Rewadiyaan rewadiyaan
Posted on: March 3, 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 stunt film Babooji-1950.
The film was directed by master Bhagwan, the Lyricist was Ehsan Rizvi and the music was provided by P. Ramakant. The cast of the film included Bhagwan, Leela Gupte, Baburao pehalwan, Vasantrao pehalwan, Usha Shukla, Azeem, Mirajkar, Vithalrao and few others.
I have not seen this film, nor could I get my hands on its story, but the story part of Master Bhagwan’s stunt films was the least important factor – not only for Bhagwan himself but also for his captive audience all over India, in those days. The multi-language audience was not bothered about the story, place or names of the characters, nor was it concerned with the songs or music of the film. All they wanted to see was the daredevil stunts, a few “Maar Daala” dances and some situational comedy scenes…that’s all !
This was because the storyline for most of his films was also fixed. Two young vagabonds-Baburao pehelwan and Bhagwan, come to Bombay in search of employment. One Sethji (Azeembhai ) appoints them to protect him from the local criminal (Vasantrao pehelwan). Sethji has a good looking daughter ( one of the stock Heroines), who has a maid (another girl from the stock). Baburao loves Seth ji’s daughter and Bhagwan loves the maid. After a lot of stunts and fighting scenes, the end would be happy. The same story with changed names and other minor changes was used in almost all his films like Badla, Bahadur, Jalan, Madadgaar, Dosti, Shake hand, Matlabi,Bach ke rehna,Bhole bhale, Jeete Raho or such other films. The audience did not mind . They were happy with the stunts. (Did Nasir Hussain and Manmohan Desai get inspiration from Bhagwan in this matter ?).
Isak Mujawar, Film Historian, has described an interesting incident about Master Bhagwan and his friend actor Shyam, in his book “Master Bhagwan – Ek Albela”…..
The shooting of film Kaneez, featuring actor Shyam, was in full swing in 1948 at Shrikant Studios. On another floor of that studio, a stunt film of Master Bhagwan was being shot. Actor Shyam was very friendly with Master Bhagwan. In those days, Shyam had grown very close to Munawwar Sultana. One day, during a shooting break, Shyam and Munawwar met Bhagwan and said,” I am very keen to work in your film”. Bhagwan smiled and said,” Before that, you must see the shooting of my films. After that, let us see what your decision will be.”
Accordingly, the next day Shyam and M.Sultana went to see the shooting of the film “Laalach “-1948, made by Bhagwan. The scene was Baburao Pehelwan fighting with 5-6 goons, on the balcony of a house. The scene started and after some time Baburao got a hit from one villain and he slipped, falling on the ground floor where a glass table was kept. On impact, the glass table broke. There was a loud noise, commotion and shouting. Shyam and Munawwar shouted in fear and ran out of the studio.
Such accidents were common to Baburao. After treating his bruises and cuts, Baburao started the fighting scene again. Shyam and M.Sultana came back to inquire about the actor’s fate. They were shocked to see him doing the fighting scene. On asking, Bhagwan told Shyam, ” In my films, such accidents are a common thing. And yes, you said you wanted to work in my films, isn’t it ?” Shyam said,” No , No, who wants to die doing stunts ?”. Bhagwan told him,” Be happy doing Love scenes and singing songs in your films”. By a turn of fate, within 3 years’ time, Shyam died after doing a stunt himself for the film ‘Shabistan’-1951 !
Luck is a funny thing. In this world it is difficult to say who will be lucky and when and on whom Lady Luck will smile. Lyricist Ehsan Rizvi’s case falls under this uncertainty. Born on 26-1-1914 in U.P., Rizvi came to Bombay at the age of 24. He was a good poet and writer. He wanted to try his luck in the films. How he got a break in films is an interesting story.
Master Bhagwan entered the film world with the silent film ‘Bewafa Aashiq’-30. His first talkie film was ‘Himmat-e-Marda’-34. Initially,like all other Heroes, even Bhagwan used to sing his own songs. Once he had gone to Columbia company for rehearsal and recording a song. While entering, he saw a young man sitting under a tree and writing something. After rehearsal, he saw that fellow again and even after recording the man was still writing something. Bhagwan went to him and asked with curiosity what he was writing. The man answered, I am writing songs and stories. He came to know that his name was Ehsaan Rizvi and that he too lives in Dadar like Bhagwan. He took Rizvi’s address and left.
In 1938, Bhagwan got his first film as a Director- Bahadur kisaan-38. He called Ehsan Rizvi and gave him a scene and asked him to write dialogues. He came back with the dialogues. After reading Bhagwan was astonished. The scene started with one villager saying ” Ram Ram Bhaiya ji. Kaise ho ?” He asked Ehsan, ‘ being a Muslim, how have you written this?” He replied,” we start any work with God’s name. As your story is Hindu based, I wrote Ram Ram. If it was Muslim film, I would have written “Allah”. Bhagwan was impressed and he gave him not only this film but Ehsan became a member of his group. He wrote songs, story and dialogues of at least 25 films of Bhagwan.
After the fall of Bhagwan’s fortunes. Bhagwan himself advised him to work in other banners as he was no longer in a position to make films now. Rizvi wrote lyrics for 60 films, but most of them were B or C grade films. He however wrote dialogues and screenplay for some well known films like Do Ustad-59, Mughal-e-Azam-60, Woh kaun thi-64, Aan milo sajna-71, Gopichand jasoos-82 etc etc. He had shared the Film Fare award for dialogues of Mughal e Azam-60, with 3 other writers. He died on 16-1-1983.
This film’s M.D. was P. Ramakant. This was a name used by C.Ramchandra, because he was under contract with Filmistan and could not give music in his own name. It started with Raja Nene’s film Shadi se pehle in 1947, in which he first used his assistant’s name Paingankar ( the joint MD was Karnad). His name was Ramakant Paingankar and was assisting Chitalkar for a long time. Later, for Bhagwan’s films like Bhedi Bangla-49, Bhole bhale-49, Babuji-50, and Bakshish-50 also, Chitalkar used the pseudonym P. Ramakant as MD. (information from Marathi Chitrapat Sangeetkar kosh by Madhu Potdar). For film Dussehra-56, N.Datta’s assistant was Ramakant paingankar, who was assistant to C.Ramchandra for a long time. He is the same person who tried his hand at being a composer himself in the late 40s. With Shyamsunder and Ramchandra Pal, he gave music to Urvashi-46 and with Lal Mohammed in Mitti-47. Ramakant gave music to film Rupiah-50 independently. Then he turned to Marathi films. In his last days, he came back to Hindi films again as assistant to many composers.
It was from the film ‘Albela’ that C Ramchandra gave music to Bhagwan’s film in his real name. Prior to this, he gave music to his stunt films as ‘Annasaheb’ and Ram Chitalkar.This type of use of pen names was followed by many MDs. GM Durrani gave music as Gunjan, SD Batish gave music as Nirmal Kumar. Snehal Bhatkar used several names like Vasudev, B Vasudev, VG Bhatkar and Snehal, before taking up another pen name Snehal Bhatkar for the rest of his career. Actually his name was Vasudeo and Snehal was his daughter’s name. Similarly, MD Nashaad also used names like Shaukat Hussai Dehalvi, Shaukat Dehalvi, Shaukat Ali, and Shaukat Haider. These are well known, but today I will tell you 2 pen names for the FIRST time on the internet ! Hardly anybody knows that Anil Biswas gave music to film ‘Begunah’ (1949) in the name of Haribhai. His co-MD in this film was Shyamu – none other than C Ramchandra. This information is given in the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema by Rajadhyaksha on pages 67 and 190.
