Ulajh gaye nainaa tumse Kanhaiyyaa
Posted by: Atul on: October 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 the film Garib-1942.
This film was made by the National studios, which was formed after Sagar movietone was closed down. Because of this the artiste who were contracted with Sagar were now bound with National Studios. Music Director Anil Biswas, actor Surendra, Sankatha prasad, Ramchandra Thakur and few others who worked for this film were ‘carried forward’ from Sagar Movietone. Most of them freed themselves to work for other studios or became Free lancers. But Music Director Anil Biswas, while in contract withNational studios, gave music to a film ” Basant ”, made by Bombay Talkies and the name of his brother in law, Pannalal Ghosh was used as the MD of that film. After the closure of national studios, Anil Biswas openly joined Bombay Talkies leaving all his loyal friends of Sagar Movietone, jobless. This became the cause of a rift between once close friends Mehboob Khan and him as Khan never pardoned Anil Biswas for this selfish act. (ref…book “Mehboob Khan” by Shashikant Kinikar).
The film Garib was a social film. During the period of the Second World War, the Congress Party had become very active politically. A large chunk of the population was then influenced by the socialistic doctrine propagated by Nehru. Many of the film industry were among those who were followers of the Nehruvian Socialistic pattern. Mehboob Khan and Ramchandra Thakur were also among them and during this period their films like Roti, Aurat, Garib etc reflected this doctrine. However this Nehruvian Socialistic pattern failed in later years, because as they say ” You can’t make the poor a Rich by making the Rich a Poor “. This reality was understood by the people.
The cast of this film was Surendra, Rose, Veena Kumari, Sankatha, Baby Meena (later actress Meena Kumari), N.A.Ansari, Agha and others. 9 songs were written by Dr. Safdar Aah Sitapuri, 2 by Pt. Indra and one was a Meera Bhajan. 7 songs were composed by Anil Biswas and 5 by Ashok Ghosh.
In one of my recent posts, I opined that the film industry had its milestones in 1931, 1940, 1942, 1946/47 and 1950. Indian film industry has always been alive to the happenings in the country and reflects the national problems and important events in our films. 1942 was a year when the II World War was on its peak and it had caused a severe food shortage in the world. Italy had made a silent film ‘Greed’ on this issue. Based on it, Mehboob Khan made a film ‘ Roti’ in India. Mehboob was a socialist and a Nehruvian to the core and so his films like Mother India or Son Of India were made on socialistic principles. In 1942,Ramchandra Thakur also directed one such film,’Gareeb’.
In India, the Congress had started its Quit India movement, but in our Film Industry it was a Quit studio movement. Many well known film artistes, directors, composers and other related staff moved over to new pastures. 1942, in a sense, became an overhauling of the Film industry with so much movement of people. The following activities changed the scenario to a great extent.
1. A group of disgruntled people in Bombay Talkies, comprising of Rai Bahadur Chunilal, Shashadhar Mukherjee, Ashok Kumar, Sawak Vachha and few of their followers left Bombay Talkies, after disagreements with Devika Rani and formed their own outfit – Filmistan.
2. Mehboob Khan separated from National studios and established his own Mehboob Productions. This was also the time when Mehboob and Anil Biswas separated from each other due to some differences.
3. Abdul Rasheed Kardar established his own Kardar studios.
4. V.Shantaram, along with his team left Prabhat- an institution which he established and made a famous one by his directorial contribution. He first joined Films division and then started his own Raj Kamal Kala Mandir.
5. Wadia Movietone split and the brothers separated. While JBH Wadia, the elder brother, wanted that their company should start making only Social films now, the younger Homi Wadia wanted to continue with Stunt and Action films. He started his own Basant Pictures. Wadia’s star performer Fearless Nadia went with Homi Wadia, whom she married years later.
6. Calcutta’s New Theatres started showing signs of disintegration and Debki Bose,P C Barua etc left the New Theatres. Debaki Bose made ‘ Apna Ghar’ in Bombay. K L Saigal left New Theatres to do films in Bombay . He did Ranjit’s’ Bhakta Surdas’ and ‘ Bhanwra’. He of course went back to Calcutta to do a few more films,before coming back to Bombay for Shahjehan and Parwana. He did not/could not go back to Calcutta,as he died after Parwana-47. Saigal, while recording the song ” Nainheen ko raah dikha” in Bhakta Surdas, did 14 retakes in recordings. His younger brother Mohan Saigal acted as Shri krishna in this film and he is heard saying” Surdas ji” in the song Nis Din barsat Nain hamare.
