Archive for the ‘Songs of 1942’ Category
Sipaahi toone jeet liya maidaan
Posted on: February 27, 2022
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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4972 | Post No. : | 16845 |
Today’s song is from the film Phir Milenge-1942.
The film was made by Minerva Movietone. In 1942, WWII was on its peak. Till that time, the Germans were on the attack, but from 1942 onwards, their decline had started and by 1945 end, both Japan and Germany had lost the war and surrendered to the Allies. However, the damage caused by the war situation continued for a few more years and like all other industries the film industry too took time to normalise its set up.
The war affected the film industry mainly in 3 ways. Firstly, the essential commodities like Petrol, Sugar etc went into shortage and the Government put several items under ” Rationing”. The list also included a shortage of Raw Film, the main requirement for making movies. Many restrictions like the length of the film etc were implemented. To rationalise and to take advantage of the powerful media like films, the Government gave additional raw film to producers on ‘ controlled rates ‘, provided they made a film with a story of helping the government war efforts. It was called a “propaganda” film.
Major film producers make a film or two such films to take advantage of the concession and allotment. During this period many such ‘ War effort’ films were made. Some examples are, Master Vinayak made ” Badi Maa”-1945 with Nurjahan and others ( including Lata and Asha). Acharya Atre’s Navyug films made the film ” Panna”-1944 with Jairaj and Geeta Nizami and film ” Phir Milenge”-1942 was made by Minerva Movietone.
The second impact of War, on the Indian Film Industry was that considerable clandestine Black Money entered the film making and many new, so called ‘Producers’, with bags of money were seen making films. Although more money became available to make more films, the directors had to entertain the whims of the producers about selection of actors or changes in the story. Many such producers started to ‘Direct’ the films. This lowered the quality of films, but brought in many new artistes and provided work to more people.
The third effect of the War was the most damaging. Since the new producers and directors did not have their own studios, they started alluring the studio employed artistes by giving more money per film. They hired studios for shooting films. This devastated the ” Studio Culture”, because artistes started “Freelancing”, without getting attached to a studio. This crumbled the studios on one hand and on the other hand the cost of engaging artistes escalated many folds. Before the war, films could be made in 75000 to 1 lakh rupees, now films needed 1 to 2 lakhs to make one film. It went on increasing and today, making a film in the 2020’s decade one needs atleast 40 to 50 crores per film.
Film Phir Milenge-42 had Sardar Akhtar, Sadiq Ali (later on called The Prince of Minerva), Meena, K N Singh, Menaka and a host of others. The film was directed by Sohrab Modi.
Sohrab Modi’s rise from a Stage Actor to a very popular and successful studio owner, actor-famous for his Dialogue Delivery of very long sentences, producer and director is very interesting. With small successes and big failures, he learned the art of giving what the audience liked in those days. However, one drawback of such people is that they can not and do not change as per the need of the times and become obsolete, ending their careers pathetically.
Famous for making large scale films, powerful dialogues and films with a lot of dramatics, Modi could not cope up with the changing tastes of the audience from the 30’s to the 60’s. The audience changed with 2 generations, but Sohrab Modi’s Minerva Movietone could not change their success formula which was not working now unlike earlier times ! May be he never wanted to change-due to self admiration or king size Ego !!
Minerva was the last big studio and film maker in the list of eminent studios established in the 30’s. When Minerva Movietone was established in 1936, there were already studios like Madon Theatres (est.1919), Imperial (1926), Ranjit Studio (1929), Prabhat (1929), Sagar Movietone (1929), New Theatres (1931), Wadia movietone (1931) and Bombay Talkies(1933). Therefore Minerva was the youngest studio. It is to its credit that it survived with dignity for a longer time-and actively too- than its predecessors and competitors, who perished, some tragically, from 1938 (Madon) to Ranjit (1963).
Sohrab Modi was a colossal personality. leela Chitnis,actress who had the experience in working for films made in different centers like Bombay, Poona, Kolhapur, madras, Calcutta,and Lahore writes in her Marathi autobiography ” चंदेरी दुनियेत “, about all major studios. About Minerva, she writes -“The atmosphere in Minerva was very playful, but once Sohrab Modi entered the premises, everyone used to be quiet and only did his work. He was a taskmaster and a great disciplinarian. he did not like people laughing or whiling their work time. it felt like a Jailor taking rounds in the jail. The atmosphere became suffocating sometimes. ”
I liked him and his films. However I always felt that Sohrab Modi was a polished, educated and a white collared version of Dara Singh. I liked his dialogue delivery style. Later I shifted my liking to Raajkumar ‘Jaani’.
In the cast we see a new name Eruch Tarapore. I was keen to know about this actor because of his strange name. It was a typical Parsee name. I searched quite a lot. Ultimately one day I accidentally came across a site about Parsee artistes. I forgot to note down the name and URL address of that site and till today I did not find it ever again. Anyway I found this information about Eruch Tarapore on this site.
Eruch Tarapore was a distant relative of Sohrab Modi and he worked only in Modi’s films. He worked in 16 films, right from Modi’s first film Hamlet-35 up to 1948. Eruch sang one song each in 3 films, Meetha zehar-38, Jailor-38 and Phir milenge-43. He died in 1948.
Today’s song is sung by Sardar Akhtar and chorus. The song was written by Pt. Sudarshan.
Song- Sipaahi toone jeet liya maidaan (Phir Milenge)(1942) Singer- Sardar Akhtar, Lyricist- Pt. Sudarshan, MD- Meer Saheb
Unknown male voice
Chorus
Lyrics
Sipaahi toone jeet liya maidaan
Sipaahi toone jeet liya maidaan
ladta chal tu
badhta chal tu
ladta chal tu
badhta chal tu
saath tere Bhagwaan
saath tere Bhagwaan
sipaahi toone
sipaahi toone
sipaahi toone
jeet liya maidaan
sipaahi toone jeet liya maidaan
?? bahaadur hai tu
?? bahaadur hai tu
ek ladaai jeet gaya
ek ladaai jeet gaya
jo kaala din aaya thha wo
jo kaala din aaya thha wo
hanste hanste beet gaya aa
hanste hanste beet gaya
dekh dekh kar himmat teri
dekh dekh kar himmat teri
duniya hai hairaan
duniya hai hairaan
sipaahi toone jeet liya maidaan
sipaahi toone jeet liya maidaan
kal wo din thha jab duniya ne
kal wo din thha jab duniya ne
dekhta thha laachaar tujhe
dekhta thha laachaar tujhe
aaj ladaai toone jeeti
aaj ladaai toone jeeti
aaj ?? hathiyaar tujhe
aaj ?? hathiyaar tujhe
kal duniya jai jai bolegi
kal duniya jai jai bolegi
hain sabhi ek zabaan
hain sabhi ek zabaan
sipaahi toone jeet liya maidaan
sipaahi toone jeet liya maidaan
sipaahi toone jeet liya maidaan
Hai aaj kal ki fikar hi kya
Posted on: November 26, 2021
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 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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4879 | Post No. : | 16674 |
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment – Lord Buddha
Thinking about the past events in the life and planning for the future is one of the common activities of human beings most of the time. This, at times, can become a stressful activity during which negative thoughts can creep in the mind. In this process, we tend to lose focus on the current activities. We try to neatly plan for the future based on the past experiences. But not all the parameters of the future plan run on the basis of what was determined at the time of planning. The reason is that there are many uncertainties on the way to attaining the goal. I will give the example of planning my Himalayan treks to elucidate the tyranny of uncertainties.
I have always made a well-charted plan for each of my Himalayan treks. But the uncertainty starts when the train or the flight which we have booked gets delayed by a few hours jeopardizing the connecting travels to the base town/village from where the trek is to start. The second uncertainty is through natural calamities. A landslide or a flooded water stream cutting across the road can block the vehicle movements for a considerable time. The third element of the uncertainty is the weather. A rain/snow storm during the trek can force one to stay inside the tent or in a shelter on the way for a considerably long time. Lastly, the last-minute health issues of a trekker can force him the abandon the trek mid-way. Ultimately, one is not sure whether the trekker’s goal to reach his destination would be achievable or not.
Because of these perceived uncertainties, for the next trek, we plan more meticulously than what is necessary. Things work out smoothly and at the end of the trek, though we are happy to complete the trek in time without hic-cups, we feel cheated by the nature. We are left with extra days which means additional expenses. In short, there is no fixed solution in the planning for the future.
