Man paapi bhoolaa kaun ise samjhaaye
Posted on: August 21, 2016
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.
Ever since talkies came in to being in 1931, there have been some classical and semi-classical female singers who got attracted to Hindi film industry as actor-singers and playback singers in the 1930s and the 1940s. Begum Akhtar, Mukhtar Begum, Indubala, Roshanara Begum, Mallika Pukhraj, Saraswati Rane etc were some of the names that come to my mind. However, their filmy careers was short and soon they returned to the concert singing as their main vocation.
One of the lesser known names in this category of singers was Sundarabai of Poona.
Not much information about Sundarabai was available on internet except that she was a concert singer of semi-classical genre. I knew her name only because she has acted and sung in a couple of Hindi films. Now we know more about her thanks to Suresh Chandvankar of the Society of Indian Record Collectors (SIRC) who prepared a detailed article on Sundarabai based on a couple of Marathi articles and the listening sessions of SIRC. The said article appeared in Annual 1999 issue of SIRC with a detailed listing of 78 RPM records of the songs rendered by Sundarabai. However, I find that very few songs of her are available on YT.
I give below a condensed version of the article on Sundarabai referred to above, highlighting only the sequential progression in her singing career:
Sundarabai Jadhav was born in Pune in C.1885. Her father Marutirao Jadhav was a small contractor. She did not have any formal education but could read and write. From the childhood, she had a great sense of music. So the father took her to Satara to learn light classical music from Dabhade Gondhali. She soon became an expert in presenting lavni songs (a type of folk music from Maharashtra).
After returning to Poona, Sundarabai was put under the tutelage of Shankarrao Ghorpadkar for learning pure classical music. Thereafter, she became the disciple of Thakurdas Buwa and shifted her base to Bombay when her guru started staying in Gora Ram Mandir of Thakurdwar. With the temple atmosphere, her training in light classical music also included bhajans.
In Bombay, Sundarabai soon started participating in music concerts. Among her admirers were some famous classical musicians like Bhaskarbuwa Bakhle, Bal Gandharva, Master Krishnarao etc. When her guru left Bomaby for Indore, Sundarabai started learning under the guidance of Ustad Dhamman Khan and later Ustad Ghulam Rasool Khan and Keshav Bhaiyya. Realised the importance of learning Urdu and Hindi in singing light classical songs, she took a lot of efforts to learn these languages from her gurus. Ustad Dhamman Khan taught her light classical music genre of thumri, dadra, kajri, hori, chaiti etc.
After few years of learning from her gurus, she started participating in musical concerts outside Maharashtra. In her concerts, Ustad Dhammam Khan used to accompany her on tabla. During her all-India musical concert tours, she met Siddheswari Devi and Rasoolan Bai and learnt the finer points of their singing styles.
In 1921, HMV invited her to record her light classical songs. The first song she recorded was a ghazal ‘purkat mein wo nahin to’. She also recorded her songs with other recording companies like Jien-o-phone, Regal, Odeon, Young India etc. It is estimated that she recorded around 200 songs comprising both pure classical and semi-classical songs in Hindi, Urdu, Marathi. Gujarati and Bhojpuri. Her gramophone records were very popular. In 1927-28, HMV awarded her a gold medal for the highest sale of her records. Around 1939-40, Sunderabai acted and sang in two Marathi-Hindi bilingual films – ‘Aadmi’ (1939) and ‘Sangam’ (1941).
During the peak period of her singing carrier, she rented the entire floor of The Empire Hotel, in Fort area of Bombay and had two cars at her disposal. She was a kind-hearted woman with helping nature. She loved the company of children and her relatives and friends. Her hand bag was always full of chocolates and gifts to pass on to children, friends and relatives. Because of her helping nature, many people deceived her and took her money. Because of her popularity of gramophone records, some ex-employees of gramophone companies proposed her to launch her own gramophone recording company. They took a large amount of money from her. But the project did not take off. She lost her money and was almost bankrupt. She had to sell her cars and shift to a single room in the hotel.
