Sakhi prem sudha bhar ke aayi
Posted on: November 6, 2012
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
The era of silent films in India started in 1913, when 2 films were made-Raja Harishchandra and Mohini Bhasmasur. One would think that this must have started a spate of Silent films, but surprisingly, in 1914, 1915 and 1916 only 1 Silent Film each was produced. From 1916 it started with 5 films till 1931, when the age of Talkies arrived with Alam Ara.
In 1931, as many as 210 Silent films were produced in India !
Despite the advent of the Talkie, Silent films continued to be made till 1934. The last Silent film ‘NIYOTI’ was made by Aurora Film Corpn.,Calcutta in 1934. It was released on 15-9-1934 and with this the curtain came down finally on Silent films.
Many big stars of Silent films had difficulty with the Talkie films due to their inability to say dialogues in Hindi/Urdu. The great superstar of silent films MASTER VITHAL was a total flop in Alam Ara itself. Because of his inability to deliver Hindi dialogues, the scrtipt was changed and he was shown to be unconcious most of the time in the film.
Quite a large number of good looking Anglo Indian girls bid Good Bye to cinema due to language delivery. Only one case is there, of SAVITA DEVI (Irina Gasper), who learnt Hindi/Urdu and singing and became a popular Heroine in Talkie films too,till she married and left for U.K.
One of the major actors who succeeded in both Silent and Talkie films equally, that too for 70 active years,was LALITA PAWAR.
Today’s generation probably knows Lalita Pawar as an actress doing crooked Mother in law’s roles only, but in her early days she was called a ‘ SEX BOMB ‘ !
Born Ambika Laxmanrao Sagun on 18-4-1916, at Indore, her father was a rich person. She started acting very early when she was 10-12 years. Her first silent film was ‘Patitodhar’-1928.
She became a heroine soon and acted in as many as 30 silent films. In the silent and early Talkie era, she did adventurous and stunt films, just like Fearless Nadia did. Because of her boldness she did sexy and romantic roles. I have seen some of her costumes from her early films and those will match any sex-siren of today, I can guarantee !
She was a Heroine till 1942, when while shooting a scene for “Netaji Palkar”-1942, her co star slapped her,during a shot,so hard that she suffered from facial paralysis and damage to her eye.
Despite 3 years’ treatment, she was unable to regain her earlier looks and thus she became unfit for heroine’s roles and at the age of just 25-26, she switched over to character and supporting roles.
She acted in some 700 Hindi and Marathi films. Some of her roles like the Kelewali in Shri 420, Mrs.D’sa in Anari(she won Filmfare award for this role) and Manthara in Ramayana, are quite memorable, though she is mainly known for her wicked roles.
In case of marriage, she competed with Noorjahan(4 marriages) and Meena Shorey(5 marriages). Lalita Pawar’s first husband was Hanuman More, second was G.P.Pawar, her director for stunt films. This marriage went sour when he had an affair with Lalita’s younger sister. Then she married a film producer Rajprakash Gupta, who established Ambika Studios in Bombay.
Her death was tragic. She was found dead- for 2 days- when her husband, son and daughter in law had gone to Bombay. She was staying alone in her bungalow in Aundh, a suburb of poona.
She died on 24-2-1998 and it was known on 26th Feb.
As per the system of early days, she too sang her own songs in some films-very few, though. Today we will listen to a song sung by her from a film called DUNIYA KYA HAI-1938.
DUNIYA KYA HAI-1938 was a Diamond Pictures film. It was produced and directed by G.P.Pawar. The Lyricist was Munshi Aziz and MD was Annasaheb Mainkar with Kikubhai Yagnik.
This film was based on the famous novel “The Resurrection” by Count Leo Tolstoy.
Lalita (Lalita Pawar) is an orphan girl, who is raised in a kind family. Madhav (Madhav Kale) the young boy in the family falls in love with her. They become intimate and she becomes pregnant.
Madhav has to go to Bombay for further studies. He promisses her to come back and marry her.
Years pass by. Lalita delivers a boy. She is thrown out of the house. For the sake of the boy Lalita becomes a Prostitute.
Madhav returns, but he is now married. He refuses to even recognise her.
One day, there is a murder in her brothel and Lalita is accused of the murder. The case goes to the court. To her horror, Madhav is the Public Prosecutor.
That night Madhav comes to meet her in the jail, having come to know that the murder was caused by accident by his own son.
She extracts a promise from him to look after their son. Next day, she is found dead in her cell.
The composer of this film, Annasaheb Mainkar is not a name known to many people. Born in 1904 at Sangli, Maharashtra, he was trained in classical music at Poona, Baroda, Indore, Mysore and Lucknow. Before joining the film Industry, he had cut many discs of his songs. His first film was AWARA SHEHZADA-1933. Incidentally, this was also India’s first film having a double role. Shahu Modak had done the roles of a Rajkumar and a commoner Bholaram in it. It was also the first film of Master Vithal as a Director. Annasaheb worked for Saraswati Cinetone, Imperial, Venus, Huns, Atre and Sunrise films. He gave music to atleast 50 films. His singers were, Master Vinayak, Vanmala, Shahu Modak, Shanta Hublikar, Kalyanibai, Sarla Devi, V atsala Kumathekar etc. His last film was Ashirwad-1943. He died young at 41 yrs.in 1944.
Kikubhai Yagnik was a smalltime composer from 1933 to 1938 and was not very popular.
Here is a song sung by Lalita Pawar in 1938 for DUNIYA KYA HAI. The song is “Sakhi prem sudha bhar ke aayi”. It is sung by Lalita Pawar. Munshi Aziz is the lyricist. Music is composed by Annasaheb Mainkar and kikubhai Yagnik.
