Archive for the ‘Post by Arunkumar Deshmukh’ 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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Blog Day : |
5202 | Post No. : | 17186 |
Today’s song is from the film Hip Hip Hurray-1948.
How many of us really know what ” Hip Hip Hurray ” means in reality ? I am sure all of us have used this slogan several times during our school and college days, whenever we were celebrating a victory of our team over the rivals or someone had earned a coveted Reward or an Honour from the authorities. I have used it many times myself, as a victory slogan etc. That was not an age when we cared for the dictionary meaning of popular words or phrases like this one. The colloquial meaning was sufficient for us.
Out of curiosity, I checked a few English dictionaries like the Oxford and the Concise Cambridge dictionary. I found that ” HHH ‘ is a cheer slogan called out to express congratulations towards someone or something. It also denoted appreciation and approval of a victory. ” So much for the meaning of this phrase !
I could not find the story of this film, despite my efforts. There was another film made in 1984 with the same title. That film was based on an Inter-Collegiate Football competition, with a background of a love story of Raj Kiran and Dipti Naval. Then there was also a TV serial, with the same title. It ran from 21-8-1998 to 25-5-2001, with 80 episodes, followed by its second season with 45 episodes , after 15 years.
Anyway, the film Hip Hip Hurray-1948 was produced by Navin Yagnik and Hari Kashmiri, for the banner ‘ Kashmir Films’. The film was directed by Arvind Sen. He had earlier acted in 2 films-Doctor-1940 and Devdasi-1945. Hip Hip Hurray -1948 was his Debut film as a director and he went on to direct another 10 films till Nasihat (1986). His 2 films Muqaddar-(1950) and Kafila-(1952) became successful. They had excellent music also.
The film’s Music Director was Pt. Hanuman Prasad. The name Hanuman Prasad paints a picture of a Pehelwan playing kushti in an akhaada. Guru Hanuman and his akhaada in North India were quite famous. In the late 50s and 60s,there were many Wrestling Championships played in India. Many Pehelwans from other countries also came here to participate. Through these bouts the name of Dara Singh became very famous and later he appeared in Hindi films. The name Hanuman rekindles memories of that era.
However, one would be reasonably surprised if I tell that Pt. Hanuman Prasad ( Sharma/Triloki) was a well known Hindi Film Music Director in the 40s and 50s. Hanuman Prasad was a complete musical package, in the sense that he composed, wrote lyrics ( Gaali, Jasoos, Saudagar and Rasilee) and sung a song also in film( Rasili)-as Sharma. He even directed the film Rasilee-46. Geeta Dutt fans will remember him as the one who discovered her and gave her the first break in Playback singing in Hindi films in 1946.
There were 2 lyricists for 9 songs (actually 11 songs). The 9th song had 3 parts on 2 different records. It was sung by different singers). However, HFGK failed to credit every song with its lyricist’s name. The cast of the film was Balwant Singh, Navin Yagnik, Nirupa Roy, Mangala, Prabhu Dayal, Kumkum, Gulab etc. and a battery of comedians like Dikshit, Bhudo Advani, Radha Kishen and Gope.
Balwant Singh was an actor and a singer. He had no song in this film and from the film ‘Apni chhaya’-1950, with Mohd. Rafi giving him the playback, his singing came to a close.
BALWANT SINGH was born in Pandoga village of Hoshiarpur on 9-12-1918 in a Jahagirdar’s family. He was quite rich. After a training from Pt. Bhishmadev in classical music, he came to Bombay and joined Bombay Talkies at the age of 18 years. He first gave Playback in Jeevan Prabhat-37.In Nirmala-38 he acted and also sang a song. Then came Durga-39 where also he acted and sang. V. Shantaram cast him in Padosi-41 and his songs in this film were hits.
He was Hero in Darpan (1941),Swapna (1942),Malan (1943),Naukar (1943),Paraya Dhan (1943), Ashirwaad (1943), Collegian (1944), Dr.Kumar (1944), Bhanwar (1947,Hip hip Hurray (1948) and Apni Chhaya-(1950) etc. As a hero he sang less songs. His songs with Shanta Hublikar (Malan) and Parul Ghosh and Khan Mastana (Bhanwar) were very popular. He also acted in Nirmala, Vachan and Kangan.
In all, he acted in 18 films, sang 20 songs in 10 films and also wrote 6 songs in the film Sumitra-1949.
He married a girl from the royal family of Palanpur, Gujarat. After leaving films, he worked in All India Radio for 4 years. Then he settled in Ahmedabad, directing Dramas and Teaching music. Finally, he shifted to Ludhiana where, after a long illness, he died on 4-12-1985.
When Balwant Singh worked for A.I.R., it was claimed that he was responsible for the making of the famous morning Signature Tune of the A.I.R., and despite all presentations to several authorities, he was not given the credit for this. His son also claimed this in his interview given to our friend Shishir Krishna Sharma, for his Blog ” Beete hue din”. When I read his interview on the Blog and the You Tube, I wrote to Sharma ji, pointing out to him that this tune was made by the German refugee in India- Walter Kaufmann and NOT Balwant Singh. My E Mail dated 21-4-2021, to him is given here….
Dear Sharma ji,
I visited YouTube and heard your presentation.
I have also read what is written in your post about Balwant Singh on your Blog.
I would like to bring to your notice that it seems this Signature Tune of A.I.R. was NOT made by Balwant Singh,
but by one Walter Kaufmann, when he worked for All India Radio from 1934 to 1946.
There is a book ” THE MUSIC THAT STILL RINGS AT DAWN, EVERY DAWN”
Walter Kauffmann in India, 1934 – 1946
Author – Amrit Gangar
Published by Goethe Institut, Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai. 2013Chapter 3 in this book is THE ALL INDIA RADIO, on page 36.
In this chapter it has been given in detail, with proofs in terms of several letters etc about the signature tune made by him for A.I.R.
There is an interview of the son of Dinkar Amembel, station Director, Bombay AIR, who says that Dinkar had played the Tanpura and
Mehli Mehta played the Violin.I have this book, gifted to me by the author.
When you come back to Mumbai, you can visit me and see the book entries yourself.
I am fully convinced that the tune was done by Walter Kaufmann only.
It is possible that that is the reason why Balwant Singh’s claim was not entertained ever !
However, for whatever reasons, the said point was neither removed from his Blog nor the YouTube presentation.
Today’s song is sung by 4 singers namely, Geeta Roy, Zohrabai Amabalawali, G.M. Durani and Shamshad Begum. It is a good song. Enjoy….
Song- Jawaani hum guzaaren tumhaare aasre (Hip Hip Hurray)(1948) Singers- G.M.Durrani, Geeta Roy, Zohrabai Ambalabai, Shamshad Begum, Lyricist- Not known, MD- Pt. Hanuman Prasad
Lyrics
hahahahahaha
hahaha
hmmhm hm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hm hmm hmm hmm
jawaani hum guzaaren
guzaaren
jawaani hum guzaare
tumhaare aasre
hum tumhare aasre
tumhaare aasre
hum tumhare aasre
jabse hua hai milan
mera man hai magan
mujhko chhod akeli
kahin jaao na sajan
o kahin jaao na sajan
main to teri nazar se
rahoon saath saath re
poori hogi aas re
aao jawaani hum guzaare guzaare
guzaare
tumhaare aasre
hum tumhare aasre
tumhaare aasre
hum tumhare aasre
?? sapnon ??
