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 : | 4182 | Post No. : | 15361 |
Today’s song is from film Ranee-43. The film was made by Barua Productions, floated by producer, director, actor and singer, P C Barua, before he had joined New Theatres. He joined NT on the invitation of B N Sircar, though he had his own production outfit and studio. In fact, he wanted a merger of his company with NT, but Sircar declined and offered Barua a paid job at NT, on monthly basis.
While in NT, Barua gave hit films, one after another like, Rooplekha-34, Devdas-35, Maya-36, Manzil-36, Mukti-37, Adhikar-38 and Zindagi-40. During the making of film Zindagi, differences between him and Sircar thickened. The reason was Barua felt, he was not given as many films to make as Nitin Bose and Harischandra Chunder got. Ego of both the giants persisted and culminated in their separation.
In the History of Hindi Cinema,till the Golden 50s started,Bengal had a dominating position in films and music. Its meaningful,entertaining films and the Film and the Non Film music ruled the roost, from the early 30s. In this conquest of the East,the Lion’s share was that of NEW THEATRES-set up and owned by B N Sircar. New Theatres was not just a production company,but it was an Institution and a school for developing artistes in the 30s and the 40s.
Out of these 20 years,I would say the first almost 10 years was the Peak Golden Period for NT. 1940, being one of the best years for NT, also was the beginning of its end, with the First major shock, when P C or Pramathesh Barua left NT because of differences with B N Sircar. In the period of 1940 to 1950, one by one many people left NT. Most went to Bombay, in search of greener pastures.
There were 3 reasons. One, during the period 1946 and 1947, production at NT was almost Nil ( 1946-due to communal riots in Bengal and 1947- due to Partition blues), but NT had to pay salaries of their employees. In peak years, their salary bill alone amounted to about 45000 rupees every month. Secondly, one of their main markets for Bangla and Hindi films-East Bengal, had become another country-East Pakistan and they lost this market. Thirdly, the New Government imposed a heavy ‘Excess profit ‘Tax ‘ on successful companies like NT. This damaged them financially very much. Added to this,of course, B N Sircar failed to hold people together due to Ego problems, recognitions etc etc.
By 1950,according to Dilip Sircar-son of B N Sircar,” many people left, Finance was in disarray and we had many court cases slapped on us.” The result- B N Sircar closed the shop ! In 1954,NT was handed over to Arora Film company. Then in 1955, Deluxe Films took them over. In January-56, the company closed down officially and in August 56,a Receiver was appointed by the High Court. New Theatres went into Liquidation in March-62 and a Glorious Chapter came to a close for ever !
Even in the tumultuous and troubled final years,few Loyal artistes did not leave NT. Pankaj Mullick was one of them,who stayed with B N Sircar till the last,despite differences with him.Many others like Kidar Sharma, Kanan Devi, Uma Shashi, PC Barua, Nitin Bose, Debk Bose,Phani Muzumdar, Nabendu Ghosh, Bimal Roy, K N Singh, Prithviraj Kapoor, Kumar etc and above all, K L Saigal- the pride possession of NT, left, at different times. Most came down to Bombay.
But, you will notice that actors from this lot who came from Calcutta to Bombay, were all Non-Bangla people. From the very beginning, actors from Bengal or South, rarely came to make their acting careers. Those who came at all, majority of them were actresses, who were ready to learn Hindi to continue here or they had Non-Bangla backgrounds. For example- actress Smriti Biswas, though a Bengalee, grew up and started acting in Lahore.
There were 3 reasons why actors did not come to Bombay from Bengal or South…
1.Difficulty and reluctance in picking up Hindi language and coping up with Bombay culture.
2. King size Regional Pride and
3. Their own areas became big production centres and scope was available on familiar grounds.
Artistes from other disciplines like Direction, Music, Singing, Editing, Cinematography etc came here and prospered, but not actors, worth mentioning.
Film Ranee-43 was made as a Bilingual film in Bangla ( Chandaar Kalank) and Hindi. The MD was Kamal Dasgupta, Lyricist was Pt. Madhur and the cast was Jahar Ganguly, Kalavati, P C Barua, Jamuna, Patience Cooper, Vikram Kapoor (father of Meena Kapoor-singer and wife of Anil Biswas) and others. When I first heard this name “Jahar”, I was shocked, but then realised that this was a Bangla name. Obviously, its meaning must be something else,other than ” Poison”. I started searching on Google and at one place found that Jahar in Bangla means ” Gift of God “. My Bangali friend in Mumbai says it means ” Gem “.
Jahar Ganguly (October 1904 – 1969) was a Bengali film actor and theater personality. He received Best actor award in 6th Annual Bengal Film Journalists’ Association Awards in 1943 for his performance in Bandi.
Ganguly was born in undivided 24 Parganas Dist, British India. He worked in number of Bengali and Hindi films in 40s and 50s as a supporting actor in comedy counterparts to the dramatic lead. He got break through in Dena Paona directed by Premankur Atorthy. Ganguly acted under Satyajit Ray’s direction in Parash Pathar and Chiriyakhana. He also performed as stage actor until the 1960.
Information on actress Patience Cooper has not yet been given on our Blog. She was one of the 7 sisters, out of whom 3 sisters-Patience, Violet and Pearl worked in Hindi and Bangla films. Patience Cooper (1905–1993) was an Anglo-Indian from Calcutta. Cooper had a successful career in both silent and sound films. She was one of the early superstars of Bollywood. Cooper is credited with the first Female double roles of Indian cinema—as twin sisters in Patni Pratap and as mother and daughter in Kashmiri Sundari, even though earlier in 1917, actor Anna Salunke had played roles of both the male lead character Ram and the female lead character Seeta in the film Lanka Dahan.
Cooper began her career as a dancer in Brandmann’s Musical Comedy, a Eurasian troupe. She later joined Jamshedji Framji Madan’s Corinithian Stage Company as an actress. Cooper first made an impact with Nala Damayanti (1920). The film starred Keki Adajania as Nala and Cooper as Damayanti. The film was a big budget Madan Theatre production and was directed by Eugenio de Liguoro, known in Italy for his Orientalist spectacles like Fascino d’Oro (1919). Nala Damayanti was famous for its special effects at the time — Narada’s ascent of Mount Meru to heaven, the transformations of four gods into impersonations of Nala, the transformation of Kali into a serpent among others.
Her next film was Vishnu Avtar, released in 1921. De Liguoro also directed Dhruva Chartitra (1921), a mythological based on the legend of Dhruva whose quest for eternal knowledge and salvation was rewarded when he became the brightest star in the heavens, the pole star also known as Dhruvatara. The film was made as a bid for an international breakthrough for Madan Theatres and featured many Europeans in the cast along with Cooper who played the female lead, Suniti.
One of Cooper’s biggest successes was Pati Bhakti (1922). Cooper played Leelavati in the film, directed by the great JJ Madan himself, advocating that women should be devoted to their husband. The film is regarded as her greatest film and was also involved in a small controversy as in Madras, the censor demanded that a dance number be removed on the grounds of obscenity.
Cooper also played perhaps the first ever double roles in Hindi films — Patni Pratap (1923), where she played two sisters and Kashmiri Sundari (1924), where she played mother and daughter.
Cooper did films right through to the mid-1930s. One of her last major films was Zehari Saap (1933). The film was a typical Cooper vehicle about a medieval chieftain’s revolt against the good Nawab Bakar Malik. The nawab’s outlaw son vows revenge and finally all’s well that ends well. The dramatic conflict in the film sees the chieftain wanting to marry the princess, whom he had raised as his own daughter.
Cooper acted in over 40 films until she retired after performing in her last films, Iraada-44 and Khan Bahadur-46. Cooper was often cast in the role of a sexually troubled but innocent woman, always at the centre of moral dilemmas, often caused by the men in her lives.
A major aspect of Cooper’s star image was the successful achievement of the ‘Hollywood look’ in spite of different light and technical conditions. Her distinctively Anglo-Indian features, like dark eyes, sharp features, ebony hair and light skin tone, allowed technicians to experiment with the imported technique of eye-level lighting and achieve an appearance similar to Hollywood stars of the silent era.
The low number of women, especially Hindus, in the film industry during the 1920s (due to conservative attitudes) meant Anglo-Indian actresses like Cooper, were in demand. Her appearance in a string of successful films has led her to being called the first ever female Indian film star.
It is generally supposed Cooper married Mirza Ahmad Ispahani Saheb (MAH Ispahani), a well-known Indian businessman. In 1947, they migrated to Pakistan. Actually she was married to MAH Ispahani at the age of 21 and divorced soon after. She then married Gul Hamid Khan, one of the first early silent movie actors. He died six years later from Hodgkin’s Disease. She remained friends with MAH Ispahani till the end of her life. Cooper changed her name to Sabra Begum and lived the last of her days with her two adopted daughters Zeenat and Haleema in Karachi, Pakistan. Her foster daughter Syeda Nafees Rizvi lives in Houston, Texas, USA. She fostered and/or adopted 17 children during her lifetime. Cooper died in 1993. (adapted from wiki and upperstall, with thanks.)
After Partition in 1947, it did not take long for things to become normal in the Indian film industry. This was mainly because ready replacements were available in plenty to fill the vacancies caused by migration. As far as producers and financiers were concerned, almost all producers and film makers had arrived here from Lahore. It was actually Lahore which felt the absence of Film makers. Pakistan film Industry was somehow managed well by the experienced people who went from India and Pakistan enjoyed a ” GOLDEN AGE OF FILMS AND MUSIC ” from 1959 to 1977. Once the old generation retired, there was no second line to take over from them.
The film industry in Pakistan was never an organised one. Moreover the often changing Goverments did not bother to do anything to protect, sustain, help or develop the infrastructure of Film industry. Unlike India, there was neither a Films Division, nor was there anything like Film and Television Institute to build local artistes in different fields.
By 2010,the film industry in Pakistan was in such a poor shape that, against India’s film production of 13526 films in 2011, Pakistan had produced only 7 films in that year !
While Indian films were distributed in over 90 countries, there was no International market for Pakistan films.
All studios in Pakistan were in ruins and Theatres had been demolished.
Can you believe, In the entire Islamabad city, there is ONLY ONE Theatre-a multiplex of 4 screens ! (info from-Filmistan-Javed Shaikh 0n pk.politics.in dated 10-4-2014 )
We have heard songs composed by the Music Directors who migrated to Pakistan,i.e. West Pakistan. Today we will listen to a film song composed by a famous and talented composer of Hindi/Bangla films, who migrated to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). His name is KAMAL PRASANNA DASGUPTA or simply, Kamal Dasgupta ( 28-7-1912 to 20-7-1974.)
It is a moot point whether Kamal should be called a Film composer or a NFS composer in Hindi and Bangla. He can be called the Originator or the Pioneer, who established NFS during the period from 1935 to 1955. It was he who introduced the word ” Hindustani Song” for NFS on the 78 RPM records.
He gave music in 16 Hindi films like Jawab, Hospital, Rani, Meghdoot, Arabian Nights, Bindiya, Krishna Leela, Pehchan, Zameen Aasmaan, Faisla, Giribala, Manmaani, Chandrashekhar, Vijay yatra, Iran ki ek raat and Fulwari. However, except for Jawab and Hospital his songs did not become very popular. Kanan Devi became a National name after she sang “Ye duniya Toofan mail” in Jawab-42. He also gave music in 22 Bangla films.
He was not in good terms with his wife, Firoza Begum. In his final days, he contracted T.B. Finally he said Good-Bye to this world on 20-7-1974. The originator and populariser of NFS in India and a maker of memorable songs like “Toofan mail” left us forever-unsung !
Today’s song is the second song from this film. The story of this film was provided earlier by Sadanand Kamath ji, with the first song, so I am not repeating it here. The duet is sung by Anima Dasgupta (nee Sengupta…wife of Subal Dasgupta, MD) and an unidentified male. I liked this song .I hope you too will like it.
Song-Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali (Raanee)(1943) Singers- Kamal Dasgupta, Anima Dasgupta, Lyricist- Pt. Madhur, MD- Kamal Dasgupta
Lyrics
Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali
Sawan ne boondan ki jhalar daali
boondan ki jhaalar daali re ae
boondan ki jhaalar daali
Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali
daali ee
boondan ki jhaalar daali
jhaank jhaank kar dil ki duniya
dekh raha hoon aaj
armaanon ke sar pe rakkha hai khushiyon ka taaj
chhupi huyi hai iske andar
chhupi huyi hai iske andar
jeewan ki hariyaali ee
Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali
<em.Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali
arre papaiyya
zara bataa aa
kyun piyoo piyoo raha pukaar
kyun piyoo piyoo raha pukaar
gulshan mein kyun aayi
kyun aayi hai
saj dhaj kar nayi bahaar
sada ye saawan ki kyun aaye
man ko harne waali
Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali
ye jhaalar nahin hai
ye maikhaana
jiski boonden hain masti ka paimaana
pee pee kar dekho jhoom rahi hai
pee pee kar dekho jhoom rahi hai
aur ghata ye kaali kaali ee ee
Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali
Saawan ne boondan ki jhaalar daali
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Today’s song is from a Non-Descript film-Mazaq-43. I call it a Non Descript film because no information is available on this film anywhere. As the film was released on 31-12-1943, its review was expected in the 1944 January or February issue, but as 1944 issues of Film India are not available in Internet Archive, it is not possible to know about this film. I did not see any film advertisement of Mazaq in any issue of 1943. Either I missed it or it was not there. The gist is, we do not know anything about who wrote the film story or what was the story, how it was received by the public etc.
