Prem nagariya jaayenge hum
Posted on: May 19, 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 the film Jadu Nagari-1940.
In last 2-3 years, I find that a lot many collectors are uploading songs from films of the 30s and also rare songs. The HFM History students- like me- are highly indebted to them for their generosity.
Like in any other fields, here too some disturbing events take place. Some collectors upload incomplete songs, thinking that this will protect their monopoly. I feel this is very unfair. No one forces them to upload songs. If they do so on their own, why not complete songs ? Anyway, it is their thinking and choice. Fortunately, true connoisseurs, like Shalin Bhatt ji are highly dependable and his songs are not only complete and rare but he also adds some information to it. Many times the viewers’ comments on the song also gives important information pieces. May God increase his tribe !
Film Jadu nagari-40 was based on an imaginary story, like many such films. These films had writers, who flew the kites of their imagination, sometimes in a very comic way. For example, turning Humans into Animals or showing talking animals, birds and even Snakes. Of course since the film had Jadu in its title iteslf, all these things were within expectations only. Actually these things made the films very interesting and watchable. ALAS ! The era of such C grade films is gone for ever !
I selected a song from this film, because I found some unusual and rare points here, worth talking about.
Firstly, the film is directed by Baburao Apte ( variously spelt as Baburao, Bapurao or S R Apte), who was the elder brother of actress Shanta Apte. He had started his acting career from the silent era. He acted in 8 silent films. Starting with film Shyamsunder-32, he acted in his first Talkie film, as Radha’s husband- where Radha was his own younger sister, Shanta Apte. In all, he acted in 16 Talkie films, his last film being “Main abla nahin hoon”-49 directed by Shanta Apte herself. He had a very minor role in it-courtesy his sister. He also directed 8 Talkie films from Kala Pahad-33 to Jadu Nagari-40. yes, today’s film was his last film as a director.
And yes, he was the same person, who brought his own younger sister of 9 years to act in films. He would put a condition in the contract that no other actor will touch her while shooting. If she had a wife’s role, he would do the husband’s role. Fortunately for cine goers, as Shanta Apte grew up as a rebel, she defied this rule and Baburao started his acting and direction separately. He got married and lived separately.
Shanta Apte- though unmarried till end- had a daughter-Nayana Apte. However this news of her daughter was kept a secret. When Shanta Apte died on 28-2-1964, ten years later Nayana declared that she was Shanta Apte’s daughter. Film Historian Isak Mujawar, in one of his books, has said that Nayana was Shanta’s daughter from brother Baburao Apte only. Such matters have no credible proofs anytime. By the way, Nayana Apte became a popular actress on Marathi Stage and in Marathi Cinema. Obviously Baburao Apte was very creative indeed !
Secondly, in this film Rajkumari Calcuttewali (real name Pullo Bai) had acted and also sang 5 songs. Though HFGK is silent about which Rajkumari it was in this film, the noted Music Historian and collector Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji has confirmed this. Also the song’s uploader Shalin Bhatt ji also mentions Rajkumari Calcuttewali. Though she acted and sang only in films made at Calcutta, two films ‘Gorakh aaya’-38 and ‘Jadu Nagari’-40 indicate her participation.Later she married one Seth Motilal from Calcutta and left films.
Thirdly, Music Director in later times-Jimmy aka James Singh- sang a duet in this film with Rajkumari Calcuttewali. Composer Jimmy aka James Singh- is one of those little known composers who never got fame or name in spite of their Talents. His real name was JAMES SINGH. He was a Christian Punjabi from Ludhiana. He was educated in Delhi.He started his career in Hindi films as a singer in Chorus. He sang 7 songs in 6 films (Imandar-39, Baghi-39, Pyar-40, Anjaam-40, Jadoo Nagri-40, and Maaya Nagri-44).
He could play many western instruments, especially all types of Guitars.When he failed as a singer, he became assistant to many composers. Finally.he got his chance to compose few songs for film ‘Muqaddar-50’, though with Khemchand Prakash and Bhola Shreshtha. He composed 2 duets of Asha and Kishore. The credit of composing the First ” Yodelling ” song of Kishore kumar goes to Jimmy. Kishore ‘yodelled ‘ first time in this film.
