Archive for the ‘Song of 1940’ Category
Aaj milaa hai bichhdaa saajan
Posted on: September 12, 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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4804 | Post No. : | 16571 |
Today’s song is from a Saigal film- Zindagi-1940. The film was made by New Theatres, Calcutta.
At one time New Theatres (NT) was the most successful film production company in India. It was not only prestigious,but it also shaped up and discovered many artistes who made their marks in the Hindi film industry. New Theatres, Calcutta was one of the top 5 film companies in India – the others being Imperial, Prabhat, Ranjit and Bombay Talkies.
The rise and fall of the giant company was a glorious yet a sad chapter. Besides other factors, I feel the ego-conflicts and the obstinate and adamant behaviour of the people coupled with false prestige led the artistes to desert the company leading it to its end. Of course other reasons were equally responsible.
New Theatres operated from 1931 to 1955 and made 177 films, slightly more than Ranjit film co.-with 175 films. B.N.Sircar established New Theatres in Tollygunge, Calcutta on 10-2-1931, as a family concern, where all shares were held by the family members and He was the managing Director. Same year it built its studios in the same area. It had 3 fully equipped units for shooting, with the best technicians and musicians. Like other studios they had salaried staff in all departments, on a monthly basis. In this period there were other studios also in Calcutta, like Bharat Laxmi pictures, Devdutt films, East India Film company, Kali Films and Radha Film co.
Their first talkie film was in Bangla-Chandidas-32. For the North Indian market Hindi film Puran Bhagat-32 was made. NT had markets in East India, North, North west and South, but none in Bombay or western India. Sircar, along with I.A. Hafis ji, toured the unrepresented areas himself and appointed distributors in Madras, Madurai,Trichannapally,Erode, Bangalore, Poona, Bombay, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Kangra Valley and Lahore. Puran Bhagat-32 and Yahudi ki ladli-33 were distributed here.
NT became popular in Non Bangla areas due to its Music, which became their main strength. They popularised Robindra Sangeet, with songs by Pankaj Mullick. Miss Panna Rai ji, the first ever woman to do Ph.D in Indian Cinema, wrote on NT films without knowing Bangla language. WB, EB, Burma and Eastern states were their strongholds.
1940 was the Best year for the company with films Doctor, Zindagi and Nartaki. It was an year of beginning of the end also. The first to leave was director P.C.Barua. The Second World war gave a big jolt with the quota system for Raw film. NT was allowed only 6 films per year. Income reduced. Their monthly salary bill was 45000 rupees. Communal riots in 1946 and Partition in 1947 were great setbacks. Due to Partition, NT’s markets were shrunk and due to curfew, huge losses incurred. In the early 40’s many artistes left for Bombay.
By 1951, son Dilip Sircar said,” people left, finance lost, court cases. My father virtually closed the shop.” Liquidation of Calcutta National Bank, NT’s chief financer, was the last shock. The company was handed over to Arora Film company between June to December-1954. From Jan 55 to Aug 55, it was managed by Deluxe Film company. Then a Court Receiver was appointed. In Jan-56, NT was closed down. In Mar-62 NT went into liquidation. The Liquidation was revoked and NT revived by Dilip Sircar on 8-8-1991. However, no activity was seen except that a 5 part serial on NT was made.
B.N.SIRCAR-Birendranath Sircar( 5-7-1901 to 28-11-1980 ), was the son of Shri Nripendranath Sircar-a well known Jurist and a member of the Viceroy’s committee. B.N.Sircar was a Civil Engineer from U.K. who developed an interest in film making. He left his very lucrative job at Martin Burn and Co. in 1928-29 and made 2 silent films,under the banner of International Film Craft.These were Directed by his First colleague Premankur Atorthy. After testing the film market this way, he founded New Theatres.
NEW THEATRES ( NT ) was established by B.N. Sircar, on 10-2-1931,in Tollygunge, Calcutta. It had 3 studio floors for shooting. It had the best Technicians, the best actors and the best Musicians. He acquired the Tanar equipment and services of Wilfred Denis,imported from Hollywood by Ardeshir Irani. New Theatres attracted major Technical and creative talents from silent studios,which were on collapse now. Thus,”Indian Kinema” provided Directors Nitin Bose and Premankur Atorthy and stars Durgadas Bannerjee,Amar Mullick,Jiban Ganguly etc,” Barua Pics ” gave P.C.Barua and Sushil Mujumdar,” British Dominion Films ‘ gave Dhiren Ganguly etc.
B.N.Sircar was a firm believer that Cinema is a medium between a Novel and a Drama,so he depended upon Bangla famous literature for his films. The first Talkie of new Theatres, “Dena Paona”-31,was based on Sharat babu’s works. Though this film was a flop,he continued to depend upon novels by Sharat babu and Tagore to make his films.His first seven films were flops in a row. Their first big film was Chandidas-1934. New Theatres had many Directors on its payroll and used technological advances with recordist Mukul Bose.
From 1931 to 1955,NT produced 177 films, a Record unlikely to be broken in future by any single production house. The nearest rival was Ranjit studios, with 175 films produced. It is not that there was no competition in Bengal. In 1935,there were 14 production houses in Calcutta and in 1938, there were 18 of them, though some , like Madon Theatres, closed down sooner.
NT was mammoth, peopled by giants. Through the 30s and early 40s,NT had the biggest names in Indian cinema, on their payrolls. K L Saigal, Pahadi Sanyal, Jamuna Devi and Leela Desai were ‘discovered’ by NT. Others like P C Barua, Kanan Devi, Umashashi, Molina and Chandrabati emerged as stars at NT. Some like Durgadas Bandopadyaya and Prithviraj Kapoor had been stars before coming to NT. They had directors like Premankur Attorthy, Debaki Bose, Madhu Bose, D N Ganguly, Nitin Bose, Hiren Bose, R C Boral (only Bangla), Profulla Roy, Phani Mujumdar, Bimal Roy, Hemchandra Chunder, sound recordist Mukul Bose and Musical giants like R C Boral, Pankaj Mullick, Timir Baran and K C Dey.
B N Sircar was the Patriarch, the disciplinarian, who held them together like in a big family. NT had a veritable galaxy and clashes between the Titans were inevitable. NT had its own share of fallouts, peer rivalries, squabbles and scandals. Due to the stern and uncompromising nature of B N Sircar, the first to leave was Pramathesh Barua, then Nitin Bose, and Kanan Devi. There was that famous spat between Debki Bose and Nitin Bose on the sets of Meerabai-1933 itself and they stopped talking to each other. Add to this the heavy drinking of Saigal and Umashashi’s elopement with the heir of Shova bazar palace. Each of these has an independent story.
The political situation in Bengal after the WWII, i.e. 1945 also caused the journey of NT towards its downfall and eventual closure in 1956. If only B N Sircar had changed his attitude, NT would not have died so soon, at least not without a fight and not so tamely, in the face of the competition. The biggest bank of Bengal, which financed NT- The National bank also went into liquidation at the same time to add to their woes further.
Personally, I would not hold B N Sircar alone responsible for the decline of NT, which was Hindi cinema from Bengal itself in reality. Another very important factor was,while many stalwarts like Saigal, Prithviraj Kapoor, Kidar Sharma, R C Boral, etc made a beeline for Bombay, Hindi cinema music in Calcutta remained the same, where it was in 1931,without any change. On the other hand, Bombay had enriched its music by adapting to the changing times with a mix of music from Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, UP, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Lahore and the south. The music of the 40s in Bombay had become Vibrant, whereas there was no change whatsoever in Bengal Hindi music. It kept on hankering on Robindra Sangeet and Nazrul Geeti. Maybe, the extreme variety of Regional pride of Bengal came in the way of adopting and adapting to the changes. (This Pride has, even Today, kept Bengal much behind the rest of India.) Thus Bombay became the undisputed capital of Hindi Cinema and Music.
New Theatres was established in 1931,as a family business, with B.N. Sircar as the Managing Director. Once NT started growing, the local regional pride almost forced Madan Theatres-belonging to a Parsee family from the western India-to pack up. By 1938,Madan Theatres had produced over 154 films-silent and Talkie. They made their last Talkie, ” Khatarnak Aurat”-1938 and the company closed down.
