Madhuban mein shyaam ghataa chhaayee
Posted on: March 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 an obscure film called Maharani Minal devi-1946.
The film was produced and directed by Chimanlal Trivedi for his own banner Laxmi productions, Bombay. The music director was Saraswati Devi. The Lyricists were Ramanand and Neelkanth Tiwari. However, for lack of individual credit for each song in the HFGK, we do not know who wrote which song. Even the uploaders do not mention specific names. The cast of the film included Prem Adib, Leela Desai, Durga Khote, Jagdish Sethi, Agha, Sankatha Prasad and many others.
1946 was an important year in the history of Hindi films. This was the period when the impending Independence of India was on the Anvil and everyone knew that in the year 1947 it would take place. The second World War had just ended, which had created inumerable millionaires, fed on black marketing and illegal trades in the war period. Many of them were keen on investing their ill gotten wealth in the film industry. Thus, there was no dearth of finances in the industry. From 1946 to around the early years of the 50’s, some of these ” novo-rich” persons provided finance. Some even tried their hand at directing films or even acting in it. Let us see what other things happened during this period.
By 1946 to 1950 old towers shook hard to crumble. The studio system almost disappeared. Film industry could now boast of people highly educated, talented and hard working. Even artists with International experience and success like Dewan Sharar, Shakuntala Paranjpye, actor Ranjan, Balraj Sahni etc contributed to Indian films. The old horse of Calcutta-New Theatres broke down and actors, directors and Music specialists from Bengal made a Bee-Line to Bombay, thus making it the strongest ever film centre.
1946 was also an year of consolidation, in a sense that due to the iminent Partition of India on the basis of Religion, agreed upon by Gandhi-Nehru combine, made Muslim artistes and filmmakers plan to pack their bags and move over to the new Utopia across the border. Their vacancies were to be filled up by the waiting second line of actors, directors and MDs. The film industry was to have a complete new look within 1-2 years and the beginning was from 1946. Thus the year was very important.
The year 1946 was a year which saw many changes in the film industry. The II world war had just ended. Rationing and control on many items had created Black marketing. This made many people Millionaires. The extra income started getting invested in Film making. The increased cost of Raw Films made filmmaking 7 to 8 times costlier. A film which was made in about 1 Lakh rupees in 1940, needed 8 Lakhs now. Studio system was waning and artiste rates increased in Lakhs instead of thousands.
In 1945, only 74 films were made. This number increased to 153 films in 1946. Further, in 1947, the film industry produced a record number of films – 181, but of course that was due to Partition. The quality of films was sacrificed at the cost of the quantity of films made in 1946. However, some quality films were made in 1946, indicating the changing face of filmmaking.
Film Dharati ke Lal-46 was made by IPTA people and it became the first film to be exhibited in Russia. Neecha Nagar-46 won the Grand Prix award in the French Film Festival. Film Dr. Kotnis ki amar kahani-46 was dubbed in English as ‘The journey of Dr. Kotnis’. It was shown in the USA and then in the Venice Film Festival. Two musical films- Anmol Ghadi and Shahjahan were made in 1946.
Year 1946 also saw the Debut of several stars and artists ( 31, in different capacities). In fact one can call 1946 as the ” Debut year” of the Hindi film industry. See this….
Nirupa Roy debuted in film Amar Raaj-46
Nasreen (real name Zareena), daughter of Rafiq Gaznavi and Anwari bai had debuted in her first released film ”Shahjahan“-1946.
Geeta Bali debuted with a dance in film Badnami-46
Geeta Roy sang her first film song in film Bhakta Prahlad-46
Balraj Sahni debuted in the film Insaaf-46. It was a small role, though.
K A Abbas-Director, Pt.Ravi Shankar-MD, Balraj Sahni as Hero and Damayanti Sahni as Heroine made their Debut in film Dharti Ke Lal-46
Meena Kapoor sang her first released Hindi film song in the film Eight Days-46. She also recorded her first Hindi film song in the film ‘Door Chalen’-1946, which was released later than the film Eight Days-46.
Sudhir Phadke debuted as MD in film Gokul-46
P L Santoshi as Director, Dev Anand, Rehman, Rehana and Kamla Kotnis debuted as actors in film Hum Ek Hai-46
Chitragupta did his first film as MD in Lady Robin Hood-46
Ram Ganguly became MD with film Maharana Pratap-46
Abhi Bhattacharya debuted in Hindi film Milan-46
Chetan Anand as Director, Uma Anand and Kamini kaushal as actresses debuted in film Neecha Nagar-46
Hansraj Behl debuted as MD with film Pujari-46
Madhubala(as Baby Mumtaz) sang her first song in film Pujari-46
Majrooh Sultanpuri wrote his first Hindi film song in film Shahjahan-46
S D Burman as MD and Kishore Kumar as an actor debuted with film Shikari-46
Snehal Bhatkar as MD in –Rukmini Swayamvar-46
Vinod as MD in- Paraye Bas mein-46
Indivar as Lyricist in –Double Face-46
Actress Tasneem in Kuldeep-46
Actress Shashi in-Neera aur Nanda-46
Baby Tabassum in- Nargis-46
Nigar Sultana in- Rangbhoomi-46
Cuckoo as Co-Heroine, as Kishori in- Sona Chandi-46
Till June end of 2000, Bombay film industry has made more than 12000 films so far, on various Genres, but it’s score on making films on Historical Indian personalities is very pathetic. While films on Mughal Kings, Queens and other personalities were made in all decades since the films started talking, not much focus was given on Indian history Hero and Heroines. Not that no films were made at all on them, but if you see its number, there can not be a justification for the large gap.
