Maata maata meri maata Bhaarat maata
Posted on: September 25, 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 ‘Taqdeer’ (1943).
This was the film in which 2 great artistes came together along with 2 other great actors. Mehboob Khan who produced and directed this film, introduced Nargis, first time as an adult heroine. The hero was Motilal and his father’s role was done by actor Chandra Mohan. In real life also, Chandramohan always treated Motilal as his son. Incidentally, the name of Motilal, in his childhood period in this film was PAPPU ! If the film was made today, Motilal would have elected to leave the film instead of having his name as PAPPU !!
This was Mehboob Khan’s second film, made by his own home production studio and banner Mehboob Productions. His first film in this was a Muslim social film ‘Najma’ (also 1943). (Incidentally, his daughter’s name was Najma). Mehboob produced films on a big scale, sparing no expenses or efforts to convey what he wanted to. This was the reason he was called the Cecil B DeMille of India.
‘Taqdeer’ was a Mehboob Production film, directed by Mehboob, with music by Rafiq Ghaznavi and Lyrics by Mahrul Kadri. There is one song in the film written by Agha M Shirazi (who also acted in the film) and one song by Anjum Pilibhiti also.There were 10 songs in the film – 2 chorus songs, 4 solos of Shamshad Begum and 4 duets of Shamshad and Motilal.The cast of the film was Chandramohan, Motilal, Nargis, Jilloobai, Kayam Ali, Ansari, Shirazi, Laddan etc. The story was by Ghulam Mohd. and screenplay and dialogues were by Agha Jaani Kashmiri. The story of the film was,
Badriprasad (Charlie), a widower, is in the theater business and is staging a play at a fair (the Kumbh Mela). His manager Ghanshyam, tells him that Pappu, Badriprasad’s young son, is lost. They look for him but cannot find him. The manager instead finds a little girl, Shyama, who seems lost. He and his wife, being childless, decide to bring her up as their daughter. Judge Jumna Prasad (Chandra Mohan), who is also at the fair, is unable to find his daughter Shyama and tries searching for her with the help of the police. The judge’s wife loses her mental balance when she hears about her missing daughter. The doctor says that she is in danger of losing her life too if Shyama is not found soon. The judge’s servant finds Pappu and tells the judge to dress the boy in Shyama’s clothes and pretend the boy is Shyama to save his wife’s life. Thereafter, the judge’s wife continues to believe that Pappu is Shyama in spite of seeing him dressed as a boy even after he grows up. She insists on calling him “beti” (daughter).
Badriprasad loses all interest in his theater after the loss of his son. His manager Ghanshyam encourages him to revive the theatre. Badriprasad sees the little Shyama dancing and asks the manager about her. By now Ghanshyam’s wife has died and he lets Badriprasad adopt the little girl. Shyama (Nargis) grows up in the theatre milieu as Badriprasad’s daughter and is also the main cast in their theater productions.
Pappu, now called Babu (Motilal) visits the theatre with his parents. He is enamoured of Shyama and soon both fall in love. The judge refuses to allow the marriage as he considers theater people below his social standing. Babu finds out that he is not the judge’s real son and leaves home. The judge’s wife regains her memory following the shock of Babu leaving the house. Disagreements are sorted out once the lost identities of Shyama and Babu are discovered.
In my last post on this film, “Aap Kyun Kyun Aap Kyun Aayenge” I had discussed the life of Mehboob Khan. Today let us take a look at the life of Nargis.
Baby Fatima (Baby Rani as a child artiste in some films) was renamed by Mehboob Khan for this film as Nargis (a flower), which continued forever. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in the history of Hindi cinema, she made her screen debut as a child in ‘Talash e Haq’ in 1935, but her acting career began in 1942 with ‘Tamanna’. During a career that spanned from the 1940s to the 1960s, Nargis appeared in many commercially successful as well as critically appreciated films, many of which featured her along-side actor Raj Kapoor. She was the younger sister of the well-known actor Anwar Hussain. In the year 1993, the Government of India issued a postal stamp on Nargis.
