Phoolon ke mele hum hain akele
Posted on: February 7, 2025
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 South-made movie – Devta-1956. This song ” Phoolon ke mele….” was quite popular and famous in those days. I was surprised to find that it was yet to feature on this Blog. I am glad that it waited for me !
Devta (Snake God) is a 1956 Hindi partly coloured swashbuckler film written by Sadasiva Bramham and directed by Pattana. The film stars Vyjayanthimala in the title role, along with Gemini Ganeshan and Anjali Devi in the lead, while Agha, Bipin Gupta, Krishna Kumari and M. N. Nambiar forms an ensemble cast. The film was produced by Narayanan Iyengar with his production company; Narayanan Company. The music was composed by C. Ramchandra, with lyrics provided by Rajendra Krishan. The film was a remake of the 1955 Tamil film Kanavane Kankanda Deivam.
This film narrated the story of a king (Bipin Gupta) who loses his sight and needs a “Nagi Jyothi” (serpent light) found in “Sarpaloka” (serpent world). A young man Vijay (Gemini Ganeshan) working in the palace and in love with the princess (Anjali Devi) undertakes the hazardous journey of going to the netherworld and getting the magic light from the hood of a snake in the custody of the serpent queen (Vyjayanthimala). The queen is attracted to the young man, who pretends to be in love with her mainly to get the light. He succeeds in getting it and the queen curses him to become an ugly man. The princess marries the prince, but they are banished and live in a hut. Soon a boy is born. The devoted wife faces many trials and tribulations before she and her son help her husband regain his original form. And they live happily thereafter.
Till 1947, Hindi films were made mostly in Bombay, Lahore, Calcutta, Kolhapur and Poona. Most studios were located in these cities. South Indian language films were made mainly in Madras and Bangla films were made in Calcutta and Dhaka. The Partition in 1947 changed the picture completely. Wholesale polarisation took place. Producers of Hindi films had to flee from Lahore, leaving everything behind them and some artistes from Bombay left for Pakistan. Thus, after Partition, the exclusive centre for production of Hindi films was only Bombay. By 1950 things settled in India and Pakistan Film Industry.
Telugu film producers shifted to Hyderabad, Kannada films to Bangalore and Malayalam to Kerala. Madras, however, still made films other than Tamil, like Telugu Hindi etc. But now it was only Remakes of successful Tamil films or dubbed films. The 50s saw many Hindi films dubbed from southern languages(Read Tamil/Telugu). Initially, they were Mythological, Fantasy or costume films. In the 60s,however, even social films were remade.
Film production in Madras is very methodical and professional. They make films as per plans and in planned time. For this reason,in the 60s to 80s many Hindi film actors volunteered to to make films in south. The producers in south too had their favourites. In the Music area, there were, Ravi, C.Ramchandra or Madan Mohan, for lyrics and story, Rajinder krishna and Pradeep, and preferred actors were Jeetendra, Rajendra Kumar, Sunil Dutt and Mehmood.
Though Polarisation took place in film production, the attraction to come to Bombay and work here continued. Artistes from various centres still came to Bombay.
The biggest contribution came from Bengal, in music, direction and acting areas. Artistes from South tried their hand with Hindi films, either by Remade or dubbed films. Thus the greatest south actors like Sivaji Ganeshan, M G Ramchandran, N T Rama Rao, A.Nageshwar Rao, Jayalalita, Janaki, Susheela, Bhanumathi, Prem Nazir of the older generation and Rajanikanth, Kamal Hasan and Chiranjeevi from the next Generation were seen in Hindi films. Only Dr.Rajkumar, the Kannada Superstar never worked in Hindi films. In fact, except for just 1 Telugu film, Sri Kalahasti Mahatmyam-1954, Dr.Rajkumar never worked in any other language film.
In the music department also, many composers like K.Narayan rao, S.Rajeshwar Rao, C R Subramanyam, E Shankar, R Sudershanam, Ramesh Naidu, Adi Narayanrao, Vishwanath-Rammurthy, Lingappa etc worked in Hindi films. There was one name from South, which was so famous, but it is surprising that he too gave music to Hindi Films. His name was Ghantasala.
The major difficulty for southern artists was speaking in Hindi. Due to this, they hesitated to work in Hindi films and instead, preferred dubbing their hit films in Hindi, released them on All India basis and hoped for becoming famous. Initially, in the period of the 50’s and 60’s decades, there was a spate of dubbed films, as well as some remade films in Hindi. Later on and now of course only hit films are remade in Hindi. The count of dubbed films has gone down considerably. These days, I find that even hit films of Hindi are also remade in southern languages.
Since the times when the adventurous S.S.Vasan-Producer, Director and Owner of Gemini Studios, made his film ” Chandrakanta”- in Hindi in 1948 on a mammoth scale (with over 600 prints of the Hindi version for simultaneous release on All India basis on 24th December 1948), the Southern film industry woke up. After the film Chandrakanta was successful, Vasan started making remakes of his Tamil hit films in Hindi one after another. When other filmmakers of the South saw Vasan busy doing this and visiting his bank very often with several bags full of money to deposit, they too joined the bandwagon !
Thus , the entire decades of the 50’s and the 60’s saw many films from South, in the form of Remakes of Southern Hit films, Dubbed or shot at Madras for the All India audience of Hindi films. After Vasan’s Gemini, A.V.Meiyyappan’s AVM, Nagi Reddy’s Vauhini Studios and L.V.Prasad’s Prasad productions gave many films, made with all Southern, all Bombay or a mixed cast of actors. Many major Heroes of South secretly nurtured a desire to shine in the Hindi belt. They joined this race. Actors like M.G.Ramchandran (MGR), N.T.Tama Rao (NTR), A.Nageshwar Rao (ANR), Sivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan etc., actresses like Bhanumathy, Jayalalitha, Jamuna etc and character artistes like Relang, S.V.Ranga Rao etc appeared in Hindi films. ( A very loooong list of such remakes and dubbed films is available on IMDB ). Even today many Southern Hit films are remade or dubbed in Hindi and the addition is, many Hindi Hits are also remade in Southern languages. The West Bengal Film Industry which actually led this trend in the 30’s and the 40’s has fallen way behind now.
The original Tamil film Kanavane Kankanda Deivam had some interesting Tit Bits. Not many people will know and you will be surprised to know that the Tamil film had two Music Directors – A.Rama Rao and Hemant Kumar ! When the cast for the film was being worked out, Gemini Ganeshan’s name was there, but the director Iyengar rejected his name saying he was too handsome to enact a part of the role as an ugly person. When Ganeshan came to know this, he quietly disguised as a hunchback ugly beggar and approached Iyengar for alms. He sympathised and gave him some money. When he came to know that it was Ganseshan himself, he was shocked and immediately selected him as the film’s Hero !
Secondly P. Bhanumathi was in the film, but after few reels shooting, she left and Lalitha was taken in. Meanwhile, there was a song by Bhanumathi already recorded for this film. That song was removed, except the ” Hiccups” in it were used in the same song sung by P. Susheela. This tamil film was shot in Vauhini Studios, Madras and also in Mehboob Studios, Bombay.
The Tamil and Hindi actor Gemini Ganeshan was liked by me very much, among the Southern heroes.
Ramasamy Ganesan (17 November 1920 – 22 March 2005) better known by his stage name Gemini Ganesan, was an actor who worked mainly in Tamil cinema. He was nicknamed “Kadhal Mannan” (King of Romance) for the romantic roles he played in films. Ganesan was one among the “three biggest names of Tamil cinema”, the other two being M. G. Ramachandran (known by his acronym MGR) and Sivaji Ganesan. While Sivaji Ganesan excelled in films with drama, MGR dominated films with fight sequences, Gemini Ganesan held his own with sensitive portrayals of the yearning lover. A recipient of the Padmashree in 1971, he had also won several other prestigious awards such as the “Kalaimamani”, the “MGR Gold Medal” and the “Screen Lifetime Achievement Award”. He came from an orthodox Brahmin family, and was one of the few graduates to enter the film industry at that time.
Gemini Ganesan made his debut with Miss Malini in 1947, but was noticed only after his villainous performance in Thai Ullam in 1953. After playing the lead role in Manam Pola Mangalyam (1954), he finally acquired star status. However, unlike Sivaji Ganesan or MGR, Gemini Ganesan was not originally a stage performer and was never involved in politics. In his long film career spanning over five decades, Ganesan acted in more than 200 films, mainly in Tamil, and Hindi, Malayalam , Telugu, and Kannada. His performances on the screen were enhanced by successful playback singers such as A. M. Rajah and P. B. Sreenivas. In spite of his celebrated film career, Ganesan’s personal life, particularly his marriage to multiple women over the years, has often been a subject of criticism. He won 2 Filmfare Awards for his entire acting career.
