Posts Tagged ‘Shanti Kumar Desai’
Sukh chain ke din sab beet gaye
Posted on: April 18, 2022
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.
| Blog Day : | 5022 | Post No. : | 16930 | Movie Count : | 4596 |
Today’s song is from an obscure old film – Chhote Sarkar-1938.
My today’s post is No.32 of this year i.e. 2022. Since 1st January 2022, the pattern of my poists seems to have changed perceptibly. Earlier I was known for writing on films of the 30’s and the 40’s on priority, but this year, till my last post (31 posts), I have written only 3 posts on films of the 30’s, only 11 posts on films of the 40’s but 17 posts on films of the 50’s. Come to think of it, there is no intentional shift in my policy or any purpose in doing so, but it looks like it is happening inadvertently. My today’s post will be only the 4th post on a film of the 30’s this year.
Do I have an inclination towards antique films ? YES is the answer. I like to bring the unknown, the less known and the not so famous artistes of the early era to light, to bring the pillars of the film industry in Limelight, so that the younger generation knows about them and becomes aware of the difficult times through which the stalwarts carried our film industry towards today’s Glory !
While doing so, I had to do the hard yards to dig information about these forgotten artistes, contact several Historians, buy and read many books, spend hours on the Internet and collect and record the information. I was singularly Lucky to get a suitable platform to showcase my results, in the form of Atul ji’s Blog. Atul ji’s help in publishing my posts untiringly has helped not only me but the Blog has also now become a storehouse of Credible, Reliable Information on the old timers in the film world, for the use of future students of film history. Thanks a million, Atul ji.
During the writing of my posts here since 2012 till date, I have noticed one thing. I am not sure of anyone else, other than Atul ji, who has also noticed it. I observed that in the early times of this Blog from 2008, the number of visitors kept on increasing and many of the visitors took pleasure in putting in their comments on almost every post. Comments on popular film songs were naturally more, but later readers also commented on other posts, about the artistes, songs, film making, their experiences and provided additional information. Therefore, visiting the Blog was a pleasure not only to enjoy the songs posted, but also to read different comments from the readers.
I remember there were several readers from abroad who used to write comments. There were comments from readers from Singapore, Fiji, Malaysia, Australia, Newzealand, Africa, European countries, UK, USA, Dubai, Pakistan and also from several cities of India like Lucknow, Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay, Pune,Andhra, Madras, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala – in fact from all nooks and corners of India and the world. Many of them were quite knowledgeable too.
Unfortunately, from somewhere from 2016-17 onwards I saw a steady drop in the number of comments from readers. Notably comments from readers from abroad diminished considerably and as of today, their number is almost nil. What could be the reason for this change ? One guess is that the older generation which commented is now too old and hence not active. The other guess could be that initially, as the Blog was new, most songs posted were the popular and well known ones, which the readers knew well, but slowly that stock, naturally, thinned out and unknown and unheard new but old songs were being discussed, which were not known to many present readers to comment upon.
The second guess seems to be more convincing. Nowadays younger contributors are posting songs from the 70’s, 80’s and the 90’s and comments are trickling from equally younger readers, though not so many as in the past. I believe the trend of appreciation, encouraging and commenting changes with the change of Readers’ Profiles.
Today’s film Chhote Sarkar-1938 was made by Sundar Movietone (never heard of it). It was directed by Homi Master. He was one of the directors of the First Generation of Hindi films of the early era, who was a spillover from the Silent Film Era. Since his career as a Director ended in 1946, there is no chance that the younger generation readers would know about him, so here is some information on him.
Homi Master (1900–1949) was an actor-director of early Indian cinema. His work extended from the silent era to the talkie era and up to his death. He produced his best films for Kohinoor Film Company and he has been referred to as “silent cinema’s most successful film-maker”.
He acted as Duryodhan in the then-controversial film Bhakta Vidur (1921), as hero in Kala Naag and Kulin Kanta. Some of his important films were Bismi Sadi, Manorama, Do Ghadi Ki Mauj (1935), Samaj Ki Bhool (1934) and Gul Sanobar (1934). He was active from 1921 to 1949 and made over seventy-eight films. His later films in Gujarati and Hindi were termed as B movies. He died in 1949.
At the age of thirteen, Master joined a famous Parsi theatre group called Bilwala. He soon became a popular stage actor, with his performance in Pakzaad Parveen being appreciated. Following a brief stint at the Phalke Film company, he joined Kohinoor Film Company working initially as an actor. He went on to direct films for them starting with Bismi Sadi.
Homi Master acted in three films before getting a chance to direct. The three films, Bhakta Vidur (1921) (in the role of Duryodhan), Ajamil (1922) and Vratasur Vadha (1923), were directed by Kanjibhai Rathod. He played the lead role in Kala Naag, a film he helped co-direct with Rathod in 1924. A crime drama, it was the first “recorded example” using real-life characters and was based on the Champsi-Haridas Murder case in Bombay.
In 1924, Master started his career as a director with Dwarka Sampat’s Kohinoor Film Company. His first film for Kohinoor was Bismi Sadi, starring Raja Sandow, Miss Moti and Noor Mohammed Charlie. The film was about a hawker who becomes a mill-owner and goes on to exploit the people working under him. Manorama (1924) was based on the famous Gujarati romantic poet Kalapi’s autobiographical poem “Hridaya Triputi”. The film was made in the fantasy genre and broke “all records” when it ran for fourteen weeks.
Other significant films at this time were The Telephone Girl (1926), also called Telephone Ni Taruni, produced by Kohinoor, and starring Ruby Myers, Gohar and Raja Sandow. Educated Wife or Bhaneli Bhamini (1927), was another Kohinoor film with Gohar, Vaidya and Raja Sandow. They were social films that were successful at the box office.
Gul Sanobar (1928) was a fantasy production from Kohinoor Film Company, based on Persian fairy tale romances, and directed by Master. It starred the then-popular star Khalil with Miss Yakbal. The film was later remade in 1934, with the same name, directed by Master and produced by Imperial Film Company. The cast included stars of the time like Sulochana (Ruby Myers), D. Billimoria and Zubeida.
His 1934 film Samaj Ki Bhool, was a social film promoting a widow’s right to remarry. It starred Jamshedji, Lalita Pawar, Jilloobai, Dulari and Rafiq Ghaznavi, with music composed by Pransukh Nayak.
In 1935, he directed three films Do Ghadi Ki Mauj a social film produced by Imperial, starring Ruby Myers and D. Billimoria; Ghar Jamai, a social comedy, a Hindi/Gujarati bilingual, produced by Premier Films with story by Mohanlal G. Dave. (A story about a “resident son-in-law” that became a “major success” at the box office). The third film, Naya Zamana was again produced by Premier Films and starred Heera and Ghulam Mohammed with music by Khansaheb.
It was said that Master was sent abroad to Europe to market Phalke’s films . He teamed successfully with scenarist Mohan lal Dave and cameraman D.D.Dabke with actress Gohar to make many popular films. Gohar called him the most dramatic director , better than Mohan Bhavnani or even Chandulal Shah. His first Talkie film was Saubhagya Sundari-1933 and the last was Chamkati Bijli-1946.
He continued to direct films making ‘B’ class films and some in the Gujarati language. According to the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, he worked as a production manager at Kardar Studios towards the end of his career. He died in 1949. ( based on The Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, wiki, Film world-1946 and my notes).
The cast of the film was Jal Merchant, Leela Chitnis, Panna, Heera, Meher Bano, Raj kumari etc. Jal Merchant was a typical Parsi born on 15-1-1920 and brought up in the Parsi Colony area in Bombay. Though his family had a business, he did not join it as he was keen to make a career in films. Bombay being the centre of filmmaking he had plenty of chances. He did not have a masculine, wide chested body, but he compensated with his superb acting skills. He could also sing in his soft voice.
It was a colorful stellar team that Jal Merchant formed with Zubaida in the early talkies. But it was in mythological roles, and not romantic parts, that they first won the hearts of cinegoers. The first picture that made them a rage everywhere was Sagar’s “Veer Abhimanyu,” in which Jal played Abhimanyu to Zubaida’s Uttara. In the next one- Subhadra Haran-32, Jal was Arjun, Abhimanyu’s father, while Zubaida played Subhadra.
Like Zubaida, Jal Merchant joined films in the “silent days”. It was a change of medium for him, for he had been playing female roles on the Gujarati stage! His performance as the heroine of “Shankit Hriday,” a Gujarati play, proved a hit, and Nagendra Majumdar, who directed the play, induced him to switch over to screen acting. Jal joined the Imperial Film Company, and among his early films the most notable was “Vasant Bengali,” a social picture directed by R.S. Chowdhury. In those days, the screen hero generally had more brawn than brains, but the lead player of “Vasant Bengali” was called upon to show more intelligence than physical prowess. Jal did just that – and won instant fame.
