Posts Tagged ‘Bashir Dehalvi’
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 film Bade Nawab Saheb-44. It was a Muslim social film, produced by Silver films – a joint venture of actors Kumar and Chandra Mohan. The film was directed by Vedi, a name about which I could not get any information except that he was a director from the Silent era. In the Talkie era, he has 4 films to his credit as director. First film is Bade nawab saheb-44, then Naseeb-45, Room Number-9 – 46, and For Ladies only-51. This is all I know about Vedi. Unfortunately, we do come across few such names from the early era films. This is because we have very poor documentation. Information on big actors etc is available. That is why the task of Hindi film History students (like me, for example) is tough in securing and recording information for the posterity.
The music director was Bashir Dehalvi. Here too, we only know that he gave music to films like Jhankar-42, Kalakar-42, Ujala-42, Koshish-43 and hawai Khatola-46, in addition to today’s film. The 10 songs of the film were written by Lyricist Shams Lucknowi. He seems to be a story and dialogue writer too. Story of film Andaz-49 was by him. He wrote the dialogues of films like Idd ka chand-33 and Kimiyagar-36. He also acted in film Parchhain-52. He wrote 104 songs in 15 films from Lal Haveli-44 to Dahej-50. May be , then he migrated to Pakistan or what, we do not know.
Most of the so called Historical (my friend calls them Distortical), Costume dramas, Arabian Night stories films etc have a Muslim background. But ” Muslim Social” films is a separate category. Initially it was considered to be a very sensitive issue to depict the social life of Muslim families in India and so film producers were wary of making such films. When film makers with modern thinking came to the industry – like K Asif, Mehboob or Fazli brothers- there was a cautious but slow beginning of Muslim social films. My two friends, shri Kamlakar Pasupuleti ji (originally from Hyderabad and settled later in US) wrote an informative book, ” Forgotten movies on Muslim Culture 1933 to 1947 and shri Isak Mujawar ji wrote (in Marathi) ” Muslim Cinema”. Both these books give good information on this category of films.
Like many other myths in Hindi film industry, one myth is that Mehboob Khan was the pioneer in making Muslim social films in India. This probably originated because the first film of Mehboob’s own company Mehboob Productions was ” Najma”-43, a Muslim social film starring Ashok kumar, Veena, Stara, Kumar, Yaqub etc. But the fact is different.
The first Muslim social film was ” Rashida”-35, made by Madon Theatres, Calcutta, featuring Kajjan, Effendi and others. It was directed by a Jew-Izra Mir. The name of the film indicated that it was about a Muslim girl. Somehow, I find a lot of Muslim social films made had titles of girl’s names, Like Zeenat, Ameena, Najma, Shama, Heena, Zubeida, Salma, Ismat etc etc.
The beginning of serious Muslim social films was done by Fazli Brothers- Hasnain and Sibtain Fazli. They first made a Muslim social film Qaidi-1940, featuring Ramola,Mehtab, B.Nandrekar, Wasti etc. This was a period of struggle for Indian Independence. The fundamentalists in Muslims were active and due to the fear of their reaction, film makers were wary of producing such films.Even Fazli brothers were also afraid that there would be obstruction from these people to their film, so they decided to make the film in Calcutta. Their first Muslim Social film Qaidi-40 was very successful. Encouraged, they made 2 more such films (Masoom-41 and Chauranghee-42) in Calcutta. For film Chauranghee-42, the Fazli Brothers roped in famous Bangla poet (who later on became the National Poet of Bangladesh) Kazi Nazrul Islam- the creator of Nazrul geeti, as a Lyricist and MD for the film.
After 1942, Fazli Brothers shifted their activities to Bombay and made many Muslim social films like Fashion-43,Ismat-44, Dil-46 and Mehendi 47. So, in true sense, it is the Fazli Brothers who were the pioneers of Muslim Social films in India.
