a similar dialect hindi was instituted which is very similar to speak but has a very different manuscript, but for bollywood it was different most of the poets and writers and actors earlier spoke urdu and the endless list is inexhaustible but with time urdu was mixed and hindi movies became the mainstream.
Even then urdu with its gazals and qawallis was resplendent and there are some movies in urdu in last 40 years that deserve a special mention as they came to reflect only the muslim community renamed as muslim socials whatever that implies, unfortunately although urdu produced great writers amongst all creeds like rajinder singh bedi and amrita preetam and nehru spoke perfect urdu as does amitabh, its now a language restricted to muslims in india .
A great heritage with poets like atish .moman .khusru.mir and iqbal has been isolated but bollywood makes sure it does justice to urdu like in kabhi kabhi with sahir and khayyam and amitab creating a musical genius in urdu.
now charting the urdu movies is not easy as all of raj kapoors movies are scripted by k, a, abbas, agreat urdu writer and director but to mention a few lets take a bold initiative
*awara
penned by kaabbas and made by rk this is the most seen and appreciated movie on the globe as revealed by new research, a superhit in ussr east europe, africa and far east, its been seen by far more people then shole
chaudvin ka chaand
guru dutt, rehman and waheeda weave magic to a movie love triangle with roshans great music
*taj mahal
pradeep kumar -bina roy again in a historical way ahead of akbars misadventure, with roshan again giving a great score
*bahu begum
meena ashok pradeep in a very off the beat powerful drama in nawabi lucknow
*gazal
meena sunildutt in a nawabi love story with great songs
*asman mahal
abbas with prithvi raj in a art classic about the degeneration of hyderabad
*mughaleazam
the kasif masterpiece with dilip madu, prithv -durga khote,
anarkali by imtiaz ali taj immortalised
*pakeezah
the most romantic poem on celluloid ever with meena and ashok -rajkumar .
and ghulam haiders last score
*razia sultan
kamal amrohi again in a controversial territory as a woman genius romances her black slave, raising eyebrows with dharam and hema and khayyam at his best with jan nisar akhtar
*shatranj ke khilari
an artistic landmark with ray taking on oudh and wajid ali shah with sanjeev and amjad and impeccable, immaculate details
an international masterpiece which finally won the oscar for life time achievement category for mr ray
*mehboob ki mehndi
rajesh leena try their hands at a muslim social which entertains and has great songs
*mere mehbbob
rawail created magic by the rafi song and sadhnas beauty in a nawabi background,
sadna at her best with rajendra and a superhit with great music and asok -nimmi too
*kajal
meena rajkumar show their diction and talent with great music
*noor jehan
meena pradeep again with a flawed musical score but great acting
*anarkali
binaroys sowewhat flawed comparison to mughaleazam
*yahudi
meena and dilip in bimildas great roman epic in urdu made in india
*nikaah
br chopra strikes with talak and salma agha and raj babarwith ravi giving great gazals
*umrao jaan
muzzaffars masterpiece with rekha, naseer, raj babbar almost as good as its earlier pakistani counterpart with khayyam asha combo with an artistic approach
*jahan ara
mala sinha with bharat boshan in a quality historical again garnered by mmohans music
*deedareyar
a mediocre movie by rawail with rekha jetendra risi tina redeemed by a few good songs
*fanaa
last years superhit which was made memorable by a great script and performances brough the urdu romantics back to screen in a kick srart with amir and kajol in excellent form with rishi and kiron kher
*umrao jan
a total disgrace by jpdutta where nothing matches nothing, a remake to end all remakes and deservingly the biggest commercial disater of the year, miscast and badly scripted and the music was forgettable instantly.
*taj mahal
akbar khans blunder with awful music and great sets and manisha kabir bedi in great form
*tawaif
rati and raj babbar in a cheesy interpretation of pakeeza
*sharafat
hema dharam ashok in great form in a tawaif story again
mere huzoor
mediocre except rajkumar
*junoon
flight of pigeons turned by ismats pen to an immortal classic with a great ensemle cast
*laila majnu
rawail and rishi make a superhit with ranjita and jaidevs music
*bazaar
smita and farooq in sarhadis topical artistic masterpiece set in hyderabad in the context of forced marriage
*lori
shabana with sarhadi as a mother going paranoid sufferring from maternal blues
*gaman
muzzaffar ali with smita, naseer in a great script with great gazals
*hanste zakhm
cheatan anand makes a classic on prostitution with balraj and priya with lata and madan mohan at their best with kaifi azmi scripting
*coolie
amitab tries his hand at a muslim social with partial sucess
sohni mahiwal
poonam and sunny in the punjabi loe folktale
*palay khan
*poonam and jackie in a true story with flawed execution about a freedom fighter in baluchistan
and now the best
*garm hawa
ismat and kaifi turn to pen a real then life drama set in agra for sm sathyus great movie with balraj sahni, gita and shaukat azmi
now all these are some of the more prominent movies
they are not in chronological order and tastes vary so if anyone dis agrees please give your reasons in comments
im also not commenting on any language, this is purely a listing of pure urdu movies wit a heavy accent on the persian words like mehtaab jaam aur sagar o meena
as for the poets gulzar is one of the greatest urdu poets and in the past we had sahir, kaifi, jan nisar akhtar and shailendra
now its interesting that all of mehboobs movies are in dialects or hindi, while raj kapoor indulges in urdu as even bobby was penned by k.a .abbas as was the great awara
also lata has done more for urdu by singing her great songs in perfect diction .
we are waiting for lajoo, the next epic in urdu to hit us probably next year.amen
thanks for reading rating or ranting .
