Songs of 1930s (1931 to 1940) | Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs

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Chandrmukhi ki shaadi mein

Posted by: Atul on: February 18, 2019

In: Guest posts | Post by Sadanand Kamath | Rare song | Song of 1937 | Songs of 1930s (1931 to 1940) | Wedding song | Yearwise breakup of songs
5 Comments

This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

Blog Day :

3867

Post No. :

14884

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Blog 10-Year Challenge (2009-19) – Song No. 6
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When Atul ji introduced a new series, ‘Blog 10-Year Challenge (2009-19) on February 2, 2019 with a song intaha ho gayi intzaar ki, I was a bit skeptical about the availability of the songs for the series on a sustainable basis. After all, 10 year was a long period. I felt that most of the films for which the first song appeared 10 years back may have been already ‘yippied’. Also in respect of songs from the films released in the 1930s and 40s, most of the remaining songs of such films may not be available on-line. Nonetheless, the advantage of the new series is that the films and songs which have inadvertently gone out of our attention for a long time would come into our focus once again on a regular basis.

I had a quick browse through the songs covered in the Blog since its inception i.e., July 19, 2008 till March 31, 2009 with random checks for the rest of the months in 2009. The results gave me some hope that the captioned series can have songs for posting at least some days of the months. The reason is that during the early years of the Blog, most of the songs covered pertained to the films released in 1960s and 70s. There are some films of these years for which songs are available for posting in the Blog

I found that during July 19, 2008 to December 31, 2008, an overwhelming number of songs covered were of the films released in the 1960s and 70s with few songs from the 1950s and 1980s. However, the representation of songs from the films released in the 1930s and 40s were negligible. For instance, out of 475 songs covered during the period under reference, only 5 songs pertained to the films released in the 1940s – that too the late 1940s. Not a single songs of films released in the 1930s were covered during the period under reference.

These trends were, however, on the expected lines for two reasons. First, Atul ji, considering his age profile at the time of starting of the Blog, has virtually grown up in the midst of popular songs of the films of 1960s and 70s. Obviously, as a ‘start-up venture’ of his Blog, he would have been influenced by such songs. Secondly, and most importantly, even if he intended to cover the songs of the 1930s and 40s, I doubt whether these songs were available in good numbers on the video sharing platforms in 2008. Youtube was set up in 2005 as a video sharing platform. A random browsing of videos on YT gives me an impression that videos of Hindi film songs were uploaded in good numbers only from 2007 onward and the videos of old film songs (1930s and 40s) were getting uploaded mainly from 2009 onward. This trend has reflected in the Blog also. I have noted some of the popular singers of the 1930s and 40s who made debut in the Blog in 2009:

Singer	Date of Debut on the Blog	Song
K L Saigal	16/02/2009	Baalam aaye baso more mann mein
Zohrabai Ambalewaali	26/02/2009	Akhiyaan mila ke jiyaa bharmaa ke
Khursheed Bano	04/03/2009	morey baalpan ke saathi
Ameerbai Karnataki	08/04/2009	Gore gore o banke chhore
G M Durrani	25/04/2009	laara lappa laara lappa laai rakhdaa
Rajkumari Dubey	31/05/2009	Rasm e ulfat kisi soorat se
Kanan Devi	09/06/2009	duniya ye duniya toofaan mail
Pankaj Mullick	07/11/2009	Guzar gaya wo zamaaana kaisa kaisa

The songs covered in the Blog during the month of February 2009 continued to be on the expected lines. i.e., from the films released during 1960s and 70s. However, some significant additions were made during the month. On February 16, 2009, K L Saigal made a debut on the Blog with the song as mentioned in the table. With this song, for the first time since the inception of the Blog, a song from the film released in the 1930s – ‘Devdas’ (1935) also made the debut on the Blog. Thereafter, during the rest of the month with some spill-over to the succeeding month, one song of K L Saigal was covered almost on a daily basis for the next few days.

10 years ago on this date (Febraury 18, 2009), the Blog had covered 6 songs from films ‘Suraj’ (1966), ‘Hamraahi’ (1963), ‘Anaadi’ (1959), ‘Sangam’ (1964), ‘Sweekar Kiya Maine’ (1983) and ‘President’ (1937). Of these, the first four listed films have already been ‘yippied’. 3 songs of ‘Sweekar Kiya Maine’ (1983) are yet to be covered. In regard to ‘President’ (1937), 4 songs out of 7 songs have been covered in the Blog. One song ‘door bahut door phir bhi tum itne nahin door’ is a short song of about 40 seconds. Of the remaining two songs, ‘Maya rani ki nagri hai’ is not available on line to the best of my efforts. So that leaves only one song, which I intend to present today in this series.

‘President’ aka ‘Badi Bahen’ (1937) was produced under the banner of New Theatres (NT) and was directed by the Cinematographer and screen-play writer, Nitin Bose. The star cast included K L Saigal, Leela Desai, Kamlesh Kumari, Jagdish Sethi, Nawab Kashmiri, Bikram Kapoor, Dev Bala, Bikram Nahar etc. Probably, it was NT’s first attempt to make a film on the subject of industrialisation and the conflict between the management and the workers.

The gist of the story of the film based on the publicity material (song book) is as under:

A young Prabhavati (Kamlesh Kumari) becomes the President of the Prabhavati Cotton Mill Ltd due to the sudden and untimely death of her father. She is known to be strict disciplinarian with good workers rewarded and inefficient workers punished. With her hard work, she converts a small and modest organisation to a bigger establishment.

One day, Prakash (K L Saigal), an ordinary worker in the organisation points out to the President the faults in a machine which if not corrected can be dangerous to the workers. He takes liberty in advising the President that the machine designed by him takes care of faulty design. This is not liked by the President and Prakash is dismissed from the service.

Prakash needs to get some employment to take care of his widowed sister (Dev Bala) and her son. During one of his searches for employment, Prakash takes some rest near the Girls’ Hostel where he accidentally meets a beautiful girl, Sheila (Leela Desai) who is none other than the younger sister of Prabhavati, the President of the Mill. Both of them like each other.

In the meanwhile, a worker who has been employed in place of Prakash meets with an accident due to faulty machine. For the first time, Prabhavati, the President was thinking about Prakash and was wondering whether she had dismissed him wrongly. Dr Sethi (Jagdish Sethi), a friend, who secretly has a tender feeling for Prabhavati, advises her to approach Prakash for re-instatement. The President visits Prakash and appoints him as a Head of the Design Department.

Slowly, a love triangle is developing around Prakash. Sheila is already in love with Prakash and Prabhavati also develops a soft corner for Prakash. The sisters are unaware of this developments. What will be the outcome of the love triangle? The synopsis of the story ends as usual with suspense.

On the basis of the some snippets of the film available on-line and some guess work on my part, Sheila comes to know that Prabhavati also loves Prakash. Sheila respects her elder sister who has taken care not only of her but also of the Cotton Mill. Sheila’s attitude towards Prakash changes which he is not able to understand. He gets frustrated and this affects his relationship with co-workers. I have seen a film’s snippet in which the agitated workers revolts against Prakash and the work in the Mill has been affected. Prabhavati gets to know as to what is troubling Prakash. Probably, when she comes to know of the love triangle, Prabhavati locks herself in her office and collapses. Obviously, Prabhavati sacrifices her love in favour of her younger sister, Sheila.

Nitin Bose (26/04/1897 – 14/04/1986), the director of the film has been associated with NT since its inception in February 1931 as Chief Technical Adviser and the Head of Camera Department. His younger brother, Mukul Bose too joined NT as the Chief of Sound Recordings and was principally involved in introducing the playback singing system in both the Bengali and Hindi versions of ‘Bhagya Chakra/Dhoop Chaaon’ (1935). The box office successes of his directorial ventures like ‘Chandidas’ (1934), ‘Dhhop Chhaaon’ (1935), ‘President’ (1937), ‘Dhartimata’ (1938), ‘Dushman’ (1939) – all under NT banner made him one of the top directors of Hindi films.

Nitin Bose’s innings with NT ended when he had differences with B N Sircar, the boss of NT while shooting for ‘Kashinath’ (1943). He completed the film but did not return to NT thereafter but shifted Bombay (Mumbai). ‘Mujrim’ (1944) was his first film in Mumbai which he produced jointly with Vishnu Cinetone and directed it. The film did not fare well at the box office. Thereafter, he directed Filmistan’s ‘Mazdoor’ (1945), Bombay Talkies’s ‘ Milan’ (1946) in which he worked with Dilip Kumar for the first time. Some of the well known films which he directed included ‘Mashaal’ (1950). ‘Deedar’ (1951), ‘Waaris’ (1954) ‘Ganga-Jamuna’ (1961), ‘Nartaki’ (1963), ‘Dooj Ka Chaand’ (1964), ‘Hum Kahaan Jaa Rahen Hain’ (1966). ‘Saamanta’ (1972) was his last Hindi film as a director. In all, Nitin Bose directed 27 Hindi films between 1934 and 1972.

Although Nitin Bose spent nearly 3 decades in Mumbai as against about a decade in Calcutta (Kolkata), I personally feel that he received a much greater appreciation of his work as a Cinematographer, Writer and Director for films in NT than in Mumbai. The reason could be that in NT, directors had full freedom. If I go by what is stated in Kidar Sharma’s autobiography, B N Sircar did not interfere in the making of the film. As against this, ‘Ganga Jamuna’ (1961), which was one of his most successful films in Mumbai both in terms of critics’ reviews and the box office collections, it is alleged that Dilip Kumar, the producer of the film interfered in the direction of Nitin Bose. In his autobiography, Diip Kumar acknowledged that it was Nitin Bose in ‘Milan’ (1946) who thought him that emotions can be expressed by silence. Later, his style of dialogue delivery with pauses in between became his trade mark style.

Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, in his article, ‘Three Great Directors of India’ which appeared in June 1940 issue of ‘Filmindia’, had rated P C Barua, V Shantaram and Nitin Bose in that order as the greatest directors. Let us read below as to what K A Abbas had said about Nitin Bose and how effectively he used camera angles in ‘President’ (1937).

Nitin Bose is essentially a cameraman and his interest in a photo play is primarily pictorial. He also possesses a strong sense of drama and he can construct a vigorous scenario out of the slenderest story material. He rarely touches stories from well known classics and novels. He picks up an idea and a detailed script is written by him or some one else under his supervision. To him, the story of the author or the plot situations of the story is of no value unless they can be effectively expressed in photographic sense.

In the film ‘President’ (1937), the crazy camera angles in the opening scene create suspense. A meeting of the Board of Directors of the Mills is to start at 9.30 a.m. to be presided over by the President (who is the President?). The camera hitherto focused on the clock is suddenly swung to the door which opens and a woman (Kamlesh Kumari) walks in. If the director had tried any other way to shoot this scene, the realism would have been lost. But Nitin Bose, with the magic of his camera, makes the scene intensely dramatic. Towards the end of the film, in a climax situation wherein Kamlesh Kumari confines herself in a empty room (when she comes to know that her sister, Sheila is also in love with Prakash). In this situation, Nitin Bose created a terrific suspense by giving some crazy camera angles in quick succession of the empty room.

Nitin Bose received Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1977 for his outstanding contributions to the film industry. Seven years later, his nephew, Satyajit Ray received the same award in 1984. It is said that during the making of Bombay Talkies’ ‘Mashaal’ (1950) and its Bengali version ‘Samar’ (1950) which were directed by Nitin Bose, Satyajit Ray was present on the sets assisting Nitin Bose (Source: ‘Satyajit’s Sansar’ by Partha Chatterjee). However, he had not been officially accredited in these films.

I now present the song ‘Chandramukhi ki shaadi ke gagan ne deep jalaaye’ from ‘President’ (1937). I have made the video out of mp3 clip of the song. It is basically a chorus song. The lyricist of the song is unattributed. There were two music directors for the film – R C Boral and Pankaj Mullick. This song is composed by Pankaj Mullick.

I liked this song for the interlude orchestrations. Probably, such orchestrations which sound like a symphony in Western classical music, have been used for the first time in Hindi film music. I will not be surprised if Francisco Casanovas, the Spanish musician who used to play western musical instruments and conduct the musical band in the Grand Hotel, Calcutta those days, had assisted Pankaj Mullick in the composition of interlude orchestrations. My guess is based on a non-filmy song, praan chaahe nain na chahe composed and sung by Pankaj Mullick around the same time for which Francisco Casanovas has been accredited for the orchestration of the song.

Enjoy this choir like song with unique orchestration.

Audio Clip:

Song-Chandramukhi ki shaadi mein (President)(1937)Singers- Unknown female voice-1, Unknown female voice-2, MD-Pankaj Mullick
Chorus

Lyrics

chandarmukhi ki shaadi mein
gagan ne deep jalaaye
charankamal waale mukh ki hansi
shaadi dikhti(?) jaaye
charankamal waale mukh ki hansi
shaadhi dikhti(?) jaaye”

kaali aaj (??) ban mein saji
bin phoolon ki maala pade
kaali aaj (??) ban mein saji
bin phoolon ki maala pade
basant ritu mein kahat chale
khilat phool sunhare
basant ritu mein kahat chale
khilat phool sunhare
jahaan jharnon ke chhalchhal kal par
jal pariyaan naachen gaayen
jahaan jharnon ke chhalchhal kal par
jal pariyaan naachen gaayen
jal pariyaan naachen gaayen

phool wahaan se laayen
tanik door sajaayen
phool wahaan se laayen
tanik door sajaayen
taaron ki duniya se
hum phool chun ke laayen
taaron ki duniya se
hum phool chun ke laayen
tan k?? komal haathhon mein
un phool ko chadhaayen
chandarmukhi ki shaadi mein
gagan ne deep jalaaye
charankamal waale mukh ki hansi
??nikhri jaaye

aaj nayi ek baat suno
mann naache
aaj nayi ek baat suno
mann naache
raja rani to ek singhaasan baithenge kaise
raja rani to ek singhaasan baithenge kaise
sinhaasan par raani
charnon mein raja baithe

Aavo aavo aavo jee

Posted by: Atul on: February 17, 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 :

3866

Post No. :

14883

Movie Count :

4071

Today’s song is an extremely rare song, to be presented here today. It is from film Shaadi ka Maamla-1937. It was produced by the ‘One Film’ banner of Lalitkaladarsh Movietone, Bombay and it was directed by Bhargavram Vithal aka Mama Varerkar- a heavyweight name in Marathi Literature. The song was written in Hindi by Pt. Dwijendra Sharma. We are unaware of who was the Music Director, but Cinestaan claims that Pt. Badriprasad Manik was the MD, though HFGK is silent on this issue. This rare song is sung by Bapurao Pendharkar, who was an actor, singer and producer on Marathi stage, in the early 1900’s.

Drama and stage work has a tradition of more than 150 years in Maharashtra. The stage gave many Gems in Music and Acting to Maharashtra. Natyageet from the sangeet Nataks became extremely popular. There is hardly any classical singer, in Maharashtra, who did not sing Natyageet. When the Talkie films started, the stage and dramas provided the biggest contribution to its Music. Almost all Music Directors of early cinema-Marathi or Gujarati- came with a history of working on stage. Govindrao Tembe, Master krishnarao Phulambrikar, Shankarrao Vyas, Keshavrao Bhole, B R Devdhar, Dada Chandekar, Mainkar, Sureshbabu Mane etc came to films from stage only.

There used to be Drama companies or Natya Mandalis, like Gandharva Sangeet mandali (of Balgandharva), Kirloskar Natak mandali (of Annasaheb Kirloskar), Balwant Natak mandali (of Master Dinanath Mangeshkar), Lalit kaladarsh ( of Keshavrao Bhosle) etc etc.

Initially, many film makers in the silent and early talkie looked upon the cinema as an extension of the stage or merely a different form of packaging the same basic product. This was clear when Sohrab Modi made his Talkie film ” Hamlet’-35 by shooting the actual drama on stage or film ” Indrasabha”-32 with 69 songs just like a drama. However, film makers like Baburao Painter understood the underlying difference in these two media and evolved a new Grammar for films. This was promptly followed by V.Shantaram, Master Vinayak and all others.

Among the Marathi Literary Giants, the first to get attracted to the new medium was B.V.aka Mama Varerkar. He formed a film company, ‘Deccan Picture corporation’, along with P.Teligiri to produce a silent film ” Poona Raided-1924″. He was disillusioned with the failure of the film and withdrew from films. After 12 years, he formed another company, with Bapurao Pendharkar- Lalit kaladarsh movietone and made, wrote and directed ‘ Vijayachi Lagne-36’ in Marathi and ‘ Shadi ka Mamla-37’ in Hindi. Other giants like M G Rangnekar, V S Khandekar, Acharya Atre and P L Deshpande also joined film making.

B V aka Mama Varerkar, director of film Shadi ka mamla-37, was born on 27-4-1883, at Chiplun in Ratnagiri district. His early education took place in Ratnagiri and he joined a medical course at the Civil Hospital. Here he met Dr. Kirtikar, who was a writer and had a big private library. Varerkar got interested in Literature, read lot many Marathi and Bangali books. Finally he left medical course and did a job in postal department from 1899 to 1919. He wrote several dramas, stories etc. His first drama ‘ Kunjvihari’ was staged in Bombay on 14-4-1908. The drama had Vishnupant Pagnis as a Gujarati Radha and sang Gujarati songs. The Gujarati people of Bombay crowded his shows in hundreds and Varerkar became famous. His next famous drama ‘ Haach mulacha Baap’ came on stage in 1916. Then there was no looking back. In all, he wrote 37 dramas, 6 dramalets,and 14 one act plays. He wrote from 1914 to 1960 continuously. He was awarded Padma Bhooshan, paid Rs. 1 lakh per year and also sent to Rajya Sabha as an M.P.. Mama Varerkar died in Delhi on 23-9-1964.

He wrote film stories, screenplays, dialogues and directed films in Marathi and Hindi. His Filmography is Poona raided,silent film-1924, Gori Bala-silent,-1930, Thaksen Rajputra in Marathi and Bhedi Rajkumar in Hindi,Talkie-1934, Vilasi Eshwar in Marathi and Nigahe Nafrat in Hindi-1935( debut film of Shobhana Samarth), Vijayachi lagne-36 in Marathi and Shadi ka Mamla-37 in Hindi, Savangadi in Marathi and Saathi in Hindi-38 ( Durga Khote and Mubarak produced it), Geeta in Marathi and Hindi-40 ( Chandramohan did the Hero’s role in Marathi also,speaking flawless Marathi) and Karasthan in Marathi-47.

Today’s film, Shadi ka mamla-37 was produced by Lalit Kaladarsh Movietone and was directed by Mama Varerkar. The film cast was Bapurao Pendharkar, Hansa Wadkar, Kesar Wadkar, Nalini Nagpurkar, Master Chhotu, Dajiba Parab, Antoba Kulkarni and others. Bapurao Pendharkar was a very popular actor singer on Marathi stage. He was owner of the famous drama company ‘ Lalit Kaladarsh ‘, which completed its Centenary in 2007-8 and is still owned by his family, remaining as a premier,respected drama company of repute in Maharashtra. The company at one time hired full special train to move from one city to other, with all its staff and props.

Bapurao Pendharkar ( Vyankatesh Balwant Pendharkar) was born on 10th December 1892 at Jamkhindi, a princely state in Karnataka.( This was the First princely state to join Independent India, on a call by Sardar Patel. Its only demand was to make it a District place !). he got his education in Poona. In 1915, while studying from his Matriculation, he left studies and joined ” Lalit Kaladarsh “- a drama company of repute, owned by keshvrao Bhosle.

Bapurao had no good looks, no height and no proper voice, but Bhosale took lot of efforts on him and made him a fine actor singer. From 1915 to 1920, Bapurao did only female roles on stage. Starting from Sharda, he did Bhamini, Manjiri, Kishori, Vasant sena and many other famous Heroines in marathi dramas in those days. Bapurao also played Organ on stage. In 1920 he became a Gandaband shagird of Ramkrishnabuwa Vaze, a big name in vocal music.

On 4th October 1921, Keshavrao Bhosale died and Bapurao became the owner of Lalit Kaladarsh. The company staged all dramas of Mama Varerkar and its name became famous.

His first natyageet record came out in 1922, through Rose and co. in Bombay. Upto 1936, his 70 records ( 140 songs) came on HMV (Red and Black labels), Zonofone (Green0, and The Twin (Yellow). In 1974 one LP having his 12 songs came out and in 1996, Audio tapes of his more songs were marketed. Many collectors have his songs. Even today’s rare song has been obtained from a collector. Keshavrao Bhole liked his singing very much and appreciated him in his writings and autobiography too.

In 1936, Bapurao, along with Mama Varerkar launched his film company-Lalit Kaladarsh Movietone and made two films. Vijayachi lagne in Marathi in 1936 and Shadi ka Mamla in Hindi in 1937. The film did not become much famous, but his songs became a rage in those days. Only 4 songs from his only Hindi film are available and they are collector’s delights. In 1926 he recorded a Bhavgeet ” Rajhans maza nijla” a popular song by Govindagraj aka Ram Ganesh Gadkari. Thus Bapurao became the First Bhavgeet singer of Maharashtra. Silver jubilee of Lalit Kaladarsh was celebrated in 1933 and Bapurao recieved many awards.

Bapurao Pendharkar died on 15th March 1937, at Gwalior. His illustrious son -actor and singer Bhalchandra Pendharkar took over the company at the age of 16 years. He did a superb job and took the company to greater heights in times to come.

The Heroine of this film-Shadi ka Mamla-37 was just about 14 year old girl, Hansa Wadkar. She was born Ratan Bhalachander Salgaokar, on 24 January 1923 at Dr. Bhalerao Hospital in Bombay, Maharashtra, India. Her father, Bhalchander Salgaokar, was the son and grandson of “kalavantins, courtesans renowned for their musical accomplishments”. Her mother, Saraswati, was the daughter of a Devdasi. Wadkar was the third of four children. The oldest sister and youngest brother died, leaving a second child, her brother Mohan and her. In her autobiography Wadkar mentions that her great grandmother, Baybai Salgaokar, called Jiji by the family, was a wealthy courtesan who was the influential figure in the family. Marriage in the courtesan community was a rarity and Wadkar’s grandfather Raghunath Salgaokar (Jiji’s son) was the first person in the family to marry.

Jiji divided the vast property she had and Wadkar’s father was given the house in Sawantwadi. The mother, father, brother and young Wadkar shifted there and she joined a Marathi medium school where she studied till class IV. She also studied vocal music under Bhagwatbuwa but was not interested in singing. The family returned to Bombay and Hansa attended an English medium school for two years at Aryan Education Society School. However, she had to leave school when the family faced financial problems. The father had turned into an alcoholic and there was no money coming in the house. The mother insisted that Mohan being a boy should continue his studies, hence it was left on Wadkar to find work.

The influence of films was present from an early time. Wadkar’s father had three sisters, Kesharbai, Indirabai and Sushilabai. Sushila was married to Master Vinayak, a renowned actor-director of the early era of Indian cinema. The elder sister as well as Indira Wadkar were acting in films and Indira was a classical singer as well. Indira acted in several films including Duniya Kya Hai (Resurrection) (1937) and in Vinayak’s production company “Hans Films” like Devata (1939) in Marathi. Indira used the surname Wadkar to avoid using the family name Salgaokar, for fear of reprisal from society against women acting in films. Her older aunt, Kesharbai, was working in a film made by M.G. Rangnekar and suggested that Wadkar work in films to sustain her family.

In 1936, Wadkar acted in her first role as a heroine in Bapubhai Pendharkar’s Vijayche Lagane. A bilingual, made in Marathi and Hindi (Shadi Ka Maamla), it was directed by Mama Warerkar. The film was produced by Pendharkar’s Lalit Kala Production, its “first and last” film, as Pendharkar died soon after. When her brother objected to the family name being used in films, her name was changed from Ratan to Hansa, and the surname Wadkar was borrowed from her actress aunt, Indira Wadkar. Her salary at that time was Rs. 250 per month. The film was a success at the box-office.

Wadkar worked in a few films after this for different companies, which remained incomplete. She then joined Golden Eagle Movietone and learned Hindi from a Hindi scholar appointed for her by the company. She became proficient in the language, working in several Hindi films at the time like Meena, Prem Patra, Zamana, and Raj Kumar with Chetan Anand.

Marrying in 1937, she had to return to films once again due to shortage of money. She acted in two stunt films of Bhagwan Palav, having joined Harishchandrarao’s company. The films were Bahadur Kisan, and Criminal which was released in 1939. In 1938, she was cast in Zamana directed by Ram Daryani, starring Padma Devi who had earlier acted in India cinema’s first indigenous colour film, Kisan Kanya. The other co-stars were Dar (Jeevan) Gulab, Ameena and Amirbai Karnataki.

She worked in films made by Bombay Talkies, Prabhat, National studios and other banners. In all she worked in 27 films. She sang 10 songs in 3 films also.

Jagannath Bandarkar was one of the sons of the neighbour at Sawantwadi. His family was deemed of a “lower caste” than the Wadkars. Being ten years older than Wadkar, her brother and other family members did not approve of her closeness to him. However, her mother would ask her to call him over for lunch or odd jobs. When the Wadkar’s shifted to Bombay, Bandarkar followed. Having failed at setting up a printing press, he started a theatre company called Dominic Union and got Wadkar to join it. When her mother accused her of having an affair with Bandarkar, it made her do what she was thought was an unfair accusation. She writes of assuming this defiant and oppositional attitude later on too, when wrongly accused. Soon she was three months pregnant at age fifteen and Bandarkar and Wadkar were married on 6 September 1937, at Kittebhandari Marriage Hall in Bombay. Though she had “dreamed of a family life”, she had to resume work as Bandarkar’s company was financially unstable. She also had a miscarriage at this time.

Rekha, their daughter was born following the completion of Wadkar’s film Mera Gaon(1942). Over time when her husband physically abused her over some imagined wrong-doing, she would go out and do it. She started drinking and describes one drinking session in her autobiography where she was unconscious of what took place. She found herself in a village where Joshi, one of the men she had been drinking with brought her as his third wife. She stayed virtually imprisoned there for three years, till she was able to smuggle a letter out to her husband. He arrived with the police, and took her to the magistrate’s office in the neighbouring town, where she had to testify. The magistrate sent Bandarkar to get a signature on a paper and then proceeded to rape Wadkar. Since she did not speak out about the incident, no action was taken.

She went on to perform several plays, where she met Rajan Jawale, an actor, with whom she formed a bond that lasted till her death. She maintained a good relationship with all the female workers. Some of them became good friends like Lalita Devulkar.

Hansa Wadkar died on 23 Aug 1971 in Bombay Maharashtra, India.

Have you seen the film ” Bhumika”-77 ? Smita Patil had acted in this film. The film had earned the patronage of both, the Critics and the general public. The film received many awards and accolades. This film was based on the Autobiography of Hansa Wadkar.

Since the days Talkie films started till today,only 2 films were made on the real lives of actresses. One was ” Bhumika’-77 and the other was ” Zubeida-2000″ based on the actual life of actress Zubeida ( jr. ).

Shyam Benegal made a film on her autobiography (Sangte Aika) -Bhumika-1977. Hansa’s role was done by Smita Patil and Bandarkar was Amol Palekar The film was very successful and won many awards.

Now let us listen to this rare song by Bapurao Pendharkar. With this song the film and the singer make their Debut on the Blog.

( My Thanks for information used from
Marathi Cinema in Retrospect-Sanjit Narwekar
Maharashtra-Birthplace of Indian Cinema- Isak Mujawar
Poorvausrinche soor (पूर्वसुरींचे सूर)- Dr. Suresh Chandwankar
lalitkaladarsh.com
bhalchandrapendharkar.com
wikivisually.com
Cinestan
MuVyz
HFGK.
Harish Raghuvanshi ji, Surat and
My notes )

Song-Aavo aavo aavo jee (Shaadi Ka Maamlaa)(1937) Singer- Bapu Pendharkar, Lyrics- Pt. Dwijendra Sharma, MD- Unknown

Lyrics

aavo aavo aavo jee
aavo jee
aavo aavo aavo jee
aavo jee
preetam pyaare more nagar maan (?)
preetam pyaare more nagar maan (?)
aavo aavo aavo jee
aavo jee
aavo aavo aavo jee
aavo jee
preetam pyaaaaare
aa aa aa
preetam pyaare more nagar maan (?)
preetam pyaaaare
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
preetam pyaare more nagar maan (?)
preetam pyaaaare
preetam pyaare more nagar maan (?)
aavo aavo aavo jee
aavo jee
aavo aavo
man ki aaas
man ki aas ??
man ki aaaas
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
man ki aas
aa aa aa
man ki aas
aa aa aa
man ki aaaas
man ki aaaas
aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aa
aa aaa aa aa
aa aa aa
man ki aas ??
aavo aavo aavo jee
aavo jee
aavo jee
aavo jee
aavo aavo aavo jee
aavo jee
preetam pyaare more nagar maa (?)
preetam pyaare
aa aa aa
preetam pyaaaare
preetam pyaare more ??
preetam pyaare more ??
aavo aavo aavo jee
aavo jee
aavo jee
aavo aavo aavo jee
aavo jee
aavo aavo aavo jee
aavo jee
preetam pyaare more ??
aavo aavo aavo jee
aavo jee
aavo aavo aavo jee

Tags: 1937, Actor-Singer, Bapu Pendharkar, Pt. Dwijendra Sharma, Shaadi Ka Maamlaa

Ritu basant ki aayi pyaari

Posted by: Atul on: January 30, 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 :

3848

Post No. :

14857

Movie Count :

4064

Today’s song is from an obscure film- Sansaar Naiya-1939. This film was made jointly by Paramount and liberty pictures, Bombay. Actually, both these film companies made only and mainly Action/Stunt and Costume films. Since this was a ‘Social’ film, may be they had to support each others as they were presumably not used to handling such ‘offbeat’ film, from what they were accustomed to produce !

Though the film was classified as Social, the cast of the film contained predominantly seen stunt film actors only. They were Navinchandra, Sarojini, Noorjehan(sr), Basheer, Dhulia, Mirajkar, Mansoor, Kanta Kumari and others of the same ilk. There is also one name ” Puri” in the cast. He seems to be S.L.Puri, who was a singer also. In this film he has 4 solo and 3 duets with Sarojini. This could be the reason why he was in this action film.

For many readers, the name Sarojini may be an unknown name. This is exactly and what generally happens, when siblings are working in Films at the same time. Yes, Sarojini was the elder sister of the more famous actress Indurani. Both were stunt film actresses and worked in around 15+ films only. In reality, it was because of Sarojini that Indurani was dragged into films. Sarojini did more number of quality films than Indurani and also acted in more social films than Indurani. Her career period was longer than Indurani and her daughter Azra became a Heroine in Hindi films.

In spite of all these ‘better’ things, Sarojini’s younger sister Indurani hogged all the limelight. Articles were written on her and even an independent book was published on Indurani in USA. No one wrote on Sarojini exclusively. She appears in Indurani’s book and also is mentioned in Azra’s interview on beetehuedin.com

This type of fate is experienced by few more siblings in Hindi film industry. here are some examples, which I remember off hand…. Every movie buff knows the stingy Kanhiyalal, made famous by his roles of greedy merchants, sahukars (moneylenders) and a comic villain. He became more famous after film ” Mother India-57 “, though he did the same role in the original film ” Aurat”-40. But how many readers know that his elder brother was Sankata Prasad , an actor who was a regular in Sagar Movietone films, and later in more that 65 films ? Actually Sankata Prasad was responsible to bring his brother Kanhaiyalal (Chaturvedi) in the film world.

The eldest son of Jaddan bai, Akhtar Hussain, a very talented actor and director fell back on fame and publicity compared to younger brother Anwar Hussain. I am not comparing him with his sister Nargis.

Among the Travancore sisters, Raagini and Padmini shone here, but Lalitha did not shine in Hindi films. Nasir Khan lived all his life as brother of Dilip Kumar and had not many famous films to his credit. Some more such cases are, Laxmi Roy (younger sister of Geeta Roy), Laxmi Kumthekar (younger sister of Vatsala Kumthekar ), Compser Basant Prakash ( brother of Khemchand Prakash) and many more.

This is what I call as Luck. I agree that Talent is an individual gift and not a family or a traditional handout, but when all things are equal, one sibling lagging behind due to external factors, is purely a matter of Luck.

Actress Sarojini- real name Roshan Jehan and pet name Rani- was born in Delhi to Parents Sheikh Imamuddin and Munawwar Jehan, in 1920. Both sisters were put in a mission school of Daryaganj, Delhi. In those days, children were not allowed to see films, but Sarojini was interested in films and used to read film magazines, unknown to family. She was bold enough to send a letter to an actress of Saraswati Cinetone, Poona. In few days, she received a reply with that actress’ photo. The company asked her to send her photo. Sarojini managed to get a photo and send it across. Soon the company wrote to her that she will be appointed as an actress for Rs. 300 p.m.. Those days, this amount was a windfall.

When her father came to know all this he first gave a sound thrashing to her. Then he started thinking. Due to gambling and addiction, he had lost his business and they were in financial distress. He thought of earning some money by employing his daughters as actresses. He took Sarojini and a very reluctant Indurani to Poona. That time Sarojini was in English 8th std and Indu was in 9th std. At Poona, both got job as actresses at Rs. 300 each, as promised. Plus arrangements for their training in acting, singing and dancing was also arranged. Their father took Rs. 1000/- as advance, gave them some money and returned to Delhi. He sent their grandmother as their guardian.

Sarojini, being the elder, started working in the films immediately with film Deewani-1934. Then came Shri Satyanarayan-35. After closure of Saraswati cinetone, they came to Bombay and stayed in Hindu colony, Dadar. For some time they were engaged by Minerva Movietone for Rs. 450 pm, but when Ramniklal Shah offered them Rs. 500, they joined his company, Mohan pictures. While Indurani worked with Ramniklal, Sarojini worked with Nanubhai Vakil. Eventually, Indu married Ramnik Shah and Sarojini married Nanubhai Vakil in 1943.

Sarojini worked in 17 films in all- Deewani-34, Shri Satyanarayan-35, Bharat ki beti-35, Sundari-36, Son of Alladin -39, Sansar naiya-39, Madhu Bansari-39, Sanskaar-40, Jadui kangan-40, Hatimtai ki beti-40, Deepak Mahal-40, Taj mahal-41, Jadui bandhan-41, Farmaan-42, Naya Zamana-43, Son of Hatimtai-45 and her last film Cicus King-46. The sisters worked together in 3 films, Hatimtai ki beti and Jadui kangan of 1940 and Tajmahal-1941.

Sarojini had 2 daughters. The elder one Azra became a Heroine of many Hindi films. She married and retired. She stays in Bandra, Mumbai. The younger one Rehana, worked for an Airline, retired, widowed and stays in USA. Sarojini died in 1993. Her husband died in 1980.

Film Sansar Naiya was directed by Nanubhai vakil and MD was Damodar Sharma. All songs were written by Pt. Anuj (Sampatlal Shrivastav).

The Hero of this film was Navinchandra.

Navinchandraa’s full name was Navinchandra N. Joshi. He was born in 1907 at Jambusar and belonged to a Gujarati Bramhin family. When he was studying Intermidiate, his dream was to do M.Sc. and become a Professor. He was very much interested in body building and was a weight lifter.He was expert in Long jump, High jump and Malkhamb too, along with yogasanas. This made his body solid. Fair and handsome physique was noticed by one of the seniors in his Gym and he was taken to Bombay to meet produced director Indulal Yagnik. He offered him a Hero’s role in a stunt film. Thus Navin entered the film line with first silent stunt movie “The fall of Pawagarh”-1928. It was produced by Indulal Yagnik and directed by Nagendra Mujumdar. His first Heroine was Iris Crawford. He worked in more than 20 silent films and was famous as the Hero of Stunt and action films.

His first Talkie film was Kala Pahad-1933 in which his Heroine was Gauhar Karnataki ( sister of Amirbai karnataki and wife of Marathi stage artiste Bal Gandharv). The film was made by Sharda Movietone and directed by Baburao Apte (brother of actress Shanta Apte). Navinchandra acted in 33 talkie films, mostly stunt and action films. When the attraction of stunt films waned, he stopped getting roles, because stunt films were not being made now on roll. His last film was Jadui Putli-1946.

His age also caught up with him and he stopped getting films. He started doing small uncredited roles like an extra. The last information about him was when he was working as a Production manager in Imperial Film company, where now the studio was rented to other producers for shooting their films, by Irani’s heirs. One peculiar thing about Navinchandra was that except for the film’s required costume, he was always seen in Dhoti and Kurta only.

Today’s song is a rare song. The film had 11 songs (4 duets and 4 solos of Puri and 3 solos of Sarojini) The tune and style of the song is typical of the 30s period and quite a slow one, with long music prelude. With this song, film Sansar naiya-39 and singer Sarojini will make their Debut on the Blog.

( Thanks to shri Harish Raghuwanshi ji, Sadanand Kamath ji, ‘Asli Naqli chehere’ by Vithal Pandya, ‘ Silent cinema’ by Dr. Varma, MuVyz, HFGK and my notes, for information used hereabove.)

Song-Ritu basant ki aayi pyaari (Sansaar Naiyya)(1939) Singers- Sarojini, S L Puri, Lyrics- Pandit Anuj, MD- Damodar Sharma
Both

Lyrics

ritu basant ki aayi pyaari
ritu basant ki aayi pyaari
kaisi phool rahi phulwaari
kaisi phool rahi phulwaari
ritu basant ki aayi pyaari
ritu basant ki aayi pyaari

shaakhon pe baagh ke jhoolo
shaakhon pe baagh ke jhoolo
bulbul ban gulon ko chhoo lo
bulbul ban gulon ko chhoo lo
titli ban ke phool phool mein
titli ban ke phool phool mein
jaaun waari waari
jaaun waari waari
ritu basant ki aayi pyaari
ritu basant ki aayi pyaari
kaisi phool rahi phulwaari
kaisi phool rahi phulwaari
ritu basant ki aayi pyaari
ritu basant ki aayi pyaari

bhanwra ban ke main ud jaaun
bhanwra ban ke main ud jaaun
kali kali ka ras le aaun
kali kali ka ras le aaun
kunj kunj mein prem ki beena
kunj kunj mein prem ki beena
bajwaaun(?) sukh gori
bajwaaun(?) sukh gori
ritu basant ki aayi pyaari
ritu basant ki aayi pyaari ee

Tags: 1939, Actor-Singer, Damodar Sharma, Pt Anuj, S L Puri, Sansaar Naiyya, Sarojini

Chaal chale matwaari

Posted by: Atul on: January 27, 2019

In: "Raja" song | Actor-Singer song | Guest posts | Post by Arunkumar Deshmukh | Rare song | Song of 1938 | Songs of 1930s (1931 to 1940) | Yearwise breakup of songs
2 Comments

This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog.This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in 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 :

3845

Post No. :

14857

Movie Count :

4062

Today’s song is from a film which was made by the Film Factory- Ranjit Movietone, in 1938. The name of the film is Billi aka The Cat. The film was directed by Jayant Desai and the music was by the in house Music Director-Gyan Dutt. All the songs and the screen play was by P L Santoshi.

This was the first decade of the Talkie films. Initially films were made on Mythology, folk tales and Parsi Theatre stories. Therefore there were repetitions of film subjects like Harishchandra or Shirin Farhad, among the different film makers. When this became too obvious, the film makers turned their attention to other sources like Hollywood films, famous novels and stories by well known authors.

In this race, the Calcutta film makers, notably New Theatres, was on ‘numero uno’ position. Bengal has a rich literary tradition. The works of famous writers like Bankim chnadra Chatterji, Saratchandra Chatterji, Rabindranath Tagore, A K Sen, Bijoy Muzumdar and many more have enriched Bangla literature. Films based on their stories were made in Calcutta. Bombay, of course, was not to lag behind and many films on National and International novels and Hollywood films were made here.

The major difference in these two film centres was that Bangla films were mostly true to the original novels and Bombay films were made keeping in view entertainment of the audience and so were made by adapting these famous literary works using cinematic liberties in plenty.

Most movies made in Bengal were based on famous stories, novels and dramas. These movies were made in Bangla (for eastern India markets) and Hindi language for all India market.

In Bombay, one of the the earliest films made on a famous author’s work was ” The Mill aka Mazdoor-1934, by Mohan Bhavnani’s Ajanta Cinetone. It was written by Munshi Premchand, and was based on the miserable and pathetic plight of the Mill workers of Bombay. Unfortunately, the powerful lobby of the rich Mill Owners of Bombay and Ahmedabad pressurised the Government of Bombay State to ban this film. Two years later and after many cuts, the dilapidated film was released as ” Ghareeb parwar aka Daya Ki Devi” in 1936, but it flopped miserably, dragging the makers- Ajanta Cinetone to bankruptcy.

In 1937, a film ” Khwabon ki Duniya” was made by the Prakash pictures’ duo of Vijay and Shankar Bhatt. It was based on the famous and popular novel ” The Invisible Man” by H.G.Wells, published in 1897. This Hindi film was a copy of the Hollywood film of the same name, made in 1933. The film was a novelty and did very good business. Later on, another film Mr. X – 1957 was also on the same theme.

Today’s film Billi-38 was based on the famous novel ” Damsel in distress” by P.G.Wodehouse. Wodehouse (15-10-1881 to 14-2-1975) was from England but stayed in US for most of his life. ( He is my favourite writer and I have many of his novels with me.) Wodehouse was famous for his British humour filled novels spun around characters like Jeeves, Bertie Wooster, Psmith, Blandings Castle and Lord Emsworth and Mr. Mulliner. His most famous novel Damsel in Distress was first serialised in ‘ The Saturday Evening Post’ in May and June 1919. It was published as a book on 4-10-1919 in UK and on 15-10-1919 in US. A stage play based on this novel, gave 234 performances in UK in 1928 and a Musical Comedy on it was made in 1937 in US.

‘Crime and Punishment’ by Fydor Dostoyevsky was the basis for film ‘ Phir subah hogi’-58. Many films were made on Tarzan novels by Edgar Rice Burrows and some thrillers were made on novels of Edgar Wallace. Hindi films based on famous novels/stories by Indian authors were many. An old example is Milan-46 on Tagore’s Nauka Doobi and recent examples are Chetan Bhagat’s 4 novels- Hello, Kai Poche, 2 states and 3 Idiots, as films of the same name. Some other films on Indian and western novels are Devdas, Parineeta, Omkara, Tere mere sapne, Guide, Aisha,Maqbool, junoon, Pinjar, Shatranj ke khiladi, Hamlet, Haider, Bandini, Balika Badhu, Dharamputra, Amar prem, Tamas and many more. the list would be too long, so suffice to mention these films.

There is nothing wrong in making films on famous novels, but when producers, directors, actors twist the story, add own stuff and make a ‘ Khichdi ‘ of the novel, think what the author must be feeling. ( In film Guddi, a writer called Deshpande, describes what the film makers do to the stories, to Prof. Gupta played by Utpal Dutt). A case in point is film Guide. It is on record how R K Narayan was disgusted with the Cinematic liberties the film makers took on his novel, and how he stopped attending shootings and vowed never to allow another producer to buy his stories !

Trouble comes when when the film is made on a western novel like ” Damsel in Distress “. First thing is to adapt the novel to Indian context and traditions. While doing this , most times, a mess is created. The story of this novel takes place in London and shifts to a village nearby later. in Indian version you have to show an Indian city ( Bombay) and a village. I read the review of this film in Film India- October 1938 issue. Baburao Patel- who rarely appreciated a film and was very partial to few directors and actors- tore apart the film. Every aspect of the film was criticised. However, despite his attempt, the film did very good film and was a success. It is shown in this film that after meeting just once, the hero and heroine, in their subsequent meeting, do not recognise each others and a Cat, gifted by hero to the heroine in their first meeting, helps in getting them together again.

The cast of the film had E. Billimorea, Sunita, Ishwarlal, Kantilal, Ila Devi, Mazhar, Ram Apte, Ghory and others. There were 11 songs in the film. today’s song is the first song to feature here. The song is sung by Ishwarlal and Ila Devi. I knew Ishwarlal, but Iladevi was a new name. Even after efforts no information was available to me about her. From the question-answer column of the magazine Film India, I learnt that Ila Devi’s original film name was Miss Ilmas. I do not know in which religion or community, this name is used.After making her debut in Hindi films in ‘ Nishan -E- Jung ‘-1937, she changed her name to Ila Devi and acted in 6 more films. Four films in 1938 (Billi,Bazigar, Rikshawala and Gorakh Aaya) and two films in 1939 (Adhuri Kahani and Kahan hai teri manzil). After this her name is not found in any films, when I checked.

This change of name, after using one name in a film, is not unique, though,this seems to be the First such instance. I know, off hand, at least two more such instances in Film industry. Actress Ameeta (Tumsa nahi dekha fame) had used name Jaijaiwanti in her first film Thokar-1953 ( her second film kaafila -52 was released first as Ameeta,however), but he changed it to her name Ameeta from next film onwards. ( her real name was Qamar Sultana). The second example is actress Zeb Rehman who was known first as Preetibala, then she changed her name to Zeb Rehman.

The male singer in this song is Ishwarlal. ISHWARLAL was born on 9-10-1911 at Ghanghaniya,Kathewar,Gujrat, as Ishwarlal Hariprasad Doshi.

He belonged to a Jain family. His father was in Police department at Kathiawar Agency. His father died when Ishwarlal was just 3 year old and mother raised him.

After Matriculation, he completed Teaching Diploma at the age of 16, but did not a job as he was underage.He came to Bombay, where his brother had some business, in 1927 to act in films. Ishwarlal was very handsome.

He got a job in Ranjit Studios.He started with silent films at a salary of Rs. 35 pm.His first Talkie film was Bhutiya Mahal-1932.Then came Char Chakram-32.He started acting and singing in films.Initially he sang only duets.meanwhile,with Jwalamukhi-36,he became Hero.he sang many songs in Ranjit films,but the records are not available.Those days,not all songs of the film were recoded for commercial purpose.
In Billi-38,he sang a duet with Ila Devi and Sunita devi and also in Aaj ka Hindustan.In Ummeed-41,he had a duet with Nurjahan. In Pyaas-41,he sang with S.Pradhan.

In 1942,first time he got solo songs to sing in Fariyaad. In Jabaan,under C.Ramchandra,he sang 7 songs.

Some of his films were-
Diwali,Dheeraj,Chandni,bhola shikar,nadira, sitamgarh, Veer babruwahan, Barrister’s wife, College kanya, Desh dasi, Keemti aansoo
dil ka daku,Jwalamukhi,Sajni,Dil farosh,Adhuri kahani,Thokar,Holi,pyar,Bansari Lalkar,Chirag,Us paar,
He worked in Ranjit for 13 years. Then he worked with Prafull pictures, Sun art, Wadia, Hind pictures and Atre Pictures also.

In 1945,he was the hero of Nurjehan in Badi Maa,but he had no songs, infact his last songs were in Us Paar-1944. His singing stopped completely when Rafi gave him playback in film Sharbati Aankhen-45.

Then he did character roles in Subhadra,Mahasati tulsi vrinda,Sanskar,Naulakha haar,Khuda ka banda etc.

He acted in 86 films. He also directed 11 films. He sang 36 songs in 14 films. His last film released was was kahani kismet ki-73
He was married in 1931 to a loyal wife kamalabai. They had no issues. Due to excessive smoking he contracted lung diseases and died on 22-1-1969 in Bombay.

With this song, the film Billi aka The Cat-38 and the singer Ila Devi make their Debut on this Blog.

Song-Chaal chale matwaari (Billi)(1938) Singers- Ishwarlal, Ila Devi, Lyrics-P L Santoshi, MD- Gyan Dutt
Both

Lyrics

Chaal chale matwaari
gaadi Chaal chale matwaari
Chaal chale matwaari
gaadi Chaal chale matwaari

raaja jee ki ajab sawaari
Chaal chale matwaari
Raaja
haan
raaja jee ki ajab sawaari
Chaal chale matwaari
gaadi Chaal chale matwaari
Chaal chale matwaari
gaadi Chaal chale matwaari

Raaja
kahaan rakha hai mukut tumhaara
ye hai sundar pyaara pyaara
Raaja
kahaan rakha hai mukut tumhaara
ye hai sundar pyaara pyaara

baaje chidiyaghar ke raaja
baaji moorakhpur ki raani
raani jee ki ajab sawaari
raaja jee ki ajab sawaari
raani jee ki ajab sawaari
raaja jee ki ajab sawaari
Chaal chale matwaari
gaadi Chaal chale matwaari
Chaal chale matwaari
gaadi Chaal chale matwaari

Tags: 1938, Actor-Singer, Billi, Gyan Dutt, Ila Devi, Ishwarlal, P L santoshi

Hai dhanya tu Bharat naari

Posted by: Atul on: December 26, 2018

In: Guest posts | Post by Arunkumar Deshmukh | praising a person | Rajkumari solo | Rajkumari song | Rare song | Song of 1936 | Songs of 1930s (1931 to 1940) | Yearwise breakup of songs
2 Comments

This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog.This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in 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 :

3813

Post No. :

14811

Movie Count :

4051

Today’s song is from an obscure old film of the first decade of the Talkie films- Snehlata-1936.

The song is sung by Rajkumari under the baton of Lallubhai Nayak. This Prakash Pictures’ film was directed by Balwant Bhatt-elder brother of another director Nanabhai Bhatt. The cast of the film was, Gulab, Jayant, Panna, Umakant, Shirin Bano, Rajkumari,Lallubhai etc etc.

When films started to be made in India, in the early part of the 20th century, only local talent was used,naturally. As the industry started taking a shape,it was seen as an opportunity to earn wages. It was also an industry which did not require high education, a better creed or a particular religion. All that was required was to look reasonably well ( even tolerable) and readiness to do work. When films were shown in villages towns and cities, it created a desire in the hearts of aspirants and a flow to the film centres like Lahore, Calcutta, Kolhapur and Bombay started.

The Talkie film set the norms for actors. for the main roles-good looks, ability to speak in Hindi and singing ability and for other roles-tolerable looks, readiness to learn and do hard work were the standards. Being Talkie, knowledge of speaking Hindi/Urdu became necessary. This automatically became an exit point for several European, Jew and Anglo Indian artistes who had dominated the silent films. Thus the gates now opened for Hindu and Muslim girls, boys and adults.

As the industry grew, opportunities and requirements increased. Aspirants from other than local stations started pouring in, making the film industry a true representative Of Bharat, that is India. people from far off places thronged to Bombay, Lahore and Calcutta. Bombay had artistes hailing from U.P., Rajasthan, Bengal, Punjab, Delhi in addition to Gujarat and Maharashtra. Some artistes came from obscure and far off places too.

Some such examples come to mind offhand are, Hero Vijaykumar came from Shimla ( later even Sheila Ramani also came from there), kamla Kotnis from Andhra, Ranjan from Tamilnad, A,K,Dar aka Jeevan and Chandramohan from Kashmir, Amirbai Karnataki from Hubli, Sarvottam Badami from Bangalore etc etc.

When actress Shyama Zutshi from Kashmir acted in films like Vishnu Bhakti-34 and Karvaan E Hayaat-35, there was a hue and cry. Famous actor Chandramohan – who too was from Kashmir-resented that women from Kashmir came into films and warned Shyama not to act in films and go back. Eventually, she left films and joined Politics with her father in Kashmir. She is popularly considered as the First Kashmiri girl in Hindi films- followed by Yashodhara Katju in the 40s and 50s. Now of course so many girls and boys are from Kashmir in films. However Shyama Zutshi was NOT the first actress form Kashmir.

The First actress form Kashmir to work as a Heroine in Hindi films was GULAB, who was part of the cast of today’s film Snehlata-36. Her real name was Saraswati Devi. She was born on 10-6-1908 at Jammu. She joined Krishna Film Company in 1924. Her first silent film’Krishna kumar’ came in 1925. She worked in 60 silent films. Her last silent film was ‘Dagabaz Dushman’-32, made by east India Film co.Bombay.

Her first Talkie film was Suryakumari-33, made by Vishnu Cinetone. It was directed by Dhirubhai Desai. She sang one song ‘more preetam jab ghar aaye’ composed bu Kikubhai Yagnik. Then came Baburao Patel’s ‘Bala Joban’-34, Sewa Sadan-34 and Nai Duniya-34 ( Debut film of Rajkumari and Jayant). In this film Gulab sang 2 songs.

Gulab was very beautiful and quite popular in film industry. Some of her films were Bambai ki sethani-35, Challenge-37, Bharosa-40, Pyas-41, Ek Raat-42, Station master-42, Gaali-44, Rattan-44, Mann ki jeet-44, Mirza Sahibaan-47, Lahore-49, Badi Behan-49, stage-51, Post Box 999-58, Chhabili-60 etc etc. She acted in 160 films. her last film seems to be Haqeeqat-64 ( stats from MuVyz)

The Hero of film Snehlata-36 was Jayant. I used to like his masculine, well built personality and resonant voice. Rugged type of roles ( like in Madhumati-58) suited him best. I wonder how this Pathan must have acted in love story films ! His real name was Zakeria Khan. His family was from Peshawar. he was born on 8-10-1915. Till he was 15 year old, his father Sardar S.A.Khan was a Sports superintendent in Alwar state. After schooling, Jayant joined Alwar state army as second Lt. After 2 years he quietly resigned and proceeded to Bombay to become an actor. His family was unaware of this.

For few months, he went from one studio to another looking for an opening. Finally Director Vijay Bhatt met him and took him in Prakash Pictures Gujarati film ‘Sansar leela’-33, which was remade in Hindi as Nai Duniya-34. After this no work for few months and he did smaller roles in stunt films- about 30 films. Director Gunjal advised him to shift to Social films and he did Mud-40, opposite Shobhana Samarth. Then there was no looking back. Films like Mala-41( which was remade as Amar-54 and Jayant had acted in it also doing the same role), Zevar-42, Daavat-43, Poonji-43, Shirin Farhad-45, Maa baap ki laaj-46, Shoharat-48 etc came to him.

Jayant did 105 films. He sang one song in film State Express-38 also. His last film was Insaniyat-74. Film ‘Love and God’ was released in 1986. Jayant had 3 sons- Amjad khan (Gabbar singh), Inayat khan and Imtiyaz khan. Jayant died on 2-6-1975….just 2 months before film ‘Sholey’-75 was released !

The film was directed by the elder brother of Nanabhai Bhatt- Balwant Bhatt. He was born at Porbandar,Gujarat 0n 13-1-1909. Balwant started his career by assisting Naval Gandhi in 1930-31 and then N.B.Vakil at Sagar Studios in 1932. He turned Director with the advent of Talkie films and joined Prakash Pictures with Actress-1934. His first film was Chalta purja-1932 and the last one was Nagin aur Sapera-1966. He directed 33 films,mostly stunt and C grade films. He directed some Gujarati films like Sansar Leela,Seth Sagsha,Diwadandi,Snehlata etc.He was the producer of Dillagi-1942,Gunehgar,Alif Laila etc. Diwadandi-1950 became famous for its song-” Taari aankhni afini”, sung by Dilip Dholakia with music by Ajit Merchant. His film Mordhwaj-52 was the Debut film for MD Narayan Dutt. Balwant Bhatt died on 7-2-1965,at Bombay.

Film Snehlata -36 was also made in Gujarati. In those days, the regional language film industries were not that developed, so bilingual film making was quite common. The film seems to have had 7 songs, but HFGK mentions only 4 songs-all sung by Rajkumari, who was a regular singer in that period. The film ‘which was also known as ‘Bharat ki Devi’ had all songs written jointly by brothers Vijay and Shankar Bhatt.

Song- Hai dhanya tu Bharat naari (Snehlata)(1936) Singer- Rajkumari, Lyricist- Vijay and Shankar Bhatt, MD- Lallubhai Nayak

Lyrics

Hai dhanya tu Bharat naari
mahima hai teri nyaari
Hai dhanya tu Bharat naari
mahima hai teri nyaari
Ganga ki si ujiyaari
tu Ganga ki si ujiyaari
Ganga ki si ujiyaari
?? tumhaari
?? tumhaari
?? tumhaari
mahima hai teri nyaari
Hai dhanya tu Bharat naari
mahima hai teri nyaari

tan man dhan unke charnon par
tan man dhan unke charnon par
tan man dhan unke charnon par
sachmuch toone waar diya
sachmuch toone waar diya
tan man dhan unke charnon par
sachmuch toone waar diya
preetam pag anuraagini toone
aisa adbhut pyaar kiya
preetam pag anuraagini toone
kaisa adbhut pyaar kiya
aa aa aa aa

????
charnon par balihaari
sab charnon par balihaari
sab charnon par balihaari
?? vibhooti aaari
?? vibhooti aaari
vibhooti aaari
mahima hai teri nyaari
Hai dhanya tu Bharat naari
mahima hai teri nyaari
tan man dhan unke charnon par
tan man dhan unke charnon par
tan man dhan unke charnon par
sachmuch toone waar diya
tan man dhan unke charnon par
sachmuch toone waar diya
preetam pag anuraagini toone
aisa adbhut pyaar kiya
aa aa aa
preetam charnon par balihaari
main akshay ki ??
??
??
mahima hai teri nyaari

Tags: 1936, Lallubhai Nayak, Rajkumari, Snehlata, Vijay Bhatt-Shankar Bhatt

Gham e zindagi ka yaa rab na mila koi kinaara

Posted by: Atul on: December 22, 2018

In: Ghazal | Guest posts | NFS | Post by Sadanand Kamath | Song of 1940 | Songs of 1930s (1931 to 1940) | Talat Mehmood NFS | Talat Mehmood solo | Talat Mehmood songs
2 Comments

This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog.This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

Blog Day :

3809

Post No. :

14805

I am presenting a non-filmi ghazal recorded sometime in the early 1940s which I had heard a few years back. But after a long gap, this ghazal resurfaced when I was looking for information on the music director Chitta Roy in the context of one of the songs, aayi jawaani aayi aayi composed by him. The ghazal is ‘gham-e-zindagi kaa yaa rab na milaa koi kinaaraa’ (1940) sung by Talat Mehmood. Chitta Roy composed the music for this ghazal. The shaayar of this ghazal has been mentioned as I A Minai or Idris A Minai, a name I heard for the first time.

Despite searching extensively on the internet, I could not get even the basic information about Idris A Minai. A Google search on him gave information mostly about Ameer Minai, a well-known classical Urdu poet of the 19th century whom the current generation of fans of ghazals identify with his popular ghazals like ‘sarakati jaaye re rukh se naqaab aahista aahsta’ and ‘jab se bulbul tu ne do tinke liye’. There was, however, one name ‘Khalid Minai’ which appeared on a Google search as a Facebook page. A surprise was in store for me when I opened the page. Khalid Minai was none other than Idris A Minai who had adopted ‘Khalid’ as his nom de plume. The Facebook page, started by his son on the occasion of his 100th birth anniversary has a detailed biography of Idris A Minai. I have majorly edited his biography from the Facebook page – Khalid Minai, to make it concise. The edited version follows as under:

Idris Ahmad ‘Khalid’ Minai (29/08/1916 – 08/02/2008) was the grandson of the great Urdu poet and scholar, Ameer Minai (1827 – 1900) and the son of Mohammad Ahmad Minai and Raees Fatima. He was born in the “Purani Khandsar” quarter of the State of Rampur, (now in Uttar Pradesh) where both Ameer Minai and his son Mohammad Ahmad Minai served as high officials of the State of Rampur. The family who had settled in Rampur since 1858, moved to Hyderabad (India) in 1937 shortly after the death of his father, Mohammad Ahmad Minai.

Idris Minai completed his BA from Allahabad University in 1937, and MA in Economics from Osmania University, Hyderabad, in 1940. After a stint as a journalist for the paper “Payaam”, edited by Qazi Abdul Ghaffar, Idris Minai joined the Hyderabad State Bank (now State Bank of Hyderabad) in 1941, serving as the branch chief in Aurangabad (now in Maharashtra).

After Partition, Idris Minai was the first of the seven Minai brothers to move to Pakistan in 1948. After working in the State Bank of Pakistan for 2 years, he moved to the then newly formed National Bank of Pakistan – Pakistan’s first official commercial bank. Over the next twenty years, he served the bank in various capacities – both in West and the then East Pakistan (now Bangla Desh). He retired from the National Bank of Pakistan as Deputy Managing Director in 1971.

Literature and poetry were a major part of the environment in which Idris Minai grew up. His grandfather, Ameer Minai, was regarded as one of the major poets in the history of Urdu literature, and had succeeded the great poet, Ghalib, as the poetic mentor of the Nawab of Rampur. His father, Mohammad Ahmad Minai, was also a prolific poet, though he gave up the pursuit later in life. It was, therefore, natural for him to express himself in poetry, and, following the common practice, he chose a nom de plume, ‘Khalid’ (meaning, ‘eternal’).

Most of his poetic training occurred informally through interaction with his peers and elders which included Jaleel Manakpuri, the famous Urdu poet and the student of Ameer Minai, Fani Badayuni, Jigar Muradabadi, Hasrat Mohani, Hairat Badayuni, and Qazi Abdul Ghaffar, who gave him his first job. He developed close personal friendships with poets such as Sikandar Ali Vajd, Mahirul Qadri, Saeed Shaheedi, and several others. A notable influence for him was his eldest brother, Ismail Ahmad “Tasneem” Minai, who was himself a distinguished poet and writer. He was also influenced by Allama Iqbal for his universal vision which went beyond the classical poetry.

One of Idris Minai’s early works is an ode on the River Ganga which he wrote based on his experience while he was staying in Allahabad for his graduation. A collection of Idris Minai’s works is in the preparatory stage. In addition to poetry, he also wrote Urdu prose pieces in a language that recalled Oscar Wilde in its stylish beauty

Throughout his active life, Idris Minai participated in literary activities, beginning with mushairas in Allahabad, Hyderabad, Bombay (Mumbai), and elsewhere. After moving to Pakistan, the Minai siblings organised regular poetic events in Karachi and Lahore featuring the leading poets of the time.

Idris Ahmad ‘Khalid’ Minai breathed his last on February 8, 2008 in Karachi.

The ghazal under discussion has two versions. Talat Mehmood sang the original version in 1940 as per the uploader of the video. I could not get information on the internet as to when the original record was released. If the uploader is correct, then this ghazal precedes Talat Mehmood’s first recorded song sab din ek samaan nahin thha (1941). Talat Mehmood re-recorded this ghazal in almost identical orchestration sometime in 1960. I have given videos of both the versions for comparison purpose. My preference is the original version because Talat Mehmood voice was fresh without much of quiver as against the 1960 version.

Audio Clip :

(Original recorded in 1940)
Audio Clip :
\
(Re-recorded in 1960)
Song-Gham e zindagi ka ya rab na milaa koi kinaara (Talat Mehmood NFS)(1940) Singer-Talat Mehmood, Lyrics-Idrees A Minai, MD-Chitta Roy

Lyrics (based on Original recording)

gham-e-zindagi kaa yaa rab
na milaa koi kinaaraa
gham-e-zindagi kaa yaa rab
na milaa koi kinaaraa
meri fikr-e-bekaraan ne
do jahaan ko chhaan maaraa
meri fikr-e-bekaraan ne

meri aarzoo ko bakhshi
teri har nazar ne rafat
meri aarzoo ko bakhshi
teri har nazar ne rafat
usse bekaraan karegaa
mere shauq kaa sharaaraa
usse bekaraan karegaa

main kabhi ravaan davaan thhaa
kahin dasht-e-bekhudi mein
kisi door ki sadaa ne
mujhe pyaar se pukaaraa
kisi door ki sadaa ne

meraa zarf ye ki lekar
gham-e-bekaraan main chup hoon
meraa zarf ye ki lekar
gham-e-bekaraan main chup hoon
na sukhan se raaz paidaa
na jabeen se aashkaaraa
gham-e-zindagi kaa yaa rab
na milaa koi kinaaraa
gham-e-zindagi ee ee ee ee eee
———————————–
Meaning of some Urdu words

Yaa rab= Oh God

Fikr-e-bekaraan= Limitless anxiety

Rafat= Elevation

Shararaa= Spark, Flash

Ravaan= Moving

Davaan= Running

Dasht-e-bekhudi= Wilderness of intoxication

Sadaa= Call

Zarf= Capability

Sukhan= Words, News

Jabeen= Forehead

Aashkaaraa= Clear, Visible

Tags: 1940, Chitta Roy, Idrees A Minai, NFS, Talat Mehmood

Chhaai Aayi Saawan Ki Ghata

Posted by: skapur01 on: December 12, 2018

Blog Day :

3799

Post No. :

14789

Movie Count :

4044

Today’s song is from a very old film of the early talkie cinema – ‘Khwab Ki Duniya’ (1937) aka ‘Dreamland’.

This was the first film directed by Vijay Bhatt, after he and his brother Shankar Bhatt established Prakash Pictures. In those days, the trend was to make films on mythology, folk tales or social issues. Instead, Prakash Pictures took up a totally new and untried topic like Science Fiction story to make a movie. Film ‘Khwab Ki Duniya’ was based on – or took inspiration from the Hollywood popular film, Universal Studio’s ‘The Invisible Man’ (1933). This film was a cinematic adaptation of the famous novel ‘The Invisible Man’ written by HG Wells in 1897.

Originally, this novel was published serially in the ‘Pearson’s Weekly’ in the early part of 1897. At the end of the year 1897, it was published as a novel and very soon it became a best seller. Translated in almost every language in the world, the novel attracted the film makers of the early era and a film was made in 1933. The film also became a hit and in subsequent years several adaptations and film versions in different languages came up. India too did not lag behind and the adventurous duo of brothers made a film on this story, adapting it to Indian context. Several films in many languages using this as a central theme and adapting the story in various ways, were made in India. Some names I remember off hand are ‘Mr X’ (1957), ‘Mr X’ (1938), ‘Mr X In Bombay’ (1964), ‘Mr X’ (2015), and ‘Mr India’ (1987).

Basic problem was how to show the ‘invisible‘ man. There was no special effect technique available in India till then, like in Hollywood. Vijay Bhatt had an assistant called Babubhai Mistri, who accepted the challenge and using a dim light, a black curtain and a black thread to move articles, he achieved the desired results. This made the film not only a hit and popular one, but also a unique one. Babubhai Mistri, thus, became the father of the trick scenes and special effects in India. In the process Babubhai also earned a moniker of ‘kaala dhaaga‘ (black thread) for rest of his life, in the film industry.

Babubhai Mistri was born on 5th September 1918 in Surat, Gujarat. His father – a building contractor, died suddenly when Babubhai was just 14 year old. Being the eldest he had to take care of his mother and 9 younger siblings. He came to Bombay, where his uncle was working for Krishna Cinetone. With his help, he became an assistant in Bharat Movietone. Starting from making posters and helping in set designing, he learnt from every department of film making.

When he learnt that Prakash Pictures faced a difficulty in special effects he volunteered and made history. Impressed with his skill, Wadia Movietone, famous for fantasy and stunt films, took him in for special effects. During his career, Babubhai not only gave special effects to more than 300 mythological, stunt and fantasy films, but also entered the field of direction. Wadia brothers gave him first opportunity to direct their film ‘Muqabala’ (1942), a Nadia film about twin sisters.

Along with co-director Batuk Bhai i.e. Nanabhai Bhatt, he experimented some new special effects. This film was first in India to use ‘split-screen method’ for double roles, where both sisters could cross each others, shake hands and talk together. Another feature for this film was the night club set, which, in case of a police raid, could be converted into respectable home – on screen for the audience to see. It simply mesmerised the people.

In 1942 Wadia Movietone broke up and Homi Wadia started Basant Pictures. Babubhai directed a film ‘Mauj’ (1943) for him too. He became a free lancer and he directed 48 Hindi films. His last film was ‘Hatim Tai’ (1990). He also directed one Telugu and nine Gujarati films. Many of his assistants became famous as trick masters and special effects experts.

After his retirement he suffered from cancer. His voice box was removed and he had to use an artificial devise for speaking. Tata Cancer Hospital made a film on his courage and will power to overcome cancer, to inspire other cancer patients.

Babubhai won many awards and rewards, for his work in films. He died on 20-12-2010, at the age of 92 years. (Thanks to ‘Beete Huey Din‘ blog for some information used here.)

Film ‘Khwab Ki Duniya’ had a cast of Jayant, Sardar Akhtar, Lallubhai, Umakant, Shirin Bano, Ismail, Jahoor, Madhav Marathe etc. In the early phase of film making, it was difficult to get good looking female actors from educated or respected families for working in films. That is because, it was considered a ‘below the dignity’ job. For silent films, many Anglo Indian and Jew girls became heroines because for them it was not a question of dignity and acting was considered like any other vocation.

Dadasaheb Phalke had described an incident. While making his first film (‘Raja Harishchandra’, 1913), he needed a female actor for Taramati’s role. He found it very difficult to get one. Those days, even in stage plays, the female roles were done by handsome (and sometimes, not so handsome also) males. But even they were not ready. He became desperate and went finally to red light area and talked to some prostitutes. Even they refused to do this ‘lowly’ job. Reluctantly, Dadasaheb settled for Salunke, a male impersonator to do this role.

As the talkie films started, the number of Anglo Indian girls rapidly went down as most of them did not know Hindi nor could they sing. Only a few hard working Anglo Indian girls survived and progressed from silent to talkie films, like Savita Devi (Iris Gasper – who learnt Hindi/Urdu and singing, with efforts), Sulochana (Ruby Myers), Indira Devi (Effie Hippolet), Lalita Devi (Bonnie Bird), Pramila (Esher Abrahams), Seeta Devi (Renee Smith), Madhuri (Beryl Classen), Manorama (Winnie Stewart) etc. Since singing was an important requisite, the field was now open to singing girls from kothas, tawaayafs and professional singers. Reasonably good looks and singing ability was what made them actresses. These girls, who came from kothas and professional singer families used the suffix ‘Bai’ to their names to differentiate their specialty. Thus you had Jaddan Bai, Amirbai, Johrabai, Rattan Bai etc.

Many young singing girls considered cinema as a place where they could get (catch ? ) a good husband from a better family background, earning respectability (forget religion). Many starlets married producers, directors, actors, singers and composers, left acting and settled as respectable housewives. Some girls got husbands from Nawabs and the Royalty, as they were patrons of arts. Many examples from early era can be cited in this connection like,

Gulab Bai alias Kamla Devi married S Fatelal – director in Prabhat Films.

Jaddan Bai married Uttamchand – a medical student and a jaagirdar.

Fatima Bai (mother of Zubeida, of Alam Ara fame) married Nawab of Sachin, Guajarat.

Sultana married Yusuf Laljee, businessman and chief of Bombay Municipal Corporation.

Actress Sarojini (Roshan) married Nanubhai Vakil – producer / director (their daughter was actress Azra).

Actress Indurani (Ishrat) – sister of Sarojini – married Ramniklal Shah – producer / director.

Actress Shirin Bai married Nanabhai Bhatt (their sons are Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt).

Actress Zubeida (of Alam Ara) married Raja Dhanrajgir of Hyderabad (Deccan).

The other actress Zubeida (on whose life, the film ‘Zubeida’ (2001) was made) married Maharaja Hanwant singh of Jodhpur.

etc.

This trend continued in the industry even after things changed and educated and respected family people entered the industry. Now, one could see marriages were taking place between people of film industry itself like Rattanbai and Director Hafiz, Jyoti and Durrani, Nalini Jaywant and Virendra Desai, Noorjahan and Shaukat Hussain Rizvi, Meena Kumari, Sardar Akhtar, Snehprabha Pradhan, Anil Biswas, Lalita Deulkar etc.

In recent era instances are Waheeda Rehman, Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle, Hemant Kumar, Manik Verma, Premlata, Geeta Dutt, Geeta Bali, Rishi Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan etc.

In the cast you find a name Shirin Bano. Yes, she too is one of the above listed artistes who joined films to get a suitable husband and lead a respectable and comfortable life. Shirin, Shirin Bai or Shirin Bano was from a tawaayaf mother from Lucknow. Her father was a Tamil Brahmin – Ram Seshadri Aiyar, who worked as an accountant with Kikubhai Desai (father of Manmohan Desai) in his distribution department. They were 5 sisters and 1 brother. Shirin joined films at an early age. Her first film was ‘Maharani’ (1934). The same year she worked in ‘Vehmi Duniya’, ‘Sewa Sadan’ and ‘Bala Joban’. In 1935 her films were ‘Shamsher e Arab’, ‘Pardesi Sainya’ and ‘Bambai Ki Sethani’. In 1936, she worked in ‘Tope Ka Gola’, ‘Snehlata’, ‘Passing Show’ and ‘Azaad Veer’. ‘Khwab Ki Duniya’, ‘His Highness’ and ‘Challenge’ are her films from 1937, ‘State Express’ and ‘Purnima’ in 1938, and ‘Leather Face’ and ‘Hero No. 1’ from 1939. Total 18 films only.

Her youngest sister Meher Bano also joined films with the name Purnima (she also married a producer / director Bhagwandas Varma). Shirin married producer / director Nanabhai Bhatt, who already had a wife and 9 children. They had 2 sons – Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt.

Very surprisingly, Prakash Pictures themselves brought out another film immediately in the next year i.e. 1938, titled ‘Mr. X’. I do not know if this film was based on the same theme. Today’s song is sung by Shirin Bano and Ranjit Roy. I could not get any information on singer Ranjit Roy, even from my Kolkata contacts. MuVyz says that he sang 23 songs in 10 films, from 1936 to 1946. With this song, the film makes its debut on the blog.

Song – Chhaai Aayi Saawan Ki Ghata (Khwaab Ki Duniya) (1937) Singer – Shirin Bano, Ranjit Roy, Lyrics – Sampatlal Srivastav Anuj, Music – Lallubhai Nayak
Shirin Bano + Ranjit Roy

Lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)

chhaai aayi saawan ki ghata
chhaai aayi saawan ki ghata
baag mein boley papiha
baag mein boley papiha
pee..oo..u ka raag sunaave
pee..oo..u ka raag sunaave
chhaai aayi saawan ki ghata
chhaai aayi saawan ki ghata

mand sameer ki lehren aayin
hey. . .
mand sameer ki lehren aayin
mand sameer ki lehren aayin
hey. . .
mand sameer ki lehren aayin
lehren aayin
gaane lagi chidiya jee ki
gaane lagi chidiya jee ki
baadal se barsat hai paani
baadal se barsat hai paani
sab sarita jal bhar aayin
sab sarita jal bhar aayin

chhaai aayi saawan ki ghata. . .

———————————————————-
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————————————-

छाई आई सावन की घटा
छाई आई सावन की घटा
बाग में बोले पपीहा
बाग में बोले पपीहा
पी॰॰ऊ॰॰ऊ का राग सुनावे
पी॰॰ऊ॰॰ऊ का राग सुनावे
छाई आई सावन की घाटा
छाई आई सावन की घाटा

मंद समीर की लहरें आयीं
हे॰॰॰
मंद समीर की लहरें आईं
मंद समीर की लहरें आईं
हे॰॰॰
मंद समीर की लहरें आयीं
लहरें आयीं
गाने लगा चिड़िया जी की
गाने लगा चिड़िया जी की
बादल से बरसत है पानी
बादल से बरसत है पानी
सब सरिता जल भर आईं
सब सरिता जल भर आईं

छाई आई सावन की घटा॰ ॰ ॰

Tags: 1937, Khwaab Ki Duniya, Lallubhai Nayak, Ranjit Roy, Sampatlal Srivastav Anuj, Shirin Bano

Mero Lalna Jhoole Paalna, Mero Munna Jhoole Paalna

Posted by: Atul on: December 5, 2018

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.

Blog Day :

3792

Post No. :

14776

I was very fond of seeing movies and listening to the songs since childhood.Those days,children were not allowed to see films,unlike today. If at all a film is to be seen,the children had to go with their mother,aunt, grandmother or some such female relative and the film would invariably be something like Ram Ravan Yudh or Bakasur ki Maut.

Hyderabad state,where I spent my early years was ruled by a Muslim king-The Nizam(Ala Hazarat).There were some social customs,like Burkha,which reflected in the social lives of the citizen.

For example, in almost every theatre,there used to be a special class-“Zanana Class”.It was made out of the half of the Balcony class with a wall partition between them.The frontal portion facing the screen had a thick curtain,which was removed after the film started and covered again after the film ended,thus protecting the women spectators from the prying eyes of the public.

Same procedure was for Interval period also.Only women and small children were allowed in this subsidised class.A special ‘Curtain Mover’ used to be the in charge of this and the Zanana Class.

Usually a She -Male or a He -Female (don’t know which) was appointed for women’s safety.This type of arrangement was also available in other Muslim states like,Junagarh,Bhawalpur,Lucknow,Bhopal etc.Women used to make lot of noise and at times there were big quarrels,when the films were stopped,curtain moved, peace restored and the films were restarted.

I was lucky to start seeing films independently from the end of 40s. Usually,it was from the school directly. Every Friday to Sunday,there used to be a Morning show from 11 am. In this,the tickets were almost half rates, like 4 annas, 6 annas, 12 annas etc. Thus I was able to see many films of 30s and 40s, till about 1955-56 or so.

Once I went to college, then took up the job and other priorities of life,I saw less films,but never missing an opportunity to see older films and making notes. From 1980 onwards, I stopped seeing films, and when I retired in 1998, I dug out my old collections. I have not visited a theatre after 1980 and yet to see how a Multiplex looks like. I saw few films on TV and players.

In the initial era of Talkie films, Calcutta’s New Theatres and Poona’s Prabhat were the most well known film makers. They used to make films on social issues. Particularly, Prabhat was famous for keeping their films centred on the Reform themes like,Dowry, Child Marriage, Second Marriage, Cast difference etc.From the mid 30s one more company came into limelight and that was Bombay Talkies- founded by Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani. They also followed the trend and films on social issues like Untouchability, illiteracy etc were made. Today’s song is from a film made by Bombay Talkies- Jeewan Prabhat-37.

This was also a film dealing with Caste differences and second marriage. In this film,however, it was shown that the Caste difference stayed and the proposed second marriage got cancelled. I would say, it was quite a realistic depiction of the Indian mindset, because even after hundreds of years, the caste differences exist today, while the other social ills like child marriage, dowry, illiteracy etc are controlled to a greater extent. It would not be wrong to say that as long as the Reservation Policies exist, caste differences will continue to exist-with official support !

Film Jeewan Prabhat-37 was directed by the German Director Franz Osten. The Music Director was Saraswati Devi and lyrics and dialogues were by J.S.Casshyap. The screen play was by Niranjan Pal- Himanshu Rai’s friend since their London days. Kishor Sahu and Renuka Devi made their Debut in this film. Others in the cast were Mumtaz Ali,Prithwiraj kapoor, Maya Devi and M.Nazeer etc etc. The film was released on 2-11-1937 at Minerva Talkies in Bombay. Baburao Patel of Film India, in its December 1937 issue had not much good about this film. He, in fact, criticised both the Debutantes, for their acting calling them as ‘ disappointments ‘. However, the film did good business and ran for 17 weeks in Bombay.

Unlike Prabhat or New Theatres, Bombay Talkies produced their films in quick time. This film-Jeewan prabhat- was made in just 2 months. Their most popular film Achhut kanya-36 was made in 6 months. This was possible due to self sufficient facilities, good planning, modern equipment and total involvement of the staff. Franz Osten’s speed and his planning was such that in the span of just 4 years, Franz directed 16 films for Bombay Talkies !

The Debut making actress Renuka Devi was one of a kind. I am not only surprised,but awed and terribly impressed,when I went through her Autobiography ” A woman of substance-Begum Khursheed Mirza “.

Begum Khursheed Mirza is none other than the famous Heroine of the 30s and 40s-Renuka Devi ( 4-3-1918 to 8-2-1989 ). She was perhaps one of the most educated, upper class, sophisticated and highly cultured Muslim lady, who ever joined the film industry then. One more striking feature of Renuka Devi was that she was one of the very few actresses,who joined the films after their marriage. The other such examples I remember offhand is that of Meenakshi Shirodkar (Bramhachari-38 fame), Shobhana Samarth and actress Neena ( real name Shahida-wife of Mohsin Abdulla, brother of Renuka Devi and later wife of W.Z.Ahmed) in those times.

Renuka Devi had studied upto Masters degree in English Literature,from Aligarh Muslim University. The only other nearest example I remember offhand is that of actress Vanmala (real name Susheela Devi Pawar), who had done B.A and B.T. and was a Teacher in the college before joining films,at the behest of writer,journalist and Director P.K.Atre.

The story of Renuka Devi is quite interesting. Khursheed Jehan was born in Aligarh on 4-3-1918, to Shaikh Abdulla and his wife Waheed Jehan Beg. She was the 6th of the 7 siblings. Her father Shaikh Abdulla (1874-1965) was originally a Hindu. He was the son of a rich Jahagirdar and Landlord from Poonch,Kashmir. They were Kashmiri Brahmins. His name was Thakur Das. He embraced Islam in 1890, while studying in Aligarh. When his family learnt about it, he was disowned by them. He took the name Shaikh Abdulla.

He became a leading Advocate of Aligarh. After he married Waheed Jehan Beg,they both- being of progressive thinking- decided to work for the Muslim women’s education. They faced lot of resistance from the fundamentalists,but they established a Muslim women’s college in Aligarh. To provide students for this college,a school was also started for Muslim girls. soon the girls started joining the school and college. Shaikh Abdulla ensured that all his children were educated. One daughter became a Doctor,another Advocate and two daughters did master’s degrees and later on became Principals of the women’s college. Khursheed also studied upto masters but due to her marriage could not complete it. ( she completed her Masters in English Litterateur in 1963,at the age of 45 years,later).
Khursheed Jehan was married to Akbar Mirza,a Police Officer in Aligarh. Soon she gave birth to 2 sons also.

Her brother Mohsin Abdulla was working in Bombay Talkies,at Bombay. He used to describe how professional these studios were. Khursheed was 21 year old and beautiful. She desired to work in films. She wrote a letter to Devika Rani expressing her desire. This she did, without informing her husband. She received a letter from Devika Rani, inviting her to Bombay for an interview. Now she confided in her husband and he wholeheartedly supported her.

Thus started her acting career. She was 21 years,married and had 2 children too. Her first film was ‘ Jeewan Prabhat”-37. She was given the name RENUKA DEVI. This was a Debut film for Kishore Sahu. Bombay Talkies bosses were very happy with her performance and she was offered a Heroine’s role opposite Jairaj in film ” Bhabhi”-1939. Jairaj was also from a rich background,cultured and highly educated. Their tuning was excellent and the film was a grand success. Renuka also sang few songs in Bhabhi-39. ( when the news of her acting in films reached Aligarh,there was a hue and cry. Her mother wrote to Renuka,’not to visit Aligarh for now’. Renuka did not go to Aligarh for next 2 years).

She was invited to Calcutta By New Theatres to act in film, Badi Didi-39. Her other films were Naya Sansar-41 (Ashok kumar), Sahara-43 (S D Narang), Ghulami-45 ( Masood Parvez) and Samrat Chandragupta-45 ( Ishwarlal ). her film career was very short. She announced her retirement from films in February 1944,while shooting for her last films. She did only 7 films and sang only 3 songs in 3 films.

After partition,her family migrated to Pakistan. In Pakistan,though in demand,she refused to do any films. Instead,she decided to devote her time for women’s uplift,education,welfare and social work. She also did some work on Pakistan Radio.

When TV came to Pakistan,she became very active and for next 15-20 years she was a popular figure on Pak TV. In 1963,she completed her Master’s degree,at the age of 45 years. From August 1982 to April 1983,she published 9 instalments of her autobiography in the popular magazine ” Herald ” as ” The uprooted sapling”. This was,later on,edited and published as a Book, ” A woman of substance- the memoirs of Begum Khursheed Mirza “, by her daughter Lubna,in 2004. Renuka Devi died on 8-2-1989 at Lahore after a prolonged illness.

In her book she included a chapter of 24 pages ” Renuka Devi-my celluloid identity”,in which she has described many interesting anecdotes. her detailed description of the times of the 30s and 40s is a lovely chronicle of history of Bombay film industry. here are some excerpts from her book, for you…

1) Back in the Thirties, acting in films was not considered an honourable profession for anybody. And for a married woman from a well-educated and respectable upper-middle class Muslim family, it was forbidden to even think about it. But Khurshid Mirza, the daughter of the founders of the Aligarh Women’s College, the wife of a police officer and already a mother of two, was too free-spirited to be tied down by any social norm. I took the plunge and soon a star named Renuka Devi was born.

2) In 1939, Shanta Apte wrote that she received four or five letters each day from young girls wanting to join the movies “due perhaps to this monetary attraction”. Actresses themselves acknowledged in interviews that the money was substantial and more than one actress claimed that her salary rivalled that of the Governor of Bombay! But aside from several myth-building exercises, it is now apparent that film acting was a uniquely high-paying profession for women. According to Filmindia, Shobhana Samarth’s approximate total income in 1942 was Rs 36,000 while Sardar Akhtar, Naseem Banu, and Madhuri earned about Rs 30,000 each. These figures indicate that leading heroines of the day averaged an income of Rs 3,000-4,000 per month (some actresses were freelancers and did not work through the year), at a time when a French chiffon sari cost Rs 9, and a brand new imported Studebaker cost Rs 6,000. It is hardly surprising then, that I would want to make “a little dough”.

3) Akbar stood by me in the face of stiff opposition from both our families. Nevertheless, he maintained a strange attitude towards my work. He enjoyed the benefits the money brought us, such as a new car, expensive game-hunts, and pleasure trips to fashionable Mussoorie in summer and excellent schooling for our children. And, yet, he treated my work as a hobby, instead of giving it its due importance.

( My thanks to the book,”A woman of substance “, some information from ” Free Library”,Cineplot and my own notes).

One more name Maya Devi may be new to readers. Maya Devi was from Bombay and started her career from silent films in 1928 with Anarkali by imperial. Her first Talkie film was Kunwari ya widhva-35. Her real name was Leela. She became a favourite of Bombay Talkies and she did 6 films with them in 37 and 38. In all she did 5 silent films and 31 Talkie films till 1949. She got married with a Muslim and then migrated to Pakistan, where she did 19 films and then retired in 1964. She died in Lahore on 1-2-67. She did films in Gujarati and Punjabi also.( info from pakfilms.com).

The story of film Jeewan Prabhat-37 was……..

In this film Uma (Devika Rani) is born in a high caste Brahmin family,but falls in love with a boy of Kumhar caste(Potters).Her love with Ramu (Kishore Sahu) leads them nowhere as there is a great opposition to this from all sides. They realise that their love will lead them nowhere. Finally Uma is married off to Nandlal (Prithviraj kapoor), a Brahmin boy and Ramu accepts the reality.

The marriage makes the potters very happy too. Later it is rumoured that Nandlal is about to marry Padma (Chandraprabha),because Uma is a ‘ baanjh’ (infertile). Ramu meets Uma and their meeting is seen by Nandlal. He sends Uma back to her parents. Few days later, Uma discovers that she is pregnant,but Nandlal doubts her fidelity. At the end Padma, herself understands how much Uma loves Nandlal. She withdraws from the proposed marriage. Not only this,she also convinces Nandlal about Uma’s purity.

Finally, Nandlal and Uma begin a new life a new Jeevan Prabhat.

Song-Paalna mero munwa jhoole (Jeewan Prabhat)(1937) Singer-Saraswati Devi, Unidentified Male Voice, Lyrics-J S Kashyap, MD-Saraswati Devi
Chorus

Lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)

mero lalna jhoole paalna
mero lalna jhoole paalna
mero munna jhoole paalna
mero lalna jhoole paalna
mero munna jhoole paalna

hari gulabi resham ki dor lagi
soney chaandi ki bati ye khoob bani
hari gulabi resham ki dor lagi
soney chaandi ki bati ye khoob bani

faro faro maa ek lagaai
mann mohey bholi chhavi pyaari
faro faro maa ek lagaai
mann mohey bholi chhavi pyaari
maa ke mann mein uthat hilore
maa ke mann mein uthat hilore

jhoola jhoole laalna
jhoola jhoole laalna
mora bituwa jhoole paalna
jhoola jhoole laalna
mora bituwa jhoole paalna

badho bhalo to chhodo jhoola
doley it ut chalo khadula
badho bhalo to chhodo jhoola
doley it ut chalo khadula

baat banaawe bholi bholi
baat banaawe bholi bholi
bhookh lagey par daudo aawe
kahey totli boli
bhookh lagey par daudo aawe
kahey totli boli

maa maa
oti de
maa maa
dudhu de

maa daud uthaave
doodh pilaave
maa daud uthaave
doodh pilaave
laalna
mero munwa jhoole paalna
mero lalna jhoole paalna
mero munna jhoole paalna

?? to ghar mein aawe
maatha peete daud lagaave
?? to ghar mein aawe
maata ji se to daud lagaave

arey kin ne maara
baa..boo
babua kaun laaya
baa..boo
dudhu kaun pilaaya
ammaa
kaala teeka deta
ammaa

mera pyaara raaj dulaara
amma amma karta pyaara
mera pyaara raaj dulaara
amma amma karta pyaara
laalna
mero munwa jhoole paalna
mero lalna jhoole paalna
mero munna jhoole paalna

———————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————————————

मेरो ललना झूले पालना
मेरो ललना झूले पालना
मेरो मुन्ना झूले पालना
मेरो ललना झूले पालना
मेरो मुन्ना झूले पालना

हरी गुलाबी रेशम की दो लगी
सोने चांदी की बटी ये खूब बनी
हरी गुलाबी रेशम की दो लगी
सोने चांदी की बटी ये खूब बनी

फड़ो फड़ो माँ एक लगाई
मन मोहे भोली छवि प्यारी
फड़ो फड़ो माँ एक लगाई
मन मोहे भोली छवि प्यारी
माँ के मन में उठत हिलोरे
माँ के मन में उठत हिलोरे

झूला झूले लालना
झूला झूले लालना
मोरा बिटुवा झूले पालना
झूला झूले लालना
मोरा बिटुवा झूले पालना

बढ़ो भलो तो छोड़ो झूला
डोले इत उत चलो खडोला
बढ़ो भलो तो छोड़ो झूला
डोले इत उत चलो खडोला

बात बनावे भोली भोली
बात बनावे भोली भोली
भूख लगे पर दौड़ो आवे
कहे तोतली बोली
भूख लगे पर दौड़ो आवे
कहे तोतली बोली

माँ माँ
ओटी दे
माँ माँ
दुधु दे

माँ दौड़ उठावे
दूध पिलावे
माँ दौड़ उठावे
दूध पिलावे
लालना
मेरो मुनवा झूले पालना
मेरो ललना झूले पालना
मेरो मुन्ना झूले पालना

?? ?? तो घर में आवे
माथा पीटे दौड़ लगावे
?? ?? तो घर में आवे
माथा पीटे दौड़ लगावे

अरे किन ने मारा
बा॰॰बू
बबुआ कौन लाया
बा॰॰बू
दुधु कौन पिलाया
अम्मा
काला टीका देता
अम्मा

मेरा प्यारा राज दुलारा
अम्मा अम्मा करता प्यारा
मेरा प्यारा राज दुलारा
अम्मा अम्मा करता प्यारा
लालना
मेरो मुनवा झूले पालना
मेरो ललना झूले पालना
मेरो मुन्ना झूले पालना

Tags: 1937, J S Kashyap, Jeewan Prabhat, Saraswati Devi

Main sadqe tere nigaahe muhabbat

Posted by: Atul on: December 1, 2018

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.

Blog Day :

3788

Post No. :

14772

SONGS FROM ARTISTE NAME FILMS….Song No. 11
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Today’s song is from the film Sitara-1939.

About 4 years ago, I had run a series of songs from films with Artiste’s names. I had discussed songs from films like, Madhubala-50, Nargis-46, Veena-48, Usha kiran-52, Renuka-47, Madhuri-32, Hurricane Hansa-37, Zubeida-2000, Kamla-46 and Aasha-38 ( A to Z ). When the series ended discussing 10 songs, I found that I had few more songs from similar titled films like, Nirmala-38, Sitara-39, Vasanti-38, Poornima-38, Meenakshi-42 and Durga-39. Today’s song is from this collection.

Film Sitara was made and directed by Ezra Mir, under his own banner, Everest pictures Corporation. The music was by Rafiq Ghaznavi for songs written by Munshi Dil. The cast of the film was Ratanbai, Khursheed, Nazeer, Mubarak, K N Singh, Sunalini Devi, Violet Cooer, Mirza musharraf and many others. There was, however, no artiste of name Sitara in it.

Senior readers in the bracket of 55 to 75 years of age would recollect the Indian Documentaries made by Ezra Mir, shown before almost every film in the theatres. Indian News Reel and these documentaries on various subjects were actually used as a facility to enter the theatre late and still catch the whole movie from the beginning. These documentaries were made mostly by Ezra Mir and the voice over used to be that of Pratap Sharma usually. ( his younger brother Mahesh Sharma was my good friend in those days).

Ezra Mir was one of the rare persons who worked in the famous Hollywood studios for a considerable time, before he came to India and got involved in making films here. He was also a rare person who, despite being in great demand in the commercial cinema, chose to join a Government organisation and did a monumental significant work for the future generations. For a long time, I was thinking him to be a Muslim man, but at a much later date, I came to know that he was a Jew person.

Ezra Mir ( real name Edwyn Meyers) was born on 26-10-1902 at Calcutta. After completing his education, he joined Madon Theatres in 1921. In 1923, he left for Europe and America to work in film industry. After doing bit roles in Rudolph Valentino’s films in Long Island, New York and working for First National Biograph Studios, he joined the Universal studios as a ” Film Cutter ” and later as a Scenario writer. By his diligent and hard work he became the chief of story Department in United Artistes. In 1929, he wrote and directed a film ‘ Simbolisque ‘, which created a sensation in the film circle there.

With the advent of the Talkie, he came back to India , joined Imperial Film co. and made film Noorjehan-31 in Hindi and English. In 32-33, he joined Sagar movietone and directed Zarina-32, Pagal premee-33 and Farzand e Hind-34. Then Ezra went to Calcutta. After doing some films he came back and made documentaries on second world war. In 1940, he was appointed by the Govt. on Film Advisory Board. In 1942, when V.Shantaram left as its head, he became the head. From 1942 to 1946, he made 170 documentaries.

In 1951 he joined Films Division and in 1956, became its President. In his tenure here, he made 400 documentaries. In 1970 he got ‘ Padmashri ‘. Ezra Mir died on 7-3-1993. His Filmography is Noorjehan-31, Zarine-32, Pagal premi-33, Farzand e Hind-34, Mera Pyara and Rasheeda-35,Jeevan Sangram, Parivartan,Rajdulari and Shaitan ka pash-36, Rikshawala-38,Sitara-39, Beete din-47, pamposh-54 and Raju aur gangaram-64.

The Music Director of film Sitara-39 was Rafiq Ghaznavi, who was a multi faceted artiste. He acted in 18 films, directed 1 film, sang 30 songs in 15 films and gave music to 22 films and composed 191 songs, according to MuVyz.com.

Private life of a celebrity has always been a matter of curiosity for the common man and if the celebrity is from the show world like films ,then there are all attempts to dig out the ‘ behind the scene’ stories about the famous people.

In the early era, the female artistes were from the courtesan or the singing families. Most males too were not much educated. Thus there were many cases of illicit relationships and children out of wed locks. For the rich producers, having an ‘extra facility’ was a matter of a few thousands. In those days the social medias and the film magazines were not common, hence such matters hardly came into the open. The insiders, however, knew many stories. Few personalities like actor Shyam, Rafiq Ghaznavi, Prem Adeeb,C.Ramchandra were some of the artistes who were claimed to be involved in ‘ extra-curricular activities ‘. So were some Producers and Directors.

When careers are on the rise,talents are bright and the work is extraordinary, it hardly matters what the artistes do in their private lives. People are happy with their work. Yesteryear Actor,Singer and Music Director RAFIQ GHAZANAVI was one such person.

Rafiq was a singer from his school days and he became famous by the time he completed his Matriculation. He had learnt music from a blind expert. He was called by H.M.V. to Lucknow and several records were made of his songs. He completed his graduation. He was an expert in Hindi, Urdu, English, Punjabi, Pushtu and Afghan Persian languages fluently. He was a voracious reader of English books. He edited a magazine “Raavee”. His stage shows were always housefull. He was honoured by the American Art Society with a Gold Medal. He was famous in the art circles of Lahore.

His first film as a composer was ” Pavitra Ganga”-1932. Then came Prithviraj Sanyogita-33 and Deewaani-34 etc. He was a good friend of producer Director Mehboob Khan. The voice accompanying the Mehboob Productions Logo is that of Rafiq Ghazanavi, “Muddai lakh bura chaahe to kya hota hai, wohi hota hai jo manzoor-e-Khuda hota hai”. The famous Logo consisted of a Hammer and Sickle, indicating the socialistic inclination of Mehboob Khan, who was a great follower of Pandit Nehru’s idealogy. When 14 year old Nargis was offered the heroine’s role in Mehboob’s ” Taqdeer ” the music was entrusted to Rafiq Ghaznavi. Shamshad Begum was brought from Lahore specially to sing her first songs in Bombay for “Taqdeer” and Rafiq Ghaznavi was directing her songs.

Famous writer Saadat Hasan Manto, in his book “Stars from another sky “, had devoted a full chapter to Rafiq. Manto, in his inimitable style has described all his ‘extra ‘ activities in details,as he was an observer for most of them. Rafiq was tall and handsome and had the magical quality to attract women. Wine and women were his weaknesses. But there was much more to Rafiq than only running after lowly women. He was never a one woman man. He had married 3 sisters, one after another, but never remained faithful to any one of them. As far as his music was concerned, he was very strict and never mixed these two things. He always tried to give his best in every film. Here is a short Bio from a Pakistani source-pakfilms.net, some years ago.

Born to an enlightened family in 1907, in Rawalpindi, Rafiq Ghaznavi was full of life since his earliest days. He passed his childhood amidst scenic, natural beauty, surrounded by mountains, valleys and lakes.

After receiving his matriculation examination degree, Rafiq Ghaznavi moved to Lahore. In Lahore, he completed his intermediate examination from Islamia College, Lahore. Then he graduated from the Punjab University.

During those days if a handsome, enthusiastic young man was endowed with acting talents, he was more inclined towards the glamorous movie business. Rafiq Ghaznavi was no exception. Let us go seventy-five years back in time and see how movies were made in that time period.

Those were the days of silent movies. Though the vocal film ‘Alam Ara’ was released in 1931, still silent movies were in vogue for quite sometime, just like black and white movies continued to flood the market after the advent of color movies.

Visionary movie director, Mian A.R. Kardar, is considered the discoverer or ‘Columbus’ of the Lahore film industry. Moved by Rafiq Ghaznavi’s powerful voice and good looks, Kardar signed him as hero for his silent movie, ‘Brave heart’, while the latter was studying in college.

Thus, Rafiq Ghaznavi debuted in the film ‘Brave heart’ in 1931 at the age of twenty-four. Soon Rafiq Ghaznavi began to outlive his town and his time while his companions were thinking what to make of their lives.

Director A.R. Kardar, on the other hand, made his first talking film, ‘Hoor Punjab’ in 1932. Later, he changed its name to ‘Heer Ranjha’ and it was released under the banner of Play art photo tone.

Handsome, as Rafiq Ghaznavi was, Kardar picked him up for the romantic lead role of ‘Ranjha.’ While actress Anwari played the lead romantic role of ‘Heer Seyaal’. Additionally, Rafiq Ghaznavi composed music and lent his impressive voice to all the songs. Hence, he was the hero-composer-singer in the film ‘Heer Ranjha.’ Since all the songs were pictured on him he was also the singing star.

After working in ‘Heer Ranjha’, Rafiq Ghaznavi migrated to Bombay and worked diligently for the Bombay film industry. Rafiq was a multi talented man. He acted in 18 films. He directed 1 film-Prem pujari-35. He sang 30 songs in 15 films and he gave music to 22 films, composing 191 songs. (all statistics from MuVyz.com)

Dwelling on his personal life, Rafiq Ghaznavi married film actress Zehra and had a daughter, Shahina, from her. Shahina grew up and made her mark as an actress in movies like ‘Beli’, ‘Nigar’, ‘Aankh ka nasha’, ‘Bharosa’, and ‘Intiqaam.’

Rafiq Ghaznavi also had a son, Murad, from his first wife, Zehra. In due course of time, Rafiq Ghaznavi divorced Zehra. She married director A.M. Mirza and was known as Zehra Mirza.

Actress Anwari was the second wife of Rafiq Ghaznavi with whom he had a daughter, Zarina Agha. Later, Zarina changed her name to Nasreen and worked in director A.R. Kardar’s movie, ‘Shah Jehan’ and Daud Chand’s movie, ‘Aik Roaz.’
After Rafiq left Anwaribai, she married Jugal Kishore Mehra ( Raj kapoor’s Mama), who converted to Islam and became Ahmed Salman. He was also the director of Radio Pakistan. He adopted Nasreen and got her married to Agha Liyaqat Gul Tajik. He settled in London doing Diamond business.

Further, Nasreen Agha’s daughter, Salma Agha, achieved great name and fame as a singing star.

Actress Anuradha, whose real name was Khursheed Akhtar, was the third wife of Rafiq Ghaznavi, with whom he had a son, Ayaz Mehmood. Furthermore, one of Rafiq Ghaznavi’s daughter married popular writer-director, Zia Sarhadi. Zia Sarhadi’s two sons, Khayam Sarhadi and Bilal Sarhadi attained fame in show business.

Interestingly enough, all three wives of Rafiq Ghaznavi were real sisters and they hailed from Amritsar.

Rafiq Ghaznavi, who was such a charismatic figure, a talented composer of the highest grade and a visionary, passed away on 2-3-1974, in Karachi, at the age of sixty-seven.

Today’s song is sung by Rafiq himself. In those days, films used to have many songs. Even this film had 13 songs. There were 5 singers who sang these songs. I first heard few songs of this film and I selected this song as it is better than the other songs.

Song- Main sadke tere nigaahe muhabbat (Sitaara)(1939) Singer- Rafiq Ghaznavi, Lyrics- Munshi Dil, MD- Rafiq Ghaznavi

Lyrics

main sadqe tere ae
nigaahe mohabbat
main sadqe tere ae
nigaahe mohabbat

banaaya mujhe baa
banaaya mujhe baa
banaaya mujhe baa
aadshaah e muhabbat
haaye
main sadqe tere ae
nigaahe mohabbat
main sadqe tere ae
nigaahe mohabbat

taaron ki hansi hai meri
taaron ki hansi hai meri
kaliyon ki khushi hai meri
kaliyon ki khushi hai meri
phoolon ki pari hai meri
phoolon ki pari hai meri
ye jungle hai aaraamgaah e muhabbat
ye jungle hai aaraamgaah e muhabbat
haaye
main sadqe tere ae
nigaahe mohabbat
main sadqe tere ae
nigaahe mohabbat

banaaya mujhe baa
banaaya mujhe baa
banaaya mujhe baa
aadshaah e muhabbat
main sadqe tere ae
nigaahe mohabbat
main sadqe tere ae
nigaahe mohabbat

Tags: 1939, Munshi Dil, Rafiq Ghaznavi, Singer-MD, Sitaara

Dhanwaalon Ki Duniya Hai Ye, Nirdhan Ke Bhagwaan

Posted by: skapur01 on: November 26, 2018

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.

Blog Day :

3783

Post No. :

14764

Movie Count :

4037

Today’s song is from film ‘Holi’ (1940). It is written by DN Madhok and composed by Khemchand Prakash. This duet is sung by Sitara Devi and Kantilal.

When silent films started talking, it became imperative for the film makers to recruit only those artistes who could sing on screen. In this compulsion, most of the times, the composers had to compromise on the singing ability of the artistes, because for the artistes, acting was primary and singing was secondary. Barring the born, natural singers like Noorjehan, KL Saigal, Khursheed, Surendra and few others, the rest of the singers in the film industry were all ‘make do’ types. In the early era, till about the beginning of the 40’s decade, the music directors had a tough time getting songs sung by these so called ‘singers’. May be, that is the reason why we find that many composers also sang when the playback started.

Almost all the heroes and heroines (with the sole exception of Jairaj – who was an ‘Aurangzeb’ in music) willy-nilly sang even after the playback singing had firmly set in. Pure and exclusive singers like Lata, Asha, Geeta, Rafi, Mukesh and Talat started occupying their legitimate place in playback singing in films from the mid 1940s onward. At the same time, slowly and steadily singing by the actors and actresses diminished, and by the dawn of the 1950’s decade, playback singing was rooted firmly. In my opinion, this was also one of the major reasons of ‘Golden Period of Film Music’ blossoming from around 1947-48 onward. Due to the availability of playback singers, actors started acting wholeheartedly and composers got new energy and they concentrated on making good music rather than breaking their heads on teaching the ‘pseudo-singers’ how to sing their songs ! In one of the interviews, Naushad had expressed his relief from getting song sung by non-singers !!

Singers like Ishwarlal, Kantilal, AR Oza, Vatsala Kumthekar etc were part actors and part singers. Thus we find that very rarely any song sung by these part time singers became an evergreen song. I can, however, think of only one song- “Zindagi Ka Saaz Bhi Kya Saaz Hai, Baj Raha Hai Aur Be-awaaz Hai” by Naseem Bano in film ‘Pukar’ (1939). She had sung it well and the composer Meer Sahab too should get some credit for its composition. But such cases are rare. Mohd. Rafi’s case in this connection can be quoted. After the regular playback singers became composers’ first choice, one by one the ‘part time’ singers closed their shops ! See here how Rafi did it.

Mohd. Rafi, no doubt, was a versatile singer. Like Lata, when he came on the scene of playback singing – after considerable hard work and struggle, he replaced the old singers who sang in the films, one by one.

Ashok kumar’s singing spree stopped when Rafi sang for him in film ‘Saajan’ (1947).
Ishwarlal stopped singing when Rafi sang for him in film ‘Sharbati Aankhen’ (1945).
Shahu Modak stopped after ‘Chakradhari’ (1954).
WM Khan after ‘Aalam Ara’ (1956).
Master Nissar after ‘Boot Polish’ (1954)
GM Durrani after ‘Lal Pathar’ (1971)
Karan Dewan after ‘Duniya’ (1949).
Noor Mohammed Charlie after ‘Zameen Ke Taare’ (1960).
Balak Ram after ‘Shri Ram Bharat Milan’ (1965).
Moti Sagar after ‘Paak Daman’ (1957).
Man Mohan Krishna after ‘Basant Bahar’ (1956).

Mohd. Rafi even sang for some composers who used to sing in films,

SN Tripathi – ‘Pawanputra Hanuman’ (1957).
Snehal Bhatkar – ‘Baawre Nain’ (1950) (he was doing a beggar’s role in this film)
Sudhir Sen – ‘Saat Phere’ (1970).

By the way, Rafi was the only male playback singer who sang with all 3 major singer actresses

Noorjehan – ‘Jugnu’ (1947).
Khursheed – ‘Aage Badho’ (1947)
Suraiya – they have sung together in 13 films

The female singer in today’s song is Sitara Devi (8-11-1920 to 25-11-2014), the well known Kathak dancer. Her life story is available freely on the internet. She was bestowed the title of ‘Nritya Samragni’ by Ravindranath Tagore, in 1936, when she was just 16 year old. Sitara is also famous for her multiple marriages. She was the one who refused to accept ‘Padma Bhushan’ honour, stating that she deserves nothing less than ‘Bharat Ratna’ alone ! She had taught Kathak Dance to younger actresses like Madhubala, Rekha, Mala Sinha and Kajol.

The male singer in today’s song is Kantilal. KANTILAL CHHAGANLAL PACHCHIGAR was born on 18-4-1907 in Surat, Gujarat. Due to inherent interest in music, after college education he came to Bombay to try film singing. His first film was ‘Bulbul e Paristan’ (1934) from Vishnu Cinetone. Kikubhai Yagnik was the MD. Kantilal sang 2 songs in it. In 1935, he acted, sang and gave music to ‘Preet Ki Reet’ (1935). He sang 6 songs. He also gave music in ‘Punjab Ka Sinh’ (1936) and also in ‘Gul Badan’ (1937). From 1937 to 1941, he was with Ranjit Movietone and acted and sang in 16 films. He sang 40 songs under Khemchand Prakash and Gyan Dutt.

Then came ‘Gazi Salahuddin’, ‘Kangan’, ‘Holiday In Bombay’ and ‘Kanchan’. Kantilal sang 60 songs in 24 films under 5 MDs. Some of his films were, ‘Toofaani Toli’, ‘Ban Ki Chidiya’, ‘Billi’, ‘Gorakh Aaya’, ‘Prithviputra’, ‘Adhoori Kahaani’, ‘Nadi Kinaare’, ‘Aaj Ka Hindusthan’, ‘Achhoot’, ‘Diwali’, ‘Holi’, ‘Musafir’, ‘Pardesi’, ‘Sasural’, ‘Shaadi’ etc.

In 1943, he married Ushaben and acted in Gujarati films and dramas. He passed away on 17-6-1971.

Khemchand Prakash (12-12-1907 to 10-8-1950) was a very talented composer, but unfortunately most of his career, he dealt with average singers. Whenever he got opportunity to make songs for real singers like Saigal (‘Tansen’ and ‘Bhanwara’), Khursheed, Kishore ( ‘Ziddi’ and ‘Muqaddar’), Lata (‘Mahal’) and Rajkumari, his songs became famous and very popular. Today’s song is sung by the so called part time singers, but they have tried their best in it.

With this song film ‘Holi’ (1940) makes its debut on the blog.

Song – Dhanwaalon Ki Duniya Hai Ye, Nirdhan Ke Bhagwaan (Holi) (1940) Singer – Kantilal, Sitara Devi, Lyrics – DN Madhok, Music – Khemchand Prakash
Kantilal + Sitara Devi

Lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)

dhanwaalon ki duniya hai ye
nirdhan ke bhagwan
dhanwaalon ki duniya hai ye
nirdhan ke bhagwan

nirdhan teri
nirdhan ka main
nirdhan teri
nirdhan ka main
ek anokhi shaan
ek anokhi shaan

do din ki ye mast jawaani
do din ki ye mast jawaani
do din ka ye roo..oop
ek mundere chaanv hai aayi
ek mundere dhoo..oop
bhole panchhi is pinjre ka
bhole panchhi is pinjre ka
jhootha tere maan
haa..aan
jhootha tere maan
haa..aan
dhanwaalon ki duniya hai ye
nirdhan ke bhagwan

ret ke mahal bana kar moorakh
ret ke mahal bana kar moorakh
in mein kiya baseraa. . .
ek fanaa ke jhonka aaya
kooch hua sab dera
ret ke mahal bana kar moorakh
ret ke mahal bana kar moorakh
in mein kiya baseraa. . .
ek fanaa ke jhonka aaya
kooch hua sab dera
jhootha jeevan ka iktaara
jhootha jeevan ka iktaara
jhoothi us ki taa..aan
dhanwaalon ki duniya hai ye
nirdhan ke bhagwan
dhanwaalon ki duniya hai ye
nirdhan ke bhagwan

———————————————————-
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————————————-

धनवालों की दुनिया है ये
निर्धन के भगवान
धनवालों की दुनिया है ये
निर्धन के भगवान

निर्धन तेरी
निर्धन का मैं
निर्धन तेरी
निर्धन का मैं
एक अनोखी शान
एक अनोखी शान

दो दिन की ये मस्त जवानी
दो दिन की ये मस्त जवानी
दो दिन का ये रू॰॰प
एक मुंडेरे छाँव है आई
एक मुंडेरे धू॰॰प
भोले पंछी इस पिंजरे का
भोले पंछी इस पिंजरे का
झूठा तेरे मान
हाँ॰॰आँ
झूठा तेरे मान
हाँ॰॰आँ
धनवालों की दुनिया है ये
निर्धन के भगवान

रेत के महल बना कर मूरख
रेत के महल बना कर मूरख
इन में किया बसेरा॰ ॰ ॰
एक फना का झोंका आया
कूच हुआ सब डेरा
रेत के महल बना कर मूरख
रेत के महल बना कर मूरख
इन में किया बसेरा॰ ॰ ॰
एक फना का झोंका आया
कूच हुआ सब डेरा
झूठा जीवन का इकतारा
झूठा जीवन का इकतारा
झूठी उसकी ता॰॰आन
धनवालों की दुनिया है ये
निर्धन के भगवान
धनवालों की दुनिया है ये
निर्धन के भगवान

Tags: 1940, DN Madhok, Holi, Kantilal, Khemchand Prakash, Sitara Devi

Older Entries

Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs

Archive for the ‘Songs of 1930s (1931 to 1940)’ Category

Chandrmukhi ki shaadi mein

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Chaal chale matwaari

Hai dhanya tu Bharat naari

Gham e zindagi ka yaa rab na mila koi kinaara

Chhaai Aayi Saawan Ki Ghata

Mero Lalna Jhoole Paalna, Mero Munna Jhoole Paalna

Main sadqe tere nigaahe muhabbat

Dhanwaalon Ki Duniya Hai Ye, Nirdhan Ke Bhagwaan

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