Manhar phool khiley bagiyaa mein
Posted on: July 8, 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 a duet from an 87 year old film, Khan Bahadur-1937.
The year 1937 was a year of Revolution for the newly started Talkie Films. Initially the films were mainly based on Folk tales, Parsi dramas and Mythological stories. 1937 was a year in which the Film industry was trying to drop its old skin and don a New Avtar. From this year, a variety of subjects were used to make films. If we briefly look at some path breaking, landmark films using Novel themes, we will understand how the film industry was attempting to change itself.
The newly established Minerva Movietone made a film on the importance and benefits of Celibacy in the film ‘Atma Tarang’.
Some artistes made their Debuts in 1937, like Ghulam Mohd.,MD for film Banke Sipahi, Comedian V H Desai in film Captain Kirti Kumar, Kishore Sahu in fil Jeevan Prabhat, the eternal Mausi of Hindi films, Leela Mishra debuted in film Gangavataran. This was also a Debut film for Dadasaheb Phalke in making a Talkie film. David made his Debut in ‘Zambo-the ape man’.
Prakash films tried their hand at Stunt films with ‘ Challenge’ and ‘His Highness’, using Veterinary actors like Dogs, Horses and a Motorcycle. Prabhat’s iconic film ‘ Duniya Maane na’ shook All India audiences with its story. Shanta Apte sang an English song in it. Bombay Talkies made its first Mythological film ‘ Savitri ‘ with Ashok Kumar and Devika Rani. (incidentally, this was the first film on which I wrote my first post for this Blog, thanks to Atul ji’s encouragement.)
Gangavataran was a film made by Dadasaheb Phalke. It was his First, the only and his last Talkie film too.
Imperial made India’s first indigenously made First colour film-Kisan Kanya. With this film, however, Master Nissar ended his ‘Hero’ ship as an actor.
Wadia Movietone made India’s first songless talkie film,’ Naujawan’, facing the ire of its audience for ‘cheating ‘ them !
‘Zambo – The Ape man ‘ became the first Tarzan type Indian talkie film, beginning a new Genre !
Madon Theatres, Calcutta pulled its shutters down with their last Talkie film’ Zinda Bhoot ‘.
1937 was real path breaking for 2 solid reasons….One, for the first time, Playback singing started in a Bombay film with ‘Mahageet ‘. The song was sung by Anil Biswas, its MD and it was filmed on Hiren Bose, in the role of a beggar, near a crematorium (Smashan Bhoomi), as per book ‘ Music without Boundaries’ by Dr. Ashok Ranade,pp183-186.
Secondly,for the first time, in an Indian film successful special effects were used in the film ” Khwaab ki Duniya ” -a film by Prakash Pictures, based on the popular novel “The Invisible Man” by H G Wells. A Hollywood film by the same name was made in 1933. The trick scenes in this Indian film were as good as the Hollywood film. Credit goes to Babubhai Mistri for creating the actions of an Invisible man , on the screen. He was nicknamed ” Kala Dhaga ” after this film.
Just before the advent of Talkie films, Parsi theatre and other drama companies were the only Entertainment sources. Parsi Theatre was famous and most successful because it travelled all over India to perform. They used special reserved Trains to carry people and sets,drapery etc for their company from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Gujarat to Rangoon. The success of Parsi Theatre was attributed to Pt. Narayan Prasad Betaab, Pt. Radheshyam Kathavachak, Agha Hashra Kashmiri and Master Fida Hussain – called the four Pillars of Dramas.
Film Khan bahadur-1937 was made by Minerva Movietone, a company owned by a young and ambitious Sohrab Modi. He had a lot of experience of working in stage dramas. Later he started a film company ” Stage Film co.” along with his brother Rustom Modi- owner of the Aryan Natak Mandali. They filmed their two most popular and hit dramas and exhibited them as regular films. But since the audience had already seen the actual dramas, these films were flops. Sohrab Modi started his own company Minerva Movietone and made his first film on his favourite subject-Celibacy, titled ” Atma Tarang “.
“Aatma Tarang-37″ was the new company’s first film. C. Ramchandra was the Harmonium accompanist for M.D. Habib Khan and Bundu Khan. He also did a small role in Aatma Tarang and earlier Saeed E Havas-36. Minerva’s first film proved to be a let down.
Sohrab found that there were hardly 20 to 30 persons in the audience on the very First show. The film was based on the power of ‘ Bramhacharya’ (Celibacy). In those days, Sohrab was greatly influenced by the teachings of Ramakrishna Mission. Seeing the poor response, he was upset. Thoughts of quitting the film production line were crowding in his mind. Suddenly, he saw four men coming towards him. They came, confirmed that he was Sohrab Modi and told him that his film was very good. They further advised him to keep making such good films and one day he will be on Top. Later on he learnt that these gentlemen were the Judges of Bombay High Court.
This gave a lot of motivation to Modi. As such he was sure of his success in films, but now he learnt that he must make films on subjects of interest of the public and not his own philosophy, if he wants to succeed commercially. In this world, everyone makes a mistake. But those who learn from their mistakes and mend ways, have better chances of succeeding in achieving their goals. Sohrab Modi was a person who had plenty of ambitions. He knew his own capabilities and understood the need to change with the changing times. Khan Bahadur -37 was his just second movie. The first movie,- Atma Tarang-37-, that he made with his newly established production company had taught him a bitter lesson.
His second film was Khan Bahadur-37, based on the bravery and generosity of a Muslim king who became famous for his bravery. The English rulers gave him the title of Khan Bahadur. The film did a reasonable business. This incident infused him with new hopes and enthusiasm. This changed his life. Initially he focused on making films on social evils like Drinking (Meetha Zehar-38), Husband-wife separation ( Divorce-38) and Incest ( Bharosa-40 ). Enthused with this experience, he made successful films and took his company to the Top.
What does Khan Bahadur mean ? Is it a name or a Title or a popular decoration ? 1937 was a British Raj period. In those days the British awarded different titles to Public Achievers, kings and those who were Loyal to the crown. As such ” SIR ” and ” KNIGHTHOOD ” were the highest decorations already, but they were given to highly educated or the members of Royalties of India only. So, the British introduced 3 level Titles for the other public and small kings etc.
First Grade level…. Nawab Bahadur ( for Muslims) or Dewan Bahadur (For Hindus)
Second Level…. Khan Bahadur (Muslims) or Rai Bahadur (North Indian Hindus) or Rao Bahadur (South Indian Hindus) and
Third level….Khan Sahib (Muslims) or Rai Sahib or Rao Sahib (Hindus).
The film was directed by Sohrab Modi. music was by S.B.Hoogan and the cast was Sohrab Modi, Naseem Bano, Prem Adeeb, Sadiq Ali, Sheela, Kamla, Shareefa, Erich Tarapore, S.B.Kapadiya and others.
Today’s song is a duet by Prem Adib and Naseem Banu. Incidentally, they were the cutest and most beautiful couple on screen in those days. Prem Adib was a Kashmiri Bramhin and Naseem had earned a title “Pari Chehra” (face of a Fairy) and truly so. However, both were singers by force. They were not singers but made to sing. Actually, at that time Hero and Heroines had to sing their own songs ( exception- Jairaj. That was because everyone, including the MD and directors, dreaded his terrible singing. He was probably the only Hero from the 30s and 40s, who never ever sang own songs !).
Prem Adib sang 26 songs in 9 films, from Industrial India-38 to Police-44. None of his songs became popular. Thank God, he was not asked to sing a song in the role of Shri Ram. Probably Prakash Pictures were well aware that making him sing in Bharat Milap-42 or Ram Rajya-43 would surely kill the film ! Naseem was more dangerous than him in this matter. She actually sang 39 songs in 13 films – from Vaasanti-38 to Mulaqat-47. Luckily for her, one song – just one song – from the film Pukar-39 ( zindgi ka saaz bhi kya saaz hai, baj raha hai aur be aawaaz hai), sung by her had become popular in those days. However, for this song, in my opinion, the MD- Meer Sahib should get the credit for its tune.
One of the names in the cast is Sadiq Ali. He was a pet actor of Sohrab Modi and stuck to his company for a long time. Sadiq Ali, was born on 6-10-1911 at Jalandhar, Punjab. His 2 cousins- Wazir Ali and Nazir Ali were famous Indian cricketers. Sadiq Ali completed his Engineering degree and worked in M.E.S. at Kanpur (Military Engg. Services). Due to strong desire to work in films and dramas, he resigned from his job after 5 years and joined Agha Hashr’s Drama company. When the company was closed, he joined The Burma Imperial film company at Rangoon. After a few small roles, he came down to Bombay.
After working in some smaller companies, he joined Minerva Movietone. Starting with khan Bahadur-37, he worked in Minerva’s Pukar-39, Sikandar-41, Phir Milenge-42, Prithwiraj Sanyogita-43, Parakh-44 (only directed by Modi) and Ek din ka sultan-45, also in Sandesa-39,Black out, Duniya tumhari hai, Phir milenge, Lieutenant, Ulti Ganga, Patharon ke saudagar,Jagbeeti,Nishana, Do Naina, Manjhdar, Mitti etc. In all he acted in 23 films. His last film was Ever Ready-46. After partition, he migrated to Pakistan.
First film in Pakistan was Judai (1950 Shaheena,Nazar and Zeenat). Other films include Shola (1952).
Sadiq Ali was a very successful and famous actor before partition and got the title of Prince of Minerva. He acted in many films in India, but in Pakistan, Sadiq Ali could not be successful as he was in India.
He was paralyzed in the 60’s and could be seen sitting with a Pan shop in Capitol Cinema lane, Karachi. He died on 12-7-1977 in Karachi. In his last days, he was seen begging on the road.
Now let us listen to the song, which is not very melodious, but hearing two old time popular artistes is a Bonus.
Song-Manhar phool khile bagiya mein (Khan Bahadur)(1937) Singers- Naseem Bano, Prem Adeeb, Lyricist- Not known, MD- B.S.Hoogan
Both
Lyrics
Manhar phool khile bagiya mein
manhar phool khile bagiya mein
rut bhi suhaani aayee hai
prem badariya chhaayee hai
manhar phool khile bagiya mein
manhar phool khile bagiya mein
rut bhi suhaani aayee hai
prem badariya chhaayee hai
daalee daalee khush ho jhoome
haan
paat paat mil kar choomen
haan haan
daalee daalee khush ho jhoome
paat paat mil kar choomen
prem geet mil kar gaayen
gaao
prem geet mil kar gaayen
jaise nemat paayee hai
prem badariya chhaayee hai
manhar phool khile bagiya mein
manhar phool khile bagiya mein
rut bhi suhaani aayee hai
prem badariya chhaayee hai
aawo man ke meeet
prem ke gaayen geeet
aawo man ke meeet
prem rang mein rang kar donon
ek rang ho jaayenge
prem rang mein rang kar donon
ek rang ho jaayenge
ek hi dhun ho
bhi donon kee
ek hi dhun ho
bhi donon kee
ek hi raas rachaayenge
men mein yahi samaayee hai
manhar phool khile bagiya mein
manhar phool khile bagiya mein
rut bhi suhaani aayee hai
prem badariya chhaayee hai
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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