This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, 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 other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Today’s song is from the film Kismatwala-1944.
There was another film with the same Title in 1986. Additionally, there came a film ‘Kismatwali’ in 1947. Thank God, filmmakers did not think of Kismat Wale ka Beta or Beti or Son of Kismat Wali or some other relatives ! The title Kismat was used for films 6 times-in 1943, 56, 68, 80, 95 and 2004. Titles having the word kismat were there in 12 movies from 1935 to 2012. Considering all Kismat titles, every 4 years there was a film having the word Kismat in its title !
Kismatwala – 1944 was a stunt film directed by stunt film specialist Nanubhai Vakil. He was an unusual person to join the film industry, because he hailed from an educated and respected family and he himself was highly educated- B.A., LL.B. He married one of his Heroines Sarojini and their daughter AZRA too became a Hindi film Heroine.
The film had 9 songs written by Shams Lucknowi and 2 Music Directors- Shanti Kumar Desai and Ratanlal. The cast included Navin Yagnik, Urmila, Prakash, Vatsala Kumthekar, Laxmi Kumthekar, Ansari, Narmada Shankar, Himalaywala and many others.
The Indian Film Industry and Indian Political system have one thing common in them. They both try to promote their kith and kin into their own profession, where they have succeeded. One can understand if children are handed over the reins of family business, which is run by many Generations. But Political Leadership or Acting or Singing is surely not a ‘business’. Their position is earned by doing hard work or by individual Good luck. Most of the people forget this and they try to pass on their place to their kith and kin as if it is a mantle or the Olympic Torch. They try to install their children in the seat which they have earned through hard work. The result, most times, is disastrous, because without hard work or extraordinary luck,it is difficult to succeed in these two professions.
We have seen many such cases in Politics as well as film line. Successful Actors or Actresses tried to promote their sons/daughters, but most of them were flops. Barring a few cases of successes like Sanjay Dutt and few others, there are hardly any new generation successes. Kishore Sahu ( Naina), Leela Chitnis (Ajit), Balraj Sahni ( Parikshit Sahni), Raaj Kumar ( Puru ), Vasant Joglekar ( Meera), Hemen Gupta (Archana), Kidar Sharma (Ashok) and many more examples establish the fact that only a successful parent or a sibling is not enough to guarantee success in film line for their descendents.
Same is the case with Music too. Just because the parent or a sibling was a known Musician or a Singer was not a guarantee to succeed. Cases of Amit kumar (Kishore Kumar), Basant Prakash(Khemchand Prakash), Chandru Atma (C.H.Atma), Khalid Mehmood (Talat Mehmood), Varsha Bhosle( Asha Bhosle) are some known examples of Kin failures. There are so many cases in both groups. This point is relevant here because there are 2 such cases in this film’s credits.
MD Ratanlal was the younger brother of the famous Music Director Khemchand Prakash. Ratanlal gave music to only 8 songs in just 2 films as a Music Director- Baraat-42 and Kismatwala-44. In film Baraat-42 he was co-MD with his brother Khemchand Prakash, who had taken the name as Khemraj for this film.
Another sibling was Laxmi Kumthekar, who was the younger sister of actress-singer Vatsala Kumthekar. C. Ramchandra writes an anecdote about this Laxmi and Vatsala, in his autobiography. Here is that excerpt from the English version book “The life and times of C.Ramchandra” by D.S.Phansalkar….
” The well known Marathi singer of the 40’s, Vatsala Kumthekar used to visit the studio now and then, at times with her younger sister. She was a teenager of about 18 years, very beautiful and fresh faced. She visited my music department and listened to the songs. I was not aware that she was fond of me. I came to know about it when she fell ill.
One day Vatsala came rushing to me , puffing and scared. She said, ‘Anna, I want to have a word with you.’
‘Sure, no need to ask me.’
‘My sister is quite unwell.’
‘Yes,I know, how is she now ?’
‘She has a high fever, becomes unconscious, talks endlessly and she keeps calling you.’
I guessed what she was trying to aim at. I told her in strong words, ‘Look your sister is mistaken about something.’
‘What do you mean ?’
‘I am newly married and I love my wife.’
‘Is that so ?’ She fumed and left the room stomping her feet !
In the cast you can see an unusal name Himalaywala. Let us know more about him.
From the cast listing, an interesting name is that of A Himalaywala. His name was Mohd Afzaluddin. He was born on 15th March 1916, at Dehradun. After school education he joined his brother, Mohd Misaluddin’s firm – The Himalaya Drug Company, a leading Pharma company of repute (even today). He worked there for 10 years and after a dispute with his brother, left the company. He came to Bombay to join films.
