Ganga ki bhoomi Jamuna ka desh
Posted on: July 11, 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.
| Blog Day : | 6567 | Post No. : | 20454 |
Today’s song is from the film Gaon-1947.
After the II World War was over, it was clear that the British were unable to rule India anymore, due to the war effects on their own country – which was their first priority to mend and develop now. Most Indians felt that the British were leaving India because of Gandhi and Nehru. The respect for these two affected the film industry too. Films on what Gandhi taught about villages and village life and farmers were made. Film gaon-1947 was also one of these films, which tried to emphasize that life in the villages was better than cities and the Indian culture can thrive only in villages.After the exit of Gandhi, Nehru’s philosophy was followed in the films of post 1948 and the decade of 1950’s. Major producer- directors like Mehboob Khan and Bimal Roy, for example,were true followers of Nehru’s Socialist Philosophy, which prompted them to make films like Mother India and Naya Daur etc. Lets not go into discussing politics, post independence. This is not a platform for that.
In olden days, there were three major film centres-Bombay, Lahore and Calcutta. After 1947, all the Hindi film activity at Lahore shifted to Bombay. By mid 50’s even Calcutta almost stopped making Hindi films. Many Hindi speaking artistes in various disciplines of film making shifted to Bombay and finally Bombay became the only and the main Hindi film making Centre.
The year 1947 is a reminder not only for the Independence of India, but also for the upheaval that took place in the film industry that time. More than in any other industry in India, Muslims were plentiful, working in different sections and departments of the Hindi film industry. Majority of them migrated to the newly formed Muslim Nation of Pakistan. This did create a lot of disturbance in the film industry. Right from the beginning of 1947, there were signs that soon the British would leave India – after dividing it into two Nations, India and Pakistan. When the month and date became known for the Partition, there was a great hurry among the filmmakers to complete their projects on hand and in process, compromising many factors like quality of the film, number of songs and such other things.
This resulted in the record number of films made in 1947 alone – 181 Hindi films and about 100 films in other languages in India. This was a record which remained unbroken till 1985, when 187 Hindi films were made. Thus from 1931 to 1985, this record remained unbroken for more than 50 years ! Obviously, this resulted in a big compromise on quality to achieve quantity with many films produced half heartedly. Most or rather many films made in 1947 remained obscure, unheard of and many flopped due to poor quality. Actually only few films were released in 1947, because many films were released in 1948 and 1949, with some films being released in Pakistan too.
Did you ever hear about films Amar Asha, Angoorbala, Attention, Barrister, But Tarash, Chalte Chalte, Chandrahas, Dagabaz Dost, Dehati,Ek kadam,Gaurav,Giribala, Heera, Intezar ke baad, Jhalak,Jurmana, Khaufnak aankhen, Lalaat, Mangalsutra, Moti, Sewa gram, Stage girl, Tohfa or Utho jago ? Of course not all films were below standards. Some of the landmark films were also made in 1947, like Shehnai, Mirza Sahiban, Jugnu, Saajan, Naatak, Meera, Elan,Aap ki sewa mein, Dard, Do Bhai, Neel Kamal or Parwana etc. However by and large the picture was like this only.
Film Gaon-1947 was also one such Non descript film, which just came and went away. This was a film by Jamuna productions, Bombay and it was directed by Dwaraka Khosla. The music was by Khemchand Prakash. The lyrics were by D.N.Madhok. The cast was Karan Dewan, Indu, Mishra, Tiwari, Khaleel, Ram Singh, Leela, Anant, Shekhar and many others.
The world of Hindi films is full of a variety of people.Some are generous, some are stingy, few are great souls who help others and still some others are ready to pull the legs of those who climb up faster. There are examples where the leading Heroes spoiled the careers of upcoming talented actors fearing a tough competition. Once the artist becomes famous and popular,he starts building relationships with politicians, industry bigwigs and people in power. Some people are jealous and vindictive. I know at least 2 such examples. By coincidence, both are Lyricists, who were much in demand. They were successful too. one was Kavi Pradeep and the other was D.N.Madhok.
Pradeep was known to be jealous of people who earned much more than him. The story of Pradeep ousting music director Anil Biswas from a film, just because he had received more salary than him while both were in Bombay Talkies, is narrated by me in my 1900th post, published on 29/6/2026 here.
The case of D.N.Madhok is weirder ! Lyricist Deenanath Madhok was one of the most influential persons of the film industry. It was D N Madhok who was responsible for recommending Naushad to Manibhai Vyas and Naushad got his first film Kanchan as an MD. He started work and composed one song also. But the orchestra players rebelled against Naushad. They could not tolerate that one of them became a composer and started ordering them. Due to their constant non cooperation, Naushad left the film and it went to Gyan Dutt, who not only retained Naushad’s composition but also gave him the credit as MD for that song. The song was ‘bata do koi kaun gali gaye shyam’ by Leela Chitnis in the film Kanchan which was released only in 1941. After this Madhok took Naushad to Mohan Bhavnani and he got his first film ‘Premnagar-40′ as MD.
The role of Madhok in the early success of Naushad was vital. Apart from helping Naushad to get established, he worked with Naushad in 11 films out of Naushad’s first 14 films, till Rattan 44.
D N Madhok was born on 5-9- 1902. He wrote songs, stories, screenplays and dialogues from 1937 to 1969 a span of 32 years. His famous films were, Bhakta Surdas,Tansen and Rattan. Madhok wrote 882 songs in 119 films. He died on 9-7- 1982 in Hyderabad.