Because of the futility of the past memories and the uncertainty of the future, a philosophical thought has emerged which is known as ‘live in the moment’. This philosophy reminds us that our presence is in the present only. We cannot live in the past as that timeframe is over. We cannot plan for the future as there are many uncertainties. When we think of our past, the thought process influences our future goals. There is no guarantee that our past experiences would lead to achieving the future goals successfully.
Perhaps, it was in this context, Lord Buddha advised his followers to forget about the past, not to dream about the future and devote full time for present moment. In other words, there is no need for Mungerilal ke haseen sapne as there is no guarantee – kal ho na ho. So, enjoy the present moment on which the human beings have some control. Just go with the flow of life as beautifully visualised by Sahir Ludhianv in the song, main zindagi ka saath nibhaata chala gaya.
There may be many among us who are following ‘living for the moment’ philosophy, albeit unknowingly. After reading about this philosophy, I have realised that I have unwittingly followed this philosophy covering the important social and financial events in my life. I had flown with then current situation as needed without bothering about the future – especially in regard to my education, employment, buying a residential house, financial planning for the future etc. I had not made any financial planning for my future as at that time, I felt that my provident fund balance and the gratuity amount would take care of my future financial requirements. As I see it today, I was not completely right about this thinking as interest earned on this amount would not have taken care of a good standard of living in my post-retired life. Fortunately, when my job became pensionable in 1997, it helped me to maintain a good standard of living after retirement.
Let me add a caveat to the ‘live in the moment’ philosophy. Each one of us follow a different life style. Some will thrive with their life to flow with the needs as and when arise without planning for the future. Some may like to have a perspective plan for their future life, may be with some flexibilities. There is also the third possibility – a sort of mix of both where one partially plans and also partially swims with the flow.
I found a rare song from the film ‘Dukh Sukh’ (1942) which depicts, more or less, the ‘live in the moment’ philosophy, probably for a drunkard in a tavern. The song is ‘hai aaj kal ki fiqar hi kyaa, majhe se pee aur majhe se khaa’ which is rendered by Rajkumari Dubey. The words are of Wali Sahab which are set to music by Khemchand Prakash.
Audio Clip:
Song-Hai aaj kal ki fikar hi kya (Dukh Sukh)(1942) Singer-Rajkumari, Lyrics-Wahi Sahab, MD-Khemchand Prakash
Lyrics
hai aaj kal ki fiqar hi kyaa
maze se pee aur maze se khaa
hai aaj kal ki fiqar hi kyaa
maze se pee aur maze se khaa
ye aaj tere haath hai
ye aaj tere haath hai
kal ki kal ke saath hai
kal ki kal ke saath hai
kal kaa din jo aayega
kal kaa din jo aayega
to kal ko dekha jaayega
to kal ko dekha jaayega
hai kal ki tujhko fiqar hi kyaa
maze se pee aur maze se khaa
hai kal ki tujhko fiqar hi kyaa
maze se pee aur maze se khaa
shabaab phir na aayega
ye abr phir na chhaayega
shabaab phir na aayega
ye abr phir na chhaayega
ye chaar din hain pyaar ke ae
ye chaar din hain pyaar ke ae
maz utha tu bahaar ke
maze utha tu bahaar ke
bahaar ke tu maze uthha
maze se pee aur maze se khaa
bahaar ke tu maze uthha
maze se pee aur maze se khaa
hai aaj kal ki fiqar hi kyaa
maze se pee aur maze se khaa
Jab saamne tum aate ho
Posted on: September 18, 2021
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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4810 | Post No. : | 16579 | Movie Count : |
4516 |
Today’s song is from the film Dillagi-1942.
The title of the film seemed to attract the filmmakers and starting with Dillagi-1942, few more similarly titled films were made like, Dillagi-49, Dillagi-66, Dillagi-78 and Dillagi-99. Of these films, Dillagi-49 became quite successful and a film to remember because of the famous song ” Tu mera chand main teri chandni” sung by Suraiya and Shyam Kumar.
This also happened to be the first well known case of ” Same Name Confusions”, because singer Shyam Kumar had sung this song for actor Shyam and to complicate the issue, both were acting in that film. For the next 70 years, old film music lovers went on discussing vehemently whether the actor Shyam was the singer. Many authors, Internet sites and few books too credited the song to actor Shyam. Poor Shyam Kumar the singer !
Finally many film historians, genuine workers and writers dug up information details about singer Shyam Kumar and it was proved that the singer was Shyam Kumar and NOT actor Shyam. I have also discussed this case in my book published in 2018. I feel very sad that despite all this commotion about the confusion and the final clarification, many young lovers of old songs still assert and credit the song to actor Shyam !
Inspite of trying very hard, I could not get any information about this film, its story etc. However, in one of the 1942 issues of Film India Magazine, in one article, the Editor- Baburao Patel had said ” Recently I saw a picture- Dillagi. It was supposed to be a comedy, but the situations were far from being comic to evoke a laugh. Throughout the picture, I did not laugh even once, but at the end when the lights were on, I looked at Pt. Indra, writer of that comedy film ( he had invited us to see this film) and the tragedy of frustration reflected in his face excited real laughter. But then every Cinegoer can’t be lucky to have the writer sitting next to him ! ”
Film Dillagi-42 was made by Pragati Chitra, Bombay and was directed by Balwant Bhatt. The elder brother of Nanabhai Bhatt- Balwant Bhatt was born at Porbandar,Gujarat on 13-1-1909. Balwant started his career by assisting Naval Gandhi in 1930-31 and Pesi Karani at Imperial Film company and then N.B.Vakil at Sagar Studios in 1932.
A prolific director of second tier, action oriented films, Bhatt’s first film as a director was Royal Film Company’s 1932 silent thriller PASSING SHOW which featured popular stunt-film actor Navinchandra. He turned Director with the advent of Talkie films and joined Prakash Pictures with BAMBAI KI MOHINI [1934; aka: ACTRESS] starring Miss Panna and Miss Alaknanda. His last one was Nagin aur Sapera-1966. He directed 33 films, mostly stunt and C grade films.
Bhatt directed action star Fearless Nadia in DELHI EXPRESS (1949) and CIRCUSWALE (1950) as well as the comedian Bhagwan in JOKER (1949) and JODIDAR (1950), and even had opportunities to work with bigger name’s such as Bibbo in SUHAAG (1940), Maya Banerjee in MADHU SUDAN (1941), and Prithviraj Kapoor in AANKH KI SHARAM (1943). But the vast majority of Bhatt’s output were in the category of B-grade films.
He directed some Gujarati films like Sansar Leela, Seth Sagsha, Divadandi, Snehlata etc. He was the producer of Dillagi-1942, Gunehgar-53, Alif Laila-53, Sinbad the sailor-52, Son of Sinbad-58, Police Detective-60 etc. etc. Diwadandi-1950 became famous for its song-“Tari aankhni afini”, sung by Dilip Dholakia with music by Ajit Merchant. His film Mordhwaj-52 was the Debut film for MD Narayan Dutt. Balwant Bhatt died on 7-2-1965,at Bombay.
The cast of the film Dillagi-42 was Kumar, Hansa Wadkar, Anuradha, Gulab, Agha and Sushil Kumar.
The Music Director of Dillagi-42 was Pratap Mukherjee. I do not have any information about him except that he directed only 3 films, namely Dillagi-42, Tamasha-42 and Kisise na kehna-42 . Actress gulab was from kashmir. She can be called the first girl from Kashmir to work in Hindi films. Her real name was Saraswati Devi. She was born on 10-6-1908 at Jammu. She joined Krishna Film Company in 1924. Her first silent film ‘Krishna Kumar’ came in 1925. She worked in 60 silent films. Her last silent film was ‘Dagabaz Dushman’-32, made by East India Film co.Bombay.
Her first Talkie film was Suryakumari-33, made by Vishnu Cinetone. It was directed by Dhirubhai Desai. She sang one song ‘more preetam jab ghar aaye’ composed bu Kikubhai Yagnik. Then came Baburao Patel’s ‘Bala Joban’-34, Sewa Sadan-34 and Nai Duniya-34 ( Debut film of Rajkumari and Jayant). In this film Gulab sang 2 songs.
Gulab was very beautiful and quite popular in the film industry. Some of her films were Bambai ki sethani-35, Challenge-37, Bharosa-40, Pyas-41, Ek Raat-42, Station master-42, Gaali-44, Rattan-44, Mann ki jeet-44, Mirza Sahibaan-47, Lahore-49, Badi Behan-49, stage-51, Post Box 999-58, Chhabili-60 etc etc. She acted in 160 films. Her last film seems to be Haqeeqat-64. She also sang 22 songs in 11 films.
