Reshmi ghataaon ke kaafile chaley
Posted on: February 26, 2013
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
The imagination of Indian film story writers is truly very fertile. In fact it runs wild when they have to invent some novel theme for the usual “Ghisa-Pita” story like Tarzan.
I had read somewhere that there are only seven basic film stories in this world and that all the film stories all over the world in all the languages are based and expanded on these basic seven stories only (leaving, ofcourse Historical, Religious and Mythologicals- which have their own written bases already).
The skill of the story writers or the members of the story department in a film company depends upon how they develop the film story. There is a bright example in our own Hindi Film industry- Manmohan Desai. Most of his films were were based on the same basic theme of ” Lost and Found formula”. But he made each one of his films block busters. He gave a different treatment to every film. Added masala and lilting music helped the film to succeed. Good actors, good locations and superb editing made each film look differentfrom the other ones.
The story of Tarzan too has one basic theme-“child lost in jungle or sea, brought up by wild animals, has super strength and is a protector of the oppressed”.
To make their films different than other films, the writers included all fantasy characters in Tarzan stories. Since he grew up in jungles, jungle Tribes, their chief, his beautiful daughter, his witch doctor etc was included. The character of Jane Porter was disguised as daughter of the visiting professor, or the scientist. Added elements like Gorilla, King kong, Cyclops, magic lamp, tribal treasure, Gold mines, magicians ets were used sometimes.
With all the imaginations of the story writers,the “C” grade films were a mockery of all this, since basically their budgets were so low that they could not afford lavish sets nor could they get better Directors or Composers.
The Music Director pair for today’s film TARZAN AND THE JADUGAR-1963 was SURESH-TALWAR.
They were supposed to be the most successful C grade Music Directors around. they limited their operations to Action films only, though they did do a few social and religious films also. Starting with Hotel and Sair e Paristan(both 1958),they did Teerthyatra, Fashionable Wife and Sahil-1959, with D C Datt, their most famous film. Geeta Dutt’s song ‘Khatm kar de dastaan’ was included in her ‘Rare Gems’ casette by HMV. Another landmark film was Lady of the lake-1960. The song ‘Zun zun baaje’ was included in the best of Sudha Malhotra’s list by HMV. They also gave music to Elephant Queen, Jungle Boy, Rashtraveer Shivaji, Tilasmi Duniya, Tarzan and jadugar and finally Char Chkramin 1965.
Suresh, the Gujrati partner of this pair, also gave music independently to many films.
TARZAN AND JADUGAR-1963 was a A R Brothers prodn,directed by Tadhakant,MD-Suresh Talwar and Lyrics by Jafar Raahi.
The cast of the film was Chitra, Azaad, Sherry, Arvind Pandya, Tun tun etc.
Here is what Cineplot says about Chitra-
“Your real name?
It’s Afsar Unissa Begum.
Your age?
My age? Don’t be rude. But I’ll tell you I’m over 40, make anything of that if you want to.
Tell us something about yourself?
I’m from a nawabi (royal) family of Hyderabad. I’d come to Bombay for holidays, I was fond of movies. So, I told myself, why don’t I become a heroine? The mirror said yes, you must. I became a heroine opposite Ajit in Maan. But I became really popular with Chor Bazaar with Shammi Kapoor as the hero. I’ve done all sorts of films: historicals, socials, you name it. I’ve acted opposite Rajendra Kumar, Balraj Sahni, Pradeep Kumar, Mahipal and Feroz Khan. I lived in a bungalow-type house, I changed seven cars as I became more and more popular. I’ve done 111 films, I’ve counted them actually. I was in India’s first jungle color film— Zimbo! I was in AVM studio’s Baap Bete. But then there was an ajeeb si tragedy. I became too choosy, by dilly dallying whether I should do this film or that film I lost a lot of time.
Work stopped coming and there wasn’t the kind of money flow as earlier. And don’t ask me about things like marriage. Just forget it. I do feel lonely at times but I’m trying to work as much as I can. I’m okay, I’ve a decent 650 square foot flat, a phone. God forbid, I’ve never starved. I’ve adjusted to the times. I like travelling by auto rickshaw, it’s like sitting on a jhoola (swing).
Maybe I can still start some business on my own. And I must tell you I have never indulged in bad habits like going to the races. Horses frighten me. I’m also frightened by the way today’s heroines look on the screen— why are all of them throwing off all their clothes? (Interviewed by Khalid Mohamed in 1990)”
The hero Azad Irani’s first film was Zimbo-1958.
