Archive for the ‘Songs of 1941’ Category
Mori gali aa re sajan
Posted on: June 14, 2017
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, 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 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.
Leela Chitnis (1909-2003), who was known for portraying the role of a suffering mother during 1950s through 1970s was one among the early female actresses in 1930s with an educated background. She was the first film actress from India to appear in the advertisement for the Lux soap in 1941 which she endorsed at that time.
After registering box office hits in her successive films like ‘Sant Tulsidas (1939), ‘Kangan’ (1939), ‘Azaad’ (1940) and ‘Bandhan’ (1940), Leela Chitnis decided to set up a film production company named Chitra Productions in partnership with C R Gwalani (probably he was her second husband). ‘Kanchan’ (1941) was the maiden film under the newly set up banner. However, being the new banner, Chitra Productions relied heavily on the infrastructure and resources of Ranjit Movietone where she had earlier done one of her successful film, ‘Tulsidas’ (1939).
Apart from the film’s director, Manibhai Vyas, who was a regular with Ranjit Movietone, some of the actors who were on the rolls of Ranjit Movietone at that time like Arun Kumar Ahuja, Mubarak, Kesari, Nagendra Mazumdar etc were taken. The star cast of the film included Leela Chitnis and Arun Kumar Ahuja in the lead role. The supporting cast consisted of Pramila, Mubarak, Kesari, Vimla Vashisht, Bhagwandas etc. D N Madhok, the lyricist and Gyan Dutt, the music director who were already associated with Ranjit Movietone were entrusted with their respective fields in the film.
Months before the film went to the shooting floor, Leela Chitnis did the spade work for film production. She had a couple of dances in the film apart from singing 8 songs on herself for which she did rehearsals for months. The film’s story was written by her. So she had to go through the screen-play and dialogues.
The film was released sometime in the month of August 1941. The film’s review was published in October 1941 issue of ‘Filmindia’ magazine. The gist of the story based on the ‘Filmindia’ review is as under:
A tailor (Nagendra Mazumdar) has two daughters – Kanchan (Leela Chitnis) and Kumud (Pramila). Both the daughters are in love with Kishore (Arun Ahuja), an educated young man. Kishore likes Kanchan and he reciprocates her feelings towards him whereas he avoids Kumud. Subsequently, Kumud works out a plot which forces Kishore to leave for a city job.
Now a landlord (Mubarak) enters in the scene. He has a vicked manager who, for a very minor reason, burns down the huts of the farmers. Kishore comes to know about it and he rescues the farmers from the clutches of the fire. In this process, the father of Kanchan and Kumud also comes under the monetary trap of the landlord as he lends money to reset the house.
Since the father is not able to repay the loan, the landlord gives him options of either attaching his whatever the assets or to give one of his daughters in marriage. Kumud refuses to act as a pawn to the landlord. Kanchan agrees to marry the landlord thus sacrificing her love for Kishore.
When the arrangements for the marriage are going in full swing, Kanchan’s mother who had known the landlord from her younger days when she was in love with him, gives the landlord a long lecture of self-consciousness on the issue. The landlord has a change of heart and he withdraws himself as the bridegroom. Kanchan gets married to Kishore.
It is evident that there was nothing new in the story to keep the audiences’ interest in the film. The Review has criticised the way the screen-play has been written which makes the story disjointed. Then there is a couple of dances of Leela Chitnis which were said to have created obstacles in the smooth flow of the story.
The review has also criticised the acting of all the major actors except Nagendra Mazumdar in the role of the father of two daughters. About the acting of Arun Kumar Ahuja, the hero, the reviewer writes:
‘He is clumsy most of the time and has a gait hardly suitable for a hero. He seems to have been taken for his slender figure and a long nose. And that is hardly enough equipment for a hero.’
It was reported in a subsequent issue of ‘Filmindia’ that Arun Ahuja was annoyed with the adverse remarks made about him in the review. He was reported to have conveyed through a person to tell Baburao Patel that he was a Sikh and he would break every bone of his if he keeps on writing like this. Baburao Patel’s repartee was that Arun was a kid. Let him put his own bones in order and moves them a bit when asked to.
