Raaten Na Rahin Wo Na Rahe Din Wo Hamaare
Posted on: May 31, 2022
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.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.
|
Blog Day : |
5065 | Post No. : | 16980 |
Today’s song is from the film ‘Daasi’ (1944).
The film was made by Pradhan Pictures, Lahore, and was directed by Hiren Bose. The music was by Pt. Amarnath Batish (to avoid ‘same name confusion‘ the other Music Director Pt. Amarnath Chawla, I am mentioning their surnames also). Funniest thing is Pradhan Pictures was owned by Sanjay Pradhan – a person from Orissa, Director hiren Bose was from Bengal and Pt. Amarnath, MD was from Punjab. They all came together in the most popular and beautiful city of those times ‘Lahore’, to make a film which became a hit, mostly because of its music.
In the pre-partition period, there were 3 film centers: Bombay, Calcutta and Lahore. Though comparatively Lahore was the youngest center, having made its first silent film only in 1924, experts across the border and in India claim that Lahore had the potential of becoming, if not bigger, but as big a center as Bombay ! In that era Lahore did make a lot of contribution in the field of acting, direction and music. Several experts have written long articles on Lahore’s standing in Hindi and Punjabi film making.
Next to Mumbai and Calcutta, Lahore was the largest movie making center in India. In fact the best known industry in Lahore was the movie industry. Film industry in Lahore is now called Lollywood. It is a mixture of Lahore and Hollywood. During the twenties and thirties, a lot of movies were made in Lollywood, based on the ones made in Hollywood. There was even a big movie studio, named United People’s on Ravi Road. Besides two big studios, Pancholi Arts and Shourie Pictures, that boasted of many super-hit movies, there were a large number of smaller units, which too had quite a few hit films to their credit.
Dalsukh Pancholi, a film tycoon from Lahore (born in Karachi) and the founder of Pancholi Studios of Lahore, studied script writing and cinematography from New York, and played an important part in the careers of stars such as Noor Jehan, Ramola, Om Prakash, music composers Ghulam Haider and OP Nayyar. His first film was ‘Gul-e-Bakawli’ (1938) starring Noor Jehan. Ghulam Haider’s “Shaala Jawaania” was an instant rage. Pancholi’s film ‘Khazanchi’ (1941) was one of the longest running movies of its time.
Master Ghulam Haider, a phenomenal music director from Lahore, was the man who gave Lata Mangeshkar the break of her career in the movie ‘Majboor’ (1948). Mohd Rafi’s debut also happened to occur in Lahore, at the hands of music director Shyaam Sunder in Pancholi’s film ‘Gul Baloch’. Many of the mainstream stars started their career in movies that were made in Lahore, and later moved to Mumbai where they became some of the biggest stars of Indian cinema.
Many high profile Indian actors and singers lived in the Walled City in the 1940s and Lakshmi Chowk was where the film fraternity got together in tongas decorated with maroon flowers, foot bells and lamps on the side. By the evening, Lakshmi would be full of tongas, with film stars, top film directors and producers thronging tea houses and discussing filmy affairs. Pran, Om Parkash and Al Nasir, another Lahori film hero, would spend their evenings chatting and playing billiards.
Pran, who mostly played the role of a villain in films, lived in Qilla Gujjar Singh. He was a skilled photographer and took photographs of famous artistes. One day – while standing at a pan shop in Lakshmi Chowk – he met Wali, a leading film director of the time. Wali asked Pran if he was interested in acting and Pran said yes. Wali wrote the address of Pancholi Studios on the back of a cigarette pack and asked Pran to see one of his friends there. Pran started his film career with ‘Chaudhry’ and later appeared as a hero in ‘Khaandaan’ (1942), a film by Shaukat Hussain Rizvi. The heroine was melody queen Noor Jahan. Later Pran established his career in Lahore as a villain in Punjabi films. Pran migrated to Bombay in 1947.
BR Chopra was born in Lahore. He studied journalism, directed/produced plays, and worked as a film critic in Lahore. Yash Chopra, his younger brother was born in Lahore as well, later he joined his brother in Bombay to start their own production house. BR Chopra was working on his first film ‘Chandni Chowk’ when the partition riots began. And K Asif, the man who made the epic masterpiece ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ (1960), also hailed from Lahore. Om Parkash was also one of the great names of Bombay. He lived at Matti Chowk, Lohari Gate and always rented out a decorated tonga to take him from Matti Chowk to Lakshmi Chowk every day. Om Parkash did many small and large roles in films made in Lahore and also migrated to India in 1947.
Balraj Sahni also lived at Matti Chowk and was the secretary general of the All India Communist Party. He studied at Government College. Sahni also acted in pre-Partition films in Lahore. Dev Anand lived in Lohari Gate, but later moved to Bhaati Gate. He also studied at Government College. Dev Anand participated actively in politics in Lahore. His brother Chetan Anand was a famous film director in Lahore and was considered quite influential in film studios when it came to casting and other affairs. Meena Shorey was one of the leading female actors of her times. She lived in Bhaati Gate and married Roop K Shorey, the owner of Shorey Film Studio (now Shah Noor Studio). She acted in several pre-partition films made in Lahore and migrated to India in 1947.
Lahore was considered the ‘launchpad’ for famous singers and musicians. KL Saigal, the legendary singer, acquired fame in Lahore then later moved to Calcutta. and then to Mumbai. The subcontinent’s greatest playback singer Muhammad Rafi lived in Bhaati Gate. He was from a family of barbers and ran his own barbershop. Rafi had a beautiful voice and most of his customers would often ask him to sing for them while they got their hair cut or got a shave. A man from the film industry introduced Rafi to film director of ‘Gul Baloch’ who gave Rafi the opportunity to sing three songs. The film proved a launching point for Rafi’s film career in Lahore and by the time he migrated to India in the 40s he was an accomplished singer.
Khurshid Begum was an outstanding singer from Lahore who too moved to India for better opportunities. She also lived in Bhaati Gate. She sang several famous songs for various Indian films, including great songs with singer KL Saigal. Hritik Roshan’s grandpa Roshan (Roshan Lal Nagrath), the famous music director, was from Lahore. He was given a chance as an assistant by another Lahori musician, Khwaja Khurshid Anwar (who was in Bombay at the time). Khayyam the music composer of ‘Umrao-Jaan’ fame started his career in Lahore.
Roshan Ara Begum from Lahore was acclaimed the best interpreter of Kirana Gharana Sytle of Khayal singing in the subcontinent. Composer OP Nayyar, Ustad Fateh Ali, Bade Ghulam Ali (the only film he ever sang for was ‘Mughal-e-Azam’), all are from Lahore. Other famous musicians from Lahore who migrated later to Mumbai include Pandit Amarnath, Shyam Sunder, Gobind Ram, Lachhi Ram and Dhani Ram. More recently Lahore has given India Nusrat Fateh Ali, Sabri Brothers, Adnan Sami, Reshma, Mehdi Hassan, Abida Parveen, Tassawar Khanum, Atif Aslam, Ghulam Ali, Rahat Fateh Ali, Shafqat Amanat Ali – their talent truly saturates Bollywood.
Sajjad Zaheer (father of Nadira Babbar), Jaan Nisar Akhtar (father of lyricist Javed and grandfather of actor/director Farhan and director Zoya), Kaifi Azmi (father of Shabana Azmi), Majrooh Sultanpuri and so many others have a deep link to that city. Sahir Ludhianvi (Abdul Hayee) started his career in Lahore as a lyricist/poet, and later went on to become one of the biggest lyricists in Bollywood. Tanveer Naqvi was a noted lyricist of his times. He lived in the Faqirkhana Museum inside Bhaati Gate. He wrote ‘Awaz De Kahaan Hai’ and ‘Jaan-e-Baharan, Rashk-e-Chaman’.
It was Lahore that encouraged women to throng the theaters for the first time where the Wednesday matinees were reserved for women in special ‘Ladies Only’ shows in all theaters at half the normal rates. Lahore’s love for Bollywood movies continues till date where while the Pakistani films have vanished from the cinema, the screening of Bollywood movies is again in full swing after a setback when Indian films were banned for sometime to help indigenous industry to pick up. Almost every cinema hall in the city including those located in Northern Lahore and Walled City known for showing Punjabi movies, has switched over to either Indian or English films.
