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 an obscure film called Aisa Kyun-1947.
The film was made by Shri Raj Pictures, Calcutta. It was directed by A K Chatterjee and the music was by Anupam Ghatak. The cast of the film was Iftikhar, Radharani, Urmila, Pinky, Faiz, Tandon etc. Most people are not aware of the fact that besides New Theatres studio in Calcutta, there were many other film making studios in Calcutta. Hindi films were also made in Burma at that time by the indo-Burma productions.
Some of the studios based in Calcutta were East india film co., Madon Theatres, Aurora film corporation, Shree Bharat films, Laxmi pictures, Chitramandir, RBS Productions, Dev Datta films, Indra movietone, Kali films, Kamla Movietone, Moti mahal Theatres, Murli Pictures, New Popular Pictures, Quality Pictures, Radha film co., Sonoray Pictures, Star film co., Sunrise film co.and Tollywood studios. (source-Indian Cinematographers’ yearbook-1938) This is an old list of when many Hindi films were made in Calcutta. Of late, there must be a lot of changes now.
In olden days, there were 3 major film centres-Bombvay, Lahore and Calcutta. After 1947, all the Hindi film activity at Lahore shifted to Bombay. By mid 50’s even Calcutta almost stopped making Hindi films. Many Hindi speaking artistes in various disciplines of film making shifted to Bombay and finally Bombay became the only and the main Hindi film making Centre.
The year 1947 is a reminder not only for the Independence of India, but also for the upheaval that took place in the film industry that time. More than in any other industry in India, Muslims were plentiful, working in different sections and departments of the Hindi film industry. majority of them migrated to the newly formed Muslim Nation of Pakistan. This did create a lot of disturbance in the film industry. Right from the beginning of 1947, there were signs that soon the British would leave India – after dividing it into two Nations, India and Pakistan. When the month and date became known for the Partition, there was a great hurry among the filmmakers to complete their projects on hand and in process, compromising many factors like quality of the film, number of songs and such other things.
This resulted in the record number of films made in 1947 alone – 181 Hindi films and about 100 films in other languages in India. This was a record which remained unbroken till 1985, when 187 Hindi films were made. Thus from 1931 to 1985, this record remained unbroken for more than 50 years ! Obviously, this resulted in a big compromise on quality to achieve quantity with many films produced half heartedly. Most or rather many films made in 1947 remained obscure, unheard of and many flopped due to poor quality. Actually only few films were released in 1947, because many films were released in 1948 and 1949, with some films being released in Pakistan too.
Did you ever hear about films Amar Asha, Angoorbala, Attention, Barrister, But Tarash, Chalte Chalte, Chandrahas, Dagabaz Dost, Dehati,Ek kadam,Gaurav,Giribala, Heera, Intezar ke baad, Jhalak,Jurmana, Khaufnak aankhen, Lalaat, Mangalsutra, Moti, Sewa gram, Stage girl, Tohfa or Utho jago ? Of course not all films were below standards. Some of the landmark films were also made in 1947, like Shehnai, Mirza Sahiban, Jugnu, saajan, Naatak, Meera, Elan,Aap ki sewa mein, Dard, Do Bhai, Neel Kamal or Parwana etc. However by and large the picture was like this only.
I have not seen this film, so I have no idea about its story etc. For the film’s Heroine-RadhaRani Calcuttewali, this was her last Hindi film that she acted or sang in. She continued her work in Bangla films, I suppose. This Radha Rani was one of the “Same Name Confusion ” pair, as there was another Radha Rani-Bombaywali. The music director Anupam Ghatak also died in 1947 only.
The music Director Anupam Ghatak – the second-generation Bengali-Hindi composer (after Rai Chand Boral and Pankaj Mullick) was born on 4-12-1911 at Mymensingh(now in Bangladesh). He took music lessons from father Atul Ghatak and Keshav ganesh Dhekan. He became an excellent Flautist. After a short stint in AIR,as a singer in 1930, he joined as asst. to Bishen Chand Boral (brother of Raichand Boral) and later to R C Boral himself for Vidyapati-1937
First independent film score: Payer Dhulo. Later worked at Sagar Film in Bombay, composing Zia Sarhadi’s Bhole Bhale and a series of films for Badami, Luhar et al. (1939). Returned to Calcutta, notably for Barua’s Shapmukti; thereafter had assignments in both Calcutta and Lahore. Known for his wide range, from the sentimental Ekti paisa dao go babu in Shape Mukti to the experimental Gane mor kon indradhanu in Agni Pareeksha.
