Hilmil sab sakhiyaan gaayen
Posted on: July 5, 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 an old film, Duniya Kya Hai-1938.
Hindi film Industry is not only a ” Maya Nagari”, but also a “Jadoo Nagari”. You will find that unimaginable contrasts keep on happening here. You will find that a very beautiful, talented and famous actress like Meena Shorey (La Ra Rappa fame) was an absolute uneducated and illiterate person. She could neither read nor even sign herself. Due to this, she blindly put her thumb on the service contract made by Sohrab Modi and was on the verge of spoiling her career. It was her luck that Mehtab Helped her and on the payment of only Rs. 30,000 (instead of 60000, asked by Sohrab Modi) she got the restrictive and unjust contract cancelled. A similar case was of the singer Sitara Kanpuri, who did the same mistake with W.Z.Ahmed of Shalimar Pictures. It was only when Ahmed migrated to Pakistan in 1947, she got her freedom to sing anywhere.
On the contrary, there were highly educated and internationally famous artistes, who were Editors and Authors of many books, like actor Ranjan, writer Dewan Sharar and actress Shakuntala Paranjpye !
There were very handsome Heros like Nandrekar, Al Nasir, Surendra and Dev Anand and at the same time there were also almost ugly looking Heroes like Shaikh Mukhtar and Om Puri !
There were artistes who retired from films in style and spent their lives winning laurels in different fields like, Phiroz Dastoor and Ram Marathe (both famous classical singers), Shashi Kapoor Sr. (did his Ph.D and became a Professor in an American University), actor Surendra and actress Durga Khote (both started short films and advertising companies), Music Director Madholal Master became International Puppeteer (RK used his ‘Joker’ puppet in “Joker mera naam” film), S.D.Batish and singer Lakshmi Shankar opened and taught in their Musical Institutions in USA. These are some examples but there are many more.
On the other hand, there were pathetic cases of artistes who died penniless and in dire poverty, after leaving films, like Rajkumari, Wasti, G M Durrani, Shridhar Parsekar, Parshuram, Pradeep kumar, Bharat Bhushan, Bhagwan, Vimi, Meenakumari, Achla Sachdev, Chandra Mohan, A K Hangal and many more.
When Rafi died, there were more than a Lakh of people in his last journey, whereas there were few artistes who died in their homes living alone and their bodies were discovered only after a few days. Actor ,singer Parshuram died begging on road and was cremated as ‘Unclaimed unidentified body’ by Bombay Municipality.
I remembered all this because Lalita Pawar, heroine of today’s film Duniya Kya hai-1938 was also one artiste who died and her body was found after a couple of days. ( Nalini Jaywant and Parveen Babi’s case was also like this).
Duniya kya hai-1938 was produced by Lalita Pawar’s own banner Diamond pictures. It was directed by her then husband G.P.Pawar. The MDs were Annasaheb Mainkar and Kikubhai Yagnik. The Lyricist was Munshi Aziz. The cast was Lalita Pawar, Madhav Kale, Indira Wadkar, Begum Fatima and others. This is the same Fatima Begum, who was India’s First woman Director. Actually, she had retired from films, but Lalita went to her requesting her to do a role in her film. She graciously accepted, but this was her last film.
One of the major actors who succeeded in both Silent and Talkie films equally,that too for 70 active years,was LALITA PAWAR.
Today’s generation probably knows Lalita Pawar only as an actress doing crooked Mother in law’s roles only, but in her hay days she was called a ‘ SEX BOMB ‘ !
Born Ambika Laxmanrao Sagun on 18-4-1916, at Indore, her father was a rich person.She started acting very early when she was 10-12 years.Her first silent film was ‘Patitodhar’-1928.
She soon became a heroine and acted in as many as 30 silent films. In the silent and early Talkie era,she did adventurous and stunt films,just like Fearless Nadia did.
Because of her boldness she did sexy and romantic roles.I have seen some of her costumes from her early films and those will match any sex-siren of today,I can guarantee !
She was a Heroine till 1942,when while shooting a scene for “Netaji Palkar”-1942,her co-star slapped her,during a shot,so hard that she suffered from facial paralysis and damage to her eye.
In Spite of 3 years’ treatment she became unfit for heroine’s roles and at the age of just 25-26,she switched over to character and supporting roles.
She acted in some 400 Hindi and Marathi films.Some of her roles like the Kelewali in Shri 420,mrs.D’sa in Anari(she won Filmfare award for this role) and Manthara in Ramayana,are quite memorable,though mainly she is known for her wicked roles.
She acted in 315 Hindi films. She has sung 10 songs in 3 films also, namely Grihalaxmi-34, Dard e dil-34 and Duniya kya hai-38.
In case of marriage,she competed with Noorjahan(4 marriages) and Meena Shorey(5 marriages).Lalita Pawar’s first husband was Hanuman More, second was G.P.Pawar, her director for stunt films.This marriage went sour when he had an affair with Lalita’s younger sister.Then she married a film producer Rajprakash Gupta,who established Ambika Studios in Bombay.
Her death was pathetic.She was found dead-for 2 days-when her husband,son and daughter in law had gone to Mumbai. She was staying alone in her bungalow in Aundh,a suburb of Pune. She died on 24-2-1998 and it was announced on 26th February
Noted journalist and author Yasir Abbasi said this about Lalita Pawar……
Lalita Pawar made an unusual debut in cinema – she wasn’t seen in the film for which she first faced a camera. She initially appeared only in the publicity stills of ‘Arya Mahila’ (1928) before landing an actual role as a child artiste in ‘Patitoddhar’ (1928). And then, within no time, she followed it up with a flurry of silent features for Nanasaheb Sarpotdar’s Aryan Film Company.
Another photo shoot a few years later once again led to a new beginning for her. She had made a quick transition from child roles to leading parts at Aryan, where one of her co-stars was Madhav Kale. Around the mid-1930s, Pawar and Kale reunited to appear in a set of illustrative photographs for a book – a Marathi translation of Leo Tolstoy’s ‘Resurrection’. Besides being an actor, Kale was also a man of letters and wrote Marathi poems under the pen name ‘Manju Madhav’. During the photo-shoot, he narrated the novel’s plot to Pawar. The actress was perhaps itching to break away from the stunt film genre that she was trapped in. So, when she soon launched her own production company, Diamond Pictures, she decided to adapt the Tolstoy novel and give herself a role that would tap her abilities better. Kale was roped in for the male lead’s part and the duties of adapting the story and directing the film were assigned to her regular director (and then-husband) G.P. Pawar.
‘Duniya Kya Hai’ is about a naive orphan girl Lalita (Lalita Pawar), who is deserted by her husband Madhav (Madhav Kale) and ends up as a prostitute in a seedy brothel. Apart from making ends meet, she also has to raise her newborn son after being abandoned by Madhav. Her misfortunes continue when she’s implicated for a murder in the brothel and finds Madhav as the prosecuting counsel of her trial. She’s utterly broken and disillusioned by the time he realises his misdeeds, and she heads to a tragic end in prison.
The film was released on 12 November 1937 at Majestic Cinema in Bombay and was a runaway hit with the audiences and critics alike. “Duniya Kya Hai has created the greatest sensation in the Indian screen world,” declared an advertisement as the film entered its 5th week. Lalita Pawar’s work won unanimous praise. Even from the impossible-to-please Baburao Patel. The Filmindia review hailed her as a “brave girl [who] does her job wonderfully well.” Gushing over her performance, The Sunday Standard described her as “an actress who can easily rank with the front rank stars of India.” The Times of India called her effort a “tour de force of histrionic art.” And the promotions of her subsequent release ‘Rajkumari’ (1938) were quick to add ‘of Duniya Kya Hai fame’ next to her name.
On the verge of touching a decade in cinema, Lalita Pawar had, on her own steam, taken the leap from an undervalued actress of B-films to an artiste of reckoning. She was just 21 at that time.
Now something about Fatima Begum…..
Most people are aware of the contemporary female directors that exist in the country as they have got recognition, acclaim and fame but few know about Fatima Begum – actress, scriptwriter and director – who created a path for many others in the film industry to follow at a time where male domination in every sphere was prevalent. Being arguably the first in the field she set open the way for other women to venture into the film industry.
Fatima Begum, the first female director of Indian cinema, was born to a Muslim family in India in 1892. One of the 4 wives of Nawab Siddi Ibrahim Muhammad Yakut Khan of the state of Sachien,Gujarat was Fatima Begum. She was in films, even before marriage. There is however no proof of their marriage. From the Nawab, She had three daughters, namely Sultana, Shahzadi and Zubeida. All daughters and the mother were into films.
When the girls became of age, Fatima used to make them dance in the film theatres of Surat, between the change of reels- which was to entertain the audience. The beautiful eldest daughter Sultana and playful sister Shahzadi were already working in films. When Fatima and the Nawab had some differences on this issue, Fatima took her daughters and came to Bombay to work on her own.
