Suna thha maine bachpan mein
Posted on: April 19, 2024
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Today’s song is from a stunt film Toofan-1969. The film was an unusual stunt film story. It was directed by Radhakant and the Music Director was Daan Singh.
The Lyricist was Akhtar Romani. He is the same lyricist who entered the film world with a big bang. His first song was the only song he wrote for S.N.tripathi in that film. However, this only song became a big Hit song which is popular even today. The film was Hatimtai-1956 and the song was ” Parwar digar e aalam, tera hi hai sahara “, sung by Mohd. rafi and lip synched by Jairaj on the screen Romani’s career as a Lyricist was a short one. He wrote only 70 songs in 29 films. However he remained busy writing on film songs. film stories, s/plays and dialogues for more than 20 hit films. He also featured and conducted about 4 radio programmes. There was just one more lyricist who also wrote popular songs in his first film. Majrooh Sultanpuri (Asrar hasan khan ) wrote 7 songs in his first film ” Shahjehan”-1946 and all songs became hit songs. These were sung by Saigal, composed by Naushad.
The cast of the film was Dara Singh, Anita, N.A.Ansari, Azaad, Shabana, Johnny Whisky, Ratnamala, Arvind pandya, Dilip Dutt, helen, Bipin gupta and many others. I have not seen this film. After 1965 I had almost given up seeing films en masse and saw only selected films, due to my concentration on career and married life. I was a great fan of Dara Singh. Not because of his wrestling skills or physique but because he gave a respectable form to stunt and action films. Before him , action films were meant for only lower strata of the society like daily earners or labourers etc. who would encourage the hero on screen to beat the villains, bu shouting motivating suggestions and encouragement like ” Maar saale ko” or ” kar de batti gul” etc. After Dara singh entered the action films, his films were shown in better theatres and the type of audience also changed to better. After I started writing articles on old films, I was a bit shy to admit my love for his films. Then I came to know about ‘Memsaab’ (Greta Kaemmer), who proudly declared her status of being a fan of Dara Singh and I was happy to get a companion. Dara Singh was a perfect gentleman and never tried to be in the limelight. In fact, he used to feel very shy to be photographed or interviewed.
The 60s opened up a new Genre of Films. Films in which muscular He-men ‘acted’. Really speaking, their dialogues were delivered silently by their solid bodies and the fighting they did on the screens. Here were the Heroes who would kill dangerous Jungle animals barehanded, break Iron chains, fight with 10 people at a time, ride horses, swim expertly and overall display their physical might !
The beginning was done in 1958 with ‘Zimbo’, featuring Azad-a Parsee Bodybuilder. That way, Dara Singh had entered the films in 1952 with ‘Sangdil’ and he had a wrestling match with Om Prakash in ‘Pehli Jhalak’-1954. His first film as a hero -King Kong came in 1962, when he was already 34 years old !
That was a period when the Indian culture of defeats in all possible sports was on the peak and the Indians were looking for a Saviour. In Dara Singh, India found a SuperHero who won not only in India but also in Commonwealth and the World championships. Dara Singh was much more than an Actor. He was a piece of Folklore and he became a social phenomenon soon. He was a hybrid of Myth and Folklore, larger than life evocation of the Desi Hero. He represented the Indian idea of Masculinity-The Mard, a He Man. He had the muscle prowess but no aggression. He evoked security, gentleness and the right kind of patriarchy. He was proud to be a Jat and an Indian.
He was a Pehalwan trained in the Indian style of wrestling. Dara’s victories against King Kong and Zybisco in the late 50s made him a legend. Lakhs of people would gather at the venues of his bouts. He brought wrestling from the Akhadas to the Drawing rooms of Affluent homes. He remained Undefeated in 500+ bouts in his lifetime, winning Indian Championship in 1953, the Commonwealth championship in 1959 and the World Championship in 1968, when he was into acting in Hindi films full fledgedly !
He did roles of Kings, Princes, Rebels, Mutineer, Jungle Boy, Samson, Hercules, Sikander and the greatest role of his life as Hanuman. There may be 300 odd types of Ramayans, but only one Hanuman-Dara Singh. He was, for most people, the embodiment of the Monkey God. Without him the Ramayan was never the same ! Dara Singh, I am sure, would have been the original choice of even Valmiki !!!
Dara Singh was the Indian Superman. Even when he started doing character roles, the Heroes were happy to work with him. In one interview ( he gave interviews very rarely-he used blush too much), he had said,” Out of all my roles, I liked my role in Anand-70, where I was very comfortable doing my real life role-that of a Pahilwan in an Akhada !” He was probably one of the few who worked in A, B and C grade films in his life with equal ease and aplomb. Whether it was Mumtaz or Amitabh, he remained Dara Singh-Rustic, Strong, Indian, Gentle, Protective and Chivalrous.
Dara Singh was born at village Dharmuchak in Amritsar district on 19-11-1928 to Surat Singh and Balwant Kaur. He was married to Surjit Kaur Randhwa on 11-5-1961 and they had a son. From his second marriage he had 3 daughters and 2 sons. At the age of 22, he went to Singapore and won several championships. At 24 he did his first film role in Sangdil-52 and he became a Hero at 34 years of age. He did 122 Hindi films, 22 Punjabi films, besides producing 3 and directing 9 films.
He continued wrestling up to 1970. In 1978, he established his Dara Studios in Mohali, Punjab. His last film came in 2012-“Ata pata lapata”. With Mumtaz he did 16 films out of which 12 were Hit films. In those days, he was paid 4 lakh rupees per film. Dara Singh died on 12-7-2012. His brother Randhwa died on 21-10-2013 ( this news was hardly noticed).
