Archive for the ‘Kalyani Bai (Miss Kalyani) solo song’ Category
Pal chhin chain na aaye
Posted on: July 13, 2023
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in 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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In this article, I am taking up a rare song from ‘Sharaarat’ (1944) which I had uploaded on one of the video sharing platforms about 6 years back for covering on the Blog. However, it got delayed because I was not sure of the playback singer of the song. In the milieu, I completely forgot to follow it up. A few days back, I heard this song on the website which reminded me of a long pending post which I am taking up.
‘Sharaarat’ (1944) was produced and directed by Kishore Sahu under his own banner, Hindustan Chitra. He was also the lead actor in the movie along with Protima Dasgupta. The other actors included Maya Banerji, Moni Chatterjee, Gulab. Ranibala, Sushil Sahu, Ramesh Gupta, Anant Prabhu, Anwari etc. The film got censor certificate on February 8, 1944, and was released on February 18, 1944. This film can be called as a part of Kishore Sahu’s trilogy of films on social comedy, the other two beings ‘Kunwaara Baap’ (1942) and ‘Raja’ (1943). Incidentally, Kishore Sahu and Protima Dasgupta were in lead roles in all these three films.
I came to know about Producer-director-actor-writer, Kishore Sahu (22/11/1915 – 22/08/1980) for the first time when I had watched ‘Dil Apna Aur Preet Paraayi’ (1960) directed by him, in the theatre after its release. The first time I saw him as an actor was in ‘Poonam Ki Raat’ (1965) which he was the producer-director. In the same year, I watched him in ‘Guide’ (1965) in which he acted in the role of Waheeda Rahman’s husband and in ‘Gumnaam’ (1965). While his direction in ‘Dil Apna Aur Preet Paraayee’ (1960) was good, Kishore Sahu did not impressed me as an actor in his both the films of 1965. After ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’ (1971), I do not remember to have seen any of his subsequent films. Being in almost the fag end of his career in Hindi films, Kishore Sahu was not a much-discussed personality in film magazines during my younger days.
It was much later when I started going through the pages of ‘Filmindia’ magazines of 1937-49 period that I became aware of Kishore Sahu as a prominent name to be reckoned in the 1940s and early 1950s in the Hindi film industry. I think Kishore Sahu may be one of very few Hindi film personalities of his time whose film career progression was fastest and that too at a young age. He joined Bombay Talkies in 1937 and was the lead actor in his very first film, ‘Jeewan Prabhat’ (1937). At the age of 23, he set up a film production company, India Artists Ltd of which he was the managing director. Under this banner, he produced ‘Bahurani’ (1940) in which he was also the lead actor with Rose. However, after the release of the film, he resigned from the India Artists Ltd and went back to Bombay Talkies to act in a lead role with Snehaprabha Pradhan in ‘Punar Milan’ (1940). The film was super hit at the box office.
Despite the grand box office success of ‘Punar Milan’ (1940), Kishore Sahu left film industry and went back to his native place and later to Nagpur. He remained there for nearly one year. The background to this sudden departure from the film industry was that during the making of ‘Punar Milan’ (1940), Kishore Sahu fell in love with Snehprabha Pradhan. They got married on September 13, 1940. However, in less than six months of their marriage, they separated eventually leading to the divorce sometime in 1942. The separation in less than six months of the marriage with court proceedings affected Kishore Sahu to such an extent that probably he felt to take a temporary break from the film industry.
After recovering from the shock of separation, Kishore Sahu returned to Bombay with a story of ‘Kunwaara Baap’ (1942) which N R Acharya, his erstwhile colleague in Bombay talkies agreed to produce under his newly set up banner, Acharya Arts Production. This was Kishore Sahu’s debut film as a director. He was also the lead actor opposite Protima Dasgupta. The box office success of this film encouraged him to direct another social comedy films – ‘Raja’ (1943) which was also was a commercial success.
With two box successive box office hit films, Kishore Sahu set up his own film production banner, Hindustan Chitra under which he produced and directed ‘Sharaarat’ (1944) and many more successful films thereafter like ‘Sindoor’ (1947), ‘Saawan Aaya Re’ (1947), ‘Rimjhim’ (1949), ‘Kali Ghata’ (1951) and “Mayur Pankh’ (1954). As a director, he saw success in ‘Saajan’ (1947), ‘Nadiya Ke Paar’ (1948). ‘Dil Apna Aur Preet Paraayi’ (1960) and ‘Grihasti’ (1963).
