Uss Har ko man bhool na jaanaa
Posted on: March 31, 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 Sunehra Sansar-1936.
The film was made by the East India Film Company, Calcutta. It was directed by Debaki Bose. Music was by K.C.Dey. The Lyricist was Vijay Kumar, B.A. , who was also the Hero of this film. The cast included Vijay Kumar, Ram Pyari, Menaka Devi ( making her Debut in a Calcutta film as an actress and a singer), Gul Hamid, Kamla Jharia, Mazhar Khan, Azurie, K.N.Singh (Debut in films) and others.
Like several common feminine names in those days – Zebunnisa, Zubeida, Khursheed, Zohra, Amirbai, Gauhar, Radharani, Menaka, Noorjehan, Yasmin, Vimala etc, there were common male names too. One of them was Hamid. It was prefixed and suffixed by Gul, Ali, Syed etc. For example, actor Ajit’s real name was Hamid Ali and actor singer Shyam Kumar was Syed Gul Hamid Ali. The actor in this film was Gul Hamid (husband of actress Patience Cooper).
In the decade of the 1930s, Calcutta’s name was synonymous with New Theatres, because it was one of the biggest and it was run systematically By B.N.Sircar. It made films in Bengali, Hindi and other languages. NT was like a family. It ran on systems. It became a way of life for people working in it. Since its establishment in 1930, competition increased consistently, in the number of film producing companies in Calcutta. By 1938, there were 18 Production houses in Calcutta alone. They were – Arora Film Co., Shri Bharat Laxmi Pictures, Chitramandir RBS Prodn, Dev-Dutt films, East India Film Co., Indra Movietone, Kali Films, Kamala Talkies, Maadan Theatres, New Popular Pictures, Moti Mahal Theatres, Murli Pictures, Quality Pictures, Radha Film Co., Sonoray Picture Syndicate, Sunrise Film Co., and Tollywood Studio. ( information about names from Indian Cinematography year Book-1938). Interesting point is, the Bombay film industry came to be known as Bollywood many decades after this Calcutta studio – Tollywood – which continues till today for the Bangla Film industry.
After 1939, the second world war created problems for NT. On one hand raw film shortage and severe competition and on the other hand ego clashes of the stalwarts and exodus from the company plagued NT. PC Barua was the first to leave,in 1940, to restart his own studio. One by one people started leaving. From 1942 to 1947, many important actors, directors and technicians left NT and went to Bombay. During its existence, NT created an all time record as a company. It had produced 177 films against the nearest competitor – Ranjit Studios of Bombay, with 175 films (as per Cine Advance issue dated 5th Dec 1980).
Because of the immense popularity of New Theatres, it is unlikely that many readers will know about the banner of today’s film- The East India Film Company. The East India Film Company was an Indian Film Production Company, based in Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India. It was the first Indian film company to screen a movie at an international Film Festival. Started in 1932 in Calcutta, by R. L. Khemka, went on to be a pioneer in producing films across several regional film industries, including Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Telugu, and Tamil in the decade after its founding; till then, production companies were restricted regionally.
The company was formed in 1932 by R. L. Khemka, a local Marwari businessman in Bengal after acquiring the RCA Photophone studio, its location recording equipment, and its Mitchell Cameras. In 1933, East India Film Company’s first Bengali Film production, Jamuna Puline, was released, with Priyanath Ganguli as the director after he left the Madon Theatres. Riding on its success, the company became the first Bengali studio to venture into not just Hindi films, but also various films in South Indian Languages. East India Film Company was soon producing a dozen movie releases per year, including several hits like Savithri (Telugu) and Ramayan (Tamil).
The East India Film Company’s Seeta, made by Debaki Bose, was the first talkie shown in an international film festival when it was shown in 1934 at the Venice Film Festival where it won an honorary diploma.Subsequently, Bose also made his noted film, Sonar Sansar (Hindi: Sunhera Sansar) in 1936 under the East India Film Company banner.
