Tu kis liye khaamosh hai o baansuriwaale
Posted by: Atul on: March 31, 2024
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 Mahasati Tulsi Vrinda-1947.
1947 was a landmark year for India. We got our Independence on 15th August 1947. It was a matter of joy and sorrow, because on one hand we threw off the British rule, but before leaving, the British divided our country on religious line, creating Pakistan for Muslims. This not only affected the lives of Muslims who left India to settle in and develop their own country, it also disturbed almost all forms of business in India, wherever Muslims were involved.
In olden days, there were 3 major film centres-Bombay, Lahore and Calcutta. After 1947, all the Hindi film activity at Lahore shifted to Bombay. By mid 50’s even Calcutta almost stopped making Hindi films. Many Hindi speaking artistes in various disciplines of film making shifted to Bombay and finally Bombay became the only and the main Hindi film making Centre.
The year 1947 is a reminder not only for the Independence of India, but also for the upheaval that took place in the film industry that time. More than in any other industry in India, Muslims were plentiful, working in different sections and departments of the Hindi film industry. Majority of them migrated to the newly formed Muslim Nation of Pakistan. This did create a lot of disturbance in the film industry. Right from the beginning of 1947, there were signs that soon the British would leave India – after dividing it into two Nations, India and Pakistan. When the month and date became known for the Partition, there was a great hurry among the filmmakers to complete their projects on hand and in process, compromising many factors like quality of the film, number of songs and such other things.
This resulted in the record number of films made in 1947 alone – 181 Hindi films and about 100 films in other languages in India. This was a record which remained unbroken till 1985, when 187 Hindi films were made. Thus from 1931 to 1985, this record remained unbroken for more than 50 years ! Obviously, this resulted in a big compromise on quality to achieve quantity with many films produced half heartedly. Most or rather many films made in 1947 remained obscure, unheard of and many flopped due to poor quality. Actually only few films were released in 1947, because many films were released in 1948 and 1949, with some films being released in Pakistan too.
Did you ever hear about films Amar Asha, Angoorbala, Attention, Barrister, But Tarash, Chalte Chalte, Chandrahas, Dagabaz Dost, Dehati,Ek kadam,Gaurav,Giribala, Heera, Intezar ke baad, Jhalak,Jurmana, Khaufnak aankhen, Lalaat, Mangalsutra, Moti, Sewa gram, Stage girl, Tohfa or Utho jago ? Of course not all films were below standards. Some of the landmark films were also made in 1947, like Shehnai, Mirza Sahiban, Jugnu, Saajan, Naatak, Meera, Elan,Aap ki sewa mein, Dard, Do Bhai, Neel Kamal or Parwana etc. However by and large the picture was like this only.
In 1947, many stunt/action films and Mythological films were also made. Today’s film was also one such film. The influence of Mythological and religious stories on indians is age old.Even before the advent of Silent films, the stage drama industry also used these stories to attract audience. The parsi Theatre and other Anglo Indian drama companies too staged such stories and artistes of all religions acted in such dramas.
Indian culture and Hindu religion had always treated and considered the natural phenomenas as their Gods. Prithvi (The Earth), Tej (Fire), Aap (Water0, Akash(The space) and Vaayu (The Air) were worshipped as Gods. In the same way Plants and Trees were also given the status of Supernatural entities. The Banyan Tree is worshipped by women once in a year. The leaves of Bel Tree are offered to Lord Shiv and even Durva (a kind of grass) is used in the pooja of Shri Ganesh. The entire exercise was to treat them as Gods and nurture the Nature. One such plant was Tulsi, which adorned the front space of most houses in olden times. Even today Tulsi leaves are considered sacred and a favourite offering to Lord Vishnu.
In order to enhance the importance of these natural plants and entities, many stories about them were included in our sacred scriptures like Vedas, Upnishads, 18 Puranas and 18 Up Puranas. By giving them this holistic statue our ancestors probably tried to ensure that the Human race looks after them, respects them and nurtures them. Other than their religious importance, these factors are also important in Ayurveda for the health and growth of the Human race and this point was well understood by our ancestral leaders.
Especially our Puranas Contain stories about such natural factors and plants, so that they have an aura of respectability and belief. Today’s film’s story appears in the Vishnu Puran. The Tulsi plant and its leaves are most important in Lord Vishnu and Satyanarayana’s pooja. In the Puran Tulsi aka Vrinda is accepted by Vishnu as his consort. Vrinda is a synonym for Tulsi since then. The story as per Vishnu Puran is….
Vrinda (who later became Tulsi) was a devotee of Lord Vishnu. Jalandar was formed from the light of Shiva’s third eye. He was not a devotee of Lord Vishnu, as a monster raised him. He married Vrinda, but did not pay attention to her devotion to God. Once, he wanted to see Shiva and Parvathi because someone told him, and went in the disguise of Shiva. However, Parvathi did not like this and wanted Jalandar killed. However, he couldn’t be killed when Vrinda was praying for the protection of her husband. So Shiva waged war with him, while Vishnu went in the disguise of Jalandar to Jalandar’s house and told Vrinda he had won and asked her to stop her puja. Immediately, Shiva killed Jalandar, although not instantly. After Vrinda understood that Vishnu had come in the disguise of her husband, she cursed him to become a stone and also Lakshmi to leave him. Lord Vishnu happily accepted the curse and still said he would bless her and said that he would be easily pleased when anyone uses Vrinda for puja. He also asked Jalandar to ask for a boon, and Jalandar told him to make the ocean Vishnu’s home, as Jalandar’s father was the sea.
This is the reason why the stone Saaligrama is used as an idol of Lord Vishnu and also why Seeta left Ram. Vrinda had jumped into the burning pyre of her husband’s body, and the first Tulsi plant grew from their ashes.
