Daga dai ke chale gaye ho baalam
Posted on: September 15, 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 Aaj ka Hindustan-1940.
The second world war had already begun in 1939 and the British Government had promulgated many restrictions on the Indian people like rationing of food items. rationing of petrol and other essential items. As far as the Film industry was concerned, the Raw Film used to be imported as it was not yet made in India. The Government started a quota system for the filmmakers, based on a formula of films made in an year on average and many related parameters. This created problems for individual filmmakers who made films at random and had no studio of their own.
All this had social repercussions and gave scope and rise to Black Marketing of almost everything. Cost of living went up and suddenly the number of films made crashed to a low level of only 86 films in the year of 1940. It took some time for the filmmakers to reschedule their policies. The studio system actually became stronger as artistes preferred to stick to their studios to ensure their sustenance.
From the time when the films started being made in 1913 in India, there came some Milestones years which responded to the changes in the industry. The following were the years when industry had to remodel itself as required.
1931 – Sound entry in films. This encouraged more filmmakers who understood the bright future for the films.
1940 – After a decade of experience, the industry did away with the old dramatic acting style and stage music to songs. Fresh and new composers brought in a variety from different states of India.
1942 – The next younger generation started their own studios making the system strong. More talents were employed.
1946/47 – There was an overhauling of the industry, when a sizable number of film people migrated to Pakistan. This brought in new talents, new blood and ideas to fill the gap. The beginning of “The Golden Era” started.
1950 – After the first 20 years of filmmaking the industry shed its old look and adapted to needs of changing times, tried to be with the world outside India, in music and production with modern equipment. Fall of Calcutta as a Hindi film centre.
Now let us take a closer look at the year 1940……
The year 1940 was the end of the first decade of Talkie films. From 1931 to 1939 most of the film music was made and sung by people who were experts in Classical Music. Classical music has never been the area of common people. It was born in Temples and nurtured in the Darbars of Kings and Nawabs. When film music relied heavily on classical mode, it became an imposition on the masses. Luckily, from the last 2 years of the 30’s, film music started changing and the emphasis shifted to traditional and Folk tunes over the classical.
1940 saw the emergence of Naushad with his first film ‘ Prem Nagar”, as an independent MD. He is the one who advocated the combination of classical with Folk music and this was accepted by other MDs. More people now turned to film songs.MDs like Naushad, Anil Biswas, C Ramchandra, Saraswati Devi, Gyan Dutt, Pankaj Mullick and their followers in the later part of the 40’s changed film music upside down.
National Studios emerged from the merger of Sagar Movietone and Mehboob gave his blockbuster milestone film ” Aurat”. Himanshu Rai died untimely and the reigns of Bombay Talkies came into the hands of Devika Rani. Ranjit brought more popular films from its factory. Though there were signs of slow death, New Theaters still continued with musical films. Prabhat brought its third successive Saint film ‘ Sant Gyaneshwar”. Wadias looked after their Stunt films with fearless Nadia and John Cavas.
In the south, SS Vasan started his Gemini Studios. Master Vinayak and P K Atre started Navyug Films. In August 1940, there was a big fire in New Theatres leading to heavy losses. The use of Harmonium was banned on A.I.R. Due to War Times, Raw Film controls were given to the Film Advisory Board. It also gave rise to Black Marketing of Raw film, in addition to already existing Rationing, and a new class of rich investors emerged in the film industry shaking its established Studio Systems and Culture.
The year 1940 made only 86 Hindi films, less than 100 for the consecutive third year in a row. Let us take a look at some important films of 1940.
New Theatres film Aandhi had good music and songs.
Bombay Talkies continued with Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitnis with the film Azaad, but it was not as popular as Jhoola, Kangan and Bandhan.
A dubbed foreign film -“Azadi E Watan” was the only Hindi film for which Malika Pukhraj had sung 2 songs.
Ranjit’s Achhut tackled a social evil, with good songs composed by Gyan Dutt.
A Stunt film of Shankar Vazare ” Aflatoon Aurat” had an English song in it.
Sagar’s last film ” Alibaba” by Mehboob was released. “Aurat” , a Landmark film by Mehboob for National Studios was the origin of its remake ” Mother India” 57’.
Film ‘Bharosa’ by Minerva was based on an Incest story.
Sirco’s offering ‘Geeta’ had a crime story, with double roles of Chandramohan and Durga Khote.
Prakash Pictures film ‘Narsi Mehta’ had Sant Tukaram fame Vishnupant Pagnis and some good bhajans.
Film Usha Haran saw the Debut of Sitara Devi.
Film Zindagi from New Theatres had very good songs by Saigal.
In addition to restrictions, the British Government also needed people’s support for their war efforts. For this they started ” War propaganda films”. Those producers who made films showing war propaganda in favour of the British, were to get extra ‘Raw film quota’. Many producers opted for this and made films by adding some scenes/dialogues/songs to this effect. Films like Panna-1944 and Badi Maa-1945 are some examples. Actress Geeta Nizami even got a reward from the British Government of Rs. 9000 for her acting in Panna-44 and an extra quota for the producers.
