Bansi bajaa bansi bajaa re
Posted by: Atul on: April 2, 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 Chandan-1941.
When I first saw this name in the HFGK, I remembered the 1958 film Chandan, which was a very entertaining film, having sweet songs composed by Madan Mohan. Today’s film is an obscure film. I tried to get information about this film from the various sources that I use frequently, but nowhere could I get anything, except what is mentioned in the HFGK. Some of its cast members’ names were also seen for the first time by me. Names like Mrs. Sindhu Gadgil, Hari Das, Bala Bhai and Baby Lalita Rao are names which I never again saw in any films. But then, I come across such obscure films now and then and wonder how the producers must have recovered their invested money !
The director Dhirubhai Desai, Music director S.N.Tripathi ( Chandan was his Debut film, as a Music Director) and Lyricist Pt. Indra were all well known. Add to it actor Nazir Ahmed – who was a producer, actor and director. Later he established his own studio- Hind Studios at Dadar, Bombay. During the riots of Independence, his studio was burnt and Nazir was standing and watching it burn, while smoking a cigarette !
Many times, some idea comes from the lyrics and mukhadas of the film’s songs, about its story. Today’s film is classified as a social film and from the songs it does look like a family story of lovers and their families having elders and children. OK, no more guessing about the film.
1941 was the first year in the second decade of the Talkie Era and it was the beginning of the emergence of a New film industry. When Talkie started in 1931, for many years after that, the films were made by the people who had done work in the Silent films. These films had a spill over for the silent era artistes. Once the films started talking,most silent artists who could not speak Hindi or Urdu automatically disappeared. Thus started the influx of new actors who could speak Hindi and sing songs, in whatever way they could. Intelligent directors like V Shantaram,Bhavnani, Sohrab Modi, Chandulal Shah, Himanshu Rai, B N Sircar, L V Prasad and a host of Gujarati directors understood that the Talkie needs a different treatment than silent films. Music directors from stage dramas tried their hand in composing film music.
In the next 8-9 years, there was a perceptible change in the film making, acting, singing, and composing music in the films that were made. Quality artistes from the silent era continued for some more years – finally giving way to the new artistes. The 30s and the 40s mostly differed in film music and story contents. The new blood composers like Anil Biswas, C Ramchandra, Naushad, Ghulam Haider, K Datta, Hansraj Behl, Bulo C Rani, Gyan Dutt and many more replaced the Parsi, Marathi and Gujarati drama music to more acceptable lilting songs. Many musical films were made and some everlasting songs were composed by these people. At the end of the 1940s, one more major change in the film industry took place due to Partition. Let us see some important films.
JBH Wadfia became Chairman of the Film Advisory Board. He produced United India’s First Sindhi film ‘Ekta’-1940, released in 1941. His film Court Dancer was also in English.
Asra- Debut of actor director N A Ansari.
Behan– Mehboob directed this film having an incest suggestive story.
Chandan– Debut of S N Tripathi as an MD.
Chitralekha– First big success of Kidar Sharma. Mehtab’s bath scene caused a ripple.
Dhandhora– Actor comedian Charlie directed the only film.
Doctor– Pankaj Mullick gave excellent songs. First popular song with woof beats-‘ Chale pawan ki chaal ‘.
Jhoola– One of the most successful films like kangan and bandhan, starring Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitnis.
Kanchan– First composed song of Naushad-” Bata do koi.”
Khazanchi– A milestone in musical revolution with Punjabi Theka, by Ghulam haider. Debut of Shamshad Begum in Hindi films.
Lagan– Saigal, as usual, gives good songs.
Mala– was remade as ‘Amar-54’ with music again by Naushad only. Jayant played the same role in both films.
Naya Sansar– Story of Newspaper world. A novelty. Ashok Kumar’s famous cigarette smoking in films started from this film, solving his problem of ‘ what to do with the hands during acting’ !
Nirdosh– Mukesh sings his first film song.
Padosi– Last film of V Shantaram before leaving Prabhat. A Landmark film. ” Kaisa chhaya hai ujala” is a popular chorus song.
Pardesi– Debut of actress Anjali Devi (not the southwali) with real name ‘Durgesh.’
