Dheemee dheemee chaandnee mein bheege mora dil
Posted on: October 29, 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 Guru Ghantal-1956.
There was a film in 1937 also with the same title. The story of both the films were on similar lines. But do you know what the meaning of the word Guru Ghantal is ? I did not know, but I found out from a Hindi-English dictionary, published in 1889. This was compiled by ” The Rev. T.Craven, M.A.”, in Lucknow. Many years ago, I had a habit of roaming on the streets of big cities like Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta or even smaller cities like Poona, Lucknow or Hyderabad, in search of second hand old and rare books. I found this dictionary of Hindi-English-Hindi and Urdu-English-Urdu words for sale in Lucknow. It was quite a thick book and occupied considerable space in my suitcase. The book is extremely useful and I have to use it very carefully because, being so old-135 years- its pages have become brittle and delicate. It is one of my prized possessions !
The meaning of Guru Ghantal is one who is not real or pretending to be someone else. It is usually used for fake saints or people who claim to be doctors or fortune tellers etc. Appropriately, the 1937 film was also known as “Shareef badmash”. In the late 50’s, the system of having 2 or 3 alternate names for films had vanished.
Film Guru Ghantal-1956 was produced by R.N.Sharma and N.K.Kaushik for banner V.K.Pictures, Bombay. It was directed by S.M.Yousuf and the music was by Lachhiram. Songs were written by Sarashar Sailaani (real name Bhimsen), Udhav Kumar and Khavar Zaman. The cast included Sheila Ramani, Motilal, Usha Kiran, Agha, Sunder, Mirza musharraf, Shaikh, kesari, Vijaybala ( real name Mumtaz, sister of singer mubarak begum) and others. The story of the film was….
The film was based on incidents found in day to day life. Open any Newspaper and you will find advertisements for some BABAs, Bengali, Kashmiri and of other varieties, Siddha Purushas, Gurus and Saints. They all claim ready solutions for all difficulties in this world. Innocent, foolish and gullible people fall prey to them and spend unlimited money.
Rukmini Devi, wife of rich Carnival owner Raja Shyamdas has no children. Instead of going to a Doctor, she seeks all types of Babas,Gurus and saints. So much money is spent on them that Shyamdas had to stop studies and call his Niece Leela from Bombay back to Khandala. Leela’s lover Ram, a jobless young man, thinks of a plan to teach a lesson to Rukmini Devi and gives an ad in papers that Saints Sachitanand and Parmanand ji have great power to solve any problem.
Leela’s brother Raja Ramdas sees this ad and is sent by Rukmini Devi to fetch them to Khandala. He goes to Bombay and meets Ram, who tells him his plan and Ramdas agrees to help him. Ramdas,while in Bombay falls in love with a CID girl-Kanan, who is after these fake Gurus and Babas to expose them.
Ram becomes Sachitanand,his friend is Parmanand. They all come to Khandala. While Ram and Leela and Ramdas and Kanan pairs are busy singing and running around trees in Khandala,all the Jewellery of Rukmini devi is stolen.
Investigations start and it is found that there is another thief who is taking advantage of all this situation. Kanan and Ramdas catch the thief Red handed while selling the jewellery. Ram and Ramdas reveal everything. Rukmini Devi learns a lesson for her life and agrees to visit a doctor for treatment.
While Ram-Leela and Ramdas-Kanan get married,the news that Rukmini devi is pregnant comes and everyone is happy.
This film’s hero Motilal and Heroine Sheila Ramani were both my favourites. Motilal is considered as the Hindi film industry’s FIRST Natural actor. Actually, another natural actor from that era was Ashok Kumar, but his first film came in 1936 whereas Motilal’s film was released in 1934, so he was senior to Ashok Kumar.
Born in Shimla on 4 December 1910, Motilal Rajwansh came from a distinguished family. His father was a renowned educationist, who died when Motilal was one year old. He was brought up by his uncle who was a well-known civil surgeon in Uttar Pradesh. At first, Moti was sent to an English school at Shimla and later, in Uttar Pradesh (UP). Thereafter, he shifted to Delhi where he continued with school and college.
