Archive for the ‘Post by Arunkumar Deshmukh’ Category
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Blog Day : |
4509 | Post No. : | 16052 |
Today’s song is from an obscure film Ranee-43, which was a Bi-lingual film made by Calcutta’s Barua Productions.
The film was directed by P C Barua and the music was by Kamal Dasgupta. Barring a few big movies, the Hindi-Bangla bilingual films did not become as successful as their Bangla versions. I feel the reasons were mainly two. One was that the cast of such films consisted of most names, with which the Hindi audience was not familiar. The second point was the style of acting and the dialogue delivery of the Bangla actors was deemed strange in Hindi belt. The Hindi used in films made in Bengal was too pure to be of the liking of people who were used to Hindustani language. The audience preferred ” pyar or muhabbat ” to ” prem “, for example.
The cast of the film Ranee-43 was Jahar Ganguli, Kalavati, P C Barua, Jamuna, Patience Cooper, Bikram Kapoor etc. The music of film Ranee-43 was not popular. The year 1943 was an year when lots of films provided melodious music. There were films like Aabroo, Ishara, Kanoon, Kismat, Nadaan, Nai Kahani, Najma, Namaste, Naukar, Panghat, Poonji, Prithvi Vallabh, Ram Rajya, Sanjog, Shakuntala, Tansen, Taqdeer etc. etc. Films of popular singers like Saigal and Noorjehan were on everone’s lips. In this situation, films like Ranee with music below par could not make any impact.
There were a number of films made by Bangla artistes, like Wapas, Shri Ramanuj, Ranee, Manchali, Kashinath, and Hospital. The exodus of artistes from New Theatres had started from 1940 onwards and many came to Bombay. Whatever the reason, New Theatres had lost its sheen, which it had enjoyed till now, It was sad to see a Lion in a dilapidated and helpless situation.
P C Barus and Jamuna, the husband-wife pair, were in the lead in this film. While Jamuna still looked like a Heroine, Barua did not look suitable for the ” young and Handsome” hero’s part. Reviewing the film in his magazine, Baburao Patel cme down heavily on this misfit hero and the declining skill of the director Barua. The story of the film was about Ranee- a young and good looking girl in a village, who becomes a victim of false rumours about her character. She leaves the village, giving an impression that she has done suicide. She works as a Maid in another village with a Zamindar. The zamindar’s young and handsome brother falls in love, but she does not show inclination. He starts drinking. She leaves the house. The hero drinks and falls ill, Ranee enters as a Nurse and looks after him. The zamindar comes to know who she is and that all the rumours were false. The hero recovers completely and both get married.
Before joining The New Theatres, Barua was running his own film making outfit for a studio and a company. After leaving NT, he restarted it. Actually he wanted initially to merge his company with NT, but Sircar refused and offered him a paid job, which he had accepted.
Director P.C. aka Pramathesh Barua was born on 24-10-1903. A well educated and foreign trained prince from a Royal family came into the films only by chance. He established his own studio and made films. Impressed by his style and work, B.N.Sircar of New Theatres offered him a job in his company. Barua joined and made such films in New Theatres that the studio became famous all over India. His greatest contribution was his first film here, ” Devdas”-34 in Bangla. he did the main role and brought in a comparatively new actress Jamuna for the role of Parvati aka Paro. With the fantastic success of the Bangla version, Barua made its Hindi version in 1936, with K L Saigal as the Hero. This was mor successful than the Bangla version and became an iconic film for ever as a reference point. Then an Assamese version was also made in 1937.
With a very eventful, successful and satisfying stint in New Theatres, Barua developed serious differences with the owner-B.N.Sircar, who was known to be a disciplinarian who held the Institution ( of NT) in place. New Theatres, in the 30s , was full of Titans having larger than life images and it was inevitable that there would be clashes amongst the artistes and the owner. Like true Bengalis, they all had king size Egos and over estimated self respects.
The first crack came in 1933 when Nitin Bose and Debaki Bose clashed, resulting in Debaki Bose’s temporary exit. In the line was Barua, who had a grudge that he was not given as many films as his peers Nitin Bose and Hemchander Chunder got . The rift between Barua and Sircar was obviously born out of deep differences, because after Barua left, B N Sircar had said ” He was a remarkably innovative director who seemed to improve after every film. As an actor, he forged a style that was distinctively his own uniquely. But as a Man…..well,I would rather not discuss it ”.
However, it was known to both of them and all others connected with NT, that both these Giants had tremendous love and respect for each other. In 1951, when Barua lay dying on his bed, he instructed that his body be taken past the house of B N Sircar, where he was lying sick on bed. When Barua’s funeral convoy reached Sircar’s house, the ailing Sircar hobbled painfully to the window of his elegant Elgin Road Residence, as the prince of Players paused beneath the window for a while and then proceeded. It was a poignant moment- an act symbolic of a reference point established a long time ago in a business which was notorious for callous and impermanent relationships !
After Barua Nitin Bose left, then Kanan Bala and a few more. Only Pankaj Mullick, though hurt by NT’s neglect, stuck till the end. P.C.Barua died on 29-11-1951. He acted in 8 Hindi films( Manzil-36, Mukti-37, Adhikar-38, Jawab-42, Ranee-43, Subah Shaam-44, Amiree-45 and Pehchan-46). He directed 14 films and sang 1 song in the film Jawab-42.
Barua’s wife Jamuna Was an excellent actress. Pity that she did only 13 films in Hindi. Jamuna ( 10-10-1919 to 24-11-2005) was the fourth of the six daughters of Puran Gupta, a resident of a village near Agra, India. Each of the sisters was named after an Indian river like Ganga, Jamuna, Bhagirathi etc. As destiny would have it, Jamuna came to reside in Calcutta, a leading film producing city in India. Originally from Gauripur of Assam’s Goalpara district (undivided), Jamuna was married to the legendary actor director Pramathesh Barua, or P.C. Barua, who died in 1951. She began her acting career in her husband’s famous production Devdas in 1936 and was the film’s lead character Parvati or Paro. She went on to make a number of memorable movies in Assamese, Bengali and Hindi, notably Amiri, Mukti, Adhikar and Sesh Uttar. She stopped acting after Barua died.
Jamuna made her film debut in the 1930s and played a small role in Mohabbat Ki Kasauti (1934), Hindi version of Rooplekha (Bengali), directed by P.C. Barua. A romance started although Barua, hailing from the native Indian state of Gauripur, Assam, was already twice married. As the actress, who was to play Parbati in Barua’s next venture Devdas (1935) reported inability to attend the studio on the very first day of shooting, Jamuna was called from Barua’s residence (she was living with him by then) and was asked to get down to work straight away without any preparation whatsoever. Thus she came to be the first Parbati of Indian talkies- Miss Light had played the role in the silent version of the enormously popular Sarat Chandra novel. Aishwarya Rai happens to be the last so far and Devdas has been made and remade a number of times. Jamuna played the same role in the Hindi version also and was accepted in this very first proper exposure as an actress in her own right.
She continued to act in Barua’s films like Grihadaha (1936), Maya (1936), Adhikar (1939), Uttarayan (1941), Shesh Uttar (1942), Chander Kalanka (1944) and the respective Hindi versions of each film. Barua had left the prestigious New Theatres in 1940 and was directing as well as producing his films. Thereafter she acted in a number of Barua directed Hindi movies like Amiree, Pehchan and Iran Ki Ek Raat. These films however did not add to the prestige of either Barua or Jamuna. Jamuna also acted outside Barua direction in three Bengali films Debar (1943) and Nilanguriya (1943) where she proved herself without Barua’s influence. Her last film Malancha (1953) was also outside Barua’s direction. She also starred in its Hindi version Phulwari (1953).
Barua’s death in 1951 when he was only 48 changed Jamuna’s life altogether. She had three sons by Barua, Deb Kumar, Rajat and Prasun. They were all minors at the time and the Gauripur estate refused to take any of their responsibilities. She had to wage a legal battle with the powerful and influential royal family to get her and her children’s dues and recognition. Time settled the matters and she was allowed ownership of the house with its vast adjoining land and also an allowance. Jamuna spent the rest of her life after Barua as a housewife, busy in bringing up her minor sons. She had to complete the unfinished film Malancha of course but bid adieu to the film industry soon after. Later in her life she did attend a number of functions to celebrate the centennial year of husband P.C. Barua and received felicitations on behalf of the Government of India and the state Government of Assam as the first Parbati of Indian talkies.
Her last days were not very comfortable and she was bedridden for more than six months prior to her death. She is survived by her three sons and their families and a host of relatives. According to her family members, she had been ill for some time, and the cause of death was illness related to old age. She died at her residence in South Kolkata. She had acted in 13 Hindi films. Her last film was Phulwari-51.
Today’s song is the third song from this film to be posted here. The names of singers of all songs are not given in the HFGK. The film was released on 4-6-1943 at Super cinema, Bombay, where it ran for only 2 weeks.
Song-Piyo ji khoob piyo main pilaun pyaar se (Ranee)(1943) Singer-Unknown female voice, Lyricist- Pt. Madhur, MD- Kamal Dasgupta
Lyrics
Piyo jee
khoob piyo
main pilaaun pyaar se ae
main pilaaun pyaar se
Piyo jee
khoob piyo
main pilaaun pyaar se ae
main pilaaun pyaar se
dil tera howe
maikhaana
saaqi ban jaaye
paimaana
bano jee
mast bano ye
jawaani ki kahaani
bano ji
mast bano ye
jawaani ki kahaani
Piyo jee
khoob piyo
main pilaaun pyaar se ae
main pilaaun pyaar se
peene kaa hi hai naam zindagi
aur aankh aankh se karti hai bandagi
dilon ke ??
nahin inkaar se
dilon ke ??
nahin inkaar se
Piyo jee
khoob piyo
main pilaaun pyaar se ae
main pilaaun pyaar se
honthhon ko hai ye jaam choomte
dil ke hain saare armaan jhoomte
mazaa peene ka peene ka
mazaa peene ka
boojh lo
aa aa aa aa
ishq ke beemaar se
Piyo jee
khoob piyo
main pilaaun pyaar se ae
main pilaaun pyaar se
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 : |
4506 | Post No. : | 16047 |
Today’s song is from the film Kaise Kahoon-1945.
