Le lo daanton ka manjan o baaboojee
Posted on: September 27, 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 Albeli-1945.
There were two more films with the same title, in 1955 and 1974. Its male variety-Albela- was made 4 times, in 1951, 1871, 1990 1nd 2001. This film was made by Talwar productions, Calcutta. The Music Director was G.A. Chishti. A very interesting observation is that after Partition, 80 % of the Muslim MDs who migrated to Pakistan were ordinary composers in India, giving music only to B and C grade films here. However, in Pakistan all these MDs became A grade MDs, became famous and had many films on their hands. All of them prospered.
There was ,however, one exception and that was Ghulam Haider. He was an A grade MD in India, but failed miserably in Pakistan. Does this speak volumes of the quality of Pakistan film music in any way ? A point to note was that after the crop of migrated MDs retired, the Pak musical industry was in doldrums, because there was no second line to take over – unlike in India !
As per an article in Wikipedia, the Pakistani Cinema had the following stages….
| Era | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Growth years | 1947-1959 |
| Golden Era | 1959-1977 |
| Decline | 1977-1990 |
| Collapse | 1990-2002 |
So be it. Coming back to today’s film Albeli-1945, the cast of the film was Ramola, Satish, Rooplekha, Manorama, Sunder, Usha and others. Some of you may be surprised if I tell you that Sunder, who was famous as a Comedian for most readers, was a Hero in his early career. Not only that, but he was a good singer too. He was Hero in as many as 12 films in the 40’s decade and sang 40 songs in 25 films in his career.
For a long time, I was searching for information on comedian Sunder. I got hold of a 2 page detailed article on Sunder, but it was in Punjabi- which I could not read or use. I found a small paragraph on Sunder in Sanjit Narvekar ji’s book ” Eena Meena Deeka”. Lastly, I requested Harish Raghuwanshi ji for help. Despite his failing health, he promptly sent me articles in Hindi, English and Gujarati, on Sunder. He was such a helpful person.
Sunder Singh aka Sunder was born in Sialkot, Punjab on 10th August 1916. His father was working in Madon Theatres, Calcutta. Sunder also started working there. Initially, for a long period,he did Girl’s roles. Once his work was seen by H.S.Rawail (Director in later life). He was quite impressed. Later Rawail started working with R.N.Vaidya as his assistant in direction.Meanwhile Sunder started working in Talkie films. His first film,where he was credited, was ” Na hone wali baat”-38. Before that, Rawail and Vaidya were preparing to make the film Banke Sipahi-37.Rawail recommended Sunder and Vaidya gave him an uncredited small role in that film.
Sunder and Rawail became good friends and started staying in one flat in Calcutta. After a few films here, they both went to Lahore and Sunder got the Hero’s role in the film ” Shukriya”-44. There were 4 Heroines in the film- Ramola, Rooplekha, Manorama and Raksha. Sunder’s role in this film was that of a young man from a village and Ramola was from a City. Sunder’s one song from this film-‘ Nayanon ke teer chala gayee ek shehar ki laundiya’ became very popular all over India, However the song was banned in Punjab due to its lyrics. After this they both came back to Calcutta.
His next film was Albeli-45, in which too there were 4 Heroines- Ramola, Rooplekha, Manorama and Usha. In the 40’s , Sunder acted in many films like Arabian Nights, Baap, Shabri, Chandrashekhar, Ek aurat, Grihalaxmi, Lottery, Samapti, Jhoothi kasme, Savyasachi, Do baaten, Shadi ke baad, Bawra, Khiladi, Nai Bhabhi etc. In Calcutta, Sunder got married to a girl from his community. Rawail left for Bombay. After a few months, Sunder also returned to Bombay.
Rawail was very happy to get him back and gave him roles in almost all of his films. Not only Rawail, but also J.Om Prakash, Mohan Kumar, Lekhraj Bhakri, Manoj kumar etc gave him roles in all their films and he became a busy actor. He was at one time, in great demand. He was quite popular due to his nature.In the decade of 50’s he did 88 films, which increased in the 60s and 70s. In the 80s however films came haltingly.
From singing Hero, he became a Junior artiste( extra), in presence of the new crop of actors. The role of comedians was on decline, as Heroes like Amitabh and others did comedy scenes themselves. His health started troubling him. His last film was probably Bahurani-89. He became ill for a long time and finally died on 5-3-1992. Sunder acted in 436 films. He was a good singer and sang his own songs in early cinemas. In all, Sunder sang 40 songs in 25 films. ( Thanks to Harish Raghuwanshi ji for material for adaptation.)
In this film, there were 3 jew actresses as Heroines – Ramola, Rooplekha and Manorama. even in an earlier film ” Shukriya-1944′, wherein Sunder was Hero, these three Jew girls were the Heroines, along with the 4th Heroine Raksha. Since these films, I have not heard of any film having 4 heroines and one Hero, till today. How Lucky Sunder was !
