Humayan (Hindi: हुमायूँ) is a 1945 Indian Bollywood historical epic film directed by Mehboob Khan. It was the seventh highest grossing Indian film of 1945.
King Dushyanta
Following a passionate encounter with King Dushyanta (Chandramohan), the comely Shakuntala (Jayashree) finds herself pregnant and rejected by the royal court. She gives birth in a forest to a son which she names Bharat (Kumar Ganesh). When the King tracks his former lover down and tries to take her back, she flatly refuses him.
A love affair and two feuding families who play out a Romeo and Juliet type drama in 17th century India, under the Emperor Jehangir.
Adventure classic featuring Durga Khote's most memorable role as the pirate Queen Saudamini. Faced with extreme patriarchal laws in an ancient seaport kingdom and denied the legal custody of her infant son Sudhir, Saudamini becomes a pirate declaring war on the state, and especially on its tyrannical minister of justice, Durjaya (Chandramohan). She attacks a royal ship and captures Durjaya, inadvertently also taking Princess Nandini (Apte). In captivity, Durjaya declares his love for Nandini but she falls fir a shepherd boy (Nandrekar) who turns out to be Saudamini's long-lost son Sudhir. Durjaya's men then capture Saudamini and a palace intrigue ensues marked by her emancipatory rhetoric and the universal humanist arguments of her adviser Shekhar (Kale).
This classic opens with a sensational low-angle circular track movement as Chandika cult followers meet in a dungeon of flickering lights and deep shadow. As the more rationalist King Krantivarma (Varde) banned human or animal sacrifices from the increasingly fanatical festivals dedicated to the goddess, the cult's high priest (Chandramohan/Date) orders the hapless Vishwagupta (Kelkar) to kill the king.