The film failed at the box office and Leela Chitnis had to return to Bombay Talkies to work for ‘Jhoola’ (1941) which became a box office hit. After about 14 years, Leela Chitnis produced and directed ‘Aaj Ki Baat’ (1955) under the banner of L C Productions. This was her last film as a producer as well as a director.
‘ KANCHAN (1941) had 11 songs of which 3 songs have already been covered in the Blog. One of the 11 songs was set to music by Naushad.
I am presenting one of the two rare songs which was uploaded by me on YT a few months back. The song is ‘mori gali aa re sajan mori gali aa’ sung by Leela Chitnis. The song is written by D N Madhok and is set to music by Gyan Dutt.
The song has about 1:10 minutes of prelude music which gives me an impression that it may be a dance song.
Song-Mori gali aa re sajan (Kanchan)(1941) Singer-Leela Chitnis, Lyrics-D N Madhok, MD-Gyan Dutt
Lyrics
mori gali aa re sajan
mori gali aa
mori gali aa re sajan
mori gali aa
mori gali aa re sajan
mori gali aa
kook raha mero mann
kook raha mero mann
meri gali aa aaa
kook raha mero mann
mori gali aa
mori gali aa re sajan
mori gali aa
mori gali aa re sajan
mori gali aa
ambuwaa ke jhaad taley
chori chori aan miley
ambuwaa ke jhaad taley
chori chori aan miley
o jise mann khoj raha
mero piya aa
jise mann khoj raha
mero piya
mori gali aa re sajan
mori gali aa
mori gali aa re sajan
mori gali aa
kook raha mero mann
kook raha mero mann
mori gali aa aaa
kook raha mero mann
mori gali aa
mori gali aa re sajan
mori gali aa
mori gali aa re sajan
mori gali aa
Main teri main teri
Posted on: June 13, 2017
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.
“Kanchan”(1941) was directed by Manibhai Vyas for Chitra Productions, Bombay. The Movie had Leela Chitnis, Arun, Pramila, Vimla Vashishth, Mubarak, Baby Kamla, Nagendra, Keshri, Dharpure, Tarabai, Bhag Singh, Bhagwan Das etc in it.
This “social” movie had eleven songs in it. Two songs from the movie have been covered in the blog way back in 2011.
Here is the third song from “Kanchan”(1941) to appear in the blog. This song is a duet which is sung by Iqbal and Kantilal according to HFGK. Listening to this song, one can notice that it i sung by a female and a male voice. From the comment on the link of this song, it is seen that the singer Iqbal was actually miss Iqbal.
D N Madhok is the lyricist. Music is composed by Gyan Dutt.
Only the audio of this song is available. I request our knowledgeable readers to throw light on the picturisation of this song and also on the identity of the singers of this song.
I have not been able to get a few words right in the lyrics. I request our readers with keener ears to help fill in the blanks/ suggest corrections bin the lyrics as applicable.
Song-Main teri main teri (Kanchan)(1941) Singers-Miss Iqbal, Kantilal, Lyrics-D N Madhok, MD-Gyan Dutt
Both
Lyrics
main teri
main teri
kaun bina tere
fariyaad sune meri
kaun bina tere
fariyaad sune meri
naale dard bhare hain
koi itna to kahe
sangdil ko tadpa de
koi itna to kahe
sangdil ko tadpa de
dard se dil bhar aaye
neer baha loon main
meri pesh na ik jaaye
neer baha loon main
meri pesh na ik jaaye
pardesi se ye kah de
jisne pyaar kiya
wo preetam kyun roothha
jisne pyaar kiya
wo preetam kyun roothha
main teri
main teri
kaun bina tere
fariyaad sune meri
kaun bina tere
fariyaad sune meri
———————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————————————
मैं तेरी
मैं तेरी
कौन बिना तेरे
फरियाद सुने मेरी
कौन बिना तेरे
फरियाद सुने मेरी
नाले दर्द भरे हैं
कोई इतना तो कहे
संगदिल को तड़पा दे
कोई इतना तो कहे
संगदिल को तड़पा दे
दर्द से दिल भर आए
नीर बहा लूँ मैं
मेरी पेश ना इक जाये
नीर बहा लूँ मैं
मेरी पेश ना इक जाये
परदेसी से ये कह दे
जिसने प्यार किया
वो प्रीतम क्यों रूठा
जिसने प्यार किया
वो प्रीतम क्यों रूठा
मैं तेरी मैं तेरी
कौन बिना तेरे
फरियाद सुने मेरी
कौन बिना तेरे
फरियाद सुने मेरी
Bitaai kahaan ratiyaan o mahaaraaja
Posted on: May 31, 2017
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, 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 sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
Today, May 31, 2017 is the 14th Remembrance Day of Anil Biswas ( 07/07/1914 – 31/05/2003) who is regarded as the doyen among the Hindi film music directors. Despite not having a formal training in classical music, he rose to the stature of being called the ‘Bhishma Pitaamah’ of Hindi film music.
