He Ambika Jagdambe
Posted on: September 19, 2013
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
The 5th song in the series “The flavour of the 30s” is from the film GOL NISHAN or Mark of Zero-1936 and is sung by Gauhar Karnataki.
In the early era of the films, silent and Talkie, it was difficult to get educated people from respectable families as ‘Cinema’ was considered synonymous with bad culture, bad habits and overall a very lowly profession.
Dadasaheb Phalke once described how his offer of film roles was rejected with contempt even by Prostitutes, who looked down upon this profession of acting in Cinema as ‘below their dignity’ !
Not that there were no educated good family people in film industry. They were there but their number was very small. The maximum Heroines from Silent and early Talkie films were from the families of professional singers, Tawayafs and Mujra dancers.
With so many of them, there were many artistes with same names, since certain names were quite popular among these group of families. This used to cause a lot of confusion, so many artistes started adding their Town names to their own names to differentiate themselves other others. Thus you had Amirbai Karnataki, Zohrabai Ambalawali, Rajkumari Banaraswali etc.
Not only in the early era alone, but later on in the subsequent times,till about 1960,same-name artiste was a great headache. More than anything else it caused lot of confusion and problems for the students and writers on old films and music(like me, for example). It was sometimes a challenge to find out the different identities of each name-alikes.
Here are some such names which cause problems and confusion–
Actor Shyam and actor/singer Shyamkumar
Actor/Director Asit Sen and Director Asit Sen
Actor Shashi kapoor-Sr and Jr
Actor Najmul Hussain and actor/Director Najmul Hussain (Najam Naqvi)
Actor Trilok Kapoor and singer Trilok Kapoor
Actor Amarnath, Director Amarnath, Music Director Pt. Amarnath(Mirza Sahiban) and another Music Director Amarnath(Garm coat)
Actor/singer Arunkumar(Ahuja) and singer/MD Arunkumar(Mukherjee)
Actor Raajkumar…Jaani, Yadav, Gupta, Pandey
Singers Rajkumari-Banaraswali, Calcuttewali, Shukla
Singer Actress Rattanbai and Ratan bai Shilotri-mother of Shobhana Samarth
Singers-khurshid-Sr, Jr and very Jr
Singer/MD Jagmohan(Bakshi) and singer/MD Jagmohan(sursagar)
Singer/MD Shyamsunder and singer/actor Sunder
Singer/actress Vimlakumari and actress/dancer Vimlakumari
Singer/actress Amirbai and Actress Amirbai
MD/singer Madan Mohan and MD Mohan junior
MD Roshan and singer Roshan
Actress Neelam,Neelambai
Actress Noorjahan-sr, Malika e Tarannum and Noorjahan jr.
Actress Yasmeen-sr and jr.
Actress Zubeida(Alam Ara) and Zubeda jr.(Film Zubeda wali)
Actress Bharati-Vishnuwardhan and Malvankar
Actress Madhuri-sr, jr and Dikshit.
On top of all this sits the name GAUHAR
Gauhar jaan of Solapur
Gauhar Jaan of Patiyala
Gauhar jaan of Calcutta(First recording in 1902)
Miss Gauhar of Parsi Theatre
Gauhar Abdul Qayoum Mamajiwala and
Gauhar Karnataki.
Besides these there are many more such name-alikes,but they are not famous.
I have lost count how many times I have explained the difference between two Shyams and two Ratan bais, on various Blogs and sites. These are the two most discussed pairs, on and off, on the Internet film and music sites.
We have seen details about Gauhar mamajiwala ,few days back. today we will discuss Gauhar Karnataki.
Tabla player Hussain Khan, living in a small town Belagi, near Hubli, had 6 daughters. The first was Allamma(Ahilya),then Amirbai, next was Gauhar(Born in 1908), then a series of badi Munni,Chhoti Munni and Nanhi Munni. Son was Dastgir.
Being from a singing family, Amirbai and Gauhar(Gauramma) worked in a drama company called Vanivilas Natak mandali. Since Hubli, Dharwad, Belgaum came under Bombay Presidency and were also near Sangli/Miraj and Kolhapur, the sisters were experts in Marathi too.
Brother Dastgir went on to study B.Sc and did a job in AIR, Belgaum. From the beginning only, Amirbai and Gauhar did not get on well with each other. May be professional jealousy. Gauhar got classical music training from a blind teacher Nilkanth Panchakshari Buwa. Great classical singer Mallikarjuna Mansur’s brother Basavanna wrote songs for Gauhar and also accompanied her on Harmonium.
Marathi singer actor Chaphekar took the sisters to Bombay for working in films. Gauhar and Chaphekar stayed as companions in Bombay for few years. Meanwhile Gauhar got a daughter Ashamma. Her father’s name is not known. Ashamma remained with Gauhar till her death.
Gauhar started acting in Marathi and Hindi films. She acted,sang and also composed her own songs, but no records were brought out.
Gauhar was mesmerised by the famous Marathi singer actor BAL GANDHARVA. She first met him in 1937, in actor Himalayawala’s flat(Amirbai karnataki’s cruel Husband). It is widely believed that Gauhar used Black magic to attract Bal Gandharva to her. As expected he fell in her love and Gauhar joined his Balgandharva natak mandali in 1938. After her arrival into the mandali, all senior artistes left the company as they were afraid of Gauhar’s black magic.
From 1938,Gauhar remained with Balgandharva till she died in 1964. Balgandharva’s wife died in grief in 1940 and Gauhar married Balgandharva in 1951.