??
ise looto na raani
tum door se mere jiya mein chubh ??
aao ?? re
aaja paas paas re
poori hogi aas re
aao jawaani hum guzaaren
guzaaren
tumhaare aasre
hum tumhaare aasre
tumhaare aasre
hum tumhaare aasre
tum aayi to le aayi
ummeedon ka savera
hansi khushi ki har ek shaam
aur pyaar ka basera
tere rain basere mein
kaatenge ?? re
kaatenge ?? re
hum rachenge raas re
hum rachenge raas re
aao jawaani hum guzaaren
guzaaren
tumhaare aasre
hum tumhaare aasre
tumhaare aasre
hum tumhaare aasre
?? hai
muhabbat zindagi mein museebat ka ?? hai
pyaar karo to bahaar chhaye
ho jaaye ?? baat re
?? baat re
hum rachenge raas re
poori hogi aas re
aao jawaani hum guzaaren
guzaaren
tumhaare aasre
hum tumhaare aasre
tumhaare aasre
hum tumhaare aasre
jawaani hum guzaaren
guzaaren
jawaani hum guzaaren
tumhaare aasre
hum tumhaare aasre
tumhaare aasre
hum tumhaare aasre
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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5186 | Post No. : | 17165 | Movie Count : |
4623 |
Today’s song is from the film Nadi Kinare-1939. The film was released in Pathe Theatre of Bombay on 10-11-1939.
The year 1939 was a landmark year in the history of the world.
The year was 1939 and the British Government had declared war against Germany and Japan, as soon as the WW II began. All countries ruled by Britain were – willingly or unwillingly, drawn into the war efforts and its effects. The war began in the month of September and soon various restrictions came into operation – like rationing, blackouts, shortages etc. The film industry which was still under its development stage suffered. It also realised the importance of remaining united as one industry. However, all that came after 1 or 2 years. In 1939 there was not much effect seen on the film industry.
The industry had its own problems. In spite of the playback system in operation, their problem was that because there was no technique of recording from the film negative yet, the singers had to sing twice. Once for the actual film shooting of the song, and later, with the same set of orchestra, for commercial records. Sometimes, the original singer was not available due to any reason, some other singer had to sing for commercial records. Thus we have many such examples, where the singer in the film song and the record is different. However, this problem continued only till mid 50’s when the Tape and the required technique became available. With just one time recording, the film and commercial recording were taken care of.
Khemchand Prakash. K.Datta (Datta Koregaonkar), Rafiq Ghaznavi and Anupam Ghatak made their Debut as Music Directors. Kavi Pradeep wrote his first film song for film Kangan. In 1939, 2 most Unusual songs were presented, for the first time ( and this record is not yet broken even after more than 80 years.). One was a Multi-Lingual song from film Aadmi-39, a film by Prabhat….Kis liye kal ki baat. This song was in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bangla, Tamil and Telugu. ( In its Marathi film version-” माणूस “, this song was only in one language-Marathi.) Different Lyricists and MDs were used for each language. The song became very popular.
Second unusual song was from film ‘ Ghareeb ka Laal’-1939. The song lyrics had the names of 32 artistes, operating in Hindi films that time. Top Heroes and Heroines were mentioned in this song. The beginning of the song was ” Tuze Bibbo kahoon ya Sulochana, Uma shashi kahoon ki Jamuna “. This song was sung by the comedian Mirza Musharraf. In later years many songs with film artistes’ names came but none had so many names. Thus this record is still unbroken, in case of both songs.
Besides these songs, let us quickly take a look at some films of 1939….
Aadmi – Prabhat’s hit film, a remake of the Marathi film ” माणूस “. It had some good songs by Shanta Hublikar, Sundarabai Jadhav and Ram Marathe.
Adhuri Kahani – a trend of Tragedy films set by the effect of film ‘Devdas’. All the 3 main characters of this film commit suicide in the end.
Badi Didi – A New Theatres film.
Brandy ki Botal – Master Vinayak’s comedy remake of Marathi film ‘ ब्रॅंडीची बाटली ‘.
Dil hi to hai – Debut of Kidar Sharma as a Director and Ramola as a Heroine in a Hindi film.
Dushman – New Theatres’ film of Saigal, with only his 4 songs.
Ek hi Raasta – Sagar presents first film with 3 Heroes in one film.
Ghazi Salauddin – Debut of Khemchand Prakash as M.D.
Hukum ka Ikka – First film with a Triple role by Umakant Desai ( who later specialised as Lakshman in 7 films, including Ramrajya-43).
Imaandaar – Debut of actress Shamim Akhtar.
India in Africa – This was the First Hindi film to be shot abroad (in Africa). The Hero B. Nandrekar had also gone to Africa for its shooting. Naaz-54 was not the first such film, though HFGK mentions it so.( Ref – pp 69, Maharashtra-The Birthplace of Indian cinema by Isak Mujawar)
Kangan – First of the 4 Hit films of Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitnis, made by Bombay Talkies. Kavi Pradeep’s Debut as a Lyricist in this film.
Kapal kundala – New Theatres. Pankaj Mullick’s hit song ‘ Piya milan ko jaana ‘.
Leather Face – Debut of Meena Kumari as a child artiste.
Navjeevan – Debut of Hansa Wadkar as a Heroine- Bombay Talkies film.
Pukar – Hit film from Minerva Movietone. Naseem Bano sings ” Zindagi ka saaz bhi kya saaz hai….”
Indian filmmakers had practiced 4 ways of getting stories for their films, since the beginning of Talkie films.
1. Copy from older films
2. copy from other languages or remake them
3. use stories from Foreign films – especially Hollywood and
4. make a mixture of all this and make a film.
Hundreds of films were made on the stories of Alibaba. Alauddin, Sindbad, Thief of Baghdad, Hatimtai, Gul E Bakavali and other stories from the Arabian Nights. Hollywood films made on famous novels or dramas were another source of inspiration. When the Talkie films started, the first such film was made in 1933 itself titled- “Awara Shehzada “, with Shahu Modak as its Hero.This was the first Hindi film based on the famous novel of Mark Twain- The Prince and the Pauper, published in 1881. Films on this ” Look alike” theme were made in Hollywood as early as 1915 and 1920 This theme was used abundently in Hindi films like Ram aur Shyam, Don, Seeta aur Geeta, Kanoon and many more films. The list will be too long.
In 1937 a film ” Duniya kya Hai” was made by Lalita Pawar, based on Count Leo Tolstoy’s famous novel ” Resurrection”, published in 1899. The Hindi film was inspired by the Hollywood film ” We live again” made on this novel. In 1938, prakash pictures made ” Khwaab ki Duniya “. It was inspired by the popular Hollywood film ” The Invisible man”-1933, which was based on the famous novel of same name, by H.G.Wells in 1897. Subsequently many films like Mr. X, Mr. India etc were made in Hindi on this theme.
These are few examples to prove the point. There are umpteen number of such films. Sometimes the story departments of the film strudios play a clever game. They mix up the stories of 2-3 Hollywood films and make a Hindi film. Today’s film ” Nadi Kinare”-1939 was also made based on few scenes and themes from 3 Hollywood films, namely ” The king and the chorus girl”-1937, ” Bluebeard’s eighth wife “-1937 and ” The rage of Paris “-1938.
The film was directed by Manibhai Vyas (27-4-1920 to 14-11-1993). he directed 20 films from Dukhiyari-1937 to Shrikrishna Bhakti-1973. The MD was Gyan Dutt and the cast was Kumar, Sitara Devi,Indubala, Ram Marathe, Kantilal and others.There were 13 songs in the film sung by Indubala, Sitara Devi,Kantilal,Kalyani and Gyan Dutt himself. Lyrics were by P.L.Santoshi and D.N.Madhok.
