Chal tu door nagariyaa teree
Posted by: Atul on: September 14, 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 famous Hit film Ram Rajya-1943.
Made by Prakash Pictures, it was directed by its owner Vijay Bhatt. Shankar Rao Vyas composed music for songs written by Lyricist Ramesh Gupta.
Ramesh Gupta was a playback singer, actor, lyricist, director in the Hindi & Gujarati film industry during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. He was known for movies like Mayurpankh (1954), Saajan (1947), Sawan Aya Re (1949) & many more. He has scored music for famous non-filmi song album “Jis Dil Ne Mohabbat” (1947).
Ramesh Gupta is the name behind songs like “Kaaton Mein Rehne Wale…” Matlabi Duniya” (1961), “Jai Ganesh Jai Ganesh…” Maha Pooja” (1954) and “Toota Sitara…” Bhakt Puran” (1952). In his career Ramesh Gupta worked with music directors like Chitragupt, Govind Ram, Jayanti Joshi and Shankar Rao Vyas. Some of the biggest names in Bollywood playback music like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Mohd. Rafi, Shamshad Begum, Mukesh and Geeta Dutt have lent their voice to the lines penned by him.
Ramesh Gupta was an actor, known for Mayurpankh (1954), Saajan (1947) & Sawan Aya Re (1949). As a singer he has sung a song in movie Raja (1943) “Kahe Nanha Maro Khadi Re…” with singer Miss Gulab. Ramesh Gupta as a director has directed movies like Rimjhim (1949) & Ram Darshan (1950), Tyag Patra (1978), Mangal Dada (1986). As a lyricist, he has written 225 songs in 34 Hindi movies. Apart from this, he has written songs also in Gujrati movies, specially for the great music director Avinash Vyas.
Ramesh Gupta got his first film Awaz-1942, with the recommendation of singer actress Amirbai Karnataki. Later he joined Prakash Pictures and from 1942 to 1946 wrote songs for them in 9 films. Ramesh Gupta died on 19 January 1992.
The cast of the film Ram Rajya was Shobhana Samarth, Prem Adib, Umakant, Badri Prashad, Amirbai, Yashwant Nikam, Madhusudan Bhatt, Ranjana etc. After the tremendous success of their film Bharat Milap-1942, Bhatt brothers realised that Ram kathas are very popular with the Indian audience, all over the country. So they planned the second half of Shri Ram’s life in their new film. It showed the period from Ram’s return from Lanka upto the re-union of Lav Kush with Shri Ram and Seet’s joining her mother Bhoomi Devi. Initially the title of this film was planned as Lav-Kush, but during that year, Mahatma Gandhi was talking about bringing Ram Rajya to India, so the title was changed to Ram Rajya.
The same cast was continued for Ram, Seeta and Laxman. Even the Director and MD were kept the same. Shobhana Samarth, Prem Adib and Umakant had become so popular as Seeta, Shri Ram and Laxman, that later these three acted in 7 more films in that role ! As Expected, the film Ram Rajya became a Hit film all over India. So much so that even Mahatma Gandhi saw this film on 2-6-1944 at a friend’s house in Juhu, Bombay. This was not the only film Gandhi ever saw in his life, as popularly believed. He had earlier seen the film ‘ Mission to Moscow “-43, Directed by Michael Curtiz, in a well wisher’s home in Wardha, in 1943. This has appeared in “The Hindu “, (Kathmandu Edition), dated 8-2-2010, as told by Gopaldas Shreshtha, a Gandhian from Nepal. He was Gandhi ji’ s assistant in Wardha.
Like many Hit films, even this film had a controversy, which was as to who were the singers of the film’s song “Bharat ki ek sannari ki Katha….”, sung by Lav and Kush on the screen. Several names were taken like Ram Apte, Madhusudan Bhatt etc. Ramesh Gupta added to this confusion by making some wrong guesses, in one of his interviews. Finally the truth came out. Mr Dhananjay Nanivadekar, a US based music lover met the two singers during his visit to India. He sent his findings to Mr Harmandir Singh Hamraz who published it in Listeners’ bulletin number 154 (November 2012). According to it, Yashwant Balkrishn Joshi sang for Madhusudan Bhatt (playing Kush). Lav was played by Yashwant Nikam and he sang for himself. Madhusudan Bhatt had practiced for the song, but he could not sing high notes and so he was replaced by Yashwant Balkrishn Joshi for playback singing of the song.
Today’s song is sung by Manna Dey and an unidentified female singer. Manna Dey had started singing Hindi film songs from the film Tamanna-1942, so he was still a new voice. In Spite of spending so many years in Hindi films, he never got his right place in the industry. I have given 10 interesting points about Manna Dey in my song post of the film Mahapooja-1954 recently on 7-9-2024. Today I am giving an extract of his interview with Mr. Shekhar of RMIM, which was published on its forum a few years ago. This was later published in the book “The RMIM Minibus (1992 and beyond)” by Prof. Surjit Singh ji in 2017.
“Q : You sang many of R.D. Burman’s early songs. What was your impression of him? How long did you know him?
A : I knew him from the day he was born. He was definitely one of the most creative and innovative of our music directors. My first song for him was “Allah jaane main hoon kaun, kya hai mera naam” from “Pati Patni”. The combination of R.D, Mehmood, and myself was particularly good, because we had such fun in the recording room. I did whatever vocal gags I thought were appropriate, and sometimes the three of us would just fall down laughing. But underneath all the playfulness Pancham was a serious and dedicated music director. Did you know he was well trained in classical music?
Q : Who in your opinion was the music director most fun to work with?
A : As I’ve already said, R.D. Burman.
Q : The most capable?
A : It depends on what you mean by capable.
Q : I suppose it refers to a music director who was thoroughly able to give the film’s director exactly what he wanted, in terms of the song situation in the film.
A : That would be Shankar-Jaikishan. There were absolute masters in delivering the goods exactly the way the director wanted.
Q : And the strictest?
A : C. Ramachandra. C.Ramachandra and Naushad are both hard taskmasters and knew how to extract work from a singer, and there was no fooling around with them. (*Another aside. In a previous meeting I had asked Manna Dey why although both he and Naushad were inclined towards classical music, there had hardly been any collaboration between them. I could only think of “Dukh bhare din” from “Mother India”, and a duet with Rafi in “Palki”. He seemed reluctant to discuss it, but told me that even though sound recordist Minoo Katrak had strongly recommended him to Naushad, the maestro preferred Rafi over Manna for his compositions, for whatever reason. Still, Manna
holds Naushad in great esteem as one of our supreme music directors*)Q: In songs based on classical music which require a singer to perform a few complicated phrases or taans, typically what fraction of these are pre-composed? How much is the singer allowed to do impromptu? Is the singer asked to emulate classical artists or styles? What happens if the artist is not familiar with the raag?
A: There is always scope for improvisation, and a good music director will always be receptive to suggestions. I can confidently say that in all my songs, my own contribution has been at least 25%. Yes, we were asked occasionally to imitate the styles of great classical singers, but I’ve never done it.
Q : Does this mean that the taans at the end of “Laaga chunari mein daag” or “Phulgendwa na maaro” were yours?
A : That’s Roshan! No, never with the likes of Roshan or Naushad. For those two songs Roshan had the whole thing down pat and I just did what I was told. What a composer! The question of improvising on such a masterwork never even arose.
Q : In India famous playback singers continue to sing past their ability to sing properly or correctly. A good example was Hemant. Towards his last days he could never say ‘No’ and the results were terrible. And now it’s happening with Lata. Would you stop when you think you’re unable to perform the way you did, or continue, saying ‘My fans want me to sing’?
A : I have completely stopped singing for Hindi films, but it’s not because of any inability. I think I’m in good voice, and my riyaz keeps me in tune for my stage programmes. I just don’t fit in with the present crop of music directors. But if I were to be approached with a good song, meant for filming on a character-actor, then perhaps I would still consider it.
*By now Mannada was a little tired, so I decided to slip in just one question of my own*
Q : You sang ‘Ketaki gulab juhi champak’, with Bhimsen Joshi, in ‘Basant Bahar’. What was the experience like?
A : Haven’t I told you that story? It’s interesting. At first the film’s hero Bharat Bhooshan didn’t want my voice. After the success of ‘Baiju Bawra’ Rafi was understandably his first choice. But Shankar, ever my supporter, prevailed upon him, and some tact was called for since Bhooshan’s brother was the film’s producer. The first song recorded was ‘Sur na saje’, and that won Bharat Bhooshan over completely. Next came ‘Nain mile chain kahan’. Then Shankar called up and said, “I need you for a duet. The film’s situation calls for the hero to sing with a music ustad, and defeats the ustad in the process”. I said “Sure. When do we do it?”, confident that my co-singer would be Rafi or another playback singer. “Well, we’re trying to get either Pt. Bhimsen Joshi or Ustad Amir Khan for the ustad’s voice”, Shankar said. (*Eyes wide open, thunderstruck*) My heart sank. ME? Sing with Bhimsen Joshi? And ‘defeat’ him in a duet? I tried at once to get out of it. “Why don’t you get two classical singers for the duet”, I asked him. Shankar’s firmness could cut both ways – he lost no time in pointing out that after two songs had already been recorded, I was now the established voice of the hero, and who was going to explain to Bharat Bhooshan why another voice was now being used? I went home depressed, and told my wife, “Pack! We leave Bombay tonight and return only after six weeks”. When I told her why, she chided me and said “Shame on you! It is after all, a playback song”. After much arguing and convincing I finally decided to take it up as a challenge. I made Shankar give me the song a full four weeks in advance. We had two rehearsals, and Bhimsen Joshi’s voice was incredible. Standing next to him in the recording booth was an experience. But then I was also appreciated, especially for my ‘entry’ in the song, with an alaap in a single long breath. ”
Let us now listen to today’s video song. It depicts the scene of Laxman taking Seeta to the forest, in sage Valmiki’s ashram, after Ram orders her abandonment from Ayodhya.
Song- Chal tu door nagariya teri (Ram Rajya)(1943) Singers- Manna Dey, unknown female voice, Lyricist- Ramesh Gupta, MD-Shankar Rao Vyas
Lyrics
abhi to bahut door jaanaa hai
doooor
doooor nagariyaaa teri
door nagariya teri
chal tu
door nagariya teri
chal tu
door nagariya teri
uhun
chal
na
chal chal
na na
chal adi chal
chal
chal tu
door nagariya teri
chal tu
door nagariya teri
kadam kadam par aasha thhagni
kadam kadam par aasha thhagni
deti hai chit pheri
deti hai chit pheri
chal tu
door nagariya teri
chal tu
door nagariya teri
oonche oonche mahal dekhkar kaahe man lalchaave
oonche oonche mahal dekhkar kaahe man lalchaave
apni to wo bhali jhopadiya
apni to wo bhali jhopadiya
ye kachhu kaam na aave
ye kachhu kaam na aave
kisne bhram mein gheri
kisne bhram mein gheri
chal tu
door nagariya teri
chal tu
door nagariya teri
udnewaale panchhi
o panchhi
udnewaale panchhi
le chal
kaahe lagaave deri
le chal
kaahe lagaave deri
raam daras ke pyaase naina
raam daras ke pyaase naina
ajab mohini gheri
ajab mohini gheri
chal tu
door nagariya teri
chal tu
door nagariya teri
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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