From the 40s to the 47, there was a line of Muslim social films lined with pride and confidence. Notable amongst them were Paak Daaman-40 by Rustom Modi, Masoom-41 by Fazli brothers, Muslim ka lal-41 by Mohan Pictures, Fashion -43 by Fazli Brothers, Najma-43 by Mehboob, Salma-43 by Nazir Ahmed, Ismat-44 by Fazli Brothers, Bade Nawab saab-44 by actor Kumar and Pramila, Bhaijaan-45 by United Films, Phool-45 by K.Asif, and Director Mazhar Khan’s Muslim social film ” Pehli Nazar’ in 1945. Amongst these, film ‘ Elan ‘-47 was a milestone film, produced by Mehboob. It dwelt upon the needs of improvements for Muslim community.
After 1947, India lost a very big market for its Muslim social films, when Pakistan-East and West- was formed. It does not mean that Muslim social films were not made after 1947 in India. Films like Kaneez-49, Nisbat-49, Parda-49, Hyderabad ki Nazneen0-52,Darwaza-54, Chandni Chowk-54, Maalik-58, Maa ke aansoo-59, Pahli Raat-59 etc were all Muslim socials. They, however, were not successful, for whatever reasons. But the fun is films of Muslim backgrounds but non social films like Anarkali,Mirza Ghalib,Hatimtai,Alibaba and forty thieves etc were good grossers and ran well. The first Hindi film to win the President’s Gold Medal (the first was Marathi film-Shyam chi aai ), was Mirza Ghalib-54. This indicated that there was no audience for Muslim social films now. Later on, the conditions changed and Muslim social films like Chaudhavi ka chaand, Barsaat ki raat, Chhote Nawab, Bahu Begum, Mere huzur, Pakeeza etc became quite successful. However, some opine that these films succeeded due to other reasons like Music, songs etc. One funny thing was that most Muslim social films-from the beginning- showed Lucknow as the background of the story ! (Film names being mentioned are only indicative and not exhaustive, so many names will be missing here.)
The cast of film Bade Nawab Saheb-44 was Chandra Mohan, Pahadi Sanyal, Kumar, Pramila, Bibbo, Sushil Kumar, Leela Mishra, Kamala, Agha Jaan etc. etc. Chandra Mohan was one of the most handsome actors of Hindi cinema. Some other handsome actors were B. Nandrekar, Vijay Kumar, Al Nasir etc. Chandra Mohan was also a versatile actor. Incensed by losing a role in the Marathi version of film Amrit Manthan-1934, just because he could not speak Marathi fluently, he learnt Marathi in no time and later worked as Hero in 3 Marathi versions of Hindi films !
Born on 24-7-1906 in Narsinghpur in Madhya Pradesh, Chandra Mohan was known for his large grey eyes, voice modulation and dialog delivery. His eyes form the opening sequence in V. Shantaram’s 1934 film Amrit Manthan, which was also his film debut. It was the first film made in the new established Prabhat Films studio, and made both in Hindi and Marathi. Mohan received acclaim for his role as role Rajguru and went on to establish himself as noted villains of times.
In film Geeta-40, Chandramohan was the Hero and had done the Father and Son double role. This was a Bilingual film in Hindi and Marathi, and in both versions, Chandramohan was the Hero. Earlier, V. Shantaram had given a break to Chandramohan in his film ” Amrit Manthan”-34, which also was a Bilingual film in Hindi and Marathi. Chandramohan being a Kashmiri and not knowing Marathi, in the Marathi version, his role of Rajguru was done by keshavrao Datey.
However. soon Chandramohan picked up fluent Marathi and acted in the Bilingual films of Hindi and Marathi like, Jwala-38, Geeta-40 and Apna Ghar-42 He became the first Hindi actor to do roles in Marathi films.
Chandra Mohan later appeared as Emperor Jehangir in Sohrab Modi’s Pukar, as Randhir Singh in Mehboob Khan’s Humayun and as Seth Dharamdas in Mehboob Khan’s Roti.
Actor Kumar did many films in Ranjit, but in 1942, he was removed from Ranjit. At the same time his friend Chandra Mohan also left Minerva Movietone ( reason – inspite of Pukar-39 being a Blockbuster, his salary was not increased, though Modi had promised him so.) They both decided to launch their own company and on 16-3-1942, SILVER FILM COMPANY was launched. Its first film was Jhankaar-42. They produced Bhalai-43, Bade Nawab Saab-44, Naseeb-45, Devar-46, Dhun-53 and Bahana-60. Kumar had acted in these films. He also directed Dhun and Bahana.
