Posts Tagged ‘Shamim Bano’
Raat suhaani re raat suhaani
Posted on: September 15, 2021
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 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 the film Armaan-1942.
I have found many times that film titles are given on the basis of the essence of the story – the result, the effort or even the relationship etc. It is expected that from the title itself, the movie fan should be able to guess the type of film or the story of the film. Some titles are straight forward like Baiju Bawra, Tansen, Jhansi ki Rani etc. Such films do not call for intelligence work to know about the film’s content. But when the titles like Armaan, Laalach, or Ladki are given, the fan has to scratch his head about the type of the story. Next help is from the cast of the film. Cast of a Stunt film is absolutely distinctive. The actors are fixed, not known to the general public and includes at least some actors with strange names like Chemis, Manchi Toothy or Bajarbattu etc. Initially, a Dilip kumar film used to be equated with a sad end due to Hero’s death. Nirupa Roy indicated a Religious film etc.
Even from the names of Directors one could guess about the type of films.For example, a film directed by Sohrab Modi meant extra long dialogues in pure urdu or Hindi, Historical story. Mehboob Khan meant a film on Nehruvian Socialism etc. From the names of Music Directors also one could fairly guess the type of film. Avinash Vyas or S.N.Tripathi means a Mythological film, Naushad or C.Ramchandra means musical entertainment etc.
There have hardly been any directors who handled films of different Genres. Tragedy, Comedy, Family film directors never tried historical and any Stunt film director never tried a family tear jerker. I can think of only one film director who directed films of different Genres like, Comedy, Tragedy, Family, Musical, Social evils and even a Mythological film. His name is Franz Osten- a Director from Bombay Talkies stable. And mind you, he did not know Hindi language-he had come from Germany ( he thought Bulbul means 2 Bulls !). May be that is why he could do it.
Film Armaan’s director was Kidar Sharma. He mostly did social films. I came to know about this autobiography much later than it was published posthumously – by his son in 2002. I bought the book sometime in 2015 or so. During the period 2012 to 2018, I bought books on cinema like a mad person. The result was, I ended up with 50 % useless books ! Initially I had no discretion and no knowledge as to which could be an useful book for me. Shortly ( and after spending a Ton !), I learnt the trick and became very selective. By the year 2018-2019, I became known to many writers and Historians. This resulted in getting recently published good books as gifts from various authors. This way I now have a reasonably good number of useful books. Some books I value very much like the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema by Rajadhyaksha and a few rare books. I have a collection of 6700 songs from films of the 30s and 40s only, some of them very rare. These are also gifted to me by friends and collectors across the continents. I got some books xeroxed. Our dear friend (late) Bharatbhai Upadhyay, Harish Raghuwanshi ji, Deepak Chaudhari and few more have been very helpful in xeroxing old, rare books.
The cast of the film Armaan-42 was Motilal, Shameem, Nagendra, Meera, Rajkumari, Rewa Shankar etc . Kedar Sharma mentioned in his book that Sardar Chandulal Shah, owner of Ranjit had warned him not to take Shameem as Heroine. The reason was, Shameem was the niece of actress-singer Khursheed, who was very jealous of Shameem. He feared that Khursheed may not work with Kidar, if she is taken as Heroine. Kidar was firm and took Shameem. However, Khursheed did work in Kidar’s film later on without any complaint.
Shamim was variously billed as Shamim, Miss Shamim, Shamim Bano and Shamim Akhtar, in different films. She was born on 11th September 1926 in Lahore. Her father was a General Merchant. She used to sing and act in school dramas. She completed her matriculation from Islamia Girls school, Lahore. In 1939, she visited Bombay along with her father. They accidentally met director G.R.Sethi, who encouraged Shamim to join films. She too was keen on joining films.
She debuted in the film Imaandar-1939. Then came Baghi-39, Niraali Duniya-40, Kanyadan-40,Jadui Nagari-40, Pyas-41, Dhandhora-41, Return of Toofan Mail-42, Mehmaan-42, Fariyaad-42, Armaan-42, Gauri-43, Bansari-43, Pehle Aap-44, Jwar Bhata-44, Sanyasi-45, Laaj-46, Samrat Ashok-47, Sindoor-47, Bhanwar-47, Shikarpri-47, Ratan Manjiri-48,Toote Taare-48 and Desh sewa-48. She also sang about 30 songs in 11 films.
After partition, she migrated to Pakistan with the family. There, she acted in 8 films- 6 Urdu and 2 Punjabi. Her first film Shahida-49 was a hit film and celebrated Silver jubilee. Even Do Ansoo-50 and Ghulam-53 were hit films. Shamim married Producer/Director Anwar Kemal Pasha. Shamim died on 23-10-1982 in Lahore. Shamim was niece of actress singer Khursheed Begum. Shamim’s younger sister Naseem was also an actress in India, but she died quite young, on 17-11-1946 at Bombay, in India only. This was reported in Film India magazine also.
