Ab jaanee re pahchaanee re manaa
Posted on: February 22, 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 the film Bhakta prahlad-1946.
While telling Bhagwadgita to Arjun, in Kurukshetra, Lord Shri Krishna assured him that whenever religion is in danger of extinction, when sins increase on this earth and the common people are helpless, he will take Avtar and come to this world to rekindle and reestablish the religion and the human race. Accordingly, Lord Vishnu has taken,so far, 9 Avatars. His 10th Avatar- KALKI- is yet to take place in Kaliyuga.
Actually, the various Avatars of God are nothing but the evolution of Mankind and development of the administration of the world in the proper way, as needed. Take a look at all the Avatars….
1. Matsya….When life started in water
2. Koorma….When life became Amphibian, in water and on land
3. Varaha…. fully on Land
4.Narsimha…. Combination of qualities of Man and animal
5. Vamana…. fully developing Human form
6. Parshuram….Use of weapons against enemies
7 Rama….imbibing good culture and a prosperous,peaceful society with moral values
8 Krishna….Using tactics and Tit for Tat for desired results while dealing with wrong doers
9 Balram…. Importance of Agriculture for self reliance
10 Kalki…. Yet to take place.
This is a scientific interpretation of God’s Avatars. Apart from and in addition , from time to time, great souls came to teach the right ways. There are various stories of several Bhakts- male and Female- in our puranas and we have been following their messages. Great Bhakts have great stories. Some of the popular Bhakts, on whom Hindi films were made are Bhakta Bilwamangal, Chetaa, Dhruva, Gopal bhaiya, Gora kumbhar, kabir, Pooran, Prahlad, Pundalik, Tukaram, Ramdas, Soordas, Gyaneshwar and many more in different states, provinces and languages of India.
In our religious books, there are several stories of different Bhakts. The story of Bhakt Prahlad is one of the most interesting, for it has all the elements of a Thriller. The various methods tried to kill Prahlad, how he is saved each time and the final showdown of his Asur father with lord Vishnu is simply spectacular ! It is worth reading several times.
Narasimha Avatar is the 4th Awatar of Lord Vishnu, which took place in Satya Yuga. Actually, all the first 4 Avatars took place in Satyayug.
The Dashavatars are nothing but symbols of Man’s evolution on this Earth. The first life came into being in Water-so it was Matsya Avatar. Then life became Amphibian-so Koorma Avatar, which could move in water and on Land both … .so on and so forth. I have discussed all these Avatars in an earlier article on this Blog.
One common thing I found in all these Mythological stories is, God( Particularly Shiv Shankar) gives a Boon to his Asur Bhakts without considering the aftereffects. Then God has to either take an Avatar or conjure up some logical trick to undo the harm his boon was causing. Thus Mohini had to dance away Bhasmasur to death and Laxmi had to kill Sund- UpSund in a mutual fight between the brothers. Even in the case of Bhakta Prahlad, Lord Vishnu had to take Awatar depicting half Lion-half Man to circumvent the boon given to Hiranyakashyapu.
Many books and internet sites describe the story of Bhakta Prahlad, but I liked the story of Prahlad told by Swami Vivekanand in California,USA, when he had gone there for the ‘World Religion Congress” at the end of 19th century. The film BHAKTA PRAHLAD-1946 was made by Vishnu Cinetone,Bombay and it was directed by Dhirubhai Desai. The music was by Pt. Hanuman Prasad and K.C.Verma. The Lyricists were, Bekal, Pt.Veer, Ram murthy, Deepak and B P Bajpai. The cast was Anant Marathe, Leela Chitnis, Ulhas, Tiwari, Dikshit and Rajkumari Shukla etc.
The story of the film was-
Story of Bhakta Prahlad is the story of perennial struggle between good and evil. It is a story of a child’s devotion to the supreme God and his evil father who believed that he was the God himself.
King of Daityas, Hirnyakashypu was a declared enemy of God Vishunu and his devotees. He had also received “Vardaan” from God Brahma that he would not be killed otherwise under the stipulated specific conditions but falsely taking himself to be immortal he declared himself to be God and ordered that only HE should be worshiped as God. All the devotees of Vishnu were declared to be his enemies and were to be killed mercilessly.
