Archive for the ‘Post by Arunkumar Deshmukh’ Category
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog.This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
| Blog Day : | 4073 | Post No. : | 15210 |
Today’s song is from a devotional,mythological film – Nav Durga-1953. Nav Durga does not mean New Durga here, but ‘Nav’ stands for nine. This film is about the nine forms of Devi Durga and how it saved its Bhakt from annihilation.
The film was produced by Homi Wadia’s Basant Pictures. It was directed by the great Editor and special effect-Trick scene expert Babubhai Mistri. Babubhai Mistri (5-9-1918 to 20-12-2010), in the beginning, was an assistant with Prakash pictures.Prakash was making a film “Khwabon ki Duniya”- 37, based on the famous novel “The Invisible Man” by H.G.Wells,1897.The shooting started but the basic problem was how to show the ‘invisible‘ man. There was no special effect technique available in India till then, like in Hollywood. Vijay Bhatt had an assistant called Babubhai Mistri, who accepted the challenge and using a dim light, a black curtain and a black thread to move articles, he achieved the desired results. This made the film not only a hit and popular one, but also a unique one. Babubhai Mistri, thus, became the father of the trick scenes and special effects in India. In the process, Babubhai also earned a nickname of ‘kaala dhaaga‘ (black thread) for rest of his life, in the film industry.
Babubhai directed 49 Hindi films-mostly B and C grade Mythologicals, Costume, and Historical films. He also directed 1 Telugu and 9 Gujarati films. His first film as a director was Muqabala-42. Surprisingly he started off with a social film, but there was a valid reason. The initial Poster Painter had developed into a skilled Editor and trick scene expert, by his own hard work,encouraged by the Wadia brothers. The film was an unusual film of a story of twin sisters. Wadias wanted Babubhai to do something which will make the film stand out from all other such films.
Directed by Babubhai Mistry, it was the last movie of Fearless Nadia for Wadia Movietone. She had a double role of twin sisters: good Madhuri and bad Rita.
Rita is kidnapped by the villain and made into a Night club singer,while Rai Bahadur brings up good Madhuri.
Nadia was appreciated much for the performance contrast for both roles.
This film was First in India to use Split-screen method for double roles,where both sisters could cross each others,shake hands and talk together.The other attraction was the Night club set,which,in case of police Raid,could be converted into a respected residence in few minutes.It was a great fun to watch these two things.
A happy ending picture, but to see and hear the laboured Hindi dialogues of Madhuri (good Nadia) was another treat.
The cast of the film Nav Durga-53 consisted of Usha Kiran, Mahipal, S N Tripathi, Sulochana Chatterji, Amarnath, Agha Shapur, Raja Sandow and many more. Usually, there are more characters in a Mythological film and hence their credit list is very long. In this list, the name of Raja Sandow appears. I am sure, this is not that Raja Sandow, who was famous as a silent film Hero and who acted in many Talkie films too. He died in 1942 itself. Obviously, this must be some other Raja, trying to cause “Same name confusion” without success,though.
However, one name in the cast – Amarnath- is worth a re-look. Amarnath (Bharadwaj) is one of the “same name confusions” victims. There were two Pt. Amarnath Music Directors, 1 actor Amar, 1 actor Amarnath and 1 actor/Director (K.) Amarnath.
This Amarnath was born in Hafizabad, in Gujaranwala district of Punjab (Now in Pakistan) in 1922. He started acting in 1939 with Kidar Sharma’s “Dil hi to hai”. Graduating from doing small roles he was made the Leading Man in Dalsukh Pancholi’s film “Patjhad”, started in 1947 opposite Meena (Shorey). Pancholi had to flee Lahore due to Partition riots, but he carried the negatives of Patjhad. Though the film was censored in India in 1948, it seems it was never released.
Amarnath (Bharadwaj) starred as Hero in many other films,like Naghma E Sehra-45, Papiha re-48, Barsat ki ek raat-48, Swayam sidha-49, Nai Bhabhi-50, Kamal ke phool-50, Sheesh Mahal-50, Jalte Deep-50, Johri-51, Nai zindagi-51 , Nirmohi-52, Nirmal-52, Bahu Beti-53, Nav Durga-53, Toofan-54 etc. Then he switched over to side roles. In all, he worked in 81 films (CITWF data). His last film was Kaun ho tum-70.
In India, there is no dearth of festivals. In fact, India can be called a Nation of Festivals. With scores of religions in India and every religion having its own Festivals, one can imagine the number of Festivals. Not every festival is celebrated all over the country, but even the major 7 religions have their own festivals. Hinduism being the largest religion (80% as per 2011 Census), almost every month has , if not a major, but minor festival in some or the other region of India.
The period of October to January is called a Festival season, as many major festivals like Dashehara, Diwali, Christmas and Sankranti fall in this period. Vijaya Dashami or Dashehra or Dasara is due in next month, so is Diwali too. Dashehra is celebrated also as a Durga Puja Festival enthusiastically, in the Eastern part of the country mainly, but all over India, Durga Puja is done.
Film Nav Durga-53 was about the powers of Maha Shakti Durga Mata. Durga is believed to have 9 forms. Navdurga, Nine forms of Durga, are nine manifestations of the goddess Durga in Hinduism, especially worshiped during the festival of Navratri where each of the nine manifested forms are venerated respectively for each night. In short, they are…
1. Shail Putri – Daughter of Himalayas
2. Bramhacharini – Daksh Kanya Sati-before marriage
3. Chandraghanta – After marriage to Shiv, adorned his forehead as Half Moon
4. Kushmanda – Living in the Sun
5. Skandmata – Mother of war lord Kartikey
6. Katyayani – Daughter of sage Katyayan, destroyed Mahishasur
7. Kaalratri – Most ferocious and fiercest, destroyer of Asurs Shumbh/ Nishumbh
8. Mahagauri – Goddess of purity and cleanliness and
9. Siddhidatri – Adi Parashakti, appears from Siva’s left side
The story of Nav Durga-53 was- Suryawarcha is punished by Indra dev for his arrogance and is sent to mrityulok(Earth),when he is about to get married to Vishala.On Visahala’s request Vishnu assures that he will come back to swarga again,but she must prey to Maa Durga.
Maurvi d/o asur Mur wants to take revenge on Krishna for killing her father.She marries Ghatotkach s/o Bhima.They get a son Barbarik(Suryavarch),whom Murvi takes to Navdurga at Guptakshetra Sangam and prays.
Barbarik gets a boon of invincibility except for an Avtar of Vishnu.He goes to Pandavas and challenges them,knowing that Krishna will also come there.In the war,Krishna severs his head with Sudarshan Chakra.Mata Durga appears and takes Suryavarcha to heaven where his consort Vishala is still waiting with a Garland.
Today’s song is very sweet, melodious and a lilting song. I feel this tune is inspired by a similar sounding song, ” Hum tum yeh bahar, dekho rang laya pyar, barsaat ke mahine mein” – a duet of Rafi and Lata, composed by Ghulam Mohd,MD, for film Ambar-52.
(Thanks to Harish Raghuwanshi ji for Amarnath information and blog beetehuedin.com for Babubhai information, used herein.)
Song-Ek teer chalaa ke gori bijli giraa ke (Nav Durga)(1953) Singers-Chitragupta, Shamshad Begam, Lyrics-Ramesh Chandra Pandey, MD-S N Tripathi
Lyrics
ek teer chalaa ke
gori bijli giraa ke
mohe chhod ke akeli kahaan jaaye re
o tere sath na rahoongi
koi baat na karoongi
kaahe baat baat mein mohe sataaye re
mohe sataaye re
o ek teer chalaa ke
gori bijli giraa ke
mohe chhodke akeli kahaan jaaye re
o tere saath na rahoongi
koi baat na karoongi
kaahe baat baat mein mohe sataaye re
mohe sataaye re
dekho ji dekho ji dekho dekho ji
kya
mera naram kaleja toot jaayega
bhala hoga mera peechha chhoot jaayega
hoye chhoot jaayega
o mera naram kaleja toot jaayega
o bhala hoga
mera peechha chhoot jaayega
hoye chhoot jayega
ari sun to
aise baalam ko sataana nahin accha ji
o sote sher ko jagaana nahin accha ji
sher
arre ja
teri mendhak ki chaal hai
bakre ki khaal hai
teri kya mazaal hai
tu banega sher
ari meri baat maan gori mujhe pehchaan
kaahe jhoothmooth rang tu jamaaye re
o tere saath na rahoongi
koi baat na karoongi
kaahe baat baat mein mohe sataaye re
mohe sataaye re
suno ji suno ji suno suno ji
tu kaun hai
ye poochhne main aayi hoon
o tere baap ka hone waala jamaai hoon
ho jamaai hoon
tu kaun hai
ye poochhne main aayi hoon
tere baap ka hone waala jamaai hoon
ho jamaai hoon
arre ja
chal hat teri baat mein jamaal hai
badi door abhi teri sasuraal hai
accha dekhta hoon gori aaj teri seenajori
tu kab tak akad nibhaaye re
o tere saath na rahoongi
koi baat na karoongi
kaahe baat baat mein mohe sataaye re
mohe sataaye re
nahin maanengi
un hoon
nahin maanengi
un hoon
nahin maanegi
to main bhi mar jaaunga
accha hoga
din raat bhoot banke sataaunga
o din raat bhoot banke sataaunga
sataaunga sataaunga
mere bina ek din tera jeena hai kathin
tu pal bhar chain na paaye re
o tere saath na rahoongi
koi baat na karoongi
kaahe baat baat mein mohe sataaye re
mohe sataaye re
Ram ras barse re bhai
Posted on: September 10, 2019
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog.This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
| Blog Day : | 4071 | Post No. : | 15208 |
Today’s song is from film Sant Janabai-49.
This was a film made by Prabhat Film Company, Poona. It was produced by S.(Saheb mama) Fattelal and it was directed by a Noted Marathi Director- Goving Ghanekar, who also directed one more Hindi film Shiv Leela-52. Both the films were Bilingual,made in Hindi and Marathi. The lyrics for the Hindi version were written by Pt.Narendra Sharma and the music was composed by Sudhir Phadke. The story of the film and the screenplay was by G.D.Madgulkar – a very famous Marathi writer and poet from Maharashtra. The cast of the film was Hansa Wadkar, Shakuntala, Ganesh Abhyankar, Gauri, Balakram, Javdekar, Kumar Ashok etc.
