This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular 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.
I used to get confused among singers where the name of the singer was mentioned as Kalyani or Miss Kalyani. Some songs were also accredited to Kalyani Das. Are they all the same or are they different singers? It was only after reading the interview of Kalyani Bai (Real name: Zarina) which appeared in Shishir Krishna Sharma’s Blog ‘beetehuedin’ some time in 2012 that I could differentiate between songs accredited as ‘Kalyani’ or ‘Miss Kalyani’ between Kalyani Bai and Kalyani Das. In our Blog, the songs sung by Kalyani Bai has been tagged as ‘Kalyani’ whereas songs sung by Kalyani Das have been tagged as such. So there is no same name confusion in the Blog for both the singers.
Kalyani Bai (1920-2009) was an actor-singer who was trained in classical singing. She sang khayal, thumri and ghazals for All India Radio and recorded such genre of songs for HMV. This led her to a filmy career in Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1934 as an actor-singer. After some struggle, she was employed with New Theatres and she acted in films like ‘Ananth Ashram’ (1937), ‘Mukti’ (1937), and ‘President’ (1937) in which she also sang some songs for herself.
In 1937, Kalyani Bai left New Theatres and joined Ranjit Movietone in Bombay (Mumbai). Her first film with Ranjit Movietone was ‘Tufaani Toli’ (1937). In the 40s, she appeared to have become a free-lancer, although I find that she worked in more films directed by V M Vyas of Sunrise Films than other banners. Her last film as an actor-singer was ‘Ghar’ (1945). However, she lent her voice for other actresses in films released during 1947-54. She also acted in small roles in a few films of 1970s and probably early 80s.
Kalyani Das was a playback singer who started her career in Hindi films from Calcutta with P C Barua’s ‘Jawaab’ (1942) and ended her playback singing career in Hindi films with ‘Iran Ki Ek Raat’ (1949). She also sang for a few films made in Bombay. To the best of my knowledge, she did not act in any films.
It is not so difficult to segregate ‘Kalyanis’ as both of them worked in Calcutta at different time. Kalyani Bai worked in films produced in Calcutta up to 1937 whereas Kalyani Das commenced her playback singing career from Calcutta from 1942 onward. She mostly worked music director Kamal Dasgupta (8 out of 11 Hindi films in which she was playback singer). Kalyani Bai did not sing any song for Kamal Dasgupta.
But the most important criterion for distinguishing between them is their voice. Kalyani Bai’s voice has some classic touch which makes it suitable for singing ghazals and thumri based songs. Kalyani Das on the other hand has a style of rendition which has some similarities with that of playback singers like Utpala Sen, Suporva Sarkar, Ila Ghosh etc.
There is, of course, one Kalyani Mitra too who started her playback singing career in Bengali and Hindi films much later in the 70s.
I am presenting one of the rare songs of Kalyani Bai from the film KOSHISH (1943). The song is ‘kyun dil mila hamaara tumhaara jawaab do’. The writer of the song is not known. The song was composed by Bashir Dehalvi. Only two songs (out of 10) from the film are available on YT which have already been covered in the Blog. I have uploaded the video of the song under discussion on YT few days back.
KOSHISH (1943) was produced by Fateh Din under the banner of Din Pictures and it was directed by Rafiq Rizvi. The main cast included Trilok Kapoor, Husn Bano, Sunetra, Yakub, Kalyani Bai, Mirza Musharraf, Master Nissar etc. I could not get the story of the film and also its review. However, a news snippet about the film in June 1943 issue of ‘Filmindia’ indicates that the film’s theme was about Hindu-Muslim unity.
The lyrics written in a ghazal format is simple. But they convey the deeply felt anguish – may be the broken promise of love. The pain of deprivation is so much that the beloved starts questioning the lover as to why their hearts met? A beautiful expression of feelings on one line.
[Ed: The word ‘kaamil’ in the last line of this set of lyrics means ‘absolutely’ (बिल्कुल) –
kaamil naa paaye husn ki chaukhat pe jo panaah
jaaye kahaan wo ishq kaa maara jawaab do
one who finds (absolutely) no succour (refuge) at the doorstep of the beloved
then say where that love smitten soul should go]
Song-Kyun dil mila hamaara tumhaara jawaab do (Koshish)(1943) Singer-Kalyani Bai, MD-Bashir Dehalvi
Lyrics
kyun dil mila hamaara tumhaara jawaab do o
kyun dil mila hamaara tumhaara jawaab do o
pyaare
pyaare sawaal kaa mere pyaara jawaab do o
pyaare sawaal kaa mere pyaara jawaab do o
kyun dil mila hamaara tumhaara jawaab do o
hamko banaa banaa ke mitaana thha gar tumhen
hamko banaa banaa ke mitaana thha gar tumhen
hamko banaa banaa ke mitaana thha gar tumhen
kyun ban gaye thhe dil kaa aa aa aa aa
kyun ban gaye thhe dil kaa sahaara jawaab do o
kyun ban gaye thhe dil kaa sahaara jawaab do o
kyun dil mila hamaara tumhaara jawaab do o
kaamil naa paaye husn ki chaukhat pe jo panaah
kaamil naa paaye
husn ki
chaukhat pe jo panaah
kaamil naa paaye husn ki chaukhat pe jo panaah
jaaye kahaan wo ishq kaa maara jawaab do
jaaye kahaan wo ishq kaa maara jawaab do o
kyun dil mila hamaara tumhaara jawaab do o o o
———————————-
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————–
क्यों दिल मिला हमारा तुम्हारा जवाब दो
क्यों दिल मिला हमारा तुम्हारा जवाब दो
प्यारे
प्यारे सवाल का मेरे प्यारा जवाब दो
प्यारे सवाल का मेरे प्यारा जवाब दो
क्यों दिल मिला हमारा तुम्हारा जवाब दो
हमको बना बना के मिटाना था गर तुम्हें
हमको बना बना के मिटाना था गर तुम्हें
हमको बना बना के मिटाना था गर तुम्हें
क्यों बन गए थे दिल का॰ ॰ ॰
क्यों बन गए थे दिल का सहारा जवाब दो
क्यों बन गए थे दिल का सहारा जवाब दो
क्यों बन गए थे दिल का सहारा जवाब दो
क्यों दिल मिला हमारा तुम्हारा जवाब दो
कामिल ना पाये हुस्न की चौखट पे जो पनाह
कामिल ना पाये
हुस्न की
चौखट पे जो पनाह
कामिल ना पाये हुस्न की चौखट पे जो पनाह
जाये कहाँ वो इश्क़ का मारा जवाब दो
जाये कहाँ वो इश्क़ का मारा जवाब दो
क्यों दिल मिला हमारा तुम्हारा जवाब दो॰ ॰ ॰
