Mehandi hai rachnewaali
Posted on: October 4, 2014
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a 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.
SONGS FROM ARTISTE NAME FILMS…..Song No. 8
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Today’s song is from film Zubeidaa-2000. It is sung by Alka Yagnik and the MD is A R Rahman.
Zubeidaa was a film (one of the only 2 such films in India ), made on the life of actress Zubeida, who operated during 1937 to 1949. This Zubeida is NOT the Alam Ara fame Zubeida. That Zubeida had left films in 1935,after marrying a very rich Jahagirdar-Raja Dhanraj Gir ji from Hyderabad (Deccan).
the Director of this film, Shyam Benegal,vehemantly claimed that this film was a fiction and not based on life of any actress,But Khalid Mohammed,son of this actress Zubeida himself wrote the story and screenplay and declared that it was a film on her mother’s life !
In film line, actresses getting married and leaving the film world is not uncommon. On the contrary,there are very few cases where married actresses continued films,when their husbands were not from film line. Both these Zubeidas married rich people from Royal Heritage and stopped acting. While one Zubeida had a very long-53 years- of happy married life, the other Zubeida was not so fortunate and died within 3 years after her marriage,but atleast she was with her husband while dying together in an Air accident !
Artistes of same names and operating in almost same period cause lot of confusion. Even these Zubeidas too were such cases of ” Same Name Confusions”. Let us see the reality now….
There were Two actresses named Zubeida.
ZUBEIDA-one who acted in India’s first Talkie “Aalam Ara”-1931 and actress Zubeida, on whose life the film ‘Zubeida’-2000 was made. Some people may be surprised to note that these two were different persons.
One of the wives of Nawab Siddi Ibrahim Muhammad Yakut Khan of the state of Sachien,Gujarat was Fatima Begum. She was in films, even before marriage. There is however no proof of their marriage. From the Nawab, She got three daughters, namely Sultana, Shahzadi and Zubeida. All daughters and the mother were into films.
Fatima was the First woman to establish Fatima Film co, Bombay, to produce and Direct “Bul bul-E-Paristan”-1926. All the 4 women acted in it. Fatima then formed Victoria Fatima Film Co. in 1928 and produced 7 silent films-Chandravali,Heer Ranjha both in 1928 and Kanak Tara, Milan Dinar, Godess of Love, Shakuntala and Wonderful prince all in 1929. Her company was closed in 1930.
Sultana, the eldest daughter, known as ‘The sultry Sultana’, was famous for doing sexy roles. She came into limelight when she filed a case against Yassir Hussain Lalji, son of the chief of Bombay Municipality, in 1931, claiming to be his wife and demanding a sum of Rs. 5 lakhs in those days !
The second daughter known as Lovable Shahzadi also acted in films.
The third, Zubeida, was born in 1911 and acted in silent filmVeer Abhimanyu,but debuted as a Heroine in Gul Bakavali-1922. She acted in 41 silent films and then she became the Heroine of India’s first Talkie AALAM ARA-1931. In this film she sang one song also.
In 1935, she converted to Hinduism and married Raja Dhanrajgir Narsing Girji Gyan Bahadur, a very rich Jagirdaar from Hyderabad state. She stopped working in films, after 21 films, in 1935.
She lived peacefully with her husband in Bombay. In 1982, one of her legs was amputated due to severe Diabetes and she spent her remaining life in wheel chair, yet till the end in 1988, She used to look very beautiful and gracious. She had a natural death on 21-9-1988,at Bombay.
The other actress ZUBEIDA was born to Kassimbhai Mehta and Faiza Bai, Bohra Muslims. Faiza Bai was a famous Muslim singer. Zubeida, who was extremely beautiful, started her film career with Aurat ki Zindagi and Kiski Pyari, both in 1937.( Remember, Alam Ara Zubeida had stopped acting in 1935 and her last film was released in 1936 itself.)
Zubeida was forced to marry a Muslim person, who gave her Talaq when she refused to go to Pakistan with him, after the Partition. She had one son from him. His name is Khalid Mohammed, a well known film critic and writer of repute. (He himself had written the story of film Zubeida-2000, a film loosely based on his own mother). She again continued to act in films.
