लालचंद बिस्मिल

Lalchand Bismil was a lyricist and screenwriter of late-1930s and 1940s Hindi cinema. Born Lalchand Purohit and hailing from Peshawar, he adopted the pen name "Bismil" out of admiration for the revolutionary poet Ram Prasad Bismil. A well-read man with command over Urdu, Persian, Hindi and English, he worked at two of the era's biggest banners: his first credit was writing dialogues for New Theatres' Sapera (1939), and the following year Sohrab Modi's Minerva Movietone entrusted him with the story, screenplay and lyrics of Bharosa (1940). Set to music by G. P. Kapoor, his Bharosa songs — among them "Chhum Chhum Chhanan Naach Rahi Hai Maya" and "Kaahe Roki Baat Hamari Krishna Murari" — served a socially daring film that drew praise even from the famously harsh critic Baburao Patel. His last known screen credit was as a lyricist for Paisa (1957), after which his trail disappears from film records.