Stories about the making of Pakeezah are legendary. Filming began in 1956, and wrapped up for release in 1972. Meena Kumari had aged visibly over the years, but the film itself has not.
A lot changed during those years. Pakeezah was initially titled Pakeeza, as you can observe on the clapboard in the video of the famous song Inhi Logon Ne, which was shot in the black and white era. The letter ‘h’ was added later to the title to embellish the nukhta in Pakeezah. The idea was to add more melancholy to the pronunciation.
The song was subsequently re-shot in colour.
All this is known to some film aficionados. What is perhaps not known as well is that the famous Shamshad Begum sang a version of Inhi Logon Ne for the film Himmat in 1941.
It was filmed in a similar manner to Pakeezah, where a courtesan dances for a party of revellers. What you might call an ‘item song’ today.