New Theatres had the Best actors, best Directors, Best composers and the very best Technical staff in India. They had 4 distinct strengths….
1. Right from the beginning, Bengal had an edge over Bombay and Lahore etc in that the Educated and Respectable family members did not hesitate to join the Film Industry in Bengal. In fact, over 90% of its people were educated-some of them even Foreign educated too. In this ,Bengal was very Progressive. On the contrary, the western centres of film making were confined to Courtesans, Tawayafs and uneducated run-aways in its film industry.
2. NT or the Bengali film industry had a very wide market spread out over the entire West and East Bengal, Bihar, orissa, Assam, the N-E states and Burma. Their Distribution network included Madras,Madurai,Erode,Trichannapally,Bangalore,Mysore,Poona,Bombay,Cawnpore(Kanpur),Kangra valley and Lahore circuits.
3.People who worked for NT were like a united family. Feelings of Goodwill and Happiness permeated the studio. Workers came in the morning and worked till it was finished. Discipline and adherence to deadlines and principles regulated their lives. projects were, therefore, completed always as planned and in time.
( Only Madras of the 40s and 50s came near this. Bombay and Lahore were exactly the opposite, where discipline and punctuality were never a Virtue (Tradition continues…)
4. Almost all films made in Bengal by NT or any other company, were based on either stories or dramas or Novels, by renowned authors from the East(read Bengal). Thus, the film’s story content was so solid that they did not need appendages of comedians or a CSP (comic side plot) or too many songs.
( IN other parts like Bombay and Lahore, studios had what was called “The Story Departments”, consisting of 4-5 writers, the owners, directors, who would work up a story in unison !)
NT popularised a new brand of Music.i.e. Rabindra Sangeet, which was hitherto confined to only Shantiniketan. With all this in place,NT was on its peak in 1940,when their slide started. One of their pillars P.C.Barua left NT. This was the beginning. Debki Bose left. Nitin Bose left after completing ‘Kashinath’ in 1943. Kanan Devi left to join Barua and Uma Shashi eloped with her lover.
Pankaj Mallick, though unhappy over the treatment meted out to him in NT, did not leave till the end. He did Bombay film music at Calcutta-like Kasturi or Zalzala etc. He always considered NT as his Alma Mater.
The ongoing II world war, the communal riots of 1946.the Partition of 1947 and the deteriorating civil conditions of Bengal (specially Calcutta),due to the influx of Refugees, broke NT completely. The Govt. had regulated supply of Raw Film, East Bengal market was lost totally, artistes left for Dhaka or Bombay…all this took NT to its end rapidly.
In such worsening conditions in 1944/45,Sircar tried to mend things by replacing the II and III level artistes to fill up gaps left by departed people. Thus, Bimal Roy, who was a Cinematographer and an Editor, got an opportunity to sit in the Director’s Chair. They made an ambitious film ” Udayer Pathe” -44. A Hindi version was made as ‘ Hamraahi”-45. It was Bimal Roy’s First brush with a Hindi Film Direction. Both versions were successful. But with major things remaining the same for years, without any changes, the house of New Theatres became a dilapidated, colourless, tattered big empty Palace. It’s sad to write about the fall of an Empire- a Giant !
(Article is based on information from “The glory that was New Theatres” by Sharmishtha Gooptu, ” सुंदर ती दुसरी दुनिया ” a Marathi book by Ambarish Mishra, The Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, with thanks, along with my old writings and my notes.)
Today we will know for the first time more about an artiste who was with NT from almost the beginning. The name is strange and uncommon-NEMO.
Nemo (Mirza Muhammad Begg) was born on 27th December 1903 at Calcutta. He passed his Senior Cambridge. One day he, along with some friends, visited New Theatres to see a film shooting. Mirza Muhammad Begg merely wanted to watch the shooting of ‘Yahoodi Ki Larki’ (1933) but, as luck would have it, his visit to the New Theatres studio in Calcutta led to a small role in the same film. The part was that of a Roman king and little did Begg know back then that he’d soon be turning to Latin to fish out a lasting identity.
A year later, he was invited by New Theatres’ founder B.N. Sircar to work as the production manager of ‘Karwan-e-Hayat’ (1935) and another chance role beckoned. A female actor who was supposed to play an old witch in the film failed to turn up for the shooting and Begg volunteered for the part. The make-up department stepped up to the challenge and Begg, unrecognisable in the get-up, did the job (and always considered it his best effort). What happened next is even more interesting. Once the film was ready, the makers felt apprehensive about revealing to the public that a man had played the witch’s role. Begg came up with a solution – a gender-ambiguous screen name for himself. And in a delightfully wacky move, he picked a name that means ‘nobody/nothing’ in Latin – ‘Nemo’.
The name stuck on and this was the beginning of Nemo’s steadfast association with New Theatres – one that resulted in a string of features like ‘Karodpati’, ‘Dushman’, ‘Doctor’ and ‘Zindagi’. He was Vidushak, the royal jester, in ‘Vidyapati’, a rigid but caring father in ‘Jawani Ki Reet’ and the devoted caretaker Dharamdas in P.C. Barua’s ‘Devdas’. These diverse characters earned him appreciation from audiences and critics alike. Further, the story of the Saigal hit ‘The President’ (1937) was based on his idea and he was duly credited for the same. Alongside his work in films, he also edited and published ‘Akkas’ – a very popular Urdu (and later, Urdu-English bilingual) film magazine in those days. Its surviving copies now serve as an important archive of the early talkies. His last film with New Theatres was Kashinath. When Calcutta was bombed by Japan in late 1942, Nemo migrated with his family to his ancestral hometown, Lucknow. He later went over to Bombay for a short while to work in Mazhar Khan’s ‘Pehli Nazar’ (1945), and then returned to Lucknow to settle into a life far removed from the studio lights.
In the middle of it all lies an extraordinary fact – at the time he entered the movies, M.M. Begg was a national billiards champion! He won the inaugural Indian Open Billiards Championship in 1931 and never left the game thereon, despite a busy and flourishing film career. He won the trophy again in 1937, and between the 2 wins, he was the runner-up thrice. Not to mention, he represented the country at international tournaments and also headed various administrative organisations related to the game. His contributions towards establishing and popularising billiards and snooker in India are widely mentioned, and always in glowing terms. He was also obsessed with Racing.
It was nearly a decade after ‘Pehli Nazar’ that Raj Kapoor managed to pull Nemo out of his sabbatical for 2 memorable final acts in ‘Shree 420’ and ‘Jagte Raho’. In both, Nemo played similar roles of manipulative, corrupt seths who hide their sinister designs behind a facade of respectability. If he was jittery about facing the camera after a long gap, it doesn’t show (unless Seth Sonachand’s trembling chin is not a mannerism 😄). He was particularly effective in ‘Shree 420’, where he puts on the most evil smile possible and hisses to Raj Kapoor, “Aap se mulaqaat ho gayi, is mein fayda hi fayda hai.” He also did 2 more films- Raja Vikram-57 and Naag Champa-58.
Nemo worked for 19 films of New Theatres and 4 others totalling 23 films in all. His Filmography – Yahudi ki ladki-33, Karwaan E Hayat-35, Devdas-35, Karodpati-36, Manzil-36, Vidyapati-37, Anath Ashram-37, President-37, Dushman-38, Dharati Mata-38, Abhagin-38, Jawani ki reet-39, Badi Didi-39, Zindagi-40, Haar Jeet-40, Doctor-40, Aandhi-40, Lagan-41, Saugandh-42, Shri 420-55, Jaagte Raho-56, Raja Vikram-57 and Naag Champa-55. It is believed that he died in Bombay on 18-8-1960.
Cinema, publishing, sports – Mirza Muhammad Begg distinguished himself in everything he touched. And chose to call himself NEMO – a nobody. ( based on information from Filmdom-1946, HFGK, muVyz and mainly an article by Yasir Abbasi, with thanks.)
Today’s song is sung by Aruna.
