Chitchor kaare badraa ghanghor kaare badraa
Posted on: December 15, 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.
This article is his 800th post in the blog.
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Blog Day : |
5628 | Post No. : | 18117 | Movie Count : |
4931 |
‘Blue Mountains’ (2017) was produced by Rajesh Jain and was directed by debutant Suman Ganguli who also wrote story and screenplay for the film. The cast included Ranvir Shorey, Gracy Singh, Mahesh Thakur, Arif Zakeria, Rajpal Yadav, Vinod Nagpal, Amit Behl, Lisa-Marie Rettenbacher and Yatharth Ratnum (Debutant). The shooting of the film started in 2015 and was completed in two months. The major outdoor shooting of the film was done in Shimla and its outskirt. The film was first shown at the International Children’s Film Festival held in Hyderabad in November 2015 where it won the Golden Elephant Award for the best feature film in Asian Panorama. The film got theatrical release on April 7, 2017.
This was the last released film of Gracy Singh which means she has not worked in any Hindi film in the last 8 years. She had become a well-known face during the telecast of the TV serial, ‘Amaanat’ (1997) and her popularity had gone up after the release of ‘Lagaan (2001). Her first 3 Hindi films with her lead roles had won National Film Awards for the best films. Despite this, the acting career of Gracy Singh did not pick up as expected. What could be the reasons?
To analyse the reasons, I browsed through Gracy Singh’s filmography and went through her website. I also watched video clips of her spiritual speeches/dance performances/interviews available on video sharing platforms. At the outset, she had made it clear that she will work in only such films which can be watched by all the members of families. This must have become a limiting factor for her to get film offers. It also appears that she was also interested in other form of activities such as dance performances and spiritual activities by becoming a Brahma Kumari. She was pursuing the hobbies such as Reiki Healing, Rajyog Meditation, Chakra Balancing, Homeopathy, Paintings, Costume designing for her dance programmes, interior designing etc.
Gracy Singh was born on July 20, 1980, to a Sikh family based in Delhi. During her schooling, she got trained in Bharatnatyam dance which helped her to participate in the school dance competitions. After the completion of her schooling, she did her graduation in Arts. She wanted to pursue the classical dancing as a profession. During her college days, she joined a dance troupe, ‘The Planet’ through which she gave some dance performances in Delhi and other Indian cities.
Gracy Singh used to occasionally visit Mumbai for modelling, more as a hobby than the profession. During one of such visits, Sanjeev Bhattacharya, the director of TV serial, ‘Amaanat’ (1997) who was looking for a new face, offered her role in the serial. Although she had no interest in acting, she found the story of the serial appealing. She agreed to work in the serial and thus began her acting career. ‘Amaanat’ (1997) was a super hit TV Serial. I had watched many episodes of this serial when it was telecast during 1997-98.
With the exposure in TV serial, Gracy Singh got offers from Hindi films. ‘Hu Tu Tu’ (1999) was her debut film directed by Gulzar. This was followed by ‘Ham Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain’ (1999) directed by Satish Kaushik. In both these films, she had small roles. It was ‘Lagaan’ (2001) in which she was cast in lead role with Amir Khan. The film was a super hit and was nominated for Oscar. Two of her next three films, namely, ‘Munnabhai MBBS’ (2003) and ‘Gangajal’ (2003) also became hit films. Her next three films in 2004-5 did not fare well at the box office. She started accepting roles in films of the lesser-known banners. Her choosiness in accepting offers of films seems to be the reason that she almost stopped getting Hindi film offers from big banners. She started working in Punjabi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali films.
Probably, not getting films of her choice, Gracy Singh started devoting her spare time on dance performances. She refreshed her Bharatanatyam dance with a new Guru, Deepak Mazumdar through Hema Malini and gave her ‘Arangetram’ performance. She also got trained in Odissi and Kathak dances and formed her own dance troupe. She also learnt the costume designing for dancers in her troupe.
In 2013, Gracy Singh started her spiritual journey by joining Brahma Kumari Foundation. She wanted to permanently shift to their headquarter at Mt. Abu by giving up her professional career. But the Administrative Head of Brahma Kumaris Foundation at that time advised her to continue her professional career and also work for Brahma Kumaris. It is her association with Brahma Kumaris that made her a multi-facet personality. She completed her courses in second degree Reiki Healing, Rajyog Meditation, Chakra Balancing etc. She also got interested in painting and interior designing. She says that in Brahmakumaris, she found peace, happiness, contentment, understating, acceptance and support from fellow Brahmakumaris. She formed a group among Brahma Kumaris to stage plays on mythological stories at various places.
