Dulhaniya chhamachham chhamaachham chali
Posted by: Atul on: December 18, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
In the post-silent film era, Pramathesh Chandra Barua (P C Barua) directed 13 Hindi films many of which had Bangla versions as well. Three of his films – ‘Devdas’ (1935), ‘Mukti’ (1937) and ‘Jawaab’ (1942) and their Bangla versions were super hits. These are classic films which connoisseurs of vintage films would like to have in their collections. While an abridged Hindi version of ‘Devdas’ (1935) is available (probably deleting the damaged portions of the original print), its Bangla version was destroyed in a fire in New Theatres many years ago. There is only one copy of the Bangla version of this film available with Bangladesh Film Archives that too with about 40% of the film being damaged. Hindi version of films ‘Mukti’ (1937) and ‘Jawaab’ (1942) are not available but their Bangla versions are available.
While doing an article on P C Barua, I watched Hindi version of ‘Devdas’ (1935), the Bangla versions of ‘Mukti; (1937) and ‘Shesh Uttar’ (1942), the Bangla version of ‘Jawaab’ (1942). The video of ‘Devdas’ (1935) is not of good quality. In fact, it is a pain to watch this heavily edited and bad quality video. Video qualities of both ‘Mukti’ (1937) and ‘Shesh Uttar’ (1942) are excellent. But with English sub-titles available on ‘Shesh Uttar’, I could better appreciate this film. One common factor of all these three films is that their stories have feudal background and raises some socially relevant issues arising from the gap between rich landlords and middle/poor class. P C Barua has handled these films very sensitively without giving a colour of class conflicts which the directors with leftist ideologies would have given. While the main character of the roles in ‘Devdas’ and ‘Mukti’ die at the end, in ‘Jawaab’, it is a happy ending. Incidentally, Jamuna Barua in the roles of Paro’ in ‘Devdas’ (Bangla version) and Reva in ‘Jawaab’ was the real life wife of P C Barua. However, in reel life, P C Barua loses her in both these films.
The song I am presenting in this article is ‘dulhaniya chhama chham chhama chham chali’ from the film JAWAAB (1942). The song was written by Pandit Madhur and set to music by Kamal Dasgupta. The song is sung by Anima Sengupta (nee Dasgupta) and picturised on Jamuna Barua. To me her voice seems very close to that of Shanta Apte especially in the audio clip. As soon as I heard the first line of the song, I remembered at once that I heard this song from my mother many times during my childhood. So I guess that this was one of the popular songs from the film. Otherwise how would it reach a remote village of the then Kanara district of Madras Presidency where there was no electricity and no radio at that time. Moreover, my mother, at that time, did not know Hindi. Those days, the popularity of the songs was gauged by the selection of the songs by the amateur orchestra group of villages for their performances as a hobby.
I heard the name of playback singer Anima Sengupta for the first time. I could not get much information on her except a brief discussion in a google group forum where one of the participants stated that she was trained in classical singing and started her playback singing career with ‘Jawaab’ (1942). She passed away in 1987. I find from http://www.myswar.com that she gave playback in ‘Jawaab’ (1942), ‘Bindiya’ (1946), ‘Arabian Nights’ (1946), and ‘Iran Ki Ek Raat’ (1949). Kamal Dasgupta was the music director for all these films. She also sang a few Bangla songs.
Since I have seen this film recently, let me give a gist of the story and a review. The film is a love triangle which we all are familiar with from many films of 50s, 60s and even 70s. The film starts with duniya ye duniya toofaan mail. ‘Manoj (P C Barua), son a of landlord travels by Toofaan Mail for Allahabad to get treatment for his brain problem. He was to stay in Allahabad with Rai Bahadur (Ahindra Choudhury), a family friend and his ‘would be’ father-in-law during his treatment. Rai Bahadur’s daughter Reva (Jamuna Barua) was to take care of him. Manoj is absent minded and forgetful in nature due to his brain problem. So instead of reaching Allahabad, he gets down at some intermediate railway station. In the meantime, the train has left the station with his servant Nattu, forcing him to take a shelter in the Station Master’s house. Meena (Kanan Devi), the granddaughter of the Station Master takes care of him.
