Archive for the ‘Song of 1937’ Category
Nit leke prem ki maalaa
Posted on: May 7, 2024
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 : |
5772 | Post No. : | 18298 |
“Asiai Sitaara”(1937) was directed by Haribhai Desai for Harshad and Jagtap, Bombay. The movie was distributed by Wadia Movietone.
“Asiai Sitaara”(1937) had master Vithal, Jenabai Pawar, Ibrahim, Veenadevi, Krishnaswami,Minoo the Mystique, Vasant Pehelwan, Master Dhulia etc in it.
This costume drama movie had eight songs in it that have become extremely rare to find. One song has been covered in the past.
Here is the second song from “Asiai Sitaara”(1937) to appear in the blog. This song is sung by Jenabai Pawar. Pt Anuj is the lyricist. Music is composed by Master Mohammad.
Only audio of this rare song is available. It is clear from the starcast that this song was picturised on Jenabai Pawar herself.
From her powerful voice, it appears that Jenabai Pawar was a trained singer. With this song, she makes her debut in the blog as a singer.
Song-Nit leke prem ki maala (Asiai Sitaara)(1937) Singer-Jenabai Pawar, Lyrics-Pt Anuj, MD-Master Mohammad
Lyrics
taat bichhure
hriday ke
dhannath bichhure
humse bichhudo des
hey ae aao aao
nit leke prem ki maalaa
japti priy naam tumhaaraa
nit leke prem ki maalaa
japti priy naam tumhaaraa
ro ro din haay bitaaye
per bhuwannaath na aaye
ro ro din haay bitaaye
per bhuwannaath na aaye
jharat nayan se ansuwan kee dhaaraa
jharat nayan se ansuwan kee dhaaraa
aao
aao
aaao
Is veena ke taar niraaley
Posted on: November 1, 2023
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 : |
5584 | Post No. : | 18057 |
Today’s song is from an old film of the early era-Pratibha-1937.
The film was made by Shalini Cinetone, a banner owned by the Maharaja of Kolhapur. It was directed by Baburao Painter, lyricist was Pt. Anand Kumar and the Music Director was Govindrao Tembe. The cast of the film was Durga Khote, Master Shyam, Heerabai Badodekar, Keshavrao Datey, Nanasaheb Phatak, Raja Paranjpe and others.
The film’s director Kala Maharshi Baburao Painter was the founder-owner of Maharashtra Film Company, Kolhapur. This was a premier film company which made several well known silent films. In 1929,, when a disgruntled group of his employees consisting of V.Shantaram, Keshavrao Dhaiber, Damle and others left the company to start their own outfit called ” Prabhat Film Company”, he was shocked and in 1930 he too left film making. However, on the insistence of the King of Kolhapur he directed 5 Marathi and 2 Hindi Talkie films, under the banner of Shalini Cinetone at Kolhapur. Today’s film Pratibha-1937 was made in Marathi and Hindi. It was based on a book ” हृदयाची श्रीमंती ” (The richness of Heart), written by a noted marathi author Narayan Hari Apte.
Initially films were made at several centres in India. Besides main cities like Bombay, Lahore and Calcutta, films were also made in other places like Kolhapur, Pune, Ahmedabad, Madras, Coimbatore, Vijayawada, Lucknow and some other cities. Out of all these Bombay had more advantages- especially Language. One could live in Bombay for 30 years and still not know Marathi. This was simply not possible in Calcutta or Madras. The regional cinema in Bengal and Madras fiercely competed with Hindi films here, sharing the only production centres in Southern and Eastern India. The result was, Hindi film production slowly diminished as Artistes made a beeline to Bombay. Not only Punjabi or the North Indian artistes, but even Bangla Directors (Nabendu Ghosh, Bimal Roy, Satyen Bose, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Chatterjee etc),Music Directors and Singers( Pahadi Sanyal, K C Dey, S D Burman, Salil Chaudhari, Anil Biswas, Hemant Kumar, even R C Boral) and few actors(Abhi Bhattacharya, Mala Sinha, Talat Mehmood, Pradeep Kumar etc) shifted base to Bombay.
Bombay welcomed one and all from entire India, grew bigger and became the only Hindi cinema production Centre in India. It had markets in East, west, North and South. The number of Indian migrants to other countries was growing, and it made an Overseas market for Hindi films. Regional pride did not interfere, as it had other centres too in Kolhapur and Poona. Local Language was similar to Hindi/spoken Urdu, the social and commercial aspects were friendly and the cosmopolitan culture was conducive and adaptable to all.
No wonder, then, that Local artistes were in majority in the Bombay film world in early days. Heros like Master Vithal, Bhagwan, Nandrekar in the early era, Heroines like, Shanta Apte, Shanta Hublikar, Vanmala. Hansa Wadkar, Ratnaprabha, Snehprabha Pradhan, Nalini Tarkhad, Nalini Jaywant, Durga Khote, Leela Chitnis Lalita Pawar (Amboo) etc in the 40s, and Nutan, Usha Kiron later on and composers like C.Ramchandra, Sudhir Phadke, Snehal Bhatkar, N.Datta, K.Datta, Datta Davjekar etc were famous in Bombay film world.
In the early era of cinema, there were many Marathi heroines in films. Naturally so, because Bombay was the biggest film making centre and it was in Maharashtra. Out of these early Heroines,- Shanta Apte (1916-1964), Snehprabha Pradhan (1920-1930 ), Leela Chitnis ( 1912-2003), Durga Khote (1905-1991), Shobhana Samarth (1915-2000), Hansa Wadkar -Ratan Salgaonkar in real life (1924-1971) and Shanta Hublikar (1914-1992) had few things common.
They operated in films almost in the same period.
They were educated and hailed from upper castes.
They all were rebellious in nature.
They all had failed or no marriages.
They all worked in Marathi stage dramas and
They all ( except Shobhana Samarth) wrote Autobiographies in Marathi …. Shanta Apte- Jau mee Cinemaat ? means- shall I join films ? , Snehprabha Pradhan-Snehankita, Hansa Wadkar- Sangte Aika means- Listen to me (A Hindi film – Bhoomika-1977, with Smita Patil- was made based on this book ). I, Durga Khote by Durga Khote, Chanderi Duniyet by Leela Chitnis and Kashala Udyachi baat by Shanta Hublikar.
One of these actresses was Durga Khote, whose life story is very inspiring. A girl from a well to do family marries and after her husband dies, fights the circumstances, going against the existing society norms and becomes successful. Despite the major ups and downs in life she maintains her reputation of being an actress without a blemish or controversy in her professional career. She ends her life with a success story.
Durga Khote (14 January 1905 − 22 September 1991) was one of the foremost leading ladies of her times. She remained active in Hindi and Marathi cinema, as well as theatre, for over 50 years, starring in 182 Hindi films and numerous theatre productions. In 2000, in a millennium issue, India Today named her among “100 People Who Shaped India”, noting: “Durga Khote marks the pioneering phase for women in Indian Cinema” as she was one of the first women from respectable families to enter the film industry, thus breaking a social taboo.
She also ranks among the top ten actresses in mother roles in Hindi cinema, most notable among them were as Jodhabai in K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam (1960); as Kaikeyi in Vijay Bhatt’s classic Bharat Milap (1942); her other memorable roles as mother were in Charnon Ki Dasi (1941); Mirza Ghalib; Bobby (1973) and Bidaai (1974). She has received the highest award in Indian cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (1983), for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema.
Khote was born as Vitha Lad, to a family which hailed from Goa and spoke Konkani at home. Her father’s name was Pandurang Shamrao Lad and her mother’s name was Manjulabai. She grew up in a large joint family in Kandewadi. She was educated at Cathedral High School and St. Xavier’s College where she studied for B.A. While still a college-going teenager, she married into the Khote family and settled down with her husband. By the age of 26, Durga Khote was a widowed mother with two young sons; Bakul and Harin. She had to seek work in film to support her children. In doing so, she became a pioneer of sorts: She hailed from a traditional family and the film industry was regarded as the preserve of the base and the bawdy. Also, most of the female characters were played by men at the time.
Durga Khote debuted in a minor role in the obscure 1931 Talkie film Farebi Jaal or trapped, by M. Bhavnani. She had to sing 3 songs also in this film. Followed by Maya Machindra (1932) by Prabhat Film company.. She was soon promoted to play heroine in the 1932 double version (Hindi and Marathi) Ayodhyecha Raja, another Prabhat film, which was the first ever Marathi talkie, and proved to be a runaway hit, where she played the role of Rani Taramati. Indeed, she ventured yet another pioneering trend: Despite working closely with the Prabhat Film Company, she broke away from the “studio system” (exclusive contract with a studio to work in its films on a monthly salary) then in vogue and became one of the first “freelance” artistes of that era by working occasionally with the New Theatres, East India Film Co. (both at Calcutta), and Prakash Pictures.
In 1936, she played Saudamini in Amar Jyoti, which is one of her most memorable roles. The characters played by her were very much like her regal personality and she commanded a screen presence even in front of legendary actors like Chandra Mohan, Sohrab Modi and Prithviraj Kapoor. In 1937, she produced and directed a film titled Saathi ( Sawangadi in Marathi), making her one of the first women to step into this role in Indian cinema. The 40s opened for her in a big way, with award-winning performances in Aacharya Atre’s Payachi Dasi (Marathi) and Charnon Ki Dasi (Hindi) (1941) and Vijay Bhatt’s classic Bharat Milap (1942), both of which got her the BFJA Best Actress Award for two consecutive years.
Durga Khote remained active in the theatre circuit for many years, especially the Marathi theatre in Mumbai. She was actively associated with the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) and worked in several plays for the Mumbai Marathi Sahitya Sangh. In 1954, she famously performed the role of Lady Macbeth in V.V. Shirwadkar’s Marathi adaptations of Macbeth, as Rajmukut, (The Royal Crown), along with Nanasaheb Phatak.
