Archive for the ‘Leela Mehta Songs’ Category
Aayi Aayi Basant Ritu Aayi
Posted by: skapur01 on: November 16, 2018
- In: Aspirations of Love | Basant Ritu Songs | Devnagri script lyrics by Sudhir | Feelings of heart | Guest posts | Leela Mehta Songs | Lord Ram related songs | Lyrics by Sudhir | Lyrics contributed by readers | Post by Arunkumar Deshmukh | Songs of 1940s (1941 to 1950) | Songs of 1950 | Songs Related to Seasons | Weather song | Yearwise breakup of songs
- 2 Comments
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 sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Since the day making of talkie films started in India, till today, no one knows how many actors have worked in films. Few years back, one gentleman had made a list of 7000 actors up to year 2000 and it was posted on a site, which is now defunct. Ordinary film buffs do not know all the names. The experts, perhaps, may know more. Fact remains that there are only few actors known to all and few known to some.
Some time ago, one of my friends and I took a bet on who knows more names of actors. The time limit fixed was 24 hours and no books etc. were to be referred. Next day, we exchanged our lists. Can you believe, I could not cross even 50 ! My friend was better, he wrote 54 names !! When you have some time, try doing this yourself, at least once.
Same case is with music directors and singers. Though no definite number is available, it is generally presumed that there were 1200 to 1500 music directors. How many can you list ?
As far as singers are concerned, it is a different story. I classify film singers into 4 categories.
- Regular playback singers like Rafi, Geeta Dutt, Asha, Mukesh, Lata etc
- Those who acted and sang – early era actors till 1950
- Accidental singers – These are non singers, who sang few lines or a song in a film, sometimes – like Dilip Kumar, Amitabh, many comedians etc., and
- Occasional singers – This is the biggest list. Some of the names in this category are, Ira Nigam, Anima Dasgupta, Balwant Singh, Bharat Vyas, Gopal Patel, Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Malti Pande, Jikki, Narendra Chanchal, Pinakin Shah, Ram Marathe, Shobha Gurtu, Seeta Agarwal, Mrs. Vishnilal, Laxmi Kumthekar etc.
It includes those singers, who sang 6-8 songs and disappeared. It also includes those singers who are from other languages like Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil etc, but have sung few songs in Hindi too.
Today’s song is also sung by a singer who was a regular singer in Gujarati and Marathi films and occasional singer in Hindi films. The song is from film ‘Shri Ram Avatar’ (1950) and the singer is Leela Mehta. Leela is not new to our blog. Four of her songs are already discussed here.
Daughter of Kanhaiyalal Mehta and Indumati, Leela was born on 10-12-1935 at Borivali in Bombay. She was elder of the two sisters. Due to loss in business, her family shifted first to Ahmedabad and later to Baroda, where they settled. Leela studied in Marathi medium school – New Era Vidyalay in Baroda. Leela participated in all functions of the school and acted in dramas, much to the annoyance of their social circle. She developed interest in singing after listening to songs by Khursheed and Kananbala. She started learning music despite the resistance from home and others in their society.
VM Vyas, the famous director and a family friend knew about her interest and offered her the main role in film ‘Ranak Devi’ (1946). She was just 11 year old and did not suit the role, but she was given another role in it. Kokila Balsara aka Nirupa Roy too acted in it as a Debut film.
Due to her father’s death, the family shifted to Bombay and Leela took the responsibility of being the bread earner by acting and singing in dramas and radio plays. Meanwhile she learnt further music from Prof. Surendra Rao. She started acting and singing in Gujarati films. Ranjit Movietone offered her a big role in film ‘Gunsundari’ (1948), but since the role needed her to put on a sleeveless blouse, she refused that role. Finally, it went to Dulari. She, however sang songs in that film and they became quite popular in Gujarat.
Leela Mehta had grown up in Marathi atmosphere and also was educated in Marathi Medium, so her Marathi was very good. She was invited to work in Marathi dramas. She did roles in famous and popular Marathi dramas and also sang songs. From 1950 onwards, she started acting in Gujarati dramas. Meanwhile she used to sing in Hindi films occasionally. In early 50s, she made very successful foreign trips with her troupe, to perform Gujarati dramas and singing concerts.
Inspite of being successful and acting and singing in Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati films and dramas, her father did not see even one show of hers. This pained her till end. Leela stayed in a bungalow in Versova in Bombay. Once it was rumoured that there was a ghost in it. She immediately left that house and shifted to Dadar. Inadvertently, she forgot to inform the industry about her change of address, and this diminished her demand drastically.
Her mother died in 1972. In 1982, she toured USA. In 1985, the Marathi Natya Parishad honoured her with a cash award. Till 1992, she acted in Marathi and Gujarati TV serials. In all, Leela acted in 300 Gujarati/Marathi dramas, films and serials. Presently Leela is bedridden and unable to speak also.
Leela Mehta acted in only one Hindi film – ‘Shri Ram Avatar’ (1950). She sang 17 songs in 9 Hindi films, including 2 unreleased films. Her films are ‘Nai Kahaani’ (1943) (2 songs), ‘Gaurav’ (1947) (1), ‘Namak’ (1947) (1), ‘Pehli Pehchan’ (1947) (2), ‘Gunsundari’ (1948) (2), ‘Satyawan Savitri’ (1948) (no information), ‘Chocolate’ (1950) (no information), ‘Shri Ram Avatar’ (1950) (4) and ‘Hanste Rehna’ (1950) (1). Her unreleased films were, Apradh (1948) (3) and ‘Bidhaata’ (1948) (1).
Film ‘Shri Ram Avtar’ was made under the banner of Praveen Leela Productions. It was directed by W Garcher – a name I have come across first time. He seems to have acted also in this film. The other cast was Shahu Modak, Ratnamala, Leela Mishra, Amarnath, Leela Mehta and others. Lyricist was Pt. Shivraj and the music was by Indravadan Bhatt.
Most names in the cast seem familiar except that of Ratnamala. How many of us really know anything about this actress. It is surprising that a very lovely and beautiful actress, who was heroine of about 20 films in the 40s and has about 300 films (131 Hindi films) to her credit, remains practically unknown. She was the heroine with Saraswati Cinetone, Prabhat Film Company, Sagar, Ranjit, Prakash Pictures etc. – all well known banners. She was in films for 50+ years and was a famous name in Marathi films of Dada Kondke.
Its a great pity that hardly any or no information about her is available in books, encyclopedias, wiki or on internet. When all sources of information come to a dead end, I turn to Harish Raghuwanshi ji of Surat and I am never disappointed. Here, I provide a short bio sketch of Ratnamala, based principally on the articles given by Harish ji. Thanks, Harish ji.
She was born as Kamal Bhivandkar on 22-6-1923 in Bombay. She was good looking and could sing well. From the age of 14 years, she went on the stage of several Ganesh Melas prevalent in those times. She earned 5-10 rupees per performance. In 1938, she was picked up by Dada Torne of Sarswati Cinetone, who cast her as a heroine in Marathi film ‘Bhagwa Zenda’. Seeing her performance, she was taken by Prabhat Film Company for the Marathi version of their film ‘Das Baje’ (1942). Torne had renamed her as Ratnamala.
Vijay Bhatt of Prakash Pictures offered her a role in film ‘Bharat Milap’ (1942), when Kusum Deshpande, selected for the role of Bharat’s wife, fell ill. Seeing her performance, she was selected as a heroine for film ‘Station Master’ (1942). Here too, the original heroine Jyoti fell ill. Then came ‘Panghat’ (1943), ‘Police’ (1944), ‘Kavita’ (1944) etc. She acted in many mythological films also. Some of her well known films were, ‘Dholak’, ‘Maya Bazaar’, ‘Sasural’, ‘Bhabhi Ki Chudiyan’, ‘Faulad’, ‘Woh Kaun Thi’, ‘Nishan’, ‘Bahu Beti’, ‘Mera Sayaa’, ‘Raaz’, ‘Saraswati Chandra’, ‘Brahmachari’, ‘Upahaar’, ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’, ‘Nastik’ etc.
She acted in 130 Hindi films and many more in Marathi films. Later she did side roles. She became famous as mother of Dada Kondke in 11 of his films. She was called ‘Aaye‘ (आये) in the Marathi films of Kondke.
Ratnamala was married to Raja Pandit, a Producer Director in Marathi films, when she was very young. As Ratnamala became successful and Raja became a failure, their marriage came on rocks. She had one son – Jaikumar, who had also acted in one film. Unfortunately, he died suddenly in an accident. Ratnamala lived in her own bungalow in Andheri, Bombay, along with her foster son – Ramesh. Ratnamala died of heart attack on 23rd January 1989.
The hero in this film was Shahu Modak. Shahu Modak was a regular actor in many religious films. He did Krishna’s role in over 30 films. He was born in a Christian family of Ahmednagar (Maharashtra), on 25-4-1918. He was trained in music by his Uncle Nivritinath Modak . He also got trained by Ustad Abdul Kareem Khan. There was a gym in his house and he became an expert in wrestling too. He was discovered by Bhal ji Pendharkar. Producer Nanasaheb Sarpotdar gave him his first break in films. He made his debut with a bilingual film from Prabhat – ‘Shyamsundar’ (1932), as a child artist. Shanta Apte also was a child artist debuting in this film. He also sang a song in this film.
In the next year itself he did a hero’s role in another bilingual – ‘Awara Shehzada’ (1933) (‘Ghatkecha Raja’ in Marathi). With this film, he entered the film History books for doing the first double role in a talkie film ever. He was a prince – Rajkumar and a pauper – Bholaram, in this film. The director of this film was Master Vithal, who himself was the first hero to do a double role in a silent film ‘Prisoner of Love’, in 1927.
Shahu became famous when he did the Havaldar Ganapat’s role in the landmark movie of Prabhat – ‘Aadmi’ (1939) (‘Maanus’ in Marathi). From 1932 to 1986 he acted in about 96 films. His last film too was a mythological – ‘Krishna Leela’ (1986), in which he did Krishna’s role for the last time, at the age of 68 years. He featured in many films of Prakash Pictures, which was a mythological film specialist studio. Shahu Modak initially sang his own songs. He must have sung about 54 songs in 18 films. From the film ‘Bhakta Pooran’ (1952), he started taking playback. But in 1971 he sang a song in film ‘Main Sunder Hoon’.
Shahu Modak passed away on 11-5-1993. There are two interesting things about Shahu Modak. One, he was a very accurate Astrologer. It is said that he had predicted his own date of death. Secondly, like Manhar Desai (Malcolm Alfredo Desai), he too was a Christian and both did roles of Hindu Gods in mythological films.
Let us now enjoy the Leela Mehta song from film ‘Shri Ram Avtar’. The movie makes its debut in the blog with this song.
[Acknowledgements: My thanks to Harish Raghuvanshi ji for some information from his book, ‘ Inhe Na Bhulaana’.]
Song – Aayi Aayi Basant Ritu Aayi (Shri Ram Avtar) (1950) Singer – Leela Mehta, Lyrics – Pt Shivraj, Music – Indravadan Bhatt
Chorus
Lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
aayi aayi
basant ritu aayi
sunder ritu aayi
daali daali ne li agndaayi
aayi aayi
basant ritu aayi
sunder ritu aayi
daali daali ne li agndaayi
mere mann ki kali
yug yug ki pali
aaj. . kisi ko dekh muskaai
sunder ritu aayi
daali daali ne li agndaayi
aayi aayi
basant ritu aayi
sunder ritu aayi
daali daali ne li agndaayi
chaand hain naina bolo
kis ke liye aaj
solah singaar kiya
kis ke liye
chaand hain naina bolo
kis ke liye aaj
solah singaar kiya
kis ke liye
kaun si surat
kaun wo moorat
kaun si surat
kaun wo moorat
bhole mann mein aaj samaai
sunder ritu aayi
daali daali ne li agndaayi
aayi aayi
basant ritu aayi
sunder ritu aayi
daali daali ne li agndaayi
mann vyakul hai
baat mukh pen a aaye
mukh pe jo aaye
laaj kehne na paaye
hoga suraj ya to
chanda sa koi
hoga suraj ya to
hoga suraj ya to
chanda sa koi
raja ?? ?? ?? hoga wo koi
raja ?? ?? ?? hoga wo koi
hoon hoon hoon
aayi aayi
basant ritu aayi
sunder ritu aayi
daali daali ne li agndaayi
aayi aayi
basant ritu aayi
sunder ritu aayi
daali daali ne li agndaayi
———————————————————-
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————————————
आई आई
बसंत ऋतु आई
सुंदर ऋतु आई
डाली डाली ने ली अंगड़ाई
आई आई
बसंत ऋतु आई
सुंदर ऋतु आई
डाली डाली ने ली अंगड़ाई
मेरे मन की काली
युग युग की पाली’
आज॰॰ किसी को देख मुसकाई
सुंदर ऋतु आई
डाली डाली ने ली अंगड़ाई
आई आई
बसंत ऋतु आई
सुंदर ऋतु आई
डाली डाली ने ली अंगड़ाई
चाँद हैं नैना बोलो
किसके लिए आज
सोलह सिंगार किया
किसके लिए
चाँद हैं नैना बोलो
किसके लिए आज
सोलह सिंगार किया
किसके लिए
कौन सी सूरत
कौन वो मूरत
कौन सी सूरत
कौन वो मूरत
भोले मन में आज समाई
सुंदर ऋतु आई
डाली डाली ने ली अंगड़ाई
आई आई
बसंत ऋतु आई
सुंदर ऋतु आई
डाली डाली ने ली अंगड़ाई
मन व्याकुल है
बात मुख पे ना आये
मुख पे जो आए
लाज कहने ना पाये
होगा सूरज या तो
चंदा सा कोई
होगा सूरज या तो
चंदा सा कोई
राजा ?? ?? ?? होगा वो कोई
राजा ?? ?? ?? होगा वो कोई
हूँ हूँ हूँ
आई आई
बसंत ऋतु आई
सुंदर ऋतु आई
डाली डाली ने ली अंगड़ाई
आई आई
बसंत ऋतु आई
सुंदर ऋतु आई
डाली डाली ने ली अंगड़ाई
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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