Archive for the ‘Song of 1939’ Category
Tu Dekh Zaraa Dil Ka Darpan
Posted on: May 4, 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 : |
5403 | Post No. : | 17727 |
Today’s song is from an old film ‘Ek Hi Raasta’ (1939).
This film was made by Sagar Movietone and was directed by a young Mehboob Khan. This was his last film with Sagar, because after this Sagar was merged with National studios and later on it was closed down forever. This proves that generally, family enterprises where it is a one man show, be it films or politics, does not last long. If the enterprise does not adapt to changes or does not learn from its mistakes, its downfall is sure. Mehboob Khan grew big with Sagar. Mehboob was influenced by Nehru’s ideology and was his staunch supporter. It was a coincidence that Nehru died in the afternoon of 27th May 1964 and within 12 hours, Mehboob Khan too died in the early hours of 28th May 1964.
Mehboob Khan rose from the lowest step to the highest place in the film industry. Starting life as an ‘extra’ in films (he was one of the 40 thieves in Sagar’s silent film on Alibaba). He grew solely due to his own hard work and foresight. Born as Ramzan Khan in 1907 in Bilimora, Gujarat, Mehboob was from a Gujarati Muslim family. He never got a formal education in his young age, but he was keen on two things – 5 times Namaz daily and seeing films. His father being in Police Department, films were free for him. One day he ran away to Bombay to become an actor. However his father found him out and brought him back. He was immediately married off, with a belief that he would improve.
Two years after marriage and one child, he ran off to Bombay again and worked in Imperial Film Co. as an extra for Rs 30 pm. This too after he worked without any pay for 5 months due to the mistake of the clerk ! He worked in crowd scenes and sundry roles – without a dialogue, of course, starting as one of the 40 thieves of ‘Alibaba’. He worked in several films uncredited. His first, big and credited role came in the film ‘Shirin Khushru’ (1929).
In 1927, after the talkie film ‘The Jazz Singer’ was shown in US, the world started making Talkie films. India too jumped into the bandwagon. In 1931, Imperial Movietone, competing with Madon Theaters of Calcutta, wanted to make a talkie and started work fast. Mehboob Khan was almost finalized as the hero. Even his costumes were made ready, but he was destined for something different, and Master Vithal was made the hero of India’s first talkie. Ardeshir Irani’s safety valve of minimizing the risk of the first venture by selecting the existing popular hero, scuttled Mehboob’s dream.
Meanwhile, Imperial started a new company, ’Sagar Movietone’, along with Dr. Patel and Chiman Desai. Some artistes and techies were shifted to Sagar-including Mehboob- from Imperial. Mehboob continued to work in 12 silent films. Here, he met Fardoon Irani, Cinematographer and they became thick friends. Irani was with Mehboob till the end.
During this period, Mehboob wrote a film story and convinced the owners to allow him to direct this film. Owners were hesitant, naturally, to allow this young extra actor to direct a film. Lastly a deal was struck, that Mehboob and Faredoon should be allowed to shoot one reel film. If they like it, continue or else, scrap it and recover money from these two chaps. After one reel shooting the owners realized that they had struck gold in the process and Mehboob completed his first directorial venture ‘Al Hilaal’ (1935). The film was a great success and Mehboob ‘chal pada’. Mehboob went on to direct 7 more films for Sagar. All his films were successful.
From film ‘Jageerdar’ (1937) Mehboob and Anil Biswas pair teamed up for 8 films – till ‘Roti’ (1942).
When Mehboob was making arrangements for his next film, ‘Alibaba’, the sudden news that Sagar is closing down hit them. Mehboob Khan contacted Imperial to allow him to shoot for his film in their studio, which Ardeshir gladly permitted. The film shooting proceeded til Sagar became National Studios. Mehboob made 3 important films of his career in National Studio, namely ‘Aurat’ (1940), ‘Behan’ (1941) and ‘Roti’ (1942).
When National studio also closed down all workers came on road. However, Mehboob decided to start his own company. One Mr. Lalaji of Manoranjan Distributors of Delhi promised capital. National Studio was renamed as Central Studio by the owner, KK Modi – elder brother of Sohrab Modi. He allowed Mehboob to use the studio till his own studio came up. Mehboob took a place nearby to start his office. In this period there was a rift between Mehboob and Anil Biswas and they separated for ever – albeit bitterly.
Mehboob wanted a logo for Mehboob Productions. He selected a sher written by Agha Jani Kashmiri for film ‘Al Hilal” —
“muddai laakh bura chaahe to kya hota hai,”
“wahi hota hai jo manzoor e khuda hota hai”.
It was recorded in the voice of Rafiq Ghaznavi with appropriate prelude music and sound of lightening and clouds. He also took Sickle and Hammer for the logo, and clarified that because he respected workers and certainly he was not a communist.
His first film ‘Najma’ (1943) with Ashok Kumar and Veena was a hit film (his daughter’s name was Najma). It was followed by ‘Taqdeer’ (1943), ‘Humayun’ (1945), ‘Anmol Ghadi’ (1946), ‘Elaan’ (1947), ‘Anokhi Ada’ (1948), ‘Andaaz’ (1949), ‘Aan’ (1952), ‘Amar’ (1954) and his magnum opus ‘Mother India’ (1957). After the high of ‘Mother India’, Mehboob aimed to fly even higher with ‘Son of India’ (1962) but the film was a total misfire and in fact his weakest film.
Mehboob had been neglecting health in spite of suffering heart attacks. In May 1964, he suffered another attack but survived. His financiers were after him for repayment and he was worried. He called Rajendra Kumar and asked for a loan of 4 lakh rupees against his studio to be made in his name. Rajendra Kumar declined to take the studio and promised to give him the amount next day at 11 am, without any mortgage. In the evening, news of Nehru’s heart attack came. Mehboob became restless. Soon the death news came and Mehboob became grief stricken. Akhtar gave him sleeping pills, but he had to be admitted to Nanavati Hospital. He too died at 2 am on 28th May 1964. At the time of his death, Mehboob Khan was harboring ambitions to make a film on the life of Habba Khatoon, the 16th century poetess-queen of Kashmir.
Mehboob Khan directed 8 films for Sagar, 3 films for National and 11 films for Mehboob productions.
[Based on information from Upperstall, the book ‘Mehboob Khan’ by Shashikant Kinikar and my notes].
Film ‘Ek Hi Raasta’ (1939) was the first Hindi film with 3 heroes, namely Sheikh Mukhtar (this was his debut film as a hero), Harish and Arun Ahuja. In those days it was a novelty to have 3 heroes. The other star cast was Anuradha, Jyoti, Kanhaiyalal and many others. Actress Jyoti may be known to many readers. She was the younger sister of Waheedan Bai. Her real name was Sitara Begum. She was a favorite singer of Anil Biswas. After her first marriage broke, she married actor singer GM Durrani. Their married life was happy and long. She acted in 19 films and sang 38 songs in 12 films.
Anuradha was the younger sister of actress Zohra Jaan and Mushtari. Her real name was Khurshid Akhtar (same as actress Shyama). Zohra Jaan was married to actor composer Rafiq Ghaznavi, but they were divorced and Rafiq then married Anuradha. After migrating to Pakistan, Ghaznavi divorced her also.
Mehboob Khan and Anil Biswas were great friends. Both grew up in Sagar Movietone and made a name for themselves. Unfortunately, there was a dispute between them and they split bitterly forever. Many disputes are famous in Hindi cinema world like, for example Lata – Rafi, Lata – SD Burman, Shammi Kapoor – Kalpana etc. Most disputes ended with compromise, but Mehboob Khan never pardoned Anil Biswas as he felt that Anil Biswas betrayed him for money.
Anil Biswas joined Sagar Movietone in 1936 and ‘Jagirdar’ (1937) was his first film as an MD there. He became a very good friend of Mehboob. Together with cinematographer Faredoon Irani, they made a close group of friends. In every film that Mehboob directed from 1937 to 1942 (8 films), Anil Biswas was his Music Director. In 1940 Sagar staff shifted to National and in 1942, National Studios was to be closed. All employees, including Mehboob, Fardoon and Ail Biswas were worried about their future. In that period, Anil Biswas got an offer first from Ranjit Studios, but he rejected it as his friends did not get offers. Then he got an invitation from Bombay Talkies for Rs. 2,500 rupees pm as salary. This was too lucrative to reject. Though his friends were jobless, Anil Biswas joined Bombay Talkies.
