Kaahe door khadaa muskaaye
Posted by: Atul on: April 4, 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.
|
Blog Day : |
4278 | Post No. : | 15515 | Movie Count : |
4325 |
Today’s song is from film ‘Yaadgaar’ (1947). There were two more films with the same title made in 1970 and 1984. Today’s film was made by Hind Pictures, owned by actor, director and producer Nazir Ahmed Khan – also known to be the nth husband of actress Sitara Devi and actress Swarnalata. The film was directed by Nazir himself, who had also acted in it. The other cast was Jyoti, M Ismail, P Kailash, Agha, Tasneem, Cuckoo and many others. Tanvir Naqvi was the lyricist and music director was AR Qureshi.
I started writing on songs and films of yore, since almost end of 2012. Initially, my posts were based on information I had jotted down in my several diaries and notebooks. However, later I realised that I needed more information. After visiting some well known sites, I understood that either their information was incomplete or unreliable. So I decided to add more books to my existing library. At the same time research and thesis papers on old Hindi cinemas and related matters, articles in newspapers like The Hindu, Indian Express, Times of India, regional cine magazines in Hindi, Marathi, English and Telugu also came very handy. From the beginning, I made two rules. One, write only what can be defended, if challenged, and two, mention and thank the source if referred to, at the end of the post – if it is something special or unique.
Not only this, but I started preserving useful articles and bits of information on my laptop, divided into two different accounts. In few cases, I just jotted down the relevant URL details and description of type of information that it gives. By now their number has crossed almost 1000. Despite my age, I remember where is what information and I can put my hand on the required information in a few minutes. Sometimes, I find that there is no mention of any source for some information, as that is from an old book without author’s name. In the last 8 years, due to my extensive writings on this and other blogs and sites, I became known and friendly with many like minded scholars and writers. My library started bulging and friendly authors sent copies of their books as gifts to me.
This made my resources rich and luckily I have a knack of picking up the right information from the crowd of my resources at my disposal. Likewise, knowledgeable personalities like Harish Raghuwanshi ji, Rajnikumar Pandya ji, Biren Kothari ji, Shishir Krishna Sharma ji, Yasir Abbasi ji, Harmandir ji, Sanjit Narvekar ji, Amrit Gangar ji and many others on Facebook groups like MN Sardana ji etc help me from time to time. These names are only as examples, but there are many more actually. All this and friendly pressures led me to go for publishing my first book in 2018.
While writing more that 850 articles on old films and related matters, I concentrated only on the prose side of films, i.e. writing mainly about persons involved in films and not so much on the poetry side, i.e. music and songs. However, they can not be separated easily, so while emphasis was on people, but music and song too was base of my writing articles.
During these years, I have come across few personalities in films, who devoted half of their time on films, but achieved peaks in totally different fields too. Such cases are not many, but such people must get highlighted. Some people first shine in other fields and then come to films, but leaving this alluring magic of film life after a successful stint and then following a different life is surely worth praise.
Off hand, I can name a few such persons. One is Shashi Kapoor Sr. He worked as a very successful child artiste in 21 films from 1944 to 1955. While still in great demand, he left films and continued education. He did MSc and LLB here in India, and PhD in USA. He worked as a Professor of Maths in Michigan University for many years. Retired in 1997 and now lives in USA. Another person was SD Batish. After singing 115 songs in 70 films and giving music in 20 films, composing 154 songs, he left films, went to USA. He wrote many books on music and started a music institute to teach hundreds of students.
Similarly, singer Laxmi Shankar sang 27 songs in 18 films, shifted to USA and started a music school. She won many awards there. Lyricist Moti, BA (who was actually an MA) left films after writing 60 songs in 18 films, still in great demand, left films, went to his village in UP and taught in a College.
Ashraf Khan’s case is unique. After a successful career in Hindi films, he left everything and became a Sufi saint. His dargah is situated on Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway, where every year an Urs is held, to which many artistes from Bollywood go.
Similarly music director GA Chishti aka Babaji, became a faqir after leaving films. Actress of the 1940s, Renuka Devi migrated to Pakistan. She left films and became a social worker for women’s uplift and education in Pakistan. She worked for this, on Radio and TV of Pakistan for 20 years. She also wrote her autobiography,’A Woman of Substance’, which was published by her daughter after Renuka’s death.
