Kit jaaoge Ghanshyam
Posted by: Atul on: August 2, 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 a less known film- Mordhwaj-1952. This was a Mythological film, about a less known incident which happened during the Ashwamedh Yadnya by Pandavas, after they won the Kurukshetra war against the Kauravas, with the help of Shri Krishna.
Seeing religious films had many advantages. When I was very young I had to see, not by choice, such films while taking a group of family elders to the Theatres. Initially, I was happy, then reluctant and later on an interested person. First it increases your knowledge about your religion. Most children knew about religion through what was taught in the books or told by the elders in the families. I mean, this was the situation some decades ago, when I was a school boy, i.e. the 40’s and the 50’s. Nowadays, the school books do not have stories from Religion and there are no elders in 90% of the families.
Secondly, you learnt about the Vedas and the Puranas. Today’s youngsters may not even know how many Puranas or vedas there are. There were films on various Gods and Goddesses, as well as different incidents from the Holy books. This widened the scope of your knowledge. With our Holy books and Puranas overflowing with stories from the religion, the filmmakers never felt shortage of subjects. Most of the major studios made religious films. The decade of the 50’s was full of such films.
Thirdly, these films were very entertaining with their Trick scenes. Flying Gods, disappearing Demons, shape changing magicians and colossal war scenes truly bound you to the seats. All these things confirmed in the minds of people that ”whenever there is decay and loss of religion, God will come to this world to set things right “.
Despite having films on all varieties, types and kinds of Gods, I have yet to see any film made either on the God Bramhadev or the Goddess Saraswati. Another question always popped up in my mind was why Bramhadev is always shown as an old God ? When the other Gods and the Goddesses put on colourful dresses and beautiful gold ornaments, Bramhadev alone is shown devoid of such decoration and always shown in the same attire ! These are the questions which have no answers and now that the Genre of ‘Pouranic’ or ‘ Mythological’ films is practically over, there is no chance of getting the answer.
Today’s song is from a film which revolves around an incident from Mahabharat. The film was produced by M. Gautam and was directed by Balwant Bhatt- a veteran in handling such films. He was the elder brother of another such film expert Nanabhai Bhatt. The film had a cast consisting of Durga Khote, Prem Adib, Ram Singh, Tiwari, Leela Mishra and others. The eminent Hindi Lyricist Bharat Vyas wrote all the 8 songs of this film and these were composed by a Debutante Music Director – Narayan Dutt. He was a victim of the ‘Same name Confusion’ with the more popular MD, N.Dutta.
I have been seeing a variety of movies for the last 75 years or so. Among the ones I saw, I developed a liking for Mythological or Devotional (Dharmik) films for a while. It was not due to my religious nature, but for the trick scenes (with special effects) in these films, which fascinated me immensely. I liked a scene where a God or a Rakshas multiplied into 10 images to confuse the opponent. Just imagine, 10 Ramas or 10 Ravanas on the screen at a time ! All with the same name and appearance!! Not only their opponents, but even the audience in the theatres got confused who the real one was !!!
In real life, It is not as simple as 10 Ramas or 10 Ravanas. Here the 10 Rama names will be the same but each Rama may look different. I remember,during my school days, in my class, there used to be at least 10 boys with the surname Deshpande, 15 Joshis, 12 Kulkarnis and 5 Deshmukhs. Each boy was called by his initials, like A.B, C.D. or K.P.etc. Sometimes, even the initials used to be the same. In that case, another trick used was to call those boys based on their personality, like Lambu DK or Gidda DK etc.
In the film Industry, same name artists are identified by their vocation, like Lyricist Madan Mohan or Music Director Madan Mohan. But when there are Directors with the same names or singers with the same names, or actors or actresses, then what happens? For Music Director Iqbal,he was called ‘Chhota Iqbal’, because Music Director Iqbal Qureshi was more than 6 feet tall. Similarly Director Asit Sen,who was of a short stature,was called Chhota Asit Sen and the actor Asit Sen was called the Mota Asit Sen.
In an Industry where , in the early era(as if there was a shortage of names all over India), there were 9 Nalinis or 6 Gauhars, or 4 Rajkumaris, 5 Rajkumars, 2 Jagmohans or 2 Trilok Kapoors what do you do ? There is bound to be solid confusion and wrong credits of films, songs etc takes place. The Internet Film sites are notoriously famous for faithfully spreading wrong, non corroborated or non verified information blindly by ‘Copy and Paste’! Any new student of Hindi films will easily get confused by such inadvertent disinformation.
I will give an ideal example to prove this point. There is a site called Gomolo. If you look for information on the 1939 film ‘Brandi ki Botal‘, you will find the Heroine’s name as Meenakshi Seshadri (instead of Meenakshi Shirodkar). What do you do with such information? I am sure even the mother of Meenakshi Seshadri may not have been born in 1939!! Similarly when Shamshad Begum (called Chhamiya)-old time Gazal singer, mother of Naseem Bano or the grandMother of Saira bano died in 1998, many sites mourned and declared that the popular singer Shamshad Begum had died ! In fact, one site is still having this incorrect information!!! Another famous and otherwise very useful site/blog mentioned the name of Neelam Kothari in a film made in 1943, whereas Neelam Kothari was born in 1964 only ! The name Neelam was misleading in this case.
Being a ‘Hobby-tuated’ writer on old films, songs and related matters, I get highly agitated when I find enthusiastic novices in this field quoting wrong names in a ” Name-Alike ” films or songs. I have been writing explanations, till I got tired, how the 2 Ratanbais were different or how actor Shyam never sang any song in his lifetime!
