Ghar mere aayee miss chhamchham

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Today’s song is a duet from the film Khoj-1953. A total of 3 films were made with the same title Khoj, in 1953, 1971 and 1989.

Long time back, I don’t exactly remember when, I had read in an English book on Psychology that as a rule, 7 people in this world are mirror images of each others – which means they look exactly like each others ! I could hardly believe it. The book further said that this does not include twins- because they naturally look alike mostly. This made their earlier statement more intriguing.

Few years passed and one day, one of my friends told me that he had seen a doctor in Nashik, who looked exactly like me ! I was stunned. He had brought that doctor’s name and address etc, should I desire to meet him. Sure, I was keen on it. So, one fine day I telephoned that doctor in Nashik and spoke to him expressing my desire to meet him. I also explained the purpose of my meeting him. He agreed. I went to Nashik along with my wife. By coincidence, that doctor’s first name was also Arun ! I went at the appointed date and time, to his residence, since he didn’t want me to meet him in his clinic.

Both of us were shocked to see each other. There was a striking resemblance in both of us. His and my wife were also amazed to note the similarity. After spending some time with them, we returned to Bombay. Within a few months I came to know that my Look-Alike from Nashik had migrated to USA for good ! I, somehow, had a strange feeling of relief. Not that it made any difference actually.

Why I remembered all this now is because today’s film Khoj-1953 had a storyline based on Look-Alikes. Imagine, remember and count yourself how many films,in any language or all languages together you must have seen till today, having stories of “Humshakal” ? Look Alikes are a very favourite subject of our filmmakers. But then even in Hollywood there were so many films made on this theme. Leave aside films, there are novels and dramas based on this theme. Starting with Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors”, based on the original Latin story, one novel I remember offhand is “Prisoner of Zenda” written in 1894 by Anthony Hope. There was a Black and White film in 1937 on this novel. Before that there were 2 silent films, in 1913 and 1922. I have seen this film made in 1952, in which Stewert Granger and Deborrah Kerr had acted. James Mason was the Villain minister in this film. Then there was another film in 1979 and a modern version in 1984.

In India, one can keep counting endlessly the number of films made on Look Alikes in almost every language, sometime or the other. There were many such films from the Southern languages. One famous old film was Nishan-1949, starring Ranjan in a double role. Original Tamil film was remade in many languages, including Hindi. Hindi too had so many such films, including my favourite ” Angoor’-1982 featuring Sanjeev kumar and Deven verma having double roles. There were many famous films like Raam aur Shyaam, Seeta aur Geeta, Chaalbaaz, Don etc.

Here are some details as to how many double role films were done by some actors. The list consists of many actors , but I am giving only a few names for information. The number of films are mentioned against each actor…….

etc etc.

These details are till 2014, taken from an online site. Film Awara Shehzada -1933 was the first film to have a double role of Shahu Modak.

The story of film Khoj-1953 was……..

It was a miracle of nature that two young men-Suraj and Ranbir, not having any blood relation, were look-alikes. Suraj was a rich and noble man, whereas Ranbir was a well known, ‘wanted’ dacoit. After knowing this similarity, Ranbir plans to take advantage of this.

Suraj loves a simple girl Kusum and is engaged to her. Ranbir sends his moll Mohini to lure Suraj. As expected Suraj falls prey to her and marries her. The very next day, Suraj is arrested by police on suspicion that he is Ranbir. Now all his wealth is in the hands of Ranbir. Next day, Suraj escapes from jail and goes to Kusum, who tries to save him and hide him. However the goons of Ranbir trace him and take him to their hideout. Ranbir decides to kill him now.

Meanwhile Mohini repents and tells everything to the Police before she is killed by Ranbir. However the Police reach his hideout, kill Ranbir in the encounter, find and save Suraj. Now Suraj and Kusum get united and All is well.

The cast of the film Khoj-1953 was Shammi, Mahipal, Satish, Habeeb, Helen, Omkar Devaskar, Rajni and others. In this cast, do you know who Omkar devaskar was ? He was one who could have changed Hindi film history, but the Luck was not in his favour.

BOMBAY- The Mayanagari, sometimes showed its Maya. It picked up unsuspecting souls and bestowed upon them the fame and a name as Leading actors, singers, Directors ,Lyricists or whatever in films. Thus, a scholarly young man, standing in a bus queue in Madras is picked up and made a Hero of more than 40 films as ” Ranjan”. It also made an onlooker of shooting from the crowds of a studio, the famous and rich Hero of more than 50 films as ” Motilal”. An ordinary Motor Mechanic becomes a well known film Director in various languages and is called ” Sarvottam Badami’. A poor motor mechanic working in a garage becomes an All India famous poet-Lyricist and Producer Director called ” Gulzar.” The same Maya made a casual singer in Hindu Colony, Dadar in Bombay a famous playback singer of repute, when her singing was heard by a passing Music Director Hanuman Prasad, just by chance. She was known later as ” Geeta Dutt”. There are many such examples.