The film was made by Jayant Desai productions, Bombay and it was directed by Ishwarlal. The 10 songs of this film were written by Qamar Jalalabadi aka Om Prakash Bhandari (9-3-1917 to 9-1-2003).
Starting with film Zamindar-1942, he wrote 700 songs for 156 films. He wrote many popular songs like “Ik dil ke tukde haqzar hue”, “Aaj Pehli tareekh hai”, “Mera naam chin chin choo” etc. The music was by Ram Ganguly. The cast of the film was Ishwarlal, Ranjana, Umakant, Rewashankar, Kantilal, Shalini and many others.
Now, hardly anyone knows about actress Ranjana who had worked as a Heroine with Dilip Kumar also in his early career. One can not get any information about her in any book or on the internet. Here is some information about her, for our readers.
Ranjana’s real name was Ratan Shantaram Deshpande. She was born in Nagpur on 20-10-1927. While studying in St. Ursula High School, she learnt dancing and music from well known ustads. After passing her 6th standard examination, she came to Bombay to her elder sister, Kusum Deshpande, who was already working as an actress with Minerva Movietone films. Kusum married Vasant Thengadi, a handsome actor in Hindi films of those times.
Kusum arranged for specialised dancing for Ratan in the holidays. Later Ratan was taken to Vijay Bhatt of Prakash pictures for an interview. She was immediately selected and got a role in the famous film Ramrajya-1943. In this film she was Chitralekha, Sita’s sakhi. Vijay Bhatt also changed her name to Ranjana. She was in the payroll of Prakash for Rs. 2000 pm. She acted in films like police-44, Vikramaditya-45 and Hamara Sansar-45. Next films were Nai Maa-46, Zamin Asman-46, Mahasati Vrinda Tulsi-47 etc.
Ranjana was called by Bombay Talkies to do the Heroine’s role opposite Dilip Kumar in the film Milan-46. This film was based on Bangla novel Nauka Doobi written by Tagore. She played the role of Hem Nalini in this film’s Hindi version. The same role was done by Meera Sircar in the Bangla film Nauka Doobi.
After this film, Ranjana was in great demand, but she wanted to quit films and get married to live a simple life. She married a young and handsome writer, Arvind Shukla. But after a few months he fell sick and there was no income. After the death of her first husband, Ranjana, it seems, married one Patwardhan in 1954. She continued working in films till 1975. She also worked in many Marathi films. In all, she worked in about 35 Hindi films or so. Ranjana worked with many big stars of her times like, Prem Adeeb, Prithviraj Kapoor, Jairaj, Dilip kumar, Jeevan, Umakant etc etc.
It is interesting to note that her sister and her brother in law acted with her in a few films. Some such films were Zamin Asman-46 and Shadi se pehle-47. In the film Saajan ka Ghar-48 all three had worked together.
We have many families like this in Hindi films. I remember Zubeida and her mother and sisters, Sitara Devi and her 2 sisters, Nargis, her mother and brothers, Kapoor family, Dilip Kumar, his brother and sister in law, many film couples and families of several film people as examples. Ranjana was perhaps one early example.
Today’s song is sung by Saraswati Rane. Enjoy….
Song- Tu kis liye khaamosh hai o baansuriwaale (Mahasati Tulsi Vrinda)(1947) Singer- Saraswati Rane, Lyricist- Qamar Jalalabadi, MD- Ram Ganguli
Lyrics
o o o o o
baansuriwaale ae ae
o o o o o
baansuriwaale ae ae
tu kis liye khaamosh hai
o baansuriwaale
o baansuriwaale
tu kis liye khaamosh hai
o baansuriwaale
o baansuriwaale
aa tu hi samajh kar mujhe
aankhon mein chhupaa le
o baansuriwaale
ek haath se chakkar ko chalaata huaa aa jaa
ek haathh se murli ko bajaata hua aa jaa
chakkar mein tere maut hai
murali mein hai jeewan
tu mera hai ik baat meree maan le Mohan
chakkar ko chhupoaa le zaraa
murali ko uthhaa le
o baansuriwaale
chakkar ko chhupoaa le zaraa
murali ko uthhaa le
o baansuriwaale
Mathura ke sitaare
tujhe Mathura ki kasam hai
Mathura ke sitaare
tujhe Mathura ki kasam hai
Jamuna ke sahaare
tujhe jamuna ki kasam hai
Jamuna ke sahaare
tujhe jamuna ki kasam hai
O Raadha ke pyaare ae ae ae ae
O Raadha ke pyaare
tujhe Raadha ki kasam hai
kehti hai ye Raadhaa
mere Mohan ko bachaa le
kehti hai ye Raadhaa
mere Mohan ko bachaa le
kehti hai ye Raadhaa
mere Mohan ko bachaa le ae ae
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
March 31, 2024 at 4:34 pm
Arun Sir,
It’s interesting to see how Ranjana shared the screen with her sister and brother-in-law in a few films. This inadvertently highlights the prevalence of nepotism in the early days of Hindi cinema.
During this period, when the industry was still in its formative years, family connections often took precedence in casting decisions. However, amidst this trend, there were also numerous independent and exceptionally talented artists who succeeded purely on the basis of their skills.
This observation isn’t meant to spark a debate on nepotism; it’s just a light-hearted reflection on the historical context of the industry.
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March 31, 2024 at 5:56 pm
Thanks for your views.
It is bound to happen so, because India is a country where family bonds are very strong. Not only in films, but in most of the other business ventures also we find relatives in the network.
It’s not bad as long as the members are gifted for the work and the business is a fair one. In politics, crime or anti national activities these bonds are dangerous .
Since ages, most professions are run by family , traditionally in India. These became the precursors to Cast systems, I believe.
-AD
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