First he had thought of starting a company, but looking at the situation, he decided to do acting only. His first film was ‘Kiski Biwi’ (1942), directed by MA Mirza. His name was changed from Afzal to A Himalaywala (since he came from the Himalayan town of Dehradun, like Kashmiri from Kashmir), by Shaukat Hussain, husband of Noorjehan. However in many films he was credited as Afzal only. He worked in few films like, ‘Vishwaas’ (1943), ‘Ankh Ki Sharm’ (1943), ‘Dost’ (1944), ‘Kismatwaala’ (1944), ‘Zeenat’ (1945), ‘Humayun’ (1945), ‘Nal Damayanti’ (1945), ‘Jagbeeti’ (1946), ‘Samrat Ashok’ (1947) and ‘Elaan’ (1947).
He was an outspoken and straightforward person, fond of hunting, football and travelling by car. He toured all of India twice in his car. In 1943, he married actress singer Amirbai Karnataki. After marriage he banned her from acting in films. Within 2-3 years, on this and other issues, they could not get along. He used to hit her and take all her money. At last, it was rumoured that he gave her talaaq after taking 2 lakh rupees and her car. Even after this he was stalking her. She stayed with her elder sister Ahilya Bai. Then one day, she was kidnapped by Himalaywala, from the recording room. She was kept locked in a room and beaten daily. She somehow managed to inform her sister.
Ahilyabai then got in touch with her acquaintance Mr Rasiklal Vyas and his brother Chhailabhai Vyas – one of the best criminal lawyers of Bombay. With their political and social connections, they forced the police to register an FIR, which was refused due to Himalaywala’s bribe. Meanwhile Himalaywala was alerted by his cronies. Within a few hours Amirbai was escorted back to her sister’s place, by Himalaywala. All this episode is described in full detail in the book ‘Aap Ki Parchhaiyaan’, by Rajnikumar Pandya ji. Amirbai later married Gujarati Journalist Badri Kaanchwala.
After partition, Himalaywala migrated to Pakistan. There the lady luck smiled on him and he did very well. Urdu film Shahida (1949) was his first film in Pakistan, which celebrated silver jubilees in Delhi and Lucknow.
Himalaywala was in leading role in Pakistan’s first silver jubilee Urdu film 2 Aansoo in 1950. He was the main villain actor in most of the 1950s movies. He played the Akbar The Great role in the musical film Anar Kali in 1958. His other famous moves were Kundan (1950) Chan Way(1951), Ghulam (1953), Gumnam, Ruhi (1954), Shoni(1955),Qatil (1955), Sarfarosh (1956)Saat Lakh (1957), Gumrah, Naghma-e-Dil (1959), Farishta (1961), Watan(1960) and Azra (1962).
He was seen in 33 movies, only two of them were in Punjabi language. His last film was Yahudi Ki Larki in 1963.He became successful as an actor and was also famous. His role of Akbar in the film ‘Anarkali’ (1957) was particularly appreciated very much. Mohd Afzuluddin Himalaywala married Begum Perveen, in Pakistan. He died on 1st January 1984 in Lahore. (Thanks to Film directory-46, http://www.pak.mag.com, Shishir krishna Sharma ji, book Aap ki parchhaiyan by Rajnikumar Pandya ji and my notes, for information used herein.)
Today’s song is sung by Kalyani Bai. With this song, the film Kismatwala-1944 makes its Debut on this Blog. I thank Mr. Sadanand ji Kamath for this song.
Song- Dhoondhta hai dil bahaana jaan khone ke liye (Kismatwaala)(1944) Singer- Kalyani Bai, Lyricist- Shams Lucknowi, MD- Shanti Kumar Desai
Lyrics
Dhoondhta hai
Dhoondhta hai
dil bahaana
jaan khone ke liye ae
maut ki aagosh mein
raahat se sone ke liye
maut ki aagosh mein
raahat se sone ke liye
dekhiye kismat ki khoobi
dost bhi dushman huye ae ae ae ae ae ae
dekhiye kismat ki khoobi
dost bhi dushman huye ae ae ae ae ae ae ae
phool kaante
phool kaaante ban gaye ae ae
nashtar chubhone ke liye
phool kaante
rote rote hijr mein
aen aen
rote rote hijr mein
aen aen aen aen aen aen aen aen
aen aen
rote rote
rote rote hijr mein
dariya bahaaye is qadar
aankh mein aansoo nahin
baaqi hai rone ke liye
aankh mein aansoo nahin
baaqi hai rone ke liye
dhoondhta hai
dil bahaana
jaan khone ke liye ae