Madhur milan ka chitra banaayen
Posted on: September 17, 2013
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow ehthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
The Fourth song in “The flavour of the 30s” series is from the film COMRADES-1939 and it is sung by Surendranath and Maya Banerjee. The music is by Anil Biswas.
The title of the film apparently gives an impression that the film may be about Communism, but the word Comrades is used here to only denote togetherness of friends.
From the time Talkie films started, 90% of the films were based on Love themes only. Various permutations and combinations of Love Triangles were used. This film is also no different, but since it was the era of the emerging cinema,this subject or its plot had not yet become routine till then.
Initially for the first 5 to 6 years, the posters and the advertisements of Films indicated only the production company’s names, for example- ” The Imperial Company presents” etc etc. There was no mention of any actor’s names on the posters, though sometimes Photos were added. The credit of getting the names of Artistes included on the film Posters and the Advertisements goes to the Superstar of those days-Sulochana (Ruby Myers). She was the most highly paid star of those days( Rs. 5000 p.m.) and she used to come to the studios by chauffeur driven car for her daily work ! One day, she saw a film poster of her film and was shocked to find that no names of any actors were mentioned on it. She exploded and threatened to stop work with all other artistes, unless her and other main actors’ name were printed on every film poster and the advertisements. Due to her insistence,the producers started putting main actors’ names on the posters. Over a period, it became a regular practice. This was from around the year 1935 onwards.
However,this was NOT the case with Film records. Though song records of films started commercially with MADHURI-1932, these records, barring few exceptions, did not carry the singers’ name on them till almost 1949 !! A classic case in this connection is of the iconic song of Lata- ” Aayega Aanewala” from film Mahal-1949. The name on this record is KAMINI-which was the screen name of Madhubala in that film ! Lata’s name is NOT mentioned on this record !!
It was probably from then onwards that the singers’ names were regularly started appearing on the records. That is the reason most of the song records available form the 30s and the 40s are without names and one has to listen to them and guess the singers’ names.
Unfortunately, till recently,the Lyricist’s name was not mentioned either making it extremely difficult to credit the songs to any Lyricist. This is the case even in case of some famous songs. Now of course all these information are available.
COMRADES -39 was a film directed by Nandlal Jaswantlal. It was produced by Sagar Movietone, which later became National studios before disappearing fully.
Nandlal Jaswantlal was born on 15-3-1907 (he died early when he was just 53 years old). He was with Ranjit studios in the start of his career. Along with Jayant Desai,he was the first assistant of Chandulal Shah along with Jayant Desai in the beginning of Ranjit films. Nandlal left Ranjit in 1934 and went on an Europe tour. When he came back, he joined Sagar Movitone. He directed about 25 films in his career (Talkie films). After Sagar and national,he worked in Filmistan also, where he gave the best films of his career- Anarkali-53 and Nagin-54. His last film as a director was Ranjit’s “Akeli mat Jaiyo”-1963-which was also the last film for Ranjit. Thus Nandlal started with Ranjit and ended with Ranjit !
The film’s music was by Anil Biswas and the Lyricists were Dr. Safdar Aah Sitapuri, Zia Sarhadi and Kanhaiyalal. Kanhaiyalal is the same character actor who famously did the role of Sukhilala in Mother India-1957. He had also done the same role in the original film Aurat in 1940. This was a rare case,though not unique. For example,Jayant had acted in the same role in the original MALA-1941 and its remake AMAR-54. However so far this record is held by Vazir Mohammad Khan,who did the same Fakir’s role in Alam Ara-1931, Alam Ara-1956 and Alam Ara-1973. Not only this he had also sung the same song in 1931 and 1956 versions !
The cast of Comrades was Surendra, Maya Banerjee, Jyoti, Harish, Jillo, Sankatha Prasad(elder brother of Kanhaiyalal and a fixture in sagar films), Kaayam Ali etc.
Maya Banerjee was very beautiful and a good actress.
MAYA BANERJEE was born in Calcutta in 1914 in a well to do family. From childhood she was interested in singing and acting. In school and l;ater in college she participated in many programmes. She was also a very good sportswoman.
She arrived in Bombay and joined Sagar Movietone as a singer actress. Her voice was melodious and it had a Bengali sweetness too.
Some of her films were Jagirdar-37, Dynamite-38, Kokila-37, Mahageet-37, Postman-38, Service Ltd.-39, Uski Tamanna-39, Watan-38, Hum tum aur Voh-38, Comrades-39, Sewa Samaj-39,etc.
She continued working as an actress after 1940, but stopped giving Playback singing. Instead she got playback by many other singers.
