Hunterwali

Hunterwali
Directed by	Homi Wadia
Produced by	Wadia Movietone
Written by	Homi Wadia
Screenplay by	Homi Wadia Joseph David
Story by	J.B.H. Wadia
Starring	Fearless Nadia
Music by	Master Mohammed
Cinematography	Balwant Dave
Production company	Wadia Movietone
Distributed by	Wadia Movietone
Release date	1935
Running time	164 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	Rs 80,000

Hunterwali (A Woman with a Whip) is a 1935 Indian Hindi-language action film by the Wadia Movietone company of Bombay (now Mumbai), featuring Fearless Nadia as the heroine. A story of a princess who fights injustice as the masked crusader Hunterwali (lit. "lady with the whip"), the film propelled Nadia and the Wadia brothers of Wadia Movietone to fame.

Hunterwali was the first lead role for Nadia. She performed many stunts in the film which were applauded by the audience. The film, an expensive venture, was a blockbuster. It inspired numerous products, incorporating Hunterwali in their brand names. Because of the movie's success, Nadia became a cult icon and starred in numerous stunt films, becoming Indian cinema's "earliest and most popular stunt actress".

The story begins on a stormy night, with a prologue explaining that Krishnavati and her infant son are getting evicted from her house by the Prime Minister (Vazier), Ranamal. Earlier, Ranamal had also had her brother murdered. The film switches to 20 years later when Krishnavati's son Jaswant is an adult. The royal car hits Jaswant in an accident. Then the scene leads to Princess Madhuri (Fearless Nadia) offering Jaswant compensation in the form of gold for the injury caused. Jaswant gallantly refuses the gift and the princess is attracted to him. The villain Ranamal also has a crush on the princess and wants to marry her. This proposal is opposed by her father the king who is imprisoned by Ranamal. Madhuri, assumes the role of "Hunterwali", a masked vigilante, the "protector of the poor and punisher of evildoers". She then goes around performing stunts like jumping over a moving carriage and then defeating 20 soldiers in one sweep with swashbuckling whipping style. She does not spare Jaswant either as she steals his prized possession, a horse called "Punjab", but soon gives it back to him. Jaswant plots his vendetta and finds Madhuri bathing nude in the river and kidnaps her and gifts her to Ranamal for a reward, but she later escapes. At the end, Madhuri and Jaswant join hands to fight Ranamal together and defeat him.

The members of the cast were:

Hunterwali was a Black and White film running for 164 minutes. During the production stage, there was an objection to the film's title. Language pundits objected to the blending of two words; Hunter, an English word denoting "whip" and wali, which was a Hindi word made a corrupted hybrid which did not do justice to either language.