Archive for the ‘Songs of 1940s (1941 to 1950)’ Category
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.
| Blog Day : | 4137 | Post No. : | 15296 |
Today’s song is from the film Maya Bazar-49.
There can not be a single person in India who does not know stories from Ramayan and Mahabharat. Whether the person is educated or uneducated, belonging to any religion or Caste, knows about these Epics. People other than Hindus, may not know much, but every Hindu knows Ramayan and Mahabharat stories.
We have heard and read various stories from these Epics, which were written several thousand years ago. The Mahabharat, which is approximately four times bigger than Ramayana has stories which are full of Adventure, Human qualities and Magic. These stories are more interesting than Ramayana stories, anyday.
The very fact that these Epics are age old, is also the cause of many newer stories getting added to the original ‘ Historical Document ‘ over several generations. Some highly imaginative and enterprising playwright of Yore created a new character in Mahabharat. This was supposed to be the daughter of Balram, the elder brother of Shri Krishna, and got her married to the son of Arjuna, in a very thrilling way. In the original epic, she is non-existent.
This first started in Maharashtra, where stage dramas were very popular. Different drama companies gave the imaginary daughter different names, to prove that their story was authentic. Thus two names- Surekha and Vatsala came into the stories for this fictitious character. Addition of Krishna and a Rakshas- Ghatotkach also added the required humour and magic. These dramas became very popular.
When Silent film era began, the then famous Maharashtra Film company of Kolhapur, belonging to Baburao Painter, made not one, but three silent films on this story. The first film was Vatsala Haran-1919, the second was Surekha-Abhimanyu alias Surekha Haran-1921 and the third film was Maya Bazar alias Vatsala Haran-1923.
The South was not to lag behind. They too staged dramas on this story, but the name of the daughter was changed to Sasirekha, to claim that their story was the original.The famous ” Surabhi Drama Troupe” of south made the play- one of the most crowd pulling popular show. In south a silent film on this story was made as ” Maya Bazar”-1925.
When the Talkie films started in 1931, in the very next year, film ” Maya Bazar”-32 was made by Sagar Movietone. Subsequently, movies on this title were made in 1949, 1958, 1971, and 1984 also. The south made a Talkie film Maya Bazar in 1936 with a title ‘ Sasirekha Parinay’, because Surekha/Vatsala was known as Sasirekha in south. However, one of the best ever films on this story was made by Vijay Vauhini Studios, Madras as ” Maya Bazar” in 1957 in Telugu and Tamil. The Kannada version- as dubbed film- came in 1958. This film was on Top in the list ” 100 greatest films made in India “, by CNN-IBN, for the period of 100 years-1913 to 2013. I have seen this wonderful film and enjoyed it thoroughly.
Our today’s film Maya Bazar-(Vatsala Haran)-49 was made by Manik Studios, Bombay. All songs of this film as well as the story and screenplay was done by Pt. Mukhram Sharma and the music was by Sudhir Phadke. The film was made Bilingual-in Hindi and Marathi. The cast was Durga Khote, Shahu Modak, Baby Shakuntala, Balakram, Kusum Deshpande and Vasant Thengadi ( they were Husband-wife pair in real life), Ganpatrao Bakre (one time a famous, popular and handsome Hero of silent films), Usha Marathe ( she changed her name to Usha Kiran and became famous in Hindi and Marathi films,later on), Master Chhotu etc.etc.
The film was directed by Datta Dharmadhikari. This was his first independent film as a director. Earlier he had joined Raja Nene for directing film Shadi se pehle-47. Datta Dharmadhikari was born on 2-12-1913 at Kolhapur in a lower middle class family. He studied up to Matriculation and started working in various film studios of Kolhapur. He first worked with Baburao pendharkar and then joined Prabhat. He learnt from almost every department of film making, except the Music department. He even acted a small role in film Sant Gyaneshwar -40, a bilingual in Marathi and Hindi. Having worked as an assistant director, he became joint Director with Raja Nene for film ‘Shadi se pehle ‘-47. Simultaneously, he directed some very successful films in Marathi.
He established his own production company “Alhad Chitra “. Alhad ( means joy ) was his son, who worked as a child artiste in all his films- Hindi and Marathi.Datta re-made some of his successful Marathi films in Hindi, like Nanhe Munne-52 ( Chimni Pakhare in Marathi), Mahatma-53 in 3 Languages- Marathi, Hindi and English and Suhagan-54 ( Suwasini in Marathi ).
When he produced film Mahatma-53 in Hindi and Marathi with an English version,he lost heavily and was forced to sell everything he had. Things were so bad that his wife had to cook Tiffins for people to run the house. However Datta came out of this all. He started accepting Directorial work from other producers, both in Marathi and Hindi. His last film was in 1982. Datta Dharmadhikari died on 30-12-1982.
He directed 21 Marathi and 11 Hindi films. His films in Hindi are Shadi se pehle-47, Maya Bazar-49, Nanhe Munne-52, Mahatma-53, Bhagyawan-53, Savdhan-54, Sudarshan Chakra-56, Deep jalta rahe-59, Subhadra Haran-64, Mujhe seene se lagaa lo-69 and last film Daulat ka Nasha-82. He gave break to a pair of Composers- Vasant-Ramchandra ( Vasant Pawar and Ramchandra Wadhavkar ) for 5 of his films in Hindi, but they could not get any work from other banners and their career in Hindi, as a pair, ended with these 5 films only.
The story of film Maya Bazar-49 was….
Subhadra (the sister of Balarama and Krishna) marries a Pandava- Arjuna. Their son Abhimanyu falls in love with Balarama’s daughter, Vatsala. The families consent to their marrying when they reach adulthood. When Abhimanyu and Vatsala have grown up, Krishna introduces them to each other. One day, the Pandavas are invited by Duryodhana, the eldest of the Kauravas to join in a game of dice. Duryodhana’s uncle, Shakuni, manipulates the results of the game, thereby costing the Pandavas their wealth, their liberty and their wife Draupadi. Duryodhana’s brother, Dushasana, attempts to disrobe Draupadi. He is seen by Krishna, who, furious, comes to her rescue.
On hearing what happened to the Pandavas, Balarama decides to teach the Kauravas a lesson and travels to their capital Hastinapuram. Shakuni and Duryodhana approach Balarama with an insincere respectful manner, then seek his approval of a marriage between Vatsala and Duryodhana’s son Lakshmana Kumara. Their true goal is to force Balarama and Krishna to support them if the Pandavas wage war. Unaware of their real intentions, Balarama agrees to the marriage.Because of the ruined financial state of Pandavas, Balarama’s wife, Revati, refuses to honour her commitment to marry Vatsala and Abhimanyu and expresses her support for the alliance with the Kauravas. Krishna, who is aware of Duryodhana and Shakuni’s real intentions, orders his charioteer Daaruka to take Subhadra and Abhimanyu through the forests to Ghatotkacha’s hermitage.
Ghatotkacha, who happens to be Abhimanyu’s brother, at first thinks they are intruders in his forest and attacks them but later apologises for the misunderstanding. When Subhadra explains the change in the marriage arrangements, Ghatotkacha decides to wage war against both the Kauravas and Balarama. At the urging of his mother, Hidimbi, and Subhadra, Ghatotkacha abandons his plans and is advised instead to try some trickery in Dwaraka.
With the knowledge of Krishna and Vatsala’s servant, he carries the sleeping Vatsala in her bed from Dwaraka, and flies to his hermitage. Assuming Vatsala’s form, he returns to Dwaraka and, with the help of his assistants, wreaks havoc on her wedding to Lakshmana Kumara, preventing the marriage from being carried out.
With the help of assistants, Ghatotkacha creates a magical town consisting of an illusory marketplace and palace. He names the town Mayabazar and invites the Kauravas to stay there. Assistants introduce themselves to the Kauravas as servants appointed by Balarama to look after them. They manage to trick Shakuni’s lackeys. Ghatotkacha (in Vatsala’s form) makes Duryodhana’s wife rethink the marriage arrangement and teases Lakshmana Kumara. He plans the wedding of the real Vatsala and Abhimanyu in his hermitage which is attended by Krishna. Using his divine powers, Krishna also attends as a guest for the marriage taking place in the Mayabazar.
On the wedding day, Ghatotkacha appears before Lakshmana Kumara in various tantalising forms while, at the hermitage, Vatsala marries Abhimanyu. When Shakuni discovers what has really happened, he blames Krishna. Satyaki, Arjuna’s disciple, asks Shakuni to speak standing on a magical box. He proceeds to stand on the box, which makes him involuntarily explain the Kauravas’ real intentions behind the marriage proposal. Ghatotkacha then reveals his identity. After humiliating the Kauravas, Ghatotkacha sends them back to Hastinapur. Vatsala’s parents accept her marriage. They thank Ghatotkacha, who credits Krishna as the mastermind behind everything, including Abhimanyu and Vatsala’s marriage. ( just for information…. this Laxman Kumar is killed by Abhimanyu on the 13th day of the Mahabharat war).
Today’s song is a ‘Sales Pitch’ song- one of the earliest in its category. The singer is Sudhir Phadke, whose voice is so fresh. This was the first Hindi film, in which he sang a song. Same year he also sang in film Sant Janabai-49. That way, this is a rare song. Thanks to Sadanand kamath ji, who uploaded this song on my request.
(I also thank book “Silent Cinema” by Dr. R K Varma, baklol.com and The Hindu article of 30-4-2015 on this film, for information used herein.)
Song-Phatey puraane kapde phenko naye naye tum le lo (Maaya Baazaar)(1949) Singer- Sudhir Phadke, Lyrics- Pt Mukhram Sharma, MD- Sudhir Phadke
Lyrics
Ho o
Nagarvasiyon suno
dhyaan de kar suno
aisa swarn awsar phir kabhi haath na aayega
puraana do
naya lo
puraana
do naya lo
phate puraane kapde phenko
phate puraane kapde phenko
naye naye tum le lo
naye naye tum le lo
gaya samay phir haath na aaye
soch rahe kya le lo
soch rahe kya le lo
soch rahe kya le lo
makhmal pahno
resham pahno
mor mukut peetaambar pahno
maile chithhde phenko phenko o
maile chithhde phenko phenko
naye naye tum le lo
naye naye tum le lo
soch rahe kya le lo
aasmaani ?? chunariyaan
indrdhanush ki lagi chunariyaan
lagi chunariyaan
angiya mein hain chaand sitaare
aawo
le lo
le lo
aao le lo le lo
aao le lo le lo
soch rahe kya le lo
saadi le lo
hanse jawaani
hanse jawaani
hanse jawaani
phoohad pahne
bane sayaani
bane sayaani
bane sayaani
dhaani dhaani jaali waali
kaali peeli choli le lo
le lo
le lo le lo
aao le lo le lo
aao le lo le lo
soch rahe kya le lo
toote phoote bartan phenko
nakkaashi ke bartan dekho
toote phoote bartan phenko
nakkaashi ke bartan dekho
daan dharm ki lagin dukaanen
lagin dukaanen
daan dharm ki lagin dukaanen
lagin dukaanen
lagin dukaanen
muft maal hai le lo
muft maal hai le lo
soch rahe kya le lo
maanik moti heere pehno
ratan jadaau gehne pehno
maanik moti heere pehno
ratan jadaau gehne pehno
Laxmi ka bhandar khula hai
Laxmi ka bhandar khula hai
nagarwaasiyon aao le lo
nagarwaasiyon aao le lo
le lo le lo
le lo le lo
le lo le lo
le lo le lo
le lo le lo
le lo le lo
le lo le lo
le lo le lo
le lo le lo
le lo le lo
le lo le lo
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
| Blog Day : | 4129 | Post No. : | 15287 |
Today’s song is from a Musically Iconic film Bazaar-1949.
The film was made by Madhukar Pictures. It was based on a story by K.Amarnath, who also directed this film.The 16 songs of the film were written by Qamal Jalalabadi and the Music Director was Shyam Sundar- one of my favourite composers in Hindi.
1949 was the best year in the Golden Era of HFM. There were so many films offering evergreen, out of this world songs, that the audience did not know which film to see and which song to be heard. The sale of records registered a Record of Sales in 1949. 157 films were made in 1949. Barring the figure of 181 films in 1947 ( we know the reasons), 1949 produced the maximum films from 1931 to 1984 – a period of 50++ years. What’s more, almost every alternate film gave superb songs. Nearly every Music Director of Hindi films was present in 1949, with his film.
This was also a transition period, when older composers were giving way to newer ones. Additionally, the competition between Naushad and C Ramchandra for the Number One position was on its peak. Though CR is my favourite composer, during the period 47 to 49, it was all the way Naushad who was the undisputed Numero Uno as far as quality and number of hit films were concerned. Here is a chart…
| composer | Year | Number of films | Hit films |
|---|---|---|---|
| C Ramchandra | 1947 | 8 | |
| 1948 | 3 | ||
| 1949 | 7 | ||
| Total | 18 | 4 | |
| Naushad | 1947 | 2 | |
| 1948 | 3 | ||
| 1949 | 4 | ||
| Total | 9 | 8 |
In this period Naushad’s strike rate of Hit films was more than double, compared to C Ramchandra percentagewise.
The year 1949 had absolutely heavenly showers of Musical Films. Some of such films were Andaz, Badi Behan, Barsaat, Bazaar, Dulari, Jeet, Apna Desh, Chandni Raat, Chaar Din, Sunehre Din, Shayar, Dillagi, Ek thi ladki, Kaneez, Laadli, Lahore, Mahal, Namoona, Patanga etc etc. The year 1949 also witnessed the introduction of A and U Censor certificates, the establishment of Films Division, the start of Navketan productions of Anand brothers and few other landmarks in Hindi film industry.
The cast of bazaar -49 was Nigar Sultana, Shyam, Gope, Cuckoo, Badri prasad, Yakub etc etc. Shyam was a very handsome actor. However, just like Ashok kumar, he too was first rejected in the screen test by Bombay Talkies. In the case of Ashok kumar, this rejection was overruled by Himanshu Rai- owner of Bombay Talkies and he became a Hero immediately. In case of Shyam, he had to wait for some more time.
Sunder Shyam Chadda (20 February 1920 – 25 April 1951) was born in Sialkot, now in Pakistan on February 20, 1920. Shyam’s grand father was a village Patwari, while his father worked as a store keeper with the Indian medical Service. So the young Shyam had to keep moving with his father in different cantonment towns of Punjab. A graduate from the Punjab University Shyam had a great fascination for films right from early childhood. It was Shyam’s uncle, late Tarachand Chadha, a subedar with the British Army who convinced Shyam’s father to allow Shyam to join the film line. Shyam came to Poona and worked with Prabhat cinema and stayed in lane no-9 Prabhat road in Adhar Bungalow.
In 1941 Shyam was called for a screen test by Bombay Talkies but met with no success. Determined to work in films, he took up the job of assistant director to JK Nanda and appeared in a Punjabi picture from Lahore. Shyam’s first film was Mann ka meet-44. Saigal’s death in 1947 created a void in the film world which was soon filled up by one of the leading heroes of those times, Ashok Kumar. Shyam ruled the world of celluloid from 1948 and 1951, when he was killed in a tragic accident.
With super hits like Dillagi, Patanga, Kaneej, Samadhi, Man Ka Meet and Shabistan under his belt, Shyam had scaled dizzying heights of super stardom in his late 20s. He was a true achiever in every sense of the word.
After Dillagi, in which he stared opposite Suraiya, which was released in 1949, he shot to stardom with the popular song Tu Mera Chand Mai Teri Chandni, a rage in those days.( this song was sung by singer Shyam kumar and not by actor Shyam)
He married a Muslim, Mumtaz Qureshi (nickname “Taji”), with whom he had a daughter, Pakistani TV actress Sahira Kazmi, married to actor Rahat Kazmi, and a son named Shakir (born two months after his death), a psychiatrist based in UK. His wife migrated to Lahore, Pakistan, after his premature death in 1951, along with her elder sister, Zeb Qureshi, who was an actress in Bombay. Mumtaz later married a gentleman, Ansari after Shyam’s death.
He acted with Munawar Sulltana in many films like Kaneez and Majboor. A highly educated person, Shyam wrote an article for Blitz, a leading film magazine of those times on his favourite heroines. He was a close personal friend of Saadat Hasan Manto and was the inspiration of many of his stories. Even after partition, their bond of friendship endured.
He died after a nasty fall from horseback, at the young age of 30 when destiny snuffed the life out of this versatile actor. It was an ill-fated day when he was shooting for Filimistan’s Shabistan directed by Vibhuti Mitra at Ghodbunder road near Borivali when the reins of the horse slipped from Shyam’s hand. He was thrown off the horse and received major injuries on his head and was rushed to the Bombay Hospital where he succumbed to his wounds.
Fans from all over thronged to pay their respects to their loved hero at the Sonapur crematorium at the Bombay Kings road.
Even the BMC (Bombay Municipal Corporation) named the place where Shyam stayed in Chembur as Shyam Park. Though younger than Ashok Kumar , he played roles of the latter’s elder brother. After Ashok Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand , Shyam and Rehman are remembered most for their contribution to the field of Hindi cinema.
Shyam is incidentally survived by Younger brother, Harbans Chadha. Shyam was fond of his daughter Sahera but he did not live long to see his son, who was born a couple of month after his death. His son Shakir, who now lives in Pakistan with his mother Taji, who had migrated there after partition.
Filmography of Shyam’s films as a lead hero:
1948-Majboor,Shikayat,Bazaar,Chandani Raat,
1949- Char Din, Dada, Dillagi, Kaneez, Naach, Patanga, Raat Ki Rani,
1950- Choti Bhabiu, Meena Bazaar, Nirdosh, Samadhi, Sangeeta, Suraj Mukhi, Wafa , Kale Badal,
1951- Shabistan
Shyam acted in 24 films, in all.
There are many versions of how Shyam died during the shooting. However , here is the report from an eye witness, who was present there on that day and this happened before his eyes. The horse Shyam rode, was owned by him.
Jimmy Bharucha, one of the best Horse Trainers in India, had himself been trained in foreign countries. He had opened a Horse Training School in Poona. Yesteryear actor SHYAM was one of his earliest students. For all his films, Shyam used the same horse from Bharucha. Actor Shyam had died while doing a stunt for film Shabistan-51.
Whenever he talked about Shyam, Bharucha got emotional. The truth about Shyam’s death….
That fateful day, Shyam was in a very cheerful mood. He joked with other artists as usual. The film was SHABISTAN. He had to do a stunt scene on a horse. His double was kept ready. However Shyam insisted on doing that dangerous shot himself that day. The scene started and was also completed successfully. There was a round of applauding claps.
Shyam was getting down from the horse and suddenly,the horse started running. Shyam’s foot got stuck in the stirr-up and he was dragged some distance before people ran and stopped the horse. Shyam was unconscious. He was immediately taken to the hospital, but he died-with his make up and costume still on him ! ( from an article by Vasant Bhalekar in book ‘Ruperi Smaran Yatra’ by Prof. Subhash Savarkar and article ‘Anipals’ by Mala Doshi ).
Film Bazaar was released on 4-3-1949 at Excelsior Cinema in Bombay. The Film India magazine of May 1949 had published a review of this film. Once for a change, Baburao Patel had good words about a film and its music. The story of the film, as outlined in this review is this…
An impecunious poet, Parwana (Shyam), runs away from home in company with his pal Jagu (Gope) to join a theatrical company. On the way, they come across a gypsy camp and Jagu succeeds in picking up Koel (Cuckoo), a gypsy dancer, as his sweetheart. Parwana and Jagu soon cross swords with Khanna ( Yakub) of Khanna Theatres, whose main attraction is Bijli ( NIgar Sultana), a beautiful and temperamental dancer. Bijli is attracted by Parwana’s poetry and physique and we soon see Parwana, Jagu and Koel working in Khanna Theatres.
Parwana and Bijli begin to love each other and Khanna doesn’t like the look of things, being himself in love with Bijli. Things soon reach a show-down stage and Bijli walks out of Khanna Theatres arm-in-arm with Parwana and his stooges. The new team tries to start its own theatre business, but the love-stricken Khanna becomes vindictive and with his influence and money hounds them out from place to place till Parwana and Bijli are ruined and heartbroken. In a desperate attempt to save Parwana’s poetic soul, Bijli, sacrificing her love for him, compromises matters with Khanna, who helps to put Parwana on the stage once again. But, Parwana needs more than mere success to feel happy and very soon he returns heartbroken to his parental home, a sadder but wiser man.Now Parwana dedicates himself to national service and we soon come to the climax, in which Khanna, realizing the intensity of Bijli’s love for Parwana, gracefully gives her up and all rush to a public meeting for their individual professions and confessions. Evidently, anyplace seems to be good enough for the Punjabis to vomit their love and a large crowd does not deter Bijli from vomiting her love for Parwana on a public platform. It ends well.
Film Bazaar was remade as ‘Naya Andaz-1956’ starring Kishore kumar and Meena kumari . This film also had excellent music by O P Nayyar. Interestingly, this film also was directed by same K.Amarnath only.
Film Bazaar-49 had 16 songs. 14 are already discussed here. Today’s song is the 15th song.( I am surprised how this song remained uncovered so long. May be my good luck !) . The only song now remains to be covered is ” Nazar se mil jayegi nazar”. HFGK is silent about its singer, but also has a note that this song was removed from the film. This song’s record number is also not given, leading to a guess that, may be this song, having been removed from film, was not made into a record. In that case, today’s song is the last song of this film to be covered. Worth thinking.
Song- Maang raha hai Hindustan Roti Kapda aur Makaan (Baazaar)(1949) Singer- Mohd. Rafi, Lyricist- Qamar Jalalabadi, MD- Shyamsunder
Chorus
Lyrics
watan ki raah mein jo moti lutaaye jaate hain aen
to motiyon se jawaahar banaaye jaate hain aen
tu dekh Dilli mein jaa kar samaadh Baapu ki
ke is pe phool nahin
dil chadhaaye jaate hain
maang raha hai Hindustan
Roti kapda aur makaan
Roti kapda
Roti kapda aur makaan
maang raha hai
millon mein jaao aur dekho
millon mein jaao aur dekho
kya hai Hindustan
dekh ke bangle mein raunaq
dekh ke bangle mein raunaq
mazdoor ka ghar veeraan aan
maang raha hai Hindustan
Roti kapda aur makaan
Roti kapda
Roti kapda aur makaan
maang raha hai
kheton mein jaao aur dekho
kya hai Hindustan
kheton mein jaao aur dekho
kya hai Hindustan
zameendaar ke bhare hain kothe
zameendaar ke bhare hain kothe
bhookhha mare kisaan
maang raha hai Hindustan
Roti kapda aur makaan
Roti kapda
Roti kapda aur makaan
maang raha hai
mehlon mein jaao aur dekho
mehlon mein jaao aur dekho
daawat ka saamaan
neeche raste par soya hai
neeche raste par soya hai
ik bhookha insaan aan
maang raha hai Hindustan
Roti kapda aur makaan
Roti kapda
Roti kapda aur makaan
maang raha hai
Hindustan ko aaj banaa den
aisa Hindustan
sab ko mile roti kapda
sab ko mile makaan
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 : |
4127 | Post No. : | 15283 | Movie Count : |
4206 |
Today’s song is from stunt/action film – Kismatwali-47. The director of the film was Behram Mukadam, who was a Cinematographer with Wadia Movietone. This was the only film he directed. The six songs of the film were written by C M Hunar and music was given by Shyam Babu Pathak.
Shyam Babu Pathak is not a very well known name among Music Directors. He is one of those artistes, who had the talent and a will to do hard work, but Luck did not support him. This resulted in his remaining with unknown banners and B and C grade films. His career spanned from 1938 to 1965 – a period of 27 years in which he composed music for just 29 films and one of his film remained unreleased.
Shyam Babu Pathak was born in 1908 at Gwalior. His music tuition started when he was just 7 years old. He studied in Madhav Sangeet Vidyalaya, under Rajabhaiyya Poonchhwale, Narayan Gupte and Bhatkhande etc. He became an excellent singer and was invited by several Royal houses all over India, for singing. Even V D Paluskar had blessed him. Strangely, though a good singer, he never sang a song in any film.
While touring all over India for Music Mehfils, he learnt many folk songs and tunes. This actually prompted him to join films as a composer. His first film was Royal Commander-1938 – a B grade Costume drama film made by Vishnu Cinetone. In his first film, for just 9 songs, he used as many as 6 different singers. Minimum songs had been his specialty. This was a novelty in the 30s, when the norm was of an average of 12 to 15 songs each film.
V M Vyas of Vishnu Cinetone, was impressed with him and he gave him many films. He got Rani saheba-40, Torpedo-40, Samsheerbaz-40, Malan-42 and Ghar sansar-42. He gave good songs sung by Kalyani, Sardar Akhtar and Kajjan. In Lajwanti-42, his songs were light and comedy type. By now, he had become a confirmed Stunt/action and B/C grade composer. Pyara watan-42,Double face-46 were such films. Double face was Indivar’s first film.
Black Market-47, Namak-47, krishna Sudama-47 and Kismatwali-47 were not much helpful. Takdirwale-48 with Ramprasad, Imtihan-49 and Ret Mahal-49 led him to film Jeet-49 with Anil Biswas. Actually,it seems Anil Biswas took over when Pathak left the film halfway.
After Janmashtami-50 and Achha ji-50, came Preet ka geet-50.Famous poet Harikrishna Premi wrote the songs, which were sung by Mukesh, Geeta and Johra. Next film Hamari Duniya-52 had good Lata songs. Meanwhile his film Parda remained unreleased. In the last phase of his career, came Sapna-52, Vanraj-52, Bombay Central-60 and finally, film Mehbooba-65 closed his career. Shyam Babu Pathak died of heart attack in Bombay on 23-11-1980.
Film Kismatwali-47 was a stunt film featuring Fearless Nadia, John Cavas, Sayani Atish, Khurshid Banu, Sultana, Manchi Toothi, Azim, Habib and many others. In the cast you find a name Sultana. Many readers may not know that, Sultana was the elder sister of actress Zubeida, Heroine of Aalam Ara-1931, India’s first Talkie film. Here is some more information on Sultana.
Sultana, also known as Sultana Razaaq, was one of the earliest film actresses from India and acted both in silent movies and later in talkie movies. She was daughter of India’s first female film director, Fatima Begum. Zubeida (leading actress of India’s first talkie film Alam Ara -1931) was younger sister of Sultana. The youngest sister was Shehzadi-also an actress. Actress Mehtab (Sohrab Modi’s wife), whose real name was Najma, was step sister of these girls. Najma was the daughter of Marium, one of the wives of Nawab of Sachin.
Sultana was among the few girls who entered films at a time when it was not considered an appropriate profession for girls from respectable families, let alone Royalty. Born in the Surat city of Gujarat in western India, Sultana was a stunningly beautiful Muslim princess, the daughter of Nawab Siddi Ibrahim Muhammad Yakut Khan III of Sachin State and Fatima Begum. She had two sisters, Zubeida and Shehzadi, both actresses. However, there is no record of a marriage or a contract having taken place between the Nawab and Fatima Bai or of the Nawab having recognised any of her children as his own, a prerequisite for legal paternity in Muslim family law. Actually, the Nawab had 3 wedded wives and Fatima was an ‘ outside’ arrangement.
Sultana was a popular actress in the silent movie era, usually cast in romantic roles. She started her career as actress in Veer Abhimanyu (1922) film in 1920s and later performed in several silent films. Later, she also acted in talkie movies. Sultana did sexy roles in films and earned a name as “Sultry Sultana”. She acted in 20 Silent films. She continued acting after the Talkie films started and worked in 19 Talkie films. Her last film was ‘ Girdhar Gopal ki Meera’-1949.. She came into limelight when she filed a case against Yassir Hussain Lalji, son of the chief of Bombay Municipality, in 1931, claiming to be his wife and demanding a sum of Rs. 5 lakhs in those days !
When India was partitioned in 1947, she migrated to Pakistan with her husband, a wealthy man named Seth Razaaq. Her daughter, Jamila Razaaq, was also encouraged by her to act in Pakistani films and she produced a film in Pakistan, named Hum Ek hain (1961), written by famous scriptwriter, Fayyaz Hashmi. The film was partly shot in colour, which was rare those days, but it failed miserably and Sultana stopped producing any films afterwards.
Sultana’s daughter, Jamila Razaaq, married the well known Pakistani cricketer Waqar Hasan, who is the brother of filmmaker Iqbal Shehzad. He runs a business under the name National Foods at Karachi.
Stunt films in India began with Silent films itself.They continued with greater force when Talkie films started. Contrary to popular belief, silent films did not lose ground to Talkie films – not at least immediately. In fact, there was a steep rise in the number of Silent films- from 88 in 1926 to 172 in 1932. In the first Talkie year itself the number rose to 207 silent films. They continued to be made till 1934. They did not pass away because there was no demand, but because Theatres were not available, as all theatres got equipped with sound machines.
The stunt films in India entered its Golden Period, with the entry of Fearless Nadia in the mid 30’s and ended with Master Bhagwan in the mid 50’s. The initiator of this Golden Period was Wadia Movietone. In 1935, they created a fantastic character and a fascinating actress with Nadia- Fearless Nadia. Their inspiration came from 1914 Hollywood film ” Perils of Pauline’, in which the Heroine played several stunts.
Here Nadia became a Masked Terror. She was modern, bold,frank and used a whip on evil men. She was portrayed as a figure deeply committed to overthrow the oppressive male dominated order. Her stunts, played cleverly on Trains, Horse carriages and with wild animals were widely applauded. She was truly the First Feminist icon of Hindi Cinema.
Wadias had a set of other actors, who would be seen alternatively in Nadia’s stunt films. Heros like Prakash, D and E Bilimoria brothers, John Cavas, Jal Merchant and Jal Khambata, Sayani, Habib, Azeem and a line up of non Human actors like Horse-Punjab ka beta, Dogs-Tiger and Moti, and a rattled Rolls Royce car-Rolls Royce ki Beti. In some films wild animals were used.
The definition of STUNT, according to Oxford Dictionary is “an action displaying spectacular skill and daring”. This has been made possible by thousands of stuntmen and women all over the world. Achievements of stunts in the films of 20’s to 50’s, in India is more praiseworthy, considering the lack of proper equipment and the infrastructure in olden days here.
Nadia, Baburao Pehalwan, Vasantrao Pehalwan, Shankar Vazre, Prakash, Raja Sandow, Master Bhagwan, Ranjan and many unsung and unknown action Heros did thrilling stunts only with their ingenuity and daring. The stunt professionals were first time used in Mehboob’s ” Aan “-52 for the action scenes. Azimbhai handled the horses and Douglas took care of the fights-including Fencing.
From the mid sixties, Hindi cinema saw rise of the He Man or the Hero doing stunts himself. This process began with Dharmendra, where the Hero dared to bare his chest for the first time in film Phool aur Patthar-66. As the time went by, stuntmen became Fight masters and they became Action Directors in turn. Nowadays, almost every action film has SPL FX assistance. However few Bollywood actors and actresses take pride in doing stunts themselves. According to an article by Hema Sanghvi on bookmyshow.com, the following 10 actors have done dangerous stunts in their films, all by themselves, without taking a double. Like me, you too will be surprised to see names of 5 well known actresses in this list. The names are Akshay kr., Amitabh Bachhan, Hritik Roshan, Shahrukh Khan, Tiger Shroff, Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra, Sonakshi Sinha, Taapsee Pannu and Shradha Kapoor.
In older times, there were special stunt films making production houses, like Wadias, Ranjit, Imperial, Kohinoor, Mohan Pictures etc. There were specialist directors like Nanabhai Bhatt, Aspi Irani, R S Chaudhari etc. There were specific actors too. As far as Music was concerned,it had little importance in stunts and anyone would do as MD. In every town, there used to be specific Theatres for stunt films and almost every town had a set of bonded audience for stunt films. I was a part of that audience in Hyderabad in my teens.
Whenever I write about a Nadia film, I always remember my meeting with her in 1982. If only Mobile phones were prevalent that time, my meeting with her would have been captured for ever. Alas !!!
Today’s song is sung by Salma. I do not know who she was. With this song, film Kismatwali-47 and singer Salma make their Debut on this Blog.
Song- Gaa ae muhabbat gaa aakhri naghma gaa (Kismatwaali)(1947) Singer- Salma, Lyrics- C M Hunar, MD- Shyam Babu Pathak
Lyrics
Gaa ae muhobbat gaa
Gaa ae muhobbat gaa
aakhri naghma gaa
aakhri naghma gaa
Gaa ae muhobbat gaa
Gaa ae muhobbat gaa
kitne dinon ki khushi ki lay par
kitne dinon ki khushi ki lay par
aansoo apne ae
gham ka taraana gaa
aansoo apne ae
gham ka taraana gaa
Gaa ae muhobbat gaa
Gaa ae muhobbat gaa
kaale kaale baadalon ko ?? tera
kaale kaale baadalon ko ?? tera
chamcham chamkat bijliyaan
ko o o
hasrat samajh ke gaa
hasrat samajh ke gaa
Gaa ae muhobbat gaa
Gaa ae muhobbat gaa
subah ?? hawa chali hai
aandhi bankar haay
dil apna ?? deepak ke
dil apna ?? deepak ke
bahaar tu na aa
gaaye
shole jo jigar mein bhadke hai
haaye haaye
shole jo jigar mein bhadke hai
haaye haaye
uljha aa aa
uljha hai ?? hawaa aa
Hans le hans le hans le
Posted on: November 3, 2019
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Today’s song is from film Baraat-42. There was a film in 1960 with the same title and another one in 1954 titled Baraati.
The film was made by Kirti Pictures. The director was Dada aka V M Gunjal. The Lyricist was Gujarat’s famous poet Raskavi Raghunath Bramhabhatt. The music was by Ratanlal and Khemraj ( it was a pseudo name of Khemchand Prakash). The cast of the film was Shobhana Samarth, Harish Manmohan, Kaushalya, Mirza Musharraf, Rampyari, Nayampalli, Vatsala Kumthekar, Putlibai, Prakash, Sankata Prasad etc etc.
From the cast one will find few uncommon names like, Rampyari, Nayapalli, Vatsala Kumthekar, Putlibai and Prakash. The first four artistes were major actors in early era films of the Silent and the Talkie films of the 30s. The decade of 40s was a time when their careers were downhill and coming to an end. The last days of Rampyari and Vatsala Kumthekar were very sad and pathetic. Sankatha Prasad was actually a regular actor at Sagar films, but after the eclipse of Sagar, National and Amar, he became a Free Lancer. His younger brother was Kanhaiyalal Chaturvedi, who had joined film line as a writer and Lyricist, but settled with little fame as comic villain and character roles.
If you take a look at, say, 100 artistes who were active in Silent films and switched over to Talkie films, I feel a major chunk of them had a very bad period at the end of their life. Well known artistes like Rattanbai and Wasti-a one time Hero of successful films, became beggars on the street. Vatsala Kumthekar-a well known singer of repute and a Heroine, roamed the streets of Bombay as a Mad woman and died one day as an unclaimed unknown body ! Same was the case with actor singer Parshuram who became a beggar and died on road in Bandra. There are so many cases like this.
Why did this happen to these people ? Thinking about it, I found that many or rather most of the artistes of early era were from poor families and had joined films to survive. When they got money, they enjoyed life fully, without thinking about future. As such in those days actors did not earn so much as today. Further, there were no investment opportunities like today to secure the future. Film artistes did not enjoy respect in the society, so they enjoyed in wine, dine and women, thus spending what they earned. In few cases, the near and dear ones deserted or cheated them, leaving them penny less. All in all, it was a tough life, no doubt.
The case of Master Nisar, who was at one time the only actor in Bombay to own a car and for whom the Governor of Bombay had to make way due to his fan crowd, is very touching. This one time Prince of acting, having 2 Cars, 2 Bungalows, 4 wives and millions of fans, died a pauper in a slum of Kamathipura in Bombay. His last rites were done by the Actors’ Association.
One of the actresses of the film Baraat-42 was Rampyari. Rampyari hailed from a Telugu family of highly skilled professional dancers and singers. She lived in Nagulchinta area of old Hyderabad city.
She was born in 1908 December, the year Hyderabad witnessed devastating floods. She was taught Urdu and English. Apart from her mother tongue Telugu, she was also proficient in Marathi and Kannada. She was trained in Dancing and singing. In 1918, at the age of 10 years, she was taken to Madras by her aunt, who trained her in Bharat Natyam. After 4 years of rigorous training, she became the best dancer of Madras.
In 1926, a film producer from Kohinoor Film company, Bombay, visiting Madras, saw her dancing and invited her to Bombay. It was the era of Silent movies. Her first film was Gunsundari, with Miss Gauhar and Raja Sandow. It was directed by Chandulal Shah and was released in 1927. Her supporting role as a dancer in the film was lauded by the audience. Next film Vile woman was also successful. She acted in more than 20 Silent films as a Heroine and dancer and established her name as a seasoned actress of the 30s.
With the advent of Talkies, she easily switched over. She had no difficulty in delivering Urdu dialogues. In 1931, she acted in Paak Daman, Laila Majnu and Ghar ki laxmi, Gunsundari in 1934 and Azad Abla, Meethi Nazar and Hamlet in 1935.
Famous director Debki Bose from New Theatres, Calcutta invited her and signed up for ” Sunehra Sansar”-36 and Vidyapati-37, which was a mega hit. She had a big dispute with New Theatres and there was mud slinging through legal letters between her and the company, which called her ‘ a street singer ‘ who was helped by the company. She refuted their charges successfully.
She toured the entire south India and gave dance performances in major cities. She became so famous that the Ceylon Labour Union invited her to Ceylon and presented her with Gold Mementos. She was greatly inspired by the acting of Sulochana aka Ruby Meyers and Miss Gauhar of Ranjit, with whom she acted in many films.
She shifted to Bombay permanently in the 30s. Her family also moved out of Hyderabad and came to Bombay. She had a large fan following in Hyderabad. She had a great fan mail too, which she replied in fluent Urdu and English. Later she got married and retired from films.
She acted in 30 films. Her last film was Dak Bungla-47. She sang 14 songs in 8 films.
The other uncommon name in the cast is that of Nayampalli. S.B. Nayampally (or Nayampalli) was working at the firm of Killick, Nixon and Company when he was discovered by film director P.Y. Altekar at a gym where Nayampally regularly exercised. Altekar felt that Nayampally very much resembled the famous French boxer Georges Carpenter and would be perfect for the stunt films that had become popular at the time. At Altekar’s urging, Nayampally joined Imperial Studios and was quickly cast in his first film, Wedding Night(1929), opposite the popular actress Jilloo.
When he arrived at Imperial to begin his first day of filming he was amused to find that the building now used for the studio had formerly housed the school he’d attended as a child.“Wedding Night was a stunt film of the Robin Hood type,” Nayampally explained in a 1964 interview. “It had a little more of a plot to it than many films of the same class. My next film, Hell’s Paradise (1929), I remember for three reasons. One, it was based on a real-life episode involving an Indian prince and a foreign girl, described as an adventuress. Two, Mama Warerekar, the noted writer, did the story. Three, the film had a kissing scene, probably the first ever in an Indian film.”
Nayampalli was cast in Imperial’s Noorjehan (1931), which was initially to be a silent picture, but because of the success of their film Alam Ara (1931), which was India’s first talkie, the studio decided to make Noorjehan partly with sound. Nayampally was not originally cast in Noorjehan, but a chance meeting with the film’s director, Ezra Mir, got him the role of Prince Salim in the film.Nayampally then played Karna in Imperial’s next sound film, the mythological Draupadi (1931), but the actor considered his best mythological role to be that of the wily Shakuni in Mahatma Vidur (1943), a part that was appreciated by critics and the public, alike.
As sound films came in, silent actors were being discarded in favor of those with stage backgrounds and could not sing, so Nayampalli joined the Grant Anderson Theatrical Company which specialized in Shakespearean plays. After gaining some experience he tried to rejoin films, but without much luck. His previous roles had been leads, so he decided if he wanted to work regularly, maybe he should take a different approach and he offered himself up for character parts.His break came in the role of a hunchback in love with the heroine in Ezra Mir’s Zarina which starred Jal Merchant and Zubeida. The dentures he wore for the role were created specially by a dentist named Jimmy Gheista who had trained abroad with the dentist who had made similar dentures for Lon Chaney.
Nayampally had learned early on how to apply make-up for his roles and, in fact, he became so good at it he eventually came to specialize in horror make-up, which earned him the nickname “The Indian Lon Chaney.” Indeed, Chaney, Erich von Stroheim, Emil Jannings, and John Barrymore were the actors that Nayampally most tried to emulate. Boris Karloff was another of his role models. He was able to put his make-up expertise to good use for the film Sair-e-Paristan (1934), where he was a vampire-like devil, and in Zingaro(1935), in which he played a monster created by a mad scientist, and then as a the hairy “missing link” in Zambo (1937) and its sequel Zambo Ka Beta (1938). For Kalkoot (1935) he created a make-up to resemble the wrinkled effect that Karloff had used in The Mummy(1932).
Nayampally continued working in films throughout the 1940s and 50s, particularly in mythologicals and costume pictures including Raj Nartaki (1941), Nagad Narayan (1943), Vishwas 1943), Taramati(1945), Urvashi (1946), Jhansi-Ki-Rani (1953), Durgesh Nandini (1956), Basant Bahar (1956) and Shiv Parvati (1962) His last credited film appearance was in 1970’s Priya.
After the career in films ended, he started making Documentaries. He made about 35 documentaries. He won ‘ Silver Dolphin’ award for his documentary in the International Film Festival at Teheran in 1970. He died on 7-5-1994, in Mumbai.
The story of the film Baraat-42 was that of a Love pair who get separated and in the end get united, when the Lover Boy brings a Baraat to the Girl’s house. It is also a story of 2 friends who get distanced due to wealth. The story is….Jwala Prasad and Kabirchand are 2 friends staying as neighbours. Jwala has a son Savan and a daughter Lalima. Kabir has 2 daughters- Nayna and Kiran.
Savan and Nayna are betrothed in childhood. By the time they grow up, Jwala Prasad becomes very rich and Kabir remains poor. This creates a distance between the two families and also the marriage of their children is also in jeopardy. The lovers are banned to see each others.
The film is full of emotional scenes and improbable situations. Dada Gunjal’s direction is unable to fill in the gaps in the storyline. The story brings changes in the mindset of Jwala Prasad and finally, he agrees to the marriage.
Today’s song is sung by Suhas and Hashmat. I am not aware who is Suhas, but Hashmat is the real name of actor Prakash, who is in this film. In all probabilities, he is the same person who sang this duet. Hashmat (Prakash) had worked on A.I.R.Delhi as a singer for 2 years, 1938 to 1940, before he came back to Bombay to restart his acting career with Rani Sahiba-1940.
With this song, film Baraat-42 and Suhas and Hashmat make their debut on this Blog.
(Thanks to book ‘ The Lost Treasure ‘ by Kamlakar P. for some information used herein along with my notes.)
Song-Hans le hans le hans le (Baaraat)(1942) Singers – Hashmat, Suhas, Lyrics- Raskavi Raghunath Bramhabhatt, MD – Ratanlal- Khemchand Prakash
Lyrics
Hans le
Hans le
Hans le
Hans le
Hans le
Hans le
hansi se jeevan bhar le ae
Hans le
Hans le
Hans le
tera jaag uthha sansaar
gulshan mein aayi bahaa aar
Hans le
Hans le
Hans le
kali kali upwan mein hansti
haan panchhi hanste lataayen hanstin
panchhi hanste lataayen hanstin
hanste gaate kisaan jaayen
hanste gaate kisaan jaayen
Hans le
Hans le
Hans le
jhaanjhaniyaa jhankaati jaatin
panghat pe purnaar
jhaanjhaniyaa jhankaati jaatin
panghat pe purnaar
tera jaag uthha sansaar
tera jaag uthha sansaar
Hans le
Hans le
Hans le
murli waale
hans khushi se
royen un ko rone do
beh chali nainon ki dhaara
beh chali nainon ki dhaara
man dhoye unko dhone do
tum gaao megh malhaar
tum gaao megh malhaar
waise to mera ujad gaya hai
hara bhara gulzaar
aasha ko mat kar le niraasha
aasha hai sansaa aar
aasha ko mat kar le niraasha
aasha hai sansaar
sun le pyaari
aasha ki jhankaa aar
sun le pyaari
aasha ki jhankaar
tera jaag uthha sansaar
tera jaag uthha sansaar
Hans le
Hans le
Hans le
Hans le
Hans le
Hans le
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws
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Today’s song is from a film Mangalsootra-1947.
In Maharashtra, from the 19th century onwards, theatre dramas became popular. They were the sole source of entertainment for the family. The stage dramas developed to a great extent, till about the 20’s decade of the twentieth century, when they faced their first competition – in the form of Silent films. However those films being silent, they could not compete wholly with dramas, which provided dialogues, living people on stage and above all music in the dramas.
However by 1931, the Talkie films arrived and the drama sensed the potential danger. They became alert. Still, the Talkie films were not invading the smaller towns as much as the bigger cities and so dramas survived for some time. As the time passed by and the film industry started inroads into smaller towns and villages, there was real panic. There was a Bee-line of stage actors, directors, singers and music directors to the Cinema world. It offered them name, fame and money. Not all were successful, but many musicians, writers and actors defected to this industry.
Even the big names in Marathi stage, like Bal Gandharva, Deenanath Mangeshkar, Nanasaheb Phatak, Master Avinash, dramatists like P K Atre, Mama Varerkar, Novelists like N S Phadke and V S Khandekar and musicians like Prof. B R Deodhar and Master krishnarao Fulambrikar etc tried their hand at this medium. One such name was a well known and very Popular Chintaman Rao Kolhatkar, who was an actor, director, producer and a playwright of repute in Marathi stage dramas.
He also tried his hand at acting in films as well as directing in both, Marathi and Hindi languages. He acted in 2 Hindi films, namely Andheri Duniya-1936 and Mangalsootra-1947. He also directed a bilingual in Marathi and Hindi film Krishna Arjun Yudha-1934. Here is his short Bio data from netizen.com –
Chintamanrao Ganesh Kolhatkar (12 March 1891 – 23 November 1959) , was a very prominent actor as well as producer, director and playwright of Marathi theatre. He joined the Maharashtra Natak Mandali in 1911, but after a year left for another troupe named as Shri Bharat Natak Mandali. His career took a major turn when he entered the Kirloskar Natak Mandali in 1914. He helped establish the Balwant Sangit Natak Mandali with Dinanath Mangeshkar in 1918. Chintamanrao Ganesh Kolhatkar’s greatest performances came in R. G. Gadkari-s plays, in Punyaprabhav i.e. Force of Virtue’ in 1916, Rajsanyas i.e. ‘Kingdom Renounced’ in 1922, and especially as the villain Ghanashyam in Bhavbandlmn i.e. ‘Bond of Affection’ in 1919. He tried the movie industry in 1933 when Sangitnatak began to decline and acted in two films, notably as the tyrant Shakara in Vasantsena in 1942. This was based on Sudraka, but failed in this medium and returned to theatre. He joined Gangadharpant Londhe’s Rajaram Sangit Mandali, worked with M. G. Rangnekar’s Natyaniketan, and established his own company, Lalit Kala Kunj. This one gave P. L. Deshpande a break. Kolhatkar was a non-singing actor, who took roles in Hindi and Urdu as well.
The Police Commissioner of Bombay felicitated him for his acting in Punyaprabhav. Jawaharlal Nehru once called him Bahurupi i.e. ‘many-formed’. This was a term applied to one-man folk performances, which Kolhatkar used as the title for his autobiography. He also wrote character sketches of several playwrights titled Majhe Natakkar i.e. ‘My Dramatists’, and a five-act play, Purnavatar i.e. ‘Complete Avatar’ in 1924. This was staged in 1996 by the group Antarnatya in Mumbai.
His son Chittaranjan Kolhatkar was also a very prominent , famous and prolific actor, producer and director of Marathi stage and films.
Chintamanrao was awarded Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1957, given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India’s National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama.
The cast of the film Mangalsootra-47 was Urmila, Anand, Chintaman Kolhatkar, Motibai, Shanta Kunwar, Sheelabai, Mehebano, Dalpat and many others. In the cast, you will find a name Urmila- in some films she is named as Urmila Devi, and Urmila Gupta also. She was not a very good looking actress, but she compensated it with her good acting. Urmila Gupta was born in 1921 at Panja Sahib, Rawalpindi district of United Punjab. Her father, who was a Civil Contractor, died when she was only 5 year old. She did not get much education but could read and write as well as talk fluently, Urdu, Hindi and English.
She started her career with a small uncredited role in film Mirza Sahiban-33. She was the younger sister of Mirza in this film. After some more small roles, she got her major role in film Aasuon ki Duniya-36. After this, she did not look back and did Punjab Lancers-37, Talwar ka Dhani-38, Kahan hai manzil Teri-39, Hurricane special-39, Flying Ranee-39, Desh Bhakt-40, Sasural-41, Sajjan-41, Mere Sajan-41, Naari-42, Das Baje-42, Call of youth-42, Badal -42, Apna Paraya-42, Tamash-42, Kirti-42, Salma-43, Bansari-43 etc etc. Urmila got married to Vinod Talwar, a businessman and stopped working in films, for some time, may be for raising a family. She resumed working in films and acted in another 20 odd films till 1952. She had sung 12 songs. In all, she worked in about 55 films.
I do not know anything about the film Hero Anand. I have seen his name first time in a credit list. The film was made by Golden Pictures, Bombay. It was directed by Dada aka V M Gunjal. Director Vishnupant Mathaji Gunjal or simply Dada Gunjal, was born in Kolhapur in 1904. He was not interested in education, so after passing his Matriculation, he joined the film industry.
Initially he worked in various capacities, but concentrated on Directing the films. He established his own Gunjal Production company at Bombay and directed his first silent film Collegian in 1929. Soon ,realising that producing films was not his cake, he shifted to Directing films for Vishwesh film company, Bombay. Making silent films like Bharati, The Bandit, Vijeta, Bewafa qatil, khabardar, Bhedi khanjar etc.
When Talkie films started, he directed Bhakta ke Bhagwan and Ambarish in 1934. Dada Gunjal directed in all 37 films. Some of his films were, Bhakta dhruv, Panihari,Aparadhi, Ekadashi, Mata, Mamta, Tulsi, Bhakta ke Bhagwan, Noorjehan, Baraat, Kirti, Pati patni, Alakh Niranjan, Mother India -1938 etc.
Dada Gunjal died in 1968.
The film’s Music Director was Ratanlal. He is one of those artistes, about whom hardly any information is available. All that we know about him is what is available in HFGK and books like Dhunon ki Yatra etc. There are only 4 films to his credit. For 2 films- Baraat-42, he gave music with Khemchand Prakash and for film Kismatwala-44 he was with Shanti kumar Desai. Independently he gave music to only Mangalsootra-47 and Parshuram-47.
As per January-1948 issue of magazine Film India, the film was released on 5-12-1947 at Swastik Cinema, Bombay. The review of the film done in this issue, by Baburao Patel is highly critical of every aspect of the film-acting, direction, technical support, story, dialogues etc etc. There is no comment on Music of this film, which means either he was satisfied with it or it was very much below standard to comment even. However, I have listened to some songs of this film and some other films of Ratanlal, I feel he was reasonably good composer. The review only praises the acting by actress Motibai in this film.
The story line of this film, as given in the review is…. Dayal, called popularly Dayal mama (Chintaman Kolhatkar), is a social worker and a Politician in a certain town. He is dragged into a false case and gets jail term of 10 years. After his going to jail, his wife Laxmi (Motibai) and daughter Radha (Urmila) become homeless and helpless. They leave the town and wander.
After 10 years, Dayal comes out of jail and looks for family, but he does not find them. He goes to another city, where, by chance he saves the Zamindar from riding on a Horse, which becomes wild. The Zamindar takes him home, treats him as a friend and appoints him his trusted Manager. Mohan (Anand) is his son, who completes his education. The zamindar dies and Mohan becomes the boss.
Meanwhile Radha grows up as a beautiful and attractive young girl. She and mother move to Mohan’s town, where Radha becomes the village teacher. Radha and Mohan fall in love. But Dayal is against this as Radha’s father is missing.
However, after few reels and may be few Love songs etc, Dayal Mama sees Radha’s mother Laxmi, in the last reel, recognises her. Now, Radha being his own daughter Dayal Mama gives Hari Zandi to Radha- Mohan marriage. All is well. The End. Clap, Clap, Clap.
With such poor and powerless story, what can Vrajendra Gaur, the script and dialogue writer do ? Actually Gaur was a well known and successful writer of many films in 40s and the 50s. He even directed film Kasturi-54. He wrote 59 songs in 13 films. Anyway, all in all, film Mangalsootra-47 was an eminently forgettable film.
With today’s song, this film and Music Director Ratanlal make Debut on the Blog.
Song-Jiya doley Jiya doley Jiya doley re (Mangalsutra)(1947) Singer- Rajkumari, Lyrics- Brijendra Gaud, MD-Ratanlal
Lyrics
Jiya doley
Jiya doley
Jiya doley re ae
Jiya doley
Jiya doley
Jiya doley re
hauley hauley
hauley hauley
khaaye jhakoley
hey hey hey
hauley hauley
khaaye jhakoley
hey hey hey
Jiya doley
Jiya doley
Jiya doley re ae
Jiya doley
Jiya doley
Jiya doley re
neel gagan mein kaale baadal
jhilmil jhilmil ho o
neel gagan mein kaale baadal
jhilmil jhilmil ho
khule chaman mein bhanwra rasiya
kaliyaan choome ho ho o
khule chaman mein bhanwra rasiya
kaliyaan choome ho o
haa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
Jiya doley
Jiya doley
Jiya doley re
Jiya doley
Jiya doley
Jiya doley re ae
hauley hauley
hauley hauley
khaaye jhakoley
hey ae ae
hauley hauley
khaaye jhakoley
hey ae ae
Jiya doley
Jiya doley
Jiya doley re ae
Jiya doley
Jiya doley
Jiya doley re
chanchal lahren magan pawan ke
sang sang bal khaayen
chanchal lahren magan pawan ke
sang sang bal khaayen
jin se meri lagan lagi hai
wo saajan mil jaayen
jin se meri lagan lagi hai
wo saajan mil jaayen
haa aa aa aa aa aa
a aa aa aa
donon mil ke ek nayi duniya basaayen
ho nayi duniya basaayen
Jiya doley
Jiya doley
Jiya doley re
Jiya doley
Jiya doley
Jiya doley re ae
hauley hauley
hauley hauley
khaaye jhakoley
ho ho o
hauley hauley
khaaye jhakoley
hey ae ae
Jiya doley
Jiya doley
Jiya doley re ae
Jiya doley
Jiya doley
Jiya doley re ae ae
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws
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Today’s song is from film Kasauti-41. This was a film made by National Studios, after Sagar Movietone withdrew from it. The film was directed by a protege of Sagar- Ramchandra Thakur. The music was by Ashok Ghosh and the songs were written by Kanhaiyalal Chaturvedi (brother of actor Sankatha Prasad-a regular fixture of Sagar. Later on Kanhaiyalal himself became a famous character actor and a comic villain.) and Neelkanth Tiwari. The cast of the film was, Miss Rose, Prahlad, Veena, Sunalini Devi, Satish, Marutirao Pehelwan, Baby Meena, Ansari and many others.
In the early phase of the cinema, there were very few artistes hailing from respected families or who were educated, but as the time went by, slowly and steadily, educated people also started joining films.Most Marathi actresses from the beginning, like Durga Khote, Leela Chitnis,Nalini Tarkhad,Shanta Apte, Snehprabha Pradhan, Vanmala were graduates. Among men, Mohan Bhavnani, Nanubhai vakil, Surendra, Motilal, Dev Anand, Ashok kumar etc were graduates. Surendra was B.A;LL.B and in initial his degrees were flaunted prominently in film credits and advertisements. By the turn of the 30’s decade, majority of artistes were educated.
Ramchandra Thakur – the director of this film was one such scholarly person who was a Postgraduate and a prolific writer on films in English, Hindi and Gujarati, before joining films. Ramchandra Thakur was born in Suver of Sabarkantha district in Gujarat, on 17-12-1908. He moved to Bombay when he was just 9 year old. He pursued his higher education in Bombay and emerged as a scholar of Pali language. When he gave his M.A. final exam, he wanted to become a teacher in a college, if he got First class. If not, he would join film industry as a director. During his college years he had written many articles on films. He had translated Sound Recordist Minu Katrak’s English works in Hindi and Gujarati.
When he did not get First class, he joined Sagar Movietone, in its Marketing department. After few months, Baburao Patel took over from him and he became an assistant director to Chimanlal Luhar for film Dynamite-38. Next, along with Virendra Desai ( Nalini Jaywant’s first husband), he became a co-director of film The Gramophone Singer-38. His first film, as an independent Director was the Debut film of Snehprabha Pradhan – Civil marriage-40.
Then he joined Ranjit Movietone. He directed mythological, Social and Comedy films. Art Director Kanu Desai’s film Geet Govind was directed by him. Thakur directed 20 films. He also wrote script for the popular film Baiju Bawra-52. He produced 5 films. He directed 2 Gujarati films and wrote stories and screenplays for several Gujarati films.
He was an accomplished writer. He wrote 4 novels – Amrapali, Budhidhan Birbal, Prem Diwani and Urmila. He wrote several satirical commentaries too. He wrote a detailed article on Sagar Movietone and Chimanlal Desai in Gujarati magazine ” Jee”. His last Hindi film as a director was Nawab Sirajuddaula-67, which he had produced also. He died on 31-10-1992.
In the early era of silent films, many Anglo-Indian, European and Jew girls joined the films. They were free in behaviour and not averse to intimate scenes or kissing on the screen, hence film makers also preferred them. However they did not/could not speak Hindi or Urdu, but for silent films, this was not a hindrance. For Talkie films, this became a problem for these girls and their number went down considerably.
Among these actresses,there were mostly Baghdadi Jewish women and the rest were from the Bene Israel community, not the Cochini community. That community was small, did not speak Hindi or Urdu, and lived far from the film making cities of Bombay and Calcutta. A single Baghdadi family contributed greatly to Indian films, by giving us the actress-producer Pramila (Esther Victoria Abraham), her sister the actress Romila (Sophie Abraham), and her cousin the starlet Rose (Rose Musleah). Pramila’s son Haider Ali is an actor, who is best known as the co-writer of the blockbuster film Jodhaa Akbar.
Miss Rose Musleah was the heroine of film Kasauti-41 Sometime back our Sadanand kamath ji has provided the life story of Rose on this Blog, so I am not repeating it. Instead of that, let us know something about a ” Cloak and Dagger” personality from Hindi films. His name is N A Ansari.
Nisar Ahmed Ansari was the son of the late Dr. Ameer Ahmed Ansari. He was born on 29-8-1917 at Jhansi. His father had been serving in Military for 11 years and he expired in 1938. He was well known in Jhansi as he practiced there for 40 years.
Ansari matriculated from Allahabad University in 1933. In 1935, he passed his Inter from Aligadh. By 1939 he was a graduate of the Bombay University. He was keen to join films and in this, Mehboob khan helped him by recommending him for film Aasra-40, made by National Studios. It was directed by Mehboob’s assistant Chimanlal Gandhi.
By watching him, no one can ever visualise that a suave and respectable man like him can be a scheming villain . Competition for him was tough,initially when he joined the film industry ,as there were many character actors already there ,who were specialist of negative roles . But young and energetic Nisar Ahmad Ansari had faith in his potentials .
He believed that it is not necessary that villain should have thick eye brows with roving eyes and have a permanent frown on his face. A person having negative traits may have a smiling face also ,to conceal his evil designs . Therefore in most of his movies , he was a well dressed person ,always beaming and had friendly smile on his face . In his films , he use to be boss of a criminal syndicate and have an army of foot soldiers who carried out dirty work on his behalf . To keep a distance between master and servant , instead of calling them by their name he use to call his cronies by their allotted numbers like Number Ten Or Number Five .
With a hit movie ‘Mangu’, he became a director and later directed many successful movies like Black Cat ,Tower House ,Mr Lamboo ,Zara Bach Ke, Wanted etc for various producers and after he established his own banner Bundel Khand Films ,he made many memorable movies . Although, he had to look after his own company and permanent staff ,but he did not disappoint other film makers ,who wanted to have him in their movies in the role of villain. It is a fact, that it was his Black Cat which helped G P Sippy to be a part of the league of big producer ,but it is also true ,Mr Sippy forgot him later and never acknowledged Mr Ansari’s contribution .
Mr N A Ansari ,was essentially a dedicated film maker and had no false illusions about his own capabilities . His movies were never lavishly made and had average production value ,but it did not deter his fans and sizable majority of film viewers ,who adored him and his pictures to patronise his movies . Those who love the movies of golden age ,fondly remember his movies which used to have him in the role of villain ,beside good music, suspense, comedy, ,dance with a plausible story and a strong message for society ,that “Crime Never Pays”.
With producer/actor Sheikh Mukhtar, Nisar Ahmad Ansari had earlier worked as an actor in Dada, Dara & Ustad Pedro. Sheikh Mukhtar, aware of Ansari’s capability ,in 1954,offered him Mangu, to direct. The big success of Mangu was a game changer for Ansari & O P Nayyar. They both were immensely benefited with the favourable outcome of the movie & it’s music. Mangu had predictable Jodi of Sheikh Mukhtar & Mukri ,with Nigar Sultana ,Sheila Ramani & Ansari himself, as a suave villain. Mangu had breath taking, thrilling climax, involving the speeding train. Some real shots, few stock shots & rest studio shoot with back projections (Aadhi Haqeeqat ,Aadha Fasaana ),made the climax awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, the movie could not be preserved & the the present generation has been deprived of witnessing Ansari’s first effort as director. Mangu is one of the most searched movie at youtube.
He again directed Mr Lambu, a big success, for Sheikh Mukhtar. This time with the classic beauty Suraiyya with music by O P Nayyar, but similar tragedy happened, again. No print of the movie is available. In almost all his films N.A.Ansari played the role of an urbane & sophisticated Don. He always appeared, well dressed in impeccably tailored suits, fedora, trade mark pipe between his teeth & walking stick, in his hand.
Besides Sheikh Mukhtar, he directed movies, like Black Cat, Tower House, Jara Bach Ke, Wanted for other producers and playing the main villain. He had no qualms working in movies directed by other film makers & in this category, movies like Private Secretary, Fareb ,Do Thug ,Khota Paisa, Gunda,Ustad 420,Gunahon Ke Raaste can be named. Under his own banner Bundel khand Films he made Wahan Ke Log,Mulzim,Zindagi Aur Maut,Mr Murder, Jurm Aur Sazaa and Noor E Ilahi. The last one being his last production in 1976 & then he decided to hang his boots.It was a big journey for Ansari,who was discovered by Mehboob & given a role in Aasra ,released in 1941.
He could not say “No” to film maker Sultan Ahmad ,when he insisted him to appear in Dharam Kanta (1982 ) & later in Jai Vikranta. N.A.Ansari closed his eyes for ever on 11 Jan 1993, in Canada, thousands of kilometres away from his beloved city Jhansi ,much before the release of his last movie Jai Vikranta in 1995.
Film Kasauti-41 had 13 songs – effectively only 12, as one song was deleted from the film later, for reason not known to us. The Music Director Ashok Ghosh is the ” Mystery Man” of Hindi cinema. That is because, there is absolutely no information about his life story, available anywhere on internet or in any of the several music related books I have with me. All that we know about him is that he assisted MD Pransukh Nayak, while serving in Sagar and that he started independentl composing with film Manmohan-36, in which Anil Biswas was his assistant. The very next year Anil Biswas took over from him as MD for film Jagirdar-37 and spent a long association with Sagar and National studios.
Ashok Ghosh did only 12 films as an MD – Manmohan-36, Sanskar-40, Radhika-41, Nirdosh-41, Kasauti-41, Garibi-42, Sharafat-43, Inkaar-43, Miss Devi-44, Angoothi-44, Aarti-45 and last film Gunjan-48. After this , there is a total black out of information on Ashok Ghosh. Strange !
According to the November 41 issue of Film India magazine, film Kasauti-41 was released on 11-10-41 at Pathe Cinema in Bombay. In its review of the film, Baburao Patel had hardly anything good about it. He only appreciated the acting of Sunalini Devi, as the mother of the hero. He says that the film was a tear jerker story. Raju (Prahlad) tries to prevent the suicide of a woman, who anyway dies. This is witnessed by the victim’s sister Meena (Veena), who is a vamp. She starts blackmailing him . She, calling herself now as Manjula announces her love for Raju. Raju is slated to marry Madhuri (Miss Rose). After some time, she tries to force Raju for her marriage with him. Raju’s mother comes to know all this. As a true mother she goes to Manjula’s house, gives her poison and kills her. Thus a dutiful mother saves the life of her son.
Today’s song is sung by Marutirao pehelwan. A Pehelwan and a song ? Matter for laughing or serious thinking ?
Marutirao Pehelwan also acted in this movie. He was originally from Kolhapur. In the early era of talkie films, many wrestlers joined film companies. They worked mostly in action films. Some such actors were Baburao Pehelwan (he was the hero of Master Bhagwan’s stunt films; later on worked as a stuntman with fight master Azim Bhai), Vasantrao Pehelwan (he was the one who brought Indurani from Poona to Bombay; was a popular villain in stunt films), Nandram Pehelwan (very popular in silent films but fell on bad days in the talkie era), Sadiq Pehelwan, Maane Pehelwan, Amir Khan Pehelwan etc
Marutirao Pehelwan was different. He was handsome, tall, well built, could act and sing well. He was selected for the hero’s role in first Gujarati talkie film ‘Narsi Mehata’ (1932), made by Sagar Movietone. He acted as hero and other roles in about 40 films and sang 56 songs in 17 films. His first Hindi film was ‘Lanka Dahan’ (1933) and last his film was ‘Apna Ghar’ (1942)
He married his co-star of many films – Tara (sister of Sitara Devi and Alaknanda). They left films and settled in Dhule, Maharashtra. Marutirao started a dairy business there. Famous dancer Gopi Krishna was their son. After Marutirao’s demise Tara had a terrible time. She stayed in Bombay slums and did any extra role in films.
From 1946, there was another comedian actor named Maruti (Marutirao Parab), active in Hindi films. Initially, he too was billed as Marutirao, creating confusion. He was the father of comedienne Guddi Maruti.
So, here is the philosophical song.
( I thank Biren kothari ji for his book ” Sagar movietone” and shri M N Sardana ji for some information about N A Ansari, used in this post)
With this song, “Kasauti”(1941) makes its debut in the blog.
Song-Kho kar bhi sab kuchh izzat na khona (Kasauti)(1941) Singer-Maruti rao Pehelwan, Lyrics- Kanhaiyalal Chaturvedi, MD-Ashok Ghosh
Lyrics
Kho kar bhi sab kuchh a a
izzat na khona aa
zuroori hai ae ae ae ae
jeewan mein ae ae
izzat ka hona
Kho kar bhi sab kuchh
izzat na khona
Kho kar bhi sab kuchh
izzat na khona
zuroori hai
jeewan mein
izzat ka hona
zuroori hai
jeewan mein
izzat ka hona
Kho kar bhi sab kuchh
izzat na khona
Kho kar bhi sab kuchh
izzat na khona
pareeksha ho jis dam
hansna na rona
pareeksha ho jis dam m m
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
pareeksha ho jis dam
hansna na rona
kasauti pe utre jo sachcha
wo sona
kasauti pe utre jo sachcha
wo sona
kasauti pe utre jo sachcha
wo sona
kasauti pe utre jo sachcha
wo sona
Kho kar bhi sab kuchh
izzat na khona
Kho kar bhi sab kuchh
izzat na khona aa
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws
| Blog Day : | 4115 | Post No. : | 15267 |
Today’s song is from an obscure film Yaad-42, the first directorial adventure of actor – director Mazhar khan. He also acted as a Hero in this film, opposite Veena. Others in the film were Satish, Azuri, Indira Devi, Shehzadi, Haadi, Haroon, Ram Avtar, Devraj etc.etc. Lyricist for its 9 songs was Munshi Arzoo Lucknowi and the music was by K.Datta aka Datta Korgaonkar. Two songs of this film are already discussed, first one in 2014 and the second in 2016.
Neither have I seen this film, nor I could get any information on this film on internet or any book. Obviously, it seems to be just one of those films which come and go without leaving its mark on the way. In those days, like any other year, such non-descript films were made in plenty. Only few films were noticeable and discussed by critics in the Media, i.e. in Newspapers, because this was the only media available in those days.
As said in the beginning, Yaad -42 was not only the first directorial venture for Mazhar Khan, but it was also the first Debut Hindi film for its Heroine Veena. How Veena joined films and how she came to Bombay is a very interesting story. In one of the interviews she gave in November 1981, to Urdu film magazine ‘ Shama ‘, she herself has described all this. Let us also read it once again…
Veena was born as Tajwar Sultana, on 4-7-1926, at Quetta in Baluchistan (now in Pakistan). Her father was in Railways, so he was transferred many times and her education was done at various places, including Delhi. After her Matriculation, she was sent to a women’s college, with Hostel, in Amritsar. In those days, her brother Shehzada Iftekhar was an assistant Cameraman at Northern India Studios, Lahore. This studio advertised for a Heroine, for their new Punjabi film ” Gawandi “. (This brother Iftekhar is many times mistaken for actor Iftekhar- who was totally different. The story of love for Suraiya is of this brother and not that actor Iftekhar.)
A Bangali lecturer from Veena’s college had applied. A few days later, a team (including her brother) from Lahore came to interview her, but she was rejected as she did not know Punjabi well enough. Veena was very keen to apply, but her brother warned her about the family resistance. She prodded him to give her photo to the visitors. Seeing her photo, she was called to Lahore for screen Test. All this was without letting the family know.
One Saturday, Veena left for Lahore. Next day she gave the screen test, mouthing dialogues written by Wali Saheb. She was selected and offered the role. One of the producers- Sheth Kishorilal, suggested to change her name for the screen as Veena ( it was his daughter’s name) and she became Veena.
She completed film ‘Gawandi-42’, opposite Hero Shyam, in just one month and in the next one month, she did another film ‘ Ravi Paar-42′, opposite Hero S.D.Narang. All this was without family’s knowledge, but she was aware of the impending storm. She returned to college. News about her film work had already reached the college. She was thrown out of the college and the hostel for this.
When she returned home, as expected there was a great scene. She was scolded and locked in a room. Her family wanted to get her married, which she vehemently opposed. Her family went to the producers and demanded that the films be destroyed. Of course, this was was not accepted. Meanwhile, Veena had received film offers from Mazhar Khan, Mehboob, Bombay Talkies and Rajneet. She left her house with brother and reached Bombay. Mazhar khan paid her Rs.2000 per month with a Bungalow and a Car. She did her first Hindi film ” Yaad “-42. Then came Najma-43 from Mehboob, Rajputani-44 from Ranjit etc etc. She earned One lakh rupees per film.
Veena did about 100 Hindi films in her career, till she retired in 1983. Even after her husband, Al Nasir’s death in 1957, she continued to stay and work in India with her children. Veena died on 14-11-2004. ( adapted from her interview in Shama, November 1981. Thanks to book ” ye un dinon ki baat hai” by Yasir Abbasi).
In Hindi cinema world, some artistes are known for some specialty. They may not be great artistes, but certain aspect of their career is so famous that they are remembered. For example, ” Dattu Theka” of composer Dattaram was and is very famous in film music. He was a small time composer but became famous for this. Similarly another such person was Datta Korgaonkar alias K.Datta as he was popularly known. He was famous for his passion and intense attachment to Nurjehan’s singing. Though he composed her songs in only 2 films, after she left india, Datta almost felt like a paralytic person and virtually lost interest in his music.
K.Datta or Datta Korgaonkar alias Anna saheb, was born in Sawantwadi in Konkan area on 4-6-1908. He grew up learning to sing. His mother was a Bhajan singer. He started singing on stage during Ganesh utsav melas. He was called to Kolhapur in 1937 to give music to a Marathi film, Chandrarao Morey’-38. His first break in Hindi came in 1939 with Mera Haq,followed by Alakh Niranjan-40, Geeta-40 ( in Hindi and Marathi) and Yaad-42.
He first came face to face with Noorjehan in Naadaan-43. He was simply mesmerised with her voice and singing style. He composed 7 songs for Noorjehan. After doing Zameen-43 and Maharathi Karna-44, he again composed 4 songs for Noorjehan in film Badi Maa-45. His songs ‘ Diya jalakar aap bujhaya’ and ‘ aa intezar hai tera’ are evergreen songs of Nurjehan. He also gave a break to Lata and Asha to sing in a chorus with Noorjehan. It is very sad that initially, K.Datta’s name was not mentioned on the 78 RPM records of Badi Maa. Only on the ‘re-issue’ records his name came up.
His other films were Yateem-45,Shaahkaar-47,Rangmahal-48,meri kahani-48,Daaman-51,Gumaasta-51,Rishta-54,Harihar Bhakti-56 and Ajanabi-66. In film Daman-51, he gave the First duet of Lata and Asha. In all K.Datta gave independently music to just 17 films,plus one film Badmash-44,with Khan Mastana. His Marathi films were 12 from 1938 to 1965. After retirement in 1965,he spent his time in Bhakti, Pooja and Asrology. He used to have special Pooja on every Thursday,when Bhajans were sung. Many composers and other film industry people used to be his visitors. Naushad, C.Ramchandra, Madan Mohan, Sajjad Hussain etc were the regular visitors to Annasaheb. He died on 23-12-1978.
He was a Noorjehan believer to the core. To date K Datta remains the only top composer from Maharashtra to whom Noorjehan came first, Lata later. No one regretted Partition more than K Datta. Indeed, his creativity seemed to come to an end once Noorjehan left him high and dry by moving, with a song on her lips, to Pakistan. He once said, “Noor Jehan left for Pakistan and took my creativity with her”. The four Noorjehan numbers, as fashioned by K. Datta, are historically most important. Because it was hearing and absorbing these four nuggets of Noorjehan, while acting with her in `Badi Maa’, that Lata Mangeshkar learnt to shape her vocal technique. If Lata came to sound a Noorjehan replica for so long, the tonal base for this was laid, just imagine, by a robustly tall Maharashtrian from the ghats called K Datta in `Badi Maa’.The last number of Noorjehan fetched him the ultimate tribute from no less a movie stalwart than Mehboob Khan, who said: “Bhai Datta, yeh gaana to aap ne Khuda ke darbar mein baithe hue banaya lag raha hai” (“It sounds as if you created this song sitting in Allah’s abode”). K Datta used to play Ek anokha gham ek anokhi musibat ho gayi on a harmonium presented to him by O.P. Nayyar. How grimly significant that the one music director, O.P. Nayyar, who never in his life commissioned Lata, should have gifted that harmonium to the one Maharashtrian composer who believed only in Noorjehan!
There is one odd name in the cast of this film- Hadi. His full name was Mohammed Hadi. He was also known as Master Hadi, due to his knowledge of Music and singing. In early Talkie films, he gave music to films, singly and with other composers and also sang songs. But mainly, he was an actor from the Silent era. No wonder he was seen in some films of the First year of Talkie films of 1931, like Draupadi, in which he had played the role of Shakuni. he sang 3 songs also. He was seen in other films like Abu hasan-31, and Daulat ka Nasha-31. His acting in saubhagya Sundari-33 and Sulochana -33 was much appreciated. He is estimated to have acted in about 30 films till 1947.
The other interesting name that appears in the cast is of Shehzadi. The original actress Shehzadi was the sister of Alam Ara-31 heroine Zubeida and Sultana. All 3 sisters retired from films in or around 1936.
This Shehzadi was different. She was born in Bombay and was well conversant with Hindi, Marathi, Urdu, Gujarati, Bangla and English. She joined Bombay Talkies and made her debut in film Jhoola-41. She was in the famous Dance-song ” Main to Dilli se dulhan laya re” along with Mumtaz Ali. She worked in films of Chitra productions,Saubhagya Pictures, Star Productions and Asiatic productions. She was Heroine of Gope in film ” Haso Haso aye duniya walon”-47.
Her acting in Saheli-42 and Yaad-42 was much appreciated. She did 26 films from 41 to 47 period. She started her own Ratnakar Productions in 1947 and made film ” Utho Jaago”-47, with actor Ashiq Hussain as a Hero. Soon after Partition, she married Ashiq Hussain and they migrated to Pakistan.
Yet one more name is Indira Devi. She was an Anglo-Indian from Calcutta with original name-Eugenia Peterson. She started with Silent films in 1927 ,like Jaidev, jana,Punarjanma, Kapal Kundala, Ganesh janma, Rajsinha, Waman Avtar etc etc. She got married in 1930 and stopped working in films till 1935, to raise a family. She changed her name to Effie Hippolite, but for films she took name of Indira Devi. She started with film Wamaq Azra-35. She went on to do 21 films till 1947, after which there is no information about her. Probably, she migrated to Britain.
Today’s song is sung by Saraswati Rane. This is the 3rd song from this film to be posted here.
Song-Haay Raama tirchhi najariya ne maara (Yaad)(1942) Singer- Saraswati Rane, Lyrics- Munshi Arzoo Lucknowi, MD- K Datta
Lyrics
Haay Raama
haay raama
haay raama
tirchhi najariya ne
tirchhi najariya ne maara
haay raama
tirchhi najariya ne
tirchhi najariya ne maara
?? joban ??
nainan par
?? maara
aa aa
aa aa
haa aa aa aa
haay raama
tirchhi najariya ne
tirchhi najariya ne maara
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aa
haa aa aa aa aa
haa aa aa aa aa
?? nahin jaani
?? nahin jaani
baali umariya ne maara
aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
haa aa aa aa
haay raama
tirchhi najariya ne
tirchhi najariya ne maara
haa aa aa
haa
haa aa aa
haa
haa aa aa
haa
haay raama
tirchhi najariya ne
tirchhi najariya ne maara
sagri raina mohe tadpat beeti
sooni sajariya ne maara
aa aa
aa aa aa
sooni sajariya ne maara
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
haa aa aa aa
haay raama
tirchhi najariya ne
tirchhi najariya ne maara
Hawa chale saany saany
Posted on: October 19, 2019
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
| Blog Day : | 4110 | Post No. : | 15261 |
Today’s song is a Parody song from film Phoolwari-46. It is sung by Mohantara Talpade. Jayashree T and Meena T were her brother’s daughters, I believe. Mohantara was a major female playback singer in the 40s. Starting with film Mamaji-42,she sang 117 songs in 54 films, till Inaam-55. Though she got married in 1950 to Dr. Ajinkya, she continued with using her maiden name to avoid confusion. Mohantara was a popular Bhavgeet and film singer in Marathi also.
In Hindi films we find a variety of songs. Love songs, Happy songs, Sad songs, Comedy songs, Birthday songs, patriotic songs, Chorus songs, prayers, Lories, Bhajans and many more types.
However there is one type of songs which is a sure hit with all viewers and that is a PARODY SONG(in Hindi it is called VIDAMBAN song – विडंबन ). Normally a Parody song is equated with a medley of old popular song tunes, set to new Lyrics, enacted by someone else.
While this is right to a great extent, the actual definition of a Parody song is ” A song which involves changing or copying well known musical ideas or lyrics or copying a particular style of a composer or an actor or even a general twisted style of Music ”.
Our friend AK ji of Songs of Yore says, “As is commonly known, parody is an exaggerated imitation of a person, song, literature or performance to produce a comic effect. It seems parody has existed from the earliest days of dramatic performance. Wikipedia states that according to Aristotle, Hegemon of Thasos was the inventor of a kind of parody; by slightly altering the wording in well-known poems he transformed the sublime into the ridiculous. In ancient Greek literature, a parodia was a narrative poem imitating the style and prosody of epics “but treating light, satirical or mock-heroic subjects”. The ancient Indian treatise on dramaturgy, Natyashstra by Bharat Muni, is of similar antiquity. Though it mentions Prahasan as one of the ten types of play, from its definition it seems to be a low form of performance – something like burlesque – and not quite parody as we know today.
Where do parody songs in Hindi films fit in the above general description? Parody songs do not have any pretensions of being art. They are not intended to mock the original either. Very simply, these songs are a recognition of the original’s popularity. They include a large number of such songs. Broadly classified Parody songs are in two types: one, parody based on a single song, and the other, a medley of songs. There could be some more subtle variations within these broad categories.” (adapted, with thanks, from his article on Songs of Yore dt.2-3-2018)
The very FIRST Parody song in Hindi films came as early as 1936. It came from a film called ” Sunehara Sansaar”-1936. It was a Parody of a famous patriotic song by Dr. Iqbal-” Saare jahan se achha Hindosta hamara…” The parody song was ‘ Saare jahan se achha saabun bana hamara,hum kishtiyan hai iski…’
The lyricist was Vijay Kumar, B.A. and the Music Director was K C Dey.
When the song was released, instead of becoming popular, it drew people’s ire for distorting a patriotic song. There was criticism and several protests.
Another Music Director Master Mohd. (who was well known for composing many patriotic songs in those days, in his films) decided to make a Parody of K C Dey’s famous song, ‘Jao jao aye mere sadhu…’ from Pooran Bhagat-1933.
He included this parody song in same year in his film ‘ Miss frontier Mail ‘-1936. The lyrics for this song were- gaao gaao aye mere aye mere sadhu…’.
It was sung by Minu,the Mystique in the film.
This Minu was actually Minoo Cooper, a regular singer in Bombay city Parsi circles. He used to sing in many Hotels in those days. He has also sung a few more songs in Hindi films later.
This retaliatory Parody song was well received by the audience and it became popular too.
This song has been posted on this Blog, by our dear SUDHIR ji, on 29th June 2012.,along with a very interesting write up, for which he is known.
So, parody songs entered Hindi films with an interesting History behind them !
I can recall that during our younger days, it was our hobby to twist the popular songs with comic lyrics. Even today I still remember a few of them…
1) Jiya beqarar hai
Nargis ko bukhar hai,
Aja be Dilip kumar
tera intejar hai.
2) Dhoti chhod ke mat jaana
Dhoti saath mein le jaana
kasam tujhe mere Pehelwanki….
3) Bhaiya mere, saambaar mein Idli na dubaana
4) Ek saal pehle,tum to Bekaar the
Gadhe pe sawar the,
aaj bhi ho,aur kal bhi rahoge…
5) De gayi bill, budhiya dukaan ki… etc etc
I am sure many of the readers also must have done this,in their times. These song Parodies added spice to our lives. So when some film had a Parody song, we used to see that film without fail !
Making a Parody song is one of the easiest matters for the Music Directors and many Music Directors have resorted to Parody songs at least once, except probably serious composers.
The cast of the film Phoolwari was Motilal, Khursheed, Dikshit, Tiwari, Himmat Sharma (brother of Kidar Sharma), Leela Shinde, Baby Anwari etc etc. The film was made in Ranjit studios. Ranjit was almost like a factory, churning out films after films continuously. The studio had 6 shooting floors. When a Ranjit film was not shooting, the floor would be given on hire to other producers. When film Phulwari was being made, there were other five films shooting in Ranjit , on other floors. They were Prabhu ka Ghar, Chaand Chakori, Dharati, Rajputani and Seeta Haran. In this list, Khurshid had 2 films, Trilok kapoor was in 2 films and Mumtaz Shanti also had 2 films being shot there at the same time. In other films actors like Jairaj and Surendra were acting. By the way this was Khurshid’s last film at Ranjit Studios.
The film was directed by Chaturbhuj Doshi. Chaturbhuj Doshi (1894–1969) was a Hindi and Gujarati writer-director of Indian cinema. He was one of the top Gujarati screenplay writers, who helped script stories for the Punatar productions. He is stated to be one of the leading figures who launched the Gujarati film industry with work on notable films like Gunsundari (1948) and Nanand Bhojai (1948). He was well known for his family socials and had become a celebrity in his own right. He made a name for himself as a journalist initially and was referred to as the “famous journalist” & publicist by Baburao Patel, editor of Filmindia.
His debut film as a director was Gorakh Aya (1938), produced by Ranjit Movietone, though he joined Ranjit in 1929, as a scriptwriter. In 1938, he directed another film for Ranjit, a social comedy, The Secretary, and both films were box-office successes for Doshi. His forte was socials, regularly adapting stories and novels for films. He worked initially on comedies like Secretary and Musafir (1940), but then “shifted to more significant films”.
Chaturbhuj Anandji Doshi was born in 1894 in Kathiawad, Gujarat, British India. He was educated at the University of Bombay, after graduation he started work as a journalist for a daily, Hindustan (1926), working for editor Indulal Yagnik. His entry into films was working as a scenarist in the silent era for directors like Jayant Desai, Nandlal Jaswantlal & Nanubhai Vakil. He joined Ranjit Movietone in 1929, and wrote stories and screenplay for several of Ranjit films.
Film Gorakh Aya (Gorakh has come) in 1938, was the first film directed by Doshi. It was produced by Ranjit Movietone with screenplay by Gunvantrai Acharya & dialog-ues by P. L. Santoshi. The music, termed “good” was composed by Gyan Dutt. The Secretary (1938), was a “riotous comedy”, starring Madhuri, Trilok Kapoor. Charlie. The music was composed by Gyan Dutt, became a regular in most of the films directed by Doshi. Musafir in 1940 was a comedy costume drama, which had Charlie playing a prince.
Bhakta Surdas, a devotional film directed by Doshi in 1942, is stated to be the “most famous” of the several versions made. It starred K. L. Saigal and Khursheed “the singing idol(s) of millions”, winning “unprecedented popularity” everywhere.
Maheman (1942) starred Madhuri, Ishwarlal, Shamim and Mubarak. Music director Bulo C. Rani had come to Bombay in 1942, and joined Ranjit Studios assisting Khemchand Prakash in music direction.
Doshi helped enormously in the development of the Gujarati cinema. During 1948-49 he directed three successful Gujarati films which “brought immense success to the industry”. The success of the Gujarati film Kariyavar in 1948, directed by Chaturbhuj Doshi from a story by Shaida, called Vanzari Vaav, helped establish the Gujarati film industry along with other films like Vadilo Ne Vanke (1948) by Ram chandra Thakur and Gadono Bel (1950) by Ratibhai Punatar. His next Gujarati film was Jesal Toral (1948) based on folk-lore, which proved a big box-office success. In 1949, Doshi directed another Gujarati film, Vevishal, an adaptation of Meghani’s novel of the same name.
He also wrote stories, and one of his stories Pati Bhakti was used in the Tamil film En Kanawar (1948) produced by Ajit Pictures, which starred the Veena maestro, Sundaram Balachander, who was also the debut director and music composer for the film. In all he directed 24 Hindi films. His last Hindi film was Sanskar-1958. He had also written few songs in film Maya Bazar-32.
Chaturbhuj Doshi died on 21 January 1969 in Bombay, Maharashtra, India. Filmography-1932: Narasinh Mehta (Writer), 1934: Sitamgarh (Writer), 1938: Gorakh Aya, Secretary, 1939: Adhuri Kahani, 1940: Musafir, 1941:Pardesi, Sasural, 1942: Bhakta Surdas, Dhiraj, Mehmaan, 1943: Chhoti Maa, Shankar Parvati (Director, Writer), 1944: Bhartrahari, 1945:Murti, 1946: Phulwari, 1947: Bela, Kaun Hamara, 1948: Jesal Toral, Kariyavar (Director, Writer), Sati Sone, 1949: Bhakta Puran, Vevishal, 1950: Akhand Saubhagya, Kisi Ki Yaad, Ramtaram, 1954: Aurat Teri Yahi Kahani, 1956: Aabroo, Dashera, Dassehra, 1957: Khuda Ka Banda, Shesh Naag, 1958: Sanskar, 1960: Mehndi Rang Lagyo (Writer, Lyricist) (Thanks to Gujarati articles provided by Harish Raghuwanshi ji and Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema).
In the cast, you will find a name Dikshit or Dixit. In the olden films Dixit and Ghory was a comedy pair, which became very famous. Some times they even acted singly in different films. Phoolwari-46 was one such film for Dixit.
Manohar Janardhan Dixit was born on 12-11-1906 at Sinner in Nashik district,Maharashtra (Bombay state at that time.) His comedy career started with silent film ‘Sparkling youth’-1930. His first day of work in a film was 14-11-1929. He did 3 more silent films with Navjivan Films and then joined Ranjit studio. Here he met his mate Nazir Ahmed Ghori,born on 11-8-1901 at Bombay.He was the senior of the two,having started in 1927. He worked till 1931 in silent films of various companies and then joined Ranjit studio in 1931 Here too he did 4 silent films.
He paired with Dixit first time in Char Chakram-1932,directed by Jayant Desai.The film was a terrific hit and the pair did many films together like, Bhutio mahal, Do Badmash, Bhola shikar, Bhool bhulaiya, Vishwamohini, Nadira etc. They worked together till 1947,doing solo films also in between. Unfortunately none of their films have survived and we know about their acting only through Photographs,interviews and articles. However Dixit’s solo films like Pehle Aap-44, Jeevan yatra-46, Aap ki sewa mein-47 and Pugree-47 are still available. In film Pugree,his name was Ramu kaka and the very fat Dixit (222 pounds) carried the world’s smallest dog-Chikoo in the film. Later comedian Omprakash did this role in the remake of the film in Dil Daulat Duniya-1972.
Dixit acted in 66 Talkie films and 8 silent films in 17 years. He died on 29-6-1949 due to a massive heart attack. His partner Ghori migrated to Pakistan and did 8 films there till 1960,without much success. He too died on 9-12-1977 at Karachi. (Thanks to book Ina Mina Dika by Sanjit Narwekar.)
Music was by Hansraj Behl, for this Ranjit movie. I have heard many many parody songs, have seen also many, but this must be the only time when the singer of the original song is also in the same film in which that singer’s song is ‘parody- ed’. Today’s song is a parody of the famous song of Khurshid from film Tansen-43 ” Ghataa ghanghor ghor, Mor machaave shor “. I wish I was able to this film.
Song-Hawaa chale saany saany (Phoolwaari)(1946) Singer- Mohantara Talpade, Lyrics- Pt Indra Chandra, MD- Hansraj Behl
Lyrics
hawa chale saany saany
hawa chale saany saany
kauwa kare kaany kaany
more sajan jaago o
jaago
more sajan jaago o
murga jaaga
murgi jaagi
jaage khel kabootar
murga jaaga
murgi jaagi
jaage khel kabootar
bhadak bhadak kar jaagi bhainsan
jaage saanp chhachhundar
bhadak bhadak kar jaagi bhainsan
jaage saanp chhachhundar
chhodo piya chaarpaayi
chhodo piya chaarpaayi
garma garam chaai laayi
more sajan jaago o
jaago
more sajan jaago o
dhanna dhobi ganga teli
natkhat nanda naai
dhanna dhobi, ganga teli
natkhat nanda naai
chhagan sambholi laaya goli
koot raha halwaai
chhagan sambholi laaya goli
koot raha halwaai
chaukwa khaska de bhaiya
chaukwa khaska de bhaiya
wahaan dekho jaaya(?) sainya
more sajan jaago o
jaago
more sajan jaago o
daal chadhi choolhe per meri
garam masaala laao
daal chadhi choolhe per meri
garam masaala laao
main talti hoon bhajiya bhaaji
tum bacche nahlaao
main talti hoon bhajiya bhaaji
tum bacche nahlaao
raho piya ?? joda
raho piya ?? joda
rahe jaise ?? ghoda
more sajan jaago o
jaago
more sajan jaago o
This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
| Blog Day : | 4107 | Post No. : | 15258 |
“Gunjan” (1948) was a Nalini Production movie. It was directed by V Desai. The movie had Trilok Kapoor, Nalini Jaiwant, David Abraham, Pande, Balraj Sahni, Veena Kumari, Purnima, Narmada Shanker etc in it.
The movie had nine songs in it. hree of these songs have been covered.
Here is the fourth song from “Gunjan” (1948) to appear in the blog. This song is sung by Nalini Jaiwant. S R Saaz is the lyricist. Music is composed by Ashok Ghosh.
Only the audio of the song is available. It is clear that the song was picturised on Nalini Jaiwant herself who was not only the leading lady of the movie but also the producer of the movie. Nalini Jaiwant is considered an occasional singer but she has sung this song like an accomplished singer. This song is arguably the best of all the Nalini Jaiwant songs that she has sung in HFM.
Song-Jal barsaaye nainwa man mein kaisi aag lagi(Gunjan)(1948) Singer-Nalini Jaiwant, Lyrics-S R Saaz, MD-Ashok Ghosh
Lyrics
aa
jal barsaaye nainwa
man mein kaisi aag lagi
man mein kaisi aag lagi
man mein kaisi aag lagi
kyun aa gayi jawaani mujhpar
liye dukhon ka haar aar
gaya kahaan wo bhola bachpan
kit gayen laado pyaar
uljhan mein hai jaan phansi
phir ye kaisi aag lagi
man mein kaisi aag lagi
man mein kaisi aag lagi
aa aa
main samjhi thhi prem kali se
mahak uthhegi kyaari
jaane ekaaek hua kya
kali bani chigaari
hey
ghar ke deepak se ghar jalta hai
dhuaan nikal na paaye
ae
ghut ghut kar marti abla sa
nikle na munh se haay
uljhan mein hai jaan phansi
phir ye kaisi aag lagi
man mein kaisi aag lagi
man mein kaisi aag lagi ee
man mein kaisi aag lagi
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