Bambhola bhaj Bambhola
Posted on: July 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 a comedian’s song from an old Religious film Raja Gopichand-1938. Films with the same title were made in 1930, 1938 and 1950 (as Alakh Niranjan).
The film was made by Saraswati Cinetone, Poona. It was directed by Bhal G. Pendharkar and the Music Director was C.Balaji aka Balaji Chougule. The film was made in Hindi and Marathi. The story was written by Bhal G. Pendharkar and the translation was done by Shri. Arun B.A. The cast included Chandrakant, Leela Chandragiri, Ratnaprabha, Dinkar Kamanna, Londhe, Usha, Bakula, Ramaa, Dongre, Danve and others.
Saraswati Cinetone was a film making company owned by one of the Pioneers of Talkie films in India- Dadasaheb Torne. He is one of those less fortunate people in the film industry, who failed to get the credit of being the First to make a full length Silent film in India. But there are a large number of people in India, who believe that the first film in India was made by Torne and not Phalke. Torne achieved that feat one year before Phalke released his film in 1913. Saraswati Cinetone was one of the major film making company in India in those days.
The young man who migrated from Konkan to Mumbai in search of a new horizon was the pioneer of Indian cinema, Ramchandra Gopal alias Dadasaheb Torne. Unfortunately, this name did not find its rightful place in the history of Indian cinema.
Dadasaheb Torne, who had a flood of accolades for his various achievements in the film industry, lost his life’s work in real floods that occurred on July 12, 1961, when the swollen waters of Mutha River destroyed all the valuable negatives, photographs, documents after bursting from Panshet dam near Pune.
The forgotten father of Indian Cinema Ramchandra Gopal alias Dadasaheb Torne made the first ever Indian film ‘Pundalik’ which was screened at the Coronation Cinematograph in Mumbai on May 18, 1912. That was one year prior to Dhundiraj Govind alias Dadasaheb Phalke’s ‘Raja Harishchandra’ which was released at the same venue on May 3, 1913.
Born on April 13, 1890, at Sukalwad in Malvan taluka of (undivided) Ratnagiri district (now Sindhudurg district) Dadasaheb Torne lost his father when he was three years old. His mother Radhabai brought him up. Due to financial difficulties he could not get higher education.
After being involved in the distribution of full-length (30-40 minute long) English films in India, he hit upon the idea of film making, and founded his own studio ‘Saraswati Cinetone’ (1931) in Pune. Under Saraswati’s banner he produced memorable movies like ‘Shyamsundar’, ‘Aut Ghatkecha Raja’, ‘Bhakt Pralhad’, ‘Chhatrapati Sambhaji’, ‘Thaksen Rajputra’, ‘Savitri’, ‘Raja Gopichand’, ‘Bhagva Jhenda’, ‘Majhi Ladki’, ‘Devyani’.
‘Shyamsundar’-32 was the first ever Indian movie to celebrate silver jubilee. Dadasaheb Torne introduced the first ever double role in ‘Aut Ghatkecha Raja’. He was equally proficient in editing and sound recording. He successfully experimented trick scenes in ‘Bhakt Pralhad’ and ‘Savitri’ in the decade of 1930-1940 when the film technique was not advanced.
He gave first break to artists like Rose, Shahu Modak, Dada Salvi, Jayashri (Shantaram), Dinkar Kamanna (Dhere), Ratnamala (Kamal Desai) and Indurani.
Many famous music directors of the earlier years, such as Annasaheb Mainkar, Sureshbabu Mane, C. Balaji and Vinayakbuwa Patwardhan were introduced by Torne.
Dadasaheb Torne also worked as a manager at Maharashtra Film Company, Kolhapur from 1920 to 1924, and worked as a general manager at Laxmi Cinetone, Royal Art Company, Imperial Film Company and Sagar Movietone, later.
Dadasaheb Torne breathed his last on January 19, 1960 in Pune.
Movies produced: ‘Pundlik’ (1912), ‘Sati ka Shaap’ (1923), ‘Prithvivallabh’ (1924), ‘Neera’ (1926), ‘Sindbad Khalasi’ (1930).
Movies produced under the banner of ‘Saraswati Cinetone’: ‘Shyamsundar’ (1932), ‘Aut Ghatkecha Raja’ (1933), ‘Bhakt Pralhad‘ (1933), ‘Chhatrapati Sambhaji’ (1934), ‘Thaksen Rajputra (1934), ‘Krishna shishtai’ (1935), ’Savitri’ (1936), ‘Raja Gopichand’ (1938), ‘Sach Hai’ (Hindi-1939), ‘Bhagva Jhenda’ (1939), ‘Majhi Laadki’ (1939), ‘Devyani’ (1940), ‘Narad Naradi’ (1941), ‘Navardev’ (1941), ‘Awaz’ (Hindi-1942).
