Posts Tagged ‘Comrades’
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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Today, March 29th 2021, we are celebrating Holi, the festival of joy and merry-making albeit in a subdued manner due to COVID-19 guidelines, banning public and private celebrations of Holi.
During Holi, the most popular genre of Hindustani semi-classical music is Hori which, in Brajbhasha means ‘happiness’. (I understand that in Brajbhasha region, people pronounce holi as ‘hori’). The ‘hori’ songs are written mostly in Brajbhasha or Awadhi. Obviously, hori singing is popular in Uttar Pradesh and a part of Bihar. The joy and merry-making mood come in the background of the expectation of a good Rabi harvest. The blooming of flowers in the spring season (Phagun) and the mustard fields with yellow flowers create a colourful atmosphere in North India. The mood of the rejoice among the farmers and villagers create the spirit behind the Holi celebration which has, over a period of time, percolated all over the country.
The tradition of playing with colours during Holi is linked to Radha-Krishna Leela (divine play) especially in Brajbhasha region of Uttar Pradesh. Hori singing reflects Krishna’s revelries and playing pranks with Radha. Hori is generally rendered in Thumri style and conventionally, the song will have a mukhda and an antara. One of the various names of Krishna such as Shyam, Kaanha, Nandlala, Banwari, Baanke-Bihari etc would appear either in mukhda or antara part of the hori song.
In the Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh and the Mithila region of Bihar and Jharkhand (also some part of Nepal), hori singing also centres around Lord Ram. The earliest recorded hori song which I have come across is ‘Jamuna tath Ram khelen hori’ by Janaki Bai of Allahabad (Chappan Churi), recorded in 1910 which is a ‘Ram Hori’ song. Pandit Chunnilal Mishra has rendered even ‘Shiv Ki Hori’.
The traditional hori songs are based on the folk singing of the particular region and are thus embedded with the rural atmosphere. I guess, over the years, the folk songs rendered during the holi festival became so popular that some of the Hindustani classical vocalists adapted the traditional hori songs in their concerts, rendering mostly in the form of Thumris. On the video sharing platforms, some of the hori thumris rendered by Ustad Faiyyaz Khan, Kesarbai Kerkar, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Kumar Gandharv, Begum Akhtar, Shobha Gurtu, Girija Devi, Siddheswari Devi etc are available.
The popularity of hori songs attracted Hindi films when talkies came in 1931. The hori songs in Hindi films have now been adopted as holi festival songs, written and sung in typical Bollywood style. There are hundreds of holi songs picturised in Hindi films. As of now, we have on our Blog as many as 62 songs tagged as ‘Holi Songs’. On the basis of the movie-wise listing of the songs available on-line, the credit for the first traditional hori song used in Hindi film was ‘mope daar gayo saari rang ki gagar’ in ‘Ghar Ki Laxmi’ (1931). Probably, in the film, this song may have been rendered by Rampyari, the then famous singer-actor-dancer whose name I found in the star-cast. Unfortunately, neither the film nor the gramophone records of the songs from this film are available. It may be noted that in the early years of talkies, many film songs were not released on the gramophone records.
Luckily, I got a rare mp3 clip of the traditional hori song with the same mukhda as in ‘Ghar Ki Laxmi’ (1931) in the film ‘Comrades’ (1939) which I am presenting on the occasion of the Holi festival. The song is rendered by Wahidan Bai, the mother of Nimmi. The lyrics are traditional but it has been attributed to Dr. Safdar Aah Sitapuri. Probably, he may have changed a few words. For example, in my view, the line ‘kaisa dhokha diya’ seems to have been added in the traditional lyrics as these are in pure Hindi. The song is set to music by Anil Biswas.
The song is a typical hori thumri having a mukhda and an antara with the name of Krishna appearing as ‘Shyam’ in the antara. Being trained in Hindustani classical singing, Wahidan Bai has tendered this hori thumri with elaborations and ornamentations. It is worthwbhile to note that as to how elaborately she has rendered the line ‘bin rang daare jaane na doongi’ with ornamentations. The ‘murki’ element in the song while singing jaa….ne na doongi..ee, jaa…..ne na doongi..eeeee is my favourite.
This song becomes the earliest ‘holi song’ from Hindi films to be covered in the Blog though are a few more ‘holi songs’ pertaining to the Hindi films were released prior to 1939.
Audio Clip:
Song- Mo pe daar gaye saari rang ki gagar (Comrades)(1939) Singer-Wahidan Bai, Lyrics-Safdar Aah Sitapuri, MD-Anil Biswas
Lyrics
aaaaaaaa aaaaa
aaaaa aaaa aaaaaaaaa
aaaaa aaaa aaaa
aaa
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
kaisa dhokha diya aa aa aa
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
main to bhool se dekhan laagi udhar
main to bhool se dekhan laagi udhar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
main to bhool se dekhan laagi udhar
main to bhool se dekhan laagi udhar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
bin rang daare jaane na doongi
bin rang daare…ae
jaa….ne na doongi..ee
jaa…..ne na doongi..eeeee
haa…n
jaane na doo…ngi
bin rang daare jaane na doongi
bin rang daare jaane na doongi
Shyam kaho ab jaat kidhar
Shyam kaho ab jaat kidhar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
kaisa dhokha diya aa aa aa
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
mope daar gaye saari rang ki gagar
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow ehthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
The Fourth song in “The flavour of the 30s” series is from the film COMRADES-1939 and it is sung by Surendranath and Maya Banerjee. The music is by Anil Biswas.
Read more on this topic…
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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