Song-Sakhi prem sudha bhar ke aayi (Duniya Kya Hai)(1938) Singer-Lalita Pawar, Lyrics-Munshi Aziz, MD-Annasaheb Mainkar
Lyrics
sakhi prem sudha bhar ke aayi
sakhi prem sudha bhar ke aayi
main prem sudha bhar ke aayi
main prem sudha bhar
prem sudha bhar peene de
unmaad ka jeewan jeene de
bas prem sudha bhar peene de
unmaad ka jeewan jeene de
man prem se
man prem se
man prem se ?? kar ke aayi
sakhi prem sudha bhar ke aayi
man darshan prem se ?? hai
man darshan prem se ?? hai
ye darshan prem bhikaari hai
ab prem ki dori daali hai
ab prem ki dori daali hai
ye preet ki reet hai ??
preet ki reet ?? hai
ik saajan
ik saajan
ik saajan ke ghar se aayi
sakhi prem sudha bhar ke aayi
17 Responses to "Sakhi prem sudha bhar ke aayi"
November 6, 2012 at 10:31 am
derubala ji,
Thanks for your appreciation.
What you say above is true only in some cases.History says that most child actors fail in their adult roles and disappear.
Actors like Meenakumari,madhubala,Lalita Pawar,Noorjahan were some examples of child stars becoming successful.In males I can quote Sachin’s name.
In olden times,there was a system of several rehersals before actual recording,and it did help the non-singers.Naushad was very perticular about rehersals,as we all know and we saw his results also. Here was one example where quality superceded quantity.
-AD
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November 6, 2012 at 5:52 pm
Who was the co-star that slapped Lalita Pawar? Was it Prithviraj Kapoor? Raj Kapoor always had a soft corner for her. She always did positive roles in his films — kalewali in SHRI 420 or in JIS DESH MEIN GANGA BEHTI HAI.
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November 6, 2012 at 6:03 pm
Gupta ji,
It was never established fully.Till the end Lalita Pawar never revealed that name.It was popularly believed that it was Master Bhagwan,but there is no confirmation.In any case it was not Prithwiraj kapoor,because this incident happened at the time of a Marathi film-‘Netaji Palkar’.
-AD
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November 6, 2012 at 7:44 pm
Thanks for some interesting information!
I’ve seen only one silent film of Lalita Pawar. It’s name was ‘The Gallant Hearts’. I think, it was made in 1930. It was a stunt film with lot of sex bomb scenes of Lalitaji. I think its print is still with National Film Archive!
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November 6, 2012 at 8:16 pm
Nayan ji,
I am glad you liked it.
The film you saw was ” THE GALLANT ” -1930,produced by
Chandrakala Film co. Bombay.This film is available in the market.
-AD
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November 7, 2012 at 12:52 am
Never knew she was a singer too! She was so beautiful and so much grace! Thanks Arunji, aap ne to Lalitaji ki asli pehchaan kara di. I am not familiar with the silent movies or beginning of talkie movies. So, I was surprised that 210 silent movies in 1931!!!!! Arunji, do you have number of films in Hindi?
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November 7, 2012 at 6:59 am
Khyati ji,
I am glad that you liked it.
Yes,I have the no. of Talkie films from 1931 to 2010 with me.It will be too much to give that list here,so few years are like this-
1931-24,1932-61,1933-76,1934 121 etc.
The highest no so far is 257 films in 2007.During II world war period the no. reduced considerably,but not below 74 in 1945.
-AD
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November 7, 2012 at 7:01 am
Note: These no.s pertain only to Hindi films.
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November 7, 2012 at 8:55 am
Arunji,
are these numbers based on the work published by hamraaz ji?
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November 8, 2012 at 4:55 am
Thanks Arunji for the info. 24 Hindi movies in 1931 and the number got significantly higher every year. I have never watched any silent movie even though have heard names of few movies from my Father.
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November 7, 2012 at 3:11 am
Thank you Arunji for this very informative article! I always had a soft corner for Lalita Pawar!
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November 13, 2012 at 2:24 am
Arun ji,
As always, your write ups are full of information that is not available elsewhere, and I thank you for the same.
Rgds
Sudhir
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November 18, 2012 at 12:53 am
Atul ji, Arun ji,
Given below are the corrected lyrics for this song. I have confirmed these lyrics with Harmandir ji, and he has checked the same with film booklet, and provided some corrections.
sakhi prem sudha bharney aayi
sakhi prem sudha bharney aayi
mein prem sudha bharney aayi
mein prem sudha bhar
prem sudha bhar peene de
unmaad ka jeewan jeene de
hatt prem sudha bhar peene de
unmaad ka jeewan jeene de
mann prem se
mann prem se
mann prem se tar karney aayi
sakhi prem sudha bharney aayi
mann bartan prem se khaali hai
mann bartan prem se khaali hai
ye bartan prem se khaali hai
ab prem ki dori daali hai
ab prem ki dori daali hai
ye preet ki reet niraali hai
preet ki reet niraali hai
chitt saajan
chitt saajan
chitt saajan ke dharney aayi
sakhi prem sudha bharney aayi
In the second antaraa, there seems to be a brief skip in the sound, and hence the line “ye preet ki reet niraali hai” is not clear.
Rgds
Sudhir
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
November 6, 2012 at 8:48 am
Arunji,
A highly interesting and informative article. I knew some of the things on Lalita Pawar. But she had sang too 🙂
Sometimes I wonder those people who enter in film industry at very early age not having gone to the drama school or regular school and they did so well. Surely those people were smart and brave… even by today’s standards!
Here she sing without any trainee in music and she did an excellent job of it.
I think especially in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries people were very highly motivated and driven.
I don’t think I will send my 10 year old grand child to act in movie, even in this day and age 🙂
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