Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs

Main tere gale ki maala

Posted on: April 12, 2022


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 :

5016 Post No. : 16922

Today’s song is from an early talkie film ‘Gramophone Singer’ (1938).

The film was made by Sagar Movietone. It was directed by Ramchandra Thakur and Virendra Desai (owner Chimanlal Desai’s son and the first husband of Nalini Jayawant). The 15 songs of the film were written by Zia Sarhadi – who rose to great heights in the Indian film industry, but was humiliated, suspected and ill-treated in Pakistan. His end in Spain too was pathetic. Music Director for this film was Anil Biswas. The cast of the film was Surendra, Bibbo, Prabha, Bhudo Advani, Kanhaiyalal, Sankatha Oprasad, Gulzar and many others.

It is interesting to know the story of how Sagar Movietone came into being. Ardeshir Irani, the owner of Imperial Film Co. and the maker of India’s First Talkie film ‘Alam Ara’ (1931), was keen to get the famous and popular star of the films in those days – Master Vithal, into his stable. That time Vithal was with Sharada Film Company. He was unhappy there, because despite every film being a hit, his salary was never increased in spite of his request. To get Master Vithal with whatever means, Irani floated Sagar Movietone in 1929, so that his name was not involved in luring another company’s artistes. After an interesting episode of action in the High Court, Master Vithal joined Imperial through Sagar Movietone.

Once he got master Vithal, Irani lost interest in Sagar Movietone and he sold it to Dr. Ambalal Patel and Chimanlal Desai – his distributors from Bangalore to whom he owed money. After Irani separated, the company was wholly owned by Desai and Patel. Later Patel too left and Chimanlal became the sole owner of Sagar Movietone.

In those days, Sagar had a good collection of actors, actresses, directors and MDs on its payroll. Sagar went on to make several Hit films from 1931 onward. In 1934, Motilal joined the company and in 1935, the singing actor Surendra came. Sagar was on a victory roll and it became one of the major film making companies in India. In the form of Surendra, Sagar got an actor/singer, who would compete with KL Saigal of New Theaters, Calcutta as the “Bombay’s answer to Saigal” !

Surendra, however, was an educated (BA, LLB), intelligent person and he understood that Saigal was in a different league altogether. Instead of copying his style, Surendra cultivated his own identity. Sagar, however, ensured that the competition between the two got the desired reckoning and this showed in their pattern of films. As against ‘Devdas’ (1935), Sagar released ‘Manmohan’ (1936)’. After ‘President’ (1937) came ‘Jagirdar’ (1937) and after ‘Street Singer’ (1938) Sagar released ‘Gramophone Singer’ (1938). Nevertheless all these films became successful.

In the Hindi film industry, we read frequently about famous stars, actors/actresses of the early era who ended their last days in penury, illness, loneliness and misery. Many had to beg on roads for a living. Some of these cases are tear jerking too. However, even in those days there were some wise artistes who planned their afterlife thoughtfully and retired gracefully spending the rest of their life happily. Some names like SD Batish, Laxmi Shankar, Ranjan, Shashi Kapoor Sr., Mukund Roy Trivedi-MD, Durga Khote etc. come to mind in this connection. Actor Surendra too falls in this category. Before he retired from films, he established an advertising firm and made short films (Durga Khote also did the same). His sons expanded the business successfully.

‘Gramophone Singer’ was the debut film for both the directors, who bloomed in their careers later. Actress Prabha started with Sagar from this film onward. Kanhaiyalal became a regular actor with this film – instead of a Lyricist. Zohrabai Ambalawali sang her first song under the baton of Music Director Anil Biswas, in this film.

Surendra and Bibbo acted together in 6 films of Sagar Movietone. Their first film was ‘Manmohan’ (1936), in which their duet song “Tumhin Ne Mujh Ko Prem Sikhaaya” became a Hit in those days. Then came ‘Jagirdar’ in 1937 and ‘Dynamite’ in 1938. Like Motilal and Sabita Devi (* films), this pair too proved to be a ‘Hit Jodi‘. However, at the time of planning for the film ‘Gramophone Singer’, Surendra and Bibbo had some dispute and they were not on speaking terms. They even avoided each other. This problem was tactfully solved by director Ramchandra Thakur, who diplomatically lied to both separately that the other one was keen to work with her/him. Like true professionals both agreed and the film got through. Not only this, but they even worked in another 2 more films also !

The film is a story of a love triangle and Prabha did the role of Surendra’s wife in this film. Prabha is not known to most people. Let us know more about Prabha.

Prabha Rajpal was from a respectable Hindu family of Punjab. She was born on 6-6-1915 at Ludhiana. Her father was a high ranking government officer based at Lahore. All her education was done in Lahore. She was fluent in Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and English.

Right from childhood, she was keen on working in films. Belonging to an orthodox family, there was opposition, but despite all this she entered films and her first film was ‘Jung Bahadur’ (aka ‘Dare Devil’) in 1935. After doing some films like ‘Dilawar’ (1936), ‘Awakening’ (1936), she left the Bhavnani camp and worked in Minerva’s film ‘Atma Tarang’ (1937) as the heroine opposite Sohrab Modi. She was very beautiful. Then she joined Sagar and worked in films like ‘Gramophone Singer’ (1938), ‘Ladies Only’ (1939), ‘Civil Marriage’ (1940). Later she became a freelancer.

