Mera dulha shahar se aaya re
Posted on: April 23, 2023
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 Do Dulhe-1955.
This film was made by United Film Arts, Bombay, jointly with Gemini Pictures, Madras. The entire film was shot completely in the Gemini Studios, Madras, because this Hindi film was a remake of a Popular Tamil Hit film ” Manam Pola Mangalyam “-1953. A remarkable thing about this film was that it was the first film of Gemini Ganesan ( real name Ramasamy Ganesan), one of the 3 biggest stars of Tamil films ( the other two being M G Ramachandran and Sivaji Ganesan) and actress Savitri (real name Nissankara Savitri) who was an actress, Playback singer, Director and Producer.
It was actually Gemini Ganesan who brought Savitri in films. They fell in love and in 1952 they got married. At that time Ganesan was already married, had 4 daughters and had an affair with actress Pushpavalli. He and Savitri had a daughter and a son. A real ‘producer’, I should say !
In India there is a tradition of Bilingual films from the early cinema era. The honour of the first Bilingual film- Hindi and Marathi- goes to Prabhat films, when they made the first Marathi Talkie ” Ayodhyecha Raja” ( अयोध्येचा राजा ) and ” Ayodhya ka Raja ” (अयोध्या का राजा ) in Hindi in 1932. Unlike the popular perception this was not a story of Raja Shri Ram, but a story of Raja Harshchandra !
From south the biggest bilingual hit film was made by S.S.Vasan – Chandralekha -1948. It was in Tamil and Hindi. It created an unprecedented record of popularity and collection. This became the starting point of Bi – Tri – Quadri language films from the south. Films were made in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam and even in Sinhalese for Ceylone (Sri Lanka).
Whenever a Tamil/Hindi bilingual or a Hindi remake of a Hit southern film was to be made, Madras producers would call Hindi actors to Madras. The reputation of Madras film makers was excellent when it came to their planning and implementation of shooting schedules, prompt payments and excellent arrangements for Bombay actors from arrival at Madras to departure from Madras. Therefore Bombay actors were too eager and happy to go south for shooting. However, Madras filmmakers had some favourites among the actors, MDs, Lyricists and Dialogue writers of Hindi.
Today’s film was also one such film. The film was directed by K.J.Mahadevan and the MD was B.S.Kalla. Many south Indian composers had tried their hand at giving music to Hindi films in the 50s decade. MDs like, Ghantasala, B S Kalla, S D Parthasarathi, E.Shankar, C.Subramanyam, B.Laxman, Vishwanathan, R.Sudarshanam, S V Venkataramana, T R Ramanathan and T G Lingappa are few of the less known names-for Hindi belt-from south who gave melodious music, but somehow they did not succeed here. One reason could be their use of southern singers, for whom acceptability was a problem here for Hindi songs. Names like Ramesh Naidu, Adi Narayana Rao and the pair of Vishwanathan- Ramamurthy were at least known names here. Their films like Piya milan-55, Suvarna Sundari-58 and Naya Aadmi-56 had many popular songs.
Balkrishna Kalla and E. Shanker team gave music to films like Mangala-50, Sansar-51, Mr.Sampat-52, Bahut din Huye-54. Balkrishna Kalla with Mohd. Shafi gave music to Krishna Kanhaiya-52. With Parthasarathi and Rajeshwar Rao he gave music to Nishan-49. Independently he gave music to only one film-Do Dulhe-54. B.S.Kalla had also done a small role in the film Mangala-50. The southern composers gave music only to dubbed films or remakes essentially.
The lyricist was south’s favourite Pt. Indra. The cast was huge. Main artistes were Shyama, Sajjan, Vananja, Agha, David, Lalita Pawar, Kanhaiyalal, B M Vyas, Achala Sachdev, Suryakantam, Ishwar lal etc etc. The hero was Sajjan- and in a double role too ! Some of the readers will be surprised with this name. Unfortunately artists like Sajjan, who were multi-skilled, did not get due recognition in Hindi film industry or in even the general film going public. Artistes like Badri Pershad, Dewan Sharar, Shakuntala Paranjpye, Ranjan etc. were experts in fields other than film acting and had achieved expertise, name and fame in different fields. Sajjan was also one such artiste. He was a film actor, Stage actor, writer of Poetry, assistant film director, a poet, lyricist, Dialogue writer and a T.V.Artiste.
