Tu ban ka raaja tu ban ki raani
Posted on: April 7, 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 an old film Baaghi-1939. Same title films were also made in 1953, 1964, 1990 and 2000. In addition the word Baaghi was used as a prefix in few more films, like Baaghi Aurat-2000 or Baaghi Sipahi-36 etc .
Today’s film was made by Vishnu Cinetone and it was directed by the banner’s owner Dhirubhai Desai, a veteran in Costume and other C grade films. The film had other names like ‘ Bandkhor (बंडखोर )’ and ‘Sarfarosh’. This double or treble name system was prevalent in film industry since the Silent films. For silent films such multiple names were justified and necessary, because silent films ran in different language regions. So, for the benefit of local audience, these films were advertised in different names. Somehow this system continued even after Talkie films started, though its utility had diminished when films had dialogues and were shown all over the country, but still, one finds that this trend continued. Nowadays, I find that almost every film has an indicative Tag line.
In the Hindi film industry,there are 4 types of people.
The first type is of those people,who join this industry,struggle very hard and succeed in fulfilling their dreams,for example Guru Dutt, Mehboob, Johnny Walker, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohd.Rafi etc. who are well known to all by now.
The second type of people are those who join the industry,struggle very hard ,do not succeed and leave dejected.
The third type is those people who have a filmi connection or a strong luck,who join,struggle a bit and succeed, like for example,Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip kumar, Rakesh and Rajesh Roshan, Anand Milind, Nanda, Nargis, Meena Kumari etc.
And….. the fourth type is those people who join the industry, struggle very hard and succeed partly, but end up doing something else,to keep them sustaining here.
The industry is full of people of the 4th type. People who come with dreams in their eyes, but end up doing something else. People who start as a Hero in 2-3 films,settle for side roles and finally character roles, like Dev Kumar, Sujit Kumar, Jeevan etc.
Not only this but we have examples where they started with something else and ended with a totally different thing and succeeded.For Example,Guru Dutt started as a Choreographer/dance Director (Lakharani-45) and ended up Actor/Director, Ashok kumar started as a Lab Technician in photography but became a great actor and Amiya Chakravarty who started as a Canteen Manager in Bombay Talkies,for which, later, he directed finest movies. Kanhaiyalal and Mirza Musharraf came here to become Lyricist, but ended as Comedians.
All such cases do not end happily. In most cases, the artiste has to make compromise with his fate. One such artiste was Music Director Jimmy, who came to films to make a career as a singer. He did not succeed as a singer, but having settled for a career of a Composer, here too he was not much successful. Today’s duet is sung by him.
Composer Jimmy 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 sikh 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. For singing,he used the name James Singh and as a Music Director he used Jimmy. (Like Chitalkar and C Ramchandra) .
The cast of film Baaghi-39 was Mehtab, Shamim, Amirbai karnataki (who sang as Amir jan), Anwari, Anil kumar (real name Sardar Gul), Ashraf Khan, Master Shiraz and many others. Actress Anwari, who acted in this film , was from a Tawayaf family of Lucknow. She started her acting career with film Heer Ranjha-32 opposite Rafiq Ghaznavi and then she acted in film Pooran Bhagat-1932, along with K L Saigal. She did the role of Rani Uchharan.
She joined East India Film co. and worked in films like Aurat ka pyar-33, Night Bird-34, Nagin-34 and Mumtaz Begum-34. She had also acted in another NT film Chandidas-34. She shifted her base to Bombay and worked in several films for next four decades. Her last film was Chaitali-1975. In all she did 140 films. She was known as ‘ Pride of Lucknow’ during her peak period. She was credited variously as Anwari Begum, Anwari, and Anwari bai.
Actress Anwari was the second wife of Rafiq Ghaznavi with whom she had a daughter, Zarina. Later, Zarina changed her name to Nasreen and worked in director A.R. Kardar’s movie, ‘Shah Jehan’ and Daud Chand’s movie, ‘Aik Roaz.’ Later Zarina married Liaqat Gul Agha, a rich Jeweller of Pakistan and they settled in London. She became Zarina Agha. Further, Zarina Agha’s daughter, Salma Agha, achieved great name and fame as a singing star. She expired somewhere in early 80s.
Anwari and Rafiq Ghaznavi were divorced (or separated) after Zarina/Nasreen’s birth, and Anwari then married a rich Hindu businessman named Jugal Kishore Mehra ( Maternal uncle-Mama- of Raj Kapoor). In order to marry Anwari, Jugal Kishore Mehra abandoned not only his family but also his religion; he became a Muslim and took the name Ahmed Salman. Since Anwari had a child, Jugal Kishore Mehra effectively became the father of the infant Zarina/Nasreen.
