This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, 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 sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
In the 1930s and 40s, Hindi film industry attracted many well known poets and writers of Hindi/Urdu. Munshi Premchand joined Ajanta Cinetone and wrote story and screen-play for the film ‘Mazdoor’ (1934) in which he also played a cameo role. Dr Safdar ‘Aah’ Sitapuri, the Urdu poet and writer joined National Studios in 1939 and later Bombay Talkies as screen-play/dialogue writer and lyricist. Later, he also directed two Hindi films. Upendranath ‘Ashq’ joined Filmistan in 1944 as screen-play and dialogue writer. Josh Malihabadi, the Urdu poet joined Shalimar Studio in 1942 as dialogue writer and lyricist. Amritlal Nagar joined the film industry in 1941 as a screen-play/dialogue writer and lyricist. The list is not exhaustive.
Most of the well known poets and writers may have joined the film industry probably for better visibility and also for financial reasons. However, most of them quit the film industry within short time. For example, Munshi Premchand quit the film industry within one year of joining it even though that meant plunging deeper into financial difficulties as a result. Probably their temperaments did not suit the working style of the film industry. As it is, poets and writers are, by nature, freelancers and they would like to write about what they see and feel.
Among the well known poets and writers I have listed above, I find the case of Amritlal Nagar unique. He had come to Bombay not for joining the film industry but for selling some silver which his father had bought in early 3190s when silver prices had crashed. At the start of World War II, silver prices had zoomed and Amritlal Nagar wanted to sell silver to come out of his financial difficulties after the death of his father and to support his family. But his financial position did not improve due to some bad investment decisions.
Amritlal Nagar (1916 – 1990) was born in Agra in a Gujarati middle class family, domiciled in Uttar Pradesh for many years. His father was a Branch Manager in the then newly established Allahabad Bank in Lucknow. Amritlal Nagar spent his childhood and also his teenage in Lucknow. His father being a banker, many rich persons and nawabs used to visit him to seek his guidance in financial matters. The young Amritlal had opportunities to meet and spend time with several rich and noble families. With these interactions and the fact that he was brought up in Lucknow meant that Amritlal was able to see glimpses of the changing traditions and culture of nawabs which later formed the basis of his earlier stories.
Amritlal Nagar started as a poet in his teen. However, later he shifted to writing fictions. He wrote his first short story ‘Prayaschit’ at the age of 15 and published his first collections of short stories ‘Vaatika’ (1935) at the age of 19. During this period, he met many famous Hindi poets and writers like Munshi Premchand, Jaishankar Prasad, Sumitra Nandan Pant, Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’ and Sharat Chandra, the legendary Benglai novelist and got valuable guidance from them.
As I mentioned earlier, Amritlal Nagar’s journey to Bombay came out of the necessity to raise finance by selling silver for taking care of the household after the death of his father. During this period, he stayed with Mahesh Kaul who was associated with Hindi films. With his investment decisions going bad, he was badly in need of money which made him to join the Hindi film industry.
Initially, he got a couple of works of translating short Russian documentaries like ‘Nasiruddin in Bhokara’ and ‘Zoya’ into Hindi. In the later stage, he also translated Tamil film ‘Meera’ (1947) into Hindi. Besides, he wrote screen-play/dialogues and lyrics for films like ‘Bahurani’ (1941), ‘Sangam’ (1941)‘Kunwaara Baap’ (1942), ‘Uljhan’ (1942), ‘Kisi Se Na Kahna’ (1942), ‘Raja’ (1943), ‘Kalpana’ (1946) ‘Gunjan’ (1947) etc.
After India gained independence, Amirtlal Nagar decided to quit Hindi film industry and returned to Lucknow to become a full time writer. During this period, he wrote plays for All India Radio, Lucknow. He also directed some plays including that for IPTA. Besides writing short stories and novels, he also wrote chilldren’s literature. In 1968, Amritlal Nagar received Sahitya Akademy Award for his novel ‘Amrit Aur Vish’ and Padma Bhushan from Government of India in 1981 among many awards received during his life time.
Amritlal Nagar breathed his last on Febraury 23, 1990 in Lucknow.
The year 2016 is the birth centenary of Amritlal Nagar. On this occasion, I have selected a song from the film KISI SE NA KAHNA (1942) in which Amritlal Nagar was associated as a lyricist. The film was produced by Leela Chitnis under the banner of Chitra Productions and it was directed by Keshvrao Date,Krishna Gopal etc. The star cast included Leela Chitnis, Pahadi Sanyal, Hari Shivdasani, Sunetra, Ghory, Keshavrao Date etc.
There were 9 songs in the film which were written by Amritlal Nagar. All the songs were set to music by Pratap Mukherjee. I am presenting the first song from the film ‘jo fasaana-e-alam ko na suna sakey zabaan se’ to appear on the Blog. the song was sung by G M Durrani. The highlight of this ghazal is that G M Durrani has rendered it in K L Saigal style.
With this song, ‘Kisi Se Na Kahna’ (1942) makes its debut in the Blog.
Note: Amritlal Nagar’s profile is mainly based on his own spoken words which appeared in a book ‘Authors Speak’ edited by K Satchidanandan, published by Sahitya Akademy (2006).
Song-Jo fasaane e alam ko na suna sake zabaan se (Kisi Se Na Kahna)(1942) Singer-G M Durrani, Lyrics-Amritlal Nagar, MD-Pratap Mukherji
Lyrics
jo fasaana-e-alam ko o o
jo fasaana-e-alam ko o
na suna sakey zabaan se
jo fasaana-e-alam ko
na suna sakey zabaan se
to wo ashq ban ke tapka
mere chasm e naatwaan se
to wo ashq ban ke tapka aa aa
gire laakh baar bijli ee ee
mujhe gham nahin hai lekin
haan aan aan aan
gire laakh baar bijli ee
mujhe gham nahin hai lekin
usey kya milega gir ke
bhala mere aashiyaan pe
usey kya milega gir ke
bhala mere aashiyaan pe
jo fasaana-e-alam ko o o
meri khwaah(?) kaa dhuaan hai……ae ae
jo falak pe chhaa gaya hai
haan aan aan aan
meri khwaah(?) kaa dhuaan hai……ae ae
jo falak pe chhaa gaya hai
wo abhi baras padega
gale mil ke aasmaan se
wo abhi baras padega
gale mil ke aasmaan se
jo fasaana-e-alam ko
na suna sakey zabaan se
jo fasaana-e-alam ko o o
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