After the advent of sound, Jal’s first four films for Sagar were mythologicals – “Veer Abhimanyu-1931,” Subhadra Haran-1932,” “Pandav Kaurav-1933” and “Mahabharat-1933”. For close-ups of these pictures, Jal used to wear trousers and only the upper part of his body was made up for his role. But in one close-up his pants were also visible! The shot was cut on the first day of screening in Bombay.
Gifted with a fine voice, he also delighted cinegoers with his singing. He sang 33 songs in 7 films-Meerabai-32, Pandav Kaurav-33, Mahabharat-33, Grihalaxmi-34, Aaj kal-34, Sone ka Shahar-35 and Toofan Express-1938.
In “Zarina,” written and directed by Ezra Mir, he was the tongawallah who falls in love with a dancing girl at a carnival. This poignant romantic tragedy won plaudits for both Jal and Zubaida. It was their last picture together for Sagar. Zubaida left Sagar and Sabita Devi took her place. Sabita and Kumar were the first stars imported from Calcutta. Sabita co-starred with Jal in “Phantom of the Hills,” directed by Ezra Mir, in which he played a dashing Pathan riding a white charger. In “Educated Wife” (Grihalaxmi), directed by Sarvottam Badami, he played a modern educated youth. In this role the versatile Jal revealed a genial personality. Sabita was again his co-star.
Jal and Zubaida played stellar roles together once again in “Aaj Kal,” directed by R.S. Chowdhury. This was the last important picture for both stars. Jal acted in about n15 Silent films and 29 Talkie films. His first Talkie film was Veer Abhimanyu-1931 and his last Talkie film was Armaan 1953.
Jal Merchant, who already had a family flourishing business, retired from the screen. Later, he started to live a quiet life in Bandra. Jal was an excellent shikari in his younger days. His screen associates also remember his soft voice, gentle manners and sensitive, handsome face. His pairing with Zubeida and Sabita Devi was very popular. He had all the gentle Parsee manners and was a popular co-star for the heroines.
I have read somewhere that Jal Merchant died in 1963 in Bombay. He was unmarried till the end, like many Parsis. ( information from an article by V.P.Sathe in Screen, ‘Screenplay’ by Isak Mujawar, HFGK, muVyz and my notes have been used in this post, with thanks.)
With today’s song by Rajkumari, film Chhote Sarkar-1938 makes its Debut on this Blog.
Song- Sukh chain ke din sab beet gaye (Chhote Sarkaar)(1938) Singer- Rajkumari, Lyricist- Pandit Amar, MD- Shanti Kumar Desai
Lyrics
Sukh chain ke din
sab beet gaye
dukh rain andheri chhaayee hai
sukh chain ke din
sab beet gaye
dukh rain andheri chhaayee hai
koi sang na saathi saath sakhi
koi sang na saathi saath sakhi
sapna sa ?? mein aayi
sapna sa ?? mein aayi
Sukh chain ke din
sab beet gaye
dukh rain andheri chhaayee hai
jhoothha prem ye jhoothhi aashaa
jhoothha prem ye jhoothhi aashaa
jhoothhi kaaya
jhoothhi maaya
jhoothhi kaaya
jhoothhi maaya
jhoothhe jag mein
???
jhoothhe jag mein
???
jhoothhi preet lagaayi hai
jhoothhi preet lagaayi hai
Sukh chain ke din
sab beet gaye
dukh rain andheri chhaayee hai
Dil mein mere khushi nahin
Posted on: April 6, 2022
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.
| Blog Day : | 5010 | Post No. : | 16912 | Movie Count : | 4592 |
Today’s song is from a totally unknown and obscure film Shah E Misr-1946. The only reason this film will ever be remembered by the Historians is because film actor Ajit made his debut as a hero in this film, albeit with his real name Hamid. So, except the Historians and Ajit, you and I are the only people in this world who know the significance of this film !
The word “Shah” generally means a King. Historically, the Persian Monarchs were known as Shah-in-Shah, the colloquial may be Shahenshah, perhaps. In India, however, a Shah means a rich Sethiya- the name being common amongst the higher, richer Gujarati businessmen. There are several stories in world literature how Lady Luck made a commoner a King and thus there are many folk tales in Arabic and Persian languages about how common people became kings due to their valour and good luck.
No story of this film is available and I have also not seen this film. Therefore we can, at best, presume that this film depicted some such story in it. The film was directed by G.R.Sethi. He is one of those artistes about whom no information is available in any book that I have or on the Internet or any Bloge which I visit. So, all that we know about G.R.Sethi is only through the details available in HFGK. But whatever is available, is more than enough to make him an Unique person in Indian Film History !
G R Sethi started his directorial debut with the film Roshan Ara-1932. Then in 1933, Bharat Movietone , a film company, did something which has never been attempted again by anybody, later in the history of Hindi film making ! They made a film in one year in 4 different parts, which was directed by G.R.Sethi. The film was “Hatim Tai”, part I, part II part III and part IV , all launched,completed and released in 1933. All 4 films were independently full length films, with the same titles. They had different Censor Certificates. Though Marutirao Pehelwan was the Hero in all 4 parts, he had different Heroines in every part. This Marutirao is the same actor who did the main role in the First Gujarati Talkie film “Narsi Mehta “-1932, made by Sagar Movietone. Marutirao was the father of International Dancer Gopi Krishna, whose mother was actress Tara-sister of dancer Sitara Devi.
The second achievement of G.R.Sethi was that he directed the film “Hatimtai-1933 Part I “, in which India’s First song with ANOKHE BOL featured. The song was ” Donga Donga Dum Dum Daaka, Adam Boka, Masnam Maaka “. It was a Chorus song. The music was by Madhulal Master.
G.R.Sethi directed 23 films in his career. His last film was, by a strange coincidence, “Hatimtai-1947 ! Sethi wrote 84 songs in 9 films also – Roshan ASra-32, Nav Chetan-32, Hatimtai-1933..all 4 parts, Veer poojan-34, Sharif Daaku-38 and Imandar-39. The cast of the film was Hamid, Geeta Bose, Meghmala, Janaki, Syed etc.etc. The 9 songs of the film were written by Roopbani. The Music Director was Shanti Kumar Desai.
The Music Director of this film was Shanti Kumar Desai, a very talented but unlucky composer who rarely got support from any famous banner. His music was enchanting and tunes were superb, but Lady Luck did not favour him.
He was born in Amreli, Saurashtra, Gujarat state on 3-3-1908. His family was in service as Royal Musicians, so he was exposed to music from childhood.He was an expert Harmonium player. To start his career, he came to Bombay and worked in H.M.V. as a Broadcaster. Here he came into contact with many composers and learnt how they operated and made tunes etc.
He was already giving music to Dramas, but wanted to join the Film line as M.D. He got his first film Navbharat ( Jawanmard)-1934. In those days Gujarati producers and directors used to prefer Gujarati MDs. Thus out of his 36 films, 18 were done with Gujarati Directors like Sohrab modi, Nanubhai Vakil, V.M.Vyas(4 films), Kanjibhai Rathod, Dhirubhai Desai etc. He also gave music to Gujarati films.
He gave music along with Madholal Master,Rafiq Ghaznavi, Pannalal Ghosh, Shyambabu Pathak etc. Famous singers like Rafi, Manna Dey, Zohrabai, Amirbai etc sang in his films during their early careers. Even Kishore Kumar’s early film Sati Vijay-48 had music by Shanti Kumar Desai. He gave music to films of early era actors like Prem Adib, Mehtab, Sitara Devi, Leela Chitnis, Jal Merchant, Ashraf Khan, Rajkumari, Mazhar khan, Shanta Hublikar, Jairaj, E Billimoria, Kumar, Sardar Akhtar, Chandramohan, Shobhana Samarth, Durga Khote, Shahu Modak and Sulochana.
From 1934 to 1948, he gave music to 38 films. In 1964 his one film (Tere dwar khada Bhagwan) was released. He composed 333 songs. He never got films from top banners like Bombay Talkies,Prabhat, Sagar or Minerva, otherwise his career would have been different.
