Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali
Posted on: December 30, 2019
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular 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 film Ranee-43. The film was made by Barua Productions, floated by producer, director, actor and singer, P C Barua, before he had joined New Theatres. He joined NT on the invitation of B N Sircar, though he had his own production outfit and studio. In fact, he wanted a merger of his company with NT, but Sircar declined and offered Barua a paid job at NT, on monthly basis.
While in NT, Barua gave hit films, one after another like, Rooplekha-34, Devdas-35, Maya-36, Manzil-36, Mukti-37, Adhikar-38 and Zindagi-40. During the making of film Zindagi, differences between him and Sircar thickened. The reason was Barua felt, he was not given as many films to make as Nitin Bose and Harischandra Chunder got. Ego of both the giants persisted and culminated in their separation.
In the History of Hindi Cinema,till the Golden 50s started,Bengal had a dominating position in films and music. Its meaningful,entertaining films and the Film and the Non Film music ruled the roost, from the early 30s. In this conquest of the East,the Lion’s share was that of NEW THEATRES-set up and owned by B N Sircar. New Theatres was not just a production company,but it was an Institution and a school for developing artistes in the 30s and the 40s.
Out of these 20 years,I would say the first almost 10 years was the Peak Golden Period for NT. 1940, being one of the best years for NT, also was the beginning of its end, with the First major shock, when P C or Pramathesh Barua left NT because of differences with B N Sircar. In the period of 1940 to 1950, one by one many people left NT. Most went to Bombay, in search of greener pastures.
There were 3 reasons. One, during the period 1946 and 1947, production at NT was almost Nil ( 1946-due to communal riots in Bengal and 1947- due to Partition blues), but NT had to pay salaries of their employees. In peak years, their salary bill alone amounted to about 45000 rupees every month. Secondly, one of their main markets for Bangla and Hindi films-East Bengal, had become another country-East Pakistan and they lost this market. Thirdly, the New Government imposed a heavy ‘Excess profit ‘Tax ‘ on successful companies like NT. This damaged them financially very much. Added to this,of course, B N Sircar failed to hold people together due to Ego problems, recognitions etc etc.
By 1950,according to Dilip Sircar-son of B N Sircar,” many people left, Finance was in disarray and we had many court cases slapped on us.” The result- B N Sircar closed the shop ! In 1954,NT was handed over to Arora Film company. Then in 1955, Deluxe Films took them over. In January-56, the company closed down officially and in August 56,a Receiver was appointed by the High Court. New Theatres went into Liquidation in March-62 and a Glorious Chapter came to a close for ever !
Even in the tumultuous and troubled final years,few Loyal artistes did not leave NT. Pankaj Mullick was one of them,who stayed with B N Sircar till the last,despite differences with him.Many others like Kidar Sharma, Kanan Devi, Uma Shashi, PC Barua, Nitin Bose, Debk Bose,Phani Muzumdar, Nabendu Ghosh, Bimal Roy, K N Singh, Prithviraj Kapoor, Kumar etc and above all, K L Saigal- the pride possession of NT, left, at different times. Most came down to Bombay.
But, you will notice that actors from this lot who came from Calcutta to Bombay, were all Non-Bangla people. From the very beginning, actors from Bengal or South, rarely came to make their acting careers. Those who came at all, majority of them were actresses, who were ready to learn Hindi to continue here or they had Non-Bangla backgrounds. For example- actress Smriti Biswas, though a Bengalee, grew up and started acting in Lahore.
There were 3 reasons why actors did not come to Bombay from Bengal or South…
1.Difficulty and reluctance in picking up Hindi language and coping up with Bombay culture.
2. King size Regional Pride and
3. Their own areas became big production centres and scope was available on familiar grounds.
Artistes from other disciplines like Direction, Music, Singing, Editing, Cinematography etc came here and prospered, but not actors, worth mentioning.
Film Ranee-43 was made as a Bilingual film in Bangla ( Chandaar Kalank) and Hindi. The MD was Kamal Dasgupta, Lyricist was Pt. Madhur and the cast was Jahar Ganguly, Kalavati, P C Barua, Jamuna, Patience Cooper, Vikram Kapoor (father of Meena Kapoor-singer and wife of Anil Biswas) and others. When I first heard this name “Jahar”, I was shocked, but then realised that this was a Bangla name. Obviously, its meaning must be something else,other than ” Poison”. I started searching on Google and at one place found that Jahar in Bangla means ” Gift of God “. My Bangali friend in Mumbai says it means ” Gem “.
