Posts Tagged ‘Sipahsalar’
Ek anaar aur sau beemaar
Posted on: October 5, 2021
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 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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‘Sipahsalar’ (1956) was produced by F C Mehra under his banner, Eagle Films and was directed by Mohammed Hussain. The star cast included Shammi Kapoor and Nadira in lead roles supported by Kamal Kapoor, Sham Kumar, Samson, S Nazir, Cuckoo, Helen, Kumkum, Uma Dutt, Jagdish Kanwal, Rajan Kapoor etc. It is apparent from what I have seen from a few photographs of the films on the internet that the film belongs to the genre of costume drama.
The producer of the film, Faqir Chand Mehra (29/08/1923 – 29/07/2008) was born in Peshawar. The family shifted to Bombay (Mumbai) in early 1940s when he got a job in Royal Indian Air Force on the ground duties. However, after some time, he got suspended from the Air Force for in-subordination. With a big family to be looked after, he started dabbling in various types of small businesses. Eventually, he got success in the small business of film distributions in Afghanistan. It all started with F C Mehra taking some cans of films to Kabul and showing in a theatre. With good responses from the local population, he started earning good money. So, this was the beginning of F C Mehra’s tryst with Hindi films.
F C Mehra expanded his business of film distributions in Mumbai. He even started buying rights for the distribution of films under productions. One of such films where he had bought the distribution rights was struck up. He took over the production of that film and completed the film. So, F C Mehra accidentally turned film producer with this film and his banner, Eagle Films was born. (I guess, the film was ‘Sakhi Lutera’, 1955).
‘Sipahsalar’ (1956) was F C Mehra’s first planned film as a producer. In this film, he repeated the director, Mohammed Hussain and most of the supporting cast from ‘Sakhi Lutera’ (1955) and also lyricist, Farooq Qaiser and music director, Iqbal. Hereafter, F C Mehra produced and released films on a regular basis covering the genres of costume, suspense, thriller, comedy, social drama etc. Some of his prominent films included ‘Mujrim’ (1958), ‘Ajee Bas Shukriya’ (1958), Ujaala’ (1959), ‘Singapore’ (1960), ‘Professor’ (1962), ‘Shikaari; (1963), ‘Amrapali’ (1966), ‘Prince’ (1969), ‘Laal Pathar’ (1971), ‘Manoranjan’ (1974), ‘Hamaare Tumaare’ (1977), ‘Sohni Mahiwal’ (1984), ‘Aakhri Adaalat’ (1988) etc.
According to his son, Umesh Mehra, his father used to get the daily shoot of his film processed on the same evening after the pack-up well before the digital era came when the film’s shoots are available to watch online. The rushes would be seen by him in the next day morning and will be discussed with the director, If need be, some parts of the shoots would be reshot. He was also probably first to compensate his film distributors when his films resulted in the losses to them. He had done so when ‘Amrapali’ (1965) did not perform well on the box office.
Besides, Eagle Films, the film production unit which was a partnership among his family members, F C Mehra had a stake in Natraj Studios, Andheri along with film producers, Shakti Samanta, Promod Chakravarty, Atmaram and others. He also owned Minerva theatre in Mumbai and Plaza theatre in Delhi in partnership with Shammi Kapoor and others.
Sometime in 2000, F C Mehra develops some medical problem which was diagnosed as dementia. Doctors had certified that F C Mehra was incapable of taking financial and legal decisions. The last 8 years of his life were spent in the midst of dementia and amnesia without being aware of what was happening around him. In 2006, a dispute arose between the elder son, Parvesh Mehra and three younger sons led by Umesh Mehra about their father’s property, a part of which was sold by Umesh Mehra by virtue of holding the power of attorney on behalf of his father. The matter went to the court which dragged on for a long time. In the meanwhile, F C Mehra died of massive heart attack on July 29, 2008 and his eldest son, Parvesh Mehra, the complainant in the court case, died in December 2020.