He died on 6-1-1986. Some of his better known films were Bholi bhikaran-36, Punarjanma-38, Anjaam-40, Suhaagan-42, Naukar-43, Ek din ka sultan-45, Shah E Misr-46 and Lav Kush-51
Only the other day I was re reading the book, ” ये उन दिनोंकी बात है ” (in English), written by Yasir Abbasi- a journalist and a Film Historian, who has written some books on films.When I bought this book and read it, I was pleasantly surprised that he had mentioned my name along with Hamraz ji and Harish ji, in ” acknowledgements”, thanking us for the help rendered to him. I was overwhelmed to see this, because such honesty and humbleness is rare these days. Not that I had done something great, but his acknowledgement was very soothing indeed !
This book is a collection of translated (from Urdu to English) articles written by several film artistes like Dilip kumar, Ajit, Nadira, Shyama, Talat mahmood, Johnny Walker, Veena etc. There are 15 such articles, 5 perspectives written by film actors and pen Portraits of 10 film personalities like Kardar, Satyajit Ray, K.Asif etc etc. All in all, it is a very engrossing book. I read what actor Ajit had written, before I wrote this post. He has shared his experiences with other artistes like W.Z. Ahmed, actor Shyam. he has described what happened after Shyam’s accident during Shabistan, madhubala, K.Asif, balraj Sahni, some anecdotes while shooting for Mughal E Azam, Prithviraj kapoor, Motilal and some more. The book has become so interesting because they have shared their experiences in the industry.
There are so many stories and anecdotes that I can easily make 3-4 posts on it. Maybe sometime in the future, when I write on a film of one of these artistes. Today’s song is sung by Amirbai Karnataki. With this song film Shah E Misr-1946 makes its Debut here.
Song-Dil mein mere khushi nahin(Shah e Misr)(1946) Singer-Amirbai Karnataki, Lyrics-Roopbani, MD-Shanti Kumar Desai
Lyrics
Dil mein mere khushi nahin
Dil mein mere khushi nahin
lab pe mere hansi nahin
lab pe mere hansi nahin
kehte hain jisko zindagi
kehte hain jisko zindagi
haaye wo zindagi nahin
haaye wo zindagi nahin
Dil mein mere khushi nahin
jinka main haal kya kahoon
jinka main haal kya kahoon
wo to guzar hi jaata hai
wo to guzar hi jaata hai
roye bina ke raat kar (?)
roye bina ke raat kar (?)
apni kabhi kati nahin
apni kabhi kati nahin
Dil mein mere khushi nahin
kisko sunaaun jaa ke main
kisko sunaaun jaa ke main
dard o alam ki daastaan
dard o alam ki daastaan
mera to is jahaan mein
mera to is jahaan mein
gham ke siwa koi nahin
gham ke siwa koi nahin
Dil mein mere khushi nahin
ris ris ke zakhm e dil mere
ris ris ke zakhm e dil mere
aasmaan pe chhaa gaye
aasmaan pe chhaa gaye
ye to jigar ke paar hai
ye to jigar ke paar hai
taaron se roshni nahin
taaron se roshni nahin
Dil mein mere khushi nahin
lab pe mere ae ae
hansi nahin
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.
| Blog Day : | 4973 | Post No. : | 16848 | Movie Count : | 4583 |
Today’s song is from the film Kismatwala-1944.
There was another film with the same Title in 1986. Additionally, there came a film ‘Kismatwali’ in 1947. Thank God, filmmakers did not think of Kismat Wale ka Beta or Beti or Son of Kismat Wali or some other relatives ! The title Kismat was used for films 6 times-in 1943, 56, 68, 80, 95 and 2004. Titles having the word kismat were there in 12 movies from 1935 to 2012. Considering all Kismat titles, every 4 years there was a film having the word Kismat in its title !
Kismatwala – 1944 was a stunt film directed by stunt film specialist Nanubhai Vakil. He was an unusual person to join the film industry, because he hailed from an educated and respected family and he himself was highly educated- B.A., LL.B. He married one of his Heroines Sarojini and their daughter AZRA too became a Hindi film Heroine.
The film had 9 songs written by Shams Lucknowi and 2 Music Directors- Shanti Kumar Desai and Ratanlal. The cast included Navin Yagnik, Urmila, Prakash, Vatsala Kumthekar, Laxmi Kumthekar, Ansari, Narmada Shankar, Himalaywala and many others.
The Indian Film Industry and Indian Political system have one thing common in them. They both try to promote their kith and kin into their own profession, where they have succeeded. One can understand if children are handed over the reins of family business, which is run by many Generations. But Political Leadership or Acting or Singing is surely not a ‘business’. Their position is earned by doing hard work or by individual Good luck. Most of the people forget this and they try to pass on their place to their kith and kin as if it is a mantle or the Olympic Torch. They try to install their children in the seat which they have earned through hard work. The result, most times, is disastrous, because without hard work or extraordinary luck,it is difficult to succeed in these two professions.
We have seen many such cases in Politics as well as film line. Successful Actors or Actresses tried to promote their sons/daughters, but most of them were flops. Barring a few cases of successes like Sanjay Dutt and few others, there are hardly any new generation successes. Kishore Sahu ( Naina), Leela Chitnis (Ajit), Balraj Sahni ( Parikshit Sahni), Raaj Kumar ( Puru ), Vasant Joglekar ( Meera), Hemen Gupta (Archana), Kidar Sharma (Ashok) and many more examples establish the fact that only a successful parent or a sibling is not enough to guarantee success in film line for their descendents.
Same is the case with Music too. Just because the parent or a sibling was a known Musician or a Singer was not a guarantee to succeed. Cases of Amit kumar (Kishore Kumar), Basant Prakash(Khemchand Prakash), Chandru Atma (C.H.Atma), Khalid Mehmood (Talat Mehmood), Varsha Bhosle( Asha Bhosle) are some known examples of Kin failures. There are so many cases in both groups. This point is relevant here because there are 2 such cases in this film’s credits.
MD Ratanlal was the younger brother of the famous Music Director Khemchand Prakash. Ratanlal gave music to only 8 songs in just 2 films as a Music Director- Baraat-42 and Kismatwala-44. In film Baraat-42 he was co-MD with his brother Khemchand Prakash, who had taken the name as Khemraj for this film.
Another sibling was Laxmi Kumthekar, who was the younger sister of actress-singer Vatsala Kumthekar. C. Ramchandra writes an anecdote about this Laxmi and Vatsala, in his autobiography. Here is that excerpt from the English version book “The life and times of C.Ramchandra” by D.S.Phansalkar….
” The well known Marathi singer of the 40’s, Vatsala Kumthekar used to visit the studio now and then, at times with her younger sister. She was a teenager of about 18 years, very beautiful and fresh faced. She visited my music department and listened to the songs. I was not aware that she was fond of me. I came to know about it when she fell ill.
One day Vatsala came rushing to me , puffing and scared. She said, ‘Anna, I want to have a word with you.’
‘Sure, no need to ask me.’
‘My sister is quite unwell.’
‘Yes,I know, how is she now ?’
‘She has a high fever, becomes unconscious, talks endlessly and she keeps calling you.’
I guessed what she was trying to aim at. I told her in strong words, ‘Look your sister is mistaken about something.’
‘What do you mean ?’
‘I am newly married and I love my wife.’
‘Is that so ?’ She fumed and left the room stomping her feet !
In the cast you can see an unusal name Himalaywala. Let us know more about him.
From the cast listing, an interesting name is that of A Himalaywala. His name was Mohd Afzaluddin. He was born on 15th March 1916, at Dehradun. After school education he joined his brother, Mohd Misaluddin’s firm – The Himalaya Drug Company, a leading Pharma company of repute (even today). He worked there for 10 years and after a dispute with his brother, left the company. He came to Bombay to join films.
First he had thought of starting a company, but looking at the situation, he decided to do acting only. His first film was ‘Kiski Biwi’ (1942), directed by MA Mirza. His name was changed from Afzal to A Himalaywala (since he came from the Himalayan town of Dehradun, like Kashmiri from Kashmir), by Shaukat Hussain, husband of Noorjehan. However in many films he was credited as Afzal only. He worked in few films like, ‘Vishwaas’ (1943), ‘Ankh Ki Sharm’ (1943), ‘Dost’ (1944), ‘Kismatwaala’ (1944), ‘Zeenat’ (1945), ‘Humayun’ (1945), ‘Nal Damayanti’ (1945), ‘Jagbeeti’ (1946), ‘Samrat Ashok’ (1947) and ‘Elaan’ (1947).
He was an outspoken and straightforward person, fond of hunting, football and travelling by car. He toured all of India twice in his car. In 1943, he married actress singer Amirbai Karnataki. After marriage he banned her from acting in films. Within 2-3 years, on this and other issues, they could not get along. He used to hit her and take all her money. At last, it was rumoured that he gave her talaaq after taking 2 lakh rupees and her car. Even after this he was stalking her. She stayed with her elder sister Ahilya Bai. Then one day, she was kidnapped by Himalaywala, from the recording room. She was kept locked in a room and beaten daily. She somehow managed to inform her sister.
