Lala Lala Gulle Lala
Posted on: January 27, 2020
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 film Indrasabha-56.
From the title of the film, one can conclude easily that this was based on a Mythological story. However, it was not so. It was a remake of the film Indrasabha-1932, made by Madan Theatres, Calcutta. That film had Master Nissar and Jahanara Kajjan in the lead. That film had a world record of having the maximum songs-69 songs- details of which are given in the HFGK Volume-I. (It was suggested in the HFGK that there were 2 more songs also in the film, thus making a total of 71 songs).
The film was based on an Urdu play “Inder sabha, written by Syed Agfha Hasan “Amanat Lakhnavi” ( 1815-1859). This was probably the second play on imaginary story involving Mythological characters. The first one was Vishakha Datt’s play ” Mudra Rakshas “, written somewhere in the 9th century. Amanat’s play was written in 1853 and was first performed on stage in Lucknow in 1854. The original play had 46 songs, consisting of 8 geets of folk genres, 8 thumaries and 30 Gazals. When I was searching for information on the story or review of this film. I came across an article in http://www.bihartimes.com, from which I quote the relevant portion…
” “Indar Sabha” draws from both the rich tapestry of Persian dastans/masnavis and folklore as well as Hindu mythology. But it goes much further – amalgamating the strands of Urdu literary tradition, North Indian nautanki (folk theatre), Hindu devotional theatre/dance (Ram Lila, Ras Lila), classical Sanskrit drama and Wajid Ali Shah’s court pageants, contends Afroz Taj, professor of South Asian Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In fact, Prof Taj has translated and extensively analysed the work in “The Court of Indar and the Rebirth of North Indian Drama” (Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (Hind), 2007).
The story is that Indar (Hindu celestial king Indra) organises a concert for his court. His court dancers, the Pukhraj (Yellow/Topaz), Nilam (Blue/Sapphire), and Lal (Red/Ruby) Paris (fairies) dance and sing for him in a variety of styles. Amanat showcases his craft here with their songs corresponding to their colour motif – the Pukhraj Pari presents basant songs, Nilam mentions blue flowers and jewels, and Lal Pari incorporates the red of the twilight, gems and blood in her lyrics.
When it is the Sabz (Green) Pari’s turn, Indar falls asleep. She storms out and meets an old friend, the Kala Dev (dev here not the gods of the Indian mythology, but demons of Persian folklore) and confides she saw a sleeping human prince on her way and fell in love with him. She orders him to bring him before her and he complies.
Awoken to see a beautiful woman confessing she is in love with him, Prince Gulfam of Akhtarnagar (an obvious reference to Lucknow of Wajid Ali Shah “Akhtar”) is confused and then angry at being abducted. Learning he is at Indar’s fabled court, he is now most keen to see its legendary dancers. The Sabz Pari warns him of the peril but he is adamant and threatens to commit suicide. She gives in and smuggles him in before resuming her performance. Unfortunately, Gulfam is discovered and a furious Indar orders he be imprisoned in a deep well in the Koh-i-Kaf (Caucasus).
The Sabz Pari, herself humiliated and cast out of the court, wanders through fairyland in the guise of a “jogan (female hermit)” in search of the prince. Reports of a new singing talent reaches Indar, who summons her for a performance. He is moved so much that he offers to give her her heart’s desire – and it is hard not to guess what she wants – and gets.
Encapsulating the refined aestheticism of Wajid Ali Shah’s reign, the play, surviving British annexation of Nawabi Awadh and the horrors of 1857-59, got a new lease of life as it was taken up and performed by theatre companies, mostly Parsi troupes, all over British India. It was first performed in Bombay in 1864, hit Lahore and Calcutta in 1875, and overseas – Singapore (1913) and Rangoon (1927). And it was these Parsi troupes that eventually formed the nucleus of the Hindustani film industry.
Amanat’s play is significant in other respects too. Not only is it a linguistic kaleidoscope with ghazals in polished Urdu and folk songs in Awadhi/Braj, but it also reflects the composite multicultural ethos – by conscious mixing of Hindu and Muslim cultural traditions or featuring Persian/Urdu words in a Braj lyric and vice versa.”
Film ‘Indrasabha’-56 was directed by a veteran of such films – Nanubhai Vakil. He was one of the highly educated persons of those times (B.A.LL.B), who joined films in the silent era and successfully continued into the Talkie era till the 70’s decade. The film was made under the banner of Shah Pictures, and the producer was its owner Ramniklal Shah (husband of actress Indurani- a heroine in the 30’s decade) The MD was A R Qureshi aka Tabla Maestro Alla Rakha. His assistant for this film was Damodar Sharma – himself a Music Director of the early Talkie films. The cast of the film was, Chitra, Daljit, Heeralal, Ameeta, W M Khan, Al Nasir (husband of actress Veena), Sadiq, Rajan Haksar, Ranjana Shukla and many others.
How many names a person can have ? 2 – 3 – 4 ? Film actress Ameeta had 5 names. She was born Qamar Sultana. Her mother called her Indira, friends called her Indu, In film Thokar-53, she appeared as Jai jaiwanti and finally she was named Ameeta by Vijay Bhatt. Total 5 names. Ameeta was born on 11-4-1940 to Riaz Ahmed and Shakuntala Devi , in Calcutta. After her father’s death, they shifted to Bombay.
She started acting in Kaafila-52, Anmol Sahara-52 and Thokar-53. In 1953, she became Heroine of film ” Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu”, for which she got the name Ameeta. The film was a flop. After roles in popular films like Munimji-55 and Hum sab chor hain-56 she was selected as a lead actress, opposite Shammi Kapoor in film “Tumsa nahin dekha”-57. The film was a great Hit and she became a Star !