During the period 30s to mid 40s, Indian Film Industry was dominated by film production giants like New Theatres, Bombay Talkies, Ranjit, Prabhat and Wadia. Films were sold and seen just on the name of the film company. Diverse subjects were handled by these film makers and they contributed to maintaining Indian culture and traditions. This was the period when films with a message were made. Actors and directors had not yet become rule-makers. The studio system had a discipline.
However, after the second world war,lot of money came into the film line and slowly the priorities and values changed. Profits from the films became the major issue and this diverted most producers to make what they thought the audience wanted.The capable and talented film makers separated from their present organisations to have their own set ups. Actors no more stuck to any specific studio and ‘Free-lancing’ became the password. This also prompted the collapse of the studios. New Theatres, Bombay Talkies, Ranjit, Wadia and Prabhat not only split but also closed down, over a period, due to their own reasons.
Prabhat was no exception. It is popularly believed that when Shantaram left Prabhat, that was the point of its disintegration,but it is actually not so. Prabhat shifted from kolhapur to Poona in 1933 and that time all the Five partners had made a rule that in future, if any director/partner falls in love or has an affair with any of the staff members, he will have to leave Prabhat. ( This was initiated, because the Art Director Saheb mama Fattelal had married Gulab aka kamla Devi,an actress of Prabhat, in 1931.She is the same girl who bends backwards and blows the Tutari or Trombone, in Prabhat’s famous Logo) Under this rule, the first to go was Keshavrao Dhaiber, who fell in love with the heroine Nalini Tarkhad and married her in 1937. After his exit, in his place, Prabhat’s long time distributor Baburao Pai was appointed a Partner/Director.
V. Shantaram married Heroine Jaishree (Kamulkar) on 22-10-1941.He was continuously prodded to leave Prabhat. Finally he left and founded his own Rajkamal Kala Mandir. One more director V.Damle died in 1945. Prabhat started crumbling and after its last film Sant Janabai-1949, it stopped production. The studio and the properties were auctioned in 1952, and the company was officially closed on 13-10-1953.
Prabhat had made many films on Marathi saints like Sant Sakhu, Sant Tukaram, Sant Dnyaneshwar, Maya Machhindra, Dharmatma etc .Maharashtra had a rich tradition of Saints. During the period 13th Century to 17th Century, many saints guided the people of Maharashtra. Most saints of Maharashtra were from lower Castes, but they had followers in every section of the society, including Brahmins. There were saints like Namdev-Tailor, Tukaram-Vaishya, Pundalik-Varkari, Goroba-Potter, Janabai-Shudra, Kanhopatra- S.C., Sant Sena- Barber, Savata mali and Chokha Mela – Gardeners, Narhari-Goldsmith and many such more.
Almost every saint film brought in lot of profits to Prabhat. The most famous one was of course Sant Tukaram (Marathi)-1936, which brought money and fame. This film is taught in many Film courses all over the world even today.Its Hindi version came in 1948. No wonder the Prabhat chapter closed with a saint film- Sant Janabai-49.
The story of Janabai is intertwined with the story of Namdev, because Namdev had given her shelter in his home. So, Prabhat first wanted to make this film as a Sant Namdev film. Prabhat’s in house writer Shivram Vashikar wrote the story and Vasant painter was to direct the film. But the plan changed and film on Janabai’s name was decided. Now, G.D.Madgulkar, eminent writer and Poet of Marathi wrote the story. The director was also changed. Govind Ghanekar was the production chief in Prabhat. He was named as the director.Later, he directed and produced many famous and hit Marathi films in 50s and 60s. Earlier actor Ganesh Abhyankar aka Vivek was to become Namdev. In this film also he was retained as Namdev. This actor Vivek, in later years, became one of the most successful actors on Marathi screen. Films used to be sold on his name alone.
While shooting this film, there was a very touching but interesting incident. The last scene of the film Sant Janabai-49 was that Janabai is taken to the Gallows to be hanged on a false accusation of stealing gold ornaments of Lord Vitthal. The shooting was being done in a village near Kolhapur. The big procession of people was going with the handcuffed Janabai in the centre, chanting Vithal Vithal.The people also chanted and some were weeping and falling on her feet (for shooting purpose only). The villagers had gathered in huge numbers, to see the shooting.Many of them thought that this was all real. They too wept and fell on Janabai’s feet. The studio workers had a tough time to remove and restrain them during the shooting.
One name in the cast is that of Gauri. Her real name was Tanibai Dawari. In this film she played Namdev’s mother. She was with Prabhat since its inception and did small roles in silent films. She was totally illiterate and could not read or write. After the advent of the Talkie films, she continued doing small roles in Prabhat films. When film Sant Tukaram was being conceived, Shantaram started searching for an actress to do the role of Tukaram’s wife-Avali…who loved Tukaram but was sort of a shrew because she felt Vithoba bhakti was spoiling Tukaram. Suddenly Shantaram saw Gauri and he called her. Giving a copy of the script to her, he said,” you are selected to do the role of Avali. Now read the dialogues and be prepared.”
Gauri was stunned. She did not know how to react. She could not read. She was sure that now she will be exposed and removed from service, as Prabhat did not employ illiterate people. This was their rule for employment. She took the script and went out of the room. Music Director Keshavrao Bhole found her in a corner, weeping. When he enquired repeatedly, Gauri explained everything frankly. Bhole pacified her and said, ‘ Dont worry ‘. From that day onwards he taught Gauri reading and writing for 8 hours a day for 15 days. Being a sharp student Gauri picked it up very quickly, as it was a Do or Die status for her.
Her role in film Sant Tukaram was lauded by one and all. It was praised even in Venice festival. Prabhat gave her a special award also. Gauri continued with Prabhat till it was making films. Then she retired from films and settled in Poona, doing some household jobs for survival. Unfortunately the Panshet flood debacle in Poona in 1961, washed out everything she had. She returned to her hometown,Kagal,near Kolhapur. In 1964,a film on Tukaram ” Tuka zalase kalas” in Marathi was launched. Sulochana Latkar was to do the role of Tukaram’s wife, Avali. She wanted to take blessings from Gauri-the original Avali. Sulochana went to Kagal and took her blessings. She gave her a Sari and some money too. Soon after this, Gauri aka Tanibai Dawari died.
In spite of good direction, acting and good music by Sudhir Phadke, the film could not escape being the last stone on the samadhi of Prabhat and a Golden Chapter of Hindi cinema came to a close.
The Music Director Sudhir Phadke may not have been a notable composer in Hindi films,but he was a big gun in Marathi cinema. Sudhir Phadke ( July 25, 1919 – July 29, 2002) was an accomplished Marathi singer-composer. He was regarded as an icon of the Marathi film industry and Marathi Sugam Sangeet i.e. Bhavgeet (light music) for five decades. Apart from Marathi, Phadke sang and composed songs in several Hindi films as well. Phadke was affectionately known as Babuji (an honorary title given to respected gentlemen in India).
Sudhir Phadke was born in Kolhapur on July 25, 1919. His birth name was Ram Phadke, but he later changed his name to ‘Sudhir’ when he composed a song for HMV because he thought ‘Sudhir Phadke’ sounded more ‘weighty’. Phadke acquired his primary tutelage in vocal classical music from the late Vamanrao Padhye in Kolhapur. After beginning his career with HMV in 1941, he joined the Prabhat Film Company as music director in 1946. During his long career, he composed for many Marathi and Hindi films. He was also an immaculate playback singer. Phadke married his fellow singer Lalita Deulkar. Their son Shridhar Phadke (born 1951) is also a composer and singer.
Geet Ramayana, based on poet G D Madgulkar’s verses, is one of Phadke’s most popular works. The programme ran on All India Radio for a year, 1954-55. Stage performances of the program continue to draw huge crowds even today. Phadke set to music all 56 songs, and they were sung by different singers for radio (Manik Verma, Lata Mangeshkar, Phadke himself, Vasantrao Deshpande etc). All 56 songs were also recorded in Phadke’s own voice.
In last days of his life, Phadke was involved in producing a Hindi film on the life of the Indian freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. The movie Veer Savarkar was funded by public donations. Sudhir Phadke last sang and composed music for this movie.
Phadke was connected with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for over 60 years. He was the main inspiration and founder member of India Heritage Foundation in the United States.
Sudhir Phadke gave music to 19 Hindi films from 1946 (Rukmini Swayamvar) to 1972 (Daraar). His famous film is Pehli Tarikh -54, in which he had composed the famous Kishore Kumar song- Din hai suhana aaj pehli tarikh hai. He also sang 14 songs in 9 Hindi films. A noteworthy fact about Sudhir Phadke is that during his peak period in Marathi films, he created a World Record. He teamed up with writer/poet G.D.Madgulkar (गदिमा , as he was known fondly in Maharashtra) and director Raja Paranjape. Together, as a team, they gave a total of 11 Hit films,in a row in 18 years- from 1948 to 1966 … a record for a Team.
The story of film Sant Janabai-49, adapted from aumamen.com is…
Jana, a little girl whose mother before dying told her to go to Pandharpur where she will be protected by Lord Vitthal, A merchant who is the father of Sant Namdev accidentally steps on Jana’s hand and asks for her forgiveness. He asks what she was doing in the temple alone, she tells him her story, being a good devotee of Vitthal he adopts her.
Little Namdev likes her from the instant he sees her and accepts her as his elder sister with joy. But the mother of Namdev wasn’t too happy with another person being in the family, but later she too melts to the love and simplicity of the little girl who would become a great saint as we know today.
Jana was assigned the work of washing the clothes by Namdev’s mother. Jana and Namdev hear a group of pilgrims singing in praise of Lord Vitthal and they start singing and dancing. Children in the group who are very thirsty run to Janabai to beg for water from her. “There are many wells in the village, go get your own water” says Namdev. “But we are outcastes, nobody gives us water” says the one of the pilgrims.
Janabai pours them water from her pot, the satisfied devotees bless her for giving them water to drink. She gets scolded and beaten by Namdev’s mother for her act of charity towards the outcastes, which was considered a terrible thing during those times.
Namdev being a very devotional man, always sings and dances and forgets the duties of an householder. Janabai works hard for the food of Namdev’s family (wife and two children). Janabai prays to Vitthal for the food, when Vitthal gives her food she only takes what she needed for a day or two.
Namdev had a big debt to be settled, but he was on a pilgrimage to North India. the wealthy man who had lent him money decides to take Namdev’s property into possession. Jana pleads with him and agrees that she would pay all the money back. Jana works night and day to gather the money she needed.
One night she was very tired and falls asleep while working, but when she wakes up she sees a blanket on her and also sees that the work has been finished. Next night she pretends to be sleeping so that she could catch the person who did it. As soon as she sleeps she sees Lord Vitthal appear and do her work for her.
She catches him while working, from then on Lord Vitthal helps her in her work, he sings for her. He fetches water for her and does many things around
One day Lord Vitthal feels very tired, seeing that Jana puts him to sleep. In the morning when he wakes up, he walks back to the temple with the blanket around his body, his ornament falls from his neck and falls on the floor of Janabai’s house.
In the morning when priests see the statue of Lord Vitthal they come to the conclusion that somebody must have stolen the ornament of Lord. They see a blanket nearby and assume it must belong to the thief. They start questioning everyone to find out to whom that belonged.
Janabai tells them that it belonged to her, priests search her house and when they find the ornament they accuse her of the theft, she tells them that the Lord was sleeping in her house yesterday and he must have left the ornament. People laugh at her, and thinking of her to be a liar, they decide to hang her to death.
They march her on streets, and just before the time to kill her, she prays to Lord Vitthal and he appears.
(Information from book “Santpatanchi Santwani” ( संतपटांची संतवाणी )by Isak Mujawar, sites last.fm, MuVyz,wiki, HFGK and my notes has been used herein, with thanks.)
Song-Ram ras barse re bhai (Sant Janabai)( 1949) Singer-Unknown male voice, Lyrics-Pt Narendra Sharma, MD-Sudhir Phadke
Chorus
Lyrics
Ram ras barse
Ram ras barse
Ram ras barse re bhai
Ram ras barse re bhai
daaku bhi harinaam kare
kyun tarse re bhai
arre kyun tarse se bhai
Ram ras barse
Ram ras barse
Ram ras barse re bhai
Ram ras barse re bhai
nirbal ke bal Ram hamaare
garveele Ravan maare
ho garveele Ravan maare
gautam naari shilaa bechaari
charanan se Raghav taare
charanan se Raghav taare
khaaye jhoothe ber
ho khaaye jhoothhe ber
shabar ke kar se re bhai
shabar ke kar se re bhai
Ram ras barse
Ram ras barse
Ram ras barse re bhai
Ram ras barse re bhai
??
dhanush tod jeeti seeta
ho dhanush tod jeeti seeta
mohan ko ye ardh na roye
hari ne rach daayi geeta
hari ne rach daayi geeta
chamke chakr sudarshan
manuwa harshe re bhai
o manuwa harshe re bhai
Ram ras barse
Ram ras barse
Ram ras barse re bhai
Ram ras barse re bhai
soory vansh jab ??
ho ho ho ho
soory vansh jab ??
gwaal baal ke sang khela
ho gwaal baal ke sang khela
pandurang peetaambhar dhaari
pandharpur prabhu ka mela
pandharpur prabhu ka mela
mukh se bolo Ram
ho
mukh se bolo Ram
kaho to ham sab se bhai
kaho to ham sab se bhai
Ram ras barse
Ram ras barse
Ram ras barse re bhai
Ram ras barse re bhai
Ram wahi jo ghat ghat ramta re ae
Ram wahi jo ghat ghat ramta
?? ko ek hari
?? ko ek hari
Ram Shyam mein sab Narayan
peer deen ki door kare
peer deen ki door kare
jaise man ke saath
ho jaise man ke saath
jaise hari darse re bhai
jaise hari darse re bhai
Ram ras barse
Ram ras barse
Ram ras barse re bhai
Ram ras barse re bhai
daaku bhi hari naam kare kyun
tarse re bhai
arre kyun tarse re bhai
Ram ras barse
Ram ras barse
Ram ras barse re bhai
Ram ras barse re bhai
jai jai vitthal
jai hari vitthal
jai jai vitthal
jai hari vitthal
jai jai vitthal
jai hari vitthal
jai jai vitthal
jai hari vitthal
jai jai vitthal
jai hari vitthal
hari sharnam
Hum Bharat ki santaan
Posted on: September 3, 2019
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog.This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Blog Day : |
4064 | Post No. : | 15198 | Movie Count : |
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Today’s song is from an obscure, unknown, ‘Ç’ grade stunt film – Toofani Tirandaz-47. This film was made by Homi Wadia’s Basant Pictures, but, for a change, it was directed by Boman Shroff – who was a regular actor in Wadia’s stable, present in almost every film of Fearless Nadia, including today’s film. The cast of the film was Nadia, Prakash, Sayani Aatish, Boman Shroff, Sona Chatterjee, Mithu miyan, Krishnakant, Rajpoot(horse) and Austin ki Bachhi(a jalopy). The film had 8 songs, all written by Begum Aziz Minai ( her other film was Aabida-47 in which she wrote 3 songs). Music was composed by A.Karim.
Toofani Tirandaz-47 was a routine stunt film from Wadia, having more or less the same story and same actors. Despite this, the films of Fearless Nadia were extremely popular in a certain class of audience in India and in many Arab and Middle east Gulf countries, where there was a great demand for these films. After Partition, even in Pakistan, Wadia stunt films were popular and in demand. In 1948, when Wadia made the film “Shri Ram Bhakta Hanuman”-48, he exported even this film to Muslim countries after changing the Title as “Udta Bandar” ( उडता बंदर ) or The Flying Monkey, converting a Mythological film into an action film ! The film was equally popular there.For Nadia films, additionally, a lady bashing up goons and restoring justice, while at the same time having a love story with the Hero was so thrilling for the audience. They were so enamoured with Nadia, that they did not care, she did not look Indian or her Hindi diction was defective !
There was a difference between Wadia – Nadia stunt films and stunt films made by other film makers. The specialty was, in addition to the regular human star cast, these films were full of thrilling acts by Animals. In most Wadia films,the animals had a distinct role to play- of course without dialogues ! Ha Ha !!
As long as Wadia Movietone was united, there was a roll-call of trained animals like Horse, Dog, Cat, Tiger, Lion, Elephants etc etc. In some films there were Hyenas and pythons too. In addition,Machines also played specific roles, like a Car and a Motor Cycle. In one film, Nadia’s whistle used to make the Motorcycle come to her ! What was most noteworthy was that that all these Non-Human stars had their own names !
The set of actors and actresses working in stunt/Action films in C grade movies were a fixed lot. In a way they ‘specialised‘ in this sort of films. In almost all the stunt films of Nadia( she did few social films too), the fixed crew and cast included the Bilimoria brothers, John Cavas, Jal Khambata, Minoo the mystique(Minu Cooper), Sardar Mansoor, Boman Shroff, Sayani Atish etc. Not everyone was in every film, but they took turns in appearances.
From 1935 onwards stunt films ,including Nadia’s, had a Horse named “Punjab ka Beta”, a Dog named ‘Tiger’, and a motor car name ‘ Rolls Royce ki beti’.
After Wadia brothers split and Homi started his Basant pictures, Nadia joined him and another set of animals like, Rajpoot(Horse), Moti(Dog) and Austin ki bachhi(a motor car) were included. In addition there was a Motor Cycle called ‘Runnio’ as well.
Few years back, in one of my posts, I had written about the animals and Machines in Nadia films, but it was not a detailed information. I was very keen to know more about animals in films. Who trained them, how are they handled and whether the animals are not scared of the strangers and the Arc lights etc were my questions. I did not know how to get this information.
Then suddenly I remembered having read an article-PDF- by some Mala Doshi, on Memsaab’s Blog , some years ago. I tried but could not locate it. As usual the kind hearted Memsaab came to my rescue and she provided me the link to it. I read it completely. However this did not have answers to my questions, though it is also quite informative.
I contacted one of my friends in Pune and he told me that an article giving all this information was published in RASRANG-a Marathi film magazine, years ago. This was a poor clue, but I started searching for it without any result for a long time. My luck smiled on me one day, when I was reading a book RUPERI SMARANYATRA (memories of the silver screen) by Prof. Subhash Savarkar. That article , which I was searching so desperately was reprinted in this book !
The article is written by Mr. Vasant Bhalekar who also holds its copyright. This article must have been published in the late 60s or so. I thank Mr.Bhalekar for this information.
‘Punjab ka beta’ was trained by Agha Mehmood who was in the Film Industry since 1930 onwards supplying trained animals. The Horse was born in Ahmedabad, trained in Surat and worked in Bombay. He was very intelligent. His first film was ‘Ishq ki Laila’-a silent film. In 1935 Punjab ka Beta or PKB joined Wadia movietone. His original name was GAZI which was changed by JBH Wadia to PKB, when he first worked in “Hind kesari”-35
He was expert in running, trotting, falling, sleeping-like dead, jumping, walking on knees, standing on 2 legs etc. Nadia used him first time in ‘Lutaru Lalna’-38 and PKB was her horse till it died. In Diamond queen-40 PKB and Nadia jumped through wild raging fire. Both were burnt, but the shot came off fantastic.
In Jai Bharat-36, PKB carried Master Chhotu in his mouth for a distance and gave close ups too. In Flying Prince there was a shot when the Heroine chases a Train and jumps onto it. PKB was ridden by Hashim, son of Agha, in Heroine’s clothes and boarded the train, but both were a little hurt.
Punjab ka beta died soon after working in Hind ka laal-40. Agha trained another horse Rajpoot just like PKB.
Rajpoot gave a deadly shot in Baabuji-50, where he had to climb and come down stairs of a 30 feet set. Agha first took the horse around the sets and up and down 4-5 times. The horse got the idea of the shot and he gave it superbly, though this shot was very life threatening.
