Apna rasta bhool gayee main dwaare tere aa gayee
Posted by: Atul on: August 13, 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 Ek tha Raja-1951. The film was made by Jupiter Pictures, Madras and it was directed by K.Ramanathan. The Music was by C.R Subbaraman. The cast was M.G.Ramachandran, Anjali Devi, Madhuri Devi, Pandhari Bai and many other Tamil artistes. It was a Dubbed film, from the original film ” Marmayogi’-1951.
When S.S.Vasan daringly made his film “Chandralekha”-1948 in Hindi on a massive scale of production and distribution, even he was not aware of the revolution it would make in the South Film Industry. The extraordinary success of his film and his frequent visits to his bank with big money bags made other southern filmmakers not only jealous and shocked, but also made them aware that the All India Hindi film market can be available to their films too !
This created frenzied activity in Madras among all studios and filmmakers and then the decades of the 50’s and the 60’s were flooded with south made Hindi films, dubbed or remade from their successful south films. As such the flow of Hindi remakes and films from Calcutta was drying up rapidly due to the eclipse of New Theatres, so this gap was promptly filled up by the south made films.
Not only the filmmakers but even the major male and female stars of the south started dreaming of All India fame through their Hindi films. Some stars went to the extent of making special films suitable for the All India Hindi audience. One such star was M.G.Ramachandran – a leading Hero of Southern films.
Tamil film Industry is a huge business and at times surpasses even Hindi in collections. Films are an integral part of life in the south. The Big stars of films are treated like Gods. It was a Tamil film Superstar M.G.Ramchandran, who became the first matinee Idol to become Chief Minister of a state when he became Chief Minister of Tamilnadu. (This feat was later replicated by N T Ram Rao in Andhra Pradesh.) And the funniest thing was that Ramchandran was a Malayali Keralite from his ancestors’ side !
From 1977 to 1987-till his death, MGR or MARUDHAR GOPAL RAMCHANDRAN MENON ruled like a king. He was followed by Jaylalitha and Karunanidhi by turns, both being filmy people. MGR was even awarded a Bharat Ratna award, albeit posthumously.
The song we are going to listen and enjoy today is from a film called ” Ek tha Raja “-1951, which was a dubbed movie from the original Tamil film “Marmayogi”-51. This was a landmark film in Tamil cinema. From this film onwards, MGR carefully cultivated his image as a dashing mass leader and a champion of the poor. The story of how this film was made is also interesting. The first time MGR became a Hero was in ” Rajkumari”-47 made by A.S.A. Sami. However this and the subsequent films did not benefit MGR much. So he requested Sami to write such an unique story, which would catapult him to unseen heights. Sami started working on it. He took Marie Corelli’s novel ‘ Vendetta’ and combined it with Adventures of Robin Hood and wrote a story, screenplay and Dialogues. The outcome was the film MARMAYOGI – a costume drama.
Perhaps the most historically significant film of 1951 was K. Ramnoth’s Marmayogi, a Jupiter Pictures’ production made at Central Studios in Coimbatore. This film, a folkloric tale of kings, royal mistresses and rebellious princes was written by A. S. A. Sami who had planned it specially for M. G. Ramachandran.
MGR who made his debut as hero in Sami’s Rajakumari -47, was aware that the success of that film was due to reasons other than himself. It had action, trick scenes, entertainment, sexy dances and the hero was only an auxiliary cause and nothing more. So MGR persuaded Sami to write a script built around him to boost his image as a social rebel, do-gooder, and a fearless fighter for the underprivileged.