The film was made by Raja Movietone, which was established by Zahoor Raja, after he directed film Badal-1942, made by Eastern Pictures, Bombay. Film Mazaq-43 was the maiden venture of Raja Movietone. It went on to make 3 more films. All four films were directed by Zahoor Raja and he acted in every film also. Only in film Mazaq-43, he tried his hand at composing songs, as Music Director. Thankfully, he never tried it again. Actress Radha Rani (Bombywali) also acted in all films with him.
The cast of the film was Madhuri, Pahadi Sanyal, Radha Rani (B), Zahoor Raja, Shyam kumar,Haroon and others. As far as Madhuri was concerned, she got married in 1941 and was in the process of ending her acting career. After this film, she completed few more films on hand and retired from film. In this film, the lead pair was Madhuri and Pahadi Sanyal. Zahoor Raja had done a negative role in the film.
ZAHOOR RAJA (Born 7 July 1918 Abbottabad (now in Pakistan)– Died 1992 England) Pre Partition Hindi/Urdu Film Actor, Producer, Director, Editor, Writer, Singer, Lyricist & Music Composer. He graduated from editing and story writing to become a producer-director in 1943.
Zahoor Raja was born in a wealthy family in Abbottabad. After schooling , he studied BA from Rawalpindi but could not complete his graduation as he was more interested in sports than in studies. His father, a Police Inspector, was keen in admitting him in Dehradun for a career in the army. But he ran away from home and landed in Bombay with a letter of introduction to Film maker A R Kardar. Since he was very handsome and well built man, getting into the Bombay film industry was not difficult. At that time, Kardar was directing ‘Mirza Sahiban’ (1939) for Ranjit Movietone and Kardar took Zahoor Raja in the film. The film was not completed.
Within a year after that film, V Shantaram invited him to join Prabhat Films and was taken on a contract of 3 years. His association with V Shantaram was not beneficial and he did not get much work. Kardar once again came to his rescue and got him employed in National Studios and got him a role in ‘Pooja’ (1940). Thereafter, he got a role in Minerva Moveitone’s ‘Sikandar’ (1941). During the making of the film ‘Sikandar’ (1941), he fell in love with his co-star Meena (Meena Shourie) and married her. The marriage did not last long and Meena later married another handsome actor, Al Nasir.
Zahoor Raja later worked as a Hero in ‘Sewa’ (1941). During this time, while looking for a change from his acting career, he got a chance to direct the film ‘Badal’ (1942) produced under Eastern Pictures where he also acted in the lead role. Though the film failed at the box office, his direction was appreciated by the critics. In 1943, he floated his own film production company, Raja Movietone and made its maiden film ‘Mazaq’ (1943) which he also directed, acted in a negative role and composed its music. His banner produced ‘O Panchhi’ (1944), ‘Ghazal’ (1945) and ‘Dhadkan’ (1946). In most of the films in which he acted, Zahoor Raja was paired with Radha Rani. He also sang the song ‘Bhulaane waale hamen bhi na yaad aaya karo’ along with Naseem Akhthar in the Movie ‘Ghazal’ (1945) composed by Gyan Dutt. His last Movie in India before moving to Pakistan was ‘Anmol Ghadi’ (1946). He acted in 8 films, directed 5 films, sang 15 songs in 4 films, wrote lyrics in 1 film and was MD for 1 film.
After partition, Zahoor Raja migrated to Pakistan. He was active in Pakistani film industry until 1966. After 1966, he migrated to England, married an English lady and later died in 1992 in England.
The heroine Madhuri was already 30 year old in 1943 and I wonder why Raja opted for this aged lady, who was on the verge of retiring from films – that too as a Heroine ! Of course, since we do not know about the story of the film, Raja gets the benefit of doubt, in this case. Madhuri was an actress coming from the Silent Era and early Talkie films. After retirement , she disappeared for almost 50 years, till she was traced for a function. Here is how…
Like many others,Madhuri too was an Anglo Indian. Her real name was Beryl Claessen. She was born on 3-11-1913 at Delhi. Her father was a big officer in Government. Her initial schooling took place in Nainital. She learnt music too,because she wanted to become a Music Teacher. However that she never became,but on a visit to Bombay she was picked up by producer Indulal Yagnik and she started acting in silent films.
Many Heroines in those days were Anglo-Indians,Europeans or Jew girls. Since silent films did not require speaking Hindi or Urdu ( or any language,for that matter),these girls were preferred,as Indian audience loved their fair colour (Gori Mem). Additionally,these girls did not hesitate to give intimate scenes like kissing or doing stunts themselves. Most girls knew Horse riding,fencing and fighting.
In 1928,there was a Silent film Madhuri,but actress Sulochana(Ruby Myers) did this role and in 1932 there was a Talkie film Madhuri,in which also Sulochana only did the role. When Talkie films era began most of the Anglo Indian girls became jobless,since they could not speak Hindi/Urdu nor could they sing a song-the two requirements for actresses in early era Talkie films. However,few intelligent and professional actresses learnt Hindi/Urdu language speaking. Madhuri and Sabita Devi (Irene Gasper) were two such clever girls who achieved proficiency in these matters.
Madhuri was very beautiful. After doing 17 silent films,she made her debut in Talkie films with ‘ Pardesi Preetam’-1933. Jaswantlal Nandlal directed his first film here. Her Hero was Raja Sandow. She did many films for Ranjit under the direction of Jayant Desai. From 1933 to 1942,she acted in 28 films. They were (not in order) Kashmeera, Mitti ka Putla, Noor e watan, Secretary, Lehri lala, Rangeela Raja, Sitamgarh, Prithviputra, Thokar, Raj Ramni, Diwali, Matlabi Duniya, Toofani Toli, Shama parwana, College Girl, Nadira, Veer Babruvahan, Zamin ka chaand, Ban ki chidia, Toofan Mail, Mehman, Sasural, Shadi, Ikrar, Vakil Saheb, Paapi, Mazaq and Dharm-45 …her last film.
In 1943,Madhuri got married and after completing films on hand, retired from Film line. After this, she simply disappeared for next 50 years without a trace,till the organisers of a programme located her. Bombay’s ” Amrut” and ” Cine Society of Bombay ” held a felicitation programme on 7-2-1999, for “Stars from the Silent Era”. For Madhuri it was a surprise,that the organisers found her out after living in oblivion for over 50 years. She was simply overwhelmed with the people’s affection and love. She and Jairaj were felicitated on that day.
The Hero,Pahadi Sanyal – an actor with a strange name, was a rare actor, who, in spite of being simultaneously in Bangla films, was a leading and singing Hero in Bombay’s Hindi films. Later on, few more Bangla actors did some Hindi films, but none were as prolific as Sanyal. He acted in 53 Hindi films and did Hero and side Hero roles, as well as character roles too. Pahadi Sanyal (22 February 1906–10 February 1974) was born in the midst of the serene beauty of hilly tract of Darjeeling. As he was born in the hills, thus his nickname became Pahadi .His real name was Nagendra Nath. He had completed his schooling from Lucknow but later joined Benaras Hindu University for Engineering studies. But he was never interested in studies and he chose a different path for himself .
He started taking lessons of Hindustani Classical Music from Morris College in Lucknow. He had learnt music under the tutelage of Ustad Md.Hussain, Chote Munna Khan, Nasir Khan . Ahmad Khan. Not only that, he was equally interested in instrumental music. Thus , he had also taken lessons of tabla from Rashbehari Sil and Abid Khan. He was deeply inclined to learn different types of songs. During his stay in Lucknow , he was in close contact with the Atul Prasad Sen and had hugely contributed to his songs.
Pahadi Sanyal was also fluent in Hindi and Urdu. In the personal front , he got married twice. He first tied his knot with the Vice Principal of Moradabad School. But unfortunately on 10th March , 1930 she died while giving birth to their child. Later , Pahadi got married to actress Meera Devi and had one daughter.
Pahadi was introduced to Director Devki kumar Basu by one of his friends. Devki kumar Basu took him to B.N. Sarkar of Star Theatre who helped him to make his debut with Rs.150 in the world of acting. In 1933, he got his first break in the film “Meerabai”. The movie “Vidyasagar” was a landmark in his career which made him a living legend of that time. Some of his notable movies are “Bhagyachakra”(1935), “Bidyapati” (1938), “Mahakobi Girishchandra” (1953), “Jomaloye Jobonto Manush”(1958), Aranyer dinratri (1970). He had even sung in some of his movies. In 1942, he went to Bombay for working in Bollywood films.
He acted in 53 Hindi films. His first Hindi film at Calcutta was Yahudi ki Ladki-1933 and the last Hindi film was Dharati-1970. During his career, he sang 45 Hindi songs in 19 films – first song being in film Chandidas-1934 and the last song was in film Milan-1946. The Door Darshan English News Reader Luku Sanyal was his daughter. This great legend passed away on 10th February, 1974.
Here is a duet from this film-Mazaq-43. The names of singers are not available, but my guess is that it is sung by Zahoor Raja and Radha Rani (Bombaywali). With this song, film Mazaq-43 makes its Debut on the Blog.
PS-The song is sung by Miss Tara, Pahadi Sanyal and Zahoor Raja. Thanks are due to Mr Sadanand Kamath for helping identify the singers.
Song-Chalti hain mast hawaayen kuchh gaayen laharaayen bahlaayen mohe (Mazaaq)(1943) Singers-Miss Tara, Pahadi Sanyal, Zahoor Raja, Lyrics-Abid Gulrej, D- Zahoor Raja
Miss Tara + Pahadi Sanyal
Lyrics
Chalti hain mast hawaayen
aa haa ha ha ha aa
Chalti hain mast hawaayen
kuchh gaayen
lahraayen
bahlaayen mohe
ho o o
Chalti hain mast hawaayen
kuchh gaayen
lahraayen
bahlaayen mohe
ho o o
laayi paighaam khushi ka
khushboo ek prem sandesa
aa ha ha aa
laayi
haan haan
laayi
haan haan
laayi paighaam khushi ka
kuchh ?? prem sandesa
hahaha ha
nikhra kaliyon pe joban
nikhra kaliyon pe joban
bahlaaye mohe ho o
Chalti hain mast hawaayen
kuchh gaayen
lahraayen
bahlaayen mohe
ho o o
koi unse kahde jaake
aa hahahahaha
koi unse kahde jaake
na chhedo
na chhedo
na chhedo mohe
ho o o
mera mera
mera mera
mera matwaala joban
naajon ka paala joban
na chhedo mohe
ho o
tu mere motor ka engine
main teri bagiyaa ka phool
tu mere motor ka engine
main teri bagiyaa ka phool
arre aaj to ghabra ke keh do
kar liya mujhko qabool
na chhedo
na chhedo
na chhedo mujhe
ho o o
Chalti hain mast hawaayen
kuchh gaayen
lahraayen
bahlaayen mohe
ho o o
This article is written by nahm, 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 : | 4176 | Post No. : | 15352 |
Mohammed Rafi : The Incomparable (II) – Song No. 14
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Remembering Mohammed Rafi Sahab on his 95th birth anniversary :
Someone once told me that to become cynical you first had to be an idealist and it was the loss of those ideals that created the disillusionment. But than what is an idealist if not an individual with independent thinking and with the added ability to incorporate diverse ideas. And cynicism is bound to be an integral part of any ideological theory if it seeks to negate the perceived or real concepts of injustice against humanity. Critical analysis of any ideological concepts will possibly make the ideologist a cynic if the said ideology is not perfect enough or as perfect as the ideologist wanted it to be. Cynical person is often very critical of things and situations and their repercussions. While as an idealist, will find a lot to express about the idea rather than focusing on criticism of anything else. That makes cynicism the anti-thesis of idealism. On the other hand, idealism if it seeks to unilaterally implement a social order in a given society is regressive to its intellectual and overall progress as a civilization, since it seeks no introspection and encourages narrow thoughts. Whereas a cynic will look at all things surrounding it and might even be able to look beyond it.
It looks like I want to have my cake and eat it too. Isn’t it ?
Of course, in the complex scheme of nature, nothing is as simple as the above monologue. Things are almost always multi-layered and multi-hued. There is also the matter of view-points, one can put in a blob of prejudices and rigidity. But overall there is also a certain accounting for taste.
I am remembering a word of Urdu which is “zarf”. This word is almost always pre-fixed with “aa’laa” and it becomes “Aa’la Zarf”. Urdu is the language of ‘adab’ i.e. respectfulness and ‘adaab’ i.e. principles. Any student or seeker of these two qualities will end up with the ‘zarf’, which is better taste, with or without the prefix.
It can be as domestic as the idealism of my brother against the cynicism/pragmatism/practicality of my own.
And what does one call people who do not expect anything from anyone? Not loyalty, not goodness of heart, nothing. And these are often the neediest, in terms of attention and togetherness.
This was certainly Rafi sahab. This type of personalities which who have refused to claim any material benefits, were without ambitions or nor made demands on anyone. It must have been so easy to convince him that he has sung so many songs that he can approach the “Guinness book of world record” for singing highest number of songs.