Actor/singer Ram Marathe had done a child role in this film He is one of those child actors who left film world at the right time and pursued his hobby of classical singing. Consequently he bacame a big name in Classical Music all over India. His case reminds me of anothe child actor-n Shashi kapur Sr, who was much in demand as a child actor during the period 1944 to 1955. he did 21 films as a child actor. Then he left films, completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. He went to USA and became a Professor of Maths in Michigan University in USA.
Actually many child actors like Baby naaz, M.Kabir, Sarosh Irani, Master Romi etc reached an age when they were neither child nor an adult. They stopped getting any roles and had to leave films. Child actor Ramchandra ( Ram) Marathe was born on 23-10-1924 in Poona and studied in Bhave school up to 10th.He and his brother ( Anant Marathe aka Anant kumar) worked in films as child actors, due to family conditions. They started work from 1936 onwards. Ram Marathe had an edge over his brother,in that he could sing too. Starting with Shahu Chor in 1936, he worked in Sagar movietone (6 films), Ranjit (3 films) and Prabhat (2 films), in addition to other companies like prakash, Mohan Pictures, Imperial etc. he acted as a child star in 16 films. he sang 11 songs in 6 films. After this Ram left films and started training in classical music-his liking. Here is a short bio of Ram Marathe, adapted from meetkalakar.com….
Ramchandra Purshottam Marathe (1924-1989) began his early career as an actor and singer in films produced by the Prabhat company. His formal training in music assumed a definite direction when he came under the tutelage of Master Krishnarao (Phulambrikar). Later, he trained under accomplished musicians such as Mirashibuwa of Gwalior and Vamanrao Sadolikar of Atrauli-Jaipur. His quest for widening his musical horizons culminated in a long-lasting discipleship (15 years) under Jagannathbuwa Purohit (“Gunidas”). As a consequence of his broad training and background, Rambhau’s music integrated the best of Gwalior, Agra and Jaipur styles. Rambhau was a stalwart in the field of Marathi Natya Sangeet. He was also known as a composer. Among his pupils is Ulhas Kashalkar.
Pt.Ram Marathe had performed in all the prestigious musical festivals at various places like Jalandhar, Patna, Lahore, Delhi, Gwalior, Calcutta, Banaras,Amritsar and almost all over Maharashtra. His contribution to Indian classical music was recognized with several Awards for his unique and successful performances. He was “A-top grade” Hindustani Classical Artist of All India Radio.
Since he had undergone proper Tabla training, he had a great command on Taal and Layakari. He had special command on Rare–Anvat Ragas & Jod Ragas and he was highly recognized for his clear and fast tankriyas and also for Purity of Ragas. He always used to enrich his audience with various semi-classical forms like Khayal, Tarana, Tappa, Natyasangeet, Thumri, Dadra & Bhajans in his concerts. Unlike the present classical singers, his concerts used to last more than 5 hours with the powerful intensity and stamina.
He started his stage career under the perusal of Natvarya Shri Ganpatrao Bodas in 1950 as a leading character in old classical musical dramas like Saubhadra, Sanshaykallol, Swayamvar, Ekach Pyala, Manapman etc. with veteran actor and actress such as Balgandharva, Hirabai Badodekar, Vinayakbuwa Patwardhan, Nanasaheb Phatak etc. Despite his busy schedule in concerts, he performed in 22 old & new Sangeet Natak with more than 5000 stage shows. This is purely out of his dedication and commitment towards Sangeet Rangbhoomi.
Composed music for more than 10 dramas such as – Mandarmala, Suvarna Tula, Meghmalhar, Tansen, Baiju etc. and acted in the play as a leading character role.
His disciples include many eminent classical singers like Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar, Sudhir Datar, Ram Pratham, Vishwanath Kanhere, Vishwanath Bagul, Yogini Joglekar, Shashikant Oak, Madhuwanti Dandekar, Sanjay Marathe & Mukund Marathe etc. (more than 50) and have got the training from him under the traditional Gurukul way of learning.
Maharashtra Government honoured the “Sangeet Bhushan” degree in 1961.
• Recognition by Government of Maharashtra in 1981 for successful completion and continuous 30 years of career in Marathi Sangeet Rangbhumi.
• Honoured “Sangeet Chudamani Degree” by Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Puri.
Appointed by AIR, New Delhi on the Northern (Hindustani) Music Audition Board Committee. Also Advisory Nagpur and other Universities in India.
More than 100 Records and number of CDs and LPs to his credit and composed more than 50 Bandish in various Ragas.
Ram Marathe died on 4-10-1989.
Today’s duet song is sung by Sitara Devi and Kantilal (18-4-1907 to 17-6-1971). Kantilal acted in 31 films and sang 59 songs in 24 films.
Song- Duniya Deewaani duniya deewaani (Nadi Kinaare)(1939) Singers- Sitara Devi, Kantilal, Lyricist- Not known, MD- Gyan Dutt
chorus
Lyrics
Duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewani
koi kahe haaye jigar
koi kahe dil
koi kahe haaye jigar
koi kahe dil
koi kahe chori chori
aake sajan mil
koi kahe chori chori
aake sajan mil
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
koi kahe dil na mila
aankh mila le
koi kahe dil na mila
aankh mila le
aankh mila le
koi kahe aankhon ke parde mein chhipa le
koi kahe aankhon ke parde mein chhipa le
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
le ke dil aaya hoon main yahaan
koi khareede
le ke dil aaya hoon main yahaan
koi khareede
koi khereede
hai koi dil waala jo
dil deke ye dil le
hai koi dil waala jo
dil deke ye dil le
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
loot le joban ke maze
duniya hai phaani
loot le joban ke maze
duniya hai phaani
duniya hai phaani
dam bhar mein guzar jaayenga
ye khwaab e jawaani
dam bhar mein guzar jaayenga
ye khwaab e jawaani
duniya deewani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
le ke dil aaya hoon main yahaan
koi khareede
le ke dil aaya hoon main yahaan koi khareede
koi khereede
haaye
hai koi dil waala jo
dil deke ye dil le
hai koi dil waala jo
dil deke ye dil le
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
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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Blog Day : |
5184 | Post No. : | 17162 |
Today’s song is from the film Bahurani-1950. Films with the same title were made in 1940, 1950, 1963 and 1989. All films had different storylines. Bahurani 1950 was about a bahu who comes to a house after marriage, which is on the brink of breaking relationships due to crumbling family business and subsequent dwindling finances. The story is about how the clever Bahu mends matters to improvement and earlier glory and happiness.
Films made after India’s Independence, especially in the period of 1950 to 1960 dealt with the benefits of joint family, benefits of traditions and culture and ideal bringing up of the children. There was an attempt to glorify, reinvent and reestablish the ideals of togetherness and family value importance. This had become socially necessary because of the disturbed family structures during the Independence struggle of the 40’s. That was also the reason how during this decade i.e. 1950 to 1960, the highest number of religious films (124) were made.
In the subsequent decades i.e. from the 60’s to the 80’s, the family values changed, society structure took another shape and the focus turned from people to money. Because of the expanding money market, job opportunities all over the country, escalating living index, industrialisation and increasing cost of living, the joint family turned into nuclear families with limited progeny. Accordingly, the type of films also changed and they became music and entertainment oriented. The family centred stories diminished (however, they remained only in films made in the South).