Jahar Ganguly (October 1904 – 1969) was a Bengali film actor and theater personality. He received Best actor award in 6th Annual Bengal Film Journalists’ Association Awards in 1943 for his performance in Bandi.
Ganguly was born in undivided 24 Parganas Dist, British India. He worked in number of Bengali and Hindi films in 40s and 50s as a supporting actor in comedy counterparts to the dramatic lead. He got break through in Dena Paona directed by Premankur Atorthy. Ganguly acted under Satyajit Ray’s direction in Parash Pathar and Chiriyakhana. He also performed as stage actor until the 1960.
Information on actress Patience Cooper has not yet been given on our Blog. She was one of the 7 sisters, out of whom 3 sisters-Patience, Violet and Pearl worked in Hindi and Bangla films. Patience Cooper (1905–1993) was an Anglo-Indian from Calcutta. Cooper had a successful career in both silent and sound films. She was one of the early superstars of Bollywood. Cooper is credited with the first Female double roles of Indian cinema—as twin sisters in Patni Pratap and as mother and daughter in Kashmiri Sundari, even though earlier in 1917, actor Anna Salunke had played roles of both the male lead character Ram and the female lead character Seeta in the film Lanka Dahan.
Cooper began her career as a dancer in Brandmann’s Musical Comedy, a Eurasian troupe. She later joined Jamshedji Framji Madan’s Corinithian Stage Company as an actress. Cooper first made an impact with Nala Damayanti (1920). The film starred Keki Adajania as Nala and Cooper as Damayanti. The film was a big budget Madan Theatre production and was directed by Eugenio de Liguoro, known in Italy for his Orientalist spectacles like Fascino d’Oro (1919). Nala Damayanti was famous for its special effects at the time — Narada’s ascent of Mount Meru to heaven, the transformations of four gods into impersonations of Nala, the transformation of Kali into a serpent among others.
Her next film was Vishnu Avtar, released in 1921. De Liguoro also directed Dhruva Chartitra (1921), a mythological based on the legend of Dhruva whose quest for eternal knowledge and salvation was rewarded when he became the brightest star in the heavens, the pole star also known as Dhruvatara. The film was made as a bid for an international breakthrough for Madan Theatres and featured many Europeans in the cast along with Cooper who played the female lead, Suniti.
One of Cooper’s biggest successes was Pati Bhakti (1922). Cooper played Leelavati in the film, directed by the great JJ Madan himself, advocating that women should be devoted to their husband. The film is regarded as her greatest film and was also involved in a small controversy as in Madras, the censor demanded that a dance number be removed on the grounds of obscenity.
Cooper also played perhaps the first ever double roles in Hindi films — Patni Pratap (1923), where she played two sisters and Kashmiri Sundari (1924), where she played mother and daughter.
Cooper did films right through to the mid-1930s. One of her last major films was Zehari Saap (1933). The film was a typical Cooper vehicle about a medieval chieftain’s revolt against the good Nawab Bakar Malik. The nawab’s outlaw son vows revenge and finally all’s well that ends well. The dramatic conflict in the film sees the chieftain wanting to marry the princess, whom he had raised as his own daughter.
Cooper acted in over 40 films until she retired after performing in her last films, Iraada-44 and Khan Bahadur-46. Cooper was often cast in the role of a sexually troubled but innocent woman, always at the centre of moral dilemmas, often caused by the men in her lives.
A major aspect of Cooper’s star image was the successful achievement of the ‘Hollywood look’ in spite of different light and technical conditions. Her distinctively Anglo-Indian features, like dark eyes, sharp features, ebony hair and light skin tone, allowed technicians to experiment with the imported technique of eye-level lighting and achieve an appearance similar to Hollywood stars of the silent era.
The low number of women, especially Hindus, in the film industry during the 1920s (due to conservative attitudes) meant Anglo-Indian actresses like Cooper, were in demand. Her appearance in a string of successful films has led her to being called the first ever female Indian film star.
It is generally supposed Cooper married Mirza Ahmad Ispahani Saheb (MAH Ispahani), a well-known Indian businessman. In 1947, they migrated to Pakistan. Actually she was married to MAH Ispahani at the age of 21 and divorced soon after. She then married Gul Hamid Khan, one of the first early silent movie actors. He died six years later from Hodgkin’s Disease. She remained friends with MAH Ispahani till the end of her life. Cooper changed her name to Sabra Begum and lived the last of her days with her two adopted daughters Zeenat and Haleema in Karachi, Pakistan. Her foster daughter Syeda Nafees Rizvi lives in Houston, Texas, USA. She fostered and/or adopted 17 children during her lifetime. Cooper died in 1993. (adapted from wiki and upperstall, with thanks.)
