RMIM Archive Article "194".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
#
# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Year in Hindi Films
# 1947 (Part 2)
#
# Posted by: Surjit Singh, dussh@ttacs.ttu.edu
#
1947 - A Year in Hindi Movies: Part B
Here is the second part of my post on the year 1947. We see
many people starting their life in Hindi movies and many
others approaching milestones. As usual, the name of the
movie is followed by my remarks.
aapakii sevaa me.n
Incomparable Lata sang her first three playback songs
for MD dattaa Daavajekar, the only three she ever
sang for him. The debut song is
"paa laaguu.n kar jorii re, shaam mose naa khelo horii".
The movie has a Rafi solo and a Rafi duet with mohana-
taaraa. All eight songs were written by mahiipaal.
Let us talk about him. Born in Jodhpur on November 24,
1919, mahiipaal chandra bhaNDaarii, B. A., started out
as a poet and an actor in college. He was chosen as
the hero of the first maaravaa.Dii language film
"nazaraanaa", but the movie, which also had a Hindi
version, flopped. V. Shantaram gave him a chance to
write lyrics and thus he had the unique honor of
becoming the first lyricist for Lata's playback
singing career. Subsequently, he played the
roles of kaamadev, vishhNu, naaraad, but found fame
and fortune as krishhNa in Homi Wadia's "shrii gaNesh
mahimaa (1950)", for which he was paid Rs. 600 a month.
More about him later.
Back to Lata. She sang 5 songs in 1947. The fourth was
her first duet,
"chalo ho gaii taiyaar, zara Thaharo jii"
with our own Rafi, in the movie,"shaadii se pahale"
written by mukharaam sharmaa for the MD's P. ramaakaant
and karnaaD. The fifth song was the railway number,
"javaanii kii rel chalii jaay re",
a chorus with main voices of Lata, Geeta and Chi-
talakar, who also provided the music for this pyaare
laal santoshii song from the movie,"shahanaaii". Let
us talk about this movie.
shahanaaii
This hit musical produced by Filmistan, starring
rehaanaa and naasir Kaa.N had 9 songs of which two
others are still remembered. Everybody has heard the
two-part,
"aanaa merii jaan merii jaan sunday ke sunday",
the first by miinaa kapuur and chitalakar and the
second by shamashaad and chitalakar. Amirbai sang,
"maar kaTaarii mar jaanaa".
It was Kishor Kumar's second movie and he is men-
tioned at number 11 in the credits. He played a pol-
ice inspector but still did not sing.
andho.n kii duniyaa, matavaalaa shaayar raamajoshii
manamohan krishhNa was born on August 11, 1922, in
khevii, Panjab and started his public life, just like
me, as a lecturer in physics, at Govt. College,
Lahore. He met V. Shantaram in 1945 in Bombay and
got to play hero in raajakamal kalaamandir's
"andho.n kii duniyaa" with liilaa chiTanis, munavvar
sultaanaa and mahiipaal in the cast. He sang a song,
"tujhe aap bitaanaa hai apnaa jiivan",
under Vasant Desai. But he really shone in the Hindi
version of matavalaa shaayar where he sang 6
choruses and 3 duets with zoharaabaai, also under
Vasant Desai The movie is remembered as a famous
classical (Marathi) tamaashaa musical starring hansa
vaaDakar.
chittau.D vijay, niil kamal, dil kii raanii, jail yaatra
Raj Kapoor acted in all 4 movies, with Madhubala in the
first 3 and Kamini Kaushal in the fourth, in which he
sang a song,
"piya milane navelii jaaye re"
under MD niinuu majuumadaar. niil kamal was the first
major picture for Raj and Madhubala and was moderately
successful. In the cast, at number 15 is mentioned
Dilip Kumar, who had just 2 movies this year. The only
movie out of these 4 that I have seen is "dil kii
raanii" which is a hilarious comedy with the pair in
the lead and the famous MD shyaam sundar as Raj's
friend. The music for the movie was given by S. D.
Burman and the movie opens with Raj doing his own
playback on a radio station with,
"o duniyaa ke rahane vaalo bolo kahaa.n gayaa chitachor".
