Mere dil ki duniya ujad gayi
Posted on: September 9, 2012
“Janmbhoomi” (1936) was a Bombay Talkies Production. Little is known about this movie today. I became aware of this movie thanks to a lovely song picturised on Devika Rani and a cute dog. It was then that Mr Arunkumar Deshmukh, our beloved inhouse encyclopeadia, shared details about this movie. Here is what he has to say about this movie:
JANMABHUMI-1936 was a sort of limited,or shall we say, desguised, patriotic flavoured film. Those days film producers had to be careful not to step on the Govt.’s toes, lest film got banned as anti British.
The story of the film and the Direction was by Franz Osten.
This Osten came from Germany, and joined the local Nazi party in India. He was a foreigner but had got the Indian pulse right. On social issues, for which Bombay Talkies was famous, he directed 15 films from 1936 (Achhut Kanya) to 1939 (Kangan) successfully. In 1939,when the IInd world war started he left for Germany,joined the Hitler’s Nazi Army and was killed soon after.
The Cinematographer was Joseph Wirsching, also from Germany. He too left for Germany for the same cause and fate later. In Bombay Talkies he was called ‘Veersingh ji’ by other artists.
The MD was Saraswati Devi,who also sang in this film for her younger sister Chandraprabha-who was acting in this film.(Both sisters were Parsis). The Lyrics and screenplay was by Jamuna Swaroop Casshyap ( he insisted on this spelling, instead of simpler Kashyap). Dialogues were by Niranjan Pal.
The cast was Ashok kumar, Devika Rani, Chandraprabha, Kaiser,Pithawala, Mumtaz Ali(Mehmood’s father,who sang the famous ‘Main to dilli se dulhan laaya re’ on screen), Pramila, Kamta prasad etc.
Ajay(AK) and his beloved Protima(DR) fight for the welfare and justice of the Indian villagers. They invite the anger and enemity of the local Zamindar(Kaiser) and a conservative fanatic Sanatan(Pithwala). These two villains give lot of trouble to the workers-these things occupy almost 7o% of the film scenes, but AK and DR jodi is not broken. Ultimately they are able to convert Zamindar and Sanatan to their side. Zamindar gives up his entire property for the cause of villagers’ welfare. Thus Class conflict is changed to class collaboration.
Many patriotic songs like ‘Jai jai janani’ became quite popular those days.
Here is another song from this movie. Unlike the earlier dog song, only the audio of this song is available. This song is sung by Ashok Kumar. Lyrics are written by J S Kashyap. Music is composed by Saraswati Devi.
It is clear that the song was picturised on Ashok Kumar himself.
Lyrics of this song were sent to me by Nitin Shah.
Song-Mere dil ki duniya ujad gayi (Janmbhoomi)(1936) Singer-Ashok Kumar, Lyrics-J S Kashyap, MD-Saraswati Devi
Lyrics(Provided by Nitin Shah)
mere dil ki duniya
ujad gayi
mere dil ki duniya
ujad gayi
samjhe thhe dil ki lagi huyi
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
dil hi dil mein reh jayegi
kya khabar thhi yeh jwaala bann kar
jeevan mein aag lagaayegi
meri prem nagariya ujad gayi
mere dil ki duniya
ujad gayi
mere dil ki duniya
ujad gayi
April 6, 2021 at 10:57 am
You’re absolutely wrong when you state that Franz Osten and josef Wirsching died in the course of WW II. Nothing could be farther from truth and displays lack of research than these loaded lines! Osten was interned for the period of World War II in internment camps at various Indian Cities for foreign nationals and was ultimately released from internment in 1940 due to his advanced age and returned to Germany. Osten went on to head the casting department of Bavaria Studios and set up a film archive there.
After the War he became managing director of the Bavarian spa Bad Aibling, where he died, completely unknown, at the age of 80 in 1956.
Kamal Amrohi chose one of his best griends Josef Wirsching as cinematographer for his magnum opus and one of the greatest hindi films ever mounted ‘Pakeezah’in 1958. This film was completed during a span of fourteen years and was a labour of love not only for the leading lady Meena Kumari, but also for the composer Ghulam Mohammed, who like Wirsching did not live to see its completion in 1972.
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