The most interesting name in the cast is that of Master Shiraz. He was one of the most popular and very famous Heros in the silent era. Like many others, when the Talkie era began, he too was relegated to the background and with great difficulty could get character roles in films. His first Talkie film was Mast Faqir-1934. He sang one song each in 2 films- Baghdad ka chor-34 and Chalta Purja-34. He continued doing roles in films.
During his good times, he had learnt the art of Massaging, as a Hobby and this became his last straw for survival. When film roles were not available, he used to roam about with his kit and do Massaging to earn a living. After doing about 26 films, till Naiya-47, he stopped getting credited in the cast. Now he worked as an extra.
He was last seen in film Guddi-1971- doing massage to Omprakash in one scene. In that film, Dharmendra tells Jaya Bhaduri (Guddi) that Master Shiraj was a star in silent film era. Director Hrishikesh Mukherjee ensured that Shiraj got his name in the film credits of Guddi-71.
Master Shiraj was just one of those unfortunate film artistes who spent their end-time in a very pathetic manner. Some other examples are- actor/singer Parshuram- died on road as a beggar, Singer Vatsala Kumthekar- died on road as a mad beggar,Wasti was seen begging near Liberty cinema and Rattanbai was seen begging near Haji Ali. There are many more such stories. The world of films is the most unpredictable and unless the artiste is wise to secure his future, there is no light at the end of the tunnel !
Today’s song is sung by Shamim and James Singh. The song is composed by Shanti Kumar Desai and is of average quality, but it has special importance as it is sung by James Singh, whose songs are not available much. With this song, film Baaghi -39 makes its Debut on the Blog.
( information used in this article is culled from various sources like Encyclopedia of Indian Films, Film Directory-46, The Lost Treasure by Kamlakar Pasupuleti, our beloved Pakistan by Anis Shukur, HFGK and my notes. Thanks to all)
Song-Tu Ban ka Raja tu ban ki raani (Baaghi)(1939) Singers- Shamim, James Singh, Lyricist- Gaurishankar Lal ‘Akhtar’, MD- Shanti Kumar Desai
Both
Lyrics
Tu ban ka Raja
tu ban ki Raani
Tu ban ka Raja
megha banke garje chaaron oar re
tu ban ki Raani
bijri ban ker chamke chaaron oar re
Tu ban ka Raja
megha banke garje chaaron oar re
tu ban ki Raani
bijri ban ker chamke chaaron oar re
main kaise tumhen rijhaaun
aur kya kya ban kar aaun
main kaise tumhen rijhaaun
aur kya kya ban kar aaun
main saagar ban kar dhoom dhaam se
chaaron taraf lahraaun
main sarita bankar us saagar ki dhaar se dhaar milaaun
main saagar ban kar dhoom dhaam se
chaaron taraf lahraaun
main sarita bankar us saagar ki dhaar se dhaar milaaun
main baadal ban ka
jhoom jhoom kar swaati jal barsaaun
main papeeha ban kar wo jal dhaara
pee ke amar ho jaaun
main baadal ban ka
jhoom jhoom kar swaati jal barsaaun
main papeeha ban kar wo jal dhaara
pee ke amar ho jaaun
ho ban ka raaja
ban ki raani
ham hain ban ke
raaja raani
ham hain ban ke raaja raani
5 Responses to "Tu ban ka raaja tu ban ki raani"
April 12, 2020 at 4:18 pm
Arun Ji,
Thanks for the post.It was interesting to note that , especially in silent era, many films had multiple titles, to appeal to different regions where it was exhibited. I also noted that some succeeded not where they started off, but where they shifted focus to. I did not know Amiya Chakravarty who made some nicest movies ( Patita, Seema,Badshah), was a canteen manager ( entirely different sphere) !
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April 12, 2020 at 9:33 pm
Dear Satish ji,
Thanks for your comment. I am happy that you found this post interesting.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
April 7, 2020 at 7:13 am
Dear Guru ji,
Just one question. We’ve read that VINEETA BHATT (aka Yasmin) of
Mr & Mrs 55 fame had married a Jimmy and left the industry. Was it this Jimmy, the Music Director?
As most of us know, SALMA AGHA has been granted permanent resident status in India and now lives in Bombay to promote her daughter SASHA’s singing career.
With warm. regards
PARTHA CHANDA
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April 7, 2020 at 12:36 pm
Oh, no.
He was Jimmy Vining, a make up artiste.
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