Ahilyabai then got in touch with her acquaintance Mr Rasiklal Vyas and his brother Chhailabhai Vyas – one of the best criminal lawyers of Bombay. With their political and social connections, they forced the police to register an FIR, which was refused due to Himalaywala’s bribe. Meanwhile Himalaywala was alerted by his cronies. Within a few hours Amirbai was escorted back to her sister’s place, by Himalaywala. All this episode is described in full detail in the book ‘Aap Ki Parchhaiyaan’, by Rajnikumar Pandya ji. Amirbai later married Gujarati Journalist Badri Kaanchwala.
After partition, Himalaywala migrated to Pakistan. There the lady luck smiled on him and he did very well. Urdu film Shahida (1949) was his first film in Pakistan, which celebrated silver jubilees in Delhi and Lucknow.
Himalaywala was in leading role in Pakistan’s first silver jubilee Urdu film 2 Aansoo in 1950. He was the main villain actor in most of the 1950s movies. He played the Akbar The Great role in the musical film Anar Kali in 1958. His other famous moves were Kundan (1950) Chan Way(1951), Ghulam (1953), Gumnam, Ruhi (1954), Shoni(1955),Qatil (1955), Sarfarosh (1956)Saat Lakh (1957), Gumrah, Naghma-e-Dil (1959), Farishta (1961), Watan(1960) and Azra (1962).
He was seen in 33 movies, only two of them were in Punjabi language. His last film was Yahudi Ki Larki in 1963.He became successful as an actor and was also famous. His role of Akbar in the film ‘Anarkali’ (1957) was particularly appreciated very much. Mohd Afzuluddin Himalaywala married Begum Perveen, in Pakistan. He died on 1st January 1984 in Lahore. (Thanks to Film directory-46, http://www.pak.mag.com, Shishir krishna Sharma ji, book Aap ki parchhaiyan by Rajnikumar Pandya ji and my notes, for information used herein.)
Today’s song is sung by Kalyani Bai. With this song, the film Kismatwala-1944 makes its Debut on this Blog. I thank Mr. Sadanand ji Kamath for this song.
Song- Dhoondhta hai dil bahaana jaan khone ke liye (Kismatwaala)(1944) Singer- Kalyani Bai, Lyricist- Shams Lucknowi, MD- Shanti Kumar Desai
Lyrics
Dhoondhta hai
Dhoondhta hai
dil bahaana
jaan khone ke liye ae
maut ki aagosh mein
raahat se sone ke liye
maut ki aagosh mein
raahat se sone ke liye
dekhiye kismat ki khoobi
dost bhi dushman huye ae ae ae ae ae ae
dekhiye kismat ki khoobi
dost bhi dushman huye ae ae ae ae ae ae ae
phool kaante
phool kaaante ban gaye ae ae
nashtar chubhone ke liye
phool kaante
rote rote hijr mein
aen aen
rote rote hijr mein
aen aen aen aen aen aen aen aen
aen aen
rote rote
rote rote hijr mein
dariya bahaaye is qadar
aankh mein aansoo nahin
baaqi hai rone ke liye
aankh mein aansoo nahin
baaqi hai rone ke liye
dhoondhta hai
dil bahaana
jaan khone ke liye ae
Chal saajan chal saajan
Posted on: May 11, 2021
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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4680 | Post No. : | 16359 | Movie Count : |
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Writing on old films, its people and its music is an unusual hobby. Such people are very few and what they write is read by a limited but a large circle. This group of people are exclusive and generally they are not recognised by the society. Funnily, ” writing on old films” is mainly ( and wrongly) equated with old songs only. people are not aware that there is a world beyond old songs and music as far as old films are concerned.
Whenever I tell people that ‘ I write on old films’, their immediate reaction is to start praising old songs which they know. Depending on the age of the person, the period of ‘ old films’ differs. For an young man of, say 20-25 years old films may mean films which came in the 80’s and 90’s. For people of 30-40 years, films of the 6o’s and 70’s are old films. For people of 45-60 years of age, old films are from the 50’s. Only people in the age bracket of 65 to say 80/85, it is films of the 30’s and 40’s which are old films !
Irrespective of the age group and their definition of old films, people unanimously equate films with songs only. That is why I say films have 2 parts…..
1. Poetry – It consists of the songs, the lyricists, the Music Director, the arrangers, instruments used and its players, how songs are presented, who is the singer etc etc.
2. Prose – It consists of information of the producing studios,producers, directors, actors, film stories, locations, cinematography and all those who help make a film-other than songs and music.
Most Social Media sites and groups centre around film music, songs, singers and related topics. I would guess that about 95 % groups and sites belong to this category. However, the remaining 5% groups and sites, Blogs loyally give importance to people connected with film making. They collect and provide information on the old films, production houses, biographies of artistes, producers, directors, cinema stories,filmographies, interviews with people etc etc. These sites and groups are exclusive and known only to people who are interested in this aspect of films, for whatever reasons.
However, I strongly believe that the 2 parts, i.e. Prose and Poetry of films are incomplete without each other. One may specialise in knowledge of one part, but he can not do without having a sufficient knowledge of the other part too. For example, if I specialise in the Prose part of old films, I also have a sufficient knowledge of the Poetry part of the films. Therefore,instead of specialisation, i would call it a Preference of the particular part. I have also noted that most people who write or do any kind of blogging or ‘siting’ of old Hindi films, do this as a Hobby. In a way, it is ” Love’s Labour” for them.
Another point.As is generally believed,all people connected with this hobby are not the ‘Retired ‘ people. There are enthusiastic bloggers in this field, who are professionals having either a job or a business. Some high profile bureaucrats, some doctors, educationists, professors, senior managers in Government or private enterprises or even directors of companies. They are of course in the age group of 45 and above. Not that there are no young people involved in old films. Just take a round of related pages on Fb, you will find quite young people enjoying old songs and also putting their ‘ knowledgeable’ remarks/comments.
I developed this love of old films quite early, in my early or pre teens, perhaps.As the youngest member of a big joint family, I was assigned the duty of accompanying the elders, whenever they went to see a film – which was quite often. I started liking films (mostly mythological or social films) and their songs. I branched off into seeing action and stunt films with my friends. Language was not a bar. Hyderabad being a multilingual state, I used to see films in Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, English (especially Republic Serials like Captain Marvel etc.)
I developed a habit of jotting down the details of the film seen, in a notebook. This habit lasted with me till about a few years till I reached my final college year in the late 50’s. Once I joined my job and then got married, my notebook writing stopped. I had carefully preserved these notebooks till I started writing articles. But by that time many notebooks had faded, some were torn, some had white ants. I salvaged many and transcribed from the spoiled ones, but some information was lost forever. Still, what remained was enough for me to write hundreds of posts and film synopsis. Good habits always help !
Believing in discipline and organised work, all my more than 1000 articles are neatly stacked in 45 Long books. More than 1100 Bio sketches of cine artistes are in my Laptop. I have 100s of books, purchased and got as gifts from the authors,in Hindi, Marathi and English. I have already written in a diary what is to be done of all these after I leave and also informed the person. The idea is not to waste all this knowledge and that the next generation should have it readymade.
Today’s post has become a different one. Once in a while, some diversion !.
Today’s song from the film Torpedo-41 is a lovely, sweet song by Rajkumari Banareswali. This was a Costume film as per HFGK, but looking at the actors it seems to be a mixture of action and stunt. The cast is Yashwant Dave, Shehzadi, Samson, Meher Sultana and others. The director was N A Mansuri, B.A. He later directed 2 more films, Soorat-47 and Sanwariya-49. I wonder what must he be doing in between ? Music was by Shyam Babu Pathak and Shanti kumar. With this song, film Torpedo makes its Debut on the Blog. Thanks to Shri Abhay Jain(US) for the rare song and Sadanand Kamath ji for uploading it for me.