After leaving college, Motilal came to Bombay to join the Navy, but he fell ill and could not appear for the test. Fate had other choices charted out for him. One day, he went to see a film shoot at Sagar Studios, where director K. P. Ghosh was shooting. Motilal, even then, was quite the man about the town and he caught Ghosh’s eye. Motilal described this event in his inimitable style,in one of his interviews….” The director Ghosh Babu looked towards me and said,” please come here”. I first thought he was calling someone standing behind me. I looked back and moved to one side. Nobody came forward, but Ghosh Babu came to me and pointed his finger at me and said, ” Yes, I am talking to you. Please come here” I went with him .” In 1934 (aged 24), he was offered the hero’s role in Shaher Ka Jadoo -1934 by the Sagar Film Company. Sabita Devi and Motilal’s first movie as a pair in the famous Sagar Movietone, the movie Lure of the City (aka Shaher ka Jadoo) released on 29 th September 1934 at the Imperial Cinema, Bombay.
Mehboob Khan was earlier selected for the lead role and was later replaced by Motilal. This was actor Motilal’s debut film and Motilal – Sabita made the best pair in the Sagar Film Company. They acted together in many other movies under the banner of the Sagar like, Silver King -1935, Dr Madhurika -1935, Lagna Bandhan -1936, Jeevan Lata -1939, Kulvadhu -1937, Kokila -1937, Three hundred days and after -1938 and later at Sudama Films in Ap Ki Marzi -1939 and Minerva’s Prarthana -1944. He worked with Mehboob Khan in Jagirdar -1937 and Hum Tum Aur Woh -1938 under the Sagar Movietone banner, in Taqdeer -1943 for Mehboob Productions, and Kidar Sharma’s Armaan -1942 and Kaliyan -1944. He also acted in S. S. Vasan’s film Paigham -1959 (Gemini Studios), and Raj Kapoor’s Jagte Raho -1956. In 1965, he also acted in the Bhojpuri film Solaho Singar Kare Dulhaniya.
Perhaps the role for which he received the most critical appreciation was that of the gentleman crook in S. S. Vasan’s adaptation of R K Narayan’s book Mr Sampat -1952. He is most remembered for his role as “Chunni Babu” in Bimal Roy’s Devdas -1955, for which he won his first Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. Actor Naseeruddin Shah once described him as one of three all-time best actors of Hindi cinema, others being Balraj Sahni and Yakub.
Motilal was very suave and polished, and moved in high society, though towards the end of his life he was in financial difficulty. Although a thorough gentleman, he enjoyed gambling and races, and died almost penniless on 17th June 1965.
Motilal was an excellent Pilot and owned a small aircraft. He rarely travelled by train and always liked to fly. His family life was happy. His wife was a doctor.
He was in a relationship for several years with the actress Nadira. He was later involved with actress Shobhna Samarth after she separated from her husband, and he played Samarth’s real-life daughter Nutan’s father in Hamari Beti, Shobhana’s launch movie for Nutan. He also played her guardian in Anari, though this time the role had a villainous touch to it.
Motilal and Ashok Kumar were popular stars at the same time. Ashok Kumar was employed by Bombay Talkies and Motilal was employed by Ranjit. It is said that Sardar Chandulal paid Rs. One lakh to Motilal in those days. Motilal was a gambler. Once Chandulal Shah paid his debt of 75000 rupees which Motilal had lost in gambling, just to keep Motilal with Ranjit ! It is surprising that Ashok Kumar never worked with Motilal’s Heroines-Shobhana Samarth or Khursheed and Motilal never worked with Ashok Kumar’s heroines- Devika Rani or Leela Chitnis !
Actor Chandra Mohan treated Motilal as his son. During the last days of Chandra Mohan, once Motilal had gone to meet him. Chandra Mohan was drinking from a costly foreign Whisky bottle, but he did not offer it to Motilal. Motilal was feeling bad and then Chandra Mohan said, ” I know you must be feeling bad that I am not offering you this Whisky, but trust me it is not whisky- I am drinking Bewada (country liquor) from this bottle and I don’t want my son to drink this dirty stuff ! ”
Motilal was the winner of Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for Devdas -1955 and Parakh -1960. He is credited with being among Hindi cinema’s first natural actors.
He also directed the film Chhoti Chhoti Baatein -1965, but died before its release. At the 13th National Film Awards, it won the award for Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film and he posthumously won the Certificate of Merit for the Best Story Writer. ( adapted from some information from Vithal Pandya’s book-Asli Nakli Chehere, wiki, Star portraits, nett4you, the book Sagar Movietone, and Shirish Kanekar’s book- Yaadon ki Baaraat, with thanks and my notes.)