Durga Khote played a wide variety of roles over a career that was not only long, but also untouched by scandal. She was the inspiration for several generations of Indian actresses, including veterans such as the late Shobhna Samarth, who frequently spoke of how she had been inspired by Khote’s example. During later years, she played several important character roles, such as the mother of the protagonist. Her portrayal of Jodhabai, the queen of Akbar torn between duty towards her husband and love towards her son in Mughal-e-Azam (1960) was well received. In 1963, she acted in Merchant Ivory’s debut film The Householder (1963).
She went on to play other widely appreciated character roles in later movies, such as the role of the grandmother of the heroine in Bobby (1973), the hero’s aunt in Abhimaan (1973), and the very memorable Bidaai (1974), where she played a mother, a very sensitive role that can make one cry and received the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award. Her final memorable role was in Subhash Ghai’s Karz (1980), where she played the role of the mother of Raj Kiran and later, mother to Rishi Kapoor, who played the role of Raj Kiran’s reincarnation after the screen death of Raj Kiran in the movie.
She acted in 182 Hindi films in her career. Her last film as an actress was Daulat ka Dushman-1983. She had also sung 32 songs in 13 films. Her last song was in the film Panna Dai-1945. By the 1980s she successfully diversified into production of short films, ad films and documentaries by setting up Fact Films and later, Durga Khote Productions, which produced the Doordarshan TV series Wagle Ki Duniya.
Durga Khote was married when she was a teenager to Vishwanath Khote, a gentleman of her own caste and similar social background, in a match arranged by their parents in the usual Indian manner. It was a traditional marriage into an orthodox family, the couple lived a harmonious and happy life, and the marriage was blessed with two sons. Vishwanath was a mechanical engineer who had graduated from Banaras Hindu University. His family was upper middle class and professional, with modern English education and high social standing; his ancestors had been prominent bankers.
Unfortunately, Vishwanath Khote died young, when Durga was barely into her 20s. She and her sons continued to reside with her in-laws, as is traditional in India, but she was not comfortable with her dependent position, especially because her father-in-law was no more, and they were dependent on other family members for their expenses. She thus felt impelled to make a living any which way she could, and the opening in films happened entirely by chance. The fact that she came from a modern and English-educated family meant that, even as a widow, she was able to act in films, which was derided as a disreputable profession in those days.
She thus raised her two sons, Bakul and Harin, single-handedly. Both of them went on to become well-settled in life. But she suffered the loss of her son Harin, who predeceased her and died in his 40s. Harin was married to Vijaya Jaywant, and they were the parents of two sons. After Harin’s early death, his widow married a Parsi man named Farrokh Mehta and became famous as the film-maker Vijaya Mehta.
Durga Khote’s grandchildren (children of Bakul and Harin) include her grandson Ravi, a filmmaker; granddaughter Anjali Khote, an actress; and grandson Deven Khote, a successful producer who is one of the co-founders of UTV, and who has also directed a film. Deven Khote is noted for producing films such as Jodhaa Akbar and Life in a Metro.
Durga Khote’s brother-in-law, Nandu Khote (brother of Vishwanath), was a noted stage and silent movie actor. Two of Nandu’s children also became actors in the film industry. His son Viju Khote (1941-2019) was an actor perhaps best known for his role of “Kalia” in Sholay (1975). Nandu’s daughter is the actress Shubha Khote, who debuted in Seema (1955) and worked as a heroine in several films before moving to character roles. Still later, she moved to directing and producing Marathi films and also entered television in the 90s. Shubha’s daughter, Bhavana Balsavar, is also an award-winning TV actress who appeared in sitcoms like Dekh Bhai Dekh and Zabaan Sambhalke before deciding to settle down and raise a family. Thus, the acting profession which was pioneered by Durga Khote in her family has been fully embraced by her late husband’s family.
Later in life, Durga Khote wrote an autobiography in Marathi, entitled -“Mee, Durga Khote”, which was translated into English as “I, Durga Khote”, and moved to Alibaug, near Mumbai. Durga Khote died in Mumbai on 22 September 1991. ( Thanks to her autobiography, wiki,muVyz and my notes.)
The story of this film was, in short, this……
Poet Prasad (Datey) lives far from the city in a forest, enjoying only the company of wife Pratibha (Khote). The court poet Kaveeshwar (Phatak) of the neighbouring kingdom learns about his poetry and beautiful wife and invites them to his palace, promising glory and fame. Against Pratibha’s advice, Prasad succumbs to the temptation, only to find that his poetry is plagiarized and his wife is harassed.
Today’s song is sung by Durga Khote. She was not a trained singer but had studio training by the respective Music Directors, as per the prevailing custom in that period.
Song-Iss veena ke taar niraale (Pratibha)(1937) Singer- Durga Khote, Lyricist- Pt. Anand Kumar, MD- Govindrao Tembe
Lyrics
Niraale
iss veena ke taar niraale
iss beena ke taar
sab vidhya vaani haarat hai
sab vidhya vaani haarat hai
inki dhun ??
iss veena ke taar niraale
iss veena ke taar
teree komal see unglee (?)
teree komal see
aa aa aa aa
teree komal see
aa aa aa aa
teree komal see
aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa
teree komal see unglee (?) se
ae ae ae ae ae
teree komal see unglee se??
teree komar see unglee se ??
ae ae ae
teree komal see
teree komal see unglee se??
?? haaree
?? hari se
?? haaree
?? hari se
daya(?) karat hai
pyaare niraale
daya(?) karat hai
pyaare niraale
daya(?) karat hai
pyaare niraale
daya karat hai
pyaare niraale
is veenaa ke taar niraale
is veenaa ke taar
sab vidhya vaani haarat hai
inki dhun ?? taar
is veenaa ke taar
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 : |
5440 | Post No. : | 17832 |
Today’s song is from the film ‘Anaath Ashram’ (1937). This film was made by New Theaters, Calcutta.
During the period from 1931 to 1955. New Theaters was one of the premiere film production companies of India. This was not only a commercial organization, but also a school for developing new talents in the fields of acting, direction, cinematography, editing, sound recording, costume designing and other departments of film making. Almost all who learnt from here, became big names in their later careers. It was here that the artists were encouraged to become editors from cinematographers, and directors from editors. Names like Nitin Bose and Bimal Roy are enough to prove this point.
The company also invested a fortune in developing new techniques and new traditions in every field of film making. Because of these, this premiere Bengal studio became a veritable institution and a promoter of talents that largely influenced the whole course of Indian films. In addition to this, New Theaters gifted the style of film songs introducing the Prelude and the Interlude.
Its biggest contribution, however, was the ‘Playback System’ of songs in the films. Birendranath Sircar, founder proprietor of New Theaters sustained it for 35 years, holding a record of making 177 films under this banner. The nearest ever to come was Sardar Chandulal Shah’s Ranjit Movietone, Bombay with 175 films ! New Theaters was also making films in Hindi and other languages from the beginning.
In 1928-29 BN Sircar founded International Filmcraft and made two silent films. Then the company closed. He then established New Theaters in February 1931 as a family concern, holding all shares within the family and becoming its Managing Director. He employed artistes and technicians on monthly salaries. His first success was ‘Chandidas’ (1932). In the same month he and IA Hafiz ji (who later married actress Ratan Bai) went on an all India tour to appoint distributors for his Hindi films to capture the Indian market. In this tour, he appointed distributors in Madras, Madurai, Trichinapally, Erode, Bangalore,Poona, Bombay, Cawnpore (now Kanpur), Lucknow, Kangra Valley and Lahore. The entire Eastern India and the North East was already in his pocket. Such was his vision !
The film business in Bengal was dominated by Marwadi and Gujarati communities. Some of them were – Lal ji Haridas had distribution rights of all major Bombay film companies, Bajranglal Khemka owned East India Film Co., Radha Kishen Chauria owned Radha Film co., Babulal Chowkhani had Bharat Laxmi pictures. All of them realized that making only Bangla films was not enough, making films in Hindi and other languages was necessary for survival and growth. However, BN Sircar had an upper hand here, being ahead in multi language films !
Films based on famous and popular novels and the film songs and music were the strengths of New Theaters. Ms Panna Raii ji, the first one to do Ph.D on Indian films wrote that “Though I did not know Bangla, I loved to listen to the film songs”. New Theatres popularised Rabindra Sangeet throughout India, which otherwise rotted in Shanti Niketan walls, till then. This was also a tough winner on Bombay’s stale stage and drama songs. Audience soon chose film songs from New Theaters films and discarded Bombay songs in preference.
Directors like Pramathesh Barua, Phani Mujumdar, Debaki Bose etc made films which became hits. New Theaters was on the top during 1932 to 1940, holding the uncontested No.1 position. The first blow came to New Theaters when the second World War broke out in 1939. Due to rationing, the raw film was allowed only for 6 films a year. At that point of time expenses of only the salaries of New Theaters studio was in the range of 45000 to 50000 rupees per month. Imagine how much it would be today at the current inflation rate. It would be about 11 lakhs per month !
In 1940 there was another blow to New Theaters in the form of the exit of Pramathesh Barua from the studio. Then on there was a string of actors, directors and Music Directors leaving New Theaters to join Bombay. Prithviraj Kapoor, Kedar Sharma, Nitin Bose, Debaki Bose, Kanan Devi, Uma Shashi (she ran away while shooting on sets to elope with her future husband), KL Saigal and many more left New Theaters. Added to it was the communal riot in 1946 in Bengal and India’s Partition in 1947. Many stalwarts left the company due to disputes with BN Sircar. Only Pankaj Mullick stayed there with him.
In the 1950’s New Theaters started going downhill. In 1954 New Theaters, due to the financial crisis, was handed over to Aurora Film Company. In January 1956 the company closed down and in 1962 it went into liquidation. It was the End of a Giant ! (based on some information from Sharmila Gooptu’s article ‘The Glory that was New Theaters’ and my notes ).
