Posts Tagged ‘1939’
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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5719 | Post No. : | 18238 |
Today’s song is from the film Nadi Kinare-1939.
The Internet has played an important role in our lives. It is due to the internet that we are able to virtually get any information under the Sun, at just one click ! Thanks to all those souls who have created storehouses (archives) of information of the bygone eras in different fields. We can know today about any incident, event, person or place of the past, at will, and get the information, which had seemed not accessible just about 30-40 years ago.
This is especially of great benefit to the students of history of anything – be it a language, a writer, a historical personality, a science, culture or even films. The Internet has proved to be ” Alibaba’s Cave” which opens with a password ‘ Khul ja Sim Sim’. One who has learned this password has all the doors open to desired information.
In history, whenever an event occurred, historians used to write it down for posterity and accuracy. When printing was invented in or around 1436 AD, it opened yet another avenue to record the history in a book form. Thousands of books were printed, but not all those books were available all the years to all the people at all the places. The Internet promptly stored all this information from the books and later the entire books were also stored. Thus, the desired information on almost every topic became available to the students of history. Communication between the people across the continents became a child’s play.
As far as history of films and related subjects is concerned, this facility was God-sent. When I first learnt operating computers, from my grandchildren, as late as in 2010, at the age of 70 years, I never imagined the computer’s capacity of opening the Alibaba’s Cave, for information on old films, songs and related matters. My joy knew no bounds when while surfing, I came across the archives of Film India magazine issues from the late 30’s to later years. These magazines, in their entirety, gave information on films, their details, stories and even interviews of stars. The advertisements appearing in these magazines carried information on films, events and equipment and all film related things. And all this was totally FREE !
Films of the 30’s and the 40’s were mostly not available, but from these old magazines – not only Film India, but even other language magazines, Newspapers and books etc. we got all the details. Lakhs of Blogs and Sites became available and now there is a huge number causing a mess and confusion too. Additionally Social medias like FaceBook and WA became sources of information through their groups and individuals.
Film Nadi Kinaare-1939 details are available in the December 1939 issue of Film India. It is claimed that the story of this film was a mixture of stories from 3 English films, namely
‘King and the Chorus Girl’-1937, ‘The rage of Paris-1938’ and ‘ Bluebeard’s 8th wife’. The writer of the Hindi film must have taken great efforts to mix these stories.
The cast of the film was M.Kumar, Sitara Devi, Suneeta, Indubala, Charlie, Ghory, Ram Marathe, Kantilal and others. There were 2 Lyricists- P.L.Santoshi and D.N.Madhok, but HFGK does not credit individual songs with lyricist’s names. Directed by Manibhai Vyas (27-4-1920 to 14-11-1993) who directed 20 films from Dukhiyari-37 to Shrikrishna Bhakti-1973, the film had music by Gyan Dutt. There were 13 songs in the film. Ram Marathe had done a child’s role in this film. He left the films after doing a few more films and pursued his hobby of classical singing. In due course he became an All India famous Classical Singer of repute.
The story of the film, as adapted by our Sadanand Kamath ji from the Film India issue, a few years back is….
A drunkard Prince Anand (M Kumar) is to be married to Princess Sarita (Sunita Devi) of a neighbouring state according to the decision taken by the Council. However, Prince Anand falls in love with Nama, a gypsy girl. She is brought to the Palace disguised as a Princess to exert influence over the Prince to cure him of his drinking habit. Having lost her memory, Nama really believes herself to be a Princess.
The Prince gives up his drinking habit under the influence of Nama. But a series of misunderstandings adds to the comical situations. Nama was already engaged to a gypsy boy in her village. But due to her memory loss, she does not remember her impending marriage with the gypsy boy. After sometime, Nama gets her memory back and now she finds herself in a piquant situation – both the Prince and the gypsy boy suspect her of treachery. The comical situations turn into a tragedy as Nama drowns herself into a river and for once the hero fails to save her.
Today’s song is sung by Kantilal.
KANTILAL CHHAGANLAL PACHCHIGAR ( Soni) was born on 18-4-1907 in Surat,Gujrat. He was from a Goldsmith family. Due to inherent interest in music, after college education he came to Bombay to try film singing.
His first film was ‘Bulbul e Paristan’-1934 from Vishnu Cinetone. Kikubhai Yagnik was the MD. Kantilal sang 2 songs in it.In 1935, he acted, sang and gave Music to Preet ki reet. He sang 6 songs. From 1937 to 1941, he was with Ranjit Movietone and acted and sang in 16 films. He sang 40 songs under Khamchand Prakash and Gyan Dutt. Then came Gazi Salahuddin, Kangan, Holiday in Bombay and Kanchan. Kantilal sang 60 songs in 24 films under 5 MDs, in all.
In 1943, he married Ushaben and acted in Gujarati films and Dramas. Some of his films were, Tufani Toli, Ban ki chidiya, Billi, Gorakh Aya, Prithvi Putra, Adhuri Kahani, Nadi kinare, Aaj ka Hindustan, Achhut, Diwali, Holi, Musafir, Pardesi, Sasural, Shaadi etc. He died on 17-6-1971.
Let us enjoy this lovely song….
Song-Aaraam kahaan hai dil jo pada gairon ke paale(Nadi Kinaare)(1939) Singer- Kantilal, Lyricist- Not known, MD- Gyan Dutt
Lyrics
aaraam kahaan hai
aaraam kahaan
dil jo pada gairon ke paale
muflis ko khuda
ishq ke phande mein naa daale
muflis ko khuda
ishq ke phande mein naa daale
aaraam kahaan hai
aaraam kahaan
dil jo pada gairon ke paale
muflis ko khuda
ishq ke phande mein na daale
gaa le to janaaze pe khada ishq pukaare
ab tum to chale
mujhko kiya kiske hawaale
gaa le to janaaze pe khada ishq pukaare
ab tum to chale
mujhko kiya kiske hawaale
aaraam kahaan hai
aaraam kahaan
dil jo pada gairon ke paale
muflis ko khuda
ishq ke phande mein naa daale
jitna sataana hai sata le
tu sata le
kya tu na padega
kisi bedard ke paale
jitna sataana hai sata le
tu sata le
kya tu na padega
kisi bedard ke paale
muflis ko khuda
ishq ke phande mein naa daale
aaraam kahaan hai aaram kahaan
dil jo pada gairon ke paale
muflis ko khuda
ishq ke phnde mein naa daale
aaraam kahaan hai
Chal dheerey dheerey dheerey
Posted on: August 16, 2023
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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5507 | Post No. : | 17950 |
Today’s song is from the film Aap ki Marzi aka As you please-(1939).
The Talkie era started with the beginning of the 1930s decade, i.e. in 1931. By 1939, it entered the last year of that decade. Within the first 9 years, the film industry had shed its skin several times before beginning a new phase in the 40’s. Most artistes of the early Talkie era were those who came over from the Silent films. Many such artistes ended their careers while the remaining ones began ending their careers. While all this happened there were new entrants with their own new styles of acting.
The system of Playback singing was getting settled. This had given a respite to the singing artistes from singing while shooting the scenes, which restricted their movements. This also saved a terrible balancing act for the Music instrument players who had to perform during shootings, taking care they did not show up in the camera range. Most importantly, now songs could be shot on the Non singing artistes too and songs could be shot on different locations as the artistes had to only lip synch and not actually sing the songs. This also opened up a new category of playback singers who were not acting in the films, paving way to singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Mohd. Rafi etc.
While all this was happening in the film industry, the world had plunged into the II World War from September 1939. It not only affected the entire world but also the Hindi film industry, as the Raw film used for shootings was imported. In due course restrictions were imposed on the quota allotments to studios under certain conditions. let us take a look at the film scene of the year 1939….
The year was 1939 and the British Government had declared war against Germany and Japan, as soon as the WW II began. All countries ruled by Britain were – willingly or unwillingly, drawn into the war efforts and its effects. The war began in the month of September and soon various restrictions came into operation – like rationing, blackouts, shortages etc. The film industry which was still under its development stage suffered. It also realised the importance of remaining united as one industry. However, all that came after 1 or 2 years. In 1939 there was not much effect seen on the film industry.
The industry had its own problems. In spite of the playback system in operation, their problem was that because there was no technique of recording from the film negative yet, the singers had to sing twice. Once for the actual film shooting of the song, and later, with the same set of orchestra, for commercial records. Sometimes, the original singer was not available due to any reason, some other singer had to sing for commercial records. Thus we have many such examples, where the singer in the film song and the record is different. However, this problem continued only till mid 50’s when the Tape and the required technique became available. With just one time recording, the film and commercial recording were taken care of.