The Music Director of this film was LACHHIRAM, a name not known to many readers. He was a very talented but unlucky composer, who,despite his good work, was never counted among the A grade composers. LACHHIRAM TOMAR was a Punjabi Chaudhary born in the princely state of Kuthar in the present day Himachal Pradesh. His father died early and he was brought up and trained in music by Rana jagjit Chandra of Kuthar, under the tutelage of Ustad Noore Khan. He came to Delhi at the age of 20 years and served in H.M.V.Company as a singer. He cut many records there. Side by side he was singing on A.I.R. also.
Aziz Kashmiri, writer and Director of Shorey Films, Lahore came scouting for talents and engaged him as an assistant to music composer for a salary of Rs.750 per month. He assisted in films like Champa, Badnami and Shalimar. His first independent film as a composer was Aarsi-47, which celebrated Silver jubilee. Then he did Mohini, Birhan and Director in 47-48 and did Guru Dakshina and Madhubala in 1950. The songs of Madhubala became Hits, but his luck misfired. He suffered from T.B. and had to leave everything. He lost one Lung also in it. However this brave man came back and did Ameer, Shaheed Bhagat Singh-54 (Sarfaroshi ki tamanna-Rafi), Maharani Jhansi, Guru Ghantal and Hazaar pariyaan-59. In his last spell he did Do Shahzade, Razia Sultan and his Last film was Main Suhagan Hoon-64, a total of 19 films. Lachhiram Tomar died on 5-2-1966 at Bombay.
Today’s song is sung by Asha Bhosle. Enjoy….
Song- Dheemee dheemee chaandnee mein bheege mora dil(Guru Ghantaal)(1956) Singer- Asha Bhosle, Lyricist- Udhav Kumar, MD- Lachhiram
Lyrics
dheemee dheemee chaandnee mein bheege mora dil
dheemee dheemee chaandnee mein bheege mora dil
kirnon kee barsaat mein baalam kaheen bhee aake mil
haay kaheen bhee aake mil
kirnon kee barsaat mein baalam kaheen bhee aake mil
haay kaheen bhee aake mil
dheemee dheemee chaandnee mein bheege mora dil
mausam hai pyaar ka
ho mere dildaar ka
mausam hai pyaar ka
ho mere dildaar ka
kisee kee jeet ho
kisee kee haar ka
kisee kee jeet ho
kisee kee haar ka
mere dildaar ka
dheemee dheemee chaandnee mein bheege mora dil
dheemee dheemee chaandnee mein bheege mora dil
kirnon kee barsaat mein baalam kaheen bhee aake mil
haay kaheen bhee aake mil
kirnon kee barsaat mein baalam kaheen bhee aake mil
haay kaheen bhee aake mil
dheemee dheemee chaandnee mein bheege mora dil
aankhon mein raaz leke
honthon pe saaz leke
aankhon mein raaz leke
honthon pe saaz leke
mastaani raat aayee din ko aawaaz deke
mastaani raat aayee din ko aawaaz deke
honthon pe saaz leke
dheemee dheemee chaandnee mein bheege mora dil
dheemee dheemee chaandnee mein bheege mora dil
kirnon kee barsaat mein baalam kaheen bhee aake mil
haay kaheen bhee aake mil
kirnon kee barsaat mein baalam kaheen bhee aake mil
haay kaheen bhee aake mil
dheemee dheemee chaandnee mein bheege mora dil
ab to kisee ka ho ja
ho sapnon mein aa ke kho ja
ab to kisee ka ho ja
ho sapnon mein aa ke kho ja
nindiya kee god tu sabkuchh luta ke so ja
nindiya kee god tu sabkuchh luta ke so ja
sapnon mein aa ke kho ja
dheemee dheemee chaandnee mein bheege mora dil
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
October 30, 2024 at 4:14 pm
Arun Sir,
The song from Guru Ghantaal is a beautiful composition by Lachhiram. I’m intrigued by this lesser-known composer and would love to learn more about him.
I have heard of a few of his hits from the films Razia Sultan (1961) and Main Suhagan Hoon (1964), but I would appreciate any additional information you could provide about Lachhiram and his contributions to music.
Thanks,
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October 30, 2024 at 4:30 pm
Gandhi Vadlapatla ji,
Lachhiram was one of those artistes about whom not much information is available than what is provided here.
-AD
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