Archive for the ‘Songs of 1930s (1931 to 1940)’ Category
Aaye sajni shubh din aaye
Posted on: November 16, 2019
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 film Manzil-1936.
The film was made by Calcutta’s New Theatres. It was directed by P C Barua – who also acted in the film. P C Barua (24-10-1903 to 29-11-1951) had acted in 8 Hindi films and directed 14 films in Hindi. In film Jawab-42, he even sang one song. The lyricists for this film were Arzoo Lucknowi and A H Shor. The music was composed by R C Boral, duly assisted by Pankaj Mullick. Though there were 9 songs in the film, it seems only 4 songs were issued on commercial records. 2 songs are already discussed and today’s song will be the 3rd song from Manzil-36. The cast of the film was Jamuna, Molina Devi, P C Barua, Prithvirasj Kapoor, Nimo, K C Dey, Harimati, Sitara, Shor etc.etc.
In the first decade of Talkie films, films made by New Theatres, Calcutta were more popular than Hindi films made in Bombay. There were 3 reasons. One- Bangla films were strong on story content. Two- music was appealing – especially of Saigal films and three- their distribution network was very wide and strong, thereby reaching a larger audience. It covered, South, West, North, in addition to East and Burma.
The story content was strong, because almost every film was based on famous Bangla novels. This ensured that the audience was familiar with the theme and now they wanted to see and hear the characters from the book. Film makers from Bengal were all well educated and rarely resorted to made up stories. They invariably made films on famous novels. Films from Bombay were made either from folk tales, Parsi-Gujarati- Marathi stage dramas or on stories cooked up by the so called ” story Departments” of the studios.
While there were films based on stories by authors from many languages, the most such films were based on works from Bengal.The reasons were simple. The film makers from and in Bengal were educated and secondly,those film makers who shifted from Calcutta to Bombay, followed the same pattern. Thus many films were made on novels from Bengal. One name stands out ,whose works outnumber all other authors on whose novels Hindi films were made and that name is SARAT CHANDRA CHATTOPADHYAYA (Chatterjee)-1876-1938.
Other famous authors like Bankimchandra Chatterjee etc. were also used, but to my knowledge, more films were based on Sarat Babu’s novels. Except perhaps Devdas, his novels generally were spun around misunderstandings between Lovers,friends, relatives etc. and ended with happy events. These were entertaining, surely.
Some of his novels on which films were made are…
1. Devdas…1935,55,2002 and 2009. 16 films in 7 languages
2. Parineeta…1953 and 2005
3. Swami…1977(H) and 2008(B) (Antaratma)
4. Apne paraye…1980 (Nishkriti)
5. Chhoti Bahu…71 and 84 (Bindur Chhele)
6. Iti Shrikant…2004 (Shrikant)
7. Khushboo…54 and 75 (Pandit Mashai)
8. Majhli Didi…67 (Mejdidi)
9. Manzil…36 (Grihdaah)
10. Biraj Bahu…54 (Biraj Bahu)
11. Mana Desam…49 NTR’s Debut…Telugu (Vipradas)
12. Vagdanam-61 Telugu (Datta)
( This list is only indicative and not exhaustive)
Today we will listen to a song from film MANZIL-1936, produced by New Theatres, Calcutta. This film is based on Sarat’s “GRIH DAAH” (The inflammed Home).
The novel Grih Daah was first serialised in Bangla paper ‘Bharatbarsha’ in 1919. The novel was published on 20-3-1920 in Calcutta. The central theme of the novel was the conflict between the Bramho Samaj and the Traditionalists in those days.
To understand this theme one must know the background. In the late 19th century BRAMHO SAMAJ was established in Bengal by those Bramhins/ Bhadraloks who thought that it was now time for the Renaisance of the Bramhins who were stuck in the age old outdated customs and rituals. But there was a large group who strongly believed in Traditional ways, values and the customs. In the end of 19th century and the begining of 20th century this battle between these two groups became fierce. Bramhos wanted to be upto date with modern times.
Saratchandra belonged to the Tradionalists. Most of his novels advocated this. Ofcourse,his novels had captivating situations, literary values and very firm and strong Heroines which made his novels very popular. His stories were mostly woman-centric.
One point I must admire in Bengali film makers and that is that they were very loyal and true to the storylines on which the films were made. There was neither compromise nor ” Cinematic liberties” taken at all.
Manzil-36 was a story of this conflict.
MAHIM (Pramathesh Barua) is a poor but educated young man. His friend Suresh (Prithviraj Kapoor) is a rich playboy. ACHALA ( Jamuna ) is brought up in a modern Bramho family, who has the liberty to choose her own life partner. Both Suresh and Mahim love Achala. She chooses Mahim, impressed with his intellectual power and education, though she is also impressed with the riches of Suresh. After marriage, both move to another town. In a short time Achala gets disillusioned about Mahim, due to his poverty. She remembers Suresh. Once Mahim gets this doubt and they fight. Their relations become strained. Mahim falls ill seriously. Meanwhile Suresh arrives in that town and meets Achala. While treating and nursing Mahim, Achala is in two minds.
One day she elopes with Suresh, but in a month’s time she realises her blunder. She sees the playboy ways of Suresh and realises that he is not loving her truly. With remorse, she shows the courage to return to her husband Mahim. He also,with great magnanimity,forgives her and accepts her. Thus the traditional principals have won over the modern outlook.
The cast of this film includes Jamuna and Molina Devi, about whom, not much information was available here. Jamuna’s name is a ” same name confusion” case. I know atleast 3 Jamunas, who worked in Hindi films. Luckily, they all operated in almost different time periods, still Internet makes lot of mistakes in their Filmographies.
Jamuna ( 10-10-1919 to 24-11-2005) was the fourth of the six daughters of Puran Gupta, a resident of a village near Agra, India. Each of the sisters was named after an Indian river like Ganga, Jamuna, Bhagirathi etc. As destiny would have it, Jamuna came to reside in Calcutta, a leading film producing city in India. Originally from Gauripur of Assam’s Goalpara district (undivided), Jamuna was married to the legendary actor director Pramathesh Barua, or P.C. Barua, who died in 1951. She began her acting career in her husband’s famous production Devdas in 1936 and was the film’s lead character Parvati or Paro. She went on to make a number of memorable movies in Assamese, Bengali and Hindi, notably Amiri, Mukti, Adhikar and Sesh Uttar. She stopped acting after Barua died.
Jamuna made her film debut in the 1930s and played a small role in Mohabbat Ki Kasauti (1934), Hindi version of Rooplekha (Bengali), directed by P.C. Barua. A romance started although Barua, hailing from the native Indian state of Gauripur, Assam, was already twice married. As the actress, who was to play Parbati in Barua’s next venture Devdas (1935) reported inability to attend the studio on the very first day of shooting, Jamuna was called from Barua’s residence (she was living with him by then) and was asked to get down to work straight away without any preparation whatsoever. Thus she came to be the first Parbati of Indian talkies- Miss Light had played the role in the silent version of the enormously popular Sarat Chandra novel. Aishwarya Rai happens to the last so far and Devdas has been made and re-made a number of times. Jamuna played the same role in the Hindi version also and was accepted in this very first proper exposure as an actress in her own right.
She continued to act in Barua’s films like Grihadaha (1936), Maya (1936), Adhikar (1939), Uttarayan (1941), Shesh Uttar (1942), Chander Kalanka (1944) and the respective Hindi versions of each film. Barua had left the prestigious New Theatres in 1940 and was directing as well as producing his films. Thereafter she acted in a number of Barua directed Hindi movies like Amiree, Pehchan and Iran Ki Ek Raat. These films however did not add to the prestige of either to Barua or to Jamuna. Jamuna also acted outside Barua direction in three Bengali films Debar (1943) and Nilanguriya (1943) where she proved herself without Barua’s influence. Her last film Malancha (1953) was also outside Barua’s direction. She also starred in its Hindi version Phulwari (1953).
Barua’s death in 1951 when he was only 48 changed Jamuna’s life altogether. She had three sons by Barua, Deb Kumar, Rajat and Prasun. They were all minors at the time and the Gauripur estate refused to take any of their responsibilities. She had to wage a legal battle with the powerful and influential royal family to get her and her children’s dues and recognition. Time settled the matters and she was allowed ownership of the house with its vast adjoining land and also an allowance. Jamuna spent the rest of her life after Barua as a housewife, busy in bringing up her minor sons. She had to complete the unfinished film Malancha of course but bid adieu to the film industry soon after. Later in her life she did attend a number of functions to celebrate the centennial year of husband P.C. Barua and received felicitations from the Government of India and the state Government of Assam as the first Parbati of Indian talkies.
Her last days were not very comfortable and she was bedridden for more than six months prior to her death. She is survived by her three sons and their families and a host of relatives. According to her family members, she had been ill for some time, and the cause of death was illness related to old age. She died at her residence in South Kolkata. She had acted in 13 Hindi films. Her last film was Phulwari-51.
Molina being an uncommon name there was no other actress of this name. Molina Devi was born in 1917. She received training in acting from Aparesh Mukherjee, and made her debut, at the age of 8, in a silent movie. She was acknowledged as one of the leading actresses of the Bengali stage, with her professional career spanning more than three decades.
In 1924, she debuted in a silent film while at the age of 8 and thereafter worked as dancer mainly in the mythological and historical plays. She performed some memorable roles in Bengali as well as Hindi films. She got a break through in Puran Bhagat and, Molina played the title role in the movie, Rani Rasmani. She took various roles, even vamps in her early career such as in Pramathesh Barua’s Rajat Jayanti in 1939. She also directed a Kolkata based theatre troupe, M. G. Enterprises.
Molina worked in Rangana theatre as chief artist. She performed as a singer on radio and contributed for formation of Mahila Silpi Mahal, a welfare association for female artists of Bengal. Molina Devi’s high creative excellence had found expression in such diverse media as the stage, the film and the radio. As a founder of the M. G. Enterprise, now in its twenty-third year, she had been responsible for the success of such well-known plays as ‘Thakur Sri Sri’, ‘Rani Rasmoni’, ‘Jagatbandhu’ and ‘Bholagiri’.
She had been honoured and decorated by many eminent organisations and learned bodies. For her eminence in the field of Drama and her contribution to its enrichment , Molina Devi received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Acting.
Her first husband was Jolu Boral and the second husband was actor Gurudas Banerjee.
Molina died on 13 August 1977 in Kolkata. She acted in 22 Hindi films. Her first Hindi film was Raaj Rani Meera-33 and last film was Babla-53. She also sang 11 songs in 4 Hindi films.
The singer of today’s song, Harimati Dua was one of the three singers of the First playbback song in Hindi Film History recorded for film Dhoop Chhaon-1935, along with Parul Ghosh and Suprova Sarkar.
She acted in 2 films and sang 9 songs in few films like, Manzil, Dhoop chhaaon, Maya, Ananth Ashram and Khudai khidmatgar.
Song-Aaye sajni shubh din aaye sab ki bigdi Raam banaaye (Manzil)(1936) Singer- Harimati, Lyrics- Aarzoo Lucknowi, MD- R C Boral
Lyrics
Aaye sajni
shubh din aaye
Aaye sajni
shubh din aaye
sab ki bigdi raam banaaye
sab ki bigdi raam banaaye
dekh dekh ke man lalchaaye
dekh dekh ke man lalchaaye
aankh mili
dil bhi mil jaaye
aankh mili
dil bhi mil jaaye
moh ka rasiya ras barsaaye
moh ka rasiya ras barsaaye
jalti agni maar bujhaaye
jalti agni maar bujhaaye
Aaye sajni
shubh din aaye
Aaye sajni
shubh din aaye
sab ki bigdi raam banaaye
sab ki bigdi raam banaaye
?? nahin hansi ye ro dena
?? to nahin hansi ye ro dena
na apni na wo kahin aap hi se ro dena
na apni na wo kahin aap hi se ro dena
sadabahaar bane ye tumhaara raaj suhaag
sadabahaar bane ye tumhaara raaj suhaag
jo sukh dukhon se mila hai
wo phir na kho dena
jo sukh dukhon se mila hai
wo phir na kho dena
ye rog wo hai jo dil ?? ke jaan leta hai
ye rog wo hai jo dil ?? ke jaan leta hai
usi ki jeet hai jo haar maan leta hai
usi ki jeet hai jo haar maan leta hai
Aaye sajni
shubh din aaaaaaaye
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws
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Today’s song is from a film belonging to the first decade of Talkie films in India- Khan Bahadur-1937.
The film was made by Minerva Movietone and it was directed by Sohrab Modi. B S Hoogan was the Music Director. The film cast included, Sohrab Modi, Prem Adib, Naseem Banu, Sheela, Shareefa, Eruch Tarapore, Sadiq Ali, S.Kapadiya and others.
Incidentally, Khan bahadur-37 was the Debut film for Prem Adib, as a Hero. In later years, he became famous in the role of Shri Ram, along with Shobhanaq Samarth in the role of Seeta, in films made by Prakash pictures. While he was in Minerva, a special teacher was appointed to teach him singing. It was here that he fell in love with actress Indurani and they had a Love child.
In this world, everyone makes a mistake. But those who learn from their mistakes and mend ways, have better chances of succeeding in achievement of their goals. Sohrab Modi was a person who had plenty of ambitions. He knew his own capabilities and understood the need to change with the changing times. Khan Bahadur -37 was his just second movie. The first movie,- Atma Tarang-37-, that he made with his newly established production company had taught him a bitter lesson. He learnt from it and mended his ways for his second venture. It is interesting to know how and why Sohrab Modi committed that mistake. For this, we will have to, once again, go through his revised early life, his entry into acting field and his film making activity.
Sohrab Merwanji Modi was born in a Parsi family on 2nd November, 1897. His parents were Parsi civil Servants. For few years he stayed in Parsi community in Bombay. Sohrab Modi’s childhood was spent with lot of activities. As he grew up, his more interest was in exercise and sports. Though in childhood many times he was severely sick and few times he was also hospitalized, due to which, he looked tall but he was thin. Later he was very active. In school he was an average student, he never got hooked to History subject. Many times teacher complained to his parents for his lagging behind in history subject. His parents turned all the stones to make him study but it all went in waste. Sohrab was good in sports and from childhood he was interested in exercise which helped him to develop his personality in stage acting. Later he shifted with his family to Rampur in Uttar Pradesh. At the age of 14 -15 his mind absorbed many interesting things in acting as he watched silent movies. Soon his mind got diverted toward stage acting.
At the age of 17 years, he worked as a travelling exhibitor in Gwalior. Elder brother Rustom Modi, along with his close friend Ittefaq, set up Arya Subodh Natak Mandali theatre group in 1923.
In start Sohrab Modi only acted as an extra or side role which was not that important. But Sohrab was looking for the opportunity where he could act as a leading actor. Very soon he got an opportunity and he broke the ice. Soon He earned the reputation as Shakespearean actor. Sohrab Modi’s elder brother Rustom helped him in stage acting and people really appreciated the Sohrab acting. Sohrab played Jahangir (Hamlet) opposite Naseem Bano (Ophelia) in Khoon ka Khoon, one of the biggest Urdu stage Hits of the 20s. As Sohrab was growing up, his personality kept developing. His personality suited the role of a king. His two plays ‘Khoon Ka Khoon’ and ‘Saed-E-havas’ added flying colors to his acting.
In 1931 Hindi movie ‘Alam Ara’ was released with sound. On one side ‘Alam Ara’ was a big leap for Hindi cinema. But on other hand introducing of sound in movies created very big crack in theatre business. People started getting interested in watching movies than watching theatre plays. To save theatre art, Modi brothers set up the Stage Film Company in 1935. From this year Sohrab Modi never looked back in acting career.
Sohrab modi talents soon reached the ears of ‘Dadasaheb Phalke’ ears. Though Sohrab Modi had worked in few silent movies before, but Dadasaheb Phalke never appreciated Sohrab Modi’s acting. One day Phalke Saab personally went to see Sohrab’s play ‘Alexander the great’.
Sohrab Modi is remembered fondly by the film buffs for his towering personality, solid voice and his forceful dialogue delivery. Actually, Modi was much more than that. He was the first and the only film maker who took up Historical subjects to make films that left a long lasting impression on the film goers. He loved to do the roles of Historical persons ( actual or mythical) and deliver long dialogues in his resonant voice, clear diction and superb voice modulation.
Sohrab Modi developed these qualities from his stage acting days. In his growing up age at Rampur, he had spent hours in the library of the local Nawab, where his father worked as a Superintendent. This gave him a command on Urdu language. Added to this was his brother Rustom’s drama company ” The Arya Subodh Natak Mandali” in which he acted. In 1935, the brothers set up the ” Stage Films ” to film the two dramas, namely Hamlet aka Khoon ka khoon-35 and Sayeed E Hawas-36, based on Shakespeare’s play King John, as movies. However, these movies did not do too well, as the audience had seen them on stage several times. But this failure didn’t stop Sohrab Modi in acting. Taking a clue from this, Modi decided to start a new company, Minerva Movietone to produce independent films on different stories of merit.
Minerva Movietone was started by Sohrab and brother Rustom Modi in 1936, when they realised that the stage dramas, filmed as Feature films did not get the public approval. Logo of his banner was the Lion. Does this personally symbolize Sohrab Modi personality? Production from Stage films- their first film production enterprise- was suspended till Minerva became successful. ” Aatma Tarang-37″ was the new company’s first film. C. Ramchandra was the Harmonium accompanist for M.D. Habib Khan and Bundu Khan. He also did a small role in Aatma Tarang and earlier Saeed E Havas-36. Minerva’s first film proved to be a let down.
Sohrab found that there were hardly 20 to 30 persons in the audience on the very First show. The film was based on the power of ‘ Bramhacharya’ (Celibacy). In those days, Sohrab was greatly influenced by the teachings of Ramkrishna Mission. Seeing the poor response, he was upset. Thoughts of quitting the film production line were crowding in his mind. Suddenly, he saw four men coming towards him. They came, confirmed that he was Sohrab modi and told him that his film was very good. They further advised him to keep making such good films and one day he will be on Top. Later on he learnt that these gentlemen were the Judges of Bombay High Court.
This gave lot of motivation to Modi. As such he was sure of his success in films, but now he learnt that he must make films on subjects of interest of the public and not his own philosophy, if he wants to succeed commercially. His second film was Khan Bahadur-37, based on the bravery and generosity of a Muslim king who became famous for his bravery. The English rulers gave him the title of Khan Bahadur. The film did a reasonable business.
This incident infused him with new hopes and enthusiasm. This changed his life. Initially he focused on making films on social evils like Drinking (Meetha Zehar-38), Husband-wife separation ( Divorce-38) and Incest ( Bharosa-40 ). Enthused with this experience, he made successful films and took his company to the Top. Renowned for big budget historical films, Minerva benefited from Modi family’s distribution interests in Gwalior, expanded by his third brother Keki Modi into western India. At one time he controlled a chain of 27 theatres in 10 cities. In 1952, they established India’s first Technicolour Laboratory.
As far as the title of the film is concerned, I was wondering as to what it meant. After a search on internet, this is what it means. Khan Bahadur – a compound of khan (leader) and Bahadur (Brave) – was a formal title of respect and honour, which was conferred exclusively on Muslim and other non-Hindu subjects of the British Indian Empire. It was a title one degree higher than the title of Khan Sahib.
The title was conferred along with a medal and a citation (or sanad) and the recipient was entitled to prefix the title to his name. The title was conferred on behalf of the British Indian Government by the Viceroy and Governor-General of India.
The title “Khan Bahadur” was originally conferred by the Mughal Empire on Muslim subjects in recognition of public services rendered and was adopted by the British Indian Empire for the same purpose and extended to cover other non-Hindu subjects of the Indian Empire. Hindu subjects of the British Indian Empire were conferred the title of “Rai Bahadur”.
The MD’s name is B S Hoogan. Frankly, how many of us have really heard this name ? May be, only a few. Till about 8 years ago, even I was not aware of this name. When I first came across this name B.S.Hoogan, in the list of Hindi composers,my first reaction was,what is this foreigner doing in Hindi Films ?
Further when I saw his name as MD in 10-15 films of the 30s, I became very curious and wanted to know more about him.As per my experience so far,I usually got information for any -or almost any-Film personality from my notes,Old cuttings,books,magazines,old articles etc ,or even from an obscure,less known Internet site,but in Hoogan’s case I always found myself at a dead end. There was simply NO information about him anywhere ! It was as if no one in India knew about him or as if he was from some alien planet.
I was perplexed.How can anybody from Film industry,with so many films to his credit,be such an unknown person ? This was a challenge and I decided ,come what may,to find out about this elusive,dodging and unreachable B.S.Hoogan,at any cost.
Almost one year passed and I found a ray of Hope.
I visited the Blog of Mr.Kamalakar Pasupuleti ji. He is a writer on old films, music and an avid collector of old songs,besides having been an active RMIM worker.He is also a mine of information. Incidentally,he too is from Hyderabad-just like me,and being in the same age group,we enjoy discussing matters relating to people and places in old Hyderabad of the 40s and 50s,when we were youngsters.Later on, he migrated to USA.
On his Blog, he had written about Hoogan. He had located the nephew of Hoogan, in India and contacted him.He got some information from him about Hoogan. Although the info was not exhaustive, it was a great find. Plus Kamalakarji himself had also written about Hoogan,from his interaction with people who had met Hoogan in Hyderabad. I wrote to kamalakar ji in USA and he very graciously gave me permission to use all that material for this article.
At this juncture, my luck suddenly decided to cooperate and I found some info about Hoogan in a book.I even found out that the same nephew of Hoogan had uploaded 4 songs of Hoogan,(2 from Parakh-37 and 2 from Meetha Zahar-38) on Hamara Forum.
B.S.Hoogan was not a foreigner,he was very much an Indian.His name was BALWANT SINGH HOOGAN. He was tall,wheat comlexioned and of medium build. He was born in 1901 at Firozpur, Punjab, where his family was settled. He was a Kashmiri Brahmin. According to C.Ramchandra also,he was originally from Kashmir.
Before becoming a music director he seems to have learnt classical music and western music.He played many western instruments.
In the days of silent films,orchestras used to play in the Theatres ,in front of or behind the screen.During the film also they played appropriate music pieces.It would add live pleasure with moving images. Hoogan learnt giving this music and conducting orchestra from his teacher,Mr.Victor Aimes,an Englishman,from the Albert Music Company. He learnt writing music in notations and conducting orchestra with a baton. He played his orchestra of 12 musicians.
Hoogan looked impressive with a Black Tailcoat,Bow-Tie and Grey Trousers,as described by a Hyderabad Nawab,who had been personally introduced to Hoogan in Hyderabad in 1930.
B.S.Hoogan started his career as MD with Ajanta Cinetone of Mohan Bhavnani.He gave music to Afzal,Maya jaal,Rangeela Rajput(all 1933)Dard e dil,Dukhtar e Hind,Mazdoor,Sair e Paristan,Vasavdatta(all1934),Pyar ki maar,Registan ki Rani,Sone ka shahar,sherdil Aurat(all 1935), Begunah,khan Bahadur,Parakh(all1937),Meetha Zahar,Vijay marg(all 1938) and Sansar Sagar-1939.
Total films-18. Songs composed- 231.
Music Director C.Ramchandra, in his Marathi autobiography ( माझ्या जीवनाची सरगम ), wrote about Hoogan. When CR was working in Minerva, Hoogan joined the company, in place of Habib Khan, the composer. He showed CR how the Desi Raag can be played on foreign musical instruments. He brought in many Goan orchestra players into the company. CR knew writing notations, Hoogan improved this. Hoogan liked CR very much. Hoogan would take CR with him to all big hotels of Bombay. Orchestras would be playing there. CR learned how those tunes could be indianised in his music here only.
Hoogan would make tunes and ask CR to write the notations. CR would hum those tunes and then improve the tunes. Hoogan would not know. Thus many of his tunes were used by Hoogan without knowing it. In the film Meetha Zahar-1938, Naushad was Hoogan’s assistant. Actors like Nissar, Bibbo, Sheila and Naseem Bano sang for him.
B.S.Hoogan died in Ferozpore in September 1938, at the age of 37 only.
Today’s song is a duet by Prem Adib and Naseem Banu. Incidentally, they were the cutest and most beautiful couple on screen in those days. Prem Adib was a Kashmiri Bramhin and Naseem had earned a title “Pari Chehra” (face of a Fairy) and truly so. However, both were singers by force. They were not singers but made to sing. Actually, that time Hero and Heroines had to sing their own songs ( exception- Jairaj. That was because everyone, including the MD and directors dreaded his terrible singing. He was probably the only Hero from the 30s and 40s, who never ever sang own songs !).
Prem Adib sang 26 songs in 9 films, from Industrial India-38 to Police-44. None of his songs became popular. Thank God, he was not asked to sing a song in the role of Shri Ram. Probably Prakash pictures were well aware that making him sing in Bharat Milap-42 or Ram Rajya-43 would surely kill the film ! Naseem was more dangerous than him in this matter. She actually sang 39 songs in 13 films – from Vaasanti-38 to Mulaqat-47. Luckily for her, one song – just only one song – from film Pukar-39 ( zindgi ka saaz bhi kya saaz hai, baj raha hai aur be aawaaz hai), sung by her had become popular in those days. However, for this song, in my opinion, the MD- Meer Saheb should get the credit for its tune.
The famous composer Naushad is on record for saying that he always rued that as a MD, he had to make non-singers to sing his songs…till full time playback singers like Rafi and Lata became available.
Anyway, today’s song- the duet- is reasonably good in tune and rendition. With this song, film Khan Bahadur-37 makes its Debut on this Blog.
Song- Pyaari pyaari aaj ulfat ki duniya nazar aave (Khan Bahadur)(1937) Singers- Prem Adib,Naseem Bano, MD- B S Hoogan
Both
Lyrics
pyaari pyaari aaj ulfat ki duniya nazar aave
man kare kaisa suhaave
pyaari pyaari aaj ulfat ki duniya nazar aave
man kare kaisa suhaave
Prem pawan se jiya lahraave
prem pawan se jiya lahraave
sudh budh man se sab bisraawe
sudh budh man se sab bisraawe
pyaari pyaari aaj ulfat ki duniya nazar aave
man kare kaisa suhaave
?man ??
har waqt se ban saj kar kaisa bhaawe
har baat se
har baat se
ban saj kar kaisa bhaawe
jaane ulfat phool khilaawe
jaane ulfat phool khilaawe
bhanwra khush khush geet sunaawe
bhanwra khush khush geet sunaawe
pyaari pyaari aaj ulfat ki duniya nazar aave
man kare kaisa suhaave
pyaari pyaari aaj ulfat ki duniya nazar aave
man kare kaisa suhaave
pyaari pyaari aaj ulfat ki duniya nazar aave
man kare kaisa suhaave
mast banaawe
jiyara lubhaave
ban ban phool na barsaawe
mast banaawe
jiyara lubhaave
ban ban phool na barsaawe
pyaar ki batiyaan
sab din ratiyaan
kaliyan ko apnaawe
pyaar ki batiyaan
sab din ratiyaan
kaliyan ko apnaawe
ae ae
preet ke ye sab khel hain nyaare
preet ke ye sab khel hain nyaare
nain samaaye
man ko lubhaaye
preet ki duniya basaaye
aa aa aa
nain samaawe
man ko lubhaawe
preet ki duniya basaaye
pyaari pyaari
aaj ulfat ki nazar aawe
man kare kaisa suhaawe
pyaari pyaari aa aa
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
Chakho prem ka maakhan aay
Posted on: August 8, 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.
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4038 | Post No. : | 15162 | Movie Count : |
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Today’s song is from film Talwar ka Dhani-1938. It is a very rare song. The film was made by Vishnu Cinetone and the director was its owner Dhirubhai Desai, who became well known for C grade action / stunt and costume films, later on. The MD for this film was Kikubhai Yagnik. The lyricist was Pt. Gauri shankar lal ‘ Akhtar ‘. The cast of the film was, Anil kumar, Putli, Shaikh, Gulab, Anwari, Moosa Pehelwan, Urmila, Meher Sultana and others. There were 8 songs in the film, Names of Anil kumar, Meher Sultana and Urmila are given for 4 songs. The balance 4 songs remain uncredited in HFGK.
20 years later, there was another film with the same title, Talwar ka Dhani, featuring Manhar Desai, Nadira etc etc. This too was a stunt/Costume film like its earlier version.I remember having read in one interview of Dwarka Khosla, Director of the latter film, that this was a only a remake of the earlier film of the same name. No wonder, because many films were remade from old films of early era. One example I remember off hand is that of film Gunsundari. Original silent film Gunsundari – 27, was remade as Talkie Gunsundari in 1934.The Heroine was same-Gauhar Mamajiwala. Both films were directed by Sardar Chandulal Shah. 14 years later, Chandulal Shah’s nephew Ratilal Punatar made Gunsundari in 1948, with Nirupa Roy in the lead role. The story was same in all 3 versions.
The story of Talwar ka Dhani was woven around a routine, commonly used story of a lone queen, her abandoned son, ambitious and cruel Head of Army, desirous of usrping the throne and how the lost son defeats the Army chief and gives relief to the kingdom’s subjects- while reuniting with the Queen Mother. A love story was also inter woven.
The Hero of the 1938 film, Talwar ka Dhani was Anil kumar. This name is obscure and there is no chance that our readers will know anything about this actor of the 30s and 40s films.His real name was not Anil Kumar, but it was Sardar Gul. He was a Muslim.During the era of Silent films and Talkie films of the early years, it was a trend to take on a Hindu name for films. Whether the actor was Jew, Anglo-Indian, European or a Muslim, a Male or a Female, an actor or a singer, this trend was predominant. Of course, not all artistes changed their names- some continued with their real names, but made them shorter, like Majid, Masood, Rehman etc.
Most name changes were found in actresses. Some examples are Sabita Devi (Irene Gasper), Feroza (Susal Soloman), Indira Devi (Effie Hippolet), Lalita Devi (Bonnie Bird), Pramila (Esther Abraham), Sulochana (Ruby Myers), Seeta Devi (Renee Smith), Madhuri (Berryl Classen), Manorama (Winnie Stewart), Nadira (Florence Ezekiel), Meera (Muriel Alexander), Mohna (Mona Cabral), Kammo (Kamarjehan), Shyama (khurshid Akhtar), Purnima (Meher Bano), Indurani (Ishrat jehan), Ameeta (Qamal Sultana) etc etc.
Some examples of Males- Dilip kumar (Yusouf Khan), Kumar (Syed Ali Hasan Zaidi), Jagdeep (Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed), Ajit (Hamid Ali) etc etc.
Actor Anil Kumar (Sardar Gul) was born in 1915 at Calcutta.His father had a fruit business. They were from Peshawar (just like Dilip Kumar). He was not much educated but could speak Hindi, Urdu and English fluently. Once he went to Bombay to meet a friend. There he met an old acquaintance, who took him to Sohrab Modi.
The good looking Sardar Gul was liked by Modi and he offered him the lead role in his film ‘ Saed E Havas’-36. Sardar Gul was given a screen name of Chandra Kumar. The film was based on a translation of William Shakespeare’s drama- King John, by Agha Hashra Kashmiri in 1907. Sardar Gul was to get Rs. 200 for this work. The film was a flop and Sohrab Modi refused to pay him more that Rs 50. Annoyed, he left Bombay and returned to Calcutta.
However he came back in 1938 and did his first film with a new screen name Anil Kumar. The film was Talwar ka Dhani-38. Soon he was well known and acted in 10 films in next 3 years. As the decade of the 40s saw many new actors, producers and directors, he was reduced to Character roles and side roles. By 1950, he was almost like an extra. He did work in many films, but only few films credited him, as his roles were negligible. We find his name in just 30 films, where he was credited, the last such film being Tarzan and Deliailah-64.
The Heroine of this film was Putli or Putlibai. She was from a Bohra Muslim family of Delhi – originally from Kutch, Gujarat. She started her career by acting in stage dramas, duly shifting to Silent films. She did 23 silent films. She was the mother of Gauhar Mamajiwala- wife of Sardar Chandulal Shah. She entered Talkie films and did 26 films. Some of her films were, Raj Tarang-35, Matwali Jogan, Jungle ka Jawan-38, Farzand E Watan-39, Civil marriage-40, Mere Saajan-41, Inkaar-43, Reporter-46 etc. Her last film was Chunnu Munnu-49.
As I have stated many times, it is very difficult to get information about old time artistes and it entails lot of hard work. From the HFGK, we can get their Filmography easily.
In the cast, you will find a name Urmila- in some films she is named as Urmila Devi, and Urmila Gupta also. She was not a very good looking actress, but she compensated it with her good acting. Urmila Gupta was born in 1921 at Panja Sahib, Rawalpindi district of United Punjab. Her father, who was a Civil Contractor, died when she was only 5 year old. She did not get much education but could read and write as well as talk fluently, Urdu, Hindi and English.
She started her career with a small uncredited role in film Mirza Sahiban-33. She was the younger sister of Mirza in this film. After some more small roles, she got her major role in film Aasuon ki Duniya-36. After this, she did not look back and did Punjab Lancers-37, Talwar ka Dhani-38, Kahan hai manzil Teri-39, Hurricane special-39, Flying Ranee-39, Desh Bhakt-40, Sasural-41, Sajjan-41, Mere Sajan-41, Naari-42, Das Baje-42, Call of youth-42, Badal -42, Apna Paraya-42, Tamasha-42, Kirti-42, Salma-43, Bansari-43 etc etc. Urmila got married to Vinod Talwar, a businessman and stopped working in films, for some time, may be for raising a family. She resumed working in films and acted in another 20 odd films till 1952. She had sung 12 songs. In all, she worked in about 55 films.
Today’s song is a rare song and it appears on You Tube for the first time,kindly uploaded by our Sadanand Kamath ji. I thank him for this. With this song both, singer Meher Sultana and the film Talwar ka Dhani-38 will make a Debut on the Blog. The Lyricist, Pt. Gauri Shankar Lal ‘ Akhtar’ was a well known writer in Hindi and Urdu. Some of his Urdu books are available.
(some information used in this post is courtesy Isuru Udayanga Kariyavasam, Sri Lanka- presently in UK, and from the All India film Directory-46, Statistics are from MuVyz and CITWF. My notes are also used herein).
Song- Chakho prem ka maakhan aay (Talwaar Ka Dhani)(1938) Singer- Meher Sultana, Lyricist- Pt. Gauri Shankar Lal ‘Akhtar’ , MD- Kikubhai Yagnik
Lyrics
??
Chakho prem ka makhan aay
prem prem chhalkaay
maakhan sundar
prem bhi sundar
maakhan sundar
prem bhi sundar
man sundar tarsaaye
sundar man ??
mohan sundar aa man mandir
mohan sundar aa man mandir
?? ter suna
bhavsaagar se tar jaa
chakho prem ka maakhan aay
prem prem chhalkaaye
daras dikha ke
?? chura ke
daras dikha ke
?? chura ke
aaye aaye phir jaaye
aaye aaye phir jaaye
natkhat natwar neha lagaa ke
natkhat natwar neha lagaa ke
darshan ko tarsaaye
sakhi kaun un ko samjhaaye
chakho prem ka maakhan aay
prem prem chhalkaaye
chhalkaaye
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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3971 | Post No. : | 15055 | Movie Count : |
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Today’s song is not only unique and rare,but it is also one of the few real early songs of the Talkie Films. It is from film Vikram Charitra aka Rajkumar Thaksen – 1933. Thanks to Mr. Shalin Bhatt, who has uploaded this rare Gem, sung by Gauhar Karnataki.
When you see the title of the film, one feels that it is about King Vikramaditya, but when you see the other title Rajkumar Thaksen, you know that this is something else. When Talkie films started, it had profound influence of stage dramas, because that was the only accepted form of entertainment in India, till films arrived…Silent or Talkie. Parsee, Gujarati and Marathi theatre stories, Natya Sangeet and the artificial way of stage acting were things followed in early films,cent percent. Fairy tales, folk tales, Panchatantra stories and Traditional Grand ma stories started appearing as films, after some time.
When I first bought the 5 volume set of HFGK, I started going through the films of 1930s. I read this film title and I suddenly remembered the story of Raja Vikram and Rajkumar Thaksen I had read, when I was about 10-12 years young. That was one of my favourite stories and I felt it was a good competition to Arabian Night stories of Alibaba, Alladin or Sindbad. The Thaksen story had Indian background and felt closer to heart.
However, during the growing years, the tastes changed and the Thaksen story went into the background. Now, when I decided to write on this film song, I tried to recollect the story, but could not recall it fully or cohesively. Despite searching on the net for several days, the story eluded me. Suddenly, one day I bumped into a children’s story book ” Raja Vikram and Rajkumar Thaksen”. I simply can not put into words, how much joy I got after reading this story all over again !
The story of King Vikram, his queen Shashikala and Rajkumar Thaksen was first filmed in 1929, as Prince Thaksen, by Aryan Film company, Poona, in which the role of Thaksen was done by the handsome Nandram Pehelwan. This was a Silent film. In the Talkie era, the first film on Thaksen was this- Vikram Charitra-1933 by Sharda Movietone. In 1933 itself a sequel to this film was made as ” Rambha raniaka Stree Charitra” made by same company, with the same cast and team as Vikram Charitra. This was followed by another film ” Bhedi Rajkumar aka The Mysterious Prince aka Rajkumar Thaksen” in 1934, by Saraswati Cinetone, Poona belonging to R G Torney. After a gap, ” Vikram Shashikala ” was made in 1949, by Chitravani productions, Bombay featuring Master Vithal as Thaksen.
In short, film makers were attracted towards the story of Thaksen. What is this story all about. The story, in short, is thus described in the book….
Raja Vikram of Avanti Nagari was having 7 queens, but he loved queen Shashikala most and used to take her on tours with him. This made the other queens jealous and they conspired to teach her a lesson. When the king came to them, they unanimously complained against Shashikala that she criticised the king on his back. This enraged the king and he deserted Shashikala. She was kept far away in a fortress, surrounded by a water trench all around, with only one entrance. The queen was pregnant, but the king was not aware of it.
In due course, Shashikala gave birth to a handsome prince, who was named Raj Ratan. The king was duly informed, but he never came to see his son. As the Prince grew, he became an expert in the Bird’s and Animal’s languages. He also learnt how to disguise skilfully. Once he tricked even his mother and mother lovingly called him Thaksen ( one who cheats). This name became his name for all purposes.
One day Thaksen came to know about what Raja Vikram did to his mother and he prepared to take revenge. Despite mother’s request, he started for the capital.
To cut the story short, how he reaches the king, teaches him a lesson, saves the king from foreign aggression, how he falls in love with Rambha Rani etc has to be read from the original book itself. It is full of adventures, magic and stories of Thaksen’s valour. In the end, all is well and Shashikala is honourably recalled to the Capital by Vikram etc etc.
The film was made by Sharda Movietone and was directed by Harshadrai Sakerlal Mehta. The cast of the film consisted of Baburao Apte (as Vikram) and Madhav Kale (as Thaksen), along with Gauhar Karnataki, Dulari, Shivrani etc etc. Baburao Apte is the same as elder brother of actress Shanta Apte-about whom I wrote just last month. We do not know the names of the Lyricist or the Music Director, as HFGK is silent on these.
It is a well known established fact that in the early years, women artistes came from lower classes, singing families or Tawayafs and similar types. Most of these girls joined the film line in order to get a a rich Seth ji or a suitable husband and spend the rest of the life respectfully. There are many examples of such ‘ planned’ marriages in the early era. However, this process continued even in later times.
Film industry is one industry where men and women have to work together. Whether it is Actor-director or Singer-Composer, for the sake of work they have to spend much time together. No wonder then that Cupid does his work overtime. Sometimes there are mutual attraction and at times there are one sided fires burning. In most cases the one sided fire is extinguished in a very painful way, like what P L Santoshi faced with actress Rehana or the slap Sanjiv Kumar got from actress Nutan.
There were cases when love of Dilip kumar for Madhubala, died in the High court witness Box, when he gave evidence against her father in the ‘ Naya Daur ‘ legal case. Dev Anand’s love with Suraiyya ended happily for Dev Anand with him marrying Kalpana Kartik, but Suraiyya stayed “Unmarried”, in his ” yaad”, throughout her life. Here the villain was her so called ” Grand mother “, who actually was her own mother, as documented in the book “Stars from another sky” by Saadat Hasan Manto !
The successful 2-way traffic usually ended with a marriage. We can see marriages between producers and Actresses( Himanshu Rai-Devika rani and W Z Khan and actress Nina), directors and singers/actresses ( Nalini jaywant-Virendra Desai, Shaukat Hussain-Noorjehan, Geeta Dutt-Guru Dutt, Lalita Pawar-G.P.Pawar, Rattanbai-Hafiz Khan), Actors and Actresses ( Arun Ahuja-Nirmala devi, Snehprabha Pradhan-Kishore Sahu, Dev Anand-Kalpana Kartik, Dharmendra- Hema Malini, Rajesh Khanna-Dimple Kapadiya, Amitabh Bachchan-Jaya, Abhishek-Aishwarya, Kishore Kumar-Madhubala, Premnath-Bina Rai, Karan Dewan-Manju Desai, Marutirao Pehlwan-Tara Devi.)
There were some odd combinations like Satyendranath Athiah-Bhanu Athaiya (Lyricist-Costume designer),Lyricist-Singer (Amar Verma-Manik Verma), Singer-villain (Shakti Kapoor- Shivangi Kolhapure),Music teacher-student ( Roshan-Ira Moitra, Hemant Kumar-Bela Mukherjee, C.Ramchandra-‘Ben’ Ratan Thakur), and even a singer-Orchestra player (Vinita Amladi-Krishna Chakravarty) and lastly between singer-singers ( Jyoti-G M Durani, Gauhar Karnataki- Bal Gandharva). There were those pairs who were singers-actors ( Amirbai- Himalayawala,Rafiq Gazanavi- Anwari bai).
The interesting group, however,was that of Composer-Singers ( Sudhir Phadke-Lalita Deulkar, Asha Bhosle-R D Burman, Naashad-Premlata, Anil Biswas-Meena Kapoor, Pannalal Ghosh-Parul Ghosh, Khayyam-Jagjit Kaur, Ghulam Haider-Umrao Zia begum, Kamal Dasgupta-Firoza begum, Ninu Majumdar-Kaumudi Munshi).
The Heroine of today’s film- Gauhar karnataki was also one such artiste who did a ‘planned’ marriage. Her life story is interesting. Tabla player Hussain khan,living in a small town Belagi,near Hubli,had 6 daughters. The first was Allamma(Ahilya),then Amirbai,next was Gauhar(Born in 1908),then a series of badi Munni,Chhoti Munni and Nanhi Munni. Son was Dastgir.
Being from a singing family,Amirbai and Gauhar(Gauramma) worked in a drama company called Vanivilas Natak mandali. Since Hubli, Dharwad, Belgaum came under Bombay Presidency and also near Sangli/Miraj and Kolhapur, the sisters were experts in Marathi too.
Brother Dastgir went on to study B.Sc and did a job in AIR, Belgaum. From the beginning only, Amirbai and Gauhar did not get on well with each other. May be professional jealousy. Gauhar got classical music training from a blind teacher NIlkanth Panchakshari Buwa. Great classical singer Mallikarjuna Mansur’s brother Basavanna wrote songs for Gauhar and also accompanied her on Harmonium.
Marathi singer actor Chaphekar took the sisters to Bombay for working in films. Gauhar and Chaphekar stayed as companions in Bombay for few years. Meanwhile Gauhar got a daughter Ashamma. Her father’s name is not known. Ashamma remained with Gauhar till her death.
Gauhar started acting in Marathi and Hindi films. She acted,sang and also composed her own songs,but no records were brought out.
Gauhar was mesmerised by the famous Marathi singer actor BAL GANDHARVA. She first met him in 1937,in actor Himalayawala’s flat(Amirbai karnataki’s cruel Husband). It is widely believed that Gauhar used Black magic to attract Bal Gandharva to her. As expected he fell in her love and Gauhar joined his Balgandharva Natak Mandali in 1938. After her arrival into the Mandali, all senior artistes left the company as they were afraid of Gauhar’s black magic.
From 1938, Gauhar remained with Balgandharva till she died in 1964. Balgandharva’s wife died in grief in 1940 and Gauhar married Balgandharva in 1951.
She acted in films like Raas vilas-32,Kala pahad and Sohni mahiwal-33,Kala vagh and Shak karta Shivaji(M)-34,Pyar ki Maar-35,Bansriwala,Gol Nishan and Graduate-36,kala Bhoot and Chabuk swar-37,Vijay Danka-38,hawai khatola and swadesh sewa-46. chabuk swar-37 was a stunt film a-la Fearless Nadiya style wherein she did some stunts and fencing too. (Thanks to lifekidhun,warren senders,wiki and HFGK for some information used above.)
Gauhar is mentioned as Gauhar karnataki or Gauhar from Bijapur in the HFGK. She must have sung at least 100 songs but since there were no records, there is no information.As her many films were C grade, no records were issued even for them. However she has sung many Marathi natyageet and Bhajans.
There can not be any comparison with her sister Amirbai since Amirbai was in a higher league and her records were also made. She had many composers and singers to sing along.
Film Vikram Charitra-33 was written by C M Luhar, who became a well known director later on. There were 15 songs in the film. This song was recorded by Gauhar Karnataki in June 1934, according to the uploader. Since hardly any records of Gauhar Karnataki are available, this song becomes a rare song. let us enjoy this 85 year old recorded song. With this song, film Vikram Charitra-33 makes its Debut on the Blog.
Song-Raaja ke chaman se laayi manke ki maala (Vikram Charitra)(1933) Singer- Gauhar Karnataki, Lyrics- Not Known, MD- Not known
Lyrics
Raaja ke chaman se laayi
Raaja ke chaman se laayi
Manke ki maala
Raaja ke chaman se laayi
Raaja ke chaman se laayi
Manke ki maala
joohi manke ki maala
joohi manke ki maala
joohi manke ki maala
joohi manke ki maala
joohi manke ki maala
Raaja ke chaman se laayi
Raaja ke chaman se laayi
Raaja ke chaman se laayi
manke ki maala
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
manke ki maala
joohi manke ki maala
joohi manke ki maala
Raaja ke chaman se laayi
Raaja ke chaman se
hamaara kaam hai
sabhi ne ??
sabhi ne ??
sabhi ne ??
sabhi ne ??
??
aa aa aa
jaise nihaar ??
jaise nihaar ??
jaise nihaar ??
jaise nihaar ??
manke ki maala
joohi manke ki maala
joohi manke ki maala
joohi manke ki maala
Raaja ke chaman se laayi
Raaja ke chaman se laayi
Raaja ke chaman se laayi
manke ki maala
Raaja ke chaman se laayi
manke ki maala
joohi manke ki maala
Raaja ki
Kaase main kahoon piya hiya ki baat
Posted on: May 31, 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 sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Blog Day : |
3969 | Post No. : | 15053 | Movie Count : |
4130 |
Today’s song is from a film of the first decade of the Talkie, ” Yangrilla “-1938. The song is sung by Sarla. No information is available about this singer. The cast of the film was Enakshi Rama Rau, Nayampalli, David, Gyani, Saalu, Shareefa, S L Puri, Fatty Prasad and few others.
It is generally said that in the early era, most actors and actresses came from poor families and most artistes had no or had negligible education. While it is true to a great extent, it is not 100% true. It is not that even in this period, there were no educated persons in the film industry. Right from the beginning of the Silent era to Talkie film era up to the end of the 40s decade, there were actors, actresses, directors,producers and musicians who were quite educated. Some of them had even been trained in western countries.
Take the case of Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani and their team of writer like Niranjan Pal, from the silent era. They were all highly educated and from rich. cultured families. Niranjan Pal was the son of the Freedom fighter Bipin chnadra Pal. B.N.Sircar is another example. Director Nanubhai Vakil was actually an advocate with B.A. LL.B degree. Surendra was BA, LL.B. Motilal was a graduate, so were Ramchandra Thakur, Nandlal Jaswantlal, Jayant Desai, Jairaj, Umakant Desai. Ashok kumar, Dev Anand and his 2 brothers etc.
Among actresses, Leela Chitnis, Shanta Apte, Durga Khote, Renuka Devi were graduates. Vanmala was BA,BT. Kamini Kaushal was BA. The point here is, there were educated and people with respectable family background were also a part of film industry. But of course, initially their number was smaller compared to others who were either illiterate or less educated. For example, the beautiful Meena Shorey and Sitara Kanpuri could not even sign- leave alone reading and writing !. That is why, they were cheated in their contracts by Sohrab Modi and W.Z.Ahmed ( of Shalimar Pictures and husband of actress Neena).
In today’s film, Yangrilla-38, the Hero, Heroine and the Director were all highly educated. The Heroine, Enakshi Rama Rao was the daughter of an ICS officer of Madras Presidency. She came to England for her graduation. After graduation, she took part in some stage dramas, where she got introduced to Niranjan Pal and Himanshu Rai. When Himanshu Rai decided to make a silent film on Tajmahal story, he asked Niranjan Pal to write the film story. Sita Devi aka Renee Smith was selected for the Vamp’s role and Enakshi was selected for the main role of Selima ( who was later named Mumtaj Mahal by Prince Khurram- who was later known as Shahjehan.). The film was named Shiraz.
Enakshi is a very unusual name. Comparatively, Meenakshi is a well known name. Meenakshi means ” one with eyes like Fish “. Enakshi means ” one with the eyes of Doe or Deer”. In other words, Enakshi means Mrignayani. Except name of this actress, I have never ever come across this name (Enakshi) in my life elsewhere !
Her work in film Shiraz was applauded in England, Germany and India. When she returned to India, She met Bhavnani, who made a silent film Vasantsena-31, with her in the lead role. More than as an actress of Silent and Talkie films, Enakshi’s name was known in Elite circles for different achievements, after she stopped working in films.
Not many of us know that Meenakshi Bhavnani ( Enakshi Rama Rao before her marriage ) has done an enormous service to expose Indian dances and Designs to West. No lesser is her contribution to expose Kashmir Crafts and Designs ( Fabric , Wood and Papier Mache ) to west. An American Tourist told in Kerala recently about her detailed work on Kashmir Designs ( shawls , Jackets ).This side of Meenakshi’s personality and work is in addition to her contribution as a Dancer, photographer and actress .Two scholarly Books written by Meenakshi Bhavnani were also published. Both the books are preserved in American Museum of Natural History.These are ..
(1) Folk And Tribal Designs of India
(2) The Dance of India: The Origin and History Foundation, Art and Science of the Dance in India .
This exceptionally talented woman stayed in Kashmir for sometime in 1950 and met cross section of people connected with Arts and Crafts . She had been a visitor thereafter as well . She also visited Leh and kargil for her Book. During this period she also clicked some photographs in Kashmir portraying its rich culture and scenic beauty.She also shot a Documentary “ VALEY OF KASHMIR “ during this period..
Meenakshi was an active member of the Crafts Council of India, which was founded in 1964 to support artisans and keep their crafts relevant and marketable amid rapidly changing economies at home and abroad.
The Photographs clicked by her have also appeared in National Geographic Magazine especially her series.
And in her book on folk dances of India , Meenakshi covers all forms of Kashmirian folk dances .
Enakshi married film maker Mohan Bhavnani ( 1903-1962 ) who was trained in Germany and Hollywood. She was a dancer , Actor , Photographer and writer on Arts , Crafts and culture. From 1929 to 1938, She acted in six films as a leading lady . Out of these six films five ( Vasantsena-31 , Trapped-31 ,Jagaran-36 , Himalaya ki Beti-38 and Yangrilla-38 ) were directed by her husband Mohan Bhavnani . Only Shiraz ( 1929 Produced by Himanshu Roy ) was directed by Franz Osten .