This also explains why old people love old films because they want to relive the atmosphere of their younger days. Music in the later period became loud with more instruments and less poetry. But this was accepted and liked by the young generation and it grew by leaps and bounds.
Coming back to today’s film bahurani-1950, it was made by Harishchandra Pictures, Bombay. This was a company floated by harishchandra rao Kadam, who was a stunt film actor, director and producer in the 30’s and the 40’s. He was the one who actually launched C. Ramchandra as a Hindi film Music Director for his film “Sukhi Jivan’-1942. Earlier C.Ramchandra had begun his career with acting as a Hero in film Naganand-1935 and then as assistant to several MDs in Minerva movietone. As a Music director he had given music to 2 Tamil films by then. Harishchandra rao kadam was the hero of film Sukhi Jivan opposite actress Ashalata (Mehrunnisa Bhagat -the first wife of Anil Biswas, MD). His brother Chandra rao kadam also was a stunt actor and a studio owner himself in his later life. His studio is still run by his sons.
Hansraj Behl was the Music director of this film and there were 4 Lyricists – B.R.Sharma, Aziz Siddiqi, Shevan Rizvi and Bharat Vyas. The cast of the film was Sulochana Chatterjee, Shekhar, kaushalya, Amar, Yashodhara Katju, David, Sofia, Ansari, E.Bilimoria and many others.
Heroine of the film was Sulochana Chatterjee-younger sister of Kamla Chatterjee, an actress and wife of Kidar Sharma, the famous writer and Director of Hindi films. Actually, at one time, there were at least 5 Sulochanas operating at the same time in the Hindi film industry. They did not create Same Name Confusion because every Sulochana used her Surname, setting her apart from other Sulochanas. There were 3 actresses- Sulochana Sr aka Ruby Myers, Sulochana Latkar and Sulochan Chatterjee. There were 2 Singers- Sulochana Chavan and Sulochana Vyas.
Born in Chandranagar, Sulochana Chatterjee was the daughter of a military man and the family, five girls, including the late Kamla Chatterjee ( she looked like Geeta Bali, and was Kidar Sharma’s wife), and one boy, used to travel along with their parents to wherever their father was transferred. From Calcutta they moved to Jabalpore and it was here that Sulochana did her schooling. She also took an active part in school dramatics. After some time the family was transferred to Bombay and here her younger sister, Kamla, was spotted by Sohrab Modi, a friend of their father’s, and given a role as a child star in Modi’s picture Jailor (1938).
Once Sulochana happened to visit the sets one day and after watching her sister at work, She was offered a part in Harishchandra Pictures’ “Aina”-44, which she accepted. She co-starred with Trilok Kapoor. She starred in scores of films after that, among them the comedy “Ladli”-50, in which she appeared with Jairaj, and “Grahasti”-48 which was a memorable hit and in which she played with Yakub and Masood.
Sulochana acted in two Bengali pictures “Apanaela”, produced by Saroj Mukerjee and directed by Benoy Banerjee with Pradeep Kumar as her leading man, and Benoy Banerjee’s “Minoti” in which she shared stellar honors with Smriti Biswas and Paresh Banerjee. Her well known films are Chaitanya Mahaprabhu-53, Rami Dhoban-53, Shahjehan-46, Veena-48, Nav Durga-53, Jagte Raho-56, Jis desh mein Gaqnga behti hai-60, Saraswatichandra-68 etc. In all she acted in 119 films. Her first film was Shobha-42 and last film was Shabas Daddy-79. After retirement, she settled in Bombay. Sulochana Chatterjee died on 30-8-1999.
Her favorite pastime was playing with her sister’s children. She cooked, too, and knitted off and on. She was fond of English pictures , liked Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck and comedies. Sulochana could play Badminton and drove a car. A gifted linguist, she knew Bengali, her mother tongue, Hindi, English, Marathi, Punjabi, Kutchi and Guajarati. She spoke them all fluently.
Sometime back in one of my posts, I had assured that I will give the biodata of Ansari. So it is here…..Nisar Ahmed Ansari was the son of the late Dr. Ameer Ahmed Ansari. He was born on 29-8-1917 at Jhansi. His father had been serving in Military for 11 years and he expired in 1938. He was well known in Jhansi as he practiced there for 40 years.Ansari matriculated from Allahabad University in 1933. In 1935, he passed his Inter from Aligadh. By 1939 he was a graduate of Bombay University. He was keen to join films and in this, Mehboob khan helped him by recommending him for film Aasra-40, made by National Studios. It was directed by Mehboob’s assistant Chimanlal Gandhi.
By watching him, no one can ever visualise that a suave and respectable man like him can be a scheming villain . Competition for him was tough,initially when he joined the film industry ,as there were many character actors already there ,who were specialists in negative roles . But young and energetic Nisar Ahmad Ansari had faith in his potential .
He believed that it is not necessary that a villain should have thick eyebrows with roving eyes and have a permanent frown on his face. A person having negative traits may have a smiling face also ,to conceal his evil designs . Therefore in most of his movies , he was a well dressed person ,always beaming and had a friendly smile on his face . In his films , he used to be the boss of a criminal syndicate and had an army of foot soldiers who carried out dirty work on his behalf . To keep a distance between master and servant , instead of calling them by their name he used to call his cronies by their allotted numbers like Number Ten Or Number Five .
With a hit movie ‘Mangu’ , he became a director and later directed many successful movies like Black Cat ,Tower House ,Mr Lamboo ,Zara Bach Ke, Wanted etc for various producers and after he established his own banner Bundel Khand Films ,he made many memorable movies . Although he had to look after his own company and permanent staff ,he did not disappoint other filmmakers ,who wanted to have him in their movies in the role of villain. It is a fact that it was his Black Cat which helped G P Sippy to be a part of the league of big producers ,but it is also true ,Mr Sippy forgot him later and never acknowledged Mr Ansari’s contribution .
Mr N A Ansari ,was essentially a dedicated film maker and had no false illusions about his own capabilities . His movies were never lavishly made and had average production value ,but it did not deter his fans and sizable majority of film viewers ,who adored him and his pictures to patronise his movies . Those who love the movies of the golden age ,fondly remember his movies which used to have him in the role of villain ,beside good music, suspense, comedy, ,dance with a plausible story and a strong message for society ,that “Crime Never Pays”.
With producer/actor Sheikh Mukhtar, Nisar Ahmad Ansari had earlier worked as an actor in Dada, Dara & Ustad Pedro. Sheikh Mukhtar, aware of Ansari’s capability ,in 1954,offered him Mangu to direct. The big success of Mangu was a game changer for Ansari & O P Nayyar. They both were immensely benefited with the favourable outcome of the movie & its music. Mangu had predictable Jodi of Sheikh Mukhtar & Mukri ,with Nigar Sultana ,Sheila Ramani & Ansari himself, as a suave villain. Mangu had a breathtaking, thrilling climax, involving the speeding train. Some real shots, a few stock shots & rest studio shots with back projections (Aadhi Haqeeqat ,Aadha Fasana ),made the climax awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, the movie could not be preserved & the present generation has been deprived of witnessing Ansari’s first effort as director. Mangu is one of the most searched movies on youtube.
He again directed Mr Lambu, a big success, for Sheikh Mukhtar. This time with the classic beauty Suraiyya with music by O P Nayyar, but a similar tragedy happened, again. No print of the movie is available. In almost all his films N.A.Ansari played the role of an urbane & sophisticated Don. He always appeared, well dressed in impeccably tailored suits, fedora, trade mark pipe between his teeth & walking stick, in his hand.