The other interesting name in the cast is of Nagendra Majumdar-father of Ninu Majumdar, MD. Nagendra was born in a happy family in the year 1894 in Bombay. After his father died, “Pearl Dairy’ established by his father ran very well doing good business. Suddenly, Nagendra’s wife fell seriously ill and despite taking her full care, she expired. Due to neglect of the Dairy in this period, Dairy also closed down.
He shifted to Baroda and worked as a State Police Inspector.Later he worked as Watch and Ward Inspector in Baroda Railways. He left the job and started working as a hero in dramas of famous dramatist R.V.Desai. Heeralal, the owner of Laxmi Film Company, Bombay was impressed with his personality and took him to Bombay in 1926 to act in his silent films. Thus started his film career. In those days Silent films used to be completed within a month. He worked as a Hero in films of Laxmi, Jagdish and Imperial film companies.
In the same year, he directed a film ‘Paani mein aag’-1926, made by Royal Arts. Then came two more films made by Kaiser E Hind films. He also directed films for other companies. In all, he directed 15 Silent films by 1932. By then the Talkie had arrived. In the next 14 years he directed 12 Talkie films like – Ras Vilas-32, Sassi Punnu-32, Patit Pawan-33, mirza Sahibaan-33, Mera Imaan-34, Kala Wagh-34, Rangila nawab-35, Kimiyagar-36, Aaj ka Aladdin aka Aladdin II-36, Lehri lutera-37, Talwarwala-46 and Swadesh Sewa-46.
When offers for direction became few, he started acting in films. He acted in 12 films. When K L Saigal came to Bombay, Nagendra wanted to work with him. In the film Tansen-43, he did the role of Tansen’s (Saigal’s) father and he was very happy. Other films that he acted in were Kanchan-41,Beti-41, Khilauna-42, Bhakt Surdas-42, Armaan-42, Tansen-43, Gauri-43, Adab Arz-43, Bharthari-44, Prabhu ka Ghar-45, Ghazal-45 and Dhanna Bhagat-45.
His last 2 films came in 1946, but his health was not cooperating for quite a few years. He gave up work and took a rest. However, he suffered from paralysis and died on 22-8-1951. His son Ninu Majumdar worked in Bombay A.I.R. as head of Gujarati programmes, since 1937. By the time Nagendra died, Ninu had already started working as a Music Director.
As a Director, Nagendra had worked with the best of his times like, Master Vithal, Zubeida, Jillo, Billimorea brothers, Madhuri, Navinchandra, Durga Khote, Jairaj, Sultana, Noorjehan sr and such luminaries of those days. He had worked for Ranjit, Imperial, Sharda, Lakshmi, Jayant Desai films, Yagnik films etc etc.
( Information for this article is collated from various sources like Listener’s Bulletins No. 40 of Feb-80 and No.145 of July 2010, HFGK, muVyz, Sapnon ke Saudagar by Vithal Pandya, Silent films by Dr.Verma, Lost Treasures by Kamlakar P. and my notes.)
Today’s song is the second song from the film Armaan-42 to feature here.
Song- Raat suhani re raat suhaani (Armaan)(1942) Singer- Shamim Bano, Lyricist- Kedar Sharma, MD- Gyan Dutt
Lyrics
raat suhaani re
Raat suhaani
raat suhaani re
Raat suhaani
aao guniyyaan aao
aao guniyyaan aao
sunaayen prem kahaani re
kahaani
aao guniyyaan aao
sunaayen prem kahaani re
prem kahaani
Chaand sittaare re
chaand
Chaand sittaare re
chaand sitaare
hum saajan se door
hum saajan se door
sajanwa paas hamaare re
hamaare
hum saajan se door
sajanwa paas hamaare re
paas hamaare
sard hawaayen re
hawaayen
sard hawaayen re
sard hawaayen
phoonk(??) rahin hain tanman
phoonk(??) rahin hain tanman
saajan
thhandi aahen re
aahen
phoonk(??) rahin hain tanman
saajan
thhandi aahen re
thhandi aahen
mast jawaani re
mast
mast jawaani re
mast jawaani
bhanwron ka paighaam suno
bhanwron ka paighaam suno
kaliyon ki zabaani re
zabaani
bhanwron ka paighaam suno
kaliyon ki zabaani re
kaliyon ki zabaani
raat suhaani re
raat
raat suhaani re
raat suhaani
Tu ban ka raaja tu ban ki raani
Posted on: April 7, 2020
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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4279 |
Today’s song is from an old film Baaghi-1939. Same title films were also made in 1953, 1964, 1990 and 2000. In addition the word Baaghi was used as a prefix in few more films, like Baaghi Aurat-2000 or Baaghi Sipahi-36 etc .
