Bharat ki ik sannari ki hum katha sunaate hain

Posted by: Atul on: April 3, 2012

This article is written by Shekhar Gupta, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a new contributor to this blog.

Growing up in India, one of the memorable numbers that I heard in my childhood on the two sides of a 78 rpm gramophone record from my late father’s collection was “Bhaarat ki ek sannari ki hum katha sunaate hain” in Vijay Bhatt’s seminal Ram Rajya (1943).

From the information that I have pieced together on the Internet, it seems that it is Vishnupant Pagnis and Madhusudan Ram Apte on themselves as young Lav and Kush in the royal court of Lord Ram who is preparing to perform the Ashwamedh Yagyan without the exiled Sita who, as the queen of Awadh, should rightfully be by his side.

Part-I of this iconic number shows Lav and Kush entering Ayodhya singing Ramayana (the story of Lord Ram composed original by their guru Maharishi Valmiki) until the point of Sita’s abduction by the demon king Ravan.

Part-II unfolds in the royal court before Lord Ram himself (played by Prem Adib) and describes Ram’s conquest of Lanka and uniting of Ram and Sita (played in the movie by Shobhna Samarth, the late mother of well-known Bollywood stars Nutan and Tanuja and grandmother of the present-day actress Kajol).

In a rousing finale, the two boys turn to Lord Ram, their own father (which, of course they do not know at that time), and pointedly question the sanctity of the royal court of Lord Ram without Queen Sita gracing it — and demonstrably rattling Lord Ram in the process!

This, to my mind, is one of the most stirring scenes in Bollywood’s history.

Below are Ramesh Gupta’s lyrics tuned by Shankarrao Vyas:

Editor’s note:- Mr Dhananjay Nanivadekar, a US based music lover met the two singers during his visit to India. He sent his findings to Mr Harmandir Singh Hamraz who published it in Listeners’ bulletin number 154 (November 2012). According to it, Yashwant Balkrishn Joshi sang for Madhusudan Bhatt (playing Kush). Lav was played by Yashwant Nikam and he sang for himself. Madhusudan Bhatt had practiced for the song, but he could not sing high notes and so he was replaced by Yashwant Balkrishn Joshi for playback singing of the song.

part I

part II

Song-Bharat ki ek sannari ki hum katha sunaate hain (Ram Rajya)(1943) Singers-~~Madhusudan~~ Yashwant Balkrishn Joshi, ~~Ram Apte~~ Yashwant Nikam, Lyrics-Ramesh Gupta, MD-Shankarrao Vyas

Lyrics
—————————
PART-I
—————————
Bhaarat ki ek sannari ki
hum katha sunaate hain
aen aen aen
hum katha sunaate hain
Mithila ki raaj-dulaari ki
hum katha sunaate hain
hum katha sunaate hain
Bhaarat ki ek sannari ki
hum katha sunaate hain
aen aen aen
hum katha sunaate hain

Shiv-dhanush raam ne toda
Shiv-dhanush raam ne toda
milaa chandra-chakor kaa joda
milaa chandra-chakor kaa joda
Janakpuri se todaa naataa,
Awadhpuri se jodaa
Janakpuri se todaa naataa,
Awadhpuri se jodaa
komal thhi woh kali,
sukhon mein pali,
banon mein chali,
bahut dukh paaye
sun kar uss ki vyathaa
nain bhar aate hain
hum katha sunaate hain
Bhaarat ki ek sannari ki
hum katha sunaate hain
hum katha sunaate hain

Raavan ne chhal kari Siya ko hari,
vidhi kya kari jo thaa ban paai
Sita, Sita karen virah mein jaren
Banon mein phiren
vikal Raghuraai
vikal Raghuraai
————————–
PART-II
————————–
Pavan-putra wahaan aaye,
Pavan-putra wahaan aaye,
sudhi ko dhaaye
yukti bahu keenhii,
Siya sudhi paayi

Ram kop kar badhe,
lanka par chadhe,
phoonk dayi Lank
Siya lautaai
Siya lautaai
Siya lautaai

jaise diye mein tel,
tel mein baat,
baat mein tej prakaashe
tus Raam hriday mein Siya,
Siya hiy Rama hi base
kya bina praan ke amar rahi kahin dehi
kya bina praan ke amar rahi kahin dehi

kya yahi Ram durbaar
kahaan Vaidehi?
kahaan Vaidehi?
kahaan Vaidehi?