Cineplot says-
Azad belonged to that rare breed of Zoroastrian actors who dominated the early Indian Cinema – especially Silent Cinema – because of their looks/built but with limited Hindi language and/or acting skills. Azad started his career as a hero with the B-Grade jungle/stunt film Zimbo (1958) which was a success at box-office. Along with Dara Singh, he remained a popular stunt hero in many B-Grade ventures including Lady of the Lake (1960), Pedro (1960), Zimbo Comes to Town(1960), Tarzan aur Gorilla (1963) etc.
Unfortunately, with the beginning of the 70s when the popularity of jungle and stunt films started to wane, Azad switched to cameo roles before he faded into oblivion by the beginning of the 80s.
The story of this film was-
A businessman Khanna is travelling with his wife kamala and a two year old son Tony. During an accident the three separate. Tony is saved by a Fairy who takes him to the jungle to be brought up by wild animals. He becoes Tarzan(Azad). Kamala becomes almost mad after losing her husband and son and starts living with a lady magician Rooplekha, in the jungle. Father khanna works as a labourer with a forest contractor Manohar, who lives with a beautiful daughter Maya(Chitra) and his assistants Cinnoo and Ghungroo.
On one occasion, Maya and Tarzan cross each other and dutifully fall in love and sing songs etc. The jungle magician Bhootnath also wants to marry Maya, but Tarzan is the obstacle in his way. He tries to kill Tarzan many times, but Rooplekha saves him every time from the magician. One day Bhootnath captures Maya and Tarzan both. He wants to sacrifice Tarzan to his Devta. Rooplekha comes to know about it and she kidnaps Maya and keeps her with Kamala. She goes back to the magician, where there is a magic fight between them, in which Bhootnath dies, but while dying he also injures Rooplekha.
Rooplekha,before dying, reveals that Tarzan is Tony-Kamal’s son and Khanna is Kamla’s husband. All reunite and Maya and Tarzan start a new life.
Song-Reshami ghataaon ke kaafile chale (Tarzan aur Jadugar)(1963) Singers-Asha Bhonsle, Mahendra Kapoor, Lyrics-Zafar Raahi, MD-Suresh -Talwar
Lyrics
reshmi ghataaon ke kaafile chaley
jhoomti hawaaon ke kaafile chaley
aaj dil ki raah mein phool se khiley ae
tumse ham miley
reshami ghataaon ke kafile chaley
jhoomati hawaaon ke kaafile chaley
aaj dil ki raah mein ye phool se khiley
tumse ham miley
yamma
tum miley to raaste haseen ho gaye
dil ko dhoondhne chali to khud hi kho gaye
tum miley to raste haseen ho gaye
dil ko dhoondhne chale to khud hi kho gaye
koi raaz koi baat jaane na
reshmi ghataaon ke ye kaafile chaley
jhoomti hawaaon ke kaafile chaleyy
aaj dil ki raah mein phool se khile
tumse ham miley
yamaa
ha aa
aaj meri zindagi ko pyaar mil gaya
pyaar kyaaa mila mujhe karaar mil gaya
aaj meri zindagi ko pyaar mil gaya
pyaar kyaa mila mujhe karaar mil gaya
koi raaz koi baat jaane na
reshmi ghataaon ke kaafile chaley
jhoomti hawaaon ke kaafile chaley
aaj dil ki raah mein phool se khiley
tumse ham miley
yamma
2 Responses to "Reshmi ghataaon ke kaafile chaley"
February 25, 2023 at 11:07 pm
Missing 3rd stanza lyrics of which was not posted in the above post:(song sequence featuring Azad,Chitra,Indira Billi)(above posted video link contains 3rd stanza) but the audio link contains only 1st and 2nd stanzas:
“tumne aisi baat kya kee
mujhko kyaa huaa aa
sochti hoon maine kis adaa pe dil diyaa aaa
tumne aisi baat kya kee
mujhko kyaa huaa aa
sochti hoon maine kis adaa pe dil diyaa aaa
koi raaz koi baat jaaney naa
reshmi ghataaon ke kaafile chaley
jhoomti hawaaon ke kaafile chaley
aaj dil ki raah mein phool se khiley
tumse ham miley
o yamma aaaa”
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
February 25, 2023 at 10:52 pm
full video working link of the song:
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