Today’s film was made by Vishnu Cinetone and it was directed by the banner’s owner Dhirubhai Desai, a veteran in Costume and other C grade films. The film had other names like ‘ Bandkhor (बंडखोर )’ and ‘Sarfarosh’. This double or treble name system was prevalent in film industry since the Silent films. For silent films such multiple names were justified and necessary, because silent films ran in different language regions. So, for the benefit of local audience, these films were advertised in different names. Somehow this system continued even after Talkie films started, though its utility had diminished when films had dialogues and were shown all over the country, but still, one finds that this trend continued. Nowadays, I find that almost every film has an indicative Tag line.
In the Hindi film industry,there are 4 types of people.
The first type is of those people,who join this industry,struggle very hard and succeed in fulfilling their dreams,for example Guru Dutt, Mehboob, Johnny Walker, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohd.Rafi etc. who are well known to all by now.
The second type of people are those who join the industry,struggle very hard ,do not succeed and leave dejected.
The third type is those people who have a filmi connection or a strong luck,who join,struggle a bit and succeed, like for example,Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip kumar, Rakesh and Rajesh Roshan, Anand Milind, Nanda, Nargis, Meena Kumari etc.
And….. the fourth type is those people who join the industry, struggle very hard and succeed partly, but end up doing something else,to keep them sustaining here.
The industry is full of people of the 4th type. People who come with dreams in their eyes, but end up doing something else. People who start as a Hero in 2-3 films,settle for side roles and finally character roles, like Dev Kumar, Sujit Kumar, Jeevan etc.
Not only this but we have examples where they started with something else and ended with a totally different thing and succeeded.For Example,Guru Dutt started as a Choreographer/dance Director (Lakharani-45) and ended up Actor/Director, Ashok kumar started as a Lab Technician in photography but became a great actor and Amiya Chakravarty who started as a Canteen Manager in Bombay Talkies,for which, later, he directed finest movies. Kanhaiyalal and Mirza Musharraf came here to become Lyricist, but ended as Comedians.
All such cases do not end happily. In most cases, the artiste has to make compromise with his fate. One such artiste was Music Director Jimmy, who came to films to make a career as a singer. He did not succeed as a singer, but having settled for a career of a Composer, here too he was not much successful. Today’s duet is sung by him.
Composer Jimmy is one of those little known composers who never got fame or name in spite of their Talents. His real name was JAMES SINGH. He was a Christian sikh from Ludhiana. He was educated in Delhi.He started his career in Hindi films as a singer in Chorus. He sang 7 songs in 6 films (Imandar-39, Baghi-39, Pyar-40, Anjaam-40, Jadoo Nagri-40, and Maaya Nagri-44). He could play many western instruments, especially all types of Guitars.When he failed as a singer, he became assistant to many composers. Finally, he got his chance to compose few songs for film ‘Muqaddar-50’, though with Khemchand Prakash and Bhola Shreshtha. He composed 2 duets of Asha and Kishore. The credit of composing the First ” Yodelling ” song of Kishore kumar goes to Jimmy. Kishore ‘yodelled ‘ first time in this film.
Jimmy then gave music to 14 more films like, Shrimatiji-52, Smuggler-59, Awara Shehzadi-56, Sher e Baghdad-57, Nek khatoon-59, Pathan-62, Miss chaalbaz-61, Tarzan and Gorilla-63, Duniya hai dilwalon ki-66, Pyar ki Baazi-67, Tarzan in fairy land-68, Aakhir-84, Khoon aur sazaa-86 and his last film, Sachhi Ibadat-1987. Inspite of giving sweet and melodious songs of a variety, Jimmy never came up to A class. He always remained a composer for C grade films. Anyway, as long as Kishore’s yodelling is heard,Jimmy’s name will be remembered. For singing,he used the name James Singh and as a Music Director he used Jimmy. (Like Chitalkar and C Ramchandra) .
The cast of film Baaghi-39 was Mehtab, Shamim, Amirbai karnataki (who sang as Amir jan), Anwari, Anil kumar (real name Sardar Gul), Ashraf Khan, Master Shiraz and many others. Actress Anwari, who acted in this film , was from a Tawayaf family of Lucknow. She started her acting career with film Heer Ranjha-32 opposite Rafiq Ghaznavi and then she acted in film Pooran Bhagat-1932, along with K L Saigal. She did the role of Rani Uchharan.
She joined East India Film co. and worked in films like Aurat ka pyar-33, Night Bird-34, Nagin-34 and Mumtaz Begum-34. She had also acted in another NT film Chandidas-34. She shifted her base to Bombay and worked in several films for next four decades. Her last film was Chaitali-1975. In all she did 140 films. She was known as ‘ Pride of Lucknow’ during her peak period. She was credited variously as Anwari Begum, Anwari, and Anwari bai.
