Archive for the ‘Post by Arunkumar Deshmukh’ Category
Jab saamne tum aate ho
Posted on: September 18, 2021
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular 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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4810 | Post No. : | 16579 | Movie Count : |
4516 |
Today’s song is from the film Dillagi-1942.
The title of the film seemed to attract the filmmakers and starting with Dillagi-1942, few more similarly titled films were made like, Dillagi-49, Dillagi-66, Dillagi-78 and Dillagi-99. Of these films, Dillagi-49 became quite successful and a film to remember because of the famous song ” Tu mera chand main teri chandni” sung by Suraiya and Shyam Kumar.
This also happened to be the first well known case of ” Same Name Confusions”, because singer Shyam Kumar had sung this song for actor Shyam and to complicate the issue, both were acting in that film. For the next 70 years, old film music lovers went on discussing vehemently whether the actor Shyam was the singer. Many authors, Internet sites and few books too credited the song to actor Shyam. Poor Shyam Kumar the singer !
Finally many film historians, genuine workers and writers dug up information details about singer Shyam Kumar and it was proved that the singer was Shyam Kumar and NOT actor Shyam. I have also discussed this case in my book published in 2018. I feel very sad that despite all this commotion about the confusion and the final clarification, many young lovers of old songs still assert and credit the song to actor Shyam !
Inspite of trying very hard, I could not get any information about this film, its story etc. However, in one of the 1942 issues of Film India Magazine, in one article, the Editor- Baburao Patel had said ” Recently I saw a picture- Dillagi. It was supposed to be a comedy, but the situations were far from being comic to evoke a laugh. Throughout the picture, I did not laugh even once, but at the end when the lights were on, I looked at Pt. Indra, writer of that comedy film ( he had invited us to see this film) and the tragedy of frustration reflected in his face excited real laughter. But then every Cinegoer can’t be lucky to have the writer sitting next to him ! ”
Film Dillagi-42 was made by Pragati Chitra, Bombay and was directed by Balwant Bhatt. The elder brother of Nanabhai Bhatt- Balwant Bhatt was born at Porbandar,Gujarat on 13-1-1909. Balwant started his career by assisting Naval Gandhi in 1930-31 and Pesi Karani at Imperial Film company and then N.B.Vakil at Sagar Studios in 1932.
A prolific director of second tier, action oriented films, Bhatt’s first film as a director was Royal Film Company’s 1932 silent thriller PASSING SHOW which featured popular stunt-film actor Navinchandra. He turned Director with the advent of Talkie films and joined Prakash Pictures with BAMBAI KI MOHINI [1934; aka: ACTRESS] starring Miss Panna and Miss Alaknanda. His last one was Nagin aur Sapera-1966. He directed 33 films, mostly stunt and C grade films.
Bhatt directed action star Fearless Nadia in DELHI EXPRESS (1949) and CIRCUSWALE (1950) as well as the comedian Bhagwan in JOKER (1949) and JODIDAR (1950), and even had opportunities to work with bigger name’s such as Bibbo in SUHAAG (1940), Maya Banerjee in MADHU SUDAN (1941), and Prithviraj Kapoor in AANKH KI SHARAM (1943). But the vast majority of Bhatt’s output were in the category of B-grade films.
He directed some Gujarati films like Sansar Leela, Seth Sagsha, Divadandi, Snehlata etc. He was the producer of Dillagi-1942, Gunehgar-53, Alif Laila-53, Sinbad the sailor-52, Son of Sinbad-58, Police Detective-60 etc. etc. Diwadandi-1950 became famous for its song-“Tari aankhni afini”, sung by Dilip Dholakia with music by Ajit Merchant. His film Mordhwaj-52 was the Debut film for MD Narayan Dutt. Balwant Bhatt died on 7-2-1965,at Bombay.
The cast of the film Dillagi-42 was Kumar, Hansa Wadkar, Anuradha, Gulab, Agha and Sushil Kumar.
The Music Director of Dillagi-42 was Pratap Mukherjee. I do not have any information about him except that he directed only 3 films, namely Dillagi-42, Tamasha-42 and Kisise na kehna-42 . Actress gulab was from kashmir. She can be called the first girl from Kashmir to work in Hindi films. Her real name was Saraswati Devi. She was born on 10-6-1908 at Jammu. She joined Krishna Film Company in 1924. Her first silent film ‘Krishna Kumar’ came in 1925. She worked in 60 silent films. Her last silent film was ‘Dagabaz Dushman’-32, made by East India Film co.Bombay.
Her first Talkie film was Suryakumari-33, made by Vishnu Cinetone. It was directed by Dhirubhai Desai. She sang one song ‘more preetam jab ghar aaye’ composed bu Kikubhai Yagnik. Then came Baburao Patel’s ‘Bala Joban’-34, Sewa Sadan-34 and Nai Duniya-34 ( Debut film of Rajkumari and Jayant). In this film Gulab sang 2 songs.
Gulab was very beautiful and quite popular in the film industry. Some of her films were Bambai ki sethani-35, Challenge-37, Bharosa-40, Pyas-41, Ek Raat-42, Station master-42, Gaali-44, Rattan-44, Mann ki jeet-44, Mirza Sahibaan-47, Lahore-49, Badi Behan-49, stage-51, Post Box 999-58, Chhabili-60 etc etc. She acted in 160 films. Her last film seems to be Haqeeqat-64. She also sang 22 songs in 11 films.
Today’s song is sung by Rafiq Ghaznavi and Anuradha. They were husband and wife. Actually Rafiq was not a known playback singer. I wonder how he came to sing a song in this film even though he was not working in it. May be due to the recommendation of his wife Anuradha, he got this song. Anuradha’s real name was Khurshid Akhtar and pet name was Sheedan. She was the younger sister of actress Zohra Jaan, who was Rafiq’s wife before her. Later, Rafiq left Anuradha also and married someone else.
Anyway, the song is nothing to write home about, because the singers were not professional singers. With this song film Dillagi-1942 makes its Debut on the Blog.
Song-Jab saamne tum aate ho (Dillagi)(1942) Singers-Rafiq Ghaznavi, Anuradha, Lyrics-Unknown, MD-Pratap Mukherjee
Lyrics
Jab saamne tum aate ho
Jab saamne tum aate ho
nainon se man mein samaate ho
nainon se man mein samaate ho
jab saamne tum aate ho
jab saamne tum aate ho
jeewan ka dukh sahna hai
jeewan ka dukh sahna hai
joban ke madhu(?) baina se
joban ke madhu (?) baina se
tumko dekha nain hanse ye
kya jaadoo kar jaate ho
tumko dekha nain hanse ye
kya jaadoo kar jaate ho
Jab saamne tum aate ho
Jab saamne tum aate ho
nainon se man mein samaate ho
nainon se man mein samaate ho
jab saamne tum aate ho
jab saamne tum aate ho
main kahna chaahoon kah na sakoon
main kahna chaahoon kah na sakoon
aur bina kahe main rah na sakoon
aur bina kahe main rah na sakoon
man ki meethhi meethhi baaten
man ki meethhi meethhi baaten
in aankhon ko sajaati ho kitnon ka ?? jagaati ho
in aankhon ko sajaati ho kitno ka ?? jagaati ho
jab saamne tum aate ho
jab saamne tum aate ho
nainon se man mein samaate ho
nainon se man mein samaate ho
jab saamne tum aate ho
Raat suhaani re raat suhaani
Posted on: September 15, 2021
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular 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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4807 | Post No. : | 16575 |
Today’s song is from the film Armaan-1942.
I have found many times that film titles are given on the basis of the essence of the story – the result, the effort or even the relationship etc. It is expected that from the title itself, the movie fan should be able to guess the type of film or the story of the film. Some titles are straight forward like Baiju Bawra, Tansen, Jhansi ki Rani etc. Such films do not call for intelligence work to know about the film’s content. But when the titles like Armaan, Laalach, or Ladki are given, the fan has to scratch his head about the type of the story. Next help is from the cast of the film. Cast of a Stunt film is absolutely distinctive. The actors are fixed, not known to the general public and includes at least some actors with strange names like Chemis, Manchi Toothy or Bajarbattu etc. Initially, a Dilip kumar film used to be equated with a sad end due to Hero’s death. Nirupa Roy indicated a Religious film etc.
Even from the names of Directors one could guess about the type of films.For example, a film directed by Sohrab Modi meant extra long dialogues in pure urdu or Hindi, Historical story. Mehboob Khan meant a film on Nehruvian Socialism etc. From the names of Music Directors also one could fairly guess the type of film. Avinash Vyas or S.N.Tripathi means a Mythological film, Naushad or C.Ramchandra means musical entertainment etc.
There have hardly been any directors who handled films of different Genres. Tragedy, Comedy, Family film directors never tried historical and any Stunt film director never tried a family tear jerker. I can think of only one film director who directed films of different Genres like, Comedy, Tragedy, Family, Musical, Social evils and even a Mythological film. His name is Franz Osten- a Director from Bombay Talkies stable. And mind you, he did not know Hindi language-he had come from Germany ( he thought Bulbul means 2 Bulls !). May be that is why he could do it.
Film Armaan’s director was Kidar Sharma. He mostly did social films. I came to know about this autobiography much later than it was published posthumously – by his son in 2002. I bought the book sometime in 2015 or so. During the period 2012 to 2018, I bought books on cinema like a mad person. The result was, I ended up with 50 % useless books ! Initially I had no discretion and no knowledge as to which could be an useful book for me. Shortly ( and after spending a Ton !), I learnt the trick and became very selective. By the year 2018-2019, I became known to many writers and Historians. This resulted in getting recently published good books as gifts from various authors. This way I now have a reasonably good number of useful books. Some books I value very much like the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema by Rajadhyaksha and a few rare books. I have a collection of 6700 songs from films of the 30s and 40s only, some of them very rare. These are also gifted to me by friends and collectors across the continents. I got some books xeroxed. Our dear friend (late) Bharatbhai Upadhyay, Harish Raghuwanshi ji, Deepak Chaudhari and few more have been very helpful in xeroxing old, rare books.
The cast of the film Armaan-42 was Motilal, Shameem, Nagendra, Meera, Rajkumari, Rewa Shankar etc . Kedar Sharma mentioned in his book that Sardar Chandulal Shah, owner of Ranjit had warned him not to take Shameem as Heroine. The reason was, Shameem was the niece of actress-singer Khursheed, who was very jealous of Shameem. He feared that Khursheed may not work with Kidar, if she is taken as Heroine. Kidar was firm and took Shameem. However, Khursheed did work in Kidar’s film later on without any complaint.
Shamim was variously billed as Shamim, Miss Shamim, Shamim Bano and Shamim Akhtar, in different films. She was born on 11th September 1926 in Lahore. Her father was a General Merchant. She used to sing and act in school dramas. She completed her matriculation from Islamia Girls school, Lahore. In 1939, she visited Bombay along with her father. They accidentally met director G.R.Sethi, who encouraged Shamim to join films. She too was keen on joining films.
She debuted in the film Imaandar-1939. Then came Baghi-39, Niraali Duniya-40, Kanyadan-40,Jadui Nagari-40, Pyas-41, Dhandhora-41, Return of Toofan Mail-42, Mehmaan-42, Fariyaad-42, Armaan-42, Gauri-43, Bansari-43, Pehle Aap-44, Jwar Bhata-44, Sanyasi-45, Laaj-46, Samrat Ashok-47, Sindoor-47, Bhanwar-47, Shikarpri-47, Ratan Manjiri-48,Toote Taare-48 and Desh sewa-48. She also sang about 30 songs in 11 films.
After partition, she migrated to Pakistan with the family. There, she acted in 8 films- 6 Urdu and 2 Punjabi. Her first film Shahida-49 was a hit film and celebrated Silver jubilee. Even Do Ansoo-50 and Ghulam-53 were hit films. Shamim married Producer/Director Anwar Kemal Pasha. Shamim died on 23-10-1982 in Lahore. Shamim was niece of actress singer Khursheed Begum. Shamim’s younger sister Naseem was also an actress in India, but she died quite young, on 17-11-1946 at Bombay, in India only. This was reported in Film India magazine also.
The other interesting name in the cast is of Nagendra Majumdar-father of Ninu Majumdar, MD. Nagendra was born in a happy family in the year 1894 in Bombay. After his father died, “Pearl Dairy’ established by his father ran very well doing good business. Suddenly, Nagendra’s wife fell seriously ill and despite taking her full care, she expired. Due to neglect of the Dairy in this period, Dairy also closed down.
He shifted to Baroda and worked as a State Police Inspector.Later he worked as Watch and Ward Inspector in Baroda Railways. He left the job and started working as a hero in dramas of famous dramatist R.V.Desai. Heeralal, the owner of Laxmi Film Company, Bombay was impressed with his personality and took him to Bombay in 1926 to act in his silent films. Thus started his film career. In those days Silent films used to be completed within a month. He worked as a Hero in films of Laxmi, Jagdish and Imperial film companies.
