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 Mythological film – Mohini-1957.
During the decade of the 1950s, maximum religious, Bhakti pradhan and Mythological films were made. Among them, most had roots in some or the other Puranas, Ramayan or mahabharat, but there were also films having the tag of ‘ Mythological’ film, which had absolutely no connection whatsoever, known or unknown, to any of the mythological stories. I have read all 18 Puranas, Ramayan and Mahabharat. I do not claim to know each and everything from there, but even in the film booklet no mention is made of the source of the story. Film Mohini is one such film. With 100s of Gods and 1000s of stories, it is easy to make up a story resembling any genuine story. Looks like that, like Arabian Night stories, here too adulteration has entered ! A simple trick of adding a lot of magic scenes can enable a story to become a Mythological or Arabian Night story !
Let us take a look at the story of the film Mohini-1957. Actually, the name Mohini misled me to enter the theatre thinking it was a story of Mohini-Bhasmasur, from the Shiv Puran.
Raja Ugrasen goes for hunting and ends up getting into the web of a sorceress Sundari whom he brings to his palace to marry. She is gracefully accepted by the existing Maharani who is pregnant with a child, who,it is predicted, will be a mighty emperor. Sundari is jealous and instigates the king to have her killed. The killers take maharani to the jungle, take out her eyes as a proof and leave her alive. She is found and nursed by a Bhil king. She delivers a baby boy. She works as a maid. The boy grows to be Vikram, now 18 years old and raring to take king’s revenge.
Meanwhile, Princess Sugunavati is kidnapped and the king announces 1/2 kingdom and the princess to the finder. Pratap,a friend of Vikram makes a magic flying horse,on which Vikram goes and finds the princess. The king is happy and makes him the Senapati. Sundari recognises him and plans to kill him, but the princes who is in his love foils the plan and saves Vikram. Together, Vikram and Princess expose Sundari to the King. King is angry and executes Sundari. The Maharani is called back with honour and needless to mention that Vikram and princess get married.
From the story itself, it is clear that no God is involved and that the film’s category is misleading. It should have been either ‘Imaginary’ (काल्पनिक ) or ‘Costume’ film. The film was produced by Ramesh Vyas, directed by Ramanlal Desai and the MD was N.Datta. The cast of the film was Shahu Modak, Nirupa Roy, Shakila, Rajkumar, Roopkumar, Rooplaxmi, krishna kumari, Yeshwant dave, H.Prakash etc. There were 2 Child artistes – Raj Kumar and Roop Kumar. This Roop Kumar was none other than the famous and cute Daisy Irani.
Daisy Irani was a Parsee. her parents were from the middle class, but her mother Peri Irani was highly money minded. They were 5 siblings – Menaka, Bunny, Sarosh, Daisy and Honey Irani. Bunny irani was living with his aunt from his childhood as she had no issues. The mother wanted to make money and hence she employed all the 4 children into films as child actors, not caring for their education or future. Thus, not only their childhood was spent under the arc lights but they did not get any formal education. A teacher used to teach them whenever they were available. However they never developed interest in learning. When their child actor stage ended, they could not do anything else.
Menaka Irani was married to Kamran Khan, a stunt actor who turned to direction and later on to production, leading to becoming an alcoholic when he failed everywhere. To run the family, a one time heroine, Menaka had to work as a Housekeeping staff in Hotel Sea Rock in Mumbai. Her children Farah khan and sajid Khan joined film line and became reasonably successful.Farah was Choreographer and then a director.
Daisy Irani became a chain smoker. After her husband K.K.Shukla died in 1993, her children were small. She became a film story writer lkike her husband. Honey Irani married Javed Akhtar, who divorced her to marry Shabana Azmi. Honey had to stay in just one room provided by Menaka, her sister, with her 2 children Zoya Akhtar and Farhan Akhtar. Sarosh, after doing child roles, studied upto tenth class and joine his brother Bunny’s construction business. When that colapsed, both started looking after their Irani Hotel and bakery B.Merwan in Bombay.
This is how the lives of most child actors were spoiled by their greedy parents. Most child actors did not succeed as adult actors. Take the case of popular child actor Junior mehmood, who died of Cancer, recently in a very pitiable condition. The other child actor in the film – Rajkumar was a little better, but he too suffered when child roles ended and when he was not getting adult roles.
There were 5 Rajkumar s in the industry at the same time. The first was Kannada Hero Dr. Rajkumar. However, he never worked in any Hindi film, so no confusion about him.The second was the famous Dialogue master Raaj Kumar ‘Jaani’. Third was Rajkumar Gupta ( from Ranchi), who was the main character in popular film Jagriti-54. He never worked again in any film. Fourth was Raj(u) Kumar, a junior artist, who did minor roles- mostly uncredited-in films like Shri 420-55, Jagte Raho-56. Dilli ka Thug-58, Aaj aur kal-63, Ziddi-64 etc etc..The fifth was this Rajkumar, who mostly worked in Religious and Mythological films. His name was Rajkumar Khatri.