Rajpoot also acted in Darvesh-49 and Cobra Girl-63 in which he had to do some back kicking (like an ass). Actually back kicking is the first thing all trainers make the horse to forget before horse’s training starts. Now Rajpoot had to be taught what he was made to forget. For this Agha used to rap his hind legs and make a sound on the Tin sheet kept behind him. After 2-3 days the horse understood what is to be done and started back kicking.
In film Zabak – 61, the horse was supposed to smile and wink at the Hero. Agha knew that when a Foal (colt or filly- young horse) is brought before a Horse it starts making a laughing face and sounds. Hence be brought a colt and took the shots of Rajput smiling. Then for winking, they used water used after washing crackers. When horse’s eyes are washed with this water, horse winks for one hour ! Thus this shot was also taken.
Agha also trained horse Moti and elephant Ramchandra for film NAVRANG-59. They both were trained to do dancing steps for a month. Sandhya danced with these animals and it has come out wonderfully.
We see many animals ‘acting’ in the films, but we hardly know how much effort of the Trainers has gone behind that. Besides taking care of the animals, the trainers have to tolerate the ‘moods’ of the animals also.
With the the stunt films in “C” grade dwindling, animals which are used nowadays in films are only the pet animals, like Dogs, cats, Birds etc. The use of wild animals like Tigers, Lion, Elephants etc is no more required in the films. Horses are used sometimes.
Jimmy Bharucha, one of the best Horse Trainers in India, had himself been trained in foreign countries. He had opened a Horse Training School in Poona. Yesteryear actor SHYAM was one of his earliest students. For all his films, Shyam used the same horse from Bharucha. Actor Shyam had died while doing a stunt for film Shabistan-51.
Whenever he talked about Shyam, Bharucha got emotional. The truth about Shyam’s death….
That fateful day, Shyam was in a very cheerful mood. He joked with other artists as usual. The film was SHABISTAN. He had to do a stunt scene on a horse. His double was kept ready. However Shyam insisted on doing that dangerous shot himself that day. The scene started and was also completed successfully. There was a round of applauding claps.
Shyam was getting down from the horse and suddenly,the horse started running. Shyam’s foot got stuck in the stirr-up and he was dragged some distance before people ran and stopped the horse. Shyam was unconscious. He was immediately taken to the hospital, but he died-with his make up and costume still on him !( another actor who died on the sets was comedian actor Gope. He finished his shot. His last dialogue was ” Main upar jaa raha hoon”, and he collapsed with a massive heart attack which took his life instantly.)
Bharucha had supplied horses to films like Aan, Anarkali and Mughal e Azam etc. He had supplied Dogs for films like Love in Simla, Hum Hindustani etc. Once when the Producer was not paying in time he stopped the animal’s work. They were paid immediately because the animal’s shots were half done till that time.
Bharucha had trained one beautiful white Horse to dance to the tune of Waltz and Cha Cha. The horse was in great demand by Taj Mahal Hotel to entertain Foreign guests !
So much about the Animals in films. There is much more information , may be some other time. I was also keen to know more about the actors of Wadia films, but it was like searching a needle in a hay stack. One thing – they were seen only in C grade stunt films and hence the so called “Gentleman” magazines and papers etc. paid no heed to them and secondly – they ended their careers in the late 40s or early 50s, as the C grade stunt film Genre died its natural death. When no source works on my own, I turn to one sure point, i.e. Harish Raghuwanshi ji. Though he is not keeping too well these days, he is always prompt in responding and providing help, whenever available.With his help, I got some – only some – information on 2 of the major actors of Wadia – Nadia movies.
Sayani Aatish – his real name was Sayani Abdul Hamid Ahmed. He was born in Bombay. He had a ancestral Timber business, but his intense desire to work in films brought him to this profession in 1925. He started working in Silent stunt films as a villain.By the time Talkie films came, he had perfected his style. He joined Wadia Movietone. His first Talkie film was “Laal-E-Yaman”-33. After this he did 18 films.His last film was Mere Sajan-41. He was considered an outstanding villain of films.He was a writer and composer too.
Boman Shroff was born in Kalyan-Bombay. He joined films in 1922. After doing many silent films, he joined Wadia Movietone. His first Talkie film was “Laal E Yaman-33”. He was known as a Dare Devil stuntman and master of make up. His role was usually of a comedian. His best performance was in Toofani tarzan-37. He worked in 17 films. His last film as an actor was Stunt King-44. Boman Shroff also directed two films. One, today’s film Toofani tirandaz-47 and Sher Dil-54.
Whenever I write on any Fearless Nadia film, I always remember my meeting with her in the early 80s in Bombay. I only regret that I did not take a Photograph with her. If only Mobile Phones were in vogue in those times…….
(Thanks to Harish Raghuwanshi ji, Vasant Bhalekar, Subhash Savarkar, Greta Memsaab, Film Directory-1938 and my notes for information used herein.)
Song – Hum Bharat ki santaan (Toofaani Teerandaaz)(1947) Singers-Unknown Female voice, Unknown male voice, Lyrics – Begum Aziz Minai, MD- A Kareem
Female Chorus
Male chorus
Lyrics
Hum Bharat ki santaan
Hum Bharat ki santaan
aise chamke teer hamaare
jyon Arjun ke baan
aise chamke teer hamaare
jyon Arjun ke baan
jyon Arjun ke baan
Hum Bharat ki santaan
Hum Bharat ki santaan
jaagi hai Bharat ki naari
dekhegi ab duniya saari
jaagi hai Bharat ki naari
dekhegi ab duniya saari
karegi ab ye desh ki sewa
de kar jeewan daan
karegi ab ye desh ki sewa
de kar jeewan daan
de kar jeewan daan
Hum Bharat ki santaan
Hum Bharat ki santaan
ran mein nikle taan ke seena
paap hai kaayar ban ke jeena
ran mein nikle taan ke seena
paap hai kaayar ban ke jeena
himmat ho to ho jaati hai
har mushqil aasaan
himmat ho to ho jaati hai
har mushqil aasaan
har mushqil aasaan
Hum Bharat ki santaan
Hum Bharat ki santaan
aise chamke teer hamare
jyon Arjun ke baan
jyon Arjun ke baan
hum Bharat ki aankh ke taare
le kar ghoda saath hamaare
hum Bharat ki aankh ke taare
le kar ghoda saath hamaare
hum toofaani teer chalaayen
hum bhi hain balwaan
hum toofaani teer chalaayen
hum bhi hain balwaan
hum bhi hain balwaan
toofaanon se kyun ghabraayen
apni naiyya aap chalaayen
toofaanon se kyun ghabraayen
apni naiyya aap chalaayen
jiske seene mein shakti hai
uska hai Bhagwaan
jiske seene mein shakti hai
uska hai Bhagwaan
uska hai Bhagwaan
hum Bharat ki santaan
hum Bharat ki santaan
aise chamke teer hamaare
jyon Arjun ke baan
aise chamke teer hamaare
jyon Arjun ke baan
jyon Arjun ke baan
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Today’s song is from film Aaj aur kal-47. The film was produced by C R Gwalani and R K Parashar. It was directed by K A Abbas. The music for its 6 songs was composed by Khwaja Khurshid Anwar. The film was made under the banner of Chitra Productions, Lahore.
1947 was a period of political turmoil, both in future Pakistan and existing India. The matters became worse after actual Partition took place. When the entire country was disturbed, no wonder, the film industry too was shaken with uncertainty. There was a flood of rumours. No one was sure as to who is leaving and who is staying. In Lahore, the condition of film people from India was more serious. In order to save their lives, they had to run away to India, leaving everything behind. In film industry in India situation was not that bad, but people were scared.
This automatically resulted in some films remaining incomplete. Most producers had ensured to somehow complete their films, well before actual time of Partition. This was so, on both sides of the border. Film Aaj aur kal was one such film which had started shooting in 1946, censored in 1947 but could not be released same year, due to this commotion. An early issue of Film India magazine announced in 1948 that this film was awaiting its release. However, we do not know,if the film was released actually or not, as there is no information available about its release dates or place etc.
From the advertisements, photos, posters and short newslets available in the film magazine, we know that actor Shyam and actress Nayan Tara were the lead pair. HFGK, however, does not give their names in its cast details. Only the names of Neeta, Rasheed Ahmed (Rashid Khan) and Arif are listed in its cast column. Film Aaaj aur kal aka Today or Tomorrow-47 had a Sci-Fi story in which a city called Gandhi Nagar was shown as a city of future in the year 2048 (100 years later). In the absence of storyline, we can,at best, imagine the story.
Rashid Khan was a new entrant in Hindi films then,having debuted in ‘Dharti ke Lal’-46, this was his just 4th film. Vadodara or Baroda has given many actors to film world. Some of them are Mehboob Khan, Urmila Bhatt, Shabbir kumar, Faruq Shaikh, V H Desai, Dinesh Hingoo etc etc. Add to this, Rashid Ahmed Khan aka Rashid Khan, who was a villain, comedian, character artiste and everything else, except the Hero.
He was born on 5th July 1915. He was a Suleimani Muslim, hence very liberal and secular in nature. He studied upto B.A; LL.B., but without becoming an advocate he came to Bombay to become an actor. He met Jaddan Bai,who gave him titbit roles in films. Then he was employed by Sohrab Modi as a Painter in his studio.Rashid Khan used to copy the acting of Chandra Mohan. After two months this job was also gone. Finally, Rashid Khan got a job in All India Radio, Bombay as an announcer.
One day Balraj Sahni met him. He was directing K.A.Abbas’ drama ‘ Zubeida’ and was looking for an actor for the important role of Munshi Bedil in the drama.He was impressed with Rashid khan and offered him the role. Rashid Khan flatly refused. Next one month, on and off, Balraj Sahni was trying to convince Rashid Khan, but he was adamant in not doing acting. Just one week prior to the staging of the drama, Rashid Khan met Balraj Sahni and accepted his offer.
Rashid Khan’s acting was much appreciated by critics. Balraj gave him a role in film ” Dharti ke lal”-46, which became his Debut film. Many stage stalwarts were acting in that film. Deena(Sanghvi) Pathak had a dance item in it. Later she became a famous character actress in Hindi films in the 70s and 80s. Rashid khan got several films like Hasrat, Gudia, Aaj aur Kal, Anjuman, Aarzu etc. Initially he was credited as Rashid Ahmed,but later on he ensured that he was mentioned as Rashid Khan. In the beginning, he had to improve his Urdu/Hindi diction, as he was a Gujarati person.
Dev Anand cast him as Postmaster in Navketan’s first film ‘ Afsar ‘. Then came Baazi, Jaal Aah, Shri 420 and many others. He acted in most Dev Anand and Guru Dutt films. K.A.Abbas cast him in his 8 films. He was a favourite of Hrishikesh Mukherjee.He worked with Mukherjee in 18 films. Personally, I like his role of a “Body builder and Exercise freak”, in film ” Ek phool chaar Kaante”-1960. In his career, Rashid Khan did acting in 96 films.
In 1953, he married one Suraiya. His son Fazal is a photographer and Daughter Heena married into Fida Hussain family.
Rashid Khan rarely got long and big roles, but he made his small roles also memorable. He was not typecast. He did roles as Villain, Comedian and character artiste as father,brother or friend of the hero. While shooting at Famous studio, on 7-11-1972, he got massive heart attack and died while working, just like Gope. (adapted, with thanks, from Gujarati article by Harish Raghuwanshi ji.)
Music Director Khurshid Anwar (21-3-1912 to 30-10-1984) was a rare case, who was successful both in India as well in Pakistan, after he migrated there. He was also a highly respected personality here and there. A lot has already been written about him on Internet as well as on this Blog-by me, hence I am not repeating it here now.he gave music to 10films in India- including Parwana-47, with Saigal and he composed 77 songs- without a single song by Lata Mangeshkar. For his first film Ishara-43, he had called famous singer of Lucknow, Gohar Sultana, to sing few songs.
The film was directed by Khwaja Ahmed Abbas (7-6-1914 to 1-6-1987), who directed 20films from 46 to 88. He was born in Panipat, Haryana, on 7-6-1916. He was born in the home of celebrated Urdu poet, ‘Khwaja Altaf Husain Hali’, a student of Mirza Ghalib. His grandfather Khwaja Gulam Abbas was one of the chief rebels of the 1857 Rebellion movement, and the first martyr of Panipat to be blown from the mouth of a cannon. Abbas’s father Ghulam-Us-Sibtain graduated from Aligarh Muslim University, was a tutor of a prince and a prosperous businessman, who modernised the preparation of Unani medicines. Abbas’s mother, ‘Masroor Khatoon’, was the daughter of Sajjad Husain, an enlightened educationist. Abbas took his early education in ‘Hali Muslim High School’, which was established by his great grand father Hali. He had his early education till 7th in Panipat. He was instructed to read the Arabic text of the Quran and his childhood dreams swung at the compulsive behest of his father. Abbas completed his matriculation at the age of fifteen. He did his B.A. with English literature in 1933 and LL.B. in 1935 from Aligarh Muslim University
Worked on National Call, a New Delhi paper (1933); started Aligarh Opinion when studying law (1934); obtained law degree in 1935; political correspondent and later film critic for nationalist Bombay Chronicle, Bombay (1935- 47) praising Dieterle, Capra and esp. Shantaram. Wrote Indian journalism’s longest- running weekly political column, Last Page (1941-86), in Chronicle and Blitz. Best-known fiction (Zafran Ke Phool situated in Kashmir, Inquilab on communal violence) places him in younger generation of Urdu and Hindi writers with Ali Sardar Jafri and Ismat Chughtai, whose work followed the PWA? and drew sustenance from Nehruite socialism’s pre- Independence, anti-Fascist and anti-communal commitments. Founder member of IPTA’s all- India front (1943), to which he contributed two seminal plays: Yeh Amrit Hai and Zubeida. Entered film as publicist for Bombay Talkies (1936) to whom he sold his first screenplay, Naya Sansar (1941). First film, Dharti Ke Lal, made under IPTA’s banner and drew on Bijon Bhattacharya’s classic play Nabanna (1944), dealing with the Bengal famine of 1943.
Set up production company Naya Sansar (1951), providing India’s most consistent representation of socialist-realist film (cf. Thoppil Bhasi and Utpal Dutt). Best work is in the scripts for his own films and for those of Raj Kapoor (Awara 1951); Shri 420 (1955), 1955, both co-written with V.P. Sathe; Jagte Raho, 1956; Bobby, 1973) and Shantaram’s Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani (1946; adapted from his own book, And One Did Not Come Back), which combined aspects of Soviet cinema (Pudovkin) and of Hollywood (e.g. Capra and Upton Sinclair), influencing a new generation of Hindi cineastes (Kapoor, Chetan Anand) and sparking new realist performance idioms (BALRAJ SAHNI). His Munna, without songs or dances, and Shaher Aur Sapna, cheaply made on location in slums, were described as being influenced by neo-realism. Pardesi is the first Indian-Soviet co-production, co- directed by Vassili M. Pronin. The landmark Supreme Court censorship judgement about his Char Shaher Ek Kahani (aka A Tale of Four Cities) curtailed ‘arbitrary’ governmental pre- censorship powers on the grounds that the Indian Constitution guarantees the right to free speech. His constitutional challenge of the Cinematograph Act led to the famous Supreme Court decision upholding the validity of precensorship of cinema.
Published many books including I Am Not An Island and Mad Mad World of Indian Films (both 1977). Other important scripts: Neecha Nagar (1946); Mera Naam Joker (1970); Zindagi Zindagi (1972); Henna (1991). Abbas also brought a number of new talents into the film industry, such as Amitabh Bachchan in Saat Hindustani . K.A.Abbas died on 1-6-1987 at Bombay. ( adapted, with thanks, from The Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema).
With today’s song, film Aaj aur Kal-47, makes its Debut on the Blog. All the 6 songs of this film are very sweet. Today’s song is also very melodious. It is sung by Zeenat Begum. This enchanting tune was again heard, 10 years later , in Rafi’s song “Mubaarak ho dulha dulhan ko ye shaadi“, from film Paak Daaman(1957), composed by Ghulam Mohd.
Song-Pade ishq mein jaan ke hum ko laale (Aaj Aur Kal)(1947) Singer- Zeenat Begum, Lyricist- Not known, MD- Khursheed Anwar
Lyrics
pade ishq mein jaan ke hum ko laale
khuda imtihaan mein kisi ko na daale
pade ishq mein jaan ke humko laale
khuda imtihaan mein kisi ko na daale
ye rukte hain roke na talte hain taale
ye rukte hain roke na talte hain taale
koi kis tarah aansuon ko sambhaale
khuda imtihaan mein kisi ko na daale
pade ishq mein jaan ke hum ko laale
khuda imtihaan mein kisi ko na daale
wahi bebasi hai wahi namuraadi
wahi bebasi hai wahi namuraadi
na kaam aayi aahen na kaam aaye naale
khuda imtihaan mein kisi ko na daale
pade ishq mein jaan ke hum ko laale
khuda imtihaan mein kisi ee ee ko na daale
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
| Blog Day : | 4051 | Post No. : | 15180 |
Today’s song is from film Raj Mukut-50.
From the title itself one would know what type of film this could be. In our childhood we were fond of, first listening and then reading stories of Raja-Rani. As we grow older, this liking seems to have ended,but it is not so, in reality. Every adult has a child in him and the love for the Raja Rani stories is hiding behind the facade of other serious life matters of the adult age.
Precisely, this liking was identified by B and C grade action and costume filmmakers and films on Kings, Queens, the evil Vazier or the Army Chief, plus or minus the evil Magician were made. From the point of business, it was wise to make such films, because its Producers never suffered loss, where as failure of an A grade film invariably ruined the producer.
The simple reason was, the production cost, distribution cost, actors’ payments etc were very low and the income was very good. May be that was the reason, that even the big banners also sometimes or the other had made costume films about Kings and Queens etc.
Going by the film title list made by Hamraz ji, I found at least 43 films starting with Raaj – like Raaj Mukut, Raaj Tarang, Raaj Ratan, Raaj Nandini etc etc. There were 32 films having titles starting with Raja, like Raja Gopichand, Raja Harishchandra, Raja Vikram etc etc. Movie titles with Rani prefix were just 11 (Gender Bias ?).
Coming to the story of Raaj Mukut-50, it is no different than hundreds of its ilk. I wonder why are there story shortages in films ? Why do films have similar stories ? In the 40’s decade ,Master Bhagwan used just one story to make 11 action films. In later times, it was Nasir Hussain, who – starting with Tumsa Nahin Dekha-57 – used only one skeleton story for most of his films and what’s more surprising is that his most film were Hits.
While thinking about it, I found that, in 2004, a book called “Why we tell stories”, written by Christopher Booker was published. It is a book having 728 pages to be exact. The book says “There are only 7 (Seven) basic plots in the whole world. They are recycled again and again in Novels, movies, Plays and Operas. These are
1.Overcoming the Monster
2.Rags to riches
3.The quest
4.Voyage and return
5.Rebirth
6.Comedy and
7.Tragedy “.
After this book was published, there was a chaos and criticism started. ‘New York Times’ also jumped in. The author coolly replied to all points and stuck to his statements. If we look at Hindi films, I personally feel that what the author has said is true in our case. Only thing is that our film stories are always a clever mixture of all or some of the above points.
If we take a look at the cast of the film Raaj Mukut-50, we find some heavyweights like Veena, Jairaj, Nimmi, Sapru, Gulab, Janakidas, Baby Tabassum etc. The decade of the 50s started with the decline of old stalwarts of 30s and 40s, because of the rise of new generation of actors, actresses, directors, MDs and almost all departments of film making. Nimmi was a ‘ Black Sheep’ in this cast because she was from the newer generation rising star.May be she did this film to get well entrenched in the film industry. Moreover the banner was good and the other actors were well known too. Director Nanubhai Vakil was an expert veteran in costume and action film direction. The music was given by Gobindram, a respected name in the musical circles.
Baby Tabassum had debuted with film Nargis-46 ( released in 47). Tabassum – real name Kiran Bala Sachdev was born in 1944 in Mumbai to Ayodhyanath Sachdev, an Indian freedom fighter, and Asghari Begum, freedom fighter, journalist and an author. Her father named her Tabassum, keeping her mother’s religious sentiments in mind, while her mother kept her name Kiran Bala, keeping her father’s religious sentiments in mind. Her official name as per pre-marriage documents was Kiran Bala Sachdev.
