A Year in Hindi Movies 1947 Part I

1947 - Part A: Saigal and Noorjahan gone.

Saigal was born on April 11, 1904 and learnt singing
from his mother Mrs. Kesar Kaur. Made just 28 movies and
sang about 250 songs, including non-filmi songs. The
legendary singer died on January 18, 1947. His last movie
was paravaanaa, his third and last with suraiyaa. Baby
khurshiid, later known as shyaamaa played his
sister. The music was by khurshiid anvar and lyrics were
by madhok. Saigal sang five songs,

TuuT gaye sab sapane mere,
ai phuul hans ke baag me.n kaliyaa.n khilaaye jaa,
kahii.n ulajh naa janaa,
muhabbat me.n kabhii aisii bhii haalaat paaii jaatii
hai,
baabul moraa maayakaa,

all classics. Suraiyaa matched him with equally great songs,

paapii papiihaa re,
aa jaa baalamaa rain andherii Dar laage,
jab tum hii nahi.n apane,
mere munDere naa bol.

There was another excellent song by raajakumaarii,
saiyaa.N ne unglii marorii re raam qasam sharamaa gaii
mai.n,
a song that is regretfully missing from the available video.

Excellent articles on Saigal are available in the RMIM
automailer.

A four-part article by Vish on Lata and Noorjahan, also
available on the RMIM Automailer is a must-read for all. The
legendary music director Sajjaad used to consider only Lata
and Noorjahan as singers, excluding all others, male or
female. In return, on Sajjaad's death on July 21, 1995,
Noorjahan said, "mai.n to ye sun kar bilkul bardaasht
nahii.n kar sakii aur rone lag gaii. ye log aise log hai.n
jo roz paidaa nahii.n hote. mai.n apne ko khushanasiib
samajhatii huu.N ki mai.n-ne sajjaad ke saath gaayaa hai.
hum to ab sirf yaado.n me.n rah ga-e hai.."

Last two movies
of Noorjahan in India were juganuu and mirzaa saahibaan.
During the filming of juganuu, she married the director s.
h. rizvii. This movie is distinguished by diliip's natural
acting, a famous rafi-Noorjahan duet,

yahaa.N badalaa vafaa kaa,

appearance of rafi as a college student in the chorus,

vo apanii yaad dilaane ko,

and a very young shashiikala mouthing the roshanaaraa begam
number,

desh kii purakaif rangii.n sii fizaaon me.n kahii.n.

Noorjahan also sang the famous songs,

umange.n dil kii machalii.n,
aaj kii raat saaze dile puradard naa chhe.D,
tum bhii bhulaa do,

and the last one which has her coughing,

hame.n to shaame Gam me.n kaaTanii hai zindagii apanii.

In a dance sequence in a cultural program of the college was
filmed the song,

luuT javaanii phir nahii.n aanii, biit gayii to ek kahaanii,

(sung by shamashaad) which goes on to show how "forward"
movies during your your parents' time were! The music was by
firoz nizaamii, B. A. and the lyrics by M. G. adiib and
asaGar sarahadii. Sulochana (real name Ruby Myers) was the
incharge of the girls' hostel. Kids, we shall meet more
Sulochanas soon, very soon.

mirzaa saahibaa.N

had music by amaranaath, two younger brothers,
husnalaal and bhagataraam. Lyrics were by
qamar jalaalaabaadii and aziiz kaashamiirii. Every single
song was a hit. The 10 songs include, two Noorjahan solos,

kayaa yahii teraa pyaar thaa,
aa jaa tujhe afasaanaa judaaii kaa sunaa.e.n.,

two Noorjahan-Durrani duets,

haath siine pe jo rakh do to qaraar aa jaaye,
tum aankho.n se duur ho,

a Durrani solo,

khaayegii Thokare.n ye javaanii kahaa.n kahaa.n,
two choruses with main voices of Noorjahan, Zohra and
shamashaad,

haaye re u.D u.D jaaye,
rut rangiilii aayii,

one Zohra-shamashaad duet,

suno merii sarakaar javaanii kyaa kahatii hai,

a chorus featuring shamashaad,

aaj miyaa.n jii ko cha.Dh jaaye buKaar,

and, lastly, a solo by Zohra,

saamane galii me.n teraa ghar hai.

As the superbly-talented Noorjahan was leaving India,
many other people were coming to India. Among them was my
father with his wife and a male child, me.
Some other remarkable events of 1947 will make the
second part of this article to be posted very soon.

Posted by Surjit Singh, a ``die-hard'' movie fan
period.

Die-hard because I am recovering from a (five-fold) coronary
artery bypass graft surgery, the most common surgical
procedure done on Americans, an estimated 350,000 will
undergo it this year. The operation went very well and I am
recovering normally. It will take about two months for me to
become fully active in my work, but I can be active in my
hobbies much sooner! I will get my American citizenship in
October, but as far as I am concerned, this surgery makes me
a true American already!

The fact that I needed an operation was a total surprise to
me and everybody else who knows me. I am a lacto-vegetarian,
do not drink, do not smoke, have no family history of heart
disease and have the typical Indian ``whatever will be, will
be'' attitude toward life, without any unusual stress in my
life. So why did it happen to me? Because, I did not do any
exercise whatsoever. So kids, give up smoking, give up
drinking, give up meat, give up stress, adopt a heart-
disease-free family, have a medical checkup annually once
you reach 40, and for RMIM's SAKE, START DOING EXERCISE NOW!

A Year in Hindi Movies 1947 Part II

 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 in Hindi
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 mohanataaraa.

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 Chitalakar,
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 mentioned at
number 11 in the credits. He played a police 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 playing 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 (mausii) 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 collaborated
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.

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"

Posted by Surjit Singh, a die-hard movie fan
period.

 

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