Mahesh Kaul

Mahesh Kaul was a director - actor who worked in the Hindi Film Industry.

He was born in 1911 in Jodhpur. He did his his education from Moni College, Nagpur and initially worked as a journalist and was even the branch manager of a bank. He entered films as a lyricist and a dialogue writer and made an early mark when he first acted in Naya Sansar (1941) made at Bombay Talkies starring Ashok Kumar and Renuka Devi. The following year he acted in Debaki Bose's Hindi/ Marathi bilingual Apna Ghar/Aple Ghar (1942) and made a major impact playing Dronacharya in PY Altekar's Hindi/Marathi bilingual Mahatma Vidur (1943), working on the Hindi dialogues and lyrics as well. His first film as a director was Angoori (1943). He followed this up with Paristan (1944), a fantasy starring Pahadi Sanyal.

As a director, his breakthrough film was Gopinath (1948), starring Raj Kapoor and well-known IPTA actress Tripti Mitra. Followed a period where Kaul stuck only to directing. His next film after Gopinath was Naujawan (1951), perhaps his most well-known and popular film starring Nalini Jaywant, Premnath and Nawab. The film is still remembered for the evergreen ditty Thandi Hawaen Lehrake Aayen composed by SD Burman and sung by Lata Mangeshkar. Other films he directed include Jeevan Jyoti (1953), the first film Shammi Kapoor shot for even if Rail Ka dibba (1953) released first, Abhiman (1957), made at Filmistan, Aakhri Dao (1958) starring Nutan and Shekhar and Talaq (1958), an early Rajendra Kumar starrer.

Kaul returned to acting in Guru Dutt's Kaagaz ke Phool (1959) playing Guru Dutt's westernized father-in-law, Sir BB Verma, modelled clearly on Baburao Patel. Unfortunately his scenes were among the weakest in the film with Guru Dutt treating his wife's family as total cardboard caricatures. Kaul would thereafter act in just two more films, Palki (1967) and the Vijay Anand directed Tere Mere Sapne (1971).

He did return to directing though with Pyar ki Pyaas (1961) and perhaps his most critically acclaimed film outside of Gopinath, Sautela Bhai (1962). The film is also known for Guru Dutt's best ever performance as an actor. Diwana (1967) and Sapnon ka Saudagar (1968) made no impact even if the latter boasted of introducing 'dream girl' Hema Malini after Vyjayanthimala backed out of the film. Kaul made Rakhi Rakhi (1969) for the Film Institute of India and his last film Agni Rekha starring Sanjeev Kumar and Sharada was released posthumously in 1973 as Kaul had passed away the previous year.