Song- Chal Saajan chal saajan Ek chhoti si duniya apni basaayen (Torpedo)(1941) Singer- Rajkumari-Banareswali, Lyricist- Kabil, MD- Shanti Kumar Desai
Lyrics
Chal Saajan
Chal Saajan
Chal Saajan
Ek chhoti si duniya apni basaayen
Chal Saajan
Chal Saajan
Ek chhoti si duniya apni basaayen
Chal Saajan
Chal Saajan
is duniya se ae door kahin jaa kar
is duniya se ae door kahin jaa kar
door kahin
door
door kahin
door
Chal Saajan
Chal Saajan
Ek chhoti si duniya apni basaayen
Chal Saajan
Chal Saajan
prem ka deepak man mein jalaa kar
prem ka deepak man mein jalaa kar
kaali ghata ka parda hataa kar
kaali ghata ka parda hataa kar
duniya ki nazron o o o se
duniya ki nazron o o o se
ojhal ho jaayen
ojhal ho jaayen aen aen
Chal Saajan
Chal Saajan
Ek chhotisi duniya apni basaayen
Chal Saajan
Chal Saajan
ham tum hon wahaan
aur na ho koi
ham tum hon wahaan
aur na ho koi
bhor bhaye aji saajan ho
bhor bhaye aji saajan ho
viyog ke baadal kabhi na chhaayen
viyog ke baadal kabhi na chhaayen
Chal Saajan
Chal Saajan
Ek chhoti si duniya apni basaayen
Chal Saajan
Chal Saajan
Mangal gaao ree mandap chhaao ree
Posted on: March 9, 2021
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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Blog Day : |
4617 | Post No. : | 16258 | Movie Count : |
4418 |
Today’s song is from a relatively obscure film, though it was said to be successful in those days. The song is from the film Prabhat-1941 – made by Tarun Pictures. It was directed by a true professional V.M. Vyas, who knew his job so well that 60% of his films were successful at the Box office. He took the best stars always and major singers and composers worked for him. His own banner was Sunrise Pictures, established in early 1941 and in the first 6 months itself his first film ‘ Ghar ki Laaj’ was completed. Prabhat was his second film as a director in 1941.
Vishnukumar Maganlal Vyas was born on 4-11-1905 in Ahmedabad. He started his career in 1927 as a Cinematographer. His company, Sunrise films was started in 1941. He produced and directed 30 Hindi and many Gujarati films. He died on 24-1-1962 at Bombay. Vyas was a very hardworking person and a man of ‘ never say die ‘ spirit. He was disciplined and did not tolerate any nonsense. He was also known as a very miser. He being a Vaishnav, his stars would get only vegetarian food during shootings. If they wanted Non Veg food, they had to spend for it.
At the time of film Naukar-43, the pair of Shaukat Hussain and Nur jehan troubled Vyas to no end. Not attending the shoots on time, asking for extra money on some pretext or the other and in general giving trouble and mental torture to Vyas were common. Not only this, additionally Nur jehan and Shaukat used to take interesting property materials from the sets to their house-like furniture, decorative vase, cupboards etc. Vyas kept quiet till the film was complete.
Once the film was completed and released, he registered an F.I.R against both of them for stealing studio equipment. To utter dishonour of Noor jehan, a police raid was made on her residence and all the furniture, tables, decorative pieces etc. , which she had taken from the sets were confiscated and the court fined her also.
Thus Vyas did not keep quiet when it was his turn and taught a lesson to Noor jehan and Shaukat Hussain.
Writer Mohanlal Dave was closely associated with the films of Vyas. In almost all of his films, Dave was the story, dialogue and s/p writer. Born in 1883 in Amreli district, Mohanlal Gopalji Dave studied upto 7th standard and became a Teacher on Rs. 5 p.m. salary. To try better prospects, he came to Bombay, worked in a Hotel as a waiter and then got another job. In 1905, he worked on a steamer going to karachi.
He returned to home, got married and went again to Bombay. In 1911 Maek ji Seth started Imperial and employed him to write advertisements and stories. After some time, he started earning Rs. 700 p.m. In 1917, he joined Dwarkadas Sampat for Rs. 1300 p.m. and wrote several stories for silent films.
When Kohinoor Film Company was started, he was contracted to write 2 stories per month. At the same time, he got from Ardeshir irani’s Imperial 30,000 per year to write stories for silent films.This went on for 6 years. In those days his name used to be shown above the titles of Kohinoor films, as per ‘ Encyclopedia of indian Cinema’.
His stories must have had Magic, because most films written by him became hits and his demand increased. Initially he teamed up with Director naqndlal Jaswantlal. From 1918 to 1933, he wrote more than 150 film stories for Silent films. When Talkie started, he worked for Jayant Desai, Imperial, Nagina, Pushpa and especially Sunrise Pictures of V.M.Vyas. he must have written more than 150 Talkie stories.
He was famous among the older stars and they honoured him too. He always used to wear Dhoti , a long shirt and a Pagdi. From his earnings of 50 years, he bought a huge plot in Santacruz, Bombay and build a very big Bungalow named ” Master Bhawan”. He also opened a Jewellery shop which ran for 20 years. He had 1 son and 2 daughters.
His social work and social service was well known in the field of education and promotion of Sanskrit. Anandilal poddar school of Santacruz, Mumbai is established by hi. He also established many schools, libraries, Temples etc. The speciality of his film stories was that they included Camera Movements, Fade outs etc. Secondly, his most Talkie films were repeats of his silent film stories. He also wrote Gujarati film stories. After retirement , he suffered from Cancer. Operation cured him but a fall gave him fractures. He was hospitalised but died on 20-12-1969.
1941 was the first year in the second decade of the Talkie Era and it was the beginning of the emergence of a New film industry. When Talkie started in 1931, for many years after that, the films were made by the people who had done work in the Silent films. These films had a spill over for the silent era artistes. Once the films started talking,most silent artistes who could not speak Hindi or Urdu automatically disappeared. Thus started the influx of new actors who could speak Hindi and sing songs, in whatever way they could. Intelligent directors like V Shantaram,Bhavnani, Sohrab Modi, Chandulal Shah, Himanshu Rai, B N Sircar, L V Prasad and a host of Gujarati directors understood that the Talkie needs a different treatment than silent films. Music directors from stage dramas tried their hand in composing film music.
In the next 8-9 years, there was a perceptible change in the film making, acting, singing, and composing music in the films that were made. Quality artistes from the silent era continued for some more years – finally giving way to the new artistes. The 30s and the 40s mostly differed in film music and story contents. The new blood composers like Anil Biswas, C Ramchandra, Naushad, Ghulam Haider, K Datta, Hansraj Behl, Bulo C Rani, Gyan Dutt and many more replaced the Parsi, Marathi and Gujarati drama music to more acceptable lilting songs. Many musical films were made and some everlasting songs were composed by these people. At the end of the 40’s decade one more major change in the film industry took place due to Partition. More about it when we discuss a song from 1951 in coming times. Let us see some important films.
JBH Wadfia became Chairman of Film Advisory Board. He produced First Sindhi film ‘ Ekta ‘-1940. His film Court Dancer was also in English.
Asra- Debut of actor director N A Ansari.
Behan- Mehboob directed this film having an incest suggestive story.
Chandan- Debut of S N Tripathi as an MD
Chitralekha- First big success of Kidar Sharma. Mehtab’s bath scene caused a ripple.
Dhandhora- Actor comedian Charlie directed the only film.
Doctor- Pankaj mullick gave excellent songs. First popular song with whoof beats-‘ Chale pawan ki chaal ‘.
Jhoola- One of the most successful films like kangan and bandhan, starring Ashok kunmar and Leela Chitnis.
Kanchan- First composed song of naushad-” Bata do koi”
Khazanchi- A milestone in musical revolution with Punjabi Theka, by Ghulam haider. Debut of Shamshad Begum in Hindi films.
Lagan- Saigal, as usual, gives good songs.
Mala- was remade as ‘ Amar-55’ with music again by Naushad only.
Naya Sansar- Story of Newspaper world. A novelty. Ashok kumar’s famous cigarette smoking in films started from this film, solving his problem of ‘ what to do of the hands during acting’ !
Nirdosh- Mukesh sings his first song.
Padosi- Last film of V Shantaram before leaving Prabhat. A Landmark film. ” Kaisa chhaya hai ujala” popular chorus song.
Pardesi- Debut of actress Anjali Devi (not the southwali) with real name ‘Durgesh’
Radhika- Debut of Nalini jaywant.
Raj Nartaki- Ambitious Wadia film in English , Bangla and Hindi. Released in USA by Columbia Pictures of Hollywood.
Sangam- Amritlal nagar’s first film as a writer. He did 18 films as writer and Lyricist.
Sikandar- A Magnum-Opus from Minerva. Chorus song- ” Zindagi hai pyar se” very popular.
Taj mahal- Debut of Baby Suraiya as actress.
Sasural and Ummeed were 2 films in which Noorjehan senior acted and sang. Hoiwever these films usually included in filmography of Malika E Tarannum Noor jehan.
Today’s song is sung by Vatsala Kumthekar. Her end was very tragic. VATSALA KUMTHEKAR’s family was originally from Goa, but they shifted to Bombay. She was born in 1909. After primary education she started training under Ustad Barkat ali khan-the elder brother of Bade Ghulam Ali khan.
