Muraliya jeewan raag bajaaye
Posted on: April 1, 2026
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 social film- actually a Love story- Jawani ki Reet-1939.
The year was 1939 and the British Government had declared war against Germany and Japan, as soon as the WW II began. All countries ruled by Britain were – willingly or unwillingly, drawn into the war efforts and its effects. The war began in the month of September and soon various restrictions came into operation – like rationing, blackouts, shortages etc. The film industry which was still under its development stage suffered. It also realised the importance of remaining united as one industry. However, all that came after 1 or 2 years. In 1939 there was not much effect seen on the film industry.
The industry had its own problems. In spite of the playback system in operation, their problem was that because there was no technique of recording from the film negative yet, the singers had to sing twice. Once for the actual film shooting of the song, and later, with the same set of orchestra, for commercial records. Sometimes, the original singer was not available due to any reason, some other singer had to sing for commercial records. Thus we have many such examples, where the singer in the film song and the record is different. However, this problem continued only till mid 50’s when the Tape and the required technique became available. With just one time recording, the film and commercial recording were taken care of.
Khemchand Prakash. K.Datta (Datta Koregaonkar), Rafiq Ghaznavi and Anupam Ghatak made their Debut as Music Directors. Kavi Pradeep wrote his first film song for film Kangan. In 1939, 2 most Unusual songs were presented, for the first time. One was a Multi-Lingual song from film Aadmi-39, a film by Prabhat….Kis liye kal ki baat. This song was in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bangla, Tamil and Telugu. ( In its Marathi film version-” माणूस “, this song was only in one language-Marathi.) Different Lyricists and MDs were used for each language. The song became very popular.
Second unusual song was from film ‘ Ghareeb ka Laal’-1939. The song lyrics had the names of 32 artistes, operating in Hindi films that time. Top Heroes and Heroines were mentioned in this song. The beginning of the song was ” Tuze Bibbo kahoon ya Sulochana, Uma shashi kahoon ki Jamuna “. This song was sung by the comedian Mirza Musharraf. In later years many songs with film artistes’ names came but none had so many names. Thus this record is still unbroken, in case of this song.
Besides these songs, let us quickly take a look at some films of 1939….
Aadmi – Prabhat’s hit film, a remake of the Marathi film ” माणूस “. It had some good songs by Shanta Hublikar, Sundarabai Jadhav and Ram Marathe.
Adhuri Kahani – a trend of Tragedy films set by the effect of film ‘Devdas’. All the 3 main characters of this film commit suicide in the end.
Badi Didi – A New Theatres film.
Brandy ki Botal – Master Vinayak’s comedy remake of Marathi film ‘ ब्रॅंडीची बाटली ‘.
Dil hi to hai – Debut of Kidar Sharma as a Director and Ramola as a Heroine in a Hindi film.
Dushman – New Theatres’ film of Saigal, with only his 4 songs.
Ek hi Raasta – Sagar presents first film with 3 Heroes in one film.
Ghazi Salauddin – Debut of Khemchand Prakash as M.D.
Hukum ka Ikka – First film with a Triple role by Umakant Desai ( who later specialised as Lakshman in 7 films, including Ramrajya-43).
Imaandaar – Debut of actress Shamim Akhtar.
India in Africa – This was the First Hindi film to be shot abroad (in Africa). The Hero B. Nandrekar had also gone to Africa for its shooting. Naaz-54 was not the first such film, though HFGK mentions it so.( Ref – pp 69, Maharashtra-The Birthplace of Indian cinema by Isak Mujawar)
Kangan – First of the 4 Hit films of Ashok kumar and Leela Chitnis, made by Bombay Talkies. Kavi Pradeep’s Debut as a Lyricist in this film.
Kapal kundala – New Theatres. Pankaj mullick’s hit song ‘ Piya milan ko jaana ‘.
Leather Face – Debut of Meena kumari as a child artiste.
Navjeevan – Debut of Hansa Wadkar as a Heroine- Bombay Talkies film.