Actress Anwari was the second wife of Rafiq Ghaznavi with whom she had a daughter, Zarina. Later, Zarina changed her name to Nasreen and worked in director A.R. Kardar’s movie, ‘Shah Jehan’ and Daud Chand’s movie, ‘Aik Roaz.’ Later Zarina married Liaqat Gul Agha, a rich Jeweller of Pakistan and they settled in London. She became Zarina Agha. Further, Zarina Agha’s daughter, Salma Agha, achieved great name and fame as a singing star. She expired somewhere in early 80s.
Anwari and Rafiq Ghaznavi were divorced (or separated) after Zarina/Nasreen’s birth, and Anwari then married a rich Hindu businessman named Jugal Kishore Mehra ( Maternal uncle-Mama- of Raj Kapoor). In order to marry Anwari, Jugal Kishore Mehra abandoned not only his family but also his religion; he became a Muslim and took the name Ahmed Salman. Since Anwari had a child, Jugal Kishore Mehra effectively became the father of the infant Zarina/Nasreen.
The most interesting name in the cast is that of Master Shiraz. He was one of the most popular and very famous Heros in the silent era. Like many others, when the Talkie era began, he too was relegated to the background and with great difficulty could get character roles in films. His first Talkie film was Mast Faqir-1934. He sang one song each in 2 films- Baghdad ka chor-34 and Chalta Purja-34. He continued doing roles in films.
During his good times, he had learnt the art of Massaging, as a Hobby and this became his last straw for survival. When film roles were not available, he used to roam about with his kit and do Massaging to earn a living. After doing about 26 films, till Naiya-47, he stopped getting credited in the cast. Now he worked as an extra.
He was last seen in film Guddi-1971- doing massage to Omprakash in one scene. In that film, Dharmendra tells Jaya Bhaduri (Guddi) that Master Shiraj was a star in silent film era. Director Hrishikesh Mukherjee ensured that Shiraj got his name in the film credits of Guddi-71.
Master Shiraj was just one of those unfortunate film artistes who spent their end-time in a very pathetic manner. Some other examples are- actor/singer Parshuram- died on road as a beggar, Singer Vatsala Kumthekar- died on road as a mad beggar,Wasti was seen begging near Liberty cinema and Rattanbai was seen begging near Haji Ali. There are many more such stories. The world of films is the most unpredictable and unless the artiste is wise to secure his future, there is no light at the end of the tunnel !
Today’s song is sung by Shamim and James Singh. The song is composed by Shanti Kumar Desai and is of average quality, but it has special importance as it is sung by James Singh, whose songs are not available much. With this song, film Baaghi -39 makes its Debut on the Blog.
( information used in this article is culled from various sources like Encyclopedia of Indian Films, Film Directory-46, The Lost Treasure by Kamlakar Pasupuleti, our beloved Pakistan by Anis Shukur, HFGK and my notes. Thanks to all)
Song-Tu Ban ka Raja tu ban ki raani (Baaghi)(1939) Singers- Shamim, James Singh, Lyricist- Gaurishankar Lal ‘Akhtar’, MD- Shanti Kumar Desai
Both
Lyrics
Tu ban ka Raja
tu ban ki Raani
Tu ban ka Raja
megha banke garje chaaron oar re
tu ban ki Raani
bijri ban ker chamke chaaron oar re
Tu ban ka Raja
megha banke garje chaaron oar re
tu ban ki Raani
bijri ban ker chamke chaaron oar re
main kaise tumhen rijhaaun
aur kya kya ban kar aaun
main kaise tumhen rijhaaun
aur kya kya ban kar aaun
main saagar ban kar dhoom dhaam se
chaaron taraf lahraaun
main sarita bankar us saagar ki dhaar se dhaar milaaun
main saagar ban kar dhoom dhaam se
chaaron taraf lahraaun
main sarita bankar us saagar ki dhaar se dhaar milaaun
main baadal ban ka
jhoom jhoom kar swaati jal barsaaun
main papeeha ban kar wo jal dhaara
pee ke amar ho jaaun
main baadal ban ka
jhoom jhoom kar swaati jal barsaaun
main papeeha ban kar wo jal dhaara
pee ke amar ho jaaun
ho ban ka raaja
ban ki raani
ham hain ban ke
raaja raani
ham hain ban ke raaja raani
Zara dheere ho zara dheere
Posted on: November 26, 2018
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.
| Blog Day : | 3783 | Post No. : | 14765 |
With the advent of talkies in 1931, many new actors joined the Hindi film industry in the 1930s in addition to those who had switched over from silent films. While some actors became successful and remained active in the film industry for a long time, an overwhelming majority of actors could not be sustained for longer period in the film industry. Within this category, there were some actors who became successful in their initial stages of the filmy career, but lost the momentum of success in their later stage. While they remained active in the film industry for reasonable period, they went into oblivion and thus forgotten after the end of their filmy career.
