Bahen (1941 film)

Bahen
Directed by	Mehboob Khan
Produced by	National Studios
Written by	Babubhai Mehta Zia Sarhadi
Starring	Sheikh Mukhtar Nalini Jaywant Harish Kanhaiyalal
Music by	Anil Biswas
Cinematography	Faredoon Irani
Edited by	Shamsuddin Qadri
Production company	National Studios
Release date	1941
Running time	156 min
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Bahen (Hindi बहन, Sister) is a 1941 Hindi film directed by Mehboob Khan.Sagar Movietone had closed down during the start of WW II and reformed as National Studios. It was under the new banner that Mehboob Khan produced his three important films of that time, Aurat (1940), Bahen (1941) and Roti (1942). Written by Babubhai Mehta and Zia Sarhadi, it had dialogues and screenplay by Wajahat Mirza. The cinematography was by Faredoon Irani. Anil Biswas was the music director with lyrics by Safdar Aah. The cast included Sheikh Mukhtar, Nalini Jaywant, Harish, Kanhaiyalal, Husn Bano, Swaroop Rani, Baby Meena (Meena Kumari) and Bhudo Advani.

It was the first film of Nalini Jaywant; she played the younger sister to Sheikh Mukhtar, who takes her responsibility after their parents perish in an earthquake. He lives for her and does everything required to keep her safe and happy even to the extent of moving and changing his job many times. So much so that he doesn't realize that she has grown up and needs to live her own life. The film brought Jaywant into prominence.

Having saved his little sister Bina (Baby Meena Kumari) from the floods, Amar (Sheikh Mukhtar) becomes increasingly possessive about her over the years. Amar falls in love twice but forgoes marriage so he can look after the growing Bina. Bina (Nalini Jaywant), now a grown up young girl falls in love with the social activist Rajendra (Harish). However, Amar can not bear to lose Bina and so he plans her marriage to the thief Moti Kanhaiyalal, with the idea that he'll get her divorced after some time and then Bina would stay with him always. After several incidents that end up uniting Rajendra and Bina, Amar gets some happiness when a daughter is born to Bina.