Beside Sheikh Mukhtar,he directed movies, like Black Cat,Tower House,Jara Bach Ke,Wanted for other producers and playing the main villain .He had no qualm for working in the movies directed by other film makers & in this category, movies like Private Secretary,Fareb ,Do Thug ,Khota Paisa, Gunda,Ustad 420,Gunahon Ke Raaste can be named. Under his own banner Bundel khand Films he made Wahan Ke Log,Mulzim,Zindagi Aur Maut,Mr Murder, Jurm Aur Sazaa and Noor E Ilahi. The last one being his last production in 1976 & then he decided to hang his boots.It was a big journey for Ansari,who was discovered by Mehboob & given a role in Aasra ,released in 1941.
He could not say “No” to film maker Sultan Ahmad ,when he insisted him to appear in Dharam Kanta -1982 & later in Jai Vikranta. N.A.Ansari closed his eyes forever on 11 Jan 1993, in Canada, thousands of kilometres away from his beloved city Jhansi ,much before the release of his last movie Jai Vikranta in 1995. As an actor he did roles in 77 films, starting with Aasra-41. He directed 11 films, from Mangu-54 to Jurm aur Saza-74.
(Based on information from Filmdom-46 and an article by M.N.Sardana ji, with thanks.)
Today’s song is a female duet sung by Asha Bhosle and Shamshad begum. It is a good song. Enjoy….
Song- Bas itna bata do jiyen ya maren (Bahurani)(1950) Singers-Shamshad Begam, Asha Bhonsle, Lyrics-Aziz Siddiqui, MD-Hansraj Bahl
Lyrics
Bas itna bata do
jiyen ya maren
muhobbat jo ho jaaye
phir kya karen
muhobbat jo ho jaaye
phir kya karen
Bas itna bata do
jiyen ya maren
muhobbat jo ho jaaye
phir kya karen
muhobbat jo ho jaaye
phir kya karen
ye chitchor hote hain kitne nidar
ye chitchor hote hain kitne nidar
churaate hain dil
saamne baithhkar
churaate hain dil
saamne baithhkar
taraste hain soorat ko
hum raat bhar
hai kismat ki marzi ke aathhon pahar
hai kismat ki marzi ke aathhon pahar
ya aansoo bahaayen
ya aahen bharen
bas itna bata do
jiyen ya maren
bas itna bata do
jiyen ya maren
bas itna bata do
jiyen ya maren
muhobbat jo ho jaaye
phir kya karen
muhobbat jo ho jaaye
phir kya karen
Muhobbat ka chhaayaa hua hai khumaar
Muhobbat ka chhaayaa hua hai khumaar
tumhaari qasam
humko tumse hai pyaar
tumhaari qasam
humko tumse hai pyaar
judaai ne loota hai chain aur qaraar
hai jeene ki mushqil
wahi intezaar
hai jeene ki mushqil
wahi intezaar
kahaan tak kaleje pe patthar dharen
bas itna bata do
jiyen ya maren
bas itna bata do
jiyen ya maren
bas itna bata do
jiyen ya maren
muhobbat jo ho jaaye
phir kya karen
muhobbat jo ho jaaye
phir kya karen
muhobbat jo ho jaaye
phir kya karen
bas itna bata do
jiyen ya maren
muhobbat jo ho jaaye
phir kya karen
muhobbat jo ho jaaye
phir kya karen
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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5180 | Post No. : | 17156 |
Today’s song is from the film Lehren-1953. It was made by ” New Sai Productions” Bombay. It was a film production company floated by C.Ramchandra, his close friend actor Omprakash and Lata Mangeshkar. They produced Jhanjhar-1953, Leharen-1953 and Duniya gol hai-1955 ( directed by Omprakash himself.) These films were neither successful nor their music became popular.
When the film Jhanjhar-1953 was about to be released, C. Ramchandra and Lata Mangeshkar went to Punjab to attend the release function of the film. In this visit, Lata Mangeshkar spoke to singer Nurjehan in Pakistan, from her hotel room telephone and they decided to meet each other. Accordingly Lata and Nurjehan met on the “No Man’s Land” between the Indo-Pak border. They embraced each other and spent a lot of time together.
Another noteworthy event happened when the film Jhanjhar was in the making. At that time C.Ramchandra, under a loose contract with Filmistan, was also giving music to Filmistan’s ” Anarkali’. Directors in Filmistan knew that he was also making his own film Jhanjhar and they suspected that he may be neglecting music of Anarkali at the cost of Jhanjhar. He was sent a legal notice accusing him of this. However, Jhanjhar released first, flopped and then Anarkali was released. Anarkali music became a superhit and Jhanjhar was nowhere. The legal case was happily dropped and C Ramchandra was also awarded a gift from Filmistan for its music !
Film Lehren-1953 was directed by H. S.Rawail and the 10 songs of the film were written by Rajendra krishna. Rajendra Krishna (6-6-1919 to 23-9-1987. Songs 1671 for 269 films) and C.Ramchandra were very good friends. They came together from C. Ramchandra[‘s film Patanga-1949. Together they worked in 52 films. However, in 1958 this friendship broke up. The story is….in 1958 C.Ramchandra was called to Madras by producer S.S.Vasan of Gemini Films. He was offered the film Raaj Tilak for music. This was a remake of Vasan’s hit Tamil film ” Vanjikottai Valiban”. A Telugu remake was also on cards and C.Ramchandra was to give music to Hindi and Telugu versions. He had already given music to the Tamil original. He gladly accepted and wanted to call Rajendra krishna to write the songs. To his shock, Vasan objected to calling Rajendra krishna. Vasan was angry at him because he had written songs for his competitor AVM’s 2 films Bhai Bhai-1956 and Bhabhi-1957. Both films’ songs were popular and hits also. Vasan asked Ramchandra to suggest some other name. He suggested P.L.Santoshi and it was accepted. The music was completed for Raaj Tilak-1958.
C.Ramchandra went back to Bombay and started making songs for the film Amardeep along with Rajendra krishna. After the music was set, Rajendra Krishna came to know that C.Ramchandra had replaced him with Santoshi for a South film. He was enraged and broke their partnership. Rajendra krishna was also popular in South and he started suggesting the Southern producers names of Chitragupta and Ravi as Music Directors. C. Ramchandra stopped getting any films from Madras. At that time even Lata left him after recording 2 songs of the film Amardeep-1958. C.Ramchandra’s bad period had begun…..
The cast of the film Lehren-1953 was Shyama, Kishore Kumar, Shakuntala, Bipin Gupta, Iftikhar, Sunder, Johnny Walker, Leela Mishra and others. In this film, Raj kapoor was a Guest Artiste. Also Omprakash’s brother Pachhi did a small role in this film. Later Pachhi became a big Producer of Hindi films himself. In this film 6 singers were used for 10 songs. The singers were Mohd. Rafi, Kishore kumar, Hiemant kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Shamshad Begum and Sunder. Today’s fun song is sung by Mohd. Rafi and Sunder. To most readers Sunder was a comedian, but Sunder Singh was a Hero in his early films and sang many songs in his own films.
For a long time,I was searching for information on comedian Sunder. I got hold of a 2 page detailed article on Sunder, but it was in Punjabi- which I could not read or use. I found a small paragraph on Sunder in Sanjit Narvekar ji’s book ” Eena Meena Deeka”. Lastly, I requested Harish Raghuwanshi ji for help. Despite his failing health, he promptly sent me articles in Hindi, English and Gujarati, on Sunder. He is such a helpful person. May God give him a healthy life.
