June 16, 2026 5:00 am
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 : | 6542 | Post No. : | 20356 |
Today’s song is from a Bilingual film (Hindi and Marathi) – Paisa-1941.
The film was made for Jeevan Pictures, Bombay. It was directed by G.P. aka Ganapatrao Pawar. He was the second husband of Lalita Pawar. The music was by C.Balaji. The cast of the film was Kanta Kumari, Madhav Kale, Indira Wadkar, Shakuntala Paranjape (it was her last Hindi film), Vimal Ghaisas (a renowned stage actress), Omkar Devaskar, Raja Pandit ( he was an actor, director and producer. He was the husband of actress Ratnamala. Thay had a son-Jai) and a few others.
1941 was the first year in the second decade of the Talkie Era and it was the beginning of the emergence of a New film industry. When Talkie started in 1931, for many years after that, the films were made by the people who had done work in the Silent films. These films had a spill over for the silent era artistes. Once the films started talking,most silent artists who could not speak Hindi or Urdu automatically disappeared. Thus started the influx of new actors who could speak Hindi and sing songs, in whatever way they could. Intelligent directors like V Shantaram,Bhavnani, Sohrab Modi, Chandulal Shah, Himanshu Rai, B N Sircar, L V Prasad and a host of Gujarati directors understood that the Talkie needs a different treatment than silent films. Music directors from stage dramas tried their hand in composing film music.
In the next 8-9 years, there was a perceptible change in the film making, acting, singing, and composing music in the films that were made. Quality artistes from the silent era continued for some more years – finally giving way to the new artistes. The 30s and the 40s mostly differed in film music and story contents. The new blood composers like Anil Biswas, C Ramchandra, Naushad, Ghulam Haider, K Datta, Hansraj Behl, Bulo C Rani, Gyan Dutt and many more replaced the Parsi, Marathi and Gujarati drama music to more acceptable lilting songs. Many musical films were made and some everlasting songs were composed by these people. At the end of the 1940s, one more major change in the film industry took place due to Partition. Let us see some important films.
JBH Wadfia became Chairman of the Film Advisory Board. He produced the First Sindhi film of the United India- ‘ Ekta ‘-1940. His film Court Dancer was also in English. Asra- Debut of actor director N A Ansari. Behan- Mehboob directed this film having an incest suggestive story. Beti- 8 songs of Khursheed in this film. She was on top in the early 1940. Chandan- Debut of S N Tripathi as an MD. Chitralekha- First big success of Kidar Sharma. Mehtab’s bath scene caused a ripple. Dhandhora- Actor comedian Charlie directed the only film. Doctor- Pankaj Mullick gave excellent songs. First popular song with woof beats-‘ Chale pawan ki chaal ‘. Jhoola- One of the most successful films like kangan and bandhan, starring Ashok kunmar and Leela Chitnis. Kanchan- First composed song of naushad-” Bata do koi.” Khazanchi- A milestone in musical revolution with Punjabi Theka, by Ghulam haider. Debut of Shamshad Begum in Hindi films. Lagan- Saigal, as usual, gives good songs. Mala- was remade as ‘ Amar-55’ with music again by Naushad only.
Naya Sansar- Story of Newspaper world. A novelty. Ashok Kumar’s famous cigarette smoking in films started from this film, solving his problem of ‘ what to do with the hands during acting’ ! Nirdosh- Mukesh sings his first song. Padosi- Last film of V Shantaram before leaving Prabhat. A Landmark film. ” Kaisa chhaya hai ujala” is a popular chorus song.
Pardesi- Debut of actress Anjali Devi (not the southwali) with real name ‘Durgesh’. Radhika- Debut of Nalini jaywant. Raj Nartaki- Ambitious Wadia film in English , Bangla and Hindi. Released in the USA by Columbia Pictures of Hollywood. Sangam- Amritlal nagar’s first film as a writer. He did 18 films as writer and Lyricist. Sikandar- A Magnum-Opus from Minerva. Chorus song- ” Zindagi hai pyar se” is very popular. Taj mahal- Debut of Baby Suraiya as an actress. Sasural and Ummeed were 2 films in which Noorjehan senior acted and sang. However these films are usually wrongly included in the filmography of Malika E Tarannum Noor jehan. She entered Hindi films only with film Khandan-1942 at Lahore.
