Archive for the ‘Songs of 1942’ Category
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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Blog Day : |
4750 | Post No. : | 16485 |
The tale of two brothers – Hafiz Khan and Aziz Khan, sons of the Ustad Waheed Khan of Etawaha Gharana is not only saddening but also contrasting in the end. After a promising start in Hindi films as a playback singer and the music director in the 1940s, Hafiz Khan died in 1972 in extreme poverty. Aziz Khan, on the other hand, after a brief stint with Hindi film industry as a music director, reverted to playing Sitar and trained his son, Ustad Parvez Khan who is now an internationally well-known Sitar player.
Etawaha Gharana popularised the Sitar and Surbahar and Ustad Waheed Khan was a famous exponent of both these musical instruments. He appeared in Satyajit Ray’s ‘Jalsaagar (1958) in which he can be seen playing Raag Bihaag on Surbahar in one of the scenes of the film. Ustad Waheed Khan was a court musician at the court of Holkar of Indore for 18 years, in the court of Maharaja of Patiala for 3 years and later in the court of Nizam of Hyderabad until 1948. Naturally, he wanted his two sons to continue the Gharana tradition of playing Sitar and Surbahar. With this aim in mind, Ustad Waheed Khan gave extensive training in Sitar, Surbahar and vocal music to his two sons. At the age of around 12 , Hafiz Khan was sent to Kolkata to receive further training in Sitar and Surbahar from his uncle, Ustad Inayat Khan (father of sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan) who found Hafiz Khan to be a promising student of Sitar and Surbahar. He used to accompany his uncle in his sitar/surbahar concerts.
In Kolkata, Hafiz Khan got mesmerised with the songs of K L Saigal and Pankaj Mullick. He was now more interested in becoming a singer in Hindi films than learning Sitar and Surbahar. On a visit to Hyderabad to spend some time with his father who had then become a court musician in the court of Nizam, Hafiz Khan got a chance to sing songs on Hyderabad Radio. Knowing fully well of his father’s strong aversion to film songs, he had to sing on the radio without revealing his name. He got some money for his singing on the radio.
Knowing that his father would never allow him to sing for Hindi films, one day Hafiz Khan ran away from Hyderabad with his money earned from radio singing to Mumbai some time in 1934. After doing some odd jobs in the film studio including small roles as actor, producer Chandrarao Kadam, who was producing ‘Bahadur Kisaan’(1938) for which Mir Sahab was entrusted with the music direction, gave him a chance to sing a solo song ‘baalam gaye pardes ri sajni’ which became his debut playback song in a film. With this song, Hafiz Khan became known as a singer. Since he wanted to hide his name associated with film songs from his father, Mir Sahab gave him a new name ‘Khan Mastana’ keeping in view his jolly nature.
After the release of ‘Bahadur Kissan’ (1938), Mir Sahab joined Minerva Movietone as the music director. He also took Khan Mastana to Minerva Movietone where he was taken as a playback singer on a 3-year contract. During this period, he sang songs in ‘Jailor’ (1938), ‘Talaaq’ (1938), ‘Pukaar’ (1939) ‘Main Haari’ (1940), etc. His songs from these films raised his popularity graph. During the last year of the contract with Minerva Movietone, Sohrab Modi wanted him to play sitar in addition to his contract as playback singer. Khan Mastana refused to play sitar as he did not wish to become a musician. He left Minerva Movietone. By that time, he had also got an offer from a film producer to work as a music director (probably for ‘Virginia’, 1940). Since Sohrab Modi did not want to lose Khan Mastana, he gave him a chance as a music director in his film ‘Vasiyat’ (1940) which he accepted as a free-lancer.
In around 1945, Khan Mastana’s younger brother, Aziz Khan had also joined Bombay film industry as a music director. To conceal his identity for his association with films, he had also changed his name to ‘Aziz Hindi’. By 1947, Khan Mastana had become a top male playback singer next only to G M Durrani and had given music direction to as many as 23 films. Everything was going very fine in his filmy career. He had money, fame and the luxury of staying in any one of his 5 flats in Mumbai. But his misfortune started when he paid a visit to Hyderabad sometime in 1947. His father who was a court musician at that time with Nizam, did not allow him to return to Mumbai. Instead, he pressurized Khan Mastana to learn classical music and sing in front of him rather than in the films. This continued for almost a year which led to delay in films for which he was committed to complete the recording of the songs as playback singer and as a music director. The producers of such films had to engage some other music directors to complete their films. Khan Mastana’s unprofessional attitude resulted in losing some prospective films as the music director.
In early 1948, Khan Mastana once again ran away from Hyderabad for Mumbai. One year of the absence from the film industry is sufficient for a film artist to be forgotten. Khan Mastana managed to get some playback singing assignments to re-establish himself in the film industry. One of the songs in which he sang with Mohammed Rafi was ‘watan ki raah pe watan ke naujawaan shahid ho’ from ‘Shaheed’ (1948) which became very popular. When Khan Mastana has just settled down in the film industry mainly as a playback singer in his second innings, his father came to Mumbai and forcibly took him ( also his brother, Aziz Khan) back to Hyderabad. This time, he was trapped in Hyderabad for about 2 years.
When Khan Mastana returned to Mumbai after 2 years – probably in 1951, he had not only faced the wrath of producers and music directors for his unprofessional behaviour, he had to face stiff competition of emerging playback singers like Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh, Talat Mehmood and Manna Dey. Some new music directors had also emerged during his absence who were happy with the emerging playback singers. Khan Mastana realised that his days as playback singer and the music director were over. In his third inning in film industry, he could get only a handful of songs to sing. He sang his last song as a playback singer, zindagi hai yaa koi toofaan hai in ‘Zindagi Yaa Toofaan’ (1958) which became his swan song.
From the mid 1950s up to his death in March 1972, Khan Mastana lived a life of extreme poverty. During his heydays, he lavishly spent money on his friends who also made him addicted to some vices including drinking. So, he had not saved money for the future. He was staying with his family in a small room mocated in a lane adjunct to Mahim Dargah. He had got afflicted with paralysis in 1966. His only son got similar affliction at the age of 14.
Khan Mastana who had sung nearly 150 songs, composed music in around 30 films besides acting in around 10 films died unsung in abject poverty in March 1972.
What a sad end of a lineage from the Etawah Gharana. His nephew, Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan (son of his brother, Aziz Khan) who is an accomplished sitar player of international repute is of the view that going by the recordings of his uncle’s Hindustani classical renditions and sitar/surbahar recitals available with the family’s archive, Khan Mastana would have become one of the leading exponents of Hindustani classical music if he had concentrated on playing Sitar/Surbahar and as a classical vocalist rather than in the Hindi film industry.
‘Muqabala’ (1942) was one of the films of Khan Mastana’s heydays for which he was not only the music director, he also sang for himself in the film and also provided playback singing for other actors. This film seems to have been produced at a time when Wadia Movietone was in the verge of a split between Wadia Brothers. The film was made under the banner of J B H Wadia Productions but it was a Homi Wadia presentation. The film was jointly directed by Batuk Bhatt (Nanabhai Bhatt) and Babubhai Mistry. The star cast included Nadia and Yaqub in the lead role supported by Srinivas, Rajni, Dalpat, Nazira, Agha, Jal Khambata, M K Hasan, Baby Madhuri etc.
The film had 9 songs of which 3 songs have been covred in the Blog. All the songs were written by A Karim. I am presenting the film’s 4th song, ‘mujrim hoon mohabbat ka jo chaahe saza dena’ which is picturised on Yaqub. Agha is also seen in the song picturization.
Almost all on-line resources mention Yaqub as the singer. But it is apparent that the voice in the song is that of Khan Mastana.