One of his last appearances was in Ramesh Saigal’s film Shaheed-48. As Rai Bahadur Dwarka Nath, he played father to Ram, who was portrayed by Dilip Kumar. His character in this film, initially supports the British Government, but later favours the Freedom struggle. Chandra Mohan’s last major film was Raambaan-1949, in which he played the role of demon emperor Ravan. Chandra Mohan had acted in 31 films in all from Amrit Manthan-1934 to film Chocolate-50, which was released after his death.
Chandra Mohan despite being a Kashmiri himself was against Kashmiri girls working in films. He is said to have intimidated actress Shyama Zutshi from working in Hindi films and she left the films. However, later when Yashodhara Katju came into the films, she did not care for his opposition and continued successfully in films. He was very friendly with actor Motilal and treated him as his son.
He was the original choice to play the lead role in K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam, but due to his untimely death the film had to be reshot after ten reels were shot with him as lead. The film was eventually released in 1960.
Chandra Mohan took to heavy gambling and drinking and died penniless on 2nd April 1949 at the age of 44 at his residence, Bilkha House, in Bombay.
The story of Bade Nawab Saheb-44 was …….
Nawab Kokub Mirza had 2 wives, but he loved the younger one so much that he even tolerated her younger brother Mushir, a trouble maker. Sikandar was Mirza’s younger brother and they had an old loyal servant Baksho. Sikandar marries an orphan girl-Anwar from an orphanage. On this count, the younger wife and Mushir are able to throw Sikandar and Baksho out of the house.
Sikandar goes out of Lucknow to look for a job. His wife, unaware of the relations, starts working as Maid in Nawab saheb’s house. Mushir tries to misbehave with the modesty of Anwar and is thrown out of the house. Now the nawab is closer to Badi Begum, who convinces him to recall Sikandar. Nawab calls Sikandar and also pardons Mushir.
Now Mushir wants to poison Nawab saheb. He adds poison to his Kheer. Unfortunately, the Kheer is eaten by his sister, the young Begum. She dies and Police arrest Mushir. Now the 2 couples live happily !
Today’s song is a duet by Hamida and Durrani. This is the second song of this film to feature on this Blog. (Thanks to information from books mentioned in the post, which is used herein)
Song-Jaag gayi Jaag gayi Hamaari kismat (Bade Nawab Sahab)(1944) Singers- Hamida Bano, G M Durrani, Lyrics-Shams Lakhnavi, MD- Bashir Dehalvi
Both
Lyrics
Jaag gayi
Jaag gayi
Hamaari
kismat
Hamaari kismat
jaag gayi
Jaag gayi
Hamaari kismat
prem nadi mein josh jo ??
bhai ne bhai ko bulaaya
prem nadi mein josh jo ??
bhai ne bhai ko bulaaya
chhant gaye
zulf ke baadal saare
samjho chaand sitaare
chhant gaye
zulf ke baadal saare
samjho chaand sitaare
chaand sitaare
sachchi
ulfat
sachchi
ulfat
jaag gayi
jaag gayi
hamaari
kismat
hamaari
kismat
jaag gayi
jaag gayi
hamaari kismat
toote huye phir dil milenge
toote huye phir phool khilenge
toote huye phir dil milenge
toote huye phir phool khilenge
kaun
khilenge
sachchi
ulfat
sachchi
ulfat
jaag gayi
jaag gayi
hamaari
kismat
hamaari
kismat
jaag gayi
jaag gayi
hamaari kismat
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
| Blog Day : | 4019 | Post No. : | 15130 |
Today’s song is from film Hawai Khatola-46.
