Madhur suron mein suno jhamela
Posted on: January 17, 2017
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.
Many aspirants, dreaming of becoming actor, singer, lyricist, music director etc. have been attracted towards Bollywood right from the time that sound films came into existence in 1931. However, a significantly large numbers of such aspirants do not get a chance to prove their perceived talents. Some of them who get chances in Bollywood are mainly those who have their relatives or friends to recommend them to producers/directors. But there is no guarantee that they would be successful and would establish themselves in the Hindi film industry. Many of them had to either leave the film industry or look for some other vocations in the film industry which were not of their choices.
Take, for example, the case of Jaidev, the music director. In 1933, he ran away from home in Ludhiana and landed in Bombay (Mumbai) to become an actor. He did some small roles in films like ‘Hunterwaali’ (1935), ‘Miss Frontier Mail’ (1936), ‘Desh Deepak’ (1937) etc. But he did not get any important acting roles as an actor during those 4 years. However, due to family problems, Jaidev had to return to his home in Ludhiana. He made his second attempt to try his luck in Bollywood, but this time, as a music director. During the break from Bollywood, he got trained in Hindustani classical music under the tutelage of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. So circumstances made him to give up his dream of becoming an actor in Bollywood and instead chose to be a music director.
The case of Raj Khosla is somewhat unique. The ace director who is remembered for his films like ‘CID’ (1956), ‘Kaala Paani’ (1958), ‘Bambai Ka Babu’ (1960), Wo Kaun Thhi’ (1964), ‘Mera Saaya’ (1966), ‘Do Raaste’ (1969), ‘Mera Gaon Mera Desh’ (1971), ‘Main Tulsi Tere Angan Ki’ (1978), ‘Dostana’ (1980) etc had landed in Bombay from Ludhiana in 1946 to become a playback singer. He was trained in Hindustani classical music and worked with All India Radio in its music department for a short period. He got his first chance in playback singing in ‘Bhool Bhulaiyya’ (1949). His second and probably the last song as a playback singer was rail mein jiya mora sananan hoye re in ‘Aankhen’ (1950) under the baton of Madan Mohan. Interestingly, Raj Khosla worked as an assistant to Madan Mohan for this film.
What was the reason for Raj Khosla to abandon his dream of becoming a playback singer? A chance meeting with Dev Anand changed the course of his filmy career. Dev Anand felt that he had better talent as a director. He put Raj Khosla under Guru Dutt as Assistant Director for ‘Baazi’ (1951) which was produced by Navketan. The film became a grand hit. Raj Khosla also assisted Guru Dutt in ‘Jaal’ (1952).
Raj Khosla’s work as an Assistant Director in these two films in which Dev Anand was in the lead roles must have impressed him. He promoted him to direct ‘Milaap’ (1955), his debut film as a director. N Datta who had assisted S D Burman in ‘Jaal’ (1952) also got his first chance as a full-fledged music director for this film. I have seen the film on YT long back and I enjoyed it both in terms of the treatment of the story as well as the songs. But the film did not fare well at the box office.
The failure of the film at the box office did not deter Dev Anand and Guru Dutt in giving the responsibility of directing latter’s film ‘CID’ (1956). The film was a huge box office success. Raj Khosla had made his presence felt in Bollywood. The rest is history. The assessment of Dev Anand about Raj Khosla’s talent as a director came out to be correct. But in the process, Raj Khosla’s playback singing career was shelved.
In my view, directors who are musically inclined are in a better position to make picturisation of song sequences more interesting for the movie watchers. Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, Raj Khosla and Vijay Anand are some such eamples of directors who were musically inclined. I regard them as the top directors whose style of song picturisation is something that I look forward to while watching the videos of songs in their movies.
Sometimes, directors’ knowledge of the film music can cause them to interfere in the work of music directors. Raj Khosla was no exception if I go by a couple of the interviews of music directors. O P Nayyar, who had worked with Raj Khosla in ‘CID’ (1956), was on record saying that when Raj Khosla tried to impose his composition in some songs of ‘Ek Musafir Ek Hasina’ (1962), he threatened to walk out of the film. Shashdhar Mukherjee, the producer of the film had to intervene in the matter. The outcome was that both Raj Khosla and O P Nayyar did not work together in films thereafter. Madan Mohan and Raj Khosla also did not work together after ‘Chiraag’ (1969), though according to Sanjeev Kohli, Madan Mohan’s son, Raj Khosla and Madan Mohan remained good friends till the last.