In the same year, he directed a film ‘Paani mein aag’-1926, made by Royal Arts. Then came two more films made by Kaiser E Hind films. He also directed films for other companies. In all, he directed 15 Silent films by 1932. By then the Talkie had arrived. In the next 14 years he directed 12 Talkie films like – Ras Vilas-32, Sassi Punnu-32, Patit Pawan-33, mirza Sahibaan-33, Mera Imaan-34, Kala Wagh-34, Rangila nawab-35, Kimiyagar-36, Aaj ka Aladdin aka Aladdin II-36, Lehri lutera-37, Talwarwala-46 and Swadesh Sewa-46.
When offers for direction became few, he started acting in films. He acted in 12 films. When K L Saigal came to Bombay, Nagendra wanted to work with him. In the film Tansen-43, he did the role of Tansen’s (Saigal’s) father and he was very happy. Other films that he acted in were Kanchan-41,Beti-41, Khilauna-42, Bhakt Surdas-42, Armaan-42, Tansen-43, Gauri-43, Adab Arz-43, Bharthari-44, Prabhu ka Ghar-45, Ghazal-45 and Dhanna Bhagat-45.
His last 2 films came in 1946, but his health was not cooperating for quite a few years. He gave up work and took a rest. However, he suffered from paralysis and died on 22-8-1951. His son Ninu Majumdar worked in Bombay A.I.R. as head of Gujarati programmes, since 1937. By the time Nagendra died, Ninu had already started working as a Music Director.
As a Director, Nagendra had worked with the best of his times like, Master Vithal, Zubeida, Jillo, Billimorea brothers, Madhuri, Navinchandra, Durga Khote, Jairaj, Sultana, Noorjehan sr and such luminaries of those days. He had worked for Ranjit, Imperial, Sharda, Lakshmi, Jayant Desai films, Yagnik films etc etc.
( Information for this article is collated from various sources like Listener’s Bulletins No. 40 of Feb-80 and No.145 of July 2010, HFGK, muVyz, Sapnon ke Saudagar by Vithal Pandya, Silent films by Dr.Verma, Lost Treasures by Kamlakar P. and my notes.)
Today’s song is the second song from the film Armaan-42 to feature here.
Song- Raat suhani re raat suhaani (Armaan)(1942) Singer- Shamim Bano, Lyricist- Kedar Sharma, MD- Gyan Dutt
Lyrics
raat suhaani re
Raat suhaani
raat suhaani re
Raat suhaani
aao guniyyaan aao
aao guniyyaan aao
sunaayen prem kahaani re
kahaani
aao guniyyaan aao
sunaayen prem kahaani re
prem kahaani
Chaand sittaare re
chaand
Chaand sittaare re
chaand sitaare
hum saajan se door
hum saajan se door
sajanwa paas hamaare re
hamaare
hum saajan se door
sajanwa paas hamaare re
paas hamaare
sard hawaayen re
hawaayen
sard hawaayen re
sard hawaayen
phoonk(??) rahin hain tanman
phoonk(??) rahin hain tanman
saajan
thhandi aahen re
aahen
phoonk(??) rahin hain tanman
saajan
thhandi aahen re
thhandi aahen
mast jawaani re
mast
mast jawaani re
mast jawaani
bhanwron ka paighaam suno
bhanwron ka paighaam suno
kaliyon ki zabaani re
zabaani
bhanwron ka paighaam suno
kaliyon ki zabaani re
kaliyon ki zabaani
raat suhaani re
raat
raat suhaani re
raat suhaani
Aaj milaa hai bichhdaa saajan
Posted on: September 12, 2021
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular 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 : |
4804 | Post No. : | 16571 |
Today’s song is from a Saigal film- Zindagi-1940. The film was made by New Theatres, Calcutta.
At one time New Theatres (NT) was the most successful film production company in India. It was not only prestigious,but it also shaped up and discovered many artistes who made their marks in the Hindi film industry. New Theatres, Calcutta was one of the top 5 film companies in India – the others being Imperial, Prabhat, Ranjit and Bombay Talkies.
The rise and fall of the giant company was a glorious yet a sad chapter. Besides other factors, I feel the ego-conflicts and the obstinate and adamant behaviour of the people coupled with false prestige led the artistes to desert the company leading it to its end. Of course other reasons were equally responsible.
New Theatres operated from 1931 to 1955 and made 177 films, slightly more than Ranjit film co.-with 175 films. B.N.Sircar established New Theatres in Tollygunge, Calcutta on 10-2-1931, as a family concern, where all shares were held by the family members and He was the managing Director. Same year it built its studios in the same area. It had 3 fully equipped units for shooting, with the best technicians and musicians. Like other studios they had salaried staff in all departments, on a monthly basis. In this period there were other studios also in Calcutta, like Bharat Laxmi pictures, Devdutt films, East India Film company, Kali Films and Radha Film co.
Their first talkie film was in Bangla-Chandidas-32. For the North Indian market Hindi film Puran Bhagat-32 was made. NT had markets in East India, North, North west and South, but none in Bombay or western India. Sircar, along with I.A. Hafis ji, toured the unrepresented areas himself and appointed distributors in Madras, Madurai,Trichannapally,Erode, Bangalore, Poona, Bombay, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Kangra Valley and Lahore. Puran Bhagat-32 and Yahudi ki ladli-33 were distributed here.
NT became popular in Non Bangla areas due to its Music, which became their main strength. They popularised Robindra Sangeet, with songs by Pankaj Mullick. Miss Panna Rai ji, the first ever woman to do Ph.D in Indian Cinema, wrote on NT films without knowing Bangla language. WB, EB, Burma and Eastern states were their strongholds.
1940 was the Best year for the company with films Doctor, Zindagi and Nartaki. It was an year of beginning of the end also. The first to leave was director P.C.Barua. The Second World war gave a big jolt with the quota system for Raw film. NT was allowed only 6 films per year. Income reduced. Their monthly salary bill was 45000 rupees. Communal riots in 1946 and Partition in 1947 were great setbacks. Due to Partition, NT’s markets were shrunk and due to curfew, huge losses incurred. In the early 40’s many artistes left for Bombay.
By 1951, son Dilip Sircar said,” people left, finance lost, court cases. My father virtually closed the shop.” Liquidation of Calcutta National Bank, NT’s chief financer, was the last shock. The company was handed over to Arora Film company between June to December-1954. From Jan 55 to Aug 55, it was managed by Deluxe Film company. Then a Court Receiver was appointed. In Jan-56, NT was closed down. In Mar-62 NT went into liquidation. The Liquidation was revoked and NT revived by Dilip Sircar on 8-8-1991. However, no activity was seen except that a 5 part serial on NT was made.
B.N.SIRCAR-Birendranath Sircar( 5-7-1901 to 28-11-1980 ), was the son of Shri Nripendranath Sircar-a well known Jurist and a member of the Viceroy’s committee. B.N.Sircar was a Civil Engineer from U.K. who developed an interest in film making. He left his very lucrative job at Martin Burn and Co. in 1928-29 and made 2 silent films,under the banner of International Film Craft.These were Directed by his First colleague Premankur Atorthy. After testing the film market this way, he founded New Theatres.
NEW THEATRES ( NT ) was established by B.N. Sircar, on 10-2-1931,in Tollygunge, Calcutta. It had 3 studio floors for shooting. It had the best Technicians, the best actors and the best Musicians. He acquired the Tanar equipment and services of Wilfred Denis,imported from Hollywood by Ardeshir Irani. New Theatres attracted major Technical and creative talents from silent studios,which were on collapse now. Thus,”Indian Kinema” provided Directors Nitin Bose and Premankur Atorthy and stars Durgadas Bannerjee,Amar Mullick,Jiban Ganguly etc,” Barua Pics ” gave P.C.Barua and Sushil Mujumdar,” British Dominion Films ‘ gave Dhiren Ganguly etc.
B.N.Sircar was a firm believer that Cinema is a medium between a Novel and a Drama,so he depended upon Bangla famous literature for his films. The first Talkie of new Theatres, “Dena Paona”-31,was based on Sharat babu’s works. Though this film was a flop,he continued to depend upon novels by Sharat babu and Tagore to make his films.His first seven films were flops in a row. Their first big film was Chandidas-1934. New Theatres had many Directors on its payroll and used technological advances with recordist Mukul Bose.
From 1931 to 1955,NT produced 177 films, a Record unlikely to be broken in future by any single production house. The nearest rival was Ranjit studios, with 175 films produced. It is not that there was no competition in Bengal. In 1935,there were 14 production houses in Calcutta and in 1938, there were 18 of them, though some , like Madon Theatres, closed down sooner.
NT was mammoth, peopled by giants. Through the 30s and early 40s,NT had the biggest names in Indian cinema, on their payrolls. K L Saigal, Pahadi Sanyal, Jamuna Devi and Leela Desai were ‘discovered’ by NT. Others like P C Barua, Kanan Devi, Umashashi, Molina and Chandrabati emerged as stars at NT. Some like Durgadas Bandopadyaya and Prithviraj Kapoor had been stars before coming to NT. They had directors like Premankur Attorthy, Debaki Bose, Madhu Bose, D N Ganguly, Nitin Bose, Hiren Bose, R C Boral (only Bangla), Profulla Roy, Phani Mujumdar, Bimal Roy, Hemchandra Chunder, sound recordist Mukul Bose and Musical giants like R C Boral, Pankaj Mullick, Timir Baran and K C Dey.
B N Sircar was the Patriarch, the disciplinarian, who held them together like in a big family. NT had a veritable galaxy and clashes between the Titans were inevitable. NT had its own share of fallouts, peer rivalries, squabbles and scandals. Due to the stern and uncompromising nature of B N Sircar, the first to leave was Pramathesh Barua, then Nitin Bose, and Kanan Devi. There was that famous spat between Debki Bose and Nitin Bose on the sets of Meerabai-1933 itself and they stopped talking to each other. Add to this the heavy drinking of Saigal and Umashashi’s elopement with the heir of Shova bazar palace. Each of these has an independent story.
The political situation in Bengal after the WWII, i.e. 1945 also caused the journey of NT towards its downfall and eventual closure in 1956. If only B N Sircar had changed his attitude, NT would not have died so soon, at least not without a fight and not so tamely, in the face of the competition. The biggest bank of Bengal, which financed NT- The National bank also went into liquidation at the same time to add to their woes further.
Personally, I would not hold B N Sircar alone responsible for the decline of NT, which was Hindi cinema from Bengal itself in reality. Another very important factor was,while many stalwarts like Saigal, Prithviraj Kapoor, Kidar Sharma, R C Boral, etc made a beeline for Bombay, Hindi cinema music in Calcutta remained the same, where it was in 1931,without any change. On the other hand, Bombay had enriched its music by adapting to the changing times with a mix of music from Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, UP, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Lahore and the south. The music of the 40s in Bombay had become Vibrant, whereas there was no change whatsoever in Bengal Hindi music. It kept on hankering on Robindra Sangeet and Nazrul Geeti. Maybe, the extreme variety of Regional pride of Bengal came in the way of adopting and adapting to the changes. (This Pride has, even Today, kept Bengal much behind the rest of India.) Thus Bombay became the undisputed capital of Hindi Cinema and Music.
New Theatres was established in 1931,as a family business, with B.N. Sircar as the Managing Director. Once NT started growing, the local regional pride almost forced Madan Theatres-belonging to a Parsee family from the western India-to pack up. By 1938,Madan Theatres had produced over 154 films-silent and Talkie. They made their last Talkie, ” Khatarnak Aurat”-1938 and the company closed down.
New Theatres had the Best actors, best Directors, Best composers and the very best Technical staff in India. They had 4 distinct strengths….
1. Right from the beginning, Bengal had an edge over Bombay and Lahore etc in that the Educated and Respectable family members did not hesitate to join the Film Industry in Bengal. In fact, over 90% of its people were educated-some of them even Foreign educated too. In this ,Bengal was very Progressive. On the contrary, the western centres of film making were confined to Courtesans, Tawayafs and uneducated run-aways in its film industry.
2. NT or the Bengali film industry had a very wide market spread out over the entire West and East Bengal, Bihar, orissa, Assam, the N-E states and Burma. Their Distribution network included Madras,Madurai,Erode,Trichannapally,Bangalore,Mysore,Poona,Bombay,Cawnpore(Kanpur),Kangra valley and Lahore circuits.
3.People who worked for NT were like a united family. Feelings of Goodwill and Happiness permeated the studio. Workers came in the morning and worked till it was finished. Discipline and adherence to deadlines and principles regulated their lives. projects were, therefore, completed always as planned and in time.