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Acknowledgement: Sometime last year, one of my friends sent me a photocopy of an article written by Madhup Sharma which was published in Hindi magazine, ‘Madhuri’ in 1969. This article was based on the interview the author had taken with Khan Mastana in his house. Much of the information about Khan Mastana in my article is based on this source with some updates.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Mujrim hoon mohabbat ka jo chaahe sazaa dena (Muqaabla)(1942) Singer-Khan Mastana, Lyrics-A Karim, MD-Khan Mastana
Lyrics
aa aa aa
haaa haaa
aaaa aaaaa
mujrim hoon mohabbat ka
jo chaahe saza dena
mujrim hoon mohabbat ka
jo chaahe saza dena
mujrim hoon mohabbat ka aa aa
haan aan
jo chaahe saza dena aa aa
par yaad rahe itna
dil se na bhula dena
par yaad rahe itna
dil se na bhula dena
main dil tumhen deta..aa hoon
lekin kahe deta hoo..n
main dil tumhen deta hoon
lekin kahe deta hoon
mujhko to mitaaya hai
isko na mita dena
mujhko to mitaaya hai
dil ko na mita dena
aaraam na hai din ko….o o o o
aur neend na raaton ko…o o o o
aaraam na hai din ko
aur neend na raaton ko..o o o
beemaar kiya tumne
ab tum hi dawa dena
beemaar kiya tumne
ab tum hi dawa dena
wo guzri huyi baaten
raaton ki mulaakaaten
wo guzri huyi baaten
raaton ki mulaakaat..en
bhoole se jo yaad aaye
do aansoo baha dena
bhoole se jo yaad aaye
do aansoo baha dena
mujrim hoon mohabbat ka
jo chaahe saza dena
par yaad rahe itna
dil se na bhula dena
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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Blog Day : |
4688 | Post No. : | 16372 |
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Blog 10-Year Challenge (2011-2021) – Song No. 23
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This day ten years ago (19 may 2011) saw four songs being covered in the blog. That month of may 2011 was seemingly a month when I was not in a position to discuss songs with the same regularily and rate that I used to achieve in the past. My guess is that summer vacations were on at that time. My school going daughter, my ife and our three pets had joined me at Nagpur and that as the reason for less number of posts in this month. With the benefit of hindsight, even that rate that I managed to achieve in this month ten years ago makes that month seems like a prolific month vis a vis the same month ten years later. 107 songs were covered in may 2011, whereas 18 days of the corresponsing month this year has seen only 26 songs getting covered in first 18 days of the month of may 2021.
Here are the details of the four songs covered in the blog on 19 may 2011:-
| Blog post number | Song | Movie (Year) | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3904 | Ham apne dard ka kissa sunaaye jaate hain | Muqabala (1942) | Two songs covered by now out of nine |
| 3905 | Aasmaan se door taaraa ho gaya | Darogaji(1949) | Eleven songs covered out of 12. Final song unavailable |
| 3906 | Aaya re aaya re mera jaane bahaar aayaa | Insaaf(1966) | 2 songs covered by now out of six |
| 3907 | Naseeb hoga mera meharbaan kabhi na kabhi | Chaalis Din(1959) | 5 songs covered by now out of 8 |
We can see that all four movies remain upYIPPEED even ten years later. So potentially we can have four Blog Ten Year Challenge posts today. But realistically, it can not be that. For example, the one missing song of “Darogajee”(1949) seems to be unavailable. So another song from that movie cannot be discussed. And so, that movie cannot be YIPPEED as things stand today.
“Muqaabla”(1942) was chronologically the first movie whose song was covered ten years ago. This movie was produced by Homi Wadia and directed by Batuk Bhatt and BabuBhai Mistry. It had Fearless Nadia and Yakoob
with Sreenivas, Rajni, Dalpat, Agha, Nazira, Baby Madhuri, M.K.Hasan, Jal Khambata, Khan Mastana, A.Rehman, Azim, Habib, Kunzru etc in it.
The movie had nine songs in it. Two songs have been covered in the past.
Here is the third song from “Muqaabla”(1942) to appear in the blog. This song is sung by Khan Mastana.An unknown female voice joins in chorus for a few lines. A Karim is the lyricist. Music is composed by Khan Mastana.
The song is picturised as a dance song on a male and a female dancer. I am unable to identify the male dancer, but the ghaghra choli donning female is unmistakably fearless Nadia. It must be a rare occasion where fearless Nadia is dressed in a desi female attire and she is dancing like a desi lady. We are used to see her dressed in masculine attire and fighting baddies.
It is another man (and not the male dancer) who lip syncs the song on screen.
I request our knowledgeable readers to throw light on the picturisation of this song.
Can it be so that the female voice heard in the song is that of Fearless Nadia herself ? I request our knowledgeable readers to throw light on this matter.
Lyrics of this song were sent to me by Prakashchaadra.
video link:
audio link:
Song-Meri jholi bhar de khaali teri raam kare rakhwaali (Muqaabla)(1942) Singers-Khan Mastana, Lyrics-A Karim, MD-Khan Mastana
Khan Mastana + Unknown female voice
Lyrics(Provided by Prakashchandra)
meri jholi bhar dey khaali
meri jholi bhar dey khaali
rey teri raam karey rakhwaali
meri jholi bhar dey khaali
meri jholi bhar dey khaali
rey teri raam karey rakhwaali
paisaa dewey paisaa paavey
paisaa dewey paisaa paavey
sunn ley rey baabaa aa
jaisaa dewey waisaa paawey
jaisaa deway waisaa paawey
diyaa liyaa tere sang chale ae
diyaa liyaa tere sang chale
ye jag ki reet niraali
ye jag ki reet niraali
rey teri ram karey rakhwaali
meri jholi bhar dey khaali
meri jholi bhar dey khaali
rey teri raam karey rakhwaali
moh lobh ke tod dey phandey ae
o baaboo jee
moh lobh ke tod dey phandey ae ae
o baaboo ji
moh lobh ke tod dey phandey ae
jhoothi duniya jhoothey dhandey
le jaa dil ki duaayein
bandey kabhi na jaayein khaali
de jaa dil ki duaayein
bandey kabhi na jaayein khaali
rey teri ram karey rakhwaali
meri jholi bhar dey khaali
meri jholi bhar dey khaali
rey teri raam karey rakhwaali
duniya rain baseraa hai
paapon kaa chahoon oar andheraa hai ae ae
duniya rain baseraa hai ae ae
paapon kaa chahoon oar andheraa hai
neki ka tu diyaa jalaa ley
ek paisaa dey ae
neki ka tu diyaa jalaa ley
ek paisaa dey ae
rain baney ujiyaali manwa
rain baney ujiyaali
rey teri ram karey rakhwaali
meri jholi bhar dey khaali
meri jholi bhar dey khaali
rey teri raam karey rakhwaali
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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Blog Day : |
4622 | Post No. : | 16269 |
Today’s song is from the film Iqrar-42. This was just one of the many films- coming out of Ranjit’s factory. It was like their emphasis was on churning out films in quantity. They were not much worried about the quality of the films, it would seem to the observer. As such the number of hit and successful films coming out of Ranjit was certainly not very high, unlike New Theatres, Bombay Talkies or Prabhat.
Of course, one knows that there is no formula for successful films. It is also true that A grade actors, well known composers and famous directors alone do not make a hit film. In my opinion, a strong storyline forms a base for good films. That coupled with either factors, enhances the chances of such films being successful at the box office.
In the early 30’s films from new Theatres became successful mainly because their films had strong storylines. Bombay Talkies films of the late 30s and early 40’s became successful due to fresh faces and simple music and songs. Prabhat films had a combination of strong story, social reform subjects and quality actors and directors, which made them successful.
A common thread for these companies was the total involvement of the owners in their business. This, precisely, was the weak point of companies like Sagar and Ranjit. Their owners got engaged in family problems and their Gambling habits. The first to go down was Sagar and Ranjit followed suit when Chandulal Shah lost more than a Crore of rupees in just one deal of ‘Satta’. That is a sad story, anyway.
In 1942, when the industry was having a great shake up, Ranjit had 6 films ready for release and 6 films on floors. You can imagine why Ranjit was called a ‘Factory’ ! Indian film industry has always been alive to the happenings in the country and reflects the national problems and important events in our films.1942 was an year when the II World War was on its peak and it had caused a severe food shortage in the world. Italy had made a silent film ‘Greed’ on this issue. Based on it.Mehboob Khan made a film , Roti’ in India. Mehboob was a socialist and a Nehruvian to the core and so his films like,Mother India or Son Of India were made on socialistic principles. In 1942,Ramchandra Thakur also directed one such film,’Gareeb’.
In India, the Congress had started its Quit India movement, but in our Film Industry it was a Quit studio movement. Many well known film artistes, directors, composers and other related staff moved over to new pastures. 1942, in a sense, became an overhauling of the Film industry with so much movement of people. The following activities changed the scenario to a great extent.
1. A group of disgruntled people in Bombay Talkies, comprising of Rai Bahadur Chunilal, Shashadhar mukherjee, Ashok Kumar, Sawak Vachha and few of their followers left Bombay Talkies, after disagreements with Devika Rani and formed their own outfit – Filmistan.
2. Mehboob Khan separated from National studios and established his own Mehboob Productions. This was also the time when Mehboob and Anil Biswas separated from each others due to some differences.
3. Abdul Rasheed Kardar established his own Kardar studios.
4. V.Shantaram, along with his team left Prabhat- an institution which he established and made a famous one by his directorial contribution. He first joined the Films division and then started his own Raj Kamal Kala Mandir.