Paisa-1941 was the first film to have the first word ‘Paisa’ in its title. After this film, every decade, there were films having the word Paisa in its title. In 1956 – Paisa hi Paisa, in 1957- Paisa, in 1969- Paisa ya Pyar, in 1974- Paise ki Gudiya, in 1985- Paisa yeh Paisa, in 1992- Paise ke Peechhe, in 2001- Paisewali, and in 2004- Paisa Vasool. Obviously, the importance of Paisa had established itself in the film industry ! These are only film titles where Paisa is first word.
Talking of film titles, I was once going through the Film Title Index from 1931 to 2012, published by Shri Hamraz ji. I was sure that the most popular word for film titles must be ” Pyar”. For the sake of confirmation and curiosity, I started counting the film titles starting with the word Pyar. I found 96 films made with Pyar as the starting word in their titles. There were another 11 variations like Pyaara, Pyaari etc.
Slightly disappointed with my age-old belief about Pyar being the most popular film title word shattered, I decided to find out which word was more in film titles than Pyar. Once I completed the count, I was surprised to find 206 films having the word ” Ek” in its titles. In this category, 32 films started with the words” Ek aur….”. While doing this exercise, I came across many Title repeats and I took up that issue.
I have found that there were films beyond count having a repeat of titles for 2 or 3 times,
4 times repeat titles were 80 films
5 times were 23 films
6 times were 5 films and
7 times was only 1 Title….” INSAF “. Films with this title were made in 1937, 1946, 1956, 1966, 1973, 1987 and 1997. As if by a rule, these films were made every decade till 2000 ! So much for Film Titles in Hindi Cinema World !
From 1931 till about the end of the 50’d decade, the Southern, Eastern and the Western region filmmakers used to make Bilingual (even Trilingual) films, i.e. one in the regional language and another in Hindi language. This was essentially to earn more profits and widen the scope of their films. In the early years, the regional cinema did not have so much market as the Hindi films had reached the nooks and corners of India- including South India, Ceylon, Burma, Afghanistan etc. As the times passed on, the Regional markets grew big enough to compete and do away with looking at Hindi markets for business. Today’s film Paisa-41 was also one such film made in Marathi and Hindi. The Lyricist of this film is not known, but the Music Director was C.Balaji.
I am sure, hardly anyone has ever heard his name so far. It is natural also, because Balaji gave music only to 2 Hindi films. First is Raja Gopi chand-1938 And the other film was Paisa-1941. Both his films were bilingual-in Hindi and Marathi. Basically Balaji was a marathi film composer. He was the first music director to change his name to look like a South Indian name. C.Ramchandra came much later.
His real name was Balaji Gopal Chougule. originally his family was from Kolhapur, but he was born at Varanasi on 12-10-1913. After the death of his maternal grandfather Balaji came to Kolhapur. here he learnt music from Ustad Manji khan (son of Ustad Alladiya khan), Shankarrao Sarnaik and Govindrao Tembe. Tembe taught him the skill to give music to films.
He started working with some drama companies like Kirloskar natak mandali and Yeshwant Sangeet mandali, as a Harmonium player. In 1937, he became assistant to Govindrao Tembe for the film ‘Pratibha'(Hindi/marathi). When Tembe left the film halfway, he completed its music, but his name was not credited. He got his first Marathi film independently, Kanhopatra. Its songs became very popular. Pendharkar gave him Raja Gopichand-38 as an independent MD. Later he did another film in Hindi/Marathi, Paisa-41.
In 1945, Balaji started learning music again, this time under Bhurji Khan (youngest son of Alladiya Khan). Balaji gave music to 5 Marathi films and 2 Hindi/Marathi films. When Shivaji University started in Kolhapur in 1962, he started an agitation for inclusion of Music in its curriculum. His efforts bore fruits and it was done in 1964. He gave tutions of Music in his last days. C.Balaji expired on 11-9-1984 at his home town, Kolhapur.
One name in the cast is Shakuntala Paranjape. Shakuntalā Parānjpye (17 January 1906 – 3 May 2000) was a writer and a prominent social worker. She was a member of Maharashtra Legislative Council during 1958–64, and was a nominated member of Indian Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament) during 1964–70. In 1991, the Government of India awarded her the Padma Bhushan title in recognition of her pioneering work in the field of family planning since 1938.
Shakuntala Paranjpye was the daughter of Sir R.P.Paranjpye the first Indian to be Senior Wrangler at the University of Cambridge, an educationist, and India’s High Commissioner to Australia during 1944–1947.
Shakuntala studied for the Mathematical Tripos at Newnham College, Cambridge. She graduated there in 1929. She received a Diploma in Education from London University the next year.
Shakuntala worked in the 1930s with the International Labour Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. In the same decade and in the 1940s,, she also acted in some Marathi and Hindi movies.
Shakuntala wrote many plays, sketches, and novels in Marathi. Some of her work was in English.
A Hindi children’s movie, Yeh Hai Chakkad Bakkad Bumbe Bo, which was based on a Marathi story by Shakuntala was released in 2003.
Shakuntala was married for a short time to a Russian painter, Youra Sleptzoff. She had a daughter, Sai Paranjpye, by him in 1938. Soon after Sai’s birth, she divorced Youra, and brought up Sai in her own father’s household. Sai Paranjpye is a noted Hindi movie director and screenwriter. She is known for her comedies and children’s movies. In 1991, the Government of India awarded her the Padma Bhushan title in recognition of her artistic talents.Shakuntala wrote many books. Some of them are….
1.Three years in Australia 2. Sense and Non sense 3. Kahi ambat kahi goad (Marathi) 4.Desh Videshichya Lok katha (Marathi)
She acted in 13 films- Sairandhri-33, Parth Kumar-34, Bhedi Rajkumar-34,Bhakta Prahlad-34, Typist Girl-35, Sone ka Shahar-35, Kali Waghan-35, Bahadur Beti-35, Duniya na maane-37, Sultana Chand Bibi-38, Jeevan Jyoti-38, Stree-38 and Paisa-41. She sang 9 songs in 4 films-Typist Girl,Sone ka shahar, Stree and Paisa.
Here is a song from film Paisa-1941, sung by Indira Wadkar.
Hansa Wadkar’s father had three sisters, Kesharbai, Indirabai and Sushilabai. Sushila was married to Master Vinayak, a renowned actor-director of the early era of Indian cinema. The elder sister as well as Indira Wadkar were acting in films and Indira was a classical singer as well. Indira acted in several films including Duniya Kya Hai (Resurrection) (1937) and in Vinayak’s production company “Hans Films” like Devata (1939) in Marathi. Indira used the surname Wadkar to avoid using the family name Salgaokar, for fear of reprisal from society against women acting in films. Her older sister, Kesharbai, was working in a film made by M.G. Rangnekar and suggested that Wadkar work in films to sustain their family. She acted in 11 Hindi films. She was a popular mother in law in Marathi films.
Song- Aaye re piya chamak damak(Paisa)(1941) Singer- Indira Wadkar, Lyricist-Not known, MD- C.Balaji
Lyrics
Aaye re piya chamak damakPosted by Atul
Categories: expression of love, Feelings of heart, Guest posts, Indira Wadkar solo song, Indira Wadkar song, Post by Arunkumar Deshmukh, Rare song, Songs of 1940s (1941 to 1950), Songs of 1941, Yearwise breakup of songs
Tags: 1941, C Balaji, Indira Wadkar, Paisa
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