The other day I saw a video on youtube, where the presenter is trying to analyse, what made Mohammed Rafi such an exceptional person. He says this about Rafi Sahab : “ Unhen pata hi nahi thha ke duniya mein sharafat ke ilaawa bhi koyi cheez hai ”. “Sharafat” is too simple a word in my understanding which just is a way of life that includes simplicity, honesty and integrity. But when I googled it, I found nobility, civility, good manners. So my own definition is more integral and personal than google’s definition. To be “Shareef” on personal level is one thing, but to believe that there is no other thing in the world apart from “Sharafat” is another thing altogether. We see quotable quote which say similar things like to think and believe the best about others also. These type of exhortations are common is all social, religious set ups across the board.
To be on that plane where you see the best in others and believe the best about others, discarding all negative notions about anything and anybody, what a blissful state that must be. Rafi Sahab had this inherent quality without trying to achieve it. Truly blessed by the Almighty. Where is the ‘Zarf” in all this ? ‘zarf’ cannot be left behind, because it is also high ideals and values. By all accounts Rafi Sahab never let go of his ‘zarf’, without ever realising those high ideals/values were chronicled widely in literature and philosophies. I hope that he was always giving thanks to the Almighty for these known and unknown blessings. It is a fact that we the ignorant humans are unable to know in what all ways the Almighty has blessed us all.
I am presenting a solo song by Rafi song from the film ‘Mera Geet’ (1946). The composer is Shankar Rao Vyas and Ramesh Gupta is the lyricist. My favourite period for Rafi Sahabs songs in actually 1950’s. It is picturised on Susheel Kumar as per the excel sheet. I am aware that huge no of Rafi songs from 50’s are yet to be posted in the blog. There are a few songs from 40’s also are available for posting. For the last few months I was trying to do the series of ‘Dheere dheere” songs and some other newer songs of post-Rafi era.
Hopefully, the new year we will see more songs by Rafi Sahab in the blog,
The audio link available is reasonably clean and clear, unlike most songs of this period.
Song-Aapas ke jhagdon ne dekho Bharat ko barbaad kiya(Mera Geet)(1946) Singer-Rafi, Lyrics-Ramesh Gupta, MD-Shankar Rao Vyas
Lyrics
aapas ke jhagdon ne dekho
bharat ko barbaad kiya
jinka thha mohtaaj zamaana
aaj unhen mohtaaj kiya
aapas mein ham rahen jhagadte
gairon ne aa raaj kiya
jinka thha mohtaaj zamaana
aaj unhen mohtaaj kiya
kabhi mere iss bharaat mein bhi jee
doodh ki nadiyan behti thhi
thhi doodh ki nadiyaan behti thheen
dhan dhaan ke thhe kothhaar bhare
aanand mein duniya rehti thhi
dhan dhaan ke thhe kothhaar bhare
aanand mein duniya rehti thhi
thha kuber ka bhandaar yahaan
heeron ki hoti kheti thhi
mitti ka sonaa bantaa thha
anmol yahaan ki reti thhi
mitti ka sonaa bantaa thha
anmol yahaan ki reti thhi
aaj ussi gulshan ko dekho
kusum(?) ? ? ka raaj kiya
jinka thha mohtaaj zamaana
aaj unhen mohtaaj kiya
kabhi mere gulshan ki daaliyaan
hari bhari lehraati thhin
haan hari bhari lehraati thhin
jhoom jhoom ke sundar kaliyaan
geet suhaane gaati thheen
jhoom jhoom ke sundar kaliyaan
geet suhaane gaati thheen
thhaa saraswati ka vaas yahaan
daulat insaan ki daasi thi
thhey roz naye tyohaar yahaan
har roz deewaali aati thhi
thhey roz naye tyohaar yahaan
har roz deewaali aati thhi
sur mein thhe sab saaz mere
ye kis ne besur aaj kiya
jinka thha mohtaaj zamaana
aaj unhen mohtaaj kiya
naye taraane sunte sunte
bhool gaye ham apnaa taal
gairon ke sang chalte chalte
bhool gaye ham apni chaal
aish mauj fashion mein phans kar
aaj huaa bhaarat kangaal
aaj huaa bhaarat kangaal
roti roti khade pukaaren
bhaarat maa ke laakhon laal
roti roti khade pukaaren
bhaarat maa ke laakhon laal
roti eee
roti eee
roti eeee
Bhai bhaj le shri Bhagwaan
Posted on: December 24, 2019
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 : | 4176 | Post No. : | 15350 |
Today’s song is from the film “Aankh ki sharm (1943). This bhajan is sung by one ‘Pande ji’. I am neither aware who this singer is, nor aware of any information on him. The Music Director of this film was Vasant Desai, who was known to be a Talent Hunter ( He had discovered MD S.Purushottam and singers Desai sisters – Pramodini and Vinodini ). May be Pande ji was also his discovery. However in later films of Vasant Desai I failed to find his name again. Possibly he was a ‘one film wonder’, like many others.
The film was made by Wadia Movietone. In 1942, the Wadia brothers – Homi and J B H Wadia separated, when the elder brother J B H Wadia proposed that the company should start making Social films, instead of only Stunt films. Homi Wadia established his own company Basant Pictures and continued making stunt films with Fearless Nadia – who sided with him, obviously, in the separation. Much later, Nadia married Homi Wadia and she thus became Nadia Wadia !
This was the second Social film ( after film Shobha-42) that Wadia Movietone made after the split. It was directed by Balwant Bhatt – elder brother of Nanabhai Bhatt who was a veteran in directing B and C grade films.
All the 11 songs of the film were written by Pt. Indra Chandra. The cast of the film was Prithwiraj Kapoor, Kaushalya, Trilok Kapoor, Nayampalli, Nalini Gupte, Moti, Gulab, Himalayawala, Agha, Dalpat, Indira etc etc. This must be one of the very few films (or was it the only movie ?) in which Prithwiraj and Trilok Kapoor were acting together in one film.
An interesting name in the cast was that of NALINI Gupte. I said interesting, because, in Hindi films, as many as 12 NALINIs acted/ sang in films at slightly different times. Add to this list the name of a Male actor ‘ Nalini Ranjan Roy ‘, who, thankfully, acceded to the suggestion to change his name to ‘Kanu’ Roy. ( It is another matter that even this name clashed with another Kanu Roy, who was MD, in the same period…causing serious ” Same Name Confusion”. ) The different NALINIs were…
Nalini Tarkhud…..many films
Nalini Jayawant…many films
Baby Nalini…Mera ladka-43
Nalini Nagpurkar…Krishnarjun yuddha-34, Chacha Chaudhari-53
Nalini Chonkar… many films
Nalini Borkar…singer
Nalini Dhere… Nagad Narayan-43
Nalini Gupte…Ankh ki sharm-43
Nalini Mulgaonkar…Didi-48, nakli Baap-49
Nalini Rao…Talash-43
Nalini Saraf (later Seema Deo)… Anand-70
Nalini korgaonkar… singer
Additionally, there were actresses called SuNALINI and MriNALINI too.
These Nalinis did not cause any Same name Confusion, because, being Marathi artistes, they wrote their names with Surnames, so their names remained different always. Easily, this name is the most ‘appeared’ name in the Hindi Film History !
Another interesting name ‘ Nayampalli’ always reminded me of the ” Nampalli” Railway station… which is another name for Hyderabad Railway station. This actor Nayampalli was leading a silent life of a middle class gentleman, doing a 10 to 5 job and raising a family, when he was invited to the glamorous world of Films.
S.B. Nayampally (or Nayampalli) was working at the firm of Killick, Nixon and Company in Bombay, 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 Director 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 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, 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 his 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.
In the cast, there is another name which, apart from being very unusual, belongs to an actor, who earned considerably infamy in his private life. He is Himalayawala. His name was Mohd Afzaluddin. He was born in March 1916, at Dehradun. After school education he joined his brother, Mohd Misaluddin’s firm – The Himalaya Drug Company, a leading Pharma company of repute (even today). He worked there for 10 years and after a dispute with his brother, left the company. He came to Bombay to join films.
First he had thought of starting a company, but looking at the situation, he decided to do acting only. His first film was ‘Kiski Biwi’ (1942), directed by MA Mirza. His name was changed from Afzal to A Himalaywala (since he came from the Himalayan town of Dehradun, like Kashmiri from Kashmir), by Shaukat Hussain, husband of Noorjehan. However in many films he was credited as Afzal only. He worked in few films like, ‘Vishwaas’ (1943), ‘Ankh Ki Sharm’ (1943), ‘Dost’ (1944), ‘Kismatwaala’ (1944), ‘Zeenat’ (1945), ‘Humayun’ (1945), ‘Nal Damayanti’ (1945), ‘Jagbeeti’ (1946), ‘Samrat Ashok’ (1947) and ‘Elaan’ (1947).
He was an outspoken and straightforward person, fond of hunting, football and travelling by car. He toured all of India twice in his car. In 1943, he married actress singer Amirbai Karnataki. After marriage he banned her from acting in films. Within 2-3 years, on this and other issues, they could not get along. He used to hit her and take all her money. At last, it was rumoured that he gave her talaaq after taking 2 lakh rupees and her car. Even after this he was stalking her. She stayed with her elder sister Ahilya Bai. Then one day, she was kidnapped by Himalaywala, from the recording room. She was kept locked in a room and beaten daily. She somehow managed to inform this to her sister.
Ahilyabai then got in touch with her acquaintance Mr Rasiklal Vyas and his brother Chhailabhai Vyas – one of the best criminal lawyers of Bombay. With their political and social connections, they forced the police to register an FIR, which was refused due to Himalaywala’s bribe. Meanwhile Himalaywala was alerted by his cronies. Within few hours Amirbai was escorted back to her sister’s place, by Himalaywala. All this episode is described in full details in the book ‘Aap Ki Parchhaiyaan’, by Rajnikumar Pandya ji. Amirbai later married Gujarati Journalist Badri Kaanchwala.
After partition, Himalaywala migrated to Pakistan. There the lady luck smiled on him and he did very well. Urdu film Shahida (1949) was his first film in Pakistan, which celebrated silver jubilees in Delhi and Lucknow.
Hamaliawala was in leading role in Pakistan’s first silver jubilee Urdu film Do Aansoo in 1950. He was main villain actor in the most of 1950s movies. He played the Akbar The Great role in musical film Anar Kali in 1958. His other famous moves were Kundan (1950) Chan Way(1951), Ghulam (1953), Gumnam, Ruhi (1954), Shoni(1955),Qatil (1955), Sarfarosh (1956), Saat Lakh (1957), Gumrah, Naghma-e-Dil (1959), Farishta (1961), Watan(1960) and Azra (1962).
He was seen in 33 movies, only two of them were in Punjabi language. His last film was Yahudi Ki Larki in 1963.
Mohd Afzuluddin Himalaywala married Begum Perveen, in Pakistan. He died on 1st January 1984 in Lahore. (Thanks to Film directory-46, http://www.pak.mag.com, Shishir krishna Sharma ji, book Aap ki parchhaiyan by Rajnikumar Pandya ji and my notes, for information used herein.)
Now let us see the video of today’s song. The singer on screen is probably Pande ji himself. This is my guess. I find this song scene funny. Prithwiraj is seen, obviously in sick condition. The singer is singing before him and telling him that ” tu do din ka mehmaan” ! What must be the sick man’s condition, hearing this ! But, after all, there must be some background also for this situation in the film, I am sure. With this song, Pande ji makes his Debut on this Blog, as a singer.
Song- Bhai bhaj le shri Bhagwan (Aankh Ki Sharm)(1943) Singer- Vasant Desai, Lyricist- Pt. Indra, MD- Vasant Desai
Lyrics
Bhai bhaj le shri Bhagwan
Bhai bhaj le shri Bhagwan
tu do din ka mehmaan
tu do din ka mehmaan
Bhai bhaj le shri Bhagwan
Bhai bhaj le shri Bhagwan
kal aayaa thha
kal jaayegaa
kal aayaa thha
kal jaayegaa
aaj ko soch vichaar
aaj ko soch vichaar
chhod ke bande
tu tu main main
chhod ke bande
tu tu main main
apna kaaj sudhaar
dhar murlidhar ka dhyaan
Bhai bhaj le shri Bhagwan
kya lena hai
kya dena hai
kya lena hai
kya dena hai
kyon jhoothha janjaal
kyon jhoothha janjaal
bair birodh bisaar ke bande
bair birodh bisaar ke bande
bhaj Giridhar Gopal
bhaj Giridhar Gopal
bhaj Giridhar Gopal
nar kar jag ka kalyaan
Bhai bhaj le shri Bhagwan
Bhai bhaj le shri Bhagwan
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 : | 4174 | Post No. : | 15348 |
Today’s song is from a forgotten film Bhool-1948. The film was produced by Cinematographer and V.Shantaram’s brother V.Avadhoot – who also directed this film, as per the credits.The lyricist for all the 8 songs was Firoz Jallundhari and the Music Director was Debutant Purushottam or S. Purushottam or Purushottam Solankurkar. The banner was Rajkamal Kala Mandir. The cast of the film was Umesh Sharma, Suman, Dewan Sharar, Parshuram, k.Datey, Leela, Sunderabai, Aruna Devi and 5 child actresses called Baby Rajashree, Baby Madhura, Baby Sadhna, Baby Charusheela and Baby Sheela. Amongst these, Rajashree, Madhura and Charusheela were Shantaram’s daughters.