Song- Aaj mila hai bichhada saajan(Zindagi)(1940) Singer- Aruna, Lyricist- Kidar Sharma, MD- Pankaj Mullick
Lyrics
Aaj mila hai
Aaj mila hai ae
Aaj mila hai
bichhda saajan
aaj mila hai ae
Aaj mila hai
mre man ka
mere man ka
phool khila hai
Aaj mila hai
Aaj mila hai
jaag uthhi hai
aaj jawaani
yaad aayi hai
apni kahaani
jaag uthhi hai
aaj jawaani
yaad aayi hai
apni kahaani
apni kahaani
Aaj mila hai
Aaj mila hai
Aaj mila hai ae
Aaj mila hai
kaise koi dil mein aaya
kaise kuchh khoya
kuchh paaya
kaise koi dil mein aaya
kaise kuchh khoya
kuchh paaya
hamne
hamne jee ko khud banaaya
hamne jee ko khud banaaya
dil se dil ko ?? samjhaaya
Aaj mila hai ae
Aaj mila hai
mere man ka aa
mere man ka phool khila hai
bichhda saajan
bichhda saajan
aaj mila hai ae
aaj mila hai
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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4758 | Post No. : | 16502 | Movie Count : |
4483 |
India is a Multi racial, multilingual and Multi religions country. It is not only the largest Democracy in the world, but also the largest Secular state in the world, where people from different faiths have been living together since centuries.
Many saints and religious leaders have played a significant role in keeping the mixed population of India as One Unit, when it was needed the most. A majority of Hindus, ruled by Muslim Mughals was a natural cause for social divisions, but Saints like Kabir, Surdas, Tulsidas, Ramdas, Tukaram, Ramanand, Narsi Mehta, Purandar das,Namdev, Guru Nanak Dev, Eknath, Bhakta Pundarikar, Rohidas, Mrutyunjaya and many such noble souls, did an excellent job of maintaining harmony amongst peoples of different faiths.
Indian spiritual Gurus set themselves as Role models for the masses. Whether it was Ramkrishna Paramhansa or Shankaracharya or all the others have guided their followers to achieve peace of mind through spirituality. Religion is a way of life in India and most Gurus teach their followers how to follow the right path even while looking after their families.
Some of the saints have done monumental literary works for the masses, bringing what was available only in Sanskrit, to the doorsteps of the common people. Among such saints, Sant Tulsidas tops the list, according to me. He sets an example of how a person can educate himself and how a person can change himself for his Goals in life.
The period of 1300 to 1600 AD, a time frame of 300 years or thereabouts, was when most saints were active in India. This was the period when several outside rulers invaded India and established their rules. This was the time when the culture and religion of India had to be saved from annihilation. The saints of India played an important role in this and maintained Unity and Oneness of Indian culture from getting destroyed. But for them,there was a danger of the whole nation getting converted to Islam or Christianity. India will forever be grateful to the saints for this .
The Bhakti Movement was India’s own way to combat foreign attackers, cruel rulers and the sleeping people of India. The movement from 1300 to 1600 AD produced many religious Saints and social reformers from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and from Assam to Gujarat. The Indian culture is such that the advice given by a religious saint is more acceptable than that given by a social reformer. Thus, in this hour of need, India’s Saints tried to teach message of reforms such as removal of Untouchability, freedom from Varnashram lifestyles, importance of education, Women’s emancipation and other such matters,through their poems, dohas, Abhangs and writings as well as kirtans. They tried to make the masses wake up against the ill effects of social practices that were being observed those days.
Saints appeared in ALL areas of India,during this period. However,due to language problems, knowledge and information about Saints in other regions trickled down very slowly. States which shared the use of Devanagari script were aware about them in a better way. Thus,Maharashtra,Gujarat,Rajasthan and the Northern Hindi belt states exchanged their knowledge about their saints more frequently than other regions such as Bengal, the Eastern states or the southern states where the scripts were different. Andhra and Karnataka were closer as their scripts are similar, except perhaps the alphabet ‘K’. Tamil and Malayalam scripts have Dravidian origins and were not easily accessible for the rest of India.
With a view to bring some of these saints in limelight, I ran a series of 10 Bhajans from films which were made on the lives or incidents of some Saints of India. The title of this series was ” The Great Souls of India” and it ran from 1-11-2013 to 15-11-2013. It was one of the very popular series from my 26 series which I had run on this Blog. Many readers wrote their comments and conveyed that they liked the series.
In that series, I had purposely not included Meerabai, as my purpose, as always, was to highlight less known Saints into the limelight. Meerabai is a character on whom a maximum number of films were made….
Meerabai-1932
Raajrani Meera-1933
Matwali Meera-1940
Meera-1947
Meerabai-1947
Raajrani Meera-1956
Meera Shyam-1976
Meera-1979
Meera ka Mohan-1991 and
Meera ke Giridhar-1993
There was also one film ” Meerabai Not Out”-2008, but I believe it had nothing to do with Saint Meerabai. In the Silent era also I find a film Meerabai-1921 made by Kohinoor film co. and Sant Meerabai-1929 made by Hindustan Cinema Film co., Nashik.
Today’s song is from the film Matwali Meera-1940. This film was made in Calcutta by Bharat Lakshmi Pictures. It was directed by Prafulla Roy and the music was by Master Brijlal Verma. Lyricist was Pt. Bhushan. There were 15 songs, out of which only 5 were Meera Bhajans. The main lead was Mukhtar Begum who sang 3 Bhajans, Fida HGussain and Kamla Jharia one Bhajan each.
The cast had 17 names, out of which 11 were Muslim actors in this Bhakti Pradhan film. I have heard all the available songs-7 and frankly I was disappointed. Mukhtar Begum has sung the Bhajan in Mujra or Ghazal style. As it is in those times the music was very slow, making it further an outrage. I have selected, therefore, a song-not a bhajan- by Kamala Jharia.
With this song, the film Matwali Meera-1940 makes its Debut on this Blog.
Song-Sun ri sakhi ek Gope-suta ki sundar katha sunaaun (Matwaali Meera)(1940) Singer- Kamla Jharia, Lyricist-Pandit Bhushan, MD- Master Brijlal Verma
Lyrics
Sun ri sakhi
haan haan sun ri sakhi
ek Gope-suta ki sundar katha sunaaun
jiske atal prem par main bhi
waari waari jaaun
Sun ri sakhi
haan haan sun ri sakhi
ek Gope-suta ki sundar katha sunaaun
Dwaapar yug thhaa jis vasant ki
Dwaapar yug thhaa jis vasant ki
ras ke jharne jharte
raas rachaate Krishn Kanhaiyya
raas rachaate Krishn Kanhaiyya
man ki peeda harte
mast raag se kal-kal karti
bahti nadi toofaani ee ee
mast raag se kal-kal karti
bahti nadi toofaani
kho gayi jismein bahte bahte
kho gayi jismein bahte bahte
ik gopi deewaani
ik gopi deewaani
prem viyog mein jogan ban kar
is duniya mein raazi (?)
prem viyog mein jogan ban kar
is duniya mein raazi (?)
raaj ?? kul ki shobha
raaj ?? kul ki shobha
matwaali Meera bai
matwaali Meera bai
matwaali Meera bai
Main deepak ki baati
Posted on: May 25, 2021
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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4694 | Post No. : | 16380 | Movie Count : |
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‘Sajni’ (1940) was produced under the banner of Sudama Productions and was directed by Sarvottam Badami. The cast included Prithviraj Kapoor, Sabita Devi, Snehprabha Pradhan, Noor Jahan (Sr.), Tarabai, Ghory, Kesri, Dixit, Shakir etc. The story and dialogues for of the film were written by Zia Sarhadi. P L Santoshi, Pandit Indra and Zia Sarhadi wrote the songs which were set to music by Gyan Dutt.
From the cast and crew, Sabita Devi, Sarvottam Badami and Zia Sarhadi belonged to Sagar Movietone while Noor Jahan (Sr.), Kesari, Dixit, lyricists P L Santoshi, Pandit Indra and music director Gyan Dutt among others belonged to Ranjit Movietone. The advertisement of the film shows that the film was produced at Ranjit Studio. Why did the amalgam of artists from two competitive banners of film productions happened? The answer is in the genesis of Sudama Productions, the banner under which ‘Sajni’ (1940) was produced.
Sometime in the middle of 1939, Sagar Movietone of Chimanlal Desai faced the financial crunch to such an extent that to come out of it, the banner was required to be merged with General Pictures of Fazalbhoy to make a new entity, National Studios. Offers were given to the existing staff of Sagar Movietone to join National Studios. While most of the artists and crew members joined National Studios, Sarvottam Badami and Sabita Devi decided to join as stake holders in the newly set up film production company, Sudama Productions floated by Dr. Ambalal Patel in which Ranjit Movietone had a stake in it. The films produced under this banner used facilities available in Ranjit Studio and their artists/crew members. Incidentally, Dr Ambalal Patel was a ex-partner in Sagar Movietone.
Sarvottam Badami, the director of the film was a product of Sagar Movietone for whom he directed 10 Hindi films during 1933-39. Except for his first Hindi film, ‘Chandrahaas’ (1933), Sabita Devi acted in remaining of his 9 films as a lead actress. Under the banner of Sudama Productions, Sarvottam Badami directed 4 films – ‘Meri Marzi’ (1939), ‘Chingari’ (1940), ‘Sajni’ (1940) and ‘Holiday in Bombay’ (1941). In all these films, Sabita Devi was in the lead role.
‘Sajni’ (1940) was released on August 17, 1940. The film’s review was published in September 1940 issue of ‘Filmindia’. The reviewer had criticised the film for poor story and direction. The role of Sabita Devi as an uneducated village girl in the film was not in keeping with her image in the Hindi films as a sophisticated girl. The story of the film as per the review is summarized below:
The village’s wealthy money-lender’s son, Nanda (Prithviraj Kapoor) is in love with a peasant girl, Rupa (Sabita Devi). Nanda wish to get married to Rupa but his father is not in favour of his son’s marriage with Rupa due to the financial status of the girl’s family. Nanda is forced to marry Radha (Snehprabha Pradhan) whose father has given a good amount of dowry. To add to the misery of Rupa, her father dies.
Radha soon comes to know that Nanda was in love with Rupa and he still loved her even after the marriage. When Rupa comes know about this, she prevails upon Nanda to forget about her and to strengthen the marriage with Radha for the sake of the society. With Rupa’s blessing, Nanda agrees to her advice. Rupa sacrfices her love for Nanda to make his married life happy.
The main theme of the film’s story may appear familiar to those who has watched films of 1950s and 60s in which inequalities in the societal status make the hero/heroine a doomed lover. In the film under discussion, Sabita Devi is a doomed lover because of her background as a poor peasant girl. Due the unprecedented success of ‘Devdas’ (1935), films with a story of a doomed lover were in vogue especially during 40s through 60s. ‘Deedar’ (1951) and ‘Do Badan’ (1966) are examples among other films.
‘Sajni’ (1940) had 9 songs of which 7 songs were written by P L Santoshi and one each by Pandit Indra and Zia Sarhadi. Since none of the songs were available on any video sharing platform, I have recently uploaded a song ‘deepak ki baatee priyatam main deepak ki baatee’ which I am presenting here. The song is rendered by Snehprabha Pradhan and is set to music by Gyan Dutt.
The song reflects the state of the mind of Radha (Snehprabha Pradhan) married to Nanda (Prithviraj Kapoor). Thier married life is unsettled when she becomes aware that Nanda is still in love with Rupa (Sabita Devi).
With this song, ‘Sajni’ (1940) makes its debut on the Blog.
Audio Clip:
Song-Deepak ki baati priyatam(Sajni)(1940) Singer-Snehprabha Pradhan, Lyrics-P L Santoshi, MD-Gyan Dutt
Lyrics
deepak ki baatee ee
priyatam
main deepak ki baatee
mai….n
deepak ki baatee
priyatam
main deepak ki baatee
pal pal chhin chhin jalti jaatee mai…n
deepak ki baatee ee
priyatam
main deepak ki baatee
pal pal chhin chhin jalti jaatee mai…n
deepak ki baatee
priyatam
main deepak ki baatee
meri raam kahaani sun kar
jal marta parwaana
kahe jaata hai
dheere se wo…o
behta jaa raha ?? jaana
phir bhi jal ki pyaasi
phir bhi jal ki pyaasi
main deepak ki baatee
main deepak ki baatee
mai….n
deepak ki baatee
priyatam
main deepak ki baatee
andhiyaare mein andhiyaare ka
andhiyaare mein andhiyaare ka
rahta ek sahaara
mere andhiyaare jeewan mein
wohi ek hamaara
jab tak hai wo
tab tak hoon main
jab tak hai wo
tab tak hoon main
wo jaata main bujh jaati
wo jaata main bujh jaati
main deepak ki baatee
mai….n
deepak ki baatee ee
priyatam
main deepak ki baatee
Zara muskura kar milaao nazar hi
Posted on: May 22, 2021
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Blog Day : |
4691 | Post No. : | 16375 | Movie Count : |
4448 |
‘Bahurani’ (1940) was produced by Kishore Sahu under the banner of the then newly set up, India Artists Ltd. The star cast included Kishore Sahu and Rose in the lead roles with Anuradha, Mubarak, Pratima Devi, Masood, Nana Palsikar etc in the supporting role. The film had its mahurat shot taken in January 1940 under the direction of Mubarak. In February 1940, R S Junnarkar was assigned the direction of the film along with Mubarak. So, it was their joint directorial venture. For Mubarak, it was his maiden attempt as a director which happened to be his last film as a director. R S Junnarkar was a screen-play and dialogue writer for Huns Pictures of Master Vinayak. It was also his first Hindi film as a director.
The film was expected to be released in April 1940. However, it was finally released on June 20, 1940. The film’s premier was held in Excelsior theatre and Dada Saheb Phalke, the father of the Indian film industry was the guest of honour among many big wigs of Hindi film industry who attended the premier.
Kishore Sahu started his filmy career as a lead actor in Bombay Talkies ‘Jeevan Prabhat’ (1937) which was a box office success. Probably, his entrepreneurial ambition made him to leave Bombay Talkies and float a film production company. In his ambition, Seth Ramnath Daga, a Bikaner based multi-millionaire, supported him with the finance required for such a venture. It was the brain child of Seth Ramnath Daga to set up a film production company called ‘India Artists Ltd’ for which he appointed Kishore Sahu as the Managing Director. He was assisted by Seth Ramnath Daga’s educated son, Dwarkadas Daga.
‘Bahurani’ (1940) was the first film produced under India Artists Ltd. The vision of the banner was to make socially relevant films. During the making of the film, Kishore Sahu had creative differences with Seth Ramnath Daga, the main financial supporter of the banner. After the release of “Bahurani’ (1940), Kishore Sahu resigned from the company and returned to Bombay Talkies to take the lead role in the film ‘Punar Milan’ (1940) opposite Snehprabha Pradhan. It took another 4 years for Kishore Sahu to float his own film production banner, Hindustan Chitra under which he produced and directed ‘Sharaarat’ (1944) and many more films thereafter.
The story of ‘Bahurani’ (1940) was adapted from a Hindi novel ‘Mimansa’ (1937) written by Hindi laureate, Anuplal Mandal who is regarded as ‘Premchand of Bihar’. The screen-play and dialogues were written by another Hindi laureate, Amritlal Nagar. The film was reviewed in ‘Filmindia’ magazine and for a change, the reviewer had praised the film for its story, screen play/dialogues and the performances of the main actors viz, Kishore Sahu, Rose and Anuradha (real name: Khursheed). Based on the review of the film. I have summarized the story as under:
Vijay (Kishore Sahu), a young landlord meets Aruna (Anuradha), a poor village girl born out of wedlock, during a village wedding. He likes Aruna and visits in her house where her mother is seriously ill. She takes a promise from Vijay that he would take care of Aruna if she did not survive. The mother soon dies. As promised, Vijay brings Aruna to his house and is treated as a child of the family by Didi (Pratima Devi) the elder widowed sister of Vijay. Diwanji (Mubarak), the trusted servant of the family is aware of Aruna’s background. But he keeps quite about it.
Soon, Vijay goes to the city for completing his education. He meets Mallika Rai (Rose), a sophisticated girl in the college. Vijay finds her on the same wave length as his in his idealistic approach. After completion of his education, Vijay returns home and finds Aruna now grown up and charming. Vijay falls in love with her and proposes her for the marriage. After overcoming a minor resistance from the family, Vijay and Aruna get married. The couple respects each other and Didi loves Aruna like her own daughter. The life goes on very well. But behind her happiness, there is a lurking fear in Aruna’s mind as to what will happen if Vijay and Didi comes to know about her background of a girl born out of wedlock.
In the meanwhile, Didi leaves for few days to visit her relatives. Vijay is busy with his involvement in the village upliftment activities and to support his growing activities, he calls Mallika to join him. She is given accommodation in Vijay’s house. Both Mallika and Aruna likes each other, Mallika likes Aruna for her simplicity and Aruna likes Mallika for her woman supportive views. Most of the day, Vijay is in the company of Mallika in the village upliftment activities and in course of time, both become close to each other. Aruna is aware of their closeness but pretends to both as if she is not aware of their relationship.
Under these circumstances, Lallan (Masood), the younger brother of Vijay returns home after completing his education. He gets to know the stigma attached to Aruna and tries to blackmail her to satisfy his lust. The stress of ‘affair’ of her husband with Mallika and the blackmailing by Lallan affects her health and she becomes bedridden. How, Vijay and Aurna comes out of the difficult situations and find a solution to a happy ending for everyone is not revealed in the film review.
I was interested to know as to how the story end to the satisfaction of all the main characters. Fortunately, the novel ‘Mimansa’ is available to read on-line in Hindi. I read the entire novel (203 pages). It is really a moving story in a realistic setting. At the end, the main character in the story – Vijay, Aruna, Mallika, Didi will surely get sympathy from the readers. Incidentally, the film has used the same names for the characters as in the novel.
The film has followed more or less the same story as depicted in the novel up to the entry of Lallan who has been shown as a villain in the film. To some extent, Mallika has also some shade of villain, being the ‘other woman’ in the life of Vijay. However, in the novel, no character has been depicted as villain.
Both Aruna and Mallika have cordial relations though some mild arguments do take place between them. But the respect for each other overwhelms such ‘noise’ in their relationship. Again, Aruna and Lallan have good relations. The only villainous streak in him is that he reveals to Didi the background of Aruna which makes her, in turn, to reveal the secret to Vijay. The novel makes the society at large as the main villain for the likes of Aruna.
The end is somewhat dramatic to the relief of Aruna. Didi has already written a letter to Vijay about the background of Aruna which makes Aruna jittery. To add to her misery, Vijay has become close to Mallika. The intense stress in her life makes Aruna ill. Vijay arranges the best doctors and medicines. But she is not recovering from her illness. The servants tell Vijay that bahurani is not taking medicines and is not allowing doctors to check her. Both Vijay and Mallika think that Aruna has no will to survive from her illness.
Both Mallika and Vijay visit Aruna separately to make her understand to take medicines. During the conversations, Mallika realises that Aruna’s love for Vijay is undiminishing despite their affair. The greatness of Aruna is that she is not blaming either Mallika or Vijay for what is happening to her life. With a lot of deliberations, Mallika decides that it is better to detatch herself from Vijay. She leaves Vijay’s house without informing anyone and goes back to her city. Before leaving, she writes a letter address to Vijay to take care of Aruna and suggests him to take Aruna for a long outing for a change.
The story in the novel ends with Vijay and Aruna travelling to Puri. While in the train, Aruna hands over a letter written by Didi revealing the stigma attached to her. Vijay reads it and tears off the letter by telling Aruna that he was already made aware of her background by Diwanji when he proposed her for the marriage. It was his conscious decidion to marry her and he was capable of facing the repurcussion even now. But nothing will break their union.
The film had 9 songs written by J S Cashyap and Azad. However, individual credit to the songs is not available. All the songs were set to music by Rafique Ghaznavi. I am presenting the film’s first song, ‘zara muskura kar milaao nazar hi’ to appear on the Blog. HFGK mentions Zohra as the singer of the song. The voice in the song does not sound like that of Zohrabai Ambalewaali.
In the 1930s, there was an actor-singer called Miss Zohra Jaan who was a star in her own right. She had two sisters – Mushtari Bai who was also an actor-singer in early 1930s. Unfortunately, she died in her teenage in 1934. The other sister was Khursheed (known as Anuradha in Hindi films). Shri Arunkumar Deshmukh has painstakingly collated the rare information on ‘Zohra Sisters’ and has covered in an article, mere baba ne baat meri maan li.
Rafique Ghaznavi, the music director of the film was married to Zohra Jaan in the 30s. After divorcing her in early 1940s, he married her sister Khursheed (Anuradha). Since Anuradha is in the film under discussion, it further strengthens my belief that the singer of the song is Zohra Jaan.
The song is written in Ghazal style, fit for a mujra. Towards the end of the song, there is a long music suggestive of a mujra dance, It is quite possible that the song may have been picturised on Zohra Jaan herself who was also a good mujra dancer though her name does not appear in the credit. But there are cases where some of the actor-singers appeared in the films uncredited.
With this song, ‘Bahurani’ (1940) makes its debut on the Blog.
Audio Clip:
Song-Zara muskura kar milaao nazar hi(Bahurani)(1940) Singer-Zohra Jaan, MD-Rafiq Ghaznavi
Lyrics
haan aa aa
zara muskura kar milaao nazar hi
zara muskura kar milaao nazar hi
meri jaan ham bhi
aa aa aaa aa
aa aaa aa aa
meri jaan ham bhi khade hain idhar hi
meri jaan ham bhi khade hain idhar hi
na jaao jagaao o o aa aa
na phir phir ke dekho o o o
mujhe chhod do haan aan aan aan
mujhe chhod do bas mere haal par hi
mujhe chhod do bas mere haal par hi
sambhal kar meri jaan aa aa aa aaa aa
na khanjar uthhaana aa aa aa aa aa aa
kahin bal na khaa jaaye aa aa aa aa aa
kahin bal na khaa jaaye teri kamar hi
kahin bal na khaa jaaye teri kamar hi
shab-e-hijr kaa aa aa aa aaa
fasl ki chabri()?? ee ee ee ee ee
ke haan haan mein naa naa
haan aan aan aan aan
ke haan haan mein naa naa rahi raat bhar hi
ke haan haan mein naa naa rahi raat bhar hi
Naach rahi hai Maaya Maaya
Posted on: July 8, 2020
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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4373 | Post No. : | 15711 | Movie Count : |
4330 |
Today’s song is from a film of early cinema-Bharosa-1940. There was a film of the same name- Bharosa in 1963, but the stories were entirely different. That film was more popular for Mehmood-Shubha Khote’s side story. Today’s film Bharosa-40 was made by Minerva Movietone. It was quite a serious film with an unusual, daring story for its time. The history of making this film is very interesting.
Sohrab Modi, in his earlier career used to work as an actor in his elder Brother’s – Rustom’s- ” Arya Subodh Natak Mandali “. After the Talkie films started, they felt it to be a threat to their stage dramas and decided to make Talkie films. ” Stage film company” was established in 1935 and to play safe, they decided to film their most popular drama ‘ Hamlet aka Khoon ka Khoon’ and market it, followed by their next best hit drama ‘Saeed E Havas aka King John’. Accordingly both were filmed and released as Talkie films. Unfortunately, their hopes were belied. Most people, having seen these dramas, did not see the films. The Modi brothers realised that making a Talkie film was a different ball game altogether !
They floated Minerva Movietone and produced the film ‘ Atma Tarang-37’. Those days Modi was influenced by Ramkrishna Mission teachings. Bachelor Modi used a story of ‘Celibacy’ (ब्रह्मचर्य ). In the period of 1935 to 1940, many Romantic films by Bombay Talkies and others were attracting the audience. People expressed their displeasure by not coming to this film. Consequently, this first film of Minerva Movietone also flopped. Luckily another film “Khan Bahadur’ was also made at the same time and this clicked.
Sohrab Modi understood and decided to make films on social issues, like Prabhat and New Theatres. Accordingly, he first made ‘Meetha Zaher’-38 on the evil of drinking alcohol, ‘ Jailor-38’ on illicit passion and ‘Divorce-38’ on separation after marriage. After a breather – Pukar-39 – he ended his quartet of reform Films with ‘Bharosa-40’. This film handled a very unusual subject like ” unintended Incest ” .(In 1941, film Bahen also touched on this topic subtly). According to the comments in magazine Film India,of those times,this film was not as successful as expected. Possibly due to the background of a more successful film ‘Pukar’, only the earlier year. Chandra Mohan was a common actor in both films, naturally his roles were compared by all.
The film was directed by Modi and the music was composed by G P Kapoor, who was a director (Nazrana-42), Singer and MD for 5 films, including Bharosa-40. Film’s story, screenplay, dialogues and songs were written by L C Bismil. The cast of the film was Chandra Mohan, Sardar Akhtar, Mazhar khan, Maya Devi, Sheela, Naval, Eruch Tarapore, Gulab, Menaka, Ram Apte and others. The film was released on 15th August 1940 at Minerva Theatre, Bombay. The story of the film Bharosa-40 was…..Gyan(Mazhar khan) and Rasik(Chandra Mohan) are good friends. When Gyan has to go to Africa, he leaves his wife-Shobha(Sardar Akhtar) with Rasik and his wife Rambha(Maya Devi). Rasik has always liked Shobha secretly and he develops intimacy with her. When Rambha goes to Maika, these two come together and Shobha gets pregnant. She delivers a daughter-Indira(Sheela).
As Indira and Madan(Naval)-Rasik’s son, grow together, they fall in love. Meanwhile Shobha dies and Gyan decides to marry Indira and Madan, though, knowing the secret, Rasik resists this marriage. But Gyan has his way and the marriage takes place. Rasik feels remorseful and reveals the truth to the newly married couple, who are actually Brother and Sister. Both commit suicide.
In the issue of Film India of September 1940, Baburao patel appreciated the direction of Sohrab Modi and called this film a better film than Pukar-39. The name of Maya Devi is not known much. Maya Devi was from Bombay and started her career from silent films in 1928 with Anarkali by imperial. Her first Talkie film was Kunwari ya widhva-35. Her real name was Leela. She became a favourite of Bombay Talkies and she did 6 films with them in 37 and 38. In all she did 5 silent films and 31 Talkie films till 1949. Her last film in India was Raaz-49. She got married with a Muslim and then migrated to Pakistan, where she did 19 films and then retired in 1964. Her first film in Pakistan was Phere-1949. She died in Lahore on 1-2-67. She did films in Gujarati and Punjabi also.
Another new name is Eruch Tarapore. He was a distant relative of Sohrab Modi and he worked only in Modi’s films. He worked in 16 films, right from Modi’s first film Hamlet-35 up to 1948. Eruch sang one song each in 3 films, Meetha zehar-38, Jailor-38 and Phir milenge-43. He died in 1948.
Sohrab Modi was a very strict person and when he entered the studio, there used to be total silence.C Ramchandra had spent the first 3 years of his career in Minerva and learnt the basics of composing music, under different MDs employed by Minerva. In due course, he became a big name and very successful. He described one memory associated with Minerva and Modi to film historian Isak Mujawar thus…
When Sohrab Modi sent a call to him to come for composing songs for one of his films, C Ramchandra remembered all this. While in Minerva, he knew Modi as a strict disciplinarian and a kind soul. In the subsequent period, C Ramchandra was impressed with the extraordinary success of Minerva movies like Pukar-39, Sikander-41 and Prithwi Vallabh-43. Afterall, his and Minerva’s careers had started together only ! Though he had become a famous and successful Music Director now with films like Shehnai, Saajan, Nadiya ke paar and Khidki etc amongst his 30 odd films, he went to meet Modi.
There was a tremendous change in circumstances when he left Minerva in 1938. When Minerva requested him to work for them in 1948, he had become so big that he could have easily refused to work for them, but he was not ungrateful. C Ramchandra has described this meeting to one of his friends, Isak Mujawar thus…
” When I entered the office of Minerva, after 10 years, I realised that while I had grown in my stature, Minerva had lost some of its sheen and its place among the top studios. Whatever I had learned while working here had made my foundation so strong that I could never repay Minerva’s debt fully. As I entered, I saw the same tall, well built Sohrab Modi and by his side Mehtab was sitting next to him. As soon as I crossed the door, both of them stood up. I was embarrassed. I went ahead and touched his feet. He murmured something and hugged me. I did Namaste to Mehtab ji. Modi talked briefly about his film and their expectations about the music. Then with a little hesitation, he asked me for my fees. I smiled and said, “Give me just One Rupee, sir. That’s my fees for Minerva”. However, they did not agree and a nominal token fee was fixed. I signed the contract “.
Those were the days when artistes gratefully acknowledged the help they received in their early careers !
Today’s song is sung by Menakabai. This is a Same name Confusion case. There were two Menakas. One singing this song was from Bombay.
Menaka/Menakabai / Menakabai Shirodkar ( Bombay )
—————————————————-
Menaka was born in Lahore in or around 1910. She was from a professional singer family and got training in classical singing. The family was originally from Belgaon and her maiden name was Menaka Belgaonkar. Later she was married and became Menaka Shirodkar.
At the age of 23-24 she landed in Bombay to try her luck in films. In those days such girls from singing families used to get into films easily, due to their singing capability. She joined Minerva and sang in their films, starting with Pukar-39,in which she got only one song.
She was more interested in classical singing and hence concentrated on singing more than acting. However, she did act in 5 films, in which she also sang.
After her film Gul Bakavli-47 she devoted her full time in singing and holding jalsas. Soon she became a known figure in singing circles. After marriage she got two daughters. One of them Shobha became a famous singer and was known as Shobha Gurtu.
After her singing was over Menakabai Shirodkar-as she came to be known later- retired and settled in Ponda,Goa.
She died on 23-12-2003 at the age of around 93 years.
Filmography-
——————–
| Title | Comments |
|---|---|
| Pukar-39 | 1 solo song |
| Paak Daman-40 | Acting and 3 solos+ 1 Duet |
| Main Haari-40 | 1 solo, 2 Duets |
| Bharosa-40 | Acting and 2 solos, 1 Duet |
| Sikandar-41 | 1 solo |
| Ulti Ganga-42 | 1 solo, 1 Trio |
| Phir milenge-42 | Acting and 3 solos |
| Prithwi Vallabh-43 | 2 solos, 2 Duets and 1 Trio |
| Bhakta Raidas-43 | Acting and 1 Duet as Menakabai |
| Dr. Kumar-44 | 1 solo |
| Gul Bakavali-47 | Acting and 4 solos, a Duet..all as Menakabai |
With today’s song film Bharosa-1940 makes its Debut on this Blog.
Song-Naach rahi hai Maaya Maaya (Bharosa)(1940) Singer- Menaka Bai (Bombaywali), Lyricist-Lalchand Bismil Peshawari, MD- G P Kapoor
Lyrics
Naach rahi hai Maaya Maaya
Naach rahi hai Maaya Maaya
Naach rahi hai Maaya
Naach rahi hai Maaya Maaya
Naach rahi hai Maaya
ma ga re sa re sa ma ga pa ma ga
ma ga dha ni
dha pa dha ni dha pa sa
sa re sa
da ni dha
??la sabke saath milaaya
??la sabke saath milaaya
n n n n n n n n
naach rahi hai Maaya Maaya
naach rahi hai Maaya
Baaj rahi hai anvat(?) veena
naach rahi hai ?? Maaya
Baaj rahi hai anvat(?) veena
naach rahi hai ?? Maaya
saat suran mein ?? bandhe(?) hain
saat suran mein ?? bandhe(?) hain
?? apna rang jamaaya
apna apna rang jamaaya
n n n n n n n n
naach rahi hai Maaya Maaya
naach rahi hai Maaya
Maaya
naache
Maaya
dekhe
Maaya ne hai swaang banaaya
Maaya ne hai swaang banaaya
ajab khilaadi hai ye maaya
ajab khilaadi hai ye maaya
jisne ye adbhut khel rachaaya
jisne ye adbhut khel rachaaya
n n n n n n n n
naach rahi hai Maaya Maaya
naach rahi hai Maaya
Kaun tujhe samjhaaye
Posted on: April 9, 2020
This article is written by Avinash Scrapwala, 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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4283 | Post No. : | 15530 |
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Blog 10-Year Challenge (2010-2020) – Song No. 19
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Regulars on the blog would be surprised to see my post covering a song from the forties or rather from the decade of ‘thirties’-1931-40.
My forte is the movies from the ‘seventies’. But, yes, I have from time to time shared songs from movies before the years of ‘seventies’ too.
As a music lover, I love the songs from the ‘golden period’ or ‘pre-golden period’ of Hindi cinema. I have a great admiration for the stalwarts of that era and a great fascination of the movies and songs of that era.
During my childhood days, I got to watch many movies of the ‘black & white’ era e.g. ‘Dillagi-1949’, ‘Dard-1947’, ‘Dulaari-1949’ etc. during the regular weekly screening of movies at our colony recreation club.
I don’t think I have ever watched a movie from the decade of 1931-1940. So, when I noticed this movie ‘Nartaki-1940’ falling under ‘blog ten year challenge’ of today 09.04.2020 I browsed its pending songs, and when I found that a song from the great Pankaj Mallick is pending to be posted, it was enough reason for me to share this song.
A few years back I got to watch a documentary on ‘New Theatres’ on ‘Doordarshan’ and I got to watch it more than once. The great Pankaj Mallick and songs sung by him have special place in my heart so I am more than happy to share this song here today.
HFGK Vol 1 1931-1940 mentioned this song in two versions (i.e. Male version and Female Version by Roop Kumari). The audio/video links of the song available were only for the male version sung by Pankaj Mallick or some mentioned them as Pankaj Mallick and chorus.
As the movie was available online, I decided to watch this movie. For me this is the oldest movie I have watched till date. And, for me, the current ‘situation’ makes it a special occasion and a very ‘special movie’ to watch and to remember as a ‘memory of these days’.
(Imagine what record I have created for me :). I have watched a movie released twenty-eight before I was born and I have watched a movie seventy-nine years after it was released. 🙂 (This movie was passed by the then Bengal Board of Censors on 18.12.1940).
After watching this movie, I can say that there is no female version sung by Roop Kumari for today’s song as mentioned in HFGK. (And I think this needs to be corrected in HFGK).
Coming back to the movies represented ten years back on this day we have the following songs represented on the blog on 09.04.2010 including a song from this movie ‘Nartaki-1940’;
| Song | Movie title-Year | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Dene waala jab bhi detaa … | Funtoosh-1956 | All songs covered (08) |
| Dil mein hamaare kaun samaayaa… | Adhikaar-1954 | All songs covered (08) |
| Beqaraar hai koi | Shama Parwaana-1954 | All songs covered (11) |
| Prem ka naataa chhootaa | Nartaki-1940 | 05 of 08 songs covered |
So far, following songs from “Nartaki-1940” have been covered on the blog;
| Song | Posted On |
|---|---|
| Prem ka naataa chhootaa | 09.04.2010 |
| Madbhari rut jawaan hai | 21.09.2011 |
| Ye kaun aaj aayaa sawere sawere | 15.03.2011 |
| Aankh moond kar dhyaan | 10.06.2011 |
| Teri dayaa se ae daayee | 12.10.2011 |
let us now enjoy this song for today …
(video) (Part-1)
Video (Part II)
Audio (Record version)
Song-Kaun tujhe samjhaaye (Nartaki)(1940) Singer-Pankaj Mullick, Lyrics-AArzoo Lucknow, MD-Pankaj Mullick
Lyrics
——————————-
Video (Part I)
——————————-
kaun tujhe samjhaaye moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye
kaun tujhe samjhaaye moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye
prem parikshaa(?)
ulte seedhe donon baan chalaaye
ae ae
bhed chhipaaye
marey ghut ghut ke
kahe to maaraa jaaye ae
bhed chhipaaye
marey ghut ghut ke
kahe to maaraa jaaye ae
moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye
kaun tujhe samjhaaye moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye
(conversation between the actor & actress, not included)
kaun tujhe samjhaaye moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye
kaun tujhe samjhaaye moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye
prem juaa aur laabh ki aasha
jo hai ye bhi jaaye ae ae ae
prem juaa aur laabh ki aasha
jo hai ye bhi jaaye ae ae ae
man maujan ki ulti Gangaa
jeeta daanv haraaye
moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye ae
(song continues in the background as the actor & actress are shown walking together)
kaun tujhe samjhaaye moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye
apni chaal badalnaa maanjhi
ee ee ee ee
apni chaal badalnaa maanjhi
mauj bhanwar naa sataaye
swarg ghaat ko jaati naiyya
narak pahunch na jaaye ae
swarg ghaat ko jaati naiyya
narak pahunch na jaaye
moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye ae
———————————
Video (Part II)
———————————-
kaun tujhe samjhaaye moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye ae
kaun tujhe samjhaaye moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye ae
prem juaa aur laabh ki aasha aa
jo hai ye bhi jaaye ae ae ae
prem juaa aur laabh ki aasha
jo hai ye bhi jaaye ae
man maujan ki ulti Gangaa
jeeta daanv haraaye
moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye ae
(dialogues, not included)
apni chaal badalnaa maanjhi
ee ee ee ee
apni chaal badalnaa maanjhi
mauj bhanwar naa sataaye ae
swarg ghaat ko jaati naiyya
narak pahunch na jaaye ae ae …
—————————————————-
(chorus) (record version)
—————————————————–
kaun tujhe samjhaaye moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye
kaun tujhe samjhaaye moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye
prem juaa aur laabh ki aasha
jo hai ye bhi jaaye ae ae ae
prem juaa aur laabh ki aasha
jo hai ye bhi jaaye ae ae ae
man maujan ki ulti Gangaa
jeeta daanv haraaye
moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye ae
prem parikshaa (?)
ulte seedhe donon baan chalaaye
ae ae
prem parikshaa(?)
ulte seedhe donon baan chalaaye
ae ae
bhed chhipaaye
marey ghut ghut ke
kahe to maaraa jaaye ae
bhed chhipaaye
marey ghut ghut ke
kahe to maaraa jaaye ae
moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye
apni chaal badalnaa maanjhi
ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee
apni chaal badalnaa maanjhe
mauj(?) bhanwar naa sataaye
swarg ghaat ko jaati naiyya
narak pahunch na jaaye ae
swarg ghaat ko jaati naiyya
narak pahunch na jaaye ae
moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye ae
kaun tujhe samjhaaye moorakh
kaun tujhe samjhaaye
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 : |
4221 | Post No. : | 15423 | Movie Count : |
4250 |
Today’s song is from a C grade stunt film – Diamond Queen-1940. The film was made by Wadia Movietone, who specialised in and thrived on such action films. This was the 10th film of Homi Wadia as a Director.
Homi Wadia (8-1-1908 to 9-1-1996) directed 35 films. His first film as a director was Veer Bharat 1934 and last film was Adventures of Alladin-79. The first film of Fearless Nadia, Hunterwali-35 was directed by him. He later married Nadia, in their later life.
Wadias were always famous for their stunt and action films. Once they got Fearless Nadia as a star, they became monopolist of Stunt films. It is said that Nasir Hussain and Manmohan Desai had only ONE story and they made a dozen films on that one story only. What was astonishing was most of these films became Hits and popular too. No one complained about the stories. Actually, one can safely say that this had started much earlier and the Pioneer in this was Wadia Movietone. Their story department had no work. They made films on just ONE story. The skeleton story was – a cruel king or a cruel Prime Minister, punished by a masked ” Do Gooder” – a friend of the poor and the oppressed janata and lot of daredevil stunts on Horse, Lion, Elephant, Tiger, on moving carriages, with cars and Motor Cycles etc. This was more than enough masala to make a Wadia stunt film of Nadia !
Like good businessmen, Wadias never depended only on Nadia, but kept a back up of stunt actresses in reserve. These were used alternatively to make films. The stock consisted of Radha Rani, Sona Chatterjee, Miss Gulshan, Husn Banu and Noorjehan Sr. to name a few. Likewise in males too they had Jal khambata, jal Merchant, John Cavas, Prakash, Billimoria brothers-Eddie and Dinshaw, Boman Sroff etc to act in their films whenever needed.
Similarly, they had a battery of side actors, villains and comedians, who invariably featured in almost all movies of Wadia. Some of them were Atish Sayani, Minoo Cooper, Sardar Mansoor, Dalpat, Bismilla, Master Chhotu, Manchi Thooti, Master Chhotu, Basheer, Jamshed ji etc. Master Mohammed was an actor, singer and Music Director in many films.
Besides Wadias, there were others like Ramniklal Shah, Nanabhai Bhatt, Harishchandra Rao, Chandra Rao,Imperial and many smaller film makers, who also made stunt films. Thus in totality and in comparative number, there was a sizable group of artistes specialised in action films. By middle of the 40’s, Master Bhagwan entered this Genre, with his Jagriti Films and contributed substantially. Almost all of Bhagwan’s films had only ONE story – a rich seth, a villain extorting money from him, seth employing 2 youths as his bodyguards (Bhagwan and Baburao Pehelwan), who fall in love with seth ji’s daughter and her maid and also destroy the villain.
Coming to today’s movie Diamond Queen-40, it was directed by Homi Wadia. The cast was Nadia, John Cavas, Radha Rani, Sardar Mansoor, Sayani Atish, Minu the Mystique, Boman Shroff, Dalpat etc etc. The 5 songs were written by Munshi Shyam and Music Director was Madhulal Damodar Master.
The name Madhulal Master must be unknown to the newer crop of Music lovers, because he retired from film music in 1952- much before most readers were even born. The story of Madhulal Master is as strange as his death. On the morning of 19th June 1990, The Times of India, Bombay flashed a news…” The old time Music Director and a Director of Indian Institute of Puppetry, shri Madhulal Damodar Master is found murdered in his Shivaji Park home.”
Born on 21-6-1903, Madhulal joined the film industry to become a Comedian, but he was first made a sound recordist assistant, then an assistant MD for two films and finally independent MD for Krishna Tone Film Company for their film, ‘ Navchetan’-32. In the next 21 years he gave music to 34 Hindi films, few Gujarati films and some documentaries, composing 267 Hindi songs. Unable to cope up with the changed pattern of Music and public taste, he retired from this profession after his last film- Jungle ka Jawahir-52. After this he pursued his hobby of Puppet making and soon developed a flourishing business. Internationlly well known, he was the only Indian member honoured by the International Puppetiers’ Organization. Very few people know that it was his JOKER PUPPET which was used by Raj Kapoor in his ambitious film MERA NAAM JOKER-1970.
He was invited as a special guest for the release ceremony for the HFGK-Vol I, on 8-10-1988, after Harmandir ji meticulously made special efforts to locate him in Bombay. He was overwhelmed with this gesture. Madhulal ji showed a Catalogue to Harmandir ji, in which Madhulal ji had recorded information about all songs composed by him with details of the every film that he did in his career. Harmandir ji was wonder struck with his systematic records. In the ceremony, senior artistes like Naushad, Sitara Devi, Rajkumari ji etc all touched his feet with respect. He regaled the audience with his humorous talk for an hour. He had spent 38 years before this in anonymity. It is very sad that his life ended in such a tragic way.
Note:-We are glad that Dr Kiron Master, MD from USA, visited the post on 14 august 2021 and she has informed that “the culprits of the murder were apprehended and brought to justice afteran year”. Dr Kiron is grand daughter of Madhulal Master, MD. Thank you, Kiron Ji.
One of the actors in the cast was Sayani Atish. He was a regular Villain in Wadia films. Sayani Aatish – his real name was Sayani Abdul Hamid Ahmed. He was born in Bombay. He had a ancestral Timber business, but his intense desire to work in films brought him to this profession in 1925. He started working in Silent stunt films as a villain.By the time Talkie films came, he had perfected his style. He joined Wadia Movietone. His first Talkie film was “Laal-E-Yaman”-33. After this he did 18 films.His last film was Mere Sajan-41. He was considered an outstanding villain of films. He was a writer and composer too.
One more actor was Boman Shroff. Boman Shroff was born in Kalyan-Bombay. He joined films in 1922. After doing many silent films, he joined Wadia Movietone. His first Talkie film was “Laal E Yaman-33”. He was known as a Dare Devil stuntman and master of make up.His role was usually of a comedian. His best performance was in Toofani tarzan-37. He worked in 17 films. His last film as an actor was Stunt King-44. Boman Shroff also directed two films- Toofani tirandaz-47 and Sher Dil-54.
The story of film Diamond Queen-40, as I found on Wiki is this….
Diamond Queen is a 1940 Hindi action adventure comedy film. It was directed by Homi Wadia and produced by Wadia Movietone. It starred Fearless Nadia, John Cawas, Radha Rani, Sayani Atish, Sardar Mansur, Dalpat, Kunjru, and Boman Shroff. This film was the seventh in the Diamond thriller series with the first being Veer Bharat in 1934, directed by Homi Wadia under the production of J. B. H. Wadia. It is cited as one of the best films produced by the Wadia brothers. The film’s success saw Homi Wadia becoming a producer by which he was able to obtain raw stock for his films due to the rationing of two films per producer during the Second World War.
The film is set in Diamond Town where Madhurika returns following five years of studies in Bombay. She is the Bambaiwali the townspeople have been waiting to see. She returns to her town wearing western clothes and looking fit and to her father’s query she replies that she’s been working out in the Bombay gymnasiums. The town is reeling under the brutal atrocities of the mustachioed bushy eye-browed villain, Kedarnath (Sayani Atish) who has usurped the Prince’s place while he is away. Kedarnath had been given charge by authorities to weed out corruption but is instead heavily into corruption, taxing people and outrages against women. He also has an enemy in the dacoit Diler as he cheated Diler’s father many years ago. Diler was the sole survivor in his family when Kedarnath burnt his family home. He had been given a dying oath by his father to take revenge against Kedarnath. Madhurika joins up with the dacoit Diler and manages to deliver the town from the evil Kedarnath. She advocates for women’s literacy and independence and uses dialogues like: ‘If the nation is to be freed, the women have to be free first.’
Today’s song is sung by Radha Rani and Sardar Mansoor, with Chorus. Singer Radha Rani is one of the ” Same Name Confusion” actresses, about whom I have written here earlier, so I am not repeating. With this song, film Diamond Queen-1940 makes its Debut here.
Song-Kariye kasrat ka prachaar jai bajrang pukaaro (Diamond Queen)(1940) Singers – Radharani, Sardar Mansoor, Lyricist – Munshi Shyam, MD – Madholal Damodar Master
Chorus
Sardar Mansoor + Chorus
Lyrics
khabardaar
maaro
Kariye kasrat ka prachaar
jai bajrang pukaaro
Kariye kasrat ka prachaar
jai bajrang pukaaro
kasarat hai jeevan ka saar
jai bajrang pukaaro
kasarat hai jeevan ka saar
jai bajrang pukaaro
Kariye kasrat ka prachar
jai bajrang pukaaro
himmat na hargiz haaro
kasarat kar tan man waaro
balwaan bano balwaan bano
balwaan bano ab pyaaron
jai bajrang pukaaro
hoy
jai bajrang pukaaro
ek do teen chaar paanch chhe saat aathh
??
badhho rukho jhuko uthho
Kariye kasrat ka prachaar
jai bajrang pukaaro
kasarat ka shauk badhaao
?? maan padhaao
shakti ka
shakti ka
shakti ka prashn banaao
jai bajrang pukaaro
hoy
jai bajrang pukaaro
ek do teen chaar paanch chhe saat aathh
desh ki shobha jo balidaan
jo nirbal hai wo ??
desh ki shobha jo balidaan
jo nirbal hai wo ??
phir yahaan aa gaye
kya karoon
?? mujhe pahle hi yahaan ghaseet laate hain
geet khatm ho jaane do
phir tumhaari khabar leti hoon main
shukriya
aap to hamesha hi hamaari khabar leti rahti hain
dhanwaan se achche nirdhan
dhanwaan se achche nirdhan
ye jeewan
ye jeewan
ye jeewan safal banaao
jai bajrang pukaaro
hey
jai bajrang pukaaro
kariye kasarat ka prachaar
jai bajrang pukaaro
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