Incidentally, Rooplekha was the elder sister of actress Ramola. She acted in film Nishani-1942 first time (this was the film wherein singer Naseem Akhtar sang her first Hindi film song). After this film Rooplekha worked only in 4 more films, namely Shukriya-1944,Albeli-1945, Jhoothi kasmen-1948 and Jawani ki Aag-1951. Then she got married and left films.
Film Albeli’s review came in the March – 46 issue of Film India magazine. As usual, Baburao Patel had nothing good to say about this film. The film’s story centred around the love affair of a street girl and a Gypsy boy, who is loved by two more girls. The film was released on 22-12-1945 at Central Cinema, Bombay. The story was by Talwar himself. Dialogues and Screenplay was by J.S.Casshyap.
The film was directed by R C Talwar. R.C.Talwar aka Raghubir Chand Talwar was born on 21-4-1910, at Tolaganj, in Western Punjab-now in Pakistan. His film life, as many others of his ilk, started in Calcutta and ended in Bombay. While at Calcutta, he worked as an assistant to Kidar Sharma. After the success of the film, Aulad / Dil Hi Toh Hai (1939), Ramola got romantically involved with R.C. Talwar, Kidar Sharma’s assistant who later became a director in his own right. According to Kidar Sharma, “R.C. Talwar was a classmate and friend so I ignored his relationship with Ramola.”
He was a screenplay writer, producer and Director. Starting from Manchali-43, produced by Talwar productions,Calcutta, which he had established there, Talwar directed films like Khamoshi-42, Albeli-45, Khiladi-50, Sangdil-52, Ilzam-54, Rukhsana-55, Memsahib-56, Ek dil sau afsane-63 and Naya Kanoon-1965. He produced 2 films, Sangdil and Memsahib-for which he had written the screenplay also.
Talwar directed Kishore Kumar in 3 films, Ilzam, Rukhsana and Memsahib. In all these films, the Heroine was Meena Kumari. While Ilzam was a social film, Rukhsana was a Costume film and Memsahib was supposed to be a comedy film. This was also produced by him.
After the film Memsahib was completed, Talwar had to pay a balance amount of Rs. 8000/- to Kishore Kumar. Even after Kishore’s several reminders, Talwar failed to pay Kishore his dues. Kishore Kumar employed a novel idea. Everyday, in the morning, before proceeding for shooting, Kishore would go to Talwar’s house. Standing outside at his gate, Kishore used to shout loudly,” Hey Talwar, de de mera Aath Hazaar “. This continued for a few days and Talwar was so annoyed that he paid off Kishore’s dues.
Today’s song is sung by Zeenat Begum. Enjoy….
Song-Lelo daanton ka manjan o baabujee (Albeli)(1945) Singer-Zeenat Begam, Lyrics-Shanti Swaroop Kaif, MD-G A Chishti
Lyrics
Baabujee
O Baabujee
O Baabujee
Baabujee
O Baabujee
O Baabujee
O Baabujee
lelo daanton ka manjan
O Baabujee
lelo daanton ka manjan
manjan ka manjan hai
chandan ka chandan
O Baabujee
manjan ka manjan hai
chandan ka chandan
O Baabujee
lelo daanton ka manjan
O Baabujee
lelo daanton ka manjan
daanton ko motee banaata hai manjan
haan haan haan
daanton ko motee banaata hai manjan
haan haan haan
haseenon ki beauty badhhaataa hai manjan
haan haan haan
haseenon ki beauty badhhaataa hai manjan
haan haan haan
chutkee mein jaadoo chalaataa hai manjan
O Baabujee
chutkee mein jaadoo chalaataa hai manjan
O Baabujee
yahaan se lagaataa hee jaataa hai manjan
O Baabujee
yahaan se lagaataa hee jaataa hai manjan
O Baabujee
lelo daanton ka manjan
O Baabujee
lelo daanton ka manjan
zara mera manjan lagaa kar to dekho
haan haan haan
zara mera manjan lagaa kar to dekho
haan haan haan
qasam hai tumhen aajmaa kar to dekho
haan haan haan
qasam hai tumhen aajmaa kar to dekho
haan haan haan
unglee pe apnee jamaa kar to dekho
O Baabujee
unglee pe apnee jamaa kar to dekho
O Baabujee
qasam hai tumhen aajmaa kar to dekho
O Baabujee
qasam hai tumhen aajmaa kar to dekho
O Baabujee
lelo daanton ka manjan
O Baabujee
lelo daanton ka manjan
manjan ka manjan hai
chandan ka chandan
O Baabujee
manjan ka manjan hai
chandan ka chandan
O Baabujee
lelo daanton ka manjan
O Baabujee
lelo daanton ka manjan
Baaaabujeeee
O Baabujeee
O Baabujeee
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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