5. Wadia Movietone split and the brothers separated. While JBH Wadia, the elder brother, wanted that their company should start making only Social films now, the younger Homi Wadia wanted to continue with Stunt and Action films. He started his own Basant Pictures. Wadia’s star performer Fearless Nadia went with Homi Wadia, whom she married yew years later.
6. Calcutta’s New Theatres started showing signs of disintegration and Debki Bose,P C Barua etc left the New Theatres. Debaki Bose made Apna Ghar’ in Bombay. K L Saigal left new Theatres to do films in Bombay . He did Ranjit’s Bhakta Surdas’ and ‘ Bhanwra’. He of course went back to Calcutta to do a few more films,before coming back to Bombay for Shahjehan and Pawana. He did not/could not go back to Calcutta,as he died after Parwana-47. Saigal, while recording song ‘ Nainheen ko raah dikha” in Bhakta Surdas, did 14 retakes in recordings. His younger brother Mohan Saigal acted as Shri Krishna in this film and he is heard saying” Surdas ji” in the song Nis Din barsat Nain hamare.
7. Composer Vasant Desai did his first independent film ” Shobha” as a Music Director.
8. C Ramchandra did his first Hindi film as a composer- Sukhi Jeevan.
9. Ninu Mujumdar became MD with the film Black Out.
10. Kamal Dasgupta started his Hindi career with film Jawab.
11. Lyricist Ramesh Gupta started with the film Awaz.
12. Lyricist Qamar Jalalabadi started with Zamindar
13. Suraiya entered the Playback with songs in Nai Duniya and Sharda.
14. Hemant Kumar sang his first Hindi song in the film Meenakshi-42.
15. Manna Dey first sang a Hindi song in film Tamanna.
16. Jagmohan Sursagar sang in the first Hindi film-Bhakta Kabir.
17. Nurjahan sang her first Hindi film songs in film Khandan-42, in Lahore.
18. Bharat Bhushan’s first film in a leading role was Bhakt Kabir
19. Madhubala started as Baby Mumtaz in film Basant
From Lahore Dalsukh Pancholi repeated his magic with ‘ Khandaan’-42. This time it was Noorjehan who shook the industry with her songs under Ghulam Haider. Films like Bhakt Kabir,Bhakta Surdas, and Bharat Milap kept the Mythology/religious films in limelight. new Theatres,prabhat,Bombay Talkies etc all brought excellent films in 1942. Barring Bhakta Surdas,Roti and Khandan,there was not much competition to Naushad’s Station Master-42 ,in music.Its music became quite popular and the film celebrated Silver Jubilee. Naushad tasted success for the first time in his career in 1942 and 2 of his 3 films in the year celebrated Silver Jubilees. The other film was Nai Duniya-42.
Let us take a look at some important films of 1942….
Film Barat had music by Ratanlal-brother of khemchand Prakash and he himself as Khemraj.
Film Basant- though it has the name of Pannalal Ghosh as MD, as per HFGK, all the songs were composed by Anil Biswas (because he was still under contract with National Studios) and Ghosh had only done Orchestration and background music.
Bhakta Kabir had music by Himangshu Dutt- the first title holder of ” Sursagar”.
Bhakta Surdas- Gyan Dutt gave 15 hit songs of Saigal and Khursheed. In this film Khursheed sang equally well with Saigal.
Bharat Milap- First film in which Prem Adib and Shobhana Samarth did the roles of Shri Ram and Seeta, which made them famous all over India.
Chauranghee- the only Hindi film for which Kazi nasrul islam gave music and wrote songs too. It was his debut film. Also Debut for Hanuman prasad Sharma as Md and S.Fazli as Director.
Dus Baje- Debut of Baby Shakuntala.
Iqrar- Last film of actress Madhuri (Beryl Classen). Master Vithal-a professional singer from Sholapur sang his only song in a Hindi film.( not the actor)
Jawab- all songs popular, especially kanan devi’s ” Ye duniya Toofan mail”.
Khandan- Entry of Nur jahan, from Lahore. All her songs are popular.
Muqabala- First Talkie film with double role of Heroine- Nadia. Babhubhai Mistri’s magic in trick scenes.
Nai Duniya- Suraiya’s first song in Hindi film.
Roti- Begum Akhtar’s role and 6 songs.
Savera- First film of Arun Ahuja and Nirmala Devi.
Sharada- Naushad gives good songs.
Station Master- Hit film with songs.
Zamindar- Shanta Apte goes to Lahore all the way
All in all, the year 1942 was an eventful year for the industry. Indian audience enjoyed a variety of Genres in film offerings and a feast of Naushad’s songs, Bhajans and New artistes.
Film Iqrar-42 did not have lilting music or popular songs. It had the usual story of a Love Triangle around Madhuri, for whom this was her last film in the career. After this film she retired from films, got married and simply disappeared from public life. After 50 years, she was searched and discovered by an organisation, for a function to honour the Silent Era artistes – Madhuri and Jairaj. Film Iqrar-42 was directed by Manibhai Vyas and the cast was Madhuri, Motilal, Rama Shukul,Bhagwan Das, Tarabai and many others.
One more interesting actress in the cast was Tarabai. She is none other than the elder sister of famous dancer actress Sitara Devi. Born in 1905, Tara/ Tara Devi / Tarabai was a good dancer. She started film career with Silent films like Malti Madhav, Bambai ki sethani etc. She started Talkie films with Vasantsena-31. She played the role of Princess Octavia in the film Yahudi ki Ladki-33, along with K L Saigal.
She acted in many films like Shehar ka jadu-34, Savitri 37, Narsi Bhagat-40, Sasural -41. She acted in film Haiwaan-40, along with her two other actress sisters,namely Alaknanda and Sitara Devi. This may be the First Hindi film, in which 3 sisters played roles in one film.
It seems the mother of Alaknanda and Tara was different from that of Sitara, but the father was the same-Pt.Sukhdev. Alaknanda and Tara were not their real names. In fact, the real name of Tara/Tarabai was Triveni.
She married co-star Marutirao Pehelwan, left films and they settled in Dhule,in Maharashtra. They started a Dairy business. Their son was the famous dancer Gopi Krishna. Marutirao was already married, still Tara married him. His surname was Gawali (Milkman).
Soon they separated and Tara married a small businessman Sonthalia from Calcutta. We do not know why, but Tarabai returned to Bombay and started working in films. But now she was reduced to a Junior Artiste (Extra) and got only negligible roles. She lived in Bandra slum. There is no information about her after this.
Her son Gopi Krishna (real name Gopal )stayed with his maternal Grandfather, Pt. Sukhdev, who trained him in Dancing. Gopikrishna came to Bombay, with the name Gopikrishna Sonthaliya and stayed with Sitara Devi, but he was soon thrown out. He spent bad days,staying in chawl etc, before he became famous as a Choreographer and actor. ( some new information from RMIM forum, with thanks.)
Today’s song is sung by one Master Vithal of Sholapur. His real name was Vithal Channa. He used to sing Saigal’s songs and did many mehfils privately, to earn a living. This is his only song in a Hindi film. With this song he makes a Debut on this Blog, with all his songs covered !
Song- Aankhon mein paani kis liye zindagani kis liye (Iqraar)(1942) Singer- Master Vithal of Sholapur, Lyricist- Not known, MD- Khemchand Prakash
Lyrics
Aankhon mein paani ee ee
kis liye ae ae
zindagaani ee
kis liye
Aankhon mein paani ee ee
kis liye ae ae
zindagaani ee
kis liye
hans hans ke rulaane ke
hans hans ke rulaane ke
ro ro ke hansaane ke
ro ro ke hansaane ke
mil mil ke bichhohne ke ae ae
mil mil ke bichhohne ke ae ae
ban ban ke bigadne ke
ban ban ke bigadne ke
ye sapne kahaani kis liye
ye sapne kahaani kis liye
ye zindagaani kis liye
aankhon mein paani kis liye
ye zindagaani kis liye
aankhon mein paani kis liye
ye zindagaani kis liye
Paani ke raaja machhariyaa ho
Posted on: March 11, 2021
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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Blog Day : |
4619 | Post No. : | 16262 |
Today’s song is from a film of the early 40s – Apna Ghar-1942. One song from this film was discussed about 5 years back here. That makes today’s song its second song. This film was made by Circo Productions, belonging to a professional- Chimanlal Trivedi. The film was directed by Debki Bose. This was his first Hindi film in Bombay after he moved from New Theatres, Calcutta, due to some differences.
