RMIM Archive Article "140".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
#
# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Year in Hindi Films
# years covered - 1940. and
# 30s Decade Summary
#
# Posted by: Surjit Singh, dussh@ttacs.ttu.edu
# Source: see end of article
#
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1940 - Naushad's first movie all by himself
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Great Naushad gave music for the movie Prem Nagar by him-
self, after being an assistant MD for many years. There were
13 songs including 4 choruses, a style for which he is jus-
tifiably famous. Songs were written by Dina Nath Madhok.
There are excellent articles on Naushad available on the
RMIM automailer, get numbers 16, 41 and 44. I will just
quote his opinion on the comparison between classical and
movie music.
Dr. B. V. Keskar became minister of information and broad-
casting in 1952. He was a devotee of classical music and
wanted to "force" it on the Indian public. He hated film
music and in 1954, which is smack in the middle of the gol-
den age of film music, said that "except for raw and imma-
ture people like children and adolescents, householders in
general detested film music." He greatly reduced the time
given to film music, and, banned the mentioning of the name
of the movie saying that that amounts to advertising! Movie
indutry protested.
I am paraphrasing what Naushad said in 1956. Classical
sangeet has never been the province of the masses. It was
born in sacred temples and flourished in the courts of Rajas
and Nawabs. The attempt to make this highly specialized
music a part of everyday environment was an artificial impo-
sition. To many millions of Indians it was almost as remote
as the music of British string ensembles. The film music, on
the other hand, a spontaneous and exuberant growth, emerging
from much older folk music traditions and adapting itself to
a new era and its influences was the real folk music of
modern India.
As everybody knows, Radio Ceylon flourished due to lack of
film music on All India Radio. Of course the government gave
in later by establishing Vividh Bharati, a radio service de-
voted almost entirely to film music.
The number of Hindi movies produced in 1940 remained below
100 for the third year in a row. Some notable ones are:
aflaatuun aurat
It has an English song that begins, "My dear Indian
ladies no mind no brain ..." It was written by Munshi
Aziz Nagpuri. I don't know what happened to him.
aurat
This was the famous Mehboob movie that was remade in
color as Mother India later. Kanhayyalal played exactly
the same role in both versions.
bandhan
A very popular movie starring the pair Ashok Kumar,
Leela Chitnis. Has beautiful songs by Pandit Pradeep.
"Chal chal re naujavaa.n" was the big hit and my grand-
mother still sings, "chane jor garam baabuu mai.N
laayaa mazedaar".
nartakii
Has the almost modern numbers, "madabharii rut javaan
hai" and "ye kaun aayaa savere savere" by inimitable
Pankaj Mullick.
zindagii
Saigal shines again. Sings an absolutely enchanting
lori, "so jaa raajakumaarii so jaa", a lori that Lata
used to practice as a child. Two more songs are famous,
"mai.N kyaa jaanu.n kya jaaduu hai, in do matavale
...", and, "diivaanaa hu.N diivaanaa hu.N, raahat se
mai.N begaanaa hu.N". This was his 18th movie, he will
make 10 more.
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The Thirties - The first decade
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The first decade can be summed up as the decade of the big
studios and their popular stars. And they did practically every-
thing that could be done. I will try to bring in some of the
things I failed to mention in the previous ten posts.
The first Persian language talkie, "Dokhtar-e-Lor" was made
in India in 1933 by Ardeshir Irani of Aalam Aaraa fame. Bombay
Talkies made, perhaps, the first officially commissioned ad film
for Dalda vanaspati for Lintas ad agency in 1938. In 1935, the
first Indian cartoon picture, "lafangaa languur" or "The Merry
Monkey" produced by H. B. Gutschwager in Hindi, was shown along
with the main feature, "svapana svaymbar" at the Majestic Cinema,
Bombay. In 1937, Wadia Movietone made history by synchronizing
Hindi songs and dances with the extremely popular American silent
movie called "Thief of Baghdad" starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.
They called the dubbed version "Sulemani Shetranji".