Raj Khosla had also rendered one version song ‘toote na dil toote na’ from ‘Andaz’ (1949) originally sung by Mukesh for the film. I have heard this song on Radio Ceylon but I could not find it on YT. Although his voice was nowhere near to the voice of Mukesh, but his rendition was flawless.
As I said earlier, Raj Khosla rendered his first playback song for BHOOL BHULAIYYA (1949). The film was produced by Ranjit Movietone and it was directed by Taimur Behram Shaw. The star cast included Agha, Zeb Qureshi, Bhudo Advani, Pesi Patel, Maruti Rao, Anwari etc. From the star cast, the film appears to be a B grade production. Not much is known about the genre or the story of the film.
The film had 10 songs written by B R Sharma (7), Pandit Indra (2) and Rajendra Krishan (1) which were set to music by Bulo C Rani. One song from the film has been covered in the Blog. I am presenting the second song ‘madhur suron mein suno jhamela’ from the film which is the first ever song rendered by Raj Khosla for a film. The song was penned by B R Sharma.
This is a rare song in the sense that it was not available on YT until I made the video of the song from mp3 clip and uploaded the same on YT few months back.
Enjoy this rare fun song from a rare voice.
Song-Madhur suron mein suno jhamela (Bhool Bhulaiyya)(1949) Singer-Raj Khosla, Lyrics-Butaram Sharma, MD-Bulo C Rani
Lyrics
madhur suron mein suno jhamela
madhur suron mein suno jhamela
ek thhaa majnu
ek thhi laila aa
madhur suron mein suno jhamela
ek thhaa majnu
ek thhi laila aa
hil mil ke donon ne
aisa pyaar ka naatak khela
pagdi ban gayi daak kaa thhela
pagdi ban gayi daak kaa thhela
thhela aa
ek thhaa majnu
ek thhi laila aa
madhur suron mein suno jhamela
ek thhaa majnu
ek thhi laila aa
pagdi ke baahar ki makhmal
andar thhi khatmal ki mehfil
ik khatmal ne aag laga dee ee
kaat ke aisi break laga dee
ruk gaya pyaar kaa thhelaa
thhelaa
thhelaa
madhur suron mein suno jhamela
ek thhaa majnu
ek thhi lailaa aaaa
beech bhanwar mein chhod ke naiyya
aap to chhup gaye khatmal bhaiyya
sang liya laala ko apne
toot gaye sab pyaar ke sapne
rah gaya majnu akela
akela
akela
madhur suron mein suno jhamela
ek thhaa majnu
ek thhi lailaa….aaa
3 Responses to "Madhur suron mein suno jhamela"
January 17, 2017 at 7:33 pm
As B M Sharma
Ek Aurat (1948)
Bhool Bhulaiyan(1949)
Nayi Bhabhi (1950)
Roop Kahani(1950)
Nayi Bhabhi (1950)
25th July (1951)
Chhoti Maa (1952)
Anmol Sahara(1952)
Chhoti Maa (1952)
As Butaram Sharma
Raat Ki Rani(1949)
Dilruba (1950)
Bahurani (1950)
Bedardi (1951)
Bedardi (1951)
Izzat (1952)
Paapi (1953)
Dost (1954)
Aurat Teri Kahani(1954)
Sultan-E-Alam(1956)
Main Suhagan Hoon (1966)
Dare say they are the same person
LikeLike
[…] Thus, it fits in with my post on ‘’Songs that tell a story’. Sadanand Kamath has written a post on this song on Atul Song A Day in which he states that Raj Khosla intended to be a singer, but a […]
LikeLike
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
January 17, 2017 at 7:28 pm
During the years 1953-54, I was studying for my Sound Eng at St Xavier College. We had a recording studio there and Hamid and Amin Sayani were recording Advt. programs there, English and Hindi respectively. We were four students and we used to assist the prof to record as trainees.
one of the Hindi programs was a musical one, and Raj Khosla and one Sindhi singer (I forgot her name) used to sing songs every week. Sunil Dutt was the MC and he used to start the program with the words “Main Balraj hun aur aap sun rahein hai …..” I could have presented few songs by Raj Khosla here for Atulites pleasure as I had copied some of the songs I liked, on my wire recorder, but lost them when my recorder broke down beyond repairs. (Cassette recorders had just started in the market but were beyond my means then)
LikeLike