Jhuke hain baadal baalon ke

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.

The decade of the 1950s was a time when, having got our independence in 1947, the whole nation was now busy reconstructing our country to our choice. This was the time when family values, importance of joint families, religion, law and order, Nehru’s socialistic pattern etc. were being reestablished. With all this, the turmoil in the society could not be isolated. It had its effects on the social atmosphere, markets, businesses, housing and of course the films.

It is said that whatever happens to the society is reflected in the films made. If you take a look at the films made in the period of 1950 to 1960, you will find that the films were made on the issues mentioned in the para above i.e. family values, joint families, girl’s education, socialism, religion, law and order etc. Most of the film industry was influenced by Nehru’s socialism. Some of the big names like Mehboob, Kardar, Bimal Roy, V. Shantaram and the band of the Bangla Directors in Hindi films were sold to the Nehruvian values and they made films around these themes.

There is a true and documented story about Mehboob. When the Partition took place, studios of some Muslims like Nazir Ahmed Khan- Hind Studio at Dadar in Bombay, were burnt in his presence, during the communal riots. There were also different rumours circulating in the industry. Frightened by these incidents some major stars like Dilip Kumar and Mehboob khan were thinking of migrating to Pakistan. Dilip first sent his brother- Nasir Khan to assess the prospects. Mehboob Khan went to Pakistan himself to plan his settlement there.

Following partition in 1947, AR Kardar and his co-brother Mehboob Khan both left for Pakistan. However, according to Bunny Reuben, as quoted by Mihir Bose, they returned to India, but no reason was given for their return.

Journalist and author of several books, Ambarish Mishra writes, “when I asked Kardar about his Pakistan visit, he told me that after the Partition, Mehboob immediately went to Pakistan. He was disturbed with the news of Hindu-Muslim conflicts in Bombay Film Industry. It was said that Hindus will not allow Muslims in the film industry – which was totally wrong and only a rumour. He wanted to get an idea about his future in this new country. He was keen on settling there. After a month or so, I went there. Being from Lahore, I understood that the film conditions were not conducive for our growth there, as nothing was in order. Everything was in a mess there. I convinced Mehboob somehow and we both came back for good. I told him, as long as Nehru and the Congress were there, Muslims had no problems in India.”

By coincidence, Nehru died (in 1964) and the next day Mehboob also died .

The point is, films in the 1950s were made with some thoughts and the titles of such films indicate this. For example – ‘Aadmi’, ‘Aai Phir Se Bahaar’, ‘Anand Bhavan’, ‘Andolan’, ‘Asha’, ‘Astik’, ‘Awaaz’, ‘Azaad’, ‘Aazadi Ke Baad’, ‘Ab Dilli Door Nahin’, ‘Adhikar’, ‘Amar Shaheed’, ‘Baap Bete’, Baap Beti’, ‘Bade Bhaiyya’, ‘Bhabhi’, ‘Bhai Behan’, ‘Bhai Bhai’, ‘School Master’, ‘Farishta’, ‘Mother India’, ‘Naya Daur’, ‘Insan Jaag Utha’ etc. – the list would be a very long one. I hope you got the point by now.

This decade was also known for two things – music and religious films.

Today’s film ‘Kal Hamara Hai’ (1959) was also one such film, trying to stress that the future is bright, irrespective of whast was happening then. “Aaj Apna Ho Na Ho, Kal Hamara Hai” was a favourite phrase in those days. Unfortunately the poor is still where he was then and films like ‘Kal Hamara Hai’ were being made not only in 1959, but also in 1981 and 2016 ! God knows when that ‘Kal’ will come !

The film was made by producer K Amarnath under his own banner K Amarnath Productions, Bombay. It was directed by a faceless name SK Prabhakar, for whom it was the first and last film as a director. The cast was Madhubala, Bharat Bhushan, Jayant, Leela Chitnis, Hari Shivdasani, WM Khan etc. The story of the film was….

Bharat, a young man, works as a puppet for greedy and wealthy Seth Hiralal. Hiralal once asks him to kill an old man who knows the truth of Hiralal’s black marketing and show this as an accident, to which Bharat refuses. However, Hiralal himself knocks the old man down with his car and blames Bharat for this. Bharat is imprisoned but soon runs away from the jail with a thought of revenge. When he is about to murder Hiralal for destroying his life, Bharat meets a girl who is also hidden behind a pillar in order to steal something from Hiralal’s house. She introduces herself as Madhu, and tells him that the purpose for stealing is she does not have money to buy medicines for her father, who met with a fatal accident just few days ago.

Bharat decides to help Madhu and buys her medicine for her father. To his shock, her father is no one other than the old man whom Hiralal had asked to kill. Madhu’s father is somehow not able to recognise Bharat.

Madhu has a sister named Bela, who looks just like her and is sent to study in Delhi. One day, she sends a letter to Madhu telling her that she left the college as she was not able to pay the fees, and moreover, she is not interested in studies anymore. She began working as a dancer in a club to earn money. Hiralal notices Bela while she is dancing and tries to buy her. However, Bela is beauty-with-brains; she backs off Hiralal’s plan, which infuriates him.

On the other hand, in spite of no relation, Bharat begins helping Madhu financially and they fall in love. Madhu asks him to bring Bela back home and he promises her the same.

Bharat goes to Delhi at once and tries to make Bela understand and succeeds. Bela, too like her sister, is impressed by his personality and falls for him. When Bela learns that Madhu also loves him, she leaves her sister’s house; on her way is murdered by an infuriated Hiralal.

Bharat is framed by Hiralal for murdering Bela. During the courtroom drama when Bharat is tried, it is revealed that he is the son of none other than Hiralal; his jealous relative had kidnapped him when he was an infant.

As Bharat is imprisoned, Hiralal reveals to the court that Bela was killed by him. He also tells the court that throughout his life he earned money by wrong ways. He framed Bharat several times; he is regretting now.

In the end, Bharat reunites with his family, marries Madhu and Hiralal is jailed.

The film was not successful at the Box Office. It seems Manoj Kumar was a regular visitor on the sets of this film. Later on he admitted that his film Upkar was inspired by this film and he had taken his screen name as Bharat from this film only !

All the 7 songs of this film are good. 5 songs were composed by the Melody Maker Chitragupt and 2 were composed by Gajanan. Now who was this Gajanan ?

This Gajanan was Gajanan Karnad, one of India’s premiere violin player. While searching for information on this Gajanan, I came across an article on him, written by his daughter Sudnya Patkar and published on site ‘Swar Aalaap’ on 25-3-2021. It also confirms that he was Gajanan Karnad, who was Music Director for two films in Hindi. Here is the adapted article for you….

Pandit Gajanan Madhav Karnad was born in a middle-class Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family on 28th April 1923. A distant relative visiting the Karnad family noticed the child would just not let go of the harmonium photo. He managed to get such a tiny instrument, which had a keyboard with just one octave. Family and friends were spellbound at this child prodigy who knew the musical notes so well without any formal training. Little Gajanan was God-blessed and music ran in his blood.

Gajananrao’s talent bloomed with the passing years.

As a child, he would attend music concerts and listen to great composers like Govind Rao Tembe. Buying tickets for such concerts was out of the question for this boy who came from a middle-class family, but he managed to squeeze into the auditorium and listen to the concert, sometimes by standing in the wings or sitting on the steps.

In one such program, there was a competition of young artists, but Gajanan failed to qualify as he was just seven. But his enthusiasm to participate was so much that he waited in the wings, and when one of the competitors finished his performance and the next one was to take the stage, Gajanan rushed onto the stage and started playing whatever little he knew about music. The confused organizers rushed to the stage and tried to take the child away, but he would not budge. When the judges saw the child’s determination, they asked the organizers to allow the child to play. This was the first public appearance of Gajananrao Karnad at the age of seven. He was lauded by the judges and the audience and was even given a consolation prize, as he was not a registered participant.