Lastly Mukund Rai Trivedi aka Roy of the Roy-Frank pair who gave music to film ‘Gogola’ (1966), left films and returned to family business of mining in MP. He became a billionaire and later an MP in Lok Sabha.
The reason for remembering all this is because the music director of today’s film is AR Qureshi, who too is one who left films after giving music to 42 films, from 1943 to 1958, and became an internationally recognised tabla maestro, winning several awards. Just read his biodata. . .
Ustad Allah Rakha, born as Allah Rakha Khan Qureshi, was born in Jammu and Kashmir on 29-4-1919. He was an Indian tabla player, who popularised the art of tabla playing all over the world. Allah Rakha was born to a soldier, who later returned from the army and worked as a farmer after that to earn his bread and butter. Being the eldest of seven sons, his father did not expect him to learn music and opposed his idea of learning classical music.
Ustad Allah Rakha, as a young boy of 12 years, found the instrument fascinating while visiting his uncle in Gurdaspur. His inclination towards Indian classical music and the performing arts made him run away to Lahore for further learning, as he found little scope of learning the art-form in his home-town. Allah Rakha studied at the Punjab school of classical music (gharana) where he became a student of Ustad Mian Khadarbaksh Pakhawaji (Mian Quader Bakshi). He trained to be a singer under Ustad Ashiq Hussain.
Allah Rakha was also associated with theater as he lived in Pathankot for sometime and worked for a theater company. In 1930, Allah Rakha worked at the radio station in Lahore. According to reports, he moved to Delhi after six years, in 1936, to work with All India Radio. In 1940, he moved to Bombay and worked with Pandit Ravi Shankar and again on All India Radio. He was the station’s first ever tabla solo player then.
After which he even composed music for 42 Hindi films from 1943 to 1958. His first film as a MD was ‘Mahasati Anusuya’ (1943) and the last released film was ‘Idd Ka Chaand’ (1964). He even sang 14 songs in 7 films between 1942 to 1949. He worked mostly in films made by Hind Pictures, Magnet Films, Sunrise Films and Mohan Studios of Dave brothers. Barring 1 or 2 films like ‘Bewafa’ (1952), he got only C grade stunt films or Muslim ibaadati films. He gave music in 3 Punjabi Films ‘Madari’ (1950), ‘Fumman’ (1951), and ‘Jagga’ (1964). He gave background music in ‘Pyar Ki Baatein’ (1951). He acted in ‘Aabida’ (1947). Uma Devi (Tuntun) first sang in ‘Wamiq Azra’ (1946) under AR Qureshi.
Ustad Allah Rakha had established the Alla Rakha Institute of Music in Bombay in 1986 and imparted his knowledge of the instrument to all his disciples in the institute. Allah Rakha and sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar brought classical Hindustani music to Western audiences as well. He was honoured with the Padma Shri Award by the Government of India in 1977 for his contributions to elevate the reach of tabla playing as an art form across the globe. Later on, Sangeet Natak Akademi also honoured him.
Ustad Allah Rakha and sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar brought classical Hindustani music to Western audiences as well. Their partnership reached legendary heights with performances at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and the Woodstock Festival in 1969. The two performed together in a lot many festivals and elevated the respect and popularity of tabla playing as an art form. Other than Pandit Ravi Shankar, he also worked with renowned Kathak dancers like Sitara Devi and Birju Maharaj.
Ustad Allah Rakha found fans not only in India but abroad as well. Reportedly, American percussionist, the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, was his huge fan. Hart always tried to learn from him even from single visits that Ustad used to make to his country. Hart was also quoted saying, “Alla Rakha is the Einstein, the Picasso; he is the highest form of rhythmic development on this planet.”
Other than the Grateful Dead drummer, Mickey Hart, Ustad Allah Rakha inspired George Harrison from The Beatles as well. Both of them performed together for a concert for Bangladesh in 1971. Mickey Hart also collaborated with him for the famous album ‘Rolling Thunder’ in 1972. The picture we have here is of Hell’s Angels member Terry The Tramp with tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha as they were set to perform together at the Monterey International Pop Festival, June 17th, 1967. He had collaborated with many prominent rock groups.