After Partition in 1947, it did not take long for things to become normal in the Indian film industry. This was mainly because ready replacements were available in plenty to fill the vacancies caused by migration. As far as producers and financiers were concerned, almost all producers and film makers had arrived here from Lahore. It was actually Lahore which felt the absence of Film makers. Pakistan film Industry was somehow managed well by the experienced people who went from India and Pakistan enjoyed a ” GOLDEN AGE OF FILMS AND MUSIC ” from 1959 to 1977. Once the old generation retired, there was no second line to take over from them.
The film industry in Pakistan was never an organised one. Moreover the often changing Goverments did not bother to do anything to protect, sustain, help or develop the infrastructure of Film industry. Unlike India, there was neither a Films Division, nor was there anything like Film and Television Institute to build local artistes in different fields.
By 2010,the film industry in Pakistan was in such a poor shape that, against India’s film production of 13526 films in 2011, Pakistan had produced only 7 films in that year !
While Indian films were distributed in over 90 countries, there was no International market for Pakistan films.
All studios in Pakistan were in ruins and Theatres had been demolished.
Can you believe, In the entire Islamabad city, there is ONLY ONE Theatre-a multiplex of 4 screens ! (info from-Filmistan-Javed Shaikh 0n pk.politics.in dated 10-4-2014 )
We have heard songs composed by the Music Directors who migrated to Pakistan,i.e. West Pakistan. Today we will listen to a film song composed by a famous and talented composer of Hindi/Bangla films, who migrated to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). His name is KAMAL PRASANNA DASGUPTA or simply, Kamal Dasgupta ( 28-7-1912 to 20-7-1974.)
It is a moot point whether Kamal should be called a Film composer or a NFS composer in Hindi and Bangla. He can be called the Originator or the Pioneer, who established NFS during the period from 1935 to 1955. It was he who introduced the word ” Hindustani Song” for NFS on the 78 RPM records.
He gave music in 16 Hindi films like Jawab, Hospital, Rani, Meghdoot, Arabian Nights, Bindiya, Krishna Leela, Pehchan, Zameen Aasmaan, Faisla, Giribala, Manmaani, Chandrashekhar, Vijay yatra, Iran ki ek raat and Fulwari. However, except for Jawab and Hospital his songs did not become very popular. Kanan Devi became a National name after she sang “Ye duniya Toofan mail” in Jawab-42. He also gave music in 22 Bangla films.
He was not in good terms with his wife, Firoza Begum. In his final days, he contracted T.B. Finally he said Good-Bye to this world on 20-7-1974. The originator and populariser of NFS in India and a maker of memorable songs like “Toofan mail” left us forever-unsung !
Today’s song is the second song from this film. The story of this film was provided earlier by Sadanand Kamath ji, with the first song, so I am not repeating it here. The duet is sung by Anima Dasgupta (nee Sengupta…wife of Subal Dasgupta, MD) and an unidentified male. I liked this song .I hope you too will like it.
Song-Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali (Raanee)(1943) Singers- Kamal Dasgupta, Anima Dasgupta, Lyricist- Pt. Madhur, MD- Kamal Dasgupta
Lyrics
Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali
Sawan ne boondan ki jhalar daali
boondan ki jhaalar daali re ae
boondan ki jhaalar daali
Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali
daali ee
boondan ki jhaalar daali
jhaank jhaank kar dil ki duniya
dekh raha hoon aaj
armaanon ke sar pe rakkha hai khushiyon ka taaj
chhupi huyi hai iske andar
chhupi huyi hai iske andar
jeewan ki hariyaali ee
Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali
<em.Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali
arre papaiyya
zara bataa aa
kyun piyoo piyoo raha pukaar
kyun piyoo piyoo raha pukaar
gulshan mein kyun aayi
kyun aayi hai
saj dhaj kar nayi bahaar
sada ye saawan ki kyun aaye
man ko harne waali
Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali
ye jhaalar nahin hai
ye maikhaana
jiski boonden hain masti ka paimaana
pee pee kar dekho jhoom rahi hai
pee pee kar dekho jhoom rahi hai
aur ghata ye kaali kaali ee ee
Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali
Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
December 31, 2019 at 4:02 pm
audio
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