Rajkumar khatri was born on 24-11-1938 at Lahore. His real name was Rajendra kumar S. Khatri. He started as a child artiste in films like Janmashtami-50, Jai Mahakali-51 and Insaan-52. His first film as an adult was Shuk Rambha-53, in which he played the role of young Shukdev. He was a fine actor, not extraordinary, but there was something special about his screen presence. Apart from his boyish looks, he had an unspoken charm and emanated an inherent goodness. In his second film “Tulsidas”-54 he played the role of Shri Ram. He was hardly 15-16 year old then. This must be the youngest and most boyish looking Shri Ram ever seen on the screen !
Rajkumar Khatri acted in 61 films, mostly Religious and Mythological films (47 to be precise). Not that he did not work in any social films, but such films were less. He was seen in films like Sautela Bhai-62, Nai umer ki nai fasal-65 etc etc. Due to his young looks, boyish face and innocent looks, he was generally given roles of younger brother. As Laxman, he acted in 7 films. His last film was probably Chintamanee Surdas-87.
His selected Filmography was
Janmashtami-(1950), Jai Mahakali-(1951), Shuk Rambha (1953), Tulsidas (1954), Prabhu Ki Maya (1955), Sant Tukaram (1955), Ayodhyapati (1956), Amar Singh Rathod (1957), Mohini (1957), Neel Mani (1957), Maya Bazaar (1958), Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan (1959), Maya Machhindra (1960), Jai Chitod (1961), Sampoorna Ramayan (1961), Sautela Bhai (1962), Dooj Ka Chand (1964), Goswami Tulsidas (1964, Awadhi), Mahabharat (1965), Nai Umar Ki Nai Fasal (1965), Shree Ram Bharat Milap (1965), Badrinath Yatra (1967), Ram Bhakt Hanuman (1969), Sati Sulochana (1969), Bhagwan Parshuram (1970), Veer Ghatotkach (1970), Brahma Vishnu Mahesh (1971), Hanuman Vijay (1974), Maya Machhindra (1975), Har Har Gange (1979), Mahabali Hanuman (1981), Sant Gyaneshwar (1982), Sati Naag Kanya (1983), Chintamanee Surdas (1988).
In the mid 80s, when film offers became scarce, he joined Prakash Mehra as an assistant. He used to live in Chembur. He was known as Chhota Rajkumar in the industry. He worked with Prakash Mehra for a long time, as Assistant Director and as also his P.A. Reportedly, he died in September 2014. No further information on him was available. (Thanks to maitrimanthan.com for some information and my own notes.)
Today’s song is sung by Shamshad Begum. Enjoy….
Song- Mere dil ka sajanva ilaaj keejiye (Mohini)(1957) Singer- Shamshad Begum, Lyricist-Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, MD- N Datta
Lyrics
Mere dil ka haaye
uyi mere dil ka
sajanva ilaaj keejiye
chaahe barson chaahe kal
chaahe aaj keejiye
mere dil ka haaye
uyi mere dil ka
ho o o
o o o
mere dil pe mohobbat ki bijlee giree
main deewaanee tere peechhe peechhe phiree
mere dil pe mohobbat ki bijlee giree
main deewaanee tere peechhe peechhe phiree
hum pe thhodee meharbaanee maharaj keejiye
mere dil ka sajanwa ilaaj keejiye
chaahe barson chaahe kal
chaahe aaj keejiye
mere dil ka haaye
uyi mere dil ka
ho o o
o o o
kaise kaise ishaare ye ankhiyaan karen
mujhe badnaam galiyon mein sakhiyaan karen
kaise kaise ishaare ye ankhiyaan karen
mujhe badnaam galiyon mein sakhiyaan karen
hum pe hansta hai zamaanaa
zara laaj keejiye
mere dil ka sajanwa ilaaj keejiye
chaahe barson chaahe kal
chaahe aaj keejiye
mere dil ka haaye
uyi mere dil ka
ho o o
o o o
meree nazron se bach ke kahaan jaaoge
wahin aa jaaungee main jahaan jaaoge
meree nazron se bach ke kahaan jaaoge
wahin aa jaaungee main jahaan jaaoge
meree aankhon mein samaa ke na mijaaz keejiye
mere dil ka sajanwa ilaaj keejiye
chaahe barson chaahe kal
chaahe aaj keejiye
mere dil ka haaye
uyi mere dil ka