Archive for the ‘Wahidan Bai song’ Category
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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Today, March 29th 2021, we are celebrating Holi, the festival of joy and merry-making albeit in a subdued manner due to COVID-19 guidelines, banning public and private celebrations of Holi.
During Holi, the most popular genre of Hindustani semi-classical music is Hori which, in Brajbhasha means ‘happiness’. (I understand that in Brajbhasha region, people pronounce holi as ‘hori’). The ‘hori’ songs are written mostly in Brajbhasha or Awadhi. Obviously, hori singing is popular in Uttar Pradesh and a part of Bihar. The joy and merry-making mood come in the background of the expectation of a good Rabi harvest. The blooming of flowers in the spring season (Phagun) and the mustard fields with yellow flowers create a colourful atmosphere in North India. The mood of the rejoice among the farmers and villagers create the spirit behind the Holi celebration which has, over a period of time, percolated all over the country.
The tradition of playing with colours during Holi is linked to Radha-Krishna Leela (divine play) especially in Brajbhasha region of Uttar Pradesh. Hori singing reflects Krishna’s revelries and playing pranks with Radha. Hori is generally rendered in Thumri style and conventionally, the song will have a mukhda and an antara. One of the various names of Krishna such as Shyam, Kaanha, Nandlala, Banwari, Baanke-Bihari etc would appear either in mukhda or antara part of the hori song.
In the Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh and the Mithila region of Bihar and Jharkhand (also some part of Nepal), hori singing also centres around Lord Ram. The earliest recorded hori song which I have come across is ‘Jamuna tath Ram khelen hori’ by Janaki Bai of Allahabad (Chappan Churi), recorded in 1910 which is a ‘Ram Hori’ song. Pandit Chunnilal Mishra has rendered even ‘Shiv Ki Hori’.
The traditional hori songs are based on the folk singing of the particular region and are thus embedded with the rural atmosphere. I guess, over the years, the folk songs rendered during the holi festival became so popular that some of the Hindustani classical vocalists adapted the traditional hori songs in their concerts, rendering mostly in the form of Thumris. On the video sharing platforms, some of the hori thumris rendered by Ustad Faiyyaz Khan, Kesarbai Kerkar, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Kumar Gandharv, Begum Akhtar, Shobha Gurtu, Girija Devi, Siddheswari Devi etc are available.
The popularity of hori songs attracted Hindi films when talkies came in 1931. The hori songs in Hindi films have now been adopted as holi festival songs, written and sung in typical Bollywood style. There are hundreds of holi songs picturised in Hindi films. As of now, we have on our Blog as many as 62 songs tagged as ‘Holi Songs’. On the basis of the movie-wise listing of the songs available on-line, the credit for the first traditional hori song used in Hindi film was ‘mope daar gayo saari rang ki gagar’ in ‘Ghar Ki Laxmi’ (1931). Probably, in the film, this song may have been rendered by Rampyari, the then famous singer-actor-dancer whose name I found in the star-cast. Unfortunately, neither the film nor the gramophone records of the songs from this film are available. It may be noted that in the early years of talkies, many film songs were not released on the gramophone records.
Luckily, I got a rare mp3 clip of the traditional hori song with the same mukhda as in ‘Ghar Ki Laxmi’ (1931) in the film ‘Comrades’ (1939) which I am presenting on the occasion of the Holi festival. The song is rendered by Wahidan Bai, the mother of Nimmi. The lyrics are traditional but it has been attributed to Dr. Safdar Aah Sitapuri. Probably, he may have changed a few words. For example, in my view, the line ‘kaisa dhokha diya’ seems to have been added in the traditional lyrics as these are in pure Hindi. The song is set to music by Anil Biswas.
The song is a typical hori thumri having a mukhda and an antara with the name of Krishna appearing as ‘Shyam’ in the antara. Being trained in Hindustani classical singing, Wahidan Bai has tendered this hori thumri with elaborations and ornamentations. It is worthwbhile to note that as to how elaborately she has rendered the line ‘bin rang daare jaane na doongi’ with ornamentations. The ‘murki’ element in the song while singing jaa….ne na doongi..ee, jaa…..ne na doongi..eeeee is my favourite.
This song becomes the earliest ‘holi song’ from Hindi films to be covered in the Blog though are a few more ‘holi songs’ pertaining to the Hindi films were released prior to 1939.
Audio Clip:
Song- Mo pe daar gaye saari rang ki gagar (Comrades)(1939) Singer-Wahidan Bai, Lyrics-Safdar Aah Sitapuri, MD-Anil Biswas
Lyrics
aaaaaaaa aaaaa
aaaaa aaaa aaaaaaaaa
aaaaa aaaa aaaa
aaa
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
kaisa dhokha diya aa aa aa
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
main to bhool se dekhan laagi udhar
main to bhool se dekhan laagi udhar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
main to bhool se dekhan laagi udhar
main to bhool se dekhan laagi udhar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
bin rang daare jaane na doongi
bin rang daare…ae
jaa….ne na doongi..ee
jaa…..ne na doongi..eeeee
haa…n
jaane na doo…ngi
bin rang daare jaane na doongi
bin rang daare jaane na doongi
Shyam kaho ab jaat kidhar
Shyam kaho ab jaat kidhar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
kaisa dhokha diya aa aa aa
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
Mujhe mil jaayegi unki dagariya
Posted on: October 22, 2019
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
| Blog Day : | 4113 | Post No. : | 15264 |
Today’s song is from an old film Ek hi Rasta-39. The film was made by Sagar movietone. It was directed by Mehboob Khan and the music was by Anil Biswas. These two legends actually established themselves in the cinema industry through Sagar Movietyone, which rightly included their names in their list of ” Jewels of Sagar “.
Anil Biswas (7-7-1914 to 31-5-2003), however, had already done 9 films as a Music Director (Dharam ki Devi-35, Bharat ki Beti-35, Bal hatya-35, Shokh Dilruba-36, Sher ka panja-36, Sangdil Samaj-36, Prem Bandhan-36, Pratima -36 and Pyar ki Jogan-36) before coming to Saqgar Movietone. Of course, none of these films were famous or hits. He got success with his film Manmohan–36 from Sagar, first time. The film was also a Milestone for Sagar. Director Mehboob Khan (9-9-1907 to 28-5-1964) also had already directed one film – Al Hilal-35 very successfully and Manmohan- 36 was his second film as a director in Sagar, equally successful again.
The two became thick friends. Anil Biswas used to call him ‘ Mawali ‘ and Mehboob khan called him ‘ Bangali ‘. Cameraman Faredoon Irani also joined them and three friends enjoyed work and life together in Sagar and in National Studios, till, due to differences of work philosophies, these friends parted ways and Anil Biswas separated from the two others, never to work together ever again in life. They had worked together in 6 films (5 Sagar and 1 National Studios). Mehboob Khan directed 8 films for Sagar and 2 for National Studios. Anil Biswas was MD for 11 Sagar films and 2 films of National.
Film Ek hi Rasta-39 or The Only Way, was the first Multi-Hero film in India. It had 3 Heros and 2 Heroines. Heros were Shaikh Mukhtar, Harish and Arun Ahuja and Heroines were Anuradha and Jyoti. The real name of Anuradha was Khurshid Akhtar (same as Shyama). She was the youngest sister of actresses Miss Zohra and Mushtari. After Miss Zohra separated from her husband Rafiq Ghaznavi, Anuradha had married him. Jyhoti’s real name was Sitara Bai. She was singer actress Wahidan Bai’s younger sister. Nimmi was Wahidan’s daughter- who married singer G M Durrani.
Film Ek hi Rasta was based on two Hollywood films, namely ‘ The road back’-37 and ‘ Seventh Heaven’-37. The second world war had just begun. Mehboob tried to depict the ill effects of war in an artistic way in this film. The main Hero of the film was Arun Ahuja.
Arun Ahuja’s real name was Gulshan Singh Ahuja, a Sikh, born on 26-1-1918 at Gujaranwala (now in Pakistan). After the school education, he joined Mughalpura Engineering college and secured an Engineer’s degree in 1937. During his college life he had won the Best Football player of the year award. Mehboob Khan was on a Talent Hunt in Lahore. From among the 100 and odd candidates, his choice fell on the well built, athletic, dashing and handsome Gulshan. He was selected and brought to Bombay to act in film Ek hi rasta-39, with a screen name of Arun Ahuja. He was variously billed as Aroon, Arun, Aroon Kumar, Arun Ahuja etc.
His first film was an outstandingly successful hit film. Arun got roles in Bhole Bhale-39 and Civil Marriage-40. Later Mehboob khan took him for film Aurat 40, which he directed for National Studios. The versatile actor acted in over 25 films in 6 years, some of his films were Kanchan, Holiday in Bombay, Beti, Nurse, Savera, Return of Toofan Mail, Shankar Parvati, Andhera, Bharthari, Caravan, Amrapali etc. From 1945 onwards he became a Free lancer.
During the film Savera-42, he fell in love with his co-star – Nirmala. They got married on 5-5-1945. After marriage Nirmala (7-6-1928 to 15-6- 1996) completed 4 pending films and stopped working. Her last film Sudhar was released in 1949. In this film also she paired with Arun. Thus her last film also had her life partner. She acted in only 12 films, but she sang 63 songs in 23 films.
Arun Ahuja was in demand. He continued working in films. He set up his own production company – Arun Productions and he produced 2 films. One film Sehra was released in 1948, but the other film ” Jo hai saajan” remained unreleased for some reasons. Film Sehra was also a huge flop. Arun suffered heavy losses. He tried to work in films to compensate it, but now due to competition from new stars, new films were slow to come, so he did not get many films. His last film was Aulad-54. He had to sell all his property, bungalow, cars and jewellery. He shifted from his bungalow in Bandra to a chawl in far off suburb Virar, with his family, in 1962. Here his last son Govinda was born in 1963.
His health deteriorated. Nirmala decided to revive her singing, to help the financial difficulties of the family. . Composer A R Qureshi arranged her stage programme in Calcutta. It went off with tremendous success and offers started pouring in. She became famous as a Thumri singer. She did many jalsas in India and abroad. Their financial position improved. Their son Govinda also became a big star. He bought a house in Juhu and the family shifted to Juhu for the sake of convenience. However, Arun Ahuja continued to stay in Virar. He did not shift to Juhu.
Arun Ahuja died on 4-7-1998, two years after his dear wife’s death on 15-6-1996.
Film Ek hi rasta-39 was a hit film. Though it was a debut film of Arun, the benefit of the film being a hit went to the other Hero- Shaikh Mukhtar. The tall, strong and not so good looking actor had a meaty role in the film.All the sympathy of the audience went to him when he kills the person who accuses him falsely.
The second world war had just begun in 1939. The film, however, tried to stress that no problem is solved with a war. War is not a solution.Of course, wars do not care what films say. The II WW went on till August 1945, when the Germans were defeated and Hitler committed suicide, along with his lover, after marrying her in the last hour of their life. The Japanese had already surrendered. The film’s story has already been provided in one of the song-posts of this film, so I will not repeat it . The duet song was sung by Wahidan Bai and Anil Biswas.
Not much information is available on Waheedan Bai. Her younger sister Sitara Bai aka Jyoti and her own daughter Nawab Banoo aka Nimmi were actresses. Waheedan Bai was from a Tawayef family. Her daughter Nimmi, had always denied this-understandably too, but Waheedan Bai’s name gave away the true story.
Waheedan Bai belonged to a small town Fatehabad, near Agra. Her father’s name was Basheer khan. She was second amongst 4 sisters. The youngest was Sitara Bai aka Jyoti. Waheedan was a trained and good singer, but Tawayafs did not get social status, so she got married early to one Abdul Hakeem from Nasirabad, settled in Meerut. He had met Waheedan in a shrine in Agra, where she recited verses from Koran.
Soon after their marriage, His father, a contractor with Military, died and Hakim inherited the business. He was a novice and was cheated by his manager and they lost everything. The family moved to Calcutta to start a Leather business. Here also he failed. In Calcutta, their neighbour was director A.R.Kardar. Through his wife, Bahar, Kardar was contacted and he gave a small role to him in a film. Here again he got terrified and ran away, at the time of shooting.
Waheedan came forward and after hearing her singing, she was given a song in the film and it was recorded. Meanwhile Chandulal Shah offered her roles in his films. They shifted to Bombay and she joined Ranjit Movietone. Her first film was Toofani Toli-37. Prithvi Putra-38 was the second film. Her songs in her films were liked and became famous.She worked in other films like Prof. Waman, M.Sc.-38, Rikshawala-38, The Secretary-38 and Thokar-39.
She got acquainted with Mehboob Khan and he offered her lead role opposite Surendra in film Alibaba-40, a Sagar Movietone film initially, but later on sold to Ranjit of Chandulal Shah, in a game of gambling. Film Alibaba-40 was made in Hindi and Punjabi. The film songs became very popular. When Sagar merged into National Studios, she worked in film Sanskar-40.
Waheedan contracted T.B. and left films. She acted in only 8 films and sang 26 songs in 11 films-including her 8 films. She died in 1942.( based on information from the book- Sagar movietone by Biren kothari ji and my notes)
Here is the song. This will be only the 3rd song from this film to feature here. There were 12 songs in the film and the singers were Jyoti, Waheedan bai, Anil Biswas, Harish and Arun Ahuja.
Song-Mujhe mil jaayegi unki dagariya (Ek Hi Raasta)(1939) Singers-Anil Biswas, Wahidan Bai, Lyrics-Pt Indra Chandra, MD-Anil Biswas
Both
Lyrics
mujhe mil jaayegi ee
unki dagariya
mil jaayegi ee
unki dagariya
haan mil jaayegi
chaahe ghir-ghir aaye badariya
chaahe ghir-ghir aaye badariya
mil jaayegi ee
unki dagariya
mil jaayegi ee
unki dagariya
haan mil jaayegi
chaahe panchhi na bole
chaahe panchhi na bole
chaahe chandrmaa aankh na khole
chaahe panchhi na bole
unhe dhoondh nikaalegi hamri najariya
dhoondh nikaalegi hamri najariya
mil jaayegi ee
unki dagariya
mil jaayegi ee
unki dagariya
mil jaayegi
dwaar naya chhat nayi naya ghar
ghar ka sab saamaan naya
dwaar naya chhat nayi naya ghar
ghar ka sab saamaan naya
phir bhi sakhi kahin tikti nahin hai
phir bhi sakhi
phir bhi sakhi kahin tikti nahin hai
vyaakul
vyaakul hamri najariya aa aa
vyaakul
vyaakul hamri najariya
mujhe mil jaayegi unki dagariya
haan mil jaayegi ee unki dagariya
haan mil jaayegi
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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