Today’s song is sung by Rafiq Ghaznavi and Anuradha. They were husband and wife. Actually Rafiq was not a known playback singer. I wonder how he came to sing a song in this film even though he was not working in it. May be due to the recommendation of his wife Anuradha, he got this song. Anuradha’s real name was Khurshid Akhtar and pet name was Sheedan. She was the younger sister of actress Zohra Jaan, who was Rafiq’s wife before her. Later, Rafiq left Anuradha also and married someone else.
Anyway, the song is nothing to write home about, because the singers were not professional singers. With this song film Dillagi-1942 makes its Debut on the Blog.
Song-Jab saamne tum aate ho (Dillagi)(1942) Singers-Rafiq Ghaznavi, Anuradha, Lyrics-Unknown, MD-Pratap Mukherjee
Lyrics
Jab saamne tum aate ho
Jab saamne tum aate ho
nainon se man mein samaate ho
nainon se man mein samaate ho
jab saamne tum aate ho
jab saamne tum aate ho
jeewan ka dukh sahna hai
jeewan ka dukh sahna hai
joban ke madhu(?) baina se
joban ke madhu (?) baina se
tumko dekha nain hanse ye
kya jaadoo kar jaate ho
tumko dekha nain hanse ye
kya jaadoo kar jaate ho
Jab saamne tum aate ho
Jab saamne tum aate ho
nainon se man mein samaate ho
nainon se man mein samaate ho
jab saamne tum aate ho
jab saamne tum aate ho
main kahna chaahoon kah na sakoon
main kahna chaahoon kah na sakoon
aur bina kahe main rah na sakoon
aur bina kahe main rah na sakoon
man ki meethhi meethhi baaten
man ki meethhi meethhi baaten
in aankhon ko sajaati ho kitnon ka ?? jagaati ho
in aankhon ko sajaati ho kitno ka ?? jagaati ho
jab saamne tum aate ho
jab saamne tum aate ho
nainon se man mein samaate ho
nainon se man mein samaate ho
jab saamne tum aate ho
Raat suhaani re raat suhaani
Posted on: September 15, 2021
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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4807 | Post No. : | 16575 |
Today’s song is from the film Armaan-1942.
I have found many times that film titles are given on the basis of the essence of the story – the result, the effort or even the relationship etc. It is expected that from the title itself, the movie fan should be able to guess the type of film or the story of the film. Some titles are straight forward like Baiju Bawra, Tansen, Jhansi ki Rani etc. Such films do not call for intelligence work to know about the film’s content. But when the titles like Armaan, Laalach, or Ladki are given, the fan has to scratch his head about the type of the story. Next help is from the cast of the film. Cast of a Stunt film is absolutely distinctive. The actors are fixed, not known to the general public and includes at least some actors with strange names like Chemis, Manchi Toothy or Bajarbattu etc. Initially, a Dilip kumar film used to be equated with a sad end due to Hero’s death. Nirupa Roy indicated a Religious film etc.
Even from the names of Directors one could guess about the type of films.For example, a film directed by Sohrab Modi meant extra long dialogues in pure urdu or Hindi, Historical story. Mehboob Khan meant a film on Nehruvian Socialism etc. From the names of Music Directors also one could fairly guess the type of film. Avinash Vyas or S.N.Tripathi means a Mythological film, Naushad or C.Ramchandra means musical entertainment etc.
There have hardly been any directors who handled films of different Genres. Tragedy, Comedy, Family film directors never tried historical and any Stunt film director never tried a family tear jerker. I can think of only one film director who directed films of different Genres like, Comedy, Tragedy, Family, Musical, Social evils and even a Mythological film. His name is Franz Osten- a Director from Bombay Talkies stable. And mind you, he did not know Hindi language-he had come from Germany ( he thought Bulbul means 2 Bulls !). May be that is why he could do it.
Film Armaan’s director was Kidar Sharma. He mostly did social films. I came to know about this autobiography much later than it was published posthumously – by his son in 2002. I bought the book sometime in 2015 or so. During the period 2012 to 2018, I bought books on cinema like a mad person. The result was, I ended up with 50 % useless books ! Initially I had no discretion and no knowledge as to which could be an useful book for me. Shortly ( and after spending a Ton !), I learnt the trick and became very selective. By the year 2018-2019, I became known to many writers and Historians. This resulted in getting recently published good books as gifts from various authors. This way I now have a reasonably good number of useful books. Some books I value very much like the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema by Rajadhyaksha and a few rare books. I have a collection of 6700 songs from films of the 30s and 40s only, some of them very rare. These are also gifted to me by friends and collectors across the continents. I got some books xeroxed. Our dear friend (late) Bharatbhai Upadhyay, Harish Raghuwanshi ji, Deepak Chaudhari and few more have been very helpful in xeroxing old, rare books.
The cast of the film Armaan-42 was Motilal, Shameem, Nagendra, Meera, Rajkumari, Rewa Shankar etc . Kedar Sharma mentioned in his book that Sardar Chandulal Shah, owner of Ranjit had warned him not to take Shameem as Heroine. The reason was, Shameem was the niece of actress-singer Khursheed, who was very jealous of Shameem. He feared that Khursheed may not work with Kidar, if she is taken as Heroine. Kidar was firm and took Shameem. However, Khursheed did work in Kidar’s film later on without any complaint.
Shamim was variously billed as Shamim, Miss Shamim, Shamim Bano and Shamim Akhtar, in different films. She was born on 11th September 1926 in Lahore. Her father was a General Merchant. She used to sing and act in school dramas. She completed her matriculation from Islamia Girls school, Lahore. In 1939, she visited Bombay along with her father. They accidentally met director G.R.Sethi, who encouraged Shamim to join films. She too was keen on joining films.
She debuted in the film Imaandar-1939. Then came Baghi-39, Niraali Duniya-40, Kanyadan-40,Jadui Nagari-40, Pyas-41, Dhandhora-41, Return of Toofan Mail-42, Mehmaan-42, Fariyaad-42, Armaan-42, Gauri-43, Bansari-43, Pehle Aap-44, Jwar Bhata-44, Sanyasi-45, Laaj-46, Samrat Ashok-47, Sindoor-47, Bhanwar-47, Shikarpri-47, Ratan Manjiri-48,Toote Taare-48 and Desh sewa-48. She also sang about 30 songs in 11 films.
After partition, she migrated to Pakistan with the family. There, she acted in 8 films- 6 Urdu and 2 Punjabi. Her first film Shahida-49 was a hit film and celebrated Silver jubilee. Even Do Ansoo-50 and Ghulam-53 were hit films. Shamim married Producer/Director Anwar Kemal Pasha. Shamim died on 23-10-1982 in Lahore. Shamim was niece of actress singer Khursheed Begum. Shamim’s younger sister Naseem was also an actress in India, but she died quite young, on 17-11-1946 at Bombay, in India only. This was reported in Film India magazine also.
The other interesting name in the cast is of Nagendra Majumdar-father of Ninu Majumdar, MD. Nagendra was born in a happy family in the year 1894 in Bombay. After his father died, “Pearl Dairy’ established by his father ran very well doing good business. Suddenly, Nagendra’s wife fell seriously ill and despite taking her full care, she expired. Due to neglect of the Dairy in this period, Dairy also closed down.
He shifted to Baroda and worked as a State Police Inspector.Later he worked as Watch and Ward Inspector in Baroda Railways. He left the job and started working as a hero in dramas of famous dramatist R.V.Desai. Heeralal, the owner of Laxmi Film Company, Bombay was impressed with his personality and took him to Bombay in 1926 to act in his silent films. Thus started his film career. In those days Silent films used to be completed within a month. He worked as a Hero in films of Laxmi, Jagdish and Imperial film companies.
In the same year, he directed a film ‘Paani mein aag’-1926, made by Royal Arts. Then came two more films made by Kaiser E Hind films. He also directed films for other companies. In all, he directed 15 Silent films by 1932. By then the Talkie had arrived. In the next 14 years he directed 12 Talkie films like – Ras Vilas-32, Sassi Punnu-32, Patit Pawan-33, mirza Sahibaan-33, Mera Imaan-34, Kala Wagh-34, Rangila nawab-35, Kimiyagar-36, Aaj ka Aladdin aka Aladdin II-36, Lehri lutera-37, Talwarwala-46 and Swadesh Sewa-46.
