The first English song in a Hindi film was sung by Devika Rani in 1933 film Karma, starring Devika Rani and Himanshu Rai. The film was among the first Talkie Film in India to feature an on-screen kiss. The four-minute-long scene between Devika Rani and Rai, her husband in real life, is also known to being the longest such scene in Indian cinema. The song, ‘Now The Moon Her Light Has Shed’ is a proper western tune composed by German composer Ornest Broadhurst and song. The style is typical of the high pitched English songs The next English song was sung by Shanta Apte, composed by Keshav Bhole in Duniya Na Mane (1937) with the lyrics around poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem A Psalm of Life. The story is about a princess (played by Devika Rani) who falls in love with a neighboring prince ( Himanshu Rai) much to the disapproval of the latter's father. The film opens with a very cute scene of the Prince telling a squirrel how much he loves the Maharani, who is hiding behind a rock and replies on behalf of the squirrel. Maharaja, the prince father who knew that his son is in love with the princess, consults with his holy man on what to do about his recalcitrant son’s ongoing romance. The priest wisely counsels him not to interfere, but to allow them to marry and then control her through the alliance. English language Song by Devika Rani
It was Friday on 15th August 1947. Two films were released in Bombay on the Independence Day itself, 'Shehnai' at Novelty on Grant Road and 'Mera Geet' at Swastik on Lamington Road around the corner. 'Mera Geet' starring Sushil Kumar and Naseem Jr must have sunk like a stone since there seems to be no record of it anywhere but Shehnai was one of the biggest hits of the year. In fact, itbecame the first roaring hit of free India.
Shehnai was produced by Filmistan Studio and Directed by PL Santoshi. Nasir Khan, the brother of Dilip Kumar was the hero and Rehana was the heroine. The music of the film was composed by C Ramchandra. Its song 'Aana Meri Jaan Meri Jaan Sunday Ke' was a super hit. The film had a straight-up. silver jubilee run in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur, and Karachi.
A Still from Shehnai 1947
Starring Rehana, Nasir Khan, and Indumati, Shehnai's story run around four sisters and their respective suitors. The ensemble drama also features acclaimed performers of the era like comedy great VH Desai, Mumtaz Ali (actor Mehmood's father), Dulari, and Leela Misha among others. Desai plays a struggling entertainer trying to keep his dance company afloat with the help of his four daughters. However, his wife (Mishra) is worried about the disrepute the profession is bringing the girls and diminishing their chances of marriage. Rehana plays the second eldest sibling, Kamla, a gutsy girl who clashes with Pramila (Indumati) – the snobbish, college-educated daughter of the zamindar. When Pramila humiliates Kamla's family, the latter gets even by tricking Pramila's soon-to-be fiancé Rajesh (Khan) into believing that she is his betrothed but ends up falling for him. The mix up goes a step further when Pramila mistakes her father's adversary for Rajesh and falls in love with him.
Aana Meri Jaan Sunday Ke Sunday
The music was the highlight of this film, it was composed by C Ramchandra. It had 9 songs, all the songs were written by P L Santoshi, who was the director of this film also. The song' Aana Meri Jaan Meri Jaan Sunday Ke Sunday' became a rage.It was the first song of Bollywood based on western beats, It was the first time western instruments were used in any Hindi song. It was C Ramchandra who brought music from many other countries in Bollywood music, In 1950 he brought Burmese music in the song 'Gore Gore Banke Chhore' in the film Samadhi, and ' Mein Hun Ek Khalasi' in Sargam(1950)
Nasir-Khan -Brother of Dilip Kumar in Shehnai 1947
There were five major film production centers, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Lahore, and to a lesser extent Poona till 1947. Bombay was the main center, In Bombay alone, 114 films were made and released that year. Six films, 'Shehnai, Elan Jugnu, Do Bhai, Dard, and Mirza Sahiban' were super hit. The other hit film was Parwana of K L Saigal, which was released after his death on 18th Jan 1947.
In March, we had Kidar Sharma’s Neel Kamal with Raj Kapoor and Madhubala in their first lead roles. He was twenty-three and she was just sixteen.
Shammi Kapoor in his Biography said"The sound of any music evoked in me a strong urge to dance. The rhythm didn't take time to seep into me and seek expression in dance. The urge to dance was always there in him. His brother Raj Kapoor was a good dancer but Shammi was different.
He never had a dance director or a choreographer for his dance songs in any film. He danced to his own style and created his own steps and movements. The first time he got the chance of expressing himself in dance songs was in Tumsa Nahin Dekha, this film redefined him and shot him to bigtime stardom.
In his Biography, he tells "From a very early stage, he wanted to learn dancing but there were no professional dancing schools in Bombay at that time. There used to be a hotel in Dadar, whose owner used to teach Tango dance He took a few lessons from him.
Shammi Kapoor said that it was lucky that he got good songs." I think I tried to give physical expressions to music. My choreography was always done here( pointing towards his heart) and I brought it out on the floor. Telling about the picturization of the song' Yahoo' he said "everybody was satisfied with the song Yahoo recorded after the hard work of Rafi saheb and music director Shankar Jaikishan, now it was my turn to make this song an immortal. This song was picturized in Kufri, not in Kashmir. The setting looked ideal with 12 feet deep snow and the breathtakingly beautiful sight around Everybody was in a fix what will I do?, how will I do?
