Murliwaale Ghanshyaam mujhe apni bana lo naa

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.

Today’s song is from a Mythological film of 1950, based on the early life of the popular God – Krishna. The film is Janmashtami-1950.

1950 was the last year of the decade of 1940s. This was a period when young Independent India was looking for its own identity. It was those times when the New World was beginning to influence the social structure of Indians. The joint family system was still in vogue. Almost every home had senior old people and they were the guiding lights for the younger generation. Men who were blooming into their youth, were a confused lot. They were caught between old customs and the call of the New World ways. Nehru’s socialism still attracted the majority and Democracy was sending its roots deeper into the grounds.

Ours was also a big joint family. With a sizeable number of senior old family members, religious atmosphere was maintained in the family. After the Prakash Pictures film “Ram Rajya”-43, the trend for the older people was to see every religious film that came calling. Having a guaranteed and assured audience, film makers became enthusiastic in producing Mythological films. The Holy Hindu books like Ramayan and Mahabharat and stories from 18 Puranas provided ample source material to make films. Religious films were also cheaper to make. The did not need any famous stars, famous directors or popular Music Directors of social films.

Like Stunt films, religious films too had fixed stars as actors, specialist Directors, Music Directors and Lyricists who were in demand for such films. Right from older actors like Prem Adeeb and Trilok Kapoor to newer actors like Bharat Bhushan and Manhar Desai, from Shobhana Samarth and Meena kumari to Nirupa Roy and Anita Guha and from Shankar Rao vyas and H C Bali to Avinash Vyas and S N Tripathi – a whole range of artistes were ready to carry the torch further. This automatically increased the number of Mythological and religious films made in the decade of 50’s (1951-1960) to an astounding figure of 124 films in the 10 year period. This worked out to at least 1 new film every month for 10 continuous years.

My liking and love for such films developed in this period. I was about 10 year old in 1950 and I had been chosen to act as a Male “Chaperone” to accompany the group of family oldies going to see such religious film. I liked the bright costumes and trick scenes in these films. This also imbibed in me to study our Vedas and other religious books to know more about the religion. This study and knowledge helped me a lot in in charting my career and family journey, in life.

According to scriptures, there were 10 Avatars or incarnations of God on this earth in various forms. Out of these, the characters of Ram and Krishna attained cult status. No wonder, most films were made in this Genre on stories about these two. Ram appeared on this earth first in Treta Yug, followed by Krishna in Dwapar Yug. In my opinion, Krishna is a more popular God than Ram. Ram depicted the model of a common Prince, without any super powers. He taught us righteousness, sticking to Justice and doing good all times. Ironically, in Ram’s total life, he suffered in more number of years than he ever enjoyed.

Krishna, Hero of many legends was with qualities like Love and Playfulness. He taught us how to be street smart. His philosophy was to use any means to achieve Goals. The common man has respect for Shri Ram, but he loves Krishna. On a cursory count, I found that more films are made on stories involving krishna than Ram. That is because, the common man feels that krishna teaches us how to live in today’s world and tackle bad people.

Film Janmashtami-50 depicts Krishna’s early life in Gokul and Mathura, till he goes to Dwaraka. The film is full of little Krishna’s antics. The role of young Krishna is done by Rajkumar khatri. He actually makes his Debut in films, with this movie. This actor Rajkumar is one of the ” Same Name Confusion” actors.

There were in all 5 Raj kumars 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 may have been born in or around 1940. 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 did 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 did 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, Aaj aur kal-63, Ustadon ke ustad-63, Ziddi-64, 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 Soordas-87.

In mid 80s, when films 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.

Film Janmashtami-50 was made by Hindustan Chitra and it was directed by Nanabhai Bhatt. Lyricist was Bharat Vyas and all the 9 songs of the film were composed by the talented but less known Music Director Shyam Babu Pathak. Shyam Babu Pathak is not a very well known name among Music Directors. He is one of those artistes, who had the talent and a will to do hard work, but Luck did not support him. This resulted in his remaining with unknown banners and B and C grade films. His career spanned from 1938 to 1965 – a period of 27 years in which he composed music for just 29 films and his 1 film remained unreleased.

