Man prem ki gaanthhon mein
Posted on: September 26, 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.
There are two beautiful songs rendered by G M Durrani in ‘Nayi Kahaani’ (1943). Fortunately, video clips of both the songs are available. In the first of the two songs, neend hamaari khwaab tumhaare kitne meethhe kitne pyaare a boy suddenly gets up from the group of musicians and start singing sargam in a ‘rapid fire’ mode and then sits down for the song to continue. He sings sargam in his own voice. Again, in hamen kya ab khizaan jaaye na jaaye , the boy gets up during the musical interlude of the song and starts conducting the orchestra. These are the ‘scene stealer’ situations in the songs which, I am sure, must have remained in the minds of the audience when they came out of the theatre after watching the film. The boy was actor-singer Balakram.
Balakram Jadhav (24/02/1931 – 02/03/1974) was born in Nagpur where his father Gangaram Bapu Jadhav was an active member of a musical drama company. Gangaram had four children – Vijaymala, Manjula (Manju Diwan), Trayambak and Balakram who was the youngest . The family shifted to Pune when the father got a job in Prabhat Films. Balakram started his filmy career as a child artist in ‘Majha Mulga’ (in Marathi) and its Hindi version, ‘Mera Ladka (1941)’. In the same year, he acted in Prabhat’s bilingual ‘Aadmi’ (1941). In both these films, he sang songs for himself.
During this period, Balakram was also learning the nuances of Hinsustani classical music from Pandit Gunidas and Pandit Jagannath Prohit of Agra Gharana. A glimpse of his proficiency in Hindustani classical music can be seen when he sings a fast sargam in the midst of a song in Prabhat’s ‘Nayi Kahaani’ (1943) referred to above. In Prabhat’s ‘Chaand’ (1944), Balakram acted in the film in which he had two songs picturised on him. But he did not sing the song on himself. Instead, his elder sister Manju gave playback for him. Probably, Balakram was on a threshold of his adolescence and his voice pitch may have changed which may not have suited his child’s role.
After a hiatus of about 3 years, Balakram returned to Hindi films with a role in ‘Krishna Sudama(1947) probably donning the role of Sudama. Whether it is coincidence or otherwise, the films in which acted thereafter were mostly belonging the genre of mythology/Devotional like ‘Seeta Swayambar’ (1948), ‘Satyanarayan’ (1948), ‘Sati Ahilya’ (1949), ‘Sant Janabai’ (1949), ‘Subhadra Haran’ (1964), ‘Shri Ram Bharat Milan’ (1965) etc.
Balakram once again had a long break in Hindi film career between 1949 and 1964. During this period, he acted and sang in many Marathi films and was associated with some Marathi plays where he got fame. He also participated in classical vocal concerts and gave training in classical music. At Dadar, he established Pandit Gunidas Sangeet Vidyalaya and started teaching music to children.
Balakram died of liver complications on 02/03/1974.
KRISHNA SUDAMA (1947) was Balakram’s first mythological film after which he got associated with this genre of Hindi films. The film was produced under the banner of National Artists and was directed by C R Bajaj. The star cast included Karan Diwan, Balakram, Vijay, Dulari, Gulab, Kusum etc. By the way, Balakram was brother-in-law of Karan Diwan as his sister Manju had married Karan Diwan in 1944. The film had 11 songs, all written by Kamalnayan which were set to music by Shyambabu Pathak. This was the film in which Shyambabu Pathak gave initial pbreaks as playback singers to Sulochana Kadam and Krishna Goyal.
I am presenting the first song ‘mann prem ki gaathon mein baandh liyo’ from the film to appear in the Blog. Although online websites like http://www.myswar.com has not identified the singer, mp3 clip of the song from which I made the video clip and uploaded the same on YT, has accredited Balakram as singer. I have checked a song sung by Balakram in the film ‘Hamaari Kahaani’ (1948, unreleased) and I am fairly sure that the voice in the song under discussion matches with that of Balakram. As mentioned earlier, Balakram also acted in the film. None the less, I would request the knowledgeable readers of the Blog to share their views on the singer of the song.
[Note: Some of the inputs for the profile of Balakram came from Shishir Krishna Sharma’s Blog beetehuedin.blogspot.com].
Song-Man prem ki gaanthhon mein (Krishna Sudaama)(1947) Singer-Balakram, Lyrics-Kamalnayan, MD-Shyam Babu Pathak
Lyrics
mann prem ki gaanthon mein
baandh liyo
o o o ??jhat(?)
Shyaam mora Ghanshyaam
mann prem ki gaanthon mein baandh liyo jhat(?)
Shayam mora Ghanshyaam
Shyaam mora Ghanshyaam
mukh chooma jora jori aur phir
mukh chooma jora jori aur phir
chhup gayo gokul gaaon
chhup gayo gokul gaaon
mukh chandra mukut Nandlaala
mukh chandra mukut Nandlaala
haan kaanan kundal vanmaala
haan kaanan kundal vanmaala
(?)tu bansi ki sargam baa..je
(?)tu bansi ki sargam baaje re
(??) thha Shyaam
(??) thha Shyaam
mann prem ki gaanthon mein baandh liyo jhat(?)
Shyaam mora Ghanshyaam
Shaayam mora Ghanshyaam
mita Raam roop se Raavan
aur dusht Kans ko mohan
mita Raam roop se Raavan
aur dusht kans ko mohan
hai jag vidhaam(?) Vishnu moorat ke hi
hai jag vidhaam(?) Vishnu moorat ke hi
Raam mana kahin Shyaam
Raam mana kahin Shyaam
mann prem ki gaanthon mein baandh liyo jhat(?)
Shyaam mora Ghanshyaam
Shyaam mora Ghanshyaam
3 Responses to "Man prem ki gaanthhon mein"
[…] I mentioned Balakram in the introductory part. Here is a charming bhajan in Kafi which evokes memories of vintage songs in Raga Kafi by Saigal and KC Dey. It is the discovery of such songs that makes the laborious year-wise reviews worthwhile. Sadanand Kamath has written a very nice post on this song and about Balakram here. […]
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
September 26, 2016 at 7:45 am
Kamalnayan
Bombay (1949)
Shyam Babu Pathak
Malan (1942)
Torpedo (1941)
Imtihaan (1945)
Jeet (1949)
Lajwanti (1942)
Kismatwali (1947)
Ret Mahal (1949)
Pyara Watan (1942)
Namak (1947)
Taqdeerwale (1948)
Double Face (1946)
Ghar Sansar (1942)
Black Market (1947)
Hamari Duniya (1952)
Janmashtami (1950)
Preet Ka Geet (1950)
Sapna (1952)
Achha Jee (1950)
Vanraj (1952)
Bombay Central (1960)
Mehbooba (1965)
Any more???
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March 13, 2018 at 6:49 am
Thank you so much. So proud and lucky to hear and see my father Baalak Ram. Yes I am his youngest daughter based in Canada . Chhaya/Madhura Kulkarni.
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