Aaj jiyaa doley aanand se hamaaro
Posted on: November 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 a famous Landmark film- Ram Rajya-1943.
1943 was an year in which the II world war was in full swing. Both sides were almost equal. The effects of the war on India were… it faced the infamous Bengal Famine, caused by the war profiteering. Controls on film production were tightened by the Government. I.P.T.A. became operative with its first staged play ‘ Nibanna’. Film Kismet became one of the biggests Hits ever. V.Shantaram’s Rajkamal Kalamandir debuted with Shakuntala, as did Mehboob with his film Najma. Government made showing of Newsreel before any film mandatory. Film Raj Nartaki’s english version The Court Dancer was exhibited in the USA, first time for an Indian film.
1943 produced 105 Hindi films, the highest number during the war years, 1939 to 1945. Many landmark and musical films appeared in this year giving a respite to the war torn audience of Indian Cinema. Let us take a look at some of these films.
Film Bhaichara had music by the only other ” Sursagar” musician – Himangshu Dutt ( the more well known being the singer Jagmohan Sursagar).
C.Ramchandra had his first musical hit with the film Bhakta Raj, made by Jayant Desai productions.
Film Gauri from Ranjit became Monica Desai’s first Hindi film in Bombay. It was a very successful film with songs by Khemchand Prakash, based on Bangla Folk tunes.
Kanan Devi gave some sweet songs in the film Hospital, under Kamal Dasgupta’s baton.
Bombay Talkies film Hamari Baat was the last film in which Devika Rani acted. Anil Biswas was the composer.
Music Director Khurshid Anwar brought Gauhar Sultana from Lucknow to sing some songs in the film Ishara. Naushad’s musical film Kanoon had some good Suraiya and Shyam duets.
Film Kashinath was Nitin Bose’s last film in New Theatres, after he developed differences with B.N.Sircar.
Anil Biswas gave his career’s best musical Hit film ” Kismet“- the longest running film from Bombay Talkies.
Nurjehan’s musical film Nadaan was popular with songs from composer K.Datta. Director Mehboob made his first film Najma, under his own banner Mehboob productions.
Yet one more musical from Naushad- film Namaste.
At last a musical hit for composer S.N.Tripathi- Panghat from Prakash Pictures. Rajkumari Shukla sang her only Hindi song in this film;. (the film was remade as Chitchor-1976).
Film Paraya Dhan had music by Bengal’s famous musician Gyan Prakash Ghosh. Deena Pathak sang her only 2 songs in this film as Deena Sanghavi.
Ghulam Haider makes merry again with Shamshad hit songs in the film Poonji from Pancholi, Lahore.
One more superhit film – Ram Rajya from Prakash Pictures had very good songs from composer Shankar Rao Vyas. Saraswati Rane gave 2 melodious songs. Yashwant Joshi and Yashwant Nikam sang the famous song ” Bharat ki ek Sannari ki katha”. The film had early songs by Manna Dey also. Ram Rajya had also a distinction as the only Hindi film that was seen by Mahatma Gandhi, on 2-6-1944. ( Before this, however, Gandhi had seen ” Mission to Moscow-43′ an English film, in Wardha, according to The Hindu (Kathmandu Ed.) dt.8-2-2010).
Naushad in full swing with his 3rd Musical Sanjog, where Suraiya gave playback to Mehtab, the Heroine.
Vasant Desai gave excellent songs in the hit film Shakuntala by V.Shantaram.
Hospital– excellent songs by kanan Devi.
Kanoon– another hit from Naushad.
Mera Khwab– MD Ghulam Mohammed’s Debut film
Najma– Mehboob khan’s first film from his own studio, on Muslim society.
Nurse– Gyan Dutt gave an excellent song of Rajkumari-‘ Vo gaye nahin’
Prithvi Vallabh– A big budget costume drama made by Minerva, based on the story of K.M.Munshi. It had songs by Minakshi Shirodkar.
Tansen– Saigal’s first film in Bombay. Singer Khurshid matches him song by song.
Taqdeer– Nargis aka Baby Fatima debuted as an adult. However her name comes third in the credits, after Motilal and Chandramohan.
Ramrajya 43 was an offering of Prakash pictures of Bhatt brothers. In 1942, they had made the film “Bharat Milap” and the pair of Prem Adeeb and Shobhana Samarth had featured in it as Ram and Seeta. The film was a Hit. All the songs became popular. This gave the Bhatt brothers a realisation that Ram katha can be a Gold mine ! It was decided to make a film on the second half of the Ramayana, which dealt with Shri Ram returning to Ayodhya after Lanka-Vijay and getting Seeta back, purified by the Agni pareeksha also, upto the re union of Shri Ram with his sons Lav-Kush and Seeta taken away by Dharati Mata.
