Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs

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.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.

Today’s song is from an obscure film ‘Angoori’ (1943).

The film was produced by The Indian Art Pictures, Bombay. This was a new company formed and this film was their first venture. They did not have their own studio, like many other producers. Due to the second world war, many new financiers turned to film making, using their black money earned during the rationing of many essential commodities. Even the raw film stock, used to make a movie, was controlled and naturally was available in black market freely at a premium price. Such producers got their films shot in some established studios by renting a shooting floor. The prolific film company, Ranjit, had reserved 2 floors out of their 8 shooting floors, only to be given on rent to such producers. Film ‘Angoori’ was shot in the studios of Circo Production company.

The film was based on a novel by writer LK Shukla. For the director, Mahesh Kaul, this was his debut film as a Director. So far he had been only a writer and a sundry actor in films.

Mahesh Kaul (10-4-1911 to 2-7-1972) was born in Lahore and educated in Moni College, Nagpur. After graduation, he worked as a journalist and a bank manager. He then entered films as a lyricist and dialogue writer. He debuted as an actor in KA Abbas scripted film ‘Naya Sansar’ (1941) and played Dronacharya’s role in film ‘Mahatma Vidur’ (1943). His other films as an actor were ‘Apna Ghar’ (1942), ‘Gopinath’ (1948), ‘Kaaghaz Ke Phool’ (1959) and ‘Tere Mere Sapne’ (1971). His first film as a director was ‘Angoori’, then came ‘Paristan’ in 1944. He produced and directed film ‘Gopinath’, with Raj Kapoor and IPTA actress Tripti Mitra. Some of his major films as a director are ‘Naujawaan’ (1951), ‘Aakhri Dao’ (1958), ‘Talaaq’ (1958), ‘Sautela Bhai’ (1962), ‘Palki’ (1967), ‘Sapnon Ka Saudagar’ (1968) etc. In all he directed 15 Hindi films. His last film ‘Agni Rekha’ came after his death, in 1973.

The music director for this film was GM Durrani and the lyricist was Rammurty Chaturvedi. Earlier, when the film was planned and an advertisement was published in ‘Film India’ magazine, the film had given the name of Pt. Indra as the lyricist, but later on probably he was replaced by Rammurty. The cast of the film was Ulhas, Kaushalya, Dar Kashmiri, Mukul, Chandrahas, Sunetra, PR Joshi, Angre, Ranjan, Peer Muhammad, Mukul etc. This was Durrani’s first film as an MD.

Ghulam Mustafa Durrani, often abbreviated as GM Durrani (1919 – 8 September 1988) was a popular and legendary Indian radio drama artist, playback singer, actor and music director. To his credit, he tried to make his own identity as a playback singer and not try to follow the KL Saigal type of singing. GM Durrani was notable for sad songs, romantic songs, patriotic songs, Quraan Khani, qawwalis, ghazals and bhajans. He was also one of the first Muslim singers to get to sing Hindu Devotionals. GM Durrani was also the most senior Punjabi singer-actor at that time. He was radio drama artist and full-time singer of Lahore, Delhi and Bombay stations of AIR (All India Radio, aka Akashvani (radio broadcaster)). His native language was Pashto but he had a strong command over Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi. He sang in many Indian languages including Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Pashto language in Indian movies in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. After the 50s Durrani sang very few songs. Durrani was the disciple of radio broadcaster Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari.

Ghulam Mustafa Durrani was born in Peshawar, British India in 1919. He was a Pathan (Pashtun) and belonged to the Mohammad Zai Durrani Kabila. He was from a conservative family where even tea was not taken. Milk and lassi were the drinks of choice. When he used to go to those shops and some songs used to be heard, he used to hum along with them. Everyone used to say this boy should go to Bombay, as his voice was very good. The thought of becoming an actor entered his mind as well. He soon ran out of money to make ends meet.

His mother had expired when he was very young. Father was educated and of artistic mind but very strict, and the only ally at the home was his loving grandmother. But she could also not protect him from his father’s anger.

The last job Durrani did in Peshawar was of at a painter’s shop where an artist always used to hum the tunes of the songs composed by highly respected composer and actor Rafiq Ghaznavi. He also started imitating those songs and got appreciation from the colleagues which inspired him. Durrani started practising Rafiq Ghaznavi’s songs and assumed him as his master. During this time, his father took him to another job at his uncle’s motor-part shop. But the artist within, didn’t stay long there and Durrani ran away from the home to Lahore with only 22 rupees in his pocket.

In Lahore, Durrani did odd jobs along with singing on radio. This brought him fame and passion for radio singing which took him to Delhi first, and then to Bombay. He came to Bombay on 14 April 1935. In Bombay, he got somehow a job at the Radio Station and from here he got recognition. Film wallahs started calling him to sing.

