Rut hai suhaani raat jawaan hai
Posted on: October 12, 2015
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.
Today I am going to introduce you to a South Indian Film, dubbed in Hindi. The film’s name is Manohar-54 ( Manohara in Tamil and Telugu).
The decade of the 50s was a period when there was a lot of exchange of films between Bombay and the South. Some Hit and Popular films of South were remade in Hindi like Nishan-49, Bahar-51, Miss Mary-57 etc. In the mid 50s, the trend of dubbing southern films picked up speed and some popular films of major stars like MGR, NTR, ANR, Sivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan etc were dubbed in Hindi. It was not a one way traffic though. In 1960, the famous “Mughal E Azam” was dubbed in Tamil and released with a different Title, “Akbar “-61.
In those days, most popular actors of south were known by their initials like MGR, NTR etc. The simple reason was that the south Indian names were usually very long- like Marudhar Gopalan Ramchandran or Nandmuri Tarakrama Rama Rao or Akkineni Nageshwar Rao or even Vettaithidal Chinnaiah Pillai Ganesan ( that is Sivaji Ganesan). You cannot write such long nams all the time, so their fans shortened their names with their initials and these actors began to get described by their initials. The female actors fortunately kept simpler names like P.Bhanumathy or Vasundhara etc.
In Bombay the names of actors were short and mostly one or two part names like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Karan Dewan or Shaikh Mukhtar etc. No actor was known by his initials. Nowadays, however, I find that the trend of addressing Hindi actors by their initials have has started and we now find actors called AB or SRK etc.
All the major and popular actors of South secretly nursed ambitions of gaining famous in the Hindi belt too. But no one was ready to shift to Bombay to achieve their aim. On the other hand,female actors of the south were more outgoing and they reaped the rewards as we can see from the success of names like Vyjayantimala, Waheeda, Padmini and Hema Malini, to name a few !
As a via-media, the hit films of south actors were dubbed in Hindi but such methods did not bring the desired results for the male actors of the south.
During the decade of the 50s I saw many Telugu and Tamil films. There were two2 Theatres-Sagar and Chitra where south Indian films used to be shown in Hyderabad. This film Manohar came to Hyderabad theatres. Incredibly,,both Telugu and Hindi versions came in the theatres at the same time- of course in different theatres. I had the opportunity to see both the versions within a week of each other.
This is a Costume film about an imaginary king of Chola Dynasty. Originally, a play on this story was written by P S Mudaliyar,in the 30s. He had a drama company of his own and he staged this drama all over India and Burma. In the year 1936,”Manohar” a film in Tamil was being made in Bombay. The playwright himself did the hero’s role. Many directors had to be changed, because no one understood Tamil here. The film was made but it was an utter flop.
When it was decided to make Manohar again this time, the makers called the famous star screenplay writer of the day, Elangovan to do the job. However after some time he was removed unceremoniously and M. Karunanidhi was brought in to write screen play and the dialogues of the movie. ( yes, he is the same Karunanidhi-ex-C.M. of Tamilnadu ). He being a powerful writer, wrote a wonderful story, combining the story of “Samson and Delilah” into it. In fact the total Manohara play was re- written differently, to make it a successful film.
Sivaji Ganesan was selected to play the main role.
The film was dubbed in Telugu and Hindi and all three versions were simultaneously released on 3-6-1954. The Tamil version created several records and was a Blockbuster. The role of the Queen mother by P. Kannamba came for special appreciation. Her one dialogue in Tamil, “Poruthathu podhum,pongi ezhu,magney ” ( enough you have tolerated,rise now,Son ) became so famous that it has become a landmark dialogue in Tamil films.
Later,in an interview, Sivaji Ganesan had said, ” with that one dialogue, Kannamba snatched the entire film from my hands and how I wish I had done that role ! ”
Interestingly, when Sivaji Ganesan was young and did stage plays, once he had played that queen’s role himself ! However, these lines were not there anyway in that role as they were subsequently written by Karunanidhi !
Sivaji Ganesan ( 1-10-1920 to 21-7-2001 ) was a great actor who worked in over 300 films,including 3 Hindi films. He got Phalke award in 1997. He also got Padma Bhushan award and many more awards in his lifetime. He had done the role of the younger brother of Rajendra Kkumar in Hindi film Dharti-70, a remake of his Tamil hit film of 1969, Sivandha mann,in which he had done the main role. he did this role for the sake of the director Sridhar.
