Chaal chale matwaari
Posted on: January 27, 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.
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Today’s song is from a film which was made by the Film Factory- Ranjit Movietone, in 1938. The name of the film is Billi aka The Cat. The film was directed by Jayant Desai and the music was by the in house Music Director-Gyan Dutt. All the songs and the screen play was by P L Santoshi.
This was the first decade of the Talkie films. Initially films were made on Mythology, folk tales and Parsi Theatre stories. Therefore there were repetitions of film subjects like Harishchandra or Shirin Farhad, among the different film makers. When this became too obvious, the film makers turned their attention to other sources like Hollywood films, famous novels and stories by well known authors.
In this race, the Calcutta film makers, notably New Theatres, was on ‘numero uno’ position. Bengal has a rich literary tradition. The works of famous writers like Bankim chnadra Chatterji, Saratchandra Chatterji, Rabindranath Tagore, A K Sen, Bijoy Muzumdar and many more have enriched Bangla literature. Films based on their stories were made in Calcutta. Bombay, of course, was not to lag behind and many films on National and International novels and Hollywood films were made here.
The major difference in these two film centres was that Bangla films were mostly true to the original novels and Bombay films were made keeping in view entertainment of the audience and so were made by adapting these famous literary works using cinematic liberties in plenty.
Most movies made in Bengal were based on famous stories, novels and dramas. These movies were made in Bangla (for eastern India markets) and Hindi language for all India market.
In Bombay, one of the the earliest films made on a famous author’s work was ” The Mill aka Mazdoor-1934, by Mohan Bhavnani’s Ajanta Cinetone. It was written by Munshi Premchand, and was based on the miserable and pathetic plight of the Mill workers of Bombay. Unfortunately, the powerful lobby of the rich Mill Owners of Bombay and Ahmedabad pressurised the Government of Bombay State to ban this film. Two years later and after many cuts, the dilapidated film was released as ” Ghareeb parwar aka Daya Ki Devi” in 1936, but it flopped miserably, dragging the makers- Ajanta Cinetone to bankruptcy.
In 1937, a film ” Khwabon ki Duniya” was made by the Prakash pictures’ duo of Vijay and Shankar Bhatt. It was based on the famous and popular novel ” The Invisible Man” by H.G.Wells, published in 1897. This Hindi film was a copy of the Hollywood film of the same name, made in 1933. The film was a novelty and did very good business. Later on, another film Mr. X – 1957 was also on the same theme.
Today’s film Billi-38 was based on the famous novel ” Damsel in distress” by P.G.Wodehouse. Wodehouse (15-10-1881 to 14-2-1975) was from England but stayed in US for most of his life. ( He is my favourite writer and I have many of his novels with me.) Wodehouse was famous for his British humour filled novels spun around characters like Jeeves, Bertie Wooster, Psmith, Blandings Castle and Lord Emsworth and Mr. Mulliner. His most famous novel Damsel in Distress was first serialised in ‘ The Saturday Evening Post’ in May and June 1919. It was published as a book on 4-10-1919 in UK and on 15-10-1919 in US. A stage play based on this novel, gave 234 performances in UK in 1928 and a Musical Comedy on it was made in 1937 in US.
‘Crime and Punishment’ by Fydor Dostoyevsky was the basis for film ‘ Phir subah hogi’-58. Many films were made on Tarzan novels by Edgar Rice Burrows and some thrillers were made on novels of Edgar Wallace. Hindi films based on famous novels/stories by Indian authors were many. An old example is Milan-46 on Tagore’s Nauka Doobi and recent examples are Chetan Bhagat’s 4 novels- Hello, Kai Poche, 2 states and 3 Idiots, as films of the same name. Some other films on Indian and western novels are Devdas, Parineeta, Omkara, Tere mere sapne, Guide, Aisha,Maqbool, junoon, Pinjar, Shatranj ke khiladi, Hamlet, Haider, Bandini, Balika Badhu, Dharamputra, Amar prem, Tamas and many more. the list would be too long, so suffice to mention these films.
There is nothing wrong in making films on famous novels, but when producers, directors, actors twist the story, add own stuff and make a ‘ Khichdi ‘ of the novel, think what the author must be feeling. ( In film Guddi, a writer called Deshpande, describes what the film makers do to the stories, to Prof. Gupta played by Utpal Dutt). A case in point is film Guide. It is on record how R K Narayan was disgusted with the Cinematic liberties the film makers took on his novel, and how he stopped attending shootings and vowed never to allow another producer to buy his stories !
Trouble comes when when the film is made on a western novel like ” Damsel in Distress “. First thing is to adapt the novel to Indian context and traditions. While doing this , most times, a mess is created. The story of this novel takes place in London and shifts to a village nearby later. in Indian version you have to show an Indian city ( Bombay) and a village. I read the review of this film in Film India- October 1938 issue. Baburao Patel- who rarely appreciated a film and was very partial to few directors and actors- tore apart the film. Every aspect of the film was criticised. However, despite his attempt, the film did very good film and was a success. It is shown in this film that after meeting just once, the hero and heroine, in their subsequent meeting, do not recognise each others and a Cat, gifted by hero to the heroine in their first meeting, helps in getting them together again.
