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 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.
Today’s song is from film, which not many people will rememeber – ‘Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’ (1953).
During the Bhakti movement period, almost all regions had their own Saints and Great Bhakts. One such great soul enlightened the people of Eastern India. He was known as Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
In a short life span of just 48 years (1486-1534), he did extraordinarily religious and reformative work in the 16th century in the regions of Bengal (both the current East Bengal (now in Bangladesh) and West Bengal), Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur, Assam and Orissa. Not much information is available about him in other regions, so here is a short biography of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, adapted and edited from Stephen-Knapp.com – with thanks.
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (pronounced ‘चैतन्य’) (February 27, 1486 to 1534 AD) was born in Navadvipa, Bengal, on a full moon night during a lunar eclipse. It is typical for people to bathe in the Ganges during an eclipse and chant the Lord’s holy names for spiritual purification. So, everyone in the area was chanting the holy names when He was born. His parents, Shri Jagannatha Misra and Mata Shachi Devi, gave Him the name of Vishvambhara, meaning the support of the universe, because astrologers had predicted His super human qualities and that He would deliver the people of the world. He was also nicknamed Nimai because He had been born under a nima tree.
During His childhood He exhibited extraordinary qualities, even having philosophical discussions with His mother. While growing up, His brilliant intelligence began to become apparent. While still a child, He mastered Sanskrit and logic to the point of defeating local pandits, and established the truth of the spiritual and Vedic philosophy. He became so well known that many logicians of various religious and philosophical persuasions began to fear His presence and refused to debate with Him. Thus, Sri Chaitanya established the authority of the Vaishnava tradition through the process of debate and logic.
When Sri Chaitanya went to Gaya on the pretext to perform ceremonies for the anniversary of His father’s death, He received Vaishnava initiation from Shri Ishvara Puri. Thereafter, He lost all interest in debate and simply absorbed Himself in chanting and singing the names of Lord Krishna in devotional ecstasy. Upon returning to Navadvipa, He gathered a following with whom He would engage in congregational singing of the Lord’s holy names. Thus, He started the first ‘sankirtana‘ movement (congregational devotional singing), and established the importance of chanting the names of God in this age as the most elevated of spiritual processes, and the prime means for liberation from material attachments. At first, His chanting with people was for the few participants who were a part of His group, but then Sri Chaitanya ordered that the ecstasy of love of God be distributed to all people of the area. He gave no recognition for the privileges of caste, or for position, or type of philosophy a person had, or yogic asceticism. He only emphasized the devotional chanting of the Lord’s holy names, using the Hare Krishna mantra – “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, which has the power to bring out the natural loving sentiments for God.
It was at the age of 24 when He shaved His head and took the order of sanyaasa, the renounced stage of life, when He accepted the name of Krishna Chaitanya from Shri Keshav Bharati during the initiation. He then spent four years travelling through South India, and also visited Vrindavana and Varanasi. During this time he also gave special instructions to his main followers, Shri Roop Goswami and Shri Sanatana Gosvami, who then also spread the glories of the Divine Love for Radha and Krishna. They settled in Vrindavana where they spent their years in writing many books elaborating the instructions of Lord Chaitanya and the glories of bhakti for Radha and Krishna. They also revealed the places where Radha and Krishna performed many varied pastimes in that land of Vrindavana, which have remained special spots where devotees can become absorbed in the bliss of love of Radha and Krishna.
Lord Chaitanya spent His remaining years in Jagannatha Puri. During this time He was absorbed in ecstatic devotion to Krishna in the loving mood of Radharani, in which He would lose all external consciousness. He freely distributed the divine nectar of this love for Krishna to everyone and anyone, day and night. Even His presence or mere touch could transform everyone that came near Him into the same devotional mood. He remained like this until He finally left our vision at the age of 48.
Lord Chaitanya is considered and was established by Vedic scripture as the most recent incarnation of God. The Lord always descends to establish the codes of religion. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (4.6-8) where Lord Krishna explains that although He is unborn and the Lord of all living beings, He still descends in His spiritual form in order to re-establish the proper religious principles and annihilate the miscreants whenever there is a decline of religion and a rise in irreligious activity.
The birthplace of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, popularly known as Mayapur, is located on the banks of the Ganges river, at the point of its confluence with the Jalangi, near Navadveep, West Bengal (India), 130 km north of Kolkata (Calcutta). The headquarter of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) is situated in Mayapur. It is considered a holy place of pilgrimage by a number of other traditions within Hinduism. It is of special significance to followers of Gaudiya Vaishnav tradition, as the birthplace of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, regarded as a special incarnation of Krishna in the mood of Radha. It is visited by over a million pilgrims annually.
Mayapur can be reached by boat, and more commonly by train or bus. ISKCON Kolkata operates regular bus service from Kolkata to Mayapur. Frequent train service is available to Krishnanagar, Nadia from Kolkata’s Sealdah Station, then 18 km by auto or cycle rickshaw to Mayapur. During the visit one can see the huge headquarters of ISKCON and a long stream of saffron-robed devotees chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. I visited the place about two decade ago. For all those who visit Kolkata, it is like a rite of passage to visit Mayapur.
The music director of this film is the legendary RC Boral aka Raichand Boral, famous for his New Theatre, Calcutta films and songs. Once upon a time New Theatres was a great institution. It gave many entertaining and meaningful films, in Bangla and Hindi. A highly capable band of authors, writers, actors, actresses, directors, music directors, lyricists, singers and a whole lot of technical staff started their careers here, and spent their best and most productive years with this institution. New Theatres was known for clean entertainment. This was true in the 20s, 30s and till late 40s. The atmosphere in the studio was like a family.
However, it is the law of nature that whatever goes up must come down also, with time. This process started from the mid 1930s itself when Nitin Bose and Debaki Bose had a big tiff – an ego clash. Later on PC Barua also left, followed by Kaanan Devi, who joined the new company founded by Barua. Uma Shashi eloped with some outsider. In the early 1940s a group of artistes, consisting of actors and directors left NT, to go to Bombay. KL Saigal, Prithviraj Kapoor, KN Singh, Kidar Sharma etc. left for Bombay. Around 1943, Nitin Bose came to Bombay. The Second World War had already broken the back of Film Industry in Calcutta. Additionally, this exodus caused greater harm. People like Pankaj Mullick, though unhappy in NT, did not leave. By about 1950, New Theatres was almost a non-entity !
A giant like Raichand Boral, music director, was invited by Nitin Bose to Bombay. Wanting to try his hand, RC Boral did 3 films in Bombay, namely, ‘Dard e Dil’ (1953) – a film made by Nitin Bose himself, ‘Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’ (1953), a film made by the giant Prakash Pictures of the Bhatt brothers and ‘Swami Vivekanand’ (1955), a film made by Amar Mullick. RC Boral’s music was still in the traditional Bangla style. In Bombay, during the 1950s, the trend was for fast melodies. New generation MDs Shankar-Jaikishan were in full swing. C Ramchandra and SD Burman etc. were churning out fast melodies. The newer generation of the music lovers was wary of the slow, sentimental, bhajan-like songs now. Boral’s traditional music was unacceptable to them. Therefore the music from none of the three films become popular. Moreover 2 of the 3 films of Boral, had subjects meant only for a limited captive audience of middle age to old age category. Thus Boral proved to be a failure and after these 3 films went back to Calcutta to be amongst his comfort zone of Bangla films.
RC Boral (19-10-1904 to 25-11-1981) was undoubtedly one of the greatest composers of Indian films – be it Bangla or Hindi. From his first Hindi Talkie film ‘Zinda Laash’ (1932) till his last Hindi film ‘Amar Saigal’ (1955), Boral gave music to 33 Hindi films, most of which were made bilingual in Bangla and Hindi at Calcutta. According to the famous film music historian Dr. Ashok D Ranande, Boral made a significant contribution to the Indian film music. First, he gave lot of importance to background music to enhance the effectiveness of screen images. Secondly, he developed the concept of prelude and interlude music segments in film songs. Thirdly, he is credited with the introduction of playback singing in films . The songs of ‘Pooran Bhagat’ (1933), ‘Chandidas’ (1934), ‘President’ (1937), ‘Mukti’ (1937), ‘Street Singer’ (1938), ‘Lagan’ (1941), ‘Saugandh’ (1942), ‘Wapas’ (1943) and ‘Hamraahi’ (1944) are enough to make him immortal in the annals of film music in India. KL Saigal, Kaanan Devi, Pahadi Sanyal, Harimati and Binota Bose owe their fame and name to Boral. He composed the present tune of our national anthem “Jana Gana Man“, for his film ‘Hamrahi’. Boral got the President’s award in 1959, Sangeet Natak Academy award in 1978 and the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke award in 1979. He passed away on 25-11-1981 but RC Boral-the legend will always live in the minds of music lovers.
Not only RC Boral, but many other artists from Bengal, who came to Bombay for their career felt uncomfortable and uneasy with the Bombay film culture and they always tried to gather Bangla artists in their work environment to feel safe. This was not so with Bombay film people when they went to Bengal or South. Even the musicians and directors from the South, operated in Bombay atmosphere quite comfortably. Probably, for the Bangla artists, the impact of regional pride and language of Bengal was a hindrance in Bombay.
The film ‘Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’ had a total of 16 songs. In the 1950s, the Hindi films had an average of 8 to 10 songs only. Along with Asha, Lata, Rafi and Talat, Boral also used Dhananjay Bhattacharya and Binota Chakraborty from Calcutta, as playback singers. The name of Binota Chakraborty sounds completely Bengali, but she was a Marathi mulgi from Bombay and her real name was Vinita Amladi. Today’s song is sung by her.
Vinita Raghvendra Amladi was born on 9-8-1928 in Bombay. She had 3 sisters and 3 brothers. Her father, Raghavendra, used to play tabla. Her elder sister Hemlata, sang classical music. Vinita learnt singing from her sister Hemlata. Once, when Vinita was about 15-16 year old, she sang in a private birthday party, in which composer Sardar Malik was present. He was impressed with her singing and she was given an offer to sing songs in film ‘Rain Basera’ (1947), at a princely sum of Rs.250/-. After this film she also sang in the film ‘Renuka’ (1947).
When she went to record songs with Sardar Malik, she met her future husband Krishna Chakraborty, who worked as a pianist in the orchestra. She then met composer Vinod. She says-
“I was introduced to the sound recordist of Shorie films, at a song and dance group meeting. He in turn took me to Vinod. He heard my singing and included me in the chorus of a song of Lata in ‘Ek thi Ladki’ (1949). Then he said, “You have met me very late. Now I have only one song left. You sing it”. The song was “Dilli Se Aaya Bhai Tingu” from ‘Ek Tthhi Ladki’. The song became a super hit in those days.”
After this she did some Marathi films. In 1950 she got married to Krishna Chakraborty, against opposition from her family and they moved to Calcutta and settled there. In 1952 Pankaj Mullick called her to sing a Meera Bhajan in film ‘Yatrik’. When she went to New Theatres for recording this song, she was thrilled. Her father was so happy with this song that they forgot the past and reunited. Pankaj Mullick sent her to Kamal Dasgupta and under his baton she sang some songs in Bengali films. By now her name had automatically tranformed from Vinita to Binota in the Bengali style. As Binota Chakrawarty she sang songs in yet another Hindi film from Calcutta ’25th July’ (1951).
In 1953 she came back to Bombay after her husband’s untimely death, to look after her ailing father. In Bombay she sang songs in ‘Kasturi’ and ‘Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’, both in 1954. Now she stopped getting songs and she retired. She used to live in Goregaon, Mumbai.
The cast of the film was Bharat Bhushan, Ameeta, Krishnakumari, Durga Khote, BM Vyas, Umakant, Madan Puri, Raj Kumar, Pinakin Shah etc. Bharat Bhushan had received the Filmfare best actor Award for this film, in 1955. (Though the film was censored in 1953 December, it got released only in 1954).
Enjoy the song.
Song – Nimai Chaand, Gore Chaand (Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu) (1953) Singer – Binota Chakravarty, Lyrics – Bharat Vyas, MD – RC Boral
Lyrics
nimai chaand
gore chaand o mere
chhod mohe kahaan. . .
kahaan re chalaa
ghar soona soona
kar ke chala re. . . hey. . .
o bap ik baar
mukhda dikha re
o bap nimai mere tu
ek baar mukh to dikha re. . .
ey. . .
nimai chaand
mann pinjre mein
panchhi hriday ka..aa..
jatnon se jisko main ne samaaya
haaye
udd gaya chhalia..aa
tod ke taala
bole vishnu ke ab hoon
roye
roye re
re. . . hey. . .
kaise dheer hey bandhaaun main
o bap nimai mere
kaise dheer hey bandhaaun main
??
nimai chaand
baal umar mein
bairaagi na hoyio
sanyaasi na hoyio
ghar reh ke let naam re nimai
maai ko tu layio re nimai
baal umar mein
sanyaasi na hoyio
———————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————————————
नीमाई चाँद
गोरे चाँद ओ मोरे
छोड़ मोहे कहाँ॰॰॰
कहाँ रे चला
घर सूना सूना
कर के चला रे॰॰॰
हे॰॰॰
ओ बप इक बार
मुखड़ा दिखा रे
ओ बप निमाई मेरे तू
इक बार मुख तो दिखा रे॰॰॰
ए॰॰॰
नीमाई चाँद
मन पिंजरे में
पंछी हृदय का॰॰आ॰॰
जतनों से जिसको मैंने समाया
हाय
उड़ गया छलिया॰॰आ॰॰
तोड़ के ताला
बोल विष्णु के अब हूँ
रोये
रोये रे
रे॰॰॰
हे॰॰॰
कैसे धीर हे बंधाऊँ में
ओ बप निमाई मेरे
कैसे धीर हे बंधाऊँ में
??
निमाई चाँद
बाल उमर में
बैरागी ना होइयो
सन्यासी ना होईओ
घर रह के लेत नाम रे निमाई
माई को तू लईओ रे निमाई
बाल उमर में
सन्यासी ना होईओ