To start with, Bombay was the first film making centre followed closely by Calcutta. Slowly, some other centres like Madras, Coimbatore, Poona, Bangalore etc. as occasional film centres also developed. In 1924,i.e. 11 years after the first silent feature film was released in Bombay, Lahore made its first silent film-“The daughters of Today”. It was made and released in Lahore. This film was made by Mr. G K Mehta, a former officer of North Western Railways, who had imported a Camera from London. A R Kardar, who was making posters for foreign film productions and who was a qualified well known Calligrapher, assisted Mehta. Kardar and his friend Ismail both also acted in that film.
In 1928, Kardar, with no other work on hand, decided to start a film making studio and a production company called ” United Players Corporation” to make films. He made 12 silent films in Lahore, thus bringing Lahore’s name on the map of film centres in India. Therefore, Kardar can be called the architect of Lahore film industry, in a sense. Slowly Talkie films were planned in Lahore. Dalsukh Pancholiestablished his studio. The making of films like Khazanchi, Khandan and Zamindar firmly established Lahore as a Film making centre. Many films like Poonji, Daasi etc were made there. Punjabi aspirants in various fields like acting, direction, music, singing, cinematography etc found Lahore convenient to start careers, rather than going to Bombay all the way.
Film Kaise Kahoon – 45 was made by Pancholi Art Studio, Lahore which had earned All India fame with its highly successful films. As per Baburao Patel’s review in Film India magazine January 1945, the film’s story was by Dalsukh pancholi himself. He had also written the story for another hit film Daasi-44 earlier. Patel said in his review that ” Pancholi stole ideas from foreign films “. Whether True or not, the treatment Pancholi’s films gave to the stories was certainly loved by the audience all over India, so there was no problem. The film was directed by foreign trained Moti B Gidwani, who directed 17 films in his career. It is interesting to know, however, that his first film as a director, ” Midnight Girl -29″ was a resounding flop and it caused the film maker company- Maharashtra Film company of Kolhapur to close down. It also caused a group of 5 people to leave the company earlier and start their own Prabhat Film Company, at Kolhapur.
Cast of the film was Ragini, Najmul Hasan, Akhtar, Jagirdar, Durga Mota etc. Ragini was famous and popular. She was one of the two actresses of Hindi films, who had Brown eyes, the other being Vanmala. The hero Najmul Hasan was a compromise actor, who had become infamous due to his elopement with Devika Rani of Bombay Talkies. She returned to her husband and he was left high and dry ! Baburao Patel described him as ” an overfed Owl ” !
One name in the cast is that of Durga Mota. His real name was Durgaprasad. Due to his heavy build he was nicknamed Mota(fat). He was a permanent member of Pancholi films as a comedian. It is very sad that his career ended in a gruesome way. In 1947, after Partition, there was an exodus of millions from Lahore to India. Durgaprasad also wanted to shift to Delhi. He went to Lahore station to catch the train. Suddenly, a frenzied mob of rioters invaded Lahore station and they started killing all the passengers waiting to go to India. People started running to save life. Due to his fatness, Durgaprasad could not move faster and was caught by the mob, who cut him in pieces on the Lahore Railway station platform itself.
The film was released on 16-11-45 ( 75 years ago to the date, almost), in Imperial Cinema, Bombay. The story of the film, as adapted from the Film India magazine review by our Sadanand kamath ji, was – A doctor (Gajanan Jagirdar) has a son and two grown up daughters – Geeta (Ragini) and Basanti (Baby Akhtar). The son who was in Burma is expected to return home, However, he is accidentally killed by Pradeep (Najam ul Hasan) without knowing the identity of the deceased. As it often happens in Hindi films, coincidentally, Pradeep lands in a doctor’s house for an overnight stay. He falls in love with Geeta instantaneously. The overnight guest becomes a permanent attachment. Basanti, the younger sister of Geeta, is also happy about her sister’s love for Pradeep.
As usual in Hindi films, when the love reaches a finale, a villain, a zamindar (probably Ajmal) steps in the picture. He comes to know about the accidental death of the doctor’s son and the killer who is none other than Pradeep. After a lot of suspicions and misunderstanding, the things get cleared and Pradeep gets his fiancee Geeta.
The music of film kaise Kahoon-45 was by a veteran Pt. Amarnath Batish. I am purposely calling him Batish, because there was another MD with the same name of Pt. Amarnath Chawla. They were obviously different, but were a case of ” Same Name Confusion” because both never wrote their full names. In this matter Marathi actresses never became a case of SNC, because they all used their surnames, like Shanta Apte and Shanta Hublikar, Nalini Tarkhad and Nalini Jaywant, Leela Chitnis and Leela Chandragiri etc. etc. This made matters clear and easy to identify.
In 1931 the first Talkie film was released. There were seven songs in this film. With this film, along with the existing Film Industry an additional Music Industry also came into existence. The early film makers understood the importance of music in India. Music, Instrumental or Vocal had secured the Royal Patronage from the kings and Nawabs. For the common people Gramophone records were providing musical entertainment. Occasional open air dramas and music concerts too were popular. By the 30’s decade the NFS (Non Film Songs) became a craze and several popular singers churned out their records.
Music became an integral part of Hindi films. Famous filmmakers like Prabhat, Ranjit, New Theatres, Madon Theatres, Bombay Talkies, Saraswati Cinetone etc. also helped in promoting film music. Initially Film music was greatly influenced by Parsi Theatre, and Marathi and Gujarati Natya Geets as well as Folk songs. This was successfully changed by Ghulam Haider with Punjabi Music in Lahore and Naushad with UP folk music in Bombay. Pt. Amarnath and his younger brother pair of Husnlal-Bhagatram carried forward the Punjabi music.
Amarnath Batish was born in 1912 in Jalandhar. He started his career as an actor and singer on stage dramas. He was a good Harmonium and Tabla player. He started his career with HMV as an Orchestra Director, in Delhi. Master Madan, the child Prodigy recorded few Punjabi songs under his baton.
It was natural that Amarnath joined Films. His first film was Roop K Shorey’s Nishani-1942. Pandit ji had discovered Naseem Akhtar. She and Shamshad begum sang songs for him. In the same year, his first Punjabi film Govandi-42 was released. His new find Zeenat Begum sang in it. Even Amarnath sang a song ” Pagadi utaar jatta” along with S D Batish and chorus in it. However, the British government banned this Patriotic song. The film was a hit film. Film Daasi-44 was his most popular film. All songs became hits. He did a film Irada-44, in Calcutta in which he introduced Hemant Kumar in Hindi films.
Simultaneously, he was giving music to Punjabi films too like Koel-44 and Gul Baloch-45.During the 40s decade Pt. Amarnath was the most busy composer, with a line up like- Nishani-42, Paapi-43, Irada-44, Daasi-44, Panchhi-44, Shirin Farhad-45, Ragini-45, Kaise Kahoon-45, Dhamkee-45, Sham Savera-46, Shalimar-46, Shehar se door-46, Jhumke-46, Aai Bahar-46, pagdandi-47, Mirza Saheban-47, Roop Rekha-48 and Ek Teri Nishani-49.
He gave music to 18 Hindi films, composing 152 songs in all. Due to his success, he started taking drinks, which became his nemesis. At the time of film Pagdandi-47, after a few songs, he was replaced by Khurshid Anwar. Even in his last two films Roop Rekha-48 and Ek teri nishani-49 after a few songs, he was replaced by other MDs. Film Patjhad, which he had signed, was given to Ghulam Haider.
During the making of the film Mirza Sahiban-47, Pt. Amarnath died at the age of just 35 years, on 20-2-1947. The balance songs were done by Husnlal Bhagatram.
(Adapted with thanks, from Film Sangeetkar by Prof. Yadav, an article by Sharad Dutt in milleniumpost.in, Dhunon ki yatra by P.Raag, HFGK, muVyz and my notes).
So far, 2 songs of this film were discussed. Today’s song is the third song here. I would say, songs of this film do not conform to the fame of Pt. Amarnath for giving melodious songs. But then, every song of every film can not be of the same quality.
Song-Gori gaagar ki Ganga udhhaar diye jaa (Kaise Kahoon)(1945) Singers- S D Batish, Shamshad Begum, Lyricist- Sharma, MD- Pt. Amarnath
Chorus
Lyrics
Gori ee
gaagar ki Ganga udhhaar diye jaa
udhhaar diye jaa
tujhe ganga kasam
o tujhe Ganga kasam
haan
dil waalon ke dil ka vyopaar kiye jaa
vyopaar kiye jaa
tujhe ganga kasam
o tujhe Ganga kasam
gori ee
gaagar ki ganga
wo bageeche mein dekho
wo gaagar pade
wo bageeche mein dekho
wo gaagar pade
nahin hoti hai
?? mein pade
babu dil mein hi
o babu dil mein hi
dil ka vyopaar kiye jaa
gori
gaagar ki Ganga udhhaar diye jaa
udhhaar diye jaa
tujhe ganga kasam
o tujhe
o tujhe
o tujhe
ganga kasam
baabu
dil mein hi Ganga utaar kiye jaa
utaar kiye jaa
tujhe ganga kasam
o tujhe Ganga kasam
Gori ee
gaagar ki ganga
Gori har roz tumse to kehna nahin
Gori har roz tumse to kehna nahin
sada gaagar ki ganga mein behna nahin
sada roop jawaani mein rehna nahin
rehna nahin
aji din hain tere
upkaar kiye jaa aa
baabu u
dil mein hi dil ka vyopaar kiye jaa
vyopaar kiye jaa
tujhe ganga kasam
o tujhe
o tujhe
o tujhe
ganga kasam
o gori ee
gaagar ki ganga
baabu baala jobanwa hai
pyaar kiye jaa
pyaar kiye jaa
baabu baala jobanwa hai
pyaar kiye jaa
pyaar kiye jaa
kachchi kaliyaan hain
kachchi kaliyaan hain
tan man nisaar kiye jaa
nisaar kiye jaa
phool ban’ne talak
intzaar kiye jaa
gori ee ee
gaagar ki ganga udhhaar kiye jaa
udhaar diye jaa
tujhe ganga kasam
o tujhe
o tujhe
baabu
dil mein hi dil ka vyopaar kiye jaa
vyopaar kiye jaa
tujhe ganga kasam
o tujhe
ganga kasam
o gori ee
gaagar ki ganga
Re mann kaahe soch kare
Posted on: November 15, 2020
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 : |
4503 | Post No. : | 16041 |
Today’s song is from an early era film- Jeewan Naiya-1936.
