Dil ganwaa baithhe dil lagaane se
Posted on: August 18, 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 Debut song for its singer- Music Director, S. Purushottam, who sang his only song in a Hindi film ever. The film was Apna Desh-1949.
Normally, the Indian film audience likes to see films which uphold the age old Indian values like, ” Truth prevails” or ” Good wins over evil ” or ” Real Love triumphs ” and such other things. Over a period, certain beliefs had been built over matters like entertainment. When only the stage dramas were available as the source of entertainment, people expected that a Joker (Vidushak) is a necessity in every drama. Even the oldest Sanskrit drama like ” Mrichhkatik” used to have a Vidushak (Joker) in it. In social dramas there always would be a funny character producing laugh and humour. Similarly, when Talkie films started, presence of songs was taken for granted and songs were very much a part of the film in any language, sometimes even as a background song.
So, when the Wadia Movietone brought a film ” Naujawan” in 1937 in which there were no songs, the Indian audience was first stunned and then it was so angry that the film not only failed but angry demonstrations forced Wadias to withdraw the film from the theatres. The people had felt cheated that there were no songs in the film. Same way, when V.Shantaram made the film ” Apna Desh”-1949 based on a story of a woman who betrays her own country-India- by selling information to the enemies, the audience did not accept the film. Consequently, Shantaram had to stop showing it and then it was banned in few states for some time. What’s more is that the film was not available for the next 50 odd years. It was only of late, since a few years that this film was made available on Youtube and other sources like National Achieve etc.
Shantaram made this film, like many other offbeat films that he had made earlier. For this film he chose a new actress, Pushpa Huns, who could sing well. He got the story, screenplay, dialogues and lyrics form Dewan Sharar and he also entrusted the film’s music to a new composer- S.Purushottam aka Purushottam Solankurkar.
APNA DESH-1949 was a brilliant film made by V.Shantaram, famous for making offbeat, socially relevant films. He made this film which was distributed all over India and in Ceylon as well. Within a few days, the film came under severe criticism and there were cries of banning the film. Baburao Patel, with his acidic style dubbed this film as Anti-National. In several cities, the film shows had to be cancelled due to Mob troubles.
What was there in this film to invoke such a reaction ? This was a story of a Punjabi Hindu woman-Mohini. During riots of partition, she is abducted and raped in Pakistan by Muslims. Her family escapes to India. After some time a devastated Mohini returns to India. Her family and the society refuse to accept her. She is insulted and thrown out. in vengeance of this rejection, she decides to become a smuggler. She sends clothes and arms to Pakistan in exchange for Gold and Money. She falls in love with another refugee, Satish. Finally, when the secret is revealed and Satish is arrested and accused of smuggling, Mohini comes out and surrenders. She is arrested. End of the film !
Most Indians felt that Indian women will never react in this way. They would rather commit suicide. The film was even called ”Apna Trash”. Almost every newspaper viz The Times, The Hindu, The Patriot etc condemned the film as Anti National. 1949 was also the period when Pakistan had infiltrated the army and Tribesmen in Kashmir. This had already created an Anti-Pakistani feeling in the country. Under the barrage of opposition, the film was forced to be withdrawn from the Theatres, not because of any legal reasons, but because of commercial considerations.
I have not seen this film. The simple reason was that Shantaram’s films were rated very low on entertainment, as they were films with social causes. By the time I realised the film’s importance, the film was withdrawn and I could never see it. As such 1947 onwards and especially in 1949, so many musical films were released that Shantaram’s films were low on priority. The film details, background, contents and the aftermath of this remarkable film can be found in ” Mourning the Nation-Indian Cinema in the wake of Partition’, a book by Bhaskar Sarkar as well as in ” Violent Belongings, Partition, gender and National Culture” another book by Kavita Daiyya.
Let us know more about the Music Director, who is not much known. PURUSHOTTAM SOLANKURKAR or S. Purushottam ( 9-4-1919 to 30-1-1958 ) was from Kolhapur district. Born in a poor family, he was the youngest of three brothers. The eldest brother was a good singer under Abdul Kareem khan. The middle one had his ” Yashwant Sangeet Vidyalaya” in Kolhapur. Purushottam was a student of Vidyapeeth School. Bereft of higher education, Purushottam started learning to play various instruments, Violin, Sarangi, Harmonium and Tabla.
