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

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 two years or so, I have been working on a major exercise of presenting rare songs from films released in the 1940s on the Blog. In the process, I became aware of some of the productions houses (called banners), producers, directors, actors, singers, lyricists and music directors etc that were unknown to me earlier. One of the little known banners which I came to know about during the last few months was Sunrise Pictures. But I had no idea about the owner/s of this banner.

A notable feature of Sunrise Pictures was that they produced on an average 2-3 film per year during 1940s. The films under this banner were mostly directed by V M Vyas. In most of the films produced under this banner, the lead actors would be the top stars of that time. With this kind of background, I thought that the owner of Sunrise Pictures must be a wealthy man – a film financier/distributor who has now turned producer. But as I came to know later, it was not so.

The owner of Sunrise Pictures was none other than V M Vyas who had directed most of his films. I was surprised to know that V M Vyas did not have any filmy connection nor was he a wealthy man. He did not have any godfather in the film industry. His was one of those rags-to-riches stories who made a place for themselves in the Hindi film industry by hard work despite having some weak points. He had a very peculiar personality. He was a lean and fragile looking man. His friends – both personal and filmy – used to feel that he was half crank if not full. And above all, he was miser to the core. Let me unfold his interesting but inspiring life story.

Vishnukumar Maganlal Vyas (4/10/1905 -24/01/1962) was born in Ahmedabad. He did his schooling in Native High School Ahmadabad. During his schooling days, he did all sorts of odd jobs. After completion of schooling, he started working as a tabla-player and singer during the screening of silent films in theatres. Later on, he decided to become a photographer. His photography work was not generating enough money in Ahmedabad. Through his friends working with M/S J K Pathak & Co, machinery dealers in Ahmedabad, he got a job in their Bombay (Mumbai) Office which was located opposite Majestic Cinema. So the young V M Vyas commenced his journey to Mumbai some time in 1925.

Every day, V M Vyas used to see from the balcony of his office, the week-end crowd of filmgoers coming out from Majestic cinema. Perhaps, he was day dreaming that one day a much bigger crowd would come to see his films. But for his friends, V M Vyas was nothing less than half-crank. He soon managed to get a billet in terms of a job as an Assistant to Bhogilal Dave, the boss of Sharda Film Company. Here, he clandestinely learnt the film camera operation.

Soon V M Vyas left Saroj Films and joined Kohinoor Film Company as Cameraman. He was the Cinematographer for the silent movies like ‘Ulfat-e-Mohammed’ (1929), ‘Roaring Lion’ (1929), “Punya Prabhav’ (1929) and ‘Lutaru Lalna’ (1929). He was promoted to direct Kohinoor’s silent movie ‘Dukhiyari’ (1930).

With the coming of talkies in 1931, V M Vyas turned producer with setting up his own banner, Kumar Movietone. His first film under this banner was ‘Saubhagya Laxmi’ (1934) which he himself directed. He produced about 10 more films under this banner some of which were box office success some were not. When some of his pictures failed at the box office, he had problems with his financiers. So he was kept out of his own banner, Kumar Movietone.

But V M Vyas was not a man who would easily concede defeat. He formed another banner called Prince Movietone. Under this banner he produced and directed some films which were not well received at the box office. He soon found himself on a financial crunch. To come out of it, he joined Tarun Pictures and took some directorial assignments. It was a period of transition for him to evaluate himself as to what went wrong with his business strategies. As a director, films which brought him once again into the focus was ‘Kanyadaan’ (1940), ‘Niraali Duniya’ (1940) and ‘Prabhat’ (1941) which did well at the box office.

With his directorial successes, V M Vyas got bitten by bug of producing films in his third attempt. He formed his new banner called ‘Sunrise Pictures’. The first film under this banner, ‘Ghar Ki Laaj’ (1941), directed by him was completed in less than six weeks. The film became a box office hit. With this film, V M Vyas had a long and a successful filmy career as producer and director under his new banner.

With the success of ‘Ghar Ki Laaj’ (1943), V M Vyas became a pioneering film maker with social themes. Some of the reviews of his films which I have read in ‘Filmindia’ magazines indicate that his success formula was based on poor-rich conflicts. In such films, hero is shown as poor who loves a rich girl. And sometime, it is vice-versa. Baburao Patel, the editor of ‘Filmindia’ called V M Vyas’s films as ‘Vyas-Dave concotion’. Mohanlal Dave was a story, screen-play and dialogue writer in almost all the films produced and directed by V M Vyas who was associated with him since his days in Kohinoor Movietone. Mohanlal Dave always got the prominent place as M G Dave, the story writer in the advertisement of all the films.

Under Sunrise Pictures, V M Vyas produced and directed around 20 films out of which as many as 12 films were silver jubilee hits. He capitalised this factor for financing his films. He always used financiers/distributors’ money to produce the films. According to Manto, V M Vyas’s strategy was to sign only those actors whose current films have become box office success. While making his film ‘Naukar’ (1943), he signed Shobhna Samarth, Chandra Mohan and Nur Jahan who were in demand due to the box office successes of their respective films. With thse names, the financiers and distributors would come running to him to finance and distribute the films.

Normally, V M Vyas would direct his own films. But in case of ‘Naukar’ (1943), he signed Shaukat Hussain Rizvi as director knowing that he had developed a crush for Noor Jahan while directing her in ‘Khandaan’ (1942). Actually, at the time of planning ‘Naukar’ (1943), they were not on talking term. When they patched up, more monetary demands were made by both of them which V M Vyas successfully thwarted. The film failed at the box office but after the completion of the film, Noor Jahan and Shaukat Hussain Rizvi got married.