Tabassum made her film debut as a child actor with Nargis (1947) followed by Mera Suhaag (1947), Manjhdhar (1947) and Bari Behen (1949). Later in Deedar (1951), directed by Nitin Bose, she played the childhood role of Nargis; the hit song Bachpan Ke Din Bhula Na Dena sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Shamshad Begum was picturised on her. Also, in the next year, she appeared in another important film Baiju Bawra (1952) directed by Vijay Bhatt, where she appeared in the childhood role of Meena Kumari. After a gap, she reentered films in adult roles, working as a character actress.
She hosted the first talk show of Indian television, Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan, which ran for 21 years from 1972 to 1993. Produced by Doordarshan Kendra Mumbai, it was based on interviews of film celebrities and became immensely popular. This also led to a career as stage compere. She was also the editor of Grihalaxmi, a Hindi women’s magazine for 15 years and wrote many joke books.
In 1985, she directed, produced and wrote her first film, Tum Par Hum Qurban. In 2006, she returned to television, as an actress in Pyaar Ke Do Naam: Ek Raadha, Ek Shyaam, produced by Rajshri Productions. She became a judge in a reality stand-up comedy show Ladies Special (2009) on Zee TV.
She continued to work as an interviewer for television and is currently doing a TV show on TV Asia USA and Canada titled Abhi Toh Main Jawaan Hoon based on the Golden Era of Hindi Cinema. Currently, she has launched her own channel on YouTube, titled “Tabassum Talkies” which consists of nostalgic talks, interviews of celebrities, shayaris, jokes and more.
She is married to Vijay Govil, elder brother of TV actor Arun Govil. Their son Hoshang Govil had brief career as a lead in three films Tum Par Hum Qurbaan (1985), which was produced and directed by Tabassum in which she introduced Johnny Lever for the first time on screen as a comedian. Kartoot (1987) and Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Yeah (1996) produced by Zee TV and directed by J Om Prakash (grandfather of Hritik Roshan). In 2009, her granddaughter Khushi (daughter of Hoshang) made her film debut with Hum Phir Mile Na Mile. ( courtesy- Wikipedia).
Tabassum is an actress of a kind who was an All rounder-not in body shape-(that she is in now!), who is the only one having succeeded in 5 different mediums of entertainment. Films,TV,Radio,Print Media and Stage. Here is a small note about her,as it appears on her Facebook page-
“Tabassum ,during her years as child star ,was dubbed by her fans ,the movie -industry and the media as “THE SHIRLY TEMPLE OF INDIA”.
FILMS
She made her debut at the age of two and half years, in 1946, in her first film –Famous Pictures “Nargis’.This film was produced by Baburao Pai ,directed by D.D.Kashyap ….“Nargis” starred the legendary Nargisji herself with Rehman ,Shahnawaz ,Alka ,Achrekar and BABY TABASSUM.
In a short span of about six years Tabassum chalked up a record of child artist roles in more than thirty films ,and she’s working in films even today with a total of more than 100 films to her credit.
TELEVISION
Tabassum was the first to start the movie- oriented T.V. series on Doordarshan (India’s Government owned Television channel) which started on October 2nd, 1972. On October 8th 1972 , she launched her famous series of film-personality interviews. The first person to be interviewed in these series , titled “PHOOL KHILE HAIN GULSHAN GULSHAN” was a veteran music director Naushad.
This programme ran continuously on Doordarshan for 21 years ..
Various cultural organizations ,audiences ,and the media in general even the then INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING MINISTER Mr. V.P.Sathe have dubbed Tabassum as THE T.V. QUEEN OF INDIA .
RADIO
Tabassum started on radio in 1946 with children programmes and did many other programmes regularly on All India Radio.
For 15 years from 1970 to 1985 Tabassum ran a regular radio programme of jokes on the commercial services of Radio Ceylon.The same programme was later switched also to Vividh Bharti where continued for many years. She is still doing programmes regularly on Vividh Bharti.She was conferred the award of “JOKES QUEEN OF INDIA”.
AUTHORSHIP AND JOURNALISM
Tabassum has been writing Urdu poetry , jokes ,short stories since her childhood which were being regularly published in Urdu and Hindi magazines ,newspapers ,etc.
During her more than sixty four years long career in show business ,Tabassum has also written seven books of Jokes ,Poetry ,and Urdu shayris ,the first of which was published at the age of 17 years when she had just passed her matriculation examination. She did her B.A. in Urdu from Aligarh University.
For the past many years Tabassum has fitted also journalism into her over crowded schedule when she took over as editor of the large circulation of a Woman’s magazine GRIHA LAKSHMI which is published monthly from New Delhi since last 17 years.
STAGE
As Baby Tabassum , Filmland’s original child-star the Shirley Temple of India ,began to appear on stage shows since the tender age of three to four years.Over three decades ago she launched her own stage show unit named “TABASSUM HIT PARADE’.This stage entertainment unit has over the past three decades performed variety entertainment shows all over India and in almost every country of the world from U.S.A.and Canada to the United Kingdom and Europe ,the Middle east and Gulf countries to South-east Asia ,Singapore and the far east in Hong Kong ,China ,Taiwan and Japan.
Now she is busy in promoting a stage programme titled “Tabassum Bhajan Sandhya” in India and abroad as spiritual entertainment.
On May 8th 1995 various well known cultural organizations of India celebrated TABASSUM’S HALF CENTURY IN FILM INDUSTRY AND SHOW BUSINESS AND WAS LARGELY ATTENDED BY FILM AND OWN MEDIA PERSONALITIES INCLUDING THE PRESS. ”
Film Raaj Mukut-50 story was about a Prince who is more interested in doing social service for the poor and down trodden ( and a love affair with the Village Mukhiya’s daughter) than getting crowned legitimately. So he disappears and goes to a village, to do what he always wanted to do, but could not do so far.
He learns that his younger brother, crowned after the deliberate false rumour of the prince- was perpetrating tyranny on kingdom’s people and also arrested his own parents and jailed them. His blood boils and he enters the capital incognito, along with his girlfriend and others. There is a fighting and the younger brother is killed. The King and Queen are released. The prince becomes the King and his girlfriend becomes his Queen. Clap, Clap !
The film had 11 songs. 4 songs are already discussed. Today’s song is the 5th song. It is sung by Shamshad Begum, Amirbai, Rafi and another unknown male voice. Incidentally, Gobind Ram had a special affinity for Shamshad Begum. He gave music to 32 films and composed 302 songs. Out of these, he composed as many as 86 songs in 19 films for Shamshad Begum. I believe, he may be the music director who has most songs for Shamshad Begum- atleast percentage wise (28.4 %).
Song- Dil hai lagane ke liye (Raj Mukut)(1950) Singers- Amirbai Karnataki, Shamshad Begam, Rafi, Lyrics-Bharat Vyas, MD- Pt Gobind Ram
Amirbai Karnataki + Shamshad Begam
Rafi + Unknown male voice
Lyrics
dil hai lagaane ke liye
ise laga lo yahin kahin
aji ise laga lo yahin kahin
nahin nahin jee nahin nahin
nahin nahin jee nahin nahin
dil hai lagane ke liye
ise laga lo yahin kahin
aji ise laga lo yahin kahin
nahin nahin jee nahin nahin
nahin nahin jee nahin nahin
chaar dinon ki hai ye jawaani
chaar dinon ka khel
aji chaar dinon ka khel
chaar dinon ki hai ye jawaani
chaar dinon ka khel
khatkhat karti chali jaa rahi
jeewan ki ye rail
suno jee
jeewan ki ye rail
mauj manaa lo phir nahin kehna
haan
mauj manaa lo phir nahin kehna
dil ki baaten dil mein rahin
is dil ko laga lo yahin kahin
nahin nahin jee nahin nahin
nahin nahin jee nahin nahin
dil hai lagaane ke liye
ise laga lo yahin kahin
aji ise laga lo yahin kahin
jaante hain haal hum
majnu dil e barbaad ka
haan aan aan aan
haan aan
jaante hain haal hum
majnu dil e barbaad ka
aur ishq mein anjaam dekho
kya hua farhaad ka
aur ye barbaadi ka rasta hai
is par chalna nahin nahin
hoy ye barbaadi ka rasta hai
is par chalna nahin nahin
is dil ko lagaa lo yahin kahin
nahin nahin jee nahin nahin
nahin nahin jee nahin nahin
dil hai lagaane ke liye
ise laga lo yahin kahin
aji ise laga lo yahin kahin
honthon par hai naam tumhaara
soorat dil mein basi huyi
aeji soorat dil mein basi huyi
honthon par hai naam tumhaara
soorat dil mein basi huyi
tum chaaho na chaaho
ham hain prem jaal mein phansi huyi
ham prem jaal mein phansi huyi
duniya mein badnaam huyi hain
haay
duniya mein badnaam huyi hain
kya kya baaten hamne sahin
is dil ko laga lo yahin kahin
nahin nahin jee nahin nahin
nahin nahin jee nahin nahin
dil hai lagaane ke liye
ise laga lo yahin kahin
aji ise laga lo yahin kahin
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Blog Day : |
4049 | Post No. : | 15178 | Movie Count : |
4171 |
Today’s song is from a Marathi film- Dhananjay-66. This is a Hindi song, sung by Chitalkar, under his own baton ! Lyrics are by P L Santoshi. The film was based on a story by Marathi’s renowned Detective Novelist of yesteryear – Baburao Arnalkar.
In the early 50s,when I was about 10-11 years old, I first read a Marathi detective novel written by Baburao Arnalkar. In those days, reading such stuff was a no-no for children, and so I had to read it, sitting in some lonely corner, keeping one eye and one ear for checking if anybody is seeing me. I was simply thrilled by reading this book and then started the marathon reading of detective novels- of course chori chori ! Happily I found some of my friends also doing the same thing and even my elder brother was seen reading these books.