When offers for direction became few, he started acting in films. He acted in 12 films. When K L Saigal came to Bombay, Nagendra wanted to work with him. In the film Tansen-43, he did the role of Tansen’s (Saigal’s) father and he was very happy. Other films that he acted in were Kanchan-41,Beti-41, Khilauna-42, Bhakt Surdas-42, Armaan-42, Tansen-43, Gauri-43, Adab Arz-43, Bharthari-44, Prabhu ka Ghar-45, Ghazal-45 and Dhanna Bhagat-45.
His last 2 films came in 1946, but his health was not cooperating for quite a few years. He gave up work and took a rest. However, he suffered from paralysis and died on 22-8-1951. His son Ninu Majumdar worked in Bombay A.I.R. as head of Gujarati programmes, since 1937. By the time Nagendra died, Ninu had already started working as a Music Director.
As a Director, Nagendra had worked with the best of his times like, Master Vithal, Zubeida, Jillo, Billimorea brothers, Madhuri, Navinchandra, Durga Khote, Jairaj, Sultana, Noorjehan sr and such luminaries of those days. He had worked for Ranjit, Imperial, Sharda, Lakshmi, Jayant Desai films, Yagnik films etc etc.
( Information for this article is collated from various sources like Listener’s Bulletins No. 40 of Feb-80 and No.145 of July 2010, HFGK, muVyz, Sapnon ke Saudagar by Vithal Pandya, Silent films by Dr.Verma, Lost Treasures by Kamlakar P. and my notes.)
Today’s song is the second song from the film Armaan-42 to feature here.
Song- Raat suhani re raat suhaani (Armaan)(1942) Singer- Shamim Bano, Lyricist- Kedar Sharma, MD- Gyan Dutt
Lyrics
raat suhaani re
Raat suhaani
raat suhaani re
Raat suhaani
aao guniyyaan aao
aao guniyyaan aao
sunaayen prem kahaani re
kahaani
aao guniyyaan aao
sunaayen prem kahaani re
prem kahaani
Chaand sittaare re
chaand
Chaand sittaare re
chaand sitaare
hum saajan se door
hum saajan se door
sajanwa paas hamaare re
hamaare
hum saajan se door
sajanwa paas hamaare re
paas hamaare
sard hawaayen re
hawaayen
sard hawaayen re
sard hawaayen
phoonk(??) rahin hain tanman
phoonk(??) rahin hain tanman
saajan
thhandi aahen re
aahen
phoonk(??) rahin hain tanman
saajan
thhandi aahen re
thhandi aahen
mast jawaani re
mast
mast jawaani re
mast jawaani
bhanwron ka paighaam suno
bhanwron ka paighaam suno
kaliyon ki zabaani re
zabaani
bhanwron ka paighaam suno
kaliyon ki zabaani re
kaliyon ki zabaani
raat suhaani re
raat
raat suhaani re
raat suhaani
Naach naach re man pankhi
Posted on: September 4, 2021
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 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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4796 | Post No. : | 16557 | Movie Count : |
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‘Aawaaz’ (1942) was produced by Dadasaheb Torne under his banner, Saraswati Cinetone and was directed by Rafique Razvi. The star cast included Maya Bannerji, Wasti, Swarnlata, Danve, Kailash, Shantabai, Baby Anwari etc. Dadasaheb Torne set up Saraswati Cinetone in 1931 after the sound films came into being. His maiden sound film, ‘Shyamsundar’ (1932) completed silver jubilee run in Mumbai. ‘Aawaaz’ (1942) was the last film of Dadasaheb Torne.
I became aware of Dadasaheb Torne when his name had propped up prominently in many newspapers and magazines around the time of closing of the centenary celebrations of Indian films in May 3, 2013. The day was exactly 100 years after Dadasaheb Phalke’s first Indian film. ‘Raja Harishchandra’ was released. Vijay and Anil Torne, the sons of Dadasaheb Torne claimed that it was their father, Dadashaeb Torne who produced India’s first film ‘Shree Pundalik’ (1912) which was released in the Coronation theatre in central Mumbai on May 18, 1912.
A petition signed by many citizens including the family members of Dadasaheb Torne and Vikas Patil, the producer and the then Chairman of IMPPA was submitted to the then President, Pranab Mukherjee and others seeking the status to Dadasaheb Torne as the producer of the first Indian film ‘Shree Pundalik’ (1912). A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was also filed in Bombay High Court seeking the honour to Dadasaheb Torne for producing the first Indian film. Both the petition as well as PIL have cited the advertisement of the film which appeared in the Times of India dated May 25, 1912 and its screening in the Coronation Theatre. The film ran for two weeks.
I could not get to know whether any decision on the petition or the judgement on PIL came out. But judging by the intense debate in the print media those days on this issue, I do not think that the Government of India gave any final response to the petition.
There were many articles which appeared on this issue in various newspapers of that time such as the Times of India, Indian Express, DNA, Mid-Day etc. Based on the articles in these newspapers, I have summarised the points of arguments for and arguments against declaring ‘Shree Pundalik’ to be the first Indian film produced by Dadasaheb Torne which are as under:
Arguments in favour of ‘Shree Pundalik’ as the first Indian film
1. ‘Shree Pundalik’ was shot on a movie camera with a cameraman. The shooting script was written by Dadasaheb Torne and his friends, Ramrao Kirtikar and Nanasaheb Chitre.
2, Dadasaheb Torne directed ‘Shree Pundalik’ beside acting. Tipnis and Joshi also acted along with other actors. The shooting was done at the junction of the then Girgaon Road and Lamington Road. So, it was a location shooting.
3. The length of the film was 4000 feet, So, it was a feature-length film as per the standard of films those days.
4. Dadasaheb Torne was continuously associated with Indian films as a producer, director, editor, sound recordist and film distributors since 1912.
Arguments against ‘Shree Pundalik’ as the first Indian film.
1. ‘Shree Pundalik’ was a recording of a drama of the same name with a camera fixed on the stage. In other words, there were no camera movements, no close-ups and multiple angle shots. As against this, ‘Raja Harishchandra’ was filmed using the cinematic techniques. It was shot with a movie camera with multiple angles and in parts. All the parts were later joined together to make a full film (editing functions).
2. It is claimed that ‘Shree Pundalik’ was 1500 feet in length with a runtime of 22 minutes whereas the length of ‘Raja Harishchandra’ was 3700 feet with a runtime of 40 minutes.
3. For ‘Shree Pundalik’, the camera was operated by a Britisher, Johnson who took the raw film to London for processing. The negatives of the film is not available in India. The film’s positive print along with other related documents was lost during the Panshet dam flooding in Pune in 1961. ‘Raja Harishchandra’ was processed in India. In the words of Dadasheb Phalke, it was a complete swadeshi film.
4. Raja Harishchandra’ was made with a shooting script. Actors were specially selected for the film. Elaborate sets were designed both for indoor and outdoor shootings. Special costumes were designed for the actors. There were shooting schedules of about 4 weeks. In other words, all the important aspects of a film making – direction, camera movements, a couple of trick scenes, art work, costumes, lighting, editing etc were handled while making ‘Raja Harishchandra’.
Government of India continues to recognise ‘Raja Harishchandra’ as the first feature film made in India and Dadasaheb Phalke as the pioneer of Indian films.
A biographical book on Dadasaheb Torne was written in Marathi by Shashikant Kinikar, a film journalist which was published in 2007. After failing to get the book though I got some material from the preview of the book. I came across an article written by Kumar Kadam in Marathi in Maharashtra Times, dated April 23, 2012 giving a short biography of Dadasaheb Torne.
Ramchandra Gopal (Dadasaheb) Torne (13/04/1890 – 19/01/1960) was born in Sukalwad village, near Malwan in Sindhudurg district. At the age of 3, his father passed away plunging the family into poverty. As a result, Dadasaheb Torne did not complete his primary schooling.
Because of poverty, the family shifted to Mumbai. Soon, the young Dadasaheb went to Karachi with a friend and worked there in a shop learning job of an electrician. After about 6 months, he came back to Mumbai and joined Greaves Cotton in their Electric Department.
In Mumbai, once he attended the premier of the Marathi drama ‘Shree Pundalik’ staged by an amateur drama company. Soon, he became attracted to Marathi drama and joined Advocate Kirtikar’s Shripad Natak Mandali. Because of his multiple talents, he became one of the important members of the drama company.