( Only Madras of the 40s and 50s came near this. Bombay and Lahore were exactly the opposite, where discipline and punctuality were never a Virtue (Tradition continues…)
4. Almost all films made in Bengal by NT or any other company, were based on either stories or dramas or Novels, by renowned authors from the East(read Bengal). Thus, the film’s story content was so solid that they did not need appendages of comedians or a CSP (comic side plot) or too many songs.
( IN other parts like Bombay and Lahore, studios had what was called “The Story Departments”, consisting of 4-5 writers, the owners, directors, who would work up a story in unison !)
NT popularised a new brand of Music.i.e. Rabindra Sangeet, which was hitherto confined to only Shantiniketan. With all this in place,NT was on its peak in 1940,when their slide started. One of their pillars P.C.Barua left NT. This was the beginning. Debki Bose left. Nitin Bose left after completing ‘Kashinath’ in 1943. Kanan Devi left to join Barua and Uma Shashi eloped with her lover.
Pankaj Mallick, though unhappy over the treatment meted out to him in NT, did not leave till the end. He did Bombay film music at Calcutta-like Kasturi or Zalzala etc. He always considered NT as his Alma Mater.
The ongoing II world war, the communal riots of 1946.the Partition of 1947 and the deteriorating civil conditions of Bengal (specially Calcutta),due to the influx of Refugees, broke NT completely. The Govt. had regulated supply of Raw Film, East Bengal market was lost totally, artistes left for Dhaka or Bombay…all this took NT to its end rapidly.
In such worsening conditions in 1944/45,Sircar tried to mend things by replacing the II and III level artistes to fill up gaps left by departed people. Thus, Bimal Roy, who was a Cinematographer and an Editor, got an opportunity to sit in the Director’s Chair. They made an ambitious film ” Udayer Pathe” -44. A Hindi version was made as ‘ Hamraahi”-45. It was Bimal Roy’s First brush with a Hindi Film Direction. Both versions were successful. But with major things remaining the same for years, without any changes, the house of New Theatres became a dilapidated, colourless, tattered big empty Palace. It’s sad to write about the fall of an Empire- a Giant !
(Article is based on information from “The glory that was New Theatres” by Sharmishtha Gooptu, ” सुंदर ती दुसरी दुनिया ” a Marathi book by Ambarish Mishra, The Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, with thanks, along with my old writings and my notes.)
Today we will know for the first time more about an artiste who was with NT from almost the beginning. The name is strange and uncommon-NEMO.
Nemo (Mirza Muhammad Begg) was born on 27th December 1903 at Calcutta. He passed his Senior Cambridge. One day he, along with some friends, visited New Theatres to see a film shooting. Mirza Muhammad Begg merely wanted to watch the shooting of ‘Yahoodi Ki Larki’ (1933) but, as luck would have it, his visit to the New Theatres studio in Calcutta led to a small role in the same film. The part was that of a Roman king and little did Begg know back then that he’d soon be turning to Latin to fish out a lasting identity.
A year later, he was invited by New Theatres’ founder B.N. Sircar to work as the production manager of ‘Karwan-e-Hayat’ (1935) and another chance role beckoned. A female actor who was supposed to play an old witch in the film failed to turn up for the shooting and Begg volunteered for the part. The make-up department stepped up to the challenge and Begg, unrecognisable in the get-up, did the job (and always considered it his best effort). What happened next is even more interesting. Once the film was ready, the makers felt apprehensive about revealing to the public that a man had played the witch’s role. Begg came up with a solution – a gender-ambiguous screen name for himself. And in a delightfully wacky move, he picked a name that means ‘nobody/nothing’ in Latin – ‘Nemo’.
The name stuck on and this was the beginning of Nemo’s steadfast association with New Theatres – one that resulted in a string of features like ‘Karodpati’, ‘Dushman’, ‘Doctor’ and ‘Zindagi’. He was Vidushak, the royal jester, in ‘Vidyapati’, a rigid but caring father in ‘Jawani Ki Reet’ and the devoted caretaker Dharamdas in P.C. Barua’s ‘Devdas’. These diverse characters earned him appreciation from audiences and critics alike. Further, the story of the Saigal hit ‘The President’ (1937) was based on his idea and he was duly credited for the same. Alongside his work in films, he also edited and published ‘Akkas’ – a very popular Urdu (and later, Urdu-English bilingual) film magazine in those days. Its surviving copies now serve as an important archive of the early talkies. His last film with New Theatres was Kashinath. When Calcutta was bombed by Japan in late 1942, Nemo migrated with his family to his ancestral hometown, Lucknow. He later went over to Bombay for a short while to work in Mazhar Khan’s ‘Pehli Nazar’ (1945), and then returned to Lucknow to settle into a life far removed from the studio lights.
In the middle of it all lies an extraordinary fact – at the time he entered the movies, M.M. Begg was a national billiards champion! He won the inaugural Indian Open Billiards Championship in 1931 and never left the game thereon, despite a busy and flourishing film career. He won the trophy again in 1937, and between the 2 wins, he was the runner-up thrice. Not to mention, he represented the country at international tournaments and also headed various administrative organisations related to the game. His contributions towards establishing and popularising billiards and snooker in India are widely mentioned, and always in glowing terms. He was also obsessed with Racing.
It was nearly a decade after ‘Pehli Nazar’ that Raj Kapoor managed to pull Nemo out of his sabbatical for 2 memorable final acts in ‘Shree 420’ and ‘Jagte Raho’. In both, Nemo played similar roles of manipulative, corrupt seths who hide their sinister designs behind a facade of respectability. If he was jittery about facing the camera after a long gap, it doesn’t show (unless Seth Sonachand’s trembling chin is not a mannerism 😄). He was particularly effective in ‘Shree 420’, where he puts on the most evil smile possible and hisses to Raj Kapoor, “Aap se mulaqaat ho gayi, is mein fayda hi fayda hai.” He also did 2 more films- Raja Vikram-57 and Naag Champa-58.
Nemo worked for 19 films of New Theatres and 4 others totalling 23 films in all. His Filmography – Yahudi ki ladki-33, Karwaan E Hayat-35, Devdas-35, Karodpati-36, Manzil-36, Vidyapati-37, Anath Ashram-37, President-37, Dushman-38, Dharati Mata-38, Abhagin-38, Jawani ki reet-39, Badi Didi-39, Zindagi-40, Haar Jeet-40, Doctor-40, Aandhi-40, Lagan-41, Saugandh-42, Shri 420-55, Jaagte Raho-56, Raja Vikram-57 and Naag Champa-55. It is believed that he died in Bombay on 18-8-1960.
Cinema, publishing, sports – Mirza Muhammad Begg distinguished himself in everything he touched. And chose to call himself NEMO – a nobody. ( based on information from Filmdom-1946, HFGK, muVyz and mainly an article by Yasir Abbasi, with thanks.)
Today’s song is sung by Aruna.
Song- Aaj mila hai bichhada saajan(Zindagi)(1940) Singer- Aruna, Lyricist- Kidar Sharma, MD- Pankaj Mullick
Lyrics
Aaj mila hai
Aaj mila hai ae
Aaj mila hai
bichhda saajan
aaj mila hai ae
Aaj mila hai
mre man ka
mere man ka
phool khila hai
Aaj mila hai
Aaj mila hai
jaag uthhi hai
aaj jawaani
yaad aayi hai
apni kahaani
jaag uthhi hai
aaj jawaani
yaad aayi hai
apni kahaani
apni kahaani
Aaj mila hai
Aaj mila hai
Aaj mila hai ae
Aaj mila hai
kaise koi dil mein aaya
kaise kuchh khoya
kuchh paaya
kaise koi dil mein aaya
kaise kuchh khoya
kuchh paaya
hamne
hamne jee ko khud banaaya
hamne jee ko khud banaaya
dil se dil ko ?? samjhaaya
Aaj mila hai ae
Aaj mila hai
mere man ka aa
mere man ka phool khila hai
bichhda saajan
bichhda saajan
aaj mila hai ae
aaj mila hai
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular 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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4802 | Post No. : | 16568 |
Today’s song is from the film Ladli-1949. This was one of the popular films of MD Anil Biswas in those times. He was still in his prime, but on the downward curve past his prime. By mid 50’s, films came at a snail’s pace to him and then in a few years he left Mumbai, shifted to New Delhi and his life took a 90 degree turn, personally and professionally.
Anil Biswas,the Bhishma Pitamaha of HFM, was a respected person in the industry.He started from the mid 30s and for the next 25 years or so,he created many everlasting gems in film songs. In Bombay, Playback was first started by him in the film Mahageet-1937. By the mid 50s his magic started waning and by 1960, he was almost gone from the industry. Initially he did 10-11 films with Sagar, then with Mehboob for National studios and then in Bombay talkies- where his name became immortal with the film Kismet-1943.
He married Ashalata in 1936. Along with her he started variety pictures and they produced films like Laadli-49,Laajawab-50 Badi bahu-51, Hamdard-53 and Bajuband-54. ( a less known fact is-Anil da had made a Guest appearance in the film Hamdard-53 as a barber.) He also acted in the film Mehman-53 (produced by Ashalata),as a Pujari and a song was shot on him.In both cases he did not get any payments. As a Producer he lost heavily, because Ashalata usurped all the money. Frustrated, he gave up everything and separated from her in 1954. By now, sweet links were established with singer Meena Kapoor-25 years younger to him, since 1948 itself. They got married with each other on 19-3-1957. The death of Brother in law and close friend Pannalal Ghosh in 1960 and younger brother Sunil in 1961 as well as his eldest son- Pradeep,broke his heart. He left Bombay and joined A.I.R. at Delhi on 1-3-1963,where he worked upto 27-6-1975. Later he was a consultant for Nehru University for a few years.
However,hardly anything is known about his eldest son Pradeep,anywhere. Here is some information,hitherto not known much,brought specially for our readers.
Pradeep was a very bright student and always topped in school and college. He passed his entrance exam and the interview,with flying colours for entry to NDA college at Poona,to join armed forces. He excelled even in NDA training.Not only was he very popular there but sang well too. He participated in the music Festival of Khadakwasla NDA and sang 3 songs,winning all prizes. He was also a NDA Topper.
Shri Gopinath Talwalkar,an A.I.R. Programmer at Delhi,used to interview the Toppers of NDA every year. That year Pradeep was the Topper, so he was interviewed. Though the interview was in Hindi, after the recording,Pradeep asked Talwalkar,in pure Marathi,whether his interview had been good. Talwalkar was shocked. Pradeep then explained that he was Anil Biswas’s son and he had learnt Marathi from his actress mother Ashalata. Pradeep knew Hindi,Marathi,English and Gujarati languages.
After completing his NDA training,he was posted as Flight cadet at Jodhpur. He was further promoted and became Pilot Officer in 1957. During one Training flight some altitude problems occurred and his plane crashed at Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad, killing Pradeep instantly. This happened in 1961.
This was also the time of crisis for Anil da. He was struggling to survive. Films were not coming to him. Since he married Meena Kapoor, Lata Mangeshkar-a fast close friend of Ashalata , had gone against him and Meena’s singing career was suppressed. He had already lost Pannalal Ghosh and Sunil-his brother and now Pradeep’s death devastated him and he was literally forced to seek employment with Delhi A.I.R., when the opportunity came. After retirement, till his death on 31-5-2003, he spent his life in total anonymity and recluse. So sad for a composer, who was once a fountain of enthusiasm and who was considered Mentor by leading contemporary composers like C.Ramchandra.
By 1949, the Indian film industry had reasonably stabilised having gone through the rigours of the war period and total shake up of the industry due to the Partition blues. 1949 was the best year in the Golden Era of HFM. There were so many films offering evergreen, out of this world songs, that the audience did not know which film to see and which song to hear. The sale of records registered a Record of Sales in 1949. 157 films were made in 1949. Barring the figure of 181 films in 1947 ( we know the reasons), 1949 produced the maximum films from 1931 to 1984 – a period of 50++ years. What’s more, almost every alternate film gave superb songs. Nearly every Music Director of Hindi films was present in 1949, with his film.
This was also a transition period, when older composers were giving way to newer ones. Additionally, the competition between Naushad and C Ramchandra for the Number One position was at its peak. Though CR is my favourite composer, during the period 47 to 49, it was all the way Naushad who was the undisputed Numero Uno as far as quality and number of hit films were concerned.
In this period Naushad’s strike rate of Hit films was more than double, compared to C R, percentage wise. Naushad had 8 Hits from his 9 films in the period 1947 to 1949. For the same period, CR had only 4 Hits in his 18 films.