Whenever I come across a film starting with the word ‘Hawai’, I always remember film Hawai Daaku aka Bandit of the Air-1936, in which K N Singh was the Hero. His heroine was Ram Pyari and villain in the film was Mazhar khan. See the fate – in later years, Mazhar Khan became a Hero and K N Singh made his indelible mark as a sophisticated villain ! Incidentally, there were 7 films, starting with the word ‘Hawai’, if you are wondering about it. There were 2 films with the same Title ” Hawai Insaan “(The flying man), made in 1947 and 1965.
I have been writing on old films, their songs and about the people in those films,like actors, directors,producers,composers,lyricists, film story, studios, as well as the times in which these films were made etc, since about last 7 years – from 1-10-2012 to be precise. Many of my relatives and friends ask me how do I spend my time these days as they know that I do not work anywhere now. I tell them that I study and write on old films. Their immediate response is, “yes, old music was great” and they would spell out few old songs.
The words, old films, old music and old songs are highly relative terms. An young teenager might feel that films before 2000 are old. A man in his 30’s may feel that songs before 90s are old. Similarly, a man in his 40s feels that songs before 70 are old songs. Likewise a man in his 70s and above may feel that songs from the 30s and 40s are old songs. For a teenager songs of 30s and 40s are ‘ Antiques’ and ‘ Heritage ‘ songs !
In general Old Films have become synonymous with old songs. But it is NOT so. There is a world beyond old songs. Like English Literature, you can divide old films in 2 parts – Prose and Poetry. While poetry part will include songs, music, musicians,Lyricists, choreographers and allied matters, the Prose section will include information about actors, actresses, directors, producers and the allied specialists etc.
Writing on songs is different and writing Prose side is altogether different. With the kind of poor documentation and preservation of information in our country ( not only films but any other field too), it is extremely difficult to gather genuine, credible information on old actors etc. Old Magazines, Old Newspapers, Diaries, Letters and such other matters are difficult to trace. Those who have this treasure, rarely share it with others. Luckily, not all are like that.Thanks to generous Historians, and book writers, nowadays information is getting available to a small extent, but it is still a long way to go. There is more information available on the Poetry side than the Prose side. Most Bloggers prefer writing on Poetry side of films. Very few Bloggers write on Prose side.
My comfort zone is writing on Prose side. Not that I can not or do not write on songs or music, because these two are interlinked. All these thoughts came to my mind, when I took a look at the cast of film Hawai Khatola-46. The cast shows Devraj,Gohar karnataki,Ameena Begum, Sarla Devi, M.Beg, Raja Chatterjee, Fazal Khan, G H Chishti, M.Basheer, Gopinath etc. HFGK does not mention the name of Shanta Kumari, but she was in this film. Film India magazine carried her photo from this film,in one of its issues in 1946. So her name is confirmed. Barring Gohar Karnataki, I was unable to get any information on any of the star cast members. This is the position, about information on old time actors.
Shanta Kumari was very beautiful. She started her career from a silent film-‘ Bhai ya Kasai’-1928. Her first Talkie film was Heer Ranjha-1931. Then came many films, including 4 parts of film Hatimtai-33, in which she was Heroine Husnbanu. In film Sant Tulsidas-34, she sang along with even G N Joshi, famous classical singer of those times and later on an officer in H.M.V. Recording section. Due to her good singing, till 1936 she sang on A.I.R. Bombay. In 1940, she got married to Sound Recordist Kothari. In the later period, she acted in som6e famous films like Bharat Milap-42, Ramrajya-43, Prithvi Vallabh-43, Gwalan-46, Ram Vivah-49 and Grih Laxmi-49. After a gap, she came in Toofan aur Diya-56. She acted in few C grade films and her last film was Toofani Tarzan-62. She acted in 27 films and sang 21 songs in 8 films. She died on 18-1-2006 ( information adapted from Beete kal ke sitare by Shriram Tamrakar, and MuvYz with thanks).
Film Hawai khatola-46 was made by A M Khan Productions. It was directed by A M Khan himself, along with Sultan Alam – for whom it was the only film he directed. A M Khan began as director with film Voh Kaun-35. He directed 37 films in his career, with last film, Jadui Angoothi-65. he also acted in 2 films (Dil-46 and Bigde dil-49) and wrote Lyrics in 3 films (Cyclewali-38, Ran sangram-39 and Bahana-42).