Sunder Singh aka Sunder was born in Sialkot, Punjab on 10th August 1916. His father was working in Madon Theatres, Calcutta. Sunder also started working there. Initially, for a long period,he did Girl’s roles. Once his work was seen by H.S.Rawail (Director in later life). He was quite impressed. Later Rawail started working with R.N.Vaidya as his assistant in direction.Meanwhile Sunder started working in Talkie films. His first film,where he was credited, was ” Na hone wali baat”-38. Before that, Rawail and Vaidya were preparing to make the film Banke Sipahi-37.Rawail recommended Sunder and Vaidya gave him an uncredited small role in that film.
Sunder and Rawail became good friends and started staying in one flat in Calcutta. After a few films here, they both went to Lahore and Sunder got the Hero’s role in the film ” Shukriya”-44. There were 4 Heroines in the film- Ramola, Rooplekha, Manorama and Raksha. Sunder’s role in this film was that of a young man from a village and Ramola was from a City. Sunder’s one song from this film-‘ Nayanon ke teer chala gayee ek shehar ki laundiya’ became very popular all over India, However the song was banned in Punjab due to its lyrics. After this they both came back to Calcutta.
His next film was Albeli-45, in which too there were 4 Heroines- Ramola, Rooplekha, Manorama and Usha. In the 40’s , Sunder acted in many films like Arabian Nights, Baap, Shabri, Chandrashekhar, Ek aurat, Grihalaxmi, Lottery, Samapti, Jhoothi kasme, Savyasachi, Do baaten, Shadi ke baad, Bawra, Khiladi, Nai Bhabhi etc. In Calcutta, Sunder got married to a girl from his community. Rawail left for Bombay. After a few months, Sunder also returned to Bombay.
Rawail was very happy to get him back and gave him roles in almost all of his films. Not only Rawail, but also J.Om Prakash, Mohan Kumar, Lekhraj Bhakri, Manoj kumar etc gave him roles in all their films and he became a busy actor. He was at one time, in great demand. He was quite popular due to his nature.In the decade of 50’s he did 88 films, which increased in the 60s and 70s. In the 80s however films came haltingly.
From singing Hero, he became a Junior artiste( extra), in presence of the new crop of actors. The role of comedians was on decline, as Heroes like Amitabh and others did comedy scenes themselves. His health started troubling him. His last film was probably Bahurani-89. He became ill for a long time and finally died on 5-3-1992. Sunder acted in 436 films. He was a good singer and sang his own songs in early cinemas. In all, Sunder sang 40 songs in 25 films. ( Thanks to Harish Raghuwanshi ji for material for adaptation.)
The story of the film Lehren-1953 was….The story of Lehren-53 revolves around 3 characters. One Hero and 2 Heroines. Kishore loves Shakuntala and treats Shyama sympathetically because she had lost her parents. She stays with her uncle omprakash. Shyama however takes Kishore’s sympathy as his love for her. Even his uncle and Kishore’s best friend Sunder think that way. This happens because Kishore feels too shy to express his love for Shakuntala. This situation becomes very embarrassing for Kishore, especially as he is pushed to marry Shyama. This part of the story is upto Interval.
After Interval, Kishore tries very hard to get out of this tricky situation and succeeds by first telling the truth to Sunder and then to uncle Omprakash. They make a plan so that Shyama overhears Kishore’s love dialogues to Shakuntala. But this has an opposite effect. Shyama thinks that Kishore has played a double game with both the girls.
At the end, all misunderstandings are cleared( for which Shakuntala had to pretend her suicide and sacrifice to allow Shyama and Kishore to get married). Shyama steps back and Kishore and Shakuntala are married.
Let us now enjoy the comedy song, by Rafi and Sunder Singh.
Song-Kehta hoon sach ke jhoothh ki aadat nahin mujhe (Lehren)(1953) singers-Sunder, Rafi, Lyrics-Rajinder Krishan, MD-C Ramchandra
Both
Lyrics
Duniya jhol hai
ae jee hum na kehte thhe
ke duniya jhol hai
aur tum samahte thhe ke beta gol hai
waah
aah
samhe mama
kehta hoon ke
kehta hoon sach
ke jhoothh ki aadat nahin mujhe
kehta hoon sach
ke jhoothh ke jhoothh ki aadat nahin mujhe
ae jaaneman
kisi se adaawat nahin mujhe
ae jaaneman
kisi se adaawat nahin mujhe
kehta hoon sach
ke jhoothh ki aadat nahin mujhe
kehta hoon sach
ke jhoothh ki aadat nahin mujhe
ae jaaneman kisi se adaawat nahin mujhe
ae jaaneman kisi se adaawat nahin mujhe
ae jee achche bure ko dekh ke
achche bure ko dekh ke
kehta hoon saaf baat
kya
arre suno to mama
arre achche bure ko dekh ke
arre kehta hoon saaf baat
arre din ho to din kahoonga
agar raat ho o o to raat
ahahaha
arre jhoothe kaa
kya
munh kaala
arre nahin
suno to mama
arre jhhoote ka saathh
dene ki aadat nahin mujhe
jhhoothe ka saath dene ki aadat nahin mujhe
ae jaaneman kisi se adaawat nahin mujhe
ae jaaneman kisi se adaawat nahin mujhe
aa aa aa aa aa
aji jaaiye bhi aap to
jhoothon ke baap hain
aji mama ee
dekho main to nahin hoon
per aap hain
aa aa aa aa
ab chhodiye jee peechha
ke fursat nahin mujhe
ab chhodiye jee peechha
ke fursat nahin mujhe
ae jaaneman kisi se adaawat nahin mujhe
ae jaaneman kisi se adaawat nahin mujhe
kehta hoon sach ke jhoothh ki ee ee ee ee ee ee ee
kehta hoon sach ke jhoothh kee ee ee ee ee ee ee
kehta hoon
o kehta hoon
o kehta hoon
o kehta hoon
sach ke jhoothh ki aadat nahin mujhe
kehta hoon sach
ke jhoothh ki aadat nahin mujhe
ae jaaneman kisi se adaawat nahin mujhe
ae jaaneman kisi se adaawat nahin mujhe ae ae
- In: Babul (MD) Songs as a Singer | Devnagri script lyrics by Sudhir | Guest posts | Khurshid Bawra Songs | Lyrics by Sudhir | Lyrics contributed by readers | MD-Singer Song | Meera Shiraz Songs | Post by Arunkumar Deshmukh | qawwali | Songs of 1950s (1951 to 1960) | Songs of 1959 | Uma Devi songs | 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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5178 | Post No. : | 17154 |
Today’s song is from the costume/stunt film ‘Jungle King’ (1959). The film was made by Artists United, Bombay (the name reminds me of the famous Hollywood company ‘United Artists’). It was produced by a group calling itself ‘Four X’ (for reasons best known to them) composed of Morris, Akbar, Asghar and Haider. The director was Masood and the music was by the pair of Bipin-Babul. The cast was very interesting. It consisted of Shaaga, Haaydu (what strange names! Never heard them !!), Sheila Ramani, Anwar, Majnu, Kamal Mehra, Heera Sawant, Tun Tun, Kabban Mirza, Dambe, Doud, Badshah, Rampuri Mehmood, Elephant Laxmi and many others.