The year 1949 had absolutely heavenly showers of Musical Films. Some of such films were Andaz, Badi Behan, Barsaat, Bazaar, Dulari, Jeet, Apna Desh, Chandni Raat, Chaar Din, Sunehre Din, Shayar, Dillagi, Ek thi ladki, Kaneez, Laadli, Lahore, Mahal, Namoona, Patanga etc etc. The year 1949 also witnessed the introduction of A and U Censor certificates, the establishment of Films Division, the start of Navketan productions of Anand brothers and a few other landmarks in Hindi film industry.
Today’s song is an excellent song but rarely heard and not so popular for reasons difficult to fathom. It’s singer was Shiv Dayal aka S.D. Batish. I have a lot of respect for S D Batish,who did a marvellous job of promoting Indian Music in the UK and USA. He is one of those rare people who left the film world, but continued serving the Music,by turning a corner in Life. Such people are few in this world. The monumental work he did for Indian Music in foreign lands is unparalleled. An important point is that he did not do this service to Music for his personal gains. For his sustenance,he had opened a Restaurant in Santa Cruz,California,which was providing him enough for a comfortable living in the USA.
Born December 14, 1914, in Patiala, India, Shiv Dayal Batish abandoned a career in the nascent telephone industry to study devotional song, folk drama, and Indian classical music under his guru Hakim Chandan Ram Charan. In 1934, he relocated to Bombay to try his hand at acting, but roles proved scarce and he returned to Patiala two years later, renewing his focus on music. By 1936 Batish was regularly appearing on All India Radio and recording his first sessions for His Master’s Voice. The film industry nevertheless retained its allure for him, and in 1939 he returned to Bombay, working for a spell under broadcasting legend Z.A. Bokhari. After earning his first film work as an assistant musical director in 1942, Batish later graduated to full-fledged Bollywood musical director, in the years to follow working with playback singer greats including Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, and Mohammed Rafi.
Batish also moonlighted as a playback singer in 70 films, singing 115 songs, among them 1944’s Daasi and 1948’s Barsaat ki Raat, before relocating to Britain in 1964. After accepting a position with the BBC Immigration Unit, Batish became a regular in British radio and television, most notably composing “Nai Zindagi Naya Jivan,” the theme song to the Beeb’s classic South Asian series Apna Hi Ghar Samajhiye (“Make Yourself at Home”). He also returned to his roots as a live musician, performing Indian folk and classical music on the vichitra veena, a long-necked fretless flute. In 1965 Batish was summoned by percussionist Keshav Sathe to record the Indian-inspired incidental music for the Beatles’ second feature film, Help! — the experience also proved the beginning of his lifelong friendship with Beatle George Harrison, who later hired Batish to teach his then-wife Patti Boyd the stringed dilruba.
In 1969 Batish assembled wife Shanta Devi, daughter Vijay Laxmi and sons Ashwin Kumar and Ravi Kumar to record North Indian Folk and Classical Music, which for decades remained the lone Indian release to appear on the seminal folk label Topic Records. A year later, the family emigrated to the U.S., settling in northern California and founding a restaurant, the Santa Cruz-based Krishna Café. Although the restaurant business remained Batish’s primary focus for the remainder of his life, he continued playing live and also cut the occasional LP, most notably 1980s Raga Todi, 1985’s Om Shanti Meditation on Dilruba and 1997’s The 72 Carnatic Melakhartas.
He founded “Batish Institute of Music and Fine arts” in California and wrote about 12 books on Indian Classical music,like Ragopaedia,Raga Channels,Rasik Raga lakshan Manjiri etc. He had also founded Batish Recording Co.
He died at age 91 on July 29, 2006.
His singing on AIR drew the attention of an older cousin, Pandit Amarnath, who was an accomplished musician in the Punjabi film industry in Lahore. Amarnath gave Batish the opportunity to sing a song – Pagdi Sambhal Jatta – he had composed for the film Gawandi (1942). The song became a hit, making Batish popular. But, all told, the experience was bittersweet. Ashwin says his father did not relish acting in the movie: the frequent takes, the blinding light from mirrors used as reflectors unnerved him.
As Amarnath’s assistant, Batish learned various aspects of music direction: rehearsing with singers, synchronising instruments and working with an orchestra. These learnings opened yet another opportunity for him. He was invited to Bombay by the Marathi writer and film impresario Keshav Prahlad Atre (Acharya Atre) to compose music for the film Paayaachi Daasi. But, in the end, credit was given to Annasaheb Mainkar.
After the Partition in 1947, the year Amarnath died, Batish moved back to Bombay, this time not to try his luck as an actor, but as a singer and composer. Several prominent music directors of the day employed him for their movies – Anil Biswas for Laadli, Husnlal-Bhagatram for Sawan Bhado, Hamari Manzil, and Surajmukhi; Ghulam Mohammad for Kundan; Roshan for Barsat ki Raat and Taksal; and Madan Mohan for Ada and Railway Platform. Some of his more notable songs were sung with Geeta Dutt in films he provided music himself, such as Betaab and Bahu Beti. He was associated with films in Hindi and gave music to 20 films, composing 154 songs, as S.D.Batish,Master Ramesh and Nirmal Kumar. Some of his songs were famous.
Batish, whose musical oeuvre has been described as an “amalgam of classical music and Punjabi folk and popular styles” composed for 20 films, including Har Jeet, Tipu Sultan and Toofan. For two films, he composed under the name Nirmal Kumar – a moniker that Lata Mangeshkar had given him for luck, according to Ashwin.
By this time, Batish had grown disenchanted with the Hindi film world. Ashwin recalls that his father needed a steady income to sustain his young family, but payments were erratic and delayed. Irked by this, Batish worked for a while to set up an artistes’ union to give them a platform to air their grievances and demands. Then the family decided to go to England.
Shanta Devi, like Batish early in his career, had been an artist with the All India Radio at one time. To raise money for the air tickets, the family sold its land in Bombay’s Santa Cruz neighbourhood – now worth a fortune, Ashwin says. Its new home was on Birchington Road, a residential area in London’s West Hampstead.
The move to the US, as with the one to England, was a family decision. Shanta Devi’s initiative led to the Batish India House (at first called the Sri Krishna Café), a restaurant on Santa Cruz’s Mission Street that served Indian food while music was played by members of the Batish family. “I would serve food and then jump on stage to play music,” remembered Ashwin, who like his father plays several instruments, including the sitar and tabla.
The restaurant was featured often in the local paper, The Santa Cruz Sentinel, and ran till 1985, before music became the all-absorbing act, and SD Batish embarked on the “project of a lifetime”. His wish to collate, annotate, and set in writing every known detail of the Hindustani (the Ragopedia compendia) and Carnatic musical systems coincided with Ashwin’s discovery of Gopher, an early internet protocol that enabled files to be recorded, uploaded and distributed easily. It was a project envisioned after their visits to the library of the University of Berkeley yielded barely a few books on Indian music, and mostly on the Carnatic tradition. What was an inspiration for Batish to explain every raga became a boon not merely for music aficionados but also for his students who were familiar only with English.
He regularly performed with his children, Ashwin and daughter Meena, and lived long enough to see his grandchildren, Keshav and Mohini, grow into musicians. ( Thanks to obituary and bio byJason Ankeny and an article by Anu kumar in scroll.in dated 24-6-2021, along with muVyz, HFGK, Wiki and my notes. All excerpts are adapted ).
Today’s song is the 8th song from this film to be posted here. I like this song very much, I hope you too will like it.
Song- Kisi rangeen duniya mein na kya kya zindagi dekhi (Laadli)(1949) singer-S D Batish, Lyrics-Chandrashekhar Pandey, MD-Anil Biswas
Lyrics
kisi rangeen duniya mein
na kya kya zindagi dekhi
rulaa de gham ko bhi ek baar
aisi zindagi dekhi
kisi rangeen duniya mein
na roti pet ko
kapde na tan ko
ghar na rahne ko
na roti pet ko
kapde na tan ko
ghar na rahne ko
magar kehlaate hain insaan
aisi zindagi dekhi
rulaa de gham ko bhi ek baar
luti duniya kisi ki
ee ee ee ee ee ee
luti duniya kisi ki
par wo sotey bhool kar rona
kafan laaun kahaan se haaaaye
kafan laaun kahaan se haaye
aisi zindagi dekhi
rulaa de gham ko bhi ek baar
umar baali phati dhoti
idhar kheenche udhar kheenche
umar baali phati dhoti
idhar kheenche udhar kheenche
jawaani bhookh donon se
sataayi zindagi dekhi
rulaa de gham ko bhi ek baar
Tadapte bhookh se bachche
padi beemaar hai beevi
Tadapte bhookh se bachche
padi beemaar hai beevi
padi beemaar hai beevi
na kuchh paayaa aa aa
na kuchh paaya
to rassi se
lalakti zindagi dekhi
kisi rangeen duniya mein
Tum bhi kitne raseele
Posted on: September 8, 2021
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular 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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4800 | Post No. : | 16564 | Movie Count : |
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Today’s song is from an old film – actually a very old film, which is 84 years old – Dhanwan-aka Mazdoor ki beti-1937.
The film was made under the banner of the Imperial Film Company, Bombay and was shot in its studio. It was directed by Premankur Atorthy and the Music was by Harshchandra Bali or H.C.Bali. The cast of the film was Rattanbai, Jamshed ji, Hafisji, W.M.Khan and others. This was the last film made by the Imperial Film Company.
From 1913 to around 1945 upwards, it was strictly a period of Studio Culture. Names of Heroes and Heroines were less important than the name of the studio making the film During the Silent film era films used to be made within a span of a month or even less than that.Most films were shot during day time in the studios where there used to be no roof to its 4 walls, because they needed Sunlight for shooting. An improvement on this was a Glass Ceiling in Imperial studio to filter the strong sunlight in summer.
Studios used to employ people needed to make films, like Actors-M and F, Directors, MDs, Lyricists, Writers, Cinematographers etc on monthly basis pay. For big studios, the Pay-roll lists would have artistes and others in hundreds. Ranjit studio boasted to have more than 900 people on its monthly Pay list at one time. The Government had opened a Ration shop inside the studio premises for their families. Bombay Talkies had made Entertainment and play areas (like Tennis, Badminton courts etc) for use by its employees. Every studio used to have a Canteen for the workers and the other people. Prabhat had appointed some Extra actresses, who used to sweep, do Housekeeping and cook for the studio staff as well as work in small roles in the films, whenever needed.
While there were 20 film companies in Calcutta, at the same time in Bombay there were 31 film companies with studios ( as on today, there are just 13 film studios which are given on rent for shootings). Over a period, the studio system ended, every artiste became a Freelancer and studios remained only for renting out for shootings to independent producers. Films stopped being sold on studio names and actors and directors became the attraction for the audiences to see the films.
Studio system was one of the biggest factors in the evolving and development of the Indian film industry. From this onwards, I plan to write on different well known studios, in my future posts, whenever possible. Today we will know more about the Imperial Film Company. Being the first to make a Talkie film in Hindi, it deserves this honour !
Ardeshir Irani (5-12-1886 to 14-10-1969) built the Imperial Studio of the Imperial Film company, near Kennedy Bridge in Nana Chowk, Bombay, in 1922. At the same time he built another studio, near Chowpatty for Sagar Movietone. All the studios used to be without a roof. These were the days of Silent films.Most Stunt films were shot outdoors but others like Mythologicals were shot in the studios. Films made here were released in Irani’s own Majestic Theatre.
India’s first Talkie film ” Alam Ara” was made in 1931. There was a Processing lab also in the premises. Imperial made some Marathi films also like ‘ Rukmini Haran’ and ‘ Devki’ etc. Till 1937, Imperial was a leading studio. In 1937, Imperial made India’s First indegenous Colour film “ Kisan Kanya”. Irani had not spared any effort to make it technically superb. Unfortunately this film flopped leaving a heavy loan on Irani’s head. He first sold Sagar Studio and then some more land also. In 1938, Ardeshir irani mortgaged Imperial Studio to Kapurchand Mehta against a big sum, but could never redeem it again. Mehta later changed its name to ” Jyoti Studio” and started renting it to other companies for shootings. Some land was sold to Motor garages. After the death of Ardeshir Irani, his legal heir Shapurji looks after whatever land and buildings are left over.
In 1925, Ardeshir Irani founded Imperial Films ( Imperial studio, Imperial Film Company and Imperial Films are all different – legally), where he made sixty-two films. By the age of forty, Irani was an established filmmaker of Indian cinema. Ardeshir Irani became the father of talkie films with the release of his sound feature film, Alam Ara on 14 March 1931. Many of the films he produced were later made into talkie films with the same cast and crew. He is also credited with making the first Indian English feature film, Noor Jahan (1931). He completed his hat-trick of earning fame when he made the first colour feature film of India, Kisan Kanya (1937). His contribution does not end only with giving voice to the silent cinema and colour to black-and-white films. He gave a new courageous outlook to filmmaking in India and provided such a wide range of choice for stories in films that till date, there are films being made which have a theme relating to one of the one hundred fifty-eight films made by Irani.
