Wo naheen hai apna ghar
Posted on: June 30, 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 Apna Ghar-1942.
This film was the remake of the Marathi film “आपले घर ” (Aaple Ghar i.e. Our Home). Very surprisingly, it was made in both languages by Circo Production, a film company famous for making Hindi films. Usually, the bilingual-Marathi/Hindi films were made in Poona and Kolhapur by either Shantaram’s Prabhat Films or Master Vinayak’s Huns Pictures at Kolhapur. But then, the owner of the CIRCO (Cine Industries Recording COmpany), Chimanlal Trivedi was a person exclusive in the industry.He produced films taking the best from the industry- actors, directors or the music directors. He floated 5 successful film companies and one stage drama company. He had close relations with the top political leaders of India. After his death, his entire family settled in the USA. Normally, very few articles are written about exclusive producers (who are NOT usual directors). Here is more information on this unique personality.
Chimanlal Trivedi, was one of the major filmmakers of the 30s and the 40s decade. He was more a Producer businessman than a Director. While he directed hardly 7 films, he produced close to 50 films- all having A grade actors, directors and composers !
Born on 19-3-1909 at a village near Anand in Gujarat, he was from a Brahmin family. He did his schooling in Ahmedabad and technical graduation from Baroda. Being an expert in weaving, he took up a job as a weaving Master in Calcutta. Fond of writing, he started writing Dramas, which were staged in Bengal and Gujarat. He was attracted towards Cinema and tried some work in New Theatres. Knowing that the real playing field is Bombay he reached there. He wrote stories for the film Chevrolet-36 and Danger Signal-37 for Mohan pictures.
He established his own production company CIRCO (Cine Industries Recording COmpany) in 1937. By 1943, he had made 12 films. He preferred not to direct his films, but appointed directors like Mohan Sinha for Laxmi-40, Anuradha-40 and Vanmala-41, Balwant Bhatt for Suhag-40 and Madhusudan-41, A R Kardar for Swami-41 and Nai Duniya-42 and Debki Bose for Apna Ghar-42.
He had the art of getting the most popular stars for his films like, Prithviraj kapoor, Chandramohan, Durga Khote,Mazhar khan, Bibbo,Surendra, Jairaj, Sitara, Jeevan, Yaqub, Shobhana Samarth, Prem Adeeb, Vishnupant Pagnis,Leela Desai, Pahadi Sanyal, Shanta Apte and many others. Even big directors like Debki Bose,Nitin Bose, Kardar,Mohan Sinha, Sarvottam Badami, Nandlal Jaswantlal,Profull Roy, Sudhir Sen, R S Chaudhary, Phani mujumdar, Balwant Bhatt etc. worked for him. From Prabhat he brought Shanta Apte for Rs.1000 pm, and also Chandramohan, Pagnis and Mazhar khan. His friend Chandulal Shah followed his way and brought K L Saigal from New Theatres !
C L Trivedi was an expert in gathering funds for his films. After CIRCO at Parel, he started Laxmi Productions at Andheri, in 1942. He made mera Gaon,Sharafat,Bhagya Laxmi,Kadambari,Tamanna,Inkaar,Mohabbat,Miss Devi etc. In 1951, it was Supreme Pictures, Trivedi Productions was in 1952, Kala Kendra in 1953 and with Chitra Bharati in 1954, he made 13 films upto 1961. Top Composers like Timir Baran,Ashok Ghosh,Rafiq Gaznavi,K C Dey,Saraswati Devi,Husnlal-Bhagatram and Naushad gave music to his films.
In the end, he turned to Stage and started Abhinay Bharati. He staged many dramas in Bombay and Gujarat. Chimanlal always went for big names. He had close relations with Nehru, Menon, Morarji Desai, and other National leaders. His wife Kantaben was a Leader herself. Chimanlal Trivedi died on 25-11-1973. His wife, 3 sons and a daughter settled in the USA.
It may be a coincidence, but Gujarati businessmen like Chimanlal Trivedi, Chimanlal Desai,Chimanlal Luhar, Chaturbhuj Doshi, Chimankant Desai, Chunibhai Desai and Chandulal Shah made sizable contribution to Hindi cinema in the first 20 years of the Talkie era. All names started with CH ! (Thanks to Harish Raghuwanshi ji for his book ” बॉलिवूडमा गुजरातीयो ” in Gujarati for some information and my notes.)