The cast of the film had E. Billimorea, Sunita, Ishwarlal, Kantilal, Ila Devi, Mazhar, Ram Apte, Ghory and others. There were 11 songs in the film. today’s song is the first song to feature here. The song is sung by Ishwarlal and Ila Devi. I knew Ishwarlal, but Iladevi was a new name. Even after efforts no information was available to me about her. From the question-answer column of the magazine Film India, I learnt that Ila Devi’s original film name was Miss Ilmas. I do not know in which religion or community, this name is used.After making her debut in Hindi films in ‘ Nishan -E- Jung ‘-1937, she changed her name to Ila Devi and acted in 6 more films. Four films in 1938 (Billi,Bazigar, Rikshawala and Gorakh Aaya) and two films in 1939 (Adhuri Kahani and Kahan hai teri manzil). After this her name is not found in any films, when I checked.
This change of name, after using one name in a film, is not unique, though,this seems to be the First such instance. I know, off hand, at least two more such instances in Film industry. Actress Ameeta (Tumsa nahi dekha fame) had used name Jaijaiwanti in her first film Thokar-1953 ( her second film kaafila -52 was released first as Ameeta,however), but he changed it to her name Ameeta from next film onwards. ( her real name was Qamar Sultana). The second example is actress Zeb Rehman who was known first as Preetibala, then she changed her name to Zeb Rehman.
The male singer in this song is Ishwarlal. ISHWARLAL was born on 9-10-1911 at Ghanghaniya,Kathewar,Gujrat, as Ishwarlal Hariprasad Doshi.
He belonged to a Jain family. His father was in Police department at Kathiawar Agency. His father died when Ishwarlal was just 3 year old and mother raised him.
After Matriculation, he completed Teaching Diploma at the age of 16, but did not a job as he was underage.He came to Bombay, where his brother had some business, in 1927 to act in films. Ishwarlal was very handsome.
He got a job in Ranjit Studios.He started with silent films at a salary of Rs. 35 pm.His first Talkie film was Bhutiya Mahal-1932.Then came Char Chakram-32.He started acting and singing in films.Initially he sang only duets.meanwhile,with Jwalamukhi-36,he became Hero.he sang many songs in Ranjit films,but the records are not available.Those days,not all songs of the film were recoded for commercial purpose.
In Billi-38,he sang a duet with Ila Devi and Sunita devi and also in Aaj ka Hindustan.In Ummeed-41,he had a duet with Nurjahan. In Pyaas-41,he sang with S.Pradhan.
In 1942,first time he got solo songs to sing in Fariyaad. In Jabaan,under C.Ramchandra,he sang 7 songs.
Some of his films were-
Diwali,Dheeraj,Chandni,bhola shikar,nadira, sitamgarh, Veer babruwahan, Barrister’s wife, College kanya, Desh dasi, Keemti aansoo
dil ka daku,Jwalamukhi,Sajni,Dil farosh,Adhuri kahani,Thokar,Holi,pyar,Bansari Lalkar,Chirag,Us paar,
He worked in Ranjit for 13 years. Then he worked with Prafull pictures, Sun art, Wadia, Hind pictures and Atre Pictures also.
In 1945,he was the hero of Nurjehan in Badi Maa,but he had no songs, infact his last songs were in Us Paar-1944. His singing stopped completely when Rafi gave him playback in film Sharbati Aankhen-45.
Then he did character roles in Subhadra,Mahasati tulsi vrinda,Sanskar,Naulakha haar,Khuda ka banda etc.
He acted in 86 films. He also directed 11 films. He sang 36 songs in 14 films. His last film released was was kahani kismet ki-73
He was married in 1931 to a loyal wife kamalabai. They had no issues. Due to excessive smoking he contracted lung diseases and died on 22-1-1969 in Bombay.
With this song, the film Billi aka The Cat-38 and the singer Ila Devi make their Debut on this Blog.
Song-Chaal chale matwaari (Billi)(1938) Singers- Ishwarlal, Ila Devi, Lyrics-P L Santoshi, MD- Gyan Dutt
Both
Lyrics
Chaal chale matwaari
gaadi Chaal chale matwaari
Chaal chale matwaari
gaadi Chaal chale matwaari
raaja jee ki ajab sawaari
Chaal chale matwaari
Raaja
haan
raaja jee ki ajab sawaari
Chaal chale matwaari
gaadi Chaal chale matwaari
Chaal chale matwaari
gaadi Chaal chale matwaari
Raaja
kahaan rakha hai mukut tumhaara
ye hai sundar pyaara pyaara
Raaja
kahaan rakha hai mukut tumhaara
ye hai sundar pyaara pyaara
baaje chidiyaghar ke raaja
baaji moorakhpur ki raani
raani jee ki ajab sawaari
raaja jee ki ajab sawaari
raani jee ki ajab sawaari
raaja jee ki ajab sawaari
Chaal chale matwaari
gaadi Chaal chale matwaari
Chaal chale matwaari
gaadi Chaal chale matwaari
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
January 27, 2019 at 10:12 am
Full of information in details. Thanks.
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January 27, 2019 at 11:00 am
Thanks for your appreciation.
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