He acted in the film Radhe Shyam-1932. He directed 16 films- from Khubsurat Bala-1933 to Naata-1955. He had sung 1 song in his first film Radhe Shyam-1933. He gave music to the film Radhe Shyam-1933.
Though Madhok was prolific and influential, his reputation in the industry was not good. Besides having all types of bad habits, he was often accused of stealing composers’ tunes and selling them to others. In fact he provided Lyrics and tunes as a package, hence he was popular among some composers. In fact Khwaja Khursheed Anwar a highly respected composer of those days is on record, in an interview ( available on Dr. Surjit Singh ji’s website) to prove how Madhok stole his tunes and sold them to others.
There is an anecdote about how Sajjad Hussain snubbed Madhok in this connection. Sajjad was officially the only composer originally for the film ‘Gaali-44’. Madhok was one of the many lyricists of this film. One day Madhok came to Sajjad with a ready-made tune and Lyrics for the song ‘ab aaja dil na lage’. Self-respecting Sajjad was so enraged that he told Madhok, ”Miyan hum Naushad nahin hai. Humen Tarje banani aati hai “. The final result was Sajjad lost the film and it went to Hanuman Prasad. Madhok was vindictive too.
One of the actors in this film was Ramsingh. The actor Ram Singh’s name is not very famous or well known, but in his times, he did Hero’s and Villain’s roles in many films. .His entry into films and life story is very interesting.
During the 1942 ‘Quit India’ movement, there was a riot in Allahabad. Police opened fire and along with several other people, the Secretary of All University Students Union also was killed.
Fearing a backlash from college students, the Government closed down all colleges and vacated Hostels.Two persons became homeless. One was Ramchandra Dwivedi – who later on became well known as Kavi Pradeep- and the other was Ramsingh- who became an actor. After the riots, instead of informing his family about his welfare, Ramsing left for Bombay and then to Poona, to become an actor. He was tall,fair and handsome. V.Shantaram hired him as an assistant in the studio. His family thought that he must have been killed in the riots and grieved, when he never returned.
One day one of the villagers came to their house and told excitedly that he had seen a Hindi film and in that film, an actor looked exactly like Ramsingh. The family went to the town and saw the film.Lo and behold ! There he was. Looking just like Ramsingh. Anxiously a group of elders reached Prabhat Studio in Poona and enquired. The officials brought out their own son- Ramsingh before them !! Everyone was happy. It seems he did not contact his household just to avoid the Police investigations, as he too was an active participant in the agitation.
Ramsingh was born into a rich Zamindar family of village Ishanpur in Pratapgarh (U.P.), in 1920. After graduating, while doing his M.A. he joined films. His first film was Ramshastri-44, then came Chand-44, Lakhrani-45 and Hum ek hain-46….all Prabhat films. While in Prabhat, he became friendly with Dev Anand and Guru Dutt. In his later years, they gave him roles in almost every film..
In his other films, Ramsingh worked with Heroine Ranjit Kumari ( real name Ranjit Kaur), to whom he got married later on. He was already married while in school and also had 3 children from his first wife. From the second marriage he had 4 children.
Ramsingh played Hero, Villain and character roles in 69 films. Some of his notable films were, besides 4 Prabhat films, Gaon-47, Shaheed-48, Khidki-49, Aparadhi-50 ( He was the Hero, opposite Madhubala), Sargam-50, Sangram-50, Shrimati ji-52, Jaal-52, Baaz-53 etc etc. In his later career, he only got insignificant roles in B and C grade films and Mythologicals. His last film was Sati Sulochana-69. ( film Veer Chhatrasal-71 was released after he left films).
Ramsingh returned to his native place with Ranjit Kumari and children in 1970 and started doing Agriculture. The U.P. Chief Minister H.N.Bahuguna was his classmate and a very good friend. Ramsingh approached him. Bahuguna, to help him, immediately established ” U.P. Film Corporation ” and made Ramsingh its Chairman. However, due to political turmoil in the country, Bahuguna left congress and joined Congress For Democracy, against Indira Gandhi. As a result the film corporation was wound up and Ramsingh returned to the fields again. Ramsing started drinking, against medical advice and died in 1981, in his village.
( adapted, with Thanks, from Javed Hameed’s book ” Kuchh kalakar, kuchh yaden “, Vithal Pandya’s book Asli Nakli Chehre, Bapu Watve’s book ” My Prabhat days” and my notes).
Here is a song from the film Gaon-1947. It is sung by a non-singer, Karan Dewan. Enjoy….
Song- Ganga kee Bhoomi Jamuna ka Desh (Gaaon)(1947) Singer- Karan Dewan, Lyricist- D.N.Madhok, MD- Khemchand Prakash
Lyrics :
Ganga kee BhoomiJamuna ka Desh
ab hua paraaya
Ganga kee Bhoomi
Jamuna ka Desh
ab hua paraaya
kaisa samay aaya
bhoomi gau ?? waale
bhoomi gau aur ?? waale
bhoomi ?? waale
bhoomi ?? waale
chhoot gaye wo haay hamaare
chhoot gaye wo haay hamaare
jiska tilak lagaaya
kaisa samay aaya
Ganga kee Bhoomi
Jamuna ka Desh
ab hua paraaya
dekho dhandha(?) kamaane waalon
dekho dhandha(?) kamaane waalon
chaar dinon kee mauj manaa lo
chaar dinon kee mauj manaa lo
ro ro ke yahi tum bhee kahoge
ro ro ke yahi tum bhee kahoge
hum ne ghar ko chaaya(??)
kaisa samay aaya
Ganga kee Bhoomi
Jamuna ka Desh
ab hua paraaya
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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