Khemchand Prakash. K.Datta (Datta Koregaonkar), Rafiq Ghaznavi and Anupam Ghatak made their Debut as Music Directors. Kavi Pradeep wrote his first film song for film Kangan. In 1939, 2 most Unusual songs were presented, for the first time . One was a Multi-Lingual song from film Aadmi-39, a film by Prabhat….Kis liye kal ki baat. This song was in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bangla, Tamil and Telugu. ( In its Marathi film version-” माणूस “, this song was only in one language-Marathi.) Different Lyricists and MDs were used for each language. The song became very popular.
Second unusual song was from film ‘ Ghareeb ka Laal’-1939. The song lyrics had the names of 32 artistes, operating in Hindi films that time. Top Heroes and Heroines were mentioned in this song. The beginning of the song was ” Tuze Bibbo kahoon ya Sulochana, Uma shashi kahoon ki Jamuna “. This song was sung by the comedian Mirza Musharraf. In later years many songs with film artistes’ names came but none had so many names. Thus this record is still unbroken, in case of this song.
Besides these songs, let us quickly take a look at some films of 1939….
Aadmi – Prabhat’s hit film, a remake of the Marathi film ” माणूस “. It had some good songs by Shanta Hublikar, Sundarabai Jadhav and Ram Marathe.
Adhuri Kahani – a trend of Tragedy films set by the effect of film ‘Devdas’. All the 3 main characters of this film commit suicide in the end.
Badi Didi – A New Theatres film.
Brandy ki Botal – Master Vinayak’s comedy remake of Marathi film ‘ ब्रॅंडीची बाटली ‘.
Dil hi to hai – Debut of Kidar Sharma as a Director and Ramola as a Heroine in a Hindi film.
Dushman – New Theatres’ film of Saigal, with only his 4 songs.
Ek hi Raasta – Sagar presents first film with 3 Heroes in one film.
Ghazi Salauddin – Debut of Khemchand Prakash as M.D.
Hukum ka Ikka – First film with a Triple role by Umakant Desai ( who later specialised as Lakshman in 7 films, including Ramrajya-43).
Imaandaar – Debut of actress Shamim Akhtar.
India in Africa – This was the First Hindi film to be shot abroad (in Africa). The Hero B. Nandrekar had also gone to Africa for its shooting. Naaz-54 was not the first such film, though HFGK mentions it so.( Ref – pp 69, Maharashtra-The Birthplace of Indian cinema by Isak Mujawar)
Kangan – First of the 4 Hit films of Ashok kumar and Leela Chitnis, made by Bombay Talkies. Kavi Pradeep’s Debut as a Lyricist in this film.
Kapal kundala – New Theatres. Pankaj mullick’s hit song ‘ Piya milan ko jaana ‘.
Leather Face – Debut of Meena kumari as a child artiste.
Navjeevan – Debut of Hansa Wadkar as a Heroine- Bombay Talkies film.
Pukar – Hit film from Minerva Movietone. Naseem Bano sings ” Zindagi ka saaz bhi kya saaz hai….”
The film Aap ki marzi was made by Sudama Productions, Bombay and was directed by its owner Sarvottam Badami. MD was Gyan Dutt. The cast consisted of Sabita Devi, Motilal, Vasanti, Mazhar, Khurshid, Sunalini Devi, K.N.Singh, Jagdisha Sethi and others. The director was Sarvottam Badami-a well known name in those days to direct funny, comedy and hilarious movies. In his days, he was one of the most sought after directors.
The music was by the grand old man of HFM, Gyan Dutt. The lyricists were P L Santoshi, well known for light and comedy songs and S P Kalla.
The cast included Motilal as Sumant, Sabita Devi as Shashi, Majhar as Sir Bansilal and Govind lal, Khursheed as Manjiri, K.N.Singh, Sethi,Sunalini devi etc.
The story takes place in Bombay’s rich area Nepian Sea Road, where Seth Sir Bansilal stays with his wife-Susheela (sunalini devi) and niece Shashi .Bansilal is very fond of solving crossword puzzles and Shashi helps him. In one such contest, where he contested as an ordinary man Govindlal,he gets the second prize.The first prize is won by a handsome youngbut jobless man Sumant. The prize is a trip to Kashmir.
Bansilal’s wife sends Shashi with him to keep an eye on him and take his care. As Bansilal is going there as a common man Govindlal, they decide that Shashi and Govindlal will act as strangers in the hotel. Unknown to them, his wife has made arrangements for Bansilal in his real name in Shalimar Hotel, Kashmir.
All 3 persons arrive on the same day, First comes Sumant, who is mistaken as Sir Bansilal and given the best room and due respect etc. He gets confused but enjoys all this. Govindlal is given an ordinary room and Shashi takes a good room.
In the hotel, Shashi accidentally breaks some valuable pots Sumant is carrying and they start fighting. The hotel manager comes, pacifies them and tells Shashi not to trouble Sir Bansilal. Shashi is shocked. She goes to his room and says if you are Bansilal, I am your niece. They start fighting again. Govindlal comes and pacifies them .Sumant learns that he is the second winner and calls him for dinner. Shashi also forces herself on the dinner. Shashi and Sumant fall in love.
The film falls on usual song, dance understanding, misunderstanding and interference by the Hotel girl Manjiri sequences. Manjiri tries to blackmail Sumant to extract some money, but finally,Sir Bansilal discloses his identity and all is well at the end.
It was a very entertaining film. When I saw this film, the print was in terrible state and songs were not heard properly. I do not know if this film copy is still available.
The film had 11 songs by Gyan Dutt, Sabita Devi, Vasanti, and Khursheed.
There are two interesting names in the cast – Vasanti and Sunalini Devi. Vasanti Vinayakrao Ghorpade,was born on 23-3-1925 in Kolhapur. Her father’s sister Tanibai was a famous classical singer. Married to Bapusaheb Kagalkar,Tanibai was active in films till 1931 in Kolhapur.
Vasanti was trained by Pt. Vamanrao Sadolikar and Ustad Bamman Khan. V.Shantaram was her neighbour. He saw her and offered a role in films. She first acted in Dharmatma-35 as a child artist. Then came Amarjyoti-36 and Duniya na maane-37. Her songs in these films were popular. She left Prabhat in 1939 and joined Ranjit. She was so popular that she was called Shirley Temple of Hindi films.
She did Sant Tulsidas-(1939), Aapki Marzi-(1939), Musafir-(1940), Diwali-(1940), Achoot-(1940), Beti-(1941), Sukh Dukh-(1942), Bhaktaraj-(1943), Kurbani-(1943), Meena-(1944), Bhagya laxmi-(1944) and Bachhon ka Khel-(1946) also. She sang 56 songs in 14 films. She did not sing in BhagyaLaxmi-(1944) and Meena-(1944), but sang in Holi-(1940). Her last film was Bachhon ka khel-(1946),which was the first film of Meena Kumari, as an adult.
In 1944, during the shooting of film Bhagya Laxmi-(1944), she married the already married Indubhai Patel and settled in Bangalore. After husband’s death, she shifted to Hyderabad and lived there happily, with her 3 sons and a daughter. She died somewhere in the year 2005.
Our senior readers will know Sarojini Naidu’s name who was well known in the pre-independence era, but not many will know that her elder sister was Sunalini Devi-an actress and younger brother Harindranath Chatopadhyaya, an actor. Sunalini Devi, the actress, was born on 1-1-1896 in Hyderabad Deccan. Her father, Aghornath Chatopadhyay-a Bengali settled in Hyderabad – was a Sanskrit scholar, was proficient in 27 languages and was the first Indian to get the D.Sc. honour. Sunalini was the elder sister of Sarojini, who became Sarojini Naidu after her marriage, and Harindranath Chattopadhyay-renowned poet.
Sunalini learnt Music and Dance from her third year of age itself. Due to her sweet voice, she was called ‘ Kokila ‘. It is to be noted that her younger sister Saojini Naidu was called ‘ Nightingale of India’ ! It is unfortunate that the film industry did not use Sunalini’s music skill in her films and she sang just one song in her career in the film ‘ Raja Rani-(1942)’.Sunalini started acting in stage dramas from 1918.
Her first movie was “Light of Asia”-released initially in Germany and Poland in 1925 ( its restored version was released on 5th July 2001, in India. ) This film was made by Himanshu Rai. The film was shot in Lahore. It was a silent film on Gautama the Buddha. Her first Talkie film was ‘ veer Kunal-(1932)’. She acted in 56 films. Mostly she was known for motherly roles only. She had, like her more eminent sister, married a south Indian- Mr.A.S.Rajan, a writer from Madras. Some of her more known films are Aurat,Lalaji, Inkaar, Nai Roshni, Talaash, Bairam khan, Tamasha, Dilruba, Malhar etc etc. Her last film was Chingari-(1955). She retired from films in 1956.