Debaki Kumar Bose, Bengali and Hindi director was born in Akalpoush, Burdwan Dist., West Bengal on 25-11-1898.He was the Son of a noted solicitor, Madhusudhan Bose. Influenced by Sisir Bhaduri, his teacher at Bidyasagar College, Calcutta (1920), he left university to join the non-co- operation movement of Calcutta Congress (1920). He was caught and jailed. After coming out,his father threw him out. He started selling ‘Gamachhas’ on the road. He started and Edited journal, Shakti, from Burdwan (1927-8). One day he was seen and hired by Dhiren Ganguly as actor and scenarist for Dinesh Ranjan Dass’ Kamonar Aagun (1930), Devotee of Vaishnava evangelical movement. He joined British Dominion Films (1927) as scenarist, then director.
He became friendly with the Cinematographer Krishna Gopal, with whom he went to Lucknow where they made a film ” A shadow of dead”. The film flopped and Debki returned to Calcutta, but Krishna Gopal was held hostage by the producers till he paid their investment. Debki took a loan from P C Barua and paid that amount to get Krishna Gopal released.
He joined P.C. Barua’s Barua Pics (1930), then entered New Theatres (1932-4) together with Barua, directing the studio’s first hit, Chandidas, after 7 consecutive flops by New Theatres.. This was the First film in India,with Background music. Its cinematic validation of a major stage genre – the quasi-legendary biographical – helped lessen Bengali cinema’s dependence on the Calcutta Theatres for its themes as well as its literary, musical and acting talent. Early work known mainly for his free and inventive approach to established genres, esp. the mythological and the Saint film, creating a Bengali quality cinema (e.g. Aparadhi and Chandidas). He was the one who promoted film music as a mix of Rabindra sangeet and Indian Classical music. It helped New Theatres to make its film songs popular all over India.
He also made Pooran Bhagat-1933. Handsome actor Mijjan (Syed Hasan Ali Zaidi) was the Hero. When the film was ready and about to be released,communal riots started in Calcutta,between Hindu and Muslims. After the peace returned,New Theatres was worried about Mijjan’s name in this Mythological film. Debaki kumar Bose,who hailed from a rich Zamindar family,told Mijjan “dont worry. From today I give you half of my name-Kumar.” Mijjan’s name became Kumar and he went on to become a big actor. After this,Debaki Bose himself never used the suffix Kumar to his name,in his life.
He made Rajrani Meera in 1933. During this film making he had a quarrel with director Nitin Bose and he decided to leave New Theatres.
After this he Went to East India Film (1934-6) where he made the lyrical Seeta which launched Prithviraj Kapoor and Durga Khote as a star duo. Seeta became the First Indian film to be sent to the International film festival at Venice. Here the film won a Diploma too and thus Debaki Bose was the first Indian artiste to win an International award for his film. He then Returned to New Theatres (1937-41), on invitation of B N Sarkar, making the classic Bidyapati.
In 1942 he left Calcutta and came to Bombay. His first film here as a Director was Circo’s Apna Ghar, made also in Marathi as ‘ आपले घर ‘. This also he directed.
His independent Debaki Bose Prod. (1945) with stars from the Hindi and Marathi cinemas paved the way for other Calcutta cine artistes after the decline of New Theatres in the early 40s. Made Arghya, a documentary on the caste system, based on four narrative poems by Tagore to celebrate the centenary of his birth. Debaki Bose was not just a director,but he was an actor (3 films),a producer (1 film) and also a writer (14 films). He was given the Sangeet Natak Academy award in 1957 and a Padmashree in 1958. He was India’s star director.
He died on 17-11-1971 at Calcutta. In his career of 31 years he made 50 films,in Bangla,Hindi,Marathi,Tamil and English.
FILMOGRAPHY: 1930: Kamaner Aagun (only act); Panchasar (also act); 1931: Aparadhi; Shadows of the Dead; 1932: Nishir Dak (all St); Chandidas; 1933: Puran Bhakt; Meerabai/Rajrani? Meera; Dulari Bibi; 1934: Seeta; 1935: Inquilab; Jeevan Natak; 1936: Sonar Sansar/Sunehra? Sansar; 1937: Bidyapati/Vidyapati?; 1939: Sapurey/ Sapera; 1940: Nartaki; Abhinav; 1942: Apna Ghar/Aple Ghar; 1943: Shri Ramanuja; 1945: Meghdoot; Swarg Se Sundar Desh Hamara; 1946: Krishna Leela; 1947: Chandrasekhar; 1948: Sir Shankarnath; 1949: Kavi; 1951:Ratnadeep/Ratnadeepam; 1953: Pathik; 1954: Kavi; Bhagwan Shri Krishna Chaitanya; 1955: Bhalobasha; 1956: Chirakumar Sabha; Nabajanma; 1958: Sonar Kathi; 1959: Sagar Sangamey; 1961: Arghya (adapted from Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema,with thanks)
The cast of the film Apna Ghar-42 was Shanta Apte, Chandra mohan, Maya Banerjee, Jagdish Sethi, Jeevan, Nimbalkar, Mahesh Kaul, David, Gope etc.etc. This film was also made in Marathi and that also was directed by Debki Bose. Chandra mohan, who started his career with Prabhat’s film Amrit Manthan-1934 could not act in its Marathi Version as he did not know Marathi. His role was done by Keshavrao Datey, in the Marathi version. Chandra Mohan felt very bad and with some difficulty started learning Marathi and in a period of few months he became fluent in it. With this added qualification he acted in 3 Marathi film versions, including Apna Ghar, which was titled ‘ आपले घर ‘. Hats off to his determination. The other two films were Jwala-38 and Geeta-40 ( he had a double role in it). He used to speak only Marathi on the sets of these films.
From the day silent films started being made, till today, thousands of people must have joined this film industry as actors and in many other departments, from a Clapper Boy to a big producer. By one estimate about 7000 people had joined film industry between 1913 to 2000. I wonder how so many people joined an industry which did not provide any security, nor did it assure continuous earnings. Leave aside the stigma of working in” films” in olden times, but this industry neither had permanent jobs nor a fixed income or a Pension. Take a look at any film-Silent or Talkie-only a handful people were credited. Later in the Talkie films, this list became larger. One can see this in any volume of HFGK of 30s or 40s. But then, if you exclude the names which got repeated in films, the total list of actors may not cross 2-3 thousand, perhaps. Then there were nother department people also.
Barring the main and known actors, most other actors are not even identifiable for the general public. Names without faces! Such actors constitute the bulk of numbers in the industry. If you take a look at the cast of a film, more than half of names are unknown or known by only repeat value in many films. These names have no faces. Information about them is not available in any books. They remain only names, replaced by other names after few years. The extras or junior artistes who are seen on screens in many scenes, throughout the film are also members of the industry.
Like any other language, there are writers and authors in Marathi too, who write on old films and old actors etc from the vintage Hindi films. One such author calls himself ” Babu Moshoi “. His articles are published regularly in newspapers, magazines etc. He has written several books. His real name is Hemant Desai. Another such writer in Hindi and Gujarati is Vithal Pandya. I have many such books in my library. Through these books I get to know old actors and their information, sometimes. I get surprised at many names as I read about some names about whom I had never known. For example, do you know who did King Dashrath’s role in films Bharat Milap-42 and Ramrajya-43, or the role of Kanva Muni in film Shakuntala-43 ? Who was the actress in Kaushalya’s role in Ramrajya-43 or Ram Vivah-49 ?
This actor was I.T. Nimbalkar and this actress was Shanta Kothari (nee Shanta Kumari). These were artistes from Silent film era, spilled over the Talkie films. They started as Hero and Heroine, but shifted to character roles, as the time went by. In our film industry, such cases are not new. In fact such type of actors who remained practically unknown to later generations of audiences, were highly respected by film people during shootings. Their seniority and work was respected.
This is a very good practice in the industry, by directors and other actors to give respect to old timers. Raj Kapoor used to send his car to fetch Bhudo Advani for shootings of film Boot Polish scenes. Hrishikesh Mukherjee kept special chair for Master Shiraz, during the shooting of film Guddi. He also ensured to feature Shiraz in the film credits. In one of the film related functions, I have myself witnessed how Amir Khan, Anil Kapoor and others treated yesteryear actress Susheela Rani, with great respect. These are only samples to stress what I have said. Not every such matter is published but it is a special feature of the industry.
I try to gather information on such unknown and forgotten artistes and write on them. Not everytime I am successful, but I have written about many such actors, directors, MDs etc. Some of them are Omkar Devaskar, Zunzar rao Pawar, Ganapat rao Bakare, Shankar rao Vazare, Naseem Junior, Shamim Jr, Altaf, Urmila, Ranjana, Kusum Deshpande, Vasant rao Thengadi, Jamshed ji etc etc. Today, we will know more about one such old time actor who was prolific and worked in films of Bombay and Calcutta.
I.T. Nimbalkar aka Indurao T. Nimbalkar ( he was always credited as only ‘ Nimbalkar ‘ in all films) was born on 6-12-1893, in Kolhapur state. This was the time Kolhapur was slowly developing as Kalapur (hub of arts) and the seeds of film making were being planted there. Baburao Painter, one of the original film makers had started his ” Maharashtra Film Company” on 1-12 1917.
Baburao, Damle, Fattelal etc were taught painting By Anandrao painter, who was an extraordinary painter of those times. All these people, along with V Shantaram, Keshavrao Dhaiber and few more also joined Baburao painter’s Maharashtra Film company. True that, film making had started even earlier in Maharashtra, but Baburao painter is credited with making films a form of art and spreading it on a larger canvas of India.
Indurao Nimbalkar grew up in this atmosphere in Kolhapur. He passed his Matriculation exam and also did a diploma in Printing. Nimbalkar was six feet tall and had a good physique. He was expert in riding, swimming and wrestling. He did 1000 sit-ups every day. Shahu Maharaj, the king of Kolhapur encouraged all arts as well as development of lower castes. Arya Samaj had a ‘ Gurukul’ in Kolhapur. Impressed with Nimbalkar’s education and body, Shahu ji appointed him as Editor of the weekly ‘ Arya’ and secretary of Gurukul.
One day Baburao Painter, along with assistant V Shantaram visited his press and offered Nimbalkar a role in his proposed film Sairandhri. Shahu Maharaj also permitted and encouraged him ,so Nimbalkar joined the film line. He was already famous due to his fiery editorials and now people came to see his shootings too. However, due to money shortage, the film did not complete. ( It was later made in 1919, but with different cast. V Shantaram made coloured Sairandhri in 1933 with Nimbalkar again).
Nimbalkar acted in many silent films like Baji Deshpande, Khazanchi (directed by Moti Gidwani- England returned), Lanka, Kismet (directed by Baburao Patel) etc etc. After the closure of Maharashtra F. Co., Nimbalkar was invited by V Shantaram to do Vishvamitra’s role in its first Talkie film ” Ayodhya ka Raja” -1932, in Hindi and Marathi. After this, he did Jalti Nishani-32, Sairandhri-33, Maya Machhindra, Sinhagadh etc.
After this, Nimbalkar went to Calcutta on invitation and worked in films made by Radha Films, Laxmi Studios, Devdatta films and New Theatres. From 1934 to 1938, he acted in 12 Hindi films. He was provided a Bungalow, car with driver, servants etc. His son studied in local school there. Returning to Bombay he worked as an assistant director to Keshavrao Dhaiber for film ‘Nandkumar’, made by his Jayashree Films. Next 2 years he shuttled between Calcutta and Bombay. He did King Dashrath’s role in Prakash films’ Bharat Milap-42 and Ramrajya-43 in this period.
He was invited by V Shantaram for acting in his first film under banner of Rajkamal- Shakuntala-43. Nimbalkar did the role of Kanva Muni in it. He later also acted in Jeevan yatra, Subah ka tara, Parchhain, Teen batti char rasta, Toofan aur Diya, Z Z Payal baje. Earlier he did Aapki sewa mein, prarthana,Nal Damayanti, Seedha Rasta, Gokul, Apna Ghar, Maharathi karna, Seeta Swayamvar. He worked in Pyasa, Mera Naam Joker, Amar Prem etc etc. From 1928 to 1970 he acted in over 250 films.
His wife Sushila was also educated and looked after his home and children. She never visited any sets in her life time. Nimbalkar died on 17-1-1973 at Kolhapur. (Thanks to an article in book Chandraat-चांदरात by बाबू मोशाय ).
Today’s song is sung by Shanta Apte, an unknown male and Chorus. This could be one of the early Fishermen songs.
Song-Paani ke raja Machharia ho (Apna Ghar)(1942) Singers- Shanta Apte, unknown male, Lyrics-Pt Narottam Vyas, MD-Harishchandra Bali
chorus
Male voice + chorus
Shanta Apte + Male voice + chorus
Lyrics
Paani ke raja Machharia ho o o
mahariya ho
paani ke raaja
ho paani ke raaja
machhariya ho o o
mahariya ho
nadi pe jaana
jaal bichhaana
nadi pe jaana
jaal bichhaana
machhri pakadna patariya ho o
machhri pakadna patariya ho o o o
mahariya ho
Paani ke raja Macheria ho o o
mahariya ho
laayenge seepi
seepi ke moti
laayenge seepi
seepi ke moti
moti jadaau gagariya ho
moti jadaau gagariya ho o o
mahariya ho
chaandi ki hansulee
sone ke jhumke
chaandi ki hansulee
sone ke jhumke
laana rangeelee chunariya ho
laana rangeelee chunariya ho o o
mahariya ho
shaan se aayenge
cheezen bhi laayenge
shaan se aayenge
cheezen bhi laayenge
jaise bahaadur sipahiya ho
jaise bahaadur sipahiya ho o o
mahariya ho
roti khilaayengee
hukka pilaayengee
roti khilaayengee
hukka pilaayengee
tumhree sajaayen sejariyaa ho o
tumhree sajaayen sejariyaa ho o o
mahariya ho
raani ke raaja
hum paani ke raaja
tum raani ke raaja
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 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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Blog Day : |
4618 | Post No. : | 16259 |
‘Lalaji’ (1942) was produced by Mehboob Khan under the banner of National Studios and was jointly directed by Chimanlal Gandhi and Lalitchandra Mehta. The star cast included Krishnakant, Yashodara Katju, Yakoob, Vatsala Kumthekar, Amar, Sunalini Devi, Maya Devi, AR Kabuli, Kayam Ali etc. I have no idea about the story of the film. The montages of the film indicate that it was a comedy film with Yakub having an important role as Hiralal and A R Kabuli as Lalaji though the lead pairs of the film were Yashodara Katju and Krishnakant.
There were 12 songs in the film of which one song has been covered in the Blog. As many as 8 songs were written by Arzoo Lucknawi. Two songs were written by Neelkanth Tiwari. The name of the lyricist was not mentioned in respect of one song. That leaves one song which created some curiosity in me as this song was a ghazal attributed to Mirza Ghalib. However, I could not locate the audio clip of this ghazal on any video sharing platform. Finally, I could listen to this song in full on gaana.com and got it confirmed that this ghazal was written by Mirza Ghalib as his name de plume, ‘Ghalib’ appears in the last she’r of the ghazal.
The problem was not yet over as the audio quality of the ghazal was not up to the mark. Moreover, there were some high sounding Urdu/Persian/Arabic words used in the ghazal which made my task difficult to decipher the ghazal. http://www.rekhta.org came to my rescue as fortunately, this ghazal was listed under Mirza Ghalib.
I am presenting the second song from the fiim, ‘Lalaji’ (1942) – hum se khul jaao ba-waqt-e-mai-parasti ek din which is a ghazal written by Mirza Ghalib and sung by Vatsala Kumthekar and Amar. The ghazal is set to music by Vasant Kumar Naidu.
The original ghazal have 5 she’rs while the ghazal in the film has 4 she’rs. But the second she’r in the ghazal used for the film is not a part of the original ghazal of Mirza Ghalib. Even while reading the ghazal, the second she’r sounds off-kilter with the rest of the ghazal. My own guess is that probably, Arzoo Lucknawi who had written 8 songs in the film may have written this she’r keeping in view the situation in the film.
The ghazal is written as imageries of conversation of the poet with his beloved. Let me attempt English translation of 3 she’r of the original ghazal included in the song with the help of the meanings of some of the high-sounding Urdu/Persian/Arabic words, given by Ali Sardar Jafri in his book ‘Diwan-e-Ghalib’.
hum se khul jaao ba-waqt-e-mai-parasti ek din
warna hum chhedenge rakh kar uzr-e-masti ek din
ba-waqt-e-mai-parasti= at the time of drinking wine.
uzr-e-masti= pretext of pleasure (intoxication)
You be frank and open up to me while I am drinking wine some day.
Or else, in the pretext of drunkenness, one day, I will tease you (creating a nuisance).
qarz ki peete thhe mai lekin samajhte thhe ki haan
rang laayegi hamaari faaqa-masti ek din
faqa-masti=pleasure in adversity.
I drank wine on credit and yes, I thought that my wine-induced
cheerfulness in the midst of debt would be rewarded one day.
dhaul-dhappa uss saraapa-naaz ka shewa nahin
hum hi kar baithhe thhe ‘Ghaalib’ pesh-dasti ek din
dhaul-dappa=fist-fight
saraapa-naaz= proud from head to toe, coyness from head to toe.
shewa=habit, manner.
pesh-dasti=taking initiative, first move.
She, who is coquettish from head to toe is not in the habit of fighting.
I was the one who did the first move one day to make that (fight) happen.
The role of Vatsala Kumthekar as I understand from IDMb is that of a mujra dancer. Since Amar is acting in the film and is also singing along with her in this ghazal, I thought that the song may have been picturised on Vatsala Kumthekar and Amar. But the last she’r of the ghazal gives a hint that Amar may have sung this song for Yakub when he sings ….
hum hi kar baithhe thhe ‘Ghaalib’
nahin nahin
hum hi kar baithhe thhe ‘Hira’ pesh-dasti ek din
In this film, Yakub plays the role of ‘Hiralal’.
Audio Link:
Song-Hum se khul jaao ba-waqt-e-mai-parasti ek din (Lalaji)(1942) Singers-Vatsala Kumthekar, Amar, Lyrics-Mirza Ghalib, MD-Vasant Kumar Naidu
Lyrics
hum se khul jaao ba-waqt-e-mai-parasti ek din
hum se khul jaao ba-waqt-e-mai-parasti ek din
warna hum chhedenge rakh kar uzr-e-masti ek din
warna hum chhedenge rakh kar uzr-e-masti ek din
tujh se aankhen lad gayin aur dil machal kar rah gaya
kaise
tujh se aankhen lad gayin
aur dil machal kar rah gaya
doob gayi re
lut gayi
haay
haay
lut gayi re lut gayi is dil ki basti ek din
lut gayi re lut gayi is dil ki basti ek din
aa aa aa aaa
qarz ki peete thhe mai
lekin samajhte thhe ki haan
haan aah aaah
qarz ki peete thhe mai
lekin samajhte thhe ki haan
rang laayegi hamaari faaqa-masti ek din
rang laayegi hamaari faaqa-masti ek din
dhaul-dhappa uss saraapa-naaz ka shewa nahin
dhaul-dhappa uss saraapa-naaz ka shewa nahin
hum bhi kar baithhe thhe ‘Ghaalib’
nahin nahin
hum bhi kar baithhe thhe ‘Hira’ pesh-dasti ek din
hum se khul jaao ba-waqt-e-mai-parasti ek din
hum se khul jaao ba-waqt-e-mai-parasti ek din
hum se khul jaao ba-waqt-e-mai-parasti ek din
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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4389 | Post No. : | 15751 | Movie Count : |
4342 |
The job of writing on old films and music is not an easy one, as many people may be thinking. Normally, such information is not available at one place and even if it is, the same has to be cross verified by other documents or proofs of some kind. There are many books available on these topics, but just having a book and copying from it has its own dangers. The danger to your credibility is one and misleading information is another one. I am of the firm opinion that no book on these subjects is without any errors. Every book contains incomplete information – including my own book !
After a gap of 40 years, when I again turned to old films and music and started making comments based on my notes of many years and writing articles, I quickly realised that some of my information had become old, outdated and newer evidence had emerged to prove matters differently. Secondly, as I started collecting and reading several books, I got a different perspective to what I knew. New facts had been unearthed and established myths had been busted. I also realised that a major menace of ‘Same Name Artistes’ was causing a lot of miscrediting, misinformation and injustice was being done to real performers.
As a challenge, I started work on this project and in the last 5-6 years, I dug out credible, indisputable information on at least 35 such cases- involving about 80 old artistes, comprising Actors, Singers, Composers, Directors etc. From what I read on the internet, this project has helped film historians and is quoted by them in their works. Recently, when I visited another well known Blog on old films and music, I was pleasantly surprised when I read a comment from a reader, ” I believe Arun ji, more than what any site says”. I treat this as a certificate of credibility.
In the initial years like 2011 and 2012, some of the comments I made on this and other Blogs and sites are no more valid, because new evidence had emerged and today those comments seem to be totally wrong. But then History, be it of any subject, always gets updated as new evidence, documents, Interviews, Old books, Magazine articles, Newspaper posts etc. emerge and some old bits of information get a changeover. I will give just one example.
In 2011, I had said somewhere,” C Ramchandra and Vasant Desai gave music together to 3 films, under the name of Vasant Ramchandra” and it was accepted. However when a new book was published on Vasant Pawar, Music Director, it became known that he and Ramchandra Wadhavkar-another MD made a pair as Vasant-Ramchandra and gave music to 3 films. This was confirmed in the biography of Datta Dharmadhikari-the director of these films. This way, the earlier belief was proved incorrect and matters became clear and my statement became wrong.
Many such riddles were solved when new evidence cropped up or dug out. Riddles like
1. Who sang ‘ Dilli se aya bhai Tingu’
2. Who sang ‘ Bharat ki ek sannari ki…’
3. Who actually sang songs from the film ‘ Ummeed-41’ as Noorjehan…
4. Who directed films Pariwar-56 and ‘ Apradhi Kaun-57’
and many more riddles were solved when new information came out.
Dedicated workers in this field have done a great job and enriched the old films history. Information on unknown or less known artistes came to light. This is an ongoing process. Those who write on old films and music were not living in that era, so they have to depend on available information in books and other documents. The advent of the internet too has helped, but at times it also spreads wrong or incomplete information. Thus some famous sites too have become doubtful providers of information. Enthusiasts with half knowledge are a headache because they write without checking or corroborating. They simply copy from somewhere – many times out of context. I have kept my policy- ” Never write anything, which you can not defend “.
Why I am writing all this is just to emphasize the value of credibility of what we write. Readers must understand that gaining credibility requires hard work and investment in time. Fortunately, this Blog is famous for providing information which is tested and credible. This Blog is highly respected in the Cyber world of old films and music.
Today’s song is from an obscure film Khilauna-42. It was the first film made by Amar Pictures, which came into being when National Studios was closed. National itself started when Sagar Movietone merged into it. The film was directed by Sarvottam Badami. He was born in 1910 at Channapatna in Karnataka,to a revenue officer working in Mysore. He passed his SSLC and worked as a garage mechanic and then a projectionist in Select Picture House, Bangalore, both of which were owned by Dr. Ambalal Patel. Patel moved to Bombay and financed Ardeshir Irani of Imperial Film Company, and Chimanlal Desai as a partner forming Sagar Movietone in 1930.
At the age of 19 years, Badami went to Bombay to study automobile engineering. He was asked by Ardeshir Irani who met him at a wedding to help out with the recording equipment he had purchased from abroad.
Badami helped in the sound recording department for the first Talkie in India, Ardeshir Irani’s Alam Ara (1931). Around that time a German director making the Tamil film “Harishchandra” left half-way and Badami offered to complete it, the co-director was Raja Chandrasekhar, although the co-director credit has also been cited as T. C. Vadivelu Naicker. The film turned out to be successful. He was contracted by Sagar Movietone (Sagar Film Company) to direct three films, two in Telugu and one in Tamil: Galava Rishi (Tamil), Rama Paduka Pattabhishekam and Shakuntala in Telugu. The success of these films established him as a director. His working team had people like the cinematographer Faredoon Irani, music director Anil Biswas and the Sagar Movietone favourites Sabita Devi and Motilal.
Initially, to avoid embarrassment to his family he requested not to be credited in the regional language films. He did not know Hindi but from 1932-1947, he worked for Sagar Movietone and also directed nearly 30 films in Hindi, for many others. His first Hindi film was Chandrahasa (1933) starring Noor Mohammed Charlie. He was paid Rs 2000 per film with the complete film being made within Rs 50,000. He worked with most of the top actors of the time like Motilal, Nargis, Ashok Kumar and Pahari Sanyal. He brought Mehboob Khan who was then doing roles as an extra out of obscurity and gave him the role of Sabita Devi’s father in the film Vengeance is mine(1935).
He made several films based on novels. Some of the writers whose work he used were K.M.Munshi, Sarat Chandra and Ramanlal Vasanthlal Desai. The film Aap ki Marzi (1939) was inspired by the Hollywood film Paradise for Three (1938). He became known for his satirical comedies and “socially relevant films”.His film Grihalaxmi (1934), which starred Jal Merchant and Sabita Devi had the woman getting into marriage only if her doctor husband agreed not to want children. The success of the film mitigated the enraged public reaction at the time.
He showed his understanding of media publicity required for films when in 1937, Badami resorted to woo audiences by announcing cash prizes of Rs.500, Rs.200 and Rs.100 for the best reviews of his newly released film Kulvadhu (1937). The promotional gambit worked sending audiences to the theatres. According to an interview, most of Badami’s films didn’t survive as the negatives were burnt to extract the silver from the silver nitrate.
After Aap ki Marzi-38, he followed his mentor, Dr. Patel and joined Sudama Pictures, when in 1939, Sagar Movietone merged into National Films. Badami also worked in Famous Cine Laboratories, from 46 to 48.
Apparently, in 1948 Deputy Prime Minister Vallabh bhai Patel, who was then also in charge of the Information Ministry, on a visit to the Cine Laboratories Bombay, asked Badami to help set up a Newsreel and Documentary section. The Films Division was established in 1948. He became chief producer in the newsreel department and made several documentaries. He worked in the Films Division making documentaries from 1948-1952. After that he stopped making films and returned to Bangalore to retire as “I was a forgotten man in the feature film world”. He became an industrialist by starting a manufacturing business. Later he worked as a Consultant for Kamani Group of Industries also. He died in 2005 in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
FILMOGRAPHY: 1932: Harishchandra; Galava Rishi; Paduka Pattabhishekham; Shakuntala; 1933: Chandrahasa; 1934: Grihalakshmi; 1935: Dr. Madhurika; Vengeance is Mine; 1936: Jeevan Lata; Grama Kanya; 1937: Kokila; Kulavadhu; 1938: Three Hundred Days and After; 1939: Aap Ki Marzi; Ladies Only; 1940: Chingari; Sajani; 1941: Holiday in Bombay; 1942: Khilona; 1943: Prarthana; 1944: Bhagya Lakshmi; 1945: Ramayani; 1946: Uttara Abhimanyu; 1947: Manmani; 1951: Vinoba Bhave (Doc);1952: Roof over the head.
(Ack: Sapnon ke saudagar by Vithal Pandya, Sagar Movietone by Biren Kothari, HFGK, muVyz, Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, and my notes)
The cast of the film “Khilauna”(1942) was Snehprabha Pradhan, Jairaj, Prabha, Satish, Kanhaiyalal, Pratima Devi, Nagendra and others. Prabha and Nagendra may be new names for most people. Prabha Rajpal was from a respectable Hindu family of Punjab. She was born on 6-6-2015 at Ludhiana. Her father Rajpal was a high ranking government officer based at Lahore. All her education was done in Lahore. She was fluent in Urtdu, Hindi, punjabi and English.
Right from childhood, she was keen on working in films. Being an orthodox family, there was opposition, but despite all this she entered films and her first film was Jung Bahadur aka DareDevil-1935. After doing some films like Dilawar-36, Awakening-36, she left Bhavnani camp and worked in Minerva’s film Atma Tarang-37 as a Heroine opposite Sohrab Modi. She was very beautiful. Then she joined Sagar and worked in films like Gramophone singer-38, ladies only-39, Civil marriage-40. Later she became a freelancer.
In all she worked in 36 films in her career. She got married to a Cinematographer Virender Ahuja and settled down after the film Veerangana-47.
When her husband was one of the producers, she worked in film Shrimati ji-52 and then retired from films.
(Ack; Filmdom, Film Directory, CITWF, HFGK and my notes).
Nagendra Majumdar was the father of Music Director Ninu (Niranjan) Majumdar. 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 Alladin aka Alladin 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, 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.)
Film Khilauna-42 was based on the Gujarati story by Vaju Kotak. Screenplay and dialogues were by R S Chaudhari. The film was released on 21-3-1942 at Royal opera House, Bombay. It did average business at the box office. The film’s review came in the Film India issue of May 1942. Baburao Patel did not have a good opinion about the film’s direction, but he praised Snehaprabha’s acting along with Prabha. The film’s story was about a jobless artiste and a homeless girl. The love story had some complications but the end , as expected, was happy. The film had 10 songs and today’s song is its best song, according to me.
Song-Nazron ke khel khele koi kis tarah akele (Khilauna)(1942) Singers- Khan Mastana, Snehprabha Pradhan, Lyricist- Pt. Indra, MD- Khemchand Prakash
Both
Lyrics
Dil unko dhoondhta hai
Hum dil ko dhoondhte ae ae hain
manzil ke paas donon manzil ko dhoondhte hain
nazron ke khel khele
koi kis tarah akele
nazron ke khel khele
koi kis tarah akele
??
koi kis tarah akele
nazron ke khel khele
koi kis tarah akele
nazron ke khel khele
lut gayi main to soch lo
lut gayi main to soch lo
lut(?) gaya ji main to sochna
lut(?) gaya ji main to sochna
utar gayi tasweer si dil mein
aa baithhi taqdeer nazar mein
utar gayi tasweer si dil mein
aa baithhi taqdeer nazar mein
ab na aur samaay rasiya
ab na aur samaay
ab na aur samaay rasiya
ab na aur samaay
chhalkat chhalkat ?? gagariya
??
chhalkat chhalkat ?? gagariya
??
ghat ghat dolat hamri najariya
ghat ghat dolat hamri najariya
ek musaafir aaye
?? dekhoon soyi ankhiyaan
?? dekhoon soyi ankhiyaan
tanman mein ??
tanman mein aa jaaye rasiya
tanman mein aa jaaye rasiya
tanman mein aa jaaye
nazron ke khel khele
koi kis tarah akele
nazron ke khel khele
Roothhe ko hai manaanaa
Posted on: July 7, 2020
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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“Jawaani”(1942) was directed by Wajahat Mirza for National Studios, Bombay. The movie had Surendra, Jyoti, Husn Banu, Kayamali, Agha, Nawab, Dulari, Gulzar, A. R. Kabul, Sankata Prasad etc in it.
The movie had ten songs in it. Three song from the movie has been covered in the blog in the past.
Today (7 July 2020) is the 106th birth anniversary of Anil Biswas (7 July 1914 – 31 May 2003).
On this occasion, here is the fourth song from “Jawaani”(1942) to appear in the blog. This song ois sung by Surendra. Aarzoo Lucknowi is the lyricist of this song. Music is composed by Anil Biswas.
Only the audio of this song is available, but it is clear that the song was picturised on Surendra himself.
The audio is not very clear and some of the lyrics noted by me do not make sense to me, so I may have erred at a few places in the lyrics. I request our knowledgeable readers to help point out the errors as applicable.
Song-Roothhe ko hai manaana (Jawaani)(1942) Singer-Surendra, Lyrics-Aarzoo Lucknowi, MD-Anil Biswas
Lyrics
Roothhe ko hai manaana
Roothhe ko hai manaana aa aa
dukh deta hai khatakta kaanta
dukh deta hai khatakta kaanta
sooli se hai banaana
sooli se hai banaana aa aa
Roothhe ko hai manaana
Roothhe ko hai manaana
humko bhi hai chupke chupke
humko bhi hai chupke chupke
prem ka bal dikhlaana aa aa
prem ka bal dikhlaana aa
thhandi saansen ae ae ae
thhandi saansen seekh rahin hain
hawa ka rukh paltaana
Roothhe ko hai manaana
Roothhe ko hai manaana aa
Roothhe ko hai manaana
Ye hai badalti rut ka chakkar
is’se kya ghabraana aa aa
is’se kya ghabraana
Ye hai badalti rut ka chakkar
is’se kya ghabraana aa aa
is’se kya ghabraana
loot’ti jaati barkha tujhko
yahin hai laut ke aana aa
loot’ti jaati barkha tujhko
yahin hai laut ke aana
Roothhe ko hai manaana
Roothhe ko hai manaana aa
Roothhe ko hai manaana aa aa
dukh deta hai khatakta kaantaa
dukh deta hai khatakta kaantaa
sooli se hai banaana
sooli se hai banaana aa aa
Roothhe ko hai manaana
Roothhe ko hai manaana aa
Roothhe ko hai manaana
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusaist 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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4312 |
Today’s song is from the film “Uljhan” (1942). This was the first of the three same title films. The second came in 1975 and the third was in year 2000. This was the second film by Acharya Art Productions, floated by director N R Acharya. This was after he left Bombay Talkies, to chart out his own path, without either following the splinter group led by S Mukherjee or remaining with the rest of Bombay Talkies staff.
Probably, he thought that with Gyan Mukherjee in Filmistan and Amiya Chakrawarty and Najam Naqvi in Bombay Talkies, he had dim chances of progressing further. Like the splinter group, Acharya too had his own followers, like Anjali Devi and Ramchandra Pal, who stayed with Acharya. In later years, Anjali Devi became Mrs. Acharya too. Obviously, she had her own private agenda in following Acharya.
