राहत

No synopsis of Rahat survives in any source that could be consulted. Wikipedia's List of Hindi films of 1945 classifies it as a social — the period's label for a contemporary-life drama as opposed to a mythological, historical or stunt picture — but records no plot, and neither HindiGeetMala nor MySwar carries a story summary, a review or any note of a surviving print. What is documented is the production. Rahat was made by Kirti Pictures and directed by Ramnik Desai, listed as Ramniklal Desai in the Wikipedia filmography, from a screenplay by D'Jalma Desai, with dialogue by Pandit Phani — who also wrote all ten of the film's songs. The music was composed by S. Dutt, a name that appears only thinly in the surviving catalogue of the decade. The cast was headed by Sardar Akhtar and P. Jairaj, with Indira, Vatsala Kumthekar, Kanhaiyalal and Hari Shivdasani in support. The song catalogue is preserved in full: ten titles, all by Pandit Phani and S. Dutt, of which only two carry a singer credit — Vatsala Kumthekar on 'Chandrama Ke Mukhde Se' and 'Sau Naach Nachaye Jawani'. The titles sketch whatever range the film had: a song of hope, a seasonal sakhi song, several love complaints, and — two years before Independence — a patriotic number, 'Yah Hai Hindustan Hamara'.

Ten songs, all written by Pandit Phani and composed by S. Dutt — an unusually tight authorship for a 1945 film, where soundtracks were often split between two or three lyricists. Only two tracks carry a vocal credit, both to Vatsala Kumthekar; the remaining eight are catalogued by HindiGeetMala and MySwar with lyricist and composer but no singer, so their voices are left unattributed here rather than guessed. No transfer of any Rahat disc has been traced online, so nothing can be said about the arrangements.

Rahat is significant now chiefly as a documentation problem: a 1945 feature with a complete, cross-verified song catalogue and a full cast list, but no plot, no print, no review and no surviving audio. It is the ONLY film carrying a music-director credit for S. Dutt in the Hindi Film Geet Kosh's entire 1931-1985 database, where his name returns one music-direction credit and ten songs, all of them from this film. It is also the last film in which Vatsala Kumthekar is credited both in the cast and as a singer: HFGK records 67 songs for her running from Lahri Lutera (1937) to Rahat (1945), and none after.