Prahald, his own son, refused to obey his evil orders. The King tried to persuade him to give up his belief in Vishnu. When Prahald refused to obey, the furious king ordered that he should be put to death. But as the saying goes Man Proposes God Disposes, all the efforts of the king failed. Hunger or poison would not affect the child nor would the snakes bite him, ferocious animals like the lion, instead of killing Prahald, would become his friends. Prahald was even hurled down from the top of the mountain but death would not touch him. He came out unharmed from boiling oil and many such tortures.
Events moved swiftly to climax. The king’s sister Holika requested the king to allow her to sit in the fire along with Prahlad. Since she would wear a magic cloth the fire would not burn her. But they were ignorant of God’s miraculous ways. Holika was burned to ashes while Prahald was left unharmed. . King lost his self control, he would not read the signs of the coming events. He ordered Prahlad to embrace a burning hot iron pillar. Without any hesitation Prahald embraced the burning iron pillar. His faith in God moved the three universes. God himself had to come to save Prahlad, the symbol of good and to destroy evil. The pillar burst and God appeared from within in the form of Narasimha (half Lion and half human) Narsinha killed Hirnyakashypu, thereby destroying the forces of evil and darkness so that light and goodness should prevail in the universe.
Film Bhakta prahlad-1946 was the film in which Geeta Roy made her debut as a Hindi film singer. Music Director Hanuman Prasad discovered her and gave her this opportunity. The name Hanuman prasad paints a picture of a Pehelwan playing kushti in an akhaada. Guru Hanuman and his akhaada in North India was quite famous. In the late 50s and 60s,there were many Wrestling Championships played in India.Many Pehelwans from other countries also came here,to participate.Thru these bouts the name of Dara Singh became very famous and later he appeared in Hindi films. Hanuman rekindles memories of that era.
However, one should be reasonably surprised if I tell that Pt. Hanuman Prasad ( Sharma/Triloki) was a well known Hindi Film Music Director in the 40s and 50s. Hanuman Prasad was a complete musical package,in the sense that he composed,wrote lyrics ( Gaali,Jasoos,Saudagar and Rasilee) and sung a song also in film( Rasili)-as Sharma. He even directed the film Rasilee-46. Geeta Dutt fans will remember him as the one who gave her the first break in Playback singing in Hindi films.
Hanuman Prasad hailed from Sujangarh in Rajasthan and was born in 1920. He attained proficiency in classical music and was called Pt.Hanuman Prasad.He also became an expert Kathak dancer and was called Ustad Hanuman Prasad.
He came to Bombay and started teaching dance and Music in the Music school run by Pt.Gouri shankar in Hindu colony, Dadar. One day he heard Geeta Dutt-who stayed in the same building,top floor-singing.Attracted by her voice he met her father Devendra Roy Chaudhuri and requested him to allow her to sing in his film. He gave her one line each in 4 songs,in the chorus.Only two of these are now available.Though she was uncredited,her voice is identifiable in those songs. The rest is History-as they say.Hanuman Prasad thus engraved his name forever in the history.
Hanuman More was the first husband of yesteryear actress AMBU aka Lalita Pawar. She divorced him later and married G.P.Pawar. She divorced him also and finally married Gupta-a Producer. Hanuman Prasad, due to his same name, is erroneously called Lalita pawar’s first husband, which is not right. Hanuman Prasad (HP) entered films by acting in film Aansuon ki Duniya-36
First time, he gave music to ‘Chowringhee’-1942. In this film his co-MD was Kazi Nazrul Islam-Bengal’s revolutionary Poet and writer.HP composed 11 songs,whereas Kazi Nazrul Islam composed and wrote 2 songs. HP was impressed with Sajjad Hussain,who was a struggler at that time.Sajjad’s mastery over a number of instruments mesmerised HP and he took Sajjad as his assistant. HP also gave a break to Sajjad Hussain in the film GAALI-1944,in which Sajjad composed 3 songs and HP composed 9 songs.