Shortly, this became an open programme and I joined a local book library, catering to such books. Every month such 10 books used to come there and all these books were written by one author- Baburao Arnalkar. We always wondered how can any one man write so many books, so varied and entertaining every month. As the time went by, the author wrote in a magazine, how he was impressed by novels of Edgar Wallace, Berkeley grey, Roderick Graeme, Peter Cheyney, Sax Rohmer and few others. He decided to adapt their stories to Indian environment, culture and customs, so that Marathi readers felt affinity for them. Certain books, however, were just not possible to adapt lest they lost their charm and such books were presented just in a translated form, with same name and places to maintain reality.
Baburao’s main character, on whom he wrote more books was Dhananjay ( he got this name from Bhagwadgeeta) – a private detective with a sharp intelligence, fearlessness, a high degree of common sense and an ability to use logic rightly. This character seemed to be a combination of Perry Mason (Earl Stanley Gardener), Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie) and Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Connon Doyle).
Baburao also brought into Marathi the dashing ” Normon Conquest ” of author Berkeley Grey as Zunjar (झुंजार) along with his wife Joy (Vijaya) and the faithful assistant Biji (Netaji). Novels of Zunjar were particularly more popular because he was flamboyant, adventurous and of humorous nature with a speciality of getting his commission from every villain,before Police arrested him. He was one who would not hesitate to cross legal boundaries in order to book the villains in the final chapter. Zunjar’s Guru Bhimsen and successor Golandaz also had many books on them.
The other popular character Baburao Arnalkar brought was Roderick Graeme’s famous “Black Shirt”. In Marathi he became Kalapahad(काळापहाड)- a successful Novelist by day and a daring adventurer by night. Baburao brought stories of Peter Cheyney and Ellery Queen. Brett Haliday’s Mike Shane became Jayant in Marathi. Carter Brown’s private detective was Sanjay in Marathi. Additionally he created from Edgar Wallace, Kodand rao- Public Prosecutor (J.G.Reader), Major(Retd.) Sudarshan- a private investigator and C.I.D. Inspector Murar Rao.
Shifting from the usual, Baburao brought Jungle stories of British Settlements in Africa by Edgar Wallace, featuring Commissioner Sanders, Capt.Hamilton and funny but brave Lt.Bones. These were brought in original form having English names and places. Similarly, the “Justmen” series by Edgar Wallace featuring George Manfred, Leon Gonsalves and Raymond Poicort – each having different skill and together punishing secretly the difficult to catch criminal, helping the Police. Baburao was too versatile. he brought stories of Sailors, featuring Capt Daryasarang and his assistant Savlaram. The seafaring criminal stories were an entirely different world for Marathi readers.
Baburao also gets credit for introducing the deadly Dr. Fu Manchu, a character created by Sax Rohmer. Fu Manchu is a Chinese scientist who wants to rule the world. An entire generation born in the 40s was mesmerised by Baburao’s detective novels and feasted on the stories of heroes created by British, American and German authors, in the 1920s and 1930s. These novels re-created the pre-war times and entertained people.
Having read Baburao Arnalkar’s books based on foreign authors, I got and read almost every English book that Baburao had translated. Novels by Edgar Wallace and others are still in my library. I had about 200 selected books-Marathi- of Baburao Arnalkar, which I gifted to my niece recently.
Baburao Arnalkar (real name Chandrakant Sakharam Chavan) was born on 9-6-1906 at Arnala in Vasai. He studied only up to 10th, but earned a proficiency in English, as he was an avid reader of books. In the 1942 Freedom struggle, he was jailed for 18 months. In this jail, he got hands on the books of Edgar Wallace. He was so thrilled that he decided to bring these books in Marathi. He had already written his first detective novel ” Queen of Diamonds” (चौकटची राणी) in 1939.
He started an Optical lenses shop in Bombay for earning a living. His writing started from 1946, but in the period 1952 to 1966, he was very prolific, writing 6 to 10 books a month. On completing 500 books,the then Maharashtra Government felicitated him and awarded Rs. 10000 also. He wrote 1042 detective novels, before he put his pen down due to old age. His name was entered in Guinness Book of World Records in those days.
He received several awards and honours from prestigious institutions. However the so called Classic literature writers never conceded Detective Novels as a respected form of literature. This always remained an entertainment for the middle class society who dreamt of super powered heroes. More than this recognition, he valued the love and affection an entire generation poured on him. He not only gave entertaining books but also sustained and developed the reading habit among the youngsters of those times.
Baburao Arnalkar died peacefully on 5-7-1996 at the ripe age of 90 years. He must have been a contented man. My thanks to him, for being a true entertainer.
Film Dhananjay-66, based on Baburao Arnalkar’s story, was produced by C.Ramchandra. After parting ways with Lata, in the late 50s, C.Ramchandra did not do well in Hindi films. He disappeared slowly. He turned to Marathi films and stage shows around the world. He got married second time to Shantabai and had a son and a daughter from this marriage. Most of his time he stayed in his Poona Bungalow. His son and daughter are leading doctors in USA, and are well settled. I do not know if Shantabai is still alive. C.Ramchandra had produced 2 Marathi films. The other film was Gharkul.
C.Ramchandra played the Hero- Dhananajay’s role in this film. After his first flop film Naganand-1935 ( only 9 people in the first show. There was no second show), this was his second film in the Hero’s role. The film did average business. The cast was Chitalkar, Uma, Arun Sarnaik ( he had acted in 2 Hindi films…Subhadra haran-64 and Lady killer-68), Ashalata, Gulab Mokashi, Jaymala , Shakuntala etc etc.
The film was directed by Raja Thakur. Rajaram Dattatreya Thakur was born in 1923 at Ponda in Goa. He did work as an assistant to Master Vinayak and later Raja Paranjape. Raja Thakur had produced an English film ” Birbal – My brother “-1973. His another film “Mumbaicha Jawai” (मुंबईचा जावई)-1970, was remade in Hindi as ‘Piya ka Ghar’-1971 by Basu Chatterjee.
There were 6 songs in the films. 3 songs were in Hindi. 1 song was in Konkani. This song “Hatat bangdi sonyachi, hi pori konachi ( हातात बांगडी सोन्याची, ही पोरी कोनाची ) became an evergreen song, so popular that even now, it is played in Ganesh utsav, Holi etc. programmes. Only 2 songs were in Marathi, in this Marathi film.
Today’s song has a tune, which Chitalkar seems to have borrowed from his own film Aazad-1955 – “Marna bhi muhabbat mein kisi kaam na aaya”. Enjoy today’s song in Chitalkar’s voice.
Song- Na mila hai na milega mujhe aaraam kahin (Dhananjay)(Marathi)(1966) Singer – Chitalkar, Lyricist – P L Santoshi, Music – C Ramchandra
Chorus
Lyrics
Na mila hai na milega mujhe aaraam kahin
Na mila hai na milega mujhe aaraam kahin
Na mila hai na milega mujhe aaraam kahin een een een
suniye
main musaafir hoon
meri subah kahin shaam kahin
main musaafir hoon
meri subah kahin shaam kahin
main musaafir hoon
meri subah kahin shaam kahin
o o o
o o o
main chala to chal diya zindagi ka kaarwaan
arre main ruka to ruk gaya zindagi ka kaarwaan
hans ke jisne dekh liya
arre hans ke jisne dekh liya
main usi ka ho gaya
aa aa aa aa
do ghadi bhar ke liye kar liya mukaam wahin
do ghadi bhar ke liye kar liya mukaam wahin
do ghadi bhar ke liye kar liya mukaam wahin
do ghadi bhar ke liye kar liya mukaam wahin een een
Na mila hai na milega mujhe aaraam kahin
Na mila hai na milega mujhe aaraam kahin
main musaafir hoon
meri subah kahin shaam kahin
o o o
o o o o
raat ke hai baad din aur din ke baad raat hai
arre chal rahi isi tarah saari kaaynaat hai
main bhi chala jaa raha
main bhi
main bhi chala jaa raha
gham aur khushi saath liye
ae ae
meri is zindagi mein thaharne ka kaam nahin
meri is zindagi mein thaharne ka kaam nahin
meri is zindagi mein thaharne ka kaam nahin
o meri is zindagi mein thaharne ka kaam nahin
een een een
Na mila hai na milega mujhe aaram kahin
main musaafir hoon
meri subah kahin shaam kahin
Mere baba ne baat meri maan li
Posted on: August 14, 2019
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
| Blog Day : | 4044 | Post No. : | 15170 |
Today’s song is from film Shakuntala-43. This was the first film of V.Shantaram, under his own new banner- Rajkamal Kala mandir. The song is sung by film’s Heroine, Jayashree, on whom it was filmed also. The song was written by Ratan Piya ( I like this musical name, really !) and the music was by Vasant Desai.
The film was directed by Shantaram and the Cinematographer was his own brother V. Awadhoot.The cast of the film Shakuntala-43 was, Jayashree, Chandramohan, nana Palshikar, Nimbalkar, Zohra, Shantarin, Ameena, Vilas, Ratan piya etc etc.
Besides being the first film of Rajkamal, it was also first film of Vasant Desai to give music to a Shantaram film. He went on togive music to other Shantaram films like, Parbat pe apna dera-44, Dr. Kotnis ki amar kahani-46, Matwala shayar Ram Joshi-47 ( Amar Bhoopali-52 in Bangla and in 55 for Marathi version also), Dahej-52, Surang-53, Jhanak jhanak payal baje-55, do aankhen baraa haath-57 and Ladki Sahyadri ki-66.
Likewise, for Lyricist and writer Diwan Sharar ( real name Dewan Atmanand Sharar) also this was first film with Shantaram. He adapted the story from original ‘ Abhigyan Shakuntalam” in Sanskrit by mahakavi Kalidas. He wrote the story, dialogues and some lyrics too. later on he did some more Shantaram filmslike Parbat pe apna dera-44, Dr, Kotnis ki amar kahani-46, Apna Desh-49, Teen batti Chaar raasta-53 and jhanak jhanak Payal Baje-55.
So far,8 songs of this film are already discussed here and lot of information has been given in them, I too have done one post for this film. I wrote about this film being the First in 3 cases as mentioned above. This film also was the Last film in Pre-Partition era for one artiste, who was a very popular and well known Heroine, in the early era of the Hindi films. Her name is Miss Zohra Jaan aka Zohra.
