M m m m m main teri hoon
Posted on: January 4, 2019
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 other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
| Blog Day : | 3822 | Post No. : | 14821 |
Today’s song is from film Wafa-50. The film was made by Good luck Pictures and directed by the veteran expert J.P. Advani. For this film, there were two Music Directors- Vinod and Bulo C Rani. For 11 songs, there were 4 Lyricists. Today’s song is written by Aziz Kashmiri, sung by Shamshad Begum and composed by Vinod. The cast of the film was Karan Dewan, Nimmi, Bipin Gupta, Shyama, Bimla, Anwari, Gope, Yaqub, Cuckoo etc etc. One of the most often seen in films of the 50s but least written about artiste was Bipin Gupta.
Bipin Gupta was born in a Bengali family on 27th August 1905 in Meerut, the 5th child of his parents- Trailokya Nath Gupta and Khemankari Devi.They later moved to Barrackpore. He attended the Chinsura Training School and the Barrackpore Government High School. He was married to Annapurna Devi.
Gupta’s first Bengali film was Chokher Bali directed by Sotu Sen in 1938. Throughout his career he had worked on almost 300 films ( Bangla and Hindi), though only played the hero once, in the film Noori-1934. It was produced by Durga International Films, Calcutta. His Heroine was Sheela Devi. It was a flop movie.
He started working in Radio in 1934 and by 1936 he became a professional stage artist. He stayed for 30 years in Bombay to establish himself in Bollywood. His first film Shri Ramanuj came in 1943 at Calcutta. His last film was in 1979 at Bombay.
In 1964 he produced the film Daal Me Kala, directed by Satyen Bose and starring Nimmi, Kishore Kumar and Abhi Bhattacharya.The film took almost 4 years to make. Bipin Gupta worked in 128 Hindi films. He did 60 films in a period of 10 years-between 1950 and 1960, which is a very high average of one film every 2 months for 10 years !
He generally did the roles of Zamindar, teacher, father, Grandfather etc. All character roles. His voice was very good. Once, in Madras,while shooting for film “Teen Bahuraniya” at Gemini Studios, Prithviraj Kapoor lost his voice, for some time. Bipin Gupta dubbed all his film dialogues.
He died on 8th September 1981 in Calcutta. His son married Kajri- the daughter of Sailesh Mukherjee, actor,singer and composer. She too was an actress.
In Hindi films, for the first 10-15 years of the Talkie era, there were no separate dancers. The Heroines were expected to sing as well as dance, if need be. Somehow, dance was not an essential part of cinema ( except Mythological to some extent), till Azuri and Cuckoo came on the Horizon. It was almost from the mid 40s, the dancers became prominent and dance sequence became a Must in all films.Even in social films, the dance situations were created to include a dance. In crime stories, a Moll was usually a dancer. Azuri was perhaps the lone exclusive female dancer in films of the late 30s. By mid 40s, came Cuckoo and by mid 50s, it was Helen all the way for the next 20 years or so.
Cuckoo Moray, (4th February 1928 – 30th September 1981) was an Anglo-Indian dancer and actress. Cuckoo was the queen of film dancing in Hindi cinema of the 1940s and 1950s. Though unfamiliar in name, she was known as the “rubber girl” of Hindi cinema and her talent made cabaret dancing a must in the Bollywood films during the 1940s and 1950s. She could acrobatically bend her body at great length.
Cuckoo started appearing in films from mid forties. She was seen as a background dancer in film Meghdoot-45. Cuckoo made her screen debut in the film Arab Ka Sitara in 1946. Soon after, in Sona Chandi-46, directors and greater audiences noticed her dancing abilities for the first time. One of her dances in film Parwana-47 with suggestive lyrics to the song was considered vulgar enough to get banned from the film. Then, the turning point in Cuckoo’s career was in Mehboob Khan’s films. Her dance number in his film Anokhi Ada (1948) established her as the lead dancer of the era and in Andaz(1949), a romantic drama starring Nargis, Dilip Kumar, and Raj Kapoor, gave the dancer an opportunity to display her acting skills. In Mehboob Khan’s 1952 technicolor film Aan, which was her first colour film, she had a brief cameo in a dance sequence. She only appeared in 2 colour films in her career- Aan & Mayurpankh. She would charge Rs 6,000 for a dance number, an enviable fee in the 50s.