The story of this film was-
Costume fantasy allegedly set in the 11th C. at the time of the Chola dynasty. The king (Sadasivarao), seduced by Vasantasena (T.R. Rajakumari), abandons his wife (Kannamba) and his son Manohar (Ganesan). Vasantasena wants Manohar arrested and her own son made heir. She has the king and queen imprisoned while she attempts to seize power. Manohara escapes from prison and leads a popular revolt against Vasantasena and her general Ugrasen (Natrajan). The hit film, scripted by Karunanidhi and featuring a major star cast, helped mould Ganesans earl career.
The happy life of Chola king Purashottam, with his wife Padmavati and their son Monohar is disrupted by the wily vamp Vasantsena, who entered the royal household as a maid and ultimately became the king’s mistress. . True to the ideals of Indian womanhood Padmavati believed her husbands happiness as her own and resigned to her fate. She even prevailed upon Manohar not to harm the king and Sena in anyway.
Vasantsena on the other hand had poisoned her husband Kesarivarman and had a design to kill Manohar so that her own son could be crowned king. . But Kesarivarman escaped death with the help of a Sanyasi and had learnt to become invisible by the use of a special herb. To wreck his vengeance on her Kesharivarma staged a drama on Monohars birthday exposing therein Vasantsena’s villainy. But Vasantsena impressed on the king that the drama had been plotted against their happy life by queen Padmavati and Satyasheel. The drama on the other hand roused Manohar to avenge the wrong done to his mother by Vasantsena. But Padmavati again calmed him and advised him to go to war with the Pandya king Muthuvijay.
Vasantsena sent her benchman, Boudayan, to kill Manohar. Manohar won . Mathuvijay was killed. But Manohar had lost his heart to the Pandya Rajkumari ( Girija). Boudayan, unsuccessful in his mission, stole away Manohar’s sword. Having come to know this, Manohar rushed to Chola Kingdom. Boudayan’s game was foiled and he in his turn exposed Vasantsenas plot.
Manohar’s blood boiled. Once again he was roused to action against Sena but Padma again stopped him. And thus the bitterness and animosity between Manohar and Vasantsena went deeper and deeper day by day and ultimately things came to a head. when Vasantsena called Manohar a bastard during the “Rathimanmatha” festival.
Enraged Manohar was about to stab her but his mothers word held him back. The constant clash between Padmavati’s rightecusness, patience ,snffering & Vasantsena’s treachery and villainy resulted in dark and deadening clouds descending over the Chola Kingdom. Queen Padmavati had already been imprisoned. Even the King was taken captive and Manohar was sentenced to be executed. But was “Death” the only reward to the dash, daring, sacrifice, heroism and above all the flame of Love that burnt in Manohar’s heart.
Certainly not. When all these things go beyond tolerance,the queen mother invokes the bravery in Manohar’s heart by telling him, “Rise, Son. We have suffered enough. Now no more.” Listening to those inspiring words, Manohar breaks the chains. With that,the pillars are broken. Taking a sword from a soldier he starts fighting. Kesarivarman also helps him remaining invisible. Soon many loyal soldiers join Manohar and in a fight unto death, the villains are killed or captured. In the melee,Vasantsena’s weapon kills her own son. She becomes mad.
In the end all is well. The king asks for queen’s pardon and Manohar is crowned the King.
Today’s song is a duet sung by Hemant Kumar and Sandhya Mukherjee. She first sang in Hindi film Sazaa-52. That too was a duet with Hemant Kumar only ( gupchup pyar karen). This song is not very special and looks like a run of the mill tune.
By the way, this is my 600th Film synopsis on this Blog. Most were written based on my notes maintained over the years. Sometimes there were errors, sometimes they were too short and sometimes they were very long. At times, readers have corrected them. I am thankful to Atul ji for encouraging and helping me and giving me this opportunity.