His singing career started from AIR. Durrani was discovered by film producer Sohrab Modi of Minerva Film Company (later known as Minerva Movietone). Modi gave him his first break around 1935-36 in the movie ‘Saed-e-Havas’ (1936), a historical under the music director, classical musician Bundu Khan popularly known as ‘Taan-Talwar‘ Bundu Khan.

When Durrani came to Bombay playback system was not there and one had to act on screen. He didn’t like running around trees and refused to work further. He faced a lot of difficulties and could not return as people would call him a ‘Kanjar‘. Minerva was reportedly to close down soon too. He soon joined the Delhi Radio Station of AIR (Akashvani). Durrani was working at the Delhi Radio Station where he got acquainted with poet Behzad Lakhnavi whose many ghazals had been sung by Mallika-e-Ghazal (Queen of Ghazals) Akhtari Bai Faizabadi, later to become famous as Begum Akhtar.

He later shifted to the Bombay Radio Station where he met a big personality at the time, whom he considered his ustad (master), Station Director of Bombay station of AIR (Akashvani), Baba-e-Nasharayat (Father of Broadcasting) Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari who helped the radio station come up a lot. Durrani always referred to Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari as ustad as a mark of honour. (ZA Bukhari, was the Station Director of Delhi station and then Bombay station of AIR (Akashvani). After the partition of India and creation of Pakistan, Bukhari migrated to Pakistan. He was made the first director-general of Radio Pakistan (Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation) and later, he served as general manager of PTV (Pakistan Television Corporation)).

Durrani’s salary was fixed at Rs 40 per month. Here he was working as a drama artist. He was soon counted as one of the best drama artist on the radio those days. Over a period of three years his salary had gone up to Rs 70 per month. But fate would soon call him back to films. In 1939-40, when the method of playback singing was already in use, he returned to films, to lend his voice for a film titled ‘Bahurani’ (1940) as his first playback singing assignment. The film was made by Sagar Movietone and its music director was Rafiq Ghaznavi. Durrani was then working as a full-time Singer in AIR (Akashvani). Those were British days and they were not allowed to do any private recordings. But Ghaznavi insisted. and Durrani laid down some conditions, like; the recording should be fixed on a Sunday night so that no outsiders would be allowed to enter the studio. Secondly, he said that his name shouldn’t appear in credit titles or on discs. The song was a duet with Miss Rose, an Anglo-Indian, who didn’t have much experience as a singer. He was paid Rs. 75 for the song as against his salary of Rs. 70 a month at AIR (Akashvani). He then left  his job at AIR on 31st December 1940 and decided to concentrate fully on his film career.

Thereafter he sang for, among others, noted music directors like Khawaja Khurshid Anwar, friend Naushad, Shankar Rao Vyas and AR Qureshi (also known as Alla Rakha, Pandit Ravi Shanker’s famous tabla accompanist) for films like ‘Namaste’ (1943), ‘Shama’ (1946), ‘Mirza Sahiban’ (1947), ‘Magroor’ (1950), ‘Sabak’ (1950), ‘Humlog’ (1951) and scores of others. He became very popular. Many singers started their careers with him and he inspired many others too.

He was the idol of Mohammed Rafi who imitated him in the initial days. Now what could be a better tribute to singer than that, that the symbol of divinity in the Indian Music Industry, Mohammad Rafi, followed him. In fact, in 1944 Rafi recorded what he considered his first Hindi language song for the film ‘Gaon ki Gori‘ (1944) for Shyam Sunder, “Aji Dil Ho Kaaboo Mein To Dildaar Ki Aisi Taisi” with GM Durrani and chorus.

Geeta Dutt also started her career in her break through movie ‘Do Bhai’ (1947) with the song “Aaj Preet Ka Naata Toot Gaya“, a duet with GM Durrani for SD Burman.

Similarly, “Haaye Chhore Ki Jaat Badi Bewafa“, (in film ‘Chaandni Raat’, (1949), a duet with GM Durrani, was Lata’s first song for composer, Naushad.

Durrani has sung many songs during his career. His output later reduced. According to a story he was influenced not to sing for some time after his Hajj visit and Rafi then helped him get back to singing but by then his career was over. Music composer Khawaja Khurshid Anwar in his first film ‘Kurmai’ (Punjabi-1941) took Durrani as his assistant and later gave him the film ‘Angoori’ (1943) as music director.

In the period of KL Saigal – Surinder, Khan Mastaana and GM Durrani were also famous. GM Durrani was one of the 40s legendary playback singers. Durrani tried to make his own identity as a playback singer and not try to follow the KL Saigal type of singing. His singing style was to inspire Rafi and others in the years to come. Later GM Durrani became a model to many playback singers who followed then. The soulful renditions of Durrani were to be reminded of by Talat’s singing as well.

Mohammed Rafi was influenced most notably, by GM Durrani on whose style he based his singing. He sang with his idol in some of the songs such as “Humko Hanste Dekh Zamana Jalta Hai” (Hum Sab Chor Hain, 1956) and “Khabar Kisi Ko Nahin Wo Kidhar Ko Dekhte Hain” (Beqasoor, 1950).

Durrani considered his first famous song was “Duniya Mein Sab Jode Jode” of the film ‘Sharda’ (1942) composed by Naushad.

The song “Neend Hamaari Khwaab Tumhaare Kitne Meethe Kitne Pyaare“, that made him a real rage was however composed by Shyam Sundar for the movie ‘Nai Kahaani’ (1943). This song, sung most part by GM Durrani with some support by child-star Balakram, was playing everywhere. When he sang, this song, the listeners went crazy. This timeless melody can never be forgotten by fans of Indian Cinema. Nearly 40 years later, when Tata Oil Mills did a program Mortal Men Immortal Melodies to celebrate fifty years of talkies in India, they invited him to re-render the song. Although many had forgotten him, his voice was still great and he got a standing applause for it.

There was a time when GM Durani was the favourite and most preferred singer for most composers in the industry. From 1941 to 1951, he sang over 300 songs. He is a case of “Riches to Rags”. Once a rich and famous singer,he spent his last few years fighting with throat cancer, poverty and loneliness. His end was quite pathetic.

GM Durani was a leading singer, like Surendra. The difference was Surendra sang only in his own films and thus had limitations,but Durrani was a playback singer, without much competition. In the 40s, there were hardly any male Playback singers,because most singers were actors themselves and sang their own songs, like Asit Baran. Karan Dewan, Ashok Kumar, Prem Adeeb, Arun Ahuja, Balwant singh, CH Atma, Ishwarlal, kantilal, KL Saigal, Pahadi Sanyal etc. There were of course few playback singers like Khan Mastaana, SD Batish, AR Oza, Balbir etc., but they were no competition to Durrani at all.

Because of this ,some singers were jealous of him and there was an attempt to poison him with Mercury Chloride (sindoor) given in a paan  by another well known singer. All relevant stories point out fingers to Hafeez Khan Mastaana in this incident as the culprit. Before he could confess, which he wanted to it seems, Mastaana died in absolute poverty and in total neglect near Mahim Dargah.  Later on his only son used to be seen begging there for quite some time. One of the RMIM members had met him there.

After singing assignments dried up, he opened a provision stores in Mahim, Bombay and ran it for 3 years. Finally, when the losses mounted, he sold off the business in loss.

In his last days, Durrani had throat cancer. He was looked after well by his sons and daughters. In his last days, he was interviewed by the famous writer Shri Rajnikumar Pandya ji. After I came to know Shri Pandya ji, he kindly gifted me a CD containing this last interview of Durrani. The interview was conducted just one day prior to his death . So I have not only Durrani’s real voice, but also a song he sang from his deathbed for this interview ! Thanks to Shri Pandya ji. GM Durrani, in that last interview claimed that he had helped both financially and professionally two rising singers – Mohd. Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar, in their initial struggling period. He describes his first meetings with them in the interview.

GM Durani sang many memorable songs like, “Haath Seene Pe Jo Rakh Do To Qaraar Aa Jaaye“, with Noorjehan in ‘Mirza Sahiban’ (1947), “Laara Lappa Laara Lappa Laai Rakhda” with Lata in ‘Ek thi Ladki’ (1949), “Nazar Phero Na Ham Se” with Shamshad Begum in ‘Deedar’ (1951), “Gaaye Chala Jaa“, with Lata in ‘Hum Log’ (1951), “Humko Hanste Dekh Zamana Jalta Hai” with Rafi in ‘Hum Sab Chor Hain’ (1956. Durrani sang about 300 songs. His last song came in ‘Lal Pathar’ (1971). Co-incidentally, in this last film, he also appeared on screen, lip syncing a song by Mohd Rafi – “Unke Khayaal Aaye To Aate Chale Gaye“.

GM Durrani acted in 16 films, from 1949 to 1978. He sang 305 songs in 168 films. He gave music as MD in 8 films and also wrote lyrics in film ‘Nazaare’ (1949).

An odd name in the cast of ‘Angoori’ is Dar Kashmiri. A little information about this name. He was the eldest brother of Omkar Nath Dar aka OK Dar  aka Jeevan.

Om Prakash Dar was born into a  large family. He had 23 siblings. His grandfather was the Governor of Gilgit in Gilgit-Baltistan. He lost his father when the youngest- Jeevan – was 3 years old and his mother died at childbirth. Being the eldest, he came to Bombay in search of jobs and entered films. Instead of his original long name, he was called Dar Kashmiri.

Actually, when Jeevan came to Bombay in search of film roles, Om Prakash Dar aka Dar kashmiri, his elder brother, was already working in films. Jeevan appeared first time in ‘Fashionable India’ (1935). Since his name was Onkar Nath, he was billed as OK Dar (and not Dar Kashmiri – please note).

His elder brother Dar Kashmiri worked in many films- some of them are – ‘Noor Mahal’ (1934), ‘Watan Parast’ (1934), ‘Yaad Rahe’ (1940), ‘Abla’ (1941), ‘Saugandh’ (1942), ‘Angoori’ (1943), ‘Naya Taraana’ (1943), ‘Room No. 9’ (1946), ‘Hua Savera’ (1948′, ‘Kundan’ (1955) and ‘Ayodhyapati’ (1956). and many other films. In every film, he was billed as Dar Kashmiri only.

Jeevan was billed as  OK Dar (Jeevan) from film ‘Romantic India’ (1936) onwards and then on as Jeevan only – except still a few films where he was billed as OK Dar (Jeevan). In film ‘Patit Paavan’ (1955), both brothers acted and they were individually billed as Jeewan and Dar Kashmiri. This settles their name issue completely.

Let us now listen to this duet. With this song, film ‘Angoori’ of 1943, makes its debut on the blog.

(Information about GM Durrani here, is based partly on an article in www.peoplepill.com and from Rajani Kumar Pandya ji’s book ‘Aap ki Parchhainyan’. I acknowledge and my thanks to both. Information on Dar Kashmiri is from Filmdom-46).

Song – Nainon Mein Naina Deenho Daal. . . O. . . Baanke Naina Waale (Angoori) (1943) Singer – Kaushalya, GM Durrani, Lyricist – Ram Murty Chatruvedi, MD – GM Durrani
Kaushalya + GM Durrani

Lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)

nainon main naina deenho daal
nainon main naina deenho daa..aal
oo oo ooooo
baanke naina waale
nainon main naina deenhi daal
nainon main naina deenhi daa..aal
oo oo ooooo
baanke naina waali
nainon main naina deenho daal

jaat dagariya lad gaye sajni
jaat dagariya lad gaye sajni
chanchal nain hamaare
chanchal nain hamaare
chhail tere zulmi nainon se
chhail tere zulmi nainon se
nain hamaare haare
nain hamaare haare
oo oo ooooo
baanke naina waale
nainon main naina deenhi daal
nainon main naina deenhi daa..aal
oo oo ooooo
baanke naina waale
nainon main naina deenho daal

baney baawre pyaase naina
baney baawre pyaase naina
ab to naa tarsaao
ab to naa tarsaao
bas kar ke nainon mein pi
bas kar ke nainon mein pi
nainon ki pyaas bujhaao
nainon ki pyaas bujhaao
oo oo ooooo
baanke naina waale
nainon main naina deenho daal
nainon main naina deenho daa..aal
oo oo ooooo
baanke naina waale

nainon main naina deenho daa..aal
nainon main naina deenho daa..aal

————————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
————————————————————

नैनों में नैना दीन्हों डाल
नैनों में नैना दीन्हों डा॰॰ल
ओ ओ ओss
बाँके नैना वाले
नैनों में नैना दीन्हीं डाल
नैनों में नैना दीन्हीं डा॰॰ल
ओ ओ ओss
बाँके नैना वाली
नैनों में नैना दीन्हों डाल

जात डगरिया लड़ गए सजनी
जात डगरिया लड़ गए सजनी
चंचल नैना हमारे
चंचल नैना हमारे
छैल तेरे ज़ुल्मी ननों से
छैल तेरे ज़ुल्मी नैनों से
नैन हमारे हारे
नैन हमारे हारे
ओ ओ ओss
बाँके नैना वाले
नैनों में नैना दीन्हीं डाल
नैनों में नैना दीन्हीं डा॰॰ल
ओ ओ ओss
बाँके नैना वाली
नैनों में नैना दीन्हों डाल

बने बावरे प्यासे नैना
बने बावरे प्यासे नैना
अब तो ना तरसाओ
अब तो ना तरसाओ
बस करके नैनों में पी
बस करके नैनों में पी
नैनों की प्यास बुझाओ
नैनों की प्यास बुझाओ
ओ ओ ओss
बाँके नैना वाले
नैनों में नैना दीन्हों डाल
नैनों में नैना दीन्हों डा॰॰ल
ओ ओ ओss
बाँके नैना वाले

नैनों में नैना दीन्हों डाल
नैनों में नैना दीन्हों डा॰॰ल