At that time, the silent films from Hollywood were getting released in Mumbai which had become popular. Dadasaheb Torne’s mind was working on the conversion of Marathi drama, ‘Shree Pundalik’ into a silent film. He was in contact with his Hollywood friend to get the knowledge of making a film and the approximate cost thereof. His friend, Advocate Nanasaheb Chitre arranged for a movie camera and a British cameraman, Johnson. Thus, India’s first silent film ‘Shree Pundalik’ was produced and directed by Dadasaheb Torne which was released in Coronation Theatre on May 18, 1912. It ran for 2 weeks.
Soon after the release of ‘Shree Pundalik’, Greaves Cotton transferred Dadasaheb Torne to their Karachi office where he became friendly with Baburao Pai (He was the same Baburao Pai who became one of the partners of Prabhat Film Company and introduced Dev Anand in ‘Hum Ek Hain’, 1946). Both of them started the business of importing silent films from Hollywood for distribution in Karachi.
After a couple of years in Karachi, Dadasaheb Torne returned to Mumbai and spent 3-4 years in Kolhapur probably to learn the nuances of film making. During the first World War period, he came back to Mumbai and started a company dealing in cine equipment like camera, films and other accessories which were required for making films. His business boomed as many had started making silent films. In 1929, Dadasaheb Torne in partnership with Baburao Pai floated ‘Super Pictures’, a film distribution firm which made a lot of profit during the boom period of silent films.
In around 1927, sound films had made their presence in Hollywood. Dadasaheb foresaw the opportunity in doing business in sound equipment. With his American associates, he learnt the use of sound technology in films. When Ardeshir Irani was planning to make India’s first sound film, ‘Alam Ara’ (1931), Dadasaheb Torne provided him Bell & Havel movie camera and the sound equipment. He himself supervised the sound recording of ‘Alam Ara’ (1931) sitting with the Sound Recordist.
In 1932, Dadasaheb floated his own film production company, Saraswati Cinetone with a studio in Pune and produced its maiden sound film, ‘Shyam Sundar’ (1932). Under this banner, Dadasaheb made 20 films in Marathi and Hindi up to 1942.
The financial constraints forced Dadasaheb Torne to rent out his studio premises in Pune to one of his close associates (W Z Ahmed?). In 1947 in the wake of the partition, his associate mortgaged the premises to a bank by forging the signature of Dadasaheb Torne. Thereafter, he ran away to Pakistan with the money he raised and along with the expensive camera and other equipment. A shocked Dadasaheb got his first heart attack after which he decided to completely retire from the films. He stayed with his family in his bungalow in Shivaji Nagar, Pune until his death in January 19, 1960.
I feel very sorry for Dadasaheb Torne as he came so close to becoming the pioneer of Indian films, but lost the honour on technical points. He was a visionary man who foresaw the advent of silent and sound films well in advance and kept himself ready in learning the techniques of film making. His efforts need to be lauded as he came from a very poor family without even completing his primary education.
It is not known whether Dadasaheb Phalke had occasion to see ‘Shree Pundalik’. But he may be aware of the short comings of the film which could have facilitated him to improve upon while planning ‘Raja Harishchandra’. I feel that Dadashaeb Torne’s contributions to Indian cinema need to be recognised some way or the other – say by instituting an award for some film related activities. A road in Pune is named after him.
Coming back to the last film produced by Dadasaheb Torne, ‘Aawaaz’ (1942) had 10 songs written by Ramesh Gupta and Kaabil Amritsari. However, accreditation of lyricist of each song is not available. There were two music directors for the film – K C Verma and Sadashiv Neverekar. Again, accreditation for each song is not available. Sadashiv Narvekar was associated with Marathi films as a music director who composed Lata Mangeshkar’s first ever recorded song in a Marathi film, ‘Kiti Hasaal’ (1942).
I am presenting the first song ‘naach naach re man pankhi’ from ‘Aawaaz’ (1942) to appear on the Blog. The melodious song is sung by Rajkumari Dubey. An almost similar sounding tune was used in the mukhada of the song, nain dwaar se man mein wo aake in ‘Saawan’ (1959). But I guess that this has more to do with the same raag-based songs than getting inspired from the tune of the song under discussion.
With this song, ‘Aawaaz’ (1942) makes its debut on the Blog.
Audio Clip:
Song-Naach naach re man pankhi tere saajan aayenge(Aawaaz)(1942) Singer-Rajkumari, Lyricist-Kabil Amritsari/Ramesh Gupta, MD-K C Verma/ Sadashiv Nevrekar
Lyrics
naach naach re
naach naach re man pankhi
tere saajan aayenge
naach naach re man pankhi
tere saajan aayenge
phoolon ka chaadar sajaa le
phoolon ka chaadar sajaa le
aasha ke ae ae ae ae
aasha ke man deep jalaa le
aasha ke man deep jalaa le
(??) ko dhoond rahi hain ankhiyaan
(??)ko dhoond rahi hai ankhiyaan
kab saajan aayenge.. ae ae
kab saajan aayenge
naach naach re mann pankhi
tere saajan aayenge
jeewan ki ee ee ee
ho…. o
o o o o
aa aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aaa
jeewan ki ?? lehraaye
?? ankhiyan basaayen
manwa meethhe gaane aaye
gaane gaaye
gaane gaaye
manwa meethhe gaane aaye
kyaa
tere saajan aayenge
haan
aayenge
naach naach re mann pankhi
tere saajan aayenge
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 the film Rai Saheb-1942.
How many of us really know anything about the title ” Rai Saheb” ? I am sure most people may not know.
When the British were ruling a larger part of the world, they had a system of honouring special people for their Loyalty towards the Raj, or for those who had done some great work, those who worked for removing the social ills etc etc. To do this, these people were given special Titles. The British Royalty used to bestow honourable titles for extraordinary work in its Empire, like OBE (Order of British Empire), CBE,CSI and similar titles. Usually such titles used to be given to Royal people of its Empire like Kings, Rajahs, Maharajas etc etc. It was a great honour.
For larger kingdoms like India, titles sounding Indian were used for other important people. RAI SAHEB was one of the titles The next higher one was Rai Bahadur and the next was Dewan Bahadur. These were for Hindus. For Muslims and Parsis it was Khan Bahadur and for Sikhs it was Sardar Bahadur. So you see, the cunning Britishers tried to keep all religions separate from each other in every thing that they did, because this split was useful to them to rule Indians. ( In Maharashtra Rai Bahadur was called Rao Bahadur). Usually, these Rais and Bahadurs were rich people only.
So, film Rai Saheb-42 was a story involving a major role for a millionaire Rai Saheb. The film was the first ever effort of Producer Chhotubhai Desai, who was earlier the production Manager in the famous Wadia Movietone. The film was supposed to be a social comedy. It was a successful film, if you believe Baburao Patel’s comments in his popular magazine Film India. It was released on 16-5-1942 in Lamington Cinema, Bombay and ran for a long time. Baburao Patel’s good comments must have helped the film performance, I guess.
Made by Janak films, this movie was directed by S.M.Yusuf, for whom this was his 7th film as a Director,but first successful film of his career. S.M.Yusuf , born on 20-6-1910, was originally from U.P. and started his career by assisting directors in various studios. He was one cine artist who migrated to Pakistan and became a very successful director there too.
After Partition, several artistes-heroes,heroines,Directors,Comedians,lyricists,Composers, Singers and character artistes migrated to Pakistan. Almost 90% of them failed there miserably. Some of them like Meena Shorey shone for a while but ended up in penury and anonymity. Exceptions were like Malika -e-Tarannum Noorjahan. From the successful artistes,the major chunk was musicians-composers like Khurshid Anwar, Nissar Bazmi, Nashaad etc. Among the directors. S M Yusuf was one of the exceptions who succeeded. The migration of Cine artistes continued till 1965,when President General Ayub Khan banned Indian actors. Shaikh Mukhtar-1963 and Kumar-64 were probably the last to migrate to Pakistan. Till then some artistes like Sheila Ramani, Nasir Khan,Pran, Manorama, Composer Timir Baran etc went and worked in Pakistani films.
S.M.Yusuf started directing films in India from Bharat ke Laal-36. He directed 24 films like, Darban, Aina, Grihasthi, Saheli, Rai Saheb, Mehendi,Guru Ghantal, Bahurani, Maalik, Gujara, Hyderabad ki Nazneen,Bikhre Moti etc. He married actress Nigar Sultana. He also acted in a small role in the film Guzara-54.