Jimmy then gave music to 14 more films like, Shrimatiji-52, Smuggler-59, Awara Shehzadi-56, Sher e Baghdad-57, Nek khatoon-59, Pathan-62, Miss chaalbaz-61, Tarzan and Gorilla-63, Duniya hai dilwalon ki-66, Pyar ki Baazi-67, Tarzan in fairy land-68, Aakhir-84, Khoon aur sazaa-86 and his last film, Sachhi Ibadat-1987. Inspite of giving sweet and melodious songs of a variety,Jimmy never came up to A class. He always remained a composer for C grade films. Anyway, as long as Kishore’s yodelling is heard,Jimmy’s name will be remembered.
However, in this film Jimmy was not the MD. It was yet another little known MD- Shanti kumar Desai, a very talented but unlucky composer who rarely got support from any famous banner. His music was enchanting and tunes were superb, but Lady Luck did not favour him.
He was born in Amreli,Saurashtra, Gujarat state on 3-3-1908. His family was in service as Royal Musicians, so he was exposed to music from childhood.He was an expert Harmonium player. To start his career, he came to Bombay and worked in H.M.V. as a Broadcaster. Here he came into contact with many composers and learnt how they operated and made tunes etc. He was already giving music to Dramas, but wanted to join Film line as M.D. He got his first film Navbharat ( Jawanmard)-1934. In those days Gujarati producers and directors used to prefer Gujarati MDs. Thus out of his 36 films, 18 were done with Gujarati Directors like Sohrab modi, Nanubhai Vakil, V.M.Vyas(4 films), Kanjibhai Rathod, Dhirubhai Desai etc. He also gave music to Gujarati films.
He gave music along with Madholal Master,Rafiq Ghaznavi, Pannalal Ghosh, Shyambabu Pthak etc. Famous singers like Rafi, Manna Dey, Zohrabai, Amirbai etc sang in his films during their early careers. Even kishore kumar’s early film Sati Vijay-48 had music by Shanti kumar Desai. He gave music to films of early era actors like Prem Adib, Mehtab, Sitara Devi, Leela Chitnis, Jal Merchant, Ashraf Khan, Rajkumari, Mazhar khan, Shanta Hublikar, Jairaj, E Billimoria, Kumar, Sardar Akhtar, Chandramohan, Shobhana Samarth, Durga Khote, Shahu Modak and Sulochana.
From 1934 to 1948, he gave music to 35 films and in 1964 his one film was released. He composed about 300 songs. He never got films from top banners like Bombay Talkies,Prabhat, Sagar or Minerva, otherwise his career would have been different.
He died on 6-1-1986. Some of his better known films were Bholi bhikaran-36, Punarjanma-38, Anjaam-40, Suhaagan-42, Naukar-43, Ek din ka sultan-45 and Lav Kush-51.
The Hero of this stunt film was the Stunt King Yeshwant Dave…..ever heard his name ? Not a great chance, I know.
It was not uncommon during the days of early cinema for people to hang around studios and filming locations in the hopes of being discovered. One such intrepid soul was Yeshwant Dave (or Yashwant Dave), who was at Kohinoor Studios observing a picture being made by producer J.B.H. Wadia. The handsome and athletic Yeshwant cornered Wadia, insisting that he would make a fine hero for an action film.
Wadia agreed to test Yeshwant by having him jump from the roof of one set piece to another. He did so successfully, and J.B.H. decided to cast him in a film that he was to direct for Young United Players, the 1931 silent Thunderbolt (aka Diler Daaku) featuring Mumtaz as the heroine.
Yashwant was again directed by Wadia in Toofaan Mail (1932) and thereafter became a sought after action star appearing in the stunt films of other directors like Aspi, Dhirubhai Desai, Nari Ghadiali, Chunilal Parekh, and Harshadrai Mehta. Some of his films include Bharat Veer (1932), Jaadui Jung (1934), Bombshell (1935), Vasant Bengali (1937), Flying Ranee (1939), Magic City (Jaadoo Nagri) (1940), Torpedo (1941), Royal Mail (1946), and Kaun Pardesi (1947).
