Ek naya sansaar basa len ek naya sansaar
Posted on: May 9, 2026
- In: Actor-Singer song | Ashok Kumar songs | Ashok Kumar-Renuka Devi duet | Duet | expression of love | Feelings of heart | Guest posts | Post by Arunkumar Deshmukh | Renuka Devi songs | Songs of 1940s (1941 to 1950) | Songs of 1941 | Theme song | Title song | Yearwise breakup of songs
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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 85 year old film Naya Sansar-1941.
The film was made by Bombay Talkies. It was directed by N.R.Acharya and the music was given by 2 MDs – Saraswati Devi (4 songs) and Ramchandra Pal (6 songs). The cast of the film included Ashok Kumar, Renuka Devi, Mubarak, Shahnawaz, V.H.Desai, David, Suresh, Azurie, Mahesh Kaul, Arun Kummar, Nana Palshikar and others. The Lyricist was Kavi Pradeep.
During this period, Bombay Talkies was known as India’s biggest filmmaking studio. Bombay Talkies was established established By Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani in 1934. Their marriage was a confluence of two rich,cultured,educated and Handsome/ Beautiful souls with common interests. While in England, these two frequently appeared on page 3 of the Tabloids of London. They came back to India and established Bombay Talkies Studios in the far western suburb of Bombay City- Malad. The rich and the famous joined them as shareholders and the studio soon boasted of most modern equipment, and a team of European ( read German ) technicians. Himanshu Rai was keen to have only educated and capable artists from respectable families. At its pinnacle, the company had a roll call of 400 persons. They were offered the best of facilities for work and recreation. A 24 hours Medical assistance with a Doctor was also made available.
Within two years of its existence, Bombay Talkies got its first jolt, when its Heroine cum owner-Devika Rani, eloped with her handsome Hero- Najmul Hasan. This whole thing was somehow managed, with Devika Rani’s return to Bombay Talkies. In the process, a new Hero- Ashok Kumar emerged, from within its own stock. Soon all seemed well and the company rolled out 15 films- mostly successful and its name became synonymous with quality films and popular music.
The second jolt came in 1939, when the film Kangan was being made and the Second World War started on 1-9-1939. In addition to restrictions on Raw film supply, the British Government arrested the German Technicians of Bombay Talkies and deported, Franz Osten-Director, Joseph Wirsching-Cinematographer, Carl Von Spratti- Set Designer and Len Hartley- Sound Recordist, to Deolali ( near Nashik) under house arrest. Film Kangan was completed by the second line staff of N.R.Acharya and Najam Naqvi. Soon Himanshu Rai lost his mind, suffered from mental illness and died on 19-5-1940.
After his death, the Directors of Bombay Talkies, namely-F.A.Dinshaw, Chimanlal Setalvad, Sir Chunilal Mehta, Sir Phiroze Sethna, Sir Richard Temple and Cawasji Jahangir met in a huddle and appointed Devika Rani as the Production In charge of the company with all powers. Consequently, this led to dissatisfaction among a group of people led by S.Mukherjee. So, two teams were formed for making films. To the credit of Devika Rani, it must be said that during her reign, Bombay Talkies rolled out the best films ever from the studio, like Bandhan, Jhoola, Kismet, Basant, Jwar Bhata, Milan etc till 1945. Devika Rani left Bombay Talkies in 1945 after her marriage. The other group had already left to form Filmistan. During this disturbed phase of the company, film Naya Sansar was made based on the story, screenplay and Dialogues by K.A.Abbas.
One of the many artists developed by Bombay Talkies was N.R.Acharya. He was born in Karachi in 1909. He was a Government contractor, when he joined the East India Film Company, Calcutta- one of the first sound film studios in India. He shifted to Bombay and joined Bombay Talkies as Production Manager, when film Achhut Kanya was being made in 1936. When Franz Osten was arrested, while directing Kangan, he completed his work on that film.
He directed his first film Azad-40 and then Bandhan-40, both with Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitnis. Then came Naya Sansar-41. When S.Mukherjee, Ashok kumar Wachha and others left Bombay Talkies, he too left, but did not join any group. He started his own company Acharya Arts productions. He produced and directed kishor Sahu’s film Kunwara Baap-42. Then it was Uljhan-42,Aage Kadam-43, parivartan and Shohrat-49, Gujarati film Lagna Mandap-50 and lastly Dhola Maru-56. Amiya Chakravarty and gyan mukherjee were his followers. He died in 1993.
The film was written by Abbas, who was a film critic at that time. He used his journalistic background to create a story about the rising radicalism in Indian society and journalism. The story addressed the conflict between a dynamic young reporter and his cautious, yet idealistic, editor of the fictional progressive newspaper, ‘Sansar’. The story line revolved around the editor, Premchand (Mubarak), who is in love with a beautiful orphan named Asha (Renuka Devi), whom his family has raised from an infant. Soon after Asha starts working for the paper, she falls in love with Sansar’s star reporter and dedicated radical-journalist, Puran (Ashok Kumar). Asha, however, still feels indebted to Premchand’s family.
When Premchand starts to hedge on his radicalism by dealing with the evil Dhaniram, Puran quits, and starts his own newspaper, “Naya Sansar”. Premchand quickly sees the error of his ways, and not only returns to the paper’s previous left-wing stance, but also condones the marriage of Asha and Puran.
One remarkable thing about the film Naya Sansar. Ashok Kumar started his career from Jeevan Naiya-36 and acted in 11 films till Naya Sansar-41. He became famous as a Romantic hero. His biggest problem was he did not know what to do about his hands while acting and felt very embarrassed in his films. Due to this he looked bewildered in his films all the time.
In the film Naya Sansar-41 he solved this problem. His role was of Puran-a radical journalist. For the first time, he smoked a cigarette on the screen and his problem of hands was solved forever. Thus started his smoking as his trademark in films. Even in private life, he was a heavy smoker.
The Heroine of this film, Renuka Devi ( Begum Khursheed Mirza) was perhaps one of the most educated, upper class, sophisticated and highly cultured Muslim lady, who ever joined the film industry then. One more striking feature of Renuka Devi was that she was one of the very few actresses who joined films after their marriage. The other such examples I remember offhand are that of Meenakshi Shirodkar (Bramhachari-38 fame), Shobhana Samarth and actress Neena ( real name Shahida-wife of Mohsin Abdulla, brother of Renuka Devi).
Renuka Devi (4-3-1918 to 8-2-1989) had studied upto Masters degree in English Literature, from Aligarh Muslim University. The only other nearest example I remember offhand is that of actress Vanmala (real name Susheela Devi Pawar), who had done B.A and B.T. and was a Teacher in the college before joining films,at the behest of writer, journalist and Director P.K.Atre.
Back in the Thirties, acting in films was not considered an honourable profession for anybody. And for a married woman from a well-educated and respectable upper-middle class Muslim family, it was forbidden to even think about it. But Khurshid Mirza, the daughter of the founders of the Aligarh Women’s College, the wife of a police officer and already a mother of two, was too free-spirited to be tied down by any social norm. She took the plunge and soon a star named Renuka Devi was born.
In those days, popular actresses used to earn quite a lot. For example, Shobhana Samarth earned 36000 rupees every year. Other actresses like Shanta Apte, Naseem Bano, Sardar Akhtar, Madhuri etc got about 30000 or so. Renuka Devi also was interested in earning money. However Renuka Devi did only 9 films in her career. She worked with Bombay Talkies, New Theatres, Shalimar and such big banners. Her films are Jeevan Prabhat-37, Bhabhi-38, Badi didi-39, Naya Sansar-41, Shri Ramanuja-43, Sahara-43, Samrat Chandragupta-45, Gulami-45 and Ghar ghar ki kahani-47.
After partition, her family migrated to Pakistan. In Pakistan, though in demand, she refused to do any films. Instead, she decided to devote her time for women’s uplift, education, welfare and social work. She also did some work on Pakistan Radio,and Pakistan TV.
She published 9 instalments of her autobiography in the popular magazine ” Herald ” from August 1982 to April 1983, under the title ” The uprooted sapling”. This was later on edited and published by her daughter Lubna as a Book in 2004, titled- ” A woman of substance- the memoirs of Begum Khursheed Mirza “.
In her book she included a chapter of 24 pages ” Renuka Devi-my celluloid identity”, in which she has described many interesting anecdotes. Her detailed description of the times of the 30s and 40s is a lovely chronicle of the history of Bombay film industry.
Renuka Devi died on 8-2-1989 at Lahore after a prolonged illness.
Now enjoy today’s duet by Ashok Kumar and Renuka Devi….
Song- Ek naya sansar basa len ek naya sansaar(Naya Sansaar)(1941) Singers- Renuka Devi, Ashok Kumar, Lyricist-Kavi Pradeep, MD-Ramchandra Pal
Both
Lyrics
ek naya sansaar basa len
ek naya sansaar
ek naya sansaar basa len
ek naya sansaar
aavo gaayen naye taraane
aazaadee kee jeet(??) ke gaane
aavo gaayen naye taraane
aazaadee kee jeet(??) ke gaane
aaj vasant bahaar dekho
aaj vasant bahaar
ek naya sansaar basa len
ek naya sansaar
ek naya sansaar basa len
ek naya sansaar
aisa ek sansaar ki jismein
dharti ho aakash
ki jismein jeevan ho aagaaz
ki jismein bharat ho aazaad
janta ka ho raaz jagat mein
janta kee sarkaar
lage desh kee galee galee mein
navyug ka tyohaar
lage desh kee galee galee mein
navyug ka tyohaar
ek naya sansaar basa len
ek naya sansaar
ek naya sansaar basa len
ek naya sansaar
aaj mandiron kee deewaaren dol uthhin
aaj masjidon ke minaaren bol uthin
kahteen baarambaar pukaar pukaar
band karo mazhab ke jhagde
aapas kee takraar
band karo mazhab ke jhagde
aapas kee takraar
ek naya sansaar basa len
ek naya sansaar
ek naya sansaar basa len
ek naya sansaar
kya tum mere sang chalogee
door disha kee oar
kya tum mere sang chaloongee
chhoone gagan ka chhor
main tumhaare sang chaloongee
door disha kee oar
main tumhaare sang chaloongee
chhoone gagan ka chhor
ek naya sansaar basa len
ek naya sansaar
ek naya sansaar basa len
ek naya sansaar
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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