Song-Rut hai suhaani raat jawaan hai (Manohar)(1954) Singers-Hemant Kumar, Sandhya Mukherji, Lyrics-Vishwamitra Adil, MD-S V Venkatraman
Both
Lyrics
rut hai suhaani
raat jawaan hai
dil mein mohabbat honthon pe aahen
yoon na kaho tum
door raho tum
kaanp rahi hain meri nigaahen
yoon na kaho tum
door raho tum
kaanp rahi hain meri nigaahen
chaand ne chheda saaz puraana
chaand ne chheda saaz puraana
jhoom raha hai ek zaamaana
phool bani hain aas ki kaliyaan
phool bani hain aas ki kaliyaan
nain katore ae ras chhalkaayen
rut hai suhaani raat jawaan hai
dil mein mohabbat honthon pe aahen
aa haa aahaa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
mast jawaani jhool rahi hai
mast jawaani jhooul rahi hai
prem kahaani jhool rahi hai
ek huye hain apne sapne
ek huye hain apne sapne
ek huyi hain aen apni baahen
aa haaa haa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa
pyaar ki jheel pe jeevan naiyya
pyaar ki jheel pe jeevan naiyya
kaun musaafir kaun khewaiyya
jhilmil jhilmil door kinaare ae
jhilmil jhilmil door kinaare
aur bhi apne ae paas bulaayen
rut hai suhaani raat jawaan hai
dil mein mohabbat honthon pe aahen
yoon na kaho tum
door raho tum
kaanp rahi hain meri nigaahen
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
13 Responses to "Rut hai suhaani raat jawaan hai"
October 13, 2015 at 1:26 am
Thanks for sharing the information about “Manohara” / “Manohara”. The movie was initially staged as a play by Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar, who played the role of the protagonist on stage. He also acted in the 1936 version in the role of the king. That version was a failure, as already stated in the write-up.
Film historian Randor Guy authors a column called “Blast From The Past” for “The Hindu”. Here’s his article on “Manohara”. Happy readings….
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-cinemaplus/manohara-1954/article3021229.ece
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October 13, 2015 at 1:51 am
Sorry. Forgot to mention that stage and screen star K.R.Ramaswami also staged the play and successfully enacted the role of Manohara. The 1954 movie version came out subsequent to his stage version.
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October 13, 2015 at 9:18 am
Arunji,
That is stupendous amount of time and effort. May god give your arm more strength to regale us with the interesting anecdotes and episodes which is strewn all over the HFdom. Thank you.
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October 13, 2015 at 9:30 am
Sandhya Mukherjee
Sazaa (1951)
Jagte Raho (1956)
Husn Ka Chor (1953)
Izzat (1952)
Fareb (1953)
Ek Do Teen (1953)
Pehla Aadmi (1950)
Husn Ka Chor (1953)
Ratan Deep (1952)
Chimani Ka Dhuaan (1973)
Vishwamitra Adil
Anjana (1948)
Phool Aur Kante (1948)
Samundari Daku (1956)
Darwaza (1954)
Joru Ka Bhai (1955)
Chandi Rani (1953)
Raat Ke Raahi (1959)
Char Minar (1956)
Rani (1952)
Chandi Rani (1953)
Geet Gaaya Pattharon Ne (1964)
Dharam Sankat (1991)
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October 13, 2015 at 12:23 pm
YIPPEE!
AKD Sir,
You are great.
600 not out.
Take a fresh guard as if you are going to start all over again.
Let us have the 1000th post from you as early as possible.
Profound regards,
Avadh Lal
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October 13, 2015 at 1:40 pm
Avadh Lal ji,
Posting write ups on songs and writing Film reviews are two different things.
I have posted Film reviews/synopses/stories , as many as 600.
However my posts on songs like the one above is numbering 461 only. The difference came because before I started writing posts on songs,( and even afterwards) I used to post Film stories/synopses/reviews as my comments on the articles of other contributors.
I joined this Blog in early 2011, and used to make comments etc, but my first song related post came on 1st October 2012.
Thanks for your encouraging words. Such comments work as motivation for me to continue doing what I am doing and enjoying.
Thanks.
-AD
A friendly suggestion- Instead of calling me AKD Sir, you can call/address me as simply Arun ji, like all others.
Thanks.
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October 14, 2015 at 7:13 pm
plz include other dubbed films from tamil like aai phirse bahar 1960, sitamgar 1958, amar shaheed 1960..
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October 14, 2015 at 9:43 pm
Ansen ji,
It is a good suggestion.
Thanks.
-AD
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
October 12, 2015 at 9:12 pm
600 synopsis. !!!
Many Thanks n Congrats Sir.
It seems you keep track of everything you send.
I got to learn a lot.
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October 12, 2015 at 9:47 pm
Thanks.
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