Rama Shukul was one of such actors who despite talent and age on his side could remain active only for a decade or so. Thereafter he made some sporadic appearances films in minor roles for about another decade. Today, he has been forgotten to such an extent that no basic information about him is available on the internet other than his incomplete filmography. Luckily, I could lay my hand on an article written by Hyacinth (pseudo name of Susheela Rani) on Rama Shukul in Filmindia magazine (September 1942) based on her inter-actions with him sometime in 1942. I could also update his filmography and other information from various issues of Filmindia magazines of 1938 to 1949 and thereafter from the website, myswar.co. I also watched his four films – ‘Bhabhi’ (1938), ‘Navjeevan’ (1939), ‘Durga’ (1939) and ‘Aazaad’ (1940) which are available online to get a feel of his acting. I found Rama Shukul to be a natural actor. He looked like a seasoned actor even in his first film ‘Bhabhi’ (1938).
Rama Shukul was born in Jabalpur to Badri Prasad Shukul and Sushila Shukul in a wealthy family. His father was the District Superintendent of Police in Central Province (presently the parts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhatishgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra). Rama Shukul was the only son and therefore was pampered a lot by his father. Whenever his father was transferred, he would take with him Rama Shukul. As a result, his education was affected. He completed his Matriculation and was enrolled in Robertson College, Jabalpur for graduate study. The pampering of his father was such an extent that he gifted a car for his son to travel to the college. The whole idea of his father was to keep Rama Shukul interested in studies. However, he was more interested in sports and acting than the studies.
Rama Shukul was the college champion for three years in a row in tennis and was in the college teams for cricket, hockey and volleyball. In 1935, he participated in the Inter-Collegiate Drama Competition at Banaras Hindu University where he received the trophy for the best actor in the role of Hamlet in the drama. His father wanted to send him to England for ICS or for becoming a barrister. But Rama Shukul could barely complete his Senior Cambridge. Looking at his son’s interest in sports, his father arranged for a job for him as an Assistand Director of Physical Culture in the State at Nagpur. But the young Rama Shukul refused to accept the job saying that he was going to become a film actor. His father lost all hopes of shaping his bright career.
In 1938, Rama Shukul came to Bombay (Mumbai) to pursue an acting career in the films. But to get into the film studios, one must have reference but Rama Shukul did not have any in Mumbai. He had one friend in Mumbai, Fazal Chinoy. His father, Sir Rahimtula Chinoy was the promoter of the Indian Radio Company and the Director of the Imperial Bank of India (now State Bank of India). He was also a former member of the Indian Legislature Assembly. With his influence, Rama Shukul could get an appointment with Sir Richard Temple, the Managing Director of Bombay Talkies.
Sir Richard was impressed with his educational background. He introduced Rama Shukul to Himanshu Rai who agreed to take him as an actor. He signed a contract with Bombay Talkies in September 1938 and made it to ‘Bhabhi’ (1938) as his first film in a villainous role. The film was a box office success. In the film’s review published in ‘Filmindia’, Baburao Patel praised his acting by saying that ‘Rama Shukul is a good addition to the Indian screen. In the role of Anupam – the main obstacle in the whole scheme, he turns out to be a successful nuisance’.
Rama Shukul worked for Bombay Talkies for about 2 years during which time he acted in lead roles with Hansa Wadkar in ‘Navjeevan’ (1939) and with Devika Rani and Hansa Wadkar in ‘Durga’ (1939). In ‘Aazaad’ (1940), though Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitnis had lead roles, it was Rama Shukul pairing with Hansa Wadkar who had major presence in the film.
When he was to work opposite Devika Rani in his 5th film in Bombay Talkies, Himanshu Rai died. His death was a great shock to Rama Shukul due to his personal attachment. He was regarded as a blue-eyed boy of Himanshu Rai. Many in the Bombay Talkies had developed dislike for him as they felt that he was pampered by the boss of the Bombay Talkies. In this milieu, Rama Shukul could not continue in the Bombay Talkies for long.
His next destination was Ranjit Movietone where he acted in the second lead role in ‘Iqraar’(1942). This was followed by ‘Mehmaan’ (1942), ‘Fariyaad’ (1942) and ‘Dukh Sukh’ (1942). However, none of these films made much impact on the box office front. From 1943, he became a free-lance artist and acted in the second lead in Ramnik Productions’ ‘Dulhan’ (1943), ‘Kiran’ (1944), and ‘Gaon Ki Gori’ (1945).
By this time, his status as an actor seems to have come down from second lead actor to one among the supporting actors. In this category, he worked in Filmistan’s ‘Eight Days’ (1946) and ‘Shikari’ (1946). This was followed by ‘Mulaaqat’ (1947), ‘Shikaayat’ (1948) and ‘Meherbaani’ (1950).
After 1950, the filmy assignments of Rama Shukul seem to have dwindled significantly. His name started appearing in ‘other actors’ like in ‘Shamsheer’ (1953), ‘Sardaar’ (1955) and ‘Sitaaron Se Aage’ (1958). ‘Madhu’ (1959) was Rama Shukul’s last film as an actor when he may be around 45 years of age. I could not get any information as to how he spent rest of his life after 1959.
