Mere haath mein tera haath rahe
Posted on: February 7, 2014
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, 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.
The second song in the series “Debut or First film songs ” is from the First Hindi/English film KARMA-1933. It is sung by the ‘First lady of the Indian Cinema and the First winner of the prstigious Daqdasaheb Phalke Award- DEVIKA RANI.
Film Karma-1933 was made by ‘ Himanshu Rai Indo-International Talkies, Bombay’. Produced by Himanshu Rai himself, it was directed by the then famous British director J.J.Freer Hunt or simply John Hunt. The music was given by two experts, Roy Douglas and Earnest Broadhurst. John Hunt was a well known maker of propaganda and Training films. Once he took this assignment, he visited India and also read many books on India to understand India and its people.
The story of the film was by Dewan Sharar and the screenplay was written by Rupert Browning. The film was shot in Stroll Studios at London. The film was based on Indian royalties but was an oriental fantasy. The film, made as a Bi-lingual (Hindi/English), was tilting towards entertaining the European audience, rather than the Indian one. The Hindi title of the film was ” Nagan ki Raagini “,though KARMA was the main title.
The film opened in London’s Marble Arch Pavilion on 15th May 1933. In those days, it ran for several weeks in London and elsewhere. The 68 minutes film was reviewed by every periodical in London. All the papers were full of praises for its Heroine-Devika Rani.
The Variety Magazine, in its issue dated 30th May 1933 had said ” You will never hear a lovelier voice or diction or see a lovelier Face”. It called the film,”modern American romance on Indian background”.
The News Chronicle said,” She totally eclipses the ordinary Film Stars. All her gestures speak and she is Grace personified.”
The Era said,” Devika Rani is a glorious creature with large velvety eyes which can express any emotion.”
The Star said,” Her English is perfect.”
Favourable reviews appeared in London but the film flopped in India. It became famous only for its kissing scene. It was a Lip-kiss of a long duration of almost 4 minutes. Till today, this kiss is remembered, whenever “Karma” is discussed. However, no one probably knows that throughout the kiss period, Himanshu Rai is shown as unconscious-due to a snake bite-in the film. So, it is not ‘that’ kind of a passionate kiss between two lovers. And in any case, this was NOT the first kissing scene on Indian screen in an Indian Film. It was,in fact,the THIRD case of kissing on screen.
The first film where kissing was shown was a silent movie,” A throw of a Dice ‘ or ‘prapanch paash’-1929, in which actress Sita Devi (real name Renee Smith), in the role of ‘Sunita’ kissed actor Charu Rai (a cousin of Himanshu Rai),in the role of ‘Ranjit’. There were two kissing scenes between the same pair in the film.
The second film where the kissing was shown -first time in a Talkie- was in film ” Zarina”-1932 in which actress Zubeida (Alam Ara fame) kissed Jal Merchant.
By coincidence, Himanshu Rai was involved in two of these ‘ kissing’ films. “A throw of Dice” and “Karma” were boith produced by Himanshu Rai. In one film, he was the Hero(Karma), and in the second,he was the villain(A throw of Dice). Actress Sita Devi was also the heroine in Himanshu Rai’s earlier film ” The Light of Asia”-1925.
A lot has been written ,by many people on Devika Rani, but not much is found written on Himanshu Rai. It took me several months to get enough information on him.
Himanshu Rai was the son of a wealthy lawyer. he was born at Cuttack, Orissa (now odisha) in 1892 and did his law graduation in Calcutta. He also studied with Tagore in Shanti Niketan. He went to London to practice Law, where he met Niranjan Pal ( son of the Radical Indian leader Bipin Chandra Pal, who was one of the Trinity of India-Lal-Bal-Pal- during the Freedom movement days) a successful writer and dramatist. Himanshu Rai developed interest in acting and acted in 2-3 dramas of Pal. In 1924, he went to Munich in Germany. He joined hands with Emelka Film company, raised Rs.90,000 as capital and made a film-Light of Asia (Prem Sanyas)-in 1925. It was directed by Franz Osten ( who later came to India on his calling and directed many Hit films like Achhut Kanya, Jeevan Naiyya etc). The film was released all over Europe. In London it ran for 10 months and it was seen by the King George V himself in Windsor Castle. The film was a total flop in India and Himanshu suffered a loss of Rs.50,000. Still, he made two more films, Shiraz-1928 and A throw of dice-1929.
Devika Rani,daughter of the Surgeon-General of Madras, Dr. M.N.Chaudhury was born at Waltair (Vishakahapatnam-A.P.) on 30th march 1908. An Architecture graduate, she met Himanshu Rai at London, helped him in set designing and finally married him in 1929. They both went to Germany again. She learnt set designing and Make up. She also helped actress Marlene Dietrich in her make-up. Devika and Himanshu made a film in Germany. With Nazis taking over power in Germany, they returned to England and made Karma-1933. When the film flopped in India, Himanshu told Devika,” We must use this technical knowledge, but make films in India.”
They came back to India and established Bombay Talkies studio in Malad, Bombay in 1934. he had learnt a lesson that all his earlier films had technical excellence, but had failed to connect to indian tastes and sensibilities.
Himanshu Rai is rightly credited with bringing Technical sophistication to India Cinema. he called Franz Osten, Joseph Warsching and many other technicians from London and Germany. He also invited Niranjan Pal to join Bombay Talkies. Under his supervision, sophisticated modern machinery was brought from Germany for the studios. He ran the Bombay Talkies studio on the lines of European movie studios. There was only one canteen, common for the Directors of the company and the workers( the famous director Amiya Chakraborty was initially a clerk and later the manager of this Canteen).
From 1935, Bombay Talkies started rolling out a stream of films. The first film rolled out was “Jawani ki hawa”-1935, with Devika Rani and the handsome hulk Najmul Hussain,in the Lead. When the second film started shooting…..Devika Rani and Najmul Hussain eloped to Calcutta. It was like a Bomb dropped. The work stopped. Shashdhar Mukherjee,Himanshu’s partner,rushed to Calcutta and convinced Devika to return to Himanshu. Ultimately Himanshu pardoned her, but this came as a blow to his self esteem from which he never recovered.
Bombay Talkies continued with a New Hero, Ashok kumar and film after film rolled out till 1939. When the IInd world war broke out, the British Government arrested all the Germans in Bombay Talkies studios and interned them at Deolali camp, near Nashik. Later all were deported to Germany, except Joseph Warsching, who chose to remain in India.( In 1949, Kamaal Amrohi called Joseph Warsching to shoot his film Mahal-49 and later Pakiza too). Due to this, the entire set up in Bombay Talkies was disturbed, but soon the second team of Casshyap, Acharya, Chakraborty and Najam Naqvi took over and regular film production resumed.
Himanshu Rai’s Mental condition began to deteriorate due to overwork, aloofness and silent working. He was admitted in Bachhs’s Nursing home in Marine Lines, Bombay. At that time a script was being finalised in Bombay talkies. As per the rules, it needed the final approval from Himanshu Rai. It was sent to him. He had become so sick that he could barely turn the pages of the script. he clutched the papers to his Heart, mumbled some words and died. It was 19th may 1940. the script was for film Bandhan.
The star cast of Karma was Himanshu Rai,Devika Rani,Sudha rani,dewan Sharar,Abraham sofayar,ghanashyam etc. The story was…
Devika rani is the Maharani of Sitapur. She is in love with the Prince of the neighbouring state of Jahan nagar. While the maharaja of jahan nagar does not like this alliance,the lovers wanted to get married.. Knowing about the maharaja’s opposition to marriage,in order to please him,Devika Rani arranges a Tiger hunt programme for him in Sitapur jungles. During the hunting process,the prince fires 2 shots. With one shot,the tiger is killed and the other bullet kills one of the drum beaters. The people get rebellious. To pacify them the prince puts the dead body on his Elephant and he walks alongside of it. Suddenly a snake bites him and the Prince falls unconscious. he is taken to a palace nearby and the maharani is informed. She comes running.(Her the kissing scene takes place). The local snake charmer says that if the same snake bites the Prince again,then he can be saved. They start searching for snake. The get the snake and the snake also bites the Prince again. The Prince regains consciousness. His father is very happy and permits his marriage with the maharani.
The story is very simple, but the scenes of snakes, Elephants,tigers and other Jungle scenes are just superb. I saw this 80 year old film,about 3-4 years ago,when my friend brought the English print from UK. later a shabbily dubbed Hindi version also was seen by me. There was an English song in the English version.
The Hindi version had 4 songs in it, all sung by Devika Rani. I could lay my hands on the English song and one Hindi song. The English song,” Now the Moon her light has shed” is sung in English style, but the Hindi song is also sung in English style. I have selected the Hindi song,” Mere hath mein tera hath rahe’. It is difficult to make out the words in this Hindi song. I wonder what and how Atul ji must have done to unravel the lyrics ! thanks, Atul ji.
Let us now hear the FIRST HINDI SONG OF DEVIKA RANI in her FIRST HINDI FILM Karma-1933….remember,it is an 80 year old song !!!.
(My sincere thanks to prof. Lalit Joshi,Head and Prof.- History,Allahabad University, for his article on BT,cineplot,wiki,my notes etc,for information used here.)
Song-Mere haath mein tera haath rahe (Karma)(1933) Singer-Devika Rani, MD-Roy Douglas and Earnest Broadhurst
Lyrics
mere haath mein tera haath rahe
saamne(?) se dono saath rahen
tum mere man ki chaaya ho
tum mere karm ki chaaya ho
mere haathon mein tera haath rahe
aa milke donon saath rahen
tum mere man ki chaaya ho
tum mere karm ki chaaya ho
aa aa aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aa aa aa
karma
karma
???
aa aa aa aa aa
karma
karma
????
karma
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
February 7, 2014 at 6:16 pm
Arun ji / Atul ji,
Now, how should I thank for the wealth of information, being offered on a platter. Simply superb. T H A N K S !!!.
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