There are many such number of “Accidental Stars”, but the same Maya also scuttled the Golden chances of capable aspiring small timers to become big stars. At Least two glaring examples are known. One is very well known to many, but the other is hardly known to anyone. First case is, Mehboob Khan was almost selected as Hero of India’s First Talkie film ” Alam Ara”-31. Even suitable costumes for him were also made ready, but then Maya played the trick and his name was pushed back, in favour of the more famous Master Vithal, to cover up the possible risk of the failure of the First talkie, which was an experiment. Nevertheless Mehboob Khan became a significantly notable producer, director and studio owner of India, is another matter.

The other case of how Maya scuttled the chances of fame, name and career of a small-time actor who was on the verge of becoming a big star, is not known to most people. Now, take a look at the cast of today’s film as mentioned in this post. Do you find a name Omkar Devaskar ? Well, this is his story….

Omkar Devaskar was born on 24-1-1911 in MP (Central provinces then). After his schooling, he ran away to Bombay to seek employment and got a job as an ‘ Assistant’ in the Imperial Film company. His job was to do any work given to him. The salary was Rs.20 pm. When he saw the film shootings, he had an urge to act in films. One day, he asked Ardeshir sheth about it and he started getting uncredited small roles in silent films.

The Imperial company decided to make a Talkie for the First time in India,mainly because of Dadasaheb Torne (Ramchandra Gopal Torne). It was he who prompted Irani to be the first in India to make a Talkie. Torne was his Manager for both Jyoti studio and Imperial Film Company. Torne was also an agent for Cinema Equipment imported from England and Germany. Torne imported Sound recording equipment and the company sent a German Engineer to explain and teach the technique to Indian technicians.

They first wanted to test the sound recording machine by recording and filming a song. Who would sing ? No one was ready to become the sacrificial goat. Irani saw Omkar and asked him to sing before the machine. A terrified Omkar lamely protested, but he had no choice. Ultimately he was ‘ made up’ and the recording and filming started. Omkar sang a Thumri, ‘ Pyare Rasia Bihari’. Everybody present, including Irani, were stunned with the sweet voice and the ease of his singing style. It came off extremely well. About 500 feet of film was shot flawlessly. Irani was so impressed that he toyed with the idea of giving Omkar the first song in the film Alam Ara. Maya swiftly went into action. Unfortunately the recording was not saved, otherwise it would have been the first film song to be filmed and Omkar the First ever singer actor to do so. But Alas ! This is called the stroke of misfortune ! Destiny had slated this honour for W.M.Khan.

Missing this chance, anyway, Omkar became an actor and singer. His first talkie film was Imperial’s “Sati Anusuya”-33. He sang 3 songs in the film ” Noor E Iman “-33, besides acting in it. Omkar acted in about 30 films in all. His last film was, perhaps, Khoj-1953. He sang 14 songs in 6 films. His last song came in the film Jagriti-49. Omkar was a regular actor in many Marathi films too. ( I have used information from Music beyond boundaries by Ashok Ranade and Marathi Cinema in Retrospect by Sanjit Narwekar, MuVyz,HFGK and my own notes, for this write up.)

Today’s song is the 4^th song of this film on this Blog. It is a duet by Afzal Hussain and Sulochana Kadam. Enjoy….

Song-Ghar mere aayi Miss Chham Chham (Khoj)(1953) Singers- Afzal Hussain, Sulochana Kadam, Lyricist-Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, MD- Nissar Bazmi
Both

Lyrics

ghar mere aayee miss chhamchham
mera dil boley rampampampam
mera dil boley rampam
ghar mere aayee miss chhamchham
mera dil boley rampampampam
mera dil boley rampam

tum se muhabbat ??
kheencha humko apni oar
tum se muhabbat ??
kheencha humko apni oar
tumko jee maan gaye hum
jee maan gaye hum
mera dil boley rampampampam
mera dil boley rampam
ghar mere aayee miss chhamchham
mera dil boley rampampampam
mera dil boley rampam

ghar se mere bhaagee kadkee
ab meree ban ja ae ladkee
ghar se mere bhaagee kadkee
ab meree ban ja ae ladkee
ab meree ban ja ae ladkee
ab meree jebon mein hai dam
haan jebon mein hai dam
mera dil boley rampampampam
mera dil boley rampam
ghar mere aayee miss chhamchham
mera dil boley rampampampam
mera dil boley rampam

o mister aisa kaisa
humko kab pyaara paisa
o mister aisa kaisa
humko kab pyaara paisa
gusse ke ??
na phenko bomb pe bomb
mera dil boley rampampampam
mera dil boley rampam
ghar mere aayee miss chhamchham
mera dil boley rampampampam
mera dil boley rampam

o madam mat ho ghamgeen
tum karta mera tauheen
o madam mat ho ghamgeen
tum karta mera tauheen
dekho hum mar jaayengaa aa
peechhoon tum pachhtaayengaa
dekho hum mar jaayengaa aa
peechhoon tum pachhtaayengaa
tumko na marne doonga ham
milke rahenge tum aur hum
rahenge tum aur hum
phir bolenge rampampampam
phir bolenge rampam
ghar mein khushee aayee chhamchham
mera dil boley rampampampam
mera dil boley rampam
ghar mein khushee aayee chhamchham
mera dil boley rampampampam
mera dil boley rampam