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

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.

Today’s song or rather a qawwaali is from the film “Talwar ka Dhani”-1956. The film was made by Dwarka Khosla under his own banner Vikas Productions, Bombay. The film was , naturally, directed by him.

Dwarka was born in 1904 in Hoshiarpur, Punjab. He started from Silent films. His first Talkie film as a director was Josh-E-Jawani-1935. He directed 33 films. His last film was Reporter Raju-1962.

“Talwar ka Dhani”-56 was a Costume drama. It was actually a remake of the same name film made in 1938. I remember another such film which was remade with the same title and same story, after 14 years. Film Gunsundari was made as a Silent film in 1927. It was remade as a Talkie film, with the same title and same Heroine in 1934. The Heroine was Gohar Mamajiwala and both films were made by Ranjit, directed by Chandulal Shah. 14 years later, his nephew, Ratilal Punatar remade film Gunsundari in 1948, with Nirupa Roy as a Heroine. By coincidence, all the 3 films were successful and popular hit films, mainly due to a very powerful story.

Similar history is for one more film. Film Anarkali was first made as a Silent film in 1928, with Sulochana (Ruby Meyers) as the heroine. Later, a Talkie film with the same name, same story and same Heroine was remade in 1935. What’s more, film Anarkali was made once more in 1953 and even in this film Sulochana acted-not as a Heroine , but as Hero’s mother ! Thus, she became the first and the only actress to work in the same titled, same story 3 films. Ashok Kumar was the only actor who also worked in 3 films with the same Title-Kangan, in 1939, 1959 and 1972. Of course the stories were different in all films.

Actress Sulochana happens to be the only actress to have worked in most Same Titled films, in the same role. She featured as a Heroine in silent film Madhuri-28 and Talkie film Madhuri-1932, as well as Silent film Indira B.A.-1929 and Talkie film Indira M.A.-1934. She also featured in Silent film Bambai ki Billi-1927 and Talkie Bambai ki Billi-1936. She did 8 different roles in this film.

Talking of Remakes, Mala-41 was remade as Amar-54 in which actor Jayant did the same role in both films and Naushad was the MD for both films. Film Aurat-40 was remade as Mother India-1957 in which actor Kanhaiyalal did the same role in both films. Film Grihasti-48 was remade as Ghar basa ke dekho-63 and Malkin 53 was remade as Biradari-66. There are many such cases in Hindi films. However, the same Title, same artiste in the same role and same story films are rare.

The decade of 50’s was right in the middle of the Golden Period of HFM and 1956 was the midpoint of the 50’s. A total of 120 films were made in this year comprising a variety of Genres. Consequently as many as almost 30 MDs gave music in this period, but the major chunk of 50 Musical films was shared by 10 MDs only. Surprisingly, Naushad the king of popular music had not even a single film in this year. The share was – C Ramchandra did 3 films, SD Burman did only 1 film-Funtoosh, S-J did 8 films and 7 of these were Hit films (Rajhath, Patrani, New Delhi, Chori chori, Basant Bahar, Halaku and Kathputli). Then Hemant Kumar did maximum 9 films, but all were mediocre, Madan Mohan did 6 films-out of which 4 films were Musical….Bhai Bhai, 50-50, Memsahib and Pocketmaar. Husnlal-Bhagatram did 3 non descript films, but O P Nayyar blew his trumpet with 6 musical films out of his 8 films in 1956…Naya Andaz, Hum sab chor hain, Dhake ki malmal,CID, Chhoo Mantar and Bhagam Bhag. Chitragupta did 8 films, Ravi 1 film and Anil Biswas 3 films. ( data from HFGK)

Talwar ka Dhani-56 had a cast of Nadira, Manhar Desai, B M Vyas, Shammi, Dalpat, Kammo, Maruti, Sulochana etc. It was a costume stunt film.When I first went to see this film in its second run in 1960 or so, I thought that this must be based on the story of “King Arthur and his sword”, but I was mistaken. Probably the producers had not even heard who this Arthur was, and they based their story on Gujarat background.
Appropriately, the hero was also Manhar Desai(real name Malcom Alfredo Desai( 3-8-17 to25-2-92), a Goan who was a Popular Hero in Gujarati films those days.