Indian film industry has always been alive to the happenings in the country and reflects the national problems and important events in our films.1942 was a year when the II World War was on its peak and it had caused a severe food shortage in the world. Italy had made a silent film ‘Greed’ on this issue. Based on it.Mehboob Khan made a film , Roti’ in India. Mehboob was a socialist and a Nehruvian to the core and so his films like,Mother India or Son Of India were made on socialist principles. In 1942,Ramchandra Thakur also directed one such film,’Gareeb’.
In India, the Congress had started its Quit India movement, but in our Film Industry it was a Quit studio movement in 1942. Many well known film artistes, directors, composers and other related staff moved over to new pastures. 1942, in a sense, became an overhauling of the Film industry with so much movement of people. The following activities changed the scenario to a great extent.
1. A group of disgruntled people in Bombay Talkies, comprising of Rai Bahadur Chunilal, Shashadhar Mukherjee, Ashok Kumar, Sawak Vachha and few of their followers left Bombay Talkies, after disagreements with Devika Rani and formed their own outfit – Filmistan.
2. Mehboob Khan separated from National studios and established his own Mehboob Productions. This was also the time when Mehboob and Anil Biswas separated from each other due to some differences and misunderstandings.
3. Abdul Rasheed Kardar established his own Kardar studios.
4. V.Shantaram, along with his team left Prabhat- an institution which he established and made a famous one by his directorial contribution. He first joined Films division and then started his own Raj Kamal Kala Mandir.
5. Wadia Movietone split and the brothers separated. While JBH Wadia, the elder brother, wanted that their company should start making only Social films now, the younger Homi Wadia wanted to continue with Stunt and Action films. He started his own Basant Pictures. Wadia’s star performer Fearless Nadia went with Homi Wadia, whom she married a few years later.
6. Calcutta’s New Theatres started showing signs of disintegration and Debki Bose,P C Barua etc left the New Theatres. Debaki Bose made ‘ Apna Ghar’ in Bombay. K L Saigal left New Theatres to do films in Bombay . He did Ranjit’s’ Bhakta Surdas’ and ‘ Bhanwra’. He of course went back to Calcutta to do a few more films,before coming back to Bombay for Shahjehan and Pawana. He did not/could not go back to Calcutta,as he died after Parwana-47. Saigal, while recording the song ” Nainheen ko raah dikha” in Bhakta Surdas, did 14 retakes in recordings. His younger brother Mohan Saigal acted as Shri krishna in this film and he is heard saying” Surdas ji” in the song Nis Din barsat Nain hamare.
7. Composer Vasant Desai did his first independent film ” Shobha” as a Music Director.
8. C Ramchandra did his first Hindi film as a composer- Sukhi Jeevan.
9. Ninu Mujumdar became MD with the film Black Out.
10. Kamal Dasgupta started his Hindi career with the film Jawab.
11. Lyricist Ramesh Gupta started with the film Awaz.
12. Lyricist Qamar Jalalabadi started with Zamindar
13. Suraiya entered the Playback with songs in Nai Duniya and Sharda.
14. Hemant Kumar sang his first Hindi song in the film Meenakshi-42.
15. Manna Dey first sang a Hindi song in the film Tamanna.
16. Jagmohan Sursagar sang in the first Hindi film-Bhakta Kabir.
17. Nurjahan sang her first Hindi film songs in film Khandan-42, in Lahore.
18. Bharat Bhushan’s first film in a leading role was Bhakt Kabir
19. Madhubala started as Baby Mumtaz in film Basant
From Lahore Dalsukh Pancholi repeated his magic with ‘ Khandaan’-42. This time it was Noorjehan who shook the industry with her songs under Ghulam Haider. Films like Bhakt Kabir,Bhakta Surdas, and Bharat Milap kept the Mythology/religious films in limelight. New Theatres,Prabhat,Bombay Talkies etc all brought excellent films in 1942. Barring Bhakta Surdas,Roti and Khandan,there was not much competition to Naushad’s Station Master-42 ,in music. Its music became quite popular and the film celebrated the Silver Jubilee. Naushad tasted success for the first time in his career in 1942 and 2 of his 3 films in the year celebrated Silver Jubilees. The other film was Nai Duniya-42.
