Archive for the ‘Rajkumari Calcuttewaali Solo Songs’ Category
Jeevan Ki Aashaayen
Posted on: May 27, 2021
- In: Devnagri script lyrics by Sudhir | Feelings of heart | Guest posts | Lyrics contributed by readers | philosophical song | Post by Sadanand Kamath | Rajkumari Calcuttewaali Solo Songs | Rajkumari Calcuttewaali Songs | Song of Hope | Songs of 1940s (1941 to 1950) | Songs of 1941 | Yearwise breakup of songs
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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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When Imperial Movietone released India’s first sound film, ‘Alam Ara’ in 1931, other top film production companies of Hindi films followed suit. Madan Theatre with ‘Shirin Farhad’ (1931), Ranjit Movietone with ‘Dev Devyani’ (1931), Sagar Films with ‘Meri Jaan’ (1931), Prabhat Film Company with ‘Ayodhya Ka Raja’ (1932, in Marathi and Hindi), New Theatre with ‘Mohabbat Ke Aansoo” (1932) were some of the early film production companies to release their first Hindi sound films.
Wadia Brothers were the late entrant to the production of sound films. The reason was that JBH Wadia did not have his own banner when he was making the silent films since 1928. It was only when sound films came into existence, JBH Wadia was joined by his brother Homi Wadia to set up Wadia Movietone in 1933. The banner’s first sound film was ‘Laal-e-Yaman’ (1933) which was directed by JBH Wadia. Wadia Brothers were the populist film-makers who believe in making wholesome entertainment films. They mainly chose the genres of stunts, action, adventure and costume drama films. The first sound film was a money spinner for the banner which enabled them to set up their own studio.
‘Laal-e-Yaman’ (1933) will be remembered for shaping the career of two artists who acted in the film in side roles. First, Master Feroze Dastoor was introduced in the film as a singer-actor. JBH Wadia was a patron of Hindustani classical music. When he heard 14-year-old Feroze Dastoor singing a Hindustani classical song, he decided to use his voice for the film. In the absence of the playback singing system, he was taken in the film as an actor so that he can sing the songs. Feroze Dastoor sang 7 songs in the classical/semi-classical genre. Later, Pandit Feroze Dastoor became one of the leading Hindustani classical vocalists belonging to Kirana Gharana.
The second actor was Nadia who did a small role in the film as a chorus singer. In a couple of years after the release of ‘Laal-e- Yaman’ (1933), JBH Wadia selected her as lead actress for ‘Huntrerwali’ (1935) which was directed by his brother, Homi Wadia. The film became a runway success in terms of box office collection. Eventually, she became the Wadia Movietone’s top most star and India’s top action actress, popularly known as ‘Fearless Nadia’.
JBH Wadia’s interest in Hindustani classical music motivated him to make short films of about 10 minutes on then upcoming vocalists and musicians for their promotions. During 1933-42, he made many such short films covering Mallika Pukhraj, Kumar Gandharva, Azim Prem Ragi, Ahmed Jaan Thirkawa (Tabla), Sakhawat Hussain Khan (Sarod) among others. These short films were shown along with Wadia Movietone’s main feature films as an added bonus for the audience. The first two mentioned above are availabe for viewing on video sharing platforms.
JBH Wadia was involved with Indian National Congress during 1930-38. Under the influence of Congress, JBH Wadia promoted the theme of freedom struggle, Hindu-Musilim unity, eradication of caste system, emancipation of women, eradication of illiteracy etc, in his stunt and action films. In 1937, he came into contact of MN Roy (1887-1954), a Marxist revolutionary, who had joined the Indian National Congress in 1936 after his disillusionment with communism. After leaving Congress in 1940, MN Roy started an alternative ideology called ‘Radical Humanism’. JBH Wadia was highly influenced by MN Roy’s intellect and the honesty of the convictions about his ideology. Under his influence, JBH Wadia was leaning towards making socially relevant films. Later in his life, MN Roy became his close friend and philosophical guide.
Sometime in 1941, Wadia Movietone decided to produce a big budget film ‘Raj Nartaki’ (The Court Dancer) (1941) in Hindi, Bangla and English which featured Sadhana Bose and Prithviraj Kapoor in the lead role. The film was directed by Madhu Bose. Unfortunately, the film failed in the box office collections. With this, the differences between Wadia brothers as also between JBH Wadia and the financiers arose leading to the dissolution of partnership in Wadia Movietone. Homi Wadia left Wadia Movietone in 1942 to form his own film production company called Basant Pictures and continue to produce stunt and action films.
The financiers of Wadia Movietone wanted it to continue to make stunts films. JBH Wadia was veering toward social genre of films. The differences led to financiers withdrawing their support to Wadia Movietone. To raise the finance, JBH Wadia had to sell the studio to V Shantaram who had then set up his own film production company, Rajkamal Kala Mandir in 1942. JBH Wadia started producing social genre of films. Some of his such films were ‘Aankh Ki Sharm’ (1943), ‘Vishwas’ (1943), ‘Mela’ (1948), ‘Magroor’ (1950), ‘Madhosh’ (1951), ‘Duniya Jhukti Hai’ (1960), Saaz Aur Sanam’ (1971) etc.
[Note: Some of the events mentioned in the above paragraphs are based on an article ‘Those Were The Days’ written by JBH Wadia and published in ‘50 Years of Indian Talkies (1931-1981)’ by Indian Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 1981. The article was reproduced in cinemaazi.com].
I find it interesting coincidence to note that one of the reasons for the downfall of Sagar Movietone was its ambitious and a high budget film ‘Kumkum, the Dancer’ (1940) which failed at the box office. Wadia Movietone’s downfall was also due to its high budget film ‘Raj Nartaki’ (1941) which also failed at the box office. Both the films had a common theme of a dancer played by Sadhana Bose. Both the films was directed by Madhu Bose.
‘Manthan’ (1941) was produced under the banner of Wadia Movietone and was directed by Ramjibhai Arya. The cast included Sardar Mansoor, Radha Rani, Rajkumari, Dalpat, Boman Shroff, MK Hasan etc. The film belonged to the genre of ‘costume drama’. This film was made at a time when Wadia Movietone was under financial strains due to the money locked in its ambitious high budget film, ‘Raj Nartaki’. Probably, this may be the reason that not much advertisements of the film during its making as well its release, were noticed.
‘Manthan’ (1941) had 10 songs. All the songs were written by Pandit Faani which were set to music by Baldev Nayak. I am presenting the first song from the film “Jeevan Ki Aashaayen’ to appear on the blog. HFGK mention the name of the singer as Rajkumari. The voice does not sound that of Rajkumari Dubey. This means that the singer could be Rajkumari Calcuttewaali. I have a seen a photograph of Rajkumari from the film ‘Manthan’ (1941) and she does not look like Rajkumari Dubey. On checking with Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji, who has uploaded the song, he has confirmed that the singer is Rajkumari Calcuttewaali.
With this song, ‘Manthan’ (1941) makes a debut on the Blog.
Song – Jeevan Ki Aashaayen (Manthan) (1941) Singer – Rajkumari Calcuttewaali, Lyrics – Pt Faani, MD – Baldev Nayak
Chorus
Lyrics
jeewan ki aashaayen
ae ae
jeewan ki aashaayen
jeewan ki aashaayen
jeewan ki aashaayen
jeewan ki aashaayen
jeewan ki aashaayen
ek nahi
do chaar nahi
kitani hai koi paar? nahi
kitani hai
kitani hai koi paar? nahi
roz roz hoon
roz roz badh jaayen
jeewan ki aashaayen
jeewan ki aashaayen
aashaayen
aashaaon se khel rahi hai
aashaaon se khel rahi hai
jeewan sukh se mil rahi hoon
jeewan sukh se mil rahi hoon
jeewan mein aashaayen
jeewan mein aashaayen
jeewan mein aashaayen
jeewan ki aashaayen
jeewan ki aashaayen
aashaayen
———————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————————————
जीवन की आशाएँ
ए ए
जीवन की आशाएँ
जीवन की आशाएँ
जीवन की आशाएँ
जीवन की आशाएँ
जीवन की आशाएँ
एक नहीं
दो चार नहीं
कितनी हैं कोई पार नहीं
कितनी हैं
कितनी हैं कोई पार नहीं
रोज़ रोज़ हाँ
रोज़ रोज़ बढ़ जाएँ
जीवन की आशाएँ
जीवन की आशाएँ
आशाएँ
आशाओं से खेल रही हूँ
आशाओं से खेल रही हूँ
जीवन सुख से मिल रही हूँ
जीवन सुख से मिल रही हूँ
जीवन में आशाएँ
जीवन में आशाएँ
जीवन में आशाएँ
जीवन की आशाएँ
जीवन की आशाएँ
आशाएँ
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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