The Vikas production film was directed by Dwaraka Khosla-a veteran of 33 films in 30 years from 1932(Veer kunal) to 1962(Reporter Raju).The Lyricists in this film were Anjum Jaipuri(for above song) and G.S.Nepali.The story,s/play and dialogues were by Masood. The title was very misleading,but many films with Talwar were produced,like Talwar ka paani,Bedhari Talwar,Chauhani Talwar,Bhawani Talwar,Nangi Talwar,Taj aur Talwar,Tilasmi Talwar and also a Talwarwala ! The story was…

Queen mother Sudha(Sulochana) sent her infant prince(Pakku) to a secret place through her Loyal sardar(B.M.Vyas) to avoid torture by the rebell Villain Megha(Anwar). Megha’s army chases them but they escape safely. Megha starts killing all the loyalists and Queen sends S.O.S. to her loyal Thakurs. From them come Vijay(Manhar),Rani(Nadira) and Gopu(Maruti). They enter the Palace in disguise of Dancers and meet the Queen. They hatch a plan to kidnap the Princess and reach her to hideout of Prince. This plan is passed on to Megha by Indira(Shammi) the loyal maid. Megha allows the plan and then captures Prince, Princess and these 3 fighters. But a helpful Saroj(Kammo), maid helps them to freedom.

These 3 fighters collect an army of Thakurs and attack Megha. There is a fight in which Megha is burnt alive, instead of the Prince.
The Queen makes Vijay her Vazir and marries him with Rani.

B M Vyas is one artiste who is not discussed much anywhere- like Ramayan Tiwari or Jayant. Only a few villains like K N Singh, Jeevan, Yakub, N A Ansari etc are discussed as popular villains. Less exposure hides some qualities of that artiste which remain unknown to the general public. How many of us know that B M Vyas was a trained singer and that he has given Playback in 4 Hindi films ? Surprised ? This is what I meant.

Actor Brij Mohan aka B.M.Vyas was one artiste who started as a singer, became a drama actor and then ended up as a villain, character actor. B.M.Vyas was born as Brijmohan Vyas on Vijayadashami (22 October) day of 1920 in Churu, Rajasthan. He is the younger brother of the well-known poet and lyricist, Bharat Vyas. He was married at the age of 17 when his wife, Jamna was just 11. They had 71 years of marital bliss before Jamna passed away in 2008. They had six daughters and a son. After acting in over 200 films in various languages, Vyas quit acting in the early 1990s. Then he moved to his residence in Kalyan. Having seen various shades of life, Vyas lived a contented life with his children and grandchildren.

On 15 January, 1944, actor Prithviraj Kapoor realised his dream when Prithvi Theatre, his own drama company came into being. Mahakavi Kalidas’ classic Shakuntala was chosen to be their first performance. The play’s cast included Uzra Mumtaz (younger sister of Zohra Segal) to play Shakuntala, Prithviraj Kapoor to play Dhushyant, K N Singh was cast as Rishi Kanva, Shakuntala’s foster father, Sati Devi (Bijoya Ray’s sister, Ruma Guha Thakurta’s mother) as Gautami, caretaker of Kanva Ashram who raises Shakuntala, and Hemavati (Daya Kishan Sapru’s wife) to play Shakuntala’s friend Priyamvada, among others. A young, 24 years old, B M Vyas was recruited as a singer by the drama company to sing songs in their play at a monthly salary of 75 Rupees.

Once when rehearsals for their maiden show were in progress and Vyas was done with his singing rehearsals, he was watching rehearsals of the cast. One of his songs for the play was “Bitiya Rani Kahan Kahan Tapasvi Log, Milna Julna Rehgaya Nadi Naav Sanjog”. The cast was rehearsing for a scene which needed Rishi Kanva to recite a mantra in Sanskrit, but actor K N Singh was having trouble reciting it. Prithviraj was trying to help him but was also faltering in saying it perfectly. Vyas , an expert in Hindi and Sanskrit, having immense knowledge of Ved Mantra was witnessing the proceedings for two days. It was possibly the blessing of Goddess Saraswati that inspired him to say the mantra aloud. On hearing him intone the mantra with such Brahminical precision, Prithviraj was very impressed and asked him to help K N Singh in saying the mantra correctly. But soon K N Singh informed Prithviraj ji that he will not be able to speak Devbhasha (Sanskrit) and that he should look for another artiste for the role. Prithviraj asked Prithvi Theatre’s manager Ramesh Saigal to approach Vyas for the role. Vyas , who had already acted in a Rajasthani play Ramu Chanana earlier, readily agreed and stepped into the role and thus started his journey as an actor.