Pukar – Hit film from Minerva Movietone. Naseem Bano sings ” Zindagi ka saaz bhi kya saaz hai….”
today’s film was made by New theatres, Calcutta. It was directed by Hem Chunder. Songs were written by Arzoo Lucknowi and the music was by the Legendary R.C.Boral. The cast included Kanan Devi, Najmul Hasan, Nemo, Bikram Kapoor (father of singer Meena Kapoor-who was the second wife of Anil Biswas), Kalavati, Jagdish Sethi, Shor and many others.
During the early years of the Indian Films, New Theatres gave manygiant personalities to the industry – who changed, reshaped and gave a Neww look to the films, irrespective of the language. R.C.Boral was one of these remarkable people whose contribution to the film music is unforgettable.
Raichand Boral (R C Boral)’s place amongst the early composers is on the Top. In fact he is the Music Director who introduced the concept of Playback singing in India in 1935. Thus his name is written along with Dadasaheb Phalke, Ardeshir Irani and Phirozshah Mistry,in the annals of Indian Film History as an early pioneer.
Raichand was the son of a famous singer and Pakhawaj player-Lalchand Boral. He was born on 19-10-1903 in a family where Music was the staple food. Though the conditions were very conducive and favourable,the sudden and unexpected demise of his father changed the situation. He had to depend on his elder brother. He was taught music by Pt. Vishwanath Rao, Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan and Ustad Majid Khan. His Tabla playing became the toast of many Mehfils and soon he was invited by Indian Broadcasting Co. (which later became A.I.R.) as the Head of their Music Department.
Later he joined New Theatres on a call by B N Sarcar, where he gave a new look to their orchestra conduction. He used Flute,Organ and other western music instruments to make Rabindra Sangeet and Traditional Thumri and Gazal,as simple as possible for the common man. Thus the early songs of Hindi films made in Calcutta’s new Theatres had hummable and simple tunes. He dispensed with the classical way of singing in films.
That is the reason why Hindi songs in films made in Calcutta from 1931 to say 1940 were superior and more popular on All India basis than those made in Bombay-which still depended upon classical and Natyasangeet base.( Examples are ALL Saigal songs, ALL Pankaj Mullick songs and songs from New Theatre Hindi films made in this period.)
In those days, when almost every Music Director sang songs in films, R C Boral was one who kept away from singing songs. One reason was that his singing base was weak and secondly his voice was not that good.
R C Boral used to look almost like Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, with the same heavy build, height and large fearsome moustaches. His looks were exactly opposite to the melodious music that he gave !
According to the famous Film Music Historian Dr. Ashok D. Ranande, Boral made a significant contribution to Film Music. First, he gave a lot of importance to Background Music to enhance the effectiveness of screen images. Secondly, he developed the concept of Prelude and Interlude in film songs. Thirdly, he is credited with the introduction of playback singing in films. Boral gave the present tune to the National Anthem ‘ Jana gana mana ” in his film Hamrahi-44
R C Boral made many actors/singers STARs like Sehgal, Kanan Devi, Uma Shashi, Pahadi Sanyal, Asit Baran etc. He made Saigal Hero in his first 3 films- Muhabbat ke Aansoo, Subah ka tara and Zinda Laash all in 1932. Saigal sang many songs in these but I believe, none of these are available now. The first major break came to Saigal in Pooran Bhagat-1933.
R C Boral gave such classics as Rajrani Meera, Chandidas, Daku Mansoor, Rooplekha, After the Earthquake, Devdas(Bangla),Dhoop chhaon (First Playback), Maaya, Anath Ashram, Mukti, President, Vidyapati, Abhagin, Street Singer, Jawaani ki Reet, Sapera, Haar jeet, Lagan, Saugandh, Waapas, Hamrahi, Wasiyatnama, Anjangarh, Pehla Aadmi, Dard e dil, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.Swami Vivekanand-55 was his last Hindi film. He gave music to 33 Hindi films. Most of them were bilinguals made in Bangla and Hindi, in Calcutta.