Despite being recognised as one of the fine actors of the 1940s, Rama Shukul had an active filmy career of about 10 years (1938-48). During his entire career, he acted in 20 films.
I am presenting ‘zara dheere ho zara dheere’ from ‘Mehmaan’ (1942) sung by Shamim Bano and Rama Shukul. The song is written by Pandit Indra and is set to music by Khemchand Prakash. This duet is actor-singer songs and is the 5th song to appear in the Blog.
Although HFGK credits the male voice in the song to Rama Shukul, in my view, it may not be his voice when I compare his voice in the songs in ‘Navjeevan’ (1939) and ‘Durga’ (1939). My hunch is that the male voice in this song may be of Bulo C Rani based on his rendition of ‘rootthna pyaar mein karwat ka badal jaana hai’ from the same film. I request the opinions from the experts on my presumption.
For the time being, however, I have retained the name of Rama Shukul as the male singer in the video caption of the song.
I find this song a sweet expression of love.
Song-Zara dheere ho zara dheere(Mehmaan)(1942) Singers-Shamim Bano, Rama Sukul, Lyrics-Pt Indra Chandra, MD-Khemchand Prakash
Both
Lyrics
zara dheere ho zara dheere
zara dheere ho zara dheere
zara dheere ho zara dheere
zara dheere ho zara dheere
saajanwa
saajaniya
saajanwa
saajaniya
zara dheere dheere
zara dheere dheere
jhoola na ho
mora naazuk jiya behlaana
o mora naazuk jiya behalaana
zara dheere ho zara dheere
zara dheere ho zara dheere
chunariya hamaari hawa ho gayi
nazariya tumhaari dawa ho gayi
chunariya hamaari hawa ho gayi
nazariya tumhaari dawa ho gayi
ye champa chameli rahi kyun akeli
bataao zara morey shyaam
ye champa chameli rahi kyun akeli
bataao zara morey shyaam
saajanwa
saajaniya
saajanwa
saajaniya
zara dheere dheere
zara dheere dheere
jhoola na ho
mora nazuk jiya behlaana
o mora najuk jiya behalaana
zara dheere ho zara dheere
zara dheere ho zara dheere
zara dheere ho zara dheere
zara dheere ho zara dheere
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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.
| Blog Day : | 3697 | Post No. : | 14614 |
In the early 1930s, New Theatres (NT) of Calcutta (Kolkata) had become the ‘sanctuary’ for Hindi film artists from Bombay (Mumbai), Lahore and for upcoming artists for better prospects. Some of the prominent Hindi film artists who had joined NT were K L Saigal, Prithviraj Kapoor, Durga Khote, Mazhar Khan, M Kumar, Jagdish Sethi, Kidar Sharma, Aarzoo Lucknowi, K N Singh, Bikram Kapoor Hiralal, Sitara Devi among many others.
Between the end of the 1930s and the beginning of 1940s, almost all of the above mentioned artists left NT to join the Bombay film industry. At the outset, it would appear that they had shifted to Mumbai for better opportunity and prospects in their filmy careers as the number of Hindi films produced in Mumbai far exceeded that from Kolkata. However, there was one more reason for the artists leaving NT and it had something to do with the way the system of film making in NT worked.
Most of the films produced in NT were simultaneously made in Bengali and Hindi based mostly on the Bengali stories. So the film was shot scene by scene first in Bengali with actors for Hindi version being asked to copy the way the Bengali actors acted and delivered dialogues. There was not much of creative freedom for Hindi actors. The same was true for the screen-play and dialogue writers for Hindi version as they only had to provide verbatim translation from the Bengali version.
Kidar Sharma who worked with NT as screen-play and dialogue writer in addition to writing lyrics for the Hindi versions, left NT sometime in 1939 due to creative differences with director Debaki Bose. Also he had an ambition to become a director which was not possible in NT as they preferred directors well versed in Bengali literature for the reason that most of their films were based on Bengali stories. After directing films ‘Aulad’ (1939) and ‘Chitralekha’ (1941) for Film Corporation of India, Kolkata, Kidar Sharma joined Ranjit Movietone on 3/10/1941.
‘Armaan’ (1942) was first film of Kidar Sharma for Ranjit Movietone. Apart from directing the film, Kidar Sharma also wrote the story, screen-play, dialogues and lyrics. The star cast included Motilal and Shamim Bano in the lead roles supported by Nagendra Majumdar, Meera, Bhagwandas, A Shah Shikarpuri, Nazir Bedi, Reva Shankar, Rajendra Singh etc.
There are a couple of interesting trivia while selecting the lead actors for the film. Kidar Sharma wanted to cast Motilal as the lead actor who was not attached to any studios. But he used to work in Ranjit Movietone’s films with an understanding that he would choose the director. Motilal agreed to work with Kidar Sharma on three conditions. First, he would work with a fixed schedule from 9.00 A.M. to 6.00 PM. Second, he would not work on Sundays. And lastly, he would not attend rehearsals. Since Kidar Sharma had fixation about Motilal for his natural acting, he agreed with all his three conditions. However, during the shooting of the film, Motilal himself broke two of his three conditions, rehearsing the scenes and working beyond 6.00 p.m.