While the rehearsals were still on, Vyas suffered a personal tragedy and had to go back home in Bikaner, Rajasthan. There he fell sick with typhoid. Here rehearsals were in full swing as the play was to premiere on 9 March, 1945 at the Royal Opera House. The final date was about a month away so Prithviraj asked him to come back as soon as possible. Vyas returned with his wife though he was still unwell. On the day he resumed his rehearsals he couldn’t do much due to frequent blackouts. The medication he was on, did not seem to help him much. He remembers the doctor from Kalbadevi who treated him for free; with his medication, Vyas ji’s health improved considerably in just three days.

The final round of rehearsals was done and finally the day of Prithvi Theatre’s first play to be staged, arrived. For the first performance of Shakuntala, many known names of the film industry were present at Royal Opera House. In the scene where Rishi Kanva makes an entry on stage he was required to raise his hands for blessing but Vyas was still weak and his hands started shaking. He tried a lot to control them but to no avail. He then remembered that he had seen many old people whose hands and head would involuntarily shake, so he started to shake his head too. The end result was so effective that during the play’s interval Prithviraj came and hugged him. He asked him how he developed that body language, Vyas told him about his genuine problem. Prithiviraj told him that he did a wonderful job and should continue with the same every time the play was staged.

Vyas had a long association with Prithvi Theatre, from 1944 to 1955. During this period he toured with the group to various cities and got an opportunity to showcase his singing and acting skills in various plays like – Deewar, Pathan, Aahuthi, Gaddar, Kalaakar, etc.

Vyas was interested in music since childhood. He is a self-taught singer. In the early 1940s Bharat Vyas called his younger brother to Mumbai. Soon Vyas ji got the opportunity to act and sing as many as twenty songs for the Rajasthani play Ramu Chanana written by Bharat . Music Director Naushad Sahab’s assistant Ghulam Muhammad who hailed from Rajasthan was very impressed when he heard Vyas’s voice in the play. He took him to meet Naushad Sahab who was working on the soundtrack of the film Pehle Aap (1944). Vyas got an opportunity to sing a group song “Hindustan Ke Hum Hain, Hindustan Hamara; Hindu Muslim Dono Ki Aakhon Ka Tara” with established singers G. M. Durrani and Shyam Kumar along with a new singer Mohammed Rafi. Since this song was supposed to be sung by soldiers on screen, Vyas and Rafi Sahab had to wear heavy boots and do a rhythmic march while singing to give an effect of an army troop. Such effects could not be added to a song with the technology available then; it all had to be done in real time. However the first ever song Vyas sang for a film was “Alakh Niranjan, Jai Jai Jai Manaranjan” from Bhartrihari (1944) which was picturized on Arun Ahuja (Govinda’s father).

Vyas gave playback in four films – Bhartrihari (1944, MD: Khemchand Prakash), Pehle Aap (1944, MD: Naushad), Maharana Pratap (1946, MD: Ram Ganguli) and Naulakha Haar (MD: R C Boral) before destiny took him on a different path. He remembers meeting Rafi Sahab years later who sweetly said “Pandit ji you changed our line (singing)” to which Vyas admitted that he did not see much of a future for himself in singing and hence switched to acting.

After Prithvi Theatre’s first play Shakuntala was staged, Devika Rani (owner of Bombay Talkies) was keen to know who played Rishi Kanva. When she saw the 24 yrs old Vyas she was surprised, she never expected to see such a young man. She offered him a role in a Bombay Talkies film to be directed by actor Jairaj but the film was never made.

