Bam Bholanath Bam Bhola
Posted by: Atul on: December 20, 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 Raaj Tilak-1958.
It was a Gemini Pictures’ film, produced and directed by its owner, the successful, enterprising businessman S.S.Vasan. The Music Director was C.Ramchandra. All the songs were by P.L.Santoshi. For C.Ramchandra, this was possibly the last big banner film from the South. As such, the year 1958 was the worst year in his life, both professionally and in personal life as well.
All these years he had been a respected and popular composer with most south filmmakers. With him, they used to get one of the best song writers, Rajendra krishna and the undisputed queen of playback- Lata Mangeshkar, without any problem. Rajendra krishna worked for C.Ramchandra for a long time, since 1947and wrote songs for most of the popular and hit films like Shehnai-47, Patanga-49, Nazare-49, Samadhi-50, Khazana-51, Albela-51, Hangama-52, Shagufa-53, Jhanjar -53, Anarkali-53, Insaniyat-55, Azaad-55 etc. In 1957, Rajendra Krishna wrote songs for AVM’s film Bhabhi. The songs became popular and the film was a great Hit.
S.S.Vasan did not like this. He was upset that a Lyricist from his camp worked for AVM. He decided that he will never take Rajendra krishna for his films hereafter. When he planned the Hindi film Raaj Tilak in 1958, he informed C. Ramchandra not to bring Rajendra Krishna with him. C.Ramchandra suggested the name of Santoshi, which was accepted by Vasan. When Rajendra Krishna learnt that C.Ramchandra had taken Santoshi as his Lyricist to Madras, he was furious thinking that C Ramchandra had ditched him and he decided to leave C Ramchandra hereafter. Not only this, he started suggesting the names of Ravi, and Chitragupta to Madras filmmakers. C Ramchandra stopped getting films from the south and fell out of their favour. Professionally, this was a great setback to him in 1958, losing a friend like Rajendra Krishna, due to a misunderstanding.
At personal level, his relations with his ‘friend’, Lata Mangeshkar soured and she decided never to sing for him after Raaj Tilak. Even for this film, she sang only 2 songs and refused a duet with him, citing prior commitments with other MDs. That duet was sung by Usha Mangeshkar and C.Ramchandra. Thus the year 1958 rang the death knell for C Ramchandra’s career and he slipped downwards, getting only a few small budget films.
The cast of the film Raaj Tilak-1958 was Gemini Ganeshan, Vaijayantimala, Padmini, Pran, Jagirdar, Bipin Gupta, Lalita Pawar, Durga Khote, Agha , Shammi etc. The story of this film was….
The loyal Diwan of the kingdom accuses the Senapathi to have planned the killing of the young prince. The king ,as a punishment, banishes him to another country, but Senapati hides in the kingdom itself. One day he kills the king and becomes the ruler. Before dying, the king asks his loyal Diwan to save the prince and the princess. Diwan takes them and runs away, leaving his own wife and children.
Senapati captures Diwan’s wife, keeps her in prison on an island and leaves his son and daughter in the flowing river. Some kind person saves the children and they grow up as Chander ( G.Ganesan) and sister Gowri ( Vijaya kumari). Senapati comes to know about them and abducts Gowri and arrests Chander and keeps him in a prison on the same island as his mother. Gowri dies while attempting to run away.
Chander meets his mother and learns everything. He vows to kill the Senapathi. He tries to escape from the island with his mother, but mother dies on the way and Chander is thrown into the raging sea. He survives and reaches Ratna island. The Rajkumari Mandakini of Ratna island loves him. He narrates everything to her and she allows him to go to his kingdom to kill Senapathi. He comes to the kingdom where he meets his father and also princes Padma who loves him. Meanwhile Mandakini also reaches the kingdom. Padma and Mandakini meet and Padma allows them their love, sacrificing her love.
However during the final battle, in an attempt to save Chander, Mandakini dies. Senapathi is killed and peace returns to the kingdom. Padma and Chandar marry and he gets the Raj Tilak !
In the cast, the name of Pran is mentioned. We all know about Pran very well, so there is no point in giving his Bio-data here. Few days back I found an article on Pran on http://www.rediffmail.com. This article gave interesting points about Pran’s life, which normally are not known to most people. Here is an excerpt from this article, duly edited by me.
Pran’s full name is Pran Krishan Sikand. Pran wanted to be a photographer and even took up a job as an apprentice in A Das & Co, Delhi. Pran’s first ever acting role was Sita to Madan Puri’s Ram in Shimla, at a local Ramlila. Since Pran’s father was a civil contractor with the government, Pran studied at various schools in Kapurthala (Punjab), Unnao, Meerat and Rampur (Uttar Pradesh) and Dehradun (Uttarakhand).
Pran’s first film was in Punjabi called Yamla Jat (1940), where he played a villain. It was a huge hit. Pran did not tell his father that he was shooting for a movie, as he thought his father would not permit him to have an acting career. When his first interview appeared in a newspaper, Pran asked his sisters to hide the papers. When his father finally learnt of his career, he was not upset as Pran had expected. In one of his early films, Pran played hero to Noor Jehan in Khandaan (1942).
Pran came to Mumbai from Lahore on August 14, 1947, just a day before India’s Independence, with his wife and one-year-old son Arvind. According to Pran, one of the most precious things he lost in the Partition was his dog. When Pran became popular, he would name his dogs Bullet, Whisky and Soda.
Before Pran came to Mumbai, he had already acted in 22 films as a villain. Due to the Partition, his career had a brief pause. When Pran came to Mumbai, he stayed at the Taj Mahal hotel. As he had no work, money started running out, and the family had to shift to smaller and smaller hotels. Finally, they had to stay in a guest house. After eight months of arriving in Mumbai, Pran — with the help of writer Saadat Hasan Manto and actor Shyam — got a role in Shaheed Latif’s Ziddi (1948), starring Dev Anand and Kamini Kaushal.
Ziddi was a hit. Within a week of its release, Pran signed three more films: S M Yusuf’s Grihasti, Prabhat Films’s Apradhi and Wali Mohammad Wali’s Putli. BR Chopra’s Afsana (1951) was Pran’s first biggest hit after he shifted to Mumbai.
Pran had three children — Arvind, Sunil and Pinky — and five grandchildren.
Ashok Kumar and Pran were the best of friends and have acted in more than 25 films together, including Afsana, Victoria No 203, Chori Mera Kaam, Chor Ke Ghar Chor, Apna Khoon, Aap Ke Deewane, Raja Aur Rana, Inspector, Lakeeren, Mr X, Pooja Ke Phool, Purab Aur Pachhim, Adhikar, Naya Zamana and Aansoo Ban Gaye Phool.
Pran even played Valmiki in a mythological film called Luv-Kush. When Pran was signed up for Halaku, Meena Kumari was quite upset but when she saw him in costume, and a few rushes from the film, she was very happy. Pran would work on his make-up well. He would have an artist at home, who would sketch the kind of look he wanted. Then, his make-up man and wig-maker would work on it.
Pran acted in several Bengali films as well, including Joy Mukherjee’s Sonai Dighe, directed by Ashim Banerjee.
It was Pran who recommended Amitabh Bachchan to Prakash Mehra for Zanjeer, which had been offered to Dev Anand, Raaj Kumar and Dharmendra earlier. Pran acted with Amitabh in 15 films like Zanjeer, Kasauti, Don, Amar Akbar Anthony, Majboor, Dostana, Naseeb, Kaalia and Sharaabi. Not many know that Pran was paid more than Amitabh Bachchan. In the 1970s, only Rajesh Khannna was paid more than Pran. In the 1950s and 1960s, only Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor and Rajendra Kumar were paid more than Pran.
Pran started rejecting film offers in the 1990s citing age-related problems. But when Amitabh was going through a rough patch in his career, he requested Pran to act in his film Mrityudaata and Tere Mere Sapne. Pran readily agreed. During the filming of both Mrituyudata and Tere Mere Sapne, Pran’s legs used to tremble. So he shot most of the scenes in a seated position. After 2000, he made very few guest appearances in films.
Pran was a member of various social organisations, and even had his own football team called the Bombay Dynamos Football Club.
Pran’s favourite word ‘Barkhurdaar’ became immensely popular over the years.In 2001, Pran got a Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian award from the government of India. Pran’s biography is titled ” …And Pran ” because in most of his movies, his name in the credits would appear last and read as …and Pran. Sometimes, it would be …above all Pran.
When I saw actor Pran’s name in the cast of this film, I remembered that Pran had also acted in another same titled film Raaj Tilak-84, featuring Dharmendra, Hema etc. Pran’s first Hindi film – as a Hero – was Khandan-42 in Lahore. he again acted in another same name film Khandan-in 1965. In the 42 film he was the Hero, but in the 1965 film he was a Villain. He did exactly opposite in another same name film. In film Aan Baan-56 ( Ajit-N.Jaywant), he was a Villain, but in the 1972 film Aan Baan (Rajendra kumar-Rakhi) he did a benevolent person’s sober role in this film ! Pran acted as a Villain in film Chingari-55(Shekhar-N.Jayawant) and also in film Chingari-89 (Sanjay Khan-Leena Cghandavarkar).
Pran did role in many remakes of his films. When he came to Bombay from Lahore in 1948, he got roles in films Grihasthi, Ziddi and Chunaria. In 1948, two of his Lahore made films – Birhan and Barsat ki ek raat – released in India. In both these films, he was the Hero, but in India, he started as a villain in his first 3 films. Kishore Sahu remade film Grihasthi-48 as Film “Ghar Basaa ke Dekho”-1963. In this film Pran did the same role as in the 48 film. Comedian Gope had made a film “Malkin” in 1951 (Gope and Yakub). His brother Ram Kamlani remade this film as “Biradari’ in 1966 (Mehmood and Kanhaiyalal). Pran was villain in both the films.
In his 66 years of career, Pran did variety of roles. Besides acting in remakes and same title films, he also worked in 2-3 generations of actor families. In film Rajkumar-1964, he worked with Prithviraj Kapoor. With Raj Kapoor, he did films like Aah, Chori chori, Jis desh mein Ganga behti hai etc etc. He worked with Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor also. In 1973, he worked in film Rikshawala, with Randhir Kapoor and in film Bobby, with Rishi Kapoor. Thus he worked in 3 generations of Kapoor family.
Pran worked with Naseem Bano in film Sindbad the sailor-52 and worked in many films with Saira Bano-her daughter. He worked with Mumtaz Ali and Mehmood. Pran acted with Sunil Dutt and Sanjay Dutt. He also worked with Dharmendra and Sunny Deol.
There was no other actor like him in Hindi film industry ever again.
Today’s song is sung by Manna Dey and Vinod (not to be confused with Music director Vinod). Enjoy….
Song- Bam Bholanath Bam Bhola (Raaj Tilak)(1958) Singers- Manna Dey, Vinod, Lyrics-P L Santoshi, MD-C Ramchandra
Lyrics
Bam bholanath
bam bhola
kahaan gaye tum
arre dhoondh rahe ham
kahaan gaye tum
arre dhoondh rahe ham
chale aao bedhadak
khuli saaf hai sadak
chale aao bedhadak
dhoondh rahe ham
Arre bhagtan
phoonk de shankh arrey phoonk de shankh
zara bhar ke dam
bam bam bam bam
kahaan gaye tum
arre dhoondh rahe ham
chale aao bedhadak
khuli saaf hai sadak
dhoondh rahe ham
khoj phira main duniya saari
khoj phira main duniya saari
mili na aanhkon ki jyot hamaari
kaisi chinta o sansaari
Maadhav ki patni kare rakhwaari
Maadhav ki patni kare rakhwaari
idhar udhar kyun bhatak rahe ho
bhagton ka ye dhaam
kar lo kuchh aaraam yahaan tum
kar lo kuchh aaraam yahaan tum
yahin milenge Raam
ho yahin milenge Raam
Seeta Raam Seeta Raam
Seeta Raam Seeta Raam
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