More than the music director, Anil Biswas was an institution by himself. Music directors like Naushad, C Ramchandra, Roshan and O P Nayyar considered him as their Guru. Playback singers like Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar and Talat Mehmood had acknowledged his role in polishing their playback singing. I am sure, he must have also trained actor-singers like Surendra, Jyoti, Husn Banu, Sardar Akhtar etc in the 1930s when playback singing was not in vogue.
He was the first to introduce the concept of orchestration in Hindi film music. He along with Ghulam Haider were the first to make use of folk music which they blended well in their song compositions. He was the first to make use of counter melody. He was first in Bombay film industry to use playback singing technique in the film ‘Mahageet’ (1937).
Anil Biswas sems to be very fond of ghazals. I had gone through the list of songs composed by Anil Biswas and had observed that in most of the films for which he was the music director, he would have at least one lyricist who was proficiency in Urdu ghazals. He was instrumental in composing ghazals for the films in a style acceptable to the filmy audience thus moving away from the traditional format used in the 1930s. Few examples of his ghazal compositions:
dil jaltaa hai to jalne de – Safdar Aah Sitapuri – PEHLI NAZAR (1945)
mere liye wo gham-e-intezaar chhod gaye – Behzad Lucknowi – ANOKHA PYAAR (1948)
tumhaare bulaane ko jee chaahta hai – Behzad Lucknowi – LAADLI (1949)
zamaane kaa dastoor hai ye puraanaa – Prem Dhawan – LAAJAWAAB (1950)
ae jaan-e-jigar dil mein samaane aajaa – Rajinder Krishan – AARAAM (1951)
husn bhi hai udaas udaas – Majrooh Sultanpuri – FAREB (1953)
roothh ke tum chal diye – Qamar Jalalalabadi – JALTI NISHAANI (1957).
In regards to the last ghazal in the above list, Anil Biswas may probably be the first music director to compose this ghazal based on the khayal style of singing. Even the accompanying tabla beat sounds unusual for a ghazal composition.
Yet Anil Biswas was a modest man. He had no hesitation in telling that among the music directors of his time, Sajjad Hussain was the only one who used original tunes in his compositions. Rest of the music directors including him were inspired from classical/semi-classical music, folk music, Rabindra Sangeet and sometime western compositions.
Anil Biswas is one of the most discussed music directors on the internet. There are many articles on him, some of which have been written by those who had interacted with him. If I remember correctly, his life profile and musical career have been discussed in the Blog more than once. So I will skip that part in this article. However, I would like to discuss his association with one of the prolific directors of Hindi films who started his first assignment as director in 1935 and turned producer-director by early 1940s. The name of the producer-director is Mehboob Khan.
The name of Mehboob Khan became familiar to me in the 1950s because of his films like ‘Mother India’ (1957) and later ‘Son of India’ (1962). In my younger days, I had also known that he had produced and directed films like ‘Anmol Ghadi’ (1946) ‘Andaz’ (1949), ‘Aan’ (1951) and ‘Amar’ (1954). In all these films, Naushad was the music director.
Although, later on I became aware that Mehboob Khan had Anil Biswas as music director for films like ‘Roti’ (1942), it never occurred to me that Mehboob Khan had a long association with Anil Biswas since 1936 which ended with ‘Roti’ (1942). This revelation came to me because during the last two years or so, I have been concentrating on the films mainly of 1940s in my quest for unearthing rare songs from that era.
