Nadiyaa kinaare Raam bagiyaa mein
Posted on: August 16, 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 a ‘Milestone’ film Chandralekha-1948.
I call it a Milestone Film, because it was the pioneer film that started the south made dubbed, remade and independent Hindi films for the All India Hindi audience. What’s more, it happened at a time when the flow of such Hindi films made in the East- Calcutta- had diminished and after some time totally gave up the space to south made films.
Film Chandralekha-1948 made by S.S.Vasan was considered a ‘wonder’ in those days. Not only was it the costliest film ever made in India in those times, but it also was the first ever film to make its versions in English, Japanese and Danish languages and shown in the USA, Europe, Tokyo and Denmark. A lot has been written about the making of this film in several newspaper articles and various books by eminent authors.
This is what I wrote as my comment on a song from this film posted on this Blog on 3-5-2011…..
“The film CHANDRALEKHA was a wonder of Indian cinema.
Today’s generation may not know anything about it,therefore I will try,briefly,to give some information on it,so that they will know what it was like.
Chandralekha was a Gemini Production and was directed by Mr.S.S.Vasan,the founder of Gemini Studios.Vasan was a person who believed that Cinema is a medium of full entertainment and hence he planned Chandralekha.It was in the making for 5 years and was made in Tamil and Hindi. Its budget was unprecedented and no money was spared to make it the most famous film of Indian cinema.
This was the first Tamil movie released all India with 603 prints in those days,some of them with English subtitles.The film was made on a massive scale in Cecil B.Demille style.
The story was of a good and a bad Prince,not only fighting for the Throne but also for the beautiful village girl,Chandralekha.She agrees to marry the bad Prince with a condition that she will do a Drum Dance.
For this most extravagant scene, gigantic 400 Drums were made and the dance music was a combination of Indian,South Indian,South American and Viennese waltz music. 500 dancers danced on these drums and at the end,soldiers hidden in the drums came out and attacked the bad Prince.World’s longest sword fight ensues and all is well at the end when Good prevails over the bad.
Not only was the Music Director the same but all the 9 songs had the same tune in Tamil and Hindi.
This film was appreciated in many International forums and won many awards too ! ”
However, for the benefit of our new readers, let us know how this film was made. The Hindi version of Chandralekha-1948 was fully directed by the Producer and the owner of Gemini pictures, Madras- S.S.Vasan, unlike when for the half part of the original Tamil film was directed by T.G.Raghavachari, who left the film halfway due to disagreements with Vasan and Vasan had to take over the film to make his Directorial debut.
The Hindi version of Chandralekha was Vasan’s first film in the language. For this version, Vasan re-shot several scenes and used a slightly different cast. Agha Jani Kashmiri and Pandit Indra wrote the dialogue for the Hindi version, while Indra and Bharat Vyas were the lyricists. Rajeswara Rao, who composed the soundtrack for both versions, was assisted by Bal Krishna Kalla on the Hindi version, while Parthasarathy and Vaidyanathan composed this version’s background music.The Tamil version was over 18,000 feet (5,500 m) long, but the Hindi version was edited down to 14,495 feet (4,418 m).
Although Rajakumari, M.K.Radha and Ranjan reprised their roles in the Hindi version, Radha and Ranjan’s characters were renamed. M.K. Radha’s character was Veer Singh in the Hindi version, and Ranjan’s character was renamed Shashank. Of the other cast members, N. S. Krishnan, T. A. Mathuram, T. E. Krishnamachari, Pottai Krishnamoorthy and N. Seetharaman appeared only in the Tamil version, and Yashodra Katju and H. K. Chopra appeared only in the Hindi version. Nearly the entire cast were credited in the Tamil version, but only six—Rajakumari (credited as Rajkumari), Radha, Ranjan, Sundari Bai (credited as Sundri Bai), Katju and Narayana Rao (credited as Narayan Rao)—were credited in the Hindi version.
The original Tamil version story was….
Veerasimhan and Sasankan are the sons of a king. When Veerasimhan rides through a village, he meets a local dancer named Chandralekha and they fall in love. At the palace, the king decides to abdicate his throne in favour of Veerasimhan. This enrages Sasankan, Veerasimhan’s younger brother, who forms a gang of thieves; they embark on a crime spree. Chandralekha’s father is injured in the ensuing chaos, and dies shortly afterwards. The orphaned Chandralekha joins a band of travelling musicians, whose caravan is raided by Sasankan’s gang.
Sasankan orders Chandralekha to dance for him, which she does only after being flogged, but she soon escapes. He later ambushes Veerasimhan and takes him prisoner. Chandralekha watches Sasankan’s men imprison Veerasimhan in a cave and seal its entrance with a boulder. She rescues him with the aid of elephants from a passing circus troupe. Veerasimhan and Chandralekha join the circus to hide from Sasankan’s men. When Sasankan returns to the palace, he imprisons his parents, declares himself king and sends a spy to find Chandralekha.
