Kaun des hai jaanaa baabu
Posted on: September 26, 2011
This article is written by Sudhir, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
The innovator in Pankaj Babu has been responsible for some very remarkable additions to the sound and music aspect of the film industry. He was probably the first music arranger and orchestra conductor to introduce the use of western musical forms and instruments in the music for films in India. He is credited with introducing the use of instruments like piano and accordion, in the music compositions for Hindi and Bengali films that he worked on.
The concept of background score in a film, was also introduced by him. As a music arranger and conductor for silent films, he developed that idea in talking films, to use music in the background for emphasizing the mood, action and tempo of the film scenes. This is regarded as one of his singular contributions to the music in Indian film industry.
And then, he also had a part to play in the conceptualization and introduction of background singing. Before the introduction of this technique in 1935, songs in Indian movies were sung live on-camera by the performers. In 1935, Pankaj Babu and RC Boral were composing music for the New Theatres production Bhagyachakra (1935) in Bengali. The Hindi version of this was titled Dhoop Chhaon. This film directed by Nitin Bose is generally considered the first film to introduce playback singing in India. While shooting a group dance of sakhis in Bhagychakra / Dhoop Chhaon, the rehearsals took so much energy out of the performers that their singing went haywire during the actual shooting of the scenes. The problem was accentuated since multiple singers were involved, and keeping all of them in sync during a live shoot cum recording of the song was turning out to be a significant challenge. Faced with this problem Nitin Bose, Madhu Bose, the sound recordist, Pankaj Babu and RC Boral with the help of one Mr. Demming (a visiting audio-engineer from USA), came up with an innovation – they recorded the song beforehand and asked the performers to lip-synch during the real shoot. Thus history was made. The song in Bengali was “Mora Pulak Jacchi. . .” and its Hindi version was “Main Khush Hona Chahun. . .”. An all female chorus of Suprabha Sircar (nee Ghosh), Parul Ghosh (nee Choudhury) and Uma Shashi recorded both versions of this song.
The song in this post is the second song in the film Mukti (1937), that is rendered by Pankaj Babu. A detailed synopsis of the film is already published in the write up for the song “Sharaabi, Soch Na Kar Matwaale” (at Sharaabi soch na kar matwaale). Both the audio and video links for the song are provided. There is no variation in the lyrics, but the duration and music arrangements vary, since the two versions seem to be recorded separately for use in the film and for publishing on the record. In this film, Pankaj Babu has played a role of a philosopher-singer of the hillside village, where Prasanta (PC Barua), the protagonist of the film, comes to stay after his personal life in Calcutta ends in a divorce. From the video clip, it appears that this un-named singer is preparing to move on, and leave this village behind. The song appears to have some special message for Prasanta, who is also briefly visible in the video clip.
The lyrics for this song are written by AH Shor, and the music composition, the voice, and the on screen performance is Pankaj Babu. Enjoy this yet another very soulful rendition by him.
Audio
Video
Song-Kaun des hai jaanaa baabu (Mukti) (1937) Singer-Pankaj Mullick,Lyrics-A H Shor, MD-Pankaj Mullick
Lyrics
kaun des hai jaanaa baabu
kaun des hai jaanaa
kaun des hai jaanaa baabu
kaun des hai jaanaa
khade khade kyaa soch rahaa hai
khade khade kyaa soch rahaa hai
huaa kahaan se aanaa
kaun des hai jaanaa baabu
kaun des hai jaanaa
kaun des hai jaanaa baabu
suraj dooba chaand na niklaa
suraj dooba chaand na niklaa
beeta samaa suhaanaa
suraj dooba chaand na niklaa
beeta samaa suhaanaa
raath andheri baat na soojhe
samajh ke paaon uthhaanaa
kaun des hai jaanaa, baabu
kaun des hai jaanaa
kaun des hai jaanaa, baabu
kaun des hai jaanaa
saans ki aawan jaawan hardam
yehi sunaati gaanaa
saans ki aawan jaawan hardam
yehi sunaati gaanaa
jeete jee hai chalna phirna
jeete jee hai chalna phirna
marey to ek thhikaanaa
marey to ek thhikaanaa
kaun des hai jaanaa, baabu
kaun des hai jaanaa
kaun des hai jaanaa, baabu
kaun des hai jaanaa
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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