In all she worked in 36 films in her career. She got married to Virender Ahuja, a cinematographer, and settled down after the film ‘Veerangana’ (1947). When her husband was one of the producers, she worked in the film ‘Shrimati ji’ (1952) and then retired from films. She died on 12-3-1975.

‘Gramophone Singer’ was a reasonably successful movie. Its lyricist was Zia Sarhadi. It had 15 songs, but only 4 Records having 8 songs came into the market.

The story of the film is….

Sundardas (Surendra) was a successful gramophone singer and lived in a town near Bombay. He was happily married to Mohini (Prabha) and had a baby boy also.The family was a picture of happiness, but….

Tilottama (Ishrat Sultana or Bibbo) was a famous singer of international reputation. She conducted foreign tours also. She lived in a luxurious flat in Bombay. She had heard the songs of Sunder and loved his voice. She was waiting to meet him.

Sunder had to visit Bombay often for song recordings etc. He was very friendly with Ghosh Babu (Bhudo Advani), owner of a Gramophone company. Rana ji (Kayam Ali) was a regular customer of Ghosh Babu. Once in a party given by Ghosh, Rana ji introduces Sunder to Tilottama. In the first meeting itself she fell in Sunder’s love. He too was impressed with her. Slowly their meetings increased and soon they were in deep love, Sunder forgetting about wife and child. Once they decide to go to Rampur – a resort. Here poor Mohini waits for Sunder for many days. The child falls ill too. Finally, Mohini decides to visit Bombay. There she learns everything about Sunder’s affair. She meets Madan (Sankatha Prasad), a singing partner of Tilottama, and a silent deep lover of hers too. They go to Rampur, but the pair is missing.

In the climax scene, Tilottama and Sunder are about to get married, when Mohini, her sick child and Madan reach the spot. Seeing his wife and ailing child, Sunder realizes his folly and returns to Mohini. Madan wins over Tilottama and the end is at Tilottama’s wedding party thrown by Ghosh Babu.

Today’s song is sung by Surendra and Bibbo.


Song- Main tere gale ki maala (The Gramophone Singer)(1938) Singers- Surendra, Bibbo, Lyricist- Zia Sarhadi, MD- Anil Biswas
Both

Lyrics

main tere gale ki maala
main tere gale ki maala
main tere gale ki maala
main tere gale ki maala
main tere gale ki maala
main tere gale ki maala
tu saagar main sarita
tu saagar main sarita
tu kavi main kavita
tu saagar main sarita
tu kavi main kavita

tu meri nazar ki jwaala
tu meri najar ki jwaala
main tere gale ki maala
tu meri najar ki jwaala
main tere gale ki maala
main tere gale ki maala
main tere gale ki maala

main tere gale ki mala
main tere gale ki mala

deepak bankar aag jala de
deepak bankar aag jala de
aag laga de aag laga de
aag laga de aag laga de
deepak ban sansaar jala de
deepak ban sansaar jala de
hans ab hans chal prem sikha de
hans ab hans chal prem sikha de
prem sikha de gwaala
tu prem sikha le gwaala
main tere gale ki maala
main tere gale ki maala

main tere gale ki maala
main tere gale ki maala
main tere gale ki maala
main tere gale ki maala

————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir Kapur)
————————————————

मैं तेरे गले की माला
मैं तेरे गले की माला
मैं तेरे गले की माला
मैं तेरे गले की माला
मैं तेरे गले की माला
मैं तेरे गले की माला

तू सागर मैं सरिता
तू सागर मैं सरिता
तू कवि मैं कविता
तू सागर मैं सरिता
तू कवि मैं कविता
तू मेरी नज़र की ज्वाला
तू मेरी नज़र की ज्वाला
मैं तेरे गले की माला
तू मेरी नज़र की ज्वाला
मैं तेरे गले की माला
मैं तेरे गले की माला
मैं तेरे गले की माला
मैं तेरे गले की माला
मैं तेरे गले की माला

दीपक बनकर आग जला दे
दीपक बनकर आग जला दे
आग लगा दे आग लगा दे
आग लगा दे आग लगा दे
दीपक बन संसार जला दे
दीपक बन संसार जला दे
हंस अब हंस चल प्रेम सिखा दे
हंस अब हंस चल प्रेम सिखा दे
प्रेम सिखा दे ग्वाला
तू प्रेम सिखा दे ग्वाला

मैं तेरे गले की माला
मैं तेरे गले की माला
मैं तेरे गले की माला
मैं तेरे गले की माला
मैं तेरे गले की माला
मैं तेरे गले की माला

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2 Responses to "Main tere gale ki maala"

Thanks Arun ji
I remember about reading Kailash surendranath(who married actress/dancer Aarti gupta) the son of actor Surendra, Thanks Arun ji for all the information regarding movie The Gramophone singer movie….
Regards
prakash

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Dear Prakashchandra ji,
Thanks for this additional information and appreciation of the post.
-AD

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