Mera naam hai Umar Jaani
Posted on: March 16, 2013
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this song.
In Hindi films we find a variety of songs. Love songs, Happy songs, Sad songs, Comedy songs, Birthday songs, patriotic songs, Chorus songs, prayers, Lories, Bhajans and many more types.
However there is one type of songs which is a sure hit with all viewers and that is a PARODY SONG(in Hindi it is called VIDAMBAN song). Normally a Parody song is equated with a medley of old popular song tunes, set to new Lyrics, enacted by someone else.
While this is right to a great extent, the actual definition of a Parody song is ” A song which involves changing or copying well known musical ideas or lyrics or copying a particular style of a composer or an actor or even a general twisted style of Music ”
Many songs fall in this wide category. We will take a look at some known and some not known Parody songs in the next few posts, beginning from today.
The very FIRST Parody song in Hindi films came as early as 1936. It came from a film called ” Sunehara Sansaar”-1936. It was a Parody of a famous patriotic song by Dr.Iqbal-” Saare jahan se achha Hindosta hamara…” The parody song was ‘ Saare jahan se achha saabun bana hamara,hum kishtiyan hai iski…’
The lyricist was Vijay Kumar, B.A. and the Music Director was K C Dey.
When the song was released, instead of becoming popular, it drew people’s ire for distorting a patriotic song. There was criticism and several protests.
Another Music Director Master Mohd. (who was wellknown for composing many patriotic songs in those days, in his films) decided to make a Parody of K C Dey’s famous song, ‘Jao jao aye mere sadhu…’ from Pooran Bhagat-1933.
He included this parody song in same year in his film ‘ Miss frontier Mail ‘-1936. The lyrics for this song were- gaao gaao aye mere aye mere sadhu…’.
It was sung by Minu,the Mystique in the film.
This Minu was actually Minoo Cooper, a regular singer in Bombay city Parsi circles. He used to sing in many Hotels in those days. He has also sung a few more songs in Hindi films later.
This retaliatory Parody song was well received by the audience and it became popular too.
This song has been posted on this Blog, by our dear SUDHIR ji, on 29th june 2012.,along with a very interesting write up, for which he is known.
So, parody songs entered Hindi films with an intersting History behind them !
I can recall that during our younger days, it was our hobby to twist the popular songs with comic lyrics. Even today I still remember a few of them…
1) Jiya beqarar hai
Nargis ko bukhar hai,
Aja re Dilip kumar
tera intejar hai.
2) Dhoti chhod ke mat jaana
Dhoti saath mein le jaana
kasam tujhe mere Pehelwanki….
3) Bhaiya mere saambaar mein Idli na dubaana
4) Ek saal pehle,tum to Bekaar the
Gadhe pe sawar the,
aaj bhi ho,aur kal bhi rahoge…
5) De gayi bill,budhiya dukaan ki… etc etc
I am sure many of the readers also must have done this,in their times. These song Parodies added spice to our lives. So when some film had a Parody song, we used to see that film without fail !
Making a Parody song is one of the easiest matters for the Music Directorss and most of the Music Directors have resorted to Parody songs atleast once, except probably serious composers like Naushad.
When I planned for this series, I had a wide choice as there was no dearth of Parody songs.
Today’s First Parody song is from the film ‘ Johar in Kashmir ‘-1966. Though I do not rate Johar very high as an actor, his literary credentials are very high undoubtedly.