Mehboob Khan was upset that being a friend also, in their bad days, Anil Biswas deserted them for personal gain. Mehboob and Fardoon felt let down. Their relations soured and thereafter Mehboob Khan never ever took Anil Biswas as an MD for films of his company. After establishing his own Mehboob Productions, he did not invite Anil Biswas. Mehboob Khan prospered and teamed up with Naushad as his MD from film ‘Anokhi Ada’ (1948) onwards, in place of Anil Biswas.
By 1954, Anil Biswas broke up with his first wife Ashalata . His career as music director was floundering and he was not getting any films. For survival he unsuccessfully tried doing truck business. Seeing his condition, Mehboob offered him the contract for his canteen, on request from Anil Biswas. That too failed miserably. Mehboob Khan was so bitter about him that even in that condition Mehboob did not offer him any film.
When Mehboob Productions planned the film ‘ Paisa Hi Paisa ‘ in 1956, Mehreesh was made the Director. Being a great fan of Anil Biswas, he asked Mehboob’s permission to call Anil Biswas as its music director. As one who believed in work ethics, Mehboob very reluctantly permitted Mehreesh, but went on a foreign trip to avoid meeting Anil Biswas. Film ‘Paisa Hi Paisa’ was a comedy film, with Kishore Kumar, Mala Sinha, Shakeela, Shyam Kumar, Murad, Mukri, Kumud Tripathi etc. Basically Anil Biswas specialised in tragedy or serious films. Comedy film was not in his comfort zone, but his financial condition forced him to bow to the circumstances. Being a talented composer, he did well in this too, though the film bombed at the box office.
[Based on information collated from the book ‘Mehboob Khan” by Shashikant Kinikar, with thanks and my notes].
Anil Biswas was very fond of singing in his own films. Here is today’s song, sung by him. In this film, Anil Biswas sang 3 solos and a duet with Waheedan Bai (Nimmi’s mother).
Song- Tu Dekh Zaraa Dil Ka Darpan (Ek Hi Rasta) (1939) Singer – Anil Biswas, Lyricist – Kidar Sharma, MD – Anil Biswas)
Lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
jise kehta hai tu
aa gaya
aa gaya
wo gaya hi kahaan tha
ye to bata
dil ka suraj tere
jagmagaata hua..aa..aa
baadalon mein
o rehta kahaan tak chhupa
tu dekh zara dil ka darpan
tu dekh zara dil ka darpan
wahaan basa hua hai vrindavan
tu dekh zara dil ka darpan
tu dekh zara dil ka. . .
tere nainon mein ganga jamuna bahe
tere nainon mein ganga jamuna bahe
tere mann mein Mathura vaas rahe
tere mann mein Mathura vaas rahe
tere kaanon mein bansi ki taan rahe
tere kaanon mein bansi ki taan rahe
tere mukh mein. . .
tere mukh mein shyam ka naam rahe
tere mukh mein shyam ka naam rahe
giridhar ko kar tan mann arpan
giridhar ko kar tan mann arpan
tu dekh zara dil ka darpan
tu dekh zara dil ka. . .
tere nainon mein ganga jamuna bahe
tere nainon mein ganga jamuna bahe
tere mann mein Mathura vaas rahe
tere mann mein Mathura vaas rahe
tere kaanon mein bansi ki taan rahe
tere kaanon mein bansi ki taan rahe
tere mukh mein. . .
tere mukh mein shyam ka naam rahe
tere mukh mein shyam ka naam rahe
giridhar ko kar tan mann arpan
giridhar ko kar tan mann arpan
tu dekh zara dil ka darpan
tu dekh zara dil ka. . .
————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
————————————————
जिसे कहता है तू
आ गया
आ गया
वो गया ही कहाँ था
ये तो बता
दिल का सूरज तेरे
जगमगाता हुआ
बादलों में
ओ रहता कहाँ तक छुपा
तू देख ज़रा दिल का दर्पण
तू देख ज़रा दिल का दर्पण
वहाँ बसा हुआ है वृन्दावन
तू देख ज़रा दिल का दर्पण
तू देख ज़रा दिल का ॰ ॰ ॰
तेरे नैनों में गंगा जमना बहे
तेरे नैनों में गंगा जमना बहे
तेरे मन में मथुरा वास रहे
तेरे मन में मथुरा वास रहे
तेरे कानों में बंसी की तान रहे
तेरे कानों में बंसी की तान रहे
तेरे मुख में ॰ ॰ ॰
तेरे मुख में श्याम का नाम रहे
तेरे मुख में श्याम का नाम रहे
गिरिधर को कर तन मन अर्पण
गिरिधर को कर तन मन अर्पण
तू देख ज़रा दिल का दर्पण
तू देख ज़रा दिल का ॰ ॰ ॰
तेरे नैनों में गंगा जमना बहे
तेरे नैनों में गंगा जमना बहे
तेरे मन में मथुरा वास रहे
तेरे मन में मथुरा वास रहे
तेरे कानों में बंसी की तान रहे
तेरे कानों में बंसी की तान रहे
तेरे मुख में ॰ ॰ ॰
तेरे मुख में श्याम का नाम रहे
तेरे मुख में श्याम का नाम रहे
गिरिधर को कर तन मन अर्पण
गिरिधर को कर तन मन अर्पण
तू देख ज़रा दिल का दर्पण
तू देख ज़रा दिल का ॰ ॰ ॰
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 : |
5401 | Post No. : | 17719 |
Today’s song is an excellent but less known and less heard Ghalib Ghazal ( as per HFGK), sung by Kalyani Bai aka Miss Kalyani, for the film Ghazi Salauddin-1939.
Many times it is extremely difficult to find information on old time films. I tried all my resources to get some information about this film, but in vain. Nothing was available anywhere. The film is also not available anymore. So practically, we knew only what is given in HFGK, in terms of Director, MD, star cast and if we are lucky, some information on the songs like singer, lyricist, record numbers etc.
For the last almost a month, I was struggling. First I found out what Ghazi means. It means a fighter for Islam against Non-Islamists. Secondly some of the songs praise Allah and are about Muslims dying for Islam religion. So it became clear that the film was on some kind of a fight between Muslims and Non muslims. Just last week, I happened to read a book ” Historicizing myths in contemporary India- Cinematic representations”. It is written by Swapna Gopinath and Rujuta Deshmukh (It is a coincidence that the writer’s name is Deshmukh. No relation of mine !) On its page 102, there is a reference to this film ‘ Ghazi Salauddin’. I quote what it says….
” Despite the dwindling popularity of these war historicals in the pan-Indian markets, films with strong communal overtones to be made in some regional pockets. perhaps the communal award-1932 which charted out a separate electorate, gave a boost to the monolithic identity of the community which ushered in a new phase of communalised politics in the subcontinent.In this political atmosphere, films were made portraying events and personalities who were regarded as heroic by one community but denounced by others. This sentiment was manifested regarding the release of the film ” Ghazi Salauddin (1939), though not based on Indian terrain, but featured the typical medieval war of crusade with intense communal overtones.The film was advertised as ” You saw Crusade ! Now see the other side of the medal in Ghazi Salahuddin. “
From all the above it is now clear that this film was a kind of Islamic Historical film and the background was not in India, but somewhere else where the islamist and the Christians fought a war. It is not known who won it, but it is an easy guess, considering that in 1939, the British were ruling India where the film was made ! The film was made by Supreme Pictures. It was directed by I.A.Hafiz ji (Ismail Asif Hafiz ji) who was an assistant director with New Theatres, Calcutta. Hafiz ji directed only four films independently – Usne kya socha-1937, Ghazi Salauddin-1939, Parda Nasheen-1942 and Mamta-1942.
The film had music by Khemchand Prakash. This was his First film as an independent MD. Dr. Ashok Ranade, in his book ” Music beyond Boundaries” says about Khemchand Prakash….
” Though Khemchand’s debut film was Ghazi salauddin (1939), his main cinematic association was with the well known Ranjit Movietone. He joined them around 1940. In a short career spanning 11 years he left behind music composed for 34 films. He has the credit for giving a break to Kishore Kumar in Ziddi (1948). In addition to Kardar’s well received productions such as Holi and Pagal(19410, he also scored for Kidar Sharma’s Gauri, Vishkanya etc.Jayant Desai’s musical landmarkTansen (1949, with Saigalin the lead) and Mahal(1950) represent big points of Khemchand’s musical achievements. Tamasha (1952) was his last film. “
The cast of the film was Rattanbai ( she was the wife of director Hafiz ji), Ghulam Mohd., Mazhar khan, Yaqub, W.M.Khan, Mirza Musharraf and others. The story writer, dialogue writer , Screenplay writer and Lyricist was Khan Bahadur Hakeem Ahmed Shuja. Khan Bahadur Hakim Ahmad Shuja MBE, sometimes written as ‘Hakeem Ahmed Shujah’ and ‘Hakim Ahmad Shuja Pasha’, (4 November 1893 – 4 January 1969), was a famous Urdu and Persian poet, playwright, writer, film writer and lyricist, scholar and mystic, from former British India, later Pakistan.