Usually she is credited with bringing into films 2 Anglo Indian brothers Tony (Krishna kumar) and Robert (Surya kumar). However, Azuri later claimed that it was she who brought them into films from an orphanage and trained them. Dancers first, both became Choreographers of repute later.
Cuckoo remained the best dancer in Hindi films until dancers such as Helen and Vyjayanthimala came into the industry. Cuckoo was a family friend of the Anglo-Burmese dancer and actress Helen. She was also known for helping unknown actors get their break in Bollywood, such as Pran in Ziddi. Cuckoo had introduced a 13-year-old Helen into films as a chorus dancer in films such as Shabistan and Awaara (both 1951). Cuckoo and Helen most notably appeared in song and dance sequences together, such as in Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi(1958) and Yahudi (1958). Her last film appearance was in Mujhe Jeene Do in 1963 after which, she had disappeared from the film industry. She was a Heroine in film Sona Chandi-46, under the name Kishori, but due to her faulty Hindi and pronunciation, she could not continue as a Heroine. She appeared in 155 films and and 67 songs were shot on her.
Cuckoo, the legendary cabaret queen of the Bollywood was one of those film stars who lived ostentatiously, spent extravagantly and died broke and penniless. Her three cars (one for her use, one for taking her dogs for a drive, and the other often used to summon protégée Helen to play with her sister), her flats and whatever jewellery she had, were all taken away because the dancer had evaded income tax. She would charge Rs 6,000 for a dance number, an enviable fee in the ’50s. Cuckoo died of cancer at the age of 52; during her last days she could barely afford to buy painkillers. “She never thought of security, of tomorrow,” Helen recalls. “But what a tremendous lady she was! There wasn’t even a tear in her eye, even when the roles stopped, when the money disappeared. Instead she’d joke about her plight. Some actors did help but it was too late, much too late.”
Cuckoo died on 30 September 1981 due to cancer at the age of 53. She was forgotten and unattended by the film industry at the time of her death. (adapted from wiki,MuVyz, book ‘Edwina’ and cineplot).
I started seeing films since my early childhood in the late 40s. I was lucky enough to see many films of the 30’s too, in their second or third runs. By the early 50s, most films from the 30s were gone but almost all films of the 40s were still available.
English, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu or Kannada- language was no bar as far as watching movies of these languages was concerned . Those were the days when 78 RPM records used to be played by Hotels on gramophone. This helped me to hear the latest songs. In the 1960s Posh hotels had Juke Box. Soon it became common and Juke Boxes were seen everywhere. You needed just a coin of 4 Annas to listen to your desired song on it. Usually 4 songs in a row were lined up and they could all be listed to by putting 4 coins in it.
I liked Shamshad Begum songs from the beginning. Uneducated but immensely talented Shamshad was the reigning queen of the HFM in the 40s and till about ’55. Her seniors and co-singers bowed out, but she continued-first with C. Ramchandra, then with Naushad and later with O P Nayyar. Her Luck began to run out in 1950s and all the composers who previously supported her left her and started using the rising singing stars. From 1949 onwards, C Ramchandra was totally devoted to Lata, Naushad too had realised that the new crop of Heroines wanted only Lata and so he quietly went for her and O P Nayyar-when he found a soulmate in Asha, he simply forgot Shamshad and Geeta. So much for the “professional” composers !
In my opinion, two things went against Shamshad. One, in the early phase of Hindi cinema, the story lines of the films used to be very strong. Consequently, songs were inserted considering the need of the plot and to enhance the value of music in the film. As a result, songs were given to side Hero/heroines, special dancers or character roles. Naturally Shamshad sang for artistes other than the Heroines. The singing Heroines sang their own songs. If an analysis is done, it will be seen that till about early 50s, 70% songs in a film were sung by artistes other than the Lead pairs.