Today’s song is sung by Vasanti.
Song- Chal Dheere dheere dheere (Aap Ki Marzi)(1939) Singer-Vasanti, Lyrics-P L Santoshi, MD-Gyan Dutt
Lyrics
Chal Dheere ae
dheere ae ae ae
Dheere ae
Chal Dheere dheere dheere
teree jeewan gathhree bhaaree re
Chal Dheere
chal dheere ae ae
teree jeewan gathhree bhaaree re
Chal Dheere
baandhh rakha kitna dukh toone
baandhh rakhee kitnee aahen (?)
baandhh rakha kitna dukh toone
baandhh rakhee kitnee aahen (?)
baandh rakhaa aa aa aa
kitna aa aa dukh a a tooone
baandhh rakhee kitnee aahen
baandhh rakhee kitnee aahen
baandhh rakhee kitnee aahen
man ke chhote tukde mein
man ke chhote tukde mein
saaree duniya baandhee re
Chal Dheere
chal dheere ae ae
teree jeewan gathhree bhaaree re
Chal Dheere dheere dheere
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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5502 | Post No. : | 17943 | Movie Count : |
4798 |
In the mid-1930s, Fearless Nadia was making waves in the role of a stunt woman in Wadia Movietone films, ‘Hunterwaali’ (1935), ‘Miss Frontier Mail’ (1936) ‘Hurricane Hansa’ (1937) and ‘Lutaaru Lalna’ (1938). So, films in the genre of ‘action/adventure’ becomes one of favorites of many film producing studios. Vijay Bhatt of Prakash Pictures also fell in line and made action/fantasy films around mid-1930s. They produced ‘His Highness’ (1937), ‘State Express’ (1938), ‘Hero No.1’ (1939) etc. ‘Bijlee’ (1939) was another Prakash Pictures’ film in this genre which was directed by Balwant Bhatt. The star cast included Jairaj and Pramila in the lead role supported by Munshi Khanjar, Zahoor, Shirin Bano, Athavale, Gulab, Jaal Writer, Shyam Sundar, Lallubhai Nayak etc.
I could not find the synopsis of the film’s story on the websites. However, a few lines on the film’s story have been found in http://www.indianfilmhistory.com according to which the life of a sweet looking girl (probably Pramila) living with her family changes when all her family members are killed by an evil man. She turns herself into a fearless and brave girl to take revenge. In her deadly path, another brave man (probably Jairaj) helps her to overcome the odd she faced in her fights for revenge. I do not know as to how the story ended. But going by the story of most of the stunt films, the end would be the triumph of good over evil.
I have a photo from ‘Bijlee’ (1939) in which Pramila and Jairaj are dressed as pilots with a plane standing in the background. I have also seen a photo of her in this film in which she had dressed more or less, like Fearless Nadia in ‘Hunterwaali’ (1935). With these photos, it becomes clear that Pramila was depicted as a strong female protagonist who fought for the justice. It is said that in ‘Bijlee’ (1939), she had done stunt scenes herself like jumping from a running horse.
Pramila (30/12/1916 – 06/08/2006) whose real name was Esther Victoria Abraham, was one of the earliest models, actors, and producers who acquired a star status in Hindi film industry. She started as a dancer in a Parsee theater. Her film career happened more as a coincidence rather than the planned one in Bombay (now Mumbai). She was a teacher in one of the Jewish schools in Calcutta (Kolkata). During the school’s vacation, Pramila was on a short visit to Bombay in 1935 to spend some time with her cousin, Miss Rose and her sister Miss Sophie Abraham (Romilla) who had just started their acting careers in Hindi films. RS Choudhary, who was to direct ‘Return of Toofan Mail’ for Imperial, met her. He took the screen test and selected her not only for this film but also for the next 4 films under the banner of Imperial Films. Unfortunately, the film was never completed.
[Editor’s Note: A film by the same name – ‘Return of Toofaan Mail’ was released in 1942; it was a Ranjit-Wadia Movietone production directed by Aspi, with Arun and Shamim as the lead pair.]
Pramila’s first released film during her Bombay stay was Kolhapur Cinetone’s ‘Bhikaran’ (1935) for which she was loaned to them by Imperial Pictures. She was given a new name, Pramila by Baburao Pendharkar. She did the role of a westernized vamp. Next, she was in ‘Sarla’ (1936), ‘Mahamaya’ (1936), ‘Hamaari Betiyaan’ (1936) and ‘Mother India’ (1938) for Imperial Pictures, ‘Janmabhoomi’ (1936), ‘Jeevan Naiyya’ (1936) and ‘Achhut Kanya’ (1936) for Bombay Talkies, ‘Jungle King’ (1939) for Wadia Movietone, ‘Hukum Ka Ekka’ (1939) and ‘Bijlee’ (1939) for Prakash Pictures. By this time, Pramila had become a star actor doing mainly the roles of vamp and stunt actors.
Before Pramila shifted to Bombay in 1935, she was married to a theatre person, Maniklal Dangi in Kolkata. She also had a son. However, her parents pressurised her to divorce him. In 1939, she got married to M Kumar, who was her co-actor in her first 3 films made by Imperial Pictures.
In 1942, M Kumar and Chandramohan floated their film production company Silver Films along with Pramila who devoted much of her time in film production. ‘Jhankar’ (1942) was their first film as producers, followed by ‘Bhalaai’ (1943). ‘Bade Nawab Sahib’ (1944), ‘Naseeb’ (1945), ‘Devar’ (1946), and ‘Dhun’ (1953) etc. ‘Bahaana’ (1960) was her last film as a producer. In 1947, Pramila participated in the first Miss India competition at the age of 31 and pregnant with her 5th child, and she won.
Pramila and her husband M Kumar lived in Mumbai for over 2 decades. However, sometime in 1963, M Kumar decided to migrate to Pakistan. Pramila was not interested in settling in Pakistan. M Kumar migrated to Pakistan with his first wife and children while Pramila with her children stayed back in India in a bungalow in Shivaji Park, provided by her father which she named as ‘Pramila Villa’. She kept herself busy in bringing up children at the cost of her film career. Neither Hindi film industry nor Pramila approached each other for work. The last time she was seen in public was at the time of the release of Amol Palekar’s bilingual film in Marathi and English, ‘Thang/Quest’ (2006) in which she did a cameo role of a grandmother. Pramila died on August 6, 2006, in her bungalow at a ripe age of 89. [Sourced mainly from an article published in ‘The Daily Eye’, April 25, 2018, by Aparajita Krishna].
All her children are associated with films one way or the other. Haider Ali, the youngest son has acted in many films since 1975. He also wrote screenplay for ‘Jodha Akbar’ (2008). He became popular as an actor in TV serial, ‘Nukkad’. Pramila’s only daughter, Naqi Jahan started as a model. She won Miss India title in 1967 thus becoming the only mother-daughter pair winning this title. Naqi Jahan also acted in ‘Aakhri Khat’ (1966), ‘Mr Murder’ (1969), ‘Samaaj Ko Badal Daalo’ (1970) and ‘Ek Khilaari Baawan Patte’ (1971). She left film industry after marrying a Gujarati businessman, Vikram Kamdar and adopted a new name, Nandini Kamdar.
‘Bijlee’ (1939) had 9 songs, all penned by Pandit Anuj. Songs were set to music by Shankar Rao Vyas and Lallubhai Nayak. However, allocation of individual songs between the two music directors are not available. HFGK does not mention the name of the playback singers for any song.
I am presenting the first song from the film, “Bhaiyya Torey Chhote Nanadi Kaahe Karoon Singaar” to appear on the Blog. The song is written by Pandit Anuj. HFGK does not mention the name of the singer for the song. Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji has identified the singer as Shirin Bano which seems to be correct when compared with her voice in a couple of other songs.
Shirin Bano was the second wife of director, Nanabhai Bhatt and the mother of Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt.