While Ustad used to generally team up with Pandit Ravi Shankar for his performances, he once collaborated with jazz drummer Buddy Rich for an album, ‘Rich à la Rakha’ in 1968. Some of his greatest works have been in the form of albums Improvisations – ‘West Meets East – Album 3’ (with Ravi Shankar, Yehudi Menuhin, Jean Pierre Rampel, Martine Gelliot), (on Angel records) (1976), ‘Master Drummers’ with Zakir Hussain (1991), ‘Tabla Duet, Chhanda Dhara’ (1994), ‘Ultimate in Taal-vidya’, (Magnasound/OMI) (1996).
Ustad Allah Rakha had married twice. He was first married to Bavi Begum and had three sons, Zakir Hussain, Fazal Qureshi and Taufiq Qureshi and two daughters Khurshid Aulia née Qureshi and Razia. Razia served him in his later years and was like a constant companion to her father. She died after a routine cataract surgery and Allah Rakha could not cope with the shock of her death and immediately slipped into a coma and passed away within 24 hours on 3-2-2000. Zakir Hussain is one of the most renowned tabla players of India.
Allah Rakha’s son Zakir Hussain grew up to be another legend in the country. Zakir Hussain has also been honoured with the Padma Shri in 1988 and the Padma Bhushan in 2002, by the Government of India. The honour that was bestowed upon his father by the Sangeet Natak Akademi came to him as well in 1990. Hussain has been working in films and on albums in India as well as abroad. Hussain owes his career to his father, who had made sure that he remained focused on this art-form.
Today’s song is sung by AR Qureshi himself. No information is available on this film. With this song, film ‘Yaadgaar’ of 1947, makes its debut on the Blog.
(Thanks to Harish Raghuwanshi ji for information on AR Qureshi, some time back)
Song-Kaahe door khada muskaaye (Yaadgaar)(1947) Singer- Alla Rakha Qureshi, Lyricist- Tanvir Naqvi, MD- AR Qureshi
Lyrics
kaahe door khada muskaaye
kaahe door khada muskaaye ae
kaliyon mein sharmaane waale
kaliyon mein sharmaane waale
phoolon ko mahkaane waale
phoolon ko mahkaane waale
kis kaaran ye phool tumhaare
kis kaaran ye phool tumhaare
bina khile murjhaaye
kaahe door khada muskaaye
door khada muskaaye
kaahe door khada muskaaye
kuchh kah le kuchh sun le daata
kuchh kah le kuchh sun le daata
hamre bahre goonge daata
hamre bahre goonge daata
jag mein tere baalak tadpen
jag mein tere baalak tadpen
tujh ko daya na aaye
kaahe tujh ko daya na aaye
kaahe ae ae
Share this:
- Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
- Share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
- Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
- Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
- Print (Opens in new window) Print
- Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
- Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
- Share on X (Opens in new window) X
Related
6 Responses to "Kaahe door khadaa muskaaye"
April 4, 2020 at 9:08 am
To praise the article will be like showing light to the SUN. Simply superb and informative.
LikeLike
April 4, 2020 at 10:47 am
Manohar Lal Dave ji,
Very kind of you to say so, but this is a bit exaggerated simile, I feel.
-AD
LikeLike
April 5, 2020 at 9:01 am
I was compelled to express my feelings by the article although I had not expressed my feelings for quite a long time – I tend to read your all postings.The tree laden with fruits always bends low. It is my feeling.
LikeLike
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
April 4, 2020 at 6:55 am
Dear Guru ji,
One keeps all your Articles in a separate Box within the Inbox of G-Mail. But this one deserves to be reprinted, laminated, framed and hung up on the wall. Admirers like me are hungry to know more about you than about the people you write about. What makes you tick?
Pl do include Autobiographical sketches in your future write-ups.
With sincere best wishes for a long, healthy and happy life.
Warmest regards
PARTHA CHANDA
LikeLiked by 2 people
April 4, 2020 at 10:44 am
Partha Chanda ji,
Thanks for your encouraging comments, but I doubt if i deserve this. It is always my endeavour to make the posts interesting to read and informative, yet be not too long.
AB sketches are for great people, which I certainly am not.
-AD
LikeLike