Bikhar gayee aashaa kee badree bikhar gayee
Posted on: August 11, 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 ‘Samaj Ko Badal Dalo’ (1947).
1947 was an year when it was known to everyone in India that their country is going to be divided on the basis of religion and a new entity – Pakistan will be carved out of this nation.The people had no choice and this was accepted by everyone as inevitable. What next? This question was solved partly, unknown to the common man, by the Hindi film makers. In the few succeeding years many films were made on the Independence struggle as well as films stressing the need to revive and consolidate the social structure of India by strengthening the joint family tradition, raising voice against the unjust and antisocial customs and the need to honor the elders of the family.
Film ‘Samaj Ko Badal Dalo’ was also one such film which had a story emphasizing the need to facilitate divorce process for the Hindus. In India, the Parsis, Muslims and the Christians had their personal laws for divorce, but it was not easily available to the Hindus, who had to follow the age old laws made in 1869, which practically made it impossible to get a divorce. This was leading to forced living together of mismatched couples. The system of child marriages and the dowry system was abundantly in practice still.
Consistent social movements to have laws for divorce, banning of dowry and fixing of legitimate age for marriage were going on. Hindi films made their contribution by making films based on these topics. Readers will be surprised to know that The Hindu Marriage Act was finally amended only in 1955, to provide divorce facility to Hindus, on 8 new counts. Bigamy (2 marriages) was banned in 1961 and Child Marriage Act of 1929 was amended only in 1978, making the age of marriage for Girls as 18 and for Boys as 21. I am not saying that all these changes took place by making films alone, but surely films on these issues made public opinion stronger to fight for justice.
Prakash Pictures produced the film ‘Samaj Ko Badal Dalo’ in 1947, with story, screenplay and dialogues by Pt. Girish. The MD was Khemchand Prakash and the film was directed by Vijay Bhatt. The story of this film was. . .
Kishore (Arun) and Manorama (Mridula) are in love with each others but unable to get married. Mridula’s father is a clerk, who can’t afford to pay the dowry demanded by Arun’s family. Jayant (Yakub) is a widower, and Mridula is married off to him. His cruel behaviour becomes apparent when he starts torturing Mridula soon after their marriage. Arun’s parents get him married to the rich Champa (Leela Pawar) who is in love with someone else. Arun helps her get married to Naresh, the man she loves, by giving her a divorce. Arun watches the torture inflicted on Mridula and the story then continues through tense scenes where eventually Arun kills Jayant and unwittingly Mridula too, following which he’s sent to a mental asylum having been declared insane.
The cast of the film was Arun Ahuja (actor Govinda’s father), Mridula (first heroine of Dilip Kumar), Umakant (a popular actor as Lakshaman in Ramayan), Yaqub, Leela Pawar, Shantarin, Teekaram and others. Actress Mridula was a victim of ‘studios-spoiling-careers-of-actors’ syndrome. Let us see how. Right from 1931 onward the studio system was very common and actors, directors and composers were hired under contract, on monthly pay rolls by the studios. There was a competition among major studios as to who has got more famous stars on their rolls. Studios also had regional inclinations. For example, Prabhat studios had maximum Marathi artistes, Prakash, Sagar and Imperial had mostly Gujaratis, whereas new Theatres in Calcutta and Bombay Talkies in Bombay promoted Bangla artistes. Studios like Pancholi in Lahore or Minerva or Ranjit in Bombay had a cosmopolitan mix. Ranjit had the biggest fleet of more than 300 people on their payrolls at one time ! They even advertised “There are more stars in Ranjit than there are in the sky” !!!
In general contracts with artistes went off smoothly, but at times, due to the stubbornness of the owners, the careers of some artistes were almost destroyed or were stuck for a long time plunging them into bleak prospects for their future. Notable cases of such sufferers were that of Meena Shorey of Minerva Movietone, Shanta Apte, Manju and Chandramohan with Prabhat Films/V.Shantaram, Uma Devi with Kardar Studios, Sitara Kanpuri with Shalimar Films etc. Among these, the worst case was that of Meena Shorey.
Khursheed Jehan (later Meena Shorey) was a find of Sohrab Modi. She was illiterate. He signed a contract with her, telling her that it was for one year and that she can not work anywhere else in this period. Uneducated Khursheed signed blindly. She worked in 2 films and then the films stopped. She lost many outside offers, like Mehboob Khan for the film ‘Humayun’ (1945) etc., because of her contract. After one year, when she was called to Lahore by Pancholi and was offered 2 films there, she received a legal notice from Sohrab Modi for breach of contract. She went to Bombay to inquire. To her dismay, she found that taking advantage of her illiteracy, Modi had made the contract for 3 years and NOT one year. When she pleaded, he asked for 60,000 rupees. Finally she was released when Modi’s wife Mehtab intervened and settled the matter for 30,000 rupees.
Chandramohan became a drunkard when V Shantaram did not release him and kept him without work. He died penniless in 1949. Sitara Kanpuri was also cheated by WZ Ahmed of Shalimar films. Kardar destroyed the singing career of Uma Devi because she went to Madras to sing for ‘Chandralekha’ (1948) while under contract but without work for one year.
Similarly Mridula was also a victim of her contract with Bombay Talkies. It destroyed her career as a heroine forever. Devika Rani was her mentor in Bombay Talkies. However, after Himanshu Rai’s death, no one was listening to her in the company due to groupism. Disgusted, Devika Rani left Bombay Talkies, having sold all the shares. Mridula got stuck in the company without work, due to her 5 year contract. It was Vijay Bhatt of Prakash Pictures who somehow convinced Bombay Talkies to loan her to him and she got roles in 2 of their films. In the film ‘Bhakta Dhruva’ (1947), she played mother to 16 year old Shashi Kapoor (Sr) when she herself was about 23 year old only ! But she had no choice. The film and her role became famous, but she lost her chances of becoming heroine in any film thereafter.