One of her best-known roles was that of Radha in the Academy Award nominated film ‘Mother India’ (1957), a performance that won her Best Actress trophy at the Filmfare Awards. In 1958, Nargis married her ‘Mother India’ co-star, actor Sunil Dutt, and left the film industry. She would appear infrequently in films during the 1960s. Some of her films of this period include the drama’Raat Aur Din’ (1967), for which she was given the inaugural National Film Award for Best Actress.
Nargis had a long-time relationship with actor Raj Kapoor, who was her co-star in the films ‘Barsaat’, ‘Awara’, ‘Chori Chori’, ‘Bewafa’ and ‘Shree 420’. Raj Kapoor was married and had children. After he refused to divorce his wife, Nargis ended their year-long relationship.
Nargis was born as Fatima Rashid on 01 June 1929 in Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, undivided India, present day Kolkata to famous classical singer Jaddanbai and Abdul Rashid, a wealthy heir of Hindu origin, from Rawalpindi . Nargis married actor Sunil Dutt (a Mohyal from Jhelum, British India) on 11 March 1958. Reportedly, Dutt had saved her life from a fire on the sets of ‘Mother India’. She converted to Hinduism and changed her legal name to Nirmala Dutt after they married on 11 March 1958. Three children were born from this marriage – Sanjay, Priya & Namrata.
Sanjay went on to become a successful film actor. Namrata married actor Kumar Gaurav, son of veteran actor Rajendra Kumar who had appeared alongside Nargis and Sunil Dutt in ‘Mother India’. Priya became a politician and a Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha).
Nargis made her first film appearance in the 1935 film ‘Talash e Haq’ when she was six years old, credited as Baby Nargis. Nargis is a Persian word meaning Narcissus, the daffodil flower. She was subsequently credited as Nargis in all of her films. Her second film as a child artist was ‘Madam Fashion’ (1936) which was directed by her mother Jaddanbai. She was the heroine herself and had cast Baby Nargis and Baby Suraiya. Suraiya later became a popular singer-actress who had made her debut with the film.
Nargis appeared in numerous films after her debut; she won lasting fame for her later, adult roles, starting with at the age of 14, in Mehboob Khan’s ‘Taqdeer’ in 1943 opposite Motilal. She starred in many popular Hindi films of the late 1940s and 1950s such as ‘Barsaat’ (1949), ‘Andaz’ (1949), ‘Awara’ (1951), ‘Deedar’ (1951),’Shree 420′ (1955), and ‘Chori Chori’ (1956). She appeared in Mehboob Khan’s Oscar-nominated rural drama ‘Mother India’ in 1957 for which she won the Filmfare Best Actress Award for her performance. Baburao Patel of the film magazine Film India (December 1957) described ‘Mother India ‘ as “the greatest picture produced in India” and wrote that no other actress would have been able to perform the role as well as Nargis.
After her marriage to Sunil Dutt in 1958, Nargis gave up her film career to settle down with her family, after her last few films were released. She made her last film appearance in the 1967 film ‘Raat Aur Din’. The film was well received and Nargis’ performance as a woman who has dissociative identity disorder was critically acclaimed. For this role she won a National Film Award for Best Actress and became the first actress to win in this category. She also received a Filmfare Best Actress Award nomination for this film.
With her husband Sunil Dutt, Nargis formed Ajanta Arts Cultural Troupe, which involved several leading actors and singers of the time & performed at remote frontiers to entertain the Indian soldiers at the border. It was the first troupe to perform in Dhaka, after the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971. Later, Nargis worked for the cause of spastic children. She became the first patron of The Spastics Society of India. Her charitable work for the organisation got her recognition as a social worker. Her subsequent work with the organisation brought her recognition as a social worker, and later a Rajya Sabha nomination in 1980. In 1958, she was honored with the Padma Shri by the Government of India.
Nargis died on 03 May 1981 of pancreatic cancer, a few days before her son Sanjay Dutt made his debut in Hindi film ‘Rocky’. In 1982, the Nargis Dutt Memorial Cancer Foundation was established in her memory.
Awards and recognitions –
● 1958 : Filmfare Best Actress Award for ‘Mother India’
● 1958 : She was the first film actress to be conferred by the Government of India with the Padma Shri title, the fourth highest civilian award.