The film was produced by Bombay Talkies. This was their just the second full length Talkie film, since the company was started. How Bombay Talkies was conceived, established and became one of the India’s top film studios has been told several times- here and on the Internet. They were pioneers and pall bearers of making films on social evils of Indian society, led by their senior in this field – Prabhat Film Co., which was started a few years earlier.
Himanshu Rai the owner of BT (Bombay Talkies), was born in an illustrious Bengali family in 1892.After graduation, he was sent to England to practice Law. But once he landed in London, he became a participant in London’s Theatre scenes. Devika Rani- the grand niece of Rabindranath Tagore and daughter of Col. M N Chaudhary was born at Waltair (now Vishakhapatanam) in 1908. At the age of 16, she sailed for England on a scholarship from Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and also R.A. of Music-both at London. Rai was introduced to her at a party, He offered her a job of designing Costumes for his films. After 3 years, they got married.
They came back to India and in 1934, Bombay Talkies was established. In 1935, its first Talkie film ” Jawani ki Hawa “-35 was made with Devika Rani and the handsome Najmul Hasan, as the lead pair. During this film, they fell in love. The shooting of the next film started. The film was ” Jeewan Naiya-36′. About 40 % shooting was done and suddenly, the lead pair of Devika Rani and Najmul hasan eloped to Calcutta. BT was shattered. Shashadhar Mukherji rushed to Calcutta and met Devika Rani in Grand Hotel. he managed to convince her to return to Bombay. At this time, she is said to have made a partnership deal with Rai for BT as the price to return. They both came back….without Najmul Hasan !
Actually, Himanshu Rai was already married once to an Austrian girl. They had a son also. He was 16 years older than Devika Rani, but still he married her, considering the benefits his film company would have if a ‘ Home Heroine” was available. He was highly business minded and Devika Rani knew this. She understood that situation and wanted her price to come back to Himanshu Rai’s professional married life. Her shrewdness came out in open after Rai’s death in 1940 and when she handled BT affairs dictatorially.
As a replacement to hero Najmul Hasan, Ashok Kumar was selected. In his screen test the cinematographer Joseph Virsinghe approved him but director Franz Osten had objections. Despite that he was selected by Himanshu Rai. He also changed Kumudlal Ganguly’s name to only ASHOK KUMAR. 4 films – Jeevan Naiya, Achhoot kanya, Izzat and Janmabhoomi were planned for next one year, roughly one film every 3 months. The staff of Bombay Talkies was unhappy with Devika Rani after what she did to Himanshu Rai, but Shashadhar mukherji took a meeting and tried to convince the staff. This had a reverse effect. Devika Rani thought that he instigated the staff against her and their relations soured. This ultimately resulted in Shashadhar and few others leaving BT and starting Filmistan in 1942.
There is another story of the entry of Ashok kumar into the film……Najmul Hussian played the lead role opposite Devika Rani when shooting began. Rani developed a strong crush on her hero, and on a break during the shoot, she ran away with him. The producer Himansu Rai, was Rani’s husband, and he was up in arms at this situation. However, Rani returned to him soon after, but he was in no mood to work with Hussain again. As the film was already half done, this presented a problem. One of his colleagues suggested that he finish the film by casting his laboratory assistant, whose side profile matched that of Najmul Hussain’s, and use creative lighting and shadows for the rest of the scenes so that the audience is not aware of the ‘switch’. This idea clicked with Rai and he successfully completed the film with the new hero. That lucky lab assistant was Ashok Kumar, and thus began his acting career. (Thanks to IMDB)
This was the background of the film Jeewan Naiya-1936. The story was written by Niranjan pal. The story was
“Lata (Devika Rani), daughter of a dancing girl, is brought up by social worker Mathuradas (Prasad) and is engaged to marry the rich Ranjit (Ashok Kumar) when the villain Chand (S.N. Tripathi) arrives to blackmail her with her undisclosed ancestry. Lata is forced to disclose the truth to Ranjit and the assembled wedding guests. Ranjit disowns her but they are reunited when Ranjit, blinded by an explosion, is nursed back to health by a devoted woman who turns out to be his wife. ”
(Thanks to IMDB) .
The film’s dialogues were by J S Casshyap, production incharge was N R Acharya and the film was directed by a German-without knowing Hindi- Franz Osten.
Very few people know that Indian Cinema had a little known connection with the rise of Hitler in Germany in 1932-33. A group of men , engaged in Cinema in Germany, flocked to India in the 30’s and played a vital role in Indian Cinema and the arts of that time. After Hitler took over Germany in 1933, the German Cine Studio’s glory days were over and they were turned into Nazi Propaganda Machines !
It was at this time that several of its men ( mostly persecuted Jews) left the studio and some arrived in India, and contributed to Indian cinema’s formative years.
The foremost among them is Frantz Osten, a German whom Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani met at the UFA when they went to train there (they worked with Lang and Marlene Dietrich). Osten had already been directing films for the couple since 1925, when he made Light of Asia for them from Germany.
In 1934, he came to India and the next year, after Rai founded Bombay Talkies ‘ the legendary film studio in Malad that now lies in ruins,’ Osten directed its first film, ‘ Jawani ki Hawa’-1935.
He went on to direct the famous Devika Rani-Ashok Kumar starrer, Achhut Kanya, without much knowledge of Hindi. The film, which featured the song “Main ban ke chiriya”, was shot by Cinematographer Joseph Wirsching; the sets were designed by Karl von Spreti, the laboratory was headed by Zolle, and the sound recordist was Len Heartley. This was Osten’s team of UFA ex-members who worked for Rai’s state-of-the-art studio.
Osten and his fellow Germans directed 16 films for Rai. It was a remarkable feat for people who knew little Hindi, mistaking the word “bulbul” once, for a pair of bulls.
“It’s not clear if they had anything to do with the Nazi ideology, either way,” said film historian Amrit Gangar.
“If they did, it did not show in their films. But there were two other people who almost certainly migrated to India because of the persecution of Jews.”
Franz Osten(23-12-1876 to 2-12-1956) Hindi director, was born in Munich as Franz Ostermayer, the elder brother of successful producer Peter Ostermayer. They set up a travelling cinema, Original Physograph (1907) and founded Munchner Kunstfilm (1909) after Osten had been making shorts for Pathé, Gaumont and Eclair. Their first feature: Die Wahrheit (1910). Osten’s début as director: Erna Valeska (1911). War correspondent in 1915. Joined Peter’s company Emelka (later Bavaria Film) in 1918. Made Der Ochsenkrieg (1920) with young cameraman Frank Planer of later Hollywood fame, one of Osten’s several contributions to a budding genre that after WW2 became known as the Heimatfilm. In fact, the Ostermayr/Osten brothers claimed to be the originators of the genre.
When Himansu Rai and Emelka made a deal to produce Prem Sanyas aka Light of Asia, Osten was assigned to direct. Continued directing Rai’s productions, often shooting in India as well as in Europe, in addition to directing for numerous companies in Berlin. Moved with cameraman Josef Wirsching and set designer Karl von Spreti to India to work at Himansu Rai’s Bombay Talkies (1934).
While in Bombay, became a member of the Nazi Party (1936). He was interned by the British at the outbreak of WW2 while shooting his last film there, Kangan. Released and allowed to return to Germany (1940). Employed by Bavaria Film until 1945, for casting and setting up its film archive. In addition to Indian films, directed 33 silent features and 10 sound films.
After WW2 became manager of a Bavarian spa. His Indian films, following UFA tradition, were huge Orientalist spectacles with elephants, camels and expansive vistas often shot in deep focus. Effective authorship shared by producer Rai and scenarist Niranjan Pal. Adopted European conventions to introduce main actors, e.g. backlit mid-shots in soft focus gradually becoming more contrasted; also used mobile outdoor shots as in the railway-crossing sequence of Achhut Kanya. Strongly influenced younger Bombay Talkies film-makers Amiya Chakrabarty and Gyan Mukherjee, though they used his techniques for very different purposes.
Filmography-1925: Prem Sanyas, 1928: Shiraz, 1929: Prapancha Pash, 1935: Jawani Ki Hawa, 1936: Achhut Kanya, Janmabhoomi, Jeevan Naiya, Mamata, Miya Bibi, 1937: Izzat, Jeevan Prabhat, Prem Kahani, Savitri, 1938: Bhabhi, Nirmala, Vachan, 1939: Durga, Kangan, Navjeevan.
Who was Najmul Hasan and what happened to him later ? Najmul Hasan was born on 5-9-1910, into a noble family of Lucknow. He was tall and very handsome and was bitten by the urge to act in the films. He left his Law studies and headed for Bombay. He met Sarojini Naidu, who was a family friend. She recommended his name to Himanshu Rai Strongly. His Screen test was taken in which he passed. Though at first sight, Himanshu Rai was not impressed with his manner of behaviour, he still selected him for the First film of Bombay Talkies, opposite Devika Rani in Jawani ki Hawa-1935.
During Jawani ki Hawa-35- which was loosely based on Agatha Christie’s “Murder On The Orient Express”, published in 1934 only- Devika Rani fell in love with Najmul Hasan and they decided to elope. Their second film- Jeewan Naiyya-36 was on floor and the love birds flew to Calcutta. There was a great commotion in Bombay Talkies. Shashdhar Mukherji the production manager was close to his Bengali Boss Himanshu Roy. Mukherjee traced the couple to Calcutta, met Devika Rani and convinced her to return to Himanshu. Devika Rani returned, Himanshu Roy pardoned her, but not Najmul Hasan.
Najmul Hasan did not come back to Bombay. He joined New Theatres in Calcutta and did films like Anath Ashram-37,Dushman-38,Kapal kundala-39,Jawani ki Reet-39 and Nartaki-40. Even in Calcutta, Najmul Hassan had a rocking affair with superstar Jahan Ara Kajjan. After doing film Meenakshi-42, Najmul Hasan decided to migrate to Pakistan in 1947. In Pakistan he did some films like Eid-1951, Ashiyana, Doctor, Mirza Jatt, Taxi Driver and Heer Ranjha etc.
Najmul Hasan, a very bitter man for the treatment he received in Pakistan, died in 1980 in Pakistan.
Today’s song is sung by Chandraprabha. With this song she makes her debut on this Blog as a singer. This is a typical song of the 30’s, fully impacted with Parsi Theatre music.
(information for this post has been taken from thebigindianpicture.com, Bombay Talkies-an article by Ambarish Mishra, indiancine.ma and my notes. Thanks to all.)
Song-Re mann kaahe soch kare (Jeewan Naiyya)(1936) Singer- Chandraprabha, Lyricist- J S Casshyap, MD- Saraswati Devi
Lyrics
Re mann kaahe soch kare ae
Re mann kaahe soch kare ae
ye jeewan hai
hansne ke jiye
ye jeewan hai
hansne ke jiye
re man kaahe
soch kare
hari shyam ghata
ke aanchal se
?? mukhda
?? hai
??
?? ghadiyaan
dil se gham ko
?? jaati hai
dukh jaata hai
sukh aata hai
kat’te hain din hanste hanste
re man kaahe soch kare ae
re man kaahe
re man kaahe soch kare ae
ye jeewan hai hanse ke liye
re man kaahe
re man kaahe
re man kaahe
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 : |
4499 | Post No. : | 16032 |
Today’s song is from film Pagle-1950.
1950 was the last year of the second decade of Talkie cinema. The effects of Partition had started showing effects. Entry of actors, directors and composers from Bengal – due to the crumbling of New Theatres – entry of newer artistes to replace the migrators and the changing tastes of the Indian people was being reflected in the films made in this year. The migration of artistes-both ways-continued with force till about the early 50s and slowed down in the early 60s, where finally it was stopped in 1965 by Pakistan rulers.
The social film Pagle-50 was produced and directed by Protima Dasgupta. The cast of the film was Begum Para, Madhuri, Jagirdar, Pratima Devi, Mubarak, David, Cuckoo etc.etc. The music was by V.G. Bhatkar – who was no one else, but Snehal Bhatkar. Since he was still w2orking in H.M.V., he could not use his real name. Some other composers also did this under same conditions. For example, C Ramchandra was working Filmistan, under a contract and he gave music to his friend Master Bhagwan’s films like Bhedi Bungala-49, Bhole Bhale-49, Babuji t50 and Bakshish-50. For these films CR used the name of his long time assistant P.Ramakant (Ramakant Paingankar). Similarly, Anil Biswas, while in contract with National Studios, gave music to Bombay Talkies film Basant-1942, using the name of Pannalal Ghosh, his own Brother in Law (sister singer Parul Ghosh’s husband). In 1942, Anil Biswas was very busy with as many as 5 films – Vijay, Jawani, Gareeb, Apna Paraya and his famous film Roti.
Under such situations, normally just one pseudo-name is used to hide the real identity legally, but in the case of Snehal Bhatkar he used several names for different films-
Rukmini Swayamwar-46….Vasudev-Sudhir (Phadke)
Neel Kamal-47….B.Vasudev
Sant Tukaram, Sati Ahilya-48 and Pagle-50….V.G.Bhatkar
Suhag Raat-48….Snehal
Thes-49….Snehal and finally
Hamari beti-50….Snehal Bhatkar. By this time he had resigned from HMV and was a free bird !
The film’s director Pratima Dasgupta started as an actress and then turned to be a Producer and Director. She was born on 5-9-1922 into a wealthy family of Bhavnagar, in Kathiyawar state. Her father was the Chief Engineer of Kathiyawar state. Her family was related to Rabindranath Tagore. So, after the initial education in England, she came to Shanti Niketan and completed her studies. She was a favourite and a favoured student throughout.
Looking at her acting skills, it was Tagore himself who recommended her to act in the Bangla film “Gora”-38, based on his own novel. Her role of Latika-daughter of Paresh babu in the film-who falls in Love with Bijoy and marries her- was liked by Tagore. She did one more film ‘Na hone wali baat’-38 in Hindi, followed by the Hindi version of Rukmini in 1939. After doing 4 Bangla films, she did the Trilingual film (Bangla, Hindi and English)- Raj nartaki-1941. This was made by Wadia movietone in Bombay and was directed by Modhu Bose, husband of the Heroine Sadhana Bose-the international dancer. She married Major Manzoor-ul- Huq, brother of actress Begum Para.
Her other Hindi films were Kunwara baap-42,Raja-43 and Shararat-44, all directed by Kishore Sahu. She also did Namaste in 1943.. After this she turned to Direction and did her first film Chhamiya-45, with Begum Para and David as a Lead pair. She repeated this team again in Pagle-50 also. However her second film ‘Jharna ‘-48 was banned by Morarji Desai, the then Chief Minister of Bombay Province, on the plea that the film had explicit sexual scenes in it. This was a financial disaster for Pratima and she decided to quit films.
In all, Pratima Dasgupta did 10 Hindi films and 8 Bangla films.
In Hindi film industry, branding is very common or rather Popular, from the beginning. Actually, Branding reconfirms the actor’s strong points, his expertise in acting. For example, Ashok kumar and Motilal were known for Natural acting, for beauty it was Madhubala, for excellence in acting- Meena kumari, Sanjeev kumar for variety in roles, Sohrab Modi and Raaj Kumar for dialogue delivery, Tragedy king was Dilip Kumar (only till 1955), Ajit was Sophisticated Villain etc. etc. There was one actress who was famous for her ” Oomph”. It is said that her sexy photos were pasted by U.S. soldiers in their rooms, during Vietnam war. The ” TIME ” photographer did a Photo session with her. She too conscientiously maintained her ‘ Sexy ‘ image and so she was never known as a good actress in acting. Her name – BEGUM PARA.
Begum Para (née Para Haq; 25 December 1926 – 9 December 2008) was a Hindi film actress who was active mostly in the 1940s and 1950s. After 50 years, she returned to films with her last role in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya (2007) as Sonam Kapoor’s grandmother. In her times in 1950s, she was considered a glamour girl of Bollywood, so much so, that Life magazine had a special session with her devoted to her fine sensuous photographs.
Begum Para was born as Para Haq in Jehlum now a days in Pakistan. Her family was from Aligarh. Her father, Mian Ehsanul-Haq, was a judge who at some point in his life went into the judicial service of the princely state of Bikaner, now northern Rajasthan, where he became chief justice of its highest court. He was a fine cricketer of his time. She was brought up very disciplined yet liberal. She spent her childhood in Bikaner. She was educated at the Aligarh Muslim University. Her elder brother Haq, had gone off to Bombay in the late 1930s to become an actor. There he met and fell in love with the Bengali actress Protima Dasgupta, and married her.
Whenever she visited them in Bombay, she was quite taken up with the glitzy world of her sister-in-law. She used to accompany her on many occasions and get-togethers. People would get quite impressed with her looks and offer her a lot of roles. One such offer came from Shashadhar Mukherjee and Devika Rani. Her father consented to her wishes reluctantly, and requested her to never work in Lahore.
Begum Para’s first break turned out to be 1944 film Chand, from Prabhat Studios in Poona. Prem Adib was the hero, and Sitara Devi was the vamp in the film. It did extremely well and Para started getting paid about Rs. 1500 a month. Soon after, she and her sister-in-law Protima made a film called Chamia (1945) based on the novel ‘Pygmalion’, which again was a huge success. Para signed a lot of films after Chamia, but she couldn’t quite establish herself as an actress. Because she had a highly scandalous image, people always gave her the role of glamour doll in most films. She didn’t mind it because she always played herself on screen.
She did Sohni Mahiwal (1946) and Zanjeer (1947) with Ishwarlal and Dikshit; Neel Kamal (1947) with Raj Kapoor; Mehendi (1947) with Nargis; Suhaag Raat (1948) with Bharat Bhushan and Geeta Bali; Jhalka (1948); and Meherbani (1950) with Ajit Khan. She also worked in Ustad Pedro (1951), produced and directed by the then well-known actor, Sheikh Mukhtar. It was a fun film, and was packed with action, romance, and stunts.
In 1951 she posed for photographer James Burke for a Life magazine photo shoot. Para’s last role was in the movie Kar Bhala in 1956. She was also offered to play Nigar Sultana’s role ‘Bahar’ in Mughal-e-Azam (1960). However, she refused to play the role because she considered it against her image. In all, she acted in 34 films in her career.
She made a comeback on the silver screen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya in 2007 as Sonam Kapoor’s grandmother.
She married actor Nasir Khan, the younger brother of Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar. They had three children, including the actor Ayub Khan. Begum Para’s father Mian Ehsan-ul-Haq of Jalandhar, was a judge who joined the princely state of Bikaner, now northern Rajasthan, where he became chief justice of its highest court. Her husband died in 1974. Following her husband’s death, she briefly migrated to Pakistan in 1975. Two years later, she relocated back to India.
She died in her sleep on 9-12-2008, at the age of 81 years. (Thanks to wikipedia).
Film Pagle-50 had 9 songs. 6 songs are already presented here. Today’s duet would be its 7th song to be discussed here. It is a duet sung by Rajkumari and Talat Mehmood. The song is quite ordinary. As such, Snehal Bhatkar was not known for many melodious songs in his films. This duet is an average one.
Song-Taaron se ab chaand ki kuchh baat ho gayi (Pagle)(1950) Singers- Rajkumari, Talat mehmood, Lyricist- Qabil Amritsari, MD-V G Bhatkar (Snehal Bhatkar)
Both
Lyrics
Taaron se ab chaand ki kuchh baat ho gayi
Taaron se ab chaand ki kuchh baat ho gayi
aapas mein do dilon ki ee mulaakaat ho gayi ee
aapas mein do dilon ki ee mulaakaat ho gayi
taaron se ab chaand ki kuchh baat ho gayi
taaron se ab chaand ki kuchh baat ho gayi
aapas mein do dilon ki ee mulaakaat ho gayi ee
aapas mein do dilon ki ee mulaakaat ho gayi
koi nazar milaa ke mohabbat dikhaa gaya
dil ko khushi se aaj dhadakna bhi aa gaya
kya jaane aankhon aankhon mein kya ghaat ho gayi
kya jaane aankhon aankhon mein kya ghaat ho gayi
aapas mein do dilon ki ee mulaakaat ho gayi ee
aapas mein do dilon ki ee mulaakaat ho gayi
aankhon mein tere khwaab hain
honthon pe tere geet
aankhon mein tere khwaab hain
honthon pe tere geet
tu aarzoo hai dil ki
har saans tera meet
tu aarzoo hai dil ki
har saans tera meet
ab meri zindagi bhi tere saath ho gayi
ab meri zindagi bhi tere saath ho gayi
aapas mein do dilon ki ee mulaakaat ho gayi ee
aapas mein do dilon ki ee mulaakaat ho gayi
apna bana ke dekho daaman na chhod dena
apna bana ke dekho daaman na chhod dena
dil mein samaane waale
dil ko na tod dena
dil mein samaane waale
dil ko na tod dena
manzoor unki dil ko har baat ho gayi
manzoor unki dil ko har baat ho gayi
aapas mein do dilon ki ee mulaakaat ho gayi ee
aapas mein do dilon ki ee mulaakaat ho gayi
taaron se ab chaand ki kuchh baat ho gayi
taaron se ab chaand ki kuchh baat ho gayi
aapas mein do dilon ki ee mulaakaat ho gayi ee
aapas mein do dilon ki ee mulaakaat ho gayi
Jo pahne ban jaaye dulhan
Posted on: November 8, 2020
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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4496 | Post No. : | 16027 |
Today’s song is from the film Beti-1941.
In India, most people want a Son and not a daughter, but the thinking of film makers seems to be different. From 1931 to 2012 period, only one film titled BETA was made in 1992, whereas there were 3 films titled BETI, made in 1941, 1957 and 1969. there was also one film called BETI NO. 1 made in 2000. Interestingly, while there was a film called BETA HO TO AISA in 1994, there was also a film called BETI TUMHARE JAISI in 1969. As if a compromise was done, there was a film BETI-BETE in 1964 (here also BETI came first). I am happy about this because, hopefully, it indicates where the Indian society is heading to !
1941 was the first year in the second decade of the Talkie Era and it was the beginning of the emergence of a New film industry. When Talkie started in 1931, for many years after that, the films were made by the people who had done work in the Silent films. These films had a spill over for the silent era artistes. Once the films started talking,most silent artistes who could not speak Hindi or Urdu automatically disappeared. Thus started the influx of new actors who could speak Hindi and sing songs, in whatever way they could. Intelligent directors like V Shantaram,Bhavnani, Sohrab Modi, Chandulal Shah, Himanshu Rai, B N Sircar, L V Prasad and a host of Gujarati directors understood that the Talkie needs a different treatment than silent films. Music directors from stage dramas tried their hand in composing film music.
In the next 8-9 years, there was a perceptible change in the film making, acting, singing, and composing music in the films that were made. Quality artistes from the silent era continued for some more years – finally giving way to the new artistes. The 30s and the 40s mostly differed in film music and story contents. The new blood composers like Anil Biswas, C Ramchandra, Naushad, Ghulam Haider, K Datta, Hansraj Behl, Bulo C Rani, Gyan Dutt and many more replaced the Parsi, Marathi and Gujarati drama music to more acceptable lilting songs. Many musical films were made and some everlasting songs were composed by these people. At the end of the 40’s decade one more major change in the film industry took place due to Partition. More about it when we discuss a song from 1951 in coming times.
Today’s film is an excellent example in which the cast indicated artistes, none of whom lasted till 1951. Most retired, some died and a few migrated to Pakistan. The film was directed by Jayant Desai, music was by Gyan Dutt, lyricists were D N Madhok and B R Sharma. The actors were Khurshid, Arun, Vasanti, Ghori, Bilimorea, kesari, Nagendra, Rewashankar and Khatun etc.etc.
In my last post I had written about the multifaceted S N Tripathi, who was an actor, singer, music director and director. Some readers were surprised to read about his multiple activities. But in the Hindi cinema field, there were some really talented, multi activity artistes, both in films and outside films. Offhand I can mention at least 3 such artistes. The first is Dewan Sharar, who was from a Royal clan. He was editor of an Urdu cine-magazine, worked in New York with League of Nations, editor of a London weekly, Wrote many books in English, wrote story of film KARMA-33 an English film, wrote many Radio plays on BBC, Producer and actor in the Hindi version of film Karma-33, worked for A.I.R. Delhi, acted in 8 Hindi films, wrote stories of 10 films and 62 songs in 12 films.
Second example is of Pandit Badri Prasad, who was a Hero, character actor, director, producer, Singer, Music Director, Lyricist and Choreographer in addition to being a Sanskrit scholar. Third example is Sailesh Mukherji – actor, singer, Music Director and Interior Designer (Mala Sinha’s bungalow), Radio compere on A.I.R. Calcutta.
In today’s film also there is one such multi activity artiste. The name is Nagendra Majumdar. He was the father of Ninu majumdar, the music director. 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 a 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 Alladin aka Alladin 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.
There is a name Revashankar in the cast. Some of Ranjit Movietone’s earliest talkie films had music by Jhande Khan. Next came the trio of Banne Khan, Ganga Prasad Pathak and Rewa Shankar Marwari. None of that music was ever released on 78 rpm records. From 1938-39, the great duo of Jnan Dutt and Khemchand Prakash took over the charge of Ranjit’s music, later to be joined by Bulo C Rani. It was only around 1938 that RANJIT started releasing its film music on 78-rpm records.
Rewa Shankar Marwari’s association with Ranjit Films and films produced or directed by ex-Ranjit hand Jayant Desai continued in the 1940s. He acted in 27 films, till 1955, sang 12 songs in 9 films and gave music to 21 films from Veer Babruwahan-34 to Matrubhoomi-49.
Rewa Shankar sang a beautiful classical composition ‘jay jay shankar’ in Shankar Parvati (1943) for composer Jnan Dutt. It is available with several collectors, and is a rare instance of film music using Raag Shree.
Lastly about actress Khatun. Miss Khatun Bano was born and brought up in a poor Muslim family of Lahore. As per the family tradition, she learnt dancing and singing. once, when she was performing on stage in Lahore, the Talent hunter of Sagar movietone spotted her and she was offered a role in a Talkie film- which was a novelty in 1931. Her first film was Abul Hasan-31. Then came Subhadra haran-32, Meerabai-32, Maya Bazar-32 etc etc. In all, she acted in 59 films, till her last film Ibrat-60. She also sang 25 songs in 12 films.
Today’s song is the 7th song of this film to be presented. In one of the song posts, our Sadanand Kamath ji has given the film story already. For me too, this is my second song from Beti-41 to be discussed here.
( Credits – Information for this, 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.)
Song-Jo pahne ban jaaye dulhan (Beti)(1941) Singer- Vasanti, Lyricist- D N Madhok, MD- Gyan Dutt
Chorus
Male Chorus
Lyrics
Jo pahne ban jaaye dulhan
Jo pahne ban jaaye dulhan
thhan thhan nikle baala joban
thhan thhan nikle baala joban
dekh dekh lalchaaye saajan
sautan ka jo jiya jalaaye
aisi saadi kaun banaaye
Shankar mill
Shankar mill
Shankar mill
Jo pahne ban jaye dulhan
Jo pahne ban jaye dulhan
thhan thhan nikle baala joban
chhan chhan nikle baala joban
dekh dekh lalchaaye saajan
sautan ka jo jiya jalaaye
aisi saadi kaun banaaye
Shankar mill
Shankar mill
Shankar mill
laala jee jab baahar jaayen
dhoti patlidaar banaayen
laala jee jab baahar jaayen
dhoti patlidaar banaayen
laali jee ka joban bhaaye
aisi dhoti kaun banaaye
Shankar mill
Shankar mill
Shankar mill
laali jee ka joban bhaaye
aisi dhoti kaun banaaye
Shankar mill
Shankar mill
Shankar mill
patli patli pyaari malmal
patli patli pyaari malmal
sabse sundar sabse komal
tan ko laage jaise makhmal
saajan ko de josh ramaaye
aisi makhmal kaun banaaye
Shankar mill
Shankar mill
Shankar mill
saajan ko ?? ramaaye
aisi makhmal kaun banaaye
Shankar mill
Shankar mill
Shankar mill
Shankar mill
Shankar mill
Shankar mill
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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4492 | Post No. : | 16018 |
Today’s song is from film Bade Nawab Saheb-44. It was a Muslim social film, produced by Silver films – a joint venture of actors Kumar and Chandra Mohan. The film was directed by Vedi, a name about which I could not get any information except that he was a director from the Silent era. In the Talkie era, he has 4 films to his credit as director. First film is Bade nawab saheb-44, then Naseeb-45, Room Number-9 – 46, and For Ladies only-51. This is all I know about Vedi. Unfortunately, we do come across few such names from the early era films. This is because we have very poor documentation. Information on big actors etc is available. That is why the task of Hindi film History students (like me, for example) is tough in securing and recording information for the posterity.