While doing Nirdosh Abla-1949, a love affair developed between her and the maharaja Hanwant Singh of Jodhpur. The maharaja was also married. They decided to get married. Zubeida left films after Nirdosh Abla-49. Being a Muslim she was not accepted in the Jodhpur family.
She converted to Hinduism. Mr. Brijraj Arya, an eye witness to this conversion ceremony states that it took place secretly and under security of pehelwans, on 17-12-1950,at Arya Samaj Mandir, Beawar and Zubeida became VIDYA RANI.
She and the Maharaja got married the same day and they entered Ummeed Bhavan palace from there. From this marriage also she had one son-RAO RAJA HUKM SINGH, born at Bombay on 2-8-1951.
Vidya Rani aka Zubeida and Maharaja Hanwant Singh of Jodhpur died in a plane crash in 1952.
I simply wonder how can people get confused between these two Zubeidas ! One can understand if ordinary mortals get confused, but experts on Indian Cinema and authors of books on film music history also making this mix-up is beyond comprehension!
Mr.Rajiv Vijaykar’s name is well known as a writer on films. His book(with 2 wonderful CDs),” The history of Indian Film Music” mentions that Zubeida of Aalam Ara, who also sang a song in the film, was the Zubeida on whom film Zubeida is made !
Film Zubeida-2000, written by Khalid Mohammed and directed by Shyam Benegal was based loosely on the life of the other Zubeida-aka Vidya Rani-who died in a Plane crash with her husband.
Can you imagine what Dainik Bhaskar.com comments on Aalam Ara Zubeida ? ” Zubeida was the daughter of the Nawab of Sachin, Maharaja Narsing Gir Dhanraj Gir and Fatima Begum. She had 2 sisters,Sultana and Shehzadi.” Just unimaginable,but how absurd and misleading !!!
Even IMDB has a wrong entry,stating that Khalid Mohammed is the son of Alam Ara Zubeida !
So, let us remember, Aalam Ara Heroine Zubeida Dhanrajgir died a natural death in 1988 and actress Zubeida aka Vidya Rani died in a Plane crash along with her husband maharaja Hanwant Singh of Jodhpur in 1952.
They were Two different actresses !
Film Zubeida was appreciated by the general public as well as the critics.I saw this film simply out of curiosity and and was bowled over to see the treatment the Directed had given to the story. Shyam Benegal is otherwise also my favourite director and I have not missed any of his films so far.
Zubeidaa film was censored in 2000 and probably released in 2001. The film had 8 songs. It won the National Award for ” Best Feature Film” and actress Karishma Kapoor got the Filmfare Critics award for ” Best Actress”. The cast includes karishma kapoor,Rekha,Surekha Sikri,Amrish Puri,Farida jalal,Lilette Dubey and others from the new wave group. The story of the film is as follows-
Zubeidaa is the story of Riyaz’s (Rajit Kapoor) search to understand his mother, who is not known to him, as he was brought up by his grandmother in the absence of his mother. His mother’s name was Zubeidaa (Karisma Kapoor) and she was the only daughter of a filmmaker named Suleman Seth (Amrish Puri). Zubeidaa acts in films secretly, but when her father finds out he forbids her to carry on and quickly arranges her marriage to Mehboob Alam (Vinod Sharawat). Things seem happy for her when she gives birth to Riyaz. However, a disagreement arises between Suleman Seth and Mehboob’s father, and Mehboob divorces Zubeidaa few days after she gives birth.
Zubeidaa, then meets Maharaja Vijayendra Singh of Fatehpur (Manoj Bajpai). Vijayendra is already married to Maharani Mandira Devi (Rekha) and is the father of two children. Nevertheless, he falls in love with Zubeidaa and they get married, but there is continuous turmoil in their relationship. Riyaz learns through Zubeidaa’s journal that though she loved Vijayendra dearly, she was unable to follow the stifling customs of the palace. She was also uncomfortable because of her brother-in-law Uday Singh’s sexual advances towards her, and his demands of her to have an extra-marital affair with him.
Riyaz travels to Fatehpur and asks many people about his mother. However, all except Mandira, whom Zubeidaa called “Mandy Didi”, either deny that his mother ever existed, or say that she was a horrible woman who seduced their king and caused his death in a plane crash.