The cast was a mix of Bombay actors and south actors, led by the side heroine Vanaja. The story of the film was centring around a double role depicting 2 different Look-alikes. This theme had been popular almost since the beginning of silent films. The first Hindi talkie film having a double role was ” Awara Shahzada aka Vagabond Prince ”-1933, in which actor Shahu Modak had played the roles of a Prince and a Pauper.
During the silent era, actor Anna Salunke was the first male actor who played a double role in the film Lanka Dahan-1917, doing roles of Shri Ram and Seeta both !. Actress Patience Cooper was the first Female to do double roles in not one but two successive silent films, Patni pratap-1924 (twin sisters) and Kashmiri Sundari-1925 (Mother and Daughter). In later and recent years many such films were made and most were hit films like Don, Ram aur Shyam, Seeta aur Geeta etc etc.
Film Do Dulhe was an entertaining film. I saw this film . Here is the story, in short…
Parvati/ Paro (Shyama) is a motherless daughter of B.M.Gupta (B.M.Vyas). Her step mother (Lalita Pawar) and step sister Dulari (Vanaja) torture her with household chores etc. Dulari’s marriage is arranged with Kundan (Sajjan), who comes from Madras to see Dulari. On the way he meets Paro and they fall in love. Paro’s marriage is being arranged with an old widower Seth Deen Dayal (David) who has lent 15 thousand to Paro’s father. Kundan goes to Madras to bring money to pay Deen Dayal. When he comes he sees Paro’s marriage preparations. He returns heartbroken to Madras. Meanwhile Paro also runs away from home and goes to Madras to meet Kundan. They meet but due to misunderstanding he leaves her.
Kundan is caught by mental Hospital employees as their patient kanhaiya-a look alike(Sajjan again). The patient Kanhaiya escapes and is brought as Kundan to Dulari’s house. After a few (actually many) coincidences, everything is clear and finally Kundan marries Paro and a recovered Kanhaiya marries Dulari. Thus Do Dulhe get Do Dulhans and the audience feels relieved from seeing further ridiculous levels the story could go to !
In this film the lead actress was Shyama, one of my favourites. I not only liked but also respected Shyama, because in my opinion, she was one of the few actresses, who was not only versatile but also very humble, modest and cooperative. Though she started from scratch- as an Extra- she worked with Top actors like, Ashok Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, Kishore Kumar, Balraj Sahni, Motilal, Rehman, Shammi Kapoor, Raaj Kumar, Karan Dewan, Bharat Bhushan etc. But she never hesitated to work with B or C grade Heroes like Sajjan, Mahipal, Kamal Kapoor, Suresh etc. With Johnny Walker, she did 7 films as a Lead actress and 3 more in other roles.
Another speciality of Shyama was that in the song sequences, she used to lip sync in a very natural way giving a feeling that in reality she was actually singing. Some of her senior actresses , especially Meena Kumari, might be a big star but while lip synching she was simply terrible. One felt that she was murmuring something . Never got a feeling that she was singing.
Shyama did many child roles as Baby Khurshid Akhtar. When her first film as a Heroine-Shrimatiji-52, opposite Nasir Khan- was released in Opera House, Bombay, the film Soorat was released in Roxy cinema at the same time. In the film Soorat, she did a child role while in Shrimatiji she was the Heroine. Film Soorat-47 got delayed and was released in 1952. She was named Shyama By director Vijay Bhatt at the time of the film Nai Maa-46.
Shyama ( real name Khursheed Akhtar) was born on 12-6-1935 at Lahore. Her family shifted to Bombay when she was 2 year old. Shyama’s father too was a fruit seller, like Dilip Kumar’s father, in the Byculla market, in those days. Khursheed studied in Urdu medium Municipal school. When she was 10 year old, a chance visit to see a film shooting ended in her participating in the shooting.
