Archive for the ‘Songs of 1930s (1931 to 1940)’ Category
- In: "Raunchy" song | 15K Song Milestone Celebration Posts | Devnagri script lyrics by Sudhir | Enticement Song | Feelings of heart | Guest posts | Lyrics by Sudhir | Lyrics contributed by readers | Post by Arunkumar Deshmukh | Song of 1935 | Songs of 1930s (1931 to 1940) | Yearwise breakup of songs
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This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Blog Day : |
3928 | Post No. : | 14999 | Movie Count : |
4106 |
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Atul Song-A-Day 15K Song Milestone Celebrations – 9
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The other day, I read one quote, ‘My grand kids believe, I am the oldest thing in the world. And after spending 2 to 3 hours with them, I believe it too !”
I liked it very much and I immediately copy-pasted it in several WA groups where I am a member-including a group of Atulites.
For most people, after a certain age and after retirement, spending time is a big problem. Especially for those, who have no hobby, reading habits or a friend circle of same age group. This was never a problem for me, not because of anything written above. I retired in 1998, i.e. about 21 years ago. After doing a roaring consultancy for 5 years, I got fed up and left everything completely.
For next few years, I traveled quite a lot, with my wife. After that I settled to a steady, disciplined life. I revived my old love – love of old films and music. After a gap of almost 50 years, I remembered my diaries, which I had written after seeing every film till about 1960 or so. I opened those boxes and to my horror found that due to humidity in Bombay, white ants had attacked the diaries. I could, however, salvage majority of them – though in torn and faded conditions. . . but still worth their weight in gold !
By then, I had crossed 70 years of age. I learned operating the computer and smart phones etc., from my grand children and started surfing. One day I struck gold. I came across THIS BLOG. I was impressed with the Blog and enjoyed old songs whenever posted on it. After about 2 years of only commenting and sharing information on the Blog, Atul ji motivated me to write a post here. My first post was the song “Surya Wahi Chandra Wahi“, from the film ‘Savitri’ (1937) and it came up on 1st October 2012. The rest is history, as they say.
This Blog changed my life totally. It provided a purpose of life to me. Through posting articles here, I reinforced my belief that “Sharing knowledge increases your knowledge”. Along with the Blog I too grew up and earned a name for myself in the social media. Like the Blog, I too celebrated my Milestones of 100, 500, and 700 articles. . . – and the ride continues. . . 🙂
This Blog has given me new friends. Normally, it is difficult to cultivate new friends in old age, but contrary to this, I got very good friends, though none from my age group. Still, they accepted me heartily. Thank you Atulites. The Blog occupies a vital position in our lives now. Every Blog event is shared and celebrated. In this journey, few friends were left behind and some new ones came in, but the Band Wagon marches on… on… on and on…
The Blog is approaching one of the most important Milestones in recent times – achieving a record of 15000 songs, posted with full and correct lyrics, videos as well as lot of information woven around the songs, by Atul ji and his team of contributors. I feel proud that even my ‘Two Cents’ are there in this milestone. This Blog is unique, ATUL ji is an excellent leader and all contributors to posts, lyrics, comments, videos etc deserve CONGRATULATIONS !
True to my reputation, I have selected a song from an old film – in fact a film belonging to the first 5 years of talkie era – ‘Divine Sacrifice’ aka ‘Kimti Kurbani’ from 1935. The song, written by an unknown lyricist, is sung by Rajkumari Dubey and the music is given by Master Motilal Nayak.
During the early phase of the talkie films, most music directors came with either stage or classical background. The film people never crossed borders initially – at least for the first few years. Those who worked in Bombay remained here and those who worked in Calcutta stayed put there only. Motilal Nayak was one such MD, who gave music only to films made in Calcutta.
Calcutta’s New Theatres was like a family. It ran on systems. It became a way of life for people working in it. Since its establishment in 1930, competition increased consistently, in the number of film producing companies in Calcutta. By 1938, there were many Production houses in Calcutta alone. Some of them were- Arora Film Co., Shri Bharat Laxmi Pictures, Chitramandir, RBS Productions, Dev-Dutt Films, East India Film Co., Indu Movietone, Kali Films, Kamala Talkies, Madan Theatres, New Popular Pictures, Moti Mahal Theatres, Murli Pictures, Quality Pictures, Radha Film Co., Sonoray Picture Syndicate, Sunrise Film Co., M & SFD Company, and Tollywood Studio. (Interesting point here – Bombay film industry came to be known as Bollywood decades after this Calcutta studio – Tollywood – which continues till today for Bangla film industry). Only few of these were regular film production houses with own facilities. Most others were formed to produce occasional films, using facilities at the regular production studios.
Motilal Nayak gave music to only handful films – ‘Aankh Ka Tara’ – (1932, Madan Theatres), ‘Kanya Vikray’ – (1934, Pioneer Films), ‘Divine Sacrifice’ – (1935, M&SD Films), ‘Asmat Ka Moti’ – (1935, Pioneer), Noor E Wahadat’ – (1936, East India Film Co), ‘Bandit Of The Air’ – (1936, Modern India Talkies; this was also the debut and the only film where KN Singh was the hero). All these films were made at Calcutta only.
The cast of ‘Divine Sacrifice’ was Khalil, Miss Rose, Laxmi, Abbas Ali, Sheela, Amir Ali, Agha Jaani, Rajkumari etc.
Master Khalil Ahmed (variously mentioned as Khalil, Master Khalil, and Khalil Ahmed) was the first ever star of the silent era as well as talkie films from 1920 to 1940s. Born in 1903, he became a hero in Kohinoor’s ‘Gul E Bakavali’ (1924), opposite Zubeida. He was the first handsome and macho hero of those times. He acted with all top heroines of his time. Some of his 30 silent films are, ‘Kaala Naag’, ‘Kulin Kanta’, ‘Lanka Ni Laadi’, ‘Cinema Queen’ etc.
He featured in his first talkie film, ‘Draupadi’ (1931), made by Imperial, opposite Ermeline. Then came ‘Daulat Ka Nasha’ (1931), ‘Bharati Mata’ (1932), ‘Niti Vijay’ (1932), ‘Do Rangi Duniya’ (1933) and ‘Saubhagya Sundari’ (1933). In 1934 Khalil went to Calcutta on the invitation of East India Films. His first film in Calcutta was ‘Kismet Ki Kasauti’ (1934). Then he joined Tollywood Studio (Madon Theatres). Here his first film was ‘Gaibi Gola’ (1935), in which Baby Noorjehan made her debut as a child star.
He was in great demand in Bombay also, so Khalil started doing films in Calcutta and Bombay, by frequently travelling between the two cities. This caused a lot of stress on him, but he always kept his commitments. During this period, he also got married and got children. He settled in Calcutta and traveled often to Bombay to do films there.
Khalil did different roles, including Hindu Gods. He never changed his name. In those days very few Muslim actors kept their real names. Incidentally, during his peak time, there were two more artists named Khalil. One was Khalil Aftab, who was a lyricist and he acted in film ‘Dard E Dil’ (1934) and ‘The Mill’ (1934). This latter film was banned and was released later in 1936 as ‘Ghareeb Parwar’. The other actor was Khalil Khan, who had acted in film ‘Deepak Mahal’ (1940). In all, Khalil acted in 27 talkie films. He died quite young, on 28-11-1941, at Calcutta. Too much travelling and stress must have taken its toll on him. He was only 38 year old. He left behind one wife with 5 children.
Khalil did 13 films in Calcutta – ‘Kismet Ki Kasauti (1934), ‘Gaibi Gola’ (1935), ‘Miss Manorama’ (1935), ‘Jawaani Ka Nasha’ (1935), ‘Divine Sacrifice’ (1935), ‘Raj Dulari (1936), ‘Bulbul e Iran’ (1936), ‘Parivartan’ (1936), ‘Adarsh Mahila’ (1937), ‘Aflatoon’ (1937), ‘Karmaveer’ (1938), ‘Abla Ki Shakti’ (1941) and ‘Merchant Of Venice’ (1941).
In Bombay, he did 14 films – ‘Draupadi’ (1931), Daulat Ka Nash’ (1931), ‘Bharati Mata’ (1932), ‘Niti Vijay’ (1932), ‘Do Rangi Duniya’ (1933), ‘Saubhagya Sundari’ (1933), ‘Typist Girl’ (1935), ‘Shaitan Ka Paash’ (1936), ‘Khudai Khidmatgaar’ (1937), ‘Kiski Pyaari’ (1937), ‘Hamara Desh’ (1940), ‘Pyaar’ (1940), ‘Waayda’ (1940) and ‘Taj Mahal’ (1941).
Khalil acted with most of the leading heroines of his time like, Noorjehan (Sr), Jilloo (Zulekha Ibrahim – she was known by Jilloo Bai in her later career), Kajjan (6 films), Mushtari (3 films; she died too young, in her teens only), Miss Rose (2 films), Violet Cooper (2 films), Radha Rani, Ram Pyari, Begum Akhtar (she was then known as Akhtari Faizabadi), Sulochana, Ameena, Leela Desai, Indurani, Gulab, Ermeline and Sheela etc. Khalil was very good natured and a popular actor among his co stars and producers.
A Muslim by birth, he performed are variety of roles in films. His initial acting phase included roles of Shri Krishna and Shri Ram. Disenchanted by the communal riots during those times, he gave a speech in the Indian Motion Picture Congress, on 4th May 1939. Baburao Patel’s Film India published this extract from his speech-
“I have played Hindu Gods in films. I worked under Hindu producers only. I am disturbed by these riots. I am popular among Hindus and Muslims. We are the devotees of Art and Art has no religion.”
Indian Film Industry is perhaps the only industry which is truly a secular one, since its inception. Master Khalil Ahmed was an example of that.
The film was directed by BN Rao. His original name was Balkrishna Narayanan Nair. He was born in 1909 at Tellicherry in Kerala. His family shifted to Bombay because his father got a job in Bombay. By that time it was schooling age for Rao. One kind neighbor – a Marathi individual – helped him to get admission in a nearby school. While filling up the form the Marathi friend wrote his name as BN Rao. For this friend, every south Indian name must end with Rao only! And this name stuck to him till the end.
BN Rao directed only 2 Hindi films – ‘Veer Kumari’ and ‘Divine Sacrifice’ both in 1935. Later he became a very famous and successful Tamil and Telugu director, especially with Gemini Studios and SS Vasan. His best film was ‘Bal Nagamma’ (1942) – which he only completed, when the original director Pullayya pulled out halfway. However, the credits show Pullayya’s name as director. Hindi film ‘Bahut Din Huye’ (1954) was a remake of this film. He had also written the screenplay of film ‘Chandralekha’ (1948). ‘Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema’ by Rajadhyaksha says this about BN Rao,
B.N.Rao – (b. 1909) Tamil director and actor born in Tellicherry, Kerala. Also worked in Hindi and in Telugu. Started acting at Imperial (1926); assisted R.S. Choudhury and the cameramen Adi and Rustom Irani. Went to East India Co. (1933) and later to Madan in Calcutta, where he débuted as director with Hindi films. In 1937, moved to the Central Studios in Coimbatore; then to Gemini in Madras (1940) where he directed what is taken to be the studio’s début feature, ‘Madanakamarajan’. Established himself as a successful director in the late 40s; then left to work for Shaws Malay Film Prod. (1953-6) making films starring P Ramlee, and for Cathay Keris Film Studio (1957-64) in Singapore, directing e.g. Maria Menado, Nordin Ahmad and Latifah Omar. Returned to India for one more feature and retired in Madras.
Today’s song is the only song of this film available. With this song, the film makes its debut on the Blog. Remember, this is a song almost 85 year old.
Once again, I CONGRATULATE Atul ji, Sudhir ji and all others for reaching the milestone of 15000 songs ! Jai Ho !!
Song – Kyon Na Looten Mazey Wasl e Yaar Ke (Divine Sacrifice) (1935) Singer – Rajkumari, Lyrics – Unattributed, MD – Master Motilal Nayak
Lyrics
kyon na looten mazey wasl e yaar ke
haan
kyon na looten mazey wasl e yaar ke
beete jaate hain ye din bahaar ke
haan
beete jaate hain ye din bahaar ke
ke hazaaron ki tabiyat machal jaayegi
dil laakhon ke ?? chheen kar jaayegi
jab wo niklegi seena ubhaar ke
haan
jab wo niklegi seena ubhaar ke
haan
jab wo niklegi seena ubhaar ke
haan
jab wo niklegi seena ubhaar ke
haan
kyon na looten mazey wasl e yaar ke
paan kha kar labon ko bachaane lagey
haan
aaaa aaaaa aaaaaaaaaa
aaaa aaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaa
paan kha kar labon ko bachaane lagey
wo to hans hans ke naaz dikhaane lagey
jis mein gul ?? ?? anaar ke
haan
jis mein gul ?? ?? anaar ke
kyon na looten mazey wasl e yaar ke
haan
kyon na looten mazey wasl e . . .
teri aankhon ne to jaani ghazab kar diya
baaton baaton mein mera dil kyon le liya
khoob maari kataari sambhaar ke
haan
khoob maari kataari sambhaar ke
kyon na looten mazey wasl e yaar ke
haan
kyon na looten mazey wasl e yaa . . .
———————————————————-
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir Kapur)
———————————————————-
क्यों ना लूटें मज़े वस्ल ए यार के
हाँ
क्यों ना लूटें मज़े वस्ल ए यार के
बीते जाते हैं ये दिन बहार के
हाँ
बीते जाते हैं ये दिन बहार के
के हजारों के तबीयत मचल जाएगी
दिल लाखों के ?? छीन कर जाएगी
जब वो निकलेगी सीना उभार के
हाँ
जब वो निकलेगी सीना उभार के
हाँ
जब वो निकलेगी सीना उभार के
हाँ
जब वो निकलेगी सीना उभार के
हाँ
क्यों ना लूटें मज़े वस्ल ए यार के
पान खा कर लबों को बचाने लगे
हाँ
आsss आssss आsssssss
आssss आssss आssssssssss आsssssss
पान खा कर लबों को बचाने लगे
वो तो हस हस के नाज़ दिखाने लगे
जिस में गुल ?? ?? अनार के
हाँ
जिस में गुल ?? ?? अनार के
क्यों ना लूटें मज़े वस्ल ए ॰ ॰ ॰
तेरी आँखों ने तो जानी ग़ज़ब कर दिया
बातों बातों में मेरा दिल क्यों ले लिया
खूब मारी कटारी संभार के
हाँ
खूब मारी कटारी संभार के
हाँ
क्यों ना लूटें मज़े वस्ल ए या॰ ॰ ॰
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Blog Day : |
3926 | Post No. : | 14994 | Movie Count : |
4103 |
Today’s song is from an old film of the first decade of the Talkie films-Mera Haq aka In search of happiness-39.
When New Theatres in Calcutta started making Talkie films, very soon their Bi-lingual films became very popular. There were quite a few reasons like, good actors, good songs and good distribution network pan India. However, I think, the most important reason of their success was that their films were primarily based on well known novels, dramas and stories. B N Sircar had understood that if the story is strong, the efforts of the Director and Composers will surely make the film a successful one.
The intelligent and business minded film makers of Bombay soon understood this and films on world famous novels, as well as popular Indian stories were made in Bombay too ! Soon, it was clear that more than being honest to the original story, the makers of Bombay were concentrating on commercial successes even at the cost of compromising the written script.
This, I feel was the basic difference between the mindset of the West and East parts of India. Learned, studious and highly principled Bengalese stuck religiously to the original stories, while in Bombay, Saraswati started working for Laksmi ! As the times went by and the Bengal empire of New Theatres crumbled, the importance of solid, strong story base for a film remained only a dream for Bombay. Still, Bangla Directors who came to Bombay in search for greener pasteurs, believed strongly and stuck to strong story base. This was generally the scenario till mid 50’s, after which everyone became commercial and story lines became secondary, optional and manipulable devices.
In the early era of the Talkie, Bilingual films in Bombay (Marathi and Hindi) was a common thing. Most films made in Kolhapur and Poona were also made in Hindi simultaneously. Many talented writers from Marathi literary field, like Hari narayan Apte, mama Varerkar, Ga. Di. Madgulkar, V S Khandekar, N S Phadke and Acharya Atre were connected with film industry. Baburao Painter, Master Vinayak, V Shantaram etc made best use of their talents in writing film stories.
Today’s film Mera Haq-39 was made by Huns Pictures of Master Vinayak. This film was based on a story of V S Khandekar (later on he became the first writer in Marathi to get the Sahitya Academi Award also). The film was made in Marathi and Hindi. The Marathi title of the film was ” Sukhacha Shodh” and the other title of Mera Haq was its translation ” In search of Happiness “. The Marathi story and dialogues were translated into Hindi by Pt. Anand kumar.
Like Pt. Mukhram Sharma of Prabhat films, Anand Kumar was also belonged to a Hindi speaking state, but both had mastered Marathi. I do not know if Pt. Anand kumar also married a Marathi actress like Mukhram Sharma who had married actress Shanta Muzumdar. Pt.Anand kumar was born in Delhi in 1907. He was a producer, director, writer and Lyricist. From childhood, he was not interested in studies in English medium. He was taught Urdu, Hindi and Sanskrit by his poor Brahmin Shastri father. When he was 15 year old, he entered a business. He was always discontented. He wanted to become an actor, but family resisted. He tried fasting and even suicide. Then he stole some money and ran to Bombay. He could not get into any studio and after money finished, he returned to Delhi, only to take more money and run to Bombay again. Even after this failure, he went back to Delhi and started writing stories.
His first book ‘ Mera Huq ‘ became a hot seller and he started earning money. He was invited by film people and he went to Bombay nth time. He wrote stories, dialogues and Lyrics of scores of films and earned name and money. He produced a film ‘Zameen’-43, under his own banner Anand Brothers. He directed 5 films,including a Hit marathi film, Gora Kumbhar-42. Some of his films as a Lyricist were Suvarn Mandir-34,Katle aam-35, Pratibha-37, Divorce-38, Saathi-38, Alakh Niranjan-40, Punarmilan-40, Charnon ki Dasi-41, Raja Rani-42 etc. As a writer some films were, Divorce-38, Honhaar-36, Saathi-38, Vasant sena-42, Rang mahal-48 etc etc.
Film Mera haq-39 was directed by an exceptionally talented director Parshwanath Alatekar. This name too must be unknown to most people. Altekar (1897-1957) was from Khare Patan in Ratnagiri, the coastal Konkan area of Maharashtra. He was educated in Kolhapur and graduated from Sangli. He abandoned Law studies to direct a drama in 1922. Basically a drama enthusiast, Altekar entered film world in Marathi and directed many films in silent era. He joined hands with Sarpotdar, Master Vithal and Pendharkar brothers. In 1928, he made 4 films for Imperial film co, then for Saraswati Cinetone, Master Vinayak and Circo films. He made few Tamil and Kannada films too.
He floated his own company Natraj Cinetone and made Hindi/Marathi film Saathi/Savangadi in 1938 with Durga Khote and Mubarak. Meanwhile he worked for his pet drama group Natya Manwantar. Alatekar died on 22-11-1957 at Bombay. he directed 13 films including silent and Tamil/Kannada films. His Hindi films were Vasavdatta-34, Saathi-38, Mera Haque-39, Geeta 40 and Mahatma Vidur-43.
The lead actor in film Mera haq-39 was Baburao Pendharkar. Baburao Pendharkar(1896-1967) was a Pioneer Marathi actor and producer born in Kolhapur. Actor-manager of Maharashtra Film (1919); then a manager in Prabhat (1929); manager and main star at Kolhapur Cinetone (1933) and for several years associated with Master Vinayak at Huns Pics (1936) and Navyug Chitrapat; then producer with Navhans (1943). Best-known work after the mid-40s was with V. Shantaram at Rajkamal Kalamandir, including the classic role of the Chinese general in Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, and with his brother, the director Bhalji Pendharkar. Noted actor as a villain in mythologicals (e.g. in Shantaram’s Ayodhyecha Raja/Ayodhya Ka Raja, Kans in Vasant Joglekar’s Nand Kishore, and Keechaka in Pethkar’s Keechaka Vadha) and for character roles in socials by Atre (the crotchety grandfather in Shyamchi Aai; the title role of Mahatma Phule). Directed Prabhat’s only major Tamil film, Seeta Kalyanam, a landmark in Tamil cinema. Also a noted stage actor. His autobiography (1961/1983) is also an important record of Marathi film history. From Jalti Nishani-1932 to Amrapali-1966, he worked in 69 films in all.
The story of Mera haq was written by V S Khandekar and it depicted the importance of a joint family, role of the elders in controlling the wayward new generation. The story was…
Anand (Baburao Pendharkar) is a Professor in a college and married to Manik (Vimal Sardesai), who is all the time busy in doing social work and who, in the process, does not justify being a housewife, or a daughter in law or even a wife.
One day, Anand meets Miss Chanchal (Usha Mantri- one of the most beautiful actresses of those times), when he goes to meet a friend at Sahyadri Cinetone. Chanchal catches him in her net perfectly and he becomes mad after her.
When Anand’s life is mess with all this, he chances upon meeting Usha (Meenakshi Shirodkar), a poor little widow- whom Anand has saved from committing a suicide.When Usha learns all the story from Anand, she goes and talks to Anand’s parents and Grandfather, in a village and brings them to live with Anand and Manik. Together they hatch a plan to repair the situation. They announce that Anand will marry Usha and bring her as his second wife as he is not getting any happiness from Manik. When Manik comes to know this, she gets panicky and mends her ways, leaving all social work and tries to be an ideal wife. Anand’s friend Chanchal also deserts him when she learns about his second marriage.
When all the matters settle down satisfactorily, Anand and Usha, in presence of elders of the family disclose the truth that they are not marrying each others and it was planned to show Manik where the real happiness lies.
In this case, the film’s Marathi version came out first and the Hindi version was released on 15-9-1939 at Majestic Cinema in Bombay, well after the Marathi film was released.
The lead actress Vimal Sardesai hailed from Konkan are and started her film career as baby Vimal. She acted in only 7 Hindi films. Her first film was Saathi-38. This was the Hindi version of Marathi film Savangadi-38, starring Durga khote and Mubarak Merchant. her second film was mera haq-39. It was her first film as a Heroine. This too was a Hindi version of Marathi film ‘ Sukhacha Shodh”. Then came Narsi Bhjagat-40 made by Prakash pictures, Alakh Niranjan-40 was a Hindi version of Marathi film Gorakhnath-40, Apna Ghar-42 was a Hindi version of Marathi film Aaple Ghar-40- directed by Debki Bose, his first film in Bombay, Wadia’s Shobha-42 and her last film was Mahatma Vidur-43, a Hindi version of Marathi film of the same name. This was also the last film of Parshwanath Altekar the director.
After this film Vimal Sardesai was traceless. Probably she got married and left films.
Today’s song is a female duet of Vimal Sardesai and Meenakshi Shirodkar. With this song, film mera haq-39 and singer Vimal Sardesai make their debut on this Blog.
(My thanks to ” Marathi Cinema in Retrospect”-Sanjit Narvekar, ” Maharashtra- Birthplace of Indian Film Industry”- Isak Mujawar, Encyclop. of Indian Cinema by Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Filmdom-46 and my notes, for information used herein.)
Song-Kheloongi kheloongi main aankh michauli kheloongi (Mera Haq)(1939) Singers- Meenakshi Shirodkar, Vimal Sardesai (Baby Vimal), Lyrics- Pt Anand kumar, MD-K Datta
Both
Lyrics
kheloongi
kheloongi
main aankh michauli kheloongi
kheloongi
kheloongi
main aankh michauli kheloongi
main jhooloongi
main jhooloongi
kheloongi
kheloongi
main aankh michauli kheloongi
main chaand talak chal jaaoonga
main kunj taley chhip jaaoonga
main jhooloongi
main jhooloongi
main aankh meench kar chhipti hoon
main tan ankhiyon se takti hoon
takne ka badla le loongi
kheloongi
kheloongi
main aankh michauli kheloongi
main chhip jaaoon
jaa chhip jaa
main aa jaaoon
tu thham jaa
khushboo ban kar phoolon mein chhip
phoolon mein chhip
phoolon mein chhip
khushboo ban kar phoolon mein chhip
ya roop badal rangon mein chhip
belon mein chhip
kaliyon mein chhip
seene mein chhip
ya dil mein chhip
belon mein chhip
kaliyon mein chhip
seene mein chhip
ya dil mein chhip
main jhooloongi
main jhooloongi
main jhooloongi
main jhooloongi
kheloongi
kheloongi
main aankh michauli kheloongi
Kahaan hai manzil teri
Posted on: April 13, 2019
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Blog Day : |
3921 | Post No. : | 14984 | Movie Count : |
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Wadia Movietone has been known for producing films in the genres mainly of stunts, actions, fantasies and costumes. The banner was set up in 1933 by Wadia Brothers – J B H Wadia (1901-1986) and Homi Wadia (1911-2004). ‘Laal-E-Yaman’ (1933) was its first sound film produced under the banner and directed by J B H Wadia which became a box office success. With this film, the name of Fearless Nadia who had a small role in this film and Wadia Movietone became inseparable in the 1930s and 40s.
From the list of films produced under the banner of Wadia Movietone, mainly during 1930s and 40s, one can categorise the films as ‘Rail Films’, ‘Jungle Films’, ‘Arabian Nights Films’ etc.
Wadia Brothers were pioneer in producing films based on the railway themes. Their first ‘rail’ film was ‘Toofaan Mail’ (1932- Silent) which became box office success. In the talkies’ rail films, ‘Miss Frontier Mail’ (1936), ‘Flying Ranee’ (1939), ‘Punjab Mail’ (1939), ‘Return of Toofaan Mail’ (1942) etc were produced by Wadia Movietone. They were also pioneer in ‘Jungle’ films such as ‘Toofaani Tarzan’ (1937), ‘Jungle King’ (1939), ‘Jungle Princess’ (1942) etc.
As far as I know, Wadia Movietone produced the first Hindi film ‘Naujawaan’ (1937) without having any songs. It was an action-oriented film. But the film had to be withdrawn from a Delhi theatre when riots broke out. The audience screamed that Wadias had cheated them as they felt that a film was incomplete without songs. The film flopped at the box office.
Wadia brothers had been raised in westernized culture. Hollywood films were their role models. But sometime in the mid-1930s, J B H Wadia, the elder brother and the main brain behind Wadia Movietone was attracted towards ongoing nationalist movements. He got associated with Indian National Congress. With this association, he felt that it was his duty to produce the socially relevant films with some social messages for the masses. A few of his subsequent stunt films conveyed social messages like women’s emancipation, evils of caste system, need for education etc. For instance, in ‘Hurricane Hansa’ (1937) it has been shown as to how a ‘harijan’ girl Hansa transforms into ‘hurricane’ Hansa to take revenge on those who had destroyed her family.
The year 1938 played a definitive role in the life of J B H Wadia as he came into contact with Manabendra Nath Roy (M N Roy) one of the founders of the Communist Party of India. Later, he left his Marxist ideology and adopted the philosophy of Radical Humanism. Both were briefly associated with Indian National Congress but left Congress in 1938 to form a new party called Radical Democratic Party of India. His friendship with M N Roy remained intact until the latter’s death in 1954. Many years after his death, J B H Wadia wrote a memoirs of his years with M N Roy and got it publish as a book – M N Roy, The Man: An Incomplete Royana (1983).
This association had a far reaching impact on J B H Wadia in terms of film productions in Wadia Movietone. He started spending more time in his political activities than in Wadia Movietone. Most of the films were either directed by his younger brother, Homi Wadia or other directors. He just wanted to ensure that the films’ screen-plays and dialogues cover some social themes more than the stunts. He had also become the conscious of the Hindustani classical music.
As contributions towards socially and culturally responsible film-maker, he started making short films like Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s speech at a Congress Committee meetings, on classical musicians like Mallika Pukhraj, Kumar Gandharva, Feroze Dastoor, (some of them are available on YT). These short films were given to exhibitors free of charges to be shown before the feature films of Wadia Movietone were screened.
Around the same time, J B H Wadia seems to have felt that having established successfully Wadia Movietone, he was looking for some kind of establishing his intellectual credibility as a producer-director of repute ( I guess, JBH Wadia may have been influenced by the name and fame which his compatriot directors like V Shantaram and P C Barua had earned in the Hindi film industry). With this background, he took upon himself an ambitious project ‘Raj Nartaki’ (1941) which was to be produced in three languages – Hindi, English (Court Dancer) and Bengali.
‘Raj Nartaki’ (1941) was a prestigious project for J B H Wadia. Wadia Movietone spend a lot of money on the elaborate and expensive sets. Top stars like Prithiviraj Kapoor and Sadhana Bose were part of the film’s cast. While the film established J B H Wadia as an intellectual film maker, the film in all the three languages together could barely recover the cost of productions. In a way, it can be said that the film was a final straw in a already stained relationship between the partners of Wadia Movietone which was running into the losses.
In any partnership firm, when chips are down, the disagreements between partners come to the fore. Homi Wadia, 10 year younger to his elder brother, J B H Wadia was so far been a junior partner. With losses mounting due to some films not faring well at the box office, the differences between the Wadia Brothers came into forefront. While J B H Wadia wanted to make films in the social genre, Homi Wadia and another partner, Billimoria wanted to make box office hit films irrespective of genres. The irreconcilable differences between the brothers led to the split with Homi Wadia going separate to set up his own Basant Pictures and Basant Studio. As a part of dissolution of partnership and settlements, Wadia Movietone had to sell its studio located at Parel to V Shantaram which was renamed as Rajkamal Studio.
After the split, Homi Wadia slicked to producing stunts films at a shoe-sting budget such as ‘Hunterwali Ki Beti’ (1943), ‘Sher-e-Baghdad’ (1946), Flying Prince’ (1946), ‘Stunt Queen’ (1947, and ’11 o Clock’ (1948) with Nadia and John Cawas as main actors. Despite the split, Homi Wadia and J B H Wadia jointly produced about 16 films during 1950-70, the latter now being a junior partner.
‘Kahaan Hai Manzil Teri’ (1939) was one of those ‘out-of-the-box’ films from Wadia Movietone which was directed by S M Yousuf. The star cast included Ila Devi, Harishchandra Rao, Radharani, Shah Nawaz, Urmila, Master Chhotu, Nazira, Agha, Dalpat, Sayani Aatish etc.
A summarized version of the story of the film given in the review of the film published in December 1939 issue of ‘Filmindia’ magazine is set out below:
The story goes back to old times when sacrificing of a virgin at the altar of god to please him was practiced. In a Santhal village, the annual sacrifice of a virgin is under preparation with the high priest of the temple supervising the event. In reality, the high priest, Balraj (Shah Nawaz) has arranged to keep unscrupulously these virgins in a hidden room as unwilling victims of his lust.
Paras (Harishchandra Rao) protests against this rituals and this time it is his sister’s turn for the sacrifice. His resistance to the ritual earns the wrath of the high priest. Paras escapes from the village with the help of Godavari (Radharani) who is the daughter of Balraj. She is also in unrequited love with Paras.
Paras goes to the capital of an Aryan king, Satluj who is determined to root out the primitive practice of sacrificing of virgins. In the kingdom, Paras becomes affectionate of Princess Ragini (Ila Devi). Paras reciprocates her affection. But he has little time for love as his aim is to avenge the death of his father and the ‘sacrifice’ of his sister.
In the Aryan capital, Naru, the prime minister of the kingdom is planning to overthrow the king with the help of Balraj for realization of his own ambitions. The king is killed. Princess Ragini is kidnapped and handed over to Balraj for ‘sacrifice’. Paras goes to save Princess Ragini from this trap. Once again, it is Godavari who helps him at the cost of sacrificing her life at the hands of her own father.
At last, Paras becomes successful in exposing Balraj as scoundrel under the grabs of religious activities and the superstitions. Santhals and Aryans are united in a bond of brotherhood. Paras wins the hands of Princes Ragini.
One can guess from the story of the film as to how J B H Wadia has been influenced by the M N Roy’s ideology of Radical Humanism which worked for the eradication of social evils, women’s emancipation, education etc.
The film had four songs – all written by Wahid Qureshi who also wrote the story and dialogue for the film. Songs were set to music by Madhavlal Damodar Master.
Here is the first song – a title song – ‘kahaan hai manzil teri musaafir’ from the film to appear on the Blog. The song is sung by Ila Devi and Chorus.
Acknowledgement: In writing this article, especially for the period during which J B H Wadia’s political association, his passion for humanist ideology, his yearning for name and fame as an intellectual producer-director, I have been greatly benefited by a scholarly article by Rosie Thomas on Nadia and Wadia Brothers which appeared in a book ‘Bollyworld: Popular Indian Cinema Through A Transitional Lens (2005) – Edited by Raminder Kaur and Ajay J Sinha.
Audio Clip:
Song-Kahaan hai manzil teri (Kahaan hai Manzil teri)(1939) Singers-Ila Devi, Unknown male voice, Lyrics-Wahid Qureshi, MD-Madholal Damodar Master
Chorus
Ila devi + chorus
Lyrics
kahaan hai manzil teri
kahaan hai manzil teri
kahaan hai manzil teri musaafir
kahaan hai manzil teri ee
bhor bhayi sab panchhi jaage
bhor bhayi sab panchhi jaage
apne apne kaam ko bhaage
apne apne kaam ko bhaage
tu bhi chala chal aage aage
raste ko mat bhool
kahaan hai manzil teri
chalne hi kaa naam hai manzil
chalne hi kaa naam hai manzil
chalne se mat ho tu gaafil
sone se kya hogaa haasil
sone se kya hogaa haasil
apne mann se poochh musaafir
apne mann se poo….chh
chalna teri reet puraani
chalna teri reet puraani
sunn dariya se apni kahaani
jeewan tera behta paani
chalne ko mat bhool musaafir
chalne o mat bhoo……ol
kahaan hai manzil teeeeeri eeeee
Jhanan jhanan mori baaje paayaliyaa
Posted on: April 9, 2019
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Today’s song is from film Poornima-38.
The film was made by Prakash Pictures- a joint venture of brothers, Shankar and Vijay Bhatt. The film was directed by Balwant Bhatt- not related to them but elder brother of another director Nanabhai Bhatt. In those days Marathi and Gujarati people were found in large numbers in the film industry. The simple reason was that Bombay was in Bombay Presidency and both Bombay(Maharashtra) and Gujarat were its part. Secondly, two two major requirements of films, namely Finance and Actors were available in abundance here. Gujarati people controlled the finance and Marathi people looked after the acting side.
However, for acting and for other branches of film making people from all over India flocked to Bombay, but money investment was done by the locals. If you see the cast of any film made in the early era, you would find names of Muslim girls in abundance. For example, just see the cast of today’s film only. It consists of Sardar Akhtar ( Sardar is a proper name and not a title), Shirin Bano, putli bai,Noorjehan, Tarabai, Nirasha etc. There was a reason for this too.
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,Tawayafs 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,Amir bai,Johrabai,Rattan bai etc etc.
Many young singing girls found 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 Housewife. Some girls got Husbands from Nawabs and the Royalties,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-Dir. in Prabhat Films.
Jaddanbai married a Medical student and a Jahagirdar-Uttamchand. Fatima bai(mother of Alam Ara fame Zubeida) married nawab of Sachin,Guajarat
Sultana married Yusuf laljee,Businessman and chief od Bombay Municiple corpn. Actress Sarojini(Roshan) married Nanubhai Vakil-producer/Dir (Their daughter was actress AZRA)
Actress Indurani (Ishrat)-sister of Sarojini- married Ramniklal Shah-Prod/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, film Zubeida 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-Shaukat hussain rizvi, Meenakumari, Sardar Akhtar, Snehprabha Pradhan, Anil Biswas, Lalita Deulkar etc.
In recent era instances were Waheeda Rehman, Kishore kumar, Asha Bhosle, Hemant kumar, Manik verma, Premlata, Geeta Dutt, Rishi kapoor, Rajesh khanna, Amitabh Bachhan and Abhishek Bachhan 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 Tawayaf 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-34 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 36, she worked in Top ka gola, Snehlata, Passing show and Azad veer. Khwab ki duniya, His Highness and Challenge from 37, State Express and Purnima in 38, 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.
The Heroine of this film was Sardar Akhtar. The life story of Sardar Akhtar- Heroine of this film- is very interesting. Sardar Akhtar was a Punjabi Muslim born in Lahore in 1915. Her mother was a famous singer on the infamous Hira Mandi Road of Lahore. Akhtar learned singing from her mother and also other ustads. Her younger sister Bahar Akhtar was beautiful and a good singer. These sisters were famous as Daaro and Baharo in Lahore. Bahar was hired by United Players Corpn. of Lahore , as a Heroine in their film ” Qatil Katar “. Producer A R Kardar was also its Hero. They fell in love. Bahar was under strict surveilance by her mother, but with the help of a friend, Kardar abducted her and they were married. When this news reached her mother, Akhtar and her mother made a Police complaint against kardar. Kardar and his unit members were arrested and kept in a lock up for few days for abducting a Minor girl. They were released when Bahar herself gave a statement in their favour. Kardar destroyed the negatives of his film to prevent Bahar from further acting in films.
After this episode Akhtar started working in dramas. She went to Calcutta and did a small role in film Dhoop Chaaon-35. From there she came to Bombay and joined Saroj Movietone. She did films like Eid ka chaand,Roop Basant and Naqsh e Sulemani and earned a good name. She acted in films of Minerva and Wadia-mostly stunt action films. Mehboob khan gave her a big role in film Aurat-40 and her image changed. She also did Mehboob’s film Roti, during which they got married on 25-4-1942. They did not have any issues but they adopted Saajid khan, child star of film Son of India-62. After Mehboob’s death in 1964 May, Akhtar lived alone, occasionally visiting Sajid khan, who had settled in USA.
Sardar Akhtar did 44 films. Her last film was Raahat-45. However, she did small roles in films Hulchal-71 and Bandhe Haath-74. Sardar Akhtar sang 92 songs in 27 films. Considering that she was not a regular or playback singer, her 92 songs were highly creditable. Not even 50% of her songs came on gramophone records. During one of her US visits, Sardar Akhtar died there on 2-10-1984. She was a devotee of sufi saint Ashraf khan, her co-star of many films including Roti-42.
The film had 15 songs sung by Sardar Akhtar, Shirin Bano, Ranjit and Shankar Rao Vyas himself. He was the film’s Music Director. This was his first film with Prakash Pictures. He went on working with them in many more films.