As far as the Hero Devraj is concerned, I do not have much information about him except what is in HFGK. His name first appears in film ‘Bahadur Kisan’-38. This was Master Bhagwan’s first film as a director. The MD for this film was Meer Saheb, with whom the young C.Ramchandra worked as his assistant. This is where Bhagwan and C Ramchandra met first time and became fast friends. Name of Devraj comes up in 9 films – last film being ‘Khaufnak aankhen-47. All his films were C grade action films.
Film Hawai Khatola-46 ( by the way Hawai khatola means Aeroplane aka Udan Khatola) had music by Basheer khan Dehlavi. His first film as MD was Kala Jigar-39. He gave music to 12 films – all C grade action/stunt films. His last film seems to be Hawai Khatola. After this his name does not appear anywhere. Possibly, after Partition he must have migrated to Pakistan. He also wrote Lyrics for 2 films – Saheli-42 and Khooni-46.
Today’s song tune is similar to the famous Noorjehan song ” Baithi hoon teri yaad mein lekar ke sahara” from film Gaon ki Gori aka Village Girl-45. The song is sung by Amirbai Karnataki and Premlata, according to the uploader,Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji.
Song-Toote huye is dil ko diya kisne sahaara (Hawaai Khatola)(1946) Singers- Ameerbai Karnataki, Premlata, Lyrics-Unknown, MD-Bashir Dehalvi
Both
Lyrics
Dheere se mere man mein bataa kaun pukaara
dheere se mere man mein bataa kaun pukaara
toote huye is dil ko diya kisne sahaara
tere prem ke aakaash pe chamka hai sitaara
toote huye is dil ko
tu roop ki devi hai to main tera
haan haan main tera pujaari ee
main tera pujaari
tu roop ki devi hai to main tera
haan haan main tera pujaari ee
main tera pujaari
hoga nahin ab door kabhi chaand sitaara
tere prem ke aakaash pe chamka hai sitaara
toote huye is dil ko
reh reh ke ye kehti hai mere hriday ki dhadkan
mere hriday ki dhadkan
reh reh ke ye kehti hai mere hriday ki dhadkan
mere hriday ki dhadkan
ye dor bhi jeewan ki bani prem ka bandhan
ab swarg se badh kar hai ye sansaar hamaara
toote huye is dil ko diya kisne sahaara aa
tere prem ke aakaash pe chamka hai sitaara
toote huye is dil ko
toote huye is dil ko diya kisne sahaara aa
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
| Blog Day : | 3700 | Post No. : | 14619 |
‘Ujaala’ (1942) was produced under the banner of Taj Mahal Pictures and was directed by K M Multani. The film was based on a story by M A Mughani whose name also appears as the ‘producer’ of the film. The screen play and dialogues were written by Kamal Amrohi. The star cast included Prithviraj Kapoor, Naseem Bano, Mubarak, Ratan Bai, Mirza Musharaf, Baby Vinod Kumari, Jhilani etc.
The film was the maiden venture of Taj Mahal Pictures which was set up by M. Ehsan. However, the film’s publicity materials mentioned M A Mughani, the story writer as the ‘producer’ of the film with M. Ehsan as Associate Producer. My guess is that after completing the college, Ehsan set up this film production company without having any experience in film production. So he may have given a greater role to M A Mughani in the film production who had earlier worked in Minerva Movietone. It was said that Ehsan was a childhood friend of Naseem Bano and she may have partly financed his film production company.
For Naseem Bano, it was her first film after she was released from her contract with Minerva Movietone by Sahorab Modi on her request in 1940. Till that time, she had acted in Minerva’s Movietone’s films like ‘Hamlet’ aka ‘Khoon Kaa Khoon’ (1935), ‘Khan Bahadur’ (1937), ‘Vasanti’ (1938), ‘Meetha Zahar’ (1938), ‘Divorce’ aka ‘Talaaq’ (1938), ‘Pukar’ (1939) and ‘Defeat’ aka ‘Main Haari’ (1940).