It was only after the new crop of Hero/Heroines came and when they realised ( particularly Dev Anand, for example) that songs can help them become popular, they started demanding more songs on them in the films. Slowly,the ratio reversed and after 1955-56, 80% of songs were picturised on the Lead pairs and the rest-if any-on others. Thus singers like Shamshad, who sang for all and sundry found her singing opportunities dwindling. In those days, Lata, very cleverly, chose to sing only for the Heroines and according to her, for all ‘others ‘ there were Asha, Geeta and Shamshad. This badly affected Shamshad’s career.
Secondly, when Lata came on the scene, the older generation female singers like Ameerbai, Zohrabai etc were already on the wane. Only Geeta and Shamshad were left. Geeta got all songs of Guru Dutt films. Additionally,the Bengali lobby of Burman, Hemant, Salil and A Biswas was in her support. Shamshad had no one to back her up. It was Naushad, who first indicated that he had tilted towards Lata, when Lata sang all songs of Andaz-49 for the heroines and Shamshad sang only for Cuckoo. Next was C Ramchandra, when he fired Shamshad in front of the orchestra players when she could not sing to his satisfaction. She was so much hurt that she closed her song book and walked out. Normally, C Ramchandra would have apologised soon after, but this time nothing like this happened and Shamshad understood that everything was finished. ( Shamshad, however,in a later day interview denied that anything like this had happened). In case of O P Nayyar, in one of the interviews he gave in 2003 to Dr. Mandar, he admitted that “his lead singer” in those days prevented “others” from singing for him.
Shamshad being too gentle and straightforward gave up the fight too meekly, in my opinion. Even her last attempt to remain in Limelight with a ‘Shamshad Stage Show’, did not bear any fruits as she did not do any follow up after that, due to her self respect.
In my opinion, Shamshad could have continued for another 8 to 10 years easily if only she had fought it out, but it was not to be and a vibrant, youthful, solid voice disappeared from the musical scene. I feel that it was not she but millions of music lovers who were the losers because of her ouster from the music scene.
Today’s Shamshad song is one of my most favourite songs. I was actually pleasantly surprised to note that this song was yet to be discussed here. Out of the 100 odd select Shamshad songs in my collection, this song is within the first top 10 songs in my Play list.Great composer Vinod and great singer Shamshad- this sangam providing such a Gem is no wonder. I am sure, you too will fall in love with this song the moment you listen to it. Enjoy….
Song-M m m m m main teri hoon (Wafa)(1950) Singer-Shamshad Begam, Lyrics-Aziz Kashmiri, MD-Vinod
Lyrics
m m m m m m m main teri hoon
m m m main teri hoon
teri hoon o raaja
m m m m m
m m m m m m m main teri hoon
teri hoon ho raaja
m m m m m main teri hoon
kaali kaali ghat khule nainon ke pat
hatt
kaali kaali ghat
khule nainon ke pat
haathon mein haath hua tera mera saath
haathon mein haath hua tera mera saath
m m m m m main teri hoon
teri hoon ho raaja
m m m m m main teri hoon
chori chori aa
mere man mein sama
o raaja
chori chori aa
mere man mein sama
tera mera pyaar hua raaja pahli baar
tera mera pyaar hua raaja pahli baar
m m m m m main teri hoon
teri hoon ho raaja
m m m m m main teri hoon
papeeha bole pee
raaja dhadke mera jee
o papeeha bole pee
raaja dhadke mera jee
ambuwa ki daali pe koyal bole yoon
ambuwa ki daali pe koyal bole yoon
kya
m m m m m main teri hoon
m m m m m main teri hoon
teri hoon ho raaja
m m m m m main teri hoon
9 Responses to "M m m m m main teri hoon"
January 4, 2019 at 9:51 am
Arun ji,
Thanks for covering Cuckoo in the article whom I admire as a catalyst for creating a separate window in Hindi films for dancers. I have been keeping track of her filmy career and I found hard to get authentic information about her early days in Hindi film industry.