Many Bodybuilders tried to copy Dara Singh. Their films never succeeded because people knew who the original Superman was. Indrajit, Viju Penkar, Hercules, Azad and even Randhwa did few Dara-like films, but they were never accepted by the audience. Dara Singh was Unique. One may think that his films were seen and liked only by the lower strata of society or exclusive C grade film audiences, but it was wrong. Dara Singh films were ‘Super Deluxe’ versions of B and C class films and were liked by people from Top class to bottom class. I was a great fan of Dara films and rarely missed any of them.
I was surprised to find the name of Arvind Pandya in the cast of this film. I knew he was a great Theatre personality and a Gujarati film star. He did very few Hindi films. Arvind Pandya (21 March 1923 – 22 July 1980) was an actor. In his career spanning 35 years, he acted in more than one hundred films including 75 Gujarati and 25 Hindi films. He also worked in Hindi and Gujarati theatres.
Pandya was born on 21 March 1923 in Bhadran. He spent his childhood in Khambhat and Baroda (now Vadodara). His father Ganpatrao was an executive manager in the Mandvi branch of Bank of Baroda. His mother’s name was Anandiben. He participated in the Indian independence movement and in 1942 Quit India movement.
Pandya went to Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1937 and joined St. Xavier’s College where he studied BA in Sanskrit. He studied music at Devdhar Classes and later under Pandharinath Kolhapure. After listening to him at an event at St. Xavier’s College, he was selected as a playback singer in Mansarovar (1946) by S. N. Tripathi in which he sang a solo as well as a duet with Shamshad Begum.
To enter the Hindi film industry, he visited Fatelal Damle’s studio several times in a period of six months but was denied. He continued to work in the theatre. He came to the attention of Prakash Picture’s director Shantikumar Dave who saw him in his role of Kach in the play Kach-Devyani.
Shantikumar cast him in the lead role in Gujarati film Bhakta Surdas (1947) in which he also sang several songs. After some Gujarati films, he worked with Meena Kumari in Hindi film Naulakha Haar (1953). He continued to play supporting roles as well as lead roles in Hindi and Gujarati films. He portrayed mostly historical, social and rural characters in these films. In the 1960s, he portrayed negative characters. He had played saints as well as bandits in his films. In his career spanning 35 years, he acted in more than one hundred films including 73 Gujarati films. He was known as “Ashok Kumar of Gujarati cinema”. Due to his efforts, Laxmi Studio was established in Baroda in 1975.
He continued acting in the Gujarati theatre. His successful plays included Sapnana Sathi, Jesal Toral, Unda Andhare Thi, Gadh Juno Girnar, Mari Venima Char Char Phool, Swayamsiddha, Major Chandrakant, Pachhale Barane and Sambharna. He received a prize from the Government of Maharashtra for his play Sapnana Sathi.
He was awarded several times for acting by the Government of Gujarat including in 1961 for Kadu Makrani, in 1962 for Nandanvan, in 1963-64 for Jivno Jugari, in 1970 for Majiyara Haiya and in 1975 for Tanariri.
He died on 22 July 1980 following brain hemorrhage. (based on an interview by Rajnikumar Pandyaji, wiki, muVyz and my notes. Thanks to all).
Today’s song is sung by Manna Dey. This was another surprise, as Manna Dey was never known to sing in such films. Maybe Daan Singh roped him in to sing this comedy song. With this song, the film Toofan-1969 becomes a YIPPEE film, with all its songs are covered here. Enjoy….
Song- Suna thha maine bachpan mein (Toofaan)(1969) Singer- Manna Dey, Lyricist-Akhtar Romani, MD- Daan Singh
Lyrics
suna thha maine bachpan mein
san unneessaupachpan mein
suna tha maine bachpan mein
san unneessaupachpan mein
allah meharbaan to gadha pahalwaan
allah meharbaan to gadha pahalwaan
arre aaj samajh aai jakar baat kahi ye jeevan mein
suna thha maine bachpan mein
san unneessau pachpan mein
motor mein yoon saath saathi chale
cyunti ke sang jaise hathi chale
leke mujhe meri sasural mein
kis shaan ye bhi chale
aage chala thaanedar
peechhe saare jamaadaar
beech mein dulha banke baithha, main albela daaku
roti soorat bhi hansti hai
pyaare ek din darpan mein
suna thha maine bachpan mein
san unneessau pachpan mein
lo lo lo lo lo lo lo
lo lo lo lo lo lo lo
lo lo lo lo lo lo lo
daata kadak thha naram ho gaya
banda thha thhanda garam ho gaya
zaalim se badla, har ek julm ka
ab to ye mera dharam ho gaya
maaroonga main gin ke yaar
dushman poore ekhazar
chor luteron ke adde ki, todoonga main har deewaar
maalik chaahe to bin mausam, phool khila de gulshan mein
suna thha maine bachpan mein
san unneessau pachpan mein
pahle tha kismat ka khaana kharaab
ab hoon muqaddar ka lekin nawab
pahle koi poochhta bhi na thha
ab sab khilayenge haluaa kabab
pahle to padti thhi maar, ab phoolon ke padenge haar
pahle duniya thhukraati thhi
ab bolegi jaijaikaar
ghar hoga gharwaali hogi
bachche honge aangan mein
suna thha maine bachpan mein
san unneessau pachpan mein
suna thha maine bachpan mein
san unneessau pachpan mein
suna thha maine bachpan mein
san unneessau pachpan mein
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
April 19, 2024 at 10:56 am
Arun Ji
Thanks for the post. I liked the light hearted humour with which you shared your liking for Dara Singh.
I enjoyed Dara Singh’s character in ‘Jab we met’
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April 19, 2024 at 12:03 pm
Satish ji,
Thanks for your comments.
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