Shot in Calcutta on a lavish budget of Rs.75,000, East India Film Company’s Sati Savitri in Telugu was a huge hit. Based on a popular stage play by Mylavaram Bala Bharathi Samajam, the film was directed by debutant C.Pulliah and starred stage stalwarts Vemuri Gaggiah and Dasari Ramthilakam as Yama and Savithri, respectively. Like Seeta, this film was also shown in Venice Film Festival, where it too won an honorary diploma.
B. L. Khemka (Bajrang Lal Khemka) was from Rajasthan. He was born on 25.12.1906 in Ratangarh (Rajasthan). After completion of his education, he moved to Calcutta in the year 1923 and started the business of Sugar and Motor Car. He was very much fond of biscope, therefore he jumped into the film line. First he started a business of cinema equipment. After establishing this business, he took further steps to make movies and established his “East India Film Company” in 1931 and set up his own studio in Tollygunge. His first movie “Laxmi” was a silent movie, by that time making talkie movies started in India. In 1932 Khemka produced the first ever Tamil movie “Ramayan”. After the success of Ramayan, East India Film Company made various movies in Hindi, Bangla, Tamil, Telugu & Malayalam by signing different artists from all over India. He has produced “Laila Majnu” in Farsi language under the joint venture of India & Iran. He produced “Mumtaz Begum” (1931) and “Bhakt Ki chela” (1936) in Tamil in which he introduced Begum Akhtar & S. Subbulakshmi in lead roles. During the period of 1931 to 1938 he produced 75 talkies movies, which includes the internationally famous movie “Sita” with Prithviraj Kapoor and Durga Khote in lead roles and directed by Devaki Bose. Looking at high demands of movies all over the country Khemka established one more film company with the name Metropolitan Pictures. He has produced many notable movies in Hindi and Bangla during World War II, which includes “Chitralekha” by Kedar Sharma.
Seeta was a 1933 Indian talkie Bengali film, directed by Debaki Bose and produced by the East India Film Company. It won an honorary diploma in the 2nd Venice International Film Festival in 1934, becoming the first Indian talkie to be shown at an international film festival. The film starred Gul Hamid, Prithviraj Kapoor as Rama, and Durga Khote as Sita.
B. L. Khemka died on 11 December 1973.
The story of film Sunehra Sansar-36, as outlined in Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, is as follows,
This is a parable about human suffering and capitalist enterprise. The village headman has the bandits attack the house of Ramesh to settle an old dispute. His wife Roma is kidnapped and their infant son is abandoned in a forest. Years later, Roma works as a nurse to a kind millionaire and her son Raghunath lives with other unemployed youths, in a nearby house. They all dream about starting a Soap Factory. The father has become a beggar in that town only. No one is aware of others. Changed circumstances bring the family together and the kind millionaire helps to set up the Soap Factory.
The lead actress of this film was Rampyari. Actress Rampyari’s life story is interesting. Though from a singing family(Tawaif) from Hyderabad, she was quite educated. Fluent in English and Urdu, besides Hindi and mother tongue Telugu, she used to reply in chaste English or Urdu to her fan’s letters. She is also one of the earliest film artistes who did programmes in other countries, in those days.
Rampyari was from Low cast and profession, but was a highly polished and sophisticated actress in those days. Rampyari hailed from a Telugu family of highly skilled professional dancers and singers. She lived in Nagulchinta area of old Hyderabad city.
She was born on 27-8-1908 . That year Hyderabad witnessed devastating floods. She was taught Urdu and English. Apart from her mother tongue Telugu she was also proficient in Marathi and Kannada. She was trained in Dancing and singing. In 1918, at the age of 10 years, she was taken to Madras by her aunt, who trained her in Bharatanatyam. After 4 years of rigorous training, she became the best dancer of Madras.