This film was directed by Acharya himself and the music for the 10 songs written by Lyricist Kailash Matwala, was composed by Ramchandra Pal. The cast of the film was Sardar Akhtar, Mazhar Khan, Krishnakant, Anjali Devi, Amrutlal, Rajkumari Shukla and others.
You find a name Amritlal/Amrutlal in the cast. He was an old time actor, from the beginning of Talkie films. Sometimes he was cast even as Master Amrutlal, because he sang songs too. He was basically a comedian and was known as Chaman in the film line. There is hardly any information-practically Nil- about him available anywhere, like many of the old time artistes. What we know about him is from HFGK alone. He acted in some 20 Talkie films, starting with Vikram Charitra-1932 to film Roop Nagar-1947. There are 23 songs in 10 films on his name also. He stopped singing from the film Pagli Duniya-44. Looks like his old style singing was no more appreciated.
Here too, we find that the Same Name Confusion has played a game. There was an All India famous literature giant Amrutlal Nagar. In spite of his colossal writing work, he spent 7 years of his illustrious career, from 1940 to 1947, in film line. During this period, he wrote 33 songs in 4 films…Sangam-41,Kisi se na kehna-42, Kunwara Baap-42 and Raja-43. Amritlal Nagar ( 17-8-1916 to 23-2-1990) was an extraordinary person. He handled almost every department of Literature-except perhaps Poetry and Autobiography. Short stories, Novels, dramas,travelogues and Lyrics etc etc were written by him During 1940 to 1947 period, he was in the film industry. He wrote stories, s/p, dialogues of as many as 20 films in Bombay , Kolhapur and Madras. He dubbed M.S.Subbulakshmi’s Tamil film ‘ Meerabai’ into Hindi. He also worked to translate Russian films like Zoya and Bukhara into Hindi. He won innumerable awards, including Padma Bhushan and Sahitya academy award. He was one of the very rare Hindi Literature stalwarts to work in the film industry for such a sustained period.
Unfortunately, there is the usual mix up in the filmography of these two wholly different personalities. Added to this confusion, there was also the singer Amrutlal Oza. Novelist Amrutlal Nagar never acted and never sang a song. Amrutlal Oza began his singing career with Film Pujari-1946. Actor singer Amrutlal had stopped singing from 1944 itself. Still, many sites and Blogs and writers get confused and mix up every Amrutlal’s filmography for acting and singing.
In one of my recent posts, I had mentioned that in the early era of Talkie films, the low caste and Tawaif girls joined films so that they could get married to some rich, successful person and lead a respectful life of a housewife. Amongst such girls, few were really capable and helped their partners in conducting their business – like Gauhar Mamajiwala of Ranjit or Mehtab of Minerva. Sardar Akhtar, who was the Heroine of today’s film-Uljhan-42 was also one such capable woman, who married Mehboob Khan and shared his work. How they got married was quite Cinematic too….
The life story of Sardar Akhtar is very interesting. Sardar Akhtar was a Punjabi Muslim born in Lahore in 1915. Her mother was a famous singer on the infamous Hira Mandi Road of Lahore. Akhtar learned singing from her mother and also other ustads. Her younger sister Bahar Akhtar was beautiful and a good singer. These sisters were famous as Daaro and Baharo in Lahore. Bahar was hired by United Players Corpn. of Lahore , as a Heroine in their film ” Qatil Katar “. Producer A R Kardar was also its Hero. They fell in love. Bahar was under strict surveillance by her mother, but with the help of a friend, Kardar abducted her and they were married. When this news reached her mother, Akhtar and her mother made a Police complaint against kardar. Kardar and his unit members were arrested and kept in a lock up for a few days for abducting a Minor girl. They were released when Bahar herself gave a statement in their favour. Kardar destroyed the negatives of his film to prevent Bahar from further acting in films.
After this episode Akhtar started working in dramas. She went to Calcutta and did a small role in the film Dhoop Chhaon-35. From there she came to Bombay and joined Saroj Movietone. She did films like Eid ka chaand,Roop Basant and Naqsh e Sulemani and earned a good name. She acted in films of Minerva and Wadia-mostly stunt action films. Mehboob needed two Heroines for his film Alibaba.. He selected Waheedan Bai and Sardar Akhtar. Akhtar was the younger sister of Bahar-wife of A.R.Kardar. In an article in Filmfare dated 16-8-1957,Mehboob wrote ” the moment I saw Sardar Akhtar, I fell for her and knew that one day she will be my wife.” Sure enough, he married her later.
Mehboob khan gave her a big role in the film Aurat-40 and her image changed. She also did Mehboob’s film Roti, during which they got married on 25-4-1942.. It was during the shooting of film Aurat, Mehboob was attracted towards Jyoti- sister of Waheedan Bai and one of the cast of Aurat- and he started spending time with her, having Tea together, Lunch together etc. Sardar Akhtar noticed this and played her cards well. She encouraged Jyoti to accept outside film offers lest she would be out of circulation. Then she poisoned Mehboob by telling him that Jyoti was not a good girl and that she was more interested in outside film roles. Consequently, Jyoti’s role in the film Aurat was reduced. By the time the film Aurat was completed, Akhtar had fully influenced Mehboob and then insisted on getting married. He too wanted it and they got married just before the film was released.
They did not have any issues but they adopted Saajid khan, child star of film Son of India-62. After Mehboob’s death in 1964 May, Akhtar lived alone, occasionally visiting Sajid khan, who had settled in the USA.
Sardar Akhtar did 44 films. Her last film was Raahat-45. However, she did small roles in films Hulchal-71 and Bandhe Haath-74. Sardar Akhtar sang 92 songs in 27 films. Considering that she was not a regular or playback singer, her 92 songs were highly creditable. Not even 50% of her songs came on gramophone records. During one of her US visits, Sardar Akhtar died there on 2-10-1984. She was a devotee of sufi saint Ashraf khan, her co-star of many films including Roti-42.
Film Historian and author Shri Rajnikumar Pandya ji had interviewed N R Acharya (Nrusinh Prasad Acharya). According to him the film Uljhan-42 was totally based on a Gujarati novel- MALELA JEEV (Souls of oneness), written by Pannalal Patel.
Today’s song is sung by an unidentified female with chorus. It is a good song. With this song, film Uljhan-42 makes it’s Debut on the Blog.
(information used in this post is culled, with thanks,from various sources like ‘Sapnon ke Saudagar’ by Vithal Pandya, Kamlakar P.’s Blog, wiki, Filmdom-1946, ‘Mehboob Khan’ by S.Kinikar and my notes).
Song – Arrey samdhi to darjin ka yaar lagan ke kapde bane (Uljhan)(1942) Singers- Chorus song, Lyricist- Kailash Matwala, MD- Ramchandra Pal
Lyrics
Arrey samdhi to darjin ka yaar
lagan ke kapde bane
Arrey samdhi to darjin ka yaar
lagan ke kapde bane
arre samdhin ne paaala sunaar
arre samdhin ne paaala sunaar
naye naye gahne bane
aha naye naye gahne bane
Arrey samdhi to darjin ka yaar
lagan ke kapde bane
Arrey samdhi to darjin ka yaar
lagan ke kapde bane
kahaan bhaage ye ?? sawaar
kahaan bhaage ye ?? sawaar
bade tum chhaila bane
bade tum chhaila bane
Rupa maaregi jhaadu ki maar
haan haan
Rupa maaregi jhaadu ki maar
haan haan khasam ka yoonhi(??) bane
haan haan khasam ka yoonhi(??) bane
Arrey samdhi to darjin ka yaar
lagan ke kapde bane
Arrey samdhi to darjin ka yaar
lagan ke kapde bane
ek dikhaawan ?? jaan
apni maa ke phhodo kaan
ek dikhaawan ?? jaan
apni maa ke phhodo kaan
Rupa jab bhi gaali dewe
budhiya teri sun na lewe
Rupa jab bhi gaali dewe
budhiya teri sun na lewe
arre sun to sahi o ganwaar
arre sun to sahi o ganwaar
kahaan yoon chalte bane
kahaan yoon chalte bane
bhauji se kahe ??
bhauji se kahe ??
bhaiyya tera jaaye sad
bhaiyya tera jaaye sad
bahan bhare teri kuyen se paani
bahan bhare teri kuyen se paani
Rupa meri ban patraani
Rupa meri ban patraani
maare gin gin ke hunter hazaar
maare gin gin ke hunter hazaar
na unse rote bane
haan haan
na unse rote bane
Arrey samdhi to darjin ka yaar
lagan ke kapde bane
Arrey samdhi to darjin ka yaar
lagan ke kapde bane
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