Kishore Sahu set up his new film production company, Kishore Sahu Productions under which he produced and directed ‘Poonam Ki Raat’ (1965), ‘Hare Kaanch Ki Choodiyaan’ (1967) and ‘Pushpaanjali’ (1970), the last two films for launching his daughter, Naina Sahu. However, none of these films could create ripples at the box office. His last film as a director was ‘Dhuen Ki Lakeer’ (1974) which also did not fare well at the box office.
Kishore Sahu died of heart-attack on August 22, 1980, at Bangkok while he was on a family trip.
The detailed story and review of ‘Sharaarat’ (1944) is not available anywhere on the website to the best of my efforts. However, ‘Wikipedia’ has given some indication of the story line which I reproduce below:
Rai Bahadur Hiralal Mathur (Moni Chatterjee) is a wealthy man who lives with his wife and a stubborn, spoilt daughter Sudha (Protima Dasgupta). Her reckless driving of a new car nearly gets her into trouble when she bangs the car into Dr. Sharma (Kishore Sahu). The Doctor suffers no serious injuries, instead he and Sudha fall in love. However, Sudha’s mother has already arranged her marriage into a family of her interest. Sudha pretends to be insane, and the family call for the services of Dr. Sharma to help treat her. [Words in italics, my guess].
‘Sharaarat’ (1944) had 9 songs written by Rammurti Chaturvedi (5), Ambikesh Kuntal (2), Girish (1) and Karim (1). The songs were set to music by S N Tripathi and Khan Mastana. However, allocation of individual songs between the two music directors are not available. HFGK does not mention the name of the playback singers for any song. It appears that the labels on the gramophone records of the songs mention the names of the actors on whom the songs were picturised.
I am presenting the first song from the film ‘pal chin chain naa aaye’ to appear on the Blog. The song is written by Rammurti Chaturvedi. I remember, about six years back when this song was a part of Radio Ceylon’s ‘Kamsune Unsune Gaane’ programme, the name of the singer was indicated as Maya Banerji. Now, I am pretty sure that the voice of the singer in the song under discussion is that of Kalyani Bai. This was already confirmed by Shalin Bhatt in his comments on the video of the song uploaded by me.
With this song, ‘Sharaarat’ (1944) makes its debut on the Blog.
Audio Clip:
Song-Pal chhin chain na aaye (Sharaarat)(1944) Singer-Kalyani Bai, Lyrics-Rammurty Chaturvedi, MD-S N Tripathi/Khan Mastana
Lyrics
pal chhin chain naa aaaye
un bin bhayi baawri ankhiyaan
un bin bhayi baawri ankhiyaan
pal chhin chain naa aaye
aayi yaad milan ki raaten
pyaar bhari wo manhar baaten
aayi yaad milan ki raaten
pyaar bhari wo manhar baaten
mann mann hi mann aaj ro raha
mann mann hi mann aaj ro raha
naahak neh lagaa
aa aa aa
naahak neh lagaa
haaye
un bin bhayi baawri ankhiyaan
pal chhin chain naa aaye
dekh mujhe chanda muskaaye
dekh mujhe chanda muskaaye
papeeha pihoo kahe ae
jiya jaraaye
jiya jaraaye
aisi jali birha ki agni
aisi jali birha ki agni
bujhe naa haaye bujhaaye ae ae ae
bujhe naa haaye bujhaaye
jale pe jalaaye
jale pe jalaaye
pal chhin chain naa aaye
un bin bhayi baawri ankhiyaan
pal chhin chain naa aaye
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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5401 | Post No. : | 17719 |
Today’s song is an excellent but less known and less heard Ghalib Ghazal ( as per HFGK), sung by Kalyani Bai aka Miss Kalyani, for the film Ghazi Salauddin-1939.
Many times it is extremely difficult to find information on old time films. I tried all my resources to get some information about this film, but in vain. Nothing was available anywhere. The film is also not available anymore. So practically, we knew only what is given in HFGK, in terms of Director, MD, star cast and if we are lucky, some information on the songs like singer, lyricist, record numbers etc.
For the last almost a month, I was struggling. First I found out what Ghazi means. It means a fighter for Islam against Non-Islamists. Secondly some of the songs praise Allah and are about Muslims dying for Islam religion. So it became clear that the film was on some kind of a fight between Muslims and Non muslims. Just last week, I happened to read a book ” Historicizing myths in contemporary India- Cinematic representations”. It is written by Swapna Gopinath and Rujuta Deshmukh (It is a coincidence that the writer’s name is Deshmukh. No relation of mine !) On its page 102, there is a reference to this film ‘ Ghazi Salauddin’. I quote what it says….
” Despite the dwindling popularity of these war historicals in the pan-Indian markets, films with strong communal overtones to be made in some regional pockets. perhaps the communal award-1932 which charted out a separate electorate, gave a boost to the monolithic identity of the community which ushered in a new phase of communalised politics in the subcontinent.In this political atmosphere, films were made portraying events and personalities who were regarded as heroic by one community but denounced by others. This sentiment was manifested regarding the release of the film ” Ghazi Salauddin (1939), though not based on Indian terrain, but featured the typical medieval war of crusade with intense communal overtones.The film was advertised as ” You saw Crusade ! Now see the other side of the medal in Ghazi Salahuddin. “
From all the above it is now clear that this film was a kind of Islamic Historical film and the background was not in India, but somewhere else where the islamist and the Christians fought a war. It is not known who won it, but it is an easy guess, considering that in 1939, the British were ruling India where the film was made ! The film was made by Supreme Pictures. It was directed by I.A.Hafiz ji (Ismail Asif Hafiz ji) who was an assistant director with New Theatres, Calcutta. Hafiz ji directed only four films independently – Usne kya socha-1937, Ghazi Salauddin-1939, Parda Nasheen-1942 and Mamta-1942.
The film had music by Khemchand Prakash. This was his First film as an independent MD. Dr. Ashok Ranade, in his book ” Music beyond Boundaries” says about Khemchand Prakash….
” Though Khemchand’s debut film was Ghazi salauddin (1939), his main cinematic association was with the well known Ranjit Movietone. He joined them around 1940. In a short career spanning 11 years he left behind music composed for 34 films. He has the credit for giving a break to Kishore Kumar in Ziddi (1948). In addition to Kardar’s well received productions such as Holi and Pagal(19410, he also scored for Kidar Sharma’s Gauri, Vishkanya etc.Jayant Desai’s musical landmarkTansen (1949, with Saigalin the lead) and Mahal(1950) represent big points of Khemchand’s musical achievements. Tamasha (1952) was his last film. “
The cast of the film was Rattanbai ( she was the wife of director Hafiz ji), Ghulam Mohd., Mazhar khan, Yaqub, W.M.Khan, Mirza Musharraf and others. The story writer, dialogue writer , Screenplay writer and Lyricist was Khan Bahadur Hakeem Ahmed Shuja. Khan Bahadur Hakim Ahmad Shuja MBE, sometimes written as ‘Hakeem Ahmed Shujah’ and ‘Hakim Ahmad Shuja Pasha’, (4 November 1893 – 4 January 1969), was a famous Urdu and Persian poet, playwright, writer, film writer and lyricist, scholar and mystic, from former British India, later Pakistan.
Hakim Ahmad Shuja was the only son of his parents, who both died when he was still a minor and he was brought up largely by an elder cousin, Hakim Amin-ed-din, Barrister. After a basic education in Arabic and Quranic studies at home, and initial Sufic training under various notable mystics in both Chishti and Qadiri systems, he was then admitted for ‘English education’ to the old Central Model School, Lahore and later went to the famous Aligarh Muslim University, from where he graduated with honours. For some time, Hakim Ahmad Shuja then worked as a lecturer at the Osmania University in Hyderabad state (Deccan) but was not happy and returned to Lahore to seek employment there. After several journalistic and academic ventures, he eventually settled down to regular service in the secretariat of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, finally retiring as Secretary to the Punjab Assembly in the 1950s.
Hakim Ahmad Shuja was a very prolific and versatile writer indeed, producing several collections of Urdu and Persian poetry, countless essays and belles-lettres published in newspapers and journals throughout India (and later Pakistan), one of the earliest translations of the Quran in Punjabi language, several dramatic works in collaboration with Imtiaz Ali Taj, Agha Hashar Kashmiri and other theatrical producers, and, later on, screenplays and lyrics for the early Indo-Pakistan cinema. However, his fame today rests chiefly on these noted works: “Lahore ka Chelsea” (1967; 1989 reprint), a collection of memoirs of Old Lahore; “Khoon-Baha” (1962), some of his other personal memoirs; “Gard-i-Karvan” (1950s; reprint 1960), a collection of poems and essays in praise of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the ‘Ahl i Bayt’ (members of the Prophet’s family) as exemplars of the ‘Ideal’ Muslim character; and his lovely, lyrical poems, some of which were later successfully adapted for film songs. These works reflect his idealism and humane and deeply mystical faith and a Romanticism which reflects both the typical Urdu and Persian poetic traditions, as well as the influence of Western writers such as Shelley, Thomas Carlyle, Goethe and Victor Hugo.
He wrote 10 songs for the film Prem Yatra-1937. About his Screenplays and other filmi activities, details are not available. He was involved in the screenplay, dialogues and song writing in films like Yahudi ki Ladki-1933 and Kaarvaan E Hayat-1935, films made by New Theatres, Calcutta. He had also provided storylines for films like Behram Khan-1945 and Sheesh Mahal-1950 etc. Perhaps he did some more of them in Pakistan.
Hakim Ahmad Shuja continued to write even until the time of his death in 1969. Between the 1950s and 1960s, he became especially interested in the potentialities of film-making and cinema. In many ways, thus, he had a direct influence and bearing upon the development of both early Indian and Pakistani literature and cinema.[ In addition, he also made a significant contribution to the early development of Urdu language, linguistics and etymology as permanent secretary and one of the main compilers/editors of Pakistan’s Official Language Committee, 1949, responsible for the standardization of official and court terms, from English to Urdu.
Hakim Ahmad Shuja was a contemporary of and associated with people like Agha Hashar Kashmiri, Imtiaz Ali Taj, Abul Kalam Azad, Allama Iqbal, Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Sohrab Modi, and Muhammad Ali Jauhar.
In the film the role of Salauddin was done by Ghulam Mohammed, his lover was Rehana, played by Rattanbai, and the role of the British Commander Richard was done by Mazhar khan. For comical relief Mirza Musharraf played joker Younus. Today’s song is sung by Miss Kalyani aka Kalyani Bai.
Hailing from Turkman Gate in Delhi, Kalyani Bai was born in 1916. Her real name was Zarina. She was passionate about singing from a very young age and subsequently started her formal training with Ustad Wazire Khan and in no time started singing for All India Radio and HMV. That era saw an influx of records made from the many Ghazals, Khyaal & Thumris that she had sung.
When a contact was made to her at her house situated in ‘Tekriwala bunglow’ on Dargah lane in Mahim (West), a few years back, Kalyani Bai said that with the advent of Talkie films the demand for well enunciated and melodious singers suddenly went up as till then playback hadn’t been the trend and actors would themselves have to sing the songs live in front of the camera. In the midst of this, one day, two brothers from Punjab saw her in a recording and came over to her house. They wanted to make a film with Kalyani. They agreed to all the conditions that Kalyani’s Abba put forth and hence Abba-Ammi along with their 15 children went on to Kolkata. This was during the Mid 30’s. Kalyani Bai was approximately 13 years old at that time. This film ‘Pardesi’, according to Kalyani, was completed halfway when a spat took place between the two brothers and the film had to be shut down.
As soon as B.N.Sircar, the owner of ‘New Theatres’ and R.C.Boral, the music director came to know of this, they called Kalyani and immediately employed her in their company at a salary of Rupees 250 a month. Since her nickname was ‘Kallo’, R.C.Boral gave Zarina a new name and henceforth she came to be known as ‘Kalyani Bai’.
Kalyani was featured in all the four films released by New Theatres in 1937 viz ‘Anath Ashram’, ‘Mukti’, ‘President’ and ‘Vidyapati’, here she not only acted alongside heavyweights like Prithviraj Kapoor, Trilok Kapoor, Uma Shashi, Jagdish Sethi, P.C.Barua, Kanan devi, Pankaj Mullick, K.L.Sehgal, Leela Desai, Pahadi Sanyal, K.C.Dey, and K.N.Singh, she also sang some songs for her characters in those films. Playback was in its initial phase and had just been introduced in 1935 by ‘New Theatres’ in their film ‘Dhoop Chhaon’. And in practice, it wasn’t the singer’s name (who had actually sung the song) that appeared on the music records but the name of the character of the movie on whom the song was filmed and since this practice continued for another one and a half decade, it is virtually impossible to verify the songs sung by almost all the artists of that era including Kalyani.