7. Composer Vasant Desai did his first independent film ” Shobha” as a Music Director.
8. C Ramchandra did his first Hindi film as a composer- Sukhi Jeevan.
9. Ninu Mujumdar became MD with the film Black Out.
10. Kamal Dasgupta started his Hindi career with the film Jawab.
11. Lyricist Ramesh Gupta started with the film Awaz.
12. Lyricist Qamar Jalalabadi started with Zamindar
13. Suraiya entered the Playback with songs in Nai Duniya and Sharda.
14. Hemant Kumar sang his first Hindi song in the film Meenakshi-42.
15. Manna Dey first sang Hindi song in the film Tamanna.
16. Jagmohan Sursagar sang in the first Hindi film-Bhakta Kabir.
17. Nurjahan sang her first Hindi film songs in film Khandan-42, in Lahore.
18. Bharat Bhushan’s first film in a leading role was Bhakt Kabir
19. Madhubala started as Baby Mumtaz in film Basant
From Lahore Dalsukh Pancholi repeated his magic with ‘ Khandaan’-42. This time it was Noorjehan who shook the industry with her songs under Ghulam Haider. Films like Bhakt Kabir,Bhakta Surdas, and Bharat Milap kept the Mythology/religious films in limelight. New Theatres,Prabhat,Bombay Talkies etc all brought excellent films in 1942. Barring Bhakta Surdas,Roti and Khandan,there was not much competition to Naushad’s Station Master-42 ,in music.Its music became quite popular and the film celebrated Silver Jubilee. Naushad tasted success for the first time in his career in 1942 and 2 of his 3 films in the year celebrated Silver Jubilees. The other film was Nai Duniya-42.
Let us take a look at some important films of 1942….
Film Barat had music by Ratanlal-brother of khemchand Prakash and himself as Khemraj.
Film Basant- though it has the name of Pannalal Ghosh as MD, as per HFGK, all the songs were composed by Anil Biswas (because he was still under contract with National Studios) and Ghosh had only done Orchestration and background music.
Bhakta Kabir had music by Himangshu Dutt- the first title holder of ” Sursagar”.
Bhakta Surdas- Gyan Dutt gave 15 hit songs of Saigal and Khursheed. In this film Khursheed sang equally well with Saigal.
Bharat Milap- First film in which Prem Adib and Shobhana Samarth did the roles of Shri Ram and Seeta, which made them famous all over India.
Chauranghee- the only Hindi film for which Kazi Nazrul Islam gave music and wrote songs too. It was his debut film. Also Debut for Hanuman prasad Sharma as Md and S.Fazli as Director.
Dus Baje- Debut of Baby Shakuntala.
Iqrar- Last film of actress Madhuri (Beryl Classen). Master Vithal-a professional singer from Sholapur sang his only song in a Hindi film.( not the actor)
Jawab- all songs popular, especially kanan devi’s ” Ye duniya Toofan mail”.
Khandan- Entry of Nur jahan, from Lahore. All her songs are popular.
Muqabala- First Talkie film with double role of Heroine- Nadia. Babhubhai Mistri’s magic in trick scenes.
Nai Duniya- Suraiy’s first recorded playback song in Hindi film.
Roti- Begum Akhtar’s role and 6 songs.
Savera- First film of Arun Ahuja and Nirmala Devi.
Sharada- Naushad gives good songs.
Station Master- Hit film with songs.
Zamindar- Shanta Apte goes to Lahore all the way
All in all, the year 1942 was an eventful year for the industry. Indian audiences enjoyed a variety of Genres in film offerings and a feast of Naushad’s songs, Bhajans and New artistes.
In the cast of film Garib-42, one name Veena Kumari appears. This is a case of Same Name Confusion, as there was another actress Veena operating in the same period. Anyway, let us now see who this Veena Kumari was. Her original name was Nurjahan. Her father was a landlord in Lucknow. She was born in 1916. As per customs of those times, she never went to school, but being well to do, got private tutors and she learnt Urdu and English sufficiently to read and speak. She was a typical good looking girl. She was very fond of seeing silent films with her father. When the Talkie films started, her interest grew much more and she decided to join films. She was a natural good singer too and this helped her get into films.
