Chal ree naav tu chal
Posted on: September 24, 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 Jungle Princess-1942.
From the very first decade of Talkie films, a new Genre of Hindi films started in India and that was ” Jungle Films’. Animals like Elephants, Lions and Tigers were no novelty in India, like the western world. In fact, till our Independence, India was known as a country of Elephants, Lions and Tigers. When India was not well known in the world, people in the western countries thought that Elephants, Lions, and Tigers, along with Snakes etc roam about on Indian roads freely !
When Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote his first novel ” Tarzan of the Apes” in 1912 (the series had 24 novels on Tarzan), the world lapped it up. Translations in many languages made people mad about these novels. The very first film on Tarzan came in 1933 and then it was a craze all over the world. India too was not an exception. The story which was known only to people who knew English was known to all, once the films came on Tarzan. The first film on Tarzan made in India was “Tarzan ki Beti”-1938 and then there was no film on Tarzan in the next 2 decades, till the 1960’s.
There were, in all, 21 films on Tarzan from 1938 to 2004. The last film was “Tarzan- The Wonder Car”-2004. The Mensa qualified story departments of various studios connected Tarzan with the well known stories. In the process, Tarzan was with Delialah, King Kong, in Circus, with Cobra, Gorilla, Jadugar and Jalpari, while he also had a ‘Jadui Chirag’. Tarzan was taken to Delhi and Paristan (Fairyland). He was given a Beti and a Mehbooba too ! With all such titles for Tarzan films in Hindi, the soul of Edgar Rice Burroughs must have gone mad in his grave and re-died many more times too !
In India, Wadia Movietone, with their Star stunt artiste Fearless Nadia wanted to make a film on Tarzan, but their problem was that their star was a woman, not a male like Tarzan. This problem was solved, when Nadia herself volunteered to write the film’s story. Meanwhile, as per her interview in 1990, she had said…. ” One day JBH Wadia took me to a Circus having shows near our studios. He showed me 4-5 lions and said ” in your next film, you have to work with these,” I was scared to the bones and hurriedly refused point blank. He simply smiled and said ” just think about it “. When we were about to leave, I saw a small girl-about 8-9 years, enter one of the Lion cages and feed the Lion. I was stunned and thought, “If this small girl can do this, why can’t I ? I told JBH that I would do the film and work with the Lions too.”
Thus began the journey of one year training spent with the lions. Nadia became an expert in handling not only Lions, but also Tigers and Elephants.
The shooting of her famous “The Jungle Princess” started in 1941 and the film was released in 1942, around summer in India. This was a very ambitious, big budget Stunt film of Wadia Movietone-the Greatest Nadia film after “Hunterwali”-1935.
The film ” Jungle Princess”-1942 was directed by Homi Wadia and the 11 songs of the film , written by Pt. Indra, were tuned by the old stalwart Madholal Master. The cast was Nadia, John Cavas, Radha Rani, Baby Madhuri (younger sister of Meena Kumari and wife of Mehmood), Shahzadi (sister of Alam Ara fame actress Zubeida), Dalpat, Sardar Mansoor, Hari Shivdasani (father of actress Babita-wife of Randhir Kapoor), Jal khambata, Gulshan Sufi and others. The story of this film was….
A merchant ship is caught in a powerful storm, and as the boat threatens to sink, Sir Mangaldas (M.K. Hasan) places a life preserver around his five year old daughter Lila (Baby Madhuri) just as she is swept out to sea.
The lone survivor among the passengers and crew, Lila finds herself washed up on the beach of a lonely jungle where she is befriended by a lion. Years go by and Lila, now known as Mala by the aboriginals, has grown into a young woman (Fearless Nadia) who rules over her animal kingdom and who has become the adopted daughter of the jungle King of Harambano (Hari Shivdasani).
Lila’s uncle Mohanlal (Dalpat) has decided to have the girl and her father finally declared legally dead so that he can become the heir to Sir Mangaldas’ estate. But then, word comes through that Lila might be alive! So a search party, led by Surendra (John Cawas), heads out to find her.
Traipsing through the jungle, Surendra comes face to face with a ferocious lion and kills it. Mala learns of this and has the group arrested for murdering her animal friend. Surendra is able to free them all, however, when he is allowed to fight a dangerous tiger as penance for his cri
Surendra falls in love with Mala, not realizing she is the girl he and his party have been searching for, in fact they have all been led to believe that Meena (Radha Rani), the king’s treacherous consort, is in actuality the missing Lila. Meena traps the group in the palace and forces them to accept her as Lila or die. Mohanlal agrees to this, but the rest decide to attempt an escape resulting in Mala being wounded and the king ordering the execution of Surendra and his cohorts. Finally, with the help of Mala and her friends, Surendra and others are freed. In the final fight, the king and Mohanlal are killed. Mala goes with Surendra.
The story of Jungle Princess was written by Fearless Nadia who also acted as dance director on the film.
Music Director Madholal Master was one of the very few film personalities who pursued a successful career after retiring from films. He was also one of those whose death was in tragic circumstances. The name Madholal Master must be unknown to the newer crop of Music lovers, because he retired from film music in 1952- much before most readers were even born. The story of Madhulal Master is as strange as his death. On the morning of 19th June 1990, The Times of India, Bombay flashed a news…” The old time Music Director and a Director of Indian Institute of Puppetry, Shri Madholal Damodar Master is found murdered in his Shivaji Park home.”
Born on 21-6-1903, Madholal joined the film industry to become a Comedian, but he was first made a sound recordist assistant, then an assistant MD for two films and finally independent MD for Krishna Tone Film Company for their film, ‘ Navchetan’-32. In the next 21 years he gave music to 34 Hindi films, few Gujarati films and some documentaries, composing 267 Hindi songs. Unable to cope up with the changed pattern of Music and public taste, he retired from this profession after his last film- Jungle ka Jawahir-52. After this he pursued his hobby of Puppet making and soon developed a flourishing business. Internationally well known, he was the only Indian member honoured by the International Puppetiers’ Organization. Very few people know that it was his JOKER PUPPET which was used by Raj Kapoor in his ambitious film MERA NAAM JOKER-1970.
He was invited as a special guest for the release ceremony for the HFGK-Vol I, on 8-10-1988, after Harmandir ji meticulously made special efforts to locate him in Bombay. He was overwhelmed with this gesture. Madholal ji showed a Catalogue to Harmandir ji, in which Madholal ji had recorded information about all songs composed by him with details of every film that he did in his career. Harmandir ji was wonderstruck with his systematic records. In the ceremony, senior artistes like Naushad, Sitara Devi, Rajkumari ji etc all touched his feet with respect. He regaled the audience with his humorous talk for an hour. He had spent 38 years before this in anonymity. It is very sad that his life ended in such a tragic way. ( His daughter from the USA, informed us recently that the murderer was apprehended, after a year.)
Today’s song is sung by Gulshan Sufi and Mehdi Raza. This rare song is a short one. Just 1 minute and 44 seconds in the film. The video shows that this song is immediately after the titles, sung by the ship sailors. Onae can see Gulshan Soofi and Mehdi Raza on screen singing their lines, sitting on the sail staff. I thank Deepak Chaudhari ji and our own Sadanand Kamath ji for this song. Now something about Gulshan Soofi….
Another interesting artiste in this film was Gulshan Soofi. He was born at Larkana on 24-12-1914. His father and mother died when he was small. He was looked after by a Hermit named Agha Ghulam Nabi Soofi, who treated him as his son. Here he got some education. Having an attraction for Theatres, he ran away and joined Agha Hashr Theatrical company, but he was forced back to the Hermit.
Finally, he came to Bombay with Bhai Dessa and recorded a few songs. He joined Nanubhai Vakil as an extra, where his talent was recognised and he sang in films Rashk e Laila-34 and Gulshan e Alam-35 besides acting in small roles. Then he worked at Karachi in films, sang Sindhi songs in Amritsar Gramophone co.. He worked in Mother India-38, Watan-38, Payam e Haq-39 and Jungle Princess-42.
He started as MD with film Aina-44, then came Mauji Jeewan-44, Saathi-46, Durban-46, Devar-46, Pati Sewa-47, Janmapatri-49, Sabj Bagh-51, Zamane ki Hawa-52, Faryadi-53 and lastly Ghamand-55. Gulshan acted in 7 films and sang14 songs. He composed 66 songs in 11 films. In 1957, Gulshan Soofi migrated to Pakistan and retired. No news after that.
Now enjoy the video song….
Video
Audio
Song-Chal ree naav tu chal (Jungle Princess)(1942) Singers-Gulshan Sufi, Mehdi Raza, Lyricist-Pt Indra, MD-Madholal Master
Lyrics
chal ri naav tu chal
chal ri
chal ri naav tu chal
aage aage le chal
chal ri
chal ri naav tu chal
chal ri
chal ri naav tu chal
jeevan naam hai chalne ka
jeevan naam hai chalne ka
aage aage badhne ka
aage aage badhne ka
jeena hai to aage chal
jeena hai to aage chal
chal ri
chal ri naav tu chal
chal ri
chal ri naav tu chal
aa aa aa aa
ae bhigi hui hawaon
jab desh hamare jaao
preetam se jaakar kahna
darsh ke pyaase hain naina
bujhe huye din rain
bujhe huye din rain
hahaha
kya hanste ho tum log
kya mujhe circus ka langoor samajh liya hai
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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