Gemini Ganesan was born as Ramasamy Ganesan on 17 November 1920 in Pudukkottai, a Princely State, undivided India, now in Tamilnadu. His grandfather died when he was in the sixth class and not long after that, he also lost his father as well. After the death of his father, Ganesan, along with mother Bagirathi & grandmother Chandramma moved to his aunt Muthulakshmi’s residence, in Madras, now known as Chennai. Gemini Ganesan’s aunt Muthulakshmi was an ardent follower of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, she decided to enroll him into Ramakrishna Mission Home. There, he was taught yoga, sanskrit & made to read the Upanishads, Vedas & Bhagavad Gita. He spent a disciplined life at the Home and became an expert in Yoga. However, he could not bear the agony of being separated from his mother, who was at Pudukkottai. Therefore, he returned to his native place and joined a high school there. Later on, he joined Maharajah’s College, located in the same place. However, he completed his graduation at Madras Christian College, Chennai.
Ganesan’s dream was to become a doctor. In April 1940, he went to Trichy to see T. R. Alamelu. Alamelu’s father proposed his daughter in marriage and promised him a medical seat after graduation. Ganesan immediately agreed and married Alamelu in June 1940. Alamelu lost her father and her elder sister within one month of her marriage. Ganesan’s dreams of becoming a doctor shattered. There was no choice left for him but to find a job immediately as he was the only person to support his family. He got an interview from the Indian Air Force. Much against Alamelu’s wishes, Ganesan went to Delhi. In Delhi, he met his uncle Narayanaswami who advised him to become a teacher. Finally, Ganesan worked as a lecturer in the Deptt. of Chemistry, at Madras Christian College. Later on, he took up the job of a production executive in Gemini Studios in 1947, from where the title “Gemini” was added to his name. He received an entry to films from the casting department of the Studio itself.
From the casting department, Ganesan made his film debut in 1947 with the social satire film Miss Malini, in a minor role. The film, which was written by R. K. Narayan and cast him alongside his future wife Pushpavalli, was a box office failure as it was considered “ahead of its time”, but was well received by intellectuals. Currently, no print of that film exists, making it a lost film. This was followed by Chakradhari, in which he played another minor role as the Hindu God Krishna. The film was a box office success, but his performance went unnoticed. It was not until 1953, when he played a villainous role in the film Thai Ullam, opposite R. S. Manohar, did people take notice of him as an actor. The next year, he appeared in a supporting role in the Gemini Studios production Moondru Pillaigal, which was unsuccessful. He was then cast as a hero for the first time with Manam Pola Mangalyam. The film, which featured him in a dual role, paired him with his future wife Savitri & became a “milestone in his life”. From then on, he carved out a niche for himself in Tamil cinema with films that required a lot of romance, but little action.
Bollywood career – Gemini Ganesan acted in a few Hindi films, most of which were remakes of his Tamil films. His first Hindi film was Missiamma’s remake Miss Mary (1957), where he was paired with Meena Kumari. The film became one of the biggest hits of that year. Notably, he played the lead role in Devta, which was the Hindi version of his own Tamil film Kanavane Kankanda Deivam. He also acted in the Ruritanian epic film Raj Tilak (1958), which was the Hindi remake of his own film Vanjikottai Valiban. It was a box office failure, having collapsed within a week of its release. He later appeared in a guest role in Nazrana (1961), the Hindi remake of his own film Kalyana Parisu, that had him in the lead.