She was also interested in acting, screen-writing, and production. She was trained in Theatre and initially used to stage Urdu plays, following which she began working in films in 1922. She started her journey as a director with the silent film Veer Abhimanyu (1922). In a short span of time she had directed the following films: Bulbul-ae-Paristan (1926), Goddess of Love (1927), Heer Ranjha (1928), Chandrawali (1928), Shakuntala (1929), Milan Dinar (1929), Kanaktara (1929) and Goddess of Luck (1929).
Bulbul-ae-Paristan was the most famous film directed by her. It was set in ‘Paristan‘ (Fairyland) , had a big budget and included special effects using technology.
Fatima worked with filmmakers like Ardeshir Irani and Nanubhai Desai. After this, she created her own production company – Fatma Films, later changed to Victoria Fatma Films – and was the first Indian woman to do so.
When Fatima joined the film industry, only men were part of it. Even female roles were played by men. Thus, Fatma’s determination to break into this male-dominated sphere marked her as a trailblazer.
As an actor, she starred in many films including Veer Abhimanyu (1922), Sita Sardaba (1924), Prithvi Vallabh (1924), Kala Naag (1924), Gul-ae Bakawali (1924) and Mumbai ni Mohani (1925). She also contributed to writing scripts and wrote the script for Bulbul-ae-Paristan (1926). A few of her films featured her daughters, Sultana and Shehzadi. She used trick photography for special effects in films and included fantasy in her films.
She is on record of having worked in atleast 3 Talkie films as an actress namely, Nand ke Lal-1934, Sant Tulsidas-1934 and Sewa Sadan-1934. According to HFGK, she sang songs in films Nand ke lal-34 and Sant tulsidas-34.
Meanwhile her sautan came to her with her daughter Mehtab (wife of Sohrab Modi,at a later stage). Mehtab was born on 28th April 1918 in Mumbai. Her father Siddee Ebrahim Khan was the Nawab of Sachin (Surat, Gujarat). Her parents named her as Najma. She was the step sister of actresses Zubeida ( Alam Ara fame), Sultana and Shehzadi. She studied upto Intermediate. She was fluent in Urdu,Gujrati, English and Marathi. When her father-the nawab- gave Teen Talaq to her mother, her mother – Mariam, took her to Bombay where her Sautan, Fatima, another wife of the Nawab was promoting her 3 daughters to become actresses. Fatima gave Mariyam refuge, solace and a promise to promote Najma also as an actress. She helped her by making some silent films to promote Mehtab, in her early career later her mother also started producing films for her daughter.
Having a 16-year-long film career, her Last film was Duniya Kya hai-1938 after which she retired voluntarily. Her daughters, Zubeida, Sultana and Shehzadi carried on her groundbreaking legacy as they too were actors in silent films. Zubeida went on to become the first Indian actress to star in the first talking film, Alam Ara (1931).
Fatima Begum died in 1983, at the ripe old age of ninety-one, leaving behind a pioneering approach to the film industry. ( Thanks for some information from feminisminindia.com )
Today’s song is sung by Lalita Pawar herself.
Song- Hilmil sab sakhiyaan gaayen (Duniya Kya Hai)(1938) Singer- Lalita Pawar, Lyricist-Munshi Aziz, MD- Annasaheb Mainkar and Kikubhai Yagnik
Lyrics
Hilmil sab sakhiyaan gaayen
hilmil sab sakhiyaan gaayen
aawo naachen khelen gend
aawo naachen khelen gend
hilmil sab sakhiyaan gaayen
rum jhum aao albelee
rum jhum aao albelee
jhoom jhoom karti athkhelee
jhoom jhoom karti athkhelee
tan man se aanand manaayen
tan man se aanand manaayen
hilmil sab sakhiyaan gaayen
hilmil sab sakhiyaan gaayen
chandramal sam(?) chamkat damkat
chandramal sam(?) chamkat damkat
pushp naar sam lachkat jhumkat
pushp naar sam lachkat jhumkat
sundar manhar rang rachaayen
sundar manhar rang rachaayen
hilmil sab sakhiyaan gaayen
prem raag niksat hai man se
prem raag niksat hai man se
roop rang barsat yauwan se
roop rang barsat yauwan se
achraj kya jo preetam aaye
achraj kya jo preetam aaye
hilmil sab sakhiyaan gaayen
hilmil sab sakhiyaan gaayen
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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