In late 50’s he migrated to Pakistan with his talented son Director Iqbal Yousuf. His first film Saheli (1960) was a big hit of that time and was awarded in India also. It was a remake of his film Mehendi, made in India. He also made a remake of his film Ghumastha as Bahu Rani in Pakistan. Film Nek Perveen was a remake of same title film from India.His other films were Aulad, Dulhan, Honahar, Ashyana, Eid Mubarak, Suhagan, Zindagi aik safar hay, Shareek-e-Hayat, Bahu raani, Goonj uthi shehnai, Nek perveen and Haar gaya insaan.
When he went to Pakistan, he made his first film there -“Saheli”, which was a ditto remake of his own Hindi film- Mehendi-1950. This film Saheli became such a great hit that it virtually grabbed all major awards including a Nigar award for S M Yusuf himself. He made about 15 films in Pakistan,before he died on 17-8-1994, at Lahore,from where he had begun his career ! In his last years, he had settled in Canada, but he came to Pakistan on a visit, as if to die in his own place.
The music for film Rai Saheb-42 was by a pair of MDs- Madholal Master and Baldev Nayak, both from the early era of Talkie films. The cast of the film consisted of Jagdish Sethi, Rattanbai, Trilok Kapoor, Kaushalya, Gope, Dalpat, Mirza Musharraf, Kesarbai (she was the paternal aunt of actress Hansa Wadkar. She was instrumental in asking Hansa to join films to sustain her family. Her younger sister Indira Wadkar was also an actress in Hindi and Marathi films. Her youngest sister Susheelabai was the wife of Master Vinayak) and others.
The Heroine of the film was Kaushalya, who was barely 13 year old at the time of this film, but looked beautiful and older than her age. Kaushalya was born in 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 the 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, Rai Saheb, 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 to do 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. As a Heroine she had worked with Prithviraj Kapoor, Ulhas, Kumar, Ishwarlal, Trilok Kapoor etc.
The story of the film, as given in the Film India issue is as follows….
Manorama (Kaushalya) gets the news of her husband Prakash’s death in the city. After an enquiry, praksah’s parents all give up the hope and accept his death, but manorama is not ready to accept that prakash has died. She escapes from the village and goes to the city to find prakash. She changes her name to Shobha and joins a theatre as a dancer. Prakash is saved and adopted by a millionaire Rai Saheb (Jagdish Sethi) and his wife (Rattanbai) as his son-Ramesh. He meets Shobha in the dance theatre and they fall in love, not knowing that they are actually Husband-wife. After many ups and downs, they decide to get married and then come to know their own identities. All’s well that ends well.
With today’s song, film Rai Saheb-42 makes its Debut on this Blog.
Song-Jeet gayee jeet gayee jeet gayee main prem ki baazi jeet gayee (Rai Sahab)(1943) Singer-Kaushalya, Lyricist- Wahid Qureshi, MDs- Madholal Master and Baldev Nayak
Lyrics
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
main ae ae ae
prem ki baazi
jeet gayee
jeet gayee
jeet gayee
main ae ae ae
prem ki baazi
main roothhe pi ko
manaa aayi
main roothhe pi ko
manaa aayi
main soye bhaag jaga aayi
main soye bhaag jaga aayi
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
jeet gayee
main ae ae ae
prem ki baazi
jeet gayee
jeet gayee
jeet gayee
dil kahta thha
meri kismat mein kabhi khushi nahin hai
kismat ne chhala
muskuraayi
aur khilkhilaa kar hans padi
har raat ke baad ujaala
aur har dukh ke baad sukh ka aana zaroori hai
muhabbat ne apna jaadoo chalaaya
roothha hua preetam
prem ka bhikhaari ban kar aaya
aur aashaaon ke phool
nichhaawar kar gaya
dil ke saaz mein
geet machalne lage
dil ka toota hua aaina
phir jud gaya
wo dil ka darpan tod gaye thhey
wo dil ka darpan tod gaye thhey
dil ka darpan tod gaye thhey
mujhko rota chhod gaye thhey
mujhko rota chhod gaye thhey
main dil ke tukde jodoongi
main dil ke tukde jodoongi
par saathh na unka chhodoongi
par saathh na unka chhodoongi
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
Jeet Gayee
main ae ae ae
prem ki baazi
jeet gayee
jeet gayee
jeet gayee
Kisi se preet na kariyo koye
Posted on: August 5, 2021
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws
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4766 | Post No. : | 16514 | Movie Count : |
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Today’s song is from the film Phir Milenge-1942, a film made by Minerva Movietone and directed by Sohrab Modi. All the 9 songs of the film were written by Pt. Sudarshan and were composed by the Music Director Mir Sahab. The cast of the film consisted of Sardar Akhtar, Sadiq Ali, Meena (Shorey), K.N.Singh, Eruch Tarapore, Manakabai, Ghulam Hussain, Saadat Ali and many others. For the 9 songs 7 singers were used.
Director of the film-Sohrab Modi was married to Mehtab- daughter of Marium, the divorced wife of a small time Nawab from Gujarat and the step sister of Zubeida (Alam Ara fame), Sultana and Shahzadi, daughters of Fatima- the extra-wife of the same Nawab. The Heroine of the film became the wife of Mehboob- the famous director and the owner of Mehboob studios.
It is a well known established fact that in the early years, many women artistes came from lower classes, singing families or Tawaifs and similar types. Most of these girls joined the film line in order to get a rich Seth ji or a suitable husband and spend the rest of the life respectfully. There are many examples of such ‘planned’ marriages in the early era. However, this process continued even in later times.
Film industry is one industry where men and women have to work together. Whether it is an Actor-director or Singer-Composer, for the sake of work they have to spend much time together. No wonder then that Cupid does his work overtime. Sometimes there is mutual attraction and at times there are one sided fires burning. In most cases the one sided fire is extinguished in a very painful way, like what P L Santoshi faced with actress Rehana or the slap Sanjiv Kumar got from actress Nutan.
There were cases when the love of Dilip kumar for Madhubala, died in the High court witness Box, when he gave evidence against her father in the ‘ Naya Daur‘ legal case. Dev Anand’s love with Suraiyya ended happily for Dev Anand with him marrying Kalpana Kartik, but Suraiyya stayed “Unmarried”, in his ” yaad”, throughout her life. Here the villain was her so-called ” Grandmother “, who actually was her own mother, as documented in the book “Stars from another sky” by Saadat Hasan Manto !
The successful 2-way traffic usually ended with a marriage. We can see marriages between producers and Actresses( Himanshu Rai-Devika rani and W Z Khan and actress Nina), directors and singers/actresses ( Nalini jaywant-Virendra Desai, Shaukat Hussain-Noorjehan, Geeta Dutt-Guru Dutt, Lalita Pawar-G.P.Pawar, Rattanbai-Hafiz Khan), Actors and Actresses ( Arun Ahuja-Nirmala devi, Snehprabha Pradhan-Kishore Sahu, Dev Anand-Kalpana Kartik, Dharmendra- Hema Malini, Rajesh Khanna-Dimple Kapadiya, Amitabh Bachchan-Jaya, Abhishek-Aishwarya, Kishore Kumar-Madhubala, Premnath-Bina Rai, Karan Dewan-Manju Desai, Marutirao Pehlwan-Tara Devi.)
There were some odd combinations like Satyendranath Athiah-Bhanu Athaiya (Lyricist-Costume designer),Lyricist-Singer (Amar Verma-Manik Verma), Singer-villain (Shakti Kapoor- Shivangi Kolhapure),Music teacher-student ( Roshan-Ira Moitra, Hemant Kumar-Bela Mukherjee, C.Ramchandra-‘Ben’ Ratan Thakur), and even a singer-Orchestra player (Vinita Amladi-Krishna Chakravarty) and lastly between singer-singers ( Jyoti-G M Durani, Gauhar Karnataki- Bal Gandharva). There were those pairs who were singers-actors ( Amirbai- Himalayawala, Rafiq Gazanavi- Anwari bai).
The interesting group, however, was that of Composer-Singers ( Sudhir Phadke-Lalita Deulkar, Asha Bhosle-R D Burman, Naashad-Premlata, Anil Biswas-Meena Kapoor, Pannalal Ghosh-Parul Ghosh, Khayyam-Jagjit Kaur, Ghulam Haider-Umrao Zia begum, Kamal Dasgupta-Firoza begum, Ninu Majumdar-Kaumudi Munshi).
Additionally, there were some high profile marriages too like, Kardar- Bahar, Mehboob khan-Sardar Akhtar, Sardar Chandulal Shah- Gohar Mamajiwala, Sohrab Modi- Mehtab, Homi Wadia- Fearless Nadia, Zubeida sr – Raja Dhanrajgir, S.D.Narang- Smriti Biswas etc. etc. Each of these marriages has an interesting story behind it. Please note that all these lists quoted in this post are only indicative and not exhaustive. Many more pairs have remained unmentioned.
