This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, 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.
In the early phase of film making, it was difficult to get good looking female actors from educated or respected Indian families for working in films. It was becaused working in movies was considered a job ‘below one’s dignity’ at that time by most Indians. For Silent films, many Anglo Indian and Jew girls became Heroines because for them acting was like any other vocation.
Dadasaheb Phalke had described an incident in his memoirs. While making his first film, he needed a female actor for Taramati’s role. He found it very difficult to get one. Those days, even in stage plays, the female roles were done by handsome(sometimes, not so handsome also) males, but even they were not ready. He became desperate and went finally to a Red light area and talked to some prostitutes. Even they refused to do this ‘lowly’ job. Reluctantly, Dadasaheb settled for Salunke, a male to do this role.
As the Talkie films started, the number of Anglo Indian Girls rapidly went down as most of them did not know Hindi nor could they sing. Only a few hard working Anglo Indian girls survived and progressed from silent to Talkie films, like Savita Devi (Iris Gasper)-who learnt Hindi/Urdu and singing, with efforts, Sulochana (Ruby Myers), Indira Devi(Effie Hippolet), Lalita Devi(Bonnie Bird), Pramila(Esher Abrahams), Seeta Devi(Renee Smith), Madhuri(Beryl Classen), Manorama(Winnie Stewart) etc. Since singing was an important requisite, the field was now open to singing girls from Kothas, Tawayafs and professional singers. Reasonably good looks and singing ability was what made them actresses. These girls, who came from Kothas and professional singer families used the suffix ” Bai” to their names to announce their speciality. Thus you had Jaddan bai, Amir bai, Johrabai, Rattan bai etc etc.
Many young singing girls found Cinema as a place where they could get (catch ? ) a good Husband from a better family background, earning respectability(forget religion). Many starlets married Producers, directors, Actors, Singers and Composers, left acting and settled as respectable Housewives. Some girls got Husbands from Nawabs and the Royalties,as they were patron of Arts. many examples from early era can be cited in this connection like
Gulab bai alias Kamla devi married S.Fatelal-a Director in Prabhat Films.
Jaddanbai marriedUttamchand, a Medical student and a Jaagirdar.
Fatima bai(mother of Alam Ara fame Zubeida) married nawab of Sachin,Guajarat.
Sultana married Yusuf Laljee, Businessman and chief od Bombay Municiple corporation.
actress Sarojini(Roshan) married Nanubhai Vakil-producer/Director (Their daughter was actress AZRA).
actress Indurani (Ishrat)-sister of Sarojini- married Ramniklal Shah-Producer/Director.
actress Shirin bai married Nanabhai Bhatt (Their sons are Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt).
actress Zubeida of Alam Ara married Raja Dhanrajgir of Hyderabad-deccan.
the other actress Zubeida (on whose life, the film Zubeida was made) married Maharaja Hanwant singh of Jodhpur etc.
This trend continued in the industry even after things changed and educated and respected family people began to enter the industry. Now, one could see marriages were taking place between people of film industry itself like Rattanbai and Director Hafiz, Jyoti and Durrani, Nalini Jaywant and Virendra Desai, Noorjahan-Shaukat Hussain Rizvi, Meena Kumari, Sardar Akhtar, Snehprabha Pradhan, Anil Biswas, Lalita Deulkar etc.
In recent era instances were Waheeda Rehman, Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhonsle, Hemant kumar, Manik Verma, Premlata, Geeta Dutt, Rishi Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachhan and Abhishek Bachhan etc.
Among all this,one melodious pair was that of JAGJIT KAUR, the Singer and KHAYYAM, the composer.
Jagjit Kaur was born in Hoshiyarpur. Her family was very wealthy and her father was a Lawyer. He was a music lover and encouraged his daughter to learn singing. Thus, she learnt classical music from experts,from an young age.. She started singing on Lahore Radio, while still in school.
In 1950 she sang her first film song in Punjabi. This enhanced her ambitions and she came to Bombay to seek entry into film singing. According to composer K.Datta (Datta Korgaonkar), he first heard Jagjit in a private function. Impressed with her style of singing,h e gave her a duet in his film ” Gumasta”-1951-with G.M.Durrani. The song was ” Dil naache aur gaaye jawani”,which we will listen today. Two Years later she sang her first solo in film “Khoj”-1953. Her song ” Muhabbat ki dhun, bekaraaron se poochho” from film Dil E Nadaan-53 became very famous and popular.
In 1954, she got introduced to Khayyam and soon they got married in 1954. ( AK ji of songsof yore,wrote in his Blog on Jagjit Kaur-” Born in an affluent Punjabi Zamindar family she must have had a number of wealthy suitors, but she chose a struggling musician Khayyam to marry. When you hear the songs the two created together – most of her songs are composed by Khayyam – you feel the pairing must have been made in the heaven.” I 100% agree with him.) After marriage, she spent next 6 years in raising a family.
From 1961, her second phase of career started with ‘Shola aur Shabnam’-61, but in 1964, a song from film Shagun-64, ‘”Tum apne ranj o ghum, apni pareshani mujhe de do” became extremely popular and this song became her identity in HFM. Somehow,she did not get many opportunities to sing in more films- may be due to her peculiar Punjabi style of singing. She worked as an Assistant Music Director for Khayyam in a few films. She sang many Ghazals and NFS under the baton of Khayyam.