Shammi further said that he was also not made in his mind about how to do it. Yes it was sure that he had to slide on the snow, The next day in the morning at 7 AM the whole unit collected at the spot from where he had to slide, But just when the camera was to roll, the sun disappeared, they couldn't shoot that day due to poor sunlight. This happened for six days, the song couldn't be picturized Finally on the Seventh-day the song was picturized. Shammi Kapoor said that there was no choreographer, no preparation by himself, whatever he did was spontaneous.
After Junglee every producer and director wanted Shammi to perform the song as per his wish. He said in the book" I used to tell my directors to keep the camera flexible, don't freeze the field, play the music, and let me do the act. That is what he did in most of his songs.
He said for the song Aasman Se Aya Farishta of An Evening in Paris, it was his idea to perform on a helicopter.
His biggest hit Teesri Manzil (1966) broke all kinds of records at the box office — thanks to its music. Composed by R.D. Burman, songs of this movie are considered some of his best works and Shammi’s best dance performances. O Mere Sona Re, O Haseena Zulfonwali Jaane Jahan, and Aaja Aaja Main Hoon Pyaar Tera are still regularly seen on playlists and heard on the radio.
Looking at just one decade of Shammi’s career, it is clear about the kind of stupendous impact that he has had on Bollywood and its audience. He left a mark like no other and even though many have managed to make a name as great dancers, nobody has come close to him — much like the original Elvis Presley.
Vyjayanthimala Bali celebrates her birthday on the 13th of August. She shares this birthday with another Bollywood legend Sridevi who was also a multilingual actress with superior dancing prowess. Both the actresses married Punjabi men who left their first wives.
Vyjayanthimala performed some superhit song and dance numbers in Hindi films, whether it is Man dole mera tan dole (Nagin) or Chadh gayo paapi bichhua (Madhumati) or Buddha mil gaya (Sangam) or Hothon pe aisi baat (Jewel Thief) and not to forget Indian classical dances of Amrapali(1966)
At the age of seven, Vyjayanthimala was chosen to perform a classical Indian dance for Pope Pius XII while her mother was an audience in 1940 at Vatican City.She learned Bharata Natyam from Guru Vazhuvoor Ramiah Pillai and Carnatic music from Manakkal Sivaraja Iyer. She had her arangetram at the age of 13 and started performing in Tamil Nadu later.
She made her debut in the Tamil language film Vaazhkai in 1949 on the basis of her dance performance of Bharata Natyam in Chennai's Gokhale Hall.The success of her Tamil film Vazhkai in South India inspired AVM Productions to remake it in Hindi as Bahar in 1951. In their first Hindi venture, they decided to cast Vyjayanthimala again in the lead role with Karan Dewan, The film became a hit and also its music and dances. The next film 'Ladki' released in 1953 was opposite Kishore Kumar and Bharat Bhushan.
In 1954, Vyjayanthimala acted in the magnum opus film Nagin with Pradeep Kumar. The film got favorable responses from the audience and became the highest-grossing movie of 1954 where it was labeled as a blockbuster. Her performance as the Nagi tribe's chief got Mala favorable reviews from the critics, as in 1955,
Nagin was a precursor to her rise in Hindi cinema as an iconic actor, who combined her talents, performing and dancing, to rule the screen on her terms... biggest recall values of Nagin are Vyjayanthimala". Post Nagin Vyjayanthimala had established herself as one of the leading actresses in Bollywood because of the film's nationwide success.
Vyjayanthimala's influence on films has been far-reaching. With her, semiclassical dance became an integral part of almost every Hindi film heroine's resume.At her peak, Vyjayanthimala took off to do a series of much-appreciated dance shows in Paris in 1959 besides working for top actors like Dilip Kumar in Paigham (1959) and Raj Kapoor in Nazrana (1961).
Manmohan Krishna (11 August 1921 – 3 November 1990), a familiar actor of the 50s and 60s.He worked in nearly 250 films, notably Naya Daur (1957), Khandan ( 1965), Sadhana (1958), Waqt (1965) and Hamraaz (1967)] He won acclaim for his work in Bees Saal Baad (1962)and won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Abdul Rasheed in Dhool Ka Phool (1960), where the song, Tu Hindu Banega Na Musalman Banega, Insaan ki Aulaad Hai, Insaan Banega was picturized on him. He was a favorite for B R Chopra and Yash Chopra. Later in his career, he directed the hit film for Yash Raj Films, Noorie (1980),
He started his career as a professor in Physics and held a master's degree in physics. He anchored radio the show Cadbury's Phulwari, a singing contest.
Many people don't know that Manmohan Krishna started as Hero cum singer from the 1947 film Matwala Shair Ramjoshi (1947), he sang all the songs in that film. The next film he appeared was1949 film Apna Desh where he sang a song. his next song, 'Jhat khol de' in Afsar (1950), a Dev Anand film with music by S.D. Burman. He also sang in 1951 film Aaram where he played a comedian. sang the song 'Yeh Zindagi Hai Yo-Yo'. In the 1955 film 'Railway Platform' he sang a few songs.In this blog, i am posting these rare songs either in audio or video.