Tags: 1943, Madhusudan Bhatt, Ram Rajya, Ramesh Gupta, Shankarrao Vyas, Yashwant Balkrishn Joshi, Yashwant NIkam

11 Responses to "Bharat ki ik sannari ki hum katha sunaate hain"

1 | Arunkumar Deshmukh
April 3, 2012 at 10:26 am

Shekhar Gupta ji,
Thank you very much for posting this ever green song,which had sort of created records in its times.I simply love this song.
Just the other day,precisely on 24th March,when another song of RAMRAJYA was posted I had elaborated on this song in details.For your info here is the link-
https://atulsongaday.me/2012/03/24/beena-madhur-madhur-kachhu-bol/#comments
There seems to be some confusion in the actors and singers names in your write up.Firstly,Vishnupant Pagnis was NOT in this film.Secondly there is no one like’Madhusudan Ram Apte’.Madhusudan and Ram Apte are 2 different personbs.Further even Ram Apte also was NOT in this film.
The role of Lava was done by Yashwant Nikam and Kush was Madhusudan jani.The song is sung by Ram Apte(for Yeshwant who was Lav) and Madhusudan Jani(for himself who was Kush).
These details are confirmed by Vijay Bhatt and Ramesh Gupta(the Lyricist) and Madhusudan Jani(who retired and opened a shop in Sangli-maharashtra).Ref-LB-72
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Shekhar Gupta
April 21, 2012 at 11:13 am

Arunji,

I am grateful to you for this information. Sometimes it is quite difficult to get the information in respect of golden oldies like this one. You are obviously a fund of such information. It would be great if I could know how to reach you by e-mail.

Best wishes and warm regards,
Shekhar Gupta

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Arunkumar Deshmukh
April 21, 2012 at 1:58 pm

Gupta ji,
My e mail id is
deshmukh.arunkumar@gmail.com
I am also on Fb with the name Arunkumar Deshmukh(with a Photo depicting a man with specs,blue shirt and sporting mustache.There are many Deshmukhs on Fb,therefore this info.)
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2 | Kantimohan Sharma
September 12, 2012 at 9:27 am

In the sixth line of part one I think, ‘Katha’ should be replaced by ‘vyatha’.

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3 | Kantimohan Sharma
September 12, 2012 at 9:35 am

Towards the end ‘blhampe’ should be replaced by ‘bhase’ or ‘bhashe’.

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4 | Shekhar Gupta
October 31, 2012 at 3:26 pm

There has been much confusion over the singers of this number. After painstaking research, Har Mandir Singhji ‘Hamraaz’ – the compiler of ‘Geet Kosh’, the ultimate reference of Bollywood songs – has concluded that Yeshwant Balkrishna Joshi provided playback for actor Madhusudan Bhatt (‘Kush’) and Yeshwant Nikam (‘Luv’) himself sang his part of the song while acting in the film.

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Arunkumar Deshmukh
October 31, 2012 at 5:18 pm

Shekhar ji,
I have already written to Sudhir ji,endorsing a copy to you also giving reasons why this conclusion,in my opinion,is highly suspect and how it is better to believe the statements of the Director of Ramrajya-Vijay bhatt- and the lyricist-Ramesh Gupta-who actually wrote the song,rather than conclude only on the statement of Bapu Watwe,who was not connected to the Film in any capacity(he was connected to Prabhat Films).
I still maintain that the song is sung by Ram Apte and madhusudan Bhatt.(he himself has said in the interview that he has sung this song).
-AD

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5 | C.L.Joshi
September 25, 2014 at 1:05 pm