Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs

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’s song is from film ‘Shahkaar’ (1947). Very few people must have heard about this film. That is probably because, it was made in 1947- the year of India’s partition. As the year 1947 began, news was circulating about the partition. Like many other industries, film industry was also worried. There was an air of uncertainty. Who will stay and who will migrate was hotly debated in the privacy of homes, studios and clubs. People looked at each others with suspicion. Muslims were worried about their safety in India, in spite of the assurances by Gandhi and Nehru.

Crores of rupees were invested in films. After the second world war started in 1939, lot of Black money was generated and much of it came to film industry. Investors, financiers and producers were worried about half made films. Everybody seemed to be in a hurry to finish his assignment on hand. Due to this the quantity of films increased, sadly at the cost of quality. 1947 saw a record number of films made in 1947- 181 Hindi films, the highest ever since films were made. It took another 40 years to break this record in 1988, when 185 films were made.

Almost 75 to 80 % films of 1947 were obscure and forgotten within a short time.Films like ‘Aisa Kyun’, ‘Atom Bomb’, ‘Barrister’, ‘Beete Din’, ‘Chalte Chalte’, ‘Chandrahaas’, ‘Dehati’, ‘Daulat Ke Liye’, ‘Extra Girl’, ‘Farz’, ‘Gaurav’, ‘Gudiya’, ‘Heera’, ‘Janata’, ‘Jhalak’, ‘Khandaani’, ‘Lalat’, ‘Manmaani’, ‘Mere Bhagwan’, ‘Mohan’, ‘Nai Baat’, ‘Pehla Pyar’, ‘Paro’, ‘Riwaaz’, ‘Shabari’, ‘Shahkaar’, ‘Tohfa’, ‘Toote Di’l, ‘Veerangana’ are some of the films made in 1947. How many of us even know about them? Actually, some of these were films in which well known and major stars of the times had acted. For example, ‘Mohan’ had Dev Anand as hero, ‘Lalat’ was the debut film of Usha Kiran (as Usha Marathe), Prem Adib and Vanmala had acted in ‘Chandrahaas’ etc.

Not that ALL films were bad. Certainly some famous and excellent films providing some milestones of Hindi cinema  were also made in 1947, like ‘Aapki Sewa Mein’ (first playback song of Lata Mangeshkar), ‘Bela’ (all 10 songs by Zohrabai Ambalawali), ‘Dard’ (debut song of Umadevi), ‘Elaan’ (a bold Muslim social film by Mehboob Khan), ‘Jugnu’ (the only film of Dilip Kumar and Noorjehan), ‘Meera’ (all 18 songs by MS Subbulaxmi), ‘Mirza Sahibaan’ (last film of Noorjehan in India), ‘Neel Kamal’ (debut of Raj Kapoor and Madhubala as lead pair), ‘Parwaana’ (last film of KL Saigal), ‘Shadi Se Pehle’ (first duet of Rafi and Lata) and ‘Shehnai’ (epoch making music by C Ramchandra).

Nevertheless partition did have an impact on the film industry, due to the migration of artistes from both countries. Lahore, an important city in the undivided Punjab in the pre-independence days was one of the major film making centres in India. Talented actors and musicians from all Punjab and Sindh area tried their luck in the Cine Industry at Lahore. Nevertheless, the biggest centre of film production was Bombay and it was every aspiring artist’s dream to go to Bombay and shine there.

The film activity at Lahore increased considerably in the early 1940s in terms of film production and music. Those days Lahore was called a supply source for Bombay, as many actors and musicians shifted their base to Bombay from there. In reality, a large number of star performers and music directors of Bombay film industry had their roots in the undivided Punjab. Many started careers in Lahore, some started from Calcutta and some even from Bombay itself. Most who were in Calcutta shifted to Bombay in early 40s ( but it had nothing to do with Partition). The list of such people is very long, but suffice to mention some well known names.

Noorjehan, Pran, KL Saigal, Prithviraj Kapoor and his sons, Shyam, Dilip Kumar, Surinder, Karan Dewan, Dev Anand, Balraj Sahni, Singer Khursheed, Mumtaz Shanti, Veena, Begum Para, Meena Shorey, Suraiya, Manorama, Kamini Kaushal, Shyama (Khursheed Akhtar), AR Kardar, M Sadiq, Suresh (Nazim Ahmed), Amar, Chetan Anand, Jhande Khan, Ghulam Haider, Pt Amarnath and his brothers Husnlal-Bhagatram, Hansraj Behl, S Mohinder, Feroz Nizami, Khursheed Anwar, Khayyam, Vinod, Shyamsunder, Kidar Sharma, Krishna Chander, OP Dutta, Saadat Hasan Manto, Qamar Jalalabadi, DN Madhok, Tanvir Naqvi, Prem Dhawan etc.

Many of the actors and producers used to shuttle between Lahore and Bombay for their work.

And then the PARTITION took place in 1947.

