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.
Film making had started in India in early 1900s and many enthusiastic lovers of making images were doing a lot of work in this field. By the time the First Talkie Film came in 1931, there were quite a few film producing centres engaged in making silent films, like Bombay, Calcutta, Lahore, Poona, Kolhapur, Bangalore, Madras, Hyderabad etc. However,Bombay, Lahore and Calcutta were the three main centres ones where the bulk of movies were was made. In those days, India was vertically divided into two parts-Calcutta on the Eastern part and Lahore and Bombay on the Western part for Hindi films. Madras,Bangalore and Hyderabad were busy in making southern language films.
Film making at Lahore was a losing proposition for two reasons. One- geographically, its finished product i.e. Films had no market in its West or north side. They had to look at the entire Indian subcontinent as their market and Secondly- Once the actors, Directors or the composers got an experience in Lahore, they would run to Bombay for bigger opportunities and poor Lahore would end up only as a stepping stone or at best a Training and launching pad for artistes ! Pancholi’s Khazanchi-41 was perhaps the First film from Lahore that turned out to be a profitable proposition for its makers.
By the mid 40s, it was well known that the Partition would take place and so artistes were not interested to remain in Lahore and preferred Bombay which was prospering as a wholesale Production Centre.
Calcutta had some disadvantages compared to Bombay, on 3 grounds. 1) Geographical- Their Hindi film market was only on its Western side, competing with 2 other centres. 2) Social- The Regional Pride was very prominent(even today,it is) and hence, except films, everywhere, knowing Bangla was a MUST. In Bombay, one could( and still can) live for 50 years and not speak Marathi, but it was impossible in Calcutta or Madras. Further, the regional cinema in Bengal fiercely competed with Hindi films here, sharing the only production centre in Eastern India. The result was, Hindi film production slowly diminished as Artistes made a beeline for Bombay. Not only the Punjabi or the North Indian artistes, but even Bangla Directors (Nabendu Ghosh, Bimal Roy, Satyen Bose, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Chatterjee etc), Music Directors and Singers( Pankaj Mullick, Pahadi Sanyal, K C Dey, S D Burman, Salil Chaudhari, Anil Biswas, Hemant Kumar, even R C Boral) and few actors(Abhi Bhattacharya, Mala Sinha, Talat Mehmood, Pradeep Kumar etc) shifted base to Bombay.
Bombay welcomed one and all from entire India, grew bigger and became the only Hindi cinema production Centre in India. It had markets in East, West,North and South. The number of Indian migrants to other countries was growing and itcreated an Overseas market for Hindi films as well. Regional pride did not interfere, as it had other centres too in Kolhapur and Poona. Local Language was similar to Hindi/spoken Urdu, the social and commercial aspects were friendly and the cosmopolitan culture was favourable for movie making.
It comes as no surprise that local artistes were in majority in Bombay film world in its early days. Heros like master Vithal, Bhagwan, Nandrekar in the early era, Heroines like, Shanta Apte, Shanta Hublikar,Vanmala, Hansa Wadkar, Ratnaprabha, Snehprabha Pradhan, Nalini Tarkhad, Nalini Jaywant, Durga Khote, Leela Chitnis, Lalita Pawar (Amboo) etc in the 40s, and Nutan, Usha Kiran later on and composers like C.Ramchandra, Sudhir Phadke, Snehal Bhatkar, N.Datta, K.Datta, Datta Davjekar etc were among the long list of local artists who made it big in Bombay film world.
Out of these early Heroines,3 Heroines- Shanta Apte (1916-1964), Snehprabha Pradhan (1920-19930 and Hansa Wadkar (Ratan Salgaonkar in real life,1924-1971) had few things common.
They operated in films during almost the same time period.
They were educated and hailed from upper castes.
They all were rebellious in nature.
They all had failed marriages.
They all worked in Marathi stage dramas and
They all wrote Autobiographies in Marathi ( Shanta Apte- Jau mee Cinemaat ? means- shall I join films ? ), (Snehprabha Pradhan-Snehankita) and ( Hansa Wadkar- Sangte Ayka
means- Listen to me. A Hindi film Bhoomika-with Smita patil- was made on this book).
Snehprabha Pradhan was born in 1920. Her mother became a widow, but married a social worker Vithalrao Pradhan. Her mother Tarabai could not decide between two names -Snehlata and Ratnaprabha,for her, so she combined parts of these names and christened her Sneh-prabha. The first 10 years of her life were spent in different cities like Bombay, Nagpur, Poona, Calcutta, Lahore,Delhi and Calcutta and she learnt to speak four languages fluently. She attended college but could not get the degree as her mother fell sick and her father left them high and dry. Family friend Chiman bhai Desai offered her a film PUNARMILAN-1940 opposite Kishore Sahu under the banner of Bombay Talkies. She married Kishore Sahu, but they separated within one year. She got three more films in 1940- Saughagya, Sajni and Civil marriage. In 1942, she did Marathi film,’Pahli mangalagaur’ in which Lata Mangeshkar acted for the first time. Lata sang songs also with Snehprabha Pradhan. This Marathi film had earned ‘ A ‘ censor certificate, as there was a bedroom scene in which there is darkness on the screen, but hushed voices were heard. in those days some people came with Torches to the movie hall, hoping that this would enable them to see ‘something’ in that dark scene !