Mumbai based Sardar Chandulal Shah, owner of ‘Ranjit Movietone’, was so impressed by Kalyani’s singing and acting skills that as soon as her contract with new theaters was over, he called Kalyani to Mumbai and employed her at Rupees 800 per month. The 1937 release ‘Toofani Toli’ was Kalyani’s first movie to be screened under the banner of Ranjit Movietone. The film was directed by Jayant Desai and Gyan Dutt was its Music composer. Kalyani sung three songs for this movie.
In 1938 Ranjit Movietone made a total of 8 films under its banner of which Kalyani sang and acted in 4 viz. ‘Billi’, ‘Gorakh Aya’, ‘Prithvi Putra’ and ‘Secretary’. Gyan Dutt was the composer and Pyarelal Santoshi was the lyricist for all of these films. . In the year 1939 of the 4 films that were screened under this banner, in ‘Nadi Kinare’ Kalyani acted as well as sang a duet
After parting ways from ‘Ranjit Movietone’, Kalyani appeared in movies like ‘Super Pictures’ ‘Kanyadan’ (1940), ‘Mohan Picture’s’ ‘Jadui Kangan’ (1940), ‘Muslim ka laal’ (1941) and ‘Jadui Angoothi’ (1948), ‘Tarun Picture’s’ ‘Prabhat’ (1941), ‘Sunrise Picture’s’ ‘Ghar ki laaj’ (1941), ‘Ghar Sansar’ (1942), ‘Malan’ (1942) and ‘Maa Baap’ (1944) and ‘Radhika Picture’s’ ‘Pyara Watan’ (1942) where she not only played a range of roles from that of a heroine to a vamp, but she also sang many songs for these films. one that predominates all is the first film-qawaali of the history of Indian Cinema ‘aahein na bharin shikve na kiye’ (‘Zeenat’-1945 / Lyrics : Nakhshab / Music : Hafeez Khan) sung with Noorjehan and Johrabai Ambalewali in which Shyama, Shashikala and Shalini were seen on the big screen for the first time ever.
After her marriage in the year 1948, Kalyani left aside the ostentatious world of glamour and completely immersed herself in her domesticated life. After a number of decades she was once again seen in movies like ‘Aaja Sanam’ (1975), ‘Prem Kahani’ (1975), ‘Aakhiri Sajda’ (1977) and ‘Salaam-E-Mohabbat’ (1983) where she played a number of small character roles but her comeback films couldn’t bring back the magic that once was and she bid her final farewell to the big screen and spent the rest of her days quietly with her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. Her husband had passed away very early on and her son, working as a spot boy in films, barely managed to keep the household running. Although she had some relief in the form of a pension of Rupees 750 per month through the ‘Gandhi Welfare Trust’ set up by Richard Attenborough, Kalyani could never rise above the financial difficulties of livelihood till the very end.
In spite of all the pains and troubles that she faced, she never uttered a single word of complaint. And it was this decorous and dignified nature of hers that even superstars like Dev Anand and Sunil Dutt always showered her with the utmost respect. And then on 1st October 2009 at the age of 87, this remarkable artist of her era took her final journey.
( Film Historian,writer and journalist Shri Shishir Krishna Sharma ji interviewed her on 21-2-2004. The above edited Biography of Kalyani Bai is based on his writings in http://www.beetehuedin.blogspot.in and my notes. I thank Sharmaji for this.)
Let us now hear Ghalib Ghazal…..
Song- Kabhi neki bhi uske jee mein gar aa jaaye hai mujh se (Ghaazi Salahuddin)(1939) Singer- miss Kalyani, Lyricist- Mirza Ghalib, MD- Khemchand Prakash
Lyrics
Kabhi neki bhi uske jee mein gar aa jaaye hai mujh se
Kabhi neki bhi uske jee mein gar aa jaaye hai mujh se
zafaayen karke apni yaad sharma jaaye hai mujhse
zafaayen karke apni yaad sharma jaaye hai mujhse
khudaaya zazba e dil ki magar taaseer ulti hai
khudaaya zazba e dil ki magar taaseer ulti hai
magar taaseer ulti hai
magar taaseer ulti hai
ke jitna khenchta hoon
aur khinchta jaaye hai mujh se
ke jitna khenchta hoon
aur khinchta jaaye hai mujh se
sambhalne de mujhe ae naaummeedee kya qayamat hai
sambhalne de mujhe ae naaummeedee kya qayamat hai
ke daamaan e khayaal e yaar chhoota jaaye hai mujhse
ke daamaan e khayaal e yaar chhoota jaaye hai mujhse
Kabhi neki bhi uske jee mein gar aa jaaye hai mujh se
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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