On reading the journal, Riyaz finds out that Vijayendra had become a politician, and was about to go to Delhi for an important meeting. Zubeidaa felt frustrated that whenever her husband needed help he looked to Mandira for support, and at the last minute she insisted that only she will accompany him for the meeting. Zubeidaa tries to control the small plane which is shown to crash thus killing Zubeidaa and Vijayendra. In the end, Riyaz and his grandmother watch a tape of his mother’s film. The movie ends with a screen shot of Zubeidaa dancing happily with Riyaz and his grandmother shedding tears of happiness.(572)
Let us now enjoy a song from this film….
Audio
Video
Song-Mehandi hai rachnewaali (Zubeida)(2001) Singer-Alka Yagnik, Lyrics-Jawed Akhtar, MD-A R Rahman
Lyrics
mehandi hai rachnewaali
haathon mein gahri laali
kahen sakhiyaan ab kaliyaan
haathon mein khilne waali hain
tere man ko jeewan ko
nayi khushiyaan milne waali hain
mehandi hai rachnewaali
haathon mein gahri laali
kahen sakhiyaan ab kaliyaan
haathon mein khilne waali hain
tere man ko jeewan ko
nayi khushiyaan milne waali hain
ho hariyaali banno
le jaane tujhko guinyaan
aane waale hain sainyaan
thhamenge aake bainyyaan
goonjegi shehnaai
angnaai angnaai
mehandi hai rachnewaali
haathon mein gahri laali
kahen sakhiyaan ab kaliyaan
haathon mein khilne waali hain
tere man ko jeewan ko
nayi khushiyaan milne waali hain
gaayen maiyyaa aur mausi
gaayen behna aur bhaabhi
ki mehandi khil jaaye
rang laaye
hariyaali banni
gaayen phoophi aur chaachi
gaayen naani aur daadi
ke mehandi man bhaaye
saj jaaye hariyaali banni
mehandi roop sanwaare
ho mehandi roop nikhaare
ho hariyaali banni ke aanchal mein utre taare
mehandi hai rachnewaali
haathon mein gahri laali
kahen sakhiyaan ab kaliyaan
haathon mein khilne waali hain
tere man ko jeewan ko
nayi khushiyaan milne waali hain
gaaje baaje baaraati
ghoda gaadi aur haathi ko
laayenge saajan tere aangan
hariyaali banni
teri mehandi wo dekhenge
to apna dil rakh denge
wo pairon mein teri chupke se
hariyaali banni
mehandi roop sanwaare
o mehandi rang nikhaare
hariyaali banni ke aanchal mein utrenge taaren
mehandi hai rachnewaali
haathon mein gahri laali
kahen sakhiyaan ab kaliyaan
haathon mein khilne waali hain
tere man ko jeewan ko
nayi khushiyaan milne waali hain
4 Responses to "Mehandi hai rachnewaali"
October 5, 2014 at 10:30 am
Dear friends,
I have received an E Mail from one of my friends from USA. I am reproducing it here..
” Dear Arun Kumar: Namaskar
Hope you & your family had a Happy Dussehra.
Enjoyed your blog about Zubeida. I saw Zubeida in Hyderabad during my annual visit to HYD. I always enjoy films of Shyam Benegal. I knew him when he was a student @ Nizam College. His best friend & classmate, Mr. Kamlakar, owned Anand Press in Gowliguda (next to Gurdwara). I met Mr. Benegal when he visited Kamlakar frequently. Kamlakar is the one who printed covers of our college record books. Mr. Benegal used to come to Gowliguda on a bicycle (with a clip on his white pyjama).
The blogs on the site ‘atulsongaday.me’ are quite interesting & I enjoy reading them. All the bloggers on the site have hard to find and interesting information. I listen to the songs too. Keep up the good work and please thank the other bloggers from fans like me. Please convey my Thanks to shri. ATUL JI also.
Will arrive in Mumbai on Nov.22. Will arrive in HYD on 26th & do the preparatory work for the 9th Reunion of our college. The likely date is Sun., Jan. 11th. You’ll get get the email after the details are finalized.
With Best Wishes,
S.Y.Singh ”
This clearly shows how popular this Blog is in USA.
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October 5, 2014 at 10:23 pm
Is it not possible to get the No. of bloggers countrywise?
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
October 4, 2014 at 3:23 pm
Arun ji
Thanks a lot for this informative post and a nice song.
Regards
prakash
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