Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs

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 sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

Today(21st August 2017) is the last Monday of the holy month of Shrawan, in the Southern, Western and some Eastern states of India. For the rest of India the Saawan month had ended on the 7th August itself. Today’s Shiv bhajan is from the film Shri Ganesha janma-1951.

These days, being or showing that you are a religious Hindu amounts to being Communal ! I feel that your religious behaviour should be restricted to your own personal life, without any display of it. If you take a survey today, you may find that hardly 0.1 to 1 % of the population is Atheist ( those who do not believe the existence of God ). The rest are all believers in God. Belief in God and being religious are two entirely different things. Being religious is practicing the ‘karm kands’ or fulfilling the acts described, prescribed or suggested by the religion, like for example, going to the Temples regularly or doing Pooja Archana every day etc. Only those who practice these can be termed as being religious minded. As long as these things do not interfere with your duties towards family and society, no one should have any business commenting/ interfering in that.

A person who likes to listen to Jazz or Rock music and one who likes to listen to western musicals can at best be described as a person liking western music, but he can not be called a Musician. Similarly, when one likes to listen to Bhajans and see Mythological films, he can only be termed as a person who likes religious/devotional music, but can not be called a religious person. I like to listen to any Bhajan or other religious songs.

Hindu Religion is the most elastic, all encompassing and highly adaptive Religion. That is how it has remained for over 5000 years. There may be thousands of Castes, Languages,Ethnic groups and contrasting living patterns, but ALL will visit the SAME temple. There is no division among the variety of Gods that are available to the people. It is said that there are 33 types of-classes of-Gods ( 33 Koti Devtas- misunderstood as 33 crores Gods ), so there is a wide choice for selecting your favourite God. Some may like Shiv ji, some Vishnu,some Shrikrishna while some like Laxmi Devi, but there is ONE God who is loved by one and all,not only in India but also worldwide..and that is GANESHA.

Lord Ganesh is the second son of the celestial couple Shiv ji and Parvati ji. The elder one is Kartikeya (Kumarswamy in south). However, in South, Kartikeya or kumar swamy or Skand is considered as the younger one. There are many stories found in Vedas and various Puranas,about the birth of Ganesha. the most popular,of course, is from Shiv Puran, which says that ,one day parvati made an young boy from the Sandalwood Paste made for her bath.She put life into it and asked him to guard the gate till Parvati finished her bath. After some time,Shiv ji came back,but was stopped by the boy. The Ganas of Shiv ji had a fight with him,and he defeated them. When this news reached the heavens,Dods’ king Indra himself came with his army,but he too was defeated by this boy. Shiv ji got angry and copped off his head with his Trishula. When Parvati learnt about this,she became very sad and angry. Shiv ji sent his Ganas to search for the chopped head,but not founding it,they brought an Elephant’s head. Shiv ji fitted this head and made him alive again. Shiv ji named him GANESH. Here are some other stories of Ganesh janm…
A lesser known story from the Bramha Vaivarta Puran narrates a different version of Ganesha’s birth. On the insistence of Shiva, Parvati fasted for a year (punyaka vrata) to propitiate Vishnu so that he would grant her a son. Vishnu, after the completion of the sacrifice, announced that he would incarnate himself as her son in every Kalpa (eon). Accordingly, Ganesha was born to Parvati as a charming infant. This event was celebrated with great enthusiasm and all the gods were invited to take a look at the baby. However Shani (Saturn), the son of Surya, hesitated to look at the baby since Shani was cursed with the gaze of destruction. However Parvati insisted that he look at the baby, which Shani did, and immediately the infant’s head fell off. Seeing Shiva and Parvati grief-stricken, Vishnu mounted on Garud, his divine eagle, and rushed to the banks of the Pushpa-Bhadra river, from where he brought back the head of a young elephant. The head of the elephant was joined with the headless body of Parvati’s son, thus reviving him. The infant was named Ganesha and all the Gods blessed Ganesha and wished Him power and prosperity.

