Archive for the ‘G M Durrani Hamida Bano duet’ Category
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 film Bade Nawab Saheb-44. It was a Muslim social film, produced by Silver films – a joint venture of actors Kumar and Chandra Mohan. The film was directed by Vedi, a name about which I could not get any information except that he was a director from the Silent era. In the Talkie era, he has 4 films to his credit as director. First film is Bade nawab saheb-44, then Naseeb-45, Room Number-9 – 46, and For Ladies only-51. This is all I know about Vedi. Unfortunately, we do come across few such names from the early era films. This is because we have very poor documentation. Information on big actors etc is available. That is why the task of Hindi film History students (like me, for example) is tough in securing and recording information for the posterity.
The music director was Bashir Dehalvi. Here too, we only know that he gave music to films like Jhankar-42, Kalakar-42, Ujala-42, Koshish-43 and hawai Khatola-46, in addition to today’s film. The 10 songs of the film were written by Lyricist Shams Lucknowi. He seems to be a story and dialogue writer too. Story of film Andaz-49 was by him. He wrote the dialogues of films like Idd ka chand-33 and Kimiyagar-36. He also acted in film Parchhain-52. He wrote 104 songs in 15 films from Lal Haveli-44 to Dahej-50. May be , then he migrated to Pakistan or what, we do not know.
Most of the so called Historical (my friend calls them Distortical), Costume dramas, Arabian Night stories films etc have a Muslim background. But ” Muslim Social” films is a separate category. Initially it was considered to be a very sensitive issue to depict the social life of Muslim families in India and so film producers were wary of making such films. When film makers with modern thinking came to the industry – like K Asif, Mehboob or Fazli brothers- there was a cautious but slow beginning of Muslim social films. My two friends, shri Kamlakar Pasupuleti ji (originally from Hyderabad and settled later in US) wrote an informative book, ” Forgotten movies on Muslim Culture 1933 to 1947 and shri Isak Mujawar ji wrote (in Marathi) ” Muslim Cinema”. Both these books give good information on this category of films.
Like many other myths in Hindi film industry, one myth is that Mehboob Khan was the pioneer in making Muslim social films in India. This probably originated because the first film of Mehboob’s own company Mehboob Productions was ” Najma”-43, a Muslim social film starring Ashok kumar, Veena, Stara, Kumar, Yaqub etc. But the fact is different.
The first Muslim social film was ” Rashida”-35, made by Madon Theatres, Calcutta, featuring Kajjan, Effendi and others. It was directed by a Jew-Izra Mir. The name of the film indicated that it was about a Muslim girl. Somehow, I find a lot of Muslim social films made had titles of girl’s names, Like Zeenat, Ameena, Najma, Shama, Heena, Zubeida, Salma, Ismat etc etc.
The beginning of serious Muslim social films was done by Fazli Brothers- Hasnain and Sibtain Fazli. They first made a Muslim social film Qaidi-1940, featuring Ramola,Mehtab, B.Nandrekar, Wasti etc. This was a period of struggle for Indian Independence. The fundamentalists in Muslims were active and due to the fear of their reaction, film makers were wary of producing such films.Even Fazli brothers were also afraid that there would be obstruction from these people to their film, so they decided to make the film in Calcutta. Their first Muslim Social film Qaidi-40 was very successful. Encouraged, they made 2 more such films (Masoom-41 and Chauranghee-42) in Calcutta. For film Chauranghee-42, the Fazli Brothers roped in famous Bangla poet (who later on became the National Poet of Bangladesh) Kazi Nazrul Islam- the creator of Nazrul geeti, as a Lyricist and MD for the film.
After 1942, Fazli Brothers shifted their activities to Bombay and made many Muslim social films like Fashion-43,Ismat-44, Dil-46 and Mehendi 47. So, in true sense, it is the Fazli Brothers who were the pioneers of Muslim Social films in India.
