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

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.

Today, May 24, 2017 is the Remembrance Day of Bulo C Rani,  the music director and the singer who left this day 24 years ago under unfortunate circumstances. A contemporary of music directors like Anil Biswas, Ghulam Haider, Naushad, C Ramchandra and Khemchand  Prakash, it is a sad commentary on Hindi film industry that Bulo C Rani could not attain the stature of these music directors. And this is despite the fact that he was associated with the Hindi film industry for over 2 decades and had churned out some immortal compositions.

I started listening to Hindi film songs on the radio as a teenager and in my younger days, the music directors like Naushad, C Ramchandra, S D Burman, Husnlal-Bhagatram, Shankar-Jaikishan, Roshan, Madan Mohan, OP Nayyar etc were familiar to me. But I had not heard of Bulo C Rani and other lesser known music directors. However,  I was very familiar with a few of the songs composed by him like Prwaanon Se Preet Seekh Len, Hamen To Loot Liya Mil Ke Husn Waalon Ne and Maangne Se Jo Maut Mil Jaati. At that time, for me, these songs and the singers were inseparable without caring to know about the lyricists and composers of the songs.

It was during early 70s when I was first exposed to the old Hindi films songs of 40s and 50s by my friend, when I heard in his house Sundarta Ke Sabhi Pujaari. In a way, this song served not only to be my introduction to the film ‘Jogan’ (1950) but also to Bulo C Rani. Over a period of time, I became familiar with his contributions to Hindi film industry as a music director. After joining this Blog, I was  pleasantly surprised to know that during his stint as a music director, he had composed  as many as 584 songs in 70 Hindi films.

Bulo C Rani (06/05/1920 – 24/05/1993) was born in Hyderabad (Sindh) in a Sindhi family. His father Chandiram was a musician who was the music director in some of the films of early 1930s. I find from the internet that three films, viz. ‘Insaan Ya Saitaan’ (1933), ‘Prem Pariksha’ (1934) and ‘Yaasmin’ (1935) have Chandiram as the music director. So the young Bulo C Rani may have got the inspiration from his father to develop his interest in the music.

Sometime in the early 40s, Bulo C Rani visited Lahore with the intention of working under Ghulam Haider who had become a household name with the runaway success of his songs in ‘Khazaanchi’ (1941). However, after finding that he has not become even assistant to Ghulam Haider,  he shifted to Bombay (Mumbai) on the advice of DN Madhok, lyricist and the then ‘king maker’ in Hindi film industry. He took Bulo C Rani to Ranjit Studios where he was got employment as assistant to Khemchand Prakash and Gyan Dutt, the main music directors of Ranjit Movietone at that time.

Bulo C Rani got the chance to compose two songs for the film ‘Paighaam’ (1943) thanks to Gyan Dutt who was the music director for the film. It was in the early 1944 that he got the independent assignments as a full-fledged music director in Ranjit Movietone’s two films ‘Pagli Duniya’ (1944) and ‘Carvaan’ (1944). Both these films were directed by Aspi Irani. There were total of 27 songs in these two films of which as many as 15 songs were sung by Amirbai Karnataki. In these two films, Bulo C Rani also sang 5 songs with a psuedo name ‘Bhola’.

And what a musical start for Bulo C Rani! In ‘Caravaan’ (1944), two songs, Sooni Padi Hai Pyaar Ki Duniya Tere Baghair sung by Amirbai Karnataki and Aankhon Mein Intezaar Ki Duniya Liye Huye sung by Zohrabai Ambalewaali became very popular. In ‘Pagli Duniya’ (1944), I like the song Dil Dard Se Bharpoor Hai Aankhon Mein Hai Paani and “Gar Hum Ko Jalaaoge Duniya Ko Jalaa Denge’, both sung by Amirbai Karnataki. Unfortunately for Bulo C Rani, despite good music, ‘Pagli Duniya’ (1944) failed miserably at the box office and ‘Caravaan’ (1944) registered only a modest success.  Additionally, in terms of public tastes,  Bulo C Rani could not match his compositions in these two films with that of songs of his boss, Khemchand Prakash in ‘Bharthari’ (1944) and ‘Bhanwara’ (1944) which were released in the same year.

