Hum do yaar hoshiyaar
Posted on: November 25, 2023
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, 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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Hindi film audience may be acquainted with Pearl Padamsee (1931 – 24/04/2000) for her good performances in Basu Chatterjee’s films, ‘Khatta Meetha’ (1977) and ‘Baaton Baaton Mein’ (1979). She was also seen in Shyam Benegal’s ‘Junoon’. But more than an actor in Hindi films, she was an eminent theatre personality who, in colloboration with Alyque Padamsee, propped up a vibrant English theatre in Mumbai for over 4 decades.
Born to Jewish-Christian parents, Pearl Padamsee was brought up in Bombay (Mumbai) as a baptised Christian. She completed her schooling in Mumbai and joined St. Xavier’s College where she became the Secretary of the College’s Dramatic Society. With the appointment of her father as the First Commissioner of India in British Fiji in 1948, the family shifted to Suva during which Pearl completed graduation in Anthropology from Australia and returned to India. She ran away from her parents’ house in Mumbai and married a businessman, B S Chowdhry. With him, she had a son, Ranjit Chowdhry (1955 – 2020) and a daughter, Rohini Chowdhry who died in her childhood. Soon after the birth of the daughter, Pearl Padamsee divorced her husband and came back to Mumbai with her children.
In Mumbai, Pearl Padamsee became a part of Theatre Group promoting English plays. She started her stage career as an actor. During her theatre career, she renewed her friendship with Alyque Padamsee who was with her in St Xavier’s College. By now, he had become a prominent advertising and English theatre personality. She acted in many English plays under the direction of Alyque Padamsee. Gradually, she became one of the prominent theatre personality as a producer-director-actor-writer in a number of English plays besides some Hindi plays as well. She also acted in Hindi and English films.
Pearl married Alyque Padamsee, who was in love with her since his college days. A daughter, Raell Padamsee was born to them. Her second marriage with Alyque Padamsee also failed and they got divorced. However, both of them remained good friends and had a good professional relationship until her death in 2000.
One of the important initiatives Pearl Padamsee took during her theatre career was in offering the optional ‘after-school theatre workshop’ to students in stage acting. Among the students she trained as child actors were Shashi Tharoor, Kumar Mangalam Birla and Farid Currim, all from Campion School. Another achievement of Pearl Padamsee as told by Shyam Benegal on the day of her funeral was that she created several generations of actors – Soni Razdan, Rajit Kapur, Cyrus Broacha, Jasmin Bharucha, Victor Bannerjee, Nikhil Kapur, Sabira Merchant, Vijay Crishna, Sharon Prabhakar, Ronnie Screwaala and Hosi Vasunia. Amrish Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Mohan Gokhale and later, Boman Irani worked with Pearl Padamsee in theatres before they become well-known actors in Hindi films.
Pearl Padamsee passed away on April 24, 2000, due to a cardiac attack. Her son from the first marriage, Ranjit Chowdhry was an actor in Hindi films doing supporting roles. One can remember his performances in ‘Kattha Meetha’ (1977), ‘Baaton Baaton Mein’ (1979), ‘Khubsoorat’ (1981) etc. Raell Padamsee, daughter from her second marriage runs her own theatre company.
Pearl Padamsee’s first association with Hindi films started as a producer and actor with ‘Hungaama Bombay Ishtyle’ (1978). The film was directed by Ayesha Sayani who was also the joint producer of the film. By the way, Ayesha Sayani is the daughter of Hameed Sayani who was the compere, radio programme producer and an advertising man beside occasionally indulging in theatre.
The film’s cast included Amrish Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Pearl Padamsee, Keith Stevenson, Mohan Gokhale, Mohan Agashe, Preeti Ganguly, Winnie Paranjpye, Ranjit Chowdhry, Sarita Ringshia and many children. Ameen Sayani was the narrator in the film. It was a Children’s film which was based on a play jointly written by Pearl Padamsee and Ratnakar Matkari.
The film was made with a shoestring budget of Rs.3 lakhs. Most of the actors acted in the film free of cost. The film took more than 2 years to complete mainly because the shooting with the children was possible during their school vacations. Also, the then emerging actors, Amrish Puri and Naseeruddin Shah could participate in the shooting only after getting spare time from their mainstream Hindi films.(Source: The Times of India, January 26, 2018).
The gist of the film’s story is as under:
Jaggudada (Amrish Puri) is a street gangster who runs the pick pocketing business with his sidekick Raju (Naseeruddin Shah) and some street children. There is a rival gang led by Aunty (Pearl Padamsee) and her sidekick, Bundledas (Keith Stevenson). The two sidekicks are labeled by the narrator as ‘chamcha’ of their respective boss.
Aunty plans to kidnap Mani (Sarita Ringshia), the daughter of a rich businessman, Seth Popatlal (Mohan Agashe) and his wife (Preeti Ganguly) in expectation of a hefty ransom. However, her plan gets leaked to Jaggudada who works out a strategy to outsmart Aunty in kidnapping Mani.
One day, when Mani is on the way to her school in the car, Aunty and Bundledas kidnap her in the guise of buying her bhelpuri. However, Aunty’s plan is foiled by Jaggudada and Raju who forcibly take Mani in a taxi with the intention of confining her in their hideout. The presence of Police Constable, Sakharam (Mohan Gokhale) who is on a beat duty, spoils Jaggudada’s plan and he had to leave kidnapped girl in the company of the street children.
Though Mani misses her homely luxuries, she is happy with the street children because, for the first time, she has all the freedom to play with street children and roam around with them without the discipline of her strict parents. However, Rosie (Winnie Paranjpye), the eldest of the street children, wishes Mani to be handed over to her parents as she does not want her to be in the pick pocket business.
Seth Popatlal lodges a complaint in the police station on his missing daughter. Sakharam is entrusted with locating the missing girl with his dog, Tiger. Rest of the film is like a merry go round between the rival gangs and Sakharam, trying to outsmart each other which lead to a situational comedy. At last, with the help of the dog, Sakharam locates Mani in the Boot House (in Kamla Nehru Park) with Rosie. Jaggudada, Raju, Aunty and Bundledas are arrested and are put behind bar. Mani is handed over to her parents. The street children are free from the clutches of Jaggudada for doing anti-social activities and they are admitted in a school.
‘Hungaama Bombay Ishtyle’ (1978) had six songs, all written by Kamlesh Pandey and set to music by the legendary film and theatre personality, B V Karanth. These were all the situational songs in the film which carry forward the narrative of the story. The album of the songs were not released on gramophone records.
I am presenting the first song, ‘ham do yaar hoshiyaar’ from the film to appear on the Blog. The song is sung by Nitin Mukesh as per https://muvyz.com/. The song starts with a prelude when Mohan Agashe is seen consoling his wife, Preeti Ganguly as their daughter has been kidnapped. Mohan Gokhale in the role of Police Constable, Sakharam is leaving Mohan Agashe’s house preceded by a police dog, Tiger in search of the kidnapped girl. The lyrics of the song are self-explanatory.
Note: The profile of Pearl Padamsee is mainly based on an article by Garson D’Cunha in ‘Outlook India’, May 8, 2000, an interview of Alyque Padamsee which appeared on Hindustan Times, August 22, 2013, and some snippets from the online sources.
Editor note-The singer of this song is Ambar Kumar.
Video Clip:
Song-Hum do yaar hoshiyaar (Hungaama Bombay Ishtyle)(1978) Singer-
Lyrics
ham do yaar hoshiyaar
ham do yaar hoshiyaar
apna daanv dikhaane chale hain
ham do yaar hoshiyaar
apna daanv dikhaane chale hain
Popatlal ki ladki ka
ham pata lagaane chale hain
Popatlal ki ladki ka
ham pata lagaane chale hain
ham do yaar hoshiyaar
apna daanv dikhaane chale hain
soongh soongh kar chor pakadte
toone umar guzaari
maine bhi dus saal police mein
khaali jhakh nahin maari
ham donon qaanoon ke dushman se
takraane chale hain
haan takraane chalen hain
ham do yaar hoshiyaar
apna daanv dikhaane chale hain
khabar chhapegi
photo chhapega
khabar chhapegi
photo chhapega
aur inaam milega
main ho jaaunga inspector
tu kutta hi rahega
lekin na ho udaas
ke tu hai
bade kaam ka kutta
khel nahin hona inspector
Sakharam ka kutaa
Sakharam ka kutta
ham donon apni yaari kaa
farz nibhaane chale hain
ham do yaar hoshiyaar
apna daanv dikhaane chale hain
ham do yaar hoshiyaar
ham do yaar hoshiyaar
ham do yaar
2 Responses to "Hum do yaar hoshiyaar"
November 26, 2023 at 7:46 am
The information that Ranjit Chaudhary was the son of Pearl Padamsee was quite a revelation. Now we know the reason why the two always acted together in several movies playing reel life maa beta as well.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
November 25, 2023 at 11:16 am
Thanks Sadanand ji
for your post on Pearl Padamsee(one of favourite actress of our family) and about film Hungama Bombay Ishtyle, heard very often during my school going days through print media, but did not knew anything about it, Thanks Sadanand ji, Sudhir ji Again
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