Included among those luminaries who earned fame at sub-continental level, were singing actress Surriya, who remained queen of Indian silver screen for over 15 years; Kiran Diwan, who acted in several Punjabi films before getting a big break in the film 'Ratan' (1944), lyricist D. N. Madhok, who wrote songs for hundreds of Punjabi and Urdu films produced from Lahore and Bombay; and Amrita Preetam, whose poetry is equally admired by the people on both sides of the Wagha border.
Shamshad Begum alias Shaado, who worked for the movies using the name of Ragni, was also born in Gujranwala in October 1925. Her father a rich Hindu Seth Diwan Parmanand, shifted to Lahore to live on Nicholson Road along with little Shamshad after the death of her mother.
Shamshad alias Shaado's father was a neighbour and friend of R.L. Shorey, one of the pioneers of film industry in Lahore. When Shaado was studying in the seventh class and had crossed the age of puberty, she was offered a role by Roop K. Shorey, the son of senior Shorey in his Punjabi film, which he was preparing to launch in Lahore in 1941.
"Bade Shorey Sahib", reminisced Ragni in a voice interview she recorded in 1979, "gave me the name of Ragni after consulting an astrologer". "It was with much reluctance", she added, "that my father agreed to allow me to take up assignment in a film. R.K. Shorey, after a number of auditions and video, selected me as heroine for his Punjabi film 'Dulla Bhatti' produced under the banner of Kamla Movietone, which was produced and exhibited in 1941.
It was a roaring success. My second film 'Sehti Murad' was also in Punjabi but was directed by Barkat Mehra, which too was widely appreciated. I also playacted in Shorey's film 'Himmat'. After the success of her two Punjabi films, the Lahore-based producers almost fell over each other in their attempts at casting me in their movies.
As I was not good at singing, Umrozia Begum, who later married Master Ghulam Haider, recorded songs filmed on me in my two films, melodic raiment for which were provided by Gobind Ram and Master Ghulam Haider respectively".
Actress Ragni was one among the lucky stars of yesteryears, which acquired the status of a celebrity in filmdom soon after making their debuts. After the tumultuous popularity of her films, which was largely due to her beauty and histrionic talent, she was signed for a number of films including 'Nishani' (1942), 'Mera Mahi', 'Gowandi' and 'Poonji' (1943), 'Dassi' (1944), 'Ravi Paar', 'Dhamki, Patwari', Poonji, 'Dhamki', and 'Shirin Farhad' (1945 and 1946). A majority of these films did very good business at the box office.
In 1946, she shifted to Bombay to enact the role of Mumtaz Mahal, wife of the emperor in A.R. Kardar's costume and historical extravaganza 'Shahjehan'. Actor M.D. Kanwar, whose first film assignment like Ragni was in the film 'Dulla Bhatti', and who was reported to have fallen in love with Ragni, acted with her in several films in Lahore and later in Bombay, including 'Shehjehan'.
Historically, soon after the invention of sound motion pictures, the youth in Lahore and elsewhere in the sub-continent began to spend their holidays in cinema halls.
Having absorbed every conceivable gesture, line, action and turns in the plots of the films, they relished spending the remainder of the week practising their 'repertoires' in the living rooms, street corners, and school and college grounds. Ragni, who made her debut during the heydays of films, tremendously benefited from the congenial and conducive cultural environment of that period.
So poignant was the power and so enduring was the impact of films that it was no accident that some of the finest minds in Lahore during the past 75 years, especially poets, writers and intellectuals were sucked into its enchanting and absorbing vortex. Ragni was lucky to have surfaced on cinematic firmament when the audiences worshipped the heroes and heroines of popular films.
In Bombay, Ragni also enacted leading roles in several films, including popular movies 'Nek Perveen', and less popular 'Bindiya' and 'Mun Maani'. She returned to Lahore shortly before partition to act in a film named 'Faraz' with Sudhir in the lead role. Later, she set up her own production unit under whose banner she launched Kundan with Afzal Himaliyawala and Sudhir in the leading roles. The film flopped at the box office after which she once again went to Bombay where she playacted in the film 'Insaan'.
Returning to Lahore she enacted the leading role in the films 'Baiqrar' with S. Gull (whom she later married after having been divorced earlier), 'Mundri' with Ilyas Kashmiri and 'Nazrana' with Santosh Kumar. 'Anarkali' (Anwar Kamal Pasha), 'Naukar' with Nazir and Sawarn Lata. Her other Pakistani films were 'Shirarat' and 'Iltaja', which also failed at the box office.
Like a majority of showbiz celebrities of the sub-continent, Ragni too spent the evening of her life in seclusion in the murk of obscurity in a small house in Gulberg, Lahore whens he was choked by the death of her only son. Her married daughter Karachi. Strange are the vicissitudes of life that artistes with such a large following during the prime of their careers are completely forgotten after they get out of circulation.