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 an evergreen Bhajan by Mohammad Rafi, from the film ‘Narsi Bhagat’-57. The Music Director was Ravi-one of the few composers in HFM, who could be equated with Melody with certainty.
Saint Narsi Mehta or simply Narsi Bhagat( 1414 to 1481) was one of the beacons of Bhakti Movement ( 15th to 17th Century). The first ever Talkie film in Gujarati was on Narsi Bhagat. ” Narsi Mehto”-32 was made by Chimanlal Desai in his famous production company Sagar Movietone. The well known author Biren Kothari ji has described the making of this film in minute details in his epic book,” Sagar Movietone”.
Sagar selected the Marathi stage and film actor Marutirao Pehalwan for the role of Narsi Mehta and Umakant Desai debuted with his role as Lord krishna. Marutirao pehalwan married actress Tara, sister of Sitara Devi. After retirement they settled in Dhule,Maharashtra, where he started a Dairy Business. World famous dancer Gopi Krishna was their son. Nanubhai Vakil had directed the film. The second film ” Narsi Bhagat”-40 was made by