Baburao Pehelwan, hailed from Kolhapur – famous for wrestlers due to royal patronage from King Shahu Maharaj. He started his career with the Wadias as an extra doing small roles and as a duplicate for Fearless Nadia. Master Bhagwan picked him up from there and made him a hero in his stunt pictures like, ‘Badla’ (1943), ‘Madadgaar’ (1947), ‘Laalach’ (1948), ‘Jalan’ (1948), ‘Bhedi Bungla’ (1949) etc. After the eclipse of stunt and action films, by the 60s, he joined fight master Azeem Khan’s team as a fighter and a duplicate. In the film ‘Howrah Bridge’ (1958) he was Ashok Kumar’s duplicate in the final scene, where he is to climb the Howrah Bridge.
Baburao Pehelwan operated in an era when there was a spate of actors calling themselves “pehelwan”. They were in great demand in stunt and action films. At one time there were actors like Baburao Pehelwan, Vasantrao Pehelwan, Sadiq Pehelwan, Nandram Pehelwan, Maane Pehelwan, Amir Khan Pehelwan. There was one more actor in the 30s named Marutirao Pehelwan. He was a handsome person. He was the hero in the first Gujarati talkie film, ‘Narsi Mehta’ (1932). He married his co-star of many films Tara, elder sister of dancer Sitara Devi. After retirement, Marutirao Pehelwan settled in Dhule in Maharashtra and opened a dairy. World famous dancer Gopi Krishna was their son.
Baburao pehalwan worked in Banke sipahi-37, Veer kesari-38, Na hone wali baat-38, Do rangiya daaku-40, Muslim ka laal-41, Jadui bandhan-41, daughter of the Jungle-42, Jangi jawan-43, Circus Girl-43, Bhagta Bhoot-43, Badla-43, jungle ka sher-46, Dosti-46, Matwale-47, Madadgar-47, Lutera-47 and Jungle ki Duniya-59.
Today’s song is sung by Annasaheb aka C.Ramchandra, and Sulochana Kadam. Enjoy this 75 year old duet….
Song- Rewadiyaan rewadiyaan (Baabooji)(1950) Singers- Annasaheb (C Ramchandra), Sulochana Kadam, Lyricist- Ehsaan Rizvi, MD- P.Ramakant (C Ramchandra)
Both
Lyrics
Rewadiyaan rewadiyaan
rewadiyaan rewadiyaan
dil bahaar rewadiyaan
garam garam rewadiyaan
ho rewadiyaan rewadiyaan
ghulaam ne bataayee hai
sachchee lagaayee hai
door se
door se aayee hai
mazedaar rewadiyaan
dil bahaar rewadiyaan
rewadiyaan rewadiyaan
dil bahaar rewadiyaan
ho garam garam rewadiyaan
rewadiyaan rewadiyaan
?? ke pede
aur Lucknow kee malaaiyaan
bhoologe jab khaaoge
baahar kee ye rewadiyaan
aayee hai
aayee hai baazaar mein
pehlee baar ye rewadiyaan
rewadiyaan rewadiyaan
arre dil bahaar rewadiyaan
garam garam rewadiyaan
rewadiyaan rewadiyaan
?? hai mithhaas inmein
??
pyaase hain
alag alag rehnewaale
mil ke mazaa paate hain
bachche boodhhe aur jawaan
saare ise khaate hain
?? man bhaaye to
meethhe ka ?? hain
le lo na baaboojee
masaaledaar ye rewadiyaan
garam garam rewadiyaan
rewadiyaan rewadiyaan
dil bahaar rewadiyaan
garam garam rewadiyaan
rewadiyaan rewadiyaan
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
March 3, 2025 at 4:33 pm
Arun Sir,
As always, a fascinating write-up filled with so many lesser-known facts!
The revelation about Anil Biswas’s pseudonym was particularly intriguing.
Thanks for sharing such insightful details!
LikeLiked by 1 person
March 4, 2025 at 10:02 pm
Thank you.
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