His Hindi film career started with ‘Tarzan ki Beti-38 and Bhole Bhale-39. He gave music to only 17 Hindi films, composing 153 songs.These included Ladies Only,Service Ltd.,Sadhana,Uski tamanna (all 1939), Civil marriage (1940), Sri Ramanuj-43 etc. In Lahore he did Champa -45,Badnami-46 and Shalimar -46 before Partition. His other films as MD were, Khush Naseeb-46, Aai bahar-46, faisla-47, Aisa Kyun-47 and Banjare-48 and Shamsheer-1953. He had also sung 4 songs in his first film Tarzan ki beti-1938. His last Hindi film was Shamsheer-53, which was released only in 1953,after he died on 5-2-1947 itself.
Today’s song is sung by Jaganmoy Mitra aka Jagmohan Sursagar. So much is already written about him on our Blog by me and others, therefore I will not repeat his Bio-data. However I reproduce here an article published in Bangla Paper ” Anandabazar Patrika,Calcutta ” after his death.
Jaganmoy Mitra passes away
(Translated from Anadabazar Patrika, September 5, 2003)
Jaganmoy Mitra, the legendary singer of “chithi” is very far from us now. (PDG: The opening lines of the song “chithi”(1952), MD: Sailesh Dattagupta, are “tumi aaj koto doore” which means “you are so far today”). He expired yesterday night after suffering a cardiac arrest in his house at Juhu, Mumbai. He was 85. He is survived by three sons and two daughters. Although he stayed away from Bengal for the greater part of his life, he admired Bengali music and culture till his last day.
“aami duranto baishaakhi jhad” (PDG: which means ‘I am a restless summer tempest, you are a fiery flame’, MD: Kamal Dasgupta, 1947) and “shaaon raate yadi” – romantic numbers like these have entertained numerous music lovers over more than five decades.
Besides Bengali, his popularity in Hindi music was also unsurpassable at one time. He was known to the rest of India as ‘Jagmohan’. Gandhiji was an admirer of his music. He has recorded over 400 songs in a career spanning over five decades. Besides Bengali romantic numbers he has also sung Rabindrasangeet,
Nazrulgeeti, and simultaneously in Hindi, Gujrati and Marathi.
His first record for HMV was the Nazrulgeeti “shaaon raate yadi” in 1938. This song propelled him to immediate popularity. He has recorded 100 plus Hindi songs. He scored music for the Hindi film “Sarhad”. (PDG: That should be Sardar(1955)).
He has received numerous awards and felicitations including Padmashri and Sursagar. But he always valued the admiration of his listeners above any awards. His music had taken him to the United States, Great Britain and East Africa. His autobiography is titled “shaaon raate yadi smarane aase more” ( which means ‘If you remember me on a rainy night’).
The song,which follows, is sung so beautifully that one is lost with the soft and melodious voice of Jagmohan. This was his speciality and for this style I simply adore him.
Song-Thhukra de jo nazron se (Aisa Kyun)(1947) Singer-Jagmohan Sursagar, Lyrics-Unknown, MD-Anupam Ghatak
Lyrics
Thhukra de jo nazron se
dil ka mere nazraana
apna na samajh usko
begaana hai begaana
Thhukra de jo nazron se
guzri huyi baaton ko o
o o o o o o o
dohraane se
kya aa aa haasil il
guzri huyi baaten to
afsaana hai afsaana
guzri huyi baaten to
afsaana hai afsaana
Thhukra de jo nazron se
main aen ae ae
thhak gaya samjha kar
apne dil e naadaan ko o o
deewaane ko kya kahiye
deewaana hai deewaana
deewaane ko kya kahiye
deewaana hai deewaana
Thhukra de jo nazron se