Sukh ki raaten thhin sapnaa
Posted on: June 7, 2016
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, 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.
Forgotten Melodies of the 1940s – 45
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In the 1940s, Hindi films based on mythological and historical stories were produced among other genres of the film. Minerva Movietone’s ‘Sikandar’ (1941) set the benchmark for this genre of movies. The subsequent movies of this genre like ‘Prithvi Vallabh’ (1943), ‘Draupadi’ (1944)‘, Humayun’(1945), ‘Veer Kunal’ (1945), ‘Samrat Chandragupta’ (1945), ‘Krishnarjun Yuddh’ (1945), Prithviraj Sanyukta’ (1946), ‘Maharana Pratap’ (1946) etc are supposed to have paled in comparison to ‘Sikandar’ (1941) in terms of grandeur, picturisation of outdoor scenes besides screen-play and dialogues.
SAMRAT ASHOK (1947) was one such film which falls under the genre of historical films. If I go by the review of the film, it would appear to me that this film was nowhere near to the benchmark set by ‘Sikandar’ (1941). As per the title of the film, the cinegoers would expect the film to be based on the life of King Ashok, the war of Kalinga and the mass destruction that followed, the repentance by King Ashok and becoming the followers of Buddhism and non-violence etc.
A review of the film which appeared in May 1948 issue of ‘Filmindia’ magazine indicated otherwise. The film’s story appeared to have been tweaked to make it more of a love story than the spiritual conversion of King Ashok in the aftermath of the war of Kalinga. One paragraph from the review sums up as to how the film was conceptualised:
In an attempt to squeeze a juicy formula of love story out of the dry pages of history, the whole character of Ashok (Sapru) is perverted. Not a spiritual conversion but a romantic interest in a charming Buddhist Bhikshuki (probably, Veena), is sought to be made the motivation for Ashok’s change over from violence to non-violence.
‘Samrat Ashok’ (1947) had six songs in it. Two songs movie have been covered in the Blog. I am presenting the third song from the film to appear in the blog. This song-‘sukh ki raaten thhi sapna’ is sung by Husn Bano who also acted in the film. The song was written by Shams Lucknawi which was set to music by Gyan Dutt.
When I read the lyrics of the song, I thought that this sad song may have been picturised in the aftermath of the destruction of Kalinga. But after reading the review of the film, I am not too sure about my guess.
Husn Bano was more of an actor than singer. The singing followed as in most of the 30s, the actor had to sing his/her own songs. Since she had a good voice for singing, music directors continued to use Husn Bano’s voice for herself in the 40s also. No doubt, she sang the song under discussion reasonably well to bring out the pathos in the song.
Song-Sukh ki raaten thhin sapnaa (Samrat Ashok)(1947) Singer-Husn Bano, Lyrics-Shams Lucknowi, MD-Gyan Dutt
Lyrics
sukh ki raaten thhin sapnaa aa
sukh ki raaten thhin sapnaa aa
koi nahin ab apnaa aa aa
koi nahin ab apnaa aa aa
sukh ki raaten
bhaag jo bigdaa
saari duniya bigad gayi
bigad gayi ee ee
bhaag jo bigdaa
saari duniya bigad gayi
bigad gayi
gayi chaandni
jag ki shobha ujad gayi
ujad gayi
ab dukh ki dhoop mein hai sapnaa
sukh ki raaten thhin sapnaa aa
suni na jag ne dukh ki kahaani eeeeee
bujh gaye deepak beh ke ye paani ee ee ??
suni na jag ne dukh ki kahaani
bujh gaye deepak beh ke ye paani ee ee ??
koi nahin ab apnaa aa
koi nahin ab apnaa aa
sukh ki raaten thhin sapnaa aa
2 Responses to "Sukh ki raaten thhin sapnaa"
June 7, 2016 at 8:09 pm
Husn Bano also crooned in
Aasra (1941)
Dhandora (1941)
Bahen (1941)
Nai Roshni (1941)
Jawani (1942)
Amanat (1943)
Koshish (1943)
Aaina (1944)
Royal Mail (1946)
Pardesi Mehman(1948)
Any more
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
June 7, 2016 at 12:48 pm
Buck up
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