After Naseem Bano’s last released film in 1940, there was a gap of nearly 2 years before ‘Ujaala’ (1942) was released in February 1942. It is said that sometime during this interregnum, she accompanied her mother, Shamshad Begum, (a classical singer who was known as Chhamia in the music circle) to be the guest of the son of the Nizam of Hyderabad. There seems to be more to it than being merely the guest in Hyderabad. It was rumoured that Nizam’s prince was interested in marrying Naseem Bano. However, after spending sometime in Hyderabad, both mother and daughter did not like the environment in Hyderabad. So both returned to Bombay (Mumbai). ‘Ujaala’ (1942) was the first film Naseem Bano signed after returning to Bombay.
During the making of the film, a couple of things happened which could have affected the film’s publicity. First, some unscrupulous persons carried out propaganda against Naseem Bano by printing slanderous posters about her. People in the know felt that it was the handiwork of the supporters of the son of Nizam of Hyderbad who were in his payrolls, to tarnish the image of Naseem Bano. But soon, it died down. Probably the fans of Naseem Bano put more faith in her than in the slanderous propaganda.
Second, there were some creative differences between film’s dialogue writer, Kamal Amrohi and the film’s de-facto producer and story writer, M A Mughani. Both had become ‘heavy-weights’ in the film industry after the success of ‘Pukar’ (1939) in which Kamal Amrohi wrote dialogues and lyrics and Mughani was the Publicity Manager. The issues were amicably sorted out and the film was released on February 21 1942 at Lamington Theatre, Bombay (Mumbai).
I have attempted below, a gist of the film’s story based on the film’s review which appeared in April 1942 issue of ‘Filmindia’ magazine.
The story revolves around a theatre which is owned by Shyam (Prithviraj Kapoor). He is idealistic man, a learned musician and also a strict disciplinarian. Maya (Ratan Bai) is the star artist of the theatre who falls to the flattery showered by Tiwari (Mubarak), a wealthy man who is the frequent visitor to the theatre. Maya responds to Tiwari’s flirtations which results in her late hours for the theatre activities. Shyam admonishes her for breaking the theatre discipline resulting in frequent quarrels. One day, Maya, believing the numerous promises of Tiwari, walks out of the Theatre.
Shyam is on a look out for a new girl in place of Maya and find Saroj (Naseem Bano), a dancer. First, she refuses to see him. After listening to his sitar recital over the radio, she falls for him as a musician but refuses to work for him on the stage. Each of them becomes more obstinate than before whenever they meet.
To break down her obstinacy, Shyam takes a flat just below the flat occupied by Saroj. One day, he plays sitar non-stop. At first, Saroj ignores the music but the urge of music in her makes her to dance to the tune of Shyam’s sitar. She admits her defeat and agrees to join his stage show. But this time, Shyam refuses to accept her.
In the meanwhile, Shyam’s theatre has been running into losses. One day, he decides to hand over the theatre to his Manager, Mirza (Mirza Musharaf) and devote his attention to music. Mirza manages a surprise and recruit a new girl, Sarojini for the stage show. Mirza convinces Shyam to attend the opening show. To his surprise, Shyam finds Sarojini is none other than Saroj.
With Saroj, all shows of the theatre become success. Shyam falls in love with Saroj which she reciprocates. Once again, Tiwari comes in to scene to lure Saroj for his personal pleasure. On the marriage day, Saroj is kidnapped by Tiwari and kept in his house. Shyam is distraught. Saroj jumps out of the window of the house where she was kept as prisoner and becomes permanently disabled. Tiwari gets reformed after seeing her pathetic conditions. After some more emotional drama, Shyam and Saroj are united.
Despite a favourable review by ‘Filmindia’, the film failed at the box office. Ehsan incurred heavy losses. He closed down Taj Mahal Pictures in March 1942. The only gain out of producing the film for Ehsan was that Naseem Bano married him and shifted to Delhi after the film’s release. She left the film industry when she was still ‘pari chehra’ (fairy face) for her fans.
But there are twists in the stories of Naseem Bano and the Taj Mahal Pictures. Before that, I need to mention about the system of license for a film production company which was introduced during World War-II. Without this license issued by the Government, the film production company could not import raw films for shooting.