Producer Director Mohan Bhavnani was a learned and illustrious person. This is what the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema says about him-
Mohan Dayaram Bhavnani (1903-62)
Hindi director born in Hyderabad, Sindh. Studied at College of Technology, Manchester (1921-4), then studied film-making in Germany at UFA (1924). Contracted to Kohinoor (1925- 6) where his Sulochana films were the earliest efforts in the Indian cinema to create a Hollywood-type movie star, e.g. Cinema Ni Rani where she plays a famous actress with whom the painter hero falls in love, or Wildcat of Bombay where she played multiple roles. Joined Imperial (1927-9), where he made Khwab-e-Hasti, adapted from the novel Dreamland (later also adapted by N. Taurog’s Strike me Pink, 1936). Scripted by A.S. Desai, this film is not to be confused with Kashmiri’s play of the same title. Vasantsena was the first Kannada intertitled film. Became independent producer with Indian Art Prod. (1931-2). Returned to Germany to study sound film technique. Started Ajanta Cinetone (1933-4) and his own Bhavnani Prod. (1935-48). Sound de´but was a flop, but it introduced Durga Khote. Hired Premchand to script Mazdoor, representing the author’s only direct encounter with film, following it with the unemployment melodrama Jagran. Produced and directed the first full-length colour film shot on 16mm Kodachrome and blown up to 35mm, Ajit. Joined Films Division and became its first Chief Producer (1948-55). In 1958 Bhavnani followed up an invitation from Zhou En-Lai to make a documentary on China and travelled extensively throughout the country shooting with cameramen Kishore Rege and S.K. Kulkarni. His wife Enakshi Rama Rao, who acted in Vasantsena, had earlier played the lead in Shiraz (1928) and became a noted dancer and author of the book The Dance of India (1965).
FILMOGRAPHY: 1925: Cinema Ni Rani; Matri Prem; Veer Bala; Seth Sagalsha; 1 9 2 6 : Pagal Premi; Diwan Bhamasha; Mena Kumari; Ra Kawat; Samrat Shiladitya; Bhamto Bhoot; 1 9 2 7 : Naseeb Ni Lili; Daya Ni Devi; Trust Your Wife; Wildcat of Bombay; Gamdeni Gori; 1929: Hawai Swar; Khwab-e- Hasti; Mysore, Gem City of India (Doc); Khedda (Doc); 1 9 3 0 : Vasantsena (all St); 1 9 3 1 : Shakuntala; Farebi Jaal; Lafanga Langoor (Sh); 1 932: Veer Kunal; 1 933: Afzal; Rangila Rajput; 1 9 3 4 : Dard-e-Dil; Mazdoor; Sair-e-Paristan; 1935: Jung Bahadur; Navjeevan; Shadi Ki Raat; 1936: Dilawar; Garib Parwar; Jagran; Wrestling (Doc); 1 9 3 7 : Zambo the Ape Man; 1 9 3 8 : Double Cross; Himalay Ki Beti; Yangrilla; 1 9 3 9 : Zambo Ka Beta; 1940: Jhoothi Sharm; PremNagar?; 1945: Biswi Sadi; 1 946: Rang Bhoomi; 1 948: Ajit; 1 9 4 9 : Vale of Kashmir (Doc); 1 9 5 0 : The Private Life of a Silkworm (Doc); 1 9 5 1 : Lest We Forget (Doc); 1 9 5 2 : Kumaon Hills (Doc); 1 9 5 3 : Folk Dances of India (Doc); Republic Day Record (Doc); 1 9 5 5 : Republic Day 1955 (Doc); 1 956: Operation Khedda (Doc); 1 957: The Himalayan Tapestry (Doc ).
Like the Heroine, the name of the film was also strange. I tried very hard to find out what the word Yangrilla meant, but I could not get it. Finally, undaunted, I started going through the list of books on line. Lo and behold ! I bumped into a book with a title ” Rilla of the Inglewood ” written by Lucy Maud Montgomary, published in 1921. Some part of the book was available for reading online and while reading it, I found that ” Yangrilla ” in Swahili language meant a Hunter. Not going into the book and its boring story, I was glad that at last I decoded the word Yangrilla…a Hunter. Considering that the film ‘ Yangrilla’-38 was a Costume drama, I can guess that this film’s story must have been connected with hunting, Jungle and such other interesting and thrilling matters. Film Yangrilla-38 was financed by Ramnarayan Dubey, who in later years swallowed Bombay Talkies with its Land and started an Industrial complex on its land with about 250 to 300 manufacturing units. Recently his grandson was in news for announcing revival of Bombay Talkies !
The Hero of this film was Nayampalli. S.B. Nayampally (or Nayampalli) was working at the firm of Killick, Nixon and Company, in Bombay when he was discovered by film director P.Y. Altekar at a gym where Nayampally regularly exercised. Altekar felt that Nayampally very much resembled the famous French boxer Georges Carpenter and would be perfect for the stunt films that had become popular at the time. At Altekar’s urging, Nayampally joined Imperial Studios and was quickly cast in his first film, Wedding Night(1929), opposite the popular actress Jilloo. When he arrived at Imperial to begin his first day of filming he was amused to find that the building now used for the studio had formerly housed the school he’d attended as a child.“Wedding Night was a stunt film of the Robin Hood type,” Nayampally explained in a 1964 interview. “It had a little more of a plot to it than many films of the same class. My next film, Hell’s Paradise (1929), I remember for three reasons. One, it was based on a real-life episode involving an Indian prince and a foreign girl, described as an adventuress. Two, Mama Warerekar, the noted writer, did the story. Three, the film had a kissing scene, probably the first ever in an Indian film.”
Nayampalli was cast in Imperial’s Noorjehan (1931), which was initially to be a silent picture, but because of the success of their film Alam Ara (1931), which was India’s first talkie, the studio decided to make Noorjehan partly with sound. Nayampally was not originally cast in Noorjehan, but a chance meeting with the film’s director, Ezra Mir, got him the role of Prince Salim in the film.Nayampally then played Karna in Imperial’s next sound film, the mythological Draupadi (1931), but the actor considered his best mythological role to be that of the wily Shakuni in Mahatma Vidur (1943), a part that was appreciated by critics and the public, alike.
As sound films came in, silent actors were being discarded in favor of those with stage backgrounds and could not sing, so Nayampalli joined the Grant Anderson Theatrical Company which specialized in Shakespearean plays. After gaining some experience he tried to rejoin films, but without much luck. His previous roles had been leads, so he decided if he wanted to work regularly, maybe he should take a different approach and he offered himself up for character parts.His break came in the role of a hunchback in love with the heroine in Ezra Mir’s Zarina which starred Jal Merchant and Zubeida. The dentures he wore for the role were created specially by a dentist named Jimmy Gheista who had trained abroad with the dentist who had made similar dentures for Lon Chaney.
Nayampally had learned early on how to apply make-up for his roles and, in fact, he became so good at it he eventually came to specialize in horror make-up, which earned him the nickname “The Indian Lon Chaney.” Indeed, Chaney, Erich von Stroheim, Emil Jannings, and John Barrymore were the actors that Nayampally most tried to emulate. Boris Karloff was another of his role models. He was able to put his make-up expertise to good use for the film Sair-e-Paristan (1934), where he was a vampire-like devil, and in Zingaro(1935), in which he played a monster created by a mad scientist, and then as a the hairy “missing link” in Zambo (1937) and its sequel Zambo Ka Beta (1938). For Kalkoot (1935) he created a make-up to resemble the wrinkled effect that Karloff had used in The Mummy(1932).
Nayampally continued working in films throughout the 1940s and 50s, particularly in mythologicals and costume pictures including Raj Nartaki (1941), Nagad Narayan (1943), Vishwas 1943), Taramati(1945), Urvashi (1946), Jhansi-Ki-Rani (1953), Durgesh Nandini (1956), Basant Bahar (1956) and Shiv Parvati (1962) His last credited film appearance was in 1970’s Priya.
After the career in films ended, he started making Documentaries. He made about 35 documentaries. He won ‘Silver Dolphin’ award for his documentary in the International Film Festival at Teheran in 1970. He died on 7-5-1994, in Mumbai.
Pt. Badri Prasad was the Music Director of film Yangrilla-38. He used 6 different singers for 11 songs in the film. Besides issuing records for its songs, the producer also floated 2 records of ‘ Bhavnani Productions orchestra ‘.
The uploader of today’s song, our own Sadanand ji Kamath has certified this song to be ” rarest amongst the rare ” songs. With this song, film Yangrilla-38 makes its Debut on the Blog.
Song- Kaase main kahoon piya hiya ki baat(Yaangrilla)(1938) Singer- Sarla Devi, Lyrics- Unknown, MD- Pt. Badri Prasad
Lyrics
Kaase main kahoon
piya hiya ki baat
Kaase main kahoon
Kaase main kahoon
piya hiya ki baat
Kaase main kahoon
Kaase main kahoon
piya hiya ki baat
Kaase main kahoon
piya hiya ki
kaun sunega prem kahaani
kaun sunega prem kahaani
aur usey phir meri zabaani
aur usey phir meri zabaani
yah duniya to preet ki bairan hai
Kaase main kahoon
piya hiya ki baat
kaase main kahoon
is duniya ke rahne waale
is duniya ke rahne waale
kapti paapi man ke kaale
kapti paapi man ke kaale
paap(?) hi inka ghar(?) aur joban hai
Kaase main kahoon
piya hiya ki baat
kaase main kahoon
kaase main kahoon
kaase main kahoon
Ham ban gaye sab bade doctor
Posted on: May 23, 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.
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3961 | Post No. : | 15039 | Movie Count : |
4124 |
Today’s song is from a very old film-Do Deewane-1936. The film was made by Sagar Movietone. It was directed by Chimanlal Luhar and the music was by Pransukh Nayak.
The film was a Comedy film. Originally made in Gujarati as ” Be kharab jan “, it was based on a play written by the famous Literary figure of Gujarat- Kanhaiyalal Munshi ( 30-12-1887 to 8-2-1971 ). He was an activist in Independence struggle, a Politician ( Home Minister and Governor), a writer and an educationist (founded Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan). Munshi had dabbled in film industry and many Gujarati and Hindi films were made on his plays and stories in almost every decade.
All the 11 songs of the film were written by the famous Gujarati poet ” Raskavi ” Raghunath Bramhabhatt. He was born on 13-12-1892. He was a famous Gujarati poet and also a popular playwright. He was aptly called ‘Rasakavi’ or ‘Poet of rasa’. He began his career by writing erotic poems that became very popular. His plays mainly tackled mythological and historical subjects, such as Buddhadev i.e. ‘The God Buddha’, Sringi rishi i.e. ‘Mountain Sage’, Ajatsatru, Saraswatichandra, Sneh mudra i.e. ‘Ring of Affection’. He followed Sanskrit dramaturgy i.e. a novelty when Shakespearean adaptations ruled the Gujarati stage. His adaptations of Nanalal Kavi’s verse plays and Govardhanram’s novel, Saraswatichandra, were highly appreciated by audiences. He is accepted in literary circles as a major dramatist, a rare recognition for a writer of the old professional theatre. His autobiography Smaran manjari i.e. ‘Cluster of Memories’ in 1955 traces the history of Gujarati theatre over three decades beginning from 1910.
Darpana’s productions of his play Kalyan rajya i.e. ‘Benevolent Kingdom’ in 1962 points to his ability to attract the experimental theatre.Raghunath Brahmbhatt died on 11-7-1983. He wrote lyrics for just 6 Hindi films- Do deewane-36, Baaraat-42, Mera Gaon-42, Ashirwad-43, Bhakta Bilwamangal-48 and Roop sundari-49.
The film cast was Motilal, Shobhana Samarth, Yakub, Aruna Devi, Sankata Prasad, Bhudo Advani and others. The name of Aruna Devi may be a new one for many. She started acting in films with film Village Girl-36. The same year, she also acted in Mard ka Bachha, Lagna Bandhan,Do Deewane and Deccan Queen ( she did a double role in this film. She also sang 2 songs in this film.) and in 1938 she acted in her last film Asha-38. After this she got married to a businessman Mr. Nanavati and settled in England- ending her very short career as an actress.
Do Deewane was the first film in which Motilal and Shobhana Samarth acted together. In later life, however, besides acting, they lived a life together also in real life. The film was directed by Chimanblal Luhar.
The Director CHIMANLAL MULJIBHOY LUHAR ( 1901-1948) was a Chemistry graduate from Bombay University. He started writing as a critic and author in journals like Beesvin sadee, Navchetan and Bombay Chronicle. He joined film line as a lab Assistant in Kohinoor studios in early 20s. Soon he became a noted cameraman for several documentaries, with K.D.Brothers, Bombay,under a British cameraman of Prince of Wales’ official entourage. After a brief stint at Rajkot with Saurashtra Films and a longer one at Krishna Films-where he shot 20 films, he joined Sharada Studios with ‘Dagabaz Duniya-1926 and several stunt films by Master Vithal. He turned a producer for a few stunt films. Later he was a partner in Sharda films and a Director with Sagar Movietone(1934-1940). From 1941 to 46 he worked for Prakash Pictures. He directed Sassi Punnu-32,Silver King-35 Talash-E-haq (first film of Nargis, made by Jaddanbai)-35, Do deewane, Kharab Jaan, Capt. Kirtikumar, Dynamite, Kaun kisika, Sewa Samaj, Saubhagya, Darshan, Station master, School Master, Uss paar and Bindiya. He died at the young age of 47 years,in 1948. He had established his own production outfit ‘Sun Art Pictures’ in 1943, but he made only 3 films with it -School Master-43, Uss Paar-44 and Bindiya-46, before he died, after a prolonged illness.
FILMOGRAPHY: 1932: Sassi Punnu; 1935: Silver King; Talash-e-Haq; 1936: Do Diwane/Be Kharab Jan; 1937: Captain Kirti Kumar; 1938: Dynamite; 1939: Kaun Kisika; Seva Samaj; 1940: Saubhagya; 1941: Darshan; 1942: Station Master; 1943: School Master; 1944: Us Paar; 1946: Bindiya.
Film Do Deewane took a satirical look at the practice in society, the character of a father, forcing his daughter into a marriage for monetary incentive, was at the heart of this film. The daughter runs away from home and meets a lot of people. In his original stage drama, Munshi had brought different people speaking in different languages- creating kind of a humour, however in the Hindi film version it was only Hindi language spoken by different people…still creating laughs by their grammar and pronunciation.
While doing the shooting, Motilal was quite hesitant and shy in love scenes. There was a scene in which he was supposed to take the Heroine in his arms. But even after trying several times Motilal could not do it. Fed up of waiting for long, it was Shobhana who jerked him towards her and embraced him ! Imagine who must have blushed in this scene !!
In another scene, Shobhana is sitting on a swing. Motilal had to come from behind and push the swing to frighten her.While doing the rehearsal of this scene, Motilal gave a hard push to the swing to look realistic. As a result Shobhana not only fell off the swing but promptly became unconscious also. It was then that Motilal came to know that she was pregnant. Later on 4-6-1936, Shobhana gave birth to Nutan !
The story of the film was the usual conflict between Generation thinkings and values. Since the time unknown, newer Generations have always felt that the older people were not keeping up with current times. This was so 100 years ago and is very much true even today. The film which was made about 80 years ago tried to discuss this conflict, cinematically. Millionaire Ramdas wants to marry his daughter as per his choice. Not agreeing to this daughter Miss Rambha (Shobhana Samarth) runs away from home and in her quest of peace, meets Dr. Mohanlal (Motilal). They fall in love. At the end it is revealed that Mohanlal was the original choice of her father. So, all is well.
The film had subplots to create comic situations. However, as per the review of the film posted in Film India magazine, the comedy did not induce most people in the audience to laugh and acting of most actors was mediocre. The technical side was much appreciated. Anyway, Baburao Patel of Film India magazine rarely appreciated or had good words for any film, so nothing new in this review also.
There were 11 songs in the film. The composer was Pransukh Nayak, who started his career with film Sati Sone-33 and ended with film Kulvadhu-37, giving music to 27 films in between this period and composed 293 songs.
In Sagar Movietone, many actors, actresses, directors and technicians got first opportunity or got opportunity to develop their existing careers. The Regular artistes of Sagar Movietone were called ” The Jewels of Sagar “. They included Motilal, Surendra, Kumar, Charlie, Yakub, Bhudo Advani, Sh. Mukhtar, Kanhaiyalal, Sankata Prasad, V H Desai, Sabita Devi, Bibbo, Waheedan Bai, Jyoti, Maya Banerjee, Nalini Jaywant, Ezra Mir, Ramchandra Thakur, mehboob, Sarvottam Badami, Zia Sarhadi, Faredoon Irani, Kaushik Dholabhai and Anil Biswas.
Today’s song is a fun song. From the lyrics, it sounds like a group of freshly graduated Doctors. The song has many medical terms and mentions of Medical instruments etc. This is a Chorus song. With this song, film Do Deewane makes its Debut on the Blog.
( I am thankful to the book ” Sagar Movietone”, by Biren kothari ji for information used herein.)
Song-Hum ban gaye sab bade doctor (Do Deewaane)(1936) Singer- Chorus, Lyricist- Raghunath Bramhabhatt, MD- Pransukh Nayak
Lyrics
Hum ban gaye sab bade doctor
physician aur Surgeon
patient hamaara dilbar
chaaku hamaara nashtar
Hum ban gaye sab bade doctor
physician aur Surgeon
patient hamaara dilbar
chaaku hamaara nashtar
koi nine pills aur powder
koi nine pills aur powder
koi nine pills aur powder
koi nine pills aur powder
tonic lotion aur tincture
tonic lotion aur tincture
tonic lotion aur tincture
tonic lotion aur tincture
patient hamaara ho mister(?)
patient hamaara ho mister(?)
phir mauj kare kheese bhar kar
phir mauj kare kheese bhar kar
bane hunarwar chale akadkar
badhe position ghar ghar
bane hunarwar chale akadkar
badhe position ghar ghar
MBBS
FS(?)
ab kaun hai hamse badhkar
ab kaun hai hamse badhkar
ham ban gaye sab bade doctor
physician aur Surgeon
patient hamaara dilbar
chaaku hamaara nashtar
ham ban gaye sab bade doctor
physician aur Surgeon
patient hamaara dilbar
chaaku hamaara nashtar
koi nine pills aur powder
koi nine pills aur powder
koi nine pills aur powder
koi nine pills aur powder
tonic lotion aur tincture
tonic lotion aur tincture
tonic lotion aur tincture
tonic lotion aur tincture
patient hamaara ho mister(?)
patient hamaara ho mister(?)
phir mauj kare kheese bhar kar
phir mauj kare kheese bhar kar
bane hunarwar chale akadkar
badhe position ghar ghar
bane hunarwar chale akadkar
badhe position ghar ghar
MBBS
FS
ab kaun hai hamse badhkar
ab kaun hai hamse badhkar
ham ban gaye sab bade doctor
physician aur Surgeon
patient hamaara dilbar
chaaku hamaara nashtar
ham ban gaye sab bade doctor
Prem nagariya jaayenge hum
Posted on: May 19, 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.
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3957 | Post No. : | 15033 | Movie Count : |
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Today’s song is from the film Jadu Nagari-1940.
In last 2-3 years, I find that a lot many collectors are uploading songs from films of the 30s and also rare songs. The HFM History students- like me- are highly indebted to them for their generosity.
Like in any other fields, here too some disturbing events take place. Some collectors upload incomplete songs, thinking that this will protect their monopoly. I feel this is very unfair. No one forces them to upload songs. If they do so on their own, why not complete songs ? Anyway, it is their thinking and choice. Fortunately, true connoisseurs, like Shalin Bhatt ji are highly dependable and his songs are not only complete and rare but he also adds some information to it. Many times the viewers’ comments on the song also gives important information pieces. May God increase his tribe !
Film Jadu nagari-40 was based on an imaginary story, like many such films. These films had writers, who flew the kites of their imagination, sometimes in a very comic way. For example, turning Humans into Animals or showing talking animals, birds and even Snakes. Of course since the film had Jadu in its title iteslf, all these things were within expectations only. Actually these things made the films very interesting and watchable. ALAS ! The era of such C grade films is gone for ever !
I selected a song from this film, because I found some unusual and rare points here, worth talking about.
Firstly, the film is directed by Baburao Apte ( variously spelt as Baburao, Bapurao or S R Apte), who was the elder brother of actress Shanta Apte. He had started his acting career from the silent era. He acted in 8 silent films. Starting with film Shyamsunder-32, he acted in his first Talkie film, as Radha’s husband- where Radha was his own younger sister, Shanta Apte. In all, he acted in 16 Talkie films, his last film being “Main abla nahin hoon”-49 directed by Shanta Apte herself. He had a very minor role in it-courtesy his sister. He also directed 8 Talkie films from Kala Pahad-33 to Jadu Nagari-40. yes, today’s film was his last film as a director.
And yes, he was the same person, who brought his own younger sister of 9 years to act in films. He would put a condition in the contract that no other actor will touch her while shooting. If she had a wife’s role, he would do the husband’s role. Fortunately for cine goers, as Shanta Apte grew up as a rebel, she defied this rule and Baburao started his acting and direction separately. He got married and lived separately.
Shanta Apte- though unmarried till end- had a daughter-Nayana Apte. However this news of her daughter was kept a secret. When Shanta Apte died on 28-2-1964, ten years later Nayana declared that she was Shanta Apte’s daughter. Film Historian Isak Mujawar, in one of his books, has said that Nayana was Shanta’s daughter from brother Baburao Apte only. Such matters have no credible proofs anytime. By the way, Nayana Apte became a popular actress on Marathi Stage and in Marathi Cinema. Obviously Baburao Apte was very creative indeed !
Secondly, in this film Rajkumari Calcuttewali (real name Pullo Bai) had acted and also sang 5 songs. Though HFGK is silent about which Rajkumari it was in this film, the noted Music Historian and collector Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji has confirmed this. Also the song’s uploader Shalin Bhatt ji also mentions Rajkumari Calcuttewali. Though she acted and sang only in films made at Calcutta, two films ‘Gorakh aaya’-38 and ‘Jadu Nagari’-40 indicate her participation.Later she married one Seth Motilal from Calcutta and left films.
Thirdly, Music Director in later times-Jimmy aka James Singh- sang a duet in this film with Rajkumari Calcuttewali. Composer Jimmy aka James Singh- is one of those little known composers who never got fame or name in spite of their Talents. His real name was JAMES SINGH. He was a Christian Punjabi from Ludhiana. He was educated in Delhi.He started his career in Hindi films as a singer in Chorus. He sang 7 songs in 6 films (Imandar-39, Baghi-39, Pyar-40, Anjaam-40, Jadoo Nagri-40, and Maaya Nagri-44).
He could play many western instruments, especially all types of Guitars.When he failed as a singer, he became assistant to many composers. Finally.he got his chance to compose few songs for film ‘Muqaddar-50’, though with Khemchand Prakash and Bhola Shreshtha. He composed 2 duets of Asha and Kishore. The credit of composing the First ” Yodelling ” song of Kishore kumar goes to Jimmy. Kishore ‘yodelled ‘ first time in this film.
Jimmy then gave music to 14 more films like, Shrimatiji-52, Smuggler-59, Awara Shehzadi-56, Sher e Baghdad-57, Nek khatoon-59, Pathan-62, Miss chaalbaz-61, Tarzan and Gorilla-63, Duniya hai dilwalon ki-66, Pyar ki Baazi-67, Tarzan in fairy land-68, Aakhir-84, Khoon aur sazaa-86 and his last film, Sachhi Ibadat-1987. Inspite of giving sweet and melodious songs of a variety,Jimmy never came up to A class. He always remained a composer for C grade films. Anyway, as long as Kishore’s yodelling is heard,Jimmy’s name will be remembered.
However, in this film Jimmy was not the MD. It was yet another little known MD- Shanti kumar Desai, a very talented but unlucky composer who rarely got support from any famous banner. His music was enchanting and tunes were superb, but Lady Luck did not favour him.
He was born in Amreli,Saurashtra, Gujarat state on 3-3-1908. His family was in service as Royal Musicians, so he was exposed to music from childhood.He was an expert Harmonium player. To start his career, he came to Bombay and worked in H.M.V. as a Broadcaster. Here he came into contact with many composers and learnt how they operated and made tunes etc. He was already giving music to Dramas, but wanted to join Film line as M.D. He got his first film Navbharat ( Jawanmard)-1934. In those days Gujarati producers and directors used to prefer Gujarati MDs. Thus out of his 36 films, 18 were done with Gujarati Directors like Sohrab modi, Nanubhai Vakil, V.M.Vyas(4 films), Kanjibhai Rathod, Dhirubhai Desai etc. He also gave music to Gujarati films.
He gave music along with Madholal Master,Rafiq Ghaznavi, Pannalal Ghosh, Shyambabu Pthak etc. Famous singers like Rafi, Manna Dey, Zohrabai, Amirbai etc sang in his films during their early careers. Even kishore kumar’s early film Sati Vijay-48 had music by Shanti kumar Desai. He gave music to films of early era actors like Prem Adib, Mehtab, Sitara Devi, Leela Chitnis, Jal Merchant, Ashraf Khan, Rajkumari, Mazhar khan, Shanta Hublikar, Jairaj, E Billimoria, Kumar, Sardar Akhtar, Chandramohan, Shobhana Samarth, Durga Khote, Shahu Modak and Sulochana.
From 1934 to 1948, he gave music to 35 films and in 1964 his one film was released. He composed about 300 songs. He never got films from top banners like Bombay Talkies,Prabhat, Sagar or Minerva, otherwise his career would have been different.
He died on 6-1-1986. Some of his better known films were Bholi bhikaran-36, Punarjanma-38, Anjaam-40, Suhaagan-42, Naukar-43, Ek din ka sultan-45 and Lav Kush-51.
The Hero of this stunt film was the Stunt King Yeshwant Dave…..ever heard his name ? Not a great chance, I know.
It was not uncommon during the days of early cinema for people to hang around studios and filming locations in the hopes of being discovered. One such intrepid soul was Yeshwant Dave (or Yashwant Dave), who was at Kohinoor Studios observing a picture being made by producer J.B.H. Wadia. The handsome and athletic Yeshwant cornered Wadia, insisting that he would make a fine hero for an action film.
Wadia agreed to test Yeshwant by having him jump from the roof of one set piece to another. He did so successfully, and J.B.H. decided to cast him in a film that he was to direct for Young United Players, the 1931 silent Thunderbolt (aka Diler Daaku) featuring Mumtaz as the heroine.
Yashwant was again directed by Wadia in Toofaan Mail (1932) and thereafter became a sought after action star appearing in the stunt films of other directors like Aspi, Dhirubhai Desai, Nari Ghadiali, Chunilal Parekh, and Harshadrai Mehta. Some of his films include Bharat Veer (1932), Jaadui Jung (1934), Bombshell (1935), Vasant Bengali (1937), Flying Ranee (1939), Magic City (Jaadoo Nagri) (1940), Torpedo (1941), Royal Mail (1946), and Kaun Pardesi (1947).
Growing out of the stunt hero persona, he turned to character parts and made infrequent onscreen appearances throughout the 1950s, including in Seikh Chilli and Makkhee Choos both released in 1956 and starring comedian Bhagwan. What became of Yeshwant Dave afterwards is anybody’s guess, as the once popular action star faded into obscurity and, sadly, is barely remembered today.
Today’s song is a duet sung by Rajkumari Calcuttewali and James Singh. There were 9 songs in the film. With this song, film Jadu Nagari-40 makes its Debut on this Blog.
(Thanks to cinemajadu.com, activeindiatv.com, Cinerang by Isak Mujawar, Harish Raghuwanshi ji of Surat and my notes for information used herein.)
Song-Prem nagariya jaayenge hum(Jaadoonagri)(1940) Singers- Rajkumari Calcuttewali, James Singh (aka Jimmy), Lyricist- Munshi Kabil Amritsari, MD- Shanti Kumar Desai
Both
Lyrics
Prem nagariya jaayenge hum
Prem nagariya jaayenge hum
Prem nagariya jaayenge
dharti pe swarg basaayenge
dharti pe swarg basaayenge
Prem nagariya jaayenge
Prem nagar ki har galiyan mein
Prem nagar ki har galiyan mein
prem bageech banaayenge
prem bageech banaayenge
prem panchhi ban kunj kunj mein
prem geet nit gaayenge
prem panchhi ban kunj kunj mein
prem geet nit gaayenge hum
prem nagariya jaayenge
kal kal karti prem sarit mein
prem mast ho ??aayenge
kal kal karti prem sarit mein
prem mast ho ??aayenge
prem sudha ras pi pi kar
tan man ka taap mitaayenge
prem sudha ras pi pi kar
tan man ka taap mitaayenge
prem nagariya jaayenge
ek pran ham do tan ho kar
phir bhi to bisraayenge
haan
ek pran ham do tan ho kar
phir bhi to bisraayenge
haan
prem devta ke kunjan mein
prem devta ke kunjan mein
jeewan sakal bitaayenge hum
jeewan sakal bitaayenge hum
prem nagariya jaayenge
Nirmala Kumari ban ki raani
Posted on: May 8, 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.
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3946 | Post No. : | 15021 | Movie Count : |
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Today’s song is from a very old and obscure film, hardly noticed or heard by anyone- Ban ki Chidiya-1938. The film was from Ranjit, directed by Jayant Desai and had a very famous and popular star cast like, Madhuri, E. Bilimoria, Ishwarlal, Charlie, Ghori, Kesari, Ram Apte etc etc. The cast consisted of of the popular stars of those days, still, neither they could make it a popular film nor it provided anything to remember it for.
When I looked at the star cast carefully, I realised that it consisted of 2 actors who had their brothers also working as actors, in the same period. In the early era, when getting good actors/actresses itself was a challenge, every successful artiste used to call his/her sibling or a relative into cinema. This phenomenon was seen more among the female artistes. Though not equal, the males too joined this trend. So you will see that most artistes, directors, producers or actors in the early era were someway related to each others.
The females were ahead in this, simply because the actresses mostly came from singing families-Tawayafs- and these girls were keen to join films with an ulterior motive of catching a moneyed ” seth ji ” as a “Husband”, so that they could live a respectable and comfortable family life.
Thus the very first Talkie ” Alam Ara “-31 had a Heroine Zubeida, whose 2 sisters-Sultana and Shehzadi- were already Heroines in films. There were many such sister pairs in cinema like Amirbai and Gauharbai Karnataki, Violet and Patience Cooper, Pramila and Romilla, Kusum and Ranjana, Purnima and Shirin, Indurani and Sarojini, Leela Desai and Monica Desai, Shamim and Naseem Jr., etc etc. I have quoted names of only Heroines. There could be siblings working as character artistes, which, as on today, I have no information about.
Among the male brothers, off hand, I remember only 2 pairs. Bilimoria brothers in the 30s and Dilip kumar and Nasir khan in 40s and 50s. There were some other pairs of brothers in the same period, but they were not Heros in Hindi films. Names of some pairs are Ram Apte and Anant Apte aka Bajarbattu, Ram Marathe and Anant Marathe aka Anant kumar- hero in few films, and Sankata prasad and Kanhaiyalal (Chaturvedi).
D-Dinshaw and E-Eddie Bilimoria brothers were heros at the same time. How E.Bilimoria became a Hero is a very funny incidence and I think it is unique in the annals of any language Film History how a Mistaken identity can make someone a Hero ! Now read this…
In the early era of the Talkie films the Bilimoria brothers were very famous. First it was D (Dinshaw) and then came E (Eddie) Bilimoria.
Eddie was born at Bilimora,in Gujarat, in 1900. At the age of just 13 years he ran away from house to Kirkee (near Poona), to his uncle, to become a Fireman in Railways. Here, he became a Door keeper in a Cinema house and also learnt operating the film projector. Due to ill health, he was brought to Bombay.
One day he went to Imperial Studio to meet his brother Dinshaw. Mistaking him to be Dinshaw, make up was done to him and he played a role in film ‘Punjab Mail’. Then onwards he started working regularly in films. As a Hero his first silent film was ‘Raj Ramani’. He worked as Hero in 7 Imperial films and 10 films of Ranjit Studio. His Heroines were Putli, Shanta, Sultana. Madhuri, Padma, Panna and others.
When Talkie films started he was Hero in 32 films made by Ranjit, opposite Gauhar, Shanta, Kamla, Mehtab, Madhuri and Sitara etc. He worked in 15 films opposite Madhuri only. Fencing, shooting and horse riding were his specialties as a stunt Hero. He was the First in India to wear Cowboy dress in stunt films.
Char chakram-32, Miss 1933-33, and Nadira-34 were his Hit films. In film ‘ Sipahi ki sajni’-36, he jumped into Sea from a flying plane, without duplicate. Daredevil stunts were his hallmark. There were hundreds of stitches on his body.
After 1939 he stopped getting Hero roles, so he did other character roles. After 1953, he was reduced to only an Extra. He did acting till 1973 and then took up a job in a Fridge and AC shop. He stayed in a flat in Kemps corner in Bombay. His last days were not very happy. E.Bilimoria died on 18-2-1981 at Bombay.
He acted in 73 Talkie films, directed 1 film ( sone ki chidiya-48) and also sang 4 songs in 4 films. His first film was Radha Rani-32 and last was Honeymoon-73.
Eddie’s favourite Heroine Madhuri was in this film with him. Most actors, when they retire, they keep away from limelight-some willingly and most others automatically by the film industry. If an actor is not seen or heard for more than 10 or 20 years, normally it is presumed that he/she must have expired. However, if some artiste is suddenly brought into limelight after a gap of 50 years after he/she is retired, what will you say ? See what happened here….
Place- Shanmukhanand Hall,Mumbai
Date 7-2-1999
Time- 7 p.m.
Programme- Felicitation to ‘ Stars from the Silent Era’
Organisers- ” Amrut” and ” Cine Society of Bombay ”
The entire hall was overcrowded. Not only all the seats were occupied,but people were standing wherever possible. Everybody wanted to see the Two STARS on the stage-Jairaj and Madhuri. Both were in their late 80s,but looked radiant and smiling. For Madhuri it was a surprise,that the organisers found her out after living in oblivion for over 50 years. She was simply overwhelmed with the people’s affection and love. For Jairaj,these things were not new. He has been around all the time.
Madhuri and Jairaj were a Popular pair in Silent film era. They worked as a lead pair in 3 films,one each in 1930-Rasili Rani,1931-Warrior from the wild and 1932-My Hero. They came together after almost 70 years,on this stage.
Like many others,Madhuri too was an Anglo Indian. Her name was Beryl Claessen. She was born on 3-11-1913 at Delhi. Her father was a big officer in Government. Her initial schooling took place in Nainital. She learnt music too,because she wanted to become a Music Teacher. However that she never became,but on a visit to Bombay she was picked up by producer Indulal Yagnik and she started acting in silent films.
Many Heroines in those days were Anglo-Indians,Europeans or Jew girls. Since silent films did not require speaking Hindi or Urdu ( or any language,for that matter),these girls were preferred,as Indian audience loved their fair colour (Gori Mem). Additionally,these girls did not hesitate to give intimate scenes like kissing or doing stunts themselves. Most girls knew Horse riding,fencing and fighting.
In 1928,there was a Silent film Madhuri,but actress Sulochana(Ruby Myers) did this role and in 1932 there was a Talkie film Madhuri,in which also Sulochana only did the role. When Talkie films era began most of the Anglo Indian girls became jobless,since they could not speak Hindi/Urdu nor could they sing a song-the two requirements for actresses in Talkie films. However,few intelligent and professional actresses learnt Hindi/Urdu language speaking. Madhuri and Sabita Devi (Irene Gasper) were two such clever girls who achieved proficiency in these matters.
Madhuri was very beautiful. After doing 17 silent films,she made her debut in Talike films with ‘ Pardesi Preetam’-1933. Jaswantlal Nandlal directed his first film here. Her Hero was Raja Sandow. She did many films for Ranjit under the direction of Jayant Desai. From 1933 to 1942,she acted in 26 films. They were (not in order) Kashmeera,Mitti ka Putla,Noor e watan,Secretary,Lehri lala,Rangeela Raja,Sitamgarh,Prithviputra,Thokar,Raj Ramni,Diwali,Matlabi Duniya,Toofani Toli,Shama parwana,College Girl,Nadira,Veer babruvahan,Zamin ka chaand,Ban ki chidia,Toofan Mail,mehmanSasural,shadi and Ikrar. By the way, Iqrar – 42 was Madhuri’s last film.
In 1941,Madhuri got married and retired from Film line. After this she simply disappeared for next 50 years without a trace,till the organisers of above programme located her.
Today’s song is a funny one. From the lyrics, it looks as if it is addressed to a she monkey, which is obviously a pet monkey. The singers-both Ram Apte or E Bilimoria were not regular singers at all. Ram had sung just 4 songs in 3 films between his 25 films as a Child artiste during the period of 1933 to 1938. From the style of singing itself, one can make out a casual singer.
With this song, the film Ban ki Chidiya-38 and both the singers Ram Apte and E Bilimoria make their Debut on this Blog.
( My thanks to ‘ Inhe na bhulana ‘ by Harish Raghuwanshi ji, Beete kal ke sitare by Shriram Tamrakar, Screenplay by Isak Mujawar and my notes, for information used herein.)
Song-Nirmala kumari ban ki raani (Ban Ki Chidiya)(1938) Singers-Ram Apte, E Bilimoriya, Lyrics-Aarzoo Lucknowi, MD-Gyan Dutt
Lyrics
Nirmala kumari
Ban ki rani
bolo bolo
kook kook kook
Pratap
is bandariya ka naam kya hai
shrimati nirmala kumaari
ahahahahaha
Nirmala kumari
teri bahan ki tarah ladti jhagadti bahut hai
tumhaara kutta bhi to kam nahin
tumhaari tarah bhaun bhaun karta rahta hai
haha
dekh(?) ye bata
teri bahan haar gayi
dekho
wo tumhaarakutta bhaaga
neeroo
neeroo
idhar aao
Nirmala kumari
ban ki raani
bolo bolo
kook kook kook
nirmala kumari
ban ki raani
bolo bolo
kook kook kook
khel mere
?? khel mere ??
?? naach dikhaana
?? naach dikhaana
haan yaar bol bam bhola
haan yaar bol bam bhola
kya
hahahahaha
hohohohoho
ahahahahaha
ohohohoho
Nirmala kumari
ban ki raani
bolo bolo
kook kook kook
Nirmala kumari
ban ki raani
bolo bolo
chaal teri matwaali
gaalon pe tere laali
chaal teri matwaali
gaalon pe tere laali
bolo mahaaraani bolo
bolo mahaaraani bolo
hook hook hook hook kar
hook hook hook hook kar
nirmala kumari
ban ki raani
bolo bolo
kook kook kook
nirmala kumari
ban ki raani
hahahaaha
bolo bolo
hahahaha
Nain mohan prem bhare jaadoo najariya
Posted on: May 4, 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.
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3942 | Post No. : | 15018 | Movie Count : |
4115 |
Today’s song is from a very old film Meetha Zahar-1938.
The title of the film is funny. Normally, we equate Poison taste with Bitterness, though, no one actually knows how poisons taste. There is a story about it, which I read in my childhood. Long time ago, a King was curious to know how the poison tasted. He asked many people but no one was able to give a satisfactory answer. His Prime Minister suggested a plan. He would give poison to a convict of death and ask him to write the taste of poison on a paper. If he writes it, he would be pardoned and a poison antidote will be given to him immediately.
Accordingly, a death convict was provided poison, paper and a pen. After drinking the poison, the convict started writing, but the strong poison killed him instantly and all that he could write was the letter ‘ S ‘ only. Now the question remained if the taste was Sweet, Sour or Salted ? However, Minerva Movietone had decided that the taste was sweet and hence the title of the film was Meetha Zahar !
After suffering initial failures with his first few films like Hamlet-35, Saeed E Hawas-36 and Atma Tarang-37, Sohrab Modi decided to make films on the social evils prevalent for a long time. Other big studios like Prabhat, Bombay Talkies and New Theatres were doing this already and they were making money. Modi decided to make films on separation in Marriage (Divorce aka Talaq-38), Alcoholism (Meetha Zahar-38), Illicit passion (Jailor-38) and Incest (Bharosa-40).
This stance changed the picture. His Historical film ” Pukar’-39 was a grand success, which brought him not only name and fame but also lot of money. Along with him, the Heroine of the film-Naseem Bano also benefitted greatly. After pukar-39, Naseem bano left Minerva. Naseem was launched by Sohrab Modi as a Heroine way back in Hamlet-35.
Naseem was born on July 4, 1916 in Delhi as Roshan Ara Begum, to courtesan-singer Shamshad Begum, better known as ‘Chhamiya’ and rich Nawab, Abdul Waheed Khan. She did her schooling at Queen Mary’s High School there with her mother harboring ambitions to make her a doctor. However, being a big fan of the movies and actress Sulochana in particular, after a family visit to Bombay, now Mumbai, in the 1930s, Naseem decided to make the movies her career. It was not easy. She had to fight hard with her mother to get her way, including it is said staging a successful hunger strike along with many tears!
Much of Naseem’s early work came at Minerva Movietone, owned by the great Sohrab Modi. He introduced Naseem in his adaptation of Hamlet, Khoon Ka Khoon (1935). Sadly for Naseem, the film flopped at the box-office. She then appeared in a series of films, mostly socials for Minerva including Divorce (1938), Meetha Zahar (1938) and Vasanti (1938)before hitting the big time with Modi’s epic historical drama, Pukar (1939). Pukar was a landmark film for Modi and its lead cast that included Chandramohan, Sardar Akhtar, besides Naseem. The film, in particular, makes splendid use of Naseem’s regal bearing casting her as Jehangir’s wife, the Empress Noor Jehan. It remains her most most well-known performance and one where she sang her own songs as well.
Following the success of Pukar, Naseem and Modi parted ways, and based on her strong impact as the Mughal Empress, Naseem signed two films with a rival studio to again play famous queens Cleopatra and Mumtaz Mahal respectively. Both films, however, failed to take off. But by now she had several well-known admirers including the son of the Nizam of Hyderabad. In this period Naseem also met childhood acquaintance Mohammed Ehsan who had returned from abroad armed with a agree in Industrial Chemistry. He launched a production house, Taj Mahal Pictures with the film Ujala (1942)starring Naseem and Prithviraj Kapoor. Through the course of the film and thereafter, Ehsan and Naseem fell in love and got married. Naseem then moved to Delhi along with Ehsan. The couple had two children, daughter Saira Banu, who also went on to become an actress and a son, Sultan Ahmed. For a while it looked like Naseem had bid adieu to films.
However, S Mukherji, who worked at Filmistan, convinced Naseem to come back and star opposite Ashok Kumar for Filmistan’s maiden production, Chal Chal Re Naujavan (1944). Though the build up for the film was huge, it only did moderate business at the box-office. More importantly though, Naseem was now back in the film industry for good. Ehsan and Naseem restarted Taj Mahal Pictures which would produce films starring Naseem. Some films produced by the banner include Begum (1945), Mulaqat (1947), and Chandni Raat (1949), the last also directed by Ehsan. Two of Naseem’s best performances came in Mehboob’s Anokhi Ada (1948) and Sohrab Modi’s Sheesh Mahal (1950), re-uniting her with Modi after more than a decade.
Naseem’s last lot of films include the swashbuckler Shabistan (1951), during whose filming leading man Shyam lost his life, Ajeeb Ladki (1952), Betaab (1952), which was her last film of note as a leading lady, and the stunt films, Sinbad The Sailor (1952) and Baghi (1953). Thereafter, she was seen in Sohrab Modi’sNausherwan-e-Adil (1957), where she impressively played the Empress of Iran.
By the time she completed Ajeeb Ladki, Naseem’s marriage to him was on its last legs. Ehsan migrated to Pakistan on his own taking with him all the negatives and prints of the films produced by Taj Mahal Pictures. He had these films screened there, making her an extremely popular actress across the border as well. Naseem then moved to England for a while as she sent her children to a day school there to give them the best of education. But finding England cold and aloof, the family finally returned to India.
Once her daughter, Saira Banu, entered films, Naseem, who ironically was dead against her joining the movie industry, designed clothes for her including some trendsetting beautiful embroidered saris in Aayi Milan Ki Bela (1964). And though well in her 40s by now, Naseem continued to get acting offers but refused them all. Naseem Banu passed away in Mumbai on June 18, 2002.
Like Naseem Bano, Modi was instrumental in helping and promoting the careers of many others like, Kamaal Amrohi, Chandramohan, Prithviraj Kapoor, Mehtab and many other smaller artistes like Sadiq Ali, Zillo bai, Eruch Tarapore, Sheela, Meena (Shorey), Al Nasir etc . Sadiq Ali was not only a regular, but was Modi’s favourite actor.
Sadiq Ali, was born on 6-10-1911 at Jullundhar, Punjab. His 2 cousins- Wazir Ali and Nazir Ali were famous Indian cricketers. Sadiq Ali completed his Engineering degree and worked in M.E.S. at Kanpur (Military Engg. Services). Due to strong desire to work in films and dramas, he resigned from his job after 5 years and joined Agha Hashr’s Drama company. When the company was closed, he joined The Burma Imperial film company at Rangoon. After few small roles, he came down to Bombay.
After working in some smaller companies, he joined Minerva Movietone. Starting with khan Bahadur-37, he worked in Minerva’s Pukar-39, Sikandar-41, Phir Milenge-42, Prithwiraj Sanyogita-43, Parakh-44 (only directed by Modi) and Ek din ka sultan-45, also in Sandesa-39,Black out, Duniya tumhari hai, Phir milenge, Ulti Ganga, Patharon ke saudagar,Jagbeeti,Nishana, Do Naina, Manjhdar, Mitti etc. In all he acted in 23 films. His last film was Ever Ready-46. After partition, he migrated to Pakistan.
First film in Pakistan Judai (1950 Shaheena,Nazar and Zeenat). Other film Shola (1952).
Sadiq Ali was a very successful and famous actor before partition and got the title of Prince of Minerva. He acted in many films in India, but in Pakistan,
Sadiq Ali could not be successful as he was in India. He was paralyzed in 60’s and could be seen sitting with Pan shop in Capitol Cinema lane, Karachi. Died on 12-7-1977 in Karachi. In his last days, he was seen begging on road.
Film Meetha Zahar was directed by Sohrab Modi. Screen play was by Gajanan Jagirdar. Munshi Irshad Ahmed wrote all the 9 songs of the film, which were composed by B.S.Hoogan, the MD.
When I first came across this name B.S.Hoogan, in the list of Hindi composers,my first reaction was,what is this foreigner doing in Hindi Films ?
Further when I saw his name as MD in 10-15 films of the 30s,I became very curious and wanted to know more about him.As per my experience so far,I usually got information for any -or almost any-Film personality from my notes,Old cuttings,books,magazines,old articles etc ,or even from an obscure,less known Internet site,but in Hoogan’s case I always found myself at a dead end. There was simply NO information about him anywhere ! It was as if no one in India knew about him or as if he was from some alien planet.
I was perplexed.How can anybody from Film industry,with so many films to his credit,be such an unknown person ? This was a challenge and I decided ,come what may,to find out about this elusive,dodging and unreachable B.S.Hoogan,at any cost.
Almost one year passed and I found a ray of Hope.
I visited the Blog of Mr.Kamalakar Pasupuleti ji. He is a writer on old films,music and an avid collector of old songs,besides having been an active RMIM worker.He is also a mine of information. Incidentally,he too is from Hyderabad-just like me,and being in the same age group,we enjoy discussing matters relating to people and places in old Hyderabad of the 40s and 50s,when we were youngsters.Later on, he has migrated to USA.
On his Blog, he had written about Hoogan. He had located the nephew of Hoogan, in India and contacted him.He got some information from him about Hoogan. Although the info was not exhaustive, it was a great find. Plus Kamalakarji himself had also written about Hoogan,from his interaction with people who had met Hoogan in Hyderabad. I wrote to kamalakar ji in USA and he very graciously gave me permission to use all that material for this article.
At this juncture, my luck suddenly decided to cooperate and I found some info about Hoogan in a book.I even found out that the same nephew of Hoogan had uploaded 4 songs of Hoogan,(2 from Parakh-37 and 2 from Meetha Zahar-38) on Hamara Forum.
B.S.Hoogan was not a foreigner,he was very much an Indian.His name was BALWANT SINGH HOOGAN. He was tall,wheat comlexioned and of medium build. He was born in 1901 at Firozpur, Punjab, where his family was settled. He was a Kashmiri Brahmin. According to C.Ramchandra also,he was originally from Kashmir.
Before becoming a music director he seems to have learnt classical music and western music.He played many western instruments.
In the days of silent films,orchestras used to play in the Theatres ,in front of or behind the screen.During the film also they played appropriate music pieces.It would add live pleasure with moving images. Hoogan learnt giving this music and conducting orchestra from his teacher,Mr.Victor Aimes,an Englishman,from the Albert Music Company. He learnt writing music in notations and conducting orchestra with a baton. He played his orchestra of 12 musicians.
Hoogan looked impressive with a Black Tailcoat,Bow-Tie and Grey Trousers,as described by a Hyderabad Nawab,who had been personally introduced to Hoogan in Hyderabad in 1930.
B.S.Hoogan started his career as MD with Ajanta Cinetone of Mohan Bhavnani.He gave music to Afzal,Maya jaal,Rangeela Rajput(all 1933)Dard e dil,Dukhtar e Hind,Mazdoor,Sair e Paristan,Vasavdatta(all1934),Pyar ki maar,Registan ki Rani,Sone ka shahar,sherdil Aurat(all 1935), Begunah,khan Bahadur,Parakh(all1937),Meetha Zahar,Vijay marg(all 1938) and Sansar Sagar-1939.
Total films-18. Songs composed- 231.
Music Director C.Ramchandra,in his Marathi autobiography, wrote about Hoogan. When CR was working in Minerva, Hoogan joined the company, in place of Habib Khan, the composer. He showed CR how the Desi Raag can be played on foreign musical instruments. He brought in many Goanese orchestra players into the company. CR knew writing notations, Hoogan improved this. Hoogan liked CR very much. Hoogan would take CR with him to all big hotels of Bombay. Orchestras would be playing there. CR learned how those tunes could be indianised in his music here only.
Hoogan would make tunes and ask CR to write the notations. CR would hum those tunes and then improve the tunes. Hoogan would not know. Thus many of his tunes were used by Hoogan without knowing it.In the film Meetha Zahar-1938,Naushad was Hoogan’s assistant. Actors like Nissar,Bibbo,Sheila and Naseem Bano sang for him.
B.S.Hoogan died in Ferozpore in September 1938, at the age of 37 only.
Today’s song is sung by one Shanta Dutt. This name is new to me and despite my efforts, I could not get any information about her. As per HFGK she seems to have acted in Divorce-38, Vaasanti-38 and Juari-39 and she sang one song each in film Divorce-38 and film Meetha Zahar-38. To this extent this is a rare song. With this song, film Meetha Zahar-38 and singer Shanta Dutt make their Debut on this Blog.
(I sincerely thank Shri kamalakar ji and shri Sukesh Hoogan ji (the nephew), for providing the above information about B.S.Hoogan. Some information is adapted from Upperstall.com and pakmag.com )
Song-Nain Mohan prem bhare jaadu najariya(Meethha Zahar)(1938) Singer- Shanta Dutt, Lyrics- Munshi Irshad Ahmed, MD- B S Hoogan
Lyrics
Nain Mohan prem bhare
Nain Mohan prem bhare
jaadu najariya
jaadu najariya
Nain Mohan prem bhare
Nain Mohan prem bhare
jaadu najariya
jaadu najariya
din mein aaj nain baandh chale
jigar pe aane lagi
prem ka dariya(?)
prem ka dariya(?)
Nain Mohan prem bhare
Nain Mohan prem bhare
jaadu najariya
jaadu najariya
mujhe jo aap charan haath lage
jigar jigar se mile
najar najar se mile
??ar ?? ar se mile
Go??har go??ar se mile
main aur aap hon ek dor bandhe
main aur aap hon ek dor bandhe
gale ka haar banen
aao sanwariya
aao sanwariya
Nain Mohan prem bhare
Nain Mohan prem bhare
jaadu najariya
jaadu najariya
mil ke saath sajan aao chalen
mil ke saath sajan aao chalen
prem ke oar chalen
prem ke chhor chalen
prem ke daur chalen
prem ke shor chalen
na koi ??air rahe
chain karen
na koi ??air rahe
chain karen
main aur aap hon
prem dagariya
prem dagariya
Nain Mohan prem bhare
Nain Mohan prem bhare
jaadu najariya
jaadu najariya
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