Radhika– Debut of Nalini Jaywant.
Raj Nartaki– Ambitious Wadia film in English , Bangla and Hindi. Released in the USA by Columbia Pictures of Hollywood.
Sangam– Amritlal Nagar’s first film as a writer. He did 18 films as writer and Lyricist.
Sikandar– A Magnum-Opus from Minerva. Chorus song- ” Zindagi hai pyar se” is very popular.
Taj mahal– Debut of Baby Suraiya as an actress.
Sasural and Ummeed were 2 films in which Noorjehan (senior) acted and sang. However these films are usually wrongly included in the filmography of Malika E Tarannum Noor Jehan, who entered Hindi films only with the film Khandan-1942 at Lahore.
The name of actress Maya Devi appears in the cast of the film. Maya Devi was from Bombay and started her career in silent films in 1928 with Anarkali by Imperial. Her first Talkie film was “Kunwari ya widhva”-35. Her real name was Leela. She became a favourite of Bombay Talkies and she did 6 films with them in 1937 and 1938. In all she did 5 silent films and 31 Talkie films till 1949. Her last film in India was “Raaz”-49. She got married with a Muslim and then migrated to Pakistan.
Her husband divorced her in 1951, within two years of marriage. She came back to India to explore her acting career again. But she got only one film- “Aan baan”-1956. She returned and continued doing whatever roles she got there. She did 19 films in Pakistan and then retired.
Her first film in Pakistan was “Phere”-1949. She died in Lahore on 1-2-67. She did films in Gujarati and Punjabi also.
Another name is Ashiq Hussain, who was found by Jaddan Bai. He had acted in her films like “Talash E Haq” and “Moti ka Haar” and also had sung a few songs under her music direction. Not much information is available on him, except that he hailed from U.P. and that he was educated up to Matriculation, in those days. He was one of the young and good looking heroes of those days. He acted in 25 films, starting with Jaddanbai’s film “Talash E Haq”-35 and his last film was “Utho Jaago”-47 – a film produced by actress Shehzadi. After the film was complete, they got married and later migrated to Pakistan. There, Ashiq Hussain turned into a full time producer and made many films. Unfortunately no information about him in Pakistan is also available. Ashiq Hussain sang 32 songs in 13 Hindi films.
Today’s song is sung by Ashiq Hussain. The song is on the lines of songs of the 1930’s decade, having a long prelude.
Song- Bansi baja bansi baja re (Chandan)(1941) Singer – Ashiq Hussain, Lyricist- Pt. Indra, MD- S.N.Tripathi
Lyrics
bansi baja bansi baja re
ho Kanhaiyya
bansi baja bansi baja re
bansi baja bansi baja re
ho Kanhaiyya
bansi baja bansi baja re
soone hain jamuna ke dhaar
soone hain jamuna ke dhaar
sooni hai gokul ki baat
sooni hai gokul ki baat
Vrindawan soona
vrindavan soona
vrindavan phir se basa re
ho Kanhaiyya
bansi baja bansi baja re
bansi baja bansi baja re
pyaase hain Raadha ke nain
pyaase hain Raadha ke nain
gopi jan (?) tadpat din rain
gopi jan (?) tadpat din rain
madhuvan mein
Mohan maduvan mein
Mohan maduvan mein
raas racha re ae
hey Kanhaiyya
bansi baja bansi baja re
bansi se phoonk na le praan
bansi se phoonk na le praan
goonj uthhe geeta ke gaan
goonj uthhe geeta ke gaan
bharat ka sowe
bharat ka sowe
bharat ka bhaag jaga re ae ae
hey Kanhaiyya
bansi baja bansi baja re
bansi baja bansi baja re
bansi baja bansi baja re
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
April 2, 2024 at 5:36 pm
Arun Sir,
Your dedication to preserving the rich history of cinema and sharing its nuances with readers is truly commendable.
I must express my gratitude to Atul Sir for providing us with this wonderful blog full of authentic information shared by experts in the field.
Thank you for your invaluable contributions to the world of cinema.
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April 2, 2024 at 6:45 pm
Thanks for your kind words.
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