Many people may not be even aware that any MD by the name of NARAYAN DUTTA existed, but in reality he did and has contributed to Hindi film Music to the best of opportunities that he got to do so. NARAYAN DUTTA, I feel , was one of those unlucky composers like, C.Arjun, Sailesh Mukherjee, Daan singh, Sardar Malik, Jamal Sen, Chand Pardesi etc, who had enough talent but luck was not in their favour.
Most internet sites and few writers also get confused between these two MDs, thinking that N.Datta means Narayan Dutta . Consequently, films in which Narayan Dutta gave music are coolly added to the filmography of N.Datta !
NARAYAN DUTTA was born in Bilawas village in Jodhpur state. His father Durgaprasad was the Court Singer (Raj Gayak) with Bikaner king Ganga Singh. Narayan learnt music from his father since childhood. With a desire to sing in Hindi films, like many other such dreamers, he reached the Mayanagari-Bombay in 1946.
He sang his first song for Raj Kapoor in ” Neelkamal”-1947.However the commercial record of this song was made with the composer’s voice- Snehal Bhatkar. Then he sang two songs, one with Geeta and one with Mukesh in Rasili-47. With the help of Kidar Sharma he sang songs in Sehra-48, Gauna-49 and Uddhar-49, in addition to some stunt films of Mohan Pictures, but no records were made.
Somehow, he felt that there was not much scope for singing so he turned to composing and his first film was Mordhwaj-52, followed by Astik-56,Shyam ki Jogan-57,Naya Kadam-58 and Pujarin -72 (in the period 58-72,his few films remained incomplete like Aji bas rahne do, Meerabai, Bhakta Pralhad etc.) Narad Leela-72,Jai Hanuman-73,Seetaram Radheshyam-73, Saraswati-Laxmi-Parvati-75, Sindoor ka Daan-84 and Humse mile tum-86. In addition to these 11 Hindi films, he also gave music to 3 Rajasthani films- Baba Ramdev Peer-63,Mhari Pyari Chanana-83 and Nani Bai ko Bhayro-84.
After films stopped coming, he engaged himself in making NFS based on local folk tunes. He also composed songs for Jain Samaj and Rajneesh Foundation. He established ” Sur Tarang” , a school to teach Music.
This talented but unlucky composer died on 16-6-1988. ( Based on an article by Shri Murlidhar Soni ji, in Listener’s Bulletin No. 76 Feb 1989, with thanks and my own notes.)
The story of the film Mordhwaj-1952 was….
Prince Suchitra, son of Raja Mordhwaj, of Ratnapur, goes for daily hunting accompanied by his friend Kaak. His attention is drawn by the sudden flight of a horse with a youngish rider on it. Reaching nearby finds that a lion is lying dead and another is out to leap on the rider. A well aimed arrow from his bow takes life out of the creature and it reels back dead. Suchitra tries to be friendly while the saved rider cares to keep up only formalities.
In the course of their short company the prince happens to know that his companion is none other than princess Vijaya of Srimantapur. Love takes root in both the hearts and fixed meetings follow thereafter. Yudhishtira the Pandava King of Hastinapur, decides to perform Ashwamedh Yajna. The sacrificial horse moves in the direction of Ratnapur throwing open challenges to the heroism of independent states. Huge armies of Hastinapur with mighty Arjun at their head,stand guarantee to the safety of the advancing horse. All must accept Pandavas’ sovereignty or fight.The whole Ratnapur is astir. King Mordhwaj, by nature, does not want war but the people refuse to surrender. Representatives of the people meet in Sudharma Sabha and decide to stop the horse and accept the challenge. Prince Suchitra heads the people’s cause. Very soon the news gets currency in the neighbouring states. Princess Vijaya too decides to follow in the footsteps of prince Suchitra. The advance of the sacrificial horse-the symbol of pandavas challenge, is arrested at the border of Ratnapur. A fierce battle ensues for which the king prays and the prince fights. The armies of the Pandavas are routed out and their leader Arjun is injured and defeated on the battlefield.
Lord Krishna, accompanied by sage Narad, comes to Arjun’s war camp. The sage attributes the defeat of Arjun’s armies to the unsurpassed devotion of king Mordhwaj, he also asserts that devotion weighed heavier than friendship with Lord Krishna, Arjun does not accept this plea and presses for solid proof. Lord Krishna takes Arjun with him garbed as Sadhus to Raja Mordhwaj and asks for the flesh of his son to feed a hungry lion. The king does not refuse the Brahmin beggars and agrees to sacrifice his only son. Arjun looks horrified and retires from the arena totally defeated. He admits the supremacy of the devotees’ claims over his own. Lord Krishna, affected by his devotee’s most thrilling sacrifice, blesses their son to life. He and His party consisting of Arjuna and sage Narada, appear in their true forms. ( and the entire audience clapped for 10 minutes, shouting Jai Shrikrishna loudly ).
Let us now enjoy a Bhajan from this 73 old film, sung by a young 28 year old Mohd. Rafi….
Song- Kit jaaoge Ghanshyam (Mordhwaj)(1952) Singer- Mohd. Rafi, Lyricist- Bharat Vyas, MD-Narayan Datt
Lyrics
kit jaaoge ghanshyam
muraaree ee
jaaane na doonga aa aa
jaane na doonga
aaj pareeksha ka samay
sambhal raho gopal
haath tumhaare chakr hai
humre hain kartaar
aa jaao ab saamne
khaalee hai maidaan
ek taraf hai bhakt aur
ek taraf bhagwaan
bhagwaan
bhagwaan
bhagwaan
ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam
ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam
ghanshyam
ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam
ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam
ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam
ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam
ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam
ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam
ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam
ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam
ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam
ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam
ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam
ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam ghanshyam
ghanshyam ghanshyam
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