When he was 21 years of age, he started playing in the concerts of Kumar Gandharva or Shivaputra Siddaramaiah komkali- as an accompanist. Vasant Desai-who was a ‘de facto’ Talent Hunter for V.Shantaram ( he had already discovered Pramodini and Vinodini Desai and Vatsala Kumthekar) spotted him in one Mehfil and called him to Bombay. Shantaram gave him his brother’s film ” Bhool”-48 and Maharashtra Chitravani’s film Mere Laal-48 as a Music Director.
He was an excellent singer himself and had a very good voice. Noted composer Sudhir Phadke, who was his classmate in school, used to praise his singing, but Purushottam never sang any film song in his career, except one song in film Apna Desh-1949. He believed that his job was to compose music and not singing.
Impressed with his style, Shantaram gave him his revolutionary film ‘Apna Desh’-49. True to his salt, Purushottam presented 2 Ghazals of Ghalib,’ Koi umeed nahi hain” and Dil e naadan in a totally non-traditional tune and style. The Tamil and Telugu versions of this film were also done by Purushottam. Vasant kumari sang Tamil songs and Telugu songs were sung by Beauty Queen Surya Kumari. Later Shantaram gave ‘ Dahej’-50 to Vasant Desai and Purushottam.
Discarded, without reason, as was his habit, by Shantaram, Purushottam did Devyani-52 and Durga Khote’s Sandesh-52. In all he did 6 Hindi films and 2 Marathi films, as Music Director. Realising that he had no scope in films anymore, Purushottam returned to Kumar Gandharva once again ,as his accompanist. Thus he disappeared from the film line and there was no trace of him afterwards. One more name was added to less known and forgotten composers’ list ! (Some information used herein is from Marathi Sangeetkar kosh, with thanks.)
Hindi film industry has seen uneducated, educated and talented artistes in various fields like acting, direction, production, cinematography, story and dialogue writing, Lyricists,composers etc etc. It has also seen successful artistes leaving films and shining somewhere else on their merits like, Shashi kapoor-sr, S D Batish, Lyricist Moti,B.A. etc etc. However , there is only one example where the artiste had an extraordinary success in totally unrelated fields, was a distinguished author and an acknowledged scholar BEFORE joining the film industry . He is Dewan Sharar. Not much has been written about him so far. Here is something about him.
Dewan was not his first name. It was a Title used as a prefix. He came from a family which had served as Dewans in many states traditionally in a few generations. His name was Atmanand Sharar. He was born (3-1-1899 to 28-4-1969) in Multan in erstwhile Punjab. From 1929 to 1942, he travelled in many countries. He is credited with editing the Magazine, ” Shabistan “, the first Urdu cinema paper in India. He worked as a Publicist for the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. He edited a leading weekly ” Great Britain and the East ” for 3 years He regularly contributed to the British and American press. He was the first Indian whose 4 plays were broadcast over BBC. From 1937 to 1940, he was in charge of the cataloguing of Urdu books and Manuscripts in India House at London. He published many books like’ Indian Folklore’, ‘ In the Garden of Peacocks’, ‘ East meets West’ and ‘ Gong of Shiva’. The last one was translated into many languages of Europe. Hindi film ‘ Ishara’-43 was based on this novel. He also wrote the story of Himanshu Roy’s film ” Karma”-33- first English film by an Indian. The film credits start with his name First.
This is what South Asian Cinema Faculty of U.K.said about him, “Film and stage actor, writer of English novels, short stories, stage and radio plays, “Eastern Adviser” to British-Gaumont films in London and Urdu poet “. He also contributed prominently to Indian cinema as a producer, character actor and a story and dialogue writer. Born in Multan, Dewan Atmanand Sharar (1899-1969) came from a family that had served as Dewans or Ministers in Indian princely states. After graduating from Punjab’s prestigious Government College, Lahore, he established an impressive repertory company in 1919 and presented several Hindustani plays and mushairas in various urban centres. In 1929, he set up a film-producing and distribution company and began to edit Shabistan, reputedly the first Urdu cinema paper in India.