If I go by the film review in ‘Filmindia’ magazine, Cuckoo’s first solo dance was in ‘Man Ki Jeet’ (1944). The review had criticized the dance for its vulgarity. While the name of the song was not mentioned, I guess it was ‘Morey jubna ka dekho ubhaar’. This song was also banned.
In Sona Chaandi’ (1946), Chandni was the heroine opposite Suresh. Kishori (a new name for Cuckoo) was a side heroine. I understand from internet sources that the film had problems with Censor Board for Kishori’s two dances which was removed. The release of the film was considerably delayed. If I go by the film’s advertisement on ‘Filmindia’, this film was released either in late 1947 or early 1948.
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January 4, 2019 at 11:06 am
Sadanand ji,
The song of Mann ki jeet-44 which was banned-only in Bombay province- was indeed ‘ More jubna ka dekho’ sung by Zohrabai. It was banned due to vulgar lyrics and not the dance, which too may be a vulgar one to cope up with the lyrics. This song was shown all over India-except Bombay- and was a popular one too.
Cuckoo is not in the Cast of this film, nor is this film in her Filmography. In the book Edwina, by Surjit singh ji, Edwina is quoted as saying that Cuckoo first danced in film Meghdoot-45 in the background and as a solo in 1946 only in Arab ka sitara in which she is credited in the cast also.
SONA CHANDI was originally certified on 19.7.46 at Bombay with Censor Certificate No.34253 and therefore, included in Geet Kosh in the year 1946. The movie again got certified on 9th April 1948 [i.e. after the death of Mahatma Gandhi] at Bombay with an award of new certificate no.38154 and then was released.
When the film started Cuckoo was the main Heroine, but after censoring, the film was not released because of her faulty diction of Hindi words. The roles were changed and Chandni became the Heroine and Cuckoo was side Heroine. Some scenes were reshot. Meanwhile Gandhiji died. The producers included a song by Lata on Gandhiji,” Pyare Bapu ki” composed by D C Dutt and one more song by Saroj Borkar, in the film and the film was released.
All these details are mentioned in Isaq Mujawar’s book also.
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January 4, 2019 at 12:23 pm
Arun ji,
Thanks for the details about ‘Sona Chaandi’ (1946).
I have still some points about both ‘Sona Chaandi’ (1946) and Cuckoo in ‘Man Ki Jeet’ (1944) which I will discuss with you separately. All I can say here that my information is based on relevant issues of ‘Filmindia’ magazine.
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January 4, 2019 at 3:08 pm
Dear Arunji,
You’ll be the best to confirm if this image is of CUCKOO, from a crowd scene in the film “PRITHVI VALLABH”, released in 1943 as posted by Richard S in 2014 and of which you may be aware of.
Warm regards
PARTHA CHANDA
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January 4, 2019 at 5:45 pm
Partha ji,
I am sorry, I cant say with certainty.
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January 4, 2019 at 5:02 pm
Dear sir, while following Atul Song”, I have become admirer of all contributors. But more so of yours and Mr Sadanand Kamath for providing so many vignettes and unknown facts related to our cinema and film music.
Wishing you all a very long, healthy and fruitful second innings!
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January 4, 2019 at 5:43 pm
Thank you Jitendra ji, for your appreciation. Such comments motivate us to continue our work here.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
January 4, 2019 at 7:54 am
Dear Arunji,
There appears to be a typo error in the 3rd Para. The Hindi Film “PADOSAN” was an adaptation of the Bangla Film “PASHER BARI” made in 1952 based on a short story by one Arun Chowdhury, whereas “CHOKHER BALI” is a serious drama written by Tagore.
In “PASHER BARI”, comic actor Bhanu Bannerjee played the role later enacted by Mehmood and noted singer Dhananjay Bhattacharya did the role of the singer, later enacted by Kishore Kumar.
With warm regards
PARTHA CHANDA
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January 4, 2019 at 8:25 am
PARTHA CHANDA ji,
Thanks for your note. I got confused between Chokher Bari and Pasher Bari. Regret the error.
I have requested Atul ji to kindly delete this sentence from the write up.
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