Bhajo re man Raam naam sukhdaayee
Posted by: Atul on: June 29, 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 a traditional bhajan from a Mythological film Shabri-1947.
This was a Mythological film, the story of which we all know since our childhood. This was a film made in Calcutta by Rajeshwari Kala Mandir. The film was directed by R.C.Deepak. He seems to be a “One film wonder” in direction. Lyricists names are not mentioned in HFGK or internet. The Music Director was Pt. Ganapat Rao. There are 12 songs, but details of only 3 songs (including one two sided song sung by Jaganmoy Mitra aka Jagmohan Sursagar) are available. The cast of the film was Molina, Gopal Mehra, Biman Banerjee, Kishore, Premkumari, Beena, Preetidhara and Sunder singh. All these, except Sunder, look like Bangla artistes, for whom information is difficult to collate, barring Molina.
During the period of 1931 to 1950, the attraction of films as a new medium of entertainment which provided name, fame and money, was on top of aspirants’ list. Thousands of people left their homes and thronged at the nearest film centres like Lahore, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Poona, Kolhapur, Bangalore, Hyderabad etc, only to try their luck in various fields like Music, Singing, Acting, Direction etc. 80 % of these aspirants went back empty handed, 10 % sustained with bits of jobs and only 10 % succeeded.
From 1931 to 2000, about 7000 people acted in Hindi films doing main, Secondary and Extra roles. One of the enthusiastic academicians had published a name list of these 7000 people on an Internet site (now defunct) and it was published by Dr. Surajit singh ji on RMIM forum in 2001. This was only about actors (including actresses). Can you guess how many people must have aspired to become Music Directors ? Leave aside the well trained classical and instrumental experts who were honoured and contributed substantially, like I mentioned in my earlier posts some time ago.
Have you ever heard the following names of Music Directors in Hindi films ? Amir Ali, Dhoomi Khan, Jayanti Joshi, M.A.Rauf, Anil Bagchi, Dakshina Tagore, Dhiren Mittar, Kartik Chaterjee, Gopen Mullick, C.Balaji, Ratanlal, Dnyanprakash Ghosh, Naresh Bhattacharya, J.Abhyankar, Nagesh Rao, Qadir faridi, Jafer Khursheed, Nandram Omkarji, Pratap mukherjee, Kshirodhchandra Bhattacharya, G.D.Kapur, Mukund Masurekar, Payami, Shyamoo, Aslam, S.K.kadri, Veer Singh, P.Shankar, Sabir Hussai, T.K.Das etc etc.
These and hundreds of such MDs gave music to one to two films and then disappeared forever.Pt. Ganapat Rao, MD for today’s film was also one such composer who, like a Comet, came and went away. He was actually a famous classical singer, but the lure of films brought him here. Pt.Ganapatrao Gurav,the Music director of this movie was basically a Classical singer and was the first batch disciple of Ustad Karim Khan,the founder of Kirana Gharana.
He hailed from Ratnagiri dist.of Maharashtra and was a respected figure in the classical circle.
However,like some other classical singers of his time, he too ventured in Film music and gave music also to Kurukshetra(1945) and Bebus(1950) featuring Bharat Bhushan and Poornima. His name also appears in the film Syed Waris Shah(1980).
He returned to classical singing and today his Grandson Pt .Kaivalyanath is an accomplished singer awarded A grade by AIR and Doordarshan,in addition to many awards.
There is an annual Pt. Ganapatrao memorial festival conducted by India Habitat Centre also.
The film was obviously based on a story from Ramayan. We are accustomed to see Shobhana Samarth, Prem Adib, Mahipal, Manhar Desai, Umakant and such other known actors doing the familiar roles of Ram, Laxman, Krishna etc. I wonder how it would have been to see Molina as Seeta and Gopal mehra as Ram. This film is not available.
Molina being an uncommon name there was no other actress of this name. Molina Devi was born on 3-6- 1917. She received training in acting from Aparesh Mukherjee, and made her debut, at the age of 8, in a silent movie. She was acknowledged as one of the leading actresses of the Bengali stage, with her professional career spanning more than three decades.
In 1924, she debuted in a silent film while at the age of 8 and thereafter worked as dancer mainly in the mythological and historical plays. She performed some memorable roles in Bengali as well as Hindi films. She got a breakthrough in Puran Bhagat and Molina played the title role in the movie, Rani Rasmani. She took various roles, even vamps in her early career such as in Pramathesh Barua’s Rajat Jayanti in 1939. She also directed a Kolkata based theatre troupe, M. G. Enterprises.
Molina worked in Rangana theatre as chief artist. She performed as a singer on radio and contributed to the formation of Mahila Silpi Mahal, a welfare association for female artists of Bengal. Molina Devi’s high creative excellence had found expression in such diverse media as the stage, the film and the radio. As a founder of the M. G. Enterprise, now in its twenty-third year, she had been responsible for the success of such well-known plays as ‘Thakur Sri Sri’, ‘Rani Rasmoni’, ‘Jagatbandhu’ and ‘Bholagiri’.