The spy sees Chandralekha performing in the circus, and tries to capture her. Veerasimhan saves her; they escape and join a group of gypsies. When Veerasimhan goes to find help, Sasankan’s men capture Chandralekha and bring her to the palace. When Sasankan tries to woo Chandralekha, she pretends to faint every time he approaches her. One of her circus friends comes to Sasankan disguised as a gypsy healer and claims that she can cure Chandralekha of her “illness”. Behind locked doors, the two women talk. Sasankan is pleased to find Chandralekha miraculously cured and apparently ready to accept him as her husband; in return, he agrees to her request for a drum dance at the royal wedding.
Huge drums are arranged in rows in front of the palace. Chandralekha joins the dancers, who dance on the drums. Sasankan is impressed with Chandralekha’s performance but, unknown to him, Veerasimhan’s soldiers are hiding inside the drums. As the dance ends, they rush out and attack Sasankan’s men. Veerasimhan confronts Sasankan, and their lengthy sword fight ends with Sasankan’s defeat and imprisonment. Veerasimhan releases his parents and becomes the new king, with Chandralekha as his queen.
When the original Tamil version started its shooting in 1943, no one thought that it would take 5 years in its making. The final film was released in 60 theatres, at a time, in Tamil dominated areas of Madras Presidency on 9-4-1948. Then Vasan started making a Hindi version and completed it in December 1948, releasing it on 24-12-1948, in the Hindi All India market with 603 prints !
After Raghavachari’s departure, the drum-dance scene he directed remained in the film. The scene involved 400 dancers and six months of daily rehearsals. It was designed by chief art director A. K. Sekhar, choreographed by Jayashankar and filmed with four cameras. Randor Guy estimated that the scene cost ₹500,000 (about US$105,000 in 1948); in his 2015 book, Madras Studios: Narrative, Genre, and Ideology in Tamil Cinema, Swarnavel Eswaran Pillai estimated that the scene cost ₹200,000—the entire budget of a typical Tamil film of the period. The scene included the Kathakali and Bharatanatyam classical dances and the Sri Lankan Kandyan dance. A. Vincent, who later became an established cinematographer and director in Malayalam cinema, assisted Ghosh in this film.
Chandralekha was in production for five years (1943–1948), with changes to its story, cast and filming which generated substantial time and cost overruns. The film ultimately cost ₹3 million (about $600,000 in 1948), and was the most-expensive Indian film at the time. Vasan mortgaged all his property, received financial assistance from The Hindu editor Kasturi Srinivasan and sold his jewellery to complete the film. Adjusted for inflation, Chandralekha would have cost $28 million in 2010. According to historian S. Muthiah, with the free-floating exchange rate in effect at the time it was the first film with a budget of over a million dollars made outside the United States.
South Indian cinema became prominent throughout India with the film release and inspired South Indian producers to make their Hindi films for the All India Hindi film audience.
Today’s song is sung by Bharat Vyas and chorus. Let us now enjoy the video song….
(Ref: I have used information from articles in The Hindu by V.A.K Ranga Rao and Randor Guy,in 2007 and 2011, book ‘One hundred Indian feature films’ by Anil Shrivastav, wiki, books by Isaq Mujawar, Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, other books as mentioned in the text and my notes, for this post.)
Song – Nadiya kinaare Raam bagiya mein (Chandralekha)(1948) Singer- Bharat Vyas, Lyricist- Pt. Indra, MD- S.Rajeshwar Rao
Chorus
Lyrics
nadiya kinaare ae ae
ae ae
raam bagiya mein
saagar(?) paar
gauri maike chali
humen kaun khilaaye paan
kesariya angiya na pehno sajaniya
kesariya angiya na pehno sajaniya
peehar mein peelee pad jaaogi dulhaniya
peelee pad jaaogi dulhaniya
o o
o o o o
o o o o
o o o
kaali badariya chhaayee
daakuon ka dar hai
door apna ghar hai
tarse lugaai meri
jhumke waali bhaabhi teri
kaali badariya chhaayee
daakuon ka dar hai
dheere dheere paaon dharey
itne kyun nakhre karey
ae ae ae ae
dheere dheere paaon dharey
itne kyun nakhre karey
bhaiya ek baat bataao
kyu tu bhi sasuraal chala
hey hey
dhaa dhaa
jaldi chalo
jaldi chalo
saanjh dhali dekho
haan saanjh dhali dekho
jaldi chalo
jaldi chalo
saanjh dhali dekho
haan saanjh dhali dekho
hurr
waah re waah re meri
ye bailon ki jodee
chhote seeng
teekhe nain
bail mere dekho
chhoti chhoti gaadi le ke
ae ae
chhoti chhoti gaadi le ke
jaao sainyaan Aagre
bheeni bheeni malmal ke thaan
bheeni bheeni malmal ke thaan
jaao sainya tum Aagre
jaao sainya tum Aagre
o o
jaao sainyaan tum Aagre
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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