With Gracy Singh becoming a spiritually inclined person, she got an offer to act in a TV Serial, ‘Santoshi Maa’ (2015) which she accepted. During this period, she accepted a few Hindi film offers which she liked. One of them was ‘Blue Mountains’ (2017) with an off-beat story in which she did the role of a supressed classical singer. The story of the film is as under:
Som (Yatharth Ratnum), a teenaged boy from a small town is accidentally selected during audition for a television reality show of talent hunt for singer. Her mother, Vaani (Gracy Singh) who was once a classical singer, had to give up her professional singing career on her husband’s (Ranvir Shorey) transfer to Shimla. She now sees in her son the fulfilment of her own supressed dream of becoming a celebrated singer. Som is put into a lot of pressure from her mother with his close friends propping him up that he is going to become a star celebrity. He dreams of attaining a high goal like that of the height of Blue Mountains in his region.
After participating in the reality show, Som returns to his hometown on failing to make to the final selection. He sinks in his low self-esteem. He gives up singing and stops going to school. Slowly, he goes into depression. Som’s parents, his schoolteachers, his close friends and others in his town try to help him to overcome his low self-esteem. His mother also goes into depression because she thinks that she is responsible for the state of her son. Gradually, Som realises that he must resume to practice singing and make his mother come out of depression. He starts practising singing and his mother is happy. He also starts going to school. One day, because of his earlier performance in TV Reality singing show, he gets an offer from a music company for recording songs in Mumbai for an album. The family is elated and so are his school friends.
The moral of the story is that the participation in the event is more important than winning and the defeat is the first stage of attaining winning streaks later.
Suman Ganguli, the film’s director, in an interview, had said that since the film is about a budding singer, he needed a teenaged boy who could actually sing. He selected Yatharth Ratnum (real name Yatharth Ratnum Rastogi) because he was the 1st runner up of a TV reality singing show, ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little Champs (2009). He was put on an acting workshop for six months of rigorous training before the shooting for the film commenced.
Yatharth Ratnum Rastogi was born on November 9, 1996, in Varanasi. His father was in Audio distribution business while his mother was a housewife. He had interest in singing since his childhood. He was trained in Hindustani classical music from the age of 7. He started performing in the inter-school competitions and other local competitions from the age of 9. He completed his CBSE from Sunbeam School, Varanasi.
In 2009, Yatharth got an opportunity to perform in a singing reality show, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little Champ Talent Hunt where was the first runner up. That gave him an opportunity to visit Los Angles (LA) in 2009 where he got trained by a vocal coach, Maxayn Lewis. During his stay in LA, he got interested in singing in English. He started writing lyrics for the English songs and sang himself. His stay in LA prevented him to continue his college education. Back in India, he participated in the first English reality show ‘The Stage’ (2015) in which he was declared winner. This enabled him to participate in the concerts at 8 cities all over India and launch his solo career as a singer with a contract from Universal Music.
The producer of ‘Blue Mountains’ (2017) had seen Yatharth’ performance in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little Champ Talent Hunt in 2009. He got an offer from the producer to play the main teenaged protagonist. He was unsure of his acting capability. However, the film’s director, Suman Ganguli had confidence in him. He was given a rigorous six-month training in acting.
Today, more than the film, it is his solo singing concerts all over India which will help Yatharth in reaching a great height in his singing career. (Note: Profile of Yatharth Ratnum is mainly based on his interview which appeared here.).
‘Blue Mountains’ (2017) has 6 songs which are written by Naveen Tyagi (2), Panchhi Jalonvi (2), Sunil Sirvaiya (1) and Ozil Dalal (1). Songs are set to music by Aadesh Shrivastava (2), Monty Sharma (2) and Sundeep-Surya (2). During the making of the film, Aadesh Shrivastava passed away. I am presenting the first song, ‘chitchor kaare badraa ghanghor matwaare badraa’ to appear on the Blog. The song is rendered by Shreya Ghoshal on the words of Sunil Sirvaiya which is set to music by Monty Sharma.
The song is partly lip synced and partly in the background after the milk vendor, Damodar (Rajpal Yadav) congratulates Vaani (Gracy Singh) for her son getting through the audition of a reality show. He reminds her of a popular song she used to sing because of which he became a fan of her. Vaani goes into the flashback mode of her singing and dancing days. Gracy Singh is graceful in her singing and dancing performances in this song. The song precedes with a somewhat longish sargam (I am not able to decipher them), ably rendered by Shreya Ghoshal in a fast-paced tempo.
