Posts Tagged ‘Vasant Pawar-Ramchandra Vadhavkar’
Haathhon se karo kaam
Posted by: Atul on: September 11, 2023
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 Nanhe Munne-1952.
This is an interesting film in many ways. The film was made by Alhaad Chitra, Poona, in 2 languages – Marathi and Hindi. In Marathi the film’s title was ” Chimni Pakharen” (चिमणी पाखरें ), which means ” The young birds”. The film was produced and directed by Datta Dharmadhikari and the music was by a pair- Vasant(Pawar) and Ramchandra(Vadhavkar). The cast of the film was Baby Shakuntala, Sulochan (Latkar), Raja Nene, Indira Chitnis, Alhaad (son of Datta Dharmadhikari, on whose name the banner was named), Raja Gosavi and many others. The Hindi songs were written by Pt. Phani.
When silent films were made in India from 1913 onwards till the Talkie was established, it was considered as a source of cheap entertainment by some people. But when sound was introduced and all characters on the screen started talking and some of them singing, peoples’ curiosity was aroused and the theatres overflowed. People understood that this new medium had immense scope to provide them real entertainment with Mythological, social, action and historical stories.
From the early 30’s, films started attracting people and crowds were seen at every studio for employment in various capacities-actors etc. Initially the non-singers and stage actors were working in films. With their stage type acting and sometimes out of tune singing, a search started for good actors who could sing also. No wonder many experts in acting on stage and professional singers and musicians were keen to join films.
Even those people who had done remarkable work in the International arena and foreign lands wished to join the Indian Film Industry. There were also artistes who first worked here and then went abroad to propagate Indian Music. Few such names can be quoted like, Himanshu Roy, Devika Rani, Niranjan Pal, Dewan Sharar, Shakuntala paranjpye, Rabindranath Tagore, S.D.Batish, laxmi Shankar, Ramnarana Sarma (actor Ranjan) etc etc. Similarly, those who were nationally famous in music-Vocal and Instrumental, too wanted to have a go at the films, atleast for some period. Some such names were- Pt. Ravishankar, Ustad Alla Rakha, Ali Akbar khan, D.V.Paluskar, manik Varma, Hirabai Badodekar, Pt.Sureshbabu Mane, Firoz Dastoor etc.etc. Such was the lure and attraction of the Silver Screen !
In today’s film, one such notable and famous singer made his Debut in singing in Hindi films. His name was DR. VASANTRAO DESHPANDE. Anyone who enjoys classical singing need not be told about Vasantrao Deshpande. Vasantrao Deshpande (2 May 1920 – 30 July 1983) was a Hindustani classical vocalist renowned for his contribution to Natya Sangeet (musical dramas). Vasantrao Deshpande was born into a Deshastha Brahmin family in Murtizapur, Akola District, in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra in India. At the age of eight, Vasantrao Deshpande’s ability was observed by Bhalji Pendharkar, who cast him in the role of Krishna in the Hindi movie Kaliya Mardan (1935).
Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande was one of India’s most illustrious classical vocalists. He played classical and semi-classical music. In the raga form which constitutes classical music, the artist displays his creativity on a basic canvas. Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande’s rendition of famous ragas like Marwa, Salag Varali, Nat Bhairav, Kauns (in its various forms), Chhayanat, Basant Mukhari, Patamanjari, Jaijaiwanti, Janasammohini, Bhoop, Shree, Maru Bihag, Yaman etc. had a quality to them that kept people interested. His performance of offbeat ragas was not too different. The “Sargam” was his forte.
Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande was equally at ease with the Thumri, Dadra and Ghazal forms. These find their origins in countries like Iran and Afghanistan. Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande had picked up the original style and nuances of the thumri and ghazal while studying at Lahore. He also learnt quite a bit of Urdu to elevate his ghazal performances. Another area of music where he made his mark was “Marathi Natyasangeet”. Some of the plays in which he acted and performed were “Katyaar Kaaljaat Ghusli”, “He Bandh Reshmache”, “Vij Mhanali Dhartila”, “Meghmalhar”, “Tukaram” and “Varyavarchi Varaat”. Out of these, “Katyaar Kaaljaat Ghusli” became highly popular. Dr. Vasantraro Deshpande became the cynosure of everyone’s eye for his challenging role of “Khan Aftaab Hussain Khansaheb”. As the play’s popularity began to soar, he acquired the alias, “Pandit Vasantkhan Deshpande”.