In the Hindi film industry history,there have been many brother and sister pairs who worked in films. However, there were only 2 cases where 3 sisters worked in Hindi films as Heroines. The first ‘Triplet’ was Zubeida (Alam Ara fame), Sultana and Shahzadi,who all operated in the 30’s. The second ‘ Triplet ‘ was Zohra, Mushtari and Anuradha (real name Khurseed Akhtar), who worked in Hindi films from the 20s to the 40s. Mushtari died in her teens, after doing just 8 films as Heroine, and the other sisters migrated to Pakistanafter partition.
Miss Zohra Jaan or Zohra is not known to most people. She was one of the most successful heroines in the 30’s, having her first 5 films declared as Hit films, in the early era of Cinema. let us know more about her.
Zohra was born into a famous courtesan’s family of Delhi. originally from Punjab, the family had shifted to Delhi for better prospects. She was trained in Dance and Music in Lahore. They were 3 sisters-Zohra, Mushtari and Khursheed Akhtar ( screen name Anuradha). Zohra, as a young girl, was very naughty and mischievous. She had learnt Urdu, Punjabi and Pushtu languages, with excellence.
One day, while on an outing in Lahore, with father, Zohra saw a shooting on the road. This was her first encounter with a film shooting and she was terribly impressed. A.R.Kardar had started a small studio ‘ United players’ Corporation’ in Lahore and he was doing the shooting. He saw the sisters and was keen on taking them in films. Next day Kardar, along with a common friend, went to Zohra’s father and made his offer, which was out rightly refused by her father.
After few days, her father took the family to Bombay, in 1928, for some work. They hired a beautiful bungalow on Chaupati. Zohra was quite grown up now.she sang very well. She did some Mujra programmes. At the same time her Mujra and some devotional songs were recorded by The Twin Records company.
Neelam, a singer known to the family took the girls to see a film in Imperial Talkies. Ardeshir Irani, who saw them there, was impressed.Along with Neelam, he went to meet her father, next day. He offered Rs. 500 for each sister- Zohra and Mushtari- per month if they agree to working in his films.In those days, Rs. 1000 was a hugh amount and it did the trick . With father’s permission, Zohra was very happy.She did 2 silent films- Nand kumar-1929 and Radha Krishna-1930.
When the Talkie films started, she did Anang sena-31, Niti Vijay-32, Dagabaz Ashiq-32 and Bharati Mata-32 with Imperial. However, due to her command over Urdu language and good acting all these films being Hits, she started getting offers from other producers. She got an offer of Rs. 2500 and she left Imperial. Mushtari continued at imperial. ( Mushtari,who was in her teens did only 8 films. She fell ill and was removed to Lahore. However Mushtari died on 8-6-1934 at a very young age.)
Zohra became very popular and went on from 2500 to 5000 rupees per month. She was a very calculated person and saved quite a lot money. She went on doing films after films. In the beginning of her carer she had married Rafique Ghaznavi, who was making a career in films as actor,director, singer and Music Director. He had earlier married Anwari in Lahore but divorced her after a daughter was born.
In film industry, Zohra was known as ‘Marlene Dietrich’ of India. From 1931 to 1943, she did 31 films and had sung 44 songs in 15 films. Unfortunately none of her records of film songs are available,as most songs were not made commercially. Her private NF song records may be available with some Record Collectors of India or Pakistan. her last film in India was “Shakuntala”-43. She was further engaged to work in Shantaram’s next film ‘Parbat pe apna dera’-44. At that time the winds of Partition were blowing and some communal riots also took place. Zohra was scared and she left for Lahore.
Meanwhile Rafique Ghazanavi had divorced her after 15 years of married life. He married Zohra’s younger sister Anuradha. After migrating to Pakistan, he divorced her also and married someone else. Their daughter Shaheen was young now and ready for entering films. Zohra married director A.M.Mirza.
Sohrab Modi and Kardar urged her to come back for their films,but she was reluctant to come here due to fear. In Lahore,her daughter started getting film roles.In 1948, Filmistan invited her to act in their proposed film “Heer Ranjha”. So, Zohra came on 3 month’s visa. She immediately worked in a quicky stunt film “Aaj ka Farhad”-48. The news of her coming to Bombay spread and she was flooded with offers. In just 15 days, she made 10 contracts. Prithviraj Kapoor got her 1 year visa, with Morar ji Desai’s help.
During this period some artistes in Pakistan felt that because of Indian films,film industry in Pakistan was not developing and hence there was an agitation not to take any Indian films for exhibition and distribution. As a reply, India also declared not to take any Pakistani artiste in Indian films. Producers like Jagdish Sethi and P N Aurora hesitated to proceed with their films with Zohra. So once again Zohra went back to Pakistan.
Her daughter Shaheen’s career took off. Several offers came to Zohra also,but she did not want to work with new people. Consequently,offers stopped coming. It was rumoured that Zohra was curt, egoistic and very quick tempered, which was actually true. in reality Zohra could never forget the free atmosphere at India and the work of professionals here. That was also the cause of her career’s ending Pakistan. There is no information about her after that. In India, Zohara worked with the Best actors, best Directors and Best banners, at Bombay, Lahore and Calcutta.
Hindi film industry is full of unbelievable stories and anecdotes about producers, Directors, Actors, Singers and music Directors. Among actresses,the story of actress Shanta Apte is very famous how she taught a lesson to Baburao Patel, by beating him with a whip, in his office, for writing objectionable and insulting about her in magazine Film India. her name is quotes as an example of Woman-Power, courage and as an act of protecting self respect.
It is unfortunate that an act of similar nature, performed by Zohra in 1934 ( much earlier to Shanta Apte’s act) has remained unknown. She did something to protect her self respect and to teach a lesson for insulting her.Let us know how it happened.
Zohra was shooting for film ‘Jawani Diwani’-34 in Jayant studio of Jayant Desai. She had sent her driver for bringing lunch, but he was delayed. The shooting was going on even after the Lunch period of 1.30 to 2.30. She became very uneasy. Unmindful of the delay, the director arranged foranother shot. Zohra told him,” Lunch hour is already over and it is past 2.30.I am going.”
The director said ” you cant go without doing this shot.”
Zohra was angry and said- “you are arranging for this shot since last one hour. I can not wait anymore.”
Director said sarcastically, ” O Bai ji, this is your job, not a joke.”
His calling her “Bai ji” was very insulting for Zohra. She removed her chappals and gave a solid beating to the director. He started begging pardon. This matter went to the owners and the director was removed instantly. You must be wondering how the word ‘ Bai ji’ annoyed Zohra. To understand this, we have to know something.
To understand this word,we have to go back in History. There were 565 Princely states in India before Partition. Due to patronising of fine arts like music and dance by these Princes, a new class of Nautch Girls emerged in the 19th century. All Nautch Girls were not the same. Author Michael Kinnear, in his book “The Gramophone company’s first Indian Recordings 1899-1908 “, has explained the classification and Nomenclatures of these Nautch Girls. As per that, there were 4 types…
| Lowest Class…..IV | Name – Khanki | Prostitutes/Sex workers |
| Class III | Name – Kaneez | Daasi or servant |
| Class II | Name – Bai ji | Singing/Dancing |
| Class I | Name – Jaan | Top class singers |
They all were called collectively as Tawayafs. The readers will now understand the difference between Amirbai,Waheedanbai,Jaddanbai and Tamancha Jaan, Gauhar Jaan, Malika Jaan, Zohra Jaan etc etc.
There were quite a few such stars in the annals of early cinema world. Hopefully,more artistes will be dug out with their history.
Today’s song is sung by Jaishree. The video shows how happy Shakuntala is, about her father agreeing to send her to Dushant.
( This article is based on information from various sources, like Zohra’s interview in Madhuri magazine of 18-12-1981, book ” The lost treasure” by Kamlakar Pasupuleti and Surjit Singh ji, Screenplay by Isak Mujawar, MuVyz, HFGK, CITWF, shri Harish Raghuwanshi ji and my notes.)
Song- Mere baba ne baat meri maan li (Shakuntala)(1943) Singer-Jayshree, Lyricist- Ratan Piya, MD- Vasant Desai
Lyrics
Mere baba ne baat meri maan li
Mere baba ne baat meri maan li
?? baba ne
?? baba ne
achche baba ne baat meri maan li
achche baba ne baat meri maan li
Mere baba ne baat meri maan li
Mere baba ne baat meri maan li
?? sandes
apne preetam ke des
?? sandes
apne preetam ke des
haay ??
kaun jaaye arri
le ke paati meri
kaun jaaye arri
le ke paati meri
Mere baba ne baat meri maan li
Mere baba ne baat meri maan li
bhanwre bhejoon tujhe
par hai ye darr mujhe
wo bhi kaliyon ka ras pee ke phool jaayega
wo bhi kaliyon ka ras pee ke phool jaayega
aur mera sandesa bhi bhool jaayega
aur mera sandesa bhi bhool jaayega
meri nanhi kudi(??)
aaj kar lo deri
meri nanhi kudi(??)
aaj kar lo deri
arre pyaari gayi maari
kya jaayegi
arre pyaari gayi maari
kya jaayegi
raah aadhi na pahunchegi
laut aayegi
raah aadhi na pahunchegi
laut aayegi
Mere baba ne baat meri maan li
Mere baba ne baat meri maan li
maina
kaho mitthhu ye maina tumhaari
saari baaten kahegi hamaari
nahin bhoolegi na
na na na na na
?? kah degi na
haan haan haan haan haan
mere pyaare pyaare maina
mere achche achche maina
mere pyaare pyaare maina
mere achche achche maina
leja meri khabar
mere saajan ke ghar
leja meri khabar
mere saajan ke ghar
Mere baba ne baat meri maan li
Mere baba ne baat meri maan li
kahna ab to bula lo mujhe
apne paas
kahna ab to bula lo mujhe
apne paas
pyaasi dasshan ki main
swaami teri udaas
pyaasi dasshan ki main
swaami teri udaas
dekh lena badha
unki jaldi se ??
jajaaldi jaldi se
meri pyaari pyaari maina
meri achchi ahchi maina
meri pyaari pyaari maina
meri achchi ahchi maina
leja meri khabar
mere saajan ke ghar
leja meri khabar
mere saajan ke ghar
Mere baba ne baat meri maan li
Mere baba ne baat meri maan li
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
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