When I was finding information on this film, I stumbled upon the film’s review in the December 1948 issue of Film India Magazine. I started reading it. From the writing , I got a feeling that the film was Ghost-Directed by V.Shantaram himself. But that is not the point. What I was shocked to read was that in a comment on IMPPA meeting on pages 13 to 15, Baburao Patel referred Shantaram as ” V Shantaram brother of V Kashinath, brother of V Avadhoot”, in almost every paragraph. Now, this was a bouncer for me. Nowhere, till now, had I known that Shantaram had one more brother called Kashinath. I knew only V Avadhoot as his brother, for all these years.
For further information, I checked V Shantaram’s biography on wiki, other Internet sites and articles on Shantaram in all my books, but still, no mention of Kashinath anywhere. I was astonished. As a true student of Old Hindi films and songs, I did not lose hopes and continued my search. My hard work and wait of one month bore fruits and on one unknown Internet site – http://www.geni.com – I got the family tree of V.Shantaram.
Shantaram’s mother Kamlabai was the younger sister of Radhabai, who bore two children Baburao and Bhalji Pendharkar, when she was with Dr. Gopal Pendharkar of Kolhapur, before she married father of Master Vinayak karnataki. Kamlabai married Shantaram’s father Rajaram Vankudre. The site shows that there were 4 brothers of Shantaram. They are named as Kashinath, Keshav, Ramkrishna and Avadhoot. Except V Shantaram and V Avadhoot, other brothers were not only not known, none of them was connected with the film industry-Hindi or Marathi. Whatever the reality, all these facts are available for anyone to check oneself.
The story and dialogues of the film Bhool-48 were by Dewan Sharar. The story, Baburao claimed, was taken from the theme of Thomas Hardy’s novel
” Tess of the Urbervilles “. This novel was first serialised in Britain’s ” The Graphic” in 1891 and was published as a single volume in 1892. The film was released on 7-10-1948 at New West End Theatre in Bombay. The story can be summed up as…
An honest and respected villager – Shiv Dayal (Dewan Sharar), with 6 daughters, is living in a village. His daughter Sheela (Suman) meets an Air Force officer on vacation- Mohan Chandra (Umesh Sharma). After few love songs, they indulge in pre-marital sex and soon Sheela becomes pregnant. Mohan returns and joins the War duty. News comes that he is killed. Shivdayal takes Sheela to Mohan’s father to request that they accept her as their daughter in law, but he refuses. Shivdayal comes back. Sheela delivers a baby boy. They lead a shameful life in their own village. In the meantime, Mohan, who is not dead, arrives and accepts Sheela and the child. They get married and all is well.
There was lot of hue and cry as to how the filmed was passed by Censors. The obvious conclusion was that Shantaram must have used pressure on the Censors. Film India also criticised it wholesomely. Shantaram’s reply was, if Shaknutala’s similar act is acceptable, then what is wrong in this ‘Bhool’ ?
Hindi film industry has seen uneducated, educated and talented artistes in various fields like acting, direction,production, cinematography, story and dialogue writing, Lyricists,composers etc etc. It has also seen successful artistes leaving films and shining somewhere else on their merits like, Shashi kapoor-sr, S D Batish, Lyricist Moti, B.A. etc etc. However , there is only one example where the artiste had an extraordinary success in totally unrelated fields, was a distinguished author and an acknowledged scholar BEFORE joining the film industry . He is Dewan Sharar. Not much has been written about him so far. Here is some updated information about him.
Dewan was not his first name. It was a Title used as a prefix. He came from a family which had served as Dewans in many states traditionally in few generations. His name was Atmanand Sharar. He was born (28-8-1897 to 1969) in Multan in erstwhile Punjab. From 1929 to 1942, he travelled in many countries. He is credited with editing the Magazine, ” Shabistan “, the first Urdu cinema paper in India. He worked as a Publicist for the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. He edited a leading weekly ” Great Britain and the East ” for 3 years He regularly contributed to British and American press. He was the first Indian whose 4 plays were broadcast over BBC. From 1937 to 1940, he was in charge of the cataloguing of Urdu books and Manuscripts in India House at London. He published many books like’ Indian Folklore’, ‘ In the garden of Peacocks’, ‘ East meets West’ and ‘ Gong of Shiva’. The last one was translated in many languages of Europe. Hindi film ‘ Ishara’-43 was based on this novel. He also wrote the story of Himanshu Roy’s film ” Karma”-33- first English film by an Indian. The film credits start with his name First.
This is what South Asian Cinema Faculty of U.K.said about him, “Film and stage actor, writer of English novels, short stories, stage and radio plays, “Eastern Adviser” to British-Gaumont films in London and Urdu poet. He also contributed prominently to Indian cinema as a producer, character actor and a story and dialogue writer. Born in Multan, Dewan Atmanand Sharar (1899-1969) came from a family that had served as Dewans or Ministers in Indian princely states. After graduating from Punjab’s prestigious Government College, Lahore, he established an impressive repertory company in 1919 and presented several Hindustani plays and mushairas in various urban centres. In 1929, he set up a film-producing and distribution company and began to edit Shabistan,reputedly the first Urdu cinema paper in India.
In 1933, Dewan Sharar moved to London for the completion and launch of Himansu Rai’s Indo-British film, Karma (1933) ofwhich he was the storywriter. It was completed in England by Indian & British Film Productions with J.L. Freer Hunt as the director and Thorold Dickinson as editor. Sharar also produced and acted in Nagin ki Rani, the Hindustani version of Karma. While in London, many of his English short stories on Indian life appeared in mainstream newspapers in the UK and overseas. A major London publishing firm, George G. Harrap & Co., published two of his English works: The Gong of Shiva(1935) and Hindu Fairy Tales(1936). His short stories were also published as part of an anthology which included contributions from other famous contemporary writers. He also contributed a number of English radio plays for the BBC.
After returning to India in 1939 just before World War II, he worked for All India Radio Bombay and Delhi. He then joined filmmaker, V. Shantaram and adapted Kalidasa’s Sanskrit classic, Shakuntala for the silver screen in Hindustani. The film was a runaway success and the Sharar-Shantaram combine lasted over a decade winning laurels for both Sharar and Shantaram’s banner, Rajkamal.
In 1943, Ishaara (1943), a film based on Sharar’s English novel The Gong of Shiva catapulted actor Prithviraj Kapoor to stardom. Besides becoming an important pillar of popular Indian cinema, he also started Dewan Sharar Publications in 1963. His descendants include famous Bombay-based Indian film actor Akash Khurana and Nagpur-based businessman turned playwright and theatre actor Vikash Khurana. ”
Sharar had adapted the story from the original ” ???????? ??????? by Mahakavi Kalidas ” written in the 3rd century. He wrote the story, dialogues and Lyrics also. Shakuntala-43 was Sharar’s first film with Shantaram . Their association continued for some more films like, Parbat pe apna dera-44, Dr. Kotnis ki amar kahani-46, Apna Desh-49, Teen batti char Raasta-53 and J.J. Payal baje-55.
Dewan Sharar also acted in 8 films, namely Karma-33, Dr. Kotnis ki amar Kahani-46, Bhool-48, Apna Desh-49, Hindustan Hamara-50, Do Raha-52, Teen batti char rasta-53 and Dil E Nadaan-53. He wrote 62 songs as a Lyricist in 12 films, namely Shakuntala-43, Shaenshah Akbar-43, Parbat pe apna Dera-44, Mali-44, Panna Dai-45, Jeevan yatra-46, Dr. Kotnis ki amar kahani-46, Andhon ki duniya-47, Apna Desh-49, Hindustan hamara-50,Subah ka tara-54 and Jhanak Jhanak Payal baaje-55.
Today’s song is a duet by Sulochana kadam and Motisagar. MOTI SAGAR was one person who came to the industry to become a Hero,but ended up doing sundry roles,singing songs,writing stories and scripts and producing films. He ,however, could not get great success in any of these and ended up being ‘Jack of all trades,Master of None’.
MOTI SAGAR was born in New Delhi on 16-4-1925, but graduated from Lahore. In Lahore he got interested in acting in films.Then he met Inayat Hussain and G.A.Chishti-the composers and he loved singing.He came to Bombay in 1946. His cousins Motilal, Mukesh and Tara Harish were already there in films. Harish and Motilal were established,and Mukesh was trying very hard.
Moti Sagar did a second hero’s role in MALHAR-1951.
He sang his first song under Bulo C.Rani in GUL SANOBER-53 with Kalyani. Then came Pamposh, Shikar, Deewali ki raat, Makhichoos, Meri Behen and Flying Horse.
When he stopped getting songs and roles, he switched over to writing. He wrote stories for Badal, Lalkaar, Charas, Ram Bharose,
When this stopped he produced 2 films Hum Tere Ashiq hai and Badal.
After 1985, he retired till he died on 14-3-1999.
The Music Director was an unknown person,who made his Debut with this film. PURUSHOTTAM SOLANKURKAR or S. Purushottam ( 9-4-1919 to 30-1-1958 ) was from Kolhapur district. Born in a poor family, he was the youngest in three brothers. The eldest brother was a good singer under Abdul Kareem khan. The middle one had his ” Yashwant Sangeet Vidyalaya” in Kolhapur. Purushottam was a student of Vidyapeeth School. Bereft of higher education, Purushottam started learning to play various instruments, Violin, Sarangi, Harmonium and Tabla.
When he was 21 years of age, he started playing in the concerts of Kumar Gandharva or Shivputra Siddhramaiah komkali- as an accompanist. Vasant Desai-who was a ‘de facto’ Talent Hunter for V.Shantaram ( he had already discovered Promodini and Vinodini Desai and Vatsala Kumthekar) spotted him in one Mehfil and called him to Bombay. Shantaram gave him his brother’s film ” Bhool”-48 and Maharashtra Chitravani’s film Mere Laal-48 as a Music Director.
He was an excellent singer himself and had a very good voice. Noted composer Sudhir Phadke, who was his classmate in school, used to praise his singing, but Purushottam never sang any film song in his career. He believed that his job was to compose music and not singing.
Impressed with his style, Shantaram gave him his revolutionary film ‘Apna Desh’-49. True to his salt, Purushottam presented 2 Ghazals of Ghalib,’ Koi ummeed nahi hain” and Dil e naadan in a totally non-traditional tune and style. The Tamil and Telugu versions of this film were also done by Purushittam. Vasant kumari sang Tamil songs and Telugu songs were sung by Beauty Queen Surya Kumari. Later Shantaram gave ‘ Dahej’-50 to Vasant Desai and Purushottam.
Discarded, without reason, as was his habit, by Shantaram, Purushottam did Devyani-52 and Durga Khote’s Sandesh-52. In all he did 6 Hindi films and 2 Marathi films, as Music Director. Realising that he had no scope in films anymore, Purushottam returned to Kumar Gandharva once again ,as his accompanist. Thus he disappeared from the film line and there was no trace of him afterwards. One more name was added to less known and forgotten composers’ list ! (Some information used herein is from Marathi Sangeetkar kosh, with thanks.)
Let us now enjoy the duet from this film.
Song-Likhi hai do dilon ki kismet ne ye kahaani (Bhool)(1948) Singers- Sulochana Kadam, Moti Sagar, Lyrics-Firoz Jallundari, MD-S Purushottam
Both
Lyrics
Likkhi hai
do dilon ki kismat ne ye kahaani
Likkhi hai
do dilon ki kismat ne ye kahaani
har din hai pyaara pyaara
har raat hai suhaani
har raat hai suhaani
likhi hai
do dilo ki kismat ne ye kahani
phoolon se ban sanwar kar
dharti ne geet gaaya
shabanam ke motiyon ko
aakash ne lutaaya
shabnam ke motiyon ko
aakash ne lutaaya
ye bhed kisne samjha
ye baat kisne jaani
ye baat kisne jaani
o o o
aa aa aa
aa aa
ye roop ye jawaani ee ee
ye roop ye jawaani
ye mastiyon ke saaye
jab dil hi mil chuke hon
phir pyaar kyun na aaye
jab dil hi mil chuke hon
phir pyaar kyun na aaye
main tujh pe hoon nichhaawar
tu meri zindgaani
tu meri zindgaani
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa
phoola phala chaman hai
baadal khushi ke chhaaye
masti bhari pavan hai
kyun naachti na jaaye
masti bhari pavan hai
kyun naachti na jaaye
jharnon ke geet sun kar
hansti hai ban ki raani
hansti hai ban ki raani
o o o
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
main phool hoon oon
tu khushbu
main phool hoon
tu khushbu
main deep hoon tu jyoti
tu chaand hai main dariya
main seep hoon tu moti
tu chaand hai main dariya
main seep hoon tu moti
main tera hoon tu meri
phir kya kahoon jubaani
phir kya kahoon jubaani
likhi hai
don dilo ki kismat ne ye kahaani
likhi hai
do dilon ki kismat ne ye kahaani
aa aa aa
Aao phir se yaad karen
Posted on: December 12, 2019
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Today’s song is from a film called Chiragh-43. This Social film was made by Murli Movietone and was directed by Ram Daryani. MD was Khemchand Prakash. Songs were written by D N Madhok, Wali Saheb and Pt.Indra. 8 singers were used for 11 songs. The cast of the film was Ishwarlal,Kaushalya, Veena Kumari, Gope, Majeed, Gulab and others.
Today, we will discuss a fresh case of ” Same Name Confusion “. In my first book, released last year, I had clarified about 56 artistes coming under the SNC category. In the last one and half year I have discussed 14 such new artistes and including today’s case, it will be 16 artistes. The total comes to 72 and surprisingly there are 36 Males and 36 female artistes in this group, so far. However, I feel, as the time passes by, there are still few more cases yet to come to light and that, finally in this, the females will outnumber the males in numbers.
One of the reasons for this could be that in the early era, actresses came from Muslim Tawayef families or even poor families. In such families, the girls’ names were pretty common – like Nurjahan, Zubeida, Khurshid, Naseem or Shameem etc. Those who came first in films kept their original names, others had to change their names. But even then, the limited stock of names created problems. For example, Khursheed Akhtar changed her name to Shyama, but there were already 2 Shyamas working in films. One more example was today’s case. Originally Nurjahan, changed name to Veena Kumari, but there was another Veena working in films.
The trouble with same names is when you want to write about them, their Filmography is mixed up. Secondly, most sites, blogs and Fb pages invariably mix up even their Bio data, in addition to Filmography. My B.P. goes up when I see this . Whenever possible, I try and give explanation to make corrections, but every time it is not possible. Further they quote from sites like Wiki and IMDB, who are the major culprits in creating, sustaining and nurturing the same name confusions.
Anyway, let us now see who this Veena Kumari was. Her original name was Nurjahan. Her father was a landlord in Lucknow. She was born in 1916. As per customs of those times, she never went to school, but being well to do, got private tutors and she learnt Urdu and English sufficiently to read and speak. She was a typical good looking girl. She was very fond of seeing silent films, with her father. When the Talkie films started, her interest grew much more and she decided to join films. She was a natural good singer too and this helped her getting into films.
Her first film was Inteqam-33, where she worked without any fees. Here she was credited with her real name Nurjahan. In the 1939 film Swastik, made by Mohan Pictures, she became Veena kumari-heroine of Jeevan. She continued working in films like Radhika,Asra and Kasauti- all 1941, Gharib and Zevar in 42, pratigya, masterjee and Chiragh in 43, Mujrim-44, Gunjan and Shauhar in 48. Shauhar was made by her own banner-Dil-Sitan arts. The film was directed by her. Her last film was Basera-50. She sang 22 songs in 7 films. She was quite good in singing. When you will hear her today’s song, you will agree with me.
Now let us see what proves they were 2 different persons. Firstly, Veena Kumari started her career much earlier than Veena. Secondly, Veena started acting in Punjabi films in 1941 only and then came to Bombay for film Yaad-42, Najma-43,Rajputani-44, Humayun-45 etc. Thirdly, Veena kumari was a B grade actress and her films were made by smaller banners, whereas, from the beginning, Veena was in Big league of Mazhar khan, Ranjit, Mehboob, Kardar, K.Asif, Minerva etc. Fourthly, Veena kumari stopped working in 1950, while Veena continued till 1983. The most important point was, Veena could not sing, whereas Veena kumari sang 22 songs in 7 films. All this clearly separates them as different actresses.
Veena acted in about 100 films in her 40 years’ career. Her Biodata is available freely on Internet as well as on this Blog. So much for the Same Name Confusion in this case.
Film Chiraagh was directed by Ram Daryani. His life story is very interesting. Ram Daryani was born on 6-12-1915, at Hyderabad, Sindh Province (now in Pakistan). His early education was done in Sindh and for college education he came to Karachi. Due to intense desire of being in film world, he left studies and joined Eastern Art Production and assisted Moti Gidwani in direction of film Insan ya Shaitan-33. But due to family pressure he had to rejoin college. After some time he again left college for good and started working as assistant director for films Prem Pariksha-34 with G R Sethi, Bharat ki Beti-35 with Premankur Attorthy and Yasmin-35 with H K Shivdasani.
He got his first chance to independently direct the film Baal Hatya aka Khoon E Nahak-35. In the year 1936, he floated his own company Daryani productions and directed films like Sangdil Samaj-36, Prem Murty-36 and Gentleman Daaku-37, for which his brother K S Daryani wrote the stories. In 1938, brother K S Daryani started Krishna Movietone. Ram Daryani closed his company Daryani productions and directed film Zamana-38 for krishna Movietone. The film became a Hit and his name became famous.
He worked for Murli Movietone to direct films like Pyas-41, which celebrated Silver jubilee. His other films were Qurbani-43, Preet-45, Panna Dai-45 and Shravan kumar-46. In all, Ram Daryani directed 23 films. His last film was Chand mere aaja-60. After this he entered Film Distribution business. Ram Daryani died on 7-9-1993.
The Heroine of this film was Kaushalya. She was born at Lucknow in 1929. She was the daughter of the famous dancer Lachhoo Maharaj and actress Daya Devi. Being brought up in the house of dancer and actor, Kaushalya picked up Dance, Music and acting very early. She appeared as a child artiste in films from 1936, when she was just 7 year old. She worked in 11 films as a child artiste. After film Devbala-38, she did roles in Bhole bhale and Uski Tamanna-both in 1939, made by Sagar Movietone. She even sang in both films.
Then came films like Darshan and Ghar ki laaj, both 1941, and Baraat, Bharat milap, Station master and Swapna, all 42. The work poured on her till 1946, when she got married to a boy from Calcutta, when she had gone there for doing films. After marriage she found it difficult to work in films, but continued for some more films, till her last film Ek Do Teen-1953.
In all Kaushalya acted in 27 films and sang more than 100 songs in about 35 films, in her short career time. As a Heroine she had worked with Prithviraj Kapoor, Ulhas, Kumar, Ishwarlal etc.
Today’s song is a duet of Veena kumari and Ishwarlal. I feel she beats Ishwarlal in singing. Her voice is full of youthfulness and quite professional, as compared to Ishwarlal. With this song, film Chiraagh-43 makes its Debut on the Blog.
( For the information used herein, thanks to Filmdom-46, Hindi film songs by Prof. Yadav, Swaron ki yatra by Anil Bhargav and my notes )
Song- Aao phir se yaad karen (Chiraag)(1943) Singers- Veena Kumari, Ishwarlal, Lyricist- Wali saheb, MD- Khemchand Prakash
Both
Lyrics
Aao phir se yaad karen
Aao phir se yaad karen
bhoole huye afsanon ko
bhoole huye afsanon ko
Aao phir se yaad karen
aao ?? pe jhoola daalen
aao ?? pe jhoola daalen
dil ke sab armaan nikaalen
dil ke sab armaan nikaalen
itni oonchi paing badhaayen en en
itni oonchi paing badhaayen en
jag ki nazron se kho jaayen
jag ki nazron se kho jaayen
ek jagah bithhlaa de baalam
ek jagah bithhlaa de baalam
dil ke do mehmaanon ko
dil ke do mehmaanon ko
aao phir se yaad karen
prem dor so ae
baandhoon tumko o o
prem dor so ae
baandhoon tumko o
bin baandhhe bandhh jaaooon main
bin baandhhe bandhh jaaooon
bin baandhhe bandhh jaaooon main
bin baandhhe bandhh jaaooon
main man ki
aasha ki chhedoon(?)
main man ki
aasha ki chhedoon(?)
haule haule gaaoon main
haule haule gaaoon main
deepak raag suna kar donon
deepak raag suna kar donon
tadpa den parwaanon ko
tadpa den parwaanon ko
aao phir se yaad karen
aao phir se yaad karen
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Today’s song is from an obscure film from Calcutta,- Arzoo-1944.
It is my observation that barring very early Talkie films made by Madan Theatres, Calcutta, films made by other film makers of Calcutta – other than New Theatres – were, generally, not successful or popular in the Hindi belt. At the peak times in the 30’s, there were about 20+ film making companies in Bengal, but New Theatres alone had got the best of Hindi artistes in almost every department of film making and Music, available in the Eastern sector. Accordingly, even Arzoo, made by I.B.Films, Calcutta also did not create any ripples in the Hindi belt. It was directed by R N Vaidya (a successful Silent Film maker ) and M.Issa. The Lyricist was Khwaja Kidwai and the Music was by Subal Dasgupta. The cast of the film was, Dhiraj Bhattacharya, Panna, Pramod Gangully, Renuka Roy, Fazal, Shanta etc.etc.
In Hindi film arena, there were many brother pairs as Music Directors like Husnalal-Bhagatram, Kalyan ji-Anand ji etc. Most of them were prolific and successful too. But there were no cases worth noticing, where two brothers operated separately as MDs, in the same period but never worked as a Team. Two such cases were from Calcutta. The first was that of Timir Baran and Mihir Kiran and then Kamal Dasgupta and Subal Dasgupta. Neither Timir-Mihir nor Kamal-Subal worked as a pair and individually only one became famous in Hindi films. Mihir kiran gave music to only 1 film- Kaarvan e hayat-35 and Timir Baran did 11 Hindi films compsing 86 songs.Subal Dasgupta gave music to only 2 films Subah Shaam and Arzoo both in 1944, Kamal Dasgupta did 17 Hindi films and composed 157 songs.
Kamal Dasgupta ( 28-7-1912 to 20-7-1974) gave music to 17 Hindi films from Jawab-42 to Phulwari-51. Subal gave music to only 2 films as mentioned. He was, however, a prolific composer in Bangla films and NFS. The credit for composing music for Talat Mehmood’s First recorded NFS, ” sab din ek samaan nahi tha” goes to Subal Dasgupta. Some sites and You Tube erroneously mention Kamal Dasgupta’s name as its composer, but it is wrong. I quote here an excerpt from the book ” Talat Mehmood-The Velvet touch” a biography by Manek Premchand,
” His first recording happened in September 1941, the song being Sab din ek samaan naheen tha, Ban jaoonga kya se kya main, iska to kuchh dhyaan naheen tha, written by Fayyaz Hashmi and composed by Subal Dasgupta. Present at this recording was the great singer-composer-actor Pankaj Mullick, who patted the young émigré for a job well done. In Calcutta, the young man started learning Bengali. After six recordings for HMV in Calcutta, Talat returned in 1942 to complete his studies at Marris and in the next couple of years, he heard a lot of Gangubai Hangal, Fayyaz Khan and Roshanara Begum. ” pp 13
Not much information is available on Subal in books or on the net. Even Dr. J.P.Guha has no information on him. Here is something from a Bangladeshi site.
Subal Dasgupta was born at Kalia (Narail) of the old Jessore district in Bangladesh. His parents shifted to Calcutta long before the partition of 1947. His eldest brother professor Bimal Dasgupta was a gifted musician, while his elder brother Kamal Dasgupta also emerged as one of the most successful music directors of his times. His sisters Sudhira, Indira, Basanti—–all were talented singers in their own rights. All of them had recorded songs under HMV banner. He belonged to an immensely accomplished musical family. At a very tender age Subal Dasgupta took lessons in classical music from Ustad Zamiruddin Khan, a renowned maestro of Kheyal and Thumri. It was here, that he met Kazi Nazrul Islam, the great poet , who also started taking classical vocal lessons from the same master. The meeting between the two, later turned out to be of historic significance. This is all that could be collated about Subal Dasgupta.
Today’s song is sung by Jagmohan Sursagar. In older times, when when films had not yet become ” inevitable ” in the society, for the period 30s to 50s, Non Film Songs (NFS) ruled the nation. The A.I.R. regularly broadcast NF Bhajans, Geets and Gazals etc. These were extremely popular and their private records used to make a big sale too. Among the NFS male singers, the best was Jagmohan and in the female group, the best was Juthika Roy.
Somewhere in the late 2011 AK ji, of Songsofyore.com, had written on this Blog about the importance of NFS. After reading his views, I too wrote a rather lengthy comment supporting the inclusion of NFS on this Blog. Our contention was that, prior to the Hindi Film Music becoming popular all over India,it was those ghazals, Geets and Bhajans, privately sung and recorded by various artists which had ruled the tastes of music lovers. In fact many famous singers had recorded NFS in the beginning phase of their singing careers. Some names are Talat Mehmood, Saigal, Pankaj Mullick, Jagmohan and JUTHIKA ROY !
I do not think there was a single singer in those days who had not sung a Non Filmi geet of some type like Bhajan or ghazal etc. I am sure many senior readers from this Blog must have grown listening to these NFS Bhajans and Geets. In fact more than a filmi song, may be these people have some old geet or Bhajan embedded in their memories with some persons, events or places.
Today’s singer Jagmohan Sursagar was very well known and close to Rajnikumar Pandyaji and he has elaborated his Bio data in the book ” Aap ki Parchhainyan”. The following information is adapted from this. Born on September 6,1918,Jagmohan whose real name is Jaganmoy Mitra came from a conservative family of land-lords.Sometime before he was born,his father died of a stomach ailment, while his mother was still in her teens. Though Jagmohan had no problems in childhood,he was to grow up an ardent devotee of his mother.When she died in 1981,and was followed by the singer’s wife,in a few months time,Jagmohan felt a terrible void in his life,something that he appears to have been unable to fill ever.