In the remaining of the 1940s, Bulo C Rani had on an average 5 films per year thanks to Ranjit Movietone where he was a full time employee. By the end of 1946, both Khemchand Prakash and Gyan Dutt had turned free-lance music directors thus giving Bulo C Rani more opportunity to get the films from Ranjit Movietone. A few of the popular songs composed by him during this period were Badariya Baras Gayi Us Paar from ‘Moorti’ (1945), Jaa Parwaane Jaa Kahin Shama Jal Rahi Hai from ‘Rajputaani’ (1946), Wo Teer Kaleje Par Ik Shokh Ne Maara Hai from ‘Anjuman’ (1948) etc.

Discussion on Bulo C Rani would not be complete without ‘Jogan’ (1950) which was produced by Chandulal Shah under the banner of Ranjit Movietone. This film was finalised with Dilip Kumar and Nargis, the two prominent actors of that time as lead actors. However, the financial condition of Ranjit Movietone was so precarious that the company had money to sustain for only one month. Kidar Sharma who had already left Ranjit Movietone to produce and direct films under his own banner was approached with a request to start the shooting to complete the film in one month.

Kidar Sharma accepted the challenge and started shooting during the day time and the post production work in the night time for which he had to stay in Ranjit Studio. Bulo C Rani was entrusted with the music direction of the film with 15 songs to be composed and recorded. The film was completed in less than a month and was released. The film was a box office hit and became the 5^th highest grosser at the box office for 1950. The success of the film was attributed mainly to 15 songs of which 6 songs were Meera Bai’s Bhajans. The highlight of film was that all the 15 songs became very popular. Bulo C Rani’s real recognition as a music director came with the success of these songs.

The success of ‘Jogan’ (1950) did not add value to Bulo C in terms of his musical career. In fact, during 1951, he had only one film “Pyaar Ki Baaten’ (1951) which got released. During 1950s, one of his films which was critically acclaimed for its music was ‘Bilwamangal’ (1954). My favourite songs from the film are Parwaanon Se Preet Seekh Len and Hum Ishq Ke Maaron Ko Do Dil Jo Diye Hotey.

In the greater part of 1950s, Bulo C Rani was relegated to some B grade films and in 1960s, he was getting films mostly belonging to the genre of  action/costume/fantasy/mythology.  Producers of such B and C grade films will have limited budget which prevents them, among other things, hiring the top playback singers for the music directors. During 1950 to 1966, Bulo C Rani composed nearly 300 songs of which Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi, who had become the top playback singers, sang for him only 22 and 31 songs respectively.

During his stint with B and C grade films,  Bulo C Rani appears to have been influenced by the qawwali genre of songs and that too by Yusuf Azad/Ismail Azad. There were qawwalis in ‘Noor E Yaman’ (1956), ‘Jahaazi Lootera’ (1957), ‘Al Hilal’ (1958), ‘Black Tiger’ (1960), ‘Pedro’ (1960), ‘Room No.17’ (1961), ‘Jaadoo Mahal’ (1962), ‘Madam Zorro’ (1962) and ‘Jadoo’(1966). In ‘Son of Hatimtai’ (1965), there was qawwali sung by Rafi and Jaani Babu Qawwal.

‘Sunehre Qadam’ (1966) was Bulo C Rani’s last film after which he kept himself away from the Hindi film industry. It is said that during this period, he started teaching music to students. He also composed music for a couple of Sindhi films and some non-filmy songs.  I feel that his musical career was tied with the fate of Ranjit Movietone. The moment, Ranjit Movietone’s factory-like film production stopped, Bulo C Rani lost his comfort zone.  It was difficult for him to face the competitions from the likes of Naushad, C Ramchandra, S D Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, OP Nayyar, Roshan, Madan Mohan etc during 1950s and 60s.