During 1936-42 period, the most enduring relationship between Mehboob Khan and a music director was that of Anil Biswas. Both of them were in the rolls of Sagar Movietone. Mehboob Khan was on the roll of Sagar Moveitone since its inception in 1929 mainly as a small time actor and also doing behind the screen works. Anil Biswas joined Sagar Moveitone in 1936. Both worked together for the first time for the film ‘Manmohan’ (1936). Although on record, the music director for the film was Ashok Ghosh, it is generally believed that most of the songs in this film were composed by Anil Biswas who was assisiting him for his first film. Later, Anil Biswas did independent music direction for Mehboob Khan in ‘Jaagirdaar’ (1937), ‘Watan’ (1938), ‘Hum Tum Aur Wo’ (1938), ‘Ek Hi Raasta’ (1939), and ‘Ali Baba’ (1940).
After the closure of Sagar Movietone towards the end of 1939 and eventually merging with General Pictures to form a new entity, National Studios in 1940, Mehboob Khan became the de facto boss of National Studios. Anil Biswas also joined National Studios. It is here that the association of Anil Biswas with Mehboob Khan created a sort of a record. Under the banner of National Studios, 14 films were produced, some of which were directed by Mehboob Khan. As many as 10 films had Anil Biswas as the music director. The films were ‘Pooja’ (1940), ‘Aurat’ (1940), ‘Aasra’ (1941), ‘Nai Roshni’ (1941), ‘Behan’ (1941), ‘Jawaani’ (1942), ‘Vijay’ (1942), ‘Gareeb’ (1942), ‘Apna Paraaya’ (1942) and ‘Roti’ (1942).
Sometime during the making of ‘Roti’ (1942), some creative differences between Mehboob Khan and Anil Biswas developed which led to the termination of their association of 6 years and 15 films. Both left National studios after the release of ‘Roti’ (1942). Mehboob Khan set up his own film production company, Mehboob Productions in 1942 and Anil Biswas joined Bombay Talkies in 1942. Both tasted success in the immediate post-National Studios days – Mehboob Khan in ‘Taqdeer’ (1943), ‘Humayun’ (1945), ‘Anmol Ghadi’ (1946), ‘Anokhi Ada’ (1948) etc and Anil Biswas in ‘Kismet’ (1943), ‘Pehli Nazar’ (1945), ‘Milan’ (1946) and ‘Anokha Pyaar’ (1948).
In 1947, Anil Biswas left Bombay Talkies to become a free-lance music director. I personally regard Anil Biswas’s compositions as a freelance music director during 1948-65 as the golden period of his song compositions. Unfortunately, during his freelance period, most of his films did not fare well on the box office front. This coupled with the changes in the environment of Hindi film industry probably made Anil Biswas to quit Hindi film industry in early 1960s and settled for a service in All India Radio, Delhi.
For Anil Biswas’s 14th Remembrance Day, I have chosen a song from Mehboob Khan-Anil Biswas combination film, AASRA (1941). Here is the first song ‘bithaayi kahaan ratiyaan o maharaja’ to appear on the Blog. The song is sung by Husn Banu on the words of Dr. Safdar Aah Sitapuri. The idea for the lyrics has probably come from a traditional Dadra bandish in raag Bhairavi:
banaao batiyaan chalo kaahe ko jhooti
wahin jaao jahaan rahen tum ratiyaan
sauwatan kaa ghar aawat jaawat
hamaara jiyaraa jaraa ke piyaa
Anil Biswas has composed this song in Dadra style with his own variations to suit the film music.
AASRA (1941) was produced under the banner of National Studios. The star cast included Sardar Akhtar, Amar, Husn Bano, Wasker, Veena, Kanhailal, N A Ansari, Bhudo Advani, K B Lall etc. The film was a light social comedy. The story was concerned with the problems which bachelors face when they come to Bombay (Mumbai) in search of employment. Among the problems is difficulties in getting the housing accommodation for bachelors. Probably, the problems for the lead actors (Sardar Akhtar and Amar) turns into a situational comedy in that they have to act as husband and wife to get the housing accommodation. The owner of the house has a daughter, Husn Banu. So one can visualise the hilarious situation.