A question was raised in the Central Legislative Assembly (akin to Lok Sabha now) by a legislator “on what grounds Taj Mahal Pictures of Bombay was given licence when the said concern had already closed its business in March 1942”. The Minister of Industry & Civil Supplies replied that “Taj Mahal Pictures did not stop their business. The Government was satisfied that in the absence of the licence, the company could not produce the film and a considerable hardship would be caused if a licence is not granted to them” (as verbatim reported in April 1945 issue of ‘Filmindia’ magazine).
I can now relate this piece of information as to why a dormant film production company like Taj Mahal Pictures got revived. This has also got a connection with the return of Naseem Bano to Bombay film industry in 1944.
Sometime in 1943, Shashdhar Mukherjee along with Rai Bahadur Chunnilal, Gyan Mukherjee, Ashok Kumar, Savak Vacha, Kavi Pradeep and others left Bombay Talkies due to differences with Devika Rani who had taken the reign of Bombay Talkies after the death of her husband, Himansu Roy. This group formed Filmistan Studio. Shashdhar Mukherjee wanted to produce a film on a scale of his box office success film ‘Kismet (1943) which would be his fitting reply to Devika Rani for her ill-treatment of his team.
Shashdhar Mukherjee hit upon an idea of casting Naseem Akhtar in his film ‘Chal Chal Re Naujawaan’ (1944). Since she had already left the film industry in March 1942, it was a difficult proposition to woo her to accept the role in his film. He travelled to Delhi and met M Ehsan, Naseem’s husband with his plan to cast his wife. After much persuasion and a visit by Rai Bahadur Chunnilal, Ehsan agreed on certain conditions. One of the important conditions in the contract was that Shashdhar Mukherjee would oversee the production of one more film under the banner of Taj Mahal Pictures.
It took a long time for ‘Chal Chal Re Naujawaan’ (1944) to be completed. Contrary to the general expectation, the film did not fare well on the box office front. However, as per the contract, Shashdhar Mukherjee was to oversee the production of another film for Ehsan. So the film ‘Begum’ (1945) was stared with most of the infrastructure and resources of Filmistan Studios. The film starred with Ashok Kumar and Naseem Bano in lead roles. With this film, Ehsan’s production company was revived which later produced films like ‘Mulaaqat’ (1947), ‘Chaandni Raat’ (1949), and ‘Ajeeb Ladki’ (1952). Ehsan migrated to Pakistan taking with him all the films he produced in India.
What an irony in Ehsan’s filmy career! When he lost money in ‘Ujaala’ (1942), he gained Naseem Bano. But when he earned a lot of money in Pakistan after releasing these films, he had lost Naseem Bano who was legally separated from him due to his migration to Pakistan.
Now let me present the first song from Ehsan’s first film ‘Ujaala’ (1942). The song is ‘main dekh rahi hoon duniya ke nazaare’ sung by Ratan Bai. The film had six songs, all set to music by Bashir Dehlvi. The lyricist of all the six songs in the film is unattributed. Going by the convention of most of the 1930s and early 1940s films when song writing was a part of dialogue writers, I guess that the song was written by Kamal Amrohi who was the dialogue writer for the film. Incidentally, Kamal Amrohi had written songs for the films ‘Jailor’ (1938), ‘Pukar’ (1939) and ‘Main Hari’ (1940) where he was also the dialogue writer.
With this song, ‘Ujaala’ (1942) makes its debut in the Blog.
Note: This article is based on some of the information gathered from the various issues of ‘Filmindia’ magazines and from the book, ‘Stars From Another Sky’ (2010) by Sadat Hasan Manto.