Let us take a look at some important films of 1942….
Film Barat had music by Ratanlal-brother of Khemchand Prakash and himself as Khemraj.
Film Basant- though it has the name of Pannalal Ghosh as MD, as per HFGK, all the songs were composed by Anil Biswas (because he was still under contract with National Studios) and Ghosh had only done Orchestration and background music.
Bhakta Kabir had music by Himangshu Dutt- the first title holder of ” Sursagar”.
Bhakta Surdas- Gyan Dutt gave 15 hit songs of Saigal and Khursheed. In this film Khursheed sang equally well with Saigal.
Bharat Milap- First film in which Prem Adib and Shobhana Samarth did the roles of Shri Ram and Seeta, which made them famous all over India.
Chauranghee- the only Hindi film for which Kazi Nazrul Islam gave music and wrote songs too. It was his debut film. Also Debut for Hanuman prasad Sharma as MD and S.Fazli as Director.
Dus Baje- Debut of Baby Shakuntala.
Iqrar- Last film of actress Madhuri (Beryl Classen). Master Vithal-a professional singer from Sholapur sang his only song in a Hindi film.( not the actor)
Jawab- all songs popular, especially kanan devi’s ” Ye duniya Toofan mail”.
Khandan- Entry of Nur jahan, from Lahore. All her songs were popular.
Muqabala- First Talkie film with double role of Heroine- Nadia. Babubhai Mistry’s magic in trick scenes.
Nai Duniya- Suraiy’s first song in Hindi film.
Roti- Begum Akhtar’s role and 6 songs.
Savera- First film of Arun Ahuja and Nirmala Devi.
Sharada- Naushad gives good songs.
Station Master- Hit film with songs.
Zamindar- Shanta Apte goes to Lahore all the way
All in all, the year 1942 was an eventful year for the industry. Indian audiences enjoyed a variety of Genres in film offerings and a feast of Naushad’s songs, Bhajans and New artistes.
The cast of the film Apna Ghar was Shanta Apte, Chandra Mohan, Jagdish Sethi, Maya Banerjee, Nimbalkar, Jeevan, Maruti etc. The Music Director was Harishchandra Bali. The film’s story, as adapted from the Film India Magazine, by our Sadanand Kamath ji, a few years ago, is….
Narendra (Chandramohan) has turned recluse after the accidental death of his wife. With his self-imposed isolation from society, he develops individualism and loses sight of emotional values of life. Over a period of time, the inherent goodness in him gets lost and he becomes stubborn in his approach to life.
One day, Narendra, on one of his visits to the city, accidentally meets Meera (Shanta Apte), a social worker and the daughter of an old and infirm father. Some arguments ensue between them over the charges levelled against her father for committing some fraud in the company for which he works. Narendra happens to be one of the directors of that company. The father is asked to give up all his possessions to make good the fraud. The demand makes him sick and he is on his deathbed.Realising the sacrifices her father made in bringing her up and to help her father to die as a happy man, Meera agrees to marry Narendra. Since the marriage was more of a bargain than for love for each other, differences in views come to the fore. Meera is a strong willed girl having definite views on life. Narendra also has uncompromising views on life which he has developed after living in isolation. The married life of Narendra and Meera, therefore, becomes a clash of egos.
At this stage, Mami (Vimla Vashisht), Narendra’s maternal aunt joins the family and creates more problems for the couple. At the same time, on a social front, Meera is on a collision course with Narendra when she encourages the local villagers to resist Narendra’s autocratic orders instead of meekly following them. With strong arm tactics, Narendra crushes the villagers’ rebellion. Many such skirmishes take place between Meera and Narendra as clashes between social worker versus director of the company which create friction in their married life.
Meera is expecting her first child and she is in a delicate condition. Narendra on the other hand has gone to the city for his medical check-up. Meera delivers a boy and the news makes Narendra leave his medical check halfway to be with Meera. But the circumstances make him unable to see his infant child. He suspects a conspiracy to keep him away from the new born son.
