स्वामी

A 1941 social drama (also released under the English title 'The Saint') directed by A. R. Kardar for his Bombay studio, with the celebrated dancer Sitara Devi, P. Jairaj and Nazir Ahmed Khan in the principal roles. Like many films of the period its plot is now poorly documented, but the surviving record is its music — a Rafiq Ghaznavi score sung chiefly by Rajkumari, Sitara Devi and Khan Mastana, devotional and folk-tinged in keeping with the title's spiritual register.

The score by Rafiq Ghaznavi features ten documented songs, performed chiefly by Rajkumari and Sitara Devi, with Khan Mastana on two duets. The lyrics are shared between Shatir Ghaznavi (who wrote the majority), Tanveer Naqvi, Pandit Indra Chandra and Sahir, with subject matter leaning devotional, folk and pastoral — 'Prem Pujari Jamuna Tat Par' and 'Birhin Jaage Aadhi Raat' being among the better-remembered numbers.

Rafiq Ghaznavi, the music director, was a colourful figure of early Indian cinema — an actor, singer, vichitra-veena player and composer of Pashtun descent. He and Kardar had a working association going back to the early 1930s. The lyric-writing was divided among several poets, a common practice of the era, including an early credit for the young Shatir Ghaznavi.

Swami is a representative title from A. R. Kardar's early independent Bombay period (his Kardar Productions banner began making films around 1940), and one of the early Hindi-cinema credits of music director Rafiq Ghaznavi, a vichitra-veena player and composer whose film career spanned the 1930s and 1940s before he migrated to Pakistan. The film also sits among the screen appearances of kathak legend Sitara Devi.

Like many films of the pre-1947 decade, Swami survives largely through its gramophone records and song listings rather than a viewable print. Its value today is archival — a node connecting A. R. Kardar, Rafiq Ghaznavi, Sitara Devi and singers Rajkumari and Khan Mastana in the dense collaborative network of 1940s Hindi film music.