He left films in 1960, but he was connected to A.I.R. and as a consultant to Sangeet natak Academy, which also honoured him with an award. Dadasaheb Phalke award came to him in 1979. R C Boral-the doyen of Hindi film music, died on 25-11- 1981.
The film’s story was very simple and went on the expected turns to entertain the audience. in that era, the tired audience, after seeing the tragic films of Saigal, looked for such light film having a Happy End.
Lawyer Bholanath (Nemo) adopts Anita (Kanan Devi) who grew up as a fashionable teenager. She meets Dilip (Najmul Hussain), the lawyer’s son working on a flood relief camp and they fall in love. Here comes the lineage issue as Anita does not know her background and Dilip keeps the secret of him being the lawyer’s son. But the issue is solved when the lawyer dies leaving his estate to his son Dilip thus rehabilitating himself and his relationship with Anita.
One of the cast members was NEMO. When I read this name first time, I had wondered what it meant, Normally in India, a name can indicate the bearer’s residential status, Mother tongue or religion. For example, Kanan Devi is a typical Bangla name, Najamul Hasan is openly a Muslim, Bikram Kapoor must be a Punjabi or even Arunkumar Deshmukh must be a ” Marathi Mulga” ! But NEMO ? Here is his interesting story….
Mirza Muhammad Begg was born on 27th december 1903 at Calcutta. He passed his Senior Cambridge. One day he, along with some friends, visited New Theatres to see a film shooting. Mirza Muhammad Begg merely wanted to watch the shooting of ‘Yahoodi Ki Larki’ (1933) but, as luck would have it, his visit to the New Theatres studio in Calcutta led to a small role in the same film. The part was that of a Roman king and little did Begg know back then that he’d soon be turning to Latin to fish out a lasting identity.
A year later, he was invited by New Theatres’ founder B.N. Sircar to work as the production manager of ‘Karwan-e-Hayat’ (1935) and another chance role beckoned. A female actor who was supposed to play an old witch in the film failed to turn up for the shooting and Begg volunteered for the part. The make-up department stepped up to the challenge and Begg, unrecognisable in the get-up, did the job (and always considered it his best effort). What happened next is even more interesting. Once the film was ready, the makers felt apprehensive about revealing to the public that a man had played the witch’s role. Begg came up with a solution – a gender-ambiguous screen name for himself. And in a delightfully wacky move, he picked a name that means ‘nobody/nothing’ in Latin – ‘Nemo’.
The name stuck on and this was the beginning of Nemo’s steadfast association with New Theatres – one that resulted in a string of features like ‘Karodpati’, ‘Dushman’, ‘Doctor’ and ‘Zindagi’. He was Vidushak, the royal jester, in ‘Vidyapati’, a rigid but caring father in ‘Jawani Ki Reet’ and the devoted caretaker Dharamdas in P.C. Barua’s ‘Devdas’. These diverse characters earned him appreciation from audiences and critics alike. Further, the story of the Saigal hit ‘The President’ (1937) was based on his idea and he was duly credited for the same. Alongside his work in films, he also edited and published ‘Akkas’ – a very popular Urdu (and later, Urdu-English bilingual) film magazine in those days. Its surviving copies now serve as an important archive of the early talkies. His last film with New Theatres was Kashinath. When Calcutta was bombed by Japan in late 1942, Nemo migrated with his family to his ancestral hometown, Lucknow. He later went over to Bombay for a short while to work in Mazhar Khan’s ‘Pehli Nazar’ (1945), and then returned to Lucknow to settle into a life far removed from the studio lights.
In the middle of it all lies an extraordinary fact – at the time he entered the movies, M.M. Begg was a national billiards champion! He won the inaugural Indian Open Billiards Championship in 1931 and never left the game thereon, despite a busy and flourishing film career. He won the trophy again in 1937, and between the 2 wins, he was the runner-up thrice. Not to mention, he represented the country at international tournaments and also headed various administrative organisations related to the game. His contributions towards establishing and popularising billiards and snooker in India are widely mentioned, and always in glowing terms. He was also obsessed with Racing.