One of the artistes in the cast of this film is Menaka. She was one of the ” Same Name Confusion” pair, which was operative in the same period, causing severe confusion in their filmographies. These two Menakas caused solid confusion as one of them had worked in films made at Bombay and Calcutta.
Menaka/Menakabai / Menakabai Shirodkar ( Bombay )
—————————————————-
Menaka was born in Lahore in or around 1910. She was from a professional singer family and got training in classical singing. The family was originally from Belgaum and her maiden name was Menaka Belgaonkar. Later she was married and became Menaka Shirodkar.
At the age of 23-24 she landed in Bombay to try her luck in films. In those days such girls from singing families used to get into films easily, due to their singing capability. She joined Minerva and sang in their films, starting with Pukar-39,in which she got only one song.
She was more interested in classical singing and hence concentrated on singing more than acting. However, she did act in 5 films, in which she also sang.
After her film Gul Bakavli-47 she devoted her full time to singing and holding jalsas. Soon she became a known figure in singing circles. After marriage she had two daughters. One of them, Shobha became a famous singer and was known as Shobha Gurtu.
After her singing was over Menakabai Shirodkar-as she came to be known later- retired and settled in Ponda,Goa.
She died on 23-12-2003 at the age of around 93 years.
Filmography-
——————–
.
| Title | Comments |
|---|---|
| Pukar-39 | 1 solo song |
| Paak Daman-40 | Acting and 3 solos+ 1 Duet |
| Main Haari-40 | 1 solo, 2 Duets |
| Bharosa-40 | Acting and 2 solos, 1 Duet |
| Sikandar-41 | 1 solo |
| Ulti Ganga-42 | 1 solo, 1 Trio |
| Phir milenge-42 | Acting and 3 solos |
| Prithwi Vallabh-43 | 2 solos, 2 Duets and 1 Trio |
| Bhakta Raidas-43 | Acting and 1 Duet as Menakabai |
| Dr. Kumar-44 | 1 solo |
| Gul Bakavali-47 | Acting and 4 solos, a Duet..all as Menakabai |
Sadiq Ali- the Hero of this film was known as ” Prince of Minerva”. Sadiq Ali, was born on 6-10-1911 at Jalandhar, Punjab. His 2 cousins- Wazir Ali and Nazir Ali were famous Indian cricketers. Sadiq Ali completed his Engineering degree and worked in M.E.S. at Kanpur (Military Engg. Services). Due to strong desire to work in films and dramas, he resigned from his job after 5 years and joined Agha Hashr’s Drama company. When the company was closed, he joined The Burma Imperial film company at Rangoon. After few small roles, he came down to Bombay.
After working in some smaller companies, he joined Minerva Movietone. Starting with khan Bahadur-37, he worked in Minerva’s Pukar-39, Sikandar-41, Phir Milenge-42, Prithwiraj Sanyogita-43, Parakh-44 (only directed by Modi) and Ek din ka sultan-45, also in Sandesa-39,Black out, Duniya tumhari hai, Phir milenge, Lieutenant, Ulti Ganga, Patharon ke saudagar,Jagbeeti,Nishana, Do Naina, Manjhdar, Mitti etc. In all he acted in 23 films. His last film was Ever Ready-46. After partition, he migrated to Pakistan.
First film in Pakistan was Judai (1950 Shaheena,Nazar and Zeenat). Other film was Shola (1952).
Sadiq Ali was a very successful and famous actor before partition and got the title of Prince of Minerva. He acted in many films in India, but in Pakistan, Sadiq Ali could not be successful as he was in India.
He was paralyzed in the 60’s and could be seen sitting with a Pan shop in Capitol Cinema lane, Karachi. Died on 12-7-1977 in Karachi. In his last days, he was seen begging on the road.
Today’s song, sung by Sardar Akhtar is not sung like a professional singer, though she was one of the famous singers of Hiramandi Bazar of Lahore. I wonder how and why she sang 92 songs in 27 films. I never liked her songs. I think even Naseem Bano sang better than her in ” zindagi ka saaz bhi kya saaz hai”.
With this song, the film ‘Phir Milenge’ makes its Debut on this Blog.
Song- Kisi se preet na kariyo koye (Phir Milenge)(1942) Singer- Sardar Akhtar, Lyricist- Pt. Sudarshan, MD- Meer Saheb
Lyrics
Kisi se preet na kariyo koye
Kisi se preet na kariyo koye
preet jagat ka sundar dhokha
preet jagat ka sundar dhokha
preet kiye dukh hoye
kisi se preet kiye dukh hoye
kisi se preet na kariyo koye
preet patang kare deepak se
preet patang kare deepak se
phir peechhe pachhtaaye
phir peechhe pachhtaaye
deepak preet ki reet na jaane
deepak preet ki reet na jaane
tan man det jaraaye
Kisi se preet na kariyo koye
preet kanwal se bhramar kare hai
baithhe uthh kar jaaye ae
preet kanwal se bhramar kare hai
baithhe uthh kar jaaye ae
saanjh samay jab sot kamal jab
saanjh samay jab sot kamal jab
bhanwra jaan ganwaaye
Kisi se preet na kariyo koye
?? se neh lagaaye
?? kar lehraaye
?? se neh lagaaye
?? kar lehraaye
jhoome jhoole sudh budh bhoole
jhoome jhoole sudh budh bhoole
?? haath ??
Kisi se preet na kariyo koye
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 the film Duniya Tumhari hai-1942. This was a social film made by Pawar Pictures- owned by the Director G.P.aka Ganapatrao Pandurang Rao Pawar. The name G.P.Pawar instantly reminds us of Lalita Pawar. He was her first husband. Before and also after marriage Pawar was director of most films of Lalita Pawar. They had a son- Jai Pawar.
The marriage crashed on a rock, when Lalita discovered the love affair brewing between him and her younger sister. She immediately divorced him, but kept using the surname “Pawar” till the end , though she had married again. Their son Jay could never become an actor. He was a Producer of Parwana-71 and Manzil-79. Earlier he was assistant director during the film Mem Didi-61. His son too could never become an actor, though he tried hard.
The film’s Music Director was S N Tripathi and Lyricist was I.C.Kapoor. The cast was Kanta Kumari, B.Nandrekar, Madhukar Gupte, Sadiq, Ansari etc. There were 12 songs in the film.
In the Hindi film industry, in the early years, it was expected that the hero of a film must be tall, handsome, fair, strong and with an impressive personality. If not all, then most of the above qualities were expected in a Hero. Now, nobody can have ALL these qualities desired in one person. So slowly, the industry accepted the reality and instead of a tall, handsome etc etc Hero, compromises were made and his singing and acting ability became the desired qualities. Over a period, singing was dropped and only the histrionic capabilities became the desired quality and thus actors like Om Puri, Balraj Sahani, Shaikh Mukhtar, Nasiruddin Shah etc became Heroes and succeeded on the basis of their acting alone.
However, still the puppy faced, Chubby and Chocolate looking actors were popular. Actors like Pradeep Kumar, Karan Dewan, Bharat Bhushan etc. got dozens of films and the best and most beautiful Heroines, despite their lack of acting skills.
When I look back at different Heroes operating in Hindi films from 1931 onwards, I find that there were very few really handsome Heroes. I can quote names of at least 3 Heroes who were really handsome and attractive. They were B.Nandrekar, Najmul Hasan and Chandra Mohan.
There was an actor who easily transitioned from silent films to talkie films. This was B Nandrekar or Baba Saheb Dada saheb Nandrekar.
Nandrekar was one of the very few really handsome actors Hindi films ever had. He was born on 15th November 1910, in Sangli district of Maharashtra, near Kolhapur. Being a Muslim, he could speak Urdu/Hindi fluently. He completed his schooling from Kolhapur and joined films. Vishnupant Damle (one of the founder partners of Prabhat Films) was making silent film ‘Maharathi Karna’ (1928) for Maharashtra Film Co. He offered Nandrekar a role. Then he worked in other films like ‘Baji Prabhu Deshpande’ (1929), ‘Lanka’ (1930), ‘Kismet’ (1931) and ‘Dushman Ki Raat’ (1931).
His first talkie film was ‘Kurukshetra’ (1933). Prabhat gave him a role in ‘Sant Tukaram’ (1936) (its Hindi version came in 1948). He worked in ‘Amar Jyoti’ (1936) and became quite popular as a hero, opposite Shanta Apte. He was the hero in ‘Baghbaan’ (1938) opposite Sitara Devi.