She became an expert in Thumri singing and started mehfil singing when she was just 16-17.She had a terrific voice which would mystify the listeners. She used to sing in various cities all over India. She got offers to act in Marathi and Hindi films.
Her first Hindi film was Prabhat film co. Poona’s WAHAAN-1937. She started acting and singing in films.
Her some of the films were-Banke Sanwariya, Madhu Bansari, Hurricane special, Zambo ka beta, Aaj ki duniya, Anuradha, Jai swadesh,Aurat-40, Holiday in Bombay-41, Prabhat, Sangam, Lalaji,Aabroo, Zabaan, Aashirwad, Ishara, Raahat, Tatar ka chor, Sher e Bengal, Geeta, Naag panchami, Aflatoon Aurat, Deepak, Jai Mahakali and last film was Toofan aur diya.
She was living with Sheth Ibrahim but he left her for another woman. Then he came back to her and she also accepted him till he died. Then she lived alone. Her financial and mental condition became very bad.
When her Sheth died, She became mad, shaved her head and roamed on Bombay streets begging. one day she was found dead on a bridge. She was cremated by BMC as an unclaimed, unidentified person, but someone from the crowds recognised her and her story came to be known.
With this song, film Prabhat-41 makes its Debut on this Blog.
Song-Mangal gaao ree mandap chhaao ree (Prabhat)(1941)Singer- Vatsala Kumthekar, Lyricist- Ehsan Rizvi, MD- Shanti Kumar Desai
Lyrics
Mangal gaao ri
mandap chhaao ri
Mangal gaao ri
mandap chhaao ri
usha bani hai bahuraani
usha bani hai bahuraani
Mangal gaao ri
mandap chhaao ri
usha bani hai bahuraani
usha bani hai bahuraani
shubh din aaya aanand chhaaya
shubh din aaya aanand chhaaya
sukh sampat ka darshan paaya
sukh sampat ka darshan paaya
Mangal gaao ri
mandap chhaao ri
usha bani hai bahuraani
usha bani hai bahuraani
howe mubaarak
howe salaamat
howe mubaarak
howe salaamat
jug jug jeewe pooton khele
jug jug jeewe pooton khele
raani raaj chalaawe
raani raaj chalaawe
raaja raani
Ram aur Seeta
raaja raani
Ram aur Seeta
Radhe Kanhaiyya
Radhe Kanhaiyya
Radhe Kanhaiyya
Radhe Kanhaiyya
Mangal gaao ri
mandap chhaao ri
usha bani hai bahuraani
usha bani hai bahuraani
shubh din aaya aanand chhaaya
shubh din aaya aanand chhaaya
sukh sampat ka darshan paaya
sukh sampat ka darshan paaya
Mangal gaao ri
mandap chhaao ri
Mangal gaao ri
mandap chhaao ri
usha bani hai bahuraani
usha bani hai bahuraani
Ham dharti ke laal
Posted on: September 16, 2020
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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4443 | Post No. : | 15890 |
“Ghar Ki Bahu”(1947) was directed by Narayan Rao and G K Devre for Kohinoor pictures, Bombay. This “social” movie had Paro Devi, Umakant, Ghulam Mohammad (actor), Pandey, Mehar Sultana, Manohar Ghatwai, Dhuliya, Babu Raje, Geeta Sardesai etc in it.
This forgotten movie had eight songs in it that have become extremely rare songs. One song has been covered in the past.
Here is the second song from “Ghar Ki Bahu”(1947) to appear in the blog. This song, even rarer than the one discussed earlier, is sung by Paro Devi and chorus. Taresh is the lyricist. Music was composed jointly by Shanti Kumar Desai and R C Rai.
Only the audio of this song is available. It is clear that the song was picturised on Paro Devi herself.
I request our knowledgeable readers to throw light on this movie.
Song-Ham dharti ke laal (Ghar Ki Bahu)(1947) Singer-Paro Devi, Lyrics-Taresh, MD-Shanti Kumar Desai
Chorus
Lyrics
Ham dharti ke laal
Ham dharti ke laal
Ham dharti ke laal
hamaaro o o o o
hamaaro dharti se hi pyaar
Ham dharti ke laal
Ham dharti ke laal
Ham dharti ke laal
ghaas paat ki hamri jhopadiya
ghaas paat ki hamri jhopadiya
ho hamri jhopadiya
kheti ko byopaar
kheti ko byopaar
gaay bail hain sangi saathi
gaay bail hain sangi saathi
kudrat ko aadhaar
hamaaro albelo sansaar
hamaaro albelo sansaar
kaho jee
kaho jee saanch baat ya jhoothh
hamaaro dharti se hi pyaar
hamaaro dharti se hi pyaar
ham dharti ke laal
Ham dharti ke laal
ham dharti ke laal
ho o o
garmi jaawe
garmi jaawe
barkhaa taawe
sardi ang churaawe
haay maa
sardi ang churaaye
haay maa
sardi ang churaaye
khoon bahaaye
khoon bahaaye
?? na paaye
ham bhookho rah jaayen
hamen na
hamen na pal bhi mile karaar
hamen na pal bhi mile karaar
kaho jee
kaho jee saanch baat ya jhoothh
hamaaro dharti se hi pyaar
hamaaro dharti se hi pyaar
ham dharti ke laal
ham dharti ke laal
ham dharti ke laal
ho o
dhoop sahen chupchaap rahen ham
karke yahi vichaar
arre haan
karke yahi vichaar
ik din howo
in kheton par hamro hi adhikaar
arre haan
arre haan
hamri hi sarkaar
rahe na kou zameendaar
rahe na kou zameendaar
kaho jee
kaho jee
saanch baat ya jhoothh
hamaaro dharti se hi pyaar
hamaaro dharti se hi pyaar
ham dharti ke laal
ham dharti ke laal
ham dharti ke laal
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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Blog Day : |
4281 | Post No. : | 15523 | Movie Count : |
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
Wo man nagari mein aayenge
Posted on: January 16, 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.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 a very rare song from an obscure and unheard of film – Anjaam-1940. Films with the title Anjaam were made in 1940, 1952, 1968, 1978, 1986 and 1993. Today’s film was the first and then in every decade one film was made on this title. First I thought that this title wins the highest number, but NO. The honour of ‘same title maximum films made’ goes to INSAAF, which was made 7 times !
It gives me a pleasure to write about rare, obscure old films. Mainly because, it is a challenge to gather or literally excavate information from various different sources about the film, director, MD, the actors or the singers. Many times, some names are so obscure that it takes several days or even months to get the information. While reading an article, the readers rarely realise the hard work that has gone into the presentation. Not all information is available on beck and call. Sometimes a windfall comes with plenty of information from unexpected sources, but that is rare. Many times days and months are blank. I call this as a challenge.
Film Anjaam-40, made by Vishnu Cinetone- owned by Dhirubhai Desai, was a Costume drama. The music for the film was by Shanti kumar Desai and the cast was Anil kumar, Meher Sultana, Yeshwant Dave, Rajkumari, Samson, Bulbule, Fazlu etc. All the songs were written by Munshi Qabil. The film was directed by Kanjibhai Rathod.
The name Kanjibhai Rathod will not ring any bells in the ears of any reader. That is because, this was his last film as a director. Since his directorial career ended 80 years ago, it is unlikely that any reader has even heard his name. I had come across this name earlier, but there was no opportunity to write on any song from his films. So, when I finally got hold of this rare song, I knew this was my last chance to write about him as this was his last film as a director. Of course, he was very much in the film industry for another 20 odd years, but as a Production manager.
After I got this song, it took me almost one month to collect enough information about Kanjibhai Rathod. I had to literally dig out information from quite old articles. I knew if at all his bio is available, it had to be in Gujarati alone. So I scanned Gujarati articles. Harish Raghuwanshi ji also helped me in this and also provided his own Gujarati article on Kanjibhai Rathod.
In the Hollywood filmdom, in the early years, Blacks were not given any jobs. Over a period, this changed and Blacks became a part of film industry. Similarly, in early years, in Indian film world, backwards and Dalits were not preferred except for menial jobs. However, it is to the credit of the Gujarati filmdom that they encouraged Kanjibhai Rathod and gave him opportunities to showcase his skills as an actor and a very successful silent film director. Kanjibhai Rathod was a Dalit.
Kanjibhai Rathod from Maroli village in south Gujarat, was considered the first successful commercial director in Indian cinema. His rise to fame was in an era when most people stayed away from films, due to a peculiar stigma attached to the filmdom.