She had been honoured and decorated by many eminent organisations and learned bodies. For her eminence in the field of Drama and her contribution to its enrichment , Molina Devi received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Acting. Her first husband was Jolu Boral and the second husband was actor Gurudas Banerjee.
Molina died on 13 August 1977 in Kolkata. She acted in 22 Hindi films. Her first Hindi film was Raaj Rani Meera-33 and last film was Babla-53. She also sang 11 songs in 4 Hindi films. some of her films were Karvaan e hayat-35,Millionaire aka karodpati-36, Manzil-36, Abhagin-38, Badi Didi-39, Aandhi-39, Arabian Nights-46, Swayam Siddha-49, Ratnadeep-51, Yatrik-52 etc etc.
The singer of today’s bhajan is Jaganmoy Mitra, better known to us as Jagmohan Sursagar. “Sursagar” was a title awarded by The Saraswat Samaj of Dhaka (now in Bangladesh). There were only 2 singers who got this Title. The first was Himngshu Dutt. Janmoy was the second. It is a matter of coincidence that when Himangshu Dutt gave music to Hindi film Bhakta Kabir in 1942, Jaganmoy Mitra sang few songs under his baton. This was the only time when 2 Sursagars worked jointly in one Hindi film.
Born on September 6,1918,Jagmohan whose real name was Jaganmoy Mitra came from a conservative family of landlords. Sometime before he was born, his father died of a stomach ailment, while his mother was still in her teens. Though Jagmohan had no problems in childhood, he was to grow up an ardent devotee of his mother.When she died in 1981,and was followed by the singer’s wife,in a few months time,Jagmohan felt a terrible void in his life, something that he appears to have been unable to fill ever.
There was an atmosphere of music in his maternal grandfather’s house where they went to live after Jagmohan’s father died.He literally grew up listening to dhrupad,khayal,thumri and tappa,surreptitiously learning from his uncle’s ustads ragas and raginis as also the tabla.It all paid off when after passing his matriculation examination, Jagmohan took part in all Bengal music competition ,topping the list in dhrupad,tappa,thumri,kritan and baul,religious folk music of Bengal.The year was 1937.In the same year,his professional singing career began at All India Radio.The next year,he stood first in khayal singing in an all India competition at Allahabad.
A music recording company, HMV, grabbed him for recording. Says Jagmohan: “I had a tune and had been trying to compose a song to suit it. But,an acquaintance, Hembabu asked me to see Kazi Nazrul Islam,the great poet.Hembabu took me to him and left me with the poet.The poet was a very kindly man and my diffidence vanished after a while. I sang the few lines I had composed.He praised my tune and music but offered to write a song for me to fit them.I sang the tune several times as the Kazi sat writing stanza after stanza;his words, as if poured after,and there nary was a change or scratching out of a word here or there.That was the song Saaton Ratey Jadi…. on which my recording was made.” It was a great hit.Then,in 1940,came two songs of Rabindranath Tagore,both approved by the Nobel prize winning poet.Tagore permitted him to record two more of his songs.
In 1945,Jagmoohan was given the award of Sursagar (ocean of music) in Bengal. The award has not since been given to anyone else,and the singer was only the second recipient of the honour.( The other recipient was Himangshu Datta ). In fact, most people have forgotten that Mitra is Jagmohan’s real surname; it has just become Jagmohan Sursagar, a name under which he also wrote an auto-biography in Bengali. It has recently been translated into Gujarati and brought out under the title of one of his more famous songs, Dil Dekar Dard Liya Hai Maine…
Gandhiji too had appreciated Jagmohan’s singing and the singer recorded Sapta Kanda Ramayana in six minutes at the Mahatma’s suggestion.Another national leader fond of his singing was Jay Prakash Narayan.
Jagmohan toured abroad also extensively and has been to among other countries East Africa,the U.K.,the U.S.A.and Can-ada, earning a vast fan following everywhere. Speaking at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto,Jagmohan held his audience spell-bound,claiming there essentially was no barrier to music.He sang a Bengali composition in Bhairavi and followed up with an English song, rendered in the same raga.
He came to Bombay in 1950 to become a Playback singer, but the Bombay film world atmosphere did not impress him and he did not sing in any film. In fact after 1958, he did not cut any record. The only exception is film Sardar-55’s song, which he sang under his own baton, for the only Hindi film for which he was the composer.
A dignified individual,Jagmohan never turned bitter, became more of an introvert, paying heed to the calls of none but his inner voice. After the deaths of his mother and his wife in 1981, feeling lonely,he had moved residence thrice– from Bombay to Delhi for two years while he was a member of Censor Board, then to Calcutta and to Ahmedabad.
He did not seem to regard his moving from one city to another as something of great importance. He declared :”I crave affection ,respect and human warmth and go wherever my inner-self tells me to. I have followed the dictates of my inner-self only all my life.” “I can go away from a city, but I cannot go away from music”, he said.