In 1926, a film producer from Kohinoor Film company, Bombay ,visiting Madras, saw her dancing and invited her to Bombay.It was the era of Silent movies. Her first film was Gunsundari, with Miss Gauhar and Raja Sandow. It was directed by Chandulal Shah and was released in 1927. Her supporting role as a dancer in the film was lauded by the audience. Next film Vile woman was also successful. She acted in more than 20 films as a Heroine and dancer and established her name as a seasoned actress of the 30s.
With the advent of Talkies, she easily switched over. She had no difficulty in delivering Urdu dialogues. In 1931, she acted in Paak Daman, Laila Majnu and Ghar ki laxmi, Gunsundari in 1934 and Azad Abla,Meethi Nazar and Hamlet in 1935.
Famous director Debki Bose from New Theatres, Calcutta invited her and signed up for ” Sunehra Sansar”-36 and Vidyapati-37, which was a mega hit. After this, she did few films in Calcutta with other companies. Her film Milap-37 was famous for being the first to show the prototype of a “vamp” in Indian Cinema. Rampyari was shown wearing “an off-shoulder dress” and using a cigarette-holder, with the intent of seducing the hero Prithviraj Kapoor, the scene was later used by Raj Kapoor on Nadira in his film Shree 420 (1955) for the song “Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh”.
She toured the entire south India and gave dance performances in major cities. She became so famous that the Ceylon Labour Union invited her to Ceylon and presented her with Gold Mementos. She also performed in Burma. She was greatly inspired by the acting of Sulochana aka Ruby Meyers and Miss Gauhar of Ranjit, with whom she acted in many films.
She shifted to Bombay permanently in the 30s. Her family also moved out of Hyderabad and came to Bombay. She had a large fan following in Hyderabad. She had a great fan mail too, which she replied in fluent Urdu and English. Later she got married to one Mr. Tandon and retired from films.
She acted in 30 films. Her last film was Dak bungla-47. She sang 14 songs in 8 films. She died on 28-8-1970 at Bombay. There was no news in any paper. (Thanks to P.Kamlakarji’s Blog and his book ” The lost treasure” and my notes ).
Now let us enjoy today’s almost 90 year old duet by Vinay Goswami and Menaka Devi….
Song- Uss Har ko mann bhool naa jaana (Sunehra Sansaar)(1936) Singers- Vinay Goswami,Menaka Devi, Lyricist- Vijay Kumar Pandit, B.A., MD- K.C.Dey
Lyrics
Uss Har ko mann bhool naa jaana
Uss Har ko mann bhool naa jaana
sankat mein jisko pehchaanaa
Uss Har ko mann bhool naa jaana
Uss Har ko mann bhool naa jaana
Har ka ghaat aghaat mein aanaa
har prakaar (?) mein roop dikhaanaa
Har ka ghaat aghaat mein aanaa
har prakaar (?) mein roop dikhaanaa
Uss Har ko mann bhool naa jaana
jeevan ban mein phool jo boye
kaanton ke bhay se kyon roye
jeevan ban mein phool jo boye
kaanton ke bhay se kyon roye
kaaree ghata kab kaaree hoye
kaaree ghata kab kaaree hoye
jisne amrit ras barsaayaa
jisne amrit ras barsaayaa
Ishwar ko man bhool na jaanaa
aankhen ?? phhool bichhaaye
aankhen ?? phhool bichhaaye
us par har pag dhar chalejaaye
auran ke hit khud mit jaaye
?? sugandh udaaye
prem kee agni mein jal jaaye
jaise hawan mein dhhoop dikhhaaye
prem kee agni mein jal jaaye
jaise hawan mein dhhoop dikhhaaye
jiske liye tu praan ganwaaye
jiske liye tu praan ganwaaye
usne tujhe phir kaahe bhhulaayaa
usne tujhe phir kaahe bhhulaayaa
Uss Har ko mann bhool naa jaana
Uss Har ko mann bhool naa jaana
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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