● 1958 : Best Actress Award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for ‘Mother India’
● 1968 : National Film Award for Best Actress for ‘Raat Aur Din’
● 1969 : Nominated, Filmfare Best Actress Award for ‘Raat Aur Din’
● 2001 : “Best Artists of the Millennium” award by Hero Honda and film magazine Stardust along with actor Amitabh Bachchan.
A street in Bandra, Mumbai, is named Nargis Dutt Road in her memory. A postal stamp of face value Rs 1.00 was issued by India Post in her honor, on 30 December 1993. The National Film Awards honored her by instituting the ‘Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration’ upon her achievement in Hindi Cinema. (Based primarily on an article by Suresh S. ji and my notes.)
Today’s song is a stage song, sung by Shamshad Begum, Motilal and Chorus. In this song in the film, ‘Meri Mata Bharat Mata’, in which Nargis is shown holding a sickle and a cloth bundle, with waving fields behind her. This reminds us of her role and posters of ‘Mother India’ (also a Mehboob production). Enjoy the video song….
Song- Maata maata meri maata Bharat maata (Taqdeer)(1943) Singers- Shamshad Begam, Motilal, Lyricist- Mahrul Qadri, MD- Rafiq Ghaznavi
Chorus
Lyrics
maata
maata
bhaarat maata
mata maata
bhaarat maata
maata maata
meri maata
bhaarat maata
maata maata
meri maata
bhaarat maata
ham baalak hain tere
godon mein teri khele
ham baalak hain tere
godon mein teri khele
insaan banaaya toone
maata
insaan banaaya toone
parwaan chadhaaya toone
insaan banaaya toone
parwaan chadhhaaya toone
maata
maata maata
meri maata
bhaarat maata
teri mitti chaandi sona
jannat tera har kona
teri mitti chaandi sona
jannat tera har kona
aata hai ispe rona
maataa
aata hai is pe rona
auron ka tu khilona
aata hai ispe rona
auron ka tu khilona
maata
maata maata
meri maata
bhaarat maata
teri raksha karne waale
teri raksha karne waale
ham desh pe marne waale
mit mit ke marne waale
kab maut se darne waale
maata
maata
maata maata
meri maata
bhaarat maata
mazdooron ne jo kheti
apne lahu se seenchi
us se mile na roti
jal jaaye aise kheti
jal jaaye aisi kheti
maata
maata
maata
——————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
——————————————
माता
माता
भारत माता
माता माता
भारत माता
माता माता
मेरी माता
भारत माता
माता माता
मेरी माता
भारत माता
हम बालक हैं तेरे
गोदों में तेरी खेले
हम बालक हैं तेरे
गोदों में तेरी खेले
इंसां बनाया तूने
माता
इंसां बनाया तूने
परवान चढ़ाया तूने
इंसां बनाया तूने
परवान चढ़ाया तूने
माता
माता माता
मेरी माता
भारत माता
तेरी मिट्टी चांदी सोना
जन्नत तेरा हर कोना
तेरी मिट्टी चांदी सोना
जन्नत तेरा हर कोना
आता है इस पे रोना
माता
आता है इस पे रोना
औरों का तू खिलौना
आता है इस पे रोना
औरों का तू खिलौना
माता
माता माता
मेरी माता
भारत माता
तेरी रक्षा करने वाले ए ए
तेरी रक्षा करने वाले
हम देश पे मरने वाले
मिट मिट के मरने वाले
कब मौत से डरने वाले
माता
माता
माता माता
मेरी माता
भारत माता
मज़दूरों ने जो खेती
अपने लहू से सींची
उस से मिले न रोटी
जल जाये ऐसी खेती
जल जाये ऐसी खेती
माता
माता
माता
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
September 25, 2024 at 7:55 am
इस गीत को अपलोड करके हमारे जानकारी में लाने की लिए बहुत आभार, अरुण जी। 1943 में जब हमारा देश पराधीन था, उस अवधि में लिखा, फिल्माया यह बहुत भावनात्मक देश भक्ति भरा गीत है। इसका महत्व, स्वतंत्र भारत में बनी फिल्म्स के गानों से बहुत अधिक है।
On Wed, 25 Sep, 2024, 5:01 am Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of
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September 25, 2024 at 8:09 am
मैं सहमत हूं l
धन्यवाद l
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