Majority of the popular and well-established stars (32 in
all) were mentioned in the following song from the almost-end-
of-the-decade movie "Gharib Ka Lal (1939)" . The lyricists of the
movie were Rafi Kashmiri and Munshi Qabil, the MD was Sagiir
Aasif. The entire song is
"tujhe bibbo kahu.N ki sulochanaa,
umaashashii kahu.N yaa ki jamunaa
tujhe motii kahu.N ki biliimoriyaa,
tujhe saigal kahu.N yaa ki baravaa
tujhe kajjan kahu.N yaa ki shaantaa,
ratanabaii kahu.N mahataab kah duu.N yaa ki maadhurii
merii bimalaa merii kaanan merii jaddan merii rozii,
tujhe gauhar kahu.N ki sabitaa
devikaaraanii kahu.N ki lalitaa,
durgaa khoTe kahu.N ki zubedaa
tujhe ghorii kahu.N diikshit kahu.N
yaa tujhe chaarlii kah duu.N
kahu.N mirzaa musharraf
yaa tujhe mai.n kaabulii kah duu.N
tujhe surendra kahu.N yaa ki vaastii,
mai.n kumaar kahu.N yaa ki Gazanavii"
[A side remark - Umaa Shashi mentioned in this song is the Umaa
who sang with Saigal. Umaa Devii whom Naushad introduced in Dard
(1947), who became an overnight sensation with her very first
song "afsaanaa likh rahii hu.N", who later, unfortunately,
developed an eating disorder and became a comedic actress known
as TunTun, was an entirely different person.]
Apart from the ever popular songs by Saigal, K. C. Dey, Pankaj
Mullick and others, this decade also gave us the following:
"uTh jaag musaafir bhor bhaii,"
From "saliimaa (1935)"; my grandma sang it to me when I was
a child.
"kabhii ai haqiiqate ras bharii, nazar aa libaase sharaab me.n"
A delightful parody of a famous Iqbaal poem, written by
Kedar Sharma for "Millionaire (1936)" a Saigal movie.
"jan gaN man adhinaayak"
Our national anthem was for the first time used in the movie
"insaan yaa shaitaan (1933)".
"Dongaa Dongaa Dam Dam Daakaa aadam bokaa masanam maakaa"
The first song with nirarthak (meaningless) words written by
G. R. seThii and set to music by maaadhulaal daamodar master
for the first part of the 4-part "haatimataaii (1933)".
"tilachaTTaa haai tilachaTTa chhipakalii ne pakaD liyaa"
A tribute to the everlasting cockroach, lyricist mercifully
unknown, set to music by harishachandra baalii for "bhi-
khaaran (1935)".
"bhaalo baashii tomaay aamii taav kii khule bolate hobe"
The first Bangla song in a Hindi movie, "muflia aashiq
(1932)" produced, naturally, by maadan theaters, Calcutta.
"mohammad mohammad pukaare chalaa jaa, yu.N hii diino-duniyaa
sa.nvaaree chalaa jaa"
The first among very rare songs to have the name of the Pro-
phet in them, was in the movie "nuure islaam (1934)".
"yaa ilaahii miT naa jaaye darde-dil"
A song that Mehmood keeps mispronouncing in "aarzuu (1965)"
was from the movie "billii (1938)" , sung by kaanti laal and
suniitaa devii, written by P. L. santoshii, MD was gyaan
dutt.
"saare jahaan se achchhaa saabun banaa hamaaraa, ham kishtiyaa.n
hai.n isakii"
The first parody of a national song, in the movie "sunaharaa
sa.nsaar (1936)", written by vijay kumaar, B. A. and set to
music by K. C. Dey.
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Most of the info comes from the following:
"The Encyclopaedia of Hindi Film Songs," vols. I-IV, compiled by
Mr. Har Mandir Singh "Hamraaz", published by Mrs. Satinder Kaur.
"The Indian Film," perhaps the Ph. D. thesis in India on the sub-
ject of movies. The writer, Miss Panna Shah, was awarded the Ph.
D. degree working with the eminent Professor G. S. Ghurye of the
University of Bombay in 1950. Reprinted by Greenwood Press, West-
port, Connecticut in 1981.
"Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema," by A. Rajadhyaksha and P.
Willemen, published by Oxford University Press in 1994. Excellent
effort, the only book of its kind. Some obvious errors even in
articles on recent movies could have been easily avoided by
watching the movies just once! I am sure the planned second edi-
tion would be even better.
Surjit Singh
dussh@ttacs.ttu.edu
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From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian