Badli hawaa luti bahaar
Posted on: June 24, 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 the film Ismat-1944 – a Muslim Social film made by Fazli brothers. This film was directed by the younger brother Sibtain Fazli, making his Debut as a Director. This was the second film of Fazli brothers to be made in Bombay, after the earlier film Fashion-43 also made in Bombay. Prior to that, they began their film making from Calcutta. This was to avoid the possible hindrance from the Muslim fundamentalists in Bombay, who were against making films depicting Muslim social life. Their first such film was Qaidi-40, made at Calcutta. It was followed by Masoom-41 and Chauranghee-42-all at Calcutta. Then they shifted to Bombay.
Films with the Muslim background of Muslim Culture were quite common in India, right from the First ever Hindi Talkie, “Aalam Ara”-31. Not just Social but different Genres like Arabian Night stories,Historical Romance, Folk Tales, Adventure Tales, Religious stories, Common King and Queen stories, Costume dramas etc had Muslim backgrounds. Indian public audiences watched these films with interest and without any bias.
If you see the film production patterns, You will realise that the biggest film companies all over India also followed the pattern of making initial films with Muslim background. Take for example the very first year of talkie films. Out of 24 films made, 7 films were on Muslim background. After Aalam Ara, there was Abul Hasan, Shirin Farhad, Laila Majnu, Noorjehan etc in 1931. Prabhat film company made Ayodhya ka Raja in 1932, but same year, next film was Jalti Nishani-32, a Pseudo-Historical Muslim background movie.
In Calcutta, New Theatres made their first 3 Talkie films in Hindi on Muslim subjects. Mohabbat ke aansoo-a household story, Subah ka sitara-a Folk Tale and Zinda Laash- an Arabian Night story. In the 30s and 40s, most stunt and costume films were on Muslim cultures.
In the initial era, the Talkie films were dependent on Parsi Urdu and Gujarati theatre stories. Before films appeared in India, the main channel of entertainment was stage dramas. Theatres were active and popular mainly in Maharashtra, Bengal and Andhra. The regional drama companies used to have mostly Mythological topics for their dramas. They also used to tour quite a lot. But their sphere of activities was limited to their language areas. Marathi drama companies toured only in Maharashtra towns or where there was a sizable Marathi population, like Baroda, Gwalior or Indore etc. So, their audiences were limited.
Similarly, Bengal and Andhra drama companies also toured where Bangla or Telugu population was the main audience. It was only the Parsee Theatre companies, Alfred, Elphinston etc etc, which toured all over the country, performing their Urdu dramas. Many times these companies used to take whole special trains to travel with artistes and material. This earned them All India acceptance of Muslim themes, which translated into the films that were made initially. In this endeavour, major contribution was from drama writers like Agha Hashra kashmiri, Syed Yavar Ali, Munshi Nazir, Betab, kathawachak, Bekal, Ehsaan etc etc.
Some early Talkie films on Muslim subjects were, Naksh e Sulemani-33, Bahar e Sulemani-35, Naadira-34, Farz e ada-35, Mumtaz Begum-34, Rashida-35 (First Muslim Social film), Noor e yaman-35, Qismat ka shikar-34, Adil e Jahangir-34, Anarkali-35, Jahan Ara-35, Shamsheer e Arab-35 and many more.
Fazli Brothers were the pioneers in making Muslim Social films from 1940 onwards. They felt that due to certain shortcomings in Muslim community, their development is suppressed. Their attempt was to highlight these points like Lack of education, for example, in their films in the garb of entertainment. Filmmakers like the great Mehboob Khan too were keen on such films, because he earnestly wanted to help his community to improve their status in Indian society.
That is why he opted for a Muslim Social theme for his Firtst movie under his own banner,” Mehboob productions”. The film was ‘ Najma-43″. Mehboob featured A grade actors like Veena, Sitara, Ashok kumar, Kumar, Yaqub, Majid and others for his first film. Later on he made yet another Muslim social film,” Elaan”-47 which was much bolder and he expected some opposition from the Muslim Fundamentalists. That is why he had warned his actors – especially Munawwar Sultana- to be ready for any repercussions from their own people, after the film was released. He gave an option to her to quit the film for safety, but she showed total faith in him and stuck to her role in the film.
Film Ismat-44 ( the Google meaning of this word is Chastity or Modesty) was made by Fazli brothers on all this background. By now, with the experience of 4 such films behind them, they had captured the technique of making films with subtle messages to their community. In this film, the darker side of the Western Culture, particularly Divorce and Separation, was highlighted.
The story of the film was – Aslam (Nandrekar) and Ismat (Nargis) get married. They both are from good traditional Muslim families. Same day Shafi Anwar (Ghori) and Ishrat (Mehtab) too get married Both had tasted western culture and follow it merrily. in due course of time, the Eastern culture (Aslam/Ismat) couple is happy, but Western Culture couple (Anwar/Ishrat) can’t adjust or compromise and are divorced. Ishrat joins a Theatre company as a Dancer at a very good salary. Soon she becomes rich and famous.
Aslam goes to Bombay to look for a job and meets with an accident with Ishrat’s car. She takes him to her home and looks after him. In this accident, Aslam loses his memory and forgets about Ismat. One day Ismat and her brother see his photo with Ishrat in a newspaper. They learn everything about his accident and loss of memory etc.