V M Vyas was known for not only about his cranky behaviour, he was also known to be miser to the core. During the shooting, he would advise his actors to rehearse well before the actual shot because he would like to complete the shot in a single take to save cost on raw film stocks and also to save time. Even the lighting on the sets would be low while taking the shot as this would save cost. Being a cinematographer himself, he knew the technique of taking shots in low light.

V M Vyas was a Vaishnavist Brahmin and as such he would offer simple vegetarian lunch to his actors and technicians during the lunch break. For additional items and for non-vegetarian, actors were required to bear the cost on their own account. And this was applicable even to the stars like Noor Jahan, Veena, Nazir, Chandra Mohan, Yakub, Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Premnath etc.

During his talkie filmy career, V M Vyas had produced/directed around 40 Hindi films. Some of his notable films were ‘Prabhat’ (1941), ‘Ghar Ki Laaj’ (1941), ‘Ghar Sansar’ (1942), ’Apna Ghar’ (1942) ‘Maa Baap’ (1944), ‘Ghar’ (1945), ‘Dhanwaan’ (1946). ‘Pyaar’ (1950). ‘Sanskaar’ (1952), ‘Ghar Sansaar’ (1958), ‘Ghar Ki Laaj’ (1960), ‘Maa Baap’ (1960). ‘Apsara’ (1961) was his last Hindi film which he directed. From 1958 onward, V M Vyas did not produce any films under his banner but took directorial assignments.

V M Vyas was also involved with Gujarati films. His first Gujarati film was ‘Raanakdevi’ (1946) in which he introduced Nirupa Roy. In all, he directed 12 Gujarati films which included ‘Bhaabi Na Het’ (1948), ‘Guniyal Gujaraatan’ (1949) and ‘Naag Devata’ (1955) etc. His last Gujarati film was ‘Narsaiya Ni Hundi’ (1961).

At the time of making his second film ‘Maalan’ (1942) under ‘Sunrise Pictures’, he was the owner of at least 10 buildings in Mumbai city. Being a man of simple habit and thrift, he had saved a lot of money. When the life had become good for V M Vyas to relax and enjoy the fruits of his hard work, an Income Tax raid in his house sometime in 1961 shocked him to such an extent that he was hospitalised. He never recovered from the shock and left this world on January 24, 1962.

V M Vyas produced and directed “Maalan’ (1942), his second film under the banner of Sunrise Pictures. The star cast included Shanta Hublikar, Balwant Singh, Ratan Bai, Jagdish Sethi, Mirza Musharaf, Kalyani Bai, But Kashar, Alaknanda etc.

The film had 9 songs, all written by Ehsan Rizvi which were set to music by Shyam Babu Pathak. I am presenting the first song ‘haan saajan aaye shobhe rain sukh chhaaye’ from the film to appear on the Blog. The song is rendered by Ratan Bai. Since the name of Ratan Bai appears in the cast, it is apparent that she sang the song for herself in the film.

I like this song for having a poignant touch on a happy occasion. And because of this attribute, I remember a song of similar mood tum aaye to aaya mujhe yaad gali mein aaj chaand nikla which is also my favourite. How aptly the lyricists have used metaphors of ‘Deewaali’ and ‘Chaand’ respectively for the arrival of beloved/husband.

With this song, the film ‘Maalan’ (1942) makes its debut in the Blog.

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Sources of information for the article:

1. The relevant information on Sunrise Films and V M Vyas gathered from the various issues of ‘Filmindia’ magazines of 1937-49 including a short write-up on V M Vyas which appeared in December 1941 issue.

2. Sadat Hasan Manto’s book ‘Stars from another sky’ (2014) – Chapter on ‘Noor Jahan’ in which the author discusses the making of V M Vyas’s film ‘Naukar’ (1943).

3. I am grateful to Harish Raghuwanshi ji, the film historian who provided me with a copy of his article on V M Vyas written in Gujarati andpublished on April 24, 2009. His article enabled me to provide some missing links to the filmy career of V M Vyas.

Song-Haan saajan aaye (Maalan)(1942) Singer-Ratan Bai, Lyrics-Ehsan Rizvi, MD-Shyam Babu Pathak

Lyrics

haan saajan aaye..e
ae
haan saajan aaye..e ae
sohe rain sukh chhaaye
deewaali aaj aayi
deewaali aaj aayi
aashaaon ne deep jalaaye
aashaaon ne deep jalaaye
haan saajan aaye..e
ae
haan saajan aaye..e
sohe rain
sukh chhaaye
deewaali aaj aayi
deewaali aaj aayi

man darpan hai ab ujiyaara
man darpan hai ab ujiyaara
preetam bin kyaa roop hamaara
preetam bin kyaa roop hamaara
haan preetam jeewan laaye
haan preetam jeewan laaye
shobhe rain
sukh chhaaye
deewaali aaj aayi
deewaali aaj aayi

roothhe huye ko main ghar laayi
roothhe huye ko main ghar laayi
man ki jeet huyi hai aaj
man ki jeet huyi hai aaj
haan aaye
saajan aaye..e ae
haan
aaye saajan aaye..e
sohe rain
sukh chhaaye
deewaali aaj aayi
deewaali aaj aayi
haan saajan aaye..e
ae
haan saajan aaye..e
sohe rain
sukh chhaaye
deewaali aaj aayi
deewaali aaj aayi