Audio Clip:
Song-Bhaiyya torey chhote nanadi kaahe karoon singaar (Bijlee)(1939) Singer-Shirin Bano, Lyrics-Pt Anuj, MD-Shankar Rao Vyas/ Lallubhai Nayak
Lyrics
bhaiyya torey chhote nanadi
kaahe karoon singaar
haan main kaahe karoon singaar
solah baras ki bholi umariya
solah baras ki bholi umariya
baaroh hai bhartaar
haan main kaahe karoon singaar
nanadi kaahe karoon singaar
mo se bole god mein le le
kar le mo ko pyaar
mo se bole god mein le le
kar le mo ko pyaar
ras ki reet na jaane rasiya
ras ki reet na jaane rasiya
beeti chaar bahaar
haan main kaahe karoon singaar
nanadi kaahe karoon singaar
sej chadhat mori paayal baaje
chhun chhun sun jhankaar
sej chadhat mori paayal baaje
chhun chhun sun jhankaar
hamre balma dar ke bhaage
hamre balma dar ke bhaage
ang lagey angaar
haan main kaahe karoon singaar
nanadi kaahe karoon singaar
———————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————————————
भैया तोरे छोटे ननदी
काहे करूँ सिंगार
हाँ मैं काहे करूँ सिंगार
सोलह बरस की भोली उमरिया
सोलह बरस की भोली उमरिया
बारहो है भरतार
हाँ मैं काहे करूँ सिंगार
ननदी काहे करूँ सिंगार
मो से बोले गोद में ले ले
कर ले मो को प्यार
मो से बोले गोद में ले ले
कर ले मो को प्यार
रस की रीत ना जाने रसिया
रस की रीत ना जाने रसिया
बीती चार बहार
हाँ मैं काहे करूँ सिंगार
ननदी काहे करूँ सिंगार
सेज चढ़त मोरी पायल बाजे
छुन छुन सुन झंकार
सेज चढ़त मोरी पायल बाजे
छुन छुन सुन झंकार
हमरे बलमा डर के भागे
हमरे बलमा डर के भागे
अंग लगे अंगार
हाँ मैं काहे करूँ सिंगार
ननदी काहे करूँ सिंगार
Tu Dekh Zaraa Dil Ka Darpan
Posted on: May 4, 2023
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 : |
5403 | Post No. : | 17727 |
Today’s song is from an old film ‘Ek Hi Raasta’ (1939).
This film was made by Sagar Movietone and was directed by a young Mehboob Khan. This was his last film with Sagar, because after this Sagar was merged with National studios and later on it was closed down forever. This proves that generally, family enterprises where it is a one man show, be it films or politics, does not last long. If the enterprise does not adapt to changes or does not learn from its mistakes, its downfall is sure. Mehboob Khan grew big with Sagar. Mehboob was influenced by Nehru’s ideology and was his staunch supporter. It was a coincidence that Nehru died in the afternoon of 27th May 1964 and within 12 hours, Mehboob Khan too died in the early hours of 28th May 1964.
Mehboob Khan rose from the lowest step to the highest place in the film industry. Starting life as an ‘extra’ in films (he was one of the 40 thieves in Sagar’s silent film on Alibaba). He grew solely due to his own hard work and foresight. Born as Ramzan Khan in 1907 in Bilimora, Gujarat, Mehboob was from a Gujarati Muslim family. He never got a formal education in his young age, but he was keen on two things – 5 times Namaz daily and seeing films. His father being in Police Department, films were free for him. One day he ran away to Bombay to become an actor. However his father found him out and brought him back. He was immediately married off, with a belief that he would improve.
Two years after marriage and one child, he ran off to Bombay again and worked in Imperial Film Co. as an extra for Rs 30 pm. This too after he worked without any pay for 5 months due to the mistake of the clerk ! He worked in crowd scenes and sundry roles – without a dialogue, of course, starting as one of the 40 thieves of ‘Alibaba’. He worked in several films uncredited. His first, big and credited role came in the film ‘Shirin Khushru’ (1929).
In 1927, after the talkie film ‘The Jazz Singer’ was shown in US, the world started making Talkie films. India too jumped into the bandwagon. In 1931, Imperial Movietone, competing with Madon Theaters of Calcutta, wanted to make a talkie and started work fast. Mehboob Khan was almost finalized as the hero. Even his costumes were made ready, but he was destined for something different, and Master Vithal was made the hero of India’s first talkie. Ardeshir Irani’s safety valve of minimizing the risk of the first venture by selecting the existing popular hero, scuttled Mehboob’s dream.
Meanwhile, Imperial started a new company, ’Sagar Movietone’, along with Dr. Patel and Chiman Desai. Some artistes and techies were shifted to Sagar-including Mehboob- from Imperial. Mehboob continued to work in 12 silent films. Here, he met Fardoon Irani, Cinematographer and they became thick friends. Irani was with Mehboob till the end.
During this period, Mehboob wrote a film story and convinced the owners to allow him to direct this film. Owners were hesitant, naturally, to allow this young extra actor to direct a film. Lastly a deal was struck, that Mehboob and Faredoon should be allowed to shoot one reel film. If they like it, continue or else, scrap it and recover money from these two chaps. After one reel shooting the owners realized that they had struck gold in the process and Mehboob completed his first directorial venture ‘Al Hilaal’ (1935). The film was a great success and Mehboob ‘chal pada’. Mehboob went on to direct 7 more films for Sagar. All his films were successful.
From film ‘Jageerdar’ (1937) Mehboob and Anil Biswas pair teamed up for 8 films – till ‘Roti’ (1942).
When Mehboob was making arrangements for his next film, ‘Alibaba’, the sudden news that Sagar is closing down hit them. Mehboob Khan contacted Imperial to allow him to shoot for his film in their studio, which Ardeshir gladly permitted. The film shooting proceeded til Sagar became National Studios. Mehboob made 3 important films of his career in National Studio, namely ‘Aurat’ (1940), ‘Behan’ (1941) and ‘Roti’ (1942).
When National studio also closed down all workers came on road. However, Mehboob decided to start his own company. One Mr. Lalaji of Manoranjan Distributors of Delhi promised capital. National Studio was renamed as Central Studio by the owner, KK Modi – elder brother of Sohrab Modi. He allowed Mehboob to use the studio till his own studio came up. Mehboob took a place nearby to start his office. In this period there was a rift between Mehboob and Anil Biswas and they separated for ever – albeit bitterly.
Mehboob wanted a logo for Mehboob Productions. He selected a sher written by Agha Jani Kashmiri for film ‘Al Hilal” —
“muddai laakh bura chaahe to kya hota hai,”
“wahi hota hai jo manzoor e khuda hota hai”.
It was recorded in the voice of Rafiq Ghaznavi with appropriate prelude music and sound of lightening and clouds. He also took Sickle and Hammer for the logo, and clarified that because he respected workers and certainly he was not a communist.
His first film ‘Najma’ (1943) with Ashok Kumar and Veena was a hit film (his daughter’s name was Najma). It was followed by ‘Taqdeer’ (1943), ‘Humayun’ (1945), ‘Anmol Ghadi’ (1946), ‘Elaan’ (1947), ‘Anokhi Ada’ (1948), ‘Andaaz’ (1949), ‘Aan’ (1952), ‘Amar’ (1954) and his magnum opus ‘Mother India’ (1957). After the high of ‘Mother India’, Mehboob aimed to fly even higher with ‘Son of India’ (1962) but the film was a total misfire and in fact his weakest film.
Mehboob had been neglecting health in spite of suffering heart attacks. In May 1964, he suffered another attack but survived. His financiers were after him for repayment and he was worried. He called Rajendra Kumar and asked for a loan of 4 lakh rupees against his studio to be made in his name. Rajendra Kumar declined to take the studio and promised to give him the amount next day at 11 am, without any mortgage. In the evening, news of Nehru’s heart attack came. Mehboob became restless. Soon the death news came and Mehboob became grief stricken. Akhtar gave him sleeping pills, but he had to be admitted to Nanavati Hospital. He too died at 2 am on 28th May 1964. At the time of his death, Mehboob Khan was harboring ambitions to make a film on the life of Habba Khatoon, the 16th century poetess-queen of Kashmir.
Mehboob Khan directed 8 films for Sagar, 3 films for National and 11 films for Mehboob productions.
[Based on information from Upperstall, the book ‘Mehboob Khan’ by Shashikant Kinikar and my notes].
Film ‘Ek Hi Raasta’ (1939) was the first Hindi film with 3 heroes, namely Sheikh Mukhtar (this was his debut film as a hero), Harish and Arun Ahuja. In those days it was a novelty to have 3 heroes. The other star cast was Anuradha, Jyoti, Kanhaiyalal and many others. Actress Jyoti may be known to many readers. She was the younger sister of Waheedan Bai. Her real name was Sitara Begum. She was a favorite singer of Anil Biswas. After her first marriage broke, she married actor singer GM Durrani. Their married life was happy and long. She acted in 19 films and sang 38 songs in 12 films.
Anuradha was the younger sister of actress Zohra Jaan and Mushtari. Her real name was Khurshid Akhtar (same as actress Shyama). Zohra Jaan was married to actor composer Rafiq Ghaznavi, but they were divorced and Rafiq then married Anuradha. After migrating to Pakistan, Ghaznavi divorced her also.
Mehboob Khan and Anil Biswas were great friends. Both grew up in Sagar Movietone and made a name for themselves. Unfortunately, there was a dispute between them and they split bitterly forever. Many disputes are famous in Hindi cinema world like, for example Lata – Rafi, Lata – SD Burman, Shammi Kapoor – Kalpana etc. Most disputes ended with compromise, but Mehboob Khan never pardoned Anil Biswas as he felt that Anil Biswas betrayed him for money.
Anil Biswas joined Sagar Movietone in 1936 and ‘Jagirdar’ (1937) was his first film as an MD there. He became a very good friend of Mehboob. Together with cinematographer Faredoon Irani, they made a close group of friends. In every film that Mehboob directed from 1937 to 1942 (8 films), Anil Biswas was his Music Director. In 1940 Sagar staff shifted to National and in 1942, National Studios was to be closed. All employees, including Mehboob, Fardoon and Ail Biswas were worried about their future. In that period, Anil Biswas got an offer first from Ranjit Studios, but he rejected it as his friends did not get offers. Then he got an invitation from Bombay Talkies for Rs. 2,500 rupees pm as salary. This was too lucrative to reject. Though his friends were jobless, Anil Biswas joined Bombay Talkies.
Mehboob Khan was upset that being a friend also, in their bad days, Anil Biswas deserted them for personal gain. Mehboob and Fardoon felt let down. Their relations soured and thereafter Mehboob Khan never ever took Anil Biswas as an MD for films of his company. After establishing his own Mehboob Productions, he did not invite Anil Biswas. Mehboob Khan prospered and teamed up with Naushad as his MD from film ‘Anokhi Ada’ (1948) onwards, in place of Anil Biswas.
By 1954, Anil Biswas broke up with his first wife Ashalata . His career as music director was floundering and he was not getting any films. For survival he unsuccessfully tried doing truck business. Seeing his condition, Mehboob offered him the contract for his canteen, on request from Anil Biswas. That too failed miserably. Mehboob Khan was so bitter about him that even in that condition Mehboob did not offer him any film.
When Mehboob Productions planned the film ‘ Paisa Hi Paisa ‘ in 1956, Mehreesh was made the Director. Being a great fan of Anil Biswas, he asked Mehboob’s permission to call Anil Biswas as its music director. As one who believed in work ethics, Mehboob very reluctantly permitted Mehreesh, but went on a foreign trip to avoid meeting Anil Biswas. Film ‘Paisa Hi Paisa’ was a comedy film, with Kishore Kumar, Mala Sinha, Shakeela, Shyam Kumar, Murad, Mukri, Kumud Tripathi etc. Basically Anil Biswas specialised in tragedy or serious films. Comedy film was not in his comfort zone, but his financial condition forced him to bow to the circumstances. Being a talented composer, he did well in this too, though the film bombed at the box office.
[Based on information collated from the book ‘Mehboob Khan” by Shashikant Kinikar, with thanks and my notes].
Anil Biswas was very fond of singing in his own films. Here is today’s song, sung by him. In this film, Anil Biswas sang 3 solos and a duet with Waheedan Bai (Nimmi’s mother).
Song- Tu Dekh Zaraa Dil Ka Darpan (Ek Hi Rasta) (1939) Singer – Anil Biswas, Lyricist – Kidar Sharma, MD – Anil Biswas)
Lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
jise kehta hai tu
aa gaya
aa gaya
wo gaya hi kahaan tha
ye to bata
dil ka suraj tere
jagmagaata hua..aa..aa
baadalon mein
o rehta kahaan tak chhupa
tu dekh zara dil ka darpan
tu dekh zara dil ka darpan
wahaan basa hua hai vrindavan
tu dekh zara dil ka darpan
tu dekh zara dil ka. . .
tere nainon mein ganga jamuna bahe
tere nainon mein ganga jamuna bahe
tere mann mein Mathura vaas rahe
tere mann mein Mathura vaas rahe
tere kaanon mein bansi ki taan rahe
tere kaanon mein bansi ki taan rahe
tere mukh mein. . .
tere mukh mein shyam ka naam rahe
tere mukh mein shyam ka naam rahe
giridhar ko kar tan mann arpan
giridhar ko kar tan mann arpan
tu dekh zara dil ka darpan
tu dekh zara dil ka. . .
tere nainon mein ganga jamuna bahe
tere nainon mein ganga jamuna bahe
tere mann mein Mathura vaas rahe
tere mann mein Mathura vaas rahe
tere kaanon mein bansi ki taan rahe
tere kaanon mein bansi ki taan rahe
tere mukh mein. . .
tere mukh mein shyam ka naam rahe
tere mukh mein shyam ka naam rahe
giridhar ko kar tan mann arpan
giridhar ko kar tan mann arpan
tu dekh zara dil ka darpan
tu dekh zara dil ka. . .
————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
————————————————
जिसे कहता है तू
आ गया
आ गया
वो गया ही कहाँ था
ये तो बता
दिल का सूरज तेरे
जगमगाता हुआ
बादलों में
ओ रहता कहाँ तक छुपा
तू देख ज़रा दिल का दर्पण
तू देख ज़रा दिल का दर्पण
वहाँ बसा हुआ है वृन्दावन
तू देख ज़रा दिल का दर्पण
तू देख ज़रा दिल का ॰ ॰ ॰
तेरे नैनों में गंगा जमना बहे
तेरे नैनों में गंगा जमना बहे
तेरे मन में मथुरा वास रहे
तेरे मन में मथुरा वास रहे
तेरे कानों में बंसी की तान रहे
तेरे कानों में बंसी की तान रहे
तेरे मुख में ॰ ॰ ॰
तेरे मुख में श्याम का नाम रहे
तेरे मुख में श्याम का नाम रहे
गिरिधर को कर तन मन अर्पण
गिरिधर को कर तन मन अर्पण
तू देख ज़रा दिल का दर्पण
तू देख ज़रा दिल का ॰ ॰ ॰
तेरे नैनों में गंगा जमना बहे
तेरे नैनों में गंगा जमना बहे
तेरे मन में मथुरा वास रहे
तेरे मन में मथुरा वास रहे
तेरे कानों में बंसी की तान रहे
तेरे कानों में बंसी की तान रहे
तेरे मुख में ॰ ॰ ॰
तेरे मुख में श्याम का नाम रहे
तेरे मुख में श्याम का नाम रहे
गिरिधर को कर तन मन अर्पण
गिरिधर को कर तन मन अर्पण
तू देख ज़रा दिल का दर्पण
तू देख ज़रा दिल का ॰ ॰ ॰
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 : |
5401 | Post No. : | 17719 |
Today’s song is an excellent but less known and less heard Ghalib Ghazal ( as per HFGK), sung by Kalyani Bai aka Miss Kalyani, for the film Ghazi Salauddin-1939.
Many times it is extremely difficult to find information on old time films. I tried all my resources to get some information about this film, but in vain. Nothing was available anywhere. The film is also not available anymore. So practically, we knew only what is given in HFGK, in terms of Director, MD, star cast and if we are lucky, some information on the songs like singer, lyricist, record numbers etc.
For the last almost a month, I was struggling. First I found out what Ghazi means. It means a fighter for Islam against Non-Islamists. Secondly some of the songs praise Allah and are about Muslims dying for Islam religion. So it became clear that the film was on some kind of a fight between Muslims and Non muslims. Just last week, I happened to read a book ” Historicizing myths in contemporary India- Cinematic representations”. It is written by Swapna Gopinath and Rujuta Deshmukh (It is a coincidence that the writer’s name is Deshmukh. No relation of mine !) On its page 102, there is a reference to this film ‘ Ghazi Salauddin’. I quote what it says….
” Despite the dwindling popularity of these war historicals in the pan-Indian markets, films with strong communal overtones to be made in some regional pockets. perhaps the communal award-1932 which charted out a separate electorate, gave a boost to the monolithic identity of the community which ushered in a new phase of communalised politics in the subcontinent.In this political atmosphere, films were made portraying events and personalities who were regarded as heroic by one community but denounced by others. This sentiment was manifested regarding the release of the film ” Ghazi Salauddin (1939), though not based on Indian terrain, but featured the typical medieval war of crusade with intense communal overtones.The film was advertised as ” You saw Crusade ! Now see the other side of the medal in Ghazi Salahuddin. “
From all the above it is now clear that this film was a kind of Islamic Historical film and the background was not in India, but somewhere else where the islamist and the Christians fought a war. It is not known who won it, but it is an easy guess, considering that in 1939, the British were ruling India where the film was made ! The film was made by Supreme Pictures. It was directed by I.A.Hafiz ji (Ismail Asif Hafiz ji) who was an assistant director with New Theatres, Calcutta. Hafiz ji directed only four films independently – Usne kya socha-1937, Ghazi Salauddin-1939, Parda Nasheen-1942 and Mamta-1942.