In 1933, Dewan Sharar moved to London for the completion and launch of Himanshu Rai’s Indo-British film, Karma (1933) of which he was the storywriter. It was completed in England by Indian & British Film Productions with J.L. Freer Hunt as the director and Thorold Dickinson as editor. Sharar also produced and acted in Nagin ki Rani, the Hindustani version of Karma. While in London, many of his English short stories on Indian life appeared in mainstream newspapers in the UK and overseas. A major London publishing firm, George G. Harrap & Co., published two of his English works: The Gong of Shiva(1935) and Hindu Fairy Tales(1936). His short stories were also published as part of an anthology which included contributions from other famous contemporary writers. He also contributed a number of English radio plays for the BBC.
After returning to India in 1939 just before World War II, he worked for All India Radio Bombay and Delhi. He then joined filmmaker V. Shantaram and adapted Kalidasa’s Sanskrit classic, Shakuntal for the silver screen in Hindustani. The film was a runaway success and the Sharar-Shantaram combine lasted over a decade winning laurels for both Sharar and Shantaram’s banner, Rajkamal.
Sharar had adapted the story from the original ” अभिज्ञान शाकुंतल by Mahakavi Kalidas ” written in the 3rd century. He wrote the story, dialogues and Lyrics also. This was Sharar’s first film with Shantaram . Their association continued for some more films like, Parbat pe apna dera-44, Dr. Kotnis ki amar kahani-46, Apna Desh-49, Teen batti char Raasta-53 and J.J. Payal baje-55.
Dewan Sharar also acted in 8 films, namely Karma-33, Dr. Kotnis ki amar Kahani-46, Bhool-48, Apna Desh-49, Hindustan Hamara-50, Do Raha-52, Teen batti char rasta-53 and Dil E Nadaan-53. He wrote 62 songs as a Lyricist in 12 films, namely Shakuntala-43, Shaenshah Akbar-43, Parbat pe apna Dera-44, Mali-44, Panna Dai-45, Jeevan yatra-46, Dr. Kotnis ki amar kahani-46, Andhon ki duniya-47, Apna Desh-49, Hindustan hamara-50,Subah ka tara-54 and Jhanak Jhanak Payal baaje-55.
In 1943, Ishaara (1943), a film based on Sharar’s English novel The Gong of Shiva catapulted actor Prithviraj Kapoor to stardom. Besides becoming an important pillar of popular Indian cinema, he also started Dewan Sharar Publications in 1963. His descendants include famous Bombay-based Indian film actor Akash Khurana and Nagpur-based businessman turned playwright and theatre actor Vikash Khurana. ”
Here is the song from Purushottam. Enjoy….
Song- Dil ganwaa baithe dil lagaane se (Apna Desh)(1949) Singer- Purushottam, Lyricist- Dewan Sharar, MD- S. Purushottam
Lyrics
aa aa aa aa
dil ganwaa baithhe ae ae
dil lagaa aa aa ne se
kya milaa ishq aazmaane se
dil ganwaa baithhe
dil lagaane se
kya milaa
ishq aazmaane se ae
kya milaa
ishq aazmaane se
mujhpe shaqa hai unhen
mujhe ae ae un par
aa aa aa
mujhpe shaq hai ae unhen
mujhe ae un par
o o o o o o o
donon majboor hain
zamaane se
donon majboor hain
zamaane se
donon majboor hain
zamaane se
aa aa aa aa
roye shabnam to
phool hanste hain
roye shabnam to
phool hanste hain
khush hai duniya
mujhe rulaane se
khush hai duniya
mujhe rulaane se
donon majboor hain
zamaane se
raaz e dil
raaz e dil keh diyaa
nigaahon ne
nigaahon ne
ho o o o o o
baat chhuptee naheen
chupaane se
baat chhuptee naheen
chupaane se
baat chhuptee naheen
chupaane se
dil ganwaa baithe
dil lagaane se
kyaa milaa
ishq aazmaane se
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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