When Ramesh Saigal moved away from Prithvi Theatre, he joined Chetan Anand’s company India Pictures as Production Manager. They were working on their next film Neecha Nagar (1946) when Ramesh Saigal offered Vyas a small role (protagonist’s elder brother) in the film. Prithvi Theatre never laid any restrictions on their actors; they could take outside work while working in their plays. Vyas was eager to face the camera and accepted the role with open arms. He is credited as ‘Vyas ji’s in this film. Soon he played a small role in Raj Kapoor‘s Aag (1948) where he is credited as ‘Brijmohan’. But the role that gave him recognition in the film industry was in Barsaat (1949) where he played actress Nargis’ father. For this film he is credited as ‘B. M. Vyas’. Thus Vyas ji’s film career took off and he never looked back.

He has had a long and very successful career of more than four decades and has been part of many memorable classics. He has always been a character artist who started his career with portraying old characters. His last film most probably was Maa (1991). Vyas was very keen to work with the great filmmaker V Shantaram and approached him for work. Shantaram was planning Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957) and was busy casting actors to play six prisoners in the film. He did not tell him that he is Bharat’s younger brother who was the lyricist of the film. When Vyas approached him, Shantaram was initially a bit apprehensive due to his height but soon cast him as one of the prisoners, Jalia Nai. They had a month-long schedule in Kolhapur.

When the reels were sent to Rajkamal Studios for processing, it was found that due to dirt particles on the lens there were lines all across the frame in all the reels and the whole month’s hard work had gone to waste. They had to reshoot the entire thing. Vyas had a tough time managing schedules due to this re-shoot as he had other films in hand too.

B M Vyas acted in 175 films. His first film was Neecha Nagar-46 and last film was Oh,Darling ! yeh hai India-95. Vyas ji left for a better world on 11 March, 2013. (Adapted from articles from Maitri Manthan and Blog beete hue din, with thanks.)

Talwar ka dhani-56 had music by my favourite Melody Maker Chitragupta. Today’s qawali is sung by Yousuf Ansari aka Yusuf Azad Qawal (23-3-1920 to 27-2-1998). Yusuf also acted in 3 films. He sang 16 songs in 15 films. However his NFS and qawalis are more famous and more popular. Let us enjoy this one today.

Song- Hamen itna bata do ishq ki manzil kahaan tak hai(Talwaar Ka Dhani)(1956) Singer-Yusuf Aazaad Qawwaal, Lyrics-Anjum Jaipuri, MD-Chitragupta
Chorus

Lyrics

hamen itna bataa do
ishq ki manzil kahaan tak hai
hamen itna bataa do
ishq ki manzil kahaan tak hai
hamen itna bataa do
ishq ki manzil kahaan tak hai
muhabbabt ka ye afsaana
zameen se aasmaan tak hai
muhabbabt ka ye afsaana
zameen se aasmaan tak hai

hansi jab lab pe aati hai
zamaana jhoom jaata hai
naa jaane kaun aake ae ae ae
naa jaane kaun aake
daaman-e-dil choom jaata hai
kahaani kiske waadon ki
hamaari daastaan tak hai
kahaani kiske waadon ki
hamaari daastaan tak hai
aa aa aa
haan haan haan
muhbbat ka ye afsaana
zameen se aasmaan tak hai

aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
milaake aankh sharmaana
adaa se muskura dena hai
tumhen kisne sikhaaya hai
ae ae ae
ae ae ae
tumhen kisne sikhaaya hai
kisi ka dil chura lena
ye bijli kyun nigaahon se
hamaare ashiyaan tak hai
ye bijli kyun nigaahon se
hamaare aashiyaan tak hai
aa aa aa aa
mohbbat ka ye afsaana
zameen se aasmaan tak hai

nazar kyon milke sharmai
koi raaj kya jaane
samajh mein kuch nahi aate
ae ae ae
o o o
o o o
samajh mein kuch nahin aate
teri nazaro ke afsaane
wahi tak hai ye nazaara
nazar jiski jahaan tak hai
wahin tak hai ye nazaara
nazar jiski jahaan tak hai
aa aa aa aa
haan haan
mohbbat ka ye afsaana
zameen se aasmaan tak hai
aa aa aa aa
mohbbat ka ye afsaana
zameen se aasmaan tak hai