Som (Yatharth Ratnum) sings in the film only the mukhda of the song in three different situations – first at the time of the audition for qualifying in the reality show, second, at the time of learning from his mother and third while participating in the first round of the reality show. However, only the audio clip of this mukhda part of the song rendered by Yatharth Ratnum is available with the prelude of a long sargam.
Video Clip (Female version):
Audio Clip (Female version):
Audio Clip (Male version):
Song-Chitchor kaare badraa ghanghor matwaare badraa (Blue Mountains)(2017) Singer-Shreya Ghoshal, Lyrics-Sunil Sirwaiya, MD-Monti Sharma
Lyrics (based on Video clip):
[sargam]
chitchor..
kaare badraa
ghanghor..
matwaare badraa
chitchor..
kaare badraa
ghanghor..
matwaare badraa
tohe dekh dekh phoolon kaa
mehke anchraa
tohe soch soch bahaaron kaa
behke kajraa
koi kheenche dor mujhe teri ore
teri oar
kaare kaare badraa
ho o o kaare kaare badraa
ho o ho o kaare kaare badraa
kaare kaare badraa
chhanan chhanan chhan paayal boley
sanan sanan jo purwaa doley
chhanan chhanan chhan paayal boley
sanan sanan jo purwaa doley
radha boley sakhiyaan boley
kanhaa ke sang hi
ho o o o o o khelenge hum
o bansuri bajaaye jab
wo jamuna ke chhor pe
koi kheenche dor mujhe teri oar
teri oar
ho o o ho kaare kaare badraa
kaare kaare badraa..aa
10 Responses to "Chitchor kaare badraa ghanghor kaare badraa"
December 15, 2023 at 7:31 am
I forgot to mention in my article that the music director, Monty Sharma is the grandson of Pandit Ramprasad Sharma, son of Anand Sharma, violinist and nephew of Pyarelal of Laxmikant-Pyarelal.
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December 15, 2023 at 9:38 am
Sadanand ji,
Please accept Heartiest Congratulations on completion of 800 posts here.
800 may be a number, but the contents of these posts are 10 times more important.
The efforts that you take in writing each post, are worth appreciating.
You are presenting an article in totality, giving bios, anecdotes and related information about the song and the film. This is a complete package in itself.
I thank you for your articles which give satisfaction of having learnt something new, everytime.
Of late, your changed stance leading to writing on newer films and songs has given a new perspective to my views about them.
May you continue this way for years to come.
Thanks again.
-AD
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December 15, 2023 at 11:40 am
Arun ji,
Thank you very much for your appreciation.
I regard the appreciation from a Hindi film historian with specialisation in films of the golden period, is a testimony for the efforts in presenting new films in my articles in the recent period. Most of the songs covered in these articles have the aura of the melodies of the golden period of Hindi film music with the benefits of modern technology.
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December 15, 2023 at 8:22 pm
Sadanand ji
Congratulations on your 800the post in the blog,
Thank you for the detailed post on yet another unheard film and Gracy Singh,
If my memory serves me right, I have read somewhere Gracy Simgh also performed a dance ballet namely Amrapali,
Regards and good wishes
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December 16, 2023 at 12:06 pm
Sadanand Ji
Congrats on your 800 th post. Your posts always have valuable contents.
Another thing I note , as I mentioned earlier in this blog, is that you find normally unnoticed/unheard films and present noteworthy aspects in them.
Thanks for the detailed info on Gracey Singh, an actress I always appreciated. As mentioned in the write up, I always wondered why her filmy carrier did not take off, as it should have.
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December 16, 2023 at 4:07 pm
Satish ji,
Thank you for the appreciation you showered on me.
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February 19, 2024 at 5:24 pm
Dr. Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande is a prominent figure in the realm of Indian classical music, renowned for her exceptional vocal prowess and deep understanding of the traditional musical forms. Born into a family with a rich musical heritage on October 7, 1960, in Mumbai, India, she inherited her passion for music from her father, Shri. Narayanrao Bhide, an accomplished harmonium player and vocalist.
https://www.indianetzone.com/70/dr_ashwini_bhidedeshpande.htm
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
December 15, 2023 at 5:58 am
Heartiest Congratulations on your 800th post Sir jee !!!
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December 15, 2023 at 7:25 am
Thanks, Avinash ji.
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