In the history of India, there were hundreds of such worthy sons and daughters who fought for the country, brought social reforms, did extraordinary work for the people and generally did things for which the country remembers them proudly. Actually,in every state of India, there are Heroes and Heroines who did a lot of good work for the people, in the past few hundred years. Sadly, Hindi films are very poor on this count.
However, I find that regional cinemas are way ahead of Hindi cinema in this matter. Particularly I would quote Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bangla films in the first list. The second list is of Marathi and Oriya films. Mind you, I am not talking about films on religious personalities and saints like Kabir, Tulsida etc. Even in this category, very few are the subject matter of Hindi films.
People like Rana Pratap, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Rabindranath Tagore, Dhondo Keshav Karve, Rani Chennamma etc etc deserved Hindi films. The entire focus was on Mughals and those who came from outside.The regional films at least did some justice by making films on their Heroes/heroines. Tamil and Bangla films are leaders in this. The strong Regional Pride was the causal factor essentially but honouring heroes is a matter of appreciation. Films on Babar, Humayun, Shahjehan, Bahadurshah Zafar and the likes of them are made in plenty, for obvious reasons, but how many films were made on Savarkar, Shivaji, Rana Pratap, Ashoka the great, Jhansi ki Rani etc ? Leave the older ones. Are there films on Indira Gandhi, Nehru, Gandhi ? A British person had to come here to make a film on Gandhi !
During British rule – till 1947 – it was probably not possible, allowed or was risky, but since 1947 till date what was the problem ? I feel sad at this state of affairs in making films. Luckily, in the last few years, some enterprising filmmakers have dared to make films on Indian Heroes. I do hope that the situation will improve further and films on Indian heroes/Heroines (there are plenty of them) will be made.
Film Maharani Minal Devi-1946 is a film on a brave, intelligent, kind and Patriotic personality from Gujarat. I could not get any information on her, the story of the film or other details. Fortunately, I found a site http://www.streeshakti.com, wherein I found a note on her. Here it is to get an idea who she was and what she did….
Minal Devi or Mayanalla, a famous queen of eleventh century Gujarat, is remembered as an able and just administrator. She was the daughter of Jayakeshin, a king of the Kadamba dynasty in Karnataka and was married to Karna I, a Chalukya king of Anahillapatanawada who met an early death, leaving his queen and young son Siddharaja Jayasimha. Minal Devi acted as regent for her son, who went on to become a legendary hero. An incident described in Rajashekhar Suri’s Prabandha Kosha testifies to the fact that she inspired him in many of his warlike exploits.
She also managed affairs of state, built several monuments and lakes and was responsible for the remission of the tax on pilgrims visiting the Somnath temple. Two lakes built in her period were Minalasar or Munsar near Viramgam and Malva at Dhavalakka or Dholka in Ahmedabad. According to legend, there was a house owned by a woman at the proposed site of the lake Malva, which needed to be demolished to give the lake a regular shape. The queen offered a big sum of money to the woman for her house, but she refused, saying, ‘I shall be famous with your lake,’ thus threatening to sacrifice her life if her house was touched. The queen did not coerce her, showing herself to be a just ruler. This event led to the Gujarati saying: ‘If you want to see justice, go to Dholka and have a look at Malva lake.’
Minal Devi is mentioned with high esteem in contemporary literature. A Sanskrit play entitled Mudritakumudachandra-prakarana depicts a learned dispute between the Digambaras and Svetambaras, the two major Jain sects. One topic in this dispute is whether a woman can achieve salvation. The Svetambaras here claim that women possessing sattwa (identity: an inner quality of goodness) could attain salvation and cite Sita from mythology and Minal Devi in the court of Siddharaja Jayasimha as examples.
The role of Maharani was done by a Gujarati actress – Leela Desai. She was ofcourse a Gujarati because her father, who was Gujarati and who had married a Bengali from Bihar. She was born in the USA. Leela Desai was the daughter of Dr. Umedbhai Lalbhai Desai-a Gujarati and his wife Satyabala Devi- a Bengali from Bihar, who was a famous and prominent singer of the 1930s. She was born on 1-1-1909 in Newark,New Jersey, America, where her parents had gone for a 3 year work trip. She grew up in India. She learnt dancing from Amla Devi-who married Uday shanker, as well as from Lachhu Maharaj and Sohan lal. She also learnt music at Marris College , Lucknow.