From the 40s to the 47, there was a line of Muslim social films lined with pride and confidence. Notable amongst them were Paak Daaman-40 by Rustom Modi, Masoom-41 by Fazli brothers, Muslim ka lal-41 by Mohan Pictures, Fashion -43 by Fazli Brothers, Najma-43 by Mehboob, Salma-43 by Nazir Ahmed, Ismat-44 by Fazli Brothers, Bade Nawab saab-44 by actor Kumar and Pramila, Bhaijaan-45 by United Films, Phool-45 by K.Asif, and Director Mazhar Khan’s Muslim social film ” Pehli Nazar’ in 1945. Amongst these, film ‘ Elan ‘-47 was a milestone film, produced by Mehboob. It dwelt upon the needs of improvements for Muslim community.
After 1947, India lost a very big market for its Muslim social films, when Pakistan-East and West- was formed. It does not mean that Muslim social films were not made after 1947 in India. Films like Kaneez-49, Nisbat-49, Parda-49, Hyderabad ki Nazneen0-52,Darwaza-54, Chandni Chowk-54, Maalik-58, Maa ke aansoo-59, Pahli Raat-59 etc were all Muslim socials. They, however, were not successful, for whatever reasons. But the fun is films of Muslim backgrounds but non social films like Anarkali,Mirza Ghalib,Hatimtai,Alibaba and forty thieves etc were good grossers and ran well. The first Hindi film to win the President’s Gold Medal (the first was Marathi film-Shyam chi aai ), was Mirza Ghalib-54. This indicated that there was no audience for Muslim social films now. Later on, the conditions changed and Muslim social films like Chaudhavi ka chaand, Barsaat ki raat, Chhote Nawab, Bahu Begum, Mere huzur, Pakeeza etc became quite successful. However, some opine that these films succeeded due to other reasons like Music, songs etc. One funny thing was that most Muslim social films-from the beginning- showed Lucknow as the background of the story ! (Film names being mentioned are only indicative and not exhaustive, so many names will be missing here.)
The cast of film Bade Nawab Saheb-44 was Chandra Mohan, Pahadi Sanyal, Kumar, Pramila, Bibbo, Sushil Kumar, Leela Mishra, Kamala, Agha Jaan etc. etc. Chandra Mohan was one of the most handsome actors of Hindi cinema. Some other handsome actors were B. Nandrekar, Vijay Kumar, Al Nasir etc. Chandra Mohan was also a versatile actor. Incensed by losing a role in the Marathi version of film Amrit Manthan-1934, just because he could not speak Marathi fluently, he learnt Marathi in no time and later worked as Hero in 3 Marathi versions of Hindi films !
Born on 24-7-1906 in Narsinghpur in Madhya Pradesh, Chandra Mohan was known for his large grey eyes, voice modulation and dialog delivery. His eyes form the opening sequence in V. Shantaram’s 1934 film Amrit Manthan, which was also his film debut. It was the first film made in the new established Prabhat Films studio, and made both in Hindi and Marathi. Mohan received acclaim for his role as role Rajguru and went on to establish himself as noted villains of times.
In film Geeta-40, Chandramohan was the Hero and had done the Father and Son double role. This was a Bilingual film in Hindi and Marathi, and in both versions, Chandramohan was the Hero. Earlier, V. Shantaram had given a break to Chandramohan in his film ” Amrit Manthan”-34, which also was a Bilingual film in Hindi and Marathi. Chandramohan being a Kashmiri and not knowing Marathi, in the Marathi version, his role of Rajguru was done by keshavrao Datey.
However. soon Chandramohan picked up fluent Marathi and acted in the Bilingual films of Hindi and Marathi like, Jwala-38, Geeta-40 and Apna Ghar-42 He became the first Hindi actor to do roles in Marathi films.
Chandra Mohan later appeared as Emperor Jehangir in Sohrab Modi’s Pukar, as Randhir Singh in Mehboob Khan’s Humayun and as Seth Dharamdas in Mehboob Khan’s Roti.
Actor Kumar did many films in Ranjit, but in 1942, he was removed from Ranjit. At the same time his friend Chandra Mohan also left Minerva Movietone ( reason – inspite of Pukar-39 being a Blockbuster, his salary was not increased, though Modi had promised him so.) They both decided to launch their own company and on 16-3-1942, SILVER FILM COMPANY was launched. Its first film was Jhankaar-42. They produced Bhalai-43, Bade Nawab Saab-44, Naseeb-45, Devar-46, Dhun-53 and Bahana-60. Kumar had acted in these films. He also directed Dhun and Bahana.
