Kaali ghataaon jaao
Posted on: December 17, 2012
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
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Unknown composers Article 1- Ramprasad Sharma
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Film Industry is one industry which grew fery fast. Firstly, there was no competition (except from AIR) for entertainment and secondly, joining this industry needed no special qualifications.
Moreover, from the beginning, the ROI (Returns On the Investment) ratio was quite high, once you took care of few parameters like, good actors, good songs and a mix of Romance and Comedy !
Thousands of aspirants, the Good looking, the Bad looking and the Ugly looking rushed to Bombay, Lahore and Calcutta to try their luck. Tawaifs and stage artists had an easy entry, so was for the case for Handsome and Muscular bodied males.
The studio system took care of grooming its employees. Most people were hired without any specific job descriptions. When needed, the script writer or the Lyricist had to act in the film, and Choreographer-Dance Master in those days-had to take up Direction if needed. Artists graduated from menial jobs to important positions. That is how Choreographer Guru Dutt became a Director and a Hero, Lyricist and writer J.S.Casshyap became actor/singer, or Amiya Chakrawarty became famous Director from being the Canteen Manager in Bombay Theatres, Ashok Kumar became Hero from being a Technician in Camera Department, a chorus singer Mohd. Rafi became an Iconic Singer and an Extra working as one of the 40 Thieves in ” Alibaba and 40 Thieves”-1929 became the movie mogul Director Mehboob Khan.
Those times were different. Industry needed people in all departments. Heads of Studios were like expert jewellers who knew how to nurture talents. Successful strugglers had empathy towards existing strugglers and gave them opportunity to showcase their skills. Studios got right persons for right jobs. Real Talents survived, rest disappeared.
There were many One timers, who acted in only 1-2 films, directed just 1 film, produced 1 movie, sung only few songs or gave music to only 1 or 2 films. Luck also played an important role.
Artists seeking opportunities in Music Departments like singing and composing were many. Most got chances, few prospered.
But it is important to note that every One timer was contributing towards Industry’s growth. Like every drop makes an ocean, these one timers or short distance runners also gave their mite to the industry. Those who disappeared after a short performance remained alive through their contribution on record.
Hundreds of aspirants came to become Music Directors, only few made the grade, survived and the rest simply vanished. These short time passengers or composers had their time of glory too.
Their songs were cherished but their names were forgotten.
We propose to take a look at these short distance composers, in our new series ” UNKNOWN COMPOSERS ” and listen to their songs.
Getting information about these ‘lost’ ones was a difficult and challenging task. Internet sites are no help and I had to fall back on my own notes, and various books (Dhunon ki yatra, Swaron ki yatra, Rahen na rahen hum, Vo bhooli Dastan, Sanjit Narvekar, Raju Bharatan, Shirish Kanekar, articles from old magazines etc etc). Out of few hundred names I zeroed in on about 50 names, and information was available on hardly few names. In some cases, only few lines were available. Then there was also the task of finding videos of their songs.
Luckily, Atul ji has been very helpful in Lyric writing- where I totally surrender. Without his help, it is a difficult calling indeed. Thanks Atul ji.
Before I begin, can you tell me what is common in the following names ?
Pyarelal-Ganesh-Naresh-Mahesh-Anand.
They are all brothers and sons of Pandit RAMPRASAD SHARMA.
Pt. Ramprasad Sharma, born in 1900, belonged to Gorakhpur in United provinces(today’s U.P.). Seeing his love for music, he was brought to Bharatpur State by the king’s bandmaster. He played Trumpet here, then played in Agra Military Band and ended up joining a Circus as a Band Master himself. He toured Delhi, Lahore and Calcutta , where he settled for some time. He married a local Post Master’s daughter and also worked for Columbia and New Theatres. By now he was an expert in 10 instruments and knew all Ragas.
He came to Bombay in 1938 and played in many studios. His first film as a Music Director was Nayi Baat-1947, then Shakti-48, Banu and Bedard in 49 and finally Dolti Naiyya-50.
His knowledge of Music was so deep that many Composers like, Kalyan ji, Roshan, Uttam Singh, Hridaynath Mangeshkar etc came to him to learn notations in which he was a master. Probably, having played as a Band Master helped him. Those days very few musicians knew how to write music in Notations. This art was carried further by his another son Ganesh.