Prof. Shankarrao Vyas (1898-1956) was born in Kolhapur on 23-1-1898. His father Ganeshpant was a well known Keertankar and Puranik! So, he was brought up in the religious and musical environment. Unfortunately, Ganeshpant died when Shankar was seven years old. His paternal uncle brought him up for few years. His maternal uncle (Mama) noticed his inclination towards music and enrolled him in the ‘gurukul’ of Maharaj (Pandit) Vishnu Digambar Paluskar.
In those days, students had to sign a bond with the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. Training period would last 8-10 years and the student would become all-rounder in every field related to music. Thus, Shankar Rao spent nine years in this gurukul, earned ‘Sangeet Pravin’ degree and gold medal for overall development. With the suggestion of guruji, he worked in Lahore vidyalaya for few years.
In 1931, he moved to Ahmadabad for establishing branch of Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. He was an expert not only in vocal music, but could play and repair many instruments including sitar, jaltarang and mendolin. He would conduct orchestra consisting of Indian and western instruments. He was also a very good composer and wrote several bandishes. He was the key person in planning music section of national (Rashtriya) schools: an idea originated by Gandhiji in Ahmadabad.
In 1935, he left Ahmadabad and settled in Bombay. He founded school for music education at Dadar, just outside the western railway station. ‘Vyas Sangeet Vidyalaya’. It is still functioning at this place. His brother Narayanrao Vyas and brother in law Vasantrao Rajopadhye also joined him in this noble cause. Around 1930/31, HMV Company invited both Vyas brothers for recordings and they cut over 200 songs (100 discs) until about 1938. He also cut few orchestral records under ‘Vyas Brothers’ banner playing pure classical ragas. These records were best sellers and company had printed their photographs on record catalogues.
This period was also the beginning of talkie films. Shankar Rao composed music for Hindi (35), Marathi (5), and Gujrathi (3) films from 1937-1955. His first film as a composer was ‘ His Highness’ -37 and the last was ‘ Baal Ramayan’ -released in 56. He also composed background music for fifteen films. Most of his films were based on religious or mythological themes. He also taught music to non-singing actors such as Sardar Akhtar and Shirin Bano. His most famous musical films were – Narsi Bhagat (1940), Bharat Bhet (1941), Ram Rajya (1943, in Hindi and Marathi). Saraswati Rane sung ‘Beena madhur madhur kachu bol’ in raga Bhimpalas in Hindi film ‘Ram Rajya’ and this song became popular throughout India. This was the only film that Gandhji watched in cinema hall and was much impressed with the music. Songs from Marathi version of ‘Ram Rajya’ viz. ‘Sujanho parisa ramkatha’ and ‘Ladkya raanila lagale dohale’ are shown on TV even today.
He was very busy in many fields as a composer, Principal of his music school, author of articles and bandishes, President of Gandharva Mahavidyalaya and founder editor of ‘Sangeet Kala Vihar’ magazine (founded in 1947) of Vidyalaya that is published even today. He passed away at Ahmadabad on 17-12- 1956. He has sung couple of abhangs of Saint Tukaram. These are available on HMV records. Record P 13454 published in 1931 has a sweet abhang – ‘Roopi guntale lochan, charani sthiravale mana’.
Film Poornima-38 was based on the popular famous novel Purnima-in Gujarati- by writer Ramanlal Vasantlal Desai. Let us now enjoy the first song of this film here. The film makes its debut on the Blog.
Song-Jhanan Jhanan mori baaje paayaliya (Poornima)(1938) Singer-Sardar Akhtar, Lyrics-Sampatlal Shrivastav Anuj, MD- Shankar Rao Vyas
Lyrics
Jhanan Jhanan mori baaje paayaliya
Jhanan Jhanan mori baaje paayaliya
baaje paayaliya
jaage saheliyaan
baaje paayaliya
jaage saheliyaan
Jhanan Jhanan mori baaje paayaliya
Jhanan Jhanan mori baaje paayaliya
baaje paayaliya
jaage saheliyaan
baaje paayaliya
jaage saheliyaan
Jhanan Jhanan mori baaje paayaliya
Jhanan Jhanan mori
saas nanadiya mori akeli
saas nanadiya mori akeli
piya milan kaise jaaoon akeli
piya milan kaise jaaoon akeli
daiyya dewarwa paas bithhaawe
daiyya dewarwa paas bithhaawe
Jhanan Jhanan mori baaje paayaliya
Jhanan Jhanan mori baaje paayaliya
baaje paayaliya
jaage saheliyaan
baaje paayaliya
jaage saheliyaan
Jhanan Jhanan mori baaje paayaliya
Jhanan Jhanan mori
jata joot ??
pati shesh chandr ??
lalaat ??
maal gale shesh ??
parvati pati shiva har har
parvati pati shiva har har
parvati pati shiva har har
Jhanan Jhanan mori baaje paayaliya
Jhanan Jhanan mori baaje paayaliya
saas nanadiya mori akeli
saas nanadiya mori akeli
piya milan kaise jaaun akeli
piya milan kaise jaaun akeli
daiyya dewarwa paas bithhaawe
daiyya dewarwa paas bithhaawe
Jhanan Jhanan mori baaje paayaliya
Jhanan Jhanan mori baaje
Duniya rain basera musaafir
Posted on: April 3, 2019
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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3911 | Post No. : | 14969 | Movie Count : |
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Today’s song is from an obscure film Vaseeyat-1940.
Though this film was made by Minerva Movietone, neither it was directed by Sohrab Modi nor he had acted in it. The film was directed by K.M.Multani, who also wrote the screenplay for this film. Multani had directed his first film also from Minerva only-Vaasanti-38 – a social film. This too was without Sohrab Modi in any capacity. Multani further directed 3 more films, Virginia-40, Ujala-42 and Umang-44.
Minerva Movietone was started by Sohrab and brother Rustom Modi, when they realised that the stage dramas, filmed as Feature films did not get the public approval. Consequently production from Stage films- their first film production enterprise- was suspended till Minerva became successful. ” Aatma Tarang-38″ was the new company’s first film. C. Ramchandra was the Harmonium accompanist for M.D. Habib Khan and Bundu Khan. He also did a small role in Aatma Tarang and earlier Saeed E Havas-36. Minerva’s first film proved to be a let down.
Sohrab found that there were hardly 20 to 30 persons in the audience on the very First show. The film was based on the power of ‘ Bramhacharya’ (Celibacy). In those days, Sohrab was greatly influenced by the teachings of Ramkrishna Mission. Seeing the poor response, he was upset. Thoughts of quitting the film production line were crowding in his mind. Suddenly, he saw four men coming towards him. They came, confirmed that he was Sohrab modi and told him that his film was very good. They further advised him to keep making such good films and one day he will be on Top. Later on he learnt that these gentlemen were the Judges of Bombay High Court.
Enthused with this experience, he made successful films and took his company to the Top. Renowned for big budget historical films, Minerva benefited from Modi family’s distribution interests in Gwalior, expanded by his third brother Keki Modi into western India. At one time he controlled a chain of 27 theatres in 10 cities. In 1952, they established India’s first Technicolour Laboratory.
Film Vaseeyat40 had music by khan Mastana, who was essentially a singer. The lyrics were by Abdul Baqi. The cast of the film consisted of Sheela, gajanan jahagirdar, Eruch Tarapore, Sunalini Devi, Shobha, Kamini and many others. There were 6 songs sung by Sheela, Pramila and Khan Mastana himself.
Sheela was the Heroine of this film. SHEELA(real name-Roshan Ara) was born on 13-3-1925 at Sholapur-Maharashtra.Her father was Station Master at Sholapur Rly.Stn. Once Sohrab Modi had come to Sholapur with his Drama company.He went to the station to do reservations and saw Sheela.They got to know each others and he proposed to give her roles in his films.Thus Sheela came to Bombay in 1936 and Joined Minerva Movietone as a singer/actress.
Her first film was Khan Bahadur-37,ih which she sang and acted.Then came Jailor-38 in which she sang 4 solo songs under MD Mir Sahib.Then Divorce and Meetha Zahar came.
She became famous only after her songs in Pukar-39.Bharosa,Wasiyat and Sikander also gave her name and fame.In Sikander she had 6 songs out of total 7 songs. The famous song ‘ zindagi hai pyar se’ also had her voice in the chorus. She was Heroine in film ‘ Vaseeyat’-40
Ulti Ganga, Bhakta Raidas, Prithvi Vallabh,and Patharon ka Saudagar were all Minerva films.
She had also done films elsewhere- Alladin and wonderful lamp,college Girl,gaibi Gola,jahan ara,keemti qurbani,Sansar naiya,Shaitan ka pash etc.
After 1943,she almost stopped working.Only in Beete Din-47 and lastly in Billi-49 she sang songs., which was a stunt film of Nadia and Cavas.
She had married the actor Rama Shukla, in 1947. He was a Kanauji Brahmin and they had terrible opposition to their marriage. The marriage was by Registration. Only 4 friends were present in the marriage. They had one son and one daughter. Rama Shukla died by Heart attack in the 50s.
Her voice had a peculiar mixture of Muslim style of Amirbai karnataki and Marathi slant od Shanta Apte.
There is an anecdote with one of her songs. When film Pukar was in the making, C.Ramchandra was working as an assistant to MD Meer Saheb. He has mentioned in his autobiography also that in the absence of Meer saheb, he used to insert his tunes to songs as Meer saheb’s. This was known to many, except, may be, Meer saheb himself. One of the very popular songs sung by Sheela ” Tum bin hamri kaun khabar le ‘ was actually composed by C.Ramchandra. This is supposed to be CR’s first composed song. The credit ,of course, went to Meer Saheb.
Another uncommon name in the cast is Sunalini Devi. Sunalini Devi, the actress, was born on 1-1-1896 in Hyderabad Deccan. Her father, Aghornath Chatopadhyay-a Bengali settled in Hyderabad – was a Sanskrit scholar, was proficient in 27 languages and was the first Indian to get the D.Sc. honour. Sunalini was the elder sister of Sarojini, who became Sarojini Naidu after her marriage, and Harindranath Chatopadhyaya-renowned poet.
Sunalini learnt Music and Dance from her third year of age itself. Due to her sweet voice, she was called ‘ Kokila ‘. It is to be noted that her younger sister Saojini Naidu was called ‘ Nightingale of India’ ! It is unfortunate that the film industry did not use Sunalini’s music skill in her films and she sang just one song in her career in film ‘ Raja Rani-42’.
Sunalini started acting in stage dramas from 1918. Her first movie was ” Light of Asia”-released initially in Germany and Poland in 1925. It’s restored version was released on 5th July 2001, in India. This film was made by Himanshu Rai. The film was shot in Lahore. It was a silent film on Gautama the Buddha. Her first Talkie film was ‘ veer Kunal-32’. She acted in 56 films. Mostly she was known for motherly roles only. She had, like her more eminent sister, married a south Indian- Mr.A.S.Rajan, a writer from Madras.
Some of her more known films are, Aurat,Lalaji, Inkaar, Nai roshni, Talaash, Bairam khan, Tamasha, Dilruba, Malhar etc etc. She retired from films in 1956.
Then there is Eruch Tarapore. Eruch Tarapore was a distant relative of Sohrab Modi and he worked only in Modi’s films. He worked in 16 films, right from Modi’s first film Hamlet-35 up to 1948. Eruch sang one song each in 3 films, Meetha zehar-38, Jailor-38 and Phir milenge-43. He died in 1948.
I have no details of the storyline of film Vaseeyat-40. However, I faintly remember having read somewhere that the story was about a rich person, who dies without a will. There is lot of confusion, but finally the will is found etc.
With today’s song, film Vaseeyat-40 makes its Debut on the Blog.
Song- Duniya rain basera Musafir duniya rain basera hai (Vaseeyat)(1940) Singer- Sheela, Lyrics- Abdul Baqi, Music- Khan Mastana
Lyrics
Duniya rain basera musaafir
Duniya rain basera hai ae
Duniya rain basera hai
Duniya rain basera musaafir
Duniya rain basera hai ae
Duniya rain basera hai
saari duniya jaag uthhi tu
saari duniya jaag uthhi tu
lambi taane sowe
lambi taane sowe
jo jowe so paawe musaafir
jo jowe so paawe musaafir
jo sowe so khowe
jo sowe so khowe
door hai manzil neend ke maare
?? jaag ??
duniya rain basera hai
duniya rain basera musaafir
duniya rain basera hai ae
duniya rain basera hai
duniya kya hai paap ki nagri
duniya kya hai paap ki nagri
is se man na lagaana
is se man na lagaana
kadam kadam pe ?? base hain
kadam kadam pe ?? base hain
soch ke pair uthhaana
soch ke pair uthhaana
moh lobh mein pyaar ke ??
aane ?? hai
duniya rain basera hai
duniya rain basera musaafir
duniya rain basera hai ae
duniya rain basera hai
Ae ae ae ae jagmaali
Posted on: March 22, 2019
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog.This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Blog Day : |
3899 | Post No. : | 14949 | Movie Count : |
4085 |
Today’s song is from an old, obscure film, Paak Daman-40.
The meaning of the word Paak Daman is Spotless Character. It has several other meanings depending on its usage. Generally this word is used to describe a woman of Chastest character and without any blemish.
Paak Daman was first made in 1931, the very first year of the Talkie films. Then it was made in 1940 and finally it was made in 1957. Paak Daman was a popular stage drama of early 1900’s. There were many versions of this story with minor variations,like names and place etc. The Parsi Urdu Theatre version was written by Agha Hashra Kashmiri, then famously known as ” Shakespeare of India”. The Parsi Gujarati plays were written by various authors. Syed Yawar Ali penned the script for the ” Moon Parsi Theatre”. The Alfred Drama Company had their own version of the story. In 1932, a film called ” Paak Daman Raqaasa aka Innocent Rakkasa or innocent Dancer or निर्दोष नर्तिका ” was made by Elephanta Movietone, Punjab. But I guess it was not one of these versions, just like the 1957 movie.
Paak Daman-1931 with Rampyari and Hyder Shah was based on a Gujarati play and Paak Daman-40 was written by Agha Hashra Kashmiri for the Urdu Parsi Theatre. This was a small budget movie, with not so popular star cast. It’s shoe-string budget did not allow any advertisements in Film India or other film magazines or papers or any other media like Hoardings in major towns. For all such low budget films the usual method of making advertisement was by distributing handbills from bullock carts ( छकडा ) with a one piece band consisting of ताशा or ढोल. The handbills would be printed in Urdu or local languages and distributed in predominantly Muslim majority area of the towns.
The film was produced by Stage Film Company and was directed by Rustom Modi. The film was censored on 20th October 1940 and released first in Lahore. Most of the film cast was drawn from Urdu Parsi Theatre to save money. Actors like Mohd. Ishaq (as Jaandaar, the King), Abu Baker(as drunkard), K.Pawar(as Bhangedi), Sonaba(as Afimi), Mehboob(as Baldy), Faqir Mohd(as Guardian) and Krishnabai as Dancer, were taken along with regular actors like Ghulam Mohammed(as Safadar Jung), Firoz Dastur(as Jameel). The female cast was Meera Devi(as Razia), Menaka Hyderabadi(as Sayeeda, the Heroine) and Leela Hyderabadi( as Nadira). These female actors were stage actresses from Urdu parsee Theatre in the 1930’s. They had played these roles so often on stage that all the dialogues were byheart to them. They had done small roles in films but went unnoticed,perhaps due to being uncredited.
The film was directed by Rustom Modi, who was the elder brother of Sohrab Modi. To understand the background of making of this film, we have to first take a look, in short, at the early build up of the careers of the Modi brothers.
Born on 2-11-1897, Sohrab Modi and his elder brother Rustom Modi spent their initial years in the Parsi community in Bombay, where their father was a Civil servant. The brothers were no good students in studies but were more interested in acting on stage. After their family shifted to Rampur in United Province (today’s Uttar Pradesh), when Sohrab was about 15 year or so, he used to read Urdu Books from library of Nawab of Rampur, with whom his father worked as a Superintendent. This made Sohrab an expert in Urdu Language and diction. Coupled with his love for sports and body building, he soon became an impressive young man.
As he was growing, his brother Rustom helped him and he started doing small roles in stage dramas. At one stage his roles in “Khoon ka khoon”and “Saeed E Hawas” won laurels from the audience. By then Rustom had started his own drama company “The Arya Subodh Natak Mandali”. In 1931, Talkie films started and people were attracted to them. Sensing a danger to drama companies, Rustom Modi established “Stage Film Company” and filmed their “Khoon ka khoon aka Hamlet” and ‘Saeed E Hawas” in 1935 and 1936 respectively. However since people had already seen these dramas, these 2 movies did not click to expectations.
Sohrab Modi realised that film making was a different game entirely. So, in 1936, the brothers started Minerva Movietone and a new film “Atma Tarang” was made. It was also received with a tepid response, with just 20 persons for the first show. Sohrab was disappointed, however, some critics appreciated his effort and encouraged him to go ahead. Soon he made successful films like Meetha Zahar-38, Divorce-38, Pukar-39 and Bharosa-40 and so on.
Rustom Modi, however, continued with his dramas and making films on dramas. On this background Rustom Modi made Paak Daman in 1940- again with his stage artistes. This time, there was a good response and the old timers enjoyed the film reminiscing what they had earlier seen as a Urdu Parsee Theatre drama.
The film had a second title of “Shaheed Naaz”. The story, dialogues, screenplay and Lyrics were by Agha Hasra Kashmiri. The music director K.M.Pawar, besides doing a small role in the film, also doubled as a Choreographer along with Master Chhota.
The story of the film was…..
The king Jahandaar was a Noble and honest ruler. He used to roam about in his kingdom in a Faqir’s disguise. In his absence, his close courtier Safdar jung used to look after the kingdom. Safdar was a cruel and immoral person. He had deserted his own wife Nadira, after fully enjoying her chastity.
A young man Jameel had used a girl Razia and abandoned her. She complained to Safdar Jung. Jameel was caught and sentenced to death. Jameel’s sister was Saeeda. Beautiful Saeeda goes to Safdar and begs for cancellation of death sentence. Safdar asks her to spend one night with him as a gift in return to this favour. He gives her time to think and come back.
While returning, Saeeda meets the Faqir( king in disguise), who enquires what is wrong. Saeeda tells him all. King is very angry. He discloses his identity to Saeeda and asks her to find and bring Nadira. The three of them hatch a plot.
Next day, Saeeda informs Safdar that she is ready to do as he wants, provided there is total darkness and no talk in that period. He gladly agrees. In the darkness of night Nadira replaces Saeeda and Safdar spends time with her, thinking that she is Saeeda.
Next day Nadira appears in Darbar and asks Safdar to take her back. The Faqir also reveals himself and Saeeda tells the truth of the night. Safdar is stunned. The king orders Safdar to take back Nadira and leave the court-if not he will be executed. Jameel is released but has to marry Razia.
Jameel’s role was done by Firoz Dastur, who started with films, but became a well known classical singer of India. Firoz Dastur or Feroze Dastur (30 September 1919 – 9 May 2008) was an eminent vocalist of Kirana Gharana and a film actor.
Dastur was part of Indian Film Industry in 1930s, acting in a few films by Wadia Movietone and other film banners. In 1933, when Wadia Movietone under JBH Wadia, released its first talkie film, he performed classical songs as child actor in film Lal-e-Yaman. But his first love was Indian Classical Music.
He was the disciple of Sawai Gandharva, whose other disciples were Bhimsen Joshi and Gangubai Hangal and a regular performer at Sawai Gandharva Music Festival for several years, well into his late 80s.
Dastur died on 9th May 2008 in Mumbai after a brief illness. He was 89.
He acted in 16 films- from Laal e yaman-33 to Gul e Bakavali-47. He sang 60 songs in 19 films. Last he sang in film Bhumika-77.
He also gave music to 2 films,composing 17 songs ( Sunehra Baal-38 and Gul e Bakavali-47)
Safdar’s role was done by Ghulam Mohammed. Ghulam Mohammad was a super star villain actor in the pre-partition films. He was a popular stage actor in the 1920s and appeared in movies mostly as villain actor in the 1930s/40s. His first big film was Madhuri in 1932 which was directed by R.S. Chodhary. He was in main role with actress Sulochana who was a Jewish artist and the first ever super star film heroine in the sub-continent. It was one of many famous productions by the leading Bombay based film company Imperial Film Co. and Ghulam Mohammad was an automatic choice for them. He was called Prince of Imperial Film Company and he was the first ever Muslim actor to buy a luxury car in the 1930s.
Ghulam Mohammad was an all round actor and appeared as hero, villain and supporting actor in more than 60 movies in the 1930s-40s. He played the main villain role in the first ever colored film Kissan Kanya from Bombay in 1937. He was in title role with Noorjahan in Lahore based Punjabi film Chodhary in 1941 and also in her first Hindi/Urdu film as heroine, Khandan in 1942, which was made in Lahore as well. He was also in the last big film before partition Jugnu (with Noorjahan and Dilip Kumar and Sulochana).
Ghulam Mohammad was almost in every second Pakistani film in the 1950s. He was born in 1900 in Lahore and died on March 10, 1961. He appeared in more than 500 stage dramas and fought as soldier in the WW1 in Baghdad, Iraq. He was best known as Chacha (Uncle) in film circles.
Today’s song is extremely rare song, says uploader- our own Sadanand ji Kamath. The song is based on Raagdari, which one, I could not identify as I am not an expert. Considering this is a recording done almost 80 years ago, it is still in good condition, except at few places. It is confirmed that the Lyrics were by Agha Hashra Kashmiri. The Music Director K.M.Pawar was employed in Rustom Modi’s stage film company.
( My thanks to ” Forgotten movies on Muslim Culture,1933-1947″ ,by Kamalakar ji Pasupuleti, “Stages of Life; Indian Theatre autographies ” by Kathryn Hansen, HFGK, MuVyz,www.pak.mag,Listener’s Bulletin and my notes).
The movie as well as the singer Kaka Ji make their debuts in the blog with this song.
Song-Ae ae ae ae jagmaali (Paak Daaman)(1940) Singers- Phiroz Dastur, Kaka ji, Lyrics- Agha Hashra Kashmiri, MD- K M Pawar
Lyrics
ae ae ae ae
ae ae ae ae jagmaali
ae ae ae ae
ae ae ae ae jagmaali
Phooli dali dali
Chhaayee nirali,
Rangwali laali
hariyaali
ae ae ae ae
ae ae jagmaali
ae ae ae ae jag
gun gaati bhaanti koyaliya kaali
gungaati bhaanti koyaliya kaali
Chhaayee niraali
Rangwaali laali
hariyaali
ae ae ae ae ae ae
jagmaali
ae ae ae ae
ae ae jagmaali
bhanwar papeeha mor uthh bhor
bhanwar papeeha mor uthh bhor
chaaron oar jape tero naam
chaaron oar jape tero naam
waari
kunjan kunjan mein
phoolan ke ban mein
kunjan kunjan mein
phoolan ke ban mein
acharaj man mein
hansat basat hai
acharaj man mein
hansat basat hai
chhav tori niraali
rangwaali laali
hariyaali
ae ae ae ae jagmaali
ae ae ae ae jagmaali
Chandrmukhi ki shaadi mein
Posted on: February 18, 2019
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
| 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 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.
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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
Ritu basant ki aayi pyaari
Posted 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.
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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
Chaal chale matwaari
Posted on: January 27, 2019
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog.This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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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
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