In 1933, Irani produced and directed the first Persian talkie, Dokhtar-e-Lor. The script was written by Abdolhossein Sepanta who also acted in the film along with members of the local Parsi community.
Irani’s Imperial Films introduced a number of new actors to Indian Cinema, including Prithviraj Kapoor and Mehboob Khan. He also interfered with the medium. He produced Kalidas in Tamil on the sets of Alam Ara, with songs in Telugu. Also, Irani visited London, England for fifteen days to study sound recording and recorded the sounds of Alam Ara on the basis of this knowledge. In the process, he created a whole new trend unknowingly. In those days, outdoor shootings were shot in sunlight with the help of reflectors. However, the outdoor undesirable sounds were disturbing him so greatly that he shot the entire sequence in the studio under heavy lights. Thus, he began the trend of shooting under artificial light.
Imperial Films Company Est: 1926. Successor to the Majestic and Royal Art Film companies set up by Ardeshir Irani as a diversification of his exhibition interests in partnership with Esoofally, Mohammed Ali and Dawoodji Rangwala. Organised as a vertically integrated combine with its own exhibition infrastructure. Started following the decline of Kohinoor, it continued many of the latter’s Mohanlal Dave-inspired genres, often with the same stars and film-makers. Imperial became closely associated with the costumed historical genre launched with Anarkali (1928), shot and released almost overnight in direct competition to Charu Roy’s The Loves of a Mughal Prince (1928).
Irani also rushed out Alam Ara (1931), released as India’s first full talkie narrowly beating Madan Theatres’ Shirin Farhad (1931). Imperial was the first studio to shoot scenes at night (in Khwab-e- Hasti, 1929) using incandescent lamps. It owned India’s top silent star, Sulochana, and promoted her along with Zubeida, Jilloo and, for a while, the young Prithviraj Kapoor. This was perhaps the first major instance of a deliberate manufacturing of a star-cult as a marketing strategy.
Top Imperial film-makers include R.S. Choudhury, B.P. Mishra and Mohan Bhavnani, whose film-making set the house style, as did Nandlal Jaswantlal’s sound films. A fair number of the studio’s talkies were remakes of its own silent hits with Sulochana (Anarkali, 1928 & 1935), Wildcat of Bombay (1927) became Bambai Ki Billi (1936), etc. It made films in at least nine languages: Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Burmese, Malay, Pushtu and Urdu. The first Iranian sound film, Dukhtar-e-Lur (aka Dokhtare Lor Ya Irane Diruz Va Emruz, 1932) was also made here. Kisan Kanya (1937) by Gidwani was India’s first indigenously manufactured colour film, made with the Cinecolour process. When it closed in 1938, its economic and generic inheritance was continued by Sagar Movietone.
Film Kisan Kanya-1937 was famous as the First indigenously made colour film of India, made by Ardeshir Irani’s company- Imperial Film Company. Film pioneer Irani was the first to make an International Co-Production, with Italy, film Nala Damayanti- a silent film of 1920. Secondly, he had the honour of making and releasing India’s First Talkie Film ” Alam Ara-1931″. And with the film Kisan Kanya, he achieved a Hat Trick of ‘ First in India’ credit in film making.
Ardeshir Irani was very keen to become the First to make a Talkie film of India. He knew that Madon Theatres of Calcutta too were busy in making their First Talkie film, with two popular stars of the day. Irani hastened the speed of his shootings and recordings. Lot of secrecy was maintained in filming the movie. From his secret sources in Calcutta, he was getting information on the progress of Madon Theatres’ film in making. He came to know that their film was to have about 20 songs in the film. Irani decided to limit the number of songs in his film to save on time. Now they would have only 7 songs. Thus they saved on many days of shootings and recordings. Thus, while Alam Ara was released on 14-3-1931, Madon could only release their First Talkie film “Shirin Farhad” on 30-5-1931, a cool two and a half months later !
Similarly, Irani studied why Prabhat’s first colour film ‘ Sairandhri-33″ failed technically and decided to do all technical processes in India, for his colour film Kisan Kanya-37. Thus his colour film came out much better than Prabhat’s film.”Irani perhaps was the world’s first multilingual film maker,having made forays into English, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Persian, Burmese, Indonesian and Pashto. He is credited with launching the Talkie era in countries like Burma, Indonesia and Iran. He made nearly 120 Talkies in a span of just 8 years. He was also the first to establish a colour laboratory imported from Hollywood.
Irani made one hundred fifty-eight films in a long and illustrious career of twenty-five years, between the First and Second World Wars. He made his last film, Pujari, in 1945, under the banner of Ardeshir M. Irani Productions ltd. The film was shot in Jyoti Studios, ironically ( it was his own Imperial studios earlier). Irani was not compelled to live like Dadasaheb Phalke for he realised that the war was a time not suitable for film business and therefore he suspended his film business during that time. He died on 14 October 1969 at the age of eighty-two, in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Noted film director Mehboob Khan had a little story about his connection with Imperial Film company. After the successful film Ek hi Raasta-39, Mehboob started work on Alibaba. He had made the beginning of his film career by acting in the silent film on Alibaba, at the Imperial film company. He was one of the 40 thieves ! By now, due to his continuous success, Sagar Movietone had benefited much and he was highly respected in the company.
Besides Mehboob, Sagar Movietone had a team of other directors like C M Luhar, Sarvottam Badami, Hiren Bose, Ramchandra Thakur etc. They too were making films for Sagar. However, their films were not as successful as those by Mehboob. In addition, the onset of the Second World War had a negative impact on Sagar and it went into loss. Soon, the owners decided to close the company.
By this time, Mehboob was ready with all the arrangements to start the shooting of Alibaba. Closing down of Sagar was a shock to him. He approached Ardeshir Irani of Imperial and asked for permission to shoot his film there. Irani was very happy. The novice ‘ extra ‘ who had worked in his company-without pay for the first five months- had now become an acclaimed top class successful Director. Irani was proud of Mehboob. He gladly permitted him to shoot his entire film there. (Thanks to wikipedia, Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, The formative phase of Indian Cinema-Ashok Raj in Hero-I ,article by D.B.Samant, Shirish Kanekar, Bhai Bhagat’s book ‘ Teen bhintinchi Duniya ‘ (तीन भिंतींची दुनिया ) and my own notes. )
One of the names in the cast is peculiar- Jamshed ji. His full name was Jamshed ji Bairam ji, Khan Saheb. In some films, he was credited as Khan saheb also. He was born in Bombay in 1889 as a typical Parsee. He was one of the oldest and most experienced actors having worked with several directors and over 25 years of acting.
He started with Silent films like Pyari Mamta, Madhuri, Sohni Mahiwal, pooran Bhagat, Gulshan E Arab, Hoor E Baghdad and Indira. His first talkie films were Daulat ka nasha-31 and Noorjahan-31. He acted in about 50 films. His last known film was Andaz-1949.
Jamshed ji, also gave music to 3 films- Naya Zamana-35, Zaate Shareef-36 and Jagat kesari-37.
With today’s song by Rattanbai, film dhanwan-37 makes its Debut on this Blog.
Song-Tum bhi kitne raseele (Dhanwaan)(1937) Singer- Ratanbai, Lyricist- Not known, MD- H C Bali
Lyrics
aa
haay aa aa haay
haay haay
haa aa aa haay haaay
tum bhi kitne ae ae raseele
haa aa aa aa aa
tum bhi kitne raseele
bane baabu raaja
bane baabu raaja
aa aa aa
tum bhi kitne raseele
haan aan aan aan
khade morey dwaare
haan aan aan aan
khade morey dwaare
bane baabu raaja
bane baabu raaja
aa aa aa
tum bhi kitne raseele
haan aan aan aan
malmal ka kurta
makhmal ki jaackit
haan haan
makhmal ki jaackit
haan
malmal ka kurta
makhmal ki jaackit
haan haan
makhmal ki jaackit
Lucknow ka palla pahne
han aan aan aan
Lucknow ka palla pahne
pahne baabu raaja
pahne baabu raaja
aa aa aaa
tum bhi kitne raseele
pahne baabu raaja
pahne baabu raaja
aa aa aa
tum bhi kitne raseele
haan aan aan aan
sone ka kangana
chaandi ki jhaanjhar
haan
chaandi ki jhaanjhar
haan aan aan
sone ka kangana
chaandi ki jhaanjhar
haan
chaandi ki jhaanjhar
laaye kahaan se gahne
haan
laaye kahaan se gahne
gahne baabu raaja
gahne baabu raaja
aan aan
tum bhi kitne raseele
haan aan aan aan
tum bhi kitne raseele
Main tainu samjhaawaan ki
Posted on: September 5, 2021
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular 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 : |
4797 | Post No. : | 16558 | Movie Count : |
4509 |
Today’s song is from the film Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania-2014.
In the morning of 2nd September 2021, all the newspapers had the Front page news about the death of Bollywood’s young actor Sidharth Shukla, by Heart attack. They also flashed his photo. Looking at his photo, I thought he was quite a good looking macho fellow. Unlike my daily habit of reading only the headings of news ( rarely any news is worth reading these days), I read the complete news of Sidharth’s death- in Times of India and Maharashtra Times. I was surprised that such a healthy, athletic looking young man should get a Heart Attack and die of it !
Out of curiosity, I looked for his Bio-Data on the Internet and frankly, I was more than impressed. A boy from a middle class family in Bombay had achieved so much in so short a period-2005 to 2021, that it was just short of a Miracle. I seriously wanted to know more about him, his achievements, his desires, family, his career and his death.
Yesterday, the whole day, I was looking for information about him on the Internet and after learning enough about him, I thought he deserved a special post on our Blog. In the normal routine, I would not write a post on any recent film ( only because I am not in tune with modern cinema), but then this was an unusual event which I thought called for going deep into why such successful artistes die so early.
I came across an interview of Dr. Ashwini Mehta, Cardiologist in Sir Gangaram Hospital, Delhi, on this issue. He is of the opinion that even if the person is perfect in physical health, goes to Gym regularly etc, work stress and an unnatural desire to always remain fit can lead to Heart attack. The methods that artistes adopt to remain ever young are harmful. In case of Sidharth, he was brought dead to the Hospital. His Post Mortem report coming today has not revealed the exact cause. It expresses a doubt that perhaps excess Protein Diet could be one reason. More test reports are awaited.
The show business world is a killing one. On one hand it gives you name, fame and Money and on the other hand it kills you if you attempt to maintain these things beyond a limit by adopting wrong methods. There are many examples. I recollect reading somewhere that even Sri Devi did everything possible to remain beautiful always, till she succumbed to these very attempts.
In the last few years, there have been several unnatural deaths of young and upcoming artistes who adopted too much effort to remain happy and in public eyes all the time. This in turn gave them mental stress. few such examples of recent times are Sushant Rajput, Arathi Agarwal, Jiah Khan, Divya Bharati, Taruni Sachdev, Pratyusha Banerjee, Nafisa Joseph, Kuljit Randhava etc etc.
I gathered the life story of Sidharth Shukla from various sources on the internet. It is simply an outstanding career. However, now we know what attempts he used to adopt and at what cost…His Life !
Sidharth Shukla (12 December 1980 – 2 September 2021) was an actor, host and model who appeard in Hindi television and films. He was known for his roles in Broken But Beautiful 3, Balika Vadhu and Dil Se Dil Tak. He emerged as the winner of reality shows Bigg Boss 13 and Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 7. He hosted Savdhaan India and India’s Got Talent. He won the World’s Best Model title in December 2005 beating 40 other participants from across Asia, Latin America, and Europe. He made his acting debut with a lead role in the 2008 show Babul Ka Aangann Chootey Na. In 2014, Shukla made his Bollywood debut in a supporting role in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania.
Shukla was born on 12 December 1980 into a Hindu family in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) to Ashok Shukla, a civil engineer employed at the Reserve Bank of India and Rita Shukla, a homemaker. He lost his father because of a lung disorder during his modelling days. He has two elder sisters. Shukla attended St. Xavier’s High School, Fort, Mumbai and holds a bachelor’s degree in Interior Design from Rachana Sansad School of Interior Design. Shukla has described himself as a very athletic child, and represented his school in tennis and football. He played against Italian football club, AC Milan’s under-19 team, on their Mumbai visit as part of Festa Italiana.
After completing bachelor’s degree in interior design, Shukla worked in an interior designing firm for a couple of years.
In 2004, Shukla was runner-up in the Gladrags Manhunt and Megamodel Contest. He appeared in a video “Resham Ka Rumal” sung by Ila Arun.
In 2005, he represented India at the World’s Best Model contest held in Turkey, and became the first Indian, as well as the first Asian, to win the title beating 40 contestants from across Asia, Latin America, and Europe. After winning the title, he appeared in advertisements for Bajaj Avenger, ICICI and Digjam.