MGR was an ardent filmgoer and a fan of Hollywood action heroes such as Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn. Fairbanks fascinated him more and he modelled himself after this famous American idol of the Silent Era. Sami worked on a script, a mix of literary and classical elements, for MGR. Inspiration was drawn from the novel “Vengeance” by Marie Correlli and the legend of Robin Hood! MGR was cast as the younger prince who rebels against a woman who usurps his father’s kingdom and lets loose a reign of terror. The king pushed off a boat by his mistress, and presumed to have drowned, escapes and lives in disguise as a mysterious saint (hence the title Marmayogi) and also parades as a ‘ghost’ at nights. The hero turns into a Robin Hood and leads the masses to victory. The name of the hero — Karikalan –— was deliberately chosen to impress and exploit the new feeling of ‘Tamilness’ among the people.
In films of this genre, names of heroes are mostly Sanskrit derivatives such as Veerasimhan and Pratapan. But Sami went for a typical Tamil name, after the name of the famous Tamil king, Karikala Chozhan.
Initially the title of this film was Karikalan. Later it was changed so that people don’t mistake it for a historical film. Ramnoth revealed his talents with his technically slick direction. Sama as the king, Anjali Devi as the power-crazy mistress and Sahasranamam as the elder prince performed their roles well. But the movie belonged to MGR. Every word of his dialogue was planned and written to build a special image for him and the lines had multi-layered meanings. One of the lines summed up MGR’s ambitions, personal, and political … “Naan kuri vaithaal thavara maatten! Thavarumey aanaal kuri vaikka maatten!”( It means- when I aim, I don’t miss. If it is to miss, I don’t aim !) This dialogue became popular and was greeted with gleeful screams in cinema houses. Strangely the Censors gave Marmayogi an ‘Adults Only’ certificate. Why? The film had a ‘ghost’ and hence the ‘A’ certificate!
Marmayogi’ received a warm welcome from the masses, especially the rapidly increasing rank and file of the MK party. With this film MGR’s image brightened and his career as a political figure was established. Soon he acquired a prefix to his name “Puratchi Nadigar”!( Revolutionary Actor ).
The film was made in Hindi simultaneously, with dubbing of dialogues, but it did not evoke any enthusiastic response from the Hindi audience, perhaps due to the artistes being new and unfamiliar to them and the different style of acting of southern actors-over dramatic- which was alien to Hindi viewers. MGR could not get what he wanted, but it was well compensated with extraordinary success of the Tamil film. The film was dubbed in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Sinhalese languages and was successful everywhere-except the Hindi belt. But who cared ?
The story of the film Ek Tha Raja (Marmayogi) – 51 was….
An evil courtesan in king Marmayogi’s kingdom, Urvashi (Anjali Devi) usurps the throne and throws the unconscious king in a river to die. King’s 2 sons escape to a jungle and grow up. The King survives and remains hidden. The younger prince is Karikalan (MGR), who grows up and becomes a Bandit who loots the rich and helps the poor in Robin Hood style. He also starts loving the Chief of Army’s daughter (Madhavi Devi). The king roams the capital in the night masquerading as a Ghost. Finally, Karikalan, the king and his associates defeat the courtesan and the kingdom is restored to the King again. Karikalan marries his lover.
Urvasi, is the young mistress of a king. With the help of her own lover, she pushes the king off a boat and usurps his powers. Urvasi appoints herself as the new queen regnant, and the kingdom experiences a reign of terror. The palace where the two princes of the kingdom live is burnt. The queen assumes all powers and kills all potential opponents, including her lover. A sage comes to the kingdom with his son and a girl, and joins the queen as her adviser. Years roll by. The sage’s son Veerangan is appointed Army Commander. At the same time, in the countryside, Karikalan functions as de facto leader of the people, helps them in various ways and fights the queen’s misrule. When he becomes a big threat to the queen, she orders his capture. Veerangan sends Kala, the girl raised by the sage as a spy, to Karikalan, but she falls in love with him.