Leela Desai was the 4th of the 5 children born to Dr Umedram Desai from Gujarat and Satybala Devi, daughter of a Bengali landlord settled in Bihar. It was a second marriage for both of them as Satyabala Devi lost her husband during childhood while Dr Umedram Desai got married to his first wife in his childhood through whom he had two sons. Later, Dr Umedram Desai married Gunobati Mitter, a Bengali Christian, for the third time with whom he had 6 children. Before her marriage, Gunobati Mitter worked as a tutor for the children of Dr Umedram Desai and Satyabala Devi in Rampur. So apart from her own 4 siblings, Leela Desai had 8 step brothers/sisters.
Leela Desai was trained in the Bhatkhande Music Institute established in Lucknow in 1926. It has played a vital role in training generations of performing artistes, dedicated gurus and gifted composers…Lucknow has contributed music directors, (like Naushad, Madan Mohan, Roshan), actors and actresses (like Kumar, Iftekar, Akhtari Bai, Bina Rai, Yashodhara Katju, Swaranlata), singers (Talat Mahmud, Anup Jalota, Dilraj Kaur, Krishna Kalle), writers (like Amritlal Nagar, Bhagawati Sharan Varma, Achala Nagar), lyricists and dancers. Lachhu Maharaj was a very successful choreographer for many films. Pahadi Sanyal, Leela Desai and Kamlesh Kumari of New Theatres at Calcutta were all trained here.
In one of her stage performances in Lucknow, New Theatre’s Director Hem Chander saw her and invited her to Calcutta for work in films. She worked in the film President-37 as the sister of Kamlesh Kumari, opposite Saigal. It was followed by Vidyapati-37, Dushman-38, Kapal kundala-39 and Nartaki-40. She also did Adarsh Mahila-37 with Ideal Film company.
Leela Desai had been invited by the students of the Intermediate College in 1941. Bangalore had the distinction of holding festivals of films made by New Theatres’ and Prabhat Film Co.
B.N. Sircar’s empire introduced personalities of the stature of P.C. Barua, Bimal Roy, Debaki Bose, Leela Desai, Phani Majumdar, Timir Baran, Umashashi, Nitin Bose, K.. Saigal, Pankaj Mullick, Nemo, Sisir Kumar Bhaduri and Jamuna, all of whom later earned all India fame, under the banner of New Theatres. Among his technical achievements were the bringing of sound to Calcutta for Bengali films, and the introduction of the playback system. The elephant logo of New Theatres acted as a magnet to draw crowds throughout the country.
Chimanlal Trivedi brought her to Bombay to act opposite Jairaj in the film Tamanna-42. She acted in 5 films of Chimanlal Trivedi. After tamanna, Leela Desai acted in films like Sharafat,Paraya Dhan, Nagad Narayan,Inkaar, Mujrim, Miss Devi,Kaliyan, Meghdoot,Maharani Minal Devi,Magadhraj,Kamla, Dev kanya, Soorat and last film Geet Govind-47.
She acted opposite leading actors like K L Saigal, Najmul Hasan, Jairaj, Pahadi Sanyal, Surendra, Chandra Mohan, Khalil, Baburao pendharkar etc etc. She worked under top directors like Debki Bose, Nitin Bose, Kidar Sharma, Phani Mujumdar and others. Her sister Monica Desai ( who married Phani Mujumdar) was also in films. In 1944, Leela also acted in the movie Kaliyan with Ramola. Ramola also acted in the film Lalkar in the same year. In a span of just 10 years, Leela Desai acted in 21 films and then left films.
She settled in Darjeeling with her mother. Lila Desai owned a house in Darjeeling called “Lily Cottage”. Her mother Satyabala Devi lived there until her death. It is possible that Lila knew Manjula or Sumitra Sanyal in Darjeeling. Lila Desai is mentioned in Bollywood actress Sumitra Sanyal’s site.
Today’s song is sung by Rajkumari and chorus. Enjoy….
Song- Madhuban mein shyaam ghata chhaayee (Maharani Minal Devi)(1946) Singer- Rajkumari, Lyricist-Unknown, MD-Saraswati Devi
chorus
Lyrics
Madhuban mein shyaam ghata chhaayee
saawan kee rut aayee
ho jhuk jhuk aayee badariyaa
Madhuban mein shyam ghata chhaayee
saawan kee rut aayee
ho jhuk jhuk aayee badariyaa
?? se more ghata chhaayee ghanghor ghor
?? se more ghata chhaayee ghanghor ghor
chamke bijariyaa
chamke bijariyaa
o re piyaa ho
o re piyaa ho
o re piyaa
o re piyaa
o re piyaa ho
badree sandes mera kahiyo sajan se
badree sandes mera kahiyo sajan se
man mein base ho o
man mein base ho kyun
kheenche nayan se
kheenche nayan se
o re piyaa ho
o re piyaa ho
o re piyaa ho
tujh bina pagle nain paaye na piyaa chain
tujh bina pagle nain paaye na piyaa chain
soonee atariyaa
soonee atariyaa
o re piyaa ho
o re piyaa ho
o re piyaa ho
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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