After 1940,her some films were, Lal haveli, Apna Ghar, Vidya, Dost, Insaan, Bichar, Awwaaz, Anuradha, Bhole bhale, Dada, Ghar ghar ki kahani, Jharna, Laxmi, Manorama, Nadiya ke paar, Nishan, Paraya Dhan, Ratnavali, Rekha, Veer Kunal etc.
The story of COMRADES-1939 was…
Seth Madhavlal’s(Kaayam Ali) family is a typically happy and contented one. His wife Radha (Jillo) is very loving mother and a devoted wife. His elder son Jatin (Surendra), younger son Kiran (Harish) and Rekha-an orphan girl, daughter of a distant relative play together and are very close with each other. They share everything and are ready to do anything for each other.
Eventually,all grow up. Now Rekha has become a very beautiful young girl and both the brothers,unknown to each others,love her. One day Jatin sees and hears Kiran expressing his love for Rekha. Jatin is shocked and also disappointed. He does not want to be an obstacle between them, so he decides to become a baddy. He starts dating Nirmala(Jyoti),an employee Tulsidas’s daughter. Additionally he becomes very arrogant also. Everyone is hurt by his behaviour. One day he even returns home in a drunk condition.
The father admonishes him. After arguing with father, Jatin is thrown out of the house. He now becomes a thief and comes to father’s house for stealing one night. Rekha confronts him and tries to reform him but he goes away.
Kiran has an idea why Jatin is doing this. Actually Rekha had turned him down saying that she loved only Jatin, but Jatin did not hear the full coversation that day. Nirmala is being slandered due to Jatin. To save her reputation, Kiran marries her, as he likes her too. Jatin is very angry and fires Kiran for deserting Rekha. Kiran explains everything to him and the clouds of misunderstanding are removed.
Jatin gives up all bad things, returns home and gets married to Rekha. Thus the Comrades remain friends for ever in rest of their lives.
Let us now enjoy the song sung by Surendra and Maya Banerjee. This is a song filmed on them almost at the end of the film. The Lyricist is Kanhaiyalal.
Song- Madhur milan ka chitra banaayen (Comrades)(1939) Singers- Surendra, Maya Banerjee, Lyrics- Kanhaiyalal, MD- Anil Biswas
Both
Lyrics
shika
?il
madhur milan ka chitra banaayen
prem ke rang se rang daalen
madhur milan ka chitra banaayen
prem ke rang se rang daalen
kisko
???
pehle sun’ne(?) sukh paa len (??)
pehle sun’ne(?) sukh paa len (??)
pehle sun’ne(?) sukh paa len (??)
pehle sun’ne(?) sukh paa len (??)
madhur milan ka chitra banaayen
prem ke rang se rang daalen
madhur milan ka chitra banaayen
prem ke rang se rang daalen
ras bhari sundar raat rahe
chandra ?? paas rahe
ras bhari sundar raat rahe
chandra ?? paas rahe
ras bhari sundar raat rahe
vriksh lataayen jhoom rahi hon
vriksh lataayen jhoom rahi hon
daali ko daali choom rahi ho
daali ko daali choom rahi ho
apne suhaag ki raat wahi ho
apne suhaag ki raat wahi ho
jeewan safal banaayen
jeewan safal banaayen
madhur milan ka chitra banaayen
prem ke rang se rang daalen
madhur milan ka chitra banaayen
prem ke rang se rang daalen
madhur milan ka chitra banaayen
5 Responses to "Madhur milan ka chitra banaayen"
September 18, 2013 at 9:12 am
Arunji
You mean actor Kanhaiyalal; I met him couple of times at his King Circle residence; he did not inform me.
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September 18, 2013 at 10:03 am
nitin ji,
Kanhaiyalal came to Bombay from UP originally to become a Lyricist,but after few films for which he wrote lyrics,he started working as an actor.
-AD
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
September 17, 2013 at 8:50 pm
Thank you Arun Ji for a lovely article. You take us back to the 30s. I just got to know about this new series, and now I shall go and check out the previous 2 posts :).
Arun Ji, in the article you mention the lyricist to be Kanhaiyalal, and just below the youtube link the lyricist is mentioned as Zia Sarhadi, which is right? Thank you.
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September 17, 2013 at 9:22 pm
Pradeep ji,
Actually,Harmandir hamraz ji,has written a note that the Lyricist for THIS song is Kanhaiyalal. So it is accepted.
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September 17, 2013 at 9:35 pm
Thank you Arun Ji, noted :). Will make the necessary changes in the song :).
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