Archive for the ‘Title song’ Category
Aaj ki aawaaz jaag ae insaan
Posted on: January 9, 2020
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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“Aaj Ki Aawaaz”(1984) was produced by B R Chopra and directed by Ravi Chopra for B R Films, Bombay. This movie had Raj Babbar, Smita Patil, Nana Patekar, Om Shivpuri, Dheeraj Kumar, Shafi Inamdar, Vijay Arora, Arun Bakshi, Ashalata, Chandrashekhar, Ifthekhar, Alok Nath, Goofi Paintal, Dalip Tahil, Dinesh Thakur, Bashir Khan, Chaandni, Deepak Kaajir, Sonika Gill, Urmila Bhatt, Raksha Chauhan etc in it.
The movie was based on Hollywood blockbuster “Death Wish”(1974).
“Aaj Ki Aawaaz”(1984) had seven songs in it.
Today (9 january 2019) is the 86th birth anniversary of Mahendra Kapoor (9 January 1934 – 27 September 2008). On this occasion, here is the title song of the movie. This song is sung by Mahendra Kapoor. This song plays in the background as the movie begins with credits appearing on the screen.
Hasan Kamaal is the lyricist. He won Filmfare best lyrics award for this song.
Ravi is the music director.
Lyrics of this song were sent to me by Avinash Scrapwala (long long ago in 2012).
With this song ,”Aaj Ki aawaaz”(1984) makes its debut in the blog.
Song-Aaj ki aawaaz jaag ae insaan (Aaj Ki Aawaaz)(1984) Singer-Mahendra Kapoor, Lyrics-Hasan Kamaal, MD-Ravi
Lyrics(Provided by Avinash Scrapwala)
Aaj ki aawaaz
Aaj ki aawaaz jaag aye insaan
Waqt kehta hai waqt ko pehchaan
Aaj ki aawaz jaag aye insaan
Waqt kehta hai waqt ko pehchaan
Aaj ki aawaaz
Zindagi kitni
Behifaazat hai
Kal bhi aayegaa
Kya jamaanat hai
Din pareshan hai raat hai hairaan
Waqt kehta hai waqt ko pehchaan
Aaj ki aawaaz
Dar ke saaye mein
Gar jawaan hongi
Ye nayee naslen kal kahan hongi
Hosh me aa ja ab to aye nadaan
Waqt kehta hai waqt ko pehchaan
Aaj ki aawaaz
Kya nagar hai ye
Kaisi basti hai
Ya to mitti se jaan sasti hai
Zindagi mushkil maut hai aasaan
Waqt kehta hai waqt ko pehchaan
Aaj ki aawaaz
Dekh ghar aangan loot nahi jaayen
Pyaar ke rishtey chhut nahi jaayen
Kal bachane ka aaj hi kar dhyaan
Waqt kehta hai waqt ko pehchaan
Aaj ki aawaaz jaag aye insaan
Waqt kehta hai waqt ko pehchaan
Aaj ki aawaaz jaag aye insaan
Waqt kehta hai waqt ko pehchaan
Aaj ki aawaaz
Ye duniya hai ek jhamela
Posted on: January 5, 2020
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.
| Blog Day : | 4188 | Post No. : | 15369 |
“Jhamela”(1953) was produced and directed by Bhagwan dada for Bhagwan arts Productions, Bombay. This comedy movie had Bhagwan, Geet Bali, Badri Prasad, Baby Shakuntala, Bibi bai, Baburao, Leela Gupte, Usha Shukla etc in it.
The movie had eleven songs in it. Four songs have been covered in the past.
Today (5 january 2020) is the 38th remembrance day of C Ramchandra (5 january 1982). On this occasion, here is a song from “Jhamela”(1982). The song is sung by C Ramchandra. Rajinder Krishan is the lyricist. Music is composed by C Ramchandra as well.
Only the audio of the song is available. It is clear that the song, which is the title song of the movie, was picturised on Bhagwan.
Lyrics of this song were sent to me by Peevesie’s mom.
Song-Ye duniya hai ek jhamela (Jhamela)(1953) Singer-C Ramchandra, Lyrics-Rajinder Krishan, MD-C Ramchandra
Lyrics(Provided by Peevesie’s mom)
yeh duniya hai ek jhamela
ek jhamela
ooooo
chaar dinon ka hai mela
hai mela
hai me ae ae la
ho char dinon ka hai mela
ho
chaar dinon ka hai mela
hai mela
duniya hai ek jhamela
ek jhamela
ooooo
chaar dinon ka hai mela
hai mela
hai me ae ae la
kanjoos jo makhee choos ho
jode baithke kaudi kaudi
arre jahaan bhi ruk gayi chalte chalte
beta saans ki ghodi
phir saath na jaaye dhela
phir saath na jaaye dhela
ho
chaar dinon ka hai mela
hai mela
hai me ae ae la
yeh duniya hai ek jhamela
ek jhamela
ooooo
chaar dinon ka hai mela
hai mela
hai me ae ae la
khel jawaani mastaani ka
yeh powder yeh laali
arre ho jaayengi badle jaisi
ek din zulfen kaali
yeh qamar banegi thela
yeh qamar banegi thela
hoye
chaar dinon ka hai mela
hai mela
hai me ae ae la
yeh duniya hai ek jhamela
ek jhamela
ooooo
chaar dinon ka hai mela
hai mela
hai me ae ae la
hooooo
motor tez chalaanewale
baat yeh meri maan
arre jinke paas nahi hai motor
woh bhi hai insaan
tu dhan daulat mein khela
tu dhan daulat mein khela
hoye
chaar dinon ka hai mela
hai mela
hai me ae ae la
yeh duniya hai ek jhamela
ek jhamela
ooooo
chaar dinon ka hai mela
hai mela
hai me ae ae la
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular 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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Today’s song is from an obscure film from Calcutta,- Arzoo-1944.
It is my observation that barring very early Talkie films made by Madan Theatres, Calcutta, films made by other film makers of Calcutta – other than New Theatres – were, generally, not successful or popular in the Hindi belt. At the peak times in the 30’s, there were about 20+ film making companies in Bengal, but New Theatres alone had got the best of Hindi artistes in almost every department of film making and Music, available in the Eastern sector. Accordingly, even Arzoo, made by I.B.Films, Calcutta also did not create any ripples in the Hindi belt. It was directed by R N Vaidya (a successful Silent Film maker ) and M.Issa. The Lyricist was Khwaja Kidwai and the Music was by Subal Dasgupta. The cast of the film was, Dhiraj Bhattacharya, Panna, Pramod Gangully, Renuka Roy, Fazal, Shanta etc.etc.
In Hindi film arena, there were many brother pairs as Music Directors like Husnalal-Bhagatram, Kalyan ji-Anand ji etc. Most of them were prolific and successful too. But there were no cases worth noticing, where two brothers operated separately as MDs, in the same period but never worked as a Team. Two such cases were from Calcutta. The first was that of Timir Baran and Mihir Kiran and then Kamal Dasgupta and Subal Dasgupta. Neither Timir-Mihir nor Kamal-Subal worked as a pair and individually only one became famous in Hindi films. Mihir kiran gave music to only 1 film- Kaarvan e hayat-35 and Timir Baran did 11 Hindi films compsing 86 songs.Subal Dasgupta gave music to only 2 films Subah Shaam and Arzoo both in 1944, Kamal Dasgupta did 17 Hindi films and composed 157 songs.
Kamal Dasgupta ( 28-7-1912 to 20-7-1974) gave music to 17 Hindi films from Jawab-42 to Phulwari-51. Subal gave music to only 2 films as mentioned. He was, however, a prolific composer in Bangla films and NFS. The credit for composing music for Talat Mehmood’s First recorded NFS, ” sab din ek samaan nahi tha” goes to Subal Dasgupta. Some sites and You Tube erroneously mention Kamal Dasgupta’s name as its composer, but it is wrong. I quote here an excerpt from the book ” Talat Mehmood-The Velvet touch” a biography by Manek Premchand,
” His first recording happened in September 1941, the song being Sab din ek samaan naheen tha, Ban jaoonga kya se kya main, iska to kuchh dhyaan naheen tha, written by Fayyaz Hashmi and composed by Subal Dasgupta. Present at this recording was the great singer-composer-actor Pankaj Mullick, who patted the young émigré for a job well done. In Calcutta, the young man started learning Bengali. After six recordings for HMV in Calcutta, Talat returned in 1942 to complete his studies at Marris and in the next couple of years, he heard a lot of Gangubai Hangal, Fayyaz Khan and Roshanara Begum. ” pp 13
Not much information is available on Subal in books or on the net. Even Dr. J.P.Guha has no information on him. Here is something from a Bangladeshi site.
Subal Dasgupta was born at Kalia (Narail) of the old Jessore district in Bangladesh. His parents shifted to Calcutta long before the partition of 1947. His eldest brother professor Bimal Dasgupta was a gifted musician, while his elder brother Kamal Dasgupta also emerged as one of the most successful music directors of his times. His sisters Sudhira, Indira, Basanti—–all were talented singers in their own rights. All of them had recorded songs under HMV banner. He belonged to an immensely accomplished musical family. At a very tender age Subal Dasgupta took lessons in classical music from Ustad Zamiruddin Khan, a renowned maestro of Kheyal and Thumri. It was here, that he met Kazi Nazrul Islam, the great poet , who also started taking classical vocal lessons from the same master. The meeting between the two, later turned out to be of historic significance. This is all that could be collated about Subal Dasgupta.
Today’s song is sung by Jagmohan Sursagar. In older times, when when films had not yet become ” inevitable ” in the society, for the period 30s to 50s, Non Film Songs (NFS) ruled the nation. The A.I.R. regularly broadcast NF Bhajans, Geets and Gazals etc. These were extremely popular and their private records used to make a big sale too. Among the NFS male singers, the best was Jagmohan and in the female group, the best was Juthika Roy.
Somewhere in the late 2011 AK ji, of Songsofyore.com, had written on this Blog about the importance of NFS. After reading his views, I too wrote a rather lengthy comment supporting the inclusion of NFS on this Blog. Our contention was that, prior to the Hindi Film Music becoming popular all over India,it was those ghazals, Geets and Bhajans, privately sung and recorded by various artists which had ruled the tastes of music lovers. In fact many famous singers had recorded NFS in the beginning phase of their singing careers. Some names are Talat Mehmood, Saigal, Pankaj Mullick, Jagmohan and JUTHIKA ROY !
I do not think there was a single singer in those days who had not sung a Non Filmi geet of some type like Bhajan or ghazal etc. I am sure many senior readers from this Blog must have grown listening to these NFS Bhajans and Geets. In fact more than a filmi song, may be these people have some old geet or Bhajan embedded in their memories with some persons, events or places.