There was an atmosphere of music in his maternal grandfather’s house where they went to live after Jagmohan’s father died.He literally grew up listening to dhrupad,khayal,thumri and tappa,surreptitiously learning from his uncle’s ustads ragas and raginis as also the tabla.It all paid off when after passing his matriculation examination, Jagmohan took part in all Bengal music competition ,topping the list in dhrupad,tappa,thumri,kritan and baul,religious folk music of Bengal.The year was 1937.In the same year,his professional singing career began at All India Radio.The next year,he stood first in khayal singing in an all India competition at Allahabad.
A music recording company, HMV,grabbed him for recording.Says Jagmohan: ” I had a tune and had been trying to compose a song to suit it.But,an acquaintance, Hembabu asked me to see Kazi Nazrul Islam,the great poet.Hembabu took me to him and left me with the poet.The poet was a very kindly man and my diffidence vanished after a while. I sang the few lines I had composed.He praised my tune and music but offered to write a song for me to fit them.I sang the tune several times as the Kazi sat writing stanza after stanza;his words, as if poured after,and there nary was a change or scratching out of a word here or there.That was the song Saaon Ratey Jadi…. on which my re-cording was made.” It was a great hit.Then,in 1940, came two songs of Rabindranath Tagore,both approved by the Nobel prize winning poet.Tagore permitted him to record two more of his songs.
In 1945,Jagmoohan was given the award of Sursagar (ocean of music) in Bengal.The award has not since been given to anyone else,and the singer was only the second recipient of the honour.( The other recipient was Himangshu Datta ). In fact, most people have forgotten that Mitra is Jagmohan’s real surname; it has just become Jagmohan Sursagar, a name under which he also wrote an auto-biography in Bengali. It has recently been translated into Gujarati and brought out under the title of one his more famous songs, Dil Dekar Dard Liya Hai Maine…
Gandhiji too had appreciated Jagmohan’s singing and the singer recorded Sapt Kand Ramayana in six minutes at the Mahatma’s suggestion.Another national leader fond of his singing was Jay Prakash Narayan.
Jagmohan toured abroad also extensive and has been to among other countries East Africa,the U.K.,the U.S.A.and Canada,earning vast fan following everywhere. Speaking at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto,Jagmohan held his audience spell-bound,claiming there essentially was no barrier to music.He sang a Bengali composition in Bhairavi and followed up with an English song ,rendered in the same raga.
He came to Bombay in 1950 to become a Playback singer, but the Bombay film world atmosphere did not impress him and he did not sing in any film. In fact after 1955, he did not cut any record for Hindi films. In 1955, he sang under his own baton, for the only Hindi film for which he was the composer. This movie was “Sardaar”(1955).
A dignified individual, Jagmohan never turned bitter,became more of an introvert,paying heed to the calls of none but his inner voice.After the deaths of his mother and his wife in 1981,feeling lonely,he had moved residence thrice– from Bombay to Delhi for two years while he was a member of Censor Board,then to Calcutta and to Ahmedabad.
He did not seem to regard his moving from one city to another as something of great importance. He declared :”I crave for affection ,respect and human warmth and go wherever my inner-self tells me to. I have followed the dictates of my inner-self only all my life.”
“I can go away from a city,but I cannot go away from music”,he said.
He had become so popular due to his NFS in Hindi and Bangla, that he had neither the time nor the desire to sing for films. However Jagmohan sang 23 songs in 12 films, The films were, Bhakta Kabeer-42, Bhaichara-43, Hospital-43, Arzoo-44, Subah Shaam-44, Ameeri-45, Meghdoot-45, Krishnaleela-46, Pehchaan-46, Zameen aur Aasmaan-46, Iran ki ek raat-49 and Sardar-55.
After many attempts, it became clear as to how many Non film songs or Geets he sang in Hindi and the number is 75 songs. However. his songs are few on this Blog.The generation born in the 40s grew on Saigal,Jagmohan and Pankaj Mullick songs. There was a period when Non film Geets were extremely popular, even in the presence of film music, but gone are those days now when record collection was a respectful hobby. With this, the decline of such songs too came fast and only memories lived on.
In his book, Aap ki parchhainyan, shri Rajnikumar Pandyaji has mentioned an incident when Jagmohan went all the way to a far off place, just so that a dying fan of his songs, could listen to him while on deathbed. This is how Rajnikumar Pandya ji described this incident -in an E mail sent to me after I posted above information earlier. ” The patient was Manubhai Trivedi,father of my writer friend Niranjan Trivedi, I was knowing that Manubhai was an ardent fan of Jagmohan but due to his serious ailment it was not possible for him to come down to my place to see Jagmohanda who just arrived by morning train from Bombay .
“I therefore requested to Dada to pay a visit to Manubhai . He reluctantly agreed to it,We went to Manubhais place which was just few minutes form my place, After seeing his serious condition he expressed hid desire to sing a Bhajan before him though Manubhai was not in his senses, Anyway he sang a Bhajan “Ab tim kab sumiroge Raam, Jeevn do din ka maehamaan,’There were tears in the eyes of all who were present there including me and my small daughter who is party seen in the photograph attached with this mail. ( he attached a photograph for me).
Manubhai passed away after a week of this incident. ” The family members of the fan became eternally obliged to Jagmohan’s noble gesture.
Jagmohan returned to Bombay, after almost 2 years in Ahmedabad. He died on 4-9-2003, in Bombay.
The Hero of film Arzoo was Dhiraj Bhattacharya ( 5-11-1905 to 1959 ) worked in 10 Hindi films, namely Radha krishna-33, Seeta-34, Chandragupta-34, Balaa ki raat-36, Mandir-37, Kumkum the dancer-40, Arzoo-42, Wapas-43,Shri Ramanuj-43 and Irada-44.
Today’s song is not only a very rare song, but also an excellent Gazal. In the NFS, there is no parallel to jagmohan and Pankaj Mullick. You too will fall in love with this song, when you hear it. With this song, film Arzoo-44 makes its Debut on the Blog.
(I thank Rajnikumar Pandya ji, Manik Premchand ji, wiki and my notes for information used in the above article. )
Song- Hai kaun dil nahin jo pareeshaan e Aarzoo (Aarzoo)(1944) Singer- Jagmohan Sur Sagar, Lyricist-Khwaja Kidwai, MD- Subal Dasgupta
Lyrics
Hai kaun dil nahin jo pareeshan e aarzoo
Hai kaun dil nahin jo pareeshan e aarzoo
ye zindagi hai asal mein saamaan e aarzoo
ye zindagi hai asal mein saamaan e aarzoo
murjhaati hai jo ye ke to khilti hai doosri
murjhaati hai jo ye ke to khilti hai doosri
kaliyon se yoon bhara hai gulistaan e aarzoo
uske karam se ae ae ae
badhhta hai har dil ka hauslaa
uske karam se badhhta hai
har dil ka hauslaa
har dil ka hauslaa
phaila hua hai is liye daamaan e aarzoo
phaila hua hai is liye daamaan e aarzoo
maayoosiyaan bhi deti hain ummeed ko janam
maayoosiyaan bhi deti hain ummeed ko janam
naakaam e aarzoo ki to jaan hai aarzoo
shaayad isi tarah se khule girah phaans(?) ki
shaayad isi tarah se khule girah phaans(?) ki
girah phaans(?) ki
ham chhodte hain baandh ke paimaane aarzoo
ham chhodte hain baandh ke paimaane aarzoo
Prem ki naiyya dol rahi hai
Posted on: December 4, 2019
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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4156 | Post No. : | 15324 | Movie Count : |
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Today’s song is from film Utho Jago-1947, a completely obscure film.
1947 was a very important year, not only for India, but also for the Indian Film Industry. Creation of Pakistan , on the basis of Religion, and Partition of India prompted an unprecedented exchange of people across the borders. Millions of people left their life earnings and ran to the other side of the border to save their lives. In this melee, millions died and millions lost their properties. More than any other industry, film line was affected more because it had the maximum mixture of Muslims with Hindus and films were made at Bombay as well as Lahore. These two centres now belonged to different countries and the film industries at both places were in turmoil.
However, in India, there was a second line of artistes ready to fill in the gaps created by the migration of Muslim artistes to Pakistan. Further, there were more centres of film making- other than Bombay- available in India, like Madras, Calcutta, Poona, Kolhapur, Bangalore etc. Therefore the damage to Indian film industry was redeemable faster, compared to Pakistan, which was left with only Lahore as a film centre. All they had now was what was left by Indians who left Pakistan, in addition to people who went from India to Pakistan- without a second line of artistes to take over after this generation was out.
The partition of India was expected for an year or so, ahead of actual happening, so film makers were in a hurry to complete their projects, before migration started. This led to making of films in quantity at the cost of quality. This resulted in the highest number of films being made in 1947- a total of 181 Hindi films. This was a record for a period of 54 years (1931 to 1985). This was broken only in 1985 when 187 Hindi films were made in one year.
Even in 1947, some good and musical films were made like Aap ki sewa mein, Bhook, Do Bhai, Doli, Dard, Elaan, Gaon, Jugnu, Kasam, Leela, Meera, Mehandi, Mirza Sahiban, Netaji Subhash, Pagdandi, Parwana, Saajan, Shadi se pehle, Shehnai, Sindoor etc etc. In this year maximum films made were obscure and made in haste.
Amongst all these films, film Utho jago came and went without notice. It neither had well known popular actors, nor a famous music director. The cast of the film included, Shehzadi, Ashiq Hussain, Jamshed ji, Baby Nalini, Aziz khan and others. The director was Pramod Chandra and the music was composed by Aziz Khan and Ibrahim. I do not know if this Ibrahim was the younger brother of Music director Ghulam Mohd. Ibrahim was an excellent harmonium player and he worked with Naushad for a very long time. Ibrahim had died even before Ghulam Mohd. died.
The hero Ashiq Hussain had started his career with film Talash-E-huq-1935, in which Nargis made her debut as a child artiste Baby Rani. He went on doing 25 films. Utho jago was his last film.After this film he married its heroine Shehzadi and both migrated to Pakistan. He had also sung 32 songs in 13 films in the beginning. Even in film Utho Jago-47, he had sung 2 solos and 1 duet with Amirbai Karnataki.
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.
There is one new name in the cast – Jamshed ji. His full name was Jamshed ji Bairam ji, Khan Saheb. In some films, he was credited as Khan saheb also. He was born in Bombay in 1889 as a typical Parsee. He was one of the oldest and most experienced actors having worked with several directors and over 25 years of acting by that time.
He started with Silent films like Pyari Mamta, Madhuri, Sohni Mahiwal, pooran Bhagat, Gulshan E Arab, Hoor E Baghdad and Indira. His first talkie film was Daulat ka nasha-31 and Noorjahan-31. He acted in about 50 films. His last known film was Andaz-1949.
Jamshed ji, also gave music to 3 films- Naya Zamana-35, Zaate Shareef-36 and Jagat kesari-37.
Today’s song is sung by Mohd. Rafi. This is from his early years as a singer. Rafi came on the scene in 1944. for the first few years, he had to struggle but he came into films when it was going through a transition. Older generation actor singers had to stop singing because the public tastes were changing and newer composers opted for newer singers who were exclusive singers and not 2 in 1, like earlier actor singers.
These days I was reading a book “Rafinama” by noted film Historian and author Isak Mujawar. In this book he has brought out some very interesting facts about Rafi. The book is more a statistical data book than his biography. In today’s post I would bring out to you few of these interesting details. When Rafi started his singing in 1944, many of the erstwhile actor singers took the opportunity of stopping their singing – which was thrust on them – and Rafi actually replaced them. The book gives the details. Few cases are here…
Ashok Kumar’s singing spree stopped when Rafi sang for him in film Saajan-47.
Ishwarlal stopped singing when Rafi sang for him in film Sharbati Aankhen-45
Shahu Modak stopped after Chakradhari(1954).
W.M.Khan after Aalam Ara (1956).
Master Nissar ater Boot polish(1954).
G.M.Durrani after Lal Pathar(1971).
Karan Dewan after Duniya(1949).
N M Charlie after Zameen ke Tare(1960).
Balak Ram after Shri Ram Bharat Milan (1965).
Moti Sagar after Paak Daman (1957).
Man Mohan krishna after Basant bahar (1956).
Mohd. Rafi even sang for some composers who used to sing in films
S N Tripathi -Pawanputra Hanuman (1957).
Snehal Bhatkar-Bawre Nain-(1950) ( he was doing a Beggar’s role) and
Sudhir Sen- Saat Phere (1970)
Rafi was the only male playback singer who sang with 3 major singer actresses
Noorjehan-Jugnu (1947).
Khursheed- Aage Badho- (1947) and
Suraiya- many (13) films.
Rafi sang with some old time female singers, about whom the new generation may not know much. He sang with Nirmala Devi, Paro, Shamim, Uma Devi, Chandbala, Chand Burke, Gandhari(Rane), Laxmi Roy (sister of Geeta Roy), Kumudini Dikshit, Kaumudi Munshi, Laxmi shankar, Pramodini Desai, Vinodini Desai, Malti Pande (Popular Marathi singer), Pushpa Huns, Kamal Barot, Jagjit kaur, Minu Purushotham, Madhubala Zaveri, Usha Timothi, Krishna Kalle, Chandrani Mukherjee, Dilraj kaur, Sushama Shreshtha Kanchan, Sulakshana Pandit etc etc.