One song from this film has already been posted by our dear Sudhir ji on 4-10 2011 along with a wonderful write up. He has also given the film’s synopsis as following-
Tensions have always been high in Kashmir after the partition. Aslam (IS Johar) and Salma (Sonia Sahni) are attracted to each other. But Aslam is a bad character, and Salma wants him to mend his ways. He heeds her advise, and joins the army. He is posted in Kashmir with a Home Guard unit. His mother Zainab (Ratnamala) then goes to Salma’s father, Hakim Mohammed Hussien (Sapru) to talk about their marriage. Providence (or the script writer) has it such that Hakim Hussein’s house is attacked by infiltrators from Pakistan. In the attack, Aslam’s mother and all of Salma’s family are killed, and Salma is abducted. Aslam resolves to track down the killers and bring them to justice. What he is not prepared for is that one of the persons in this group of infiltrators is his own cousin, Maula Khan (Kamal Kapoor) from across the border. The rest of the story is about this discovery and rejuvenation of relationships, of the conflict between Aslam and the band of infiltrators, a showdown between brothers, and reconciliation.
Today’s song is also a RARE song for few reasons.
One, the song is sung by Mukesh, who is not known for singing such songs, secondly-this is not a commonly found song and thirdly-Mukesh is singing a Parody of his own song from Shri 420 -1955.The song was ” Mera joota hai jaapani ”
So, let us enjoy this FIRST Parody song in the series. It is written by Indeevar and Music is composed by Kalyanji Anandji.
Song-Mera naam hai Umar Jaani (Johar in Kashmir)(1966) Singer-Mukesh, Lyrics-Indeewar, MD-Kalyanji Anandji
Lyrics
meraa naam hai umar jaanee
khaaun rotee inglistanee
dekhoon roj filme hindi
mai bhee kaisa chhappadakhanee
meraa nam hai umar janee
khaun rotee inglistanee
dekhoon roj filme hindi
mai bhee kaisa chhappadkhaanee
meraa nam hai umar jaanee
nikal pade hain ladne ko ham apna seena taane ae ae
apna seena taane
paas hamaare kya hai yaaron
yeh toh duniya jaane ae ae
yeh toh duniya jaane
dhokha de gaye chau En Lai
mere maula kee duhaayee
maine yaar inko samajha
mai bhee kaisa chhappadakhaanee
meraa naam hai umar jaanee
khaun rotee inglistanee
dekhu roj filmen hindi
mai bhee kaisa chhappadakhaanee
meraa nam hai umar jaanee
golee videshee kaam na aayee
havaayee jahaz nikale havaayee
havayee jahaaj nikle havaayee
patton nagar bana bharat mein
pad gayee ulti ladaayee
pad gayee ulti ladaayee
lene gaye the ham kashmir
vapas a gaye jaise tir
mujhko maaf karna bhai
mai toh thahara chhappadakhaanee
meraa naam hai umar jaanee
khaun rotee inglistanee
dekhu roj filmen hindi
mai bhee kaisa chhappadakhaanee
meraa nam hai umar jaanee
4 Responses to "Mera naam hai Umar Jaani"
March 16, 2013 at 5:30 pm
Dear Arun,
Your series of articles on Parody songs packed with a lot of background information is going to be very interesting.
Hindi film industry has invented parody song as an additional genre of film music. The main purpose of parody songs is to bring a comical relief to the audience. But in a few cases they give serious messages as well albeit in a lighter way. I like those parody songs which are aesthetically picturised. The parody song under discussion comes under this category. There is no over- acting, no vulgarity and no loud music.
I recall having seen a video clip of a parody song from a very old film some time last year in which the tunes of the songs from ‘Khazaanchi’ (1941) and perhaps from ‘Khandaan’ (1942) were used. I liked this parody song very much. I think, it was picturised on a child artist. Unfortunately, I do not remember either the starting line of the song or the name of the film.
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March 16, 2013 at 7:00 pm
Dear Arunji, one advantage parody songs have that since the original song is popular, the parody number also becomes popular. Many thanks for an interesting write-up and this rare Mukesh parody number.
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March 17, 2013 at 11:16 am
Sir, i am sure this is going to be an interesting series and we await your special ‘write up’ with each one of them !!!
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
March 16, 2013 at 4:09 pm
I S Johar had a knack of singing any song in a particular tune. One tune fits them all. He was master of parody.
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