Today’s singer Jagmohan Sursagar was very well known and close to Rajnikumar Pandyaji and he has elaborated his Bio data in the book ” Aap ki Parchhainyan”. The following information is adapted from this. Born on September 6,1918,Jagmohan whose real name is Jaganmoy Mitra came from a conservative family of land-lords.Sometime before he was born,his father died of a stomach ailment, while his mother was still in her teens. Though Jagmohan had no problems in childhood,he was to grow up an ardent devotee of his mother.When she died in 1981,and was followed by the singer’s wife,in a few months time,Jagmohan felt a terrible void in his life,something that he appears to have been unable to fill ever.
There was an atmosphere of music in his maternal grandfather’s house where they went to live after Jagmohan’s father died.He literally grew up listening to dhrupad,khayal,thumri and tappa,surreptitiously learning from his uncle’s ustads ragas and raginis as also the tabla.It all paid off when after passing his matriculation examination, Jagmohan took part in all Bengal music competition ,topping the list in dhrupad,tappa,thumri,kritan and baul,religious folk music of Bengal.The year was 1937.In the same year,his professional singing career began at All India Radio.The next year,he stood first in khayal singing in an all India competition at Allahabad.
A music recording company, HMV,grabbed him for recording.Says Jagmohan: ” I had a tune and had been trying to compose a song to suit it.But,an acquaintance, Hembabu asked me to see Kazi Nazrul Islam,the great poet.Hembabu took me to him and left me with the poet.The poet was a very kindly man and my diffidence vanished after a while. I sang the few lines I had composed.He praised my tune and music but offered to write a song for me to fit them.I sang the tune several times as the Kazi sat writing stanza after stanza;his words, as if poured after,and there nary was a change or scratching out of a word here or there.That was the song Saaon Ratey Jadi…. on which my re-cording was made.” It was a great hit.Then,in 1940, came two songs of Rabindranath Tagore,both approved by the Nobel prize winning poet.Tagore permitted him to record two more of his songs.
In 1945,Jagmoohan was given the award of Sursagar (ocean of music) in Bengal.The award has not since been given to anyone else,and the singer was only the second recipient of the honour.( The other recipient was Himangshu Datta ). In fact, most people have forgotten that Mitra is Jagmohan’s real surname; it has just become Jagmohan Sursagar, a name under which he also wrote an auto-biography in Bengali. It has recently been translated into Gujarati and brought out under the title of one his more famous songs, Dil Dekar Dard Liya Hai Maine…
Gandhiji too had appreciated Jagmohan’s singing and the singer recorded Sapt Kand Ramayana in six minutes at the Mahatma’s suggestion.Another national leader fond of his singing was Jay Prakash Narayan.
Jagmohan toured abroad also extensive and has been to among other countries East Africa,the U.K.,the U.S.A.and Canada,earning vast fan following everywhere. Speaking at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto,Jagmohan held his audience spell-bound,claiming there essentially was no barrier to music.He sang a Bengali composition in Bhairavi and followed up with an English song ,rendered in the same raga.
He came to Bombay in 1950 to become a Playback singer, but the Bombay film world atmosphere did not impress him and he did not sing in any film. In fact after 1955, he did not cut any record for Hindi films. In 1955, he sang under his own baton, for the only Hindi film for which he was the composer. This movie was “Sardaar”(1955).
A dignified individual, Jagmohan never turned bitter,became more of an introvert,paying heed to the calls of none but his inner voice.After the deaths of his mother and his wife in 1981,feeling lonely,he had moved residence thrice– from Bombay to Delhi for two years while he was a member of Censor Board,then to Calcutta and to Ahmedabad.
He did not seem to regard his moving from one city to another as something of great importance. He declared :”I crave for affection ,respect and human warmth and go wherever my inner-self tells me to. I have followed the dictates of my inner-self only all my life.”
“I can go away from a city,but I cannot go away from music”,he said.
He had become so popular due to his NFS in Hindi and Bangla, that he had neither the time nor the desire to sing for films. However Jagmohan sang 23 songs in 12 films, The films were, Bhakta Kabeer-42, Bhaichara-43, Hospital-43, Arzoo-44, Subah Shaam-44, Ameeri-45, Meghdoot-45, Krishnaleela-46, Pehchaan-46, Zameen aur Aasmaan-46, Iran ki ek raat-49 and Sardar-55.
After many attempts, it became clear as to how many Non film songs or Geets he sang in Hindi and the number is 75 songs. However. his songs are few on this Blog.The generation born in the 40s grew on Saigal,Jagmohan and Pankaj Mullick songs. There was a period when Non film Geets were extremely popular, even in the presence of film music, but gone are those days now when record collection was a respectful hobby. With this, the decline of such songs too came fast and only memories lived on.
In his book, Aap ki parchhainyan, shri Rajnikumar Pandyaji has mentioned an incident when Jagmohan went all the way to a far off place, just so that a dying fan of his songs, could listen to him while on deathbed. This is how Rajnikumar Pandya ji described this incident -in an E mail sent to me after I posted above information earlier. ” The patient was Manubhai Trivedi,father of my writer friend Niranjan Trivedi, I was knowing that Manubhai was an ardent fan of Jagmohan but due to his serious ailment it was not possible for him to come down to my place to see Jagmohanda who just arrived by morning train from Bombay .
“I therefore requested to Dada to pay a visit to Manubhai . He reluctantly agreed to it,We went to Manubhais place which was just few minutes form my place, After seeing his serious condition he expressed hid desire to sing a Bhajan before him though Manubhai was not in his senses, Anyway he sang a Bhajan “Ab tim kab sumiroge Raam, Jeevn do din ka maehamaan,’There were tears in the eyes of all who were present there including me and my small daughter who is party seen in the photograph attached with this mail. ( he attached a photograph for me).
Manubhai passed away after a week of this incident. ” The family members of the fan became eternally obliged to Jagmohan’s noble gesture.
Jagmohan returned to Bombay, after almost 2 years in Ahmedabad. He died on 4-9-2003, in Bombay.
The Hero of film Arzoo was Dhiraj Bhattacharya ( 5-11-1905 to 1959 ) worked in 10 Hindi films, namely Radha krishna-33, Seeta-34, Chandragupta-34, Balaa ki raat-36, Mandir-37, Kumkum the dancer-40, Arzoo-42, Wapas-43,Shri Ramanuj-43 and Irada-44.
Today’s song is not only a very rare song, but also an excellent Gazal. In the NFS, there is no parallel to jagmohan and Pankaj Mullick. You too will fall in love with this song, when you hear it. With this song, film Arzoo-44 makes its Debut on the Blog.
(I thank Rajnikumar Pandya ji, Manik Premchand ji, wiki and my notes for information used in the above article. )
Song- Hai kaun dil nahin jo pareeshaan e Aarzoo (Aarzoo)(1944) Singer- Jagmohan Sur Sagar, Lyricist-Khwaja Kidwai, MD- Subal Dasgupta
Lyrics
Hai kaun dil nahin jo pareeshan e aarzoo
Hai kaun dil nahin jo pareeshan e aarzoo
ye zindagi hai asal mein saamaan e aarzoo
ye zindagi hai asal mein saamaan e aarzoo
murjhaati hai jo ye ke to khilti hai doosri
murjhaati hai jo ye ke to khilti hai doosri
kaliyon se yoon bhara hai gulistaan e aarzoo
uske karam se ae ae ae
badhhta hai har dil ka hauslaa
uske karam se badhhta hai
har dil ka hauslaa
har dil ka hauslaa
phaila hua hai is liye daamaan e aarzoo
phaila hua hai is liye daamaan e aarzoo
maayoosiyaan bhi deti hain ummeed ko janam
maayoosiyaan bhi deti hain ummeed ko janam
naakaam e aarzoo ki to jaan hai aarzoo
shaayad isi tarah se khule girah phaans(?) ki
shaayad isi tarah se khule girah phaans(?) ki
girah phaans(?) ki
ham chhodte hain baandh ke paimaane aarzoo
ham chhodte hain baandh ke paimaane aarzoo
Aashiq hoon main qaatil bhi hoon
Posted on: November 2, 2019
This article is written by Peevesie’s mom, 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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Hullo Atuldom
Let us all wish the Baadshah of Bollywood on his 54th birthday.
Wish this was an audio post, then I would have started my post with what we used to hear on the radio Ads in the 70s and 80s. I would have first played a line “aashiq hoon main qaatil bhi hoon” then after the voice over by a Vijay Behl or Ameen Sayani or a Vinod Sharma or it could be Harish Bhimani (I don’t remember the names of all the announcers, sorry) the Radio Ad would have closed with the repeat of the last line of the mukhda of the song – “Baadshah o baadshah, baadshah hey baadshah, baadshah”.
But then this is neither an audio post nor a radio ad. But our today’s birthday boy is a huge fan of those days, when we used to hear songs on the radio. Up the volume when our favourite song was played and sat glued to hear all the details of the song viz: singer, lyricist, composer, movie name etc. And if due to some disturbance on the frequency waves or any other reason we missed the details then we would have to wait for god-knows-how-long to hear it again. Because back then, Radio Ceylon and Vividh Bharati were our sole source for HFM- Doordarshan happened much later and IMDB and other sites were not even on the horizon. Right Birthday Boy? I am talking of our Sudhirji here. We have seen him mention about his love for HFM being fed by what he heard on the Radio in many of his posts.
He is an ‘Aashiq’ of film music and is so knowledgeable about its many aspects. And he keeps discovering new angles of HFM and his posts are rich because of this constant search of his. And occasionally he also doubles up as Atulji’s most trusted aide in keeping the blog running. Thank you Atulji for introducing us to Sudhirji- the dilldaar Dilliwala. Wish you a very Happy Birthday Sudhirji, may you never run out of ideas for new posts and series.
November 2nd also happens to be the birthdate of music director/ singer Anu Malik- son of yesteryear-music director Sardar Malik. He has been around in the industry since 1980 – debuting with an obscure movie “Hunterwaali 77” (never heard of this movie before 🙂 ). He has worked his way to the A-list music directors with successful albums like “Mard”, “Sohni Mahiwal”, “Ganga Jamuna Saraswati” etc. His albums of the 90s had many melodies which got their movies a slightly long run at the box-office; movies like “Sir”, “The Gentleman”, “Vijaypath”. “Naaraz’’, “Naajayaz’’ etc. Music by Anu Malik in “Chamatkaar” was the first collaboration of SRK (the other birthday boy for today). Subsequently Anu Malik has given music to a few of SRK’s movies- “Baazigar”, ‘Ram Jaane”, “Duplicate”, “Baadshah”, “Josh”, “Asoka”, “Main Hoon Na” etc etc. Wish you a very Happy Birthday Anu Malik.
As can be seen in the list in the previous paragraph we have a huge library from which to choose a song for today. I have had suggestions from my Peevesie and Nahmji too about which could be a good choice for today’s triple birthday and I am settling for the song with which I opened the post as I have inside information about the possibility of Peevesie’s suggestion being fulfilled today.
From his debut in movies in 1992 to 1998 SRK had about 3 or 4 releases every year. 1999 had only one SRK movie- Baadshah (it was after the success of this movie that Shahrukh was given the epithet “Baadshah of Bollywood”), which was directed by Abbas – Mustan. It had him playing a bumbling detective with Sudhir, Johnny Lever, Sharad Sankhla, Harpal as his team mates and Twinkle Khanna was the female lead. It had Rakhee and Amrish Puri with Sharat Saxena, Deepshika, Sachin Khedekar etc in supporting roles and Shashikala and Prem Chopra in guest appearances. Our song today is from “Baadshah” which was written by Sameer and filmed as a disco song performed in a night club with Twinkle, Amrish Puri, Viju Khote etc as audience and Pankaj Dheer makes an entry towards the end of the song. It is sung by Abhijeet (who turned 61 on 30th October).
A very Happy Birthday to all the Birthday Boyz. Lets enjoy the party.
Song-Aashiq hoon main qaatil bhi hoon (Baadshah)(1999) Singer-Abhijeet, Lyrics-Sameer, MD-Anu Malik
Lyrics
Aashiq hoon main
qaatil bhi hoon
sabke dilon mein shaamil bhi hoon
o ho o oh o ho o ho
o ho o oh o ho o ho
Aashiq hoon main
qaatil bhi hoon
sabke dilon mein shaamil bhi hoon
Aashiq hoon main
qaatil bhi hoon
sabke dilon mein shaamil bhi hoon
dil ko churaana,
neendein udaana
bas yahi mera kusoor
waadon se apne mukarta nahin
marne se main kabhi darta nahin
baadshah o baadshah,
baadshah hey baadshah
baadshah o baadshah,
baadshah
hae ae ae ae yo
hae yo
chaaron taraf hain mere hi charche
honthon pe hai bas mera naam
rangon bhari subah meri
masti mein doobi hai meri sham
jhoothi kahaani sacchi lage
aawargi mujhe achchi lage
nagmein sunaana
sabko nachaana
bas yahi mera kusoor
waadon se apne mukarta nahi
marne se mai kabhi darta nahi
baadshah o baadshah,
baadshah hey baadshah
baadshah o baadshah,
baadshah
ho o ho o ho o
hai yeh mohabbat kamzori meri
chaahat ki duniya pe mera raaz
bas rab ke aage jhukta mera sar
jhukte mere saamne takhto taaj
andaaz mera sabse juda
mein baadshahon kaa baadshah
sapne sajaana
hansna hasaana
bas yahi mera kusoor
waadon se apne mukarta nahin
marne se mai kabhi darta nahin
baadshah o baadshah
baadshah hey baadshah
baadshah o baadshah,
baadshah
baadshah o baadshah,
baadshah hey baadshah
baadshah o baadshah,
baadshah
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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Today’s song is from film Kasauti-41. This was a film made by National Studios, after Sagar Movietone withdrew from it. The film was directed by a protege of Sagar- Ramchandra Thakur. The music was by Ashok Ghosh and the songs were written by Kanhaiyalal Chaturvedi (brother of actor Sankatha Prasad-a regular fixture of Sagar. Later on Kanhaiyalal himself became a famous character actor and a comic villain.) and Neelkanth Tiwari. The cast of the film was, Miss Rose, Prahlad, Veena, Sunalini Devi, Satish, Marutirao Pehelwan, Baby Meena, Ansari and many others.
In the early phase of the cinema, there were very few artistes hailing from respected families or who were educated, but as the time went by, slowly and steadily, educated people also started joining films.Most Marathi actresses from the beginning, like Durga Khote, Leela Chitnis,Nalini Tarkhad,Shanta Apte, Snehprabha Pradhan, Vanmala were graduates. Among men, Mohan Bhavnani, Nanubhai vakil, Surendra, Motilal, Dev Anand, Ashok kumar etc were graduates. Surendra was B.A;LL.B and in initial his degrees were flaunted prominently in film credits and advertisements. By the turn of the 30’s decade, majority of artistes were educated.
Ramchandra Thakur – the director of this film was one such scholarly person who was a Postgraduate and a prolific writer on films in English, Hindi and Gujarati, before joining films. Ramchandra Thakur was born in Suver of Sabarkantha district in Gujarat, on 17-12-1908. He moved to Bombay when he was just 9 year old. He pursued his higher education in Bombay and emerged as a scholar of Pali language. When he gave his M.A. final exam, he wanted to become a teacher in a college, if he got First class. If not, he would join film industry as a director. During his college years he had written many articles on films. He had translated Sound Recordist Minu Katrak’s English works in Hindi and Gujarati.
When he did not get First class, he joined Sagar Movietone, in its Marketing department. After few months, Baburao Patel took over from him and he became an assistant director to Chimanlal Luhar for film Dynamite-38. Next, along with Virendra Desai ( Nalini Jaywant’s first husband), he became a co-director of film The Gramophone Singer-38. His first film, as an independent Director was the Debut film of Snehprabha Pradhan – Civil marriage-40.
Then he joined Ranjit Movietone. He directed mythological, Social and Comedy films. Art Director Kanu Desai’s film Geet Govind was directed by him. Thakur directed 20 films. He also wrote script for the popular film Baiju Bawra-52. He produced 5 films. He directed 2 Gujarati films and wrote stories and screenplays for several Gujarati films.
He was an accomplished writer. He wrote 4 novels – Amrapali, Budhidhan Birbal, Prem Diwani and Urmila. He wrote several satirical commentaries too. He wrote a detailed article on Sagar Movietone and Chimanlal Desai in Gujarati magazine ” Jee”. His last Hindi film as a director was Nawab Sirajuddaula-67, which he had produced also. He died on 31-10-1992.
In the early era of silent films, many Anglo-Indian, European and Jew girls joined the films. They were free in behaviour and not averse to intimate scenes or kissing on the screen, hence film makers also preferred them. However they did not/could not speak Hindi or Urdu, but for silent films, this was not a hindrance. For Talkie films, this became a problem for these girls and their number went down considerably.
Among these actresses,there were mostly Baghdadi Jewish women and the rest were from the Bene Israel community, not the Cochini community. That community was small, did not speak Hindi or Urdu, and lived far from the film making cities of Bombay and Calcutta. A single Baghdadi family contributed greatly to Indian films, by giving us the actress-producer Pramila (Esther Victoria Abraham), her sister the actress Romila (Sophie Abraham), and her cousin the starlet Rose (Rose Musleah). Pramila’s son Haider Ali is an actor, who is best known as the co-writer of the blockbuster film Jodhaa Akbar.
Miss Rose Musleah was the heroine of film Kasauti-41 Sometime back our Sadanand kamath ji has provided the life story of Rose on this Blog, so I am not repeating it. Instead of that, let us know something about a ” Cloak and Dagger” personality from Hindi films. His name is N A Ansari.
Nisar Ahmed Ansari was the son of the late Dr. Ameer Ahmed Ansari. He was born on 29-8-1917 at Jhansi. His father had been serving in Military for 11 years and he expired in 1938. He was well known in Jhansi as he practiced there for 40 years.
Ansari matriculated from Allahabad University in 1933. In 1935, he passed his Inter from Aligadh. By 1939 he was a graduate of the Bombay University. He was keen to join films and in this, Mehboob khan helped him by recommending him for film Aasra-40, made by National Studios. It was directed by Mehboob’s assistant Chimanlal Gandhi.
By watching him, no one can ever visualise that a suave and respectable man like him can be a scheming villain . Competition for him was tough,initially when he joined the film industry ,as there were many character actors already there ,who were specialist of negative roles . But young and energetic Nisar Ahmad Ansari had faith in his potentials .
He believed that it is not necessary that villain should have thick eye brows with roving eyes and have a permanent frown on his face. A person having negative traits may have a smiling face also ,to conceal his evil designs . Therefore in most of his movies , he was a well dressed person ,always beaming and had friendly smile on his face . In his films , he use to be boss of a criminal syndicate and have an army of foot soldiers who carried out dirty work on his behalf . To keep a distance between master and servant , instead of calling them by their name he use to call his cronies by their allotted numbers like Number Ten Or Number Five .
With a hit movie ‘Mangu’, he became a director and later directed many successful movies like Black Cat ,Tower House ,Mr Lamboo ,Zara Bach Ke, Wanted etc for various producers and after he established his own banner Bundel Khand Films ,he made many memorable movies . Although, he had to look after his own company and permanent staff ,but he did not disappoint other film makers ,who wanted to have him in their movies in the role of villain. It is a fact, that it was his Black Cat which helped G P Sippy to be a part of the league of big producer ,but it is also true ,Mr Sippy forgot him later and never acknowledged Mr Ansari’s contribution .
Mr N A Ansari ,was essentially a dedicated film maker and had no false illusions about his own capabilities . His movies were never lavishly made and had average production value ,but it did not deter his fans and sizable majority of film viewers ,who adored him and his pictures to patronise his movies . Those who love the movies of golden age ,fondly remember his movies which used to have him in the role of villain ,beside good music, suspense, comedy, ,dance with a plausible story and a strong message for society ,that “Crime Never Pays”.
With producer/actor Sheikh Mukhtar, Nisar Ahmad Ansari had earlier worked as an actor in Dada, Dara & Ustad Pedro. Sheikh Mukhtar, aware of Ansari’s capability ,in 1954,offered him Mangu, to direct. The big success of Mangu was a game changer for Ansari & O P Nayyar. They both were immensely benefited with the favourable outcome of the movie & it’s music. Mangu had predictable Jodi of Sheikh Mukhtar & Mukri ,with Nigar Sultana ,Sheila Ramani & Ansari himself, as a suave villain. Mangu had breath taking, thrilling climax, involving the speeding train. Some real shots, few stock shots & rest studio shoot with back projections (Aadhi Haqeeqat ,Aadha Fasaana ),made the climax awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, the movie could not be preserved & the the present generation has been deprived of witnessing Ansari’s first effort as director. Mangu is one of the most searched movie at youtube.
He again directed Mr Lambu, a big success, for Sheikh Mukhtar. This time with the classic beauty Suraiyya with music by O P Nayyar, but similar tragedy happened, again. No print of the movie is available. In almost all his films N.A.Ansari played the role of an urbane & sophisticated Don. He always appeared, well dressed in impeccably tailored suits, fedora, trade mark pipe between his teeth & walking stick, in his hand.
Besides Sheikh Mukhtar, he directed movies, like Black Cat, Tower House, Jara Bach Ke, Wanted for other producers and playing the main villain. He had no qualms working in movies directed by other film makers & in this category, movies like Private Secretary, Fareb ,Do Thug ,Khota Paisa, Gunda,Ustad 420,Gunahon Ke Raaste can be named. Under his own banner Bundel khand Films he made Wahan Ke Log,Mulzim,Zindagi Aur Maut,Mr Murder, Jurm Aur Sazaa and Noor E Ilahi. The last one being his last production in 1976 & then he decided to hang his boots.It was a big journey for Ansari,who was discovered by Mehboob & given a role in Aasra ,released in 1941.
He could not say “No” to film maker Sultan Ahmad ,when he insisted him to appear in Dharam Kanta (1982 ) & later in Jai Vikranta. N.A.Ansari closed his eyes for ever on 11 Jan 1993, in Canada, thousands of kilometres away from his beloved city Jhansi ,much before the release of his last movie Jai Vikranta in 1995.
Film Kasauti-41 had 13 songs – effectively only 12, as one song was deleted from the film later, for reason not known to us. The Music Director Ashok Ghosh is the ” Mystery Man” of Hindi cinema. That is because, there is absolutely no information about his life story, available anywhere on internet or in any of the several music related books I have with me. All that we know about him is that he assisted MD Pransukh Nayak, while serving in Sagar and that he started independentl composing with film Manmohan-36, in which Anil Biswas was his assistant. The very next year Anil Biswas took over from him as MD for film Jagirdar-37 and spent a long association with Sagar and National studios.
Ashok Ghosh did only 12 films as an MD – Manmohan-36, Sanskar-40, Radhika-41, Nirdosh-41, Kasauti-41, Garibi-42, Sharafat-43, Inkaar-43, Miss Devi-44, Angoothi-44, Aarti-45 and last film Gunjan-48. After this , there is a total black out of information on Ashok Ghosh. Strange !
According to the November 41 issue of Film India magazine, film Kasauti-41 was released on 11-10-41 at Pathe Cinema in Bombay. In its review of the film, Baburao Patel had hardly anything good about it. He only appreciated the acting of Sunalini Devi, as the mother of the hero. He says that the film was a tear jerker story. Raju (Prahlad) tries to prevent the suicide of a woman, who anyway dies. This is witnessed by the victim’s sister Meena (Veena), who is a vamp. She starts blackmailing him . She, calling herself now as Manjula announces her love for Raju. Raju is slated to marry Madhuri (Miss Rose). After some time, she tries to force Raju for her marriage with him. Raju’s mother comes to know all this. As a true mother she goes to Manjula’s house, gives her poison and kills her. Thus a dutiful mother saves the life of her son.
Today’s song is sung by Marutirao pehelwan. A Pehelwan and a song ? Matter for laughing or serious thinking ?
Marutirao Pehelwan also acted in this movie. He was originally from Kolhapur. In the early era of talkie films, many wrestlers joined film companies. They worked mostly in action films. Some such actors were Baburao Pehelwan (he was the hero of Master Bhagwan’s stunt films; later on worked as a stuntman with fight master Azim Bhai), Vasantrao Pehelwan (he was the one who brought Indurani from Poona to Bombay; was a popular villain in stunt films), Nandram Pehelwan (very popular in silent films but fell on bad days in the talkie era), Sadiq Pehelwan, Maane Pehelwan, Amir Khan Pehelwan etc
Marutirao Pehelwan was different. He was handsome, tall, well built, could act and sing well. He was selected for the hero’s role in first Gujarati talkie film ‘Narsi Mehata’ (1932), made by Sagar Movietone. He acted as hero and other roles in about 40 films and sang 56 songs in 17 films. His first Hindi film was ‘Lanka Dahan’ (1933) and last his film was ‘Apna Ghar’ (1942)
He married his co-star of many films – Tara (sister of Sitara Devi and Alaknanda). They left films and settled in Dhule, Maharashtra. Marutirao started a dairy business there. Famous dancer Gopi Krishna was their son. After Marutirao’s demise Tara had a terrible time. She stayed in Bombay slums and did any extra role in films.
From 1946, there was another comedian actor named Maruti (Marutirao Parab), active in Hindi films. Initially, he too was billed as Marutirao, creating confusion. He was the father of comedienne Guddi Maruti.
So, here is the philosophical song.
( I thank Biren kothari ji for his book ” Sagar movietone” and shri M N Sardana ji for some information about N A Ansari, used in this post)
With this song, “Kasauti”(1941) makes its debut in the blog.
Song-Kho kar bhi sab kuchh izzat na khona (Kasauti)(1941) Singer-Maruti rao Pehelwan, Lyrics- Kanhaiyalal Chaturvedi, MD-Ashok Ghosh
Lyrics
Kho kar bhi sab kuchh a a
izzat na khona aa
zuroori hai ae ae ae ae
jeewan mein ae ae
izzat ka hona
Kho kar bhi sab kuchh
izzat na khona
Kho kar bhi sab kuchh
izzat na khona
zuroori hai
jeewan mein
izzat ka hona
zuroori hai
jeewan mein
izzat ka hona
Kho kar bhi sab kuchh
izzat na khona
Kho kar bhi sab kuchh
izzat na khona
pareeksha ho jis dam
hansna na rona
pareeksha ho jis dam m m
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
pareeksha ho jis dam
hansna na rona
kasauti pe utre jo sachcha
wo sona
kasauti pe utre jo sachcha
wo sona
kasauti pe utre jo sachcha
wo sona
kasauti pe utre jo sachcha
wo sona
Kho kar bhi sab kuchh
izzat na khona
Kho kar bhi sab kuchh
izzat na khona aa
Kehta hai baabul o meri bitiya
Posted on: October 11, 2019
This article is written by Peevesie’s mom, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular 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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The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is India’s highest award in cinema. It is presented annually at the National Film Awards ceremony by the Directorate of Film Festivals, an organisation set up by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The recipient is honoured for their “outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema” and is selected by a committee consisting of eminent personalities from the Indian film industry. The award comprises a Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus) medallion, a shawl, and a cash prize of ?1,000,000 (US$14,000). Presented first in 1969, the award was introduced by the Government of India to commemorate Dadasaheb Phalke’s contribution to Indian cinema. Phalke (1870–1944), who is popularly known as and often regarded as “the father of Indian cinema”, was an Indian filmmaker who directed India’s first full-length feature film, Raja Harishchandra.
The first recipient of the award was actress Devika Rani, who was honoured at the 17th National Film Awards held in 1969. As of 2017, there have been 49 awardees. Among those, actor Prithviraj Kapoor (1971) and actor Vinod Khanna (2017) are the only posthumous recipients. Raj Kapoor accepted the award on behalf of his father Prithviraj Kapoor at the 19th National Film Awards in 1971 and was himself a recipient in 1987 at the 35th National Film Awards ceremony. Bommireddy Narasimha Reddy (1974) and Bommireddy Nagi Reddy (1986); Raj Kapoor (1987) and Shashi Kapoor (2014); Lata Mangeshkar (1989) and Asha Bhosle (2000) along with B. R. Chopra (1998) and Yash Chopra (2001) are the siblings who have won the award.
Note:- all of the above information I have extracted from Wikipedia and apologize for any wrong information therein.
October 11th 1942 was the date when Teji Bachchan- wife of Shri. Harivansh Rai Bachchan gave India the Shahenshah of Bollywood. He goes by the name Shri. Amitabh Bachchan. Anyone who has even the faintest knowledge about Indian movies -anywhere in the world- would have heard about this actor. He may have not been India’s first mega-superstar, that title will always be associated with Rajesh Khanna. The reason I have used the term Mega-Superstar for Rajesh Khanna is because Dilip Kumar- Dev Anand-Raj Kapoor were equally big stars of their generation and the trio were inspiration for the next set of actors like Manoj Kumar, Dharmendra, Rajendra Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Jeetendra, Amitabh Bachchan etc. The popularity and fan-following that Rajesh Khanna achieved was much more than what the trio of the 50s and 60s may have experienced collectively. Amitabh Bachchan had a long journey to reach the level of popularity that was Rajesh Khanna’s; but even at the height of his superstardom one has never heard of girls writing letters to Amitabh with blood, or throwing themselves at his car or trying to commit suicide at the news of his marriage to Jaya Bhaduri etc.
What Amitabh experienced was a different kind of affection from his fans. There were people who prayed for his life in 1982 when he had an accident during the shoot of “Coolie”. There are accounts of people walking barefoot from far-flung places to the hospital where AB was admitted and battling for life after the accident; people offering prayers at various places of worship cutting across religious differences. AB has always thanked his fans for all the love they showered on him during that period. In fact, he always greets them on Sunday evenings (whenever he is in Mumbai i.e.) for which there is a huge crowd of fans waiting outside his Mumbai residence.
He may have been dubbed the angry-young-man in the early phase of his career but he was equally adept at emotional, romantic or comic roles. “Mahaan” (1983) had him in three roles where we had him as an emotional father/ husband, serious-faced inspector and comic stage artist. The turn of the century saw him change his style and take on a variety of roles and characters- strict father who will not accept his son marrying against his wishes (Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham), strict principal who wanted all his students to adhere to the ‘parampara’ ‘pratishtha’ etc laid down by the college (Mohabbatein), friendly-indulgent father to Akshay Kumar (“Ek Rishtaa: the bond of love” and “Waqt: the race against time”) etc. etc. etc. We saw him as a rustic near-bumbling cop in “Bunty Aur Babli”; aging teacher of a deaf-blind girl in “Black”; these successful experiments have seen him through 50 years in an industry which has many talented actors but no one has been given epithets like “Shahenshah of Bollywood”, “Big B” or “Star Of The Millennium”. He continues his reign over the hearts of his fans in spite of the next generation and the one after it giving movies that gross over 100 crores per film. He still gets author backed roles that befit his age and many-a-times is the central character of the story as in “Baghban” and “Baabul”. His detractors may feel that he is the most off-key (besura) singer (and I believe he agrees that he is mostly off-key) but the songs that he has sung (from the first full song “mere pass aao mere doston”) have been well received by his die-hard fans-yours truly included. 🙂
Coming back to the opening para of this post- here is the connection- Amitabh Bachchan is the recipient of this prestigious award for this year. He joins an august list of personalities who have had a major influence on the Indian film industry beginning from Devika Rani who is acknowledged as the first lady of Indian cinema.
This is the latest feather in AB’s cap in addition to the Padma awards – Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan; 4 National Awards for best actor and 15 Filmfare awards and numerous other awards from various national and international organisations.
Today he turns 77 and I am confused as to which is an appropriate song that should go with this post- I have a big collection to choose from- the blog has about 20 songs which have had Amitabh Bachchan in the recording room as a singer or uttering a few words with the main singer.
Today’s song is from the BR films produced 2006 release “Baabul”. It had AB play an indulgent and friendly father to Salman Khan and a loving father-in-law to Rani Mukherjee. The movie had a simple story of the loving father-in-law, fighting the opposition from his own wife and other family members, against his decision of getting his son’s widow remarried. The song comes at the fag end of the movie. It was on my list of songs under consideration for this post. What clinched the matter in its favour is that the song has two versions to it. The version in the movie is in the voice of Amitabh Bachchan and the album version is in Jagjit Singh’s voice. And only this morning I saw a message on our WhatsApp group that yesterday was Jagjit Singh’s anniversary.
So, we wish our Big B a long and healthy life and lots more years of entertaining us along with remembering Jagjit Singh and his smooth voice.
Video (Amitabh Bachchan voice)
Audio
Song-Kehta hai baabul o meri bitiya (Baabul)(2006) Singer-Amitabh Bachchan/ Jagjit Singh, Lyrics-Sameer, MD-Aadesh Srivastava
Lyrics
kehta hai baabul o meri bitiya
tu toh hai mere jigar ki chitthiya
kehta hai baabul o meri bitiya
tu toh hai mere jigar ki chitthiya
daakiya koyi jab aayega
tujhko churaa ke le jaayega
katega kaise lamha tere bina bata
jiyunga kaise tanha tere bina bata
katega kaise lamha tere bina bata aa aa
jiyuga kaise tanha tere bina bata
tu suhaagan rahe sang saajan rahe raat din
iss khushi ke liye har sitam main uthha loonga aa
tere jaane kaa gham mujhko hoga magar laadli
leke iss dard ko main sada muskuraaoonga
baabul toh dil se de raha duaa yahi
khushi ke saaye mein ho zindagi teri
baabul toh dil se de raha duaa yahi ee
khushi ke saaye mein ho zindagi teri
waqt ke saath zakhm yeh bhar jayega
pal guzar jayega tu meri baat maan le ae
yaadon ke aasre umr kat’ti nahin
hai haqeeqat yahi abb too jaan le ae ae
samundaron ka paani koyi naa pi saka
akela khaara jeevan koyi naa jee saka aa
samundaron ka paani koyi naa pi saka
akela khaara jeevan koyi naa jee saka
kehta hai baabul o meri bitiya
tu toh hai mere jigar ki chitthiya
daakiya koyi jab aayega
tujh ko churaa ke le jaayega
katega kaise lamha tere bina bata
jiyunga kaise tanha tere bina bata
katega kaise lamha tere bina bata
jiyunga kaise tanha tere bina bata
- In: Duet | Feelings of heart | Guest posts | Happy-Sad song | Hariharan - Kavita Krishnamurthy Duet | Hariharan Song | Inspirational song | joie de vivre | Kavitha Krishnamurthy Songs | Poignant Song | Post by Sadanand Kamath | Songs of 1990s (1991 to 2000) | Songs of 2000 | Theme song | Title song | 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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Films are regarded as director’s medium. He is like a captain of the ship. It is the director’s responsibility to make his film successful – critically as well as financially.
A film director may have directed many successful films but he will generally be known by his one classic cult film. For instance, when we talk about PC Barua, ‘Devdas’ (1935) comes to our mind first though he had directed other successful films like ‘Mukti’ (1937) and ‘Jawaab’ (1942). In case of Mehboob Khan, it is ‘Mother India’ (1957) though he had directed many successful films in the 1940s. K Asif and ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ (1960), Guru Dutt and ‘Pyaasa’, (1957) and Kamal Amrohi and ‘Pakeezah’ (1972) are inseparable. In the international arena, Raj Kapoor is known more for his film, ‘Aawaara’ (1951) than other equally successful films. This is not an exhaustive list.
But there is one film director who is known by his flop film in the genre of satirical comedy. The film is ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron’ (1983) and the director is Kundan Shah. In an interview held sometime in 2012 on the occasion of the re-release of the film in digitised version, he had said he considered this film as his failed project though it has attained a cult status.
Remembering Kundan Shah today, October 7th on his 2nd Remembrance Day who excelled in projecting the serious social issues in soft comedies through films and TV serials. I became aware of him with his very first film which I had watched on TV much before he became well known by his TV serials.
I found it very difficult to get the information on Kundan Shah’s early life before he ventured into films and TV serials. A book, ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron – Seriously Funny Since 1983’ (2010) written by Jai Ajay Singh was supposed to have some information about his early life. But the book has remained out of stock for some time. However, a preview of some pages of the book was available online which gave me some information about the early life of Kundan Shah.
Born in a Gujarati family, Kundan Shah spent his childhood in Aden (now in Yemen) and did his schooling there until the age of 13 when his family shifted to Mumbai. He completed his schooling and thereafter his graduation in commerce. He worked for a publishing house for about 4 years before enrolling himself in the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in 1973 for direction. It is at FTII, he found interest in the genre of comedy during the second year of the course.
As a project in FTII, he made a 25-minute diploma film titled ‘Bonga’ (Siren) which the students of direction have to make in the final year. The film was a farcical comedy involving a gang of five people attempting a bank robbery. The cast included FTII students like Satish Shah, Rakesh Bedi, Suresh Oberoi, Om Puri etc. There were no dialogue in the film except each one of the gang of five yelling ‘bonga’. Bhaskar Chandavarkar, an instructor in FTII at that time (who was also a music director) composed the background music. The film was critically acclaimed by his fellow students in FTII. His seniors in FTII like Naseeruddin Shah and Saeed Akhtar Mirza were surprised as to how this serious looking man could have made a graceful comedy film out of the nonsensical ideas.
After completion of his diploma in FTII in 1976, Kundan Shah struggled for a couple of years to find the opening in the film industry. He formed a commune of some of his fellow FTII diploma holders and produce short documentary films. However, in this work, Kundan Shah ran into financial problems. Almost all of his colleagues had already been disillusioned with their career and left for their respective places. Kundan Shah also moved to England with his family and worked there to make enough money to pay off his debt.
Kundan Shah returned to India after about 18 months. He got an attractive offer from the maker of ‘Gandhi’ (1981) to work as Assistant Director for six months at a monthly salary of Rs.10,000/-. The offer was very tempting. He consulted his colleague, Saeed Akhtar Mirza who dissuaded him from accepting the offer as he would mostly be doing the work of crowd controlling during the outdoor shooting. Instead, Saeed Mirza coxed him to write a script and make the film himself. In the meanwhile, Kundan Shah worked as Assistant Director in Saeed Akhtar Mirza’s ‘Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai’ (1980) and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s ‘Sazaa-e-Maut (1981). These association also put pressure on him to direct a film as his FTII fellow students, Saeed Mirza and Vidhu Vinod Chopra had already made films. It is at this point of time, Kundan Shah decided to make a feature film which resulted in making his first film ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron’ (1983).
As I came to know from the video clips of interviews of Kundan Shah, Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani, Sudhir Misra and others, it was a long struggle for completing the film and releasing it. Kundan Shah wrote the story and script based on the experiences of two of his fellow FTII students who after failing to get any assignment from the film industry, decided to open a photo studio and undertake fashion and industrial photography. Their bad experiences in the venture became the main theme of the story coupled with Kundan Shah’s personal experiences in dealing with a rationing office in Mumbai for the release of cement quota for repairs to drainage system in his building where he was the Secretary.
When the script was ready, no producer/financier was willing to invest in the film based on his script. Some financiers termed the script as idiotic. As a last resort, Kundan Shah approached National Film Development Corporation (NDFC) to take a loan for producing the film himself. The total cost film production was expected to be around Rs. 7 lakhs and NDFC would grant the loan only up to 75% of the cost after their Script Committee approved the script. However, Kundan Shah got a pleasant surprise when NDFC not only approved his script but also offered to produce the film under its banner as they thought that the script was an effective commentary on the situations prevailing in the country. So financial side of the problem got sorted out.
Next was the selection of actors and the crew for the film. With a budget of only Rs.7 lakhs, engaging the established actors even for the main roles was out of question. Kundan Shah relied on his FTII colleagues and the actors/ crews from IPTA/National School of Drama. The actors included Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani, Satish Shah, Satish Kaushik, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapoor, Bhakti Bharve, Neena Gupta, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Deepak Qazir, Rajesh Puri, Ashok Banthia and Jaspal Sandhu. Some of the actors also worked behind the camera. For instance, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Deepak Qazir were the Production Controllers. Satish Kaushik was one of the dialogue writers. Renu Saluja was the editor for the film beside the assistant director.
Naseeruddin Shah had revealed in an interview that during the making of the film, he was feeling uneasy with the script as he felt that all he was doing appeared to him to be nonsensical. He had arguments with Kundan Shah on several occasions but at the end it was Kundan Shah whose writ prevailed. Even after the completion of the film, Naseeruddin Shah was pessimistic about the success of the film.
The film was released in a few theatres in Mumbai in and some other cities in August 1983. The film received a lukewarm response from the audience. The film was withdrawn after a week in Mumbai and ran in a few theatres only for morning shows. In Delhi, the film ran for 37 weeks in a single theatre for morning show only. The film was also shown on then newly set up DD Metro Channel on the week-ends for a month or so. Gul Anand, the producer of some off-beat comedy films like ‘Khatta Meetha’ (1978) and ‘Chashme-e-Buddoor’ (1981) after watching the film had said to Kundan Shah that if he had not seen the film and only read the script , he would have thrown it out of his window. This shows how Kundan Shah made an interesting film out of the nonsensical script. The lukewarm response for the film was a setback for Kundan Shah. He did not venture into directing any film for the next 10 years.
After about 30 years, ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron’ (1983) was digitally restored and was re-released in November 2012 in multiplexes in Mumbai and in some major cities by which time, the film had already attained a cult status.
In the meanwhile, television was becoming a mass media with a pan India reach. In 1984, Doordarshan permitted the sponsored TV serials produced outside Doordarshan on its National Channel. Kundan Shah and many other persons associated with film industry took this as an opportunity and started their association with the producers of TV Serials. Kundan Shah made his debut on Television by directing some episodes of ‘Ye Jo Hai Zindagi’ (1984). It ran on Doordarshan with 67 episodes some of which were directed by Manjul Sinha and Raman Kumar. Actors were drawn from FTII and theatres. The serial had a phenomenal run which rediscovered Kundan Shah as a master of directing situational comedy.
With the runaway success of ‘Ye Jo Hai Zindagi’, Kundan Shah became the partner in Iskra Films, a TV serial producing company started by Saeed Akhtar Mirza and Aziz Mirza. ‘Nukkad’ (1986) was its first production. The other successful TV Serials in which Kundan Shah was associated with were ‘Wagle Ki Duniya’ (1988) and ‘Circus’ (1989).
After a gap of more than 10 years, Kundan Shah decided to make a film on the script he wrote in the genre of romantic comedy. The film’s original title ‘Albela’ had to be changed to ‘Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na’ (1994) as this title was already registered by someone with Film Producers Associations like IMPPA. As usual for Kundan Shah, the film was delayed for a variety of reasons. The original lead actors, Amir Khan and Juhi Chawla withdrew from the film due to delay in finding a producer/financier. Shahrukh Khan, who was originally taken for the role which eventually went to Deepak Tijori, was promoted as a lead actor with Suchitra Krishnamoorthy.
After completion, the film remained in the cans for nearly 18 months as no distributor was willing to release the film probably due to the hero turning out to be loser in the end. This was the status of this film despite the fact that by this time, Shahrukh Khan was already on his path to become a super star due to box office successes of his films like ‘Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman’ (1992), ‘Deewana’ (1992), ‘Darr’ (1993) and ‘Baazigar’ (1993). Finally, Shahrukh Khan in partnership with one of his friends from the film industry released the film in February 1994. Though the film was regarded as an average success after the release, over a period of time, the film has earned more than 5 times its cost and it has also attained a cult status for Kundan Shah.
It was another six years after ‘Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa’ (1994) that Kundan Shah took ‘Kya Kehna’(2000) for direction which was Preity Zinta’s debut film. This was Kundan Shah’s first mainstream film which was devoid of any comedy. On the contrary, Kundan Shah tackled a serious issue of pre-marital pregnancy with sensitivity. As usual for Kundan Shah, this film was also delayed in getting released. Once it got released, it was the pleasant surprise to all concerned with the film that it was a box office hit.
The next in lines of films which Kundan Shah directed were ‘Hum To Mohabbat Karega’ (2000), ‘Dil Hai Tumhara’ (2002) and ‘Ek Se Badkar Ek’ (2004). All the three films flopped at the box office making him to take a virtual retirement from the mainstream films. He returned to his foray of making films with off-beat themes in ‘Teen Behanen’ (2005), based on a real-life story of three sisters who committed suicide because their father could not afford to pay dowry. The film remained unreleased till date. His last film was a political satire, ‘P Se PM Tak’ (2015) which was a disaster at the box office.
Kundan Shah died in sleep of heart attack on October 7, 2017 at his residence. One of the emotional tributes on his death was that of Shahrukh Khan whom he compared like his mother. He said ‘I was 25 when I came to Mumbai. I have stayed in Kundan’s house and I have been fed by his family and taken care of by them’. Shahrukh Khan had worked in a few episodes of Kundan Shah’s TV Serials, ‘Wagle Ki Duniya (1988) and as a lead actor in ‘Circus’ (1989). His close friends who had been regular visitors to his office said that Kundan Shah’s office cupboard was full of film scripts in various stages. Sadly, there were no takers for these scripts to turn them into films.
As a tribute to Kundan Shah on the occasion of his 2nd Remembrance Day, I am presenting a song from ‘Kya Kehna’ (2000) which was directed by him. The song is ‘Ae Dil Laaya Hai Bahaar, Apnon Ka Pyaar, Kya Kehna’. The song is rendered by Hariharan and Kavita Krishnamurthy on the words of Majrooh Sultanpuri which was set to music by Rajesh Roshan. The song has two versions – happy and sad, the latter version being also a inspirational song.
Hariharan lip syncs for Anupam Kher, Chandrachud Singh and Mamik Singh while Kavita Krishnamurthy lip syncs for Farida Jalal, Preity Zinta and Nivedita Bhattacharya (in sad version). On the sound track, some lines of the song have been rendered as duet, but in the film, it is for all the actors present in some scenes.
The tune of the song is a straight lift from Oh Carol, I am but a fool, darling I love you, though you treat me cruel, sung by pop singer, song writer and composer, Neil Sedaka in 1957.
Happy Version
Sad Version
Song – Ae Dil Laaya Hai Bahaar, Apno Ka Pyaar, Kya Kehna (Kya kehna) (2000) Singer – Hariharan, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Lyrics – Majrooh Sultanpuri, MD – Rajesh Roshan
Harirahan + Kavita Krishnamurthy
Lyrics
Happy Version
oh……..o
ho o o o o
o o o o o
o o o o
ae dil
laaya hai bahaar
apnon ka pyaar
kya kehna
milen hum
chhalak utha
khushi ka khumaar
kya kehna
khile khile chehron se aaj
ghar hai mera
gul-e-gulzaar
kya kehna…aa
khile khile chehron se aaj
ghar hai mera
gul-e-gulzaar
kya kehna
ae dil
laaya hai bahaar
apnon ka pyaar
kya kehna
milen hum
chhalak utha
khushi ka khumaar
kya kehna
hum tum yun hi milte rahein
mehfil yoon hi sajti rahe
bas pyaar ki yehi ek dhun
har subah-o-shaam bajti rahe
gale mein mehekte rahein
pyaar bhari
baahon ka haar
kya kehna…aa
khile khile chehron se aaj
ghar hai mera
gul-e-gulzaar
kya kehna
oh……..o
ho o o o o
o o o o o
o o o o
ae dil
laaya hai bahaar
apnon ka pyaar
kya kehna
milen hum
chhalak utha
khushi ka khumaar
kya kehna
khile khile chehron se aaj
ghar hai mera
gul-e-gulzaar
kya kehna…aa
khile khile chehron se aaj
ghar hai mera
gul-e-gulzaar
kya kehna
Sad Version
dil ka koi tukda kabhi
dil se juda hota nahi
apna koi jaisa bhi ho
apna hai wo duja nahi
yahi hai wo milan hai jo
sachmuch hai
dil ka qaraar
kya kehna
khile khile chehron se aaj
ghar hai mera
gul-e-gulzaar
kya kehna
ae dil
laaya hai bahaar
apnon ka pyaar
kya kehna
milen hum
chhalak utha
khushi ka khumaar
kya kehna
kuchh apne hi tak yoon nahi
ye hai sawaal sab ke liye
jeena hai to jag mein jiyo
ban ke misaal sab ke liye
dekho kaisa mehak raha
pyaar bhari
baahon ka haar
kya kehna…aa
khile khile chehron se aaj
ghar hai mera
gul-e-gulzaar
kya kehna
ae dil
laaya hai bahaar
apnon ka pyaar
kya kehna
milein hum
chhalak utha
khushi ka khumaar
kya kehna
jo ho gaya so ho gaya
logon se tu darna nahi
saathi tere hain aur bhi
duniya mein tu tanha nahi
saamna karenge mil ke
chaahe dus ho
chaahe hazaar
kya kehna..aa
khile khile chehron se aaj
jag hai mera
gul-e-gulzaar
kya kehna
oh……..o
ho o o o o
o o o o o
o o o o
ae dil
laaya hai bahaar
apnon ka pyaar
kya kehna
milen hum
chhalak utha
khushi ka khumaar
kya kehna
khile khile chehron se aaj
ghar hai mera
gul-e-gulzaar
kya kehna
khile khile chehron se aaj
ghar hai mera
gul-e-gulzaar
kya kehna
Ae zindagi ye lamha jee lene de
Posted on: September 8, 2019
This article is written by Peevesie’s mom, 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 : |
4069 | Post No. : | 15205 | Movie Count : |
4179 |
Hullo to Atuldom
Today I have a very difficult task. The task of selecting one song from a possible 5251 (7874-2623 as per the stats page of the blog) is almost like needle in a hay stack. And there will be at least a few thousand popular songs in this 5k of which many will fall in the category of “How come…?”. Some may lead to their movies getting Yyippeeeed and some may introduce a new movie onto the blog.
I never added any criteria for the song selection as I had so many songs of this singer, running through my head. Over the last few days I had heard many songs of this artist and found that most of them are yet to appear on the blog. It doesn’t help matters that she has been around since 1948 – just about 71 years of work to choose from. 71 years of work means singing for all the females who have ever graced the Bollywood firmament, of course excluding the ladies of the silent era. I thought I will take the easy way out and try and find the first ever Bollywood song recorded by her for Hansraj Behl in 1948. But, if only, life was that easy!!!! 🙂
Just then, as if Godsend, my daughter called me for getting some clarification and as soon as we finished her work with me, I told her what I was up to, and we went into overdrive about the song selection. She on her part suggested a few songs which both of us love and have music cassettes of, but I shot them down as they were non-filmy. I had my reasons for shooting them down- when there are so many movie songs left why go for non- film songs. We still have years to go before we run out of film songs. Then, after a lot of brain-storming with my dear Peevesie, I zeroed in on a song written by Gulzar.
What is unusual about this song? For one, it is one of the rare occasions where Anu Malik has given music for an album with songs written by Gulzar. This album has songs sung by Asha Bhonsle, K.S. Chitra, Jaspinder Narula, Roop Kumar Rathod, Palash Sen and KK. All the songs of the movie were well received. But the track by our birthday girl was a huge hit. I am talking of the songs from Meghna Gulzar’s directorial debut “Filhaal” of 2002. Meghna, as is well known, is the daughter of Rakhee and Gulzar. She started out her career as a free-lance writer, going on to assist Saeed Akhtar Mirza and her father before going on to direct “Filhaal”. It was not an unusual story but was handled differently.
The movie had Sushmita Sen and Tabu – as stars of commercial value and Dr. Palash Sen and Sanjay Suri as the male actors. The ladies are long-time friends but differ in their dreams and aspiration. They are different where settling into family is concerned but when one of them (Sushmita) has a problem in her family life, as she cannot conceive, the other (Tabu) steps in to be a surrogate mother to her friend’s child. Then differences crop up between the friends as the pregnancy progresses and how they resolve all the confusion forms the gist of the movie. It was critically appreciated but I am unaware of its commercial status.
Today’s song is sung by Asha Bhonsle. I hope all the readers had guessed that I want to wish our Ashaji a lot of health and good times and hope to hear more of her songs.
P.S.: Hope people have noted that I have exercised restraint and not mentioned about her lineage, family, her most popular songs and my favourite Asha Bhonsle song. Only I know how difficult it was not to mention songs. 🙂
Song-Ae zindagi ye lamha jee lene de (Filhaal)(2002) Singer-Asha Bhonsle, Lyrics-Gulzar, MD-Anu Malik
Lyrics
ae zindagi
yeh lamha jee lene de
ho o o o
pehle se likha
kuchh bhee nahin
roz naya kuchh
likhti hai tu
jo bhee likha hai
dil se jiya hai
ye lamha filhaal jee lene de
ye lamha filhaal jee lene de
maasoom si haseen bewajah hee kabhi
honthon pe khil jaati hai
anjaan si khushi
behti huyi kabhi
saahil pe mil jaati hai
ye anjaana sa darr
ajnabi hai magar
khoobsoorat hai jee lene de
ye lamha filhaal jee lene de
ye lamha filhaal jee lene de
dil hi mein rehta hai
aankhon mein behta hai
kachcha sa ik khwaab hai
lagta sawaal hai
shaayad jawaab hai
dil phir bhi betaab hai
ye sukoon hai toh hai
ye junoon hai toh hai
khoobsoorat hai jee lene de
ye lamha filhaal jee lene de
ye lamha filhaal jee lene de
ho o o pehle se likha kuchh bhi nahin
roz naya kuchh
ho o o likhti hai tu
jo bhi likha hai
dil se jiya hai
ye lamha filhaal jee lene de
ye lamha filhaal jee lene de
Dil mein Mars hai
Posted on: September 4, 2019
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 : |
4065 | Post No. : | 15200 | Movie Count : |
4177 |
Most traditional Hindi movis are formula movies. The formula keeps changing with time and the movies made during that era have same stories based on the same formula with minor variations.
Once in a while we have movies based on real life events. One finds that movie makers try to convert them to a formula movie.
Movies during the early years post independence tended to be tragic movies with sad ends. No matter what the topic, the movie would still have the usual songs. So, when movies based on true life stories were made, they followed the same formula.
“Lahore”(1949) is one example, which was made on the background of partitition. Same was the case with “Nastik”(1954). These movies had lots of songs, and the characters are seen suffering most of the time.
Then in 1960s, we had “Haqeeqat”(1964), made on the background of Indo China war. This movie was based on war, but it was mostly a musical movie with lots of hit songs, and war almost getting relegated to the background.
After many decades, Indians slowly started to have some achievemments under their belts. So, accordingly, Indian movies stories became more positive where the hero was more assertive than before.
During the last few years, several movies have been made on real life events, and most of these movies are success stories.
“Dangal”(2016) was based on a real life story of a man who despite living in a male dominated society manages to turn his daughters into international wresters. It was a real life inspiring story that caught the imagination of not only Indians but also Chinese audience ! The movie did a business of over Rs 700 crores in China !
Personally I loved “Parmanu”(2018), which was based on Pokharan II, an eventthat signalled the rise of a new and assertive India, far from the days of 1962 that “Haqeeqat”(1964) depicted.
“Uri” (2019) was based on surgical strike of 2016. There were people who left no stones unturned to tell us that surgical strike did not take place, and their supporters in India asked for proof. Believers went to the movie and turned it into a box office success. This episode, like the episode described in “Parmanu” (2018) demonstated the rise on a new and assertive India which would not take things lying down if wronged and would retaliate aggressively.
A country gains self confidence when it is doing well in economy and related fields. Indian economy is doing well for the last few years and India economy is fifth largest GDP in the world. Some media houses gleefully reported that India had slipped to seventh position, but that was on december 2018. As on today, India is again 5th biggest economy, a fact that our media is hiding from us.
A country can rise up the economy ladder only if it has high quality highly educated manpower. Low quality manpower can take an economy up to certain level, but after that level, you need top class manpower to take you forward. India at present is a low middle income group nation (per capita earning in the region of $ 1000 to $ 40000 per annum). India will need to more than double its GDP and then we can hope to break into the ranks of upper middle income nations (per capita income in the region of $ 4000 to $ 12000). Final barrier is $ 12000 and a country with per capita earning above that figure becomes a high income country.
Only those countries that invest in high quality education and high quality infrastructure can break in the league of upper middle group nations and finally into higher income nations. India has a long long way to go. But India is in the right track. I can visualise India breakin into the rank of upper middle rank nations when Indian GDP reaches about $ 6 trillions. It woulkd be sometime in the next ten years.
GDP of a nation keeps climbing at a good rate only if a country is doing high quality work which can be sold all over the world. India is a world leader in high quality research products like pharmaceuticals, health services etc. These sectors will help India grow up in future. In manufacturing sector, I hope to see some interesting world class products, like say Train 18 from Indian Railways and Tejas from HAL, which will have good market worldwide, if Indian Government can plan and execute the plans well.
ISRO, Indian space agency is a shining example of what Indian manpower is capable of. ISRO has earned tremendous name and goodwill for its stellar works. It has launched many satellites of foreign advanced nations and they have played an important role in earning respect for Indian manpower. It is not for nothing that many silicon valley big wigs are people of Indian origin.
“Mission Mangal”(2019) is based on ISRO’s mangalyaan expedition. With this mission, ISRO succeeded in sending its spacecraft (mars orbiter) to Mars successfully in thhe very first attempt, and they did it on a shoe string budget.
The movie “‘Mission Mangal” (2019) is jointly produced Cape of Good Films, Hope Productions, Fox Star Studios, Aruna Bhatia, and Anil Naidu and directed by Jagan Shakti. The movie has Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Taapsee Pannu, Nithya Menen, Kirti Kulhari, Sharman Joshi, H. G. Dattatreya, Vikram Gokhale, and Sonakshi Sinha etc in it.
When this mission had actually taken place, social media was abuzz with a photograph that showed a few homely housewife looking ladies who were in reality ISRO scientists and who had played important roles in the success of the mission. The makers of this movie have been greatly influenced by this fact. The movie shows lots of female power in the movie.
The story , based on real life ISRO stories, starts by showing failure of a GSLV launch on December 25, 2010 due to an error of judgement by project director Tara Shinde (Vidya Balan). Rakesh Dhawan (Akshay Kumar) takes the responsibility of the failure on himself. As a punishment posting, he is hunted out to “Mangalyaan” mission, a mission no one has much hopes on.
Maenwhile Tara Shinde too gets herself transferred to Mangalyaan project and she has some idea about how this project can be successfully executed. Rakesh Dhawan and Tar Shinde convince the ISRO head (Vikram Gokhale) to support them by budget and staff. Budget is limited and keeps getting reduced, and the manpower asked in not what was needed. They end up with rookie scientists like Eka Gandhi (Sonakshi Sinha)the propulsion control expert, who is dying to leave ISRO and join NASA as soon as possible, spacecraft autonomy designer Neha Siddiqui (Kirti Kulhari ) whose second name causes raised eyebrows when she is looking for rented accomodation, navigation expert Krittika Agarwal (navigation expert) who has great difficulty learning to drive a car. Her husband is in Army who gets injured in an accident. Satellite designer and payload expert Varsha Pillai (Nithya Menon) has a nagging mother in law at home who taunts her for being childless.
There are two male scientists too. Astrology believing Parmeshwar Joshi (Sharman Joshi) is told by his astrologer that his “Mangal” is bhaari and that is why he is unable to get married. No wonder he is reluctant to join the mission. Then there is Anant Ayengar (H G Dattatreya) who is one year short of retirement and is already counting days.
How Rakesh Dhawan and Tara Shinde get their team to deliver and how successfully deal with major hurdles constitutes the story. While there are some critics who have found lots of weaknesses and holes in the story, I loved the movie. I find the episodes quite entertaing. When Rakesh Dhawan first goes to the mangalyaan area of ISRO, he finds that vacant and without any sings of life. Then he finds a matka with water in it. So there is water in mars- he observes. Then a cat enters the hall. So, there is life in Mars, he concludes.
The movie is based on a real life story, so we all know what hexactly happened. Still the movie keeps you glued to your seat. And it gives you goosebumps when the rocket lifts off from its launch pad.
This is a movie only Indians could have made and only Indians could have identfied with. I am happy that a movie was made on this subject. The makers have done the best they could have. insteda of finding faults (like what some people have done) I take it as glass half full and I enjoyed th movie. I think that most Indians who like to be positive about their lives and about their country will enjoy this movie.
The movie has three songs in it. My personal favourite is the theme song. The lyrics of this song are by Amitabh Bhattacharya and he has indulged in some interesting word play in this song. The song is sung by Benny Dayal , Vibha Saraf and others. Music is composed by Amit Trivedi.
This song happens to be the 15200th song in the blog. It is the first time that this blog has a new song from the current year as the century song. I think this song fully deserves it. It is a song that I loved from the vey fist time I heard it and watched it.
These days we have two actors who are competing for making movies on nationalistic subjects. One is Akshay Kumar and another is John Abraham. I had loved John Abraham’s “Parmanu”(2018) and I loved Akshay Kumar’s “Mission Mangal”(2019). In 1960s and 1970s, we had Manoj Kumar making patriotic movies. Today we have John Abraham and Akshay Kumar. There is one cartoon which shows the two of them grabbing each other by their collars, arguing about who should take up which nationalistic story next. Then there is another cartoon showing Akshay Kumar with P M Modi. Modi tells Akshay Kumar-“Keep making movies, I will keep giving you story ideas.” It must be said that the story idea for Article 370 is something that a Frederick Forsyth or Leon Uris would have been proud to write.
So, here is the 15200 th song for the blog. It must be one of the most unnoticed century post occasion which apparently no one was looking forward to, including even I myself. Nevertheless, the needful needs to be done. So we are now 15200 song post old with this writeup. I take this opportunity to thank all our visitors and well wishers for their continued encouragement and support. May we keep scoring many more centuries in future.
With this song, “Mission Mangal”(2019) makes its debut in the blog.
Song-Dil mein Mars hai (Mission Mangal)(2019) Singers-Benny Dayal, Vibha Saraf, Lyrics-Amitabh Bhattacharya, MD-Amit Trivedi
Lyrics
Om mangalam mission mangalam
Om mangalam mission mangalam
Om mangalam mission mangalam
Manzil door door door hai mushkil paas hai
Phir bhi khwaab khwaab khwaab mein twinkle stars hai
Om mangalam mission mangalam
Manzil door door door hai mushkil paas hai
Phir bhi khwaab khwaab khwaab mein twinkle stars hai
Chaand ko karke rahenge aaj overtake hum
poora chance hai ae
Three two one boom!
Dil mein Mars hai
Kyun ki dil mein Mars hai
Om mangalam mission mangalam
Apne dil mein Mars hai
Om mangalam mission mangalam
Udne ki pyaas hai
Dil mein Mars hai
Om mangalam mission mangalam
Space mangalam shuttle mangalam
Cool mangalam swag mangalam
Hash mangalam tag mangalam
Dream mangalam vision mangalam
Countdown ignition mangalam
Om mangalam mission mangalam telescope dhaari … swaaha
Om mangalam mission mangalam
Om mangalam mission mangalam
Apne brain brain brain ki hai kaarastani
Hum toh dhoondh dhoondh dhoondh len fire mein paani
fire mein paani
Apne desh desh desh mein sab kuch mumkin hai
We don’t need need need need no meherbaani
no meherbaani ee ee
Thode fail fail fail hain
phir bhi pass hain
Fulltu mood mood mood mein hum bindass hain
Chaand ko karke rahenge aaj overtake hum
poora chance hai ae
Three two one boom!
Dil mein Mars hai
O dil mein Mars hai
Om mangalam mission mangalam
Apne dil mein Mars hai
Om mangalam mission mangalam
Udne ki pyaas hai ae
Kyun ki dil mein Mars hai
Om mangalam mission mangalam
Speed mangalam medal mangalam
Josh mangalam jashn mangalam
Style mangalam tashan mangalam
Cosmos condition mangalam
Take-off permission mangalam
Om mangalam mission mangalam
kayinaat saari … swaaha
Neeli aasmaani chhatri
Posted on: August 26, 2019
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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I am an ardent admirer of Ruskin Bond’s short stories. I do not remember as to when I started bonding with Ruskin Bond’s books. It could be sometime early 1990s when I read his first book titled ‘Beautiful Garhwal – Heaven in Himalayas’ (1988). Surprisingly, this book is not listed under the list of his published books. It is a ‘coffee-table book’ with 15 of his articles on the Garhwal Himalayas – from the village life, rivers, valleys, pilgrimage to trees and flowers, etc. It is an excellent and lavishly printed book in art paper with a lot of illustrations and beautiful pictures. This book was printed for Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVL) as a part of promotion of tourism in the Garhwal Himalayas.
Since then, I had ready many of his short stories which are in my collections of books like ‘Rain in the Mountains – Notes from the Himalaya’ (1993), ‘The Lamp is Lit’ (1998), The Room on the Roof’, ‘The Night Train to Deoli & Other Stories’ etc. Very recently, I have read his latest book ‘The Beauty of All My Days’ – A Memoir ( 2018). A few of his books of short story collections which I have read, seems to have been missing from my collections. Probably, I may have given to some ones to read but they did not return.
Ruskin Bond has spent much of his life at the foothills of the Garhwal Himalayas. His last 5 decades have been spent in Landour, a cantonment area of Mussoorie. He has widely travelled in Garhwal Himalayas. Hence, much of his writings is the reflections of the hills and the village life of the Garhwal Himalayas and his nostalgic experiences. His lucid writing style takes the readers to the virtual trip to the Himalayas.
I have been very much influenced by the writings of Ruskin Bond and his nostalgia of the Garhwal Himalayas. Of all the Himalaya treks I have undertaken during the last 35 years, I have done the maximum number of treks in the Garhwal Himalaya. His description of the village life prompted me to prefer home stays in village houses for the overnight stays rather than in the tents whenever I trekked in the Himalayas. I could, therefore, get the first hand experiences of Ruskin Bond’s descriptions of the Garhwal villages and the psyche of the simple villagers.
Recently, I have written an article in the Blog on Gulzar saab on the occasion of his 85th Birthday. When I was going through the profile of Ruskin Bond, I found it interesting to note that there were many similarities in the events in the lives of Ruskin Bond and Gulzar saab. Both were born in 1934, with Gulzar saab being younger by exactly 3 months. Both had a lonely childhood. Gulzar saab lost his mother when he was a child. Ruskin Bond had grown up without the support of his mother as his parents had divorced when he was a child. His mother got remarried and he lived with his father. Circumstances deprived both of them of their fathers’ company when it was most needed. Gulzar saab was sent to Mumbai to stay with his elder step brother, while Ruskin Bond missed his father most of the time because he was in the Royal Air Force and later died from Malaria at an early age.
Both Ruskin Bond and Gulzar Saab developed their writing skills and got their poems/short story published when they were teens. Both got associated with Hindi films albeit with a gap – Gulzar saab in ‘Bandini’ (1963) as a lyricist and Ruskin Bond as a story writer in ‘Junoon’ (1978) based on his novel, ‘A Flight of Pigeons’ (1970s). Both wrote and published a good number of books of children’s literature. Ruskin Bond and Gulzar saab were conferred with Sahitya Akademy Awards in 1992 and 2002 respectively and with Padma Bhushan in 2014 and 2004 respectively.
While the lives of Ruskin Bond and Gulzar saab was moving parallelly, they got merged for the first time when Vishal Bhardwaj decided to make a children’s film in Hindi, ‘The Blue Umbrella’ (Neeli Chhatri, 2005) based on the novella of the same title written by Ruskin Bond. He also wrote screen-play for the film jointly with Vishal Bhardwaj. Gulzar saab got associated with this film as a lyricist.
After a gap of about 5 years, Ruskin Bond and Gulzar saab worked together in Vishal Bhardwaj’s film ‘7 Khoon Maaf’ (2011) which was based on his novel ‘Sussanna’s Seven Husbands’. Ruskin Bond wrote screen-play along with Vishal Bhardwaj and also played a cameo role of a priest in the film. Gulzar saab wrote the lyrics. Collaboration between them for the third film is in the offing. Incidentally, Vishal Bhardwaj has become a neighbour of Ruskin Bond in Landour as revealed by the latter.
As I mentioned earlier, ‘The Blue Umbrella’ (2005) was a children’s film based on Ruskin Bond’s novella by the same name. The film was directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. Except for Pankaj Kapoor and Deepak Dobriyal, rest of the actors in the film are unfamiliar to me. The lead actors in the film is Pankaj Kapoor and 10-year girl, Shreya Sharma. The film was critically acclaimed and it got the National Film Award for the best children’s film in 2008. But the film was a box office disaster.
The film is not available for viewing in any video uploading platforms like YT. I saw the movie on Netflix. There are some minor differences in the story outlined in the film from the story in the book. The story in the book is based in some remote village in Garhwal whereas in the film, the story is based on a remote village in Himachal Pradesh. The end in the film also differ from the book which I will discuss later. The story in the film is as under:
In a remote Himalayan village, 10-year old girl, Biniya (Shreya Sharma) stays with her widowed mother and elder brother. The family has a small terraced field and a couple of cows sufficient to take care of their sustenance.
One day when Biniya goes to graze the cows, she comes across a group of Japanese tourists. Biniya’s eyes fall on a beautiful blue umbrella which is lying open on the meadow. She likes the umbrella and wants to have it but she has no means to get it. The lady tourist sees a necklace with a pedant of bear’s claws in Biniya’s neck and she likes it. Despite the bear’s claws being regarded as a lucky charm, Biniya exchanges for the blue umbrella. From now onward, Biniya and her blue umbrella are inseparable.
Most of the people in her village are envious of her blue umbrella as no one in the village possessed such a beautiful umbrella. The village teacher’s wife pesters her husband to get a similar umbrella for her. But the children in the village are full of praise for Biniya’s blue umbrella.
In the village, Nandkishore (Pankaj Kapoor), the owner of the village’s only tea shop, also becomes envious of Biniya’s blue umbrella as she has become the centre of attention in the village. Even tourists coming in buses for going towards a hill station nearby take a tea break for photographing her with blue umbrella.
Nandkishore tries all tricks of attractive offers to make her sell to him the blue umbrella but she refuses to sell. The blue umbrella causes restlessness in the mind of Nandkishore. He must have that blue umbrella. He tries to get one from the nearby town but it is not available. A similar type of umbrella which may be available in Delhi would cost him a lot. He feels that his attraction to the blue umbrella may have to do with his last birth.
One day, Biniya while grazing the cows on a meadow, finds her umbrella missing. She suspects Nandkishore to be the one who stole her blue umbrella. Police searches the Nadkishore’s shop but does not find the umbrella. Humiliated by the police investigation, Nandkishore buys a colourful red umbrella which, he says, he got from Delhi. He now becomes the centre of attraction in the village.
Biniya’s own investigation on her missing blue umbrella continues which takes her to a nearby town where one umbrella was recently dyed. In the meanwhile, with his status in the village gone up due to owning a red umbrella, Nandkishore is invited as a chief guest for a wrestling competition in the village. During the competition, it starts raining and his red umbrella turns blue as red colour on the umbrella get washed out. It becomes clear that Nandkishore had stolen Biniya’s blue umbrella and got it dyed with red colour. The village panchayat held him guilty and pass a judgement that that the entire village should boycott Nandkishore and his shop.
With the boycott, Nandkishore business is almost stopped. He is not even invited for the marriage of the village chief’s son. Barber’s shop refuses him as a customer. Biniya watches all the happenings to Nandkishore. She feels sorry for him. One day, she visits his shop after a long gap to buy biscuits and forgets her umbrella in his shop. When Nandkishore notices this, he runs after her with the umbrella in snowy conditions and returns to her the umbrella. Biniya refuses to accept the umbrella by telling him that it is not her umbrella and walks away. The village boycott of Nandkishore is lifted and his business in the shop returns to normal.
I found the ending in Ruskin Bond’s book more touching than in the film. In the book, after few days of boycott of Nandkishore’s shop, Biniya feels that she is the cause for all the problems Nandkishore has been facing due to boycott. After many days of boycott, she visits his shop to buy toffees. Nandkishore thinks that Biniya has come to his shop to make fun of his situation or she has come with a counterfeit coin to buy toffees. But none of his presumptions comes out true. She buys the toffee but forget her blue umbrella in the shop. Nandkishore runs after her to give her back the umbrella. However, she tells him that she left the umbrella for him.
After few days of this event, Nandkishore calls Biniya while she is passing by his shop. He shows her his newly made locket of bear’s claws with silver chain. She likes it but she says she has no money to buy. Nandkishore says that it does not matter as she has given him her umbrella and he is giving her a locket of bear’s claws. He places the pedant on her and says that it looks very beautiful on her. She is very much pleased as bear’s claws are regarded luckier than leopard’s claws. For Nandkishore, the smile that she gave him upon receiving the pendant was more rewarding than owning the pendant.
Vishal Bhardwaj, the producer-director of the film had said at the time of the release of the film that it was a children’s film with a message to adults. How true it is! Firstly, how an alien thing like an attractive blue umbrella can disturb the peaceful life of a village. Second, the intense desire to possess something can lead to irrational behaviour and its resultant adverse consequences. Third, forgiveness is the key to normalisation of a relationship. In ‘The Blue Umbrella’ Ruskin Bond has shown that there is always a soft corner in the hearts of individuals. In the end, Biniya gives up her possessiveness and Nandkishore shades his greediness. And the village comes back to its peaceful life.
The film has 3 beautiful songs, all written by Gulzar. One of them has been represented on the Blog.
I have selected for presentation the song ‘neeli aasmaani chhatri’ because this is the only song in which the blue umbrella is on display most of the duration of the song. Like Biniya and Nandkishore in the film, I am also tempted to this beautiful blue umbrella, my temptation being limited to watching it to my heart’s content. The song is sung by Upagna Pandya under the music direction of Vishal Bhardwaj.
It is a lovely song with western symphony music used for interludes.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip :
Song-Neeli Aasmaani chhatri (Blue Umbrella)(2005) Singers-Upagna Pandya, unknown female voice, Lyrics-Gulzar, MD-Vishal Bhardwaj
Lyrics(Based on the Audio Clip)
ku ku ku ku
ku ku kudi ku ku
ku ku kudi ku ku
ku ku kudi ku ku
ku ku kudi ku ku
arre he….ey
(ku ku kudi ku ku )
hey hey
(ku ku kudi ku ku)
neeli aasmaani chhatri
ku ku kudi ku ku
ku ku kudi ku ku
ku ku kudi ku ku,
ku ku kudi ku ku
he…..ey
hey ae
neeli aasmaani chhatri
chhatri ka udan khatola
dole to laage hindola
chhatri ka udan khatola..aa aa
dole to laage hindola
ude kabhi bhaage kabhi
bhaage kabhi daude kabhi
samajh na maane chhatri..ee
ku ku kudi ku ku
ku ku kudi ku ku
ku ku kudi ku ku
ku ku ku ku
ku ku ku ku
ku ku kudi ku ku
ku ku kudi ku ku
ku ku kudi ku ku
ku ku kudi ku ku
ambar ka tukda toda
lakdi ka hattha joda
haath mein apna asmaan hai re
chhatri le ke chalti ho
memon jaisi lagti ho
goron ka dil beimaan hai re
khunti kabhi laathi kabhi
laathi kabhi chhadi kabhi
khunti kabhi laathi kabhi
laathi kabhi chhadi kabhi
paaji shaitaani chhatri..ee
baarish se jo rishta hai
paani pe mann khinchta hai
bijli ko ye pehchaan hai re
shaayad phir ud na jaaye
ambar se jud na chaahe
bholi hai anjaan hai
hai re
doobe kabhi taire kabhi
gote khaati jaaye kabhi
doobe kabhi taire kabhi
gote khaati jaaye kabhi
karein naadaani chhatri..ee
ku ku kudi ku ku
ku ku kudi ku ku
ku ku kudi ku ku
ku ku kudi ku ku
hey ae hey ae
(ku ku kudi ku ku)
hey re
(ku ku kudi ku ku)
neeli asmaani chhatri
chhatri ka udan khatola..aa
dole to laage hindola aa aa
chhatri ka udan khatola..aa aa
dole to laage hindola
ude kabhi bhaage kabhi
bhaage kabhi daude kabhi
samajh na maane chhatri
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