कलियाँ

A 1944 social melodrama written and directed by Kidar Sharma — the lyrically minded filmmaker who would soon launch Raj Kapoor and Madhubala — with a romantic-domestic storyline carried, as so often in Sharma's cinema, less by plot than by its songs. Made under wartime constraints, the film paired Sharma's own verse with the melodic gift of composer G. A. Chishti.

Chishti is remembered for using delicate flute interludes throughout Kaliyan's songs. The soundtrack leans on the voices of Leela Sawant (the film's principal female playback) and Lalita Parulkar, with V. G. Bhatkar (later known as Snehal Bhatkar) singing duets — reportedly among his early breaks as a playback singer under Chishti.

Kaliyan belongs to Kidar Sharma's mid-1940s run (alongside Bhanwara, also 1944) in which the writer-director paired his own lyrics with capable composers. The score is the film's lasting legacy: G. A. Chishti — one of the most prolific composers of the pre-Partition Lahore-Bombay music world before his 1949 migration to Pakistan — supplied a clutch of melodious numbers sung chiefly by Leela Sawant and Lalita Parulkar.