In the meanwhile, Rai Bahadur’s family and Nattu search for him as he has not reached Allahabad on the appointed day. Nattu finds Manoj in Station Master’s house. During his stay, Manoj develops affinity towards Meena as she takes care of him. After few days, Manoj and Nattu depart for Allahabad and stay in Rai Bahadur’s house. Here he meets Reva, Rai Bahadur’s daughter and his future wife. She is modern and glamorous in outlook as against the simple and innocent Meena. At every stage, the name of Meena comes when he converses with Reva which she does not like. Just to clear her misunderstanding, Manoj arranges a meeting of Reva with Meena. During their meeting Reva insults Meena for her low financial status. When Manoj comes to know about it, he faints as he gets a brain shock. He recovers from his illness but doctor treating him feels that he must get proper sleep to avoid a relapse of the brain shock. But Manoj does not get sleep and he always utters the name of Meena.
Finally, Meena comes to Allahabad and take care of Manoj for a few days after which doctor certifies him to have fully recovered from his brain problem. Now it is time for Manoj to decide about his marriage with Reva. Meanwhile, after realising that it is Meena and not she who is a proper bride for Manoj, Reva deliberately flirts with Biran, the solicitor so that Manoj would hate her. While Manoj gets agitated by her behaviour, he is not calling off his marriage with her as this would mean a breach of commitment given by his father to Rai Bahadur. So a date is fixed for engagement ceremony of Manoj with Reva. But Reva is missing on the engagement day. She had left home with bridal outfits to Meena’s village to convince her that it is Meena and not Reva who is the perfect bride for Manoj. After convincing Meena and her grandfather for the marriage with Manoj, she makes Meena to wear the bridal attire she has brought and takes them to Rai Bahadur’s house.
The film virtually ends with the song under discussion with Reva bringing Meena dressed in the bridal attire to Manoj and she walks away. The end of the film is an ‘expressionist’ way of showing that Reva withdraws in favour of Meena to get married to Manoj giving a happy ending to the story. In most Hindi films of the later years, the ending scene would have been filmed with ‘saat pheras’ around the sacred fire with a family photograph.
Despite the language gap, I liked the Bangla version of ‘Jawaab’. The English sub-titles helped me in understanding the dialogues. Thanks to crisp editing, there was not a single dull moment while watching the film. Despite a love triangle, there were no melodramatic scenes in the film. In fact, the dialogues and scenarios make it a light comical film with restrained performances by the main actors. Even the role of Biran as a villainous solicitor is a comical one. The role of Reva as a modern and glamorous woman is written in such a way to give as to give the feeling that she took a practical decision to the issue rather than overtly gaining sympathy for her sacrifice. This film is an example of a simple story made interesting by P C Barua with his sleek scenario writing and direction.
The video clip of the song covers dialogues between Station Master ( in the role Kanan Devi’s grandfather and his assistant Bhikhu (Ranjit Roy) as a prelude to the song while the audio clip starts with the song. I have given links for both the clips.
Audio
Video
Song-Dulhaniya chhamaachham chhamaachham chali (Jawaab)(1942) Singer-Anima Sengupta, Lyrics-Pt Madhur, MD-Kamal Dasgupta
Lyrics
chali
dulhaniya chhama chham chhama chham chali
dulhaniya chhama chham chhama chham chali
dol raha man piyaa milan ko
dol raha
dol raha
dol raha man piya milan ko
phool bani aaj dil ki kali
haan
phool bani aaj dil ki kali
chali
dulhaniya chhama chham chhama chham chali
dulhaniya chhama chham chhama chham chali
tan pe hansta ek ek gehna
tan pe hansta ek ek gehna
saawan bhaado jaise naina
saawan bhaado jaise naina
aaj jawaani ki phulwaari
aaj jawaani ki phulwaari
phooli aur phali
dulhaniya chhamaa chham chhamaa chham chali
dulhaniya chhamaa chham chhamaa chham chali
umad rahi gaalon pe laali
umad rahi gaalon pe laali
ek ek din hai bani deewaali
ek ek din hai bani deewaali
priya prem ki ek anokhi
man mein jyot jali
dulhaniya chhamaa chham chhamaa chham chali
dulhaniya chhamaa chham chhamaa chham chali
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4 Responses to "Dulhaniya chhamachham chhamaachham chali"
December 19, 2013 at 6:31 pm
Sadanand-ji, ach of your ousts is outstanding! I am amazed at the effort you put in in each post. Many thanks.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
December 18, 2013 at 5:38 pm
mukti & jawab i have both dvd in hindi version.
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