2008–2011: Television debut
In 2008, he made his acting debut with a lead role in the television show Babul Ka Aangann Chootey Na on Sony TV .The show ended in February 2009.
In 2009, he appeared as Veer Vardhan Singh in Jaane Pehchaane Se… on Star One . The show ended in September 2010. After Jaane Pehchaane Se… Ye Ajnabbi ended, he also appeared in a few episodes of Aahat.
In 2011, he appeared as Rahul Kashyap in Love U Zindagi opposite Pavitra Punia on StarPlus. He also appeared in an episode of CID.
2012–2014: Breakthrough with Balika Vadhu and Bollywood debut
In 2012, Shukla appeared as District Collector Shivraj Shekhar, opposite Pratyusha Banerjee and Toral Rasputra in Balika Vadhu. . He received the “GR8! Performer of the Year (Male)” award at the Indian Television Academy (ITA) Awards. He left the show in 2015, when his character, Shiv, died fighting with terrorists.
In 2013, Shukla participated in the celebrity dance reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 6, and was eliminated in the 11th week.
In 2014, Shukla made his Bollywood debut in the romantic comedy Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania in a supporting role The film earned him an award for “Breakthrough Supporting Performance (Male)” in the 2015 Stardust Awards.
2014–2018: Television hosting, Khatron Ke Khiladi and Dil Se Dil Tak
In 2014, Shukla was named the host of Savdhaan India.
In 2015, after exiting from Balika Vadhu, he hosted India’s Got Talent 6, with Bharti Singh, and the season finale was aired in June 2015.
In 2016, Shukla won the stunt reality show Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 7. The same year, he hosted India’s Got Talent 7 with Bharti Singh, and the season finale was aired in July 2016. Later in 2016, Shukla appeared as Mr. Chakraborty, an Indian businessman, in a Kazakhstan movie, Business in Kazakhstan.
In 2017, he appeared as Parth Bhanushali in Dil Se Dil Tak .He left the series in December 2017.
2019–2021: Bigg Boss 13 and Broken But beautiful 3
In 2019, he participated in the reality show Bigg Boss 13, and was declared the winner in February 2020. Ormax media rated Shukla to be the most popular contestant of Bigg Boss 13, ranking him as number one throughout 20 weeks.
In 2020, after winning Bigg Boss 13, Shukla’s massive popularity helped him bag appearances in two music videos, “Bhula Dunga”, and “Dil Ko Karaar Aaya”. The same year, Shukla entered as one of the “Toofani” Seniors in Bigg Boss 14, Shukla then appeared in another music video “Shona Shona”.
In January 2021, Shukla hosted 16th week’s “Weekend Ka Vaar” of Bigg Boss 14, as Shukla was filling in for Salman Khan, who was missing from the show due to other work commitments. Shukla made his OTT debut as Agastya Rao with the third season of the romance web series Broken But Beautiful opposite Sonia Rathee streaming on ALTBalaji & MX Player. The series and Shukla’s performance received positive response from critics, Mugdha Kapoor of DNA India wrote, “It’s the fire and genuineness in Sidharth’s acting and freshness in Sonia’s performance that keeps the viewers glued and wanting to see more.”
In 2014, he won the Gold Awards Most Fit Actor award and was included in Rediff’s Television’s Top 10 Actors. In 2015, he was awarded with the Wellness Icon of the Year award in 8th Geospa Asiaspa India Awards. In 2021, he also won the Synth GlobalSpa Fit and Fab Award.
In 2021, he was declared The Times of India’s Charismatic TV personality. Before Bigg Boss 14 premiere, Sidharth was voted as the Bigg Boss Greatest Of All Times (GOAT) in a series of polls conducted by Colors TV, where 16 popular contestants across all the previous 13 seasons were nominated for the title.
Shukla died on 2 September 2021 after suffering a heart attack at the age of 40.
The film Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania-2014 was having everything in it which the younger generation wanted. The lead pair of Varun Dhawan (son of director David Dhawan) and Alia Bhatt(Daughter of director Mahesh Bhatt) came with filmi background. It does help. The film was released on 11-7-2014. It grossed 120 crores on a budget of 33 crores. The seven songs were written byKumaar, Irshad Kaamil and Shashank Khaitan who also wrote the story as well as directed the film. One song was sung by Alia Bhatt also. The cast of the film was Varun Dhawaqn, Alia Bhatt, Sidharth Shukla, Ashutosh rana, Gaurav Pandey, Shivani Mahajan and many more. The music was by Sachin-Jigar and Shaarib-Toshi. The film story was…..
Kavya Pratap Singh (Alia Bhatt), a beautiful, educated and stylish Punjabi girl from Ambala who is set to be engaged to an NRI American doctor, decides to go to Delhi to buy an expensive designer bridal dress for her wedding, after her father, Kamaljeet (Ashutosh Rana), refuses to get her the pricey dress. While staying at her maternal uncle’s house, she comes across one of his students, Rakesh “Humpty” Kumar Sharma (Varun Dhawan), a young and flirtatious Punjabi boy in Delhi, whose father, Vinod Kumar Sharma, runs a stationery shop. Humpty, with the help of his friends, Shonty (Gaurav Pandey) and Poplu, chases Kavya, but she’s not interested. He, however, manages to befriend her. Kavya confides in Humpty, that her friend in Delhi, Gurpreet Sodhi, was blackmailed by her ex-boyfriend, who had secretly filmed a sex sequence of the two.
Humpty stumbles upon an idea for victimizing Gurpreet’s ex-boyfriend that would also avenge Gurpreet, and also gather the money for the wedding dress for Kavya. They manage to get some money but Kavya isn’t happy about the way that money is obtained. However, these ensuing adventures make Kavya fall for Humpty, and the night before she is to leave for Ambala, they Have Sex and end up sleeping together. When Humpty asks her if she loves him, she says she won’t go against Kamaljeet’s wishes. In order to help Humpty get the money for Kavya’s dress, Vinod, Poplu and Shonty chip in their savings. Kavya reluctantly accepts the money and leaves Delhi.
Kavya is a changed person when she arrives home. She tells her family that she has decided not to buy that expensive dress. In the meantime, she gifts a fancy car to Humpty using that money, as she had known from him about Vinod’s dream for a car. Overwhelmed, Humpty and his friends go to Ambala, where he tries to win over Kavya. Kamaljeet believes firmly in arranged marriages against love marriages, as his elder daughter, Swati, married against his wishes and the marriage turned out to be a disaster ending in divorce. Kamaljeet instantly disapproves of Humpty, and gets the three friends beaten up. Upon repeated persuasion, he gives Humpty a chance to find at least one reason why Kavya shouldn’t marry Angad (Sidharth Shukla). He sets him a five-day deadline to give him the reason. Humpty and his friends try their best to find flaws in Angad but fail to do so.
At the end of the deadline and on her wedding day, Kavya runs away from home and calls Humpty to join her on a train to leave town, but he refuses and convinces Kavya to get off the train. Meanwhile, Kamaljeet and the rest of the family reach the train station, where Kavya and Humpty are embracing each other. Kamaljeet, wrongly assuming the pair was eloping, is enraged and hits Humpty, who gives a powerful and touching explanation saying that he may not be as rich, successful or good-looking as Angad, but he loves Kavya from the core of his heart. He leaves Ambala and heads back to Delhi after that incident. When Kavya is dressed up as a bride, Kamaljeet asks her if she still fancies that expensive wedding dress. She replies she’s not fit for an expensive classy dress, but is suitable for local dresses. As it dawns on Kamaljeet that her relationship would be fuller with Humpty and not Angad, he brings everyone to Delhi where he approaches Humpty and gives his consent to marry his daughter.
With this song, film Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania-2014 makes its debut on this Blog.
Song- Main tainu Samjhaawaan ki (Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya)(2014) Singers- Arijit Singh, Shreya Ghoshal, Lyricist- Ahmed Anees and Kumaar, MD- Jawad Ahmed and Shaarib – Toshi
Lyrics
nahin jeena tere baaju nahin jeena, nahin jeena
nahin jeena tere baaju nahin jeena, nahin jeena
nahin jeena tere baaju nahin jeena, nahin jeena
nahin jeena tere baaju nahin jeena, nahin jeena
main tainu samjhaawaan ki
na tere bina lagda jee
main tainu samjhaawaan ki
na tere bina lagda jee
tu ki jaane pyaar mera
main karoon intezaar tera
tu dil tuiyon jaan meri
main tainu samjhaavaan ki
na tere bina lagda jee
tu ki jaane pyaar mera
main karoon intezaar tera
tu dil tuiyon jaan meri
main tainu samjhawaan ki
na tere bina lagda jee
mere dil ne chun laiyaa ne
tere dil diyaan raahaan
tu jo mere naal tu rehta
turpe meriyaan saaha
jeena mera hoye
hun hai tera
ki main karaan
tu kar aitbaar mera
main karoon intezaar tera
tu dil tuiyon jaan meri
main tainu samjhaawaan kee
na tere bina lagda jee
ve changa nahion keeta beeba
ve changa nahion keeta beeba
dil mera tod ke
ve bada pachhtaiyaan akhaan
ve bada pachhtaiyaan akhaan
naal tere jod ke ae
tenu chhad ke kitthe jaawaan tu mera parchhaanvaa
tere mukhde vich hi main taan rab nu apne paawaan
mere to
haay
sajda tera kardi sadaa tu sun iqraar mera
main karoon intezar tera
tu dil tuiyon jaan meri
main tainu samjhaawaan ki
na tere bina lagda jee
Kalkatte se aaya jahaaz
Posted on: September 3, 2021
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular 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 : |
4795 | Post No. : | 16555 |
Today’s song is from the film Actor-1951.
Four songs of this film are already discussed here, however I liked this funny song, so I selected this song for today’s post. The film made under the banner of Sarosh Pictures, Bombay was produced by H.M.Kerawala and Bhojani. The film was directed by Ramjibhai Arya. He came to Talkie films from silent films. After working as an assistant to a few directors he first directed film Hind ke laal-40, then came Manthan-41, Jungle ki Pukar-46, Bhedi Dushman-46, Sher-E-Bengal-47 and his last film was Actor 51.
The music was by Aziz Khan and Ibrahim. In my last post, I had given Asha Bhosle’s song from the film ‘ Andhon ki Duniya’-1947 as an example how the film industry history adapts itself to make corrections in its earlier information. By sheer coincidence, even in this post also a film industry history adaptation example is present.
Ibrahim, the joint MD in this film as well as two other films- Utho Jaago-1947 and Bachelor Husband-1950 was considered to be the brother of Ghulam Mohd. MD. This Ibrahim worked as assistant to Naushad for a long time, after Ghulam Mohd. expired. For many years these 3 films were credited to his name. Even author Pankaj Raag, in his book ” Dhunon ki Yatra’ Mentioned the same thing.
However while working on the book on the Clarinet Expert Master Ibrahim, Dr. Surjit Singh ji had interviewed Iqbal Ajmeri-Master Ibrahim’s son, who had confirmed that the MD for these 3 films was Master Ibrahim and not Ibrahim, brother of Ghulam Mohd. After reading this in that book, just to confirm this, I wrote to shri Harmandir Hamraaz ji about my doubt. He promptly replied that he too had met and interviewed Iqbal Ajmeri- who was an expert in Music history of the Hindi films, had also confirmed that these films had music by Master Ibrahim only. Thus, one more correction in the history pages !
A lot has been written about Aziz khan on this Blog, by me as well as Sadanand Kamath ji, so I will not go into that again here. Instead, here is a note on Master Ibrahim, the expert Clarinet player who was the joint MD for today’s film.
Film critics and those who wrote in glossy magazines ignored stunt and action films, but a certain portion of the Indian audience was a firm supporter of such films. Master Vithal, Master Bhagwan, Baburao pehelwan, John Cavas, kamran etc were their Heroes. Usually the Music Directors and Directors of these films were unknown and those available on minimum fees were always hired.
The Music Director of this type of film was also one such person – Master Ibrahim, who did only 2 films as independent MD. He, however, gave music, along with Aziz Khan to film “ Utho Jaago-1947″, Bachelor Husband-1950 with Sarswati Devi and film Actor-1951, with Aziz Hindi. In the 50s and the 60s decade, there used to be a programme on Radio Ceylon, titled “Saaz aur Awaz”, at 7 am everyday. In this programme, film songs on different Musical Instruments were played-like Van Shipley on Guitar, Bismilla Khan on Shehnayi,Master Ibrahim on Clarinet. After this programme, there was ” Ek hi filmon ke geet” and at 7.30 the evergreen “Purane filmon ke geet” was scheduled.