The film had music by Khemchand Prakash. This was his First film as an independent MD. Dr. Ashok Ranade, in his book ” Music beyond Boundaries” says about Khemchand Prakash….
” Though Khemchand’s debut film was Ghazi salauddin (1939), his main cinematic association was with the well known Ranjit Movietone. He joined them around 1940. In a short career spanning 11 years he left behind music composed for 34 films. He has the credit for giving a break to Kishore Kumar in Ziddi (1948). In addition to Kardar’s well received productions such as Holi and Pagal(19410, he also scored for Kidar Sharma’s Gauri, Vishkanya etc.Jayant Desai’s musical landmarkTansen (1949, with Saigalin the lead) and Mahal(1950) represent big points of Khemchand’s musical achievements. Tamasha (1952) was his last film. “
The cast of the film was Rattanbai ( she was the wife of director Hafiz ji), Ghulam Mohd., Mazhar khan, Yaqub, W.M.Khan, Mirza Musharraf and others. The story writer, dialogue writer , Screenplay writer and Lyricist was Khan Bahadur Hakeem Ahmed Shuja. Khan Bahadur Hakim Ahmad Shuja MBE, sometimes written as ‘Hakeem Ahmed Shujah’ and ‘Hakim Ahmad Shuja Pasha’, (4 November 1893 – 4 January 1969), was a famous Urdu and Persian poet, playwright, writer, film writer and lyricist, scholar and mystic, from former British India, later Pakistan.
Hakim Ahmad Shuja was the only son of his parents, who both died when he was still a minor and he was brought up largely by an elder cousin, Hakim Amin-ed-din, Barrister. After a basic education in Arabic and Quranic studies at home, and initial Sufic training under various notable mystics in both Chishti and Qadiri systems, he was then admitted for ‘English education’ to the old Central Model School, Lahore and later went to the famous Aligarh Muslim University, from where he graduated with honours. For some time, Hakim Ahmad Shuja then worked as a lecturer at the Osmania University in Hyderabad state (Deccan) but was not happy and returned to Lahore to seek employment there. After several journalistic and academic ventures, he eventually settled down to regular service in the secretariat of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, finally retiring as Secretary to the Punjab Assembly in the 1950s.
Hakim Ahmad Shuja was a very prolific and versatile writer indeed, producing several collections of Urdu and Persian poetry, countless essays and belles-lettres published in newspapers and journals throughout India (and later Pakistan), one of the earliest translations of the Quran in Punjabi language, several dramatic works in collaboration with Imtiaz Ali Taj, Agha Hashar Kashmiri and other theatrical producers, and, later on, screenplays and lyrics for the early Indo-Pakistan cinema. However, his fame today rests chiefly on these noted works: “Lahore ka Chelsea” (1967; 1989 reprint), a collection of memoirs of Old Lahore; “Khoon-Baha” (1962), some of his other personal memoirs; “Gard-i-Karvan” (1950s; reprint 1960), a collection of poems and essays in praise of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the ‘Ahl i Bayt’ (members of the Prophet’s family) as exemplars of the ‘Ideal’ Muslim character; and his lovely, lyrical poems, some of which were later successfully adapted for film songs. These works reflect his idealism and humane and deeply mystical faith and a Romanticism which reflects both the typical Urdu and Persian poetic traditions, as well as the influence of Western writers such as Shelley, Thomas Carlyle, Goethe and Victor Hugo.
He wrote 10 songs for the film Prem Yatra-1937. About his Screenplays and other filmi activities, details are not available. He was involved in the screenplay, dialogues and song writing in films like Yahudi ki Ladki-1933 and Kaarvaan E Hayat-1935, films made by New Theatres, Calcutta. He had also provided storylines for films like Behram Khan-1945 and Sheesh Mahal-1950 etc. Perhaps he did some more of them in Pakistan.
Hakim Ahmad Shuja continued to write even until the time of his death in 1969. Between the 1950s and 1960s, he became especially interested in the potentialities of film-making and cinema. In many ways, thus, he had a direct influence and bearing upon the development of both early Indian and Pakistani literature and cinema.[ In addition, he also made a significant contribution to the early development of Urdu language, linguistics and etymology as permanent secretary and one of the main compilers/editors of Pakistan’s Official Language Committee, 1949, responsible for the standardization of official and court terms, from English to Urdu.
Hakim Ahmad Shuja was a contemporary of and associated with people like Agha Hashar Kashmiri, Imtiaz Ali Taj, Abul Kalam Azad, Allama Iqbal, Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Sohrab Modi, and Muhammad Ali Jauhar.
In the film the role of Salauddin was done by Ghulam Mohammed, his lover was Rehana, played by Rattanbai, and the role of the British Commander Richard was done by Mazhar khan. For comical relief Mirza Musharraf played joker Younus. Today’s song is sung by Miss Kalyani aka Kalyani Bai.
Hailing from Turkman Gate in Delhi, Kalyani Bai was born in 1916. Her real name was Zarina. She was passionate about singing from a very young age and subsequently started her formal training with Ustad Wazire Khan and in no time started singing for All India Radio and HMV. That era saw an influx of records made from the many Ghazals, Khyaal & Thumris that she had sung.
When a contact was made to her at her house situated in ‘Tekriwala bunglow’ on Dargah lane in Mahim (West), a few years back, Kalyani Bai said that with the advent of Talkie films the demand for well enunciated and melodious singers suddenly went up as till then playback hadn’t been the trend and actors would themselves have to sing the songs live in front of the camera. In the midst of this, one day, two brothers from Punjab saw her in a recording and came over to her house. They wanted to make a film with Kalyani. They agreed to all the conditions that Kalyani’s Abba put forth and hence Abba-Ammi along with their 15 children went on to Kolkata. This was during the Mid 30’s. Kalyani Bai was approximately 13 years old at that time. This film ‘Pardesi’, according to Kalyani, was completed halfway when a spat took place between the two brothers and the film had to be shut down.
As soon as B.N.Sircar, the owner of ‘New Theatres’ and R.C.Boral, the music director came to know of this, they called Kalyani and immediately employed her in their company at a salary of Rupees 250 a month. Since her nickname was ‘Kallo’, R.C.Boral gave Zarina a new name and henceforth she came to be known as ‘Kalyani Bai’.
Kalyani was featured in all the four films released by New Theatres in 1937 viz ‘Anath Ashram’, ‘Mukti’, ‘President’ and ‘Vidyapati’, here she not only acted alongside heavyweights like Prithviraj Kapoor, Trilok Kapoor, Uma Shashi, Jagdish Sethi, P.C.Barua, Kanan devi, Pankaj Mullick, K.L.Sehgal, Leela Desai, Pahadi Sanyal, K.C.Dey, and K.N.Singh, she also sang some songs for her characters in those films. Playback was in its initial phase and had just been introduced in 1935 by ‘New Theatres’ in their film ‘Dhoop Chhaon’. And in practice, it wasn’t the singer’s name (who had actually sung the song) that appeared on the music records but the name of the character of the movie on whom the song was filmed and since this practice continued for another one and a half decade, it is virtually impossible to verify the songs sung by almost all the artists of that era including Kalyani.
Mumbai based Sardar Chandulal Shah, owner of ‘Ranjit Movietone’, was so impressed by Kalyani’s singing and acting skills that as soon as her contract with new theaters was over, he called Kalyani to Mumbai and employed her at Rupees 800 per month. The 1937 release ‘Toofani Toli’ was Kalyani’s first movie to be screened under the banner of Ranjit Movietone. The film was directed by Jayant Desai and Gyan Dutt was its Music composer. Kalyani sung three songs for this movie.
In 1938 Ranjit Movietone made a total of 8 films under its banner of which Kalyani sang and acted in 4 viz. ‘Billi’, ‘Gorakh Aya’, ‘Prithvi Putra’ and ‘Secretary’. Gyan Dutt was the composer and Pyarelal Santoshi was the lyricist for all of these films. . In the year 1939 of the 4 films that were screened under this banner, in ‘Nadi Kinare’ Kalyani acted as well as sang a duet
After parting ways from ‘Ranjit Movietone’, Kalyani appeared in movies like ‘Super Pictures’ ‘Kanyadan’ (1940), ‘Mohan Picture’s’ ‘Jadui Kangan’ (1940), ‘Muslim ka laal’ (1941) and ‘Jadui Angoothi’ (1948), ‘Tarun Picture’s’ ‘Prabhat’ (1941), ‘Sunrise Picture’s’ ‘Ghar ki laaj’ (1941), ‘Ghar Sansar’ (1942), ‘Malan’ (1942) and ‘Maa Baap’ (1944) and ‘Radhika Picture’s’ ‘Pyara Watan’ (1942) where she not only played a range of roles from that of a heroine to a vamp, but she also sang many songs for these films. one that predominates all is the first film-qawaali of the history of Indian Cinema ‘aahein na bharin shikve na kiye’ (‘Zeenat’-1945 / Lyrics : Nakhshab / Music : Hafeez Khan) sung with Noorjehan and Johrabai Ambalewali in which Shyama, Shashikala and Shalini were seen on the big screen for the first time ever.