It was nearly a decade after ‘Pehli Nazar’ that Raj Kapoor managed to pull Nemo out of his sabbatical for 2 memorable final acts in ‘Shree 420’ and ‘Jagte Raho’. In both, Nemo played similar roles of manipulative, corrupt seths who hide their sinister designs behind a facade of respectability. If he was jittery about facing the camera after a long gap, it doesn’t show (unless Seth Sonachand’s trembling chin is not a mannerism 😄). He was particularly effective in ‘Shree 420’, where he puts on the most evil smile possible and hisses to Raj Kapoor, “Aap se mulaqaat ho gayi, is mein fayda hi fayda hai.” He also did 2 more films- Raja Vikram-57 and Nag Champa-58.
Nemo worked for 19 films of New Theatres and 6 others, totalling 25 films in all. His Filmography – Yahudi ki ladki-33, Karwaan E Hayat-35, Devdas-35, Karodpati-36, Manzil-36, Vidyapati-37, Anath Ashram-37, President-37, Dushman-38, Dharti Mata-38, Abhagin-38, Jawani ki reet-39, Badi Didi-39, Zindagi-40, Haar Jeet-40, Doctor-40, Aandhi-40, Lagan-41, Saugandh-42, Paheli Nazar-45, Shri 420-55, Jaagte Raho-56, Raja Vikram-57, Nag Champa-58 and Choron ki Barat-1960.
It is believed that he died in Bombay on 18-8-1960. Cinema, publishing, sports – Mirza Muhammad Begg distinguished himself in everything he touched. And chose to call himself NEMO – a nobody. ( based on information from Filmdom-1946, HFGK, muVyz, my notes and an article by Yasir Abbasi ji, with thanks.)
One of my old friends Mr. Sunil Trivedi ji of Surat, had sent me recently 4 rare songs of Najmul Hasan from 1939 films. These reminded me of these films about which I had never written so far. Thanks Sunil ji to prompt me to write on these films.
Here is a song from this film, sung by Najmul Hasan and Kanan Devi. Enjoy this old style duet….
Song- Muraliya Jeevan raag bajaaye (Jawaani Ki Reet)(1939) Singers- Najmul Hasan,Kanan Devi, Lyricist- Aarzoo Lucknowi, MD- R.C.Boral
Both
Lyrics
Muraliya jeevan raag bajaaye
muraliya jeevan raag bajaaye
madhur suron mein sukh sankat ke
sabhee taraane gaaye
madhur suron mein sukh sankat ke
sabhee taraane gaaye
muraliya soton ko chaunkaaye
muraliya soton ko chaunkaaye
muraliya jeevan raag bajaaye
muraliya jeevan raag bajaaye
kabhee sunaaye premee dhun mein
daya dharam ke geet
kabhee sunaaye ?? mein
?? kee jeet
nyaay ?? anyaay
??
muraliya jeevan raag bajaaye
muraliya jeevan raag bajaaye
ye murlee jis ghat mein samaaye
wo aap hee murlee ban jaaye
har bhar saath naya gun gaaye
aankhon ko ye ?? paaye
aankhon ko ye ?? paaye
jagat guru ban jaaye
muraliya jeevan raag bajaaye
muraliya jeevan raag bajaaye
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
April 1, 2026 at 9:39 am
Very good information. Mukti bilingual movie of New theatres had music of Pankaj Mullick, not R. C. Boral’s.
As for playback singing, Nitin Bose, picking up Pankaj Mullick on way to studio, his lip syncing with a song being played in his neighbourhood, Nitin Bose struck idea of playback singing and all is published known story. No doubt was used in India for the first time in Dhoop chhaon, Pankaj Mullick co MD of the movie.
Nemo acted in New theatres Kashinath, not listed in his 25 movies. He was England return manager of the assets, a cunning type role, not driven by emotions, planned to eliminate Kashinath by killing him for his anti family statement in the court case, which his in law’s family lost. Nemo was b/h creating misunderstanding between the couple, so wanted Kashinath’s removal.
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April 1, 2026 at 10:29 am
Sunil ji
Thanks for your appreciation and additional information.
-AD
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