Today’s film Aaj ka Hindustan-1940 may also be one such film. I have no idea about its storyline, but looking at its songs like ” Charkha chalao Behno”, it gives an idea about its being a Propaganda film. Made by Ranjit Movietone it was directed by Jayant Desai and the MD was Khemchand Prakash. Lyricist was D.N.Madhok. The cast consisted of Rose, Prithviraj,Ishwarlal, Charlie, Dikshit, Yaqub, Sitara, Tarabai (sister of Sitara and mother of dancer Gopi krishna), kalyani bai etc etc.
Madhok was an interesting personality in the Hindi film industry. It was D N Madhok who was responsible for recommending Naushad to Manibhai Vyas and Naushad got his first film Kanchan as an MD. He started work and composed one song also. But the orchestra players rebelled against Naushad. They could not tolerate that one of them became a composer and started ordering them. Due to their constant non cooperation,Naushad left the film and it went to Gyan Dutt,who not only retained Naushad’s composition but also gave him the credit as MD for that song. The song was ‘ bata do koi kaun gali gaye shyam’ by Leela Chitnis in the film Kanchan which was released only in 1941. After this Madhok took Naushad to Mohan Bhavnani and he got his first film ‘Premnagar-40′ as MD.
The role of Madhok in the early success of Naushad was vital.Apart from helping Naushad to get established,he worked with Naushad in 11 films out of Naushad’s first 14 films,till Rattan 44. D N Madhok was born on 5-9- 1902. He wrote songs,stories,screenplays and dialogues from 1937 to 1969 a span of 32 years.His famous films were,Bhakta Surdas,Tansen and Rattan. Madhok wrote 882 songs in 119 films. He died on 9-7- 1982 in Hyderabad.
He acted in the film Radhe Shyam-1932. He directed 16 films- from Khubsurat Bala-1933 to Naata-1955. He had sung 1 song in his first film Radhe Shyam-1933. He gave music to the film Radhe Shyam-1933.
Though Madhok was prolific and influential,his reputation in the industry was not good. Besides having all types of bad habits, he was often accused of stealing composers’ tunes and selling them to others. In fact he provided Lyrics and tunes as a package, hence he was popular among some composers. In fact Khwaja Khursheed Anwar a highly respected composer of those days is on record, in an interview ( available on Dr. Surjit Singh ji’s website) to prove how Madhok stole his tunes and sold them to others.
There is an anecdote about how Sajjad Hussain snubbed Madhok in this connection. Sajjad was officially the only composer originally for the film ‘Gaali-44’.
Madhok was one of the many lyricists of this film. One day Madhok came to Sajjad with a ready-made tune and Lyrics for the song ‘ ab aaja dil na lage ‘. Self-respected Sajjad was so enraged that he told Madhok, ” Miyan hum Naushad nahin hai. Humen Tarje banani aati hai “. The final result was Sajjad lost the film and it went to Hanuman Prasad. Madhok was vindictive too.
Let us now enjoy today’s duet sung by Sitara and Ishwarlal……
Song- Dagaa dai ke chale gaye ho baalam (Aaj Ka Hindustan)(1940) Singers-Sitara, Ishwarlal, Lyricist- D.N.Madhok
MD-Khemchand Prakash
Unknown male voice
Chorus
Sitara + Ishwarlal+ Chorus
Lyrics
dagaa dai ke chale gaye ho baalam
jamuna ke pul paar
dagaa dai ke chale gaye ho baalam
jamuna ke us paar
ghar aaja nanad ke bhaiyya
ghar aaja nanad ke bhaiyya
ho ghar aaja nanad ke bhaiyya
tere jhoothhe bhaye ikraar
ghar aaja nanad ke bhaiyiya
tere jhoothhe bhaye ikraar
tohe raam duhaayi
hoy
tohe raam duhaayi
hoy
tohe raam duhaayi
koi pee ki nagariya bataaye de
koi pee ki nagariya bataaye de
mohe sainyya ke photu mangaaye de
mohe sainyya ke photu mangaaye de
ho nanadiya
ho nanadiya karo ikraar
haan jamuna ke pul paar
ho nanadiya karo ikraar
haan jamuna ke pul paar
tohe raam duhaayi
hoy
tohe raam duhaayi
hoy
tohe raam duhaayi
aa aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
dhaan pake ae ae ae
ae ae ae
hey ae ae ae
he he
aur nimbua paake
he he he he
dhaan pake aur
nimbua paake
dhaan pake aur
nimbua paake
dekho sajanwa aake
dekho sajanwa aake
bisar gaye kheton kee duniya
bisar gaye kheton kee duniya
sautan ke ghar jaake baalam
sautan ke ghar jaake baalam
aake balamwaa lo ye bakhaar
jamuna ke pul paar
aake balamwaa lo ye bakhaar
jamuna ke pul paar
tohe raam duhaayi
hoy
tohe raam duhaayi
hoy
tohe raam duhaayi
ghar aaja nanad ke bhaiyya
ghar aaja nanad ke bhaiyya
ho ghar aaja nanad ke bhaiyya
tere jhoothhe bhaye ikraar
ghar aaja nanad ke bhayiya
tere jhoothe bhaye ikraar
dagaa dai ke chale gaye ho baalam
jamuna ke pul paar
dagaa dai ke chale gaye ho baalam
jamuna ke pul paar
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
September 15, 2023 at 2:43 pm
Thanks Arun ji for the informative post and detailed information regarding D N.Madhok, very much informative,…
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September 15, 2023 at 6:30 pm
Thank you, Prakash ji.
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