He had become so popular due to his NFS in Hindi and Bangla, that he had neither the time nor the desire to sing for films. However Jagmohan sang 23 songs in 12 films, The films were, Bhakta Kabeer-42, Bhaichara-43, Hospital-43, Arzoo-44, Subah Shaam-44, Ameeri-45, Meghdoot-45, Krishnaleela-46, Pehchaan-46, Zameen aur Aasman-46, Iran ki ek raat-49 and Sardar-55.
Despite many attempts, it is not clear as to how many Non film songs or Geets he sang in Hindi and Bangla. However. his songs are few on this Blog, so far( only 5).The generation born in the 40s grew up on Saigal,Jagmohan and Pankaj Mullick songs. There was a period when Non film Geets were extremely popular, even in the presence of film music, but gone are those days now when record collection was a respectful hobby. With this, the decline of such songs too came fast and only memories lived on.
In his book, Aap ki Parchhaiyan, Shri Rajnikumar Pandyaji has mentioned an incident when Jagmohan went all the way to a far off place, just so that a dying fan of his songs could listen to him while on deathbed. This is how Rajnikumar Pandya ji describes this incident –
“The patient was Manubhai Trivedi,father of my writer friend Niranjan Trivedi, I was knowing that Manubhai was an ardent fan of Jagmohan but due to his serious ailment it was not possible for him to come down to my place to see Jagmohanda who just arrived by morning train from Bombay .
“I therefore requested Dada to pay a visit to Manubhai . He reluctantly agreed to it, We went to Manubhais place which was just few minutes form my place, After seeing his serious condition he expressed his desire to sing a Bhajan before him though Manubhai was not in his senses, Anyway he sang a Bhajan “Ab tim kab sumiroge Ram, Jeevn do din ka mehman,’There were tears in the eyes of all who were present there including me and my small daughter who is partly seen in the photograph attached with this mail. ( he attached a photograph for me).
Manubhai passed away after a week of this incident. “The family members of the fan became eternally obliged to Jagmohan’s noble gesture.
Jagmohan returned to Bombay, after almost 2 years in Ahmedabad. He died on 4-9-2003, in Bombay. (based on details from the book “Aap ki Parchhaiyan”, by Shri Rajnikumar Pandya ji, with thanks.)
With this song, film Shabri-1947 makes its Debut on our Blog. This film’s songs were not available anywhere. Finally I contacted the famous collector of records, Syed Zafar Shah. He kindly not only agreed to give me a song but also took the trouble of uploading it for my convenience. We must all thank him for his help.
Let us now enjoy this bhajan by Jagmohan Sursagar.
Song- Bhajo re man Raam naam sukhdaayee (Shabri)(1947) Singer- Jagmohan Sursagar (Jaganmoy Mitra), Lyricist- Traditional, MD- Pt Ganapat Rao
Lyrics
Bhajo re ae ae ae ae ae
man a a a a
Raam naam sukhdaayee
Bhajo re man Raam naam sukhdaayee
Bhajo re man Raam
Bhajo re man Raam naam sukhdaayee
jhoothhe sab kaarbaar
Raam naam ek saar
janam nahin baar baar
kar le kuchh kamaai ee ee ee ee
Bhajo re man Raam naam sukhdaayee
Bhajo re man Raam
Bhajo re man Raam naam sukhdaayee
bhai bandhu meet tere ae ae
kar gaye sab kooch dere
tu kaahe mamta ko ghere ae ae
ye na hot kahaai
Bhajo re man Raam naam sukhdaayee
Bhajo re man Raam
Bhajo re man Raam naam sukhdaayee
aa aa aa
jaag jaag re ganwaar
sar pe kaal hai sawaaar
do din ki ye bahaar
paachhe pachhtaayee ee ee ee ee
Bhajo re man Raam naam sukhdaayee
Bhajo re man Raam
Bhajo re man Raam naam sukhdaayee ee
bhajo ae ae ae ae ae
3 Responses to "Bhajo re man Raam naam sukhdaayee"
February 9, 2024 at 12:12 pm
Tappa music stands as a testament to the enduring legacy of Indian classical music, blending folk traditions with classical rigor to create a truly distinctive musical form. Its history and evolution reflect the diverse cultural landscape of the Indian subcontinent, while its continued relevance underscores its enduring appeal in the modern world. As Tappa continues to enchant audiences with its mesmerizing melodies and virtuosic performances, it remains an integral part of India’s rich musical heritage.
https://www.indianetzone.com/27/tappa_indian_music.htm
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
June 29, 2023 at 5:21 pm
Arun Ji,
I was touched by reading about Sri Jagmohan Sursagar. Thanks. This is the first time I came to know about SURSAGAR title.
There is an entity ( possibly a trust) in Bangalore, named ‘Sursagar’, who arrange concerts in Hindustani Music. Incidentally the founder is from local Saraswat samaj.
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June 29, 2023 at 7:20 pm
Satish ji,
Thanks for your observations.
Thanks also for additional information.
I am glad that reading my posts can add information to the readers.
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