Shyam Babu Pathak was born in 1908 at Gwalior. His music tuition started when he was just 7 years old. He studied in Madhav Sangeet Vidyalaya, under Rajabhaiyya Poonchhwale, Narayan Gupte and Bhatkhande etc. He became an excellent singer and was invited by several Royal houses all over India, for singing. Even V D Paluskar had blessed him. Strangely, though a good singer, he never sang a song in any film.

While touring all over India for Music Mehfils, he learnt many folk songs and tunes. This actually prompted him to join films as a composer. His first film was Royal Commander-1938 – a B grade Costume drama film made by Vishnu Cinetone. In his first film, for just 9 songs, he used as many as 6 different singers. Minimum songs had been his specialty. This was a novelty in the 30s, when the norm was of an average of 12 to 15 songs each film.

V M Vyas of Vishnu Cinetone, was impressed with him and he gave him many films. He got Rani saheba-40, Torpedo-40, Samsheerbaz-40, Malan-42 and Ghar sansar-42. He gave good songs sung by Kalyani, Sardar Akhtar and Kajjan. In Lajwanti-42, his songs were light and comedy type. By now, he had become a confirmed Stunt/action and B/C grade composer. Pyara watan-42,Double face-46 were such films. Double face was Indivar’s first film.

Black Market-47, Namak-47, krishna Sudama-47 and Kismatwali-47 were not much helpful. Takdirwale-48 with Ramprasad, Imtihan-49 and Ret Mahal-49 led him to film Jeet-49 with Anil Biswas. Actually,it seems Anil Biswas took over when Pathak left the film halfway.

After Janmashtami-50 and Achha ji-50, came Preet ka geet-50.Famous poet Harikrishna Premi wrote the songs, which were sung by Mukesh, Geeta and Johra. Next film Hamari Duniya-52 had good Lata songs. Meanwhile his film Parda remained unreleased. In the last phase of his career, came Sapna-52, Vanraj-52, Bombay Central-60 and finally, film Mehbooba-65 closed his career.

Shyam Babu Pathak died of heart attack in Bombay on 23-11-1980.

Today’s song is a lovely song, sung by Amirbai Karnataki. With this song, film Janmashtami-1950 makes its Debut here.

Song-Murliwaale Ghanshyam mujhe apni bana lo na (Janmaashtmi)(1950) Singer-Amirbai Karnataki, Lyrics-Bharat Vyas, MD-Shyam Babu Pathak

Lyrics

Murliwaaale Ghanshyam
aaaaam

Murliwale Ghanashyam aam
mujhe apni bana lo na
Murliwale Ghanashyam aam
mujhe apni bana lo na
apni bana lo naa aa
mujhe apni bana lo na
ho o o
Murliwale Ghanashyam aam
mujhe apni bana lo na

nain jyot se karoon aarti
ujaalon ka deep jalaaye
nain jyot se karoon aarti
ujaalon ka deep jalaaye
aao na der lagaao Muraari
jiya mora akulaaye
aao na der lagaao Muraari
jiya mora akulaaye
Murliwale Ghanashyam aam
mujhe apni bana lo na

tan man arpan karoon charan mein
thhukraao na naaath
tan man arpan karoon charan mein
thhukraao na naaath
is dukhiyaa ki laaj Kanhaiyya
?? tumhaare haath
is dukhiyaa ki laaj Kanhaiyya
?? tumhaare haath
Murliwale Ghanashyam aam
mujhe apni bana lo na
Murliwale Ghanashyam aam
mujhe apni bana lo na
apni bana lo naa aa
mujhe apni bana lo na
ho o o
Murliwale Ghanashyam aam
mujhe apni bana lo na