I have never heard such strange names of actors in any film. Shaaga, Haaydu, Dambe, Rampuri Mehmood ? Where did they get these people with such names ? That way, earlier also I have come across some queer names in stunt films, like Bajarbattoo, Chemist, Dhondu, Babu Fatty, Gareeb Nawab etc. Few years back, Dr. Surjit Singh ji had downloaded 7,000 names of actors who acted in Hindi films from 1931 to 2000, from an internet site, which is extinct now. He had put it on the RMIM forum from where I downloaded the list. But in the intervening times, with me changing my Laptop several times till today, the list was lost in transit from one Laptop to the next one. The point is there were many funnier names of actors in that list.
Old time artistes had no means of publicity like today. With TV, Social Media, WA, Fb, newspapers, glossy magazines etc, publicity is easier for modern actors. Old time actors were forgotten as soon as they stopped appearing in films. Today’s film ‘Jungle King’ (1959) is a special film because in its cast are 2 old time actors who were forgotten totally with the times. One was a heroine of the then leading heroes, who fell on bad times and accepted whatever films came her way. But wisely she got married and spent a rich and comfortable retired life. The other one was an occasional singer, who held an honorable post in All India Radio and his songs became a choice of critics in those days. Let us know more about them.
One was actress Sheila Ramani, a forgotten name today, but most of us will remember her in Navketan’s ‘Taxi Driver’ (1954) where she was cast as Anglo-Indian club dancer – Sylvie. I also remember her as the leading lady in ‘Funtoosh’ (1956), also from the banner of Navketan. Sheila was born on 2-4-1931, in Karachi. She was selected as Miss Mussoorie in 1948 and judged ‘Miss Simla’ in 1950. She made her debut as Champa, the femme fatale of ‘Badnam’ (1952), and revealed herself as a danseuse of charm in ‘Anand Math’ (1952). She was one of the few Sindhi actresses besides Sadhana, who made it big in Bollywood. She was mostly seen as an upper class mod girl in the 50s, a role she enacted to perfection all through that swinging era in films like V Shantaram’s ‘Teen Batti Char Raasta’ (1953), Sheikh Mukhtar’s ‘Mangu’ (1954), ‘Meenar’ (1954), ‘Railway Platform’ (1955), and ‘Funtoosh’ (1956).
Her uncle Sheikh Latif alias Lachchu was a famous Pakistani producer who produced films like ‘Pathan’ (1955), ‘Khizan Kai Baad’ (1955), ‘Darbar-e-Habib’ (1956) etc. Sheila visited Karachi – Pakistan on the request of her uncle, to play the lead role in Pakistani film ‘Anokhi’ (1956). The film was based on Hollywood’s ‘Fabulous Senorita’ (1952). “Gari Ko Chalana Babu, Zara Halkey Halkey Halkey, Zara Dil Ka Jaam Na Chhalkey” sung by Zubeda Khanum was the popular song from the film which did modestly good business in Pakistan. The movie’s great music was composed jointly by Timir Baran (a Bengali who came from India for this purpose) and Hassan Latif. Sheila went back to India and remained as a middle-of-the-range performer in Bombay films. In the later part of her career, she was reduced to obscure films with titles that sounded like ‘Jungle King’ (1959), and ‘The Return of Superman’ (1960) – one of the last films composed by Anil Biswas. In all, she acted in 24 films. Her last film was ‘Awaara Ladki’ (1967).
Sheila was very fond of sports, especially football and swimming. Ballroom dancing was a virtual addiction for her and she used to go out dancing as often as she could. Sheila was 5 feet four inches tall, and was so fastidious that any dress she would wear won’t be repeated for six months to come at least.
According to her son Rahul Cowasji, she retired from acting in 1962 and married Jal Edi Cowasji on 31st March 1963. Part of her family that remained in Pakistan converted to Islam. She was a Hindu. She used to live in Mumbai with her husband Jal Cowasji (President of Bombay Dyeing) till 1981. They moved to Khartoum for 3 years and then to Sri Lanka for 3 years. After her husband’s death in 1984 she migrated to Australia on her own in the late 80’s and lived in Sydney and Surfers Paradise until health problems required her to return to India in the new millennium. She used to live in her husband’s ancestral home in Mhow, near Indore (MP). She was frail and bed ridden for a few years before her death on 15-7- 2015.
Her favorite Hindi film of her career was ‘Taxi Driver’ (1954). Sheila was also the leading lady of India’s first Sindhi film after partition – ‘Abana’ (1958), in which young Baby Sadhna played her younger sister’s role. [Thanks to Cineplot for some of the information in this Biosketch].
The other one was an AIR announcer and an anchor. He was also a singer and an actor for a few films. His name was Kabban Mirza. Kabban Mirza’s name is known to very few people. He is one of those people who appeared like a comet and disappeared like a lightning. In his short stint with Hindi films, he acted in 2 films – ‘Jungle King’ (1959) (he was also the Assistant Director for this film) and ‘Murad’ (1961). He sang 1 song in the film ‘Captain Azad’ (1964) and 2 songs in the film ‘Razia Sultan’ (1983). He claimed to have sung a song “Is Pyar Ki Basti Mein” in a film called ‘Sheeba’, without getting credited. No film with the name ‘Sheeba’ is traceable, but a song with the same mukhda is found in the film ‘Jungle King’ (1959), credited to Suman Kalyanpur and Babul with chorus. We don’t find a third voice in this song. It is possible that the film ‘Sheeba’ was left incomplete and the same song was used in the film ‘Jungle King’ (1959) with Babul as the male singer.
The question is why Kabban Mirza is remembered with such a meager contribution to film acting and singing ? The answer is because of his deep voice. Mirza who briefly flirted with the film world, left a lasting impression with his songs for producer-director Kamal Amrohi’s epic, ‘Razia Sultan’.
The songs — “Aayee Zanzeer Ki Jhankar Khuda Khair Kare” and “Tera Hijr Mera Naseeb Hai” — rendered in Mirza’s deep voice, were filmed on the slave-warrior character of Yaqut played by Dharmendra in the film.
Mirza was picked out after Amrohi auditioned dozens of singers in his search for a unique voice to suit the character of the slave-warrior. The film’s music director, Khayyam, reminisces: ‘‘Kamal Saab was a perfectionist. He called over 50 singers for a voice test, but remained unconvinced. Then someone suggested Kabban Mirza who was also a popular nauhaa khan (one who sings elegy for Imam Hussain’s martyrdom during Muharram). Kamal Saab’s search ended with Mirza.’’
Overnight his popularity soared. Mirza got a few more singing offers, including for BR Chopra’s ‘Nikaah’ (1982), but his preoccupation with radio came in the way. ‘‘His voice had a unique bass, unheard of in the industry,’’ says poet-lyricist Nida Fazli who penned a song for Razia Sultan.
Kabban Mirza was born in 1937 in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh. He belonged to the Siddi community. This is a community that migrated from Central Asia/North Africa, during the time when India was ruled by Muslim dynasties. These people were brought in as slaves in the courts of the rulers of Delhi, Lucknow and other kingdoms in North India. They are also known as ‘Habshi’. It is curiously incidental that Yaqut, the slave in the court of Razia Sultan, also belonged to this ‘Habsh’ community. It sounds almost providentially ordained that the two people, separated by more than seven centuries – the original persona, and the singer who would sing for that historical character in a film, belong to the same original ethnic community. (Another very well known personality of Indian cinema belongs to this community – His real name was SYED HASSAN ALI ZAIDI. His family used to call him MIJJAN Miyan and screen name was Kumar, the actor who played the role of the sculptor in the film ‘Mughal e Azam’ (1960)).