Thereafter, at the age of 10, Gajananrao participated in the first music conference held in Mumbai. His debut was sensational that left the audience and the press spellbound. The Maharaja of Dharampur awarded him a special prize in appreciation of his talent.

Unlike some child prodigies, Gajananrao did not fade away. On the contrary, as he grew up, and switched from harmonium to violin when the All India Radio brought out a rule that harmonium will not be allowed as an accompaniment to vocalists. He mastered several other instruments like the flute. But he never had a ‘guru’. He had mastered music and all these instruments all by himself.

Despite being a matriculate, Gajananrao took up a job with HMV (His Master’s Voice) and thereafter with AIR (All India Radio). At 21, he was already a master of Hindustani classical music and specialized in khayals, thumris, and light folk music. He gave performances on AIR for several years and had several concerts to his credit. His forte was raagdari and he even composed his own ‘raagas’.

Pt. Gajananrao was married to Vijaya, who was an artist in her own right – she was a painter. Gajananrao himself was extremely good at sketching and enjoyed his time on the drawing board on and off. They had two daughters Sudnya and Anjali, but unfortunately, neither of the daughters inherited the musical legacy of their father.

Panditji felt that while Hindustani classical music was extremely precious to him, he could not make a good living by merely giving concerts on and off. He, therefore, made headway into film music. He played the violin for almost all the music directors of his time including Madan Mohan, C Ramchandra, OP Nayyar, Shanker Jaikishan, Naushad, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Kalyanji Anandji, etc.

He had the honor of giving accompaniment to the legends like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey, Mahendra Kapoor, Mukesh, etc. Those days, when songs were recorded in single takes, Gajananrao’s violin (song violin) rendered support to these singers to give their best shot in each take.

When V Shantaram was producing the film ‘Do Ankhen Barah Haath’ in 1957, he wanted his actress Sandhya, who sells toys to little children, to play a ‘tuntuna’, (तुणतुणे) a crude instrument with a single string. He and his music director Vasant Desai were clueless about searching for a musician who could play something like this. They called Pandit Gajananrao and asked him whether he could play this on his violin, but without it sounding like a violin. Without hesitation, Panditji assured them that needful will be done. When the film was screened at the Cannes Festival, viewers were curious about the instrument played in this song. V Shantaram revealed that this was played by a great violinist in India on his violin, but he had made it sound like a ‘tuntuna’. He did not add, however, that Gajananrao had done this by merely running down the strings of his violin so that it did not sound like a violin. Some of his solo violin pieces are heard in songs from films like ‘Sargam’ (1950), ‘Musafir’ (1957), and ‘Ujaala’ (1959).

One of the founder members of the Cine Musician Association, Pt. Gajananrao was a man of few words and a noble heart. Besides music, he was a fan of Hollywood movies, some favorites being movies made by Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, William Wyler, and Billy Wilder, and musicals produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayer, among others. On the days there was no recording and he had free time, he would rush to theatres like Regal, Metro, Eros, or Strand and watch films back-to-back, without getting tired or bored.

After dedicating his life to music and the film industry, Pt. Gajanan Karnad passed away on October 28, 1996, at the age of 73, after a brief illness. The unfortunate part is that he has not left behind the recordings of the innumerable performances he gave on the radio or in concerts.

His name appears as MD in 2 films. The first is ‘Shadi Se Pehle’ (1947), in which he composed along with Paingankar (a pseudonym of C Ramchandra) as Karnad. It is, however, not known which songs were composed by whom. The second film was ‘Kal Hamara Hai’ (1959), in which he composed 2 songs as Gajanan.
[This is an adaptation of the article written by his daughter Sudnya Patkar. It appeared on the site Swar Alaap, on 25-3-2021].

