Made with a budget of high production, the film is usually compared with the landmark Bollywood film, Mughal-e-Azam ,which was also based on the same play.The film was praised for its music, which was composed by Master Inayat Hussain and Rashid Attre.[1] At the Nigar Awards ceremony in 1958, it won two awards:Best Lyricist for Qateel Shifai and Best Playback Singer for Noor Jehan.
The film was released on 4 June 1958. Its performance was rated as average at the box office, and it had a theatrical run for 18 weeks in Karachi cinemas.
Production
Imtiaz Ali Taj's Anārkalī was adapted as a screenplay by director Anwar Kamal Pasha for the film Anarkali.[3] In the 1940s, Mohammad Afzal, better known by his stage name Himalya Wala, was selected to play the character of Salim's Rajput friend, Durjan Singh, in K. Asif adaptation of Taj's play (Mughal-e-Azam), but due to political turmoil and the worst conditions in the country that led to the independence of Pakistan, the project was halted, and he went on to star in Anarkali after he migrated to Pakistan.[5]
The film is compared with the landmark Bollywood film Mughal-e-Azam, which was also based on the same play by Taj and broke all the box office records but Anarkali could not perform remarkably at the box office and had low a production budget in comparison to its rival.[6]
Reception
Film analysts criticized the casting of Noor Jehan as Anarkali, as Jehan was in her 30s by then and chubby at that time. She nowhere resembled a young, pretty female servant as is portrayed in the 1920s novel by the same name. The film music was however praised.[2][6]
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