When Kidar Sharma selected Shamim Bano (niece of Khurshid Bano, the top actress of Ranjit Movietone) as the lead actress for the film, Chandulal Shah, the boss of Ranjit Movietone had warned him that Khursheed Bano would never work with him as she was jealous of her niece. However, Kidar Sharma not only went ahead with his choice of heroine for the film, he also directed Khursheed Bano in one of his Ranjit Movietone’s films ‘Mumtaz Mahal’ (1944). These are anecdotes which have been mentioned in Kidar Sharma’s autobiography ‘The One and Lonely Kidar Sharma’ (2002).
The gist of the story of ‘Armaan’ (1942) based on the review of the film appeared in October 1942 issue of ‘Filmindia’ is as under:
Prince Kanwal (Motilal) the son of a big zamindar of Ballabhgadh travels to a nearby village to commission the renovation of old paintings to village artist Vyas (Nagendra Mazumdar) who lives with his only daughter, Meera (Shamim). Meera who has seen the Prince in the village with his big car, falls in love with him but Prince is not aware of it. The prince has also given Vyas the task of decorating his palace hall with murals.
Prince has a scientific bend of mind and is doing research in his laboratory of a magical ray that registers the feelings of pains and pleasure. One day during his experimentation of rays, Prince becomes blind. In the meanwhile, Vyas, the artist and his daughter, Meera visit Ballabhgadh for commencing the work of decorating palace with murals. Meera accidentally meets Prince in his palace garden and enters into conversation with him without realising that the Prince has become blind. When she come to know about his blindness, she becomes romantically close to him which Prince reciprocate.
The romance progresses to the dislike of Prince’s uncle (Bhagwandas) who is also the Diwan of Ballabhgadh. He pressurises the King to separate the two by sending Prince out of Ballabhgadh on some pretext. Meera is heart-broken. Meera’s conditions make Vyas worrisome and one day in the fit of depression, he commits suicide. Meera is now orphan. She decides to devote her entire life to the service of God.
One day, Meera meets a Sadhu whose asceticism is shattered after seeing Meera. Very soon, Sadhu starts making some indecent advances. Hearing the story of the blindness of Prince, Sadhu promises Meera that his medicine would restore the eye sight of Prince. But Meera has to pay the cost (in terms of her submission to him). She agrees provided the eye-sight is restored. When the medicine is ready, Meera kills Sadhu and runs away with the medicine to the palace only to find that Prince has become the King after the death of his father.
Meera is not allowed to enter the palace. However, she is compelled to hand over the medicine to one of the dancing girl so that if successful in restoring the eye sight of Prince, Diwan can claim credit for the same. Prince’s eye sight is restored only to see Meera being brought to the palace as a killer of Sadhu. All evidences are against Meera. However, when Meera reveals to the King all the background, Prince recognises the voice and the lovers are united.
The film was released on 22nd August 1942 at Royal Opera House but had to be withdrawn within one day due to communal disturbances. It was once again released after a few weeks at Royal Opera House. The film was regarded as a box office success bringing Shamim Bano into the mainstream cinema.
‘Armaan’ (1942) had 9 songs, all written by Kidar Sharma and set to music by Gyan Dutt. I am presenting the first song ‘Laao To Zara Dil Ko Isey Dil Mein Chhupaaun’ sung by Shamim Bano who was paired with Motilal in the lead role.
From the wordings of the lyrics, it appears that this song was picturised in the palace garden where Shamim meets Motilal without realising that he had become blind. When Shamim comes to know about his blindness, she says ‘Let your heart be with my heart. Let my eyes become your eyes to see the whole world’.