Growing out of the stunt hero persona, he turned to character parts and made infrequent onscreen appearances throughout the 1950s, including in Seikh Chilli and Makkhee Choos both released in 1956 and starring comedian Bhagwan. What became of Yeshwant Dave afterwards is anybody’s guess, as the once popular action star faded into obscurity and, sadly, is barely remembered today.
Today’s song is a duet sung by Rajkumari Calcuttewali and James Singh. There were 9 songs in the film. With this song, film Jadu Nagari-40 makes its Debut on this Blog.
(Thanks to cinemajadu.com, activeindiatv.com, Cinerang by Isak Mujawar, Harish Raghuwanshi ji of Surat and my notes for information used herein.)
Song-Prem nagariya jaayenge hum(Jaadoonagri)(1940) Singers- Rajkumari Calcuttewali, James Singh (aka Jimmy), Lyricist- Munshi Kabil Amritsari, MD- Shanti Kumar Desai
Both
Lyrics
Prem nagariya jaayenge hum
Prem nagariya jaayenge hum
Prem nagariya jaayenge
dharti pe swarg basaayenge
dharti pe swarg basaayenge
Prem nagariya jaayenge
Prem nagar ki har galiyan mein
Prem nagar ki har galiyan mein
prem bageech banaayenge
prem bageech banaayenge
prem panchhi ban kunj kunj mein
prem geet nit gaayenge
prem panchhi ban kunj kunj mein
prem geet nit gaayenge hum
prem nagariya jaayenge
kal kal karti prem sarit mein
prem mast ho ??aayenge
kal kal karti prem sarit mein
prem mast ho ??aayenge
prem sudha ras pi pi kar
tan man ka taap mitaayenge
prem sudha ras pi pi kar
tan man ka taap mitaayenge
prem nagariya jaayenge
ek pran ham do tan ho kar
phir bhi to bisraayenge
haan
ek pran ham do tan ho kar
phir bhi to bisraayenge
haan
prem devta ke kunjan mein
prem devta ke kunjan mein
jeewan sakal bitaayenge hum
jeewan sakal bitaayenge hum
prem nagariya jaayenge
6 Responses to "Prem nagariya jaayenge hum"
May 20, 2019 at 9:12 pm
Dear Arunji,
Apropos SHANTA APTE, she was a Polylinguist and we know for a fact that when she was selected to act in a Bangla Film way back, she had travelled all the way to Shantiniketan to learn Bengali and even learnt Rabindra Sangeet from Kabiguru himself. This was in 1939. Although the Film did not materialise (years later she acted in the Bangla Film SWAYAMSIDDHA), she cut a disc of Rabindra Sangeet with HMV. Here too, she excelled and connoisseurs of RS rate this song as one of the best, easily outclassing the likes of established singers such as SUCHITRA MITRA and KANIKA BANNERJEE :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdIOO-8LSss
With warm regards
PARTHA CHANDA
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May 21, 2019 at 6:02 pm
Partha Ji,
Thanks for this information for our readers.
Perhaps you are also aware that Shanta Apte was invited to act in Tamil film ‘ Savitri”, in which the famous singer M S Subbulaxmi had a second lead role of Narada. Shanta not only spoke all her Tamil dialogues herself, but she even sang 4 Tamil songs in that film. The entire film was shot and processed in New Theatres, Calcutta, by its Madurai Producer.
Truly, she was multilingual personality and a dedicated artiste.
Nice to see your comment here once again.
-AD
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
May 19, 2019 at 10:54 am
Very informative post. I request Atul ji to tag such posts as #Biographyofjimmy etc so that they can easily be found.
Gorakh Aaya Incidentally had both Rajkumaris singing for it!
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May 19, 2019 at 11:07 am
Gajendra ji,
Thanks for your comment.
I too feel that there should be some system to find out where an artiste’s bio is written. I must have roughly written so far about over 300 odd artistes in various disciplines of film making.
Since I also maintain my own articles, I have my own system to find out the exact article for any artiste, but that can not work for others.
-AD
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May 19, 2019 at 12:05 pm
Now it is under “Biography of MD” and “biography of singer” under the category “biography of artists”.
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May 19, 2019 at 1:18 pm
Thanks for this information.
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