The child in Kabban took to music and singing very early. He was drawn to the ‘nauhaa’ style of singing – the traditional ‘marsiaa’ and ‘taaziadaari’ singing on the solemn occasion of Muharram. It is noted that the child Kabban used to practice his singing with his head inserted inside a ‘matka’ (earthen pot).
As he grew up, he was recognized as a very impressive and inspiring ‘nauha-rubaan’ – a singer of traditional Muharram renderings. His voice caught the attention, and he got his break with All India Radio, in the music department. This phase of his life is not well documented, no details are available about his training in classical music and who his teachers were. But his depth of knowledge about the detailed nuances of classical ragas is well acknowledged in his presentations of the radio program ‘Sangeet Sarita’. He anchored this program for many years. He would play select film songs based on Hindustani classical music, and then described in great detail the classical basis, the raag and its variations, the sur, the taal, and their interplay. He garnered a good measure of fan following for this program.
He had joined AIR in Lucknow, but he was soon transferred to Bombay station, where he would take on the anchor role for such noteworthy programs as ‘Hawa Mahal’, ‘Sangeet Sarita’ and ‘Chhaaya Geet’, for many years. There is some mention that he was approached to sing for music director Ravi in BR Chopra’s ‘Nikaah’ (1982), but apparently his association with AIR and his popularity as the anchor of mainline radio programs, came in the way of his further association with the world of films.
The two songs of ‘Razia Sultan’ became very popular in their time – the record sales were impressive. But as destiny would have it, this rise in popularity was accompanied by the most unfortunate health news for Kabban Mirza. He was detected with cancer of the larynx. This was a stroke of extreme bad luck from which he could never recover. His voice and his throat were his vital and essential assets. And that is where fate struck its most unkind blow. He went into prolonged treatment, but eventually he had to be operated upon. The year was 1993. He recovered from surgery and returned home. Thankfully, the malady seemed to be in remission, but then never got to use his voice for any serious and significant assignments.
Mirza, who was admitted to Jaslok Hospital on May 9 after he complained of cough and neck pain, came back home minus his once-famous voice. The tracheotomy tube inserted in his windpipe allows him to breathe, not speak. ‘‘He was diagnosed with throat cancer and treated 10 years ago also. But its relapse has shattered us. He won his bread and our happiness through his voice. Now he has lost that very voice,’’ bemoans Rifat, Mirza’s daughter.
The respite from the physical predicament lasted for a decade. The problem reared its painful head once again, and in May/June 2003, he had to undergo another surgery that resulted in the removal of a significant part of his larynx, leaving him practically with no sound in his throat. His vocal communications were reduced to very limited rasping utterances at the best. This regrettable fate for someone who had once been honored with the Golden Voice Award by the AIR. He reportedly died in June 2006.
[Based on information collated from the articles by Mohd. Wajihuddin in Indian Express dt. 24-6-2003, Ganesh Vancheeswaran in scroll.in, and Sudhir ji in Blog ASAD, muVyz, HFGK and my notes, with thanks to all.]
Song- Dil Thaame Huye Baithe Hain Bechain Nazar Hai (Jungle King) (1959) Singers – Babul, Uma Devi, Meera Shiraz, Lyricist – Anjum Jaipuri, MD- Bipin Babul
Babul + Khurshid Bawra
All Chorus
Lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
dil tha..aame huye. . .
baithe hain. . .
haaye
bechain nazar hai
dil thaame huye
dil thaame huye baithe hain
bechain nazar hai
kehte hain muhabbat jise
kuchh tumko khabar hai
dil thaame huye baithe hain
bechain nazar hai
dil thaamne ke laakh sabab hote hain nadaan
ey ey ey hey
beemar hai
eeekhiy
beemar hai khud
haan
beemar hai khud
ya hai koi dost pareshan
ya phir kisi mehmaan ke aane ki khabar hai
ya phir kisi mehmaan ke aane ki khabar hai
ey ey ey
dil thaame huye baithe hain
bechain nazar hai
kehte hain muhabbat jise
kuchh tumko khabar hai
aati hain muhabbat mein kabhi aisi bhi raaten
neend aati nahin hoti hain taaron hi se baaten
ae ji taaron hi se baaten
ho ji taaron hi se baaten
jis dil mein mohabbat ho ye usko hi khabar hai
jis dil mein mohabbat ho ye usko hi khabar hai
dil thaame huye baithe hain
bechain nazar hai
kehte hain muhabbat jise
kuchh tumko khabar hai
ho (??) pe insaan to kabhi neend naa aaye
kaanton pe bhi so jaaye jo maa lori sunaaye
hmmm hmmm hmmm
maa baap ke kadmon mein muhabbat ka nagar hai
maa baap ke kadmon mein muhabbat ka nagar hai
dil thaame huye baithe hain
bechain nazar hai
kehte hain muhabbat jise
kuchh tumko khabar hai
raste hain alag pyaar ki manzil hai magar ek
laakhon hain tamannaayen to kya khush hai magar ek
laakhon hain tamannaayen to kya khush hai magar ek
hanste huye chalna ye muhabbat ka safar hai
hanste huye chalna ye muhabbat ka safar hai
dil thaame huye baithe hain
bechain nazar hai
kehte hain muhabbat jise
hum sab ko khabar hai
dil thaame huye baithe hain
bechain nazar hai
————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir Kapur)
————————————————
दिल थामे हुये
बैठे हैं
हाए
बेचैन नज़र है
दिल थामे हुये
दिल थामे हुये बैठे हैं
बेचैन नज़र है
कहते हैं मोहब्बत जिसे
कुछ तुमको खबर है
दिल थामे हुये बैठे हैं
बेचैन नज़र है
दिल थामने के लाख सबब होते हैं नादां
ए ए हे
बीमार है
ईखी॰ ॰ ॰
बीमार है खुद
हाँ
बीमार है खुद
या है कोई दोस्त परेशां
या फिर किसी मेहमान के आने की खबर है
या फिर किसी मेहमान के आने की खबर है
ए ए ए
दिल थामे हुये बैठे हैं
बेचैन नज़र है
कहते हैं मोहब्बत जिसे
कुछ तुमको खबर है
आती हैं मोहब्बत में कभी ऐसी भी रातें
नींद आती नहीं होती हैं तारों ही से बातें
ए जी तारों ही से बातें
हो जी तारों ही से बातें
जिस दिल में मोहब्बत हो
ये उसको ही खबर है
जिस दिल में मोहब्बत हो
ये उसको ही खबर है
दिल थामे हुये बैठे हैं
बेचैन नज़र है
कहते हैं मोहब्बत जिसे
कुछ तुमको खबर है
हो (??) पे इनसां तो कभी नींद ना आए
काँटों पे भी सो जाये जो माँ लोरी सुनाये
हम्मम हम्मम हम्मम
माँ बाप के कदमों में मोहब्बत का नगर है
माँ बाप के कदमों में मोहब्बत का नगर है
दिल थामे हुये बैठे हैं
बेचैन नज़र है
कहते हैं मोहब्बत जिसे
कुछ तुमको खबर है
रस्ते हैं अलग प्यार की मंज़िल है मगर एक
लाखों हैं तमन्नायेँ तो क्या खुश है मगर एक
लाखों हैं तमन्नायेँ तो क्या खुश है मगर एक
हँसते हुये चलना ये मोहब्बत का सफर है
हँसते हुये चलना ये मोहब्बत का सफर है
दिल थामे हुये बैठे हैं
बेचैन नज़र है
कहते हैं मोहब्बत जिसे
हम सब को खबर है
दिल थामे हुये बैठे हैं
बेचैन नज़र है
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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