It was Dr Z A Bhukari, the then Station Director of All-India Radio, Bombay who came to her rescue and appointed her as Adviser along with Bal Gandharva in Music Department some time in 1945. Around 1953, she fell unconscious while working in the radio station. She was admitted to Bombay Hospital where she died after a few days.
As far as I know, Sundarabai sang only 4 songs in Hindi films as an actor-singer – 2 each in ‘Aadmi’ (1939) and ‘Sangam’ (1941). I am presenting one of her songs from the film ‘Aadmi’ (1939), ‘mann paapi bhoola kaun isse samjhaaye’. The bhajan is written by Munshi Aziz which is set to music by Master Krishnarao.
Fortunately, the entire film is available on DVD. So the video clip of the song is also available. It is necessary to know the background behind this bhajan to appreciate as to why Shanta Hublikar and Shahu Modak look tense as Sundarabai sings the bhajan in her pooja room.
Moti (Shahu Modak) is in love with Kesar (Shanta Hublikar) who is a prostitute. But he has not revealed this background to his mother (Sundarabai). He has brought her to his house to meet his mother who is impressed with her and give her blessing for the marriage. However, after knowing the simple and the pious nature of the mother, her past reputation and her sense of guilt does not allow Kesar to be the daughter-in-law of a simple and pious lady of a respectable family. The wordings of the bhajan make Kesar guilty conscious and therefore she thinks as such.
This is a lovely rendition of the bhajan and Munshi Aziz wrote in tandem with nirgun bhajan of Sant Kabeer. The composition as well as rendition also gives the impression of a Kabeer bhajan.
Song-Man paapi bhoola kaun ise samjhaaye (Aadmi)(1939) Singers-Sundarabai, Shahu Modak,Lyrics-Munshi Aziz, MD-Master Krishnarao
Sundarabai+Shanta Hublikar+Shahu Modak, Sundarabai+Shanta Hublikar, Sundarabai+Shahu Modak
Lyrics
aaaa haa
mann paapi bhoolaa
bhoolaa..aa aa
kaun isse samjhaaye
haan
mann
(dialogue: kya hota hai tujhe)
mann paapi bhoolaa
bhoolaa..aa
haan aan
kaun isse samjhaaye
sukh kaa saathi
dukh sankat mein
kabhi kaam na aaye
jis ko toone jag mein jilaayaa
jis ko toone jag mein jilaayaa
wohi tujhko jalaaye ae
wohi tujhko jalaaye ae
haaa
mann paapi bhoolaa
shahad shakkar se milke na hoga
meethaa kadwaa phal
shahad shakkar se milke na hoga
meethaa kadwaa phal
tan dhoyegaa
mann ko kaise
dhoye ganga jal
kaise
dhoye ganga jal
aaa
mann paapi bhoolaa
bhoolaa aa
haan aan
kaun isse samjhaaye
jab tak jee hai saath lagaa hai
jee ke hansaa ronaa
jab tak jee hai saath lagaa hai
jee ke hansaa ronaa
kaske kasuati kahati hai ae
kaske kasuati kahati hai
ye peetal hai ye sonaa
ye peetal hai ye sonaa
ye ae peetal hai ye sonaa
jab tak tan mein saans rahegi
tab tak jag ki aaa aas
tab tak jag ki aaaas
yahi Kabeera keh gaya
yahi Kabeera keh gaya
yehi kah gaya Tulsidas
haan aan
kah gaya Tulsidas
aaa
mann paapi bhoola
bhoola haan
kaun isse samjhaaye
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 21, 2016 at 8:41 am
Sundarabai; Dada Chandekar; Amritlal Nagar; Sangam (1941)
a) Naiya Dub Rahi Aaye Bachaao Kanhaiya
b) Laaj Mori Rakho Ho Gareeb Nawaz
Munshi Aziz also in
Kitaab E Dard Me Likha Mere Gham Ka Fasana Hai>Sultana (1934)
Mushqil Kusha Hai Naam Tera >Sultana (1934)
Bedard Ko Bulaao>Caravan (1944)
Saaqiya Dilruba Aa Zara Muskura> Shahenshah Babar (1944)
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