In the communal frenzy, polarisation of artistes took place. Hindus shifted to Bombay and Muslims left for Lahore. But there were some reverse migrations also in this period. One example each is of Sahir Ludhiyanvi who migrated to India, and Deebo Bhattacharya from Calcutta migrated to Karachi and prospered in Pakistan as a successful music Director.

Some of the families got divided, like Mehboob Khan opted to remain in India, but his brother MR Khan remained in Pakistan and worked as a well known producer. Juhi Chawla’s grandfather JC Anand and uncle Satish Anand stayed in Lahore. Consequently they became the pioneers of Pakistan Film Industry. After the divorce, Rafi’s wife also migrated to Pakistan with her children.

At the actual time of Partition some artists were in Lahore for film work. They were BR Chopra, Ramanand Sagar, IS Johar, Gulshan Rai, Omprakash, Jeevan, OP Nayyar, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Naqsh Lyallpuri, Surinder Kaur, Prakash Kaur and Pushpa Hans. They all left Lahore hurriedly and reached Bombay safely.

However this journey was not so safe for one actor – comedian Durga Prasad, known as Durga Mota. He was very fat. In the melee, he reached the Lahore station and somehow entered the train to Bombay. Suddenly a group of mad rioters entered the Lahore station and started killing the travellers. Most people ran helter skelter, but due to his heavy body, Durga Mota could not run and was cut into pieces on the Lahore station platform itself !

Same way many artists from Bombay left for Lahore and ALL of them reached safely.

I have full lists of who migrated, but to put it in short, some of the directors who migrated were,

Syed Shaukat Hussain Rizvi, SM Yousuf, Najam Naqvi, Munshi Dil, Nakshab Jarchavi, M Sadiq, Zia Sarhadi, Sibtain Fazli (of Fazli Brothers), ST Zaidi , Zahoor Raja, Wali Saheb and Manto.

Some of the heroes were- Nazeer, Sadiq Ali, Masood, Sudhir, Santosh, Ratan Kumar, Najmul Hussain, Suresh and Nasir Khan (both came back to India later), Sheikh Mukhtar.

Some of the actors were- M Ismail, Ajmal, Gulam Mohd, Kumar, Ghori, Majeed, Shahnawaz, Himalayawala, Shyam Kumar, Allauddin, Shah Shikarpuri, Charlie, Nazar Faizi etc.

Some of the Heroines were- Noorjehan, Meena Shorey, Khursheed, Zeenat Begum, Asha Posley, Najma, Kalawati, Rehana, Swarnalata, Ragini, Bibbo, Renuka Devi, Geeta Nizami, Maya Devi etc.

Some from the music field were- Khursheed Anwar, Inayat Hussain, Rafiq Gaznavi, GA Chisti, Ghulam Haider, Feroz Nizami, Nissar Bazmi, Nashaad, Tufail Faruqi, Tanvir Naqvi, Faiyaz Hasmi, Iqbal Bano, Premlata etc.

With so many people migrating to Pakistan at a time and the condition of Pakistan Film Industry then, it is a moot question, whether all these migrants could get work there and shine ?

There were 2 types of people who migrated-

1. Those who had achieved their peaks already in India and
2. Those who had just started their careers.

Obviously the second group, at least some of them, could do well there eventually.

Some of the successful migrants there were- Noorjehan, Khursheed Anwar, GA Chisti, Nissar Bazmi, Feroz Nizami, Najam Naqvi, Nakshab Jarchavi, Sibtain Fazli, Wali Saheb, Manto, Rashid Atre, Sudhir, Santosh, Asha Posley, Shameem, Najma, Yasmeen, Ragini, Zahoor Shah, Shaikh Iqbal, Himalayawala, Nazar, Rafiq Gaznavi, Tanvir Naqvi, Iqbal Bano etc.

The unfortunate ones were (some of them) – Meena Shorey, Ratan Kumar, M Sadiq, Charlie, Ghori, Kumar, Sheikh Mukhtar, Najmul Hussain, Neena, Kalavati, Maya Devi, Gulam Haider, Nashaad, Premlata etc.

Almost all the artists who shifted to Bombay prior to Partition did very well here.

There was a second wave of Migration in 1955-56, during which many artistes like Veera, Rattan Kumar, Rehana, Mumtaz Shanti, Meena Shorey, Wali Sahib, K Anwar etc migrated to Pakistan.

Partition did some damage to India, but as there was a second line waiting to take over, the impact was negligible. However, Pakistan had to build a new film industry with the help of the migrant artistes in almost all departments of film making. Once this generation ended their career, unfortunately there was not much of a second line to take over in Pakistan.

Here is an excerpt from a book “The Travels of Bollywood Cinema ” by Anjali Geeta Roy, in this connection…….