After her marriage in the year 1948, Kalyani left aside the ostentatious world of glamour and completely immersed herself in her domesticated life. After a number of decades she was once again seen in movies like ‘Aaja Sanam’ (1975), ‘Prem Kahani’ (1975), ‘Aakhiri Sajda’ (1977) and ‘Salaam-E-Mohabbat’ (1983) where she played a number of small character roles but her comeback films couldn’t bring back the magic that once was and she bid her final farewell to the big screen and spent the rest of her days quietly with her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. Her husband had passed away very early on and her son, working as a spot boy in films, barely managed to keep the household running. Although she had some relief in the form of a pension of Rupees 750 per month through the ‘Gandhi Welfare Trust’ set up by Richard Attenborough, Kalyani could never rise above the financial difficulties of livelihood till the very end.
In spite of all the pains and troubles that she faced, she never uttered a single word of complaint. And it was this decorous and dignified nature of hers that even superstars like Dev Anand and Sunil Dutt always showered her with the utmost respect. And then on 1st October 2009 at the age of 87, this remarkable artist of her era took her final journey.
( Film Historian,writer and journalist Shri Shishir Krishna Sharma ji interviewed her on 21-2-2004. The above edited Biography of Kalyani Bai is based on his writings in http://www.beetehuedin.blogspot.in and my notes. I thank Sharmaji for this.)
Let us now hear Ghalib Ghazal…..
Song- Kabhi neki bhi uske jee mein gar aa jaaye hai mujh se (Ghaazi Salahuddin)(1939) Singer- miss Kalyani, Lyricist- Mirza Ghalib, MD- Khemchand Prakash
Lyrics
Kabhi neki bhi uske jee mein gar aa jaaye hai mujh se
Kabhi neki bhi uske jee mein gar aa jaaye hai mujh se
zafaayen karke apni yaad sharma jaaye hai mujhse
zafaayen karke apni yaad sharma jaaye hai mujhse
khudaaya zazba e dil ki magar taaseer ulti hai
khudaaya zazba e dil ki magar taaseer ulti hai
magar taaseer ulti hai
magar taaseer ulti hai
ke jitna khenchta hoon
aur khinchta jaaye hai mujh se
ke jitna khenchta hoon
aur khinchta jaaye hai mujh se
sambhalne de mujhe ae naaummeedee kya qayamat hai
sambhalne de mujhe ae naaummeedee kya qayamat hai
ke daamaan e khayaal e yaar chhoota jaaye hai mujhse
ke daamaan e khayaal e yaar chhoota jaaye hai mujhse
Kabhi neki bhi uske jee mein gar aa jaaye hai mujh se
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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Today’s song is from the film Nadi Kinare-1939. The film was released in Pathe Theatre of Bombay on 10-11-1939.
The year 1939 was a landmark year in the history of the world.
The year was 1939 and the British Government had declared war against Germany and Japan, as soon as the WW II began. All countries ruled by Britain were – willingly or unwillingly, drawn into the war efforts and its effects. The war began in the month of September and soon various restrictions came into operation – like rationing, blackouts, shortages etc. The film industry which was still under its development stage suffered. It also realised the importance of remaining united as one industry. However, all that came after 1 or 2 years. In 1939 there was not much effect seen on the film industry.
The industry had its own problems. In spite of the playback system in operation, their problem was that because there was no technique of recording from the film negative yet, the singers had to sing twice. Once for the actual film shooting of the song, and later, with the same set of orchestra, for commercial records. Sometimes, the original singer was not available due to any reason, some other singer had to sing for commercial records. Thus we have many such examples, where the singer in the film song and the record is different. However, this problem continued only till mid 50’s when the Tape and the required technique became available. With just one time recording, the film and commercial recording were taken care of.
Khemchand Prakash. K.Datta (Datta Koregaonkar), Rafiq Ghaznavi and Anupam Ghatak made their Debut as Music Directors. Kavi Pradeep wrote his first film song for film Kangan. In 1939, 2 most Unusual songs were presented, for the first time ( and this record is not yet broken even after more than 80 years.). One was a Multi-Lingual song from film Aadmi-39, a film by Prabhat….Kis liye kal ki baat. This song was in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bangla, Tamil and Telugu. ( In its Marathi film version-” माणूस “, this song was only in one language-Marathi.) Different Lyricists and MDs were used for each language. The song became very popular.
Second unusual song was from film ‘ Ghareeb ka Laal’-1939. The song lyrics had the names of 32 artistes, operating in Hindi films that time. Top Heroes and Heroines were mentioned in this song. The beginning of the song was ” Tuze Bibbo kahoon ya Sulochana, Uma shashi kahoon ki Jamuna “. This song was sung by the comedian Mirza Musharraf. In later years many songs with film artistes’ names came but none had so many names. Thus this record is still unbroken, in case of both songs.
Besides these songs, let us quickly take a look at some films of 1939….
Aadmi – Prabhat’s hit film, a remake of the Marathi film ” माणूस “. It had some good songs by Shanta Hublikar, Sundarabai Jadhav and Ram Marathe.
Adhuri Kahani – a trend of Tragedy films set by the effect of film ‘Devdas’. All the 3 main characters of this film commit suicide in the end.
Badi Didi – A New Theatres film.
Brandy ki Botal – Master Vinayak’s comedy remake of Marathi film ‘ ब्रॅंडीची बाटली ‘.
Dil hi to hai – Debut of Kidar Sharma as a Director and Ramola as a Heroine in a Hindi film.
Dushman – New Theatres’ film of Saigal, with only his 4 songs.
Ek hi Raasta – Sagar presents first film with 3 Heroes in one film.
Ghazi Salauddin – Debut of Khemchand Prakash as M.D.
Hukum ka Ikka – First film with a Triple role by Umakant Desai ( who later specialised as Lakshman in 7 films, including Ramrajya-43).
Imaandaar – Debut of actress Shamim Akhtar.
India in Africa – This was the First Hindi film to be shot abroad (in Africa). The Hero B. Nandrekar had also gone to Africa for its shooting. Naaz-54 was not the first such film, though HFGK mentions it so.( Ref – pp 69, Maharashtra-The Birthplace of Indian cinema by Isak Mujawar)
Kangan – First of the 4 Hit films of Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitnis, made by Bombay Talkies. Kavi Pradeep’s Debut as a Lyricist in this film.
Kapal kundala – New Theatres. Pankaj Mullick’s hit song ‘ Piya milan ko jaana ‘.
Leather Face – Debut of Meena Kumari as a child artiste.
Navjeevan – Debut of Hansa Wadkar as a Heroine- Bombay Talkies film.
Pukar – Hit film from Minerva Movietone. Naseem Bano sings ” Zindagi ka saaz bhi kya saaz hai….”
Indian filmmakers had practiced 4 ways of getting stories for their films, since the beginning of Talkie films.
1. Copy from older films
2. copy from other languages or remake them
3. use stories from Foreign films – especially Hollywood and
4. make a mixture of all this and make a film.
Hundreds of films were made on the stories of Alibaba. Alauddin, Sindbad, Thief of Baghdad, Hatimtai, Gul E Bakavali and other stories from the Arabian Nights. Hollywood films made on famous novels or dramas were another source of inspiration. When the Talkie films started, the first such film was made in 1933 itself titled- “Awara Shehzada “, with Shahu Modak as its Hero.This was the first Hindi film based on the famous novel of Mark Twain- The Prince and the Pauper, published in 1881. Films on this ” Look alike” theme were made in Hollywood as early as 1915 and 1920 This theme was used abundently in Hindi films like Ram aur Shyam, Don, Seeta aur Geeta, Kanoon and many more films. The list will be too long.
In 1937 a film ” Duniya kya Hai” was made by Lalita Pawar, based on Count Leo Tolstoy’s famous novel ” Resurrection”, published in 1899. The Hindi film was inspired by the Hollywood film ” We live again” made on this novel. In 1938, prakash pictures made ” Khwaab ki Duniya “. It was inspired by the popular Hollywood film ” The Invisible man”-1933, which was based on the famous novel of same name, by H.G.Wells in 1897. Subsequently many films like Mr. X, Mr. India etc were made in Hindi on this theme.
These are few examples to prove the point. There are umpteen number of such films. Sometimes the story departments of the film strudios play a clever game. They mix up the stories of 2-3 Hollywood films and make a Hindi film. Today’s film ” Nadi Kinare”-1939 was also made based on few scenes and themes from 3 Hollywood films, namely ” The king and the chorus girl”-1937, ” Bluebeard’s eighth wife “-1937 and ” The rage of Paris “-1938.