He gave playback to more than 80 Marathi films. Besides pure music, he also put together the history of Marathi music plays, from origin showing their evolution up to the present stage. This is how he presented his brainchild, his tour de force, “Marathi Natyasageetachi Vaatchaal” (the evolution of music in Marathi music plays). In this he would first explain the socio-cultural influences that shaped the musicals as they stood in a particular era and then demonstrate the evolution through its music. The concert was first held in Delhi. It stretched for 3 days, 6 hours each day. The experiment was bound to be a winner with the audience.
Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande was an academic, earning himself a PhD in “The Transformation of Hindustani Classical Music”. He was also invited to several educational institutions to deliver lectures on music, quite often with live demonstrations.
Vasantrao has had several commercial releases under his name. Among them, the more famous are his LP of Marwa and a two-cassette interview, conducted by Va Pu Kale, about the history of Marathi Natya Sangeet which showcases the breadth and depth of Vasantrao’s knowledge about the art form.
Vasantrao Deshpande got trained under several gurus, in various different schools of singing. He began his musical training with Shankarrao Sapre of Gwalior, a disciple of V. D. Paluskar, in Nagpur. After this, he studied under several musicians including Sureshbabu Mane (son of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan) of Kirana gharana, Asad Ali Khan of Patiala gharana, Aman Ali Khan and Anjanibai Malpekar of Bhendibazaar gharana, and Ramkrishnabuwa Vaze (Vazebuwa) of the Gwalior gharana. Dinanath Mangeshkar, a direct disciple of Vazebuwa, had a particularly strong influence over Deshpande, who is regarded as Mangeshkar’s musical heir, having adopted his signature mercurial and dramatic style of singing.
Deshpande performed classical and semi-classical music, appearing in movies including Kaliya Mardan-1935, Dudh Bhaat-1952, and Ashtavinayak-1979. He issued several commercial releases under his name, and created raga Raj Kalyan, a variant of Yaman without pancham.
Deshpande’s students included Chandrakant Limaye, Vijay Koparkar and Pt Padmakar Kulkarni.
His grandson, Rahul Deshpande, is also a singer, and has also reprised some of his roles on stage and screen, such as Khansaheb in Katyar Kaljat Ghusali. Rahul Deshpande has portrayed Vasantrao in a film entitled Me Vasantrao, which is based on Deshpande’s life.
A foundation, the Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande Pratishthan, organizes Vasantotsav, an annual music festival at Pune in his memory. The annual festival is held over three days during January. During the festival, two awards, the “Vasantotsav Youth Award” for Promising Artists and the “Vasantotsav Award” for veteran artists, are given out.
In 2011, a three-day music and dance festival in Nagpur was organized by the Indian government’s South-Central Zone Cultural Centre (SCZCC) in Deshpande’s memory.
A film entitled Me Vasantrao, based on Deshpande’s life, was scheduled to be released on 1 May 2020, but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Later it was released on 1st April 2022. (Adapted with thanks from last.fm, wiki, पूर्वसूरींचे सूर by Dr.Suresh chandvankar and संगीतकार कोष by Madhu Potdar).
The other person or persons making a Debut in this film was the MD pair of Vasant-Ramchandra. This was their first Hindi film as a Music Director. They went on to do music for some more Hindi films, mostly remakes of Marathi films. However their work remained limited in Hindi films otherwise. Many people think that the pair of MDs- VASANT-RAMCHANDRA was made up by Vasant Desai and C.Ramchandra. But this is not true.
VASANT- RAMCHANDRA – this pair was of VASANT PAWAR AND RAMCHANDRA WADHAVKAR, both composers from the Marathi film world. Together they gave music to 5 Hindi films. Individually, Vasant Pawar gave music to 50 Marathi films and 8 Hindi films. Ramchandra Wadhavkar gave music to 5 Marathi and 5 Hindi films.
Famous director Datta Dharmadhikari gave break to this pair of Composers- Vasant-Ramchandra ( Vasant Pawar and Ramchandra Wadhavkar ) for 5 of his films in Hindi, but they could not get any work from other banners and their career in Hindi, as a pair, ended with these 5 films only.
Vasant Pawar ( 1927 to 6-8-1965) was from Kolhapur. He was professionally trained in Sitar. He was also proficient in playing Flute,Sarangi and harmonium etc. He was assistant to Khemchand Prakash in Ranjit. From 1946, he worked for Sudhir Phadke. He gave music ( under guidance of Sudhir Phadke) to film Jai Bhim-52, Earlier he had composed one song in film Do kaliyan-49,where his co-composer was P.Shankar. Finally, he composed music for Shivleela-52 (Bilingual in Hindi/Marathi). His music was extremely popular in Marathi films and also for NFS of Lata,Asha and many others. His Bhavgeets became very popular and were sung by leading Marathi singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Sudhir Phadke, Manik Verma, Sulochana Kadam and many others.Due to alcoholism,he died in 1965 at the young age of just 38 years.