The rioting of 1947 set in motion irreversible, irrevocable migration. B R. Chopra and I S Johar were planning films in a big way for Lahore but had to run for their lives. Ramanand Sagar left in July, so did Gulshan Rai. Character actor Om Prakash (of Fateh Din fame, an all-time favourite skit relayed for years by Radio Lahore), comedian-bad man Jeevan and many others also left Lahore for Bombay. O P Nayyar recorded his immortal song Preetam Aan Milo/ Dukhia Jiya Bullai, Aan Milo at the His Master’s Voice studio in Lahore. He left Lahore only in 1948 when it became clear that people with the wrong religion were not going to return to their homes on either side of the Punjab. Writer Rajinder Singh Bedi escaped, sitting on top of a railway carriage carrying loads of Hindus and Sikhs out of Lahore. Song-writer Naqsh Lyallpuri began his literary career in Lahore as a journalist but had to leave in 1947. Punjabi singers, the sisters Surinder Kaur and Prakash Kaur, and Pushpa Hans also left Lahore.

Migration in the other direction also took place. Nazir and his wife Swarnlata, Noorjahan and her husband Shaukat Husain Rizvi, character actor Alauddin and many others headed for Lahore. Manto came in January 1948, music directors Ghulam Haider and Khurshid Anwar followed some years later and director M. Sadiq probably in 1969 or 1970. Meena Shori, Khurshid and Mumtaz Shanti also immigrated to Lahore. Some Pakistani actors in Lahore continued to use Hindu filmic names. Santosh Kumar (Musa Raza) and Sudhir (Shah Zaman), the two most famous heroes of the 1950s and 60s represented such practice. On both sides, initially considerable goodwill existed between the two film communities.

Some families were divided. Thus for example, while Nazir shifted to Lahore, his nephew K. Asif stayed on in Bombay. Kardar stayed on but his brother Nusrat Kardar and son Rauf Kardar returned to Lahore. While Suraiya, her mother and grandmother settled in Bombay, many of her other relatives shifted to Lahore. Rafi stayed on to reign supreme in Bombay while his parents and siblings were in Lahore.

There were some cross-religion marriages that created peculiar challenges. Raj Kapoor’s maama (maternal uncle) Mr Mehra married a Muslim, converted to Islam and stayed in Lahore. A unique case of reverse migration took place as well: poet Sahir Ludhianvi (Abdul Hai) left Lahore for India.

In the context of partition and its effect, if one sees, the film ‘Shahkaar’ was an ordinary film. The director of the film, the hero Shah Nawaz and few actors like Nazma, Majid, Mehdi Raza, Maqbool etc. migrated to Pakistan after partition. Obviously these artistes were in a hurry to complete the film, which affected the quality of the film.

The music director was K Datta aka Datta Korgaonkar. There were only 7 songs – all written by Arzoo Lucknowi. The film was directed by S Khalil, who directed 7 films in all in India. Shah Nawaz continued his career in Pakistan by acting in 41 films there (32 Urdu and 9 Punjabi). He died on 18-6-1971 in Karachi. Today’s song is sung by a young Mohd Rafi and Shamshad Begam. Rafi sounds very fresh here.

[Author’s Notes – the lists of names given here are indicative and not exhaustive. Migration period is considered as 1947 to 1970.]
[Acknowledgements – My thanks to Harish Lalwani of Hyderabad-Sindh and Rafiq Ansari of Lahore. Credits – HFGK, ‘Mourning the Nation’ by Bhaskar Sarkar, ‘Partition’ by Kavita Daiyya, “The Travels of Bollywood Cinema ” by Anjali Geeta Roy, Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema and my notes.]

Song-Ye duniya hai sab prem ki (Shahkar)(1947) Singers-Rafi, Shamshad Begam, Lyrics-Aarzoo Lucknowi, MD-K Datta

Lyrics

o o o
o o o
o o o
o o o
o o o
o o o o
o o o o

ye duniya hai sab prem ki
tu prem kiye ja
ye duniya hai sab prem ki
tu prem kiye ja
haan prem kiye ja
duniya mein jiye ja
haan prem kiye ja
duniya mein jiye ja

aa aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aa
o dharti ke raaja
aa aa aa aa
tere haath mein baaja
tere hath me baaja
o chaand ki raani
aa aa aa
teri mast jawaani,
teri mast jawaani
tu chaand mere dil ka hai
aankhon ka hai taara
mamta ne kiya phoolon mein chhip chhip ke ishaara
sandesh mujhe chupke se pardon mein diye ja
o chaand ki raani
o dharti ke raaja
o chaand ki raani
aaja
aaja
aaja

main aati to hoon
par tu mujhe chhed na dena
main aati to hoon
par tu mujhe chhed na dena
o baanke lutere
o baanke lutere
tu kahin loot na lena
tu kahin loot na lena
haan chhed na dena
mujhe tu loot na lena
haan chhed na dena
mujhe tu loot na lena

aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
mohabbat sharaab aur mohabbat jawaani
mohabaat jawaani
jawaani deewaani
behoshi ke mausam mein
behoshi ke mausam mein
lagaataar piye ja,
lagaataar piye ja
aur yoon hi jiye ja
aur yoon hi jiye ja
aur yoon hi jiye ja
aur yoon hi jiye ja