Karikalan gets periodic instructions from the Goddess on what needs to be done and he follows the same. The queen gets scared by a ghost which appears regularly and warns her of the impending punishment she deserves for her misdeeds. Kala and Karikalan’s followers are captured by the army. Karikalan personally leads their rescue mission. In prison, he gets instructions from the goddess to capture the queen also. He rescues his people, captures the queen and brings her to his hideout. When the ghost appears there, she confesses her crime of killing the king. When she is about to be executed, Veerangan’s army enters and captures everyone. Veerangan also finds out that the sage (also called Marmayogi) is his father, and he has been giving information to Karikalan secretly. Hence he also gets arrested for being a traitor.
The queen returns to her throne and orders the execution of the sage, Karikalan and others. When Karikalan is about to be killed, the sage reveals the truth about the king and informs Veerangan that Karikalan is his elder brother. When Veerangan demands to know where the king is, the sage removes his disguise. To the surprise of everyone, he reveals that he is the deposed king and narrates what happened. Though the queen and her lover attempted to kill him, he escaped under the water using his yogic skills, taking his sons and the army commander’s daughter Kala with him. He returned to his kingdom in the disguise of a sage with his younger son Veeranganan and Kala and left Karikalan in the forest. Shocked to see the dead king return, the queen dies. The king announce that his children Karikalan and Veerangan are now the rulers. ( some information of this article is adapted from a ” Hindu” article ‘ MGR and Marmayogi dt.2-10-2008, wikipedia, with thanks, and my notes.)
Today’s song is sung by Shamshad Begum. All the songs were reasonably good, but not exactly like polished Hindi style….
Song- Apna rasta bhool gayi main dwaare tere aa gayi(Ek Thha Raja)(1951) Singer- Shamshad Begum, Lyricist-Pt. Sudarshan, MD- C.R.Subbaraman
Lyrics
ho o o
ho o o o
apna rasta bhool gayi
main dwaare tere aa gayi
dwaare tere aa gayi
main aa gayi
apna rasta bhool gayi
main dwaare tere aa gayi
dwaare tere aa gayi
main aa gayi
tere dwaar ki shobha nyaari
man par masti chha gayi
tere dwaar ki shobha nyari
man par masti chha gayi
dwaare tere aa gayi
main aa gayi
apna rasta bhool gayi
main dware tere aa gayi
dwaare tere aa gayi
aa gayi
mera ghar mujhe pukaare
kare din raat ishaare
mera ghar mujhe pukaare
iraade man ke haare
udhar chale man idhar chaloon main aen aen
udhar chale man idhar chaloon main
kidhar chaloon main
raste mein ghabra gayi
ghabra gayi
apna rasta bhool gayi
main dwaare tere aa gayi
dwaare tere aa gayi
main aa gayi
maine man mandir mein tujhe bithha liya
jag ka sab andhiyaar door hata liya
maine man mandir mein tujhe bithha liya
jag ka sab andhiyaara door hata liya
ik meethha raag jaga liya
?? samjhe naahin
dekh ke main murjha gayi
murjha gayi
apna rasta bhool gayi
main dwaare tere aa gayi
dwaare tere aa gayi
main aa gayi
chali thhi tujhe haraane
chali thi tujhe churaane
chali thi tujhe haraane
chali thi tujhe churaane
teri ek nazar se haaree
man mein se sharma gayi
sharma gayi
apna rasta bhool gayi
main dwaare tere aa gayi
dwaare tere aa gayi
main aa gayi
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 13, 2024 at 11:51 am
The Malayali family from Kerala had settled in Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ) , where MGR was born. The family returned to India ( Kerala first, and later to Madras/Chennai ) after his father ‘s premature death. MGR later claimed that his ancestors had migrated to Kerala from Tamil Nadu centuries ago.
Similarly, Rajnikant, the Super Star, was born in a Marathi speaking family in Bengaluru, Karnataka. His ancestors had migrated from Maharashtra to Karnataka.
On Tue, 13 Aug, 2024, 5:00 am Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of
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August 13, 2024 at 6:37 pm
Thanks for additional information on MGR. The original name of Rajanikant was Shivajirao Gaikawad.
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