Dheere se jaana bagiyan mein re bhanwra
Posted on: November 5, 2012
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Most of the people other than the die hard connoisseurs of filmy and non-filmy music, may not be aware that Sachin Dev Burman (S D Burman) started his musical career as a singer on All India Radio Calcutta (Kolkatta) in early 30s. During his early period of musical journey, he had sung many Bengali non-filmy songs some of them written by such distinguished personalities like Jasimuddin and Kazi Nazrul Islam. I was pleasantly surprised to know that he had also rendered Hindustani classical thumris like preet mein huye badnaam in concerts at Allahabad and Calcutta.
He turned to music direction in 1937 and composed songs for his first Bengali movie ‘Rajgee’ (1937). During his Calcutta days in 30s and 40s, he also composed many Bengali non-filmy songs. Some of the songs were written by his wife Meera Burman. The tunes of his most popular Bengali non-filmy songs were later used for some songs of his Hindi films which also became very popular. In his compositions, he used to rely heavily on Bangla folk tunes especially of the East Bengal (now Bangla Desh).
Until recently, I was aware of only one of his 16 Hindi non-filmy songs sung by S D Burman as listed in http://www.sdburman.net. The song is ‘dheere se jaana bagiyan mein’ (1940s), the most popular one which I had heard being played on the radio in the 60s. The composition is based on a popular East Bengal folk tune. It is claimed in one of the articles on a website that this non-filmy song was S D Burman’s first recorded Hindi song. Earlier, he sang the Bengali version of this non-filmy song nishite jaio fulobone o bhomoraa probably in late 30s. http://www.jasimuddin.org has given credit to Jasimuddin as lyricist and music director for both Bangla and Hindi versions. I am, however, doubtful about this claim in respect of the Hindi version. I request the knowledgeable readers to share the information about the lyricist and music director of Hindi version of the song.
This NFS must have been very popular on those days. It is said that S D Burman got his first employment with Filmistan as a music director as its boss Shashidhar Mukherji was very much impressed by this song. The popularity of this NFS can be gauge from the fact that the first two lines of this NFS was sung by Kishore Kumar as part of a song paanch rupaiya baaraa annaa in ‘Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958). This NFS has also been the inspiration for a full song dheere se jaana khatian mein from the film ‘Chupa Rustom’ (1973) and sung by Kishore Kumar. Towards the end of this song, Kishore Kumar sang two lines of the original NFS imitating S D Burman’s style of singing.
S D Burman’s intoxicating style of singing, especially the lines ‘magan mein re bhanwaraa’ in the first stanza is the highlight of this song.
Song-Dheere se jaana bagiyan mein (S D Burman NFS)(1940) Singer-S D Burman, MD-S D Burman
Lyrics
dheere se jaanaa bagiyan mein
dheere se jaanaa bagiyan mein
re bhanwraa
dheere se jaana bagiyan mein
dheere se jaana bagiyan mein
re bhanwraa
dheere se jaana bagiyan mein
aaj hai chaandni raati ee ee
mere jeewan kaa saathi hai jo
sowat hai neend magan mein
re bhanwaraa
dheere se jaanaa bagiyan mein
aaj hai chaandni raati ee ee
aaj hai chaandni raati ee ee
mere jeewan kaa saathi hai jo o o
sowat hai neend magan mein
re bhanwraa
dheere se jaanaa bagiyann mein
tori gun gun gun gunjaar
tori jhan jhan jhan jhankaar
baadhaa naa daale sukhan mein
re bhanwaraa
dheere se jaanaa bagiyann mein
dheere se jaanaa bagiyan mein
re bhanwraa
dheere se jaanaa bagiyan mein
kahin paat naa gir jaaye koi
kahin phool naa murjhaaye koi
kahin paat naa gir jaaye koi
kahin phool naa murjhaaye koi
thes lage naa kaliyan mein
re bhanwra
dheere se jaanaa bagiyan mein
aeri koyaliyaa kuu kuu naa bol
o papeehe naa kar tu kalol
aeri koyaliyaa kuu kuu naa bol
o papeehe naa kar tu kalol
piyaa aa gaye hamaare bhawan mein
piyaa aa gaye hamaare bhawan mein
re bhanwraa
dheere se jaanaa bagiyann mein
4 Responses to "Dheere se jaana bagiyan mein re bhanwra"
November 13, 2012 at 2:23 am
Sadanand ji
Thanks for this memorable reminder.
SD Burman had royal pedigree – he blonged to the the royal family of Tripura.
Interesting side note – the two movies you mentioned wherein this song is partially used, both have SD Burman as the music director.
Rgds
Sudhir
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March 17, 2014 at 10:35 am
It is the bengali version of the song…and lyricist & Music is given Jasimuddin –
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
November 5, 2012 at 8:05 am
A great song with complete abandon. This melody aim straight to the heart. The sounds are so good that you just want to linger on this tune.
There will never be another SDB.
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