Mohd. Rafi sang maximum songs with Asha Bhosle-806 ….Maximum in O P Nayyar’s films-92 duets. In film Basant-60 he sang 11 duets with Asha Bhosle.
Rafi sang maximum songs with (First five)..Laxmikant Pyarelal…369 songs, Shankar Jaikishan…341, Chitragupta…247, Ravi…235 and O P Nayyar…197 songs.
There are many more aspects of Rafi’s singing….but more about it in some other post.
With this song film Utho jago (1947) makes its Debut on the Blog.
Song- Prem ki Naiyya dol rahi hai (Uthho Jaago)(1947) Singer- Mohd. Rafi, Lyricist- Not known, MD- Aziz Khan and Ibrahim
Lyrics
prem ki naiyya dol rahi hai
prem ki naiyya dol rahi hai
bojh hriday ka taul rahi hai
bojh hriday ka taul rahi hai
prem ki naiyya
haaye prem ki naiyya dol rahi hai
prem ki naiyya dol rahi hai
prem mein aisi soorat bigdi
prem mein aisi soorat bigdi
sar par joote, paanv mein pagdi
sar par joote, paanv mein pagdi
izzat ke pat khol rahi hai
izzat ke pat khol rahi hai
prem ki naiyya
haaye prem ki naiyya dol rahi hai
prem ki naiyya dol rahi hai
Mem>aise dhanwaalon ke laal
ud gaye jinke sar ke baal
aise dhanwaalon ke laal
ud gaye jinke sar ke baal
haan haan ud gaye jinke sar ke baal
dekho, ud gaye jinke sar ke baal
sar ki taat bhi bol rahi hai
sar ki taat bhi bol rahi hai
prem ki naiyya
haaye prem ki naiyya dol rahi hai
prem ki naiyya dol rahi hai
prem na aaya tumko raas
prem na aaya tumko raas
kahe ye tumse gappu daas
kahe ye tumse gappu daas
haan haan kahe ye tumse gappu daas
kya, neeat daanwaadol rahi hai
neeat daanwaadol rahi hai
prem ki naiyya
haye prem ki naiyya dol rahi hai
prem ki naiyya dol rahi hai
prem ki naiyya aa aa 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 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.
| Blog Day : | 4143 | Post No. : | 15308 |
Today’s song is from the film Leela-1947.
Film Leela-1947, a Filmistan offering, was directed by Dattaram N Pai. He was actually an Editor with Filmistan. His name appears as a Director first for film Eight Days-1946. That film was actually directed by Ashok kumar, but Dattaram’s name was given as a Director in the credits. His second and last film as a Director was Leela-1947. I suppose, he did try to do justice to the Director’s chair, but after this film, he did not direct any other film. May be, looking at his limitations, Filmistan did not opt for him anymore.
All the 9 songs of the film were written by G S Nepali and Qamar Jalalabadi. The singers were Binapani, Shamshad, Geeta Roy, Amirbai and Chitalkar. The MD was C Ramchandra. The cast of the film was Shobha, Kanu Roy, Veera, V H Desai, Agha, Leela Mishra, Sunalini Devi etc.etc.
The Heroine of this film, Shobha, unfortunately remains an actress about whom no information is available. On going through the HFGK, I find her name in at least 20++ films. Sometimes she is listed as Shobha Devi. Another bit of information about Shobha was that that the actress Lata Sinha, who started as a child star (as Baby Lata) in Riyasat-55 and Nau Do Gyarah-1957 etc. was her daughter. Lata did a good role in Bees saal baad-1962. She mainly acted in action/stunt, costume and other B and C grade films only. She was also in film Bhoot Bungla-1965.
Film Leela-1947 was made by Filmistan. When a dissatisfied, and disillusioned splinter group fell out of Bombay Talkies, Filmistan was a Dream project for them. The important members from this group were S.Mukherjee, Ashok Kumar, Gyan Mukherjee and Rai Bahadur Chunilal. For them founding Filmistan was a goal achievement. For C Ramchandra, finding Filmistan was a goal achievement, because those days he had left Jayant Desai’s company and was looking for another film company.His good old friend Kavi Pradeep, who was close to S.Mukherjee from their Bombay Talkies days, brought in a very lucrative offer from Filmistan and C Ramchandra joined it with pleasure.
Though C Ramchandra had begun his career in 1942 with Sukhi Jeevan, his first Hindi film as a MD, his music had not flourished till he joined Filmistan. The 5 films he had made with Jayant Desai were reasonably good but they were not Hits. It was only in Filmistan he achieved, what one would call-Success. Out of the 11 films that he made here. his success rate was more than 50%. Especially, the music of films like Shehnai-1947, Saajan-1947, Khidki-1948, Nadiya ke par-1948, Patanga-1949, Samadhi-1950 and Anarkali-1953 created songs which are remembered even today. To make songs whose popularity lasted for more than 70++ years, is surely an achievement.
It was also when he was with Filmistan that people were comparing him and Naushad and a discussion always circulated who was the Numero Uno as an MD. Though I am a C Ramchandra Bhakta, I am of the opinion, that in the race of creating everlasting Hit songs, C Ramchandra was no match to Naushad. The strike rate of Naushad’s Hit films was much much more than that of C Ramchandra.
In the year 1946, C Ramchandra gave music to 4 films(1 for Filmistan), in 1947 it was 7 films (4 for Filmistan) and in 48 films were 8 (2 for Filmistan). So, in these 3 years, he did 19 films (7 for Filmistan). The rest comprised of stunt films of Master Bhagwan and other social films. Hit films were -5, all for Filmistan.
During this period, starting with film Safar-1946, his female lead singer was Binapani Mukherjee. She remained so, till Lata Mangeshkar dominated the music of C Ramchandra from 1950 onwards. As such, Binapani was not a great singer and she had limitations. This, precisely, was the reason why her career was limited to only about just 20 odd films with 50 odd songs. Her all popular songs were with C Ramchandra only.
Binapani was born on 17-10-1925, in a music loving family of Calcutta. Initial music training was by her grandfather Sheetal chandra Mukherjee and and later from ustad Sageer Khan of Rampur.
C.Ramchandra gave her first break in playback in film “Muskurahat”-1943. Her first song was-‘Hans le gaa le…’. It was a duet with CR.
Then came Majdoor, Eight days, Darban, Rangbhumi, but she became famous after ‘Safar’-46.
Her most popular song-‘kabhi yaad kar ke,gali paar kar ke,chali aana hamare angana…’ was from this film, as a duet with C Ramchandra.
She also sang in Leela, Mulakat, Shahnai, Samrat Ashok, Satyanarayan, Raaz, Rumaal, Asra, Abla, Bhikari, Fariyad, Laajawab, Ghayal etc.
Her last film was Gyan Dutt’s ‘Ghayal’-1951.
She was the lead singer (female) for C.Ramchandra, till 1950 i.e. till Lata came on the scene.
Her voice was very sweet and was suitable for sad songs.
She sang under C Ramchandra, Khemchand Prakash, Gyan Dutt, Hansraj Behl, Sardar Malik, Anil Biswas, S D Burman, H P Das, Premnath, Gulshan Sufi, Khursheed khan etc. etc.
After playback singing, she retired from film singing and taught music to aspirants throughout her unmarried life. She was staying in Bombay, with her brother.
The Hero of film Leela was Kanu Roy. The name KANU ROY is another instance of ” Same name confusion “. There was a composer also by the name Kanu Roy who gave music in a few films. Most people and many Internet sites, including IMDB,consider these two different persons as one and claim films for acting and music together, as if he was an actor and a composer. In Hindi films this happened routinely, but in the early era of Talkie films. Master Krishnarao, Vinayakrao Patwardhan, Master Mohammed, Badriprashad, Vithaldas Panchotiya etc can be quoted as actor/composers. Lately only the name of Kishore Kumar comes to the mind in this category.
Kanu Roy (the Actor) was in reality a name for Nalini Ranjan Roy, born on 9-12-1912 at Jabalpore. He was very fond of acting and so landed at Bombay Talkies, a company started by 2 Benagalese- Himanshu Roy and Devika Rani. Those days many people from Bengal used to come to Bombay Talkies, but only the capable ones like Amiya Chakravarty, Shashadhar Mukherjee or Ashok Kumar etc could make their careers here.
Kanu Roy started his acting career from the film Basant-1942. His name Nalini was sounding like a Girl’s name in Bombay ( there were already half a dozen Nalinis working in films those days), so it was changed and he opted for Kanu, his pet name in the house. Thus Kanu Roy came into films. Due to his good looks, he even became a lead actor in a few films. Nazrana-1946 (UR) was one such film where he was working opposite Kamini Kaushal. Kanu Roy also left Bombay Talkies along with S.Mukherjee and others and joined Filmistan. He was in many Filmistan films like, Munim ji, Nastik, Naagin, Jagriti etc. He acted in a Bangla film ‘Samar’too in 1950. Kanu Roy worked in about 40 odd films from 42 to 83 ( kisi se naa kehna).
It is a coincidence that Leela Mishra was also working in film Leela-1947. This is one actress ,who came from a village and remained a villager though out her life. Though she earned a lot with 300++ films, till the end she lived in a 2 room tenement only. She disliked and never saw films, even her own films.
Leela Mishra (1 January 1908 – 17 January 1988) was a Hindi film actress. She worked as a character actor in over 300 Hindi films for five decades, and is best remembered for playing stock characters such as aunts (Chachi or Mausi). She is best known for her role of “mausi” in the blockbuster Sholay (1975), Dil Se Mile Dil (1978), Baton Baton Mein (1979), Rajesh Khanna films such as Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein, Aanchal, Mehbooba, Amar Prem and Rajshri Productions hits such as Geet Gaata Chal (1975), Nadiya Ke Paar (1982) and Abodh (1984). Her career’s best performance was in Naani Maa in 1981, for which she received Best Actress award at the age of 73.
Leela Mishra was married to Ram Prasad Mishra, who was a character artist, then working in silent films. She got married at the very young age of 12. By the time she was 17, she had two daughters. She hailed from Jais, Raebareli. She and her husband were from zamindar (landowners) families.
Leela Mishra was discovered by a man called Mama Shinde, who was working for Dadasaheb Phalke’s Nasik Cinetone. He persuaded her husband to make her work in films. During those days there was a severe scarcity of women actors in films; this was evident in the paychecks that the Mishras received when they went to Nasik for the shooting. While Ram Prasad Mishra was hired on a salary of Rs. 150 per month, Leela Mishra was offered Rs. 500 per month. However, as they fared poorly in front of the camera, their contracts were cancelled.
The next opportunity that came their way was an offer to work in the movie Bhikarin, which was being produced by Kolhapur Cinetone, a company owned by the Maharaja of Kolhapur. However, Leela Mishra lost out on this opportunity too, as the role required her to put her arms round the actor (who was not her husband) while delivering a dialogue, which she point-blank refused to do.
Their next film was Gangavataran-1937, directed by Dadasaheb Phalke. This was his only and the last Talkie film. In this film Leela did the role of Parvati. This became her first film.
She had faced a similar problem while working earlier in another film titled Honhaar-1936. She was cast opposite Shahu Modak as a heroine, and was supposed to hug and embrace him, which she again refused steadfastly. Since the company was legally in a weak position, they couldn’t turn her out of the film, which proved to be a blessing in disguise for her. She was offered Modak’s mother’s role in the film and it clicked instantly. This opened the doors for her to play mother roles at the young age of 18.
Early on in her career she acted in notable films such as the musical hit Anmol Ghadi (1946), Raj Kapoor’s Awaara (1951) and Nargis-Balraj Sahni starrer Lajwanti (1958), which was nominated for the Palme d’Or for Best Film at 1959 Cannes Film Festival.
She acted in the first Bhojpuri film, Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo (1962), which also starred Kumkum, Helen and Nasir Hussain.
Her roles varied from mothers, benign or evil aunts, to comic roles.
She acted in 344 films. Her last released film was Aatank-1996. 8 films were released after her death.
Today’s song is the 7th song (out of nine) from the film. It is a duet of Chitalkar and Binapani ( this is a name of Goddess Saraswati). It is aquite hummable song. Enjoy.
Song-Aate jaate nazar milaate ho jaata hai pyaar (Leela)(1947) Singers-Binapani Mukherjee, C Ramchandra, Lyrics-Gopal Singh Nepali, MD-C Ramchandra
Both
Lyrics
Aate jaate nazar milaate
mil jaate dildaar
do dil bolen
sang sang dolen
ho jaata hai pyaar
ho o ho o
tum ?? milne the
main duniya mein anjaani
tum ?? milne the
main duniya mein anjaani
?? nadi ki donon ??
phir kya aana-kaani
?? nadi ki donon ??
phir kya aana-kaani
hilmil jaayen
ghulmil jaayen
chalo chalen us paar
do dil bolen
sang sang dolen
ho jaata hai pyaar
jab phoolon ka chaand uthhe
dharti se dheere dheere
jab phoolon ka chaand uthhe
dharti se dheere dheere
hum bhi ghar se nikal chalenge
pyaar ki jamuna teere
hum bhi ghar se nikal chalenge
pyaar ki jamuna teere
nayi jawaani raat chaandni
milne ka tyohaar
do dil bolen
sang sang dolen
ho jaata hai pyaar
lambi raah door hai jaana
thhak jaana ruk jaana
lambi raah door hai jaana
thhak jaana ruk jaana
tum peepal ki thhandi chhaaya
ban ke jhhuk jhhuk aana
tum peepal ki thhandi chhaaya
ban ke jhhuk jhhuk aana
preet laga ke
meet bana ke
kaun kare inkaar
do dil bolen
sang sang dolen
ho jaata hai pyaar
Aate jaate nazar milaate
mil jaate dildaar
do dil bolen
sang sang dolen
ho jaata hai pyaar
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 : | 4141 | Post No. : | 15303 |
Today’s song is from film Arsi-1947.