Another tale of Ganesha’s birth relates to an incident in which Shiv slew Aditya(Lord sun) , the son of a sage. Shiva restored life to the dead boy, but this could not pacify the outraged sage Kashyapa, who was one of the seven great Rishis. Kashyap cursed Shiva and declared that Shiva’s son would lose his head. When this happened, the head of Indra’s elephant was used to replace it.(Linga Puran).

Still another tale states that on one occasion, Parvati’s used bath-water was thrown into the Ganges, and this water was drunk by the elephant-headed Goddess Malini, who gave birth to a baby with four arms and five elephant heads. The river goddess Ganga claimed him as her son, but Shiva declared him to be Parvati’s son, reduced his five heads to one and enthroned him as the controller of obstacles -Vighnesh. (Varah Puran).

The cast of the film was the usual one. After becoming famous with film Har Har Mahadev-1950, the trio of Trilok kapoor, Nirupa Roy and Jeevan became mandatory in almost all mythological films connected with Shiv and Parvati. Jeevan was a standardised Narad in all such religious films. Jeevan had altogether acted as Narad in 49 films, in his career. This was before his second innings featuring as a villain and a sophisticated criminal in the 70s and 80s. In this film also They enacted the same roles. I do not know how far it is true, but it was said that Trilok kapoor had used a real snake around his neck in the role of Shankar ji.

The film was directed by Jayant Desai. Jayant Jhinabhai Desai was born in Surat,Gujarat,on 28-2-1909,in a well to do family. he graduated from Bombay University and entered film line as an exhibitor in Surat. Later on he started writing Screen plays for London Films,Rangoon and then for krishna and Sharada studios. he joined Chandulal Shah’s Ranjit Studios in 1929,as his assistant for film ‘Rajputani’. Director Nandlal Jaswantlal Bhatt ( Nagin,Taj,Champakali etc) was also another assistant in Ranjit.

When Nandlal left Ranjit to go to Europe,Jayant completed his film ‘ Pahadi kanya-1930 ‘. At Ranjit Jayant directed 12 silent films. He was with Ranjit till 1943 and Directed 33 Talkie films,while in Ranjit. Some of these films were Char Chakram,Bhool Bhulaiya,Nadira,Toofanmail,College Girl,matlabi Duniya, Toofani Toli, Billi ( a copy of a Hollywood film,based on P.G.Wodehouse’s novel ” A Damsel in Distress” ), Sant Tulsidas, Diwali,Shaadi, Chandni, Bhaktaraj, Tansen(with Saigal), Zaban etc.

After leaving Ranjit,Jayant Desai established his own studio,Jupitor Films Studio, jayant desai productions and Hemlata Pictures. He also had exhibition interests in Hindmata and Star Theatres in Bombay’s Dadar area. In the 50s, he operated as a Distributor with his Jupiter films.

While in Ranjit, he had Directed K L Saigal in film Tansen. Sardar Chandulal Shah had called Saigal on a contract of 60 days. Jayant completed Tansen in flat 51 days. Kidar Sharma then used those 9 days to make a quickie named Bhanwara, with Saigal.

C.Ramchandra was with Jayant Desai for more than 3 years and gave 5 successful films. It was Jayant Desai who gave him the name C.Ramchandra for using in films. It was also Jayant Desai who was responsible for the rise of C.Ramchandra in a major way. It so happened….

Under the banner of Jayant productions,he made one more Saigal film-Tadbir-1945,with Suraiya in the lead. In his new company,jayant had hired C.Ramchandra as a paid Composer on a salary of Rs. 300 pm. C Ramchandra gave music to many of his films like Zaban,lalkar,manorama,Chandragupta etc and all films became popular.C. Ramchandra was proud of his achievement.