The film was directed by Manibhai Vyas (27-4-1920 to 14-11-1993). he directed 20 films from Dukhiyari-1937 to Shrikrishna Bhakti-1973. The MD was Gyan Dutt and the cast was Kumar, Sitara Devi,Indubala, Ram Marathe, Kantilal and others.There were 13 songs in the film sung by Indubala, Sitara Devi,Kantilal,Kalyani and Gyan Dutt himself. Lyrics were by P.L.Santoshi and D.N.Madhok.
Actor/singer Ram Marathe had done a child role in this film He is one of those child actors who left film world at the right time and pursued his hobby of classical singing. Consequently he bacame a big name in Classical Music all over India. His case reminds me of anothe child actor-n Shashi kapur Sr, who was much in demand as a child actor during the period 1944 to 1955. he did 21 films as a child actor. Then he left films, completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. He went to USA and became a Professor of Maths in Michigan University in USA.
Actually many child actors like Baby naaz, M.Kabir, Sarosh Irani, Master Romi etc reached an age when they were neither child nor an adult. They stopped getting any roles and had to leave films. Child actor Ramchandra ( Ram) Marathe was born on 23-10-1924 in Poona and studied in Bhave school up to 10th.He and his brother ( Anant Marathe aka Anant kumar) worked in films as child actors, due to family conditions. They started work from 1936 onwards. Ram Marathe had an edge over his brother,in that he could sing too. Starting with Shahu Chor in 1936, he worked in Sagar movietone (6 films), Ranjit (3 films) and Prabhat (2 films), in addition to other companies like prakash, Mohan Pictures, Imperial etc. he acted as a child star in 16 films. he sang 11 songs in 6 films. After this Ram left films and started training in classical music-his liking. Here is a short bio of Ram Marathe, adapted from meetkalakar.com….
Ramchandra Purshottam Marathe (1924-1989) began his early career as an actor and singer in films produced by the Prabhat company. His formal training in music assumed a definite direction when he came under the tutelage of Master Krishnarao (Phulambrikar). Later, he trained under accomplished musicians such as Mirashibuwa of Gwalior and Vamanrao Sadolikar of Atrauli-Jaipur. His quest for widening his musical horizons culminated in a long-lasting discipleship (15 years) under Jagannathbuwa Purohit (“Gunidas”). As a consequence of his broad training and background, Rambhau’s music integrated the best of Gwalior, Agra and Jaipur styles. Rambhau was a stalwart in the field of Marathi Natya Sangeet. He was also known as a composer. Among his pupils is Ulhas Kashalkar.
Pt.Ram Marathe had performed in all the prestigious musical festivals at various places like Jalandhar, Patna, Lahore, Delhi, Gwalior, Calcutta, Banaras,Amritsar and almost all over Maharashtra. His contribution to Indian classical music was recognized with several Awards for his unique and successful performances. He was “A-top grade” Hindustani Classical Artist of All India Radio.
Since he had undergone proper Tabla training, he had a great command on Taal and Layakari. He had special command on Rare–Anvat Ragas & Jod Ragas and he was highly recognized for his clear and fast tankriyas and also for Purity of Ragas. He always used to enrich his audience with various semi-classical forms like Khayal, Tarana, Tappa, Natyasangeet, Thumri, Dadra & Bhajans in his concerts. Unlike the present classical singers, his concerts used to last more than 5 hours with the powerful intensity and stamina.
He started his stage career under the perusal of Natvarya Shri Ganpatrao Bodas in 1950 as a leading character in old classical musical dramas like Saubhadra, Sanshaykallol, Swayamvar, Ekach Pyala, Manapman etc. with veteran actor and actress such as Balgandharva, Hirabai Badodekar, Vinayakbuwa Patwardhan, Nanasaheb Phatak etc. Despite his busy schedule in concerts, he performed in 22 old & new Sangeet Natak with more than 5000 stage shows. This is purely out of his dedication and commitment towards Sangeet Rangbhoomi.
Composed music for more than 10 dramas such as – Mandarmala, Suvarna Tula, Meghmalhar, Tansen, Baiju etc. and acted in the play as a leading character role.
His disciples include many eminent classical singers like Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar, Sudhir Datar, Ram Pratham, Vishwanath Kanhere, Vishwanath Bagul, Yogini Joglekar, Shashikant Oak, Madhuwanti Dandekar, Sanjay Marathe & Mukund Marathe etc. (more than 50) and have got the training from him under the traditional Gurukul way of learning.
Maharashtra Government honoured the “Sangeet Bhushan” degree in 1961.
• Recognition by Government of Maharashtra in 1981 for successful completion and continuous 30 years of career in Marathi Sangeet Rangbhumi.
• Honoured “Sangeet Chudamani Degree” by Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Puri.
Appointed by AIR, New Delhi on the Northern (Hindustani) Music Audition Board Committee. Also Advisory Nagpur and other Universities in India.
More than 100 Records and number of CDs and LPs to his credit and composed more than 50 Bandish in various Ragas.
Ram Marathe died on 4-10-1989.
Today’s duet song is sung by Sitara Devi and Kantilal (18-4-1907 to 17-6-1971). Kantilal acted in 31 films and sang 59 songs in 24 films.
Song- Duniya Deewaani duniya deewaani (Nadi Kinaare)(1939) Singers- Sitara Devi, Kantilal, Lyricist- Not known, MD- Gyan Dutt
chorus
Lyrics
Duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewani
koi kahe haaye jigar
koi kahe dil
koi kahe haaye jigar
koi kahe dil
koi kahe chori chori
aake sajan mil
koi kahe chori chori
aake sajan mil
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
koi kahe dil na mila
aankh mila le
koi kahe dil na mila
aankh mila le
aankh mila le
koi kahe aankhon ke parde mein chhipa le
koi kahe aankhon ke parde mein chhipa le
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
le ke dil aaya hoon main yahaan
koi khareede
le ke dil aaya hoon main yahaan
koi khareede
koi khereede
hai koi dil waala jo
dil deke ye dil le
hai koi dil waala jo
dil deke ye dil le
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
loot le joban ke maze
duniya hai phaani
loot le joban ke maze
duniya hai phaani
duniya hai phaani
dam bhar mein guzar jaayenga
ye khwaab e jawaani
dam bhar mein guzar jaayenga
ye khwaab e jawaani
duniya deewani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
le ke dil aaya hoon main yahaan
koi khareede
le ke dil aaya hoon main yahaan koi khareede
koi khereede
haaye
hai koi dil waala jo
dil deke ye dil le
hai koi dil waala jo
dil deke ye dil le
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
duniya deewaani
Jogan bhatak rahi hai ban ban
Posted on: September 12, 2022
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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“Kangan”(1939) was produced by Sasadhar Mukherjee,Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani and directed by Franz Osten for Bombay Talkies, Bombay. The movie had Leelal Chitnis, Ashok Kumar, V.H.Desai, P.F.Pithawala, Mubarak, Saroj Borkar, Narendranath Tuli, Karuna devi,Ishrat, Nana Palsikar, Arun Kumar, Pratima, Ranibala,Sarla Kumara, Balwant Singh etc in it.
The movie had 12 songs in it. six songs have been covered so far.
Here is the seventh song from “Kangan”(1939) to appear in the blog. The song is sung by Leela Chitnis. Narottam Vyas is the lyricist. Saraswati devi is the music director.
Only the audio of the song is available. it is clear that the song was picturised on Leela Chitnis herself.
Lyrics of the song were sent to me by Prakashchandra.
audio link:
Song-Jogan bhatak rahi hai ban ban (Kangan)(1939) Singer-Leela Chitnis, Lyrics-Pt Narottam Vyas, MD-Saraswati devi
Lyrics(Provided by Prakashchandra)
Jogan
bhatak
rahee ee hai
ban ban
vaa ko o o
paaney ae ae
jaa ko o
denaa aa aa
thhaa aa aa rey ae ae
tan man
jogan
bhatak
rahee ee hai ban ban
jogan
bhatak
rahee hai ban ban
vaa ko o o paaney aey ae ae
jaa ko denaa thhaa aa rey ae ae tan man
jogan bhatak rahee hai ban ban
saawan kee aadhee ee barsaatein aen
paavas ki andhiyaaree raatein aen
raah na paate aey ae ae
dhoondhti phiratee ee ee
raah na paate aey ae
dhoondhti phiratee ee
jo ?? ee woh o o hai ae na mero dhan
jogan bhatak rahee hai ae ae ban ban
jogan bhatak rahee hai ae ae ban ban
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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