Cast of the Film ‘Anaath Ashram’ (1937) included Uma Shashi, Najmul Hasan, Jagdish Sethi, Prithviraj Kapoor, Nemo, Manorama, Trilok Kapoor, Kalyani, Harimati and many others. The story screenplay and song lyrics were by Kedar Sharma. The cinematographer was Yusuf Mulji – who was a heavyweight in the New Theaters affairs and a close associate of BN Sircar. He had done films like ‘Devdas’ (1935), ‘Pujarin’ (1936), ‘Anaath Ashram’ (1937), ‘Vidyapati’ (1937), ‘Adhikar’ (1938), ‘Sapera’ (1939), ‘Jawani Ki Reet’ (1939), ‘Doctor’ (1940), ‘Nartaki’ (1940), ‘Savitri’ (1940), ‘Hamara Sansar’ (1945), ‘Azaadi Ki Raah Par’ (1948), ‘Ladki’ (1953) etc.
Let us know more about Uma Shashi and Najmul Hasan…..
Uma Shashi (1915 – 6 December 2000) was a Bengali film actress who appeared in many roles from 1929 to 1951. Her on-screen pairings with actors such as Durgadas Bannerjee, KL Saigal, Pahari Sanyal and Prithviraj Kapoor were popular in those days.
Uma Shashi was born in 1915 in a poor Brahmin family of Calcutta. Her father Nilmani Chattopadhyay’s ancient home was in Dhaka, East Bengal, British India but he later settled in Calcutta. He was a kirtan artist and sometimes acted as a jatra artist in a local jatra groups. As a child Uma received a very little formal education in a local school due to poverty. She received dance and music training from the age of four. Miss Satkari Ganguly was her first music and dance teacher. As Satkari Ganguly was herself an actress, she introduced Uma Sashi to stage and theatre where she started work as a group dancer in theatrical plays of companies like Minerva, Alfred and Russa. Soon after, she started playing minor roles and became a part of a touring jatra group from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to different parts of undivided Bengal like Chittagong, Cox Bazar etc. She was a perfectionist and received elocution lessons from several Hindi, Urdu and English tutors to perfect pronunciation of these languages. After her debut in ‘Bangabala’, a silent movie she had to quit the stage because the authorities would not allow their paid staff to work in films.
Uma Shashi started as an actor in the silent movie ‘Bangabala’ in a small role – Subarna. The other silent films she acted in are ‘Bigraha’ (1930) and ‘Abhishek’ (1931). During this time she started recording songs for Columbia Records (India) and then for Hindusthan Musical Products as Smt. Uma Devi. Uma Sashi appeared in many silent movies as an actor. In 1931, She appeared in the first Bengali language sound film, ‘Dena Paona’ (1931), which was a major hit. In this movie she acted in a crowd scene of Gajan and also sang a song “Baba Apan Bhola Modern Pagal Chhele“ along with Miss Abhavati. She received training in singing from the legendary music director Pankaj Kumar Mullick and recorded songs such as ‘Duniya Rang Rangili Baba’ with him for the movie ‘Dharti Mata’ (1938). Uma Sashi’s first leading role was in ‘Chandidas’ (1932) movie of New Theaters where she played the role of Rami.
Uma Shashi married Mr Guru Prasad Dev, an attorney by profession, and a member of the Shobhabazar Rajbari when she was at the top of her career (she ran away from the shooting sets to elope with him). In those days it was not easy for a glamorous actress to become a member of such a conservative family. So she had to wait for quite some time to be allowed into the ancestral house of Mr Guru Prasad Dev. Uma Sashi was Guru Prasad Dev’s second wife and had to share the house of her husband with his first wife. Later she became a mother of three sons and a daughter. After her marriage she mostly remained outside the film industry. In her later years, Uma Sashi occasionally gave interviews in the print and electronic media and attended film functions, on rare occasions.
Uma Shashi died on 6 December 2000. The news of her death only came to light in the media a few days later. [Based on Film Diary-46, wiki and my notes].
Najmul Hasan was born on 5-9-1910, into a noble family of Lucknow. He was tall and very handsome and was bitten by the urge to act in the films. He left his law studies and headed for Bombay. He met Sarojini Naidu, who was a family friend. She strongly recommended his name to Himanshu Rai. His screen test was taken in which he passed. Though at first sight, Himanshu Rai was not impressed with his manner of behavior, he still selected him for the first film of Bombay Talkies, opposite Devika Rani in ‘Jawani Ki Hawa’ (1935).
During ‘Jawani Ki Hawa’ (1935), which was loosely based on Agatha Christie’s ‘Murder On The Orient Express’, published in 1934, Devika Rani fell in love with Najmul Hasan and they decided to elope. Their second film, ‘Jeevan Naiyya’ (1936) went on floor and the love birds flew to Calcutta. There was a great commotion in Bombay Talkies. Shashdhar Mukherji the production manager was close to his Bengali boss Himanshu Rai. Mukherjee traced the couple to Calcutta, met Devika Rani and convinced her to return to Himanshu. Devika Rani returned and Himanshu Rai pardoned her, but not Najmul Hasan.
Najmul Hasan did not come back to Bombay. He joined the New Theatres in Calcutta and did films like ‘Anaath Ashram’ (1937), ‘Dushman’ (1938), ‘Kapaal Kundala’ (1939), ‘Jawani Ki Reet’ (1939), and ‘Nartaki’ (1940). Even in Calcutta, Najmul Hasan had a rocking affair with superstar Jahanara Kajjan. After doing the film ‘Meenakshi’ (1942), Najmul Hasan did some films like ‘Daasi’ (1944) , ‘Ragini’ (1945) and ‘Kaise Kahoon’ (1945) in Lahore and then he decided to migrate to Pakistan in 1947. In Pakistan he did some films like ‘Eid’ (1951), ‘Ashiyana’, ‘Doctor’, ‘Mirza Jatt’, ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Heer Ranjha’ etc.
Najmul Hasan, a very bitter man for the treatment he received in Pakistan, died in 1980 in Pakistan. [Based on Film Diary-46, my notes and Pak sites].
The story of the film ‘Anaath Ashram’ was (as per film booklet),
It is a reformist melodrama about widow-remarriage. Jai Narain (Jagdish Sethi), owner of a colliery, forms a happy family with his wife (Manorama), his daughter Saroj (Uma Shashi), son-in-law Kailash (Trilok Kapoor), an engineer at the colliery, and their son Nannha (Master Satu). Kailash dies in a colliery accident caused by Jai Narain. Nannha is sent to an orphanage and Saroj marries Ramesh (Najamul Hasan), who loves her but is unaware of her previous marriage or of being a stepfather, while Saroj misses her dead husband and longs for her absent son. A former suitor, Ranjit (Prithviraj Kapoor) appears, knowing her past history. Repeated scenes show Nannha pining for his mother.
This story has resemblance to the film story of Prabhat’s ‘Mera Ladka’ (1938) (‘माझा मुलगा’ in Marathi). In this film all the Mangeshkar siblings are seen in one song.
Today’s song is a comedy song. It is sung by children of the ‘Anaath Ashram’ (Orphanage), during their Annual Day function. We do not know the names of singers.
Song – Sarkar Ye Ghulam Geedad Khan Kehlaata Hai (Anaath Aashram)(1937) Singers – Unidentified Child Voice, Lyricist – Kedar Sharma, MD – RC Boral
Chorus
Lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
sarkar ye ghulam geedad khan kehlata hai
bazaar se ye halwa poori lene jaata hai
poori lene jaata hai
halwa lene jaata hai
aaa aaa
sarkar ye ghulam geedad khan kehlata hai
bazaar se ye halwa poori lene jaata hai
poori lene jaata hai
halwa lene jaata hai
main sher hoon is waqt lagi bhookh hai mujhko
main sher hoon is waqt lagi bhookh hai mujhko
ab dekh thodi der mein kha jaaunga tujhko
ab dekh thodi der mein kha jaaunga tujhko
tum hum ko mat khaavo
aavo idhar aavo
tum hum ko mat khaavo
aavo idhar aavo
sarkar ye ghulam geedad khan kehlata hai
bazaar se ye halwa poori lene jaata hai
poori lene jaata hai
halwa lene jaata hai
sarkar ye ghulam geedad khan kehlata hai
bazaar se ye halwa poori lene jaata hai
poori lene jaata hai
halwa lene jaata hai
main sher hoon is waqt lagi bhookh hai mujhko
main sher hoon is waqt lagi ki bhookh hai mujhko
ab dekh thodi der mein kha jaaunga tujhko
haan ab dekh thodi der mein kha jaaunga tujhko
tum hum ko mat khaao
aao idhar aao
tum hum ko mat khaao
aao idhar aao
sarkar ye ghulam geedad khan kehlata hai
bazaar se ye halwa poori lene jaata hai
poori lene jaata hai
halwa lene jaata hai
aaa aaa
sarkaar
————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
————————————————
सरकार ये ग़ुलाम गीदड़ खान कहलाता है
बाज़ार से ये हलवा पूरी लेने जाता है
पूरी लेने जाता है
हलवा लेने जाता है
आsss आsss
सरकार ये ग़ुलाम गीदड़ खान कहलाता है
बाज़ार से ये हलवा पूरी लेने जाता है
पूरी लेने जाता है
हलवा लेने जाता है
मैं शेर हूँ इस वक़्त लगी भूख है मुझको
मैं शेर हूँ इस वक़्त लगी भूख है मुझको
अब देख थोड़ी देर में खा जाऊंगा तुझको
अब देख थोड़ी देर में खा जाऊंगा तुझको
तुम हमको मत खाओ
आओ इधर आओ
तुम हमको मत खाओ
आओ इधर आओ
सरकार ये ग़ुलाम गीदड़ खान कहलाता है
बाज़ार से ये हलवा पूरी लेने जाता है
पूरी लेने जाता है
हलवा लेने जाता है
सरकार ये ग़ुलाम गीदड़ खान कहलाता है
बाज़ार से ये हलवा पूरी लेने जाता है
पूरी लेने जाता है
हलवा लेने जाता है
मैं शेर हूँ इस वक़्त लगी भूख है मुझको
मैं शेर हूँ इस वक़्त लगी भूख है मुझको
अब देख थोड़ी देर में खा जाऊंगा तुझको
हाँ अब देख थोड़ी देर में खा जाऊंगा तुझको
तुम हमको मत खाओ
आओ इधर आओ
तुम हमको मत खाओ
आओ इधर आओ
सरकार ये ग़ुलाम गीदड़ खान कहलाता है
बाज़ार से ये हलवा पूरी लेने जाता है
पूरी लेने जाता है
हलवा लेने जाता है
आsss आsss
सरकार
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 : |
5391 | Post No. : | 17681 |
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Blog 10-Year Challenge (2013-2023) – Song No.84
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On this date ten years ago (22 April 2013), eight songs from eight different movies were covered in the blog. Here are the details:-
| Post No | Song Title | Name of the movie | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7951 | Pujaari morey mandir mein aao | Jaageerdaar (1937) | 4 songs covered out of 10 by now |
| 7952 | Arshon pe sitaara hai wo | Beete Din (1947) | 2 songs covered out of 9 by now |
| 7953 | Kaahe nainon mein naina daale re | Jogan (1950) | Movie YIPPEED by now |
| 7954 | O parwaane shama ko apni ruswa na karna | Shama Parwaana (1954) | Movie YIPPEED by now |
| 7955 | Aaj aayi bahaar le ke dil ka qaraar | Baghdad Ka Jaadoo(1956) | Movie YIPPEED by now |
| 7956 | Allah ke nek bande | Sarfarosh(1964) | 2 songs covered out of 6 by now |
| 7957 | Ae shaam ki hawaaon | Ek Raat(1967) | Movie YIPPEED by now |
| 7958 | Sataayen saari rainaa kunwaare kangna | Kangan (1972) | Movie YIPPEED by now |
We observe that five movies (out of eight) whose songs were covered in the blog on this date ten years ago (viz on 22 april 2013) have since been YIPPEED in the blog. That leaves us with three unYIPPEED movies that are eligible for Blog Ten Year Challenge today (22 April 2023).