Hakim Ahmad Shuja was the only son of his parents, who both died when he was still a minor and he was brought up largely by an elder cousin, Hakim Amin-ed-din, Barrister. After a basic education in Arabic and Quranic studies at home, and initial Sufic training under various notable mystics in both Chishti and Qadiri systems, he was then admitted for ‘English education’ to the old Central Model School, Lahore and later went to the famous Aligarh Muslim University, from where he graduated with honours. For some time, Hakim Ahmad Shuja then worked as a lecturer at the Osmania University in Hyderabad state (Deccan) but was not happy and returned to Lahore to seek employment there. After several journalistic and academic ventures, he eventually settled down to regular service in the secretariat of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, finally retiring as Secretary to the Punjab Assembly in the 1950s.
Hakim Ahmad Shuja was a very prolific and versatile writer indeed, producing several collections of Urdu and Persian poetry, countless essays and belles-lettres published in newspapers and journals throughout India (and later Pakistan), one of the earliest translations of the Quran in Punjabi language, several dramatic works in collaboration with Imtiaz Ali Taj, Agha Hashar Kashmiri and other theatrical producers, and, later on, screenplays and lyrics for the early Indo-Pakistan cinema. However, his fame today rests chiefly on these noted works: “Lahore ka Chelsea” (1967; 1989 reprint), a collection of memoirs of Old Lahore; “Khoon-Baha” (1962), some of his other personal memoirs; “Gard-i-Karvan” (1950s; reprint 1960), a collection of poems and essays in praise of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the ‘Ahl i Bayt’ (members of the Prophet’s family) as exemplars of the ‘Ideal’ Muslim character; and his lovely, lyrical poems, some of which were later successfully adapted for film songs. These works reflect his idealism and humane and deeply mystical faith and a Romanticism which reflects both the typical Urdu and Persian poetic traditions, as well as the influence of Western writers such as Shelley, Thomas Carlyle, Goethe and Victor Hugo.
He wrote 10 songs for the film Prem Yatra-1937. About his Screenplays and other filmi activities, details are not available. He was involved in the screenplay, dialogues and song writing in films like Yahudi ki Ladki-1933 and Kaarvaan E Hayat-1935, films made by New Theatres, Calcutta. He had also provided storylines for films like Behram Khan-1945 and Sheesh Mahal-1950 etc. Perhaps he did some more of them in Pakistan.
Hakim Ahmad Shuja continued to write even until the time of his death in 1969. Between the 1950s and 1960s, he became especially interested in the potentialities of film-making and cinema. In many ways, thus, he had a direct influence and bearing upon the development of both early Indian and Pakistani literature and cinema.[ In addition, he also made a significant contribution to the early development of Urdu language, linguistics and etymology as permanent secretary and one of the main compilers/editors of Pakistan’s Official Language Committee, 1949, responsible for the standardization of official and court terms, from English to Urdu.
Hakim Ahmad Shuja was a contemporary of and associated with people like Agha Hashar Kashmiri, Imtiaz Ali Taj, Abul Kalam Azad, Allama Iqbal, Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Sohrab Modi, and Muhammad Ali Jauhar.
In the film the role of Salauddin was done by Ghulam Mohammed, his lover was Rehana, played by Rattanbai, and the role of the British Commander Richard was done by Mazhar khan. For comical relief Mirza Musharraf played joker Younus. Today’s song is sung by Miss Kalyani aka Kalyani Bai.
Hailing from Turkman Gate in Delhi, Kalyani Bai was born in 1916. Her real name was Zarina. She was passionate about singing from a very young age and subsequently started her formal training with Ustad Wazire Khan and in no time started singing for All India Radio and HMV. That era saw an influx of records made from the many Ghazals, Khyaal & Thumris that she had sung.
When a contact was made to her at her house situated in ‘Tekriwala bunglow’ on Dargah lane in Mahim (West), a few years back, Kalyani Bai said that with the advent of Talkie films the demand for well enunciated and melodious singers suddenly went up as till then playback hadn’t been the trend and actors would themselves have to sing the songs live in front of the camera. In the midst of this, one day, two brothers from Punjab saw her in a recording and came over to her house. They wanted to make a film with Kalyani. They agreed to all the conditions that Kalyani’s Abba put forth and hence Abba-Ammi along with their 15 children went on to Kolkata. This was during the Mid 30’s. Kalyani Bai was approximately 13 years old at that time. This film ‘Pardesi’, according to Kalyani, was completed halfway when a spat took place between the two brothers and the film had to be shut down.
As soon as B.N.Sircar, the owner of ‘New Theatres’ and R.C.Boral, the music director came to know of this, they called Kalyani and immediately employed her in their company at a salary of Rupees 250 a month. Since her nickname was ‘Kallo’, R.C.Boral gave Zarina a new name and henceforth she came to be known as ‘Kalyani Bai’.
Kalyani was featured in all the four films released by New Theatres in 1937 viz ‘Anath Ashram’, ‘Mukti’, ‘President’ and ‘Vidyapati’, here she not only acted alongside heavyweights like Prithviraj Kapoor, Trilok Kapoor, Uma Shashi, Jagdish Sethi, P.C.Barua, Kanan devi, Pankaj Mullick, K.L.Sehgal, Leela Desai, Pahadi Sanyal, K.C.Dey, and K.N.Singh, she also sang some songs for her characters in those films. Playback was in its initial phase and had just been introduced in 1935 by ‘New Theatres’ in their film ‘Dhoop Chhaon’. And in practice, it wasn’t the singer’s name (who had actually sung the song) that appeared on the music records but the name of the character of the movie on whom the song was filmed and since this practice continued for another one and a half decade, it is virtually impossible to verify the songs sung by almost all the artists of that era including Kalyani.
Mumbai based Sardar Chandulal Shah, owner of ‘Ranjit Movietone’, was so impressed by Kalyani’s singing and acting skills that as soon as her contract with new theaters was over, he called Kalyani to Mumbai and employed her at Rupees 800 per month. The 1937 release ‘Toofani Toli’ was Kalyani’s first movie to be screened under the banner of Ranjit Movietone. The film was directed by Jayant Desai and Gyan Dutt was its Music composer. Kalyani sung three songs for this movie.
In 1938 Ranjit Movietone made a total of 8 films under its banner of which Kalyani sang and acted in 4 viz. ‘Billi’, ‘Gorakh Aya’, ‘Prithvi Putra’ and ‘Secretary’. Gyan Dutt was the composer and Pyarelal Santoshi was the lyricist for all of these films. . In the year 1939 of the 4 films that were screened under this banner, in ‘Nadi Kinare’ Kalyani acted as well as sang a duet
After parting ways from ‘Ranjit Movietone’, Kalyani appeared in movies like ‘Super Pictures’ ‘Kanyadan’ (1940), ‘Mohan Picture’s’ ‘Jadui Kangan’ (1940), ‘Muslim ka laal’ (1941) and ‘Jadui Angoothi’ (1948), ‘Tarun Picture’s’ ‘Prabhat’ (1941), ‘Sunrise Picture’s’ ‘Ghar ki laaj’ (1941), ‘Ghar Sansar’ (1942), ‘Malan’ (1942) and ‘Maa Baap’ (1944) and ‘Radhika Picture’s’ ‘Pyara Watan’ (1942) where she not only played a range of roles from that of a heroine to a vamp, but she also sang many songs for these films. one that predominates all is the first film-qawaali of the history of Indian Cinema ‘aahein na bharin shikve na kiye’ (‘Zeenat’-1945 / Lyrics : Nakhshab / Music : Hafeez Khan) sung with Noorjehan and Johrabai Ambalewali in which Shyama, Shashikala and Shalini were seen on the big screen for the first time ever.