For many years, I used to wonder as to who this Master Ibrahim was. I had read about Van Shipley and others, but information on Master Ibrahim was not seen anywhere. Finally, when my friend Javed Hamid ji from Delhi, sent me his book copies, published in Hindi, I found an article on Ibrahim, in one of his books,” Hindi cinema ke sadabahar Sangeetkar “.
His name was Ibrahim Rehmat Ali ( or E.R.Ali or Master Ajmeri, on some Record labels). He was born in 1915 at Ajmer and by his 11th year itself, he achieved expertise in playing a difficult musical instrument like Clarinet. he also learnt classical music from Banne khan, Jere khan and Dinkar Rao. From 1934 to 1936, he worked in Ranjit Movietone’s Music department. Then he joined All India Radio, for the next 6 years. In 1942, he joined H.M.V. and served there for the next 25 years.
In these 25 years, Master Ibrahim played his Clarinet in more than 6000 songs, recorded at HMV. He was also the Pioneer in presenting film songs on Musical Instruments. Even during his service. A.I.R. Bombay used to arrange his Clarinet Mehfil every month. He used to present different Ragas on Clarinet as per time of the day or night.
He gave music to only two films. Both were C grade,in the 40s decade. These films were Parbat Ki Rani-1948 and Bigde Dil-1949. He worked as assistant to many Music Directors like Ghulam Hyder, V K Naidu, Shyam Sundar, Fateh Ali Khan, Gulshan Sufi and Firoz Nizami.
He played not just the Clarinet, but also played the Xylophone, Vibraphone, Alto saxophone, Supranophone and a few others. After his film songs on Clarinet became popular, different artistes like Van Shipley on Hawaiian Guitar, Enoch Daniels, Goodi Seervai, Hazara Singhand Sunil Ganguly on Piano Accordion and Brian Silas on Piano also became famous and popular, with their performances.
Master Ibrahim died on 20th September 1980, due to a Heart attack. The work of preserving his music on CDs started by HMV from 2015 and so far 4 CDs are published. His contribution in songs of films like Mughal E Azam, C.I.D., Mere Mehboob, Basant Bahar, Madhumati, Maya, Goonj uthi Shehnai etc is remembered even today. Every year Radio Ceylon pays tributes to him on his death anniversary on 20th September by playing only his records.
He had 3 sons, who all are in the Music industry. They are experts in Vibraphones. Its use is very frequent in films nowadays.
Recently, Dr.Surjit Singh ji has published an exclusive book on Master ibrahim.
( I thank Javed Hamid ji for his article in his book ” Hindi Cinema ke Sadabahar Sangeetkar” हिंदी सिनेमा के सदाबहार संगीतकार ).
The cast of the film Actor-51 was Ramola, Bhagwan, Indumati, Sundar, Murad,Sulochana Cuckoo and many others. It is a notable coincidence that in 1951, in just One year alone, there were 3 films with almost the same story and Bhagwan was the Hero in all 3 films – Actor-51, Damad-51 and Albela-51. The basic story was that a poor man, without any help, tries to become a Singer or an Actor and how Luck helps him to become a famous artiste.
Film Daamaad was censored on 8-2-51, film Actor was censored on 1-5-51 and Albela was censored on 13-12-51 and released immediately on the next day i.e. 14-12-51. Earlier it was felt by me that film Actor was a failed copy of film Albela. That was before I got the HFGK. Now I know that I was wrong in my assumption. The fact is actually different. Both C Ramchandra and Raj kapoor were after Bhagwan to start a Social film, instead of making only stunt/action films. After working in these two films, Bhagwan became aware that this story was a winning one, if made into film wisely and if C Ramchandra gives his best music.
Bhagwan started making a draft and writing the story of Albela. Due to his image of a stunt film maker, no mainstream Heroine was ready to work in his film and he could not afford their fees also. He thought of Geeta Bali. When he narrated the story to her, smart as she was, she understood its potential to become a Hit film, and she agreed to work in Albela as a Heroine. The rest, as they say, is History !
The Lyricist of all the 10 songs was Nazim Panipati, who was the brother of Wali Saheb, a producer and Director of the 40’s. Wali Saheb was the husband of actress Mumtaz Shanti. They both migrated to Pakistan, but Nazim Panipati stayed in India. In the cast one name Indumati is there. This is a less known name for most readers, I feel. INDUMATI LELE (Born 18 December 1927 – Died 11 September 2013), forgotten Yesteryears Indian Theatre and Film Actress turned Folk Artiste.
Indumati and Kumudini Lele who were once famous as ‘Lele Sisters’ in Hindi and Marathi Theatre and Cinema fields, have been forgotten today. Indumati Lele, died at the age of 86, when she was still working as an examiner for the television program ‘Dum Damadam’.
Kumud and Indumati, were both known as ‘Lele Sisters” in the fifties. Both of them originally hailed from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. Their father Girdhar Lele was in Government job as Director of Agriculture, at Indore. From an early age, the two sisters loved acting and dancing. Both were involved in dance and dance related activities in their school. Prithviraj Kapoor saw the two at one of the school events and talked to their father and brought them straight to Mumbai. For the next two years, both sisters worked as artists in Prithviraj Kapoor’s ‘Prithvi Theatres” until the company closed. They played different roles in several of his Plays and had the fortune of touring India all along with Prithviraj Kapoor.
While Kumudini acted in Bimal Roy’s ‘Parivar’, ‘Bandini’ etc. and in few Marathi films like ‘Ram Ram Pauna’ etc., Indumati Lele acted in Prithviraj Kapoor’s Shakuntala’ and other plays. She also acted in some films while working in ‘Prithvi Theaters’, like Mazdoor-45, ‘Shehnai’ (1947), ‘Aag’ (1948), ‘Sunahare Din’ (1949), ‘Gauna’ (1950), Actor-(1951), ‘Chaudhwin ka Chand’ (1960), ‘Budtameez’ (1966), ‘Man Mandir’ (1971), to name a few. In Raj Kapoor’s ‘Aag’ (1948), she acted as his mother. She also appeared in two English films, ‘Householder’ with Leela Naidu and ‘Shakespearewallah” both with Shashi Kapoor.
Today’s song is a good one, sung by Sulochana Kadam and Chorus.
Song-Kalkatte se aaya jahaaz haay sakhi mere balam nahin aaye re (Actor)(1951) Singer- Sulochana Kadam, Lyricist- Nazim Panipati, MD- Aziz Hindi and Ibrahim
Chorus
Lyrics
kalkatte se
ae ji
kalkatte se aaya jahaaz
sakhi mere
haay sakhi mere balam nahin aaye re
ho kalkatte se aaya jahaaz
sakhi mere
haaye sakhi mere balam nahin aaye re
ho kalkatte se aaya jahaaz
sabke balam aaye
mere na aaye
mere na aaye
ek ek se poochha sakhi
koi na bataaye
koi na bataaye
? ho ae ji
? ho mere mijaaz(?)
sakhi mere
haaye sakhi mere balam nahin aaye re
ho kalkatte se aaya jahaaz
baalam jo aate to laate wo mundri
laate wo mundri
baalam jo aate to laate wo mundri
laate wo mundri
aur saath laate wo resham ki chundri
haaye resham ki chundri
mujhe sakhiyon mein
ae ji mujhe sakhiyon mein aati hai laaj
sakhi mere
haay sakhi mere balam nahin aaye re
ho kalkatte se aaya jahaaz
kahaan chhod aaye ho mere sanam ko
mere sanam ko
o o o
kahaan chhod aaye ho mere sanam ko
mere sanam ko
o o o
kaise bhulaaungi kaise bhulaaaungi
main unke gham ko
haaye main unke gham ko
mere dil pe hai
ae ji mere dil pe hai beeta hai aaj
sakhi mere
haay sakhi mere balam nahin aaye re
ho kalkatte se
ae ji kalkatte se aaya jahaaz
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular 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 : |
4794 | Post No. : | 16554 |
Today’s song is from the film Toote khilone-1954. The film was made by Pragati Pictures, Bombay. Produced by N.Mehta, it was directed by Nanabhai Bhatt. Though this was a social film, Nanabhai Bhatt was known for Mythological and stunt films. His real name was Yeshwant and pet name was Batuk. he directed his first Hindi film-Muqabala-42, using his name-Batuk Bhatt. Nana and Batuk indicate the small one or the younger one. Obviously Nanabhai was the youngest sibling. Incidentally, he was the father of Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt, from his second wife-Shirin bai, one time actress.
The Music Director for this film was my favourite and the Melody maker-Chitragupta, with Dilip Dholakia as his usual assistant. Though he always, invariably, made melodious music, more than most other MDs, Lady Luck did not support him wholeheartedly and he remained an MD for generally B and C grade films. He did get a few films from A grade banners like AVM, but it was not enough to stabilise him in that slot.Toote khilone-54 was actually his almost the first Social film after he composed music from 27 earlier films of B and C grades.Lata mangeshkar was very close to Chitragupta. Initially when Lata increased her fees from 100 to 500 rupees per song, Chitragupta told her, ” Lataji, now I will not be able to afford your songs” To this Lata replied,” whenever you need me, just call me. For you this rate will not apply.” And true to her words, she sang for him and never ever charged him. She took whatever he gave her.
Like Chitragupt, his assistant Dilip Dholakia was also not very lucky as a MD. Chitragupta was a very homely and simple fun loving person.They had a group consisting of Lata, Meena, Usha, prem Dhavan and Dilip Dholakia. They used to have a lot of fun at Chitragupt’s home. Chitragupta was a Lalaji (Kayastha in Bihar). Their Non Veg food used to be very good and Lata relished it very much.
In the late 80’s I got introduced to Chitragupta personally, when my best friend’s daughter got married to his elder son. When Chitragupta came to know that I liked their ” Sattu ki Puree”, he invited me to his home for Lunch and we had Sattu Purees, Aloo saag and kheer to our heart’s content !
Today’s song is sung by Asha Bhosle and chorus. Just a few days back, in my write up for the 1000th post, I had said that the film history gets updated from time to time, whenever there is a New Evidence available. For a long time, it was believed that Asha’s first song was from the film Chunaria, under the baton of Master Hansraj Behl. But now it is proved that she sang her first song in the film ” Andhon ki Duniya”-1947, which was released on 10-1-1948. Chunaria -48 was released at the end of November 1948. Raju Bharatan has given this proof on page 287 of his book ” Asha Bhosle-A Musical Biography.”
The cast of the film Toote Khilone-54 was Shekhar (with the real unusual name of Indriya Daman), Purnima, Gulab, Ranjit Kumari, Master Romi, Ginger the Dog and other humans.
The guest artiste was Asha Mathur. She started her film career in a dramatic way. When she was studying in I.T.College in Lucknow, once Kishore Sahu came there as a Judge in their Beauty Contest. Bina Rai stood first, Asha Mathur was Second and one Indira Panchal was third. Kishore Sahu gave a break to all three in his film Kali Ghata-1951. Bina Rai became a well known actress. Indira Panchal chose to leave films and got married into the famous Mahindra family and Asha Mathur had a chequered career.
One of the few educated actresses of her times, Asha Mathur (Sohan Singh in real life) studied up to B.A. Both Asha Mathur and Bina Roy were introduced by Kishore Sahu in Kali Ghata (1951). While Bina Roy was relatively more successful among the two and did some memorable movies including Anarkali (1953) and Taj Mahal (1963), Asha Mathur was relegated to obscure mythical and costume films including Alif Laila (1953), Rajyogi Bharthari (1954), Malka-E-Alam Noorjehan (1954), Amar Kirtan (1954) etc because of her lackluster performances. Her most memorable role was in Poonam (1952), as a suffering wife of Ashok Kumar. She married famous director of her times Mohan Sehgal and left films. She acted only in 18 films. Her last film was Taqdeer-58.
Asha Mathur is a forgotten name today except for the few popular songs picturized on her – Humsai na poocho koi pyar kya hai (Kali Ghata, 1951) and Baanki adayein dekh na ji dekh na(Amanat, 1955).
Ranjeet Kumari’s name was Ranjit Kaur. She was a sikh from Punjab. She acted in only 8 films, from Matwali Meera-40 to her last film Toote Khilone-54. She got married to actor Ramsingh and moved with him to his village in U.P. to become and remain a housewife till her last day.
One of the beauties of old films was Gulab. The First actress from Kashmir to work as a Heroine in Hindi films was GULAB. Her real name was Saraswati Devi. She was born on 10-6-1908 at Jammu. She joined Krishna Film Company in 1924. Her first silent film ‘Krishna kumar’ came in 1925. She worked in 60 silent films. Her last silent film was ‘Dagabaz Dushman’-32, made by East India Film co.Bombay.
Her first Talkie film was Suryakumari-33, made by Vishnu Cinetone. It was directed by Dhirubhai Desai. She sang one song ‘more preetam jab ghar aaye’ composed bu Kikubhai Yagnik. Then came Baburao Patel’s ‘Bala Joban’-34, Sewa Sadan-34 and Nai Duniya-34 ( Debut film of Rajkumari and Jayant). In this film Gulab sang 2 songs.