Coming back to ‘Sipahsalar’ (1956), Shri Arunkumar Deshmukh who had seen the film in the theatre, had written a synopsis of the film in the article covering one of the songs of the film on the Blog. The film has the usual story of a good king being overthrown by his evil prime minister. The story again runs on the usual pattern with the ousted king who has escaped to a neighbouring country, regrouping his forces to fight the evil prime minister. From his loyal forces, the king selects Shammi Kapoor as his Sipahsalar. He conducts raids with his troops in which he is captured. But Nadira saves him and they run away to the forest. From the photographs which I have seen, it appears that the film has all the required ingredients for box office success like romance, dances, stunts, fights, comical situations etc, Finally, the Sipahsalar successfully carries the campaign to regain the lost kingdom for his king at the cost of sacrificing his life.
‘Sipahsalar’ (1956) had five songs written by Farooq Qaiser and set to music by Iqbal. Four songs from the film have already been covered on the Blog as under:
| Songs | Date of Post | Singer/s |
|---|---|---|
| aankhon mein aankhen daal ke | 07/08/2012 | Asha Bhosle-Rafi |
| dil ne chheda hai taraana | 01/07/2013 | Asha Bhosle-Talat Mehmood |
| madr e watan madr e watan | 15/08/2017 | Rafi |
| ajee o jee tumehn dekh jiya jale | 13/09/2018 | Geeta Dutt |
I am presenting the fifth and the last and final song of the film, ‘ek anaar aur sau beemaar’, sung by Asha Bhosle and chorus. The song was not available on any video sharing platforms. I have made and uploaded the video clip of the song on a video sharing platform. From the lyrics as well as the garba beats, it would appear that the song was picturised on a group of dancers (led by either Cuckoo or Helen).
With this song, all the songs of the film have been covered on the Blog.
Acknowledgements: Some of the information about F C Mehra is sourced from an article written by Keyur Seta which appeared in Cinestaan. The references in the article about the court cases is sourced from indiankanoon.
Audio Clip:
Song-Ek anaar aur sau beemaar (Sipahsalar)(1956) Singer-Asha Bhonsle, Lyrics-Farooque Kaiser MD-Iqbal
Chorus
Lyrics
ek anaar aur sau beemaar
ek anaar aur sau beemaar
mushkil mein hai mera pyaar
o saajna
mushkil mein hai mera pyaar
kis’se churaaun main apni nazren
kis’se churaaun main apni nazren
kis se karoon aankhen chaar
o saajna
mushkil mein hain mera pyaar
shaam suhaani ritu mastaani
haan ritu mastaani
main hoon akeli dagar anjaani
dagar anjaani
jaaun mein kaise uss paar
o saajna
mushkil mein hai mera pyaar
ek anaar aur sau beemaar
mushkil mein hai mera pyaar
o saajna
mushkil mein hai mera pyaar
tirchhi nazar hai jee baanki adaa hai
jee baanki adaa hai
meri adaaon pe duniya fida hai
jee duniya fida hai
lootoon main kiska qaraar
o saajna
mushkil mein hai mera pyaar
ek anaar aur sau beemaar
mushkil mein hai mera pyaar
o saajna
mushkil mein hai mera pyaar
ghaayal karoon main jiya tirchhi nazar se
haan tirchhi nazar se
?? zamaana main guzroon kidhar se
guzroon kidhar se
kiski sunoon main pukaar
o saajna
mushkil mein hai mera pyaar
ek anaar aur sau beemaar
ek anaar aur sau beemaar
mushkil mein hai mera pyaar
o saajna
mushkil mein hai mera pyaar
“Sipah salar” (1956) was an Eagle Pictures presentation. This movie was directed by Md Hussain. The movie had Shammi Kapoor, Nadira, Kumkum, Cuckoo, Helen, S. Nazir, Kamal Mehra, Samson, Uma Dutt, Habib, Rajan Kapoor etc in it.
Read more on this topic…
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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