After her marriage in the year 1948, Kalyani left aside the ostentatious world of glamour and completely immersed herself in her domesticated life. After a number of decades she was once again seen in movies like ‘Aaja Sanam’ (1975), ‘Prem Kahani’ (1975), ‘Aakhiri Sajda’ (1977) and ‘Salaam-E-Mohabbat’ (1983) where she played a number of small character roles but her comeback films couldn’t bring back the magic that once was and she bid her final farewell to the big screen and spent the rest of her days quietly with her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. Her husband had passed away very early on and her son, working as a spot boy in films, barely managed to keep the household running. Although she had some relief in the form of a pension of Rupees 750 per month through the ‘Gandhi Welfare Trust’ set up by Richard Attenborough, Kalyani could never rise above the financial difficulties of livelihood till the very end.
In spite of all the pains and troubles that she faced, she never uttered a single word of complaint. And it was this decorous and dignified nature of hers that even superstars like Dev Anand and Sunil Dutt always showered her with the utmost respect. And then on 1st October 2009 at the age of 87, this remarkable artist of her era took her final journey.
( Film Historian,writer and journalist Shri Shishir Krishna Sharma ji interviewed her on 21-2-2004. The above edited Biography of Kalyani Bai is based on his writings in http://www.beetehuedin.blogspot.in and my notes. I thank Sharmaji for this.)
Let us now hear Ghalib Ghazal…..
Song- Kabhi neki bhi uske jee mein gar aa jaaye hai mujh se (Ghaazi Salahuddin)(1939) Singer- miss Kalyani, Lyricist- Mirza Ghalib, MD- Khemchand Prakash
Lyrics
Kabhi neki bhi uske jee mein gar aa jaaye hai mujh se
Kabhi neki bhi uske jee mein gar aa jaaye hai mujh se
zafaayen karke apni yaad sharma jaaye hai mujhse
zafaayen karke apni yaad sharma jaaye hai mujhse
khudaaya zazba e dil ki magar taaseer ulti hai
khudaaya zazba e dil ki magar taaseer ulti hai
magar taaseer ulti hai
magar taaseer ulti hai
ke jitna khenchta hoon
aur khinchta jaaye hai mujh se
ke jitna khenchta hoon
aur khinchta jaaye hai mujh se
sambhalne de mujhe ae naaummeedee kya qayamat hai
sambhalne de mujhe ae naaummeedee kya qayamat hai
ke daamaan e khayaal e yaar chhoota jaaye hai mujhse
ke daamaan e khayaal e yaar chhoota jaaye hai mujhse
Kabhi neki bhi uske jee mein gar aa jaaye hai mujh se
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 : |
5186 | Post No. : | 17165 | Movie Count : |
4623 |
Today’s song is from the film Nadi Kinare-1939. The film was released in Pathe Theatre of Bombay on 10-11-1939.
The year 1939 was a landmark year in the history of the world.
The year was 1939 and the British Government had declared war against Germany and Japan, as soon as the WW II began. All countries ruled by Britain were – willingly or unwillingly, drawn into the war efforts and its effects. The war began in the month of September and soon various restrictions came into operation – like rationing, blackouts, shortages etc. The film industry which was still under its development stage suffered. It also realised the importance of remaining united as one industry. However, all that came after 1 or 2 years. In 1939 there was not much effect seen on the film industry.
The industry had its own problems. In spite of the playback system in operation, their problem was that because there was no technique of recording from the film negative yet, the singers had to sing twice. Once for the actual film shooting of the song, and later, with the same set of orchestra, for commercial records. Sometimes, the original singer was not available due to any reason, some other singer had to sing for commercial records. Thus we have many such examples, where the singer in the film song and the record is different. However, this problem continued only till mid 50’s when the Tape and the required technique became available. With just one time recording, the film and commercial recording were taken care of.
Khemchand Prakash. K.Datta (Datta Koregaonkar), Rafiq Ghaznavi and Anupam Ghatak made their Debut as Music Directors. Kavi Pradeep wrote his first film song for film Kangan. In 1939, 2 most Unusual songs were presented, for the first time ( and this record is not yet broken even after more than 80 years.). One was a Multi-Lingual song from film Aadmi-39, a film by Prabhat….Kis liye kal ki baat. This song was in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bangla, Tamil and Telugu. ( In its Marathi film version-” माणूस “, this song was only in one language-Marathi.) Different Lyricists and MDs were used for each language. The song became very popular.
Second unusual song was from film ‘ Ghareeb ka Laal’-1939. The song lyrics had the names of 32 artistes, operating in Hindi films that time. Top Heroes and Heroines were mentioned in this song. The beginning of the song was ” Tuze Bibbo kahoon ya Sulochana, Uma shashi kahoon ki Jamuna “. This song was sung by the comedian Mirza Musharraf. In later years many songs with film artistes’ names came but none had so many names. Thus this record is still unbroken, in case of both songs.
Besides these songs, let us quickly take a look at some films of 1939….
Aadmi – Prabhat’s hit film, a remake of the Marathi film ” माणूस “. It had some good songs by Shanta Hublikar, Sundarabai Jadhav and Ram Marathe.
Adhuri Kahani – a trend of Tragedy films set by the effect of film ‘Devdas’. All the 3 main characters of this film commit suicide in the end.
Badi Didi – A New Theatres film.
Brandy ki Botal – Master Vinayak’s comedy remake of Marathi film ‘ ब्रॅंडीची बाटली ‘.
Dil hi to hai – Debut of Kidar Sharma as a Director and Ramola as a Heroine in a Hindi film.
Dushman – New Theatres’ film of Saigal, with only his 4 songs.
Ek hi Raasta – Sagar presents first film with 3 Heroes in one film.
Ghazi Salauddin – Debut of Khemchand Prakash as M.D.
Hukum ka Ikka – First film with a Triple role by Umakant Desai ( who later specialised as Lakshman in 7 films, including Ramrajya-43).
Imaandaar – Debut of actress Shamim Akhtar.
India in Africa – This was the First Hindi film to be shot abroad (in Africa). The Hero B. Nandrekar had also gone to Africa for its shooting. Naaz-54 was not the first such film, though HFGK mentions it so.( Ref – pp 69, Maharashtra-The Birthplace of Indian cinema by Isak Mujawar)
Kangan – First of the 4 Hit films of Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitnis, made by Bombay Talkies. Kavi Pradeep’s Debut as a Lyricist in this film.
Kapal kundala – New Theatres. Pankaj Mullick’s hit song ‘ Piya milan ko jaana ‘.
Leather Face – Debut of Meena Kumari as a child artiste.
Navjeevan – Debut of Hansa Wadkar as a Heroine- Bombay Talkies film.
Pukar – Hit film from Minerva Movietone. Naseem Bano sings ” Zindagi ka saaz bhi kya saaz hai….”
Indian filmmakers had practiced 4 ways of getting stories for their films, since the beginning of Talkie films.
1. Copy from older films
2. copy from other languages or remake them
3. use stories from Foreign films – especially Hollywood and
4. make a mixture of all this and make a film.
Hundreds of films were made on the stories of Alibaba. Alauddin, Sindbad, Thief of Baghdad, Hatimtai, Gul E Bakavali and other stories from the Arabian Nights. Hollywood films made on famous novels or dramas were another source of inspiration. When the Talkie films started, the first such film was made in 1933 itself titled- “Awara Shehzada “, with Shahu Modak as its Hero.This was the first Hindi film based on the famous novel of Mark Twain- The Prince and the Pauper, published in 1881. Films on this ” Look alike” theme were made in Hollywood as early as 1915 and 1920 This theme was used abundently in Hindi films like Ram aur Shyam, Don, Seeta aur Geeta, Kanoon and many more films. The list will be too long.
In 1937 a film ” Duniya kya Hai” was made by Lalita Pawar, based on Count Leo Tolstoy’s famous novel ” Resurrection”, published in 1899. The Hindi film was inspired by the Hollywood film ” We live again” made on this novel. In 1938, prakash pictures made ” Khwaab ki Duniya “. It was inspired by the popular Hollywood film ” The Invisible man”-1933, which was based on the famous novel of same name, by H.G.Wells in 1897. Subsequently many films like Mr. X, Mr. India etc were made in Hindi on this theme.
These are few examples to prove the point. There are umpteen number of such films. Sometimes the story departments of the film strudios play a clever game. They mix up the stories of 2-3 Hollywood films and make a Hindi film. Today’s film ” Nadi Kinare”-1939 was also made based on few scenes and themes from 3 Hollywood films, namely ” The king and the chorus girl”-1937, ” Bluebeard’s eighth wife “-1937 and ” The rage of Paris “-1938.
The film was directed by Manibhai Vyas (27-4-1920 to 14-11-1993). he directed 20 films from Dukhiyari-1937 to Shrikrishna Bhakti-1973. The MD was Gyan Dutt and the cast was Kumar, Sitara Devi,Indubala, Ram Marathe, Kantilal and others.There were 13 songs in the film sung by Indubala, Sitara Devi,Kantilal,Kalyani and Gyan Dutt himself. Lyrics were by P.L.Santoshi and D.N.Madhok.
Actor/singer Ram Marathe had done a child role in this film He is one of those child actors who left film world at the right time and pursued his hobby of classical singing. Consequently he bacame a big name in Classical Music all over India. His case reminds me of anothe child actor-n Shashi kapur Sr, who was much in demand as a child actor during the period 1944 to 1955. he did 21 films as a child actor. Then he left films, completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. He went to USA and became a Professor of Maths in Michigan University in USA.
Actually many child actors like Baby naaz, M.Kabir, Sarosh Irani, Master Romi etc reached an age when they were neither child nor an adult. They stopped getting any roles and had to leave films. Child actor Ramchandra ( Ram) Marathe was born on 23-10-1924 in Poona and studied in Bhave school up to 10th.He and his brother ( Anant Marathe aka Anant kumar) worked in films as child actors, due to family conditions. They started work from 1936 onwards. Ram Marathe had an edge over his brother,in that he could sing too. Starting with Shahu Chor in 1936, he worked in Sagar movietone (6 films), Ranjit (3 films) and Prabhat (2 films), in addition to other companies like prakash, Mohan Pictures, Imperial etc. he acted as a child star in 16 films. he sang 11 songs in 6 films. After this Ram left films and started training in classical music-his liking. Here is a short bio of Ram Marathe, adapted from meetkalakar.com….
Ramchandra Purshottam Marathe (1924-1989) began his early career as an actor and singer in films produced by the Prabhat company. His formal training in music assumed a definite direction when he came under the tutelage of Master Krishnarao (Phulambrikar). Later, he trained under accomplished musicians such as Mirashibuwa of Gwalior and Vamanrao Sadolikar of Atrauli-Jaipur. His quest for widening his musical horizons culminated in a long-lasting discipleship (15 years) under Jagannathbuwa Purohit (“Gunidas”). As a consequence of his broad training and background, Rambhau’s music integrated the best of Gwalior, Agra and Jaipur styles. Rambhau was a stalwart in the field of Marathi Natya Sangeet. He was also known as a composer. Among his pupils is Ulhas Kashalkar.
Pt.Ram Marathe had performed in all the prestigious musical festivals at various places like Jalandhar, Patna, Lahore, Delhi, Gwalior, Calcutta, Banaras,Amritsar and almost all over Maharashtra. His contribution to Indian classical music was recognized with several Awards for his unique and successful performances. He was “A-top grade” Hindustani Classical Artist of All India Radio.
Since he had undergone proper Tabla training, he had a great command on Taal and Layakari. He had special command on Rare–Anvat Ragas & Jod Ragas and he was highly recognized for his clear and fast tankriyas and also for Purity of Ragas. He always used to enrich his audience with various semi-classical forms like Khayal, Tarana, Tappa, Natyasangeet, Thumri, Dadra & Bhajans in his concerts. Unlike the present classical singers, his concerts used to last more than 5 hours with the powerful intensity and stamina.
He started his stage career under the perusal of Natvarya Shri Ganpatrao Bodas in 1950 as a leading character in old classical musical dramas like Saubhadra, Sanshaykallol, Swayamvar, Ekach Pyala, Manapman etc. with veteran actor and actress such as Balgandharva, Hirabai Badodekar, Vinayakbuwa Patwardhan, Nanasaheb Phatak etc. Despite his busy schedule in concerts, he performed in 22 old & new Sangeet Natak with more than 5000 stage shows. This is purely out of his dedication and commitment towards Sangeet Rangbhoomi.
Composed music for more than 10 dramas such as – Mandarmala, Suvarna Tula, Meghmalhar, Tansen, Baiju etc. and acted in the play as a leading character role.
His disciples include many eminent classical singers like Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar, Sudhir Datar, Ram Pratham, Vishwanath Kanhere, Vishwanath Bagul, Yogini Joglekar, Shashikant Oak, Madhuwanti Dandekar, Sanjay Marathe & Mukund Marathe etc. (more than 50) and have got the training from him under the traditional Gurukul way of learning.
Maharashtra Government honoured the “Sangeet Bhushan” degree in 1961.
• Recognition by Government of Maharashtra in 1981 for successful completion and continuous 30 years of career in Marathi Sangeet Rangbhumi.
• Honoured “Sangeet Chudamani Degree” by Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Puri.
Appointed by AIR, New Delhi on the Northern (Hindustani) Music Audition Board Committee. Also Advisory Nagpur and other Universities in India.
More than 100 Records and number of CDs and LPs to his credit and composed more than 50 Bandish in various Ragas.
Ram Marathe died on 4-10-1989.
Today’s duet song is sung by Sitara Devi and Kantilal (18-4-1907 to 17-6-1971). Kantilal acted in 31 films and sang 59 songs in 24 films.
Song- Duniya Deewaani duniya deewaani (Nadi Kinaare)(1939) Singers- Sitara Devi, Kantilal, Lyricist- Not known, MD- Gyan Dutt
chorus
Lyrics
Duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewani
koi kahe haaye jigar
koi kahe dil
koi kahe haaye jigar
koi kahe dil
koi kahe chori chori
aake sajan mil
koi kahe chori chori
aake sajan mil
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
koi kahe dil na mila
aankh mila le
koi kahe dil na mila
aankh mila le
aankh mila le
koi kahe aankhon ke parde mein chhipa le
koi kahe aankhon ke parde mein chhipa le
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
le ke dil aaya hoon main yahaan
koi khareede
le ke dil aaya hoon main yahaan
koi khareede
koi khereede
hai koi dil waala jo
dil deke ye dil le
hai koi dil waala jo
dil deke ye dil le
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
loot le joban ke maze
duniya hai phaani
loot le joban ke maze
duniya hai phaani
duniya hai phaani
dam bhar mein guzar jaayenga
ye khwaab e jawaani
dam bhar mein guzar jaayenga
ye khwaab e jawaani
duniya deewani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
le ke dil aaya hoon main yahaan
koi khareede
le ke dil aaya hoon main yahaan koi khareede
koi khereede
haaye
hai koi dil waala jo
dil deke ye dil le
hai koi dil waala jo
dil deke ye dil le
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
Jogan bhatak rahi hai ban ban
Posted on: September 12, 2022
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 : |
5169 | Post No. : | 17138 |
“Kangan”(1939) was produced by Sasadhar Mukherjee,Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani and directed by Franz Osten for Bombay Talkies, Bombay. The movie had Leelal Chitnis, Ashok Kumar, V.H.Desai, P.F.Pithawala, Mubarak, Saroj Borkar, Narendranath Tuli, Karuna devi,Ishrat, Nana Palsikar, Arun Kumar, Pratima, Ranibala,Sarla Kumara, Balwant Singh etc in it.
The movie had 12 songs in it. six songs have been covered so far.
Here is the seventh song from “Kangan”(1939) to appear in the blog. The song is sung by Leela Chitnis. Narottam Vyas is the lyricist. Saraswati devi is the music director.
Only the audio of the song is available. it is clear that the song was picturised on Leela Chitnis herself.
Lyrics of the song were sent to me by Prakashchandra.
audio link:
Song-Jogan bhatak rahi hai ban ban (Kangan)(1939) Singer-Leela Chitnis, Lyrics-Pt Narottam Vyas, MD-Saraswati devi
Lyrics(Provided by Prakashchandra)
Jogan
bhatak
rahee ee hai
ban ban
vaa ko o o
paaney ae ae
jaa ko o
denaa aa aa
thhaa aa aa rey ae ae
tan man
jogan
bhatak
rahee ee hai ban ban
jogan
bhatak
rahee hai ban ban
vaa ko o o paaney aey ae ae
jaa ko denaa thhaa aa rey ae ae tan man
jogan bhatak rahee hai ban ban
saawan kee aadhee ee barsaatein aen
paavas ki andhiyaaree raatein aen
raah na paate aey ae ae
dhoondhti phiratee ee ee
raah na paate aey ae
dhoondhti phiratee ee
jo ?? ee woh o o hai ae na mero dhan
jogan bhatak rahee hai ae ae ban ban
jogan bhatak rahee hai ae ae ban ban
Nanhi bitiya byaah rachaaye
Posted on: March 27, 2022
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 : |
5000 | Post No. : | 16898 |
“Durga”(1939) was produced by Devika Rani and Himanshu Rai and directed by Franz Osten for Bombay Talkies, Bombay. The movie had Devika Rani, Rama Shukul, V H Desai, Mumtaz Ali, Peethawala, Saroj Borkar, Balwant singh, Lalita Deulkar etc in it.
“Durga”(1939) had ten songs in it. Two songs have been covered in the blog so far.
Here is the third song from “Durga”(1939) to appear in the blog.
Devika Rani is the singer. Lyrics are penned by Narendranath Tuli. Saraswati Devi is the music director.
Only the audio of this rare song is available. It is clear that the song was picturised on Devika Rani herself.
From the lyrics it is seen that the song is a “wedding” song. Whether it is a gudda gudiya wedding song or a real wedding song is not known, seeing that video of the song is not available.
Nevertheless, the fact that this song came to my notice just now and it is getting discussed today validates the oft made observation that some higher forces are overseeing this blog and it is these higher forces that often decide what songs are covered in this blog on what day. 🙂 The daughter of one of our regulars got married today and fate ordained that the blog celebrates the occasion with this song from the yore.
So we take this occasion to greet the recently wedded daughter of our regular contributor Avinash Scrapwala. We all wish Shivani and Jeegar a very happy, prosperous and long married life.
Song-Nanhi Bitiya Byaah Rachaaye (Durga) (1939) Singer-Devika Rani, Lyrics-Narendranath Tuli, MD-Saraswati Devi
Lyrics
Nanhi bitiya byaah rachaaye
dulha chadh haathi par aaye
Nanhi bitiya byaah rachaaye
dulha chadh haathi par aaye
baaje dhol mridang
?? rah jaaye dang
baaje dhol mridang
?? rah jaaye dang
laal chunariya kesari choli
sheesh chadhe chandal aur roli
laal chunariya kesari choli
sheesh chadhe chandal aur roli
kumkum pushp ka phool
maang bhare sindoor
kumkum pushp ka phool
maang bhare sindoor
baapu aaye doli chadhaaye
naina chham chham neer bahaaye
baapu aaye doli chadhaaye
naina chham chham neer bahaaye
maa ko bhaari ??
ghar ko ??
nanhi bitiya byaah rachaaye
dulha chadh haathi par aaye
baaje dhol mridang
chhalakat ??
Ab jaago Radha Rani
Posted on: December 16, 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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Blog Day : |
4899 | Post No. : | 16701 |
Songs from Artiste Name Films….Second Season….No. 10
—————————————————————–
Today this series ends with a song from film Durga-1939. No prizes for guessing the name of the star of today’s post. Of course it is Durga Khote. Though she was not a part of this film, still I chose her, because lovers of old films know her too well, but as she ended her career almost 40 years ago, readers in the age group of 50-60 may not know her too well.
Film Durga – 1939 was made by Bombay Talkies, owned by Devika Rani and Himanshu Rai. The cast of the film Durga-39 consisted of Devika Rani, Rama Shukul, V H Desai, Mumtaz Ali, Peethawala, Saroj Borkar, Balwant singh, Lalita Deulkar etc. The film was directed by Franz Osten and the music was by Saraswati Devi. The year was 1939 and inits month of September, the World War started. It did affect Indian film industry too, but the effects were felt from 1940 onwards. In 1939, the industry was trying to free itself from the shackles of stage drama type music, an unnecessary stress on making films on Mythology and Folk tales and old styles of loud acting. New blood had flown in, replacing the spill over of silent movie actors and themes.
The year was 1939 and the British Government had declared war against Germany and Japan, as soon as the WW II began. All countries ruled by Britain were – willingly or unwillingly, drawn into the war efforts and its effects. The war began in the month of September and soon various restrictions came into operation – like rationing, blackouts, shortages etc. The film industry which was still under its development stage suffered. It also realised the importance of remaining united as one industry. However, all that came after 1 or 2 years. In 1939 there was not much effect seen on the film industry.
The industry had its own problems. In spite of the playback system in operation, their problem was that because there was no technique of recording from the film negative yet, the singers had to sing twice. Once for the actual film shooting of the song, and later, with the same set of orchestra, for commercial records. Sometimes, the original singer was not available due to any reason, some other singer had to sing for commercial records. Thus we have many such examples, where the singer in the film song and the record is different. However, this problem continued only till mid 50’s when the Tape and the required technique became available. With just one time recording, the film and commercial recording were taken care of.
Khemchand Prakash. K.Datta (Datta Koregaonkar), Rafiq Ghaznavi and Anupam Ghatak made their Debut as Music Directors. Kavi Pradeep wrote his first film song for film Kangan. In 1939, 2 most Unusual songs were presented, for the first time ( and this record is not yet broken even after more than 80 years.). One was a Multi-Lingual song from film Aadmi-39, a film by Prabhat….Kis liye kal ki baat. This song was in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bangla, Tamil and Telugu. ( In its Marathi film version-” माणूस “, this song was only in one language-Marathi.) Different Lyricists and MDs were used for each language. The song became very popular.
Second unusual song was from film ‘ Ghareeb ka Laal’-1939. The song lyrics had the names of 32 artistes, operating in Hindi films that time. Top Heroes and Heroines were mentioned in this song. The beginning of the song was ” Tuze Bibbo kahoon ya Sulochana, Uma shashi kahoon ki Jamuna “. This song was sung by the comedian Mirza Musharraf. In later years many songs with film artistes’ names came but none had so many names. Thus this record is still unbroken, in case of both songs.
Besides these songs, let us quickly take a look at some films of 1939….
Aadmi – Prabhat’s hit film, a remake of the Marathi film ” माणूस “. It had some good songs by Shanta Hublikar, Sundarabai Jadhav and Ram Marathe.
Adhuri Kahani – a trend of Tragedy films set by the effect of film ‘Devdas’. All the 3 main characters of this film commit suicide in the end.
Badi Didi – A New Theatres film.
Brandy ki Botal – Master Vinayak’s comedy remake of Marathi film ‘ ब्रॅंडीची बाटली ‘.
Dil hi to hai – Debut of Kidar Sharma as a Director and Ramola as a Heroine in a Hindi film.
Dushman – New Theatres’ film of Saigal, with only his 4 songs.
Ek hi Raasta – Sagar presents first film with 3 Heroes in one film.
Ghazi Salauddin – Debut of Khemchand Prakash as M.D.
Hukum ka Ikka – First film with a Triple role by Umakant Desai ( who later specialised as Lakshman in 7 films, including Ramrajya-43).
Imaandaar – Debut of actress Shamim Akhtar.
India in Africa – This was the First Hindi film to be shot abroad (in Africa). The Hero B. Nandrekar had also gone to Africa for its shooting. Naaz-54 was not the first such film, though HFGK mentions it so.( Ref – pp 69, Maharashtra-The Birthplace of Indian cinema by Isak Mujawar)
Kangan – First of the 4 Hit films of Ashok kumar and Leela Chitnis, made by Bombay Talkies. Kavi Pradeep’s Debut as a Lyricist in this film.
Kapal kundala – New Theatres. Pankaj mullick’s hit song ‘ Piya milan ko jaana ‘.
Leather Face – Debut of Meena kumari as a child artiste.
Navjeevan – Debut of Hansa Wadkar as a Heroine- Bombay Talkies film.
Pukar – Hit film from Minerva Movietone. Naseem Bano sings ” Zindagi ka saaz bhi kya saaz hai….”
As stated in the beginning, today’s star is Durga Khote. She was one of the most respected artistes from the early cinema. In her glorious and non-controversial career of over 50 years, she acted in 183 films and sang 35 songs in 14 early cinemas. At the end of her career, she wrote her autobiography in Marathi ” मी दुर्गा खोटे “, which was later translated into English by Shanta Gokhale. This book ( along with ” चंदेरी दुनियेत ” by Leela Chitnis ) is an authentic chronicle of Indian film industry development from infancy to adulthood, in addition to personal details.
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.)
This ends my series on Artistes, on whose names film titles existed. This is of course only indicative and not exhaustive one. I wrote only on 20 such artistes, but still about 30+ such films are remaining, most of which are not available with their songs on the social media.
I had plans to revive some more old series again, but readers’ poor response does not motivate me to do so. Still, who knows…….
Song- Ab jaago Radha Rani (Durga)(1939) Singer- Balwant Singh, Lyricist- Narottam Vyas, MD-Saraswati Devi
Lyrics
Ab jaago Radha Rani
Ab jaago Radha Rani
?? bhayi ab hua sawera
jage jagat ke praani
ab jaago Radha Rani
?? bhayi ab hua sawera
jage jagat ke praani
ab jaago Radha Rani
ab jaago Radha Rani
sapne mein ??
sapne mein ??
?? prem kahaani
sapne mein ??
?? prem kahaani
ab jaago Radha Rani
ab jaago Radha Rani
nadi kinaare Kaanh tumhaare
nadi kinaare Kaanh tumhaare
bhar bansi mein baani
nadi kinaare ?? tumhaare
bhar bansi mein baani
?? aaye ??
ab jaago Radha Rani
?? des mein ??
??
ab jaago Radha Rani
ab jaago Radha Rani
Prem yog ab karna yogi
Posted on: November 30, 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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Songs from Artiste Name Films….Second Season….No. 4
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Today’s song is from the film Saadhana-1939, made by Sagar Movietone. The name Sadhana today, immediately brings to mind the face of the famous actress Sadhana, who debuted as a Heroine in the film “Love in Simla”-1960. Her lovely face and unique haircut- which was fashioned in the style of Hollywood star Audrey Hepburn, was carved in the minds of the audience in her heydays. Sadhana was a craze during the 60’s and early 70’s. In this period, according to one source, she was the highest paid Heroine in Hindi cinema.
However, we are not going to talk about that Sadhana, who was named after the famous dancer actress of the 40’s, from Bengal. We will talk about the original Sadhana…( the Bangla pronunciation Sadhona ), who made her Debut in Hindi films with the film ” Kumkum-The Dancer ” in 1940.
Sadhana Bose did not act in the film Sadhana-1939 made by Sagar. Her debut Hindi film was made by Sagar only, just one year later….. the film Kumkum-The Dancer-40. This was the only film she did for Sagar Movietone. Anyway, Sagar movietone itself got merged with National Studios in 1940. In those days Bangla artistes were reluctant to act in Hindi films because of their weakness in talking in Hindi language. Of course, there were some actors like Pankaj Mullik, Ashit Baran, K C Dey and a few others who did act in Hindi films. But their Bangla accent in speaking Hindi was unmistakable. ” Kumkum-The Dancer” was a Bi-lingual film in Hindi and Bangla. It had a Bengali cast and its director as well as Music Director were Bengalee.
Granddaughter of Brahmakesari Keshab Chandra Sen, Sadhona was born on 20-4-1914, in a prosperous Brahmo family and received education as was common with Brahmo girls of those days. Her father was Saral Chandra Sen and she was the second of his three daughters. Her elder sister Binita was married into a royal family of Chittagong (now Bangladesh)and settled into household life, while the youngest Nilina pursued a career in Indian Classical music and earned herself a position of eminence and was known in record circles as Naina Devi.
Sadhona married Madhu Bose, film maker working in Bengal, British India, at a young age, and joined the Calcutta Art Players, a theatrical company owned by husband Modhu Bose and took part as heroine in the plays produced by the unit. Later on Sadhona joined films and played Marjina in Alibaba (1937), made in Bengali under the banner of Bharata Lakshmi Pictures. This film was a runaway hit and is remembered well by film enthusiasts. Modhu Bose had earlier directed a number of films but he tasted real success with Alibaba. For Sadhona this film meant a permanent place in the history of Bengali films. This was followed by Abhinoy (Bengali-1938), another major success for the couple.
They migrated to Bombay and again created history with the immensely popular Kumkum (1940), made in two languages, Hindi and Bengali and thereafter went on to create the first triple version (English, Bengali, Hindi) film of India, Rajnartaki (1941). Sadhona did come back to Calcutta for a double version Bengali movie Meenakshi (1942)with the handsome Jyoti Prakash as the hero. Going back to Bombay soon after the completion of this film where she starred in major films like Shankar Parvati, Vishkanya, Paigham, For Ladies Only, Bhola Shankar and Shin shinaki Boobla Boo.She also sang 7 songs in 2 films, namely Paigham and Shankar Parvati- both in 1943. She firmly established herself as a heroine in her own right without the backing of husband Modhu Bose.
In fact they had fallen quite apart by the mid forties and most unfortunately Sadhona started living much too abandoned a life heavily engaged in drinks,parties and men and slowly lost her carefully earned position. She came back to calcutta after a reconciliation with Modhu Bose but had by this time lost her magic hold over the audiences and acted in films again directed by her husband like Shesher Kabita and Maa O Chhele, without remarkable success.
Sadhona was a dancer in the first place and all her film successes were in dancing roles, although she was also a very fine actress and sang her own songs in some of her films including her first Alibaba.With film offers becoming too infrequent, she formed a dance troupe of her own and made all India tours with plays like Wither now, Hunger and others and met with success again as she was bound to be as a personality trained in dancing. She passed into oblivion slowly.
Even in retired life she could not part with the bottle and without any income worth the name she found herself in the most difficult conditions financially. Modhu bose was ill and it was difficult to get treatment for him. She lost her husband in 1969 and had no money to sustain herself and thereafter came the greatest tragic period of her life when she had to resort to begging in the streets, in and around Park Street of calcutta. It was during this phase of her life that passers by and street walkers came across an old lady, looking distinguished, dressed in clothes that were expensive at one time but now showing the wear and tear asking for help. Some recognised her and gave her enough to go on for some days while some others gave her a rude rebuff. She took all that with a smile.
Sadhana Bose was responsible for the names of at least 2 actresses in Bombay.
Actress Sadhana Shivdasani’s mother was very much impressed with the dancing skills of Sadhana Bose. She was her fan and saw her films repeatedly. When she was carrying for Sadhana, she had decided that if she gets a girl, her name would be Sadhana only. Thus Bombay Sadhana got the Calcutta Sadhana’s name.
Secondly, actress/Dancer Kumkum’s real name was Zebunnisa. When she was selected by Director Shahid Lateef, for his film Sheesha-1952, first time for Debut, there was already an actress Zebunnisa existing. What’s more, this Zebunnisa was also in the film Sheesha-52, so Shaheed was thinking of a new name for the newcomer. He remembered that his favourite Sadhana Bose had acted in a film by the name ‘Kumkum-the Dancer”-1940, so he selected the name Kumkum for this new Dancer and Kumkum got her name.
After Sadhona stopped her dance films as a Heroine, she resumed her work as a Choreographer. In the early 50s, she choreographed in films like Bhola shankar-51, Nandkishore-51, Shinshinaki Boobla Boo-52. She used to do bit roles too in these films to earn money.
Just before her death she got appointed as dance trainer in Calcutta’s prestigious Star Theatre, courtesy her one time boy friend Timir Baran. She trained junior artistes for the play Janapad Badhu and once again her name featured in the newspapers in the advertisements of the play. However, the end had come very near and she passed away on 3-10-1973. A very tragic and unfortunate way indeed for an all India star who at a time had captured the heart and imagination of millions. It is very sad that she died in penury and neglect, but artistes in the 40s and 50s-many of them- had similar stories. (Based on an article by Dr.J.P.Guha, ‘Nayika’ by Babu Moshai, muVyz, HFGK with thanks and my notes).
Film Sadhana-1939 was quite a successful film and its songs also were popular. The MD was Anupam Ghatak, whose name may not be even heard by the new generation readers, because he died in 1947 itself. The music Director Anupam Ghatak – the second-generation Bengali-Hindi composer (after Rai Chand Boral and Pankaj Mullick) was born on 4-12-1911 at Mymensingh(now in Bangladesh). He took music lessons from father Atul Ghatak and Keshav ganesh Dhekan. He became an excellent Flautist. After a short stint in AIR,as a singer in 1930, he joined as asst. to Bishen Chand Boral (brother of Raichand Boral) and later to R C Boral himself for Vidyapati-1937
First independent film score: Payer Dhulo. Later worked at Sagar Film in Bombay, composing Zia Sarhadi’s Bhole Bhale and a series of films for Badami, Luhar et al. (1939). Returned to Calcutta, notably for Barua’s Shapmukti; thereafter had assignments in both Calcutta and Lahore. Known for his wide range, from the sentimental Ekti paisa dao go babu in Shape Mukti to the experimental Gane mor kon indradhanu in Agni Pareeksha.
His Hindi film career started with ‘Tarzan ki Beti’-38 and Bhole Bhale-39. He gave music to only 17 Hindi films,which included Ladies Only, Service Ltd., Sadhana, Uski tamanna, Civil marriage, Sri ramanuj etc. In Lahore he did Champa, Badnami and Shalimar, before Partition. His other films as MD were, Khush Naseeb-46, Aai bahar-46, faisla-47, Aisa Kyun-47 and Banjare-48. He had also sung 4 songs in his first film Tarzan ki beti-1938. His last Hindi film was Shamsheer, which was released only in 1953,after he died on 5-2-1947 itself.
The story of film Sadhana-1939 was ……
Ganesh kaka was a renowned judge .people from his and surrounding villages used to come to solve their disputes. His widowed sister’s son Yogesh studied in a Bombay college.He loved his village but he loved more Sadhana, the moneylender’s daughter.Ramesh the Mukhiya’s son also loved her.The moneylender is pressurised by the Mukhiya to declare the marriage of Sadhana and Ramesh.Sadhan’s mother does not like it as she too favours Yogesh.Ganesh kaka is also helpless.
Few days prior to the marriage, an unwed mother Prema comes to Ganesh kaka, with a complaint that Ramesh is the father of her child. On enquiries, it is proved that the culprit is Ramesh only. Ganesh kaka pronounces his verdict-Prema and Ramesh and Sadhana and Yogesh should get married in the same Mandap.
Today’s song is sung by Prem Adeeb. This was his second film with Shobhana Samarth. The first was Industrial India-1938, They worked in total 13 films together as lead pair. They had become famous all over India, after they had done the roles of Shri Ram and Seeta in films like Bharat Milap-42 and Ram Rajya-43.
Song- Prem yog ab karna yogi (Saadhna)(1939) Singer- Prem Adib, Lyricist- Kanhaiyalal Chaturvedi, MD- Anupam Ghatak
Lyrics
Prem yog ab karna yogi
Prem yog ab karna
sab kuchh sahna
kuchh mat kehna
sab kuchh sahna
kuchh mat kehna
ankhiyan tum na chhalakna yogi
ankhiyan tum na chhalakna yogi
Prem yog ab karna yogi
Prem yog ab karna
sab kuchh sahna
kuchh mat kehna
sab kuchh sahna
kuchh mat kehna
ankhiyan tum na chhalakna yogi
ankhiyan tum na chhalakna yogi
Prem yog ab karna yogi
Prem yog ab karna
yaad kiyaa thha ab tak jisko
ab se yaad na karna yogi
ab se yaad na karna
yaad kiyaa thha ab tak jisko
ab se yaad na karna yogi
ab se yaad na karna
yogi
jo kuchh bhi ?? bhool mujhse
yogi
yogi
?? kisi ki bhool ??
sab kuch khatm samajhna yogi
sab kuch khatm samajhna yogi
Prem yog ab karna yogi
Prem yog ab karna
Tum ho sajni meri tamanna
Posted on: June 17, 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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Today’s song is from a film called Daughters of India-1939. The film was made by Super Pictures, Bombay. It was directed by V M Vyas and the Music Director was Pt. Ram Gopal Pandey. Twelve songs of this film were written by Munshi A. Shah ‘Aziz’. The cast of the film was Khursheed, Ashiq Hussain,Radha Devi, Vimla Devi, Shah Ali, Leela etc.etc.
Film’s Hero Ashiq Hussain hailed from U.P. He was a Handsome person. He could act and also sing reasonably well. He was selected by Jaddanbai as a side Hero in her first film “Talash E Haq”-1935, wherein, her own daughter Nargis also made a Debut as a Child Artiste with the name Baby Rani. Jaddanbai was in the female lead opposite Yaqub, who also hailed from a Tawayef family. Ashiq hussain acted in all the 5 films made by jaddanbai, namely Madame fashion-36, Hriday manthan-36, Moti ka Haar and Jeevan Swapna-37- all directed by her. Ashiq hussain acted in 25 films. His last film was ‘ Utho Jaago”-1947, in which he was cast opposite actress Shahzadi. She was also the producer of the film. After the film was released, Ashiq Hussain married Shahzadi and they both migrated to Pakistan.
I do not know what was the story of the film Daughters of india-39. I had seen an advertisement of this film in Film India magazine, wherein they said ” after Mother India-38, another social film “. However I found that both films were made by different banners and different Directors too. The Music Director was the same.
I have heard 3 songs from the film Daughters of india-39 and frankly I was disillusioned. The songs are so drab and have almost the same style and same tune-with slight variation. I also happened to listen to some songs from other films of Ram Gopal pandey, like Kisan kanya-37 and mother india. They are so unmusical. No wonder Ram Gopal got only C grade action and stunt films.
Music Director Ram Gopal Pande was variously credited as R G Pande, Ram Gopal, Ram Gopal Pandey etc. He hailed from U.P. After trying to become a singer unsuccessfully, he became assistant to many well known composers and learned the methods.
His first break came in 1936 with ‘ Matwali Jogan’ aka A girl from Lahore. Then he was called by the Imperial film company for its first colour film Kisan Kanya-37. Master Nisar and Padma Devi’s songs became popular, so he was given two more films- Mere Laal-37 and Vasant Bangalee-38.
Then came Mother india-38, Actress kyon bani-39, Flying Rani-39, Perfect man-38, Daughters of India-39 and Chalti Duniya-40. He was then connected with Mohan Pictures. He did other movies like Tatar ka chor-40, Deepak Mahal-40, Captain Kishore-40, Jadui Bandhan-41, Shahzadi-41, Bulbul E Baghdad-41, Bandukwali-44, Hoor E Jungle-46, Baghdad ka Chor-46, Arab ka chand-46, Ali Baba-46.
His last film seems to be Angoorbala-47. He was left behind as his music was stage and drama type only. He did not change the style either. In all he gave music to 22 films and composed 203 songs. None of his songs are remembered today. No other information is available on him.
Even the director of this film was V M Vyas who specialised in films of low budgets and C grade films generally. Vishnukumar Maganlal Vyas was born on 4-11-1905 in Ahmedabad. He started his career in 1927 as a Cinematographer. His company, Sunrise films, was started in 1941. He produced and directed 30 Hindi ( 3 Silent and 27 Talkie films) and many Gujarati films . He died on 24-1-1962 at Bombay. Vyas was a very hardworking person and a man of ‘ never say die ‘ spirit. He was disciplined and did not tolerate any nonsense. He was also known as a very miser. Being a Vaishnav, his stars would get only vegetarian food during shootings. If they wanted Non Veg food, they had to pay for it.
His first Talkie film was Saubhagya Lakshmi-34 and the last was Naag Devta-81.
Famous writer Manto has described in his book an incident about Noorjehan and V.M.Vyas.
At the time of film Naukar-43, the pair of Shaukat Hussain and Nur jehan troubled Vyas to no end. Not attending the shoots on time, asking for extra money on some pretext or the other and in general giving trouble and mental torture to Vyas were common. Not only this, additionally Nur jehan and Shaukat used to take interesting property materials from the sets to their house-like furniture, decorative vase, cupboards etc. Vyas kept quiet till the film was complete.
Once the film was completed and released, he registered an F.I.R against both of them for stealing studio equipment. To utter dishonour of Noor jehan, a police raid was made on her residence and all the furniture, tables, decorative pieces etc. , which she had taken from the sets were confiscated and the court fined her also.
Thus Vyas did not keep quiet when it was his turn and taught a lesson to Noor jehan and Shaukat Hussain, for troubling him.
After listening to songs of early era films made in Bombay, no wonder the film songs from Calcutta films became more popular. It must have been a breath of fresh air to the audience.
This song was given to me by Shri Abhay Jain jee (US) and it was uploaded by Sadanand Kamath jee for me. I thank both.
With this song, the film Daughters of India-39 makes its debut on the Blog.
Song-Tum ho sajni meri tamanna(Daughters of India)(1939) Singers- Ashiq Hussain, Khursheed Bano, Lyricist-Munshi A Shah ‘ Aziz’, MD- Pandit Ram Gopal Pandey
Both
Lyrics
Tum ho o sajni meri tamanna
sajni ee meri tamanna
tum ho saajan mera sahaara
tum ho saajan mera sahaara
aao nayi ek duniya basaa kar
aao nayi ek duniya basaa kar
us mein prem ka baag lagaayen
hum roothhen aen
tum hamko manaao
tum roothho ham tumko manaayen
tum roothho ham tumko manaayen
jahaan sadiyaan haan jahaan sadiyaan
jahaan sadiyaan
jahaan sadiyaan khil khil jaati hon
jahaan prem ki neenden aati hon
haan
jahaan koyal boley koo koo koo
jahaan ?? boley choon choon choon
prem badariya chhaayi ho sajni ee
barse amrit dhaara aa aa
prem badariya chhaayi ho sajni ee
barse amrit dhaara aa
tum ho
tum ho
tum ho o o
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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