One day C Ramchandra heard a rumour that the great singer Saigal is coming to make a film here. CR became very excited that he would get an opportunity to compose music for Saigal. But he got a shock when he heard that,not he,but one Lal Mohammed (assistant of Ghulam Hyder in Lahore) was being called for that assignment,C.Ramchandra not only was upset but felt hurt too. he went to Jayant Desai and said-

” My salary must be increased”
” How much ?”
” One Thousand Rupees per month”
Jayant was not ready for 1000. he offered maximum 600. He also told CR that there was an opportunity to compose for Saigal,but C.Ramchandra was not ready to accept anything less than 1000.
Finally,C Ramchandra said,” Increase it to 1000 or else….”
Jayant Desai was furious.He asked,” Or else…What ?”
C.Ramchandra said,” Or else,I will quit”.
Without flapping an eyelid,Jayant Desai coolly said,” OK. Your account will be settled in an hour. Stop work and pack up.”
C.Ramchandra was stunned,but the arrow had already left the bow !

C.Ramchandra became jobless and also lost an opportunity to compose music for Saigal. But his luck was strong. The very next day,kavi Pradeep took him to Filmistan and he was appointed there on a salary of Rs. 1000 pm. In Filmistan,C.Ramchandra gave several Hit musicals like Safar,Shehnai,Nadiya ke paar,Shabnam,Samadhi,Sargam,Anarkali,Nastik etc. If Jayant Desai had not removed C.Ramchandra from his company, he would not have reached the heights of his fame and success later on.

Jayant Desai directed 65 films in all. His last film was Zamana Badal gaya-1961. He died in Bombay on 19-4-1976.

The film’s music was composed by Khemchand Prakash and Manna Dey together. There were 12 songs, but HFGK does not give individual credits for each song. Out of these 12 songs, not even a single song was sung by Lata Mangeshkar. In those days Lata usually avoided singing in Mythological films of B and C grades. Reason was, probably because the Producers of such films could not afford her price or may be she was too busy with her assignments with more famous composers and bigger Banners. Such films were left for the second line singers like Asha, Geeta, Sulochana kadam, Sudha Malhotra and others of their ilk. A point to be noted,however, is that though a major singer of those times, Shamshad Begum never had qualms about singing in such films !

Today we end our undeclared Mini Series of Shiv bhajans here only till, may be Mahashivratri in early 2018, when we will enjoy another set of Shiv Bhajans again……

Song-Naiyya paar lagaane waale bigdi banaane waale bhole bhaale hain Bholanath re (Shri Ganesh Janm)(1951) Singers-Geeta Dutt, Manna Dey, Lyrics-Bharat Vyas, MD-Manna Dey
All
Male chorus
Female chorus

Lyrics

Bholanath re
Bholanath re
Bholanath re
Bholanath re

naiyya paar lagaane waale
bigdi banaane waale
bhole bhaale hain bholanath re
o sohe gori gajaanan donon saath re
naiyya paar lagaane waale
bigdi banaane waale
bhole bhaale hain bholanath re
o sohe gori gajaanan donon saath re
Bholanath re
Bholanath re
o Bholanath re
Bholanath re

o o o o
o o o
o o o
sheesh jata mein gang dhaar
bah gale rund maala hai
sheesh jata mein gang dhaar
bah gale rund maala hai
kar mein shobhit hai trishool
aur kat mein mrig chhaala hai
kar mein shobhit hai trishool
aur kat mein mrig chhaala hai
tan mein bhasmi ramaane waale
damroo bajaane waale
bhole bhaale hain bholanath re
o sohe gori gajaanan donon saath re
Bholanath re
Bholanath re
o Bholanath re
Bholanath re

o o o o
o o o
o o o
o o o
bade bade dushton ko tumne
pal mein paar utaara
bholanath re
Bholanath re
o Bholanath re
Bholanath re
bade bade dushton ko tumne
pal mein paar utaara
kaamdev ko nain teesre
se tumne sanhaara
kaamdev ko nain teesre
se tumne sanhaara
hamko dukh se chhudaane waale
mukti dilaane waale
bhole bhaale hain bholanath re
o sohe gori gajaanan donon saath re
Bholanath re
Bholanath re
o Bholanath re
Bholanath re
o o o o
o o o
o o o
o o o