K.Datta or Datta Korgaonkar,who gave her first chance to sing in Hindi films, was known for his loyalty and devotion to singer Noorjehan in making music. He was born in Girgaon, Bombay in 1901. He began singing in Ganesh-melas and private programs since young age. He started his career with Master Vinayak’s ” Mera Haq”-1939 and went on to give music to only 17 films,namely, Alakh Niranjan, Geeta, Yaad, Nadaan, Zameen, Baadshah, Maharathi Karna, Badi Maa-45 (This was the only film in which Noorjehan, Lata and Asha acted in one film and sang 3 songs also), Yateem, Shaahkaar, Rangmahal, Meri Kahaani, Daaman-51 (First duet of Lata and Asha), Gumasta, Rishta,Ajnabi and Harihar Bhakti-66. One Marathi film” Ramgadhcha Raajbandi” also had his music.
He used to live in Navroze Building in Opera House, Bombay with his assistant Sumant( He was a Flute player and at one time he was in demand from almost every composer in the industry. He was brought from Kolhapur by K.Datta). Music Directors like Shyamsunder, Anil Biswas, Naushad, Roshan etc used to assemble there for chatting with Anna-K.Datta. he was an Astrologer and had the horoscopes of most people in the industry.
Here are two anecdotes about K.Datta. One was ,he not only helped Lata in her struggling days by giving her songs in Badi Maa, but he was also the first to admonish her for her faulty Urdu diction (the word was-Paigham). He insisted that Lata must improve her Urdu diction if she wanted to build a singing career in HFM.
Film Daman’s songs were extraordinary. Lata’s ‘Tirulilla, gaaye Lata’,’ Yaad aane lagi’ ‘ chakori ko chanda se pyaar’ and ‘ ye ruku ruki hawayen’ became immortal. During the making of Daman music, once there was a ‘wet’ party on the rooftop of a Juhu Building. Drinks and Chicken was the Menu. Rajendra Krishna came very late to the party. He was already ‘loaded’ and he had brought two Bottles also with him. As soon as he came, Datta started firing him for not giving the song lyrics till then. Rajendra krishna then and there wrote down the lyrics of the song,”ye ruki ruki hawayen” and Datta set it to tune in the next 5 minutes !
Datta was famous as ” Anna” in music circle. He had great respect for Sajjad. Sajjad always cursed Naushad but Naushad always praised Sajjad’s songs. One day after Naushad complained to Anna, he asked Sajjad,’ why do you criticise Naushad always, when he appreciates your music ?”. Sajjad said, ” Anna, Naushad bewaqoof hai, usse music nahin dene aata, iss liye.”
Gumasta-51 was a production of Aina Films and it was produced and Directed by S.M.Yusuf. Yusuf started directing films from Bharat ke Laal-1936 and directed 15 films till Maalik-58. Then he migrated to Pakistan. There he remade his Indian film Mehendi-58, as SAHELI-61 in Pakistan. This film became a Blockbuster in Pakistan and created many records. In Pakistan he directed 13 films till Goonj Uthi Shehnai-76. He died in Lahore, on 17-8-1994.
Let us now enjoy the DEBUT SONG of Jagjit Kaur which is a duet of G M Durrani and Jagjit Kaur. Raja Mehdi Ali Khan is the lyricist.
Lyrics of this song were sent by Nitin Shah.
Song-Dil naache aur gaaye jawaani (Gumaashta)(1951) Singers-G M Durrani, Jagjit Kaur, Lyrics-Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, MD-K Datta
Lyrics(Provided by Nitin Shah)
Dil naache
hoi dil naache
aur gaaye jawaani
gaaye jawaani
pantala gushtala gushtala
gushtala gushtala gushtala gushta
dil naache
dil naache
aur gaaye jawaani
gaaye jawaani
pantala gushtala gushtala
gushtala gushtala gushtala gushta
jhoom jhoom ithlaaye jawaani
gaaye jawaani
jhoom jhoom ithlaaye jawaani
gaaye jawaani
pantala gushtala gushtala
gushtala gushtala gushtala gushta
gushta
gushta
dil naache
haay dil nache
aur gaaye jawani
gaaye jawaani
pantala gushtala gushtala
gushtala gushtala gushtala gushta
angdaayi jo loon sharmaake
dil le jaaun aankh milaake
angdaayi jo loon sharmaake
dil le jaaun aankh milaake
ghoom ghoom lehraaye jawaani
gaaye jawaani
pantala gushtala gushtala
gushtala gushtala gushtala gushta
gushta
gushta
aaaa aaaa aaaa aa
meri aankhen hain do paimaane
peele peele mere deewaane
meri aankhen hain do paimaane
peele peele mere deewaane
rum jhum bal khaaye jawaani
gaaye jawaani
pantala gushtala gushtala
gushtala gushtala gushtala gushta
gushta
gushta
dil naache
haay dil nache
aur gaaye jawani
gaaye jawaani
pantala gushtala gushtala
gushtala gushtala gushtala gushta
gushta
gushta
gushta