Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs

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 sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

Today’s song is from the film Dhandora-41. It was a Ranjit film, directed by comedian N M Charlie. The music was by Ranjit’s resident composer Gyan Dutt. The song, penned by D N Madhok, is sung by Charlie himself.

What is the meaning of the word Dhandora ? As per the online dictionary, the simplified meaning is Elaan in Urdu, Proclamation in English. In Hindi it is Doundi and in Marathi it is Dawandi (दवंडी).

To understand this concept, we have to go back in time, when the means of communication were not many. The Public orders,Fatwas, New laws or any new announcement from the King for the public was through a Public Crier ( as he was called), with a big drum hanging from his neck onto his tummy. He would stand on a Public platform, like a Chavdi or in the middle of of a Market or Residential street. He would then start playing his drum loudly. When enough crowd had gathered, he would shout in a loud voice about the Proclamation from the authority. This entire process was called Dhandora or Dhandhora or Dhindhora ( the phrase “Dhindhora peetna” means to proclaim loudly ).

After the advent of modern and better communication means, this system was abandoned. However, in smaller villages and rural areas, its variation continued as a means of advertisements. I remember, during the visits to my Nanihal- which was a small town, in the summer holidays, in the early 40’s, we children used to run after the oxen cart in which the ‘Public crier’ or the person doing the advertisement and distributing hand bills sat. He would start banging his drum and shout the ad matter…mostly about a film.

The Hero of film Dhandora-41, who was also its Director, was Film industry’s First Superstar Comedian. Coming from a very humble family, he rose to be the king of Comedy in Hindi films, for a period of over a decade.

By the 1940s the system of Playback was firmly established. This actually came as a great relief to most composers. Till then they had to tolerate terrible non-singers. Now, except for few singing actors, all others could have playback from expert and professional singers. Despite this, in few cases, some producers insisted that their comedians sang their own songs. That is how, you can see songs by comedian Sunder, comedian Yaqub or comedian Charlie. Thank God other comedians like Master Bhagwan, V.H.Desai or Bhudo Advani did not / could not sing !

1945 was the period when Noor Mohammed Charlie was on peak of his popularity. He not only sang his songs, but he also became Hero in few pictures and stories were amended to give him more scope in the films. In the 1950s and the 1960s, this honour went to comedian Johnny Walker. Thank God, he did not sing songs ( though he spoke in his chirpy voice in some songs). Mohammed Rafi compensated enough for him by having a special style of singing and a special voice for Johnny Walker songs.

These days everyone likes the comedy of Amitabh Bachhan. His many films became Hits due to his comedy work. Today most of the Heroes do the comedy part in the film themselves. But till 1970, there used to be a separate slot for a comedian.

Today’s generation knows comedians like Paresh Raval, Anupam Kher etc. For them older comedians are Johnny Lever, Satish Shah or Rajpal Yadav. before that, they can think of Johnny Walker, Mehmood, Keshto Mukherjee, Asit Sen, Dhumal, Jagdeep, Asrani or Deven Verma. But the art of Comedy had started much earlier, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comedians like Ghori, Dikshit, Fatty Prasad, V H Desai, Bhudo Advani were famous. Amongst all the comedians of that era,there was ONE superstar of Comedy- NOOR MOHAMMED CHARLIE.

Noor Mohd. was born on 7-1-1911 at Ranavava, near Porbandar, Gujarat, in a Memon family (Later, comedian Mukri was also a Memon from Konkan area). Not intersted in studies, he was very fond of seeing films, even by stealing money from house, at times-if need be. He was sent to Bombay and worked as an Umbrella Repairer in a shop. His desire to become an actor was so strong that one day he straightaway went to Imperial Film Company’s owner and asked for a job. In the tradition of those days, he was asked if he could sing… His reply was,” I can sing, act, ride, run, fight, cry, laugh, quarrel, dance, play or swim”. He was hired instantly at a salary of Rs. 40 pm.

From 1925 to 1931 he did 9 silent films. In one of these films he did the acting of Charlie Chaplin. It became so popular that he made this get up his Trademark and developed Toothbrush Moustache ,like Charlie Chaplin. he also added ‘Charlie’ to his name. He did his first talkie film ” Zarina” in 1932 and then there was no looking back.

Initially with Sagar Movietone, he shifted to Ranjit and did 17 films with Ranjit. He became so famous and Popular that films were sold on his name. He was the First superstar amongst the comedians. He started to get special songs shot on him in almost every film-much before Johnny Walker in the 1950s. He sang his own songs. he left Ranjit and was the first actor to became a ‘Free-lance’ breaking the Studio system.

Some of his films and songs were famous over all India. In the film Sanjog, he sang ” Palat,tera dhyan kidhar hai “. This line became so famous that young boys in colleges used this line for calling girls,in those days. In the film Dhindhora, he sang ” ek do teen char panch chhe saat aath nau dus gyara bara,teri nazar ne mujhe mara”. ( Raj Kapoor used ‘Ek do teen aaja mausam hai rangeen’ and later Madhuri Dixit’s “Ek do teen” was very famous.) In the film Taqdeer he sang- “Thank you mention not” and ” I am very very Sorry”. This too became popular.

There was a time when Charlie drew more salary than even Prithwiraj kapoor ! He did about 62 films in all. he was the Hero opposite Swarnalata in Chaand Taara-45, hero opposite Leela Chitnis in Ghazal-45 and hero opposite Chandraprabha (Saraswati devi’s sister) in Dulha-46.

He directed only one film,while in Ranjit-Dhandora-41. Charlie sang 36 songs in 15 films.

After partition he opted for Pakistan. he did 6 Urdu, 2 Sindhi and 1 Punjabi films there but was not popular. He came back to India in 1960, but by then here too the position had changed. He did 3 films here. His last film in India was Ranjit’s last film ” Akeli mat Jaiyo”-63 and then that was the end of his film career and that of Ranjit studios too. Due to Visa problem, he had to leave India. He went to USA to live with his son, who had a dairy farm business. He had 6 sons and 6 daughters. Only 1 son-Latif Charlie became an actor In Pakistan. (He died on 19-7-2011). Charlie came back to Pakistan when his wife expired, but later he himself died in Karachi on 30-6-1983.

If he had not gone to Pakistan, who knows he would have prospered here. Mehmood and Johnny Walker consider him as GURU and have copied his actions in films many times. Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt were also his fans. His film Manorama-44 was remade as Manchala in 1953 with Agha in his role. Thokar-39 was remade as Mai Baap and Taqdeer-43 was remade as Duniya ka Mela, with Mehmood in Charlie’s role.

When he died in Pakistan, no film personality from Pakistan Film industry attended his funeral. He died unsung !

The cast of film Dhandora-41 was Charlie, Husn Bano, Shameem, Dikshit, Ghori, E.Bilimorea, Bhagwan Das, Kesari etc etc.

With a plethora of Comedians in the film, one could easily make out the film’s genre. For the Heroine, Husn Bano, this was something new, because till then, she had been working only in Stunt/action films of Wadia Movietone like, Kala Gulab, Hind Kesari, Desh Deepak, Noor E Yaman etc etc. Husn Bano was the love child of actress Shareefa. Husn Banu was born in Singapore on 8-2-1919. She was very beautiful. She started her career in Calcutta ( just like her mother), by working in New Theatre’s film “Daaku Mansoor-34”. After this film, Shareefa brought her to Bombay and she started getting roles in Wadia films.

When she was selected for Dhandora as a Heroine, this was a new experience for her as she had never worked in a social or a comedy movie. All her experience was for stunt films only.

Husn Bano acted in 53 films and sanf 44 songs in 16 films. She had married Wadia’s director Aspy Irani. Husn Bano worked in films till her last film Akhari Sajda-1977 and then she retired. She had a big house “Shareefa Manzil” in Dadar, Bombay. On 23-11-1986, her husband Aspy Irani left home for work and he simply disappeared. He was never found and was declared as a “Missing Person” by the Police.

The story of film Dhandora-41 was by Charlie himself. He was the Hero and also the Director. Dialogues and most lyrics were by D N Madhok. The story of the film was…..

Two young persons, Pyare (Charlie) and Mansukh(Dikshit) are working as Extras in films. They are actually nobodies, but crave for publicity in some way or the other. Pyare and Mansukh give it a long thought and come up with a crazy idea. It is planned that Mansukh should ‘murder’ Pyare. Then Mansukh will be caught and their names will be flashed on front pages of Newspapers and on Radio news. Thus they will become famous. The murder, of course , has to be only a fake one. Then Pyare would go out of Bombay and appear directly in court, when Mansukh would be convicted.

Everything takes place as planned. Mansukh is arrested. Pyare leaves secretly for Calcutta. In the train Pyare meets Banwari (Bhagwan Das)-a Theatre Manager and his beautiful daughter Kumud (Husn Bano). They continue meeting in Calcutta also and as expected, fall in love. In all this jhamela, Pyare forgets about Mansukh.

One day Pyare comes across a stupid fellow-Uttam ( Charlie’s double role), who looks exactly like him (naturally!). Uttam is the son of Calcutta’s rich person Sir Niranjan (E.Billimoria). For a better period of the film,after Interval, there are many scenes depicting the inevitable and sometimes intentional confusions due to the look-alikes.

In Bombay, Mansukh is dragged to the court and his case starts. There is no Pyare anywhere,as planned. Pyare loses all hope. He is convicted and sentences to death by hanging. Fortunately, when Mansukh is dragged to the Hangman’s rope, Pyare appears and clarifies that he is alive and there was no murder at all. Mansukh is released Baa-ijjat.
The Happy End !

For a long time, the songs of this film were not available anywhere. Luckily Mr. Shalin Bhatt uploaded 4 songs on You Tube, this month only-on 9th March 2018, to be precise. He is one of the few collectors, who upload full and complete songs. May his tribe grow ! There were 9 songs in the film, written by Madhok and Buta Ram Sharma. The music was by Gyan Dutt.

GYAN DUTT (Born 1915/1920 – Died on 3 December 1974) was an early Indian Film Composer and Music Director. He was Music Director for films such as Thokar (1939), Achhut (1940), Bhakta Surdas (1942), Sunehre Din (1949) and Ghayal (1951). Many of his songs were sung by K. L. Saigal. In 1948 he composed seven songs for a young Geeta Roy in the films Chanda Ki Chandani and Hua Savera, although their most notable collaboration was Dilruba (1950) in which Geeta Roy had 10 songs, seven of which were solos for Geeta Roy.

There were a few composers who were neither here nor there. Gyan Dutt was one of them. True, in his time there was no Parallel cinema, but Critics were very much there. Though he operated from 1937 to 1965-almost 30 years, he never became famous as some of his contemporaries like, Anil Biswas, C.Ramchandra, Naushad etc. He was a Bengali born in Bangalore. There are conflicting reports not only about his Birth year (1915 or 1920),but also about Birth place. Some sources say he was born in East Bengal.

As was the practice those days, Gyan Dutt ( real name Jnanan Dutt) was employed by Ranjit studios ( “we have more stars in our studio that there are in the sky”), along with other composers. He composed music for 25 films in Ranjit from 1937 to 1940. Khemchand Prakash, who replaced him in Ranjit did 20 films from 1940 to 1945 and then it was Bulo C Rani who did about 25 films after 1945 onwards. For most films of Gyan Dutt in Ranjit the film directors were Gujaratis like, Jayant Desai, Chaturbhuj Doshi, Chandulal Shah, Manibhai Vyas etc. He was called Pandit Gyan Dutt.

In those days, hero and Heroines used to sing their own songs. Thus his songs were sung by Waheedan bai, Khatoon, Kalyani,Sunita Devi, Ila Devi, Madhuri, Sitara, Indubala, Vasanti, Savita Devi, Miss Rose, Meera, Gauhar, Snehprabha Pradhan etc.Among males it was Ishwarlal, Kantilal, Ghori, Bilimoria, Charlie etc.

Gyan Dutt gave music to 58 films, but songs from only Saigal’s Bhakta Surdas-42 and Raj kapoor’s Sunehre Din 49 are well known. Actually songs of Aapki Marzi-39 and Sant Tulsidas-39 were also popular in those days. Khursheed sang many songs for him. He also sang a few songs himself. His last film was janam janam ke Saathi-1965.

Gyan Datt remained employed with Ranjit Movietone and gave music is many films including Toofani Toli(1937), Bazigar (1938), Gorakh Maya (1938), Nadi kinare (39), Musafir (1940). In Toofani Toli he made Wahidan bai (Mother of Nimmi) sing “Kyon Naianan mein neer bahaye”. Many singers like Kantilal, Kalyani, Rajkumari, Khursheed and Manna Dey sang his songs. His last film was Janam janam ke saathi (1965) in which duet was sung by Mukesh & Suman Kalyanpur, Hemant Kumar &Indrani Roy.The most notable among his compositions being Sunehre Din (1949) and the song – Maine Dekhi Jag Ki Reet Meet Sab Jhoote Pad Gaye sung by Mukesh and Shamshad Begum.

His death came on 3-12-1974 in Bombay. Unfortunately except for a small time less known composer Sapan Chakravarty,no one from the film industry attended his funeral and a good composer died unsung, unknown and all alone.

Here is a song which is a precursor to many subsequent songs of Hindi films. It starts counting straight up to Twelve… a typical comedy song. Enjoy…..

Song-Ek Do Teen Chaar paanch chhe saat aathh (Dhandhora)(1941) Singer-Noor Md Charlie, Lyrics-D N Madhok, MD-Gyan Dutt

Lyrics

Ek Do Teen Chaar
paanch chhe saath aathh
nau das gyaarah baarah

Ek Do Teen Chaar
paanch chhe saath aathh
nau das gyaarah baarah
teri nazar ne
mujhe maara
teri nazar ne
mujhe maara
teri nazar ne
mujhe maara
baarah gyarah das nau
aath saat chhe paanchh
chaar teen do ek
meri taraf zara dekh
meri taraf zara dekh
meri taraf zara dekh
baarah gyarah das nau
aath saat chhe paanchh
chaar teen do ek
meri taraf zara dekh
meri taraf zara dekh
meri taraf zara dekh
Ek Do Teen Chaar
paanch chhe saath aathh
nau das gyaarah baarah
teri nazar ne mujhe maara
teri nazar ne mujhe maara
teri nazar ne mujhe maara

ek ek hain do
ek ek hain do
murge ?? dil mat ro
do do hain chaar
do do hain chaar
mujhe tera intezaar
do do hain chaar
mujhe tera intezaar
Ek Do Teen Chaar
paanch chhe saath aathh
nau das gyaarah baarah
teri nazar ne mujhe maara
teri nazar ne mujhe maara
teri nazar ne mujhe maara

chaar aur do chhe
chaar aur do chhe
jee bhar ke deedaar le
chaar aur do chhe
jee bhar ke deedaar le
jee bhar ke deedaar le
Ek Do Teen Chaar
paanch chhe saath aathh
nau das gyaarah baarah

dus aur dus bees
aur dus tees
aur dus pachaas
ae dus chaalees
aur dus pachaas
aur dus saath
aur dus sattarrr

chaudhvin ke chaand se mera yaar nahin kamtar
chaudhvin ke chaand se mera yaar nahin kamtar
andheriya hai raat
sajan aao mere ghar
andheriya hai raat
sajan aao mere ghar
andheriya hai raat
sajan aaibo ke jaibo
andheriya hai raat
sajan aiyo ke jaiyo
andheriya hai raat
sajan aibo ke jaibo

assi aur bees sau
chup kyon ho
kuchh kaho
assi aur bees sau
chup kyon ho
kuchh kaho
chup kyon ho
kuchh kaho
chup kyon ho
kuchh kaho

Ek Do Teen Chaar
paanch chhe saath aathh
nau das gyaarah baarah
baarah gyarah das nau
aath saat chhe paanchh
chaar teen do ek
meri taraf zara dekh
meri taraf zara dekh
meri taraf zara dekh