It is a well-known fact that in any vocation, not all becomes successful even if the persons have more or less the same talent. What differentiates between a successful and not so successful person is the extra punch (in today’s parlance ‘extra toppings’) the successful persons apply in their approach to work. I guess, Bulo C Rani may have lacked that extra punch in his work. Additionally, one also requires luck to be on his side for attaining the success. Luck was obviously not in favour of Bulo C Rani as he did not have good banners to support him as was the case with his compatriot music directors in the 1950s and 60s. In this context, one of the songs written by Kaif Irfani and composed by  Bulo C Rani for the film ‘Gul Sanobar’ (1953) aptly applies to him:

isse na aur lootiye
ye dil bahut gareeb hai
naseeb se main kya kahoon
naseeb to naseeb hai

Bulo C Rani was a good singer. In fact, he started his filmy career as a singer with “Roothna Pyaar Mein Karwat Ka Badal Jaana Hai’ in the film ‘Mehmaan’ (1942) under the music direction of Khemchand Prakash. By the time he became a full-fledged music director in 1944, he had already sung 14 songs in 10 films. During his entire filmy career, he sang 43 songs in 24 films. All these songs were sung under the music direction of Gyan Dutt and Khemchand Prakash in addition to his own music direction.

On the 24^th Remembrance Day of Bulo C Rani, I have selected a rare ghazal from the film ‘Madhur Milan’ (1955) which I came across only a few days back. In fact, I was under the impression that I had listened to all the songs of this film as early as in early 1970s in my friend’s house. But it was not so.

The song is “Ye Chaandni, Ye Hawa, Ye Samaa Bahaaron Ka’ composed and sung by Bulo C Rani. The songwriter is Jaan Nisar Akhtar. The video of this rare song was not available on the internet. So I have made a video from mp3 clip and uploaded the same a few days back on YT. The highlight of this song is that Bulo C Rani has rendered the ghazal in a style which is the reminiscence of KL Saigal era.

Song – Ye Chaandni Ye Hawa Ye Samaa Bahaaron Ka (Madhur Milan) (1955) Singer – Bulo C Rani, Lyrics – Jaan Nisar Akhtar, MD – Bulo C Rani

Lyrics

ye chaandni
ye hawaaa aa aa
ye samaa baha..aron kaa aa
chali hai raat liye kaarwaan sitaaron kaa aa
chali hai raat

kuchh is mazey se
haan aan aan aan
kuchh is mazey se
bahi jaa rahi hai kashti e jaan
kuchh is mazey se
bahi jaa rahi hai kashti e jaan
kabhi khayaal bhi aataa nahin kinaaron kaa aa
chali hai raat

ae aeeeeee
jo tum nigaah uthaao oo
to ye fiza jaage ae ae
jo tum nigaah uthaao
to ye fiza jaage ae
abhi to naam hai jaage huye nazaaron kaa aa
chali hai raat

ye soch lo
ke mohabbat kaa kya taqaaza hai
ae ae ae
ae ae
ye soch lo
ke mohabbat kaa kya taqaaza hai
ye dekh lo
ye dekh lo ke ishaara hai kya bahaaron kaa
chali hai raat liye

———————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————————————

ये चाँदनी
ये हवा॰॰आ
ये समा बहा॰॰आरों का॰॰आ
चली है रात लिए
कारवां सितारों का
चली है रात

कुछ इस मज़े से
हाँ आं आं आं
कुछ इस मज़े से
बही जा रही है कश्ती ए जान
कुछ इस मज़े से
बही जा रही है कश्ती ए जान
कभी ख्याल भी आता नहीं किनारों का
चली है रात

ए॰॰ एsss
जो तुम निगाह उठाओ॰॰ओ
तो ये फिज़ा जागे॰॰ए॰॰ए
जो तुम निगाह उठाओ
तो ये फिज़ा जागे॰॰ए
अभी तो नाम है जागे हुये नज़ारों का॰॰आ
चली है रात

ये सोच लो
के मोहब्बत का क्या तक़ाज़ा है
ए॰॰ए॰॰ए॰॰ए
ये सोच लो
के मोहब्बत का क्या तक़ाज़ा है
ये देख लो
ये देख लो के इशारा है क्या बहारों का
चली है रात लिए