Her first film was Inteqam-33, where she worked without any fees. Here she was credited with her real name Nurjahan. In the 1939 film Swastik, made by Mohan Pictures, she became the Veena kumari-heroine of Jeevan. She continued working in films like Radhika,Asra and Kasauti- all 1941, Gharib and Zevar in 42, Pratigya, Bhaichara,Masterjee and Chiragh in 43, Mujrim-44, Gunjan and Shauhar in 48. Shauhar was made by her own banner-Dil-Sitan arts. The film was directed by her. Her last film was Basera-50. She sang 22 songs in 7 films. She was quite good at singing. When you hear her songs, you will agree with me.
Now let us see what proves they were 2 different persons. Firstly, Veena kumari started her career much earlier than Veena. Secondly, Veena started acting in Punjabi films in 1941 only and then came to Bombay for films Yaad-42, Najma-43,Rajputani-44, Humayun-45 etc. Thirdly, Veena kumari was a B grade actress and her films were made by smaller banners, whereas, from the beginning, Veena was in the Big league of Mazhar khan, Ranjit, Mehboob, Kardar, K.Asif, Minerva etc. Fourthly, Veena kumari stopped working in 1950, while Veena continued till 1983. The most important point was, Veena could not sing, whereas Veena kumari sang 22 songs in 7 films. All this clearly separates them as different actresses.
The story of the film Garib-1942 was…….
An unemployed graduate Sharad (Surendra) finds work with a blind person. He meets the heiress Sudha(Miss Rose) on the street and later finds that the place where destitutes find shelter belongs to Sudha’s father Biharilal (Sankatha Prasad), an industrialist.
He uses the friendship with Sudha to get her father forgo the rent and start a factory that may employ all the destitutes. The factory does very well, to the chagrin of Sudha’s fiance Satish (N.A.Ansari). Satish , who simultaneously pursues the beautiful Lata (Veena Kumari), gets the factory closed and accuses Sharad of having an affair with Lata.
The threat of renewed destitution is avoided only when Sudha and Lata meet and the truth comes out. Biharilal throws Satish out and gets Sudha and Sharad married !
Today’s song is sung by Veena Kumari.
Song- Ulajh gaye naina tumse Kanhaiya (Garib)(1942) Singer- Veena Kumari, Lyricist- Dr. Safdar Aah Sitapuri, MD- Ashok Ghosh
Lyrics
Ulajh gaye naina tumse Kanhaiya
Ulajh gaye naina tumse Kanhaiya
sajaa ree dulaaree
lagee man mein kaaree
sajaa ree dulaaree
lagee man mein kaaree
ghazab dhhaaye balmaa
ye ankhiyaan tumhaaree
ghazab dhhaaye balmaa
ye ankhiyaan tumhaaree
ghazab dhhaaye balmaa
ye ankhiyaan tumhaaree
ghazab dhhaaye balmaa
ye ankhiyaan tumhaaree
dagamag doley
jeewan kee naiyyaa
dagamag doley
jeewan kee naiyyaa
Ulajh gaye naina tumse Kanhaiya
Ulajh gaye naina tumse Kanhaiya
Ulajh gaye naina tumse Kanhaiya
Ulajh gaye naina tumse Kanhaiya
kahaan ?? ne
kahaanee ?? sapne
kahaan ?? ne
kahaanee ?? sapne
paraaye huye jin ko samjhe thhe apne
paraaye huye jin ko samjhe thhe apne
jiyo more rasiya man ke basaiyyaa
jiyo more rasiya man ke basaiyyaa
Ulajh gaye naina tumse Kanhaiya
Ulajh gaye naina tumse Kanhaiya
Ulajh gaye naina tumse Kanhaiya
Ulajh gaye naina tumse Kanhaiya
Ulajh gaye naina tumse Kanhaiya
Ulajh gaye naina tumse Kanhaiya
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6 Responses to "Ulajh gaye nainaa tumse Kanhaiyyaa"
October 5, 2023 at 7:07 pm
Thanks Sir,
for the informative post on 1942 hindi films, Veena kumari/Veena and the film Garib
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October 6, 2023 at 2:31 am
Arun Sir,
Eventful 1942 year, Information fully loaded. Your writeups always give Bonus data of early 40s and 50s along with a song. Thanks.
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October 6, 2023 at 7:04 am
gandhivp ji,
Thanks for your appreciation. I am glad you get more information from my posts.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
October 5, 2023 at 10:08 am
Arunji,
This wonderful post is a collector’s item. Nowhere one can find so much information about the film and music history of 1942.
AK
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October 5, 2023 at 2:08 pm
AK ji,
Thank you very much for your kind words and appreciation. Such comments work as a motivation to continue doing this work with the same zeal.
Thanks again.
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