The film ‘Daasi’ had in its cast Ragini, Najamul Hasan, Om Prakash, Kalavati, Pran Sikand, Khairati etc. Ragini was touted as one of the most beautiful actresses of that time. She was called Aahoo Chashm, like Naseem Banu was called Pari Chehra. In Indian cinema there were only 3 actresses with brown eyes. one was Ragini, second was Kamla Kotnis (first heroine of Dev Anand in 1946) and third was Vanmala.
Najamul Hasan was very handsome . If only he had not eloped with Devika Rani in 1936, possibly he would have ruled Indian cinema. Bombay had banned him, Calcutta had not much to offer and in Lahore he got only side roles. His last days were very bad in Pakistan.
Only Ragini and Pt. Amarnath were the winners in the success of the film ‘Daasi’. Pt Amarnath was born in Jalandhar in 1912. Pandit ji started his career as singer, actor in the stage plays in his home town of Jalandhar. He also recorded private songs, ghazals, thumri, gurbani, classical and semi-classical in the voice of child prodigy Master Madan in the 30s. Master Madan only recorded eight compositions in his life of only fourteen years under the baton of Pandit Amarnath – “Bagaan Wich Peengan Paiyaan”, “Raavi De Parle Kandey”, “Man Ki Man Hi Mahi Rahi”, “Chetna he ko chet le”, “Mori Binti Mano Kanha Re” and “Gori Gori Baiyaan”. This was confirmed by Khayyam Sb.
Pandit Amarnath made his debut in 1942 with Roop K Shorey’s film ‘Nishani’. Pandit Amarnath’s most successful film was ‘Daasi’, starring Ragini, Najam and Gyani. Zeenat Begum sang her scintillating numbers, “Ho Rasiya Kabhi Le Chal Tu Jamuna Ke Paar”, “Subah Hui Aur Panchi Jaage” and “Wo Din Yaad Karo”. The chart buster of the film was “Raaten Na Rahin Wo Na Rahe Din Wo Hamaare”. After the release of ‘Daasi’, Pandit ji came to be known as Pandit Amarnath of Daasi fame.
Pandit Amarnath’s music was a mix of Punjabi folk, Mehfil Sangeet of classical shades and village music which can be seen in his compositions. In 1944, Pandit ji went to Calcutta to give music for Indrapuri studio’s ‘Iraada’. Upcoming singer Hemant Kumar recorded his song, “Phir Mohabbat Ke Payam Aane Lagey” under his guidance. Another popular composition of Pandit ji for the movie was “Araam Se Jo Raatein Kaatey Wo Ashq Bahaana Kya Jaane”. Pandit Amarnath was the most revered composer of the 1940s. He gave several evergreen numbers in that decade.
Pandit ji was in so much demand that he started getting offers from Bombay, Poona as well as Calcutta. When he got an offer from Prabhat to do music for their film ‘Chand’, he declined the offer and suggested that instead they should take his assistants Husanlal and Bhagatram. Prabhat honoured Pandit ji’s request and agreed. This was the beginning of India’s first popular musical duo.
Simultaneously, he was giving music to Punjabi films too like “Koel” (1944) and “Gul Baloch” (1945).During the 40s decade Pt. Amarnath was the most busy composer, with a line up like ‘Nishani’ (1942), ‘Paapi’ (1943), ‘Iraada” (1944), ‘Daasi’ (1944), ‘Panchhi’ (1944), ‘Shirin Farhad’ (1945), ‘Ragini’ (1945), ‘Kaise Kahoon’ (1945), ‘Dhamkee’ (1945), ‘Sham Savera’ (1946), ‘Shalimar’ (1946), ‘Shehar Se Door’ (1946), ‘Jhumke’ (1946), ‘Aai Bahar’ (1946), ‘Pagdandi’ (1947), ‘Mirza Sahiban’ (1947), ‘Roop Rekha’ (1948) and ‘Ek Teri Nishani’ (1949).
He gave music to 18 Hindi films, composing 152 songs in all. Due to his success, he started drinking, which became his nemesis. At the time of film ‘Pagdandi’ (1947), after few songs, he was replaced by Khurshid Anwar. Even in his last two films ‘Roop Rekha’ (1948) and ‘Ek Teri Nishani’ (1949) after few songs, he was replaced by other MDs. Film ‘Patjhad’, which he had signed, was given to Ghulam Haider.