Not much is known about Rathod’s personal life. Film historian Virchand Dharamsey writes, “Kanjibhai was coming from a Dalit family and he can be considered the first successful professional director of India.”
Rathod began as a still photographer with the Oriental Film Company, owned by a U.S. trained film maker Sachet Singh,in Baroda. His experience earned him a job in Kohinoor Film Company and its owner Dwarkadas Sampat made him a director. Till then he worked as an actor in many silent films. In film Narsi Bhagat, he did the Hero’s role.
Rathod’s ‘Bhakta Vidur’ released in 1921, was perhaps the first criticism of the British colonialism in a popular feature film.
This mythological allegory directly alluded to political issues, particularly the controversy over the Rowlatt Act.
An adaptation from a section of the Mahabharata, this film showed the British as the Kauravas and its protagonist Vidur as Gandhi. Sampat himself played the role donning the Gandhi cap and khadi shirt. The film raised a storm – while a big hit in Bombay, it was banned by the British in Karachi and Madras, write historians.
Rathod was the first film-maker to direct a crime thriller in 1920s on contemporary events. His Kala Naag (1924) was based on famous double murder case in Bombay. Rathod introduced Zubaida to film industry with his Gulbakavali.
By the time he left for Saurashtra Film Company in Rajkot in 1924, Rathod had enough work on his name. At the launch of Krishna Film Company, he returned to Mumbai in 1931, the year of first talkies.
Dharamsey writes in his ‘Light of Asia: Indian Silent Cinema 1912–1934’ that Rathod directed five talkies out of 17 made in 1931. The films were, Chintamani, Ghar ki Laxmi, Harischandra, Laila Majnu and Paak Daaman, all for Krishna Movietone. He remained active in the industry even in 1940s, but he was not as successful directing talkies.
In the early film making, the contribution of Gujarati men is substantial. Out of the 1313 silent films made during 1913 to 1934, more than half were made by Gujarati producers. Companies like Sagar, Kohinoor, Shrikrishna, Sharda etc at Bombay and Elphinston Film co. at Calcutta were owned by Gujaratis. They not only did business, but also made many Gujarati and Non Gujarati artistes. Gujarati writers always provided story lines.
From 1921 to 1924, Kanjibhai Rathore directed 31 silent films for Kohinoor Film Co. For Shrikrishna film Co. of Maneklal Patel, he directed 21 silent films. For some time he did work for Saurashtra Film co. at Rajkot also.
Kanjibhai directed total 59 silent films and 16 Hindi Talkie films and 1 Gujarati Talkie film . A grand total of 76 films in all. Quite a substantial number. Kanjibhai Rathod was much ahead of times. In one silent film-Sati Anusuya-1921, an actress, Sakeena, was shown fully naked. During silent film era major actors like Raja Sandow, Jaleel, Fatima Begum, Ermelin, Gohar, Putlibai, Gulab, Rampyari etc worked for him. In Talkie era, actors like Sardar Akhtar, Prem Adib, Charlie, Navinchandra, Azuri, Marutirao pehelwan etc acted in his films.
Kanjibhai joined as Production Manager in Chandrakala Pictures of Dhirubhai Desai, after retiring from direction. Dhirubhai remade several of Kanjibhai silent films as Talkie films, like Bolti Bulbul-42, Devkanya-46, Bhakta Prahlad-46 etc. Kanjibhai had 2 wives. He wedded Kanta Ben in a traditional way and he wed Ganga Ben in Arya Samaj style. Ganga Ben gave him a son, Suresh. unfortunately, he died at the age of just 16 years. Then Kanjibhai retired and lived in village Ponsara in Gujarat. He died peacefully on 31-12-1970. Thus ended a superb career.
Film Anjaam’s hero was Anil kumar. Actor Anil Kumar (Sardar Gul) was born in 1915 at Calcutta.His father had a fruit business. They were from Peshawar (just like Dilip Kumar). He was not much educated but could speak Hindi, Urdu and English fluently. Once he went to Bombay to meet a friend. There he met an old acquaintance, who took him to Sohrab Modi.
The good looking Sardar Gul was liked by Modi and he offered him the lead role in his film ‘ Saed E Havas’-36. Sardar Gul was given a screen name of Chandra Kumar. The film was based on a translation of William Shakespeare’s drama- King John, by Agha Hashra Kashmiri in 1907. Sardar Gul was to get Rs. 200 for this work. The film was a flop and Sohrab Modi refused to pay him more that Rs 50. Annoyed, he left Bombay and returned to Calcutta.
However he came back in 1938 and did his first film with a new screen name Anil Kumar. The film was Talwar ka Dhani-38. Soon he was well known and acted in 10 films in next 3 years. As the decade of the 40s saw many new actors, producers and directors, he was reduced to Character roles and side roles. By 1950, he was almost like an extra. He did work in many films, but only few films credited him, as his roles were negligible. We find his name in just 30 films, where he was credited, the last such film being Tarzan and Deliailah-64.
The side hero in this film was Yeshwant Dave. It was not uncommon during the days of early cinema for people to hang around studios and filming locations in the hopes of being discovered. One such intrepid soul was Yeshwant Dave (or Yashwant Dave), who was at Kohinoor Studios observing a picture being made by producer J.B.H. Wadia. The handsome and athletic Yeshwant cornered Wadia, insisting that he would make a fine hero for an action film.
Wadia agreed to test Yeshwant by having him jump from the roof of one set piece to another. He did so successfully, and J.B.H. decided to cast him in a film that he was to direct for Young United Players, the 1931 silent THUNDERBOLT (aka DILER DAKU) featuring Mumtaz as the heroine.
Yashwant was again directed by Wadia in TOOFAN MAIL (1932) and there after became a sought after action star appearing in the stunt films of other directors like Aspi, Dhirubhai Desai, Nari Ghadiali, Chunilal Parekh, and Harshadrai Mehta. Some of his films include BHARAT VEER (1932), JADUI JUNG (1934), BOMBSHELL (1935), VASANTBENGALI (1937), FLYING RANEE (1939), MAGIC CITY (1940), TORPEDO (1941), ROYAL MAIL (1946), and KAUN PARDESI (1947).
Growing out of the stunt hero persona, he turned to character parts and made infrequent onscreen appearances throughout the 1950s, including in SHEIKH CHILLI and MAKKHEE CHOOS both released in 1956 and starring comedian Bhagwan. What became of Yeshwant Dave afterwards is anybody’s guess, as the once popular action star faded into obscurity and, sadly, is barely remembered today.
Today’s song is sung by Meher Sultana and chorus. Not much information is available on Meher Sultana. From HFGK, we find that she featured in 19 films as an actress and sang 6 songs in 3 films also. Her songs in this film were her last songs. Her first film as an actress was Bhool ka Bhog-1935 and last film was O Jaanewale-1948. Today’s song, though 80 year old is of good quality and pleasantly sung in tune, to listen to. Enjoy…
( Information for this article is culled from 2 Gujarati articles of Shri Urvish Kothari ji, a Gujarati article by Harish Raghuwanshi ji, wiki, Filmdom-1946, cinemajadu.com. muVyz.com and Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema. My thanks to all.)
Song- Wo man nagari mein aayenge (Anjaam)(1940) Singer-Meher Sultana, Lyricist-Munshi Qabil, MD- Shanti Kumar
Lyrics
Wo man nagari mein aayenge
man nagri mein aayenge
hans hans ke bhaag jagaayenge
hans hans ke bhaag jagaayenge
wo man nagari mein
man nagari mein
man nagari mein aayenge
main dulhan ban sharmaaungi
main dulhan ban sharmaaungi
munh pher pher ithhlaaungi
munh pher pher ithhlaaungi
aur darshan ko tarsaaungi
aur darshan ko tarsaaungi
wo ghoonghat aap uthaayenge
wo ghoonghat aap uthaayenge
Mohan ki murali baajegi
Mohan ki murali
Mohan ki murali baajegi
chhum chhum chhum Raadha naachegi
chhum chhum chhum Raadha naachegi
mridang jhaanjh bajaayenge
mridang jhaanjh bajaayenge
madhuwan mein raas rachaayenge
madhuwan mein raas rachaayenge
wo man nagari mein
man nagari mein
man nagari mein aayenge
hans hans ke bhaag jagaayenge
hans hans ke bhaag jagaayenge
wo man nagari mein aayenge
wo man nagari mein aayenge
Prem nagariya jaayenge hum
Posted on: May 19, 2019
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 the film Jadu Nagari-1940.
In last 2-3 years, I find that a lot many collectors are uploading songs from films of the 30s and also rare songs. The HFM History students- like me- are highly indebted to them for their generosity.