This part of the story had a lot of emotions, which were sure to evoke interest among the audience. Once the story was finalised, it was also decided to continue featuring Prem Adeeb as Ram, Shobhana Samarth as Seeta and Umakant Desai as Laxman, to encash their popularity in those roles. Even The Director-Vijay Bhatt and Composer-Shankar Rao Vyas also continued in this film. 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.
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 real singers of the film’s iconic 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, instead of a Biography of an artiste, let us know the story of Prakash Pictures…
The success story of the famous Prakash Pictures (1934 to 1971) is also a success and hard work story of two brothers-Vijay and Shankar Bhatt.
The sons of a railway guard, Vijay Bhatt, along with his elder brother and his lifelong partner, Shankar bhai Bhatt, shared a fascination for theatre and films.
The mid twenties brought them to Bombay, where Vijay Bhatt enrolled in St.Xavier’s college and studied upto Inter-Science. While Shankarbhai took up a job in a store selling readymade garments. In order to secure a steady, lucrative job, he obtained a Diploma in Electrical Lighting and Traction from the International Correspondence School, London. Quitting college, he joined the BEST and worked for 3 years rising to be an officer with the designation of Drawing Office Superintendent.
He quit his job after two months and both the brothers decided to take on the world of showbiz.
A flair for writing led him to get involved in a humble way as a storywriter.
It was Ardeshir Irani, the ‘Father of Indian Talkies’ and the maker of ‘Alam Ara’, who would show them the way. At that time, he was the managing director of The Royal Studios. He glanced through the stories, selected one of them and asked the brothers to meet the proprietor of the studio, Seth Aboo Hussein. ‘Show him the story and then come back to me. If it is all right for him, it is all right for me’ they were told.
The story was approved and Ardeshir Irani took it upon himself to teach Vijay Bhatt how to write Screenplay. Every evening after the day’s work and dinner, the Bhatt brothers would make their way to Majestic Cinema, built by Ardeshir Irani in 1918 in partnership with the exhibitor, Abdulaly Yusoofaly. Irani would be here every evening with his friends. And it was here that Vijay Bhatt scripted his very first screenplay, ‘Vidhika Vidhan’, which was made into a film by director K.P.Bhave.
Ardeshir Irani made two more films based on the stories of Bhatt brothers. They were ‘ Paani mein Aag’ and ‘ Ghulam’-1929, both of which were directed by Nagendra Muzumdar. Their third film featured a newly recruited actor from Peshavar, Prithviraj kapoor.
By now, Ardeshir Irani had founded his own Imperial Studios and drawn to it a host of artists and technicians. The Bhatt brothers too had gathered enough experience and ventured to make films on their own.They soon founded the Royal Film Co., in partnership with a cousin and the first film to be produced under this banner was Black Ghost. It starred Master Vithal and Madhuri and was photographed by V. M.Vyas. With Vijay Bhatt at the helm of the creative affairs and Shankarbhai in charge of the business aspect, they made seven silent films under the banner of The Royal Film Company in an open air studio in Juhu. Among them was ‘Heer Ranjha’, where Vijay Bhatt gave A.R. Kardar, a poster maker for foreign film distributors, his first acting assignment.
Then came the year of Talkies and the Bhatts too switched over to this new medium with ‘Alif Laila’-1933, which was based on an Arabian Nights story and made under the banner ofRoyal Cinetone. This was followed by 3 other talkies made under the banner of Kardar Studios. He then founded a film distribution concern, Royal Pictures Corporation, which acquired the distribution rights of ‘Sohni Mahiwal’ for North India for Rs. 11,000 – a sensational amount at that time. For, as he often used to say, “In those days, it cost just about Rs. 8000 to make a film 8 -9 thousand feet in length!”
By now Vijay Bhatt had evolved into a director to be reckoned with. It was time to set up his own production company. And Prakash Pictures was born. Prakash Studios was built in 1934 at Andheri. That time Andheri was an undeveloped suburb of Bombay and not many facilities like roads, Lights etc were available easily there. The place where the studio was to come up was a very big open area. Except for huge open grounds, there was one double storey bungalow. All offices were kept in that. The first film to be made there was the film ‘Actress’-1934 ( Bambai ki Mohini), written and produced by Vijay Bhatt.