Though she acted in some good films like Dekh kabeera Roya-57 and Goonj uthi Shehnai-59 etc, she remained all the time a B grade Heroine. Till her last film Kisan aur Bhagwan-74, she acted in 47 films and then she left films. Her mother died soon after. Her daughter Sabeeha acted in few films, but shifted to a more successful business of Jewellery designing. (adapted,with thanks, from the book ” Beete hue din” by Shishir Krishna Sharma ji).
One more interesting name in the cast is Ranjana Shukla. Once upon a time, she was the Heroine of Dilip Kumar in film ” Milan”-46, made by Bombay Talkies, now relegated to ordinary roles in films.
Ranjana’s real name was Ratan Shantaram Deshpande. She was born in Nagpur on 20-10-1927. While studying in St. Ursula High School, she learnt dancing and music from well known ustads. After passing her 6th standard examination, she came to Bombay to her elder sister, Kusum Deshpande, who was already working as actress with Minerva Movietone films. Kusum married Vasant Thengadi, a handsome actor in Hindi films of those times.
Kusum arranged for specialised dancing for Ratan in the holidays. Later Ratan was taken to Vijay Bhatt of Prakash pictures for an interview. She was immediately selected and got a role in the famous film Ramrajya-1943. In this film she was Chitralekha, Sita’s sakhi. Vijay Bhatt also changed her name to Ranjana. She was on pay roles of Prakash for Rs. 2000 pm. She acted in films like police-44, Vikramaditya-45 and Hamara Sansar-45. Next films were Nai Maa-46 and Zamin Asman-46.
Ranjana was called by Bombay Talkies to do Heroine’s role opposite Dilip kumar in film Milan-46. This film was based on Bangla film Nauka Doobi written by Tagore. She did the role of Hem Nalini in this film’s Hindi version. The same role was done by Meera Sircar in the Bangla film Nauka Doobi.
After this film, Ranjana was in great demand, but she wanted to quit films and get married to live a simple life. She married a young and handsome writer Arvind Shukla. But after few months he fell sick and there was no income. So, she had to continue working in films till 1975. She also worked in many Marathi films. In all, she worked in about 35 films or so. Ranjana worked with many big stars of her times like, Prem Adeeb, Prithviraj Kapoor, Jairaj, Dilip Kumar, Jeevan, Umakant etc etc
It is interesting to note that her sister and her brother in law acted with her in few films. Some such films were Zamin Asman-46 and Shadi se pehle-47. In film Saajan ka Ghar-48 all three had worked together. We have many families like this in Hindi films. I remember Zubeida and her mother and sisters, Sitara Devi and her 2 sisters, Nargis,her mother and brothers, Kapoor family, Dilip kumar, his brother and sister in law, many film couples and families of several film people are examples. Ranjana was perhaps one early example. Thank God, this Ranjana was not around when yet another Ranjana came to Hindi films. She was Ranjana Deshmukh, niece of actress Sandhya(nee Vijaya Deshmukh). This Ranjana, however , worked mainly in Marathi films and did only 4 Hindi films starting with the famous film Chaani-77. Unfortunately, she first met with an accident and then died of Heart attack at the age of just 40 years or so.
Today’s song is sung by Asha, Geeta and chorus. The lyrics are by Shevan Rizvi. This is the 3rd song from this film to appear here.
Song-Laala laala Gulle laala pyaar kare hai kismetwaala (Indrasabha)(1956) Singers- Asha Bhonsle, Geeta Dutt, Lyricist- Shevan Rizvi, MD- A R Qureshi
Asha Bhonsle + Geeta Dutt + Chorus
Lyrics
Laala Laala Gulle laala
Laala Laala Gulle laala
pyaar kare hai kismat waala
pyaar kare hai kismat waala
Laala Laala Gulle laala
jisne kiya na pyaar
ho jisne kiya na pyaar
uska jeena hai bekaar
uska jeena hai bekaar
Laala Laala Gulle laala
Laala Laala Gulle laala
pyaar kare hai kismat waala
pyaar kare hai kismat waala
Laala Laala Gulle laala
agar koi haseen qaatil
jo kabhi maange tumse dil
ajab se kehna lotar(?) ka
ajab se kehna lotar (?) ka
shaida tum par har dil waala
lalar lala lallar lalla
Laala Laala Gulle laala
Laala Laala Gulle laala
pyaar kare hai kismat waala
pyaar kare hai kismat waala
Laala Laala Gulle laala
ke jab tak ?? na karna
ham kahaan phir tum kahaan phir hum
ke jab tak ?? na karna
ham kahaan phir tum kahaan phir hum
ye mausam aaye na har baar
ye mausam aaye na har baar
rang hai sab ka udne waala
Laala Laala Gulle laala
Laala Laala Gulle laala
pyaar kare hai kismat waala
pyaar kare hai kismat waala
Laala Laala Gulle laala
haseenon ke ishaaron par
lutaa do din jhukaa do sar
haseenon ke ishaaron par
lutaa do din jhukaa do sar
warna jeena hi bekaar
warna jeena hi bekaar
pyaar ki duniya Gulle laala
Laala Laala Gulle laala
Laala Laala Gulle laala
pyaar kare hai kismat waala
pyaar kare hai kismat waala
Laaala Laaala
3 Responses to "Lala Lala Gulle Lala"
January 29, 2020 at 6:46 pm
Wow! Lovely info about Ranjana & Indrasabha!
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
January 27, 2020 at 9:21 pm
Thanks for a nice lively old song.
Missing words as I hear them are,
‘Adab se kahna lo sarkar’ and
‘ki jab tak dum, na karna gham’.
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