The music director was Bashir Dehalvi. Here too, we only know that he gave music to films like Jhankar-42, Kalakar-42, Ujala-42, Koshish-43 and hawai Khatola-46, in addition to today’s film. The 10 songs of the film were written by Lyricist Shams Lucknowi. He seems to be a story and dialogue writer too. Story of film Andaz-49 was by him. He wrote the dialogues of films like Idd ka chand-33 and Kimiyagar-36. He also acted in film Parchhain-52. He wrote 104 songs in 15 films from Lal Haveli-44 to Dahej-50. May be , then he migrated to Pakistan or what, we do not know.
Most of the so called Historical (my friend calls them Distortical), Costume dramas, Arabian Night stories films etc have a Muslim background. But ” Muslim Social” films is a separate category. Initially it was considered to be a very sensitive issue to depict the social life of Muslim families in India and so film producers were wary of making such films. When film makers with modern thinking came to the industry – like K Asif, Mehboob or Fazli brothers- there was a cautious but slow beginning of Muslim social films. My two friends, shri Kamlakar Pasupuleti ji (originally from Hyderabad and settled later in US) wrote an informative book, ” Forgotten movies on Muslim Culture 1933 to 1947 and shri Isak Mujawar ji wrote (in Marathi) ” Muslim Cinema”. Both these books give good information on this category of films.
Like many other myths in Hindi film industry, one myth is that Mehboob Khan was the pioneer in making Muslim social films in India. This probably originated because the first film of Mehboob’s own company Mehboob Productions was ” Najma”-43, a Muslim social film starring Ashok kumar, Veena, Stara, Kumar, Yaqub etc. But the fact is different.
The first Muslim social film was ” Rashida”-35, made by Madon Theatres, Calcutta, featuring Kajjan, Effendi and others. It was directed by a Jew-Izra Mir. The name of the film indicated that it was about a Muslim girl. Somehow, I find a lot of Muslim social films made had titles of girl’s names, Like Zeenat, Ameena, Najma, Shama, Heena, Zubeida, Salma, Ismat etc etc.
The beginning of serious Muslim social films was done by Fazli Brothers- Hasnain and Sibtain Fazli. They first made a Muslim social film Qaidi-1940, featuring Ramola,Mehtab, B.Nandrekar, Wasti etc. This was a period of struggle for Indian Independence. The fundamentalists in Muslims were active and due to the fear of their reaction, film makers were wary of producing such films.Even Fazli brothers were also afraid that there would be obstruction from these people to their film, so they decided to make the film in Calcutta. Their first Muslim Social film Qaidi-40 was very successful. Encouraged, they made 2 more such films (Masoom-41 and Chauranghee-42) in Calcutta. For film Chauranghee-42, the Fazli Brothers roped in famous Bangla poet (who later on became the National Poet of Bangladesh) Kazi Nazrul Islam- the creator of Nazrul geeti, as a Lyricist and MD for the film.
After 1942, Fazli Brothers shifted their activities to Bombay and made many Muslim social films like Fashion-43,Ismat-44, Dil-46 and Mehendi 47. So, in true sense, it is the Fazli Brothers who were the pioneers of Muslim Social films in India.
From the 40s to the 47, there was a line of Muslim social films lined with pride and confidence. Notable amongst them were Paak Daaman-40 by Rustom Modi, Masoom-41 by Fazli brothers, Muslim ka lal-41 by Mohan Pictures, Fashion -43 by Fazli Brothers, Najma-43 by Mehboob, Salma-43 by Nazir Ahmed, Ismat-44 by Fazli Brothers, Bade Nawab saab-44 by actor Kumar and Pramila, Bhaijaan-45 by United Films, Phool-45 by K.Asif, and Director Mazhar Khan’s Muslim social film ” Pehli Nazar’ in 1945. Amongst these, film ‘ Elan ‘-47 was a milestone film, produced by Mehboob. It dwelt upon the needs of improvements for Muslim community.
After 1947, India lost a very big market for its Muslim social films, when Pakistan-East and West- was formed. It does not mean that Muslim social films were not made after 1947 in India. Films like Kaneez-49, Nisbat-49, Parda-49, Hyderabad ki Nazneen0-52,Darwaza-54, Chandni Chowk-54, Maalik-58, Maa ke aansoo-59, Pahli Raat-59 etc were all Muslim socials. They, however, were not successful, for whatever reasons. But the fun is films of Muslim backgrounds but non social films like Anarkali,Mirza Ghalib,Hatimtai,Alibaba and forty thieves etc were good grossers and ran well. The first Hindi film to win the President’s Gold Medal (the first was Marathi film-Shyam chi aai ), was Mirza Ghalib-54. This indicated that there was no audience for Muslim social films now. Later on, the conditions changed and Muslim social films like Chaudhavi ka chaand, Barsaat ki raat, Chhote Nawab, Bahu Begum, Mere huzur, Pakeeza etc became quite successful. However, some opine that these films succeeded due to other reasons like Music, songs etc. One funny thing was that most Muslim social films-from the beginning- showed Lucknow as the background of the story ! (Film names being mentioned are only indicative and not exhaustive, so many names will be missing here.)
The cast of film Bade Nawab Saheb-44 was Chandra Mohan, Pahadi Sanyal, Kumar, Pramila, Bibbo, Sushil Kumar, Leela Mishra, Kamala, Agha Jaan etc. etc. Chandra Mohan was one of the most handsome actors of Hindi cinema. Some other handsome actors were B. Nandrekar, Vijay Kumar, Al Nasir etc. Chandra Mohan was also a versatile actor. Incensed by losing a role in the Marathi version of film Amrit Manthan-1934, just because he could not speak Marathi fluently, he learnt Marathi in no time and later worked as Hero in 3 Marathi versions of Hindi films !
Born on 24-7-1906 in Narsinghpur in Madhya Pradesh, Chandra Mohan was known for his large grey eyes, voice modulation and dialog delivery. His eyes form the opening sequence in V. Shantaram’s 1934 film Amrit Manthan, which was also his film debut. It was the first film made in the new established Prabhat Films studio, and made both in Hindi and Marathi. Mohan received acclaim for his role as role Rajguru and went on to establish himself as noted villains of times.
In film Geeta-40, Chandramohan was the Hero and had done the Father and Son double role. This was a Bilingual film in Hindi and Marathi, and in both versions, Chandramohan was the Hero. Earlier, V. Shantaram had given a break to Chandramohan in his film ” Amrit Manthan”-34, which also was a Bilingual film in Hindi and Marathi. Chandramohan being a Kashmiri and not knowing Marathi, in the Marathi version, his role of Rajguru was done by keshavrao Datey.
However. soon Chandramohan picked up fluent Marathi and acted in the Bilingual films of Hindi and Marathi like, Jwala-38, Geeta-40 and Apna Ghar-42 He became the first Hindi actor to do roles in Marathi films.
Chandra Mohan later appeared as Emperor Jehangir in Sohrab Modi’s Pukar, as Randhir Singh in Mehboob Khan’s Humayun and as Seth Dharamdas in Mehboob Khan’s Roti.
Actor Kumar did many films in Ranjit, but in 1942, he was removed from Ranjit. At the same time his friend Chandra Mohan also left Minerva Movietone ( reason – inspite of Pukar-39 being a Blockbuster, his salary was not increased, though Modi had promised him so.) They both decided to launch their own company and on 16-3-1942, SILVER FILM COMPANY was launched. Its first film was Jhankaar-42. They produced Bhalai-43, Bade Nawab Saab-44, Naseeb-45, Devar-46, Dhun-53 and Bahana-60. Kumar had acted in these films. He also directed Dhun and Bahana.
One of his last appearances was in Ramesh Saigal’s film Shaheed-48. As Rai Bahadur Dwarka Nath, he played father to Ram, who was portrayed by Dilip Kumar. His character in this film, initially supports the British Government, but later favours the Freedom struggle. Chandra Mohan’s last major film was Raambaan-1949, in which he played the role of demon emperor Ravan. Chandra Mohan had acted in 31 films in all from Amrit Manthan-1934 to film Chocolate-50, which was released after his death.
Chandra Mohan despite being a Kashmiri himself was against Kashmiri girls working in films. He is said to have intimidated actress Shyama Zutshi from working in Hindi films and she left the films. However, later when Yashodhara Katju came into the films, she did not care for his opposition and continued successfully in films. He was very friendly with actor Motilal and treated him as his son.
He was the original choice to play the lead role in K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam, but due to his untimely death the film had to be reshot after ten reels were shot with him as lead. The film was eventually released in 1960.
Chandra Mohan took to heavy gambling and drinking and died penniless on 2nd April 1949 at the age of 44 at his residence, Bilkha House, in Bombay.
The story of Bade Nawab Saheb-44 was …….
Nawab Kokub Mirza had 2 wives, but he loved the younger one so much that he even tolerated her younger brother Mushir, a trouble maker. Sikandar was Mirza’s younger brother and they had an old loyal servant Baksho. Sikandar marries an orphan girl-Anwar from an orphanage. On this count, the younger wife and Mushir are able to throw Sikandar and Baksho out of the house.
Sikandar goes out of Lucknow to look for a job. His wife, unaware of the relations, starts working as Maid in Nawab saheb’s house. Mushir tries to misbehave with the modesty of Anwar and is thrown out of the house. Now the nawab is closer to Badi Begum, who convinces him to recall Sikandar. Nawab calls Sikandar and also pardons Mushir.
Now Mushir wants to poison Nawab saheb. He adds poison to his Kheer. Unfortunately, the Kheer is eaten by his sister, the young Begum. She dies and Police arrest Mushir. Now the 2 couples live happily !
Today’s song is a duet by Hamida and Durrani. This is the second song of this film to feature on this Blog. (Thanks to information from books mentioned in the post, which is used herein)
Song-Jaag gayi Jaag gayi Hamaari kismat (Bade Nawab Sahab)(1944) Singers- Hamida Bano, G M Durrani, Lyrics-Shams Lakhnavi, MD- Bashir Dehalvi
Both
Lyrics
Jaag gayi
Jaag gayi
Hamaari
kismat
Hamaari kismat
jaag gayi
Jaag gayi
Hamaari kismat
prem nadi mein josh jo ??
bhai ne bhai ko bulaaya
prem nadi mein josh jo ??
bhai ne bhai ko bulaaya
chhant gaye
zulf ke baadal saare
samjho chaand sitaare
chhant gaye
zulf ke baadal saare
samjho chaand sitaare
chaand sitaare
sachchi
ulfat
sachchi
ulfat
jaag gayi
jaag gayi
hamaari
kismat
hamaari
kismat
jaag gayi
jaag gayi
hamaari kismat
toote huye phir dil milenge
toote huye phir phool khilenge
toote huye phir dil milenge
toote huye phir phool khilenge
kaun
khilenge
sachchi
ulfat
sachchi
ulfat
jaag gayi
jaag gayi
hamaari
kismat
hamaari
kismat
jaag gayi
jaag gayi
hamaari kismat
Vaada na mera toote
Posted on: October 28, 2020
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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4485 | Post No. : | 16001 |
Today’s song is from the film Bhaichara aka Fraternity aka Brotherhood-1943. It was produced by Unity Productions, Calcutta and was directed by a veteran of Silent films- G.K.Mehta.
Gopal Krishna or G.K.Mehta was born on 18-7-1899 and he joined the film industry in 1920. He slogged in the film companies doing odd jobs and finally started directing films from 1928 onwards. By 1931, the Talkie had started and Mehta, after 15 silent films to his credit, directed his first Talkie film-” Chirag E Husn”-1935. Then came Ghazi Diler-36, Toofani khazana-37, Prem samadhi-38, Master Man-38, Juwari-39 and his last film was Bhaichara-1943. He directed Leela Chitnis in film Master man-38, Jairaj and Nirmala in Juwari-39Bharat Bhushan in his second film in Bhaichara-43. Like many other silent film stalwarts like R S Chaudhuri (8-6-1903 to 22-8-1972) with 15 silent and 14 Talkie films, G K Mehta also disappeared without a trace.
This social film had music by Himangshu Dutt – a name not heard by most people in Hindi, but in Bangla films he was a highly respected music composer. Songs composed by him in the early 40s were sung not only by singers of that generation, but also by the younger generations. Due to his early death and a busy schedule in Bangla cinema and Non film music, he was not able to benefit the Hindi audience of the rest of India. He was so popular and respected that he was awarded the first ever award of ” Sur Sagar ” by the people of Dhaka. After him,only singer Jaganmoy Mitra aka Jagmohan was the only person who was awarded the title of “Sursagar “. Jagmohan sang for Dutt’s Bangla films regularly. After Dutt was gone in 1944, Jagmohan sang his Non film songs also. As per HFGK, Himangshu Dutt gave music for only 2 Hindi films – Bhakt Kabir and Bhaichara-43. For both films, Jagmohan sang 2 songs each.
The cast of the film was Bharat Bhushan, Veena Kumari, isabela, Beena Pal,Sunetra, Ansari,Hadi,Himmat Rai etc etc. One name in the cast is VEENA KUMARI. Now this is a name causing ” Same Name Confusion.” In my book, released in 2018, I had clarified about 56 artistes coming under the SNC category. In the last one and half year I have discussed 14 more such new artistes and including today’s case, there will be 16 artistes. The total comes to 72 and surprisingly there are 36 Males and 36 female artistes in this group, so far. However, I feel, as the time passes by, there are still few more cases yet to come to light and that, finally in this, the females will outnumber the males in numbers.
One of the reasons for this could be that in the early era, actresses came from Muslim Tawayef families or even poor families. In such families, the girls’ names were pretty common – like Nurjahan, Zubeida, Khurshid, Naseem, Zohra or Shameem etc. Those who came first in films kept their original names, others had to change their names. But even then, the limited stock of names created problems. For example, one Khursheed Akhtar changed her name to Shyama and the other changed her name to Anuradha, but there were already 2 Shyamas working in films. One more example was today’s case. Originally Nurjahan, changed name to Veena Kumari, but there was another Veena working in films.
The trouble with same names is when you want to write about them, their Filmography is mixed up. Secondly, most sites, blogs and Fb pages invariably mix up even their Bio data, in addition to Filmography. My B.P. goes up when I see this . Whenever possible, I try to give explanations to make corrections, but every time it is not possible. Further they quote from sites like Wiki and IMDB, who are the major culprits in creating, sustaining and nurturing the same name confusions.
Anyway, let us now see who this Veena Kumari was. Her original name was Nurjahan. Her father was a landlord in Lucknow. She was born in 1916. As per customs of those times, she never went to school, but being well to do, got private tutors and she learnt Urdu and English sufficiently to read and speak. She was a typical good looking girl. She was very fond of seeing silent films, with her father. When the Talkie films started, her interest grew much more and she decided to join films. She was a natural good singer too and this helped her get into films.
Her first film was Inteqam-33, where she worked without any fees. Here she was credited with her real name Nurjahan. In the 1939 film Swastik, made by Mohan Pictures, she became Veena kumari-heroine of Jeevan. She continued working in films like Radhika,Asra and Kasauti- all 1941, Gharib and Zevar in 42, Pratigya, Bhaichara,Masterjee and Chiragh in 43, Mujrim-44, Gunjan and Shauhar in 48. Shauhar was made by her own banner-Dil-Sitan arts. The film was directed by her. Her last film was Basera-50. She sang 22 songs in 7 films. She was quite good at singing. When you hear her songs, you will agree with me.
Now let us see what proves they were 2 different persons. Firstly, Veena kumari started her career much earlier than Veena. Secondly, Veena started acting in Punjabi films in 1941 only and then came to Bombay for films Yaad-42, Najma-43,Rajputani-44, Humayun-45 etc. Thirdly, Veena kumari was a B grade actress and her films were made by smaller banners, whereas, from the beginning, Veena was in the Big league of Mazhar khan, Ranjit, Mehboob, Kardar, K.Asif, Minerva etc. Fourthly, Veena kumari stopped working in 1950, while Veena continued till 1983. The most important point was, Veena could not sing, whereas Veena kumari sang 22 songs in 7 films. All this clearly separates them as different actresses.
Veena acted in about 100 films in her 40 years’ career. Her Biodata is available freely on the Internet as well as on this Blog. So much for the Same Name Confusion in this case.
The hero of the film Bhaichara was Bharat Bhooshan, who was a good looking hero, but acting wise, he was similar to his other clones like Anil Dhawan, Karan Dewan and Pradeep kumar. All of them were good looking but very weak in acting. These Heroes got many films, good heroines and popular songs to sing on screen, as long as their luck favoured them. Once their luck-quota exhausted, they fell on bad days and suffered a bad end too. It is said that Bharat Bhooshan, in his bad days, had to work as a Watchman in a film studio.
Bharat Bhushan (14 June 1920 – 27 January 1992) was an Indian actor in Hindi language films, script writer and producer, who is best remembered for playing Baiju Bawra in the 1952 film of the same name .He was born in Meerut, and brought up in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. Bharat Bhushan was born on 14 June 1920 in a Vaishya (Baniya) family at Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
His father, Raibahadur Motilal, was the government pleader of Meerut. His mother died when he was two years old. His elder brother was film producer Ramesh Chandra, who owned the Ideal Studio at Lucknow. The brothers left for Aligarh to stay with their grandfather after their mother’s death. He did his studies and earned a graduate degree from Dharam Samaj College, Aligarh. After this he took to acting against his father’s wishes. He first went to Calcutta to join cinema and later established himself in Bombay.
He married into a prominent family in Meerut, Zamindar Raibahadur Budha Prakash’s daughter Sarla. They had two daughters, Anuradha and Aparajitha. Anuradha had polio-associated complications. His other daughter Apararith played the role of Mandodari in the famous TV show Ramanand Sagar’s famous serial Ramayan. In an interview, Aparajita had said that after the sudden demise of her husband, she turned to acting. Aparajita has done more than 50 films in her career. Bhushan’s wife Sarla died of labour complications after delivering their second child in the early 1960s, soon after the release of film Barsaat Ki Raat. In 1967, he married actress Ratna, his co-star in the same film.
Bhushan owned bungalows in Bandra, Bombay and other areas. He was an avid reader and boasted of his collection of books, which he had to sell off like his cars and bungalows in bad times, after he turned co-producer on the ploddings of his brother. Only a few of his films were successes and unfortunately, the rest flopped. He died after he escaped his financial crisis, on 27 January 1992.
He made his debut with the Kidar Sharma hit Chitralekha (1941). However, he struggled for over a decade to make a mark in Hindi movies till Baiju Bawra (1952), which gave him instant stardom and legendary status along with Mohammad Rafi, Meena Kumari and Naushad Ali. Though a very talented actor and a prominent star of the 1950s and 1960s in Hindi language films, he often took on roles of tragic musicians in the movies. Films in which he starred as lead actor include Basant Bahar.
