Aaj ke din jhoom ley
Posted on: July 5, 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 a Hindi film, dubbed from Tamil. In Hindi its title was Sitamgar (Tyrant) (1958).
Films titled “Sitamgar” were made in 1934, 1954, 1958 and 1985. The 1954 film “Sitamgar” was a C grade stunt film. I do not know about the films made in 1934 and 1985.
The film Sitamgar (1958) was made by Roopwani films, Bombay, but before its release the rights and ownership was transferred to Venus Pictures, Madras, obviously for Income Tax purposes. Sitamgar-58 is a Tamil film dubbed into Hindi.
The decade of the 50s was a period when there was a lot of exchange of films between Bombay and the South. Some Hit and Popular films of South were remade in Hindi like Nishan-49, Bahar-51, Miss Mary-57 etc. In the mid 50s, the trend of dubbing southern films picked up speed and some popular films of major stars like MGR, NTR, ANR, Sivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan etc were dubbed in Hindi. It was not a one way traffic though. In 1960, the famous “Mughal E Azam” was dubbed in Tamil and released with a different Title, “Akbar “-61.
The south Indian names in full are usually very long, especially Tamil names- like Marudhar Gopalan Ramchandran or Nandmuri Tarakrama Rama Rao or Akkineni Nageshwar Rao or even Vettaithidal Chinnaiah Pillai Ganesan ( that is Sivaji Ganesan). You cannot write such long names all the time, so their fans shortened their names with their initials and these actors began to get described by their initials. In those days, most popular actors of the south were known by their initials like MGR, NTR etc. The female actors fortunately kept simpler names like P.Bhanumathy or Vasundhara etc.
In Bombay Industry the names of actors were short and mostly one or two part names like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Karan Dewan or Shaikh Mukhtar, Ajit etc. No actor was known by his initials. Nowadays, however, I find that the trend of addressing Hindi actors by their initials has started and we now find actors called AB or SRK etc. ( not only this but even on the social media like Fb and WA, I find that some people are accustomed to use only alphabets for even normal sentences making it difficult for the readers. They are either gusessed or left unread). All the major and popular actors of South secretly nursed ambitions of gaining fame in the Hindi belt too. But no one was ready to shift to Bombay to achieve their aim. On the other hand,female actors of the south were more outgoing and they reaped the rewards as we can see from the success of names like Vyjayantimala, Waheeda, Padmini and Hema Malini, to name a few !
As a via-media, the hit films of south actors were dubbed in Hindi but such methods did not bring the desired results for the male actors of the south. During this period many films were made in Hindi, which were remakes of Hit South films. It was then realised that Remakes were more popular. In fact the dubbed versions were rejected by other regions. The reasons were many.One, the southern actors were unknown in other regions, two the style of acting in southern movies was exaggerated or melodramatic, which was considered artificial-not natural and thirdly, the southern heroines were comparatively bulky. All these points were taken care of in making Remakes, with local stars and accepted styles of acting. Slowly dubbing stopped and Remakes prospered.
These days many ( read most) Hit Hindi films have been remakes of Hit south movies. For example, Hera Pheri ( Malayalam-Ramjirao speaking), No Entry (Tamil-Charlie Chaplin), Bhool Bhulaiya (Original Malayalam film made into Kannada,Tamil and even Bangla), Ghajini ( Tamil- Gajhini, original Hollywood film Momento) and many others like, Wanted, Housefull, Ready, Bodyguard, Singham, Force, Rowdy Rathore, Son of Sardar, Kick etc etc.
SITAMGAR-58 was a dubbed film. Originally it was a Tamil film “Uthama Putran”, which was also dubbed in Telugu as “Veer Pratap”. The cast of the film was Sivaji Ganesan, Padmini, Ragini, Kannamba,M K Radha, K A Thangavelu, Somu, Helen etc. MD was a pair of G.Ramanathan and B N Bali. It seems both composed all songs together and there is no individual credit to any song. The film was directed by T. Prakash Rao. The story, dialogues and screenplay was by Sreedhar, who later became a famous Director…even in Hindi.
This is a popular story of twins. One good and one bad. But it was not an original Tamil story. Also, it was not the first film made on this story. A film of the same name was made in the 40s too, in Tamil. Few centuries ago Alexander Dumas wrote a novel ‘ The man in the Iron mask’, as a 3-part sequel to his famous “Three Musketeers’. It was rumoured in that period that the novel was based on a true story of Emperor Louis XIV, who had a look alike twin brother , kept in dungeons for life. many films were made in Hollywood and Europe, on this story, the last was in 1998.But in Hindi it is a favourite theme of the filmmakers as well as the audience. So any number of films made on this theme draw a huge audience.
In the film Sitamgar-58, Sivaji Ganesan plays the Twin roles of a Tyrant and a “Do-Good Prince in exile”. In Hindi, the first such film was Awara Shehzada-1933. A Rock and Roll song- dance was included in a Tamil movie for the first time in this movie and Helen, the famous dancer from Bombay- was specially brought in to do this number ( along with local dancers Rita and Gemini Chandra). This Tamil film was a Box office biggie and draws crowds even today for its Re-runs.
Films, Film stars and actors play an important role in the social life of Tamil Nadu and Andhra, or the entire south, for that matter.. Top class film stars are adored by their fans and Fan clubs are established, their statues erected and even Temples are built. ( Nowadays, all this frenzy seems to be less, in my opinion.). Due to their influence on the people, it comes as no surprise that Political parties tried to rope them in. So every big star in cinema has a political connection. Tamilnadu and Andhra had Cine stars as Chief Ministers and it continues to be so in Tamilnadu. Surprisingly, the situation is not like this in Karnataka. It may be because Karnataka is the youngest state among all Southern states.
As for Kerala, Marxist influence in the state of Kerala ensured that no individual is idolised there and so Malayalam movies of Kerala too have not thrown up a major politician of film world connection. However Dr. Raj kumar in Karnataka and Satyan and Prem Nazir in Kerala were Cult figures in their respective times.
The people of Tamilnadu are so much influenced by Cinema that Popular stars get special names from the public. Sivaji Ganesan ( 1-10-1928 to 21-7-2001 ) was very popular and competed with MGR. His original name was Vettaithidal Chinniah Pillai Ganesan. He was called Sivaji Ganesan, after his famous role of Shivaji in stage play, ” Sivaji kanda Indhu Rajyam ” , written by DMK leader C.N.Annadurai. Sivaji ganesan had more than 30,000 Fan clubs all over the world. He acted in more than 300 films in Tamil, Telugu, Malyalam, Kannada and Hindi.
I have seen both versions, namely ‘ Sitamgar’-58 and its Telugu copy ‘ Veer Pratap ‘ while I was in Hyderabad. It is simply a dubbed film and both were the same, but the fun was in watching Tamil actors speaking in Hindi and Telugu.
Here is the story of the film-
In the kingdom of Malarpuri, the queen (P.Kannamba) delivers a male child. Her brother Naganathan (M N Nambiar) replaces it with a dead child with help from a maidservant, and informs king Varaguna Pandiyan (Sadasiva Rao) that the newborn is dead. To Naganathan’s surprise, the queen gives birth to another boy soon after delivering the first. Minister Gunaseelar arrives by then and the king is informed of the birth of two children, one dead and one alive. Everyone is happy that at least one is alive. Naganathan decides to kill the first infant and hands it over to his servant Somappa (Stunt Somu). However, Somappa and his wife raise the prince in a forest.
The crown prince is Vikraman and his identical twin in the forest is Parthiban (both played by Sivaji Ganesan). On his deathbed, the king (M K Radha) appoints Naganathan as the guardian of crown prince Vikraman, and gives the order that Naganathan would be solely responsible for Vikraman’s safety. To achieve his objective of ruling the country, Naganathan brings up Vikraman with all vices and does not allow him to bond with his mother. On the other hand, Parthiban grows up to become a valiant warrior under the guidance of Somappa and fights for the public.
After the king’s death, Vikraman ascends the throne and hands over administrative controls to Naganathan, who indulges in all kinds of looting by levying more taxes. Parthiban comes out of the forest and saves the minister’s daughter Amudhavalli (Padmini) when her chariot goes out of control. They fall in love, and he starts visiting her palace late in the night. Amudha encounters Vikraman, who looks similar to Parthiban, but does not disclose this to anyone. Vikraman likes her and tells Naganathan to fix his marriage with her. Amudha does not accept when Vikraman’s mother comes with the proposal. One night, the soldiers notice Parthiban getting into the palace and they reach Amudha’s room. She makes him escape by making him wear Vikraman’s costume. While leaving, he meets his mother, but pretends to be Vikraman. When he is talking to her, Vikraman arrives and they scuffle. Parthiban escapes, but when he comes again to meet Amudha, he is thrown into prison.
Through the maidservant, the queen learns that Parthiban is also her son. She goes to the prison and orders his release. By then, Vikraman arrives with Naganathan, who confirms they are brothers, but states that the kingdom cannot afford to have two brothers fighting for power. Vikraman does not wish to share the kingdom and to avoid anyone recognising him, orders that Parthiban be masked and imprisoned. Parthiban has an iron mask locked on his face; its key is with Vikraman. Amudha and Parthiban’s friend (K L Tangavelu) hatch a plan to rescue Parthiban. Amudha makes Vikraman insensibly drunk after a dance and takes the key. Parthiban’s associates reach the prison, set him free, put the same on Vikraman’s face and dump him in prison. Parthiban assumes charge of the kingdom and introduces citizen friendly policies which are welcomed by the people.
Naganathan suspects foul play. By then, Vikraman sends a message to Naganathan by writing on his dinner plate about Parthiban impersonating him. Naganathan rushes to jail, releases Vikraman, brings him to the Assembly and stops the coronation of Parthiban as king. In the fight that ensues between Naganathan’s army and Parthiban’s people, Naganathan dies. Parthiban and Vikraman fight despite a plea from their mother. When Vikraman loses, he escapes in a chariot wearing his mask. Parthiban tries to stop him, but he rushes away. Vikraman dies when his chariot falls off a cliff. Parthiban rules Malarpuri as a virtuous son along with Amudha and his mother. ( This is the Tamil film story as I found in The Hindu. In the Hindi edition of the film the names were different, naturally).
Today’s song is sung by Manna Dey, Aarti Mukherjee and Geeta Dutt. We are familiar with Manna Dey and Geeta Dutt, but many readers may not be knowing anything about singer Aarti Mukherjee. Aarti was born on 18-7-1945 at Calcutta. There were 6 siblings in the family- 3boys and 3 girls. Father was Manoranjan Mukherjee and mother was Prabhavati. Father used to play Organ, Uncle was a Sitar player and mother used to sing. Aarti’s one brother was famous as a Tabla Player. Thus the entire family was music orientated.No wonder Aarati too got interested in singing. She learnt it from her mother and P.N.Bhattacharya as well as Manoranjan Sen.
She considered Lata and Asha as her Gurus. Actually, Lata herself introduced her to MD Laxmikant. Aarti participated in the Metro Murphy Music Contest. For this her mother accompanied her to Bombay. They stayed with a relative in Bombay. The judges of the contest were Vasant Desai, C.Ramchandra, Anil Biswas, Naushad and Madan Mohan. The winner was to get singing opportunities with all these MDs. Aarti won the contest. Later she sang for Vasant desai, C.Ramchandra and Anil Biswas, but could not get any song from Naushad or Madan Mohan. But she had no regrets as she worked for many others.
Vasant Desai gave her songs in the films Do Phool (1958) and School Master (1959). ” Matak Matak Nachu re” was her first playback song in Hindi, from the film Do Phool. She sang many child songs – Sahara (1958), Talaq (1958), and Masoom(1960). She sang for Shankar-Jaikishan a duet with Rafi in Boy Friend (1961) – ‘ Aai ga Aai ga ye kya ho gaya”, which became popular. She sang for many MDs including Ravindra Jain. In all she sang123 Hindi songs in 77 Hindi films. She also sang in Bangla, Gujarati, Asami, Odiya, Punjabi, Rajasthani and Manipuri languages. She was married to Shreyas Munim, a Solicitor, in 1984. Her son Sohan is a Sitar player.
I was surprised to find that even Aarti Mukherjee is a party to “Same Name Confusion”. There was another singer of the same name Aarti Mukherjee, who sang in the same period. ofcourse she hardly sang 3-4 songs in Hindi films , but being the weaker one in numbers, all her songs are included in the list of the other Aarti Mukherjee. Her name was Aarti Mukherjee-Sen.
She was born on 16-10-1944 in Delhi. Her family shifted to Bombay after living in Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur and Calcutta. She learnt music from Girija Prasad (brother), Parul Ghosh-singer, Parsatwar, Malay Chakravarti and Pradeep Roy Chaudhari. She graduated from Wilson College, Bombay. It was Hemant Kumar who gave her a break with a song ” Sara mora kajra’ in the film Do Dil (1965). Later she also sang for his film Rahgir (1969) and a duet with Usha Khanna in film Sardar (1967).
She got married to Sunil Sen, an Art Director in Advertising, in 1966. She sang some songs in Bangla films. But after marriage, she stopped singing in films. She sang on Radio and held many stage shows. Unfortunately all her 3 songs are credited to the more prolific Aarti Mukherjee (Munim), confirming the “Same Name Confusion”. Hardly anyone is aware of the other Aarti Mukherjee (Sen). Her bad luck ! ( This information is based on the interview of Aarti Mukherjee (Sen) as given in the book “Swar Sagar” by Swapnil Pore).
Song- Aaj ke din jhoom le (Sitamgar)(1958) Singers- Manna Dey, Geeta Dutt, Arti Mukherjee, Lyricist- Saajan Bihari, MD- G.Ramnathan and B.N.Bali
Lyrics
haa
aaj ke din jhoom ley
ho sake kal na miley
haaye re ye jawaanee
aise kya banegee
aake dil zara thhaam ley
haaye re ye jawaanee
aise kya banegee
aake dil zara thhaam ley
haa
aaj ke din jhoom ley
balmaa
na balma
nainon ke baan
dil hai ghaayal
maaro naa
na balma
nainon ke baan
dil hai ghaayal
maaro naa
daiyya kaise man aaye
aur dil ko tadpaaye
meree bhi maan jaao na balmaa
mere bhi maan jaao na balma
na balmaa
nainon ke baan
dil hai ghaayal
maaro naa
haa
mere paas aao zaraa
mere paas aao zara
ab mujhe tarsaao naa
mujhse bolo zaldee
varnaa dekho chal dee
ye mazaa bhi na aayegaa
mujhse bolo zaldee
varnaa dekho chal dee
ye mazaa bhi na aayegaa
haa
mere paas aao zara
sun lo hum tum honge
sun lo hum tum honge
armaan laakhon honge
armaan laakhon honge
rangeen mausam honge
rangeen mausam honge
aise din kam honge
mera ye mera jiya dekho dhadke hardam
haha
main jaadoo maaroon aisa bhi
ye jaal bhi aise daaloon
duniya zulfen jhoome
dilwaale bole keh doon main
ha ha haha
bolo hum tum honge
ha ha haha
armaan laakhon honge
ha ha haha
aaa
aaa
dil mein
aahaa
he he he
ho ho ho
dil mein aaa
ha ha ha ha
dil mein piyaa
haa
main pyaar doon is dil mein aisi piyaa
aaaaa
aaaa
aaa
is dil mein aaa
hahahahah
is dil mein
ho ho ho
is dil mein aa
hahahahah
is dil mein bhi aaa
haa
main pyaar doon
is dil mein bhi aaa
aaa
dil mein
aa haa
is dil mein
ho ho ho
is dil mein aa
aa aa aa aa
is dil mein bhi aa
haan
main pyaar doon
is dil mein bhi aa
aaa
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
July 5, 2023 at 5:18 pm
Enjoyed reading this article and watching the song in this post.
Thanks for the detailed information on how the dubbed movies and later the remakes came into practice.
And thanks for the information on another Aarti Mukherjee which I think is new addition of information to many or all of us.
Regards,
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July 5, 2023 at 8:13 pm
Thanks.
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July 5, 2023 at 10:38 pm
Thanks.
-AD
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