As far as the star cast is concerned,lead actor Chandrakant ( father of today’s award winning actor Vikram Gokhale) was given this name by Pendharkar. His real name was Gopal. The lead Heroine Leela was Leela Chandragiri. Dinkar Kamanna( Dhere) was a famous and popular comedian on Marathi drama stage. This Kamanna had a squint and he used it for humour creation. Later, Damuanna Malvankar did the same.
Chandrakant’s grandmother Durgabai Kamat was the first female artiste and mother Kamlabai Gokhale ( nee Kamat) was the first female child artiste of the Indian movies. Mohini Bhasmasur -1913 was the first Indian film in which actresses were used. Kamlabai Gokhale (1900–1992), then called Kamla Kamat, a Marathi stage actress, was cast as the heroine Mohini and Durgabai Kamat, her mother, played the role of Parvati. Kamala was only 13 years old at the time. However, in an era where women in performing arts were compared to prostitutes, this did not set a trend and male actors continued to perform female roles in cinema for some more years.
Let us now come to the Music Director 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. The other film was Paisa-41. 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. Recently (on 16th June), I have given the life sketch of C.Balaji, hence I am not repeating it here today.
The story of Raja Gopichand is from Navnath Pothi.
When I was about 6 to 7 year old, during the visits to my Naani’s (maternal grandmother’s) home in a village, I used to hear a typical call, ‘ Alakh Niranjan ‘ from the gossain, who stood outside the door. Someone from the house used to give uncooked food material like rice, wheat or jowar. Even wheat atta was given. These gossains had a jholi (a spacious carrying bag made of cloth), having 4-5 compartments and they would expertly add the bhiksha to the appropriate compartment. They never took money. These people were the disciples of Nath Sampraday and used to visit a fixed number of houses for Bhiksha. They were also called by the name avadhoot (अवधूत) (a mystic or a saint who is beyond ego-consciousness, duality and common worldly concerns).
A brief description of the Nath Sampradaya . It is likely that some of our readers may not be familiar with the details behind these names. In the Hindu Sanaatan traditions the worship of Lord Shiva is called Shaivism and the worshippers and followers of Lord Shiva are called Shaivs. Nath Sampradaya is a sub tradition within Shaivism. The followers of this tradition consider Adinath or Lord Shiva as their first Lord. The word Nathimplies Master. In this tradition, there is a lineage of nine Gurus or Teachers. The form of sadhna practiced by the followers of this tradition is called Hatha Yoga (हठ योग).
The first Guru in this lineage is Matsyendra Nath, who is better known as Machhindra Nath (मच्छिंद्रनाथ). The traditional history recounts that Matsyendra was born under an inauspicious star. This warranted his parents to throw the baby into the ocean. In the ocean the baby was swallowed by a large fish, and he lived and grew up inside the belly of the fish, for many years. The fish swam to the bottom of the ocean where Lord Shiva was imparting the secrets of yoga to Mata Parvati. Matsyendra overheard this discourse and learnt the secrets of yoga. He began to practice this yog sadhana inside the fish’s belly. After twelve years he finally emerged as an enlightened Siddha.
There is a list of Nine Nath Gurus, who are called Navnath. The first Nath Guru is Machhindra. The complete list is as follows….
Machhindranath
Gorakhnath
Jalandhar Nath
Kanif Nath (Kanhoba)
Gahini Nath
Raja Bhartrihari Nath (Bharthari)
Revan Sidha Nath
Charpati Nath and
Naag Nath.
The stories surrounding every Nath Guru, especially the earlier ones, are very exciting, thrilling and entertaining. One must read them from the original Nath Puraan or NavNath Pothi. I have read all of them. These stories are in no way less than any Arabian Night stories. Due to their entertainment value, several films in several languages have been made on the early Gurus like Machhindranath and Gorakhnath. Films on Machhindranath were made as ‘Maaya Machhindra’ in Hindi, in 1932, 1951, 1960 and 1975. Films on Gorakhnath as ‘Alakh Niranjan’, were made in 1940, 1950 and 1975. Films on Bharthari were made in 1932 and 1944. Films on other Naths were made as ‘Raja Gopichand’ in 1933, 1938 and 1950. Similarly films on Naths in Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati and other languages were also made. There could be some more films also on this subject.