“Jageerdaar”(1937) is one of the three BTYC eligible movies today.
“Jageerdaar”(1937) was produced by C V S Desai and directed by Mehboob for Sagar Film Company. The movie had Surendra, Motilal, Bibbo, Maya Bannerjee, Ramachandra Marathe, Yakub, Pandey, Sankata, Zia Sarhadi, Pesi Patel, Bhudo Advani, Mani,Zaver Bhai Qaiser etc in it.
“Jageerdaar”(1937) had ten songs in it. Four songs from the movie have been covered in the past.
Here is the fifth song from the movie to appear in the blog. This song is sung by Surendra. Zia Sarhadi is the lyricist. Music is composed by anil Biswas.
Only audio of the song is available. It is clear that the song was picturised on Surendra himself.
Lyrics of this song were sent to me by Prakashchandra.
audio link:
Song-Agar denee thhee humko hoor o jannat to yahaan dete (Jageerdaar)(1937) Singer-Surendra, Lyrics-Zia Sarhadi, MD-Anil Biswas
Lyrics(Provided by Prakashchandra)
agar denee thhee hamko o
hoor-o-jannat
to yaahan dete
agar denee thhee hamko o
hoor-o-jannat to yaahan dete
naheen to o masti ye ae ahad-e-jawaani
bhee wahaan dete
naheen to o masti ye ae ahad-e-jawaani
bhee wahaan dete
muhabbat aur is pal bhar ke jeeney mein
bhalaa kyaa ho o
muhobbat
muhobbat
aur is pal bhar ke jeeney ae
mein aen aen aen aen aen
bhalaa kyaa ho o o o o
muhabbat gar karaanee thhee
to umar-e-daagdaan(?0 dete
muhabbat gar karaanee thhee
to umar-e-daagdaan(?) dete
ye duniyaa aaa aaa
haan aaa
ye ae duniyaa aaa aaa aaa aaaa
to ahl-e-hosh kee niklee
ye duniyaa
aah ye duniyaa aaa
to ahl-e-hosh kee niklee
hum aisey ae bekhudon ko to o
alag apnaa jahaan detey
hum aisey ae bekhudon ko to o
alag apnaa jahaan detey
agar denee thhee hamko hoor-o-jannat
to yahaan dete
Prem ke pyaale de
Posted on: April 15, 2022
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 : |
5019 | Post No. : | 16927 |
Today’s song is from an old and not much known early era film from Minerva Movietone – Khan Bahadur-1937.
Minerva Movietone was owned by Sohrab Modi. Its first film was ” Atma Tarang-1937″, which was an out and out big flop, with just 20 persons in the audience for the First Day First Show ! Basically, proper advertising was missing, so people did not know anything about the film. The two earlier films featuring Sohrab Modi-jointly with his brother- were stage dramas shot as films, so with this background Modi failed to declare that this film was NOT like that. The 20 daring persons who came to see the film regretted deeply having come there. The film was made on a subject which was very dear to Modi himself – Celibacy or Bramhacharya, truly a ‘Dry’ subject. The heroine was Prabha, who was very beautiful. She featured only in 3 songs, whereas Modi was in 6 songs out of the 12 songs of the film !
In those days Sohrab Modi was influenced by the teachings of Shri Ramkrishna Mission, but his audience was not. With the failure of this film, Modi learnt a lesson that he should make films on subjects of the liking of the people and not his own liking. Then he studied what type of films were successful and popular and then he decided to make a film on a Muslim King who was brave and who did many good things for his people. Thus, the film Khan Bahadur was made and as expected, it did a good business at the Box office. Later Modi made films like Meetha Zahar-38 on ills of drinking, Divorce-38 on Husband -wife differences and Bharosa-40 on Incest. He had learnt his lesson well !
What does Khan Bahadur mean ? Is it a name or a Title or a popular decoration ? 1937 was a British Raj period. In those days the British awarded different titles to Public Achievers, kings and those who were Loyal to the crown. As such ” SIR ” and ” KNIGHTHOOD ” were the highest decorations already, but they were given to highly educated or the members of Royalties of India only. So, the British introduced 3 level Titles for the other public and small kings etc.
First Grade level…. Nawab Bahadur ( for Muslims) or Dewan Bahadur (For Hindus)
Second Level…. Khan Bahadur (Muslims) or Rai Bahadur (North Indian Hindus) or Rao Bahadur (South Indian Hindus) and
Third level….Khan Sahib (Muslims) or Rai Sahib or Rao Sahib (Hindus).
The cast of the film Khan Bahadur-1937 was Sohrab Modi, Naseem Bano, Prem Adeeb, Sheela, Shareefa (mother of actress Husn Banu), Eruch Tarapore, M.Sadiq, Sadat Ali etc.etc. There were 12 songs in the film. The name of the lyricist is not known. The Music Director was B.S.Hoogan.
B.S.Hoogan…. Frankly, how many of us have really heard this name ? Maybe only a few. Until about 12 years ago, I was not even aware of this name. When I first came across this name B.S.Hoogan, in the list of Hindi composers,my first reaction was,what is this foreigner doing in Hindi Films ?
Further when I saw his name as MD in 10-15 films of the 30s, I became very curious and wanted to know more about him.As per my experience so far,I usually got information for any -or almost any-Film personality from my notes,Old cuttings,books,magazines,old articles etc ,or even from an obscure,less known Internet site,but in Hoogan’s case I always found myself at a dead end. There was simply NO information about him anywhere ! It was as if no one in India knew about him or as if he was from some alien planet.
I was perplexed.How can anybody from the Film industry,with so many films to his credit,be such an unknown person ? This was a challenge and I decided ,come what may,to find out about this elusive,dodging and unreachable B.S.Hoogan,at any cost.
Almost one year passed and I found a ray of Hope.
I visited the Blog of Mr.Kamalakar Pasupuleti ji. He is a writer on old films, music and an avid collector of old songs,besides having been an active RMIM worker.He is also a mine of information. Incidentally,he too is from Hyderabad-just like me,and being in the same age group,we enjoyed discussing matters relating to people and places in old Hyderabad of the 40s and 50s,when we were youngsters.Later on, he migrated to the USA.
On his Blog, he had written about Hoogan. He had located the nephew of Hoogan, in India and contacted him.He got some information from him about Hoogan. Although the info was not exhaustive, it was a great find. Kamalakarji himself had also written about Hoogan,from his interaction with people who had met Hoogan in Hyderabad. I wrote to kamalakar ji in the USA and he very graciously gave me permission to use all that material for this article.
At this juncture, my luck suddenly decided to cooperate and I found some info about Hoogan in a book.I even found out that the same nephew of Hoogan had uploaded 4 songs of Hoogan,(2 from Parakh-37 and 2 from Meetha Zahar-38) on Hamara Forum.
The nephew of Hoogan was one Prakash Raj. Once he appeared on the Internet forum through some member and he gave some more information. In addition Hoogan’s grandson- Mr. David Singh Hoogan, from Chittaranjan, W.B. appeared on Atul ji’s Blog and gave some more information as late as in 2020. With all this additional new information, I revised the old information and made up this revised new one. So it is not the same, as some may think. This Mr. Ashok Raj has written 2 books namely The Hero-Volume I, which has information on artistes of the Silent Era and upto Dilip Kumar. The second Book is also named The Hero-Volume II, discussing artistes from Amitabh to Khans and beyond. I have both these books with me. In these books the author has proudly mentioned that B.S.Hoogan was his Uncle. The books are also dedicated to Hoogan.
B.S.Hoogan was not a foreigner,he was very much an Indian.His name was BALWANT SINGH HOOGAN. He was tall,of wheat complexion and of medium build. He was born in 1901 at Firozpur, Punjab, where his family was settled. Earlier the family was in Lahore. He was a Kashmiri Brahmin. According to C.Ramchandra also,he was originally from Kashmir.
It seems Hoogan was keen to pursue higher studies in England, so he left Ferozpur. After reaching Bombay, he changed his mind and wanted to be in films being a Music Director.Before becoming a music director he seems to have learnt classical music and western music.He played many western instruments.
In the days of silent films,orchestras used to play in the theatres ,in front of or behind the screen.During the film also they played appropriate music pieces.It would add live pleasure with moving images. Hoogan learnt this music and conducting orchestra from his teacher, Mr.Victor Aimes,an Englishman,from the Albert Music Company. He learnt writing music in notations and conducting orchestra with a baton. He played in his orchestra of 12 musicians.
Hoogan looked impressive with a Black Tailcoat,Bow-Tie and Grey Trousers,as described by a Hyderabad Nawab,who had been personally introduced to Hoogan in Hyderabad in 1930.
B.S.Hoogan started his career as MD with Ajanta Cinetone of Mohan Bhavnani.He gave music to Afzal,Maya jaal,Rangeela Rajput(all 1933)Dard e dil,Dukhtar e Hind,Mazdoor,Sair e Paristan,Vasavdatta(all1934),Pyar ki maar,Registan ki Rani,Sone ka shahar,sherdil Aurat(all 1935), Begunah,khan Bahadur,Parakh(all1937),Meetha Zahar,Vijay marg(all 1938) and Sansar Sagar-1939.
Total films-18. Songs composed- 231.
Music Director C.Ramchandra, in his Marathi autobiography ( माझ्या जीवनाची सरगम ), wrote about Hoogan. When CR was working in Minerva, He worked with several Music Directors like Habib Khan, Bundoo Khan,Hoogan and finally Meer Sahib. CR learned something from every MD. Hoogan joined the company, in place of Habib Khan, the composer. He showed CR how the Desi Raag can be played on foreign musical instruments. He brought in many Goan orchestra players into the company. CR knew writing notations, Hoogan improved this. Hoogan liked CR very much. Hoogan would take CR with him to all big hotels of Bombay. Orchestras would be playing there. CR learned how those tunes could be indianised in his music here only.
Hoogan would make tunes and ask CR to write the notations. CR would hum those tunes and then improve the tunes. Hoogan would not know. Thus many of his tunes were used by Hoogan without knowing it. In the film Meetha Zahar-1938, Naushad was Hoogan’s assistant. Actors like Nissar, Bibbo, Sheila and Naseem Bano sang for him.
Hoogan had only one son-Avtar Singh. In Bombay, Hoogan contracted Tuberculosis. He started treatment and on doctor’s advise, left for hometown Ferozpur, with family. Soon his illness took a serious turn and B.S.Hoogan died in Ferozpore in September 1938, at the age of 37 only. In another few months, his wife too died and his son was taken care of by his maternal Uncle. The son Avtar singh got a job in Railways at Chittaranjan, W.B. and he moved there. He converted to Christianity. He had a son David who also settled in W.B. only. After conversion his family in Ferozpur broke off all contact with them. His story ends thus.
Prem Adib was new. He first started acting in the film Romantic India-36. Soon he came to Minerva and his film Khan Bahadur was released first and thus became his Debut film. In the early 40’s he became famous with his role of Shri Ram (along with Shobhana Samarth as Seeta) in the Mythological films of Prakash Pictures. Along with him, in this film, there was one more Debutante artiste, and her name was Sheela. Her real name was different. When she was named Sheela, she was the only actress with that name. However, later on many Sheelas entered Films, but luckily they did not cause any Same Name Confusion. Some other Sheelas were…..Sheila Ramani, Sheela Vaz, Sheela Mitra, Sheela Naik, Sheela Devi, Sheela Dalaya (only in the film Mughal E Azam) and Sheela Haldar.
SHEELA(real name-Roshan Ara) was born on 13-3-1925 at Solapur-Maharashtra. Her father was Station Master at Solapur Rly.Stn.
Once Sohrab Modi had come to Sholapur with his Drama company. He went to the station to make 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, in 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 the film ‘ Wasiyat’-40,Ulti Ganga, Bhakta Raidas, Prithvi Vallabh,and Patharon ka Saudagar were all Minerva films.
She had also done films elsewhere- Aladdin 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 the film Pukar-1939 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 sahib, he used to insert his tunes to songs as Meer saheb’s. This was known to many, except, maybe, Meer sahib 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 Sahib.
Today’s song is a duet sung by Sheela and 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 more films, Meetha zehar-38, Jailor-38 and Phir milenge-43. He died in 1948.
Song- Prem ke pyaale de (Khan Bahadur)(1937) Singers- Sheela, Erich Tarapore, Lyricist-Unknown, MD- B.S.Hoogan
Lyrics
Prem ke pyaale de
Prem ke pyaale de
piyarwa bhole bhaale
piyarwa bhole bhaale
Prem ke pyaale de
Prem ke pyaale de
piyarwa bhole bhaale
piyarwa bhole bhaale/em>
dilbar ??
geet ?? ke geet suna de
dilbar ??
geet ?? ke geet suna de
Prem ke pyaale de
Prem ke pyaale de
piyarwa bhole bhaale
piyarwa bhole bhaale
nain se prem prem barsa
nain se prem prem barsa
aman ki ?? jaaye
nain se prem prem barsa
nain se prem prem barsa
aman ki ?? jaaye
gul khilaaye jaa daali daali
pyaare matwaale
gul khilaaye jaa daali daali
pyaare matwaale
bulbul buldul ?? bole bole
bulbul bulbul bole bole ja
?? tumhre kaale
piyarwa bhole bhaale
piyarwa bhole bhaale
Prem ke pyaale de
Prem ke pyaale de
piyarwa bhole bhaale
piyarwa bhole bhaale
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 : |
4938 | Post No. : | 16788 |
Today’s song is from an early period costume film-His Highness-1937.
The film was made by Prakash Pictures, who were into making C grade stunt, action and Costume films, before they became famous for Religious and Mythological films in the early 40’s. There was nothing new in the film story, except that in addition to several villains, it had some animals opposing them along with good people. The film was directed by Balwant Bhatt, the elder brother of Nanubhai Bhatt-father of Mahesh Bhatt. The cast of the film was jayant, Sardar Akhtar, Shiriun bano, Umakant, Ismail, Radha, M.Zahoor and many others. There were 2 MDs. The usual MD of Prakash- Shankar Rao Vyas and Lalloobhai Naik. All the 12 songs of the film were written by Sampatlal Shrivastav ‘ Anuj’.
Today’s song is a Parody song. What is a Parody / ” Humorous imitation of a serious composition” is a simple definition. Like Comedy songs, Romantic songs, Childrens songs, Loris, etc, parody songs are also an important segment of poetry. Parody has a very long history. Actually one can say that a Parody is a type of comedy poem. In early Sanskrit Literature also we find Parody, which was called ” Vidamban Kavya” (विडंबन काव्य ).
When the Talkie films started, songs became an integral part of films. Once the set of film making became stable in initial 5-6 years, the films started having Parody songs in it. I remember, I had done a series on “Parody songs in Hindi films” from 16-3-2013 to 2-4-2013, on this Blog, featuring 10 Parody songs from films. In the first post of that series 9 years ago, I had given information on the first few Parody songs in Hindi films. I reproduce here a small relevant portion of that post, for the benefit of our new readers….
” The very FIRST Parody song in Hindi films came as early as 1936. It came from a film called ” Sunehra Sansaar”-1936. It was a Parody of a famous patriotic song by Dr.Iqbal-” Saare jahan se achha Hindosta hamara…” The parody song was ‘ Saare jahan se achha saabun bana hamara,hum kishtiyan hai iski…’
The lyricist was Vijay Kumar, B.A. and the Music Director was K C Dey. When the song was released, instead of becoming popular, it drew people’s ire for distorting a patriotic song. There was criticism and several protests.
Another Music Director Master Mohd. (who was well known for composing many patriotic songs in those days, in his films) decided to make a Parody of K C Dey’s famous song, ‘Jao jao aye mere sadhu…’ from Pooran Bhagat-1933.
He included this parody song in the same year in his film ‘ Miss Frontier Mail ‘-1936. The lyrics for this song were- gaao gaao aye mere aye mere sadhu…’.It was sung by Minu,the Mystique in the film. This Minu was actually Minoo Cooper, a regular singer in Bombay city Parsi circles. He used to sing in many Hotels in those days. He has also sung a few more songs in Hindi films later.
This retaliatory Parody song was well received by the audience and it became popular too.
So, parody songs entered Hindi films with an interesting History behind them ! ”
In addition to the above, there is an example of a famous Parody song which became popular in its time. The story is, when singer actor Surendra was discovered by Sagar Movietone, they decided to project him as Bombay’s answer to Calcutta’s K L Saigal. Impressed with Surendra’s singing capabilities, Sagar made him a hero in his first film ” Deccan Queen ”-1936. In this film Surendra was given a Parody song for saigal’s famous song ” Balam aaye baso mere mann mein” from film Devdas-1935. In this film the song was ” Birha ki aag lagi mere mann mein”.
Thus one finds that parody songs became instant hits in their first appearance in the initial years 1936-1937 itself. In the subsequent years many such Parody songs featured in films. The most important condition for a Parody song is that the Original song must be so popular that people will recognise it from the tune of the parody song itself. For presenting my series on parody songs, I had searched and collected about 250 parody film songs. A big list was available on the then popular group “Hamara Forum”, on the internet.
Coming to today’s parody song “Kabhi tum ko bhi hum se pyaar tha”, from film His Highness-37, it was a Parody of the famous Ghazal “wo jo hum mein tum mein qarar tha, tumhe yaad ho ke na ho” written by the famous Urdu poet Momin Khan Momin (1800-14-5-1852). he was also known as Hakeem Khan, due to his ancestral profession. He died from an accidental fall from his terrace.
The Hero of the film was Jayant. Jayant was born as Zakaria Khan,on 15-10-1912 at Alwar, Rajasthan. His father Syed Ahmed Khan was originally from Peshawar, but was working as a Sports Coach in the court of the Maharaja of Alwar,Rajasthan. Along with his elder brother Jahangir Khan, Jayant used to sell ‘Makka-Bhutta’ (Maize) on a roadside thela and thus earned his pocket money, with which he used to see films. When he grew up, he was taken by his father to the Maharaja, who recruited him as Second Lieutenant in his Army. Jayant soon got bored with this life, left the job and came to Bombay in search of a job in films. When he met Vijay Bhatt of Prakash pictures, this 6’1″ tall,handsome and young man was liked by him. Jayant also knew Horse riding and swimming. He was named JAYANT by Vijay Bhatt and offered a role in their film Nayi Duniya-1934. Rajkumari Banaraswali also debuted in this film.
Excellent Urdu delivery and handsome personality earned Jayant Hero’s roles in Bambai ki Sethani,Bombay Mail, Lal chithi, Shamsheer-e-Arab, Azadveer, Passing show, Snehlata, Top ka gola, Challenge, His Highness, Khwab ki duniya, Mr.X, State Express, Hero no.1, Sardar and Mala. By now his salary was 3700 per month. He was more at ease in Costume and stunt films than social flicks.
Khwaab ki Duniya-37 was based on the story of Invisible Man and this was the first film as a Director for Vijay Bhatt. Babubhai Mistry from Surat used Trick photography in this film,by using Black Thread on black background.
Jayant was married to 13 year old Kamarbano Sultan. His first son,Imtiaz khan was born on 15-10-42 and second son was born on 21-10-43. He was Amjad Khan (Gabbar singh of Sholay). As a child, Amjad khan was very frail and weak till his second year. Later in his youth, of course he expanded out of proportion. Jayant’s elder brother Jahangir Khan died suddenly in an accident. Jayant was very much attached to him. To forget the sorrow, Jayant started smoking and drinking. After he was out of Prakash Pictures, he was taken by Minerva for Sikander’s role. When Sohrab Modi saw him smoking and drinking on sets, he was summarily thrown out and the role went to Prithwiraj Kapoor, for whom it was a Milestone in his career.
Jayant worked in Aladdin, Laila, Bulbul e Baghdad, Mere saajan, Zewar and Dawat. He even went to Lahore to act in “Poonji” and “Shirin Farhad”. When Shirin Farhad became a resounding flop, Jayant stopped getting roles, but he never went to anyone to ask for roles. P N Arora went to Jayant’s house to sign him for Doli. After Partition, his finances became critical and he had to sell even family jewelry for his drinks. He acted in character roles in Amar ,Insaniyat, Madhumati, Maya, Memdidi, Son of India, Kabli Khan, Hakikat, Leader, Himalay ki God mein, Sangharsh, Do Raaste, Heer Ranjha, Mera Gaon Mera Desh etc. He worked in 105 films. Can you imagine Jayant singing ? Yes, he had sung a song in the film State Express-1938, along with Sardar Akhtar.
Jayant was a family man. Till the end he had only one wife and he followed the rule to partake the dinner at home with all family members daily. He contracted Cancer, lost his voice in 1970. His last film was ‘Love and God’,which was released 11 years after his death.
Jayant died on 2-6-1975. ( Thanks to shri Harish Raghuvanshi ji, for Jayant’s profile in his Gujarati book ,Inhe na Bhulana ).
The story of film His Highness was…….
When the king of Rajnagar dies, the Queen (Gulab) discovers that he had bequeathed the throne not to her mad son Pratap (Umakant), but to their nephew, the young Prince Kirit (Madhav). This made the queen very angry.
Captain Dilip (Jayant), Kirit’s bodyguard, takes the boy and his animal pals, Tiger (Dog Tiger) and Bahadur (Horse Bahadur), on an outing along with servants Ram (Lekhraj) and Rahim (Chhotejan). A group of ruffians surround Dilip and Kirit and attack them, knocking Dilip unconscious, and kidnapping Kirit. Bahadur gallops away to inform Ram and Rahim while Tiger takes off after the goons. Meanwhile, back at the palace, the aged prime minister (Jal Writer), Princess Asha (Sardar Akhtar), and Asha’s maid Kala (Shirin), are told of the kidnapping. Kala then overhears the queen planning to place the blame on Dilip for the kidnapping, thus doing away with him. Kala finds and informs Dilip that it is safest if he stays away from the kingdom for the time being.
Tiger finds Kirit but is unable to free him. However, the dog is able to lead Dilip, on horseback, to the cabin where the prince is being held. Dilip, Tiger and Bahadur put up a good fight against the ruffians, but the crooked Jalim Singh has Dilip arrested. Jalim attempts to take off with Kirit, but Ram and Rahim are able to rescue him.
The queen learns that the prince has been saved by some unknown persons and arranges that the boy should be found and killed, and that the killer will be appointed Prime Minister. Her plan is foiled by a masked man and eventually Kirit is returned safely to the palace.
But with Dilip having vanished, the minister must find someone else to play bodyguard. The Queen suggests her loyal follower Captain Ajaya (M. Zahoor), but the minister disapproves of that choice. When the Queen starts to form another dastardly plan, the mysterious masked man makes an appearance and cautions her to take no actions against Kirit. But the Queen soon ignores the warning and arranges a plot to frame the minister for some crime, thus leaving Kirit with no protection. But she didn’t count on the involvement of Asha, Kala, Tiger, Bahadur and Tommy (Dog Tommy) in trying to save the life of the child prince. (Thanks to pedrotheapebomb.com) .
let us now enjoy the Parody song,a Triad, sung by Rajkumari, Lallobhai and Ismail.
Song- Kabhi tum ko hum se bhi pyaar thha (His Highness)(1937) Singers- Rajkumari Dubey, Lallubhai, E.Ismail, Lyricist- Sampatlal Shrivastav ‘Anuj’, MD- Not known
Lyrics
Kabhi tum ko hum se bhi pyaar thha
tumhen yaad ho ke na yaad ho
Kabhi tum ko hum se bhi pyaar thha
tumhen yaad ho ke na yaad ho
wo wafa ki kasmein jo khaayin thhin
tumhen yaad ho ke na yaad ho
wo wafa ki kasmein jo khaayin thhin
kabhi chaandni mein jo khol kar
maine zulfen shaanon pe daal deen
kabhi chaandni mein jo khol kar
maine zulfen shaanon pe daal deen
mujhe tum ne dil se laga liyaa
tumhen yaad ho ke na yaad ho
mujhe tum ne dil se laga liyaa
tumhen yaad ho ke na yaad ho
tumhen yaad ho ke na yaad ho
kabhi ham bhi tum bhi thhe o sanam
tumhen yaad ho ke na yaad ho
na taka thha aapki jeb mein
tumhen yaad ho ke na yaad ho
wo anarkali ke baazaar mein
maine girvi rakkhi thhi chappalen
wo jo tumko lassi pilaayi thhi
tumhen yaad ho ke na yaad ho
tujhe yaad ho ke na yaad ho
na machine gun se na tope se
mujhe maara nakhron ke teer se
na machine gun se na tope se
mujhe maara nakhron ke teer se
main ?? ka jawaan thha
tumhen yaad ho ke na yaad ho
tumhen yaad ho ke na yaad ho
tumhen yaad ho ke na yaad ho o o
Hamri sudh budh kyon bisraayee
Posted on: October 3, 2021
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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The human mind is constantly attracted by imaginary things.He would like to have supernatural powers and do things which he only dreams about. He knows he can not do so, so looks out for those who can do them. A normal person likes to see a man do super-human activity like fighting with hungry lions or teaching a lesson to Roadside Romeos or punishing wrong-doers etc. If possible he would like to do these things himself, but it is not possible for an ordinary man. If someone is thrashing a thief or stopping someone from troubling hapless women, the public gathers and cheers him. We have seen it many times.
Secrecy, Puzzles, riddles, Mystery and fantasy are the initiators of curiosity in Human Mind. The mind dreams of the things it wishes, but can not do and knows that it can not do. That is where the seeds of Action films and stunts are sown.
The film makers took advantage of this human nature and made films about supernatural heroes who rode Horses, fought 10 goons at a time, jumped into and out of fire with ease and generally staked their lives to save the poor and the weak in the society. The audience simply loved it and action films established themselves. There is nothing childish about it. These movies help the majority of moviegoers enjoy such superhuman acts vicariously.
When film making started in India, it was but natural, because of our heritage, that most initial films were mythological. With the beginning of silent films from Raja Harishchandra in 1913 to 1921 almost all films were Mythologicals.
The First off-beat film was ”England Returned or Bilet ferat” a Comedy film made by Indo British films, Calcutta, released on 2-2-1921.
The First fantasy film was ‘Princess Badar or The tale of Kamar-al-Zamin’ made in 1922 by Madan Theatres, Calcutta.
The First Costume film was ‘The song of the slave‘-1922,made by Photoplay Syndicate,Calcutta.
The First Crime film was ‘The Kala Naag or Triumph of Justice‘-1924, made by Kohinoor films,Bombay. The First detective film was ‘ Justice or Nyaya’-1925, made by Premier Photoplay, Poona.
And finally the First Action film was ”The choice of a Bride“-1929, made by Surya Film Company, Bangalore.
After this there were many Action films made in Silent movies till the last silent film in India-” Niyoti”-1934, made by Aurora Film Corporation, Calcutta, released on 15-9-1934.
( Thanks to Dr.R K Verma and his book “Silent Cinema”).
When the Talkie films started , here too Mythologicals led the list. However the First Action Film in Talkie was ” Dagabaz Aashiq”-1932, closely followed by another action film “Do Badmash” made by Imperial and Ranjit respectively.
After this there was no looking back. There was enough material available for Mythological, Historical, religious, social, fantasy and Costume films in India,with its rich Heritage, but for Action and Stunt film stories, movie makers looked to the west.
The legendary King Arthur, Robin Hood, William Tell, Zorro and Tarzan etc all became sources of inspiration for action and stunt films in India. Skillful adaptation and Indianization of western Heroes coupled with the fertile imagination of story writers in our studios provided enough fodder. It is through this that emerged the ideas of ‘Masked men’,’Hunterwali’ and various Baghis.
Out of these the Tarzan stories were more popular as they combined Mystery, jungles, superhuman powers and great strengths which tamed the wild animals. Countless films were made with Tarzan as the central character.
The original Tarzan story was written by Sir Edgar Rice Burrows and it was first published in 1912, followed by its 23 sequels. The story proved to be immensely popular. No wonder, then, that it attracted the Hollywood producers.
The First Silent film ” Tarzan of the Apes” was released in 1918 in which Tarzan’s role was done by Elmo Lincoln and Jane Porter was Enid Markey. From 1918 to 2008, Hollywood made 89 Tarzan Films.
The First Talkie film on Tarzan was ” Tarzan-The Ape Man ” in 1932. Johnny Weissmuller was doing Tarzan’s role and Maureen O’Sulivan was Jane in it.
Johnny was a German bred Romanian settled in America. He was an Olympic Swimming Champion with 5 Gold medals. The pair of Johnny and Maurine was very popular. Johnny Weissmuller did 12 films of Tarzan from 1932 to 1948. 6 films with Maureen, 2 without Jane and 4 with Brenda Joyce. After Johnny 5 Tarzan films were done by Lex Barker and 6 were done by Gordon Scot. After 1960, there were different Tarzan actors in every film.
The Chimpanzee “Cheetah” was there in films from 1932 to 1960, when he died.
In most films, the scripts were loyal to the novels. However, in the novel, Tarzan and Jane get married and they have a son too. But in films, they never got married and their son ” BOY ” was found and adopted by Jane.
Tarzan films attracted Indian film makers too.As far back as the first decade of Talkie films in India , an attempt was made to make films like Tarzan. The name was too obvious to be copied, so a new name was invented- ZAMBO. The adventurous producer Mohan Bhavnani always liked to do experiments and he made a film Zambo- The Ape man in 1937 (aka Sher E Jungle). It had almost a similar story like that of Tarzan but it was fully indianised. Obviously, this film became very successful, because Bhavnani made a sequel ” Zambo ka Beta ” in 1939.
In both the films the Hero was the same-Navin Yagnik. Navin was a well known stunt film actor who did social films also with the same ease. Navin was born in Calcutta on 3-10- 1912. His father was from U.P. and mother from Bengal. During school days, he was more interested in sports,dramas and oratory. He did not complete his Matriculation, but ran away to Bombay, to become an actor-against the wishes of his family.
He joined Sagar Films in 1930, as an Extra, without salary. After a few months he got Rs.35 pm, but no credited roles. After an year or so, he left Sagar and joined Mohan Bhavnani’s Ajanta Film company. He first worked in the film ‘ The Mill ‘-34. Unfortunately, this film was banned for 2 years. The film was based on a story by Munshi Premchand and depicted the poor conditions of mill workers in Bombay. The Mill Owners’ Association brought pressure on the Government and got the film banned. After 2 years, the film was released as ” Ghareeb Parivar”-36 aka ‘Daya ki Devi’. Two more films and Navin became Hero in the film ” Pyar ki maar”-35.
In her autobiography, actress Hansa Wadkar says,” My Hero in this film was one Navin Yagnik, a handsome boy from U.P. He was very shy and after the shootings, he would quietly sit in one corner reading something. He never joined our drink parties,nor did he participate in any other group activity. I was attracted towards him but he gave no response. He sent me an invitation card for his marriage, when it was fixed.”
He also worked in Minerva Movietone, Prakash pictures, Filmistan and other good banners. Some of his well known films were, Zambo-The ape Man-37, Meri Bhool-37, Divorce-38, Vaasanti-38, Son of Zambo-39, Main Haari-40, Jhoothi Sharm-40, Vasantsena-42, Raja Rani-42, School Master-43, Prithvi Vallabh-43, Chal chal re Naujawan-44 etc. His last recorded film was Bhagwat Mahima-55. In all, he worked in 30 films.
Navin Yagnik died on 28-10-1977.
Many films were made on Tarzan in India. Though there was a film ‘ Tarzan ki beti’ made by a Calcutta company in 1938, it was not actually a jungle film, belying its title. It took about 25-30 years to see a Hindi film of Tarzan. In the 60s there was a spate of Tarzan films. About 20+ films were made. Tarzan stories were more popular as they combined Mystery, jungles, superhuman powers and great strengths which tamed the wild animals. Countless films were made with Tarzan as the central character.
When the normal titles finished, the imaginative writers combined Tarzan with Aladdin, Delialah, Rocket, Gorilla, Mermaid, King Kong, Hercules, Cobra, Circus and even Fairyland. When this too was exhausted, they joined him with places like Delhi, spies like 303 etc. They gave Tarzan a Daughter also. When the Indianisation of Tarzan was complete, in came ZIMBO !
Whatever the title, the script ideas were more or less the same. It ensured that the Hero’s supernatural powers and strength was used and wild animals were shown in abundance.
There were also Toofani Tarzan (1937), Toofani Tarzan (1962), Tarzan Aur Gorilla (1963), Rocket Tarzan (1963),Tarzan Aur Jalpari (1964), Tarzan Captain Kishore (1964), Tarzan Comes To Delhi (1965),Tarzan And Circus (1965), Tarzan And King Kong (1965); Tarzan Aur Hercules (1966), Tarzan Ki Mehbooba (1966), Tarzan In Fairyland (1968), Tarzan 303 (1970),Tarzan Mera Saathi (1974), Tarzan (1985), Taarzan – The Wonder Car (2004).
Anyway we are talking about the film Zambo-The Ape man-1937 presently. The music was given by an extraordinarily talented artiste- Badri prasad. He was an actor, singer, Music Director, Producer, Director, Lyricist and a Choreographer in his last lap. I have yet to come across another artiste with so much talent. Additionally he was a Sanskrit pandit and wrote dramas for All India Radio also. We don’t find such people these days !
Film actor and a famous compere DAVID ABRAHAM CHEULKAR, popularly known only as David, made his Debut with this film. David Abraham Cheulkar (21-6-1909 to 2-1- 1981), popularly known as David, was a Jewish-Indian Hindi film actor and a member of Mumbai’s Marathi-speaking Bene Israel Jew community. In a career spanning four decades, he played mostly character roles, starting with the 1941 film Naya Sansar, and went on to act in over 110 films, including memorable films such as Gol Maal (1979), Baton Baton Mein (1979) and Boot Polish (1954), for which he was awarded the 1955 Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award.
He never married. He died on 2-1- 1981 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada of a heart attack at the age of 73.
Today’s song is sung by Sarla devi. It is the second song from this film here.
Song- Hamri sudh budh kyon bisraayee (Zambo The Ape man)(1937) Singer- Sarla Devi, Lyricist- Pt. Badri Prasad, MD- Pt. Badri Prasad
Lyrics
Hamri sudh budh kyon bisraayee
Hamri sudh budh kyon bisraayee
hamre nainan mein nit aas lagi hai
nainan mein nit aas lagi hai
surat kyon hai chhupaayi
Hamri sudh budh kyon bisraayee
hamre kaate katat naahin
birha ki ratiyaan
kaate katat naahin
birha ki ratiyaan
tum bin saajan dhadkat chhatiya
neha lagaa ke
tumne saajan
neha lagaa ke
tumne saajan
birha ki aag lagaayi
hamri sudh budh kyon bisraayee
hamri sudh budh kyon bisraayee
raat andheri
baadal garje ae ae ae
megh chaaye rahe
bijli chamke
aawo ban mein chhupne waale
aawo ban mein chhupne waale
ab pad jaawo dikhaayee
hamri sudh budh kyon bisraayee
hamri sudh budh kyon bisraayee
Tum bhi kitne raseele
Posted on: September 8, 2021
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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4800 | Post No. : | 16564 | Movie Count : |
4511 |
Today’s song is from an old film – actually a very old film, which is 84 years old – Dhanwan-aka Mazdoor ki beti-1937.
The film was made under the banner of the Imperial Film Company, Bombay and was shot in its studio. It was directed by Premankur Atorthy and the Music was by Harshchandra Bali or H.C.Bali. The cast of the film was Rattanbai, Jamshed ji, Hafisji, W.M.Khan and others. This was the last film made by the Imperial Film Company.
From 1913 to around 1945 upwards, it was strictly a period of Studio Culture. Names of Heroes and Heroines were less important than the name of the studio making the film During the Silent film era films used to be made within a span of a month or even less than that.Most films were shot during day time in the studios where there used to be no roof to its 4 walls, because they needed Sunlight for shooting. An improvement on this was a Glass Ceiling in Imperial studio to filter the strong sunlight in summer.
Studios used to employ people needed to make films, like Actors-M and F, Directors, MDs, Lyricists, Writers, Cinematographers etc on monthly basis pay. For big studios, the Pay-roll lists would have artistes and others in hundreds. Ranjit studio boasted to have more than 900 people on its monthly Pay list at one time. The Government had opened a Ration shop inside the studio premises for their families. Bombay Talkies had made Entertainment and play areas (like Tennis, Badminton courts etc) for use by its employees. Every studio used to have a Canteen for the workers and the other people. Prabhat had appointed some Extra actresses, who used to sweep, do Housekeeping and cook for the studio staff as well as work in small roles in the films, whenever needed.
While there were 20 film companies in Calcutta, at the same time in Bombay there were 31 film companies with studios ( as on today, there are just 13 film studios which are given on rent for shootings). Over a period, the studio system ended, every artiste became a Freelancer and studios remained only for renting out for shootings to independent producers. Films stopped being sold on studio names and actors and directors became the attraction for the audiences to see the films.
Studio system was one of the biggest factors in the evolving and development of the Indian film industry. From this onwards, I plan to write on different well known studios, in my future posts, whenever possible. Today we will know more about the Imperial Film Company. Being the first to make a Talkie film in Hindi, it deserves this honour !
Ardeshir Irani (5-12-1886 to 14-10-1969) built the Imperial Studio of the Imperial Film company, near Kennedy Bridge in Nana Chowk, Bombay, in 1922. At the same time he built another studio, near Chowpatty for Sagar Movietone. All the studios used to be without a roof. These were the days of Silent films.Most Stunt films were shot outdoors but others like Mythologicals were shot in the studios. Films made here were released in Irani’s own Majestic Theatre.
India’s first Talkie film ” Alam Ara” was made in 1931. There was a Processing lab also in the premises. Imperial made some Marathi films also like ‘ Rukmini Haran’ and ‘ Devki’ etc. Till 1937, Imperial was a leading studio. In 1937, Imperial made India’s First indegenous Colour film “ Kisan Kanya”. Irani had not spared any effort to make it technically superb. Unfortunately this film flopped leaving a heavy loan on Irani’s head. He first sold Sagar Studio and then some more land also. In 1938, Ardeshir irani mortgaged Imperial Studio to Kapurchand Mehta against a big sum, but could never redeem it again. Mehta later changed its name to ” Jyoti Studio” and started renting it to other companies for shootings. Some land was sold to Motor garages. After the death of Ardeshir Irani, his legal heir Shapurji looks after whatever land and buildings are left over.
In 1925, Ardeshir Irani founded Imperial Films ( Imperial studio, Imperial Film Company and Imperial Films are all different – legally), where he made sixty-two films. By the age of forty, Irani was an established filmmaker of Indian cinema. Ardeshir Irani became the father of talkie films with the release of his sound feature film, Alam Ara on 14 March 1931. Many of the films he produced were later made into talkie films with the same cast and crew. He is also credited with making the first Indian English feature film, Noor Jahan (1931). He completed his hat-trick of earning fame when he made the first colour feature film of India, Kisan Kanya (1937). His contribution does not end only with giving voice to the silent cinema and colour to black-and-white films. He gave a new courageous outlook to filmmaking in India and provided such a wide range of choice for stories in films that till date, there are films being made which have a theme relating to one of the one hundred fifty-eight films made by Irani.
In 1933, Irani produced and directed the first Persian talkie, Dokhtar-e-Lor. The script was written by Abdolhossein Sepanta who also acted in the film along with members of the local Parsi community.
Irani’s Imperial Films introduced a number of new actors to Indian Cinema, including Prithviraj Kapoor and Mehboob Khan. He also interfered with the medium. He produced Kalidas in Tamil on the sets of Alam Ara, with songs in Telugu. Also, Irani visited London, England for fifteen days to study sound recording and recorded the sounds of Alam Ara on the basis of this knowledge. In the process, he created a whole new trend unknowingly. In those days, outdoor shootings were shot in sunlight with the help of reflectors. However, the outdoor undesirable sounds were disturbing him so greatly that he shot the entire sequence in the studio under heavy lights. Thus, he began the trend of shooting under artificial light.
Imperial Films Company Est: 1926. Successor to the Majestic and Royal Art Film companies set up by Ardeshir Irani as a diversification of his exhibition interests in partnership with Esoofally, Mohammed Ali and Dawoodji Rangwala. Organised as a vertically integrated combine with its own exhibition infrastructure. Started following the decline of Kohinoor, it continued many of the latter’s Mohanlal Dave-inspired genres, often with the same stars and film-makers. Imperial became closely associated with the costumed historical genre launched with Anarkali (1928), shot and released almost overnight in direct competition to Charu Roy’s The Loves of a Mughal Prince (1928).
Irani also rushed out Alam Ara (1931), released as India’s first full talkie narrowly beating Madan Theatres’ Shirin Farhad (1931). Imperial was the first studio to shoot scenes at night (in Khwab-e- Hasti, 1929) using incandescent lamps. It owned India’s top silent star, Sulochana, and promoted her along with Zubeida, Jilloo and, for a while, the young Prithviraj Kapoor. This was perhaps the first major instance of a deliberate manufacturing of a star-cult as a marketing strategy.
Top Imperial film-makers include R.S. Choudhury, B.P. Mishra and Mohan Bhavnani, whose film-making set the house style, as did Nandlal Jaswantlal’s sound films. A fair number of the studio’s talkies were remakes of its own silent hits with Sulochana (Anarkali, 1928 & 1935), Wildcat of Bombay (1927) became Bambai Ki Billi (1936), etc. It made films in at least nine languages: Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Burmese, Malay, Pushtu and Urdu. The first Iranian sound film, Dukhtar-e-Lur (aka Dokhtare Lor Ya Irane Diruz Va Emruz, 1932) was also made here. Kisan Kanya (1937) by Gidwani was India’s first indigenously manufactured colour film, made with the Cinecolour process. When it closed in 1938, its economic and generic inheritance was continued by Sagar Movietone.
Film Kisan Kanya-1937 was famous as the First indigenously made colour film of India, made by Ardeshir Irani’s company- Imperial Film Company. Film pioneer Irani was the first to make an International Co-Production, with Italy, film Nala Damayanti- a silent film of 1920. Secondly, he had the honour of making and releasing India’s First Talkie Film ” Alam Ara-1931″. And with the film Kisan Kanya, he achieved a Hat Trick of ‘ First in India’ credit in film making.
Ardeshir Irani was very keen to become the First to make a Talkie film of India. He knew that Madon Theatres of Calcutta too were busy in making their First Talkie film, with two popular stars of the day. Irani hastened the speed of his shootings and recordings. Lot of secrecy was maintained in filming the movie. From his secret sources in Calcutta, he was getting information on the progress of Madon Theatres’ film in making. He came to know that their film was to have about 20 songs in the film. Irani decided to limit the number of songs in his film to save on time. Now they would have only 7 songs. Thus they saved on many days of shootings and recordings. Thus, while Alam Ara was released on 14-3-1931, Madon could only release their First Talkie film “Shirin Farhad” on 30-5-1931, a cool two and a half months later !
Similarly, Irani studied why Prabhat’s first colour film ‘ Sairandhri-33″ failed technically and decided to do all technical processes in India, for his colour film Kisan Kanya-37. Thus his colour film came out much better than Prabhat’s film.”Irani perhaps was the world’s first multilingual film maker,having made forays into English, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Persian, Burmese, Indonesian and Pashto. He is credited with launching the Talkie era in countries like Burma, Indonesia and Iran. He made nearly 120 Talkies in a span of just 8 years. He was also the first to establish a colour laboratory imported from Hollywood.
Irani made one hundred fifty-eight films in a long and illustrious career of twenty-five years, between the First and Second World Wars. He made his last film, Pujari, in 1945, under the banner of Ardeshir M. Irani Productions ltd. The film was shot in Jyoti Studios, ironically ( it was his own Imperial studios earlier). Irani was not compelled to live like Dadasaheb Phalke for he realised that the war was a time not suitable for film business and therefore he suspended his film business during that time. He died on 14 October 1969 at the age of eighty-two, in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Noted film director Mehboob Khan had a little story about his connection with Imperial Film company. After the successful film Ek hi Raasta-39, Mehboob started work on Alibaba. He had made the beginning of his film career by acting in the silent film on Alibaba, at the Imperial film company. He was one of the 40 thieves ! By now, due to his continuous success, Sagar Movietone had benefited much and he was highly respected in the company.
Besides Mehboob, Sagar Movietone had a team of other directors like C M Luhar, Sarvottam Badami, Hiren Bose, Ramchandra Thakur etc. They too were making films for Sagar. However, their films were not as successful as those by Mehboob. In addition, the onset of the Second World War had a negative impact on Sagar and it went into loss. Soon, the owners decided to close the company.
By this time, Mehboob was ready with all the arrangements to start the shooting of Alibaba. Closing down of Sagar was a shock to him. He approached Ardeshir Irani of Imperial and asked for permission to shoot his film there. Irani was very happy. The novice ‘ extra ‘ who had worked in his company-without pay for the first five months- had now become an acclaimed top class successful Director. Irani was proud of Mehboob. He gladly permitted him to shoot his entire film there. (Thanks to wikipedia, Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, The formative phase of Indian Cinema-Ashok Raj in Hero-I ,article by D.B.Samant, Shirish Kanekar, Bhai Bhagat’s book ‘ Teen bhintinchi Duniya ‘ (तीन भिंतींची दुनिया ) and my own notes. )
One of the names in the cast is peculiar- Jamshed ji. His full name was Jamshed ji Bairam ji, Khan Saheb. In some films, he was credited as Khan saheb also. He was born in Bombay in 1889 as a typical Parsee. He was one of the oldest and most experienced actors having worked with several directors and over 25 years of acting.
He started with Silent films like Pyari Mamta, Madhuri, Sohni Mahiwal, pooran Bhagat, Gulshan E Arab, Hoor E Baghdad and Indira. His first talkie films were Daulat ka nasha-31 and Noorjahan-31. He acted in about 50 films. His last known film was Andaz-1949.
Jamshed ji, also gave music to 3 films- Naya Zamana-35, Zaate Shareef-36 and Jagat kesari-37.
With today’s song by Rattanbai, film dhanwan-37 makes its Debut on this Blog.
Song-Tum bhi kitne raseele (Dhanwaan)(1937) Singer- Ratanbai, Lyricist- Not known, MD- H C Bali
Lyrics
aa
haay aa aa haay
haay haay
haa aa aa haay haaay
tum bhi kitne ae ae raseele
haa aa aa aa aa
tum bhi kitne raseele
bane baabu raaja
bane baabu raaja
aa aa aa
tum bhi kitne raseele
haan aan aan aan
khade morey dwaare
haan aan aan aan
khade morey dwaare
bane baabu raaja
bane baabu raaja
aa aa aa
tum bhi kitne raseele
haan aan aan aan
malmal ka kurta
makhmal ki jaackit
haan haan
makhmal ki jaackit
haan
malmal ka kurta
makhmal ki jaackit
haan haan
makhmal ki jaackit
Lucknow ka palla pahne
han aan aan aan
Lucknow ka palla pahne
pahne baabu raaja
pahne baabu raaja
aa aa aaa
tum bhi kitne raseele
pahne baabu raaja
pahne baabu raaja
aa aa aa
tum bhi kitne raseele
haan aan aan aan
sone ka kangana
chaandi ki jhaanjhar
haan
chaandi ki jhaanjhar
haan aan aan
sone ka kangana
chaandi ki jhaanjhar
haan
chaandi ki jhaanjhar
laaye kahaan se gahne
haan
laaye kahaan se gahne
gahne baabu raaja
gahne baabu raaja
aan aan
tum bhi kitne raseele
haan aan aan aan
tum bhi kitne raseele
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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