In 1946, when Tarabai-her mother died, she was so heartbroken that she contemplated suicide also. In the early 50s, she came in contact with the famous doctor of Bombay Dr. V.N.Shirodkar, with whom she stayed for another 40 years of her life. After leaving films, she did some noteworthy roles on Marathi stage. She wrote several books too, like her autobiography-” Snehankita” and ” Rasik prekshakanna saprem” etc. Snehprabha pradhan died in 1993.
After she divorced Kishore Sahu, she got introduced to a British soldier on war duty in India-Edward Sparkes. Their romance became well known. They travelled all over India, but could not marry,as he had to return to England in 1947.
Snehprabha was the Dreamgirl of Dev Anand. He had acted with Nargis in Khel-1950 which was a flop. He never wanted to work with Nargis again in his life, but when a film ‘Birha ki Raat’1950 was offered to him opposite Nargis, he accepted it only because Snehprabha Pradhan was in it. Thus Dev Anand’s dream of working with his dreamgirl heroine was fulfilled !
PUNARMILAN-1940 was a Bombay Talkies film,directed by Najam Naqvi.
Najamul Hassan Naqvi,born on 11-4-1913 at Rampur in UP,was an Actor,Director and Producer. During his period only, another actor Najamul Hassan of Bombay Talkies had become infamous as he had eloped with Devika Rani to Calcutta. Therefore this Naqvi changed his name to a short Najam Naqvi, to differentiate between the two of them.
Naqvi directed some 20 films, some of them being-Actress, Naya Tarana, Nateeja, Rangeeli, Nirdosh etc. Naqvi migrated to Pakistan and died in Lahore in 1982.
The music was by Ramchandra Pal, who operated between 1932 to 1962. Very few people know that he was a full-fledged medical Doctor. After leaving films he opened a clinic in Dadar, Bombay and practiced there till 1988.
Pal began by giving music to 2 Tamil and 2 Bangla films. Then he joined Bombay Talkies in 1939-40 and gave music to Kangan, Azad, Bandhan(with Saraswati Devi), Punarmilan and Naya Sansar. He gave music in 23 films, last one was Raj Nandini-1962(Unreleased). He had also composed for Prem Sagar-1939, the First ever Hindi film made in south.
The lyrics were by J.S.Casshyap, Pradeep, Pt.Indra and Pt.Anand Kumar. There were 10 songs.
PUNARMILAN-1940 opens with a party hosted for celebrating the graduation of Kumar(Kishore Sahu), son of Gopinath, a rich Landlord. Jayanti(Sunalini Devi) ,his daughter is also present. After the party,in the night,Kumar finds Gangaram,the close friend of Gopinath,murdered at night with Gopinath standing there with a Pistol. Kumar takes the Pistol and runs away to take the murder’s blame on him. Gopinath gets a paralytic attack and can not communicate. Police chase Kumar in vain.
Kumar runs to another town, where he faints near the house of Koyal(Snehprabha Pradhan) a street dancer/singer. She takes him, nurses him and in due course falls in love with him, as per the scriptwriter’s wishes.
Meanwhile, Jayanti brings her father to the same town for treatment. A suave but crook businessman Manohar(Peethawala) befriends her. To please her, he fixes the programme of Koyal in a theatre, where Jayanti meets her brother Kumar. Manohar sees this and starts blackmailing Jayanti for marriage. She is taken to a Rest house. Koyal and Kumar reach there and rescue Jayanti but Kumar is arrested.
Meanwhile, Gopinath responds to the treatment and gives a statement to police that he killed Gangaram, as he was trying to rape Jayanti.
Kumar is released and there is Punarmilan of Kumar and Koyal.
Here is a solo song of Snehprabha Pradhan from her FIRST film, Punarmilan-1940. Enjoy her Dance and song….
Song-Hans le jee bhar bhar kar hans le (Punarmilan)(1940) Singer-Snehprabha Pradhan, Lyrics-Pt Anand Kumar, MD-Ramchandra Pal
Lyrics
hans le
jee bhar bhar kar hans le
jee bhar bhar kar hans le
jaane kaun kahaan phir jaaye
jaane kaun kahaan phir jaaye
hans le
jee bhar bhar kar hans le
dev lok se aayee hoon main
ek sandesa laayee hoon main
dev lok se aayee hoon main
ek sandesa laayee hoon main
hans ??
jee bahla le
hans ??
jee bahla le
hansne ko ham jag mein aaye
hansne ko ham jag mein aaye
hans le
jee bhar bhar kar hans le
aa
tujhko ek geet sunaaun
aa
tujhko ek geet sunaaun
aa main tera jee behlaaun
aa main tera jee behlaaun
noopur ki run-jhun run-jhun se
noopur ki
noopur ki run-jhun run-jhun se
madhur madhur sangeet bahaaun
madhur madhur sangeet bahaaun
tera man sang sang bah jaaye
tera man sang sang bah jaaye
hans le
jee bhar bhar kar hans le