Song – Laao To Zara Dil Ko Isey Dil Mein Chhupa Loon (Armaan) (1942) Singer – Shamim Bano, Lyrics – Kidar Sharma, MD – Gyan Dutt
Lyrics
laao to jara dil ko
isey dil mein chhupaaun
isey dil mein chhupaaun
laao to jara dil ko
isey dil mein chhupaaun
isey dil mein chhupaaun
baitho meri aankhon mein
baitho meri aankhon mein
tumhen duniya dikhhaaun
tumhen duniya dikhhaaun
baitho meri aankhon mein
tumhen duniya dikhhaaun
tumhen duniya dikhhaaun
kasturi hai in mein
jinhen khud soongh rahen hain
kasturi hai in mein
jinhen khud soongh rahen hain
un jhopdon mein dekho
diye oongh rahe hain
diye oongh rahe hain
un jhopdon mein dekho
diye oongh rahe hain
diye oongh rahe hain
seedhe hain ke sadhe se lagey
door khade hain
seedhe hain ke sadhe se lagey
door khade hain
aur jugnu hari jhaadion mein heere jade hain
aur jugnu hari jhaadion mein heere jade hain
aakash ke kuchch taaren hain
wo jhaank rahe hain
aakash ke kuchch taaren hain
wo jhaank rahe hain
aur jal mein bechaare hain jo wo
jal mein bechaare hain jo wo
kaanp rahe hain
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Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
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लाओ तो ज़रा दिल को
इसे दिल में छुपाऊँ
इसे दिल में छुपाऊँ
लाओ तो ज़रा दिल को
इसे दिल में छुपाऊँ
इसे दिल में छुपाऊँ
बैठो मेरी आँखों में
तुम्हें दुनिया दिखाऊँ
तुम्हें दुनिया दिखाऊँ
बैठो मेरी आँखों में
तुम्हें दुनिया दिखाऊँ
तुम्हें दुनिया दिखाऊँ
कस्तूरी है इन में
जिन्हें कुछ सूंघ रहे हैं
कस्तूरी है इन में
जिन्हें कुछ सूंघ रहे हैं
उन झोपड़ों में देखो
दिये ऊंघ रहे हैं
दिये ऊंघ रहे हैं
उन झोपड़ों में देखो
दिये ऊंघ रहे हैं
दिये ऊंघ रहे हैं
सीधे हैं के सधे से लगे
दूर खड़े हैं
सीधे हैं के सधे से लगे
दूर खड़े हैं
और जुगनू हरी झाड़िओं में हीरे जड़े हैं
और जुगनू हरी झाड़िओं में हीरे जड़े हैं
आकाश से कुछ तारे हैं
वो झांक रहे हैं
आकाश से कुछ तारे हैं
वो झांक रहे हैं
और जल में बेचारे हैं जो वो
जल में बेचारे हैं जो वो
काँप रहे हैं
Ghaayal ki aah mein se
Posted on: December 11, 2016
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.
“Bansari”(1943) was directed by Jayant Desai for Ranjit Movietone, Bombay. This “social” movie had Ishwarlal, Shamim Bano, Charlie, Dixit, Urmila, Bhagwan Das, Keshri etc in it.
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. 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.
What is the main feature in three sets of songs given below?
1(i). do dilon ko ek dil milaakar banaana yaad hai – Kamala (1946)
(ii). kat rahi hai bekasi mein har ghadi tere baghair – Deewaani (1947)
2(i). wo dekho udhar chaand nikla gagan mein – Roopkumari (1956)
(ii). nigaahon mein tum ho khayaalon mein tum ho – Jaadoo Nagri (1961)
(iii). ye tan man watan par nichhawar karenge – Kunwaari (1966)
3(i). aaj mausam ki masti mein gaaye pawan – Banarasi Thug (1962)
(ii). ek chameli ke mandve tale – Cha Cha Cha (1964)
Read more on this topic…
Ye mere bhaiyya ye unka dil hai
Posted on: April 12, 2016
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 – 28
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MEHMAAN (1942) was a social film which was produced under the banner of Ranjit Movietone and it was directed by Chaturbhuj Doshi. The star cast included Madhuri, Ishwarlal, Shamim, Rama Shukul, Mubarak, Kesari, Bhagwandas etc. There were 12 songs in the film penned by D N Madhok (11) and Pandit Indra Chandra (1) which were set to music by Khemchand Prakash. Two songs from the film has been covered in the Blog.
Read more on this topic…
Ae dil e beqaraar bol
Posted on: September 14, 2012
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Shamim (also known as Shamim Bano and Shamim Kamal Pasha) was one of the female actors who was active in the 40s as a heroine/side heroine. She was the niece of Khursheed Bano, one of the top singer-actor of the 40s. I was not aware of Shamim until I found her name mentioned in Kidar Sharma’s autobiography ‘The One and Lonely Kidar Sharma’. There is a trivia mentioned in this book about selecting Shamim as the heroine of the film ‘Armaan’ (1942). Kidar Sharma insisted that Motilal and Shamim would be his hero and heroine for the film. Chandulal Shah, the owner of Ranjit Movietone said “ if you take Shamim, Khursheed will never work with you in any films as she is very jealous of her young and charming niece”.
Read more on this topic…
Suno jee pyaari koyaliya boley
Posted on: April 23, 2012
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
I had never heard of the film SANYASI (1945) until a few months back. The film was produced under the banner of Kardar Productions and directed by A R Kardar. The cast included Shamim Bano, Amar, Shyam Kumar, Ghulam Mohammed. I checked the available songs on internet and found to my surprise that there were 10 songs in this film out of which 7 songs were sung by Zohrabai Ambalewali (both solo and duets). These songs were written by Pandit Madhur and set to music by Naushad. Other than these, I am not able to get other details about this film such as genre and box office success or otherwise of the film.
Read more on this topic…
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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