Since Husn Banu has acted in the film, it is apparent that the song was picturised on her.
Song-Bitaai kahaan ratiyaan o mahaaraaja (Aasra)(1941) Singer-Husn Bano,Lyrics-Safdar Aah Sitapuri, MD-Anil Biswas
Lyrics
bitaai kahaan ratiyaan
o mahaaraja
bitaai kahaan ratiyaan
o mahaaraja
man bhaai kya batiyaan
o mahaaraja
man bhaai kya batiyaan
o mahaaraja
bitaayin kahaan ratiyaan
o maharaja
raat ke jaage nain gulaabi
raat ke jaage nain gulaabi
pag behkat hai jaise sharaabi
pag behkat hai jaise sharaabi
banaao naahin batiyaan
o mahaaraja
banaao naahin batiyaan
o mahaaraja
bitaai kahaan ratiyaan
o maharaja
raat andheri baali umariya
raat andheri baali umariya
tum bin darsat naahin dagariya
tum bin darsat naahin dagariya
lagaaye leyo chhatiyaan
o mahaaraja
lagaaye leyo chhatiyaan
o mahaaraja
bitaai kahaan ratiyaan
o mahaaraja
bitaai kahaan ratiyaan
o maharaja
Sainyya saanwre bhaye baawre
Posted on: April 12, 2017
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
Today, April 12th 2017 is the 107th birth anniversary of one of the earliest multi-talented film personalities who, despite being a post-graduate in English literature, started his filmy career as a painter and a still photographer in New Theatres, Calcutta in 1933. With sheer hard work and talent, he rose to become the screenplay and dialogue writer and lyricist within a year. In about 5 years from joining the film industry, he became a director. He was Kedar Nath Sharma, better known as Kidar Sharma (12/04/1910 – 29/04/1999).
Read more on this topic…
Ab kahaan basera apna
Posted on: March 31, 2017
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
Today’s song is from film Pardesi-41. This was a Ranjit Movietone film, directed by Chaturbhuj Doshi and music by Khemchand Prakash.
Pardesi seems to be a popular Title for film producers Films with Pardesi title were produced in 1941, 1957, 1970 and 1993. Pardes was made in 1950 and 1997. Pardesi as a prefix to film titles were for 7 films. Pardesi-41 was a significant film for actress,singer Khursheed, because with this film, she became famous and came to be recognised as a singer. Earlier, she had worked in many films and also had sung songs, but Pardesi-41 music gave her such a turn in life that Chandulal Shah-the owner of Ranjit- decided to make her Saigal’s Heroine, whenever he would make a film with that king of melody. He was so much impressed with her singing style.
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Main ek anokhi daali
Posted on: January 5, 2017
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in 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.
During the last 15 months or so, I have been concentrating mainly on rare songs from films of 1940s in my articles for the Blog. During this period, I came across some playback singers, music directors and lyricists who were unknown to me. I also got to know about some of the not so famous film production banners. Similarly, I got the opportunity to gather some information on film directors of 1930s and 40s such as Debaki Bose, P C Barua, V Shantaram, A R Kardar, Kishore Sahu, Mehboob Khan, Kidar Sharma etc.
Read more on this topic…
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.
“Holiday in Bombay”(1941) was directed by S Badami for Sudama Productions, Bombay. This forgotten movie had Sabita Devi, Shobhana Samarth, arun, Vatsala Kumthekar, E Bilimoria, Jaal Merchant, Ghory etc in it.
Read more on this topic…
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.
“Beti” (1941) was directed by Jayant Desai for Ranjit Movietone, Bombay. It had Khursheed Bano, Arun Ahuja, Vasanti, E. Billimoria, Ghory, Khatoon, Kesri, Bhagwandas, Rewashankar, Dharpure, Nagendra, Bhupatrai etc. in it.
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Koi kisi se dil na lagaaye
Posted on: December 3, 2016
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.
“Shaadi” (1941) was directed by Jayant Desai for Ranjeet Movietone. The movie had Madhuri, Moti Lal, Khurshid, Ishwar Lal, Dixit, Ghori, Bhagwan Das, Kanti Lal, Bhoopat Rai, Tara Bai, Brijmala, Keshari, Baby Kamla etc in it.
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