Audio Clip:
Song-Main dekh rahi hoon duniya ke nazaare (Ujaala)(1942) Singer-Ratan Bai, MD-Bashir Dehalvi
Lyrics
main dekh rahi hoon
oon oon oon
duniya ke nazaare
duniya ke nazaare
main dekh rahi hoon
oon oon oon
duniya ke nazaare
duniya ke nazaare
khilti huyi kaliyaan
jharnon ke kinaare
khilti huyi kaliyaan
jharnon ke kinaare
jharnon ke kinaare
main dekh rahi hoon
oon oon oon
duniya ke nazaare
duniya ke nazaare
bhanwre kaa machalna
daali kaa lachakna
bhanwre kaa machalna
daali kaa lachakna
gulshan kaa tamaasha
phoolon kaa mahakna
gulshan kaa tamaasha
phoolon kaa mahakna
rangeen ishaare
haan rangeen ishaare
main dekh rahi hoon
oon oon oon
duniya ke nazaare
duniya ke nazaare
ab jaise ye duniya
kuchh baaten karegi
ab jaise ye duniya
kuchh baaten karegi
chup reh na sakegi
chup reh na sakegi
hamse hi kahegi
afsaane hamaare
hamse hi kahegi
afsaane hamaare
afsaane hamaare
main dekh rahi hoon
oon oon oon
duniya ke nazaare
duniya ke nazaare
Kyun yaad tumhaari aati hai
Posted on: November 19, 2017
This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
“Saheli” (1942) was produced by Ratan Bai and directed by S M Yusuf for Star Productions, Bombay. The movie had Ratan Bai, Pahadi Sanyal, Yakub, Pramila, Shahnaz, Jillo Bai, Syed Ahmed etc in it.
Read more on this topic…
This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
“Bade Nawaab Sahab”(1944) was directed by Vedi for Silver Films, Bombay. This “social” movie had Chandramohan, Pahadi Sanyal, Kumar, Pramila, Bibbo, Sushil Kumar, Shanta Patel, Leela Mishra, Kamla, Taj Mahmooda, Noor, Noor Begam, Laddan, Agha Jaan, Ghori etc in it.
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This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
I used to get confused among singers where the name of the singer was mentioned as Kalyani or Miss Kalyani. Some songs were also accredited to Kalyani Das. Are they all the same or are they different singers? It was only after reading the interview of Kalyani Bai (Real name: Zarina) which appeared in Shishir Krishna Sharma’s Blog ‘beetehuedin’ some time in 2012 that I could differentiate between songs accredited as ‘Kalyani’ or ‘Miss Kalyani’ between Kalyani Bai and Kalyani Das. In our Blog, the songs sung by Kalyani Bai has been tagged as ‘Kalyani’ whereas songs sung by Kalyani Das have been tagged as such. So there is no same name confusion in the Blog for both the singers.
Read more on this topic…
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
During the early days of sound films in 1931, Calcutta (Kolkata) film centre had actresses like Patience Cooper, Jahanara Kajjan, Violet Cooper, Anwari, Sabita Devi (real name: Iris Maude Gasper), Kanan Devi, Radharani etc. Most of them had graduated from the silent films. Those days, in the absence of playback singing system, actresses had to sing their own songs in the films. So, those with good voices also got chance to act in the films made especially in the 30s. Begum Akhtar, Mukhtar Begum, Indubala, Kamala Jharia etc are few names that come to my mind. Ratan Bai was also one of those who joined the bandwagon of actresses in Calcutta in 1932 as an actor-singer. Incidentally, this Ratan Bai (Begg) was a different actor and as such she should not to be confused with Ratan Bai (Shilotri), the mother of Shobhna Samarth.
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This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
Today (15 august 2016) is the 69th independence day of India.
With the passage of so much time, the general knowledge of younger generation about Indian freedom struggle and independence is no longer what it used to be in the past. One study mentions that the biggest source to make people aware of our independence day are patriotic songs from movies, followed by school text books.
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Fasaana kisi ka kahaani kisi ki
Posted on: March 20, 2016
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“Koshish”(1943) was directed by Rafiq Rizvi for Deen Pictures, Bombay. This obscure movie had Husn Bano, Yakoob, Trilok Kapoor, Sunetra, Mirza Musharraf, Kalyani, Master Nisaar etc in it.
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Honthon ki hansi kya hai
Posted on: December 1, 2013
This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
“Hawaai Khatola”(1946) is by now an obscure movie. Hardly any information is available about this movie online other than the list of songs contained in this movie.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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