In 1939, he became the first actor to go abroad to shoot scenes in the film ‘Africa In Hind’ – ‘हिन्द में अफ्रीका’ (1939). The shooting was done in Africa. Thus this became the first ever Hindi film to shoot in foreign country, and NOT film ‘Naaz’ (1954), as is popularly believed and also as mentioned in HFGK. Nandrekar had become very popular. The chappals he used in the film ‘Baghbaan’ became fashionable by the name ‘Nandrekar Chappals‘. This alone is enough to prove his popularity.
His lawsuit against Prabhat Film Company was a topic of discussion in the industry. There were differences between him and Prabhat over his contract with them. His lawyers were Mr. Jinnah and Mr. Setalwad, who won the case for him. He was also the first actor to work as a freelancer.
His sister Ameenabai was also an actress. Nandrekar acted in some Marathi films also.
Nandrekar appeared in 23 films. His films were ‘Kurukshetra’ (1933), ‘Amar Jyoti’ (1936), ‘Jaadugarin’ (1937) (UR), ‘Baghbaan’ (1938), ‘Africa In Hind’ (1939), ‘Qaidi’ (1940), ‘Hindustan Hamara’ (1940), ‘Alakh Niranjan’ (1940), ‘Chitralekha’ (1941), ‘Mamaji’ (1942), ‘Duniya Tumhari Hai’ (1942), ‘Nai Kahaani’ (1943), ‘Andhi Duniya’ (1943), ‘Swarn Bhoomi’ (1944), ‘Lady Doctor’ (1944), ‘Ismat’ (1944), ‘Bachpan’ (1945), ‘Kamla’ (1946), ‘Jeevan Sikho’ (1946), ‘Parshuram’ (1947), ‘Meri Amaanat’ (1947), ‘Khandani’ (1947), ‘Sant Tukaram’ (1948) and last film ‘Bihari’ (1948).
He passed away in 1949. No definite information is available about his demise.
One more interesting personality in this film was Ansari. Nisar Ahmed Ansari was the son of the late Dr. Ameer Ahmed Ansari. He was born on 29-8-1917 at Jhansi. His father had been serving in the Military for 11 years and he expired in 1938. He was well known in Jhansi as he practiced there for 40 years.
Ansari matriculated from Allahabad University in 1933. In 1935, he passed his Inter from Aligadh. By 1939 he was a graduate of Bombay University. He was keen to join films and in this, Mehboob khan helped him by recommending him for film Aasra-40, made by National Studios. It was directed by Mehboob’s assistant Chimanlal Gandhi.
By watching him, no one can ever visualise that a suave and respectable man like him can be a scheming villain . Competition for him was tough, initially when he joined the film industry, as there were many character actors already there, who were specialists in negative roles . But young and energetic Nisar Ahmad Ansari had faith in his potential .
He believed that it was not necessary that a villain should have thick eyebrows with roving eyes and have a permanent frown on his face. A person having negative traits may have a smiling face also ,to conceal his evil designs . Therefore in most of his movies, he was a well dressed person ,always beaming and had a friendly smile on his face. In his films, he used to be boss of a criminal syndicate and have an army of foot soldiers who carried out dirty work on his behalf. To keep a distance between master and servant, instead of calling them by their name he used to call his cronies by their allotted numbers like Number Ten Or Number Five.
With a hit movie ‘Mangu’, he became a director and later directed many successful movies like Black Cat, Tower House, Mr Lamboo, Zara Bach Ke, Wanted etc for various producers and after he established his own banner Bundel Khand Films, he made many memorable movies. Although he had to look after his own company and permanent staff ,he did not disappoint other filmmakers ,who wanted to have him in their movies in the role of villain. It is a fact that it was his Black Cat which helped G P Sippy to be a part of the league of big producers, but it is also true, Mr Sippy forgot him later and never acknowledged Mr Ansari’s contribution .
Mr N A Ansari, was essentially a dedicated film maker and had no false illusions about his own capabilities. His movies were never lavishly made and had average production value ,but it did not deter his fans and sizable majority of film viewers ,who adored him and his pictures to patronise his movies. Those who love the movies of the golden age, fondly remember his movies which used to have him in the role of villain, beside good music, suspense, comedy, dance with a plausible story and a strong message for society, that “Crime Never Pays”.
With producer/actor Sheikh Mukhtar, Nisar Ahmad Ansari had earlier worked as an actor in Dada, Dara & Ustad Pedro. Sheikh Mukhtar, aware of Ansari’s capability ,in 1954, offered him Mangu to direct. The big success of Mangu was a game changer for Ansari & O P Nayyar. They both were immensely benefited with the favourable outcome of the movie & it’s music. Mangu had predictable Jodi of Sheikh Mukhtar & Mukri ,with Nigar Sultana ,Sheila Ramani & Ansari himself, as a suave villain. Mangu had a breathtaking, thrilling climax, involving the speeding train. Some real shots, a few stock shots & rest studio shots with back projections (Aadhi Haqeeqat ,Aadha Fasana ),made the climax awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, the movie could not be preserved & the present generation has been deprived of witnessing Ansari’s first effort as director. Mangu is one of the most searched movies on youtube.
He again directed Mr Lambu, a big success, for Sheikh Mukhtar. This time with the classic beauty Suraiyya with music by O P Nayyar, but a similar tragedy happened, again. No print of the movie is available. In almost all his films N.A.Ansari played the role of an urbane & sophisticated Don. He always appeared, well dressed in impeccably tailored suits, fedora, trade mark pipe between his teeth & walking stick, in his hand.
Beside Sheikh Mukhtar,he directed movies, like Black Cat,Tower House,Jara Bach Ke,Wanted for other producers and playing the main villain .He had no qualm for working in the movies directed by other film makers & in this category, movies like Private Secretary,Fareb ,Do Thug ,Khota Paisa, Gunda,Ustad 420,Gunahon Ke Raaste can be named. Under his own banner Bundel khand Films he made Wahan Ke Log,Mulzim,Zindagi Aur Maut,Mr Murder, Jurm Aur Sazaa and Noor E Ilahi. The last one being his last production in 1976 & then he decided to hang his boots.It was a big journey for Ansari,who was discovered by Mehboob & given a role in Aasra, released in 1941.
He could not say “No” to film maker Sultan Ahmad,when he insisted him to appear in Dharam Kanta (1982 ) & later in Jai Vikranta. N.A.Ansari closed his eyes for ever on 11 Jan 1993, in Canada, thousands of kilometres away from his beloved city Jhansi ,much before the release of his last movie Jai Vikranta in 1995. As an actor he did roles in 77 films, starting with Aasra-41. He directed 11 films, from Mangu-54 to Jurm aur Saza-74.
(Based on information from Filmdom-46 and an article by M.N.Sardana ji, with thanks.)
With today’s song, film Duniya tumhari hai-1942 makes its Debut on this Blog.
Song- Hansi rahegi labon per jahaan rahe na rahe (Duniya Tumhaari Hai)(1942) Singer- Khan Mastana, Lyricist- Ishwar Chand Kapoor, MD- S N Tripathi
Lyrics
Hansi rahegi labon per
jahaan rahe na rahe
Hansi rahegi labon per
jahaan rahe na rahe
zameen rahe na rahe
zameen rahe na rahe
aasmaan rahe na rahe
haan
zameen rahe na rahe
aasmaan rahe na rahe
kam na hoga kabhi
shauk tere sijdon(??) ka
kam na hoga kabhi
shauk tere sijdon(??) ka
zameen rahe na rahe
zameen rahe na rahe
aasmaan rahe na rahe
haan
zameen rahe na rahe
aasmaan rahe na rahe
hansi rahegi labon pe
jahaan rahe na rahe
hansi rahegi labon pe
jahaan rahe na rahe
zameen rahe na rahe
zameen rahe na rahe
aasmaan rahe na rahe
ek apni duniya niraali
basaayenge dil mein
ek apni duniya niraali
basaayenge dil mein
bala se apni ye
bala se apni ye
saara jahaan rahe na rahe
haan bala se apni ye
saara jahaan rahe na rahe
udaas (??) chain se ujdi chaman mein bulbul ki
udaas (??) chain se ujdi chaman mein bulbul ki
bahaar aayi hai ab
bahaar aayi hai ab
aashiyaan rahe na rahe
haan
bahaar aayi hai ab
aashiyaan rahe na rahe
hansi rahegi labon par
jahaan rahe na rahe
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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