This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
BHAJAN MALA – GOLDEN 50s (Pushp-7)
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One advantage of seeing religious films was that it increased your knowledge of mythology and the Puranas. Though there was a common principle highlighted( Satyamev Jayate or the victory of Good over Bad ), every story’s treatment and content used to be different. With our Holy books overflowing with stories involving all types of Gods, Godesses and Bhakts, film producers must have never fallen short of stories. Famous and well known studios like Bombay Talkies, Sagar, Mohan, Prakash, Prabhat, Wadia or Filmistan stuck to popular and traditional stories like Satyavan Savitri, Bhakta Dhruv, Shri Ram or Shrikrishna. other production companies tried comparatively less known, unknown or even Hybrid stories (Mythological base but treated in filmy style) to make films.
The result was, one could see and enjoy films dealing with unheard names like Mordhwaja or Bodana. There were some strange titles like Ram Hanuman Yuddha, Krishna Arjun Yuddha, or films made on less known characters like Pingala, Renuka, Narmada, Mahananda, Ambarish or unusual combinations like Shankar Seeta Anusuya.
Some Gods like Bramhadev or Saraswati rarely became subject matter of films and the favourite Gods of the film producers always remained Shiv ji, Ganesh ji, Ram ji or Shyam ji. Once in a while, you could find a film on Sheetala Mata or Shuk Rambha. Devotees added to their knowledge when films like Shiv kanya came, because hardly anyone knew that Shankar-Parvati had a daughter also !
Today’s Bhajan is from a film called Mordhwaj-1952. This film is special because it had two names which were involved in ” Same Name Confusions “…one was that Debutant composer
Narayan Datt and the other was child actor Shashi kapoor.
I have been seeing a variety of movies since last 65 years or so. Among the ones I saw, I developed a liking for Mythological or Devotional (Dharmik) films for a while. It was not due to my religious nature, but for the trick scenes (with special effects) in these films, which fascinated me immensely. I liked a scene where a God or a Rakshas multiplied into 10 images to confuse the opponent. Just imagine, 10 Ramas or 10 Ravanas on the screen at a time ! All with same name and appearance!! Not only their opponents, but even the audience in the theatres got confused who the real one was !!!
In real life, It is not so simple, as 10 Ramas or 10 Ravanas. Here the 10 Rama names will be same but each Rama may look different. I remember,during my school days,in my class, there used to be at least 10 boys with the surname Deshpande, 15 Joshis, 12 Kulkarnis and 5 Deshmukhs. Each boy was called by his initials, like A.B, C.D. or K.P.etc. Sometimes, even the initials used to be the same. In that case, another trick used was to call those boys based on their personality, like Lambu DK or Gidda DK etc.
In film Industry, same name artistes are identified by their vocation, like Lyricist Madan Mohan or Music Director Madan Mohan. But when there are Directors with the same names or singers with the same names, or actors or actresses, then what happens? For Music Director Iqbal,he was called ‘Chhota Iqbal’, because Music Director Iqbal Qureshi was more than 6 feet tall. Similarly Director Asit sen,who was of a short stature,was called Chhota Asit Sen and the actor Asit Sen was called the Mota Asit Sen.
In an Industry where , in the early era(as if there was a shortage of names all over India), there were 9 Nalinis or 6 Gauhars, or 4 Rajkumaris, 5 Rajkumars, 2 Jagmohans or 2 Trilok Kapoors what do you do ? There is bound to be solid confusion and wrong credits of films, songs etc takes place. The Internet Film sites are notoriously famous for faithfully spreading wrong, non corroborated or non verified information blindly by ‘Copy and Paste’! Any new student of Hindi films will easily get confused by such inadvertent disinformation.
I will give an ideal example to prove this point. There is a site called Gomolo.in. If you look for information on the 1939 film ‘ Brandi ki Botal ‘, you will find the Heroine’s name as Meenakshi Seshadri (instead of Meenakshi Shirodkar). What do you do with such information? I am sure even the mother of Meenakshi Seshadri may not have been born in 1939!! Similarly when Shamshad begum (called chhamiya)-old time Gazal singer mother of Naseem Bano or the grand Mother of Saira bano died in 1998, many sites mourned and declared that the popular singer Shamshad Begum had died ! In fact, one site is still having this incorrect information!!! Another famous and otherwise very useful site/blog mentioned the name of Neelam Kothari in a film made in 1943, whereas Neelam Kothari was born in 1964 only ! The name Neelam was misleading in this case.
Being a ‘Hobby-tuated’ writer on old films, songs and related matters, I get highly agitated when I find enthusiastic novices in this field quoting wrong names in a ” Name-Alike ” films or songs. I have been writing explanations, till I got tired, how the 2 Ratanbais were different or how actor Shyam never sang any song in his lifetime!
Coming back to the Debutant Composer of film Mordhwaj-52, actually, many people may not be even aware that any Music Director by the name of NARAYAN DUTTA existed,but in reality he did and has contributed to Hindi Film Music to the best of his abilities in the limited opportunities that he got. NARAYAN DUTTA, I feel , was one of those unlucky composers like C.Arjun, Sailesh Mukherjee, Daan Singh, Sardar Malik, Jamal Sen, Pardesi etc, who had enough talent but luck was not in their favour.
Most Internet sites and few writers too get confused between these two Music Directors, thinking that N.Datta means Narayan Dutta . Consequently, films in which Narayan Dutta gave music are coolly added to the filmography of N.Datta !
NARAYAN DUTTA was born in Bilawas village in Jodhpur state. His father Durgaprasad was the Court Singer (Raj Gayak) with Bikaner King Ganga Singh. Narayan learnt music from his father since childhood. With a desire to sing in Hindi films, like many other such dreamers, he reached the Mayanagari-Bombay in 1946.
He sang his first song for Rajkapoor in ” Neelkamal”-1947. However the commercial record of this song was made with the composer’s voice-Snehal Bhatkar. Then he sang two songs, one with Geeta and one with Mukesh in Rasili-47. With the help of Kidar Sharma he got songs in Sehra-48, Gauna-49 and Uddhar-49, in addition to some stunt films of Mohan Pictures, but no records were made.
Somehow, he felt that there was not much scope for singing so he turned to composing and his first film was Mordhwaj-52, followed by Astik-56,Shyam ki Jogan-57,Naya Kadam-58 and Pujarin -72 (in the period 58-72,a few of his films remained incomplete like Aji bas rahne do, Meerabai, Bhakta Pralhad etc), Narad Leela-72, Jai Hanuman-73, Seetaram Radheshyam-73, Saraswati-Laxmi-Parvati-75, Sindoor ka Daan-84 and Humse mile tum-84. In addition to these 11 Hindi films, he also gave music to 3 Rajasthani films- Baba Ramdev Peer-63, Mhari Pyari Chanana-83 and Nanibai ko Bhayro-84.
After films stopped coming to him, he engaged himself in making NFS based on local folk tunes. He also composed songs for Arya Samaj, Jain Samaj and Rajneesh Foundation. He established ” Sur Tarang” a school to teach music.
This talented but unlucky composer died on 16-6-1988.
Similarly, the child actor Shashi Kapoor, featuring in the film Mordhwaj was NOT the Shashi Kapoor who was the brother of Raj and Shammi Kapoor, but Shashi chand Kapoor, a different artist. I have written about him earlier, so I am not repeating that information here.
Film Mordhwaja aka Raja Mordhwaja-52 was produced by Mangalanand Gautam for Nav Anand chitra, Bombay. The director was Balwant n Bhatt, Music Director was Narayan Datt and Lyricist was Bharat Vyas. The cast of the film was- Prem Adeeb, Durga Khote, Ramsingh, Tiwari, Shashi Kapoor, Manju, Raj Adeeb, Neeru etc.
Director Balwant N Bhatt was born in Porbandar in 1909. He was the elder brother of Nanabhai Bhatt( father of Mahesh Bhatt). At 22 years of age, he assisted Naval Gandhi in 1931 and N.B.Vakil in 1932 at Sagar films. He turned director of silent films like Chalta Purza-32 and Gunehgaar-33. He joined Prakash films after Talkie films came and co-directed film Alif Laila-33. His first independent film as a director was Actress-34. He directed about 20 Hindi films and 4 Gujarati films like Divadandi etc. Some of his Hindi films were, Nai Duniya, Tope ka Gola, Challenge, Poornima, Bijli, Shamsherbaji, Suhag, Circus ki sundari, Mordhwaja etc. His last film Nagin aur sapera was released after his death in 1965.
The story of Mordhwaja was-
Prince Suchitra, son of Raja Mordhwaj, of Ratnapur, goes for daily hunting accompanied by his friend Kaak. His attention is drawn by the sudden flight of a horse with a youngish rider on it. Reaching nearby finds that a lion is lying dead and another is out to leap on the rider. A well aimed arrow from his bow takes life out of the creature and it reels back dead. Suchitra tries to be friendly while the saved rider cares to keep up only formalities.
In the course of their short company the prince happens to know that his companion is none else than princess Vijaya of Shrimantpur. Love takes root in both the hearts and fixed meetings follow thereafter. Yudhishtira the Pandav King of Hastinapur, decides to perform Ashwamedh Yajna. The sacrificial horse moves in the direction of Ratnapur throwing open challenge to the heroism of independent states. Huge armies of Hatinapur with mighty Arjun at their head,stand guarantee to the safety of the advancing horse. All must accept Pandavas’ soverignity or fight.
The whole Ratnapur is astir. King Mordhwaj, by nature, does not want war but the people refuse to surrender. Representatives of the people meet in Sudharma Sabha and decide to stop the horse and accept the challenge. Prince Suchitra heads the people’s cause. Very soon the news gets currency in the neighbouring states. Princess Vijaya too decides to follow in the footsteps of prince Suchitra. The advance of the sacrificial horse-the symbol of pandavas challenge, is arrested at the border of Ratnapur. A fierce battle ensues for which the king prays and the prince fights. The armies of the Pandavas are routed out and their leader Arjun is injured and defeated on the battle field. Lord Krishna, accompanied by sage Narad comes to Arjun’s war camp. The sage attributes the defeat of Arjun’s armies to the unsurpassed devotion of king Mordhwaj, he also asserts that devotion weighed heavier than friendship with Lord Krishna, Arjun does not accept this plea and presses for solid proof. Lord Krishna takes Arjun with him garbed as Sadhus to Raja Mordhwaj and asks for the flesh of his son to feed a hungry lion. The king does not refuse the Brahmin beggers and agrees to sacrifice his only son. Arjun looks horrified and retires from the arena totally defeated. He admits the supremacy of the devotees’ claims over his own. Lord Krishna, affected by his devotee’s most thrilling sacrifice blesses their son to life. He and His party consisting of Arjuna and sage Narad, appear in their true forms.
Let us now enjoy the Bhajan from Mordhwaja,sung by Mohd. Rafi…
Song-Dagmag dagmag doley naiyya (Mordhwaj)(1952) Singer-Rafi, Lyrics-Bharat Vyas, MD-Narayan Dutt
Chorus
Lyrics
dagmag dagmag doley naiyya
ho o o kanhaiyya
o kanhaiyya
tum hi taaran haar ho
kripa ki thhokar lage to
beda mera paar ho
o kanhaiyya
o kanhaiyya
tum hi taaranhaar ho
dukhiyon ke
bhakton ke
paalanhaar ho
dukhiyon ke
paalanhaar ho
lehraate jeewan saagar mein
aaj uthha hai jwaar re ae
aaj uthha hai jwaar re
chalti hai vipreet hawaayen
kaanp raha patwaar re ae
kaanp raha patwaar re
aise mein bas ek tumhi ho o
aise mein bas ek tumhi ho
aise mein bas ek tumhi naiyya ke
khewanhaar ho o
o kanhaiyya
o kanhaiyya
tum hi taaranhaar ho
dukhiyon ke
bhakton ke
paalanhaar ho
dukhiyon ke
paalanhaar ho
saanjh huyi sooraj dhalta hai
kumhlaata sansaar re ae
kumhlaata sansaar re
peechhe hai vighnon ki aandhi
aage hai manjhdhaar re ae
aage hai manjhdhaar re
kaun bachaaye kaun lagaaye
kaun bachaaye kaun lagaaye
kaun bachaaye kaun lagaaye
tooti naiyya paar ho
o kanhaiyya
o kanhaiyya
tum hi taaranhaar ho o
dukhiyon ke
bhakton ke
paalanhaar ho
dukhiyon ke
paalanhaar ho
dagmag dagmag doley naiyya
ho o kanhaiyya
o kanhaiyya
tum hi taaranhaar ho
dukhiyon ke
bhakton ke
paalanhaar ho
dukhiyon ke
paalanhaar ho