In the film cast you must have seen the name UMAKANT DESAI. I am sure most people would not know anything about him. People remember Dilip Kumar for his double role in ‘Ram Aur Shyam’ (1967) and triple role in ‘Bairaag’ (1976). You also remember Sanjeev Kumar for his 9 roles in ‘Naya Din Nayi Raat’ (1974) or Kamal Hassan for his 10 roles in ‘Dashavtar’ (2008). But hardly anyone knows that Umakant Desai was the FIRST actor to do 3 roles in film ‘Hukum Ka Ikka’ (1939) (Rajkumar, Madari and Common Man).
Umakant Desai was born in Sankheda, near Vadodara (Baroda), Gujarat on 13-6-1908. After matriculation, he came to Bombay and did a job in BB&CI Railways (Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railways, a private railway company of pre Independence period). He used to do roles in local dramas. One day Director Chimanlal Desai saw him in a drama called ‘Jaya Aur Jayant’. He was so impressed with him that he took him to act in Gujarat’s first talkie ‘Narsi Mehta’ (1932). In this film Umakant did the role of Krishna.
So,the son of a landlord Himmatbhai Jagubhai Desai became a film actor.He joined Prakash Pictures on a salary of Rs.150/- pm,but when he left Prakash, he was drawing Rs. 3,000/- p.m.. In 1934, he worked in Gujarati film ‘Sansar Leela’. He sang 2 duets with Rajkumari in this film. The film was a hit and was remade in Hindi as ‘Nai Duniya’. He worked in ‘Bharat Milap’ (1942). His best remembered role was as Laxman in the film ‘Ram Rajya’ (1943), which created several records, including that it was the first and the only Hindi film Mahatma Gandhi ever saw in his lifetime !
Umakant worked in 59 Hindi films and 15 Gujarati films. ‘Anmol Moti’ (1948) was his last film as a hero. Then he shifted to doing character roles. He had worked with Durga Khote, Shobhana Samarth, Pramila, Ratnamala, Ranjana, Sitara, Snehprabha Pradhan, Meena Kumari, Amita, Vyjayantimala, Nalini Jaywant, Kamini Kaushal etc. For fluency in Hindi and Urdu, he was appointed a teacher also.
He worked in 26 films of Prakash, in which 8 films were directed by Vijay Bhatt. He mostly worked in mythological and social films. Some of his films were ‘Miss Mala’, ‘Chhote Babu’, ‘Station Master’, ‘Amar Asha’, ‘Poornima’, ‘Anmol Moti’, ‘Kavita’, Hamara Ghar’ etc . He did Laxman’s role in 7 films.
Umakant’s son and daughter in law died a tragic death in a snow blizzard in the USA in 1975. His wife Kaumudi Ben died in 2006 and Umakant died on 25-1-2007. He was awarded Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Award in 2004. [Adapted from Gujarati article on Umakant by Shri Harish Raghuvanshi ji, famous film historian, compiler and writer].
Today’s song is sung by Shamshad Begum as mentioned by the uploader. HFGK does not mention any name as a singer.
[Editor’s Note: Yesterday, 10th August, was the 53rd remembrance day for music director Khemchand Prakash.]
Song- Bikhar gayee asha ki badri bikhar gayee (Samaaj Ko Badal Daalo)(1947) Singer- Shamshad Begum (as per the uploader), Lyricist- Roopdas, MD- Khemchand Prakash
Lyrics
bikhar gayee ee ee
bikhar gayee ee
aasha ki badaree bikhar gayee ee ee
aasha ki badree ee
bikhar gayee
ghor niraasha chhaayee ho raama
ghor niraasha chhaayee ho raama
aasha ki badree bikhar gayee ee
aasha ki badree bikhar gayee
beet gayo saawan bin barse
beet gayo o o saawan bin barse
bhaadon ne agan lagaayee ho raama
bhaadon ne agan lagaayee ho raama
aasha ki badree bikhar gayee ee
aasha ki badree bikhar gayee
barkha tore chaar din
jhoothhi toree aas
tose ye naina aa bhale ae ae
jo barse baarho maas
bhaadon ne agan lagaayee ho raama
bhaadon ne agan laagaayee ho raama
aasha ki badree bikhar gayi ee
aasha ki badree bikhar gayi
————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
————————————————
बिखर गई
बिखर गई
आशा की बदरी बिखर गई
आशा की बदरी
बिखर गई
घोर निराशा छाई हो रामा
घोर निराशा छाई हो रामा
आशा की बदरी बिखर गई
आशा की बदरी बिखर गई
बीत गयो सावन बिन बरसे
बीत गयो सावन बिन बरसे
भादों ने अगन लगाई हो रामा
भादों ने अगन लगाई हो रामा
आशा की बदरी बिखर गई
आशा की बदरी बिखर गई
बरखा तोरे चार दिन
झूठी तोरी आस
तो से ये नैना भले
जो बरसे बारहो मास
भादों ने अगन लगाई हो रामा
भादों ने अगन लगाई हो रामा
आशा की बदरी बिखर गई
आशा की बदरी बिखर गई
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 12, 2023 at 11:28 am
Arun Ji,
Thanks for the post . It was a revelation how Studio owners cheated and destroyed careers of bright artistes.
Song of the post is pleasant. It sounded different from Shamshad that was set in my mind.
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August 12, 2023 at 4:54 pm
Satish ji,
Thanks. I am glad you found the post interesting.
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