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Ek Thi Ladki

1949 164’ b&w Hindi d Roop K. Shorey pc Shorey Films s I.S. Johar lyr Aziz Kashmiri c Anwar Pabani m Vinod lp Meena Shorey, Motilal, Kuldeep, I.S. Johar, Majnu, Shakuntala, Batra, Shamlal, Gogia Pasha, Agha Miraz

This suspense drama was Shorey’s first major Hindi success after his migration from Lahore. Poor and orphaned Meena (Shorey) accidentally witnesses the murder of a businessman in his office. Fleeing the scene, she is caught by the cops but rescued by the two killers who smart-talk their way out of the crisis. The trio check into a fancy hotel where Meena is required to play a princess. Spotting a policeman, she escapes once again and blunders into the office of hero Ranjit (Motilal), who employs her as his stenographer and then falls in love with her, to the annoyance of his boss’s daughter Vimala. Geeta Dutt (then Geeta Roy) sang one of her early numbers Chandani raat hai, but the major hit of the movie is Lata Mangeshkar’s La-ra-lappa lai rakhada: throughout the rest of her career Meena Shorey was known as the La-ra-lappa- girl.

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