“He portrays historical and mythological characters the best in Hindi movies,” states contemporary actor-producer Chandrashekar. He wrote scripts and stories for Barsat Ki Raat, Nayi Umar Ki Nayi Fasal, Basant Bahar, Dooj Ka Chand, etc. He was the producer of Dooj Ka Chand. His brother R. Chandra made many films such as Bebus, Minar, and Basant Bahar.
He was the recipient of the second Filmfare best actor award for the film Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in 1954. Most of the great songs of major singers of that period such as Rafi, Manna Dey, Talat, and Mukesh were pictured on him. He was the first chocolate-faced good-looking star of Hindi films. He was one of the few actors who had a good sense of music, so most music-based movies were made with him in lead roles in the 1950s and 1960s.
He acted in Hindi language movies until the 1990s.he acted in 211 Hindi films,in all. His last film was Maachis-1996. He is still loved and revered by the Indians for the great movies and great songs that he gave in spite of personal tragedies and stiff competition from his contemporaries. He is considered to be one of the greatest stars and legends of Hindi cinema. (Thanks to wikipedia for some information.)
Let us now listen to the sweet voice of the great Jagmohan in this second song of this film on the Blog….
Song- Vaada na mera toote (Bhaaichaara)(1943) Singer- Jagmohan Sursagar, Lyricist- Not known, MD- Himangshu Dutt Sursagar
Lyrics
Vaada na mera toote ae
waah duniya
duniya badal jaaye
jaaye
Vaada na mera toote ae
waah duniya
duniya badal jaaye
jaaye
main khoon se seenchoonga
khoon se seechoonga
?? phool ye khil jaaye
jaaye
Vaada na mera toote ae
waah duniya
duniya badal jaaye
jaaye
hasti ko mita dena aa
jeene ka saleeka hai ae
hasti ko mita dena
jeene ka saleeka hai
ubhrega wahi daana
ubhrega wahi daana
mitti mein jo mil jaaye
jaaye
Vaada na mera toote ae
waah duniya
duniya badal jaaye
jaaye
phoolon ke pujaari hain
kaanton se nahin darte ae
phoolon ke pujaari hain
kaanton se nahin darte ae
?? jaan rahe tan mein
jaan rahe tan mein
?? jaan nikal jaaye
jaaye
Vaada na mera toote ae
waah duniya
duniya badal jaaye
jaaye
Vaada na mera toote ae
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 : |
4478 | Post No. : | 15985 |
Today’s song is from an unique film – Kinara-1949.
I say Unique because it was produced by a person who was also the film’s Hero and the Music Director. He also sang 3 solo songs in the film. The film’s story was written by him. The name of this person was Madhusudan Acharya. He was a trained singer, visited the USA 9 times, visited the UK once and sang on BBC Radio too. Wrote several stage plays and was a force to reckon with on the Gujarati stage !
Bombay is a Maya Nagari. People from all over the country come here to make money and a career. Not everyone succeeds, but that has not dampened the people’s attraction for Bombay till today. In addition, Bombay has a pulsating Cinema Industry. If one succeeds here, he can earn Millions, be famous and popular and get the best in life. This ” if ” is ignored by most people and hordes of them rush to Bombay in search of a successful career – may be in acting, singing, directing composing or whatever.
There are 3 types of results for such people. One- the person gets only one or two chances- does not succeed and quits for ever. Two- gets few chances, succeeds moderately but quits after some time voluntarily. And Three- succeeds and lives here till the end comes to him.
There are examples in every category. In the first category, I remember off hand, at least 2 examples. The first is the only Trio of MDs – Lala, Sattar and Asar, who came together in 1965 to compose songs for 2 films – Sangram and Jahan Sati wahan Bhagwan. They failed and this group broke. Asar left for ever. The second example is the MD pair of Rai-Frank, who gave music to film Gogola-1964. After this film Rai- who was Mukund Rai Trivedi, son of a Mine Owner in M.P. left the film industry to join family business.
In the second group there are more examples. I remember Shashi Kapoor Sr. who acted as a Child Artiste in 21 Hindi films, quit films, continued his studies and became a Maths professor in a University in USA for the rest of his life. The second case is of Arjun Bakshi, who failed as a Hero in film Malhar-51 and 2 other films, left acting, tried writing screenplays etc. and then migrated to Canada, opened a Music shop and lived there for ever. Yet another case is of Ashraf Khan, who after a successful acting and singing career on stage and in films, quit all and became a Sufi Saint !
In the third group, there are several examples which we all know. The point is, Madhusudan Acharya fits into the first category. Lets know more about this person. Information on him was scarcely available.
Hindi films only know him as an actor, singer, composer and producer, but there is much more to him in different fields. Madhusudan was born on 28-11-1911 at Acharyawadi in Ahmedabad city. After completing education upto SSC , he jumped into the agitation called out by Gandhi. There was a Lathi charge on 20-8-1930 and he was arrested and jailed for 2 months.
After release from jail he went back to home, but his mother fired him so much that he left home again. After 8 years, his uncle found him and brought him back to home. Meanwhile, he learnt music from Ustad Abdul Kareem khan and later from his disciple Balkrishna Buwa Kapileshwari from 1931 to 1933, as well as from Roshan Ara Begum.
Due to his good nature and sweet tongue, he was popular. In 1939, he went to Japan, with a team of Ahmedabad Mill owners. In Tokyo, he did a stage show and sang songs. He came to Bombay in n1947 and stayed here for the next 30 years.. He wanted to make a Drama Theatre to be let out at a very nominal rate. He also wanted to make 2-3 films.
He produced the film Kinara-49. He became the Hero. He composed its music giving 12 songs. He sang 3 solo songs himself in this film. He selected Geeta Bali as the heroine, because he was impressed with her acting in the film Suhag Raat-1948. The film took about 15 to 16 months to be ready. It was censored in June and released in Swastik Cinema, Bombay, where it ran for 9 weeks, a reasonable success. 14 prints were made of the film, which were all destroyed in a fire at the Chembur Godown.One print of the film was stolen and it was released in Pakistan. Due to inexperience and wrong decisions, the film gave him a huge loss. However he professed, ” loss is nothing but bother of profit and every setback is the root cause of the Rise.”
C.Ramchandra and Husnalal Bhagatram were his good friends. He praised R C Boral and Khemchand prakash. In actors, he liked P C Barua, Mazhar Khan, Chandramohan and Nawab. Lata Mangeshkar sang only one song for this film, because by 1949, she became a very busy artiste. However he recorded one more song by Lata for his next film- which never materialised.
Acharya wrote many dramas in Gujarati. ” Mangal Murti ” a drama based on the film Kinara became so successful that it did 3500 stage shows. His plays were staged in Bombay and Saurashtra. He had a good income from his estate in Ahmedabad. he wanted to go to the USA and settle there. He went to the USA first time in 1967 and later 8 more times, but could not settle there. In 1976 he went to London. He was invited on BBC where he sang a classical song.
Madhusudan was a very self respected person and truthful too. From 1977, he lived in Surat. He was interviewed by Harish Raghuwanshi ji on 18-4-1984. This interview was published in Listener’s Bulletin No. 59 of November 1984. This article is the rough translation of that interview. I thank Harish ji heartily for this rare information.
Film Kinara-49 was directed by Ambalal Dave, for whom the film was the only one directed by him independently. He had jointly directed another film in the same year-Roop Sundari-49 along with Narayan Patel. For him that was the only film in his life. Looks like this film,Kinara-49, played as a Trial field for the hero, singer, MD, Producer and the Director too ! Incidentally, there are 2 duets in the film, one by Harish and Shanti Sharma and another by Harish and Ram Pyari.
This singer Harish Bhatt was the younger brother of singer Yashwant Bhatt. He was an ardent fan of Saigal. He sang many songs in Gujarati but the film Kinara was the only Hindi film where he sang. Incidentally, this Harish and Yashwant Bhatt are close relatives of our Khyati Ben Bhatt- an active Atulite. Another unique feature of this film was that the famous Shenai player Bismilla Khan acted in this film and played Shehnai too. His name features in the cast credits. For this, he was called specially from Banares twice, adding to the cost of the film. As per my information, this is the only film in which Bismilla Khan acted in his lifetime.
By now, we have seen that there were so many First (and last) timers in this film. Story writer, Director, Producer, Music Director, 2 singers, Hero and an actor/musician. We have no information if there was any first timer amongst the Technicians. That is how this film was an Unique Film !
3 songs from this film are already discussed. This is the fourth song today. The song, singer, tune and music are not bad-if not excellent.
Song-Hum unpar bharosa kiye jaa rahe hain (Kinaara)(1949) Singer- Madhusudan Acharya, Lyricist- Sahir Bhopali, MD- Madhusudan Acharya
Lyrics
Hum unpar bharosa kiye jaa rahe hain
Hum unpar bharosa kiye jaa rahe hain
muhabbat ke maare jiye jaa rahe hain
muhabbat ke maare jiye jaa rahe hain
wohi hum ko dhokha diye jaa rahe hain
wohi hum ko dhokha diye jaa rahe hain
Hum unpar bharosa kiye jaa rahe hain
dil o jaan se sab ko daulat hai pyaari
dil o jaan se sab ko daulat hai pyaari
mubaarak zamaane ko ho duniyadaari
mubaarak zamaane ko ho duniyadaari
jo karna hai humko kiye jaa rahe hain
jo karna hai humko kiye jaa rahe hain
Hum unpar bharosa kiye jaa rahe hain
zara dekhna haal o maalik hamaara
zara dekhna haal o maalik hamaara
hai manjhdhaar naiyya na koi sahaara
hai manjhdhaar naiyya na koi sahaara
magar jeene waale jiye jaa rahe hain
magar jeene waale jiye jaa rahe hain
Hum unpar bharosa kiye jaa rahe hain
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