Listening on the radio is goddess Madhubala, who
looks extremely beautiful. There are 10 songs in all,
4 solos by shayaam sundar, 3 solos by Geeta. In 1947,
Dev Anand had two movies, "aage ba.Dho" with
Khursheed, music by Sudhir Phadke, male songs by
Manna Dey, and "mohan" with hemaavatii, music by
husnalaal-bhagataraam.
dard
uma devii sang her first song,
"afasaanaa likh rahii huu.N dile beqaraar kaa"
for naushaad, lyrics by shakiil, picturized on
munavvar sultaanaa, and shot to fame. Very few people
have done that with their debut song. Later, she
developed an eating disorder and was reduced to play-
ing TunaTun.The movie had 10 memorable songs, 4 solos
by suraiyaa, 2 more by umaa, 2 by shamashaad, of which,
"ham dard kaa afsaanaa"
is well-known, and one duet by umaa and suraiyaa,
"betab hai dil darde muhabbat ke asar se".
do bhaaii
This is the movie that made Geeta Roy famous. It had 9
songs, but two solos by Geeta,
"meraa sundar sapanaa biit gayaa",
"yaad karoge yaad karoge ik din hamako yaad karoge"
written by raajaa mahadii alii Kaa.N and MD'ed by
Burman will be remembered for ever. She sang 2 more
solos and 2 duets. Kamini Kaushal was the heroine
and Ulhas and Rajan Haksar were the two brothers.
giit govind
Manna Dey is remembered for singing,
"jhan jhan jhan jhan paayaliyaa baje",
"jug jug le avataar",
"ham kyaa jaane terii maayaa",
"jaya jagadiish hare",
in this devotional movie based on the famous work
by the 12th century Bengali poet jayadev. prem adiib
was the hero and MD was gyaan datt.
janataa
Rajendra Krishan started his career by writing the
song,
"gorii ghuu.ghaT ke paT khol"
for the MD harishachandra baalii.
miiraa and miiraabaaii
The first one starred M. S. subbulakshmii and raadhaa.
Music was by S. V. venkaTaramaN, raamanaath and
naresh bhaTTaachaarya. Lyricist was poetess
miiraabaaii, who penned all 18 songs, 15 of which were
sung by M. S. It was directed by Ellis R. Duncan,
Tamil director and American cinematographer born
in Ohio in 1908. Came to India to sell camera equipment
in 1935 and stayed until 1952 making several
major Tamil films, including "satii liilaavatii"
introducing MGR.
The second movie was directed by W. Z. ahamad with his
wife niinaa (real name shaahidaa) as heroine. Music
was provided by S. K. paal, with lyrics by
miiraabaaii again. All 13 songs were sung by sitaaraa
of kaanapur. The director produced 5 pictures in all,
always as his wife as heroine. Both went to pakistan,
where she died in April 1990. By the way, this
sitaaraa should not be confused with the kathak
dancer sittaraa born in Calcutta, who was married to K.
Asif (her second marriage) and who is an aunt (mau-
sii) of Gopi Krishan.
naii baat
Starring rehaanaa and amar, this was the first movie of
the famous trumpeteer and MD pa.NDit raam prasaad
sharmaa, who died on August 22, 1995 at age 95. He had
6 sons of whom 4 are music directors: pyaarelaal
(half of LP), mahesh, aanaand and gaNesh. I have
heard only one song composed by him. It is by suraiya,
"kaalii ghaTaao jaao, sajan ko samajhaao",
from the movie "shakti (1948)", in which he colla-
borated with aazam beg. He gave music for 7 movies,
the last of which was "magic carpet" released in
1964, when one of his sons became famous for the music
of dostii.
piyaa ghar aajaa
Bulo C. Rani directed the music while Meena Kumari sang
6 solos and 2 duets with Karan Divan, the hero.
tuufaanii savaar
This was the first Hindi movie of manahar desaaii
(real name Malcolm). He starred in his first
movie in gujaraatii,"Gun Sundari" with Nirupa Roy
and the pair became successful gujaraatii stars. He
became well-known in mythological pictures like
Shivaratrii, satii madaalasaa and naag panchamii.
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Most of the info comes from the following:
"The Encyclopaedia of Hindi Film Songs or Hindi Film
Geet Kosh," vol. II
"Listeners' Bulletin"
"Star-Portrait"
"Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema"
"Limca Book of Records 1993"
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Posted by Surjit Singh, a ``die-hard'' movie fan period.
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian