This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, 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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‘Jaagir’ (1959) was produced by Premnath Laroiya and was directed by Jagmohan Mattu. The star cast included Premnath, Meena Kumari, Ulhas, Mehmood, Minoo Mumtaz, Sheila Vaz, Niranjan Sharma, Hiralal, Anjali Devi, Kuldeep Kaur, Radheshyam, Bhudo Advani, Bhagwan Sinha, Radheshyam, Jennifer etc. Originally, Ajit was the lead actor for the film which he left when the film was under production and Premnath stepped in his place.
The VCD of the film is available for watching on one of the video sharing platforms. However, the quality of the VCD is less than average.
The theme of the film is about how the rich interpret the meaning of ‘jaagir’ (estate) as against those who are middle or poor classes. While owning a large estate for a rich man is ‘jaagir’ for him, for a middle-class person, his small house is his ‘jaagir’. In a broader term, for a poor man, he may not own a house but for him his children, honesty and faith are his ‘jaagir’. The different interpretations of ‘jaagir’, by rich and poor create class conflicts in the society because acquiring more estate and thus wealth make the rich powerful in the society’s hierarchy.
The story of the is film as under:
Hawaldar Ranbeer Singh (Ulhas), an ex-army man and a widower, owns a chawl in which he stays with his small son. He has rented out other rooms to middle and poor families. He is very popular with the children of his chawl as he treats them well like a responsible guardian. More than his chawl, he treats the children of his chawl as his real ‘jaagir’.
Next to Ranbeer’s chawl is a big mansion where a doctor (Niranjan Sharma) stays with his family. For doctor, Ranbeer Singh’s chawl is an eyesore for his status. He is also disturbed by the nuisance created by the children of the chawl. He has been pursuing with Ranbeer Singh to sell his chawl to him so that he gets rid of the nuisance. However, Ranbeer Singh is not interested in selling his ‘jaagir’ as the families with their children would lose their shelters. The confrontations between the two continues on the issue of children’s nuisance.
One day, Ranbeer’s Singh’s son falls from the staircase with serious injuries. Ranbeer Singh goes to Doctor with a request to treat his son immediately. But Doctor put a condition that he would treat his son provided he sells his chawl to him. Ranbeer Singh refuses to sell the chawl and goes back to his house to find that his son has already lost his life. A raging Ranbeer Singh decides to take a revenge on Doctor. He kidnaps Doctor’s son and takes with him to a dense forest to kill him. However, he has a change of mind and decides to make him a dacoit to tarnish the image of the Doctor. Ranbeer himself becomes a dacoit to train the boy.
In the meanwhile, police are hotly pursuing Ranbeer Singh for kidnapping Doctor’s son and for other dacoity activities. His chawl has been confiscated by the government authority. In one of the police raids, Ranbeer is saved by Hiralal whose life’s journey runs parallel to Ranbeer. Once, Hiralal was running a Carnival which was in the verge of closing. Ranbeer Singh helps him financially to re-starts his Carnival.
Years passes and the kidnapped boy grows up as Jeewan (Premnath). He indulges in his first dacoity, coincidently in his real father’ house. However, when Ranbeer comes to know about his dacoity, he is remorseful thinking how his life has turned from an honest person to a bad person. He passes on all his money to Jeewan and tells him to regain the ownership of his chawl (jaagir) and give up dacoity. With promise from Jeewan, Ranbeer retires at an unknown destination to escape the police.
In his pursuit to regain the ownership of the chawl, Jeewan needs money for which he tries his luck in a gambling den run by Carnival where he meets Jyoti (Meena Kumari). Jeewan losses all his money in the gambling. In a spur of the moment, Jeewan snatches the money from the gambling den and tries to run away. He is caught and is hammered when Maya (Kuldeep Kaur) who runs the Carnival, comes to his rescue. She tells Jeewan that remaining in Carnival is safe for him as police is after him. He finds that Jyoti also works for Carnival as are others due to their unfortunate circumstances. Jyoti cautions Jeewan that this place is not good, and he should leave. But Jeewan is not convinced with Jyoti as he thinks that if the place is not good then why she is working here.
With a single aim of raising money for regaining the chawl, Jeewan is prepared to undertake any work for Maya. He also come to know that Maya runs Carnival as a front for her carrying out heists of rich patrons. Jeewan is given a couple of assignments of heists for which he is promised a part of the loot. But he does not get money from Maya on the pretext that she needs money to run Carnival and to take care of her workers.
Jeewan is desperate to get the chawl back in the Government auction to fulfil his promise to Ranbeer Singh, But he has no money. Maya has now a better assignment for Jeewan which would get him a big amount. But the assignment is risky as he has to kill a person. If he fails, he will get arrested. At first, he refuses the assignment as he has never killed any one before. But the lure of money was so great that he agrees. Despite the persistent plea from Jyoti against this assignment, Jeewan is bent upon going ahead with it.
When Jeewan goes for his killing assignment, Jyoti secretly follows him. Ranbeer reaches to kill his target, but he is shocked to find that the target is none other than Ranbeer Singh. With the suggestion from Jyoti, Jeewan reports back to Maya to tell her that he has completed the assignment and as agreed she should give him agreed money. Maya is giving excuses to wait for a day. But Jeewan is desperate. He snatches the keys of her lockers and takes out the money. Maya points gun at him to drop the amount.
During this milieu, Ranbeer Singh suddenly appears. He snatches the gun from Maya and kills her. Ranbeer Singh is arrested along with Jeewan. In the Court, Ranbeer Singh reveals to judge that Jeewan is not his son but the Doctor’s son to whom he had kidnapped. The judge pronounced death sentence for Ranbeer Singh for killing Maya and pronounce one year’s imprisonment for Jeewan for his illegal activities.
The film ends with Jyoti receiving Jeewan from the jail after his release. Both travels on her two wheeler to an unknown destination.
‘Jaagir’ (1959) had six songs written by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan (5) and Majrooh Sultanpuri (1). All the songs were set to music by Madan Mohan. Three songs have been covered in the Blog. I am presenting the 4th song from the film, ‘wafaaon ke badle jafaa kar rahen hain’ to appear on the Blog. The song is rendered by Asha Bhosle on the words of Raja Mehdi Ali Khan. The song is picturised on Sheila Vaz.
Most of Sheila Vaz’s dance sequences in Hindi films have been what can broadly be termed as ‘Bollywood Dance’. It may be a pleasant surprise for the audience of that time to watch her mujra dance performance in the song under discussion. It is amazing as to how she has nicely picked up the nuances of mujra dance when she cannot read and understand Hindi or Urdu. The songs were given to her in English with explanations to enable her to give the correct expressions. Despite this limitation, Sheila Vaz always made the electrifying presence in her dance sequences and her dance under discussion is one of them.
Sheila Vaz was born on October 18, 1934, in Dadar, Mumbai. The family was originally from Goa. She learnt dances especially Indian folk dances. Initially, she had to face some resistance from the family who were against her joining films but eventually she got permission to dance in Hindi films. She began her filmy career with a full-pledged dance in ‘Maa’ (1952). This was followed by Kidar Sharma’s ‘Gunaah’ (1953) and Kishore Sahu’s ‘Mayur Pankh’ (1954). Her active years in Hindi film industry was during 1952-60 during which she worked in about 70 films. She got married to Ramesh Lakhanpal sometime in 1960 after which she quit her filmy career. After marriage, she became Rama Lakhanpal. Ramesh Lakhanpal had directed two films, ‘Pocket Maar’ (1974) and ‘Kaala Aadmi’ (1977).
Sheila Vaz passed away on June 29, 2022, at the ripe age of 87.
The background of the song under discussion is that Maya (Kuldeep Kaur) has planned for a heist of a rich patron and the assignment has been given to Jeewan (Premnath). Maya will offer a rose to that patron when he is leaving, to facilitate Jeewan for identification. The heist takes place after the dance is over as the patron leaves after the end of the dance.
By the way, the song under discussion is inspired from a ghazal of Behzad Lucknawi of more or less of the same matla which was made popular by Begum Akhtar with her rendition. Madan Mohan has composed the song almost in the same tune as rendered by Begum Akhtar sometime in 1930s.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Wafaaon ke badle jafaa kar rahe hain (Jaageer)(1959) Singer-Asha Bhonsle, Lyrics-Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, MD-Madan Mohan
Lyrics:(based on video clip)
aa aa aa aa aaaa
aa aa aa aa aaaa
aa aa aaa
wafaaon ke badle
aa aa aa aa aaa
aa aa aaa
wafaaon ke badle jafaa kar rahe hain
wafaaon ke badle jafaa kar rahe hain
koi unse poochhe ye kyaa kar rahe hain
koi unse poochhe
ye kyaa kar rahe hain
ye kyaa kar rahe hain
wafaaon ke badle jafaa kar rahe hain
wafaaon ke badle
mareez-e-mohabbat kaa…aa
aa aa aaa
aa aa aa
mareez-e-mohabbat kaa ab haal ye hai
mareez-e-mohabbat ka ab haal ye hai
dawaa karnewaale duwaa kar rahe hain
dawaa karnewaale duwaa kar rahe hain
duwaa kar rahe hain
wafaaon ke badle jafaa kar rahe hain
wafaaon ke badle
milaate hain…..aen gairon se
chhup chhup ke nazren
milaate hain gairon se chhup chhup ke nazren
koi unse keh de..ae
koi unse keh de
koi unse keh de buraa kar rahe hain
koi unse keh de buraa kar rahe hain
buraa kar rahe hain
wafaaon ke badle jafaa kar rahe hain
wafaaon ke badle
hamen dard-e-dil il il
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aa
hamen dard-e-dil zindagee se hai pyaaraa
hamen dard-e-dil zindagee se hai pyaaraa
wo kyun dard-e-dil kee dawaa kar rahe hain
wo kyun dard-e-dil kee dawaa kar rahe hain
dawaa kar rahe hain
wafaaon ke badle jafaa kar rahe hain
koi unse poochhe ye kyaa kar rahe hain
wafaaon ke badle ae ae