Ismat goes to Bombay and works as a maid in Ishrat’s house. She tries to remind Aslam about his past, step by step. One day Ishrat discovers this and removes Ismat from the job. Dejected, Ismat sits down for nonstop prayer. After some time, due to its power, there is a storm, lightning and thunder. In this period, Aslam is affected and suddenly his memory comes back. He escapes from Ishrat’s home and returns to Ismat. Both get happily united again and Eatern Culture wins over Western Culture.
The Hero of this film was B. Nandrekar, whose name may not ring any bells in new generation readers. Many actors-males and females- shifted from silent films to Talkie films easily as they knew Urdu/Hindi language fluently. There was an actor who easily transitioned from silent films to talkie films. This was B Nandrekar or Baba Saheb Dada saheb Nandrekar.
Nandrekar was one of the very few really handsome actors Hindi films ever had. He was born on 15th November 1910, in Sangli district of Maharashtra, near Kolhapur. Being a Muslim, he could speak Urdu/Hindi fluently. He completed his schooling from Kolhapur and joined films. Vishnupant Damle (one of the founder partners of Prabhat Films) was making silent film ‘Maharathi Karna’ (1928) for Maharashtra Film Co. He offered Nandrekar a role. Then he worked in other films like ‘Baji Prabhu Deshpande’ (1929), ‘Lanka’ (1930), ‘Kismet’ (1931) and ‘Dushman Ki Raat’ (1931).
His first talkie film was ‘Kurukshetra’ (1933). Prabhat gave him a role in ‘Sant Tukaram’ (1936) (its Hindi version came in 1948). He worked in ‘Amar Jyoti’ (1936) and became quite popular as a hero, opposite Shanta Apte. He was the hero in ‘Baghbaan’ (1938) opposite Sitara Devi.
In 1939, he became the first actor to go abroad to shoot scenes in the film ‘Africa In Hind’ – ‘हिन्द में अफ्रीका’ (1939). The shooting was done in Africa. Thus this became the first ever Hindi film to shoot in foreign country, and NOT film ‘Naaz’ (1954), as is popularly believed and also as mentioned in HFGK. Nandrekar had become very popular. The chappals he used in the film ‘Baghbaan’ became fashionable by the name ‘Nandrekar Chappals‘. This alone is enough to prove his popularity.
His lawsuit against Prabhat Film Company was a topic of discussion in the industry. There were differences between him and Prabhat over his contract with them. His lawyers were Mr. Jinnah and Mr. Setalwad, who won the case for him. He was also the first actor to work as a freelancer.
Nandrekar appeared in 23 films. His films were ‘Kurukshetra’ (1933), ‘Amar Jyoti’ (1936), ‘Jaadugarin’ (1937) (UR), ‘Baghbaan’ (1938), ‘Africa In Hind’ (1939), ‘Qaidi’ (1940), ‘Hindustan Hamara’ (1940), ‘Alakh Niranjan’ (1940), ‘Chitralekha’ (1941), ‘Mamaji’ (1942), ‘Duniya Tumhari Hai’ (1942), ‘Nai Kahaani’ (1943), ‘Andhi Duniya’ (1943), ‘Swarn Bhoomi’ (1944), ‘Lady Doctor’ (1944), ‘Ismat’ (1944), ‘Bachpan’ (1945), ‘Kamla’ (1946), ‘Jeevan Sikho’ (1946), ‘Parshuram’ (1947), ‘Meri Amaanat’ (1947), ‘Khandani’ (1947), ‘Sant Tukaram’ (1948) and last film ‘Bihari’ (1948).
He passed away in 1949. No definite information is available about his demise.
Today’s song is sung by Rajkumari. It is composed by H P Sharma (2 songs), who was a co-MD of the film with his own elder brother Pt. Govardhan Prasad (5 songs). This is the third song from film Ismat-44 to feature on this Blog.
(Ack: Information is used, with thanks, from books – ‘ stages of life ‘ by Kathryn Hansen, ‘Muslim Cinema’ by Isak Mujawar, and ‘Forgotten movies on Muslim culture’ by Kamalakar P.)
Song-Badali hawa luti bahar rang-e- chaman bigad gaya (Ismat)(1944) Singer- Rajkumari Dubey Banraswali, Lyricist- Shams Lucknowi, MD- H P Sharma
Lyrics
Badli hawa luti bahaar
rang-e- chaman bigad gaya
phoool hanse to yoon hanse
daagh bhi gar nikal gaya
gham se badal gayi khushi
maut bani hai zindagi
saans mili to jaise ek
saans mili to jaise ek
teer(??) ka dil machal(?) gaya
saans mili to jaise ek
teer (??) ka dil machal(?) gaya
thahri hawa ko chhaanv ne
sharmo haya ko raat bhar
aah magar ghame sahar
aah magar ghame sahar
kaam bana bigad gaya
aah magar ghame sahar
kaam bana bigad gaya
badli hawa luti bahaar
range chaman bigad gaya
phool hanse to yoon hanse
daagh bhi gar nikal gaya
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
June 24, 2020 at 6:30 pm
audio
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