After the grand success of ‘Jhumke’, he also fell into the same trap which affected his health badly. He had a few films in his hand at this stage as well, even his most successful film ‘Mirza Sahiban’ starring Malika e Tarannum was made at this stage. He had composed several evergreen numbers for this film. It’s super hit was “Haaye Re Ud Ud Jaaye Mora Reshmi Duppata”. He had signed up for the film ‘Patjhad’ for Pancholi Picture but after his untimely death, Ghulam Haidar and SD Batish were signed up instead.
Similarly, Pandit ji was replaced by Khurshid Anwar in ‘Pagdandi’. In the film ‘Roop Rekha’ (1948) Pandit ji had recorded a song, “Bol Bol Mein Umda Hai Toofan”. He had also recorded a few compositions for “Ek Teri Nishani” – “Aa Gai Zaalim Jawani Aa Gai” and “Ek Dekha Khwwab Suhana”. Asha Bhosle sang for the first time for Pandit ji in the song, “Teri Kaafir Jawaani Ko Jawaani Kaun Kehta Hai”. The film was later completed by Sardul Kawatra and was released in 1949.
During the making of film ‘Mirza Saahiban’, Pt. Amarnath died at the age of just 35 years, on 20-2-1947. The balance songs were done by Husnlal Bhagatram.
His untimely death was a great loss to the music industry and especially to the Punjab School of Music, robbing us of many great hits.
Today’s song is the 7th song from ‘Daasi’ to appear here. The song is extremely melodious and is sung by Zeenat Begum with her sweet voice. You will certainly enjoy it….
(The article is based on adapted information from an article on creative.sulekha, from Film Sangeetkar by Prof. Yadav, an article by Sharad Dutt in millenimpost.in, Dhunon Ki Yatra by Pankaj Raag, HFGK, muVyz and my notes ).
Song – Raaten Na Rahin Wo Na Rahe Din Wo Hamaare (Daasi) (1944) Singer – Zeenat Begum, Lyricist – DN Madhok, MD – Pt Amarnath Batish
Lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
raaten na rahin wo
na rahe din wo hamaare
raaten na rahin wo
na rahe din wo hamaare
tum hi bata do ke jiyen kis ke sahaare
aa jaao tadpata hai jiyaa dard ke maare
aa jaao tadpata hai jiyaa dard ke maare
dum ghut ke marey jaate hain armaan bechaare
ab tum hi bata do ke jiyen kis ke sahaare
raaten na rahin wo
koi to unhen jaa ke ye paighaam mera de
koi to unhen jaa ke ye paighaam mera de
ik rota hua dil tumhen din raat pukaare
ab tum hi bata do ke jiyen kis ke sahaare
raaten na rahin wo
na rahe din wo hamaare
tum hi bata do ke jiyen kis ke sahaare
raaten na rahin wo
————————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
————————————————————
रातें ना रहीं वो
ना रहे दिन वो हमारे
रातें ना रहीं वो
ना रहे दिन वो हमारे
तुम ही बता दो के जीएं किस के सहारे
आ जाओ तड़पता है जिया दर्द के मारे
आ जाओ तड़पता है जिया दर्द के मारे
दम घुट के मरे जाते हैं अरमान बेचारे
अब तुम ही बता दो के जीएं किस के सहारे
कोई तो उन्हें जा के ये पैगाम मेरा दे
कोई तो उन्हें जा के ये पैगाम मेरा दे
इक रोता हु दिल तुम्हें दिन रात पुकारे
रातें ना रहीं वो
ना रहे दिन वो हमारे
तुम ही बता दो के जीएं किस के सहारे
रातें ना रहीं वो
5 Responses to "Raaten Na Rahin Wo Na Rahe Din Wo Hamaare"
May 31, 2022 at 10:16 am
Dear Satish ji,
Yes.Lahore played an important role in the early years of Hindi cinema. Sadly, not many people know this and the gen who knew this is disappearing slowly.My attempt is to leave information for the NextGen so that I can
‘Die Empty’.
-AD
LikeLike
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
May 31, 2022 at 9:31 am
Arun Ji, Thanks for the post. It was revelation how much important Lahore was for the Indian film industry, and for those many artistes who owe their career to the city.
LikeLike