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 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 :
3765
Post No. :
14738
Movie Count :
4028
Today’s song is from the first decade of the Talkie films, viz 1930s. This song is from “Hum,Tum aur Woh”(1938). This was a film made under the banner of Sagar Movietone, a highly prestigious and famous film company of the times. This company was riding on waves of popularity and fame during those days of 1938.
Shri Biren kothari ji has written a wonderful book on Sagar Movietone. It is based on interactions with the surviving members of the Desai clan as well as several contemporary documents and is regarded as an authentic volume on Sagar Movietone. However, oday’s article is based on another book, “Mehboob Khan” written by Shashikant Kinikar, published in 2015, 2 years after Kothari ji’s book. This 300+ page book, in Marathi, has plenty of original photos and articles on Mehboob Khan written by Anil Biswas, Sitara Devi, Shamshad Begum, P.K.Nair, Wazahat Mirza, Naushad and Shakeel Badayuni and therefore it is full of several anecdotes which are unknown to many. The book also contains 4 articles by Mehboob Khan himself. The book is an excellent treatise on Mehboob Khan-the Director and the Human Being, with 230 pages dedicated on him and his films.
However, Mehboob’s story is incomplete without Sagar’s story.
Hindi film industry has produced some great directors who, besides having a commercial outlook, also served the society by making films on burning social issues. On their parts, they contributed their “Two Cents” to serve the Nation. Such directors included Raj Kapoor, V.Shantaram, Guru Dutt, Satyajit Ray and Mehboob Khan-to name a few.
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 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 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-competing with Madon Theatres of Calcutta- wanted to make a Talkie and started work fast. Mehboob Khan was almost finalised 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 Faredoon 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 realised that they had struck Gold in the process and Mehboob completed his first Directorial venture ” Al Hilaal “-35. 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-37 Mehboob and Anil Biswas pair teamed up for 8 films-till Roti-42.
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-40, Behan-41 and Roti-42.
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, K.K.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 lakh bura chahe to kya hota hai, vahi hota hai jo manjur 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-43 ( his daughter’s name was Najma), with Ashok Kumar and Veena was a Hit film. It was followed by Taqdeer-43, Humayun-45,Anmol Ghadi-46, Elaan-47, Anokhi Ada-48, Andaaz-49, Aan-52, Amar-54 and his Magnum Opus Mother India-57. 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 inspite 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. Rajendrakumar refused 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, Mehboob Khan by Shashikant Kinikar and my notes).
One advantage of reading a Biography is that you get to know the person’s version on controversies. As far as Mehboob and Anil Biswas’s split is concerned, Mehboob’s version is 180 degrees opposite to what Anil Biswas gave. Difficult to side anyone. But this split did help first Rafiq Ghaznavi and then Naushad.
In the cast of the film, one finds a name Sunalini Devi. Now let us know something about Sunalini Devi, the actress. She was born on 1-1-1896 in Hyderabad Deccan. Her father, Aghornath Chattopadhyay-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 Chattopadhyaya-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 film ‘ Raja Rani-42’.
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-32’. 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. She retired from films in 1956.
Let us now listen to the song of today. It is sung by Maya Banerjee and Harish. The music was by Anil Biswas. I find the tune of this song a little unusual. It looks like the lady is stressing her point with fists hammered on a desk.
With this song, this film “Hum Tum aur Woh” (1938) makes its Debut in the Blog.
Song-Hamen preet kisi se nahin karni (Ham Tum Aur Wo)(1938) Singers-Maya Banerjee, Harish, MD-Anil Biswas
Lyrics
hamen preet kisi se nahin karni
hamen preet kisi se nahin karni
hamen preet ki reet bataao nahin
hamen preet ki reet bataao nahin
hamen preet kisi se nahin karni
hamen preet kisi se nahin karni
hamen likh likh chithhiyaan mat bhejo
hamen likh likh chithhiyaan mat bhejo
hamen jamuna kinaare bulaao nahin
hamen jamuna kinaare bulaao nahin
hamen preet kisi se nahin karni
hamen preet kisi se nahin karni
ham likhh likhh chithhiyaan bhejenge
tumhen apne paas bulaayenge
ham likhh likhh chithhiyaan bhejenge
tumhen apne paas bulaayenge
ham roothhenge
ham jhagdenge
ham roothhenge
ham jhagdenge
ham dor se kheench ke laayenge
ham dor se kheench ke laayenge
in baaton se hamko daraao nahin
in baaton se hamko daraao nahin
hamen preet kisi se nahin karni
hamen preet kisi se nahin karni
hamen preet ki reet bataao nahin
hamen preet ki reet bataao nahin
hamen preet kisi se nahin karni
hamen preet kisi se nahin karni
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.
Forgotten Melodies of the 1940s – 12
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Readers of this Blog may recall Talat Mehmood’s iconic song aa teri tasweer banaa loon from ‘Naadaan’ (1951) which was composed by Chic Chocolate (Antonio X. Vaz). Recently, I came across the mp3 clip of a song with the same starting verse from an obscure film ‘Rekha’ (1943). There is no mention of the names of singers and lyricist of the song. I got some information from the internet about the film but drew a blank on the names of singers. I could not locate the song on YT. Read more on this topic…
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 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 (18 february 2014) is the Birth Anniversary of NALINI JAYAWANT. She was one of my favourite actresses from the 40s and 50s. Her film which I liked the most was “Hum sab chor hain “-1956. Though she was 30 year old by this time, she still looked very charming, naughty and beautiful. The Hero,Shammi Kapoor was only 26 years,but no one ever felt that she looked older than him. There were excellent songs in the film,composed by O.P.Nayyar and the story was quite entertaining. Read more on this topic…
Today (27 march 2013) is the festival of Holi. This is the fifth Holi for this blog ! Majority of well known Holi songs from Hindi movies have been covered during the last four such occasions. Those are the songs that one gets to listen from all radio and TV stations that play Holi songs. But we in this blog, unlike radio and TV, cannot repeat the same songs and we have to discuss “new” as yet undiscussed songs on every occasion. 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.
In one of my earlier write-ups posted on this blog, I had mentioned that of late, my memories of childhood and younger days have become very sharp where as I tend to forget many events which had happened in recent years. Recently, I came across an article on reminiscence bump theory. It says that there are three stages of memories: (1) the period of childhood amnesia during which we do not remember the events that had happened during infancy to say up to the age of 5 years, (2) reminiscence bump is a tendency for older people to increasingly remember events that happened during 10 to 30 years of age and,(3) the period of middle age to old age, viz.over 35 years of age to the present period during which there is a tendency to forget the events. So my memory is working as per reminiscence bump theory :-). And I am not complaining because it helped me to remember and locate about half a dozen rare songs of 30s and 40s which have already been posted on this blog. Read more on this topic…
This blog discusses Bollywood songs of yesteryears. Every song has a brief description, followed by a video link, and complete lyrics of the song.
This is a labour of love, where “new” songs are added every day, and that has been the case for over TEN years. This blog has over 14800 song posts by now.
This blog is active and online for over 3800 days since its beginning on 19 july 2008.
Total number of songs posts discussed
14840
Number of movies covered in the blog
Movies with all their songs covered =1158
Total Number of movies covered =4057
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