The female lead of this film Leela Chandragiri was born on 24-10-1910 in Chikodi, a town near Kolhapur, in a singing family. She learnt singing from a very young age. The talent hunters of Prabhat film company found her and she was brought to Kolhapur. She was beautiful, tall and wheat complexioned. She made her debut in V Shantaram’s silent film ‘Uday Kaal’ in 1930. She played the role of Bhawani Devi, who blesses Shivaji and gives him the Bhawani talwar (sword). Leela became famous by acting in the grand silent film ‘Chandrasena’ (1931) of Prabhat films.
Leela’s first talkie film was ‘Jalti Nishani’ (1932), a bilingual in Hindi and Marathi (as ‘Agni Kankan’). The hero in this film was Master Vinayak. Leela had no problem in delivering Hindi/Urdu dialogues as she was fluent in both languages. She became the heartthrob of the audiences. Being from a singing family and trained, singing came naturally to her. She sang her own songs starting from her first talkie film itself. In 1933, she appeared in ‘Maya Machhindra’ (1933), in which her hero was Master Vinayak again. They worked together again in a Marathi film ‘Sinhgad’. Prabhat’s first coloured film ‘Sairandhri’ (1933) also featured her in the main role. The film was processed in Germany.
After this, Prabhat Films shifted to Poona, but Leela chose to stay back in Kolhapur and decided to work with Bhalji Pendharkar. They became attracted to each other and got married. Leela already had two children, a son, Jaysingh and a daughter, Madhavi. Bhalji adopted both children and gave them father’s love. Even Bhalji had one son from his first marriage – Prabhakar. Later, when they built their own studio, it was given the name Jayprabha. It combined his two sons’ names – JAYsingh and PRABHAkar. Madhavi got married to the Marathi author Ranjit Desai. Madhavi also authored one book herself.
Miss Leela appeared in the following films –
Jalti Nishani (1932)
Maya Machhindra (1932)
Sairandhri (1933)
Akashwani (1934)
Kaal Koot (1935)
Kaliya Mardan (1935)
Raja Gopichand (1938)
Alakh Niranjan (1940)
Maharathi Karna (1944)
Swarna Bhoomi (1944)
Valmiki (1946), and
Chhatrapati Shivaji (1952).
She mostly worked in films directed or made by Bhalji Pendharkar only. During the riots in 1948 (on account of Gandhi ‘s killing), their Jayprabha studio was burnt down, because Bhalji was a Brahmin. However, within a few years he built it again. After Bhalji’s death the studio was purchased by Lata Mangeshkar.
During Miss Leela’s career, contemporary to her, there were 3 more actresses named Leela active in Hindi films. One was Leela Desai (daughter of a Gujarati father and a Bengali mother from Bihar. She was born in America.). The second was Leela Mishra – who became Leela mausi later on. The third one was Leela Chitnis. Then there was Leela Naidu, Leela Mehta and minor artistes like Leela Gupte, Leela Sawant, and Leela Pawar. Only Leela Chandragiri and Leela Desai caused Same Name Confusion. All other Leelas were known with surnames.
Miss Leela aka Leela Chandragiri died on 3-2-2002.
Here is a song from today’s film, sung by the comedian Dinkar Kamanna (Dhere). Enjoy this 88 year old stage drama style song….
Song – Bambhola bhaj Bambhola(Raja Gopichand)(1938) Singer- Dinkar Dhere, Lyricist- Not known, MD- C. Balaji
Lyrics:
Bambhola bhaj Bambhola
Bambhola bhaj Bambhola
chadha bhang ka gola
bhaj re Bambhola
Bambhola
Bambhola bhaj Bambhola
chadha bhang ka gola
bhaj re Bambhola
Bambhola
duniya hai do din ka sapna
duniya hai do din ka sapna
kar le maal paraaya apna
kar le maal paraaya apna
chhoo mantar sab ho jaayega
chhoo mantar sab ho jaayega
naahak yahaan ??
Bambhola
naahak yahaan ??
Bambhola
Bambhola
Bambhola bhaj Bambhola
chadha bhang ka gola
bhaj re Bambhola
Bambhola
Bambhola
Bambhola
Bam Bambholav chadha bhang ka gola
bhaj re Bambhola
Bambhola
aaya har ik yahaan akela
aaya har ik yahaan akela
?? kaun kisi ko ??
?? kaun kisi ko ??
aankh ke andhe gaanthh ke poorey
aankh ke andhe gaanthh ke poorey
?? bhaj re Bambhola
?? bhaj re Bambhola
Bambhola
Bambhola bhaj Bambhola
chadha bhang ka gola
bhaj re Bambhola
Bam
Bhola
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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