Posts Tagged ‘Fighting Hero’
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 a C grade Stunt film – Fighting Hero-1946.
1946 was an important year in the history of Hindi films. This was the period when the impending Independence of India was on the Anvil and everyone knew that in the year 1947 it would take place. At the same time when the country was to be divided on the basis of Religion and another muslim country Pakistan was to come into existence. Many of the muslims in the film industry were excitedly awaiting their departure from India to the Utopia. This would, naturally, create a lot of vacancies in every department of film making. However, there was enough talent available in the remaining India to fill up the void. Hence from the year 1946 itself there were several debutantes. This made the year 1946 an year of Debuts of several new actors, directors, MDs, Lyricists etc etc.
The second World War had just ended, which had created inumerable millionaires, fed on black marketing and illegal trades in the war period. Many of them were keen on investing their ill gotten wealth in the film industry. Thus, there was no dearth of finances in the industry. From 1946 to around the early years of the 50’s, some of these ” novo-rich” persons provided finance. Some even tried their hand at directing films or even acting in it. Let us see what other things happened during this period.
By 1946 to 1950 old towers shook hard to crumble. The studio system almost disappeared. Film industry could now boast of people highly educated, talented and hard working. Even artistes with International experience and success like Dewan Sharar, Shakuntala Paranjpye, actor Ranjan, Balraj Sahni etc contributed to Indian films. The old horse of Calcutta-New Theatres broke down and actors, directors and Music specialists from Bengal made a Bee-Line to Bombay, thus making it the strongest ever film centre.
1946 was also an year of consolidation, in a sense that due to the iminent Partition of India on the basis of Religion, agreed upon by Gandhi-Nehru combine, made Muslim artistes and filmmakers plan to pack their bags and move over to the new Utopia across the border. Their vacancies were to be filled up by the waiting second line of actors,directors and MDs. The film industry was to have a complete new look within 1-2 years and the beginning was from 1946. Thus the year was very important.
The year 1946 was an year which saw many changes in the film industry. The II world war had just ended. Rationing and control on many items had created Black marketing. This made many people Millionaires. The extra income started getting invested in Film making. The increased cost of Raw Films made filmmaking 7 to 8 times costlier. A film which was made in about 1 Lakh rupees in 1940, needed 8 Lakhs now. Studio system was waning and artiste rates increased in Lakhs instead of thousands.
In 1945, only74 films were made. This number increased to 153 films in 1946. Further, in 1947, the film industry produced a record number of films – 181, but of course that was due to Partition. The quality of films was sacrificed at the cost of the quantity of films made in 1946. However, some quality films were made in 1946, indicating the changing face of filmmaking.
Film Dharati ke Lal-46 was made by IPTA people and it became the first film to be exhibited in Russia. Neecha Nagar-46 won the Grand Prix award in the French Film Festival. Film Dr. Kotnis ki amar kahani-46 was dubbed in English as ‘ The journey of Dr. Kotnis’. It was shown in the USA and then in the Venice Film Festival. Two musical films- Anmol Ghadi and Shahjahan were made in 1946.
Year 1946 also saw the Debut of several stars and artistes. In fact one can call 1946 as the ” Debut year” of the Hindi film industry. See this….
Nirupa Roy debuted in film Amar Raaj-46
Nasreen (real name Zareena), daughter of Rafiq Gaznavi and Anwari bai had debuted in her first released film ” Shahjahan-1946.
Geeta Bali debuted with a dance in film Badnami-46
Geeta Roy sang her first film song in film Bhakta Prahlad-46
Balraj Sahni debuted in the film Insaaf-46. It was a small role,though.
K A Abbas-Director, Pt.Ravi Shankar-MD, Balraj Sahni as Hero and Damayanti Sahni as Heroine made their Debut in film Dharti Ke Lal-46
Meena kapoor sang her first released Hindi film song in the film Eight Days-46. She also recorded her first Hindi film song in the film ‘Door Chalen’-1946, which was released later than the film Eight Days-46.
Sudhir Phadke debuted as MD in film Gokul-46
P L Santoshi as Director, Dev Anand, Rehman, Rehana and Kamla Kotnis debuted as actors in film Hum Ek Hai-46
Chitragupta did his first film as MD in Lady Robin Hood-46
Ram Ganguly became MD with film Maharana Pratap-46
Abhi Bhattacharya debuted in Hindi film Milan-46
Chetan Anand as Director, Uma Anand and Kamini kaushal as actresses debuted in film Neecha Nagar-46
Hansraj Behl debuted as MD with film Pujari-46
Madhubala(as Baby Mumtaz) sang her first song in film Pujari-46
Majrooh Sultanpuri wrote his first Hindi film song in film Shahjahan-46
S D Burman as MD and Kishore Kumar as an actor debuted with film Shikari-46
So, you will find the year 1946 was truly an year of change. The winds of Partition were already blowing and the second line of supplementary artistes was ready to replace the Migrators, after the Partition.
Film Fighting Hero-46 was produced by Keshav k. Talpade, under his own banner- Talpade productions, Bombay. He also directed the film. He had already directed another film-Stunt king-in 1944, so he got confidence. Later he also directed 2 more films for Basant Pictures of Homi Wadia and directed Fearless Nadia in Tigress-48 and Maya Mahal-49. After this his name does not appear anywhere. Keshav was earlier in the petrochemical business and apparently had earned a lot. However after this one film – Fighting Hero he did not produce any other film. He purposely chose this Genre of stunt films, because in that period, this was a genre in which a stunt film could be made in 5 to 7 lakhs only. Further it did not require well known actors or Music directors.
The Music Director for this film was Chitragupt for whom this was only the third film as a Music Director, having debuted in the same year with the film Lady Robin Hood-46. Chitragupt (16-11-1917 to 14-1-1991) later became a Melody maker giving music to 149 films and composing 1036 songs. He also sang29 songs in 16 films. He was one of my favourite composers. Though a genius, he was not lucky enough to ever join the grade A MDs simply because he did not get any famous film house as a mentor.
The film had only 6 songs, 3 of which were sung by Mohantara Talpade, niece of the Producer/Director. She started in 1942 and sang 117 songs in 54 films till 1958. She was a very popular singer in marathi films and NFS. She was born on 24-10-1926 in Bombay. She studied upto matriculation. She learnt music from Heerabai Zaveri, Shyamalabai Mazgaonkar and Navrang Master too. Khemchand Prakash recorded her first song in 1941 but her song in the film Mamaji-1942 was released first. It was composed by H.C.Bali, who was responsible for Saigal’s entry in films.
1946 was the best year for her as she sang in 12 films in 1946. Her best period was 1946 to 1948. Then Lata overtook and she fell back. She was married in 1949 and took a 3 years’ gap to raise a family. She became Mohantara Ajinkya. From 1952 to 1955 again she sang. Then she shifted to Marathi and became popular there.
The cast of the film included Sudha Rao, Iqbal Begum, Kavita Sardesai, Romesh Vyas, Moolchand, Niranjan Sharma and others. Except Moolchand and Niranjan Sharma, I do not know about anyone else in the cast. Moolchand made his acting Debut in this film. He acted in 131 films till the film Toofan-1989. He died on 18-12-1988. Niranjan Sharma was a well known Character actor. He too made his Debut in this film. He worked in 129 films till mata vaishno devi-1971. He wrote Lyrics in 3 films for 23 songs. Niranjan Sharma wrote the story and Dialogues of the film Fighting Hero-1946, besides acting in it. All in all, I guess this must be one of the most economically made films of that time.
Today’s song is sung by Mohantara Talpade and written by I.C.Kapoor.
Song- Mere sapnon ke raaja mere jeewan mein aa jaa (Fighting Hero)(1946) Singer- Mohantara Talpade, Lyricist- I.C.Kapoor, MD- Chitragupt
Lyrics
Mere sapnon ke raaja
mere sapnon ke raaja
mere jeewan mein aa jaa
mere jeewan mein aa jaa
aa jaa aa jaa
mere sapnon ke raaja
mere sapnon ke raaja
mere jeewan mein aa jaa
mere jeewan mein aa jaa
aa jaa aa jaa
sapnon mein hans hans kar aanaa
sapnon mein hans hans kar aanaa
jeevan mein tarsaana
sapnon mein hans hans kar aanaa
jeevan mein tarsaana
kaisi hai ye preet balamwaa
kaisi hai ye reet
kaisi hai ye preet balamwaa
kaisi hai ye reet
kuchh mujhko samjha jaa
mere jeewan mein aa jaa
aa jaa aa jaa
mere sapnon ke raaja
mere sapnon ke raaja
mere jeewan mein aa jaa
mere jeewan mein aa jaa
aa jaa aa jaa
jab se tose nain lade hain
jab se tose nain lade hain
tab se teri raah khade hain
tab se teri raah khade hain
dil mein meethhi meethhi chaahen
dil mein meethhi meethhi chaahen
khuli huyi hain meri baahen
khuli huyi hain meri baahen
mere dil ki aag bujhaa jaa
mere jeevan mein aa jaa
mere dil ki aag bujhaa jaa
mere jeevan mein aa jaa
aa jaa aa jaa
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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