Till recently, I was wondering, what was the meaning of this Title word Arsi. I could not find the meaning anywhere and finally I left my attempts. Then one day, I read the review of this film, in the June 1948 issue of Film India and I got a new piece of wisdom that Arsi was a name of the girl in the film. It was for the first time that I learnt that a name such as Arsi could be a girl’s name in India. Out of curiosity, I checked the 3 ” Boys and Girls Names ” books that I have in my collection, but in none of the books this name was found. At last, I decided to surrender to Guru Google ji, and to my surprise, I learnt that the word means ” Mirror ” !
The film Arsi was made by Jeevan Pictures, Lahore. It was directed by Daud Chaand. All the 11 songs were written by Sarashar Sailani. This was his first film as a Lyricist. The owner of Jeevan Pictures, was Motiram Jain and he was a lover of Shayari and poetry. Sarashar Sailani, who was not much educated (not a graduate), but was a school teacher, used to participate in Mushayras. Motiram liked his shayari. When Motiram started his First film Arsi-47, he invited Sailani to write story, song and dialogues for this film. Some songs became popular and Sailani jumped into film line.
Lachhiram called him for his next film Mohini-47 and Shyamsunder called him for Ek Roz-47. Along with director Daud Chaand, Sailani also shifted to Bombay. However, after the Partition, Daud returned to Lahore but Sailani remained in India. He wrote lyrics. generally he got only low budget films, but he worked with some quality composers like Pt. Amarnath, Husnlal-Bhagatram, Roshan, Chitragupta, Jaidev, A R Qureshi, Hansraj Behl etc.
In all, he wrote 150 songs in 32 films. From 1960 onwards, after film ‘ Bade ghar ki bahu’, he stopped song writing and took up only story, dialogue writing, in which he did many good films. Sarshar Sailani died on 10-4-1969.
In film Arsi-47, there were 2 MDs – Lachhiram Tamar and Shyamsunder. Although HFGK is silent on crediting MDs for any song, those who uploaded the songs on YT have indicated MD names as given on the records. Much is written about Shyamsunder, but not much is available on Lachhiram. Last year, in one of posts, I have given information about Lachhiram Tamar already.
The film’s director was Daud Chaand. Dawood Chand was a prominent film director of 1930’s & 1940’s of Indian cinema. He directed Veer Kaisri (1938), Joshe-e-Islam (1939), Sipahee (1941), Jangee jawan (1943), Paraey Bas main (1946), Aaarsee and Aik roze (1947) and Papeeha Re-48 in India.
In Paksitan he was director of first ever released Pakistan film Tairi Yad (1948). Some of his others films were Hichkoley, Mundri (1949), Sassi (1954), Bulbul (1955), Mirza Sahebaan and Hatim (1956), Muraad (1957), Aalam ara (1959), Sapairan (1961), Khaiber Pass and Ghazala (1963), Reshma (1970), and Bahadra (1973).RAZA MIR (Producer/Director)
He acted in Indian film Shaher say door (1946) but in Pakistan he chose other profession. He was Pakistan’s First film Teri yaad’s (1948) cinematographer and director. He also directed some other films like Baiti (1964), Lakhon main aik (1967), Aaasra and Aneela (1969), Parai aag (1971), Naag muni, Vicharya saathi (1973), Professor and Arzoo (1975) Sohni mahiinwal (1976) and Dil keey daagh (1978). Asif Raza Mir film hero of late 1970’s and early 1980’s and a good TV artist is his son. He died on 24-5-1975 at Lahore, Pakistan.
The cast of the film was Meena (Shorey), Al Nasir, Ajmal, Asha Posley, Zahoor Shah, Bheemsain, Ramlal, Pran, Cuckoo etc etc. When I had first come across the name Asha Posley, in my younger days, I was a bit amused, because the name sounded almost like Asha Bhosle ! When I started writing about old films, I realised that her real name was something else and this was a name acquired by her.
Asha Posley was born Sabira Begum in Patiala, Punjab, British India in 1927. She was given the film name Asha Posley by the renowned music director Ghulam Haider. She made her film debut in a Lahore-made Punjabi film Gawandi (1942) as a supporting actress.Later she played just a few female lead roles in some films starting with film Champa (1945) and then Kamli (1946) in British India. Her films in India were Champa-45, Paraye Bas mein-46, Kamla-46, Badnaami-46, Aai Bahar-46, Pagdandi-47, Ek Roz-47, Arsi-47, Sassi-48 (un released), Roop Rekha-48, Papeeha Re-48 and Barsat ki ek raat-48. She also sang 5 songs in 3 films.
After independence of Pakistan in 1947, her whole family migrated to Lahore, Pakistan including her music director father Inayat Ali Nath and her 2 sisters- actress Rani Kiran and Kausar Perveen who later gained fame in Pakistan as a film playback singer. Her father was the music director for the first-ever released film in Pakistan- Teri Yaad (1948) and Asha Posley played the female lead role in the film opposite Nasir Khan who was a brother of famous Indian actor Dilip Kumar.
Later she was mostly cast in supporting roles opposite comedian actors Nazar and Asif Jah in films both in Urdu and Punjabi languages. She acted in 129 films in total in her career spanning over 4 decades (1942-1986). Her last film was Insaf (1986). She also appeared on Stage, TV and Radio and she was also a part-time singer. Asha Posley was awarded a Special Award for Excellence in 30 years of acting by the prestigious Nigar Awards organization in Pakistan in 1982.
Asha Poslay died on March 26, 1998 at Lahore.
Asha Posley’s case is a sad one. The way Pak film industry treated her in her last days, is no different than what Indian film industry did in the past. She and her family spent hard days and she died in poverty. Only the other day, I came across an article written by film journalist of Pakistan- Navaid Rasheed in The Dawn.com in April 2001. In it, he wrote about her house…..” The humble abode is enveloped in depressive atmosphere. The rooms are in ramshackle condition. The main door leads to a very small room which is without a roof. If it was bigger in size, it would be called a courtyard. Things are helter skelter all over the place. Can somebody imagine that this is a place where a glamorous diva lived not too long ago.
Yes, this place was the last abode of Pakistan film industry’s first heroine Asha Posley who died three years ago. Ever since then the family has been living in a dilapidated state. Not that the things were any better when the actress was alive, in fact she herself was dependent on her brother whose house this is. But at least she was there for them, her being there was enough for them.”
Asha Posley was a very attractive, frank, ever smiling and popular actress in Pakistan. Asha Posley was undoubtedly one of the most modern, bold and flamboyant heroine of the local cinema. Those well-arched eye-brows, deep almond-shaped set of eyes, high cheek bones, the square jaw, the curly jet black locks and the mischievous smile is hard to forget. For a woman who once charmed the cinegoers for so long did not have enough money to make her ends meet at her retirement. Such a sad ending is not what she deserved. But that is exactly what happened.
Ever since Asha Posley was forced to sit home by the ruthless film industry that gave her no work for long, there was not a single day when she didn’t wait to be offered even a small role from the industry. When no one came from the industry to help her, she looked towards the public sector. She requested time and again for help but in vain. Such a talented actress of calibre was fast diminishing into oblivion but no one was bothered to save her. So finally she died unsung in March, 1998. Still no one was effected.
Teri Yaad was the first Pakistani film to be released in 1948 and Asha’s hero in it was Dilip Kumar’s brother Nasir Khan. It was directed by Dawood Chand. Asha Posley belonged to Patiala (India) and was born in 1927. She worked in Radio Pakistan as Riffat Aisha and was in possession of a good voice. Before partition she worked for the first time in Kamli (1946) which was not too successful but owing to her looks, her spicy sense of humour and bold style of conversation, she became pretty famous in film circles.
After partition she also worked in films like Ghalat Fehmi, Shahida and Bulbulall of which proved to be failures. However, when she opted to play a vamp in Sassi, it proved to be very successful. Hence onwards began a long journey of vampish roles for Asha. Her occasional pairing with comedian Nazar in certain films too won accolades for her as a comedy star. One of her memorable films as a vamp was Intezaar featuring Noor Jehan and Santosh Kumar
in the lead. Kismet and Dulla Bhatti were other successful ventures where she put in memorable performances. Her dances too were the main highlight of these films.
Asha’s younger sister Rani Kiran was also a film heroine while another of her sister Kausar Parveen was a famous playback singer of the 50s who died very young. Rani Kiran is still alive but leading a pathetic life.
Asha’s famous films include Toofaan, Mukhra, Hatim, Ashiana, Hum Aik Hein, Khizaan kei Baad, Son of Ali Baba, Mehandi, Pasbaan and others. She made occasional appearances on various television shows where she reminisced her past glory and mentioned for support too. But apparently nothing happened. Nobody could improve her state of affairs, but at least someone can still help her sister Rani Kiran and save her from going the Asha Posley way, out of this world.
This was the fate of discarded artistes…be it Pakistan or India. We can quote many such cases from our own court yards. Thank God, these days the situation is much much better and no such cases are to be seen since few years. Hope this is so even in Pakistan.
Film Arsi-47 was released on 10-4-1948 at Majestic Cinema in Bombay. The screenplay was by M R Bhakhri. Film India magazine June 48 issue featured a review of this film. As usual Baburao Patel had nothing good to say about the story, acting or even the Music. He surely sympathised with the Director, who could not do much with the weak story. The story,in short, as given in the review (minus criticism) is …
Ramesh (Al Nasir) is the son of the village Zamindar. He loves Arsi (Meena), daughter of Bansi, a poor farmer. Unfortunately, the Zamindar himself wants to marry Arsi. When this proposal is declined, Bansi, with his daughter and young son is driven out of the village. Soon after, Bansi dies and Arsi has to sell a Gold Frame, gifted by Ramesh. However, she is accused of stealing it from the Zamindar’s house and is sentenced to 14 years of Jail term.
Her brother grows up. The Brother Mohan (Ajmal) loves and marries dancer Sharada (Asha Posley). The Zamindar dies. After 14 years, Arsi is released. She is employed as a Maid by Ramesh and later they marry also. The End !!! (Thank God !)
The story is too simple and predictable. No wonder Film India criticised it. Today’s song is a duet by S D Batish and Zeenat Begum. One more interesting Trivia. Sarashar Sailani had also acted in this film, but under the name Bheemsain. This was the only film he ever acted in a film.
Song- Duniya chhoote par na chhoote teri gali ka phera (Aarsi)(1947) Singers- S D Batish, Zeenat Begum, Lyrics- Sarshar Sailani, MD- Lachhiram Tamar
Lyrics
Duniya chhoote
ho
Duniya chhoote par na chhoote teri gali ka phera
ho teri gali ka phera
Duniya chhoote
ho
Duniya chhoote par na chhoote teri gali ka phera
ho teri gali ka phera
gali ka phera kaise chhoote
prem ka bandhan kaise toote
gali ka phera kaise chhoote
prem ka bandhan kaise toote
kaise chhodoon kaise chhoote
teri gali ka phera re
haay teri gali ka phera re
Duniya chhoote
ho
Duniya chhoote par na chhoote teri gali ka phera
ho teri gali ka phera
nain milaa ke
mast banaa ke
nain milaa ke
mast banaa ke
jee bharma ke loot liya
haaye loot liya
nain milaa ke
mast banaa ke
jee bharma ke loot liya
haaye loot liya
loot liya sajni ke man ko
loot liya sajni ke man ko
saajan bada lutera re
haaye saajan bada lutera re
Duniya chhoote
ho
Duniya chhoote par na chhoote teri gali ka phera
ho teri gali ka phera
kaise jaadoo daala dil par
teri mast nigaahon ne
kaise jaadoo daala dil par
teri mast nigaahon ne
duniya chhod ke aan lagaaya
duniya chhod ke aan lagaaya
teri gali mein dera re
haaye teri gali mein dera re
Duniya chhoote
ho
Duniya chhoote par na chhoote teri gali ka phera
ho teri gali ka phera
naav bhanwar mein chhod na dena
preet ke matwaare rasiya
naav bhanwar mein chhod na dena
preet ke matwaare rasiya
preet laga ke tod na dena
preet laga ke tod na dena
naazuk hai dil mera re
haaye naazuk hai dil mera re
Duniya chhoote
ho
Duniya chhoote par na chhoote teri gali ka phera
ho teri gali ka phera
chun chun kankar mahal basaaya
log kahen ghar mera aa re
na ghar tera na ghar mera aa aa
chidiya rain basera aa aa aa
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