Ramchandra Wadhavkar ( 1919 to 2-12-1972) started with Prabhat films in 1935 as a Harmonium player. He also played Organ and Sitar. Along with V Shantaram,he too left Prabhat and joined Rajkamal. For a few years he worked in a private company too and hence could not accept Shantaram’s offer for films twice. He joined Vasant Pawar in 1952 as a composer. He died in 1972.
Vasant Ramchandra gave music to 5 films.
1. Nanhe munne-52 ( Remake of Marathi film-Chimni Pakharen चिमणी पाखरें )
2.Mahatma-53 (Trilingual in Hindi, English and Marathi)
3.Suhagan-54 ( Remake of Marathi film Suvasini सुवासिनी )
4. Kalakaar-54
5.Savdhaan-54
All the above films were produced by Datta (Dada) Dharmadhikari, under the banner of his “Aalhad Chitra-Poona”. He also directed 3 films. Only Kalakaar and Suhagan were directed by his protege Anant Maane.
The film was a melodrama and absolutely a fitting story for those times, when the older generation and the ladies in the theatre audience used to enjoy such films even when they all had flowing tears while seeing such films ! The Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema by Ashish Rajadhyaksh has the following entry for this film’s Marathi version, which had the same story in Hindi too.
” Typical Dharmadhikari melodrama about a 12year-old girl (Shakuntala) who raises her three younger brothers when their father runs away after committing a crime and their mother dies of shock. Several songs intensify the sentimental approach, e.g. Aai meli baap gela aata sambbali vithala (Mother is dead, father is gone, now we’re in God’s bands). The film’s stark realism, adapted from e.g. Bimal Roy demonstrates its compatibility with tragic melodrama, as the film sets up a basic conflict between goodness and evil (the latter represented by a neighbour who wants the children evicted from their house), and eventually evokes the saint film in a contemporary setting (cf. the formal similarities with Sant Dnyaneshwar, 1940).”
One of the names in the cast is Raja Nene, who was himself a good director with beginner’s training under V.Shantaram at Prabhat Studios. One interesting thing about today’s song is that the same Hindi song was used in the Marathi version also, but issued on another 78 RPM record. It is sung by Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande, Asha Bhosle and chorus. Apart from this song in Hindi, Vasantrao has also sung 3 more songs in Hindi films ,one in each film – Chacha Chaudhary-1953, Badi Maa-1974 and Rang Birangi-1983.
Enjoy the song….
Song-Hasthon se karo kaam (Nanhe Munne)(1952) Singers- Vasant Deshpande, Asha Bhosle, Lyricist-Pt. Phani, MD- Vasant-Ramchandra (Vasant Pawar-Ramchandra Vadhavkar)
Lyrics
Haathon se karo kaam
Haathon se karo kaam
kaam kaam kaam
aur man se bhajo Raam
Raam Raam Raam
aur man se bhajo Raam
Raam Raam Raam
mehnat se na darna
na darna na darna
naa aa aa darnaa
mehnat se na darnaa
mil jaayen jo karnaa
mil jaayen jo karnaa
bekaar na rahna
fatkaar na sahna
bekaar na rahna
fatkaar na sahna
kahna to ye kahna
kahna to ye kahna
duniya mein bada naam
aur aage badha naam
duniya mein bada naam
aur aage badha naam
haathhon se karo kaam
haathhon se karo kaam
kaam kaam kaam
aur man se bhajo Raam
Raam Raam Raam
aur man se bhajo Raam
Raam Raam Raam
mehnat to hai mewa
mewa mewa mewa
mehnat to hai mewa
raahat to hai sewa
raahat to hai sewa
dil us se lagaana aa
haan jee na churaana
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
dil us se lagaana aa
haan aa aa aa aa
dil us se lagaana
aa aa aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aa aa
dil us se lagaana
haan jee na churaana
?? ka naam
? ka naam
hai kaam tera naam
aaraam hai haraam
hai kaam tera naam
aaraam hai haraam
haathhon se karo kaam
haathhon se karo kaam
kaam kaam kaam
aur man se bhajo Raam
Raam Raam Raam
aur man se bhajo naam
Raam Raam Raam
bhajo Raam bhajo Raam
bhajo Raam bhajo Raam
bhajo Raam Raam Raam
bhajo Raam Raam Raam
jai jai Raam jai jai Raam
jai jai Raam jai jai Raam
jai jai Raam jai jai Raam
jai jai Raam jai jai Raam
jai jai Raam jai jai Raam
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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