She acted in films like Raas vilas-32, Kala Pahad and Sohni mahiwal-33, Kala vagh and Shak karta Shivaji(M)-34, Pyar ki Maar-35, Bansriwala, Gol Nishan and Graduate-36, Kala Bhoot and Chabuk swar-37, Vijay Danka-38, Hawai khatola and Swadesh sewa-46. cChabuk sawaar-37 was a stunt film a-la Fearless Nadiya style wherein she did some stunts and fencing too. (Thanks to lifekidhun, warren senders, wiki and HFGK for some information used above.)
Gauhar is mentioned as Gauhar Karnataki or Gauhar from Bijapur in the HFGK. She must have sung atleast 100 songs but since there were no records,there is no information. As her many films were C grade, no redords were issued even for them. However she has sung many Marathi natyageet and Bhajans. There can not be any comparison with her sister Amirbai since Amirbai was in a higher league and her records were also made. She had many composers and singers to sing along.
Film Gol Nishan aka Mark of Zero was made by Navbharat movies, and was directed by M. Udwadiya, who specialised in C grade stunt films. It was a costume drama, in which Gauhar had done the role of Rajkumari. Her hero was Navinchandra(as in many earlier films). The film was based on the story of Dr. Dhani Ram ‘Prem’.
Dr. Dhaniram was an extraordinary person. He was born on 26-9-1904 at Dariyapur, Aligadh(UP). He completed his MBBS from Bombay and then he went to UK for further studies with an assistance from a charitable institution. He came back, started his practice and repaid all loans first. From childhood he was fond of writing. he wrote several books and articles in National papers. From 1932 to 1936 he wrote Stories, dialogues and Lyrics for 14 films. In the first 2 years he wrote for only Ranjit studio films. Later he was a freelancer and wrote for others too. Gol Nishan was the last film for which he wrote some lyrics.
Then he went to UK and practiced there, engaging himself in social causes. he was highly respected by the British. In 1964 he declared that he will conest against the Prime Minister,in elections. A special pediatric ward was named after him in his honour while he was alive. Indian government gave him Padmashree.
On 29-10-1979 he came to India and stayed in Delhi, but in two day’s time he met with a scooter accident and he died on 10-11-1979.
His speciality was that in every film lyric, he used the word ‘Prem’ as a signature word.
(Thanks to Lb 145 of july 2010)
Let us now hear Gauhar Karnataki’s voice in this song…
Song-He ambika jagdambe (Gol Nishaan)(1936) Singer-Gauhar Karnataki
Lyrics
He Ambika jagdambe
He Ambika jagdambe
He Ambika jagdambe
??? jagdambe
??? jagdambe
He Ambika jagdambe
mujhe darshan deeje maat he
mujhe darshan deeje maat he
mujhe darshan deeje maat he
??? darshan ??
????
????
He Ambika jagdambe
mundon ki maaala aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
trishool bhaala re ??
aa aa aa
dono ??
prataap ???
aa aa aa
aaye teri sharan
saajanwa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
he ambika jagdambe
?? jagdambe
he ambika jagdambe
he ambika jagdambe
8 Responses to "He Ambika Jagdambe"
September 19, 2013 at 3:36 pm
one of her songs is available here (another link is not working) http://www.lifekidhun.com/hindifilmsandmusic/personalities/gauharkarnataki.html
I also heard a couple of her songs in Warren Sanders blog but the links do not seem to be working now.
LikeLike
September 19, 2013 at 3:38 pm
Sorry, it is Warren Senders http://www.warrensenders.com/journal/?p=3798
LikeLike
September 20, 2013 at 7:36 am
Arunji,
There was one another Gauhar Sultana who sang in Ishara-1943.
LikeLike
September 20, 2013 at 11:54 am
Arunji,
All your posts shows how much passion and love you have for Hindi cinema. Like everybody has said, the information you provide is not easy to find. You are making this blog very special. We are thankful to Atulji for creating and maintaining this blog.
LikeLike
September 20, 2013 at 12:23 pm
Khyati ji,
Thanks for your motivating and encouraging (kind too) comments.It has always been my endeavour to give something exclusive.
-AD
LikeLike
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
September 19, 2013 at 11:37 am
Dear Atul ji,
Having joined just a couple of months back, I am just a late entrant to the vast multitude of your fans. I must record my admiration for the tremendous labour of love and untiring efforts to serve the cause of Hindi film music world. Your blog and posts are continuously bringing not only the rarest of gems from the oldest eras/ long forgotten/most obscure or unreleased films and songs but are also veritable treasure-trove of little-known facts, anecdotes and vignettes from the hindi celluloid world. I express my herat-felt gratitude to you and other friends and colloborators to your blog.
It was news to me when I read in this post that in the following cases there were two different individuals with the same name and not the same person which I had always believed:
Actor Trilok Kapoor & Singer Trilok Kapoor;
MD Roshan & Singer Roshan; and
Actor/Director Asit Sen & Director Asit Sen. Which of the two had directed films like “Apradhi Kaun?”, “Bees Saal Baad” and “Mamta”?
Are we really sure about the information and the source?
Kindly also allow me to add that –
1. Shyam was one of the most popular heroes of his time, but his namesake singer spelt his name differently as Sham Kumar. Later, because he was a wrestler too, he used to act as a bad man and even the main villain in many films.
2. In the case of two Najmuls, while last name of one was ‘Hasan’, the other was ‘Husain’, a small but subtle difference.
3. Singer with forte of private songs and bhajans was Jagmohan ‘Sursagar’ (mentioned as Surgagar surely due to a typo).
4. Coming to the singer’s name of this post, another addition could be of the currently active actress, Gauhar Khan.
Once again thanks and with best wishes,
Avadh Lal
LikeLike
September 19, 2013 at 11:54 am
Several discussions have taken place in the past about the different Trilok Kapoors, Asit Sens, Shyams, Jagmohans etc in this blog in the past.
LikeLike