Gemini Ganesan, at 19, married Alamelu, with whom he lived and whom he fondly called “Bobji”. She is his first and only legal wife. He later married or had intimate relations, though he did not live with actresses Pushpavalli and Savitri. He was survived by seven daughters and a son. Alamelu and Ganesan have four daughters; three of them – Revathi, Kamala and Jayalakshmi are medical doctors, the fourth Narayani is a journalist with The Times of India. Ganesan has two daughters with Pushpavalli – Bollywood actress Rekha & Radha. The latter acted in a few Tamil films, but then opted for marriage and migration to the United States. Savitri & Ganesan have two children a daughter Vijaya Chamundeswari, who is a physiotherapist, and acted in films as child artiste “Baby Savithri” and Ganesan’s only son Satheesh Kumar. In October 1998, the then 78-year old Ganesan married the then 36-year-old Juliana. Juliana had left her job and relations to be near her husband, who said he needed a younger wife to attend to him, as age had caught up with Bobji.” Ganesan publicly admitted that he was closer to Bobji than Pushpavalli or Savithri. The actor had noted in his autobiography “Vaazhkai Padagu” : “Somehow, I seemed to attract women who were in distress.” He also felt annoyed by the title “Kaadhal Mannan” as it “was used to brush him in black in his personal life”.
A documentary film on the legend in the name of Kadhal Mannan was produced by Dr. Kamala Selvaraj, and directed by Ashok Kumar, DFT (Programme Head-Vendhar TV) in 2011. In the mid-2010s, three films were made in reference to the actor. Odam Ilavarasu’s romantic comedy Gemini Ganeshanum Suruli Raajanum (2017). Muthukumar’s Kaadhal Mannan (2018) was initially titled as Gemini Ganesan, before the makers decided to change the title. Furthermore, an official biopic of actress Savitri was made by director Nag Ashwin in Telugu and Tamil as Mahanati. Dulquer Salmaan was cast as Ganesan and revealed that his portrayal of Gemini Ganesan would go beyond just the physical resemblance and the character’s emotional side would also be depicted.
After a prolonged illness caused by renal failure and multiple organ failure, Gemini Ganesan died at his residence on 22 March 2005. To mark respect to the legendary actor Gemini Ganeshan, India Post had issued a postal stamp of denomination of ₹. 5.00 in the year 2006.( adapted from Encyclopedia of indian Cinema, Ateet ke Sitare, CISTF, wiki, muVyz, Southern Stars by Mudaliyar, an article by S.Sarvaiya and my notes).
Today’s song is sung by Asha Bhosle and chorus. It is a very melodious song. Let us enjoy this 70 year old song….
Song- Phoolon ke mele hum hain akele (Devtaa)(1956) Singer-Asha Bhonsle, Lyrics-Rajinder Krishan, MD-C Ramchandra
Chorus
Lyrics
hmm mm mm mm
hmm hmm hmmm
hmm hmm hmmm
la la
lalalallala
la lalala
aa aa aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aa aa
phoolon ke mele
hum hain akele
phoolon ke mele
hum hain akele
aa bhi ja
aaa bhi ja
haathon mein haath mera le le
phoolon ke mele
hum hain akele
phoolon ke mele
hum hain akele
aa bhi ja
aa bhi ja
haathon mein haath mera le le
phoolon ke mele
hum hain akele
pyaar ke din
dil ki dhadkan
haaye gin gin ke kaise guzaaroon
pyaar ke din
dil ki dhadkan
haaye gin gin ke kaise guzaaroon
kaun hai mera
aise mein jisko
tere siwa main pukaaroon
kaun hai mera
aise mein jisko
tere siwa main pukaaroon
toone diye hain dard nawele
toone diye hain dard nawele
aa bhi ja
aa bhi ja
haathon mein haath mera le le
phoolon ke mele
hum hain akele
phoolon ke mele
hum hain akele
aa bhi ja
aa bhi ja
haathon mein haath mera le le
phoolon ke mele
hum hain akele
ye tanhaai
ye angdaayi
kehti hai pyaar ka fasaana
aa aa aa aa aa
kehti hai pyaar ka fasaana
aankhon mein aankhen
daal ke le le
dil ka ye nazraana lele
dil ka ye nazraana
kab tak koi
aahon se khele
kab tak koi
aahon se khele
aa bhi ja
aa bhi ja
haathon mein haath mera le le
phoolon ke mele
hum hain akele
phoolon ke mele
hum hain akele
aa bhi ja
aa bhi ja
haathon mein haath mera lele
phoolon ke mele
hum hain akele
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
February 7, 2025 at 12:35 pm
Devta (1956) is another movie of C Ramachandra which had excellent songs like Ai chand kal jo aana and Kaise aaoon jamuna ke teer by Lata.
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February 7, 2025 at 6:34 pm
yes.
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