One of his last appearances was in Ramesh Saigal’s film Shaheed-48. As Rai Bahadur Dwarka Nath, he played father to Ram, who was portrayed by Dilip Kumar. His character in this film, initially supports the British Government, but later favours the Freedom struggle. Chandra Mohan’s last major film was Raambaan-1949, in which he played the role of demon emperor Ravan. Chandra Mohan had acted in 31 films in all from Amrit Manthan-1934 to film Chocolate-50, which was released after his death.
Chandra Mohan despite being a Kashmiri himself was against Kashmiri girls working in films. He is said to have intimidated actress Shyama Zutshi from working in Hindi films and she left the films. However, later when Yashodhara Katju came into the films, she did not care for his opposition and continued successfully in films. He was very friendly with actor Motilal and treated him as his son.
He was the original choice to play the lead role in K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam, but due to his untimely death the film had to be reshot after ten reels were shot with him as lead. The film was eventually released in 1960.
Chandra Mohan took to heavy gambling and drinking and died penniless on 2nd April 1949 at the age of 44 at his residence, Bilkha House, in Bombay.
The story of Bade Nawab Saheb-44 was …….
Nawab Kokub Mirza had 2 wives, but he loved the younger one so much that he even tolerated her younger brother Mushir, a trouble maker. Sikandar was Mirza’s younger brother and they had an old loyal servant Baksho. Sikandar marries an orphan girl-Anwar from an orphanage. On this count, the younger wife and Mushir are able to throw Sikandar and Baksho out of the house.
Sikandar goes out of Lucknow to look for a job. His wife, unaware of the relations, starts working as Maid in Nawab saheb’s house. Mushir tries to misbehave with the modesty of Anwar and is thrown out of the house. Now the nawab is closer to Badi Begum, who convinces him to recall Sikandar. Nawab calls Sikandar and also pardons Mushir.
Now Mushir wants to poison Nawab saheb. He adds poison to his Kheer. Unfortunately, the Kheer is eaten by his sister, the young Begum. She dies and Police arrest Mushir. Now the 2 couples live happily !
Today’s song is a duet by Hamida and Durrani. This is the second song of this film to feature on this Blog. (Thanks to information from books mentioned in the post, which is used herein)
Song-Jaag gayi Jaag gayi Hamaari kismat (Bade Nawab Sahab)(1944) Singers- Hamida Bano, G M Durrani, Lyrics-Shams Lakhnavi, MD- Bashir Dehalvi
Both
Lyrics
Jaag gayi
Jaag gayi
Hamaari
kismat
Hamaari kismat
jaag gayi
Jaag gayi
Hamaari kismat
prem nadi mein josh jo ??
bhai ne bhai ko bulaaya
prem nadi mein josh jo ??
bhai ne bhai ko bulaaya
chhant gaye
zulf ke baadal saare
samjho chaand sitaare
chhant gaye
zulf ke baadal saare
samjho chaand sitaare
chaand sitaare
sachchi
ulfat
sachchi
ulfat
jaag gayi
jaag gayi
hamaari
kismat
hamaari
kismat
jaag gayi
jaag gayi
hamaari kismat
toote huye phir dil milenge
toote huye phir phool khilenge
toote huye phir dil milenge
toote huye phir phool khilenge
kaun
khilenge
sachchi
ulfat
sachchi
ulfat
jaag gayi
jaag gayi
hamaari
kismat
hamaari
kismat
jaag gayi
jaag gayi
hamaari kismat
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, 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 sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
Recently, I had the occasion to read an essay titled The Magical World of Bombay Talkies, written by Professor Lalit Joshi. The paper has been written in the context of making of the cultural space for the nation in waiting and the role of the Bombay Talkies Ltd. (BT) in the evolution of Bombay film industry. The essay sets out the growth of BT since its inception in 1934 until it closed down in 1954.
Read more on this topic…
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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