Gulab was very beautiful and quite popular in the film industry. Some of her films were Bambai ki sethani-35, Challenge-37, Bharosa-40, Pyas-41, Ek Raat-42, Station master-42, Gaali-44, Rattan-44, Mann ki jeet-44, Mirza Sahibaan-47, Lahore-49, Badi Behan-49, stage-51, Post Box 999-58, Chhabili-60 etc etc. She acted in 160 films. Her last film seems to be Haqeeqat-64. She also sang 22 songs in 11 films.
The story of film Toote Khilone-54 , as I found on Cineplot, is…..Pragati Pictures’ “Toote Khilone,” premiered at the Roxy Theatre on March 19th, 1954 is produced by N. Mehta and directed by Nanabhai Bhatt and it is a very good film based on a story-idea whose truth and simplicity invest it with an irresistible appeal.
The deeply moving and very human story, sensitively enacted by Shekhar, Purnima, Asha Mathur and little Romi, tells of a little child and his bewildered sorrow in the midst of domestic troubles. Written by Akhtar Mirza, the story centers on a young married couple and their little son who dotes on his mother’s cousin, Sheela. When the mother dies of cancer, Sheela stays on to look after the little boy and eventually marries his father. Trouble arrives in the shape of Sheela’s mother who moves into the happy household and builds up in her daughter a resentment against the child. The poisonous insinuations of the older woman turn Sheela into a confused and bitter foster-mother, but kindness and love triumph when the heart-broken child runs away. The film reaches a cleverly presented climax in which Sheela and her husband find the child safe and all three happily return home.
Playing his role with restraint and sympathy is Shekhar who puts on a fine performance as the boy’s father. His portrayal of a man who marries a second time so that his child may have a mother is quite flawless. As the young wife, Purnima is superb. Hers is a natural and convincing performance, done with a fine understanding of the role.
A superb performance comes from Romi, as the little boy caught up in a web of circumstances he cannot understand. He is utterly lovable and, together with the wonderful canine star, Ginger, he walks away with the picture’s honors. Gulab turns in another one of her brilliant cameos as the interfering mother-in-law, and Asha Mathur gives an appealing and warm interpretation of the tragic role of Shekhar’s first wife.
Song-Raat rangeelee chham chham naache aaj kisi ke pyaar mein (Toote Khailaune)(1954) Singer- Asha Bhonsle, Lyricist- Anjum Jaipuri, MD- Chitragupta
Chorus
Lyrics
o o o
o o o
o o o
o o o
o o o
o o o
o o o
o o o
o o o
o o o
o o o
o o o
(raat rangeeli chhamchham naache raat rangeeli
raat rangeeli chhamchham naache raat rangeeli)
raat rangeeli chhamchham naache aaj kisi ke pyaar mein
aankh michauli khele chanda pariyon ke darbaar mein
hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm mm hmm
raat rangeeli chhamchham naache aaj kisi ke pyaar mein
aankh michauli khele chanda pariyon ke darbaar mein
raat rangeeli chhamchham naache
raat rangeeli
raat rangeeli chhamchham naache
raat rangeeli
o o o o o
jhilmil jhilmil chaandni mein
jhoome taara taara
taaron ki baaraat laaya chanda pyaara pyaara
aa aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aa
jhilmil jhilmil chaandni mein
jhoome taara taara
taaron ki baaraat laaya chanda pyaara pyaara
o o o o
o o o
chanda pyaara pyaara
gori gori kirnen naachen sapnon ke sansaar mein
aankh michauli khele chanda pariyon ke darbaar mein
raat rangeeli chhamchham naache
raat rangeeli
raat rangeeli chhamchham naache
raat rangeeli
o o o o o
neeli chunri odhh ke
pariyon ki raani aayi
jaise neele baadalon mein
bijli le angdaai
aa aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aa
neeli chunri odhh ke
pariyon ki raani aayi
jaise neele baadalon mein
bijli le angdaai
o o o o
o o o
bijli le angdaai
meethhi meethhi raagini hai
paayal ki jhankaar mein
aankh michauli khele chanda pariyon ke darbaar mein
hmm hmm mm mm
hmm mm hmm
raat rangeeli chhamchham naache aaj kisi ke pyaar mein
aankh michauli khele chanda pariyon ke darbaar mein
raat rangeeli chhamchham naache
raat rangeeli
raat rangeeli chhamchham naache
raat rangeeli
raat rangeeli chhamchham naache
raat rangeeli
raat rangeeli chhamchham naache
raat rangeeli(o o o o
o o o o
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular 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 : |
4792 | Post No. : | 16550 | Movie Count : |
4505 |
Today’s song is from the film Rai Saheb-1942.
How many of us really know anything about the title ” Rai Saheb” ? I am sure most people may not know.
When the British were ruling a larger part of the world, they had a system of honouring special people for their Loyalty towards the Raj, or for those who had done some great work, those who worked for removing the social ills etc etc. To do this, these people were given special Titles. The British Royalty used to bestow honourable titles for extraordinary work in its Empire, like OBE (Order of British Empire), CBE,CSI and similar titles. Usually such titles used to be given to Royal people of its Empire like Kings, Rajahs, Maharajas etc etc. It was a great honour.
For larger kingdoms like India, titles sounding Indian were used for other important people. RAI SAHEB was one of the titles The next higher one was Rai Bahadur and the next was Dewan Bahadur. These were for Hindus. For Muslims and Parsis it was Khan Bahadur and for Sikhs it was Sardar Bahadur. So you see, the cunning Britishers tried to keep all religions separate from each other in every thing that they did, because this split was useful to them to rule Indians. ( In Maharashtra Rai Bahadur was called Rao Bahadur). Usually, these Rais and Bahadurs were rich people only.
So, film Rai Saheb-42 was a story involving a major role for a millionaire Rai Saheb. The film was the first ever effort of Producer Chhotubhai Desai, who was earlier the production Manager in the famous Wadia Movietone. The film was supposed to be a social comedy. It was a successful film, if you believe Baburao Patel’s comments in his popular magazine Film India. It was released on 16-5-1942 in Lamington Cinema, Bombay and ran for a long time. Baburao Patel’s good comments must have helped the film performance, I guess.
Made by Janak films, this movie was directed by S.M.Yusuf, for whom this was his 7th film as a Director,but first successful film of his career. S.M.Yusuf , born on 20-6-1910, was originally from U.P. and started his career by assisting directors in various studios. He was one cine artist who migrated to Pakistan and became a very successful director there too.
After Partition, several artistes-heroes,heroines,Directors,Comedians,lyricists,Composers, Singers and character artistes migrated to Pakistan. Almost 90% of them failed there miserably. Some of them like Meena Shorey shone for a while but ended up in penury and anonymity. Exceptions were like Malika -e-Tarannum Noorjahan. From the successful artistes,the major chunk was musicians-composers like Khurshid Anwar, Nissar Bazmi, Nashaad etc. Among the directors. S M Yusuf was one of the exceptions who succeeded. The migration of Cine artistes continued till 1965,when President General Ayub Khan banned Indian actors. Shaikh Mukhtar-1963 and Kumar-64 were probably the last to migrate to Pakistan. Till then some artistes like Sheila Ramani, Nasir Khan,Pran, Manorama, Composer Timir Baran etc went and worked in Pakistani films.
S.M.Yusuf started directing films in India from Bharat ke Laal-36. He directed 24 films like, Darban, Aina, Grihasthi, Saheli, Rai Saheb, Mehendi,Guru Ghantal, Bahurani, Maalik, Gujara, Hyderabad ki Nazneen,Bikhre Moti etc. He married actress Nigar Sultana. He also acted in a small role in the film Guzara-54.
In late 50’s he migrated to Pakistan with his talented son Director Iqbal Yousuf. His first film Saheli (1960) was a big hit of that time and was awarded in India also. It was a remake of his film Mehendi, made in India. He also made a remake of his film Ghumastha as Bahu Rani in Pakistan. Film Nek Perveen was a remake of same title film from India.His other films were Aulad, Dulhan, Honahar, Ashyana, Eid Mubarak, Suhagan, Zindagi aik safar hay, Shareek-e-Hayat, Bahu raani, Goonj uthi shehnai, Nek perveen and Haar gaya insaan.
When he went to Pakistan, he made his first film there -“Saheli”, which was a ditto remake of his own Hindi film- Mehendi-1950. This film Saheli became such a great hit that it virtually grabbed all major awards including a Nigar award for S M Yusuf himself. He made about 15 films in Pakistan,before he died on 17-8-1994, at Lahore,from where he had begun his career ! In his last years, he had settled in Canada, but he came to Pakistan on a visit, as if to die in his own place.
The music for film Rai Saheb-42 was by a pair of MDs- Madholal Master and Baldev Nayak, both from the early era of Talkie films. The cast of the film consisted of Jagdish Sethi, Rattanbai, Trilok Kapoor, Kaushalya, Gope, Dalpat, Mirza Musharraf, Kesarbai (she was the paternal aunt of actress Hansa Wadkar. She was instrumental in asking Hansa to join films to sustain her family. Her younger sister Indira Wadkar was also an actress in Hindi and Marathi films. Her youngest sister Susheelabai was the wife of Master Vinayak) and others.
The Heroine of the film was Kaushalya, who was barely 13 year old at the time of this film, but looked beautiful and older than her age. Kaushalya was born in Lucknow in 1929. She was the daughter of the famous dancer Lachhoo Maharaj and actress Daya Devi. Being brought up in the house of dancer and actor, Kaushalya picked up Dance, Music and acting very early. She appeared as a child artiste in films from 1936, when she was just 7 year old. She worked in 11 films as a child artiste. After the film Devbala-38, she did roles in Bhole bhale and Uski Tamanna-both in 1939, made by Sagar Movietone. She even sang in both films.
Then came films like Darshan and Ghar ki laaj, both 1941, and Baraat, Bharat milap, Rai Saheb, Station master and Swapna, all 42. The work poured on her till 1946, when she got married to a boy from Calcutta, when she had gone there to do films. After marriage she found it difficult to work in films, but continued for some more films, till her last film Ek Do Teen-1953.
In all Kaushalya acted in 27 films and sang more than 100 songs in about 35 films, in her short career. As a Heroine she had worked with Prithviraj Kapoor, Ulhas, Kumar, Ishwarlal, Trilok Kapoor etc.
The story of the film, as given in the Film India issue is as follows….
Manorama (Kaushalya) gets the news of her husband Prakash’s death in the city. After an enquiry, praksah’s parents all give up the hope and accept his death, but manorama is not ready to accept that prakash has died. She escapes from the village and goes to the city to find prakash. She changes her name to Shobha and joins a theatre as a dancer. Prakash is saved and adopted by a millionaire Rai Saheb (Jagdish Sethi) and his wife (Rattanbai) as his son-Ramesh. He meets Shobha in the dance theatre and they fall in love, not knowing that they are actually Husband-wife. After many ups and downs, they decide to get married and then come to know their own identities. All’s well that ends well.
With today’s song, film Rai Saheb-42 makes its Debut on this Blog.
Song-Jeet gayee jeet gayee jeet gayee main prem ki baazi jeet gayee (Rai Sahab)(1943) Singer-Kaushalya, Lyricist- Wahid Qureshi, MDs- Madholal Master and Baldev Nayak
Lyrics
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
main ae ae ae
prem ki baazi
jeet gayee
jeet gayee
jeet gayee
main ae ae ae
prem ki baazi
main roothhe pi ko
manaa aayi
main roothhe pi ko
manaa aayi
main soye bhaag jaga aayi
main soye bhaag jaga aayi
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
jeet gayee
main ae ae ae
prem ki baazi
jeet gayee
jeet gayee
jeet gayee
dil kahta thha
meri kismat mein kabhi khushi nahin hai
kismat ne chhala
muskuraayi
aur khilkhilaa kar hans padi
har raat ke baad ujaala
aur har dukh ke baad sukh ka aana zaroori hai
muhabbat ne apna jaadoo chalaaya
roothha hua preetam
prem ka bhikhaari ban kar aaya
aur aashaaon ke phool
nichhaawar kar gaya
dil ke saaz mein
geet machalne lage
dil ka toota hua aaina
phir jud gaya
wo dil ka darpan tod gaye thhey
wo dil ka darpan tod gaye thhey
dil ka darpan tod gaye thhey
mujhko rota chhod gaye thhey
mujhko rota chhod gaye thhey
main dil ke tukde jodoongi
main dil ke tukde jodoongi
par saathh na unka chhodoongi
par saathh na unka chhodoongi
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
main ae ae ae
prem ki baazi
jeet gayee
jeet gayee
jeet gayee
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