Like in any other fields, here too some disturbing events take place. Some collectors upload incomplete songs, thinking that this will protect their monopoly. I feel this is very unfair. No one forces them to upload songs. If they do so on their own, why not complete songs ? Anyway, it is their thinking and choice. Fortunately, true connoisseurs, like Shalin Bhatt ji are highly dependable and his songs are not only complete and rare but he also adds some information to it. Many times the viewers’ comments on the song also gives important information pieces. May God increase his tribe !
Film Jadu nagari-40 was based on an imaginary story, like many such films. These films had writers, who flew the kites of their imagination, sometimes in a very comic way. For example, turning Humans into Animals or showing talking animals, birds and even Snakes. Of course since the film had Jadu in its title iteslf, all these things were within expectations only. Actually these things made the films very interesting and watchable. ALAS ! The era of such C grade films is gone for ever !
I selected a song from this film, because I found some unusual and rare points here, worth talking about.
Firstly, the film is directed by Baburao Apte ( variously spelt as Baburao, Bapurao or S R Apte), who was the elder brother of actress Shanta Apte. He had started his acting career from the silent era. He acted in 8 silent films. Starting with film Shyamsunder-32, he acted in his first Talkie film, as Radha’s husband- where Radha was his own younger sister, Shanta Apte. In all, he acted in 16 Talkie films, his last film being “Main abla nahin hoon”-49 directed by Shanta Apte herself. He had a very minor role in it-courtesy his sister. He also directed 8 Talkie films from Kala Pahad-33 to Jadu Nagari-40. yes, today’s film was his last film as a director.
And yes, he was the same person, who brought his own younger sister of 9 years to act in films. He would put a condition in the contract that no other actor will touch her while shooting. If she had a wife’s role, he would do the husband’s role. Fortunately for cine goers, as Shanta Apte grew up as a rebel, she defied this rule and Baburao started his acting and direction separately. He got married and lived separately.
Shanta Apte- though unmarried till end- had a daughter-Nayana Apte. However this news of her daughter was kept a secret. When Shanta Apte died on 28-2-1964, ten years later Nayana declared that she was Shanta Apte’s daughter. Film Historian Isak Mujawar, in one of his books, has said that Nayana was Shanta’s daughter from brother Baburao Apte only. Such matters have no credible proofs anytime. By the way, Nayana Apte became a popular actress on Marathi Stage and in Marathi Cinema. Obviously Baburao Apte was very creative indeed !
Secondly, in this film Rajkumari Calcuttewali (real name Pullo Bai) had acted and also sang 5 songs. Though HFGK is silent about which Rajkumari it was in this film, the noted Music Historian and collector Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji has confirmed this. Also the song’s uploader Shalin Bhatt ji also mentions Rajkumari Calcuttewali. Though she acted and sang only in films made at Calcutta, two films ‘Gorakh aaya’-38 and ‘Jadu Nagari’-40 indicate her participation.Later she married one Seth Motilal from Calcutta and left films.
Thirdly, Music Director in later times-Jimmy aka James Singh- sang a duet in this film with Rajkumari Calcuttewali. Composer Jimmy aka James Singh- 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 Punjabi 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.
However, in this film Jimmy was not the MD. It was yet another little known MD- Shanti kumar Desai, a very talented but unlucky composer who rarely got support from any famous banner. His music was enchanting and tunes were superb, but Lady Luck did not favour him.
He was born in Amreli,Saurashtra, Gujarat state on 3-3-1908. His family was in service as Royal Musicians, so he was exposed to music from childhood.He was an expert Harmonium player. To start his career, he came to Bombay and worked in H.M.V. as a Broadcaster. Here he came into contact with many composers and learnt how they operated and made tunes etc. He was already giving music to Dramas, but wanted to join Film line as M.D. He got his first film Navbharat ( Jawanmard)-1934. In those days Gujarati producers and directors used to prefer Gujarati MDs. Thus out of his 36 films, 18 were done with Gujarati Directors like Sohrab modi, Nanubhai Vakil, V.M.Vyas(4 films), Kanjibhai Rathod, Dhirubhai Desai etc. He also gave music to Gujarati films.
He gave music along with Madholal Master,Rafiq Ghaznavi, Pannalal Ghosh, Shyambabu Pthak etc. Famous singers like Rafi, Manna Dey, Zohrabai, Amirbai etc sang in his films during their early careers. Even kishore kumar’s early film Sati Vijay-48 had music by Shanti kumar Desai. He gave music to films of early era actors like Prem Adib, Mehtab, Sitara Devi, Leela Chitnis, Jal Merchant, Ashraf Khan, Rajkumari, Mazhar khan, Shanta Hublikar, Jairaj, E Billimoria, Kumar, Sardar Akhtar, Chandramohan, Shobhana Samarth, Durga Khote, Shahu Modak and Sulochana.
From 1934 to 1948, he gave music to 35 films and in 1964 his one film was released. He composed about 300 songs. He never got films from top banners like Bombay Talkies,Prabhat, Sagar or Minerva, otherwise his career would have been different.
He died on 6-1-1986. Some of his better known films were Bholi bhikaran-36, Punarjanma-38, Anjaam-40, Suhaagan-42, Naukar-43, Ek din ka sultan-45 and Lav Kush-51.
The Hero of this stunt film was the Stunt King Yeshwant Dave…..ever heard his name ? Not a great chance, I know.
It was not uncommon during the days of early cinema for people to hang around studios and filming locations in the hopes of being discovered. One such intrepid soul was Yeshwant Dave (or Yashwant Dave), who was at Kohinoor Studios observing a picture being made by producer J.B.H. Wadia. The handsome and athletic Yeshwant cornered Wadia, insisting that he would make a fine hero for an action film.
Wadia agreed to test Yeshwant by having him jump from the roof of one set piece to another. He did so successfully, and J.B.H. decided to cast him in a film that he was to direct for Young United Players, the 1931 silent Thunderbolt (aka Diler Daaku) featuring Mumtaz as the heroine.
Yashwant was again directed by Wadia in Toofaan Mail (1932) and thereafter became a sought after action star appearing in the stunt films of other directors like Aspi, Dhirubhai Desai, Nari Ghadiali, Chunilal Parekh, and Harshadrai Mehta. Some of his films include Bharat Veer (1932), Jaadui Jung (1934), Bombshell (1935), Vasant Bengali (1937), Flying Ranee (1939), Magic City (Jaadoo Nagri) (1940), Torpedo (1941), Royal Mail (1946), and Kaun Pardesi (1947).
Growing out of the stunt hero persona, he turned to character parts and made infrequent onscreen appearances throughout the 1950s, including in Seikh Chilli and Makkhee Choos both released in 1956 and starring comedian Bhagwan. What became of Yeshwant Dave afterwards is anybody’s guess, as the once popular action star faded into obscurity and, sadly, is barely remembered today.
Today’s song is a duet sung by Rajkumari Calcuttewali and James Singh. There were 9 songs in the film. With this song, film Jadu Nagari-40 makes its Debut on this Blog.
(Thanks to cinemajadu.com, activeindiatv.com, Cinerang by Isak Mujawar, Harish Raghuwanshi ji of Surat and my notes for information used herein.)
Song-Prem nagariya jaayenge hum(Jaadoonagri)(1940) Singers- Rajkumari Calcuttewali, James Singh (aka Jimmy), Lyricist- Munshi Kabil Amritsari, MD- Shanti Kumar Desai
Both
Lyrics
Prem nagariya jaayenge hum
Prem nagariya jaayenge hum
Prem nagariya jaayenge
dharti pe swarg basaayenge
dharti pe swarg basaayenge
Prem nagariya jaayenge
Prem nagar ki har galiyan mein
Prem nagar ki har galiyan mein
prem bageech banaayenge
prem bageech banaayenge
prem panchhi ban kunj kunj mein
prem geet nit gaayenge
prem panchhi ban kunj kunj mein
prem geet nit gaayenge hum
prem nagariya jaayenge
kal kal karti prem sarit mein
prem mast ho ??aayenge
kal kal karti prem sarit mein
prem mast ho ??aayenge
prem sudha ras pi pi kar
tan man ka taap mitaayenge
prem sudha ras pi pi kar
tan man ka taap mitaayenge
prem nagariya jaayenge
ek pran ham do tan ho kar
phir bhi to bisraayenge
haan
ek pran ham do tan ho kar
phir bhi to bisraayenge
haan
prem devta ke kunjan mein
prem devta ke kunjan mein
jeewan sakal bitaayenge hum
jeewan sakal bitaayenge hum
prem nagariya jaayenge
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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