बॉम्बे कॉलिंग

An action film of 1942, Bombay Calling was directed by Raja Yagnik and led by Navin Yagnik and Shirin, with Agha among the supporting players. As with much of the action-adventure output of the early-1940s Bombay studios, its principal surviving footprint is its eight-song soundtrack composed by Pratap Mukherjee to lyrics by A. Karim.

Pratap Mukherjee scored all eight songs to lyrics by A. Karim. The catalogue ranges across the standard early-1940s registers — devotional-flavoured invocation (Aao Aakash Singhasan Par Jaaye), a breeze-and-spring lyric (Ab Pavan Chali Ithlati), and philosophical reflection on the world's tangle (Kya Jane Kya Jane Koi Jag Ka Gorakh Dandha). Gulabanu and Khan Mastana are the only documented voices, on the first two numbers.

The film survives chiefly as a record of music director Pratap Mukherjee's work and of singers active in the early-1940s Bombay studio system — notably Gulabanu and Khan Mastana, who voice its opening number. It is a documentary marker of the breadth of Bombay's 1942 output during the Quit India year, when even modest action features carried full song scores.