Meera becomes a tool in the hands of Mami who creates an impression that the child should be kept away from the evil eyes of Narendra who is eager to see his infant child. One day, Narendra rushes to the house and demands for the child to be handed over to him at gunpoint. Being afraid that her child would be shot, Meera hands over the child to Narendra. Having lost respect for her husband, she runs out of the house leaving the child at the mercy of Narendra. While crossing the river, she accidentally falls in the river and is presumed dead. The fact is that she is saved by some fishermen and she is staying at a place some miles away from the house.
The child soon gets ill and Narendra, with his insensitivity embedded in his nature, is not able to judge the seriousness of the situation. The child is now seriously ill and on the last stage before death snatches him away. At this juncture, Narendra gets the news that Meera is alive and living a few miles away from his house. With news of the illness of the child reaching her, she rushes home only to get the news that her child is no more.
Meera refuses to believe that her child is dead. She holds the child and walks in the room the entire night. When the doctor comes to the house in the morning to take the child away from her, he finds the child to be alive. A mother’s faith has created the miracle.
Having found the child hale and hearty, Meera prepares to leave the house. But the husband and wife have now found a common ground to live together – the well-being of their child and the work for the social upliftment of downtrodden and deprived people, some of whom had saved Meera from drowning.
The film’s Heroine, Shanta Apte was a firebrand woman. She not only staged a Dharna/ hunger strike at the gates of Prabhat film company, but also ensured enough publicity to her protest against the company’s injustice to its artistes through their contracts.
She was also the one who went to the Editor of the magazine Film India-Baburao Patel’s office and beat him with a cane for publishing a defamatory news article about her in his magazine. I remember, in earlier years another firebrand actress Miss Zohra Jaan, beat her director with Chappals, on the sets of shooting and in presence of other actors and staff, for his insulting remarks on her, during the shooting.
Shanta Apte was the first to sing all songs of this film. She had written her autobiography in Marathi titled ” जाऊ मी सिनेमात ?” ( Should I join films ?), in the late 40’s when she left films and started acting in stage dramas. Recently her daughter Nayna Apte got it reprinted and all 1000 copies were sold within 15 days. I somehow managed to get one copy for me. It is a prized possession for me now, just like the only English book ” Bombay- The birthplace of Indian Films” by Isaq Mujawar, who wrote 26 books in Marathi, on old films. I have one copy of this book too.
Today’s song, needless to mention, is sung by Shanta Apte.
Song- Wo nahin hai apna Ghar (Apna Ghar)(1942) Singer- Shanta Apte, Lyricist- Pt. Narottam Vyas, MD- Harshchandra Bali
Lyrics
daa dadaan
dadadadaan
dadadaan dadadaan
dadadadadaandaan
wo nahin hai
wo nahin hai
nahin hai
nahin hai apna ghar
wo nahin hai
wo nahin hai
nahin hai
nahin hai apna ghar
wo nahin hai
wo hargiz nahin apna ghar
wo nahin hai
wo hargiz nahin apna ghar
wo nahin hai
jahaan bachchon ki ?? hon
jahaan bachchon ki ?? hon
saanson ki phoo phoo
phoo phoo
uska bhi ?? ke bal
jahaan bachchon ki ?? hon
saanson ki khoo khoo
?? bhi ?? uske bal
wo hargiz nahin apna ghar
wo nahin hai
wo nahin hai
nahin hai
nahin hai apna ghar
wo nahin hai ae
wo nahin hai
howe sardi barsaat
chaahe ??
howe sardi barsaat
chaahe ??
thhande paani se nahaaun ??
jahaan dhone pade maile kapde
jahaan dhone pade maile kapde
aur maalin(?) bhi dande pakden
aur maalin(?) bhi dande pakden
jahaan chalna pade ho ??
jahaan chalna pade ho ??
wo nahin hai
wo nahin hai
nahin hai
nahin hai apna ghar
wo nahin hai ae
wo nahin hai
wo nahin hai
nahin hai
nahin hai apna ghar
wo nahin hai
jahaan chakki ko pees
gire joode(??) ko thhoons
jahaan chakki ko pees
gire joode(??) ko thhoons
silbatte pe
phhodo
apna sar
silbatte pe phhodo apna sar
wo hargiz nahin apna ghar
wo nahin hai
wo nahin hai
nahin hai
nahin hai apna ghar
wo nahin hai ae
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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