Today’s song is a lovely duet of Rafi and Asha. In those days it was very popular. I am surprised how we missed this song so far. Surely it deserves the category of “How did I forget to post this song earlier ?”

Song- Jhuke hain baadal Baalon ke (Kal Hamaara Hai)(1959) Singers- Asha Bhonsle, Rafi, Lyrics-Majrooh Sultanpuri, MD-Chitragupta

Lyrics

jhuke hain baadal
baalon ke
khile hain gulshan
gaalon ke
yahi to mausam
aankhon se peene ka hai
suno ji kehna
kyun maanen
sambhal ke chalna
kya jaane
yahi to mausam
masti mein jeene ka hai

phero nazar aati hai mujhe angdaaiyaan
qismat se milti hai pyaar ki tanhaiyaan
chaahat ka ye din suhaana suhaana
bhool na jaana jee bana ke deewaana
jhuke hain baadal
baalon ke
khile hain gulshan
gaalon ke
yahi to mausam
aankhon se peene ka hai
suno ji kehna
kyun maanen
sambhal ke chalna
kya jaanen
yahi to mausam
masti mein jeene ka hai

ghaayal si hoon koi teer mat maarna
haaye mar jaaunga na yun pyaar se pukaarna
aise mein dekho humen na sataana
bhool na jaana jee bana ke deewaana
jhuke hain baadal
baalon ke
khile hain gulshan
gaalon ke
yahi to mausam
aankhon se peene ka hai
suno ji kehna
kyun maanen
arre sambhal ke chalna
kya jaanen
yahi to mausam
masti mein jeene ka hai

main to chali dekho pyaar ki ada liye
loot ke hum ko na aur daaka daaliye
dil ko churaaya nazar na churaana
bhool na jaana jee bana ke deewaana
jhuke hain badal
baalon ke
khile hai gulshan
gaalon ke
yahi to mausam
aankhon se peene ka hai
suno ji kehna
kyun maanen
sambhal ke chalna
kya jaanen
yahi to mausam
masti mein jeene ka hai ae ae

————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
————————————————

झुके हैं बादल
बालों के
खिले हैं गुलशन
गालों के
यही तो मौसम
आँखों से पीने का है
सुनो जी कहना
क्यों मानें
संभल के चलना
क्या जानें
यही तो मौसम
मस्ती में जीने का है

फेरो नज़र आती हैं मुझे अगड़ाइयाँ
किस्मत से मिलती हैं प्यार की तनहाइयाँ
चाहत का ये दिन सुहाना सुहाना
भूल ना जाना जी बना के दीवाना
झुके हैं बादल
बालों के
खिले हैं गुलशन
गालों के
यही तो मौसम
आँखों से पीने का है
सुनो जी कहना
क्यों मानें
संभल के चलना
क्या जानें
यही तो मौसम
मस्ती में जीने का है

घायल सी हूँ कोई तीर मत मारना
हाय मर जाऊंगा ना यूं प्यार से पुकारना
ऐसे में देखो हमें ना सताना
भूल ना जाना जी बना के दीवाना
झुके हैं बादल
बालों के
खिले हैं गुलशन
गालों के
यही तो मौसम
आँखों से पीने का है
सुनो जी कहना
क्यों मानें
संभल के चलना
क्या जानें
यही तो मौसम
मस्ती में जीने का है

मैं तो चली देखो प्यार की अदा लिए
लूट के हमको ना और डाका डालिए
दिल को चुराया नज़र ना चुराना
भूल ना जाना जी बना के दीवाना
झुके हैं बादल
बालों के
खिले हैं गुलशन
गालों के
यही तो मौसम
आँखों से पीने का है
सुनो जी कहना
क्यों मानें
संभाल के चलना
क्या जानें
यही तो मौसम
मस्ती में जीने का है