Aaj aanand bhayo re
Posted by: Atul on: July 16, 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.
|
Blog Day : |
6207 | Post No. : | 19165 |
Today’s song is from the Cult film Ram Rajya-1943.
This is one film which I must have seen many times. I was too young when it was released, but in its “n’th run during the 1949 to 1954 period, I led the groups of seniors in the family to see the film several times. My friends used to laugh at me and ask if I was not bored. Honestly, I was never tired of seeing this film.
As I grew up and read books on religion etc. I realised that out of the 9 Avatars of Shri Vishnu (the 10th is yet to take place), only Shri Ram suffered so much in life, compared to Shri Krishna. Ram spent the most of the first half of his life in unhappy circumstances. Do you realise that Ram and Krishna had one thing in common? Both of them had stayed away from their mother for 14 years !
Shri Ram met his mother after returning from Lanka Vijay after 14 years’ of vanvas and Shri Krishna met his mother Devki, after killing Kansa, when he was 14 year old. It is written in Bhagwat Puran that Kaushalya was reborn as Yashoda to get back those 14 years of separation from her son and Kaikeyi was reborn as Devki to suffer separation from her son for 14 years !
1943 was a year in which the II world war was in full swing. Both sides were almost equal. The effects of the war on India were… it faced the infamous Bengal Famine, caused by the war profiteering. Controls on film production were tightened by the Government. I.P.T.A. became operative with its first staged p0lay ‘ Nibanna’. Film Kismet became one of the biggests Hits ever. V.Shantaram’s Rajkamal Kalamandir debuted with Shakuntala, as did Mehboob with his film Najma. Government made showing of Newsreel before any film mandatory. Film Raj Nartaki’s english version The Court Dancer was exhibited in the USA, first time for an Indian film.
1943 produced 105 Hindi films, the highest number during the war years, 1939 to 1945. Many landmark and musical films appeared in this year giving a respite to the war torn audience of Indian Cinema. Let us take a look at some of these films.
Film Bhaichara had music by the only other ” Sursagar” musician – Himangshu Dutt ( the more well known being the singer Jagmohan Sursagar).
C.Ramchandra had his first musical hit with the film Bhakta Raj, made by Jayant Desai productions.
Gauri from Ranjit became Monica Desai’s first Hindi film in Bombay. It was a very successful film with songs by Khemchand Prakash, based on Bangla Folk tunes.
Kanan Devi gave some sweet songs in the film Hospital, under Kamal Dasgupta’s baton.
Bombay Talkies film Hamari Baat was the last film in which Devika Rani acted. Anil Biswas was the composer.
Music Director Khurshid Anwar brought Gauhar Sultana from Lucknow to sing some songs in the film Ishara. Naushad’s musical film Kanoon had some good Suraiya and Shyam duets.
Film Kashinath was Nitin Bose’s last film in New Theatres, after he developed differences with B.N.Sircar.
Anil Biswas gave his career best musical Hit film ” Kismet”- the longest running film from Bombay Talkies.
Nurjehan’s musical film Nadaan was popular with songs from composer K.Datta. Director Mehboob made his first film Najma, under his own banner Mehboob productions.
Yet one more musical from Naushad- film Namaste.
At last a musical hit for composer S.N.Tripathi- Panghat from prakash Pictures. Rajkumari Shukla sang her only Hindi song in this film;. (the film was remade as Chitchor-1976).
Film Paraya Dhan had music by Bengal’s famous musician Gyan Prakash Ghosh. Deena Pathak sang her only 2 songs in this film as Deena Sanghavi.
Ghulam Haider makes merry again with Shamshad hit songs in the film Poonji from Pancholi, Lahore.
One more superhit film – Ram Rajya from Prakash Pictures had very good songs from composer Shankar Rao Vyas. Saraswati Rane gave 2 melodious songs. Yashwant joshi and Yashwant Nikam sang the famous song ” Bharat ki ek Sannari ki katha”. Ram Rajya had also a distinction as the only Hindi film that was seen by Mahatma Gandhi, on 2-6-1944.
( before this Gandhi had seen ” Mission to Moscow-43′ an English film, in Wardha, according to The Hindu (Kathmandu Ed.) dt.8-2-2010). The film had early songs by Manna Dey also.
Naushad in full swing with his 3rd Musical Sanjog, where Suraiya gave playback to Mehtab, the Heroine.
Vasant Desai gave excellent songs in the hit film Shakuntala by V.Shantaram.
Hospital- excellent songs by kanan Devi.
Kanoon- another hit from Naushad.
Mera Khwab- MD Ghulam Mohammed’s Debut film
Najma- Mehboob khan’s first film, on Muslim society.
Nurse- Gyan Dutt gave an excellent song of Rajkumari-‘ Vo gaye nahin’
Prithvi Vallabh- A big budget costume drama made by Minerva, based on the story of K.M.Munshi. It had songs by Minakshi Shirodkar.
Tansen- Saigal’s first film in Bombay. Khurshid matches him song by song.
Taqdeer- Nargis aka Baby Fatima debuted as an adult. However her name comes third in the credits, after Motilal and Chandramohan.
Ramrajya- 43 was an offering of Prakash pictures of Bhatt brothers. In 1942, they had made the film “Bharat Milap” and the pair of Prem Adeeb and Shobhana Samarth had featured in it as Ram and Seeta. The film was a Hit. All the songs became popular. This gave the Bhatt brothers a realisation that Ram katha can be a Gold mine ! It was decided to make a film on the second half of the Ramayana, which dealt with Shri Ram returning to Ayodhya after Lanka-Vijay and getting Seeta back, purified by the Agni pareeksha also, upto the re union of Shri Ram with his sons Lav-Kush and Seeta taken by by Dharati Mata.
This part of the story had a lot of emotions, which were sure to evoke interest among the audience. Once the story was finalised, it was also decided to continue featuring Prem Adeeb as Ram, Shobhana Samarth as Seeta and Umakant Desai as Laxman, to encash their popularity in those roles. Even The Director-Vijay Bhatt and Composer-Shankar Rao Vyas also continued in this film.
The star cast included Prem Adib (Ram), Shobhana Samarth(Seeta), Umakant ( Laxman), Chandrakant, Shanta kumari, Madhusudan, Badri Prasad etc. The lyrics were written by Ramesh Gupta and the music was provided by Shankarrao Vyas who was the elder brother of Pandit Narayanrao Vyas of Gwalior Gharana and disciple of the renowned classical singer Vishnu Digambar Paluskar.
The film was a huge success and it ran for over 100 days, a rare feat in those days.The unprecedented success of the film brought Vijay Bhatt laurels and adulation. He was felicitated all over India as the torch-bearer of Indian culture. The film was remade in 1967 in colour, again produced under the banner of Prakash Pictures and directed by Vijay Bhatt. However, the audience did not like the film’s new avatar.
The pair of Prem Adib and Shobhana Samarth became symbols of Ram and Seeta. Wherever they went, people put flowers on them and bowed to them. They shouted “Jai Shri Ram” also. No other pair of actors got such fame in the film industry again.
Singer Amirbai Karnataki also acted in this film in the role of the Washerman’s wife, who was blamed for spending one night away from home. This became responsible for Shri Ram’s deserting Seeta to Valmiki’s tapovan. You can see one name Shanta Kumari in the cast. She did the role of Kaushalya in the film.
Miss Shanta Kumari, a forgotten name of early Bollywood, who championed in both silent and talkies (please do not confuse with the South Indian actress of the same era).
Miss Shanta Kumari was born in 1904 to a family of ten and entered silent movies at the age of sixteen (1920). She worked in 1920 s with the Sharada film company ( Kala Pahad, 1927) with Master Vitthal and later joined Delhi’s Great Eastern film company ( Bhai ki Kasai, 1928, Pilgrims of Love 1929, Kumud Kumari 1929). She later joined the Ranjit film company ( later Ranjit Movietone) and acted with Eddie Billimoria in Prince Charming (1930) & Castles in the Air (1930). In 1930 also she worked with Kohinoor Film Company for the movie Arya Kanya (1930). Since she was a very accomplished singer and dancer she hadn’t got any difficulty in entering Talkies and excelled in Talkies. She made her debut talkie with Shri Krishna Film Company’s Heer Ranjha (1931). Her some other memorable early Talkies were Lanka Dahan (1933), Hatim Tai (1933), Bulbul-e- Punjab(1933), Bhoola Shikar (1933), Aaj Kal (1934), Sinhasan (1934), Baal Hatya (1935).
Shanta Kumari was very beautiful. After her first Talkie film Heer Ranjha-1931, came many films, including 4 parts of the film Hatimtai-33, in which she was Heroine Husnbanu. In film Sant Tulsidas-34, she sang along with even G N Joshi, famous classical singer of those times and later on an officer in H.M.V. Recording section. Due to her good singing, till 1936 she sang on A.I.R. Bombay. In 1940, she got married to Sound Recordist Kothari. In the later period, she acted in some famous films , where Kothari was the Sound Recordist, like Bharat Milap-42, Ramrajya-43, Prithvi Vallabh-43, Gwalan-46, Ram Vivah-49 and Grih Laxmi-49. She acted in 27 films and sang 21 songs in 8 films. She died on 18-1-1976 ( information adapted from Beete kal ke sitare by Shriram Tamrakar, MuvYz,interview by V S Nigam on medium.com and book The lost Treasure by K.Pasupuleti with thanks).
Enjoy today’s song as a video song…..
Song- Aaj anand bhayo re (Ram Rajya)(1943) Singers- Chorus, Lyricist- Ramesh Gupta, MD- Shankar Rao Vyas
Lyrics
hey ae ae anand bhayo re
hey bhayo re
hey bhayo re
hey
anand bhayo
aaj anand bhayo re
aaj anand bhayo re
aaj anand bhayo re
gori sun jaaye lala
jaaye lala
kare bhagwan bhala
kare bhagwan bhala
gulon mein phoole phale
gulon mein phoole phale
haathee par baithh chale
haathee par baithh chale
mera man jhoom rayo
mera man jhoom rayo re
aaj anand bhayo re
aaj anand bhayo re
hey
saare jahaan se chanda naache
re naache
chanda naache
re naache
chanda naache
aur naache gaiyyaa
aur naache gaiyyaa
devon ne phool bichhaaye
devon ne phool bichhaaye
ho aaj teree nagariya
ho aaj teree nagariya
mero man naach rayo
mero man naach rayo re
aaj anand bhayo re
aaj anand bhayo re
hoy
jhoom rayo re
jhoom rayo re
jhoom rayo re
mero man naach rayo
mero man naach rayo re
aaaj anand bhayo re
aaj anand bhayo re
bhayo re, bhayo re hey
balak jaa jab ??
balak jaa jab ??
balak je jab thame bansi
bheer ??ankar teere
bheer bhirankar teere
man man goonj uthha
man man goonj uthha
dil mein dhoom machee
dil mein dhoom machee
dhoom machee hey dhoom machee
anand bhayo
anand bhayo
anand bhayo
aaj anand bhayo re
aaj anand bhayo re
aaj anand bhayo re
Share this:
- Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
- Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
- Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
- Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
- Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
- Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
- Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
Leave a comment