The film was “Zeenat”-1945. She was given her screen name-Shyama. Along with Shashikala and Shalini-the other child stars, she sat in the famous qawali, “Aahen na bhari” India’s first all female qawali. Though Noorjehan sang in the qawali, her lines were NOT lip synched by herself, but Rehana lip synched them. In the true sense, this was her first playback in films !
In the next 6 years Shyama did 80 films mostly uncredited,in small roles , like Shayar, Jal Tarang, Namoona, Sajaa, jalsa, Nishana etc. During film Jalsa’s shooting, its heroine Geeta Bali took a fancy to her and predicted that one day,she too will become a Heroine. Her small roles were almost like an extra or a chorus girl.
In her career of 41 years, Shyama acted in 169 films ( 70 as a Heroine) and sang about 140 songs on screen in her films. She married Cinematographer Fali Mistry in 1954. They had 2 sons and 1 daughter. Shyama retired from films in 1976. Fali Mistry died in 1979. She spent a happy retired life with old friends, at her luxurious flat in Napean Sea Road, Mumbai. Shyama died on 14-11-2017.
Almost all the songs in this film were good. Today’s song is the 7th song to appear here. Enjoy the song video….
Song- Mera dulha shehar se aaya re (Do Dulhe)(1955) Singers- Geeta Dutt, Rafi, Sarala, Lyrics-Pt Indra Chandra, MD- B.S.Kalla
Rafi + Geeta Dutt
Rafi + Sarala
Lyrics
mera dulha shahar se aaya re
arre waah waah
mera dulha shahar se aaya re
kaamaniya oil nahin laaya re
sir sookha tel bina
sir sookha tel bina
sir sookha tel bina
sir sukha tel bina
main pari dhoondhne aaya re
o main pari dhoondhne aaya re
huddangi dekh chakraaya re
jyun bhains nakel bina
jyun bhains nakel bina
o jyun bhains nakel bina aaa
jyun bhains nakel bina
billi ki meon se darta tu mitti ka sher
ho o tu mitti ka sher
aain
do man choona munh par malti
khaati solah ser
o o
khaatai solah ser
tu gate gaate rota hai
tu daant saabun se dhota hai
tu qaidi jail bina aa
tu qaidi jail bina
tu qaidi jail bina aa
tu qaidi jail bina
kadak nagaada mandir ka tu
main meethhi shahnaayi
o o o
main meethi shahnaayi
o main hoon beta bade baap ka
tu ganwaar ki jaayee
o o o
tu ganwaar ki jaayee
tu baaz hai main hoon kabootari
na na na
main laldev tu sabzpari
haan haan
kya jeena khel bina aa
kya jeena khel bina
o
kya jeena khel bina kya jina khel bina
aa aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
shiv gauri bhaye aaj hum tum milke
gaayen gaayen gaayen
shiv gauri bhaye aaj hum hum
pasand tumko na aaye
aa aa aa aa aa
hum pasand tumko na aayen
roop dekh tera hum ghabraayen
phir kyun jhak maaran yahaan aaye
o o
hum tum milke gaayen gaayen gaayen
shiv gauri bhaye
aaj hum tum
aaj hum tum
aaj hum tum mil ke gaayen aen
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
April 25, 2023 at 10:23 pm
Arun Sir,
Thanks for giving loaded information about actors from south to north. Can you give some info. about singer Sarala? Here she sang only last line “Phir Kyun Jhak Maaran Yahaan Aaye…” solo and last 3-4 lines with Rafi.
Its a pleasure to watch old b/w songs on good quality print.
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April 26, 2023 at 11:52 am
Thanks for your appreciation.
No information was available on Sarala Devi, even after trying from various sources.
Sarala was assistant to the MD B.S.Kalla for this film. This indicates that probably she too was from south. In that case it is all the more difficult to know about her, unless i strike luck some time in future.
thanks.’
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