After a few more stunt films, a shooting floor was constructed and they made ” Khwaab ki duniya” in 1937. In 1938 they made State Express, Passing show, Challenge and Top ka Gola etc. By that time their reserves for stars included Sardar Akhtar, Pramila, Ratnamala, Ranjana, Jayant, Umakant, Prem Adeeb etc. Harsukh Bhatt and Raja Nawathe were assistant directors. By making stunt films they made good money and completed the second shooting floor also with that money. The famed torch of Prakash Pictures continued to shine over decades and in all, 64 films were made in various Genres, in black and white as well as colour. Vijay Bhatt directed 23 films. He also wrote lyrics for the film Snehlata-1936.
Because of hectic activities in the studio and the traffic to the studio,that part of Andheri became developed with street lights, cement roads, Bus stops etc. Their next film Purnima-38 did excellent business. Bhatt brothers were impressed with Gandhi’s favourite bhajan ” Vaishnav jan to “. They made a film ‘Narsi Bhagat’ in 1942 with Vishnupant Pagnis and Durga Khote. It ran so well that Prakash made ‘ Bharat Milap’ in Hindi and ( भरत भेट ) in Marathi. The tremendous success made them make ‘Ram Rajya’ ( again in Hindi and marathi) and Prakash became famous all over India, making name, fame and a lot of money.
From 1945 to 1948, Prakash faced a spate of flop films. Bhatt brothers kept silent for 4 years, renting its studio to other producers. Prakash was planning a Love story. Their friend Naushad suggested them Baiju Bawra. They made the film with less famous Bharat Bhushan and Meena Kumari. The film created Box office records.
Goonj uthi Shehnai-59, Hariyali aur Rasta-62 and Himalay ki God mein-65 did well but again few flop films…. Bhatt brothers decided to stop making films from 1971 and sold the studio and all the land.
Today on that land many factories are erected. Few Housing societies and a Marriage Hall “Vishal” came up too. Thus ended a glorious chapter of a film making studio called “Prakash Pictures”- a guarantee for wholesome entertainment ! (information for this article is used from vijaybhatt.com, a book ” तीन भिंतींची दुनिया ” by Bhai Bhagat, with thanks and my notes.)
Vijay Bhatt died on 17-10-1993 at Bombay. Vijay Bhatt played an important role in the careers of some major stars. He was the person who gave Mehzabeen (Meena Kumari), the name Baby Meena. He also gave her the first major heroine’s role in Baiju Bawra-52. Till then she did roles in B and C grade films.
O K Dhar Kashmiri was given the name ” JEEWAN “, when he did Narad’s role in Bharat Milap. Later he did Narad’s role in over 100 films.
Suraiyya got her big singing role in Station Master-42.
Manoj Kumar was made hero in Himalaya ki God mein-65
Now enjoy today’s 81 year-old song….
Song-Aaj jiya doley aanand se hamaaro (Ram Rajya)(1943) Singer-Unknown female voice, Lyrics-Ramesh Gupta, MD-Shankar Rao Vyas
Unknown female voice + female chorus
Lyrics
jiya doley
jiya doley
jiya doley doley doley
aaj jiya doley aanand se hamaaro
aaj jiya doley aanand se hamaaro
naacho naacho gagan ke taaron
naacho naacho gagan ke taaron
aaj jiya doley
jiya doley aanand se hamaaro
aaj jiya doley aanand se hamaaro
van mein umang uthhi mann mein tarang uthhi
van mein umang uthhi mann mein tarang uthhi
nainon kee dheer chhootee koyaliya kook uthhi
nainon kee dheer chhootee koyaliya kook uthhi
mora jiya naache
mora jiya naache magan huyo pyaaro
aaj jiya doley
jiya doley aanand se hamaaro
aaj jiya doley aanand se hamaaro
asha ke phool khiley
veena ke taar miley
asha ke phool khiley
veena ke taar miley
barsha ki ek jhadi paudhon ko pyaar miley
barsha ki ek jhadi paudhon ko pyaar miley
ram hamen khevan tihaaro saharo
ram hamen khevan tihaaro sahaaro
aaj jiya doley
jiya doley aanand se hamaaro
aaj jiya doley aanand se hamaaro
aaj jiya doley aanand se hamaaro
aaj jiya doley aanand se hamaaro
aaj jiya doley aanand se hamaaro
aaj jiya doley aanand se hamaaro
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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