HP was an expert in Classical music, which he used in ‘Draupadi’-1944,a film made by Baburao Patel (of magazine Film India fame) for his wife Susheela Rani.She sang 9 solo songs in it. She had also acted in it ( and she alone saw it also ! The film was a flop. ).
The films of HP were , Chaurangee-42, Ismat-44, Gaali-44, Draupadi-44, Rasilee-46, Nai Maa-46, Jeena Seekho-46, Bhakta Prahlad-46, Jasoos-47, Middle fail-48, Hip Hip Hurray-48, Jannat-49, Daulat-49, Chilman-49, Bhool ka shikar-50, Apni Chhaya-50, Saudagar-51 and Usha Kiron-52.
HP’s music was outdated in the new decade.He realised it and gave up this line.He spent all his time in teaching Dance and Music to students.he was a Saibaba devotee. Hanuman Prasad died in 1972 in Bombay.
Pandit Hanuman Prasad, Pandit Hanuman Prasad Sharma and Pandit Hanuman Prasad Triloki are the same person. Interestingly, In the family tree of Pandit Hanuman Prasad, none of the family members – past as well as present – used ‘Sharma’ or ‘Triloki’ as surnames in the context of their Kathak gharana.
In the film ‘Ismat or ‘Asmat’ (1944), out of 7 songs, 5 songs were composed by Pandit Goverdhan Prasad. The remaining 2 songs were composed by Pandit Hanuman Prasad. Pt. Hanuman Prasad was the dance director for the film, ‘Geet Gaaya Pattharon Ne’ (1964). He was also the dance director for the film ‘Jal Bin Machhli Nritya Bin Bijli’ (1972).
Now enjoy today’s almost 80 year old song from this film….
Song-Ab jaanee re pehchaanee re manaa (Bhakt Prahlad)(1946) Singers-Kalyani, Shaukat Ali, Geeta Dutt, MD-Hanuman Prasad
Lyrics
ab jaanee re ae ae
pehchaanee re manaa
hari kee mahima jaanee re ae ae
prabhu kee mahima jaanee re
aashaaon kee kyaaree pyaari
baaree baaree haree hui
umangon ke phoolon se hai jholiyaan bhee bharee hui
aao khushiyaan manaayen manmaanee re
haan manmaanee re ae ae
ab jaanee re ae pahchaanee re manaa
hari kee mahima jaanee re ae ae
prabhu kee mahima jaanee re ae
pyaar mein prabhu ke saara jag matwaala hua
jag matwaala hua
jyoti se har ghar ghar mein haan dekho ujaala hua
kaisee ghadiyaan suhaanee suhaani re
haan suhaanee re ae ae
ab jaanee re ae
pahchaanee re manaa
hari kee mahima jaanee re ae ae
prabhu kee mahima jaani re
?? devta ki bhent ko le jaaungi main
?? prem se chadhaungi main
prem se chadhaaungi main
gun gaaungi hokar deewaanee re
haan deewaanee re ae ae
ab jaanee re pahchaanee re manaa
hari kee mahima jaanee re ae ae
prabhu kee mahima jaanee re
?? ke bacchon ko zinda
aave se nikaal liya
aave se nikaal liya
aave se nikaal liya
aa aa aa aa
?? ke bacchon ko zinda
aave se nikaal liya
aave se nikaal liya
aave se nikaal liya aa
jwaala ko banaaya sheetal
bhakt ko sambhaal liya
bhakt ko sambhaal liya
bhakt ko sambhaal liya
aa aa
jwaala ko banaaya sheetal
bhakt ko sambhaal liya
bhakt ko sambhaal liya
bhakt ko sambhaal liya
hui bhakt kee amar kahaanee re
hui bhakt kee amar kahaanee re
haan kahaanee re ae ae
ab jaanee re ae pahchaanee re manaa
hari kee mahima jaanee re ae ae
prabhu kee mahima jaanee re
ab jaanee re
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
February 22, 2025 at 10:58 pm
You write in a beautiful manner, ArunKumar-ji, weaving together several inter-connected threads around the people involved in a song, and in the process, providing rare, encyclopedic information and insights into that bygone era. Thank you!
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February 23, 2025 at 10:38 pm
Thanks a million for your appreciation. You made my efforts fruitful.
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