Despite his knowledge of music, he failed as a composer himself and worked/played for other Music Directors like Naushad, K.Dutta, C. Ramchandra etc.
Pt. Ramprasad will be remembered by many composers as their teacher. Though his music was melodious, his Luck was not so.
Two of his sons, Pyarelal and Ganesh became famous composers.
Pt. Ramprasad died on 22-8-1995 at Mumbai.
We have his song from film Shakti-1948, sung by Suraiyya. This sweet song was included by HMV in the ‘The rare Gems’ series of Suraiya.
In this film Azam Baig was his co-Music Director.
Song-Kaali ghataaon jaao (Shakti)(1948) Singer-Suraiyya, Lyrics-Asad Jafri, MD-Ramprasad Sharma- Azam Baig
Lyrics
kaali ghataaon jaao
kaali ghataaon jaao
saajan ko samjhaao
sajan ko samjhaao
rooth gaye hain baalam mosey
paapi jiyara mora tadpe
bhool bhayi hai
kahoon main kaase
bhool bhayi hai
kahoon main kaase
pee ko manaa kar laao
sajan ko samjhaao
kaali ghataaon jaao
saajan ko samjhaao
sajan ko samjhaao
sainyya se jaake ro ro kehna
maang hai ujdi
toota gehna
nis din tarse
tarse ko(?) naina
nis din tarse
tarse ko(?) naina
ab na mohe kalpaao
sajan ko samjhaao
kaali ghataaon jaao
saajan ko samjhaao
sajan ko samjhaao
painyya padoo main
rooth na jaana
jiyara mora tod na jaana
baalam mohe na bhulaao
aao
aao o o
kaali ghataaon jaao
saajan ko samjhaao
sajan ko samjhaao
kaali ghataaon jaao
11 Responses to "Kaali ghataaon jaao"
December 17, 2012 at 6:28 am
Arun ji,
Thanks for this nice write up. Very painstaking effort.
K S Shenoy
Bangalore
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December 17, 2012 at 7:36 am
Great begining for the new series.
With your immaculate research and notes l am sure the new series is bound to be interesting as hitherto.
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December 17, 2012 at 1:37 pm
Kamath ji,
Thank you.
I will do my best to make the series interesting.I can guarantee one thing though,that info about the composer will be
something which will be hard earned.
-AD
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December 17, 2012 at 12:58 pm
Arunji,
Ram Prasad, who composed the music for Magic Carpet (1964) would be the same Ramprasad Sharma or would that be a different person?
Regards.
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December 17, 2012 at 1:30 pm
bluefire ji,
Not only magic carpet-64 but he gave music to Childrens film society’s film ‘Ek kutte ki kahani’-65.I have ,however, not mentioned these in the write up,because a) magic carpet was a C grade film and b) the film came to him when there was some problem with Jani babu kawwal who had done the song composition earlier and was replaced at the last minute by Ram prasad,so we really do not know how many of the songs were actually done by Ramprasad.may be just 1 or 2 maximum.
In kutte ki kahani,there were no songs,only music was there.Though songs were planned,but were removed totally.
-AD
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December 17, 2012 at 2:12 pm
Thanks a lot Arunji for this detailed information.
Regards.
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December 23, 2012 at 11:34 pm
Fantastic….This series is going to a rollercoaster for sure……so many nuggets of information would be strewn all over the journey….
Arunji….a small request…could you please give atleast a passing thought on publishing your articles & responses in a book? I am sure other addicts of this blog as well as many others who still are not aware of this venture by Atul ji would love a love to lay their hands on it…….and this is not surely a passing thought….it is a genuine request…….and need of an hour too for preservaion of rich musical tradition of HFM heritage! Lovers of HFM would be forever indebted…..
Many many thanks to you & Atul ji for this treasure trove!
Warm Regards,
Umesh
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December 26, 2012 at 1:43 pm
Umesh ji,
You are very kind.
Thanks for your suggestion and words of encouragement.
-AD
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
December 17, 2012 at 5:49 am
Waah Arun Ji Waah! I know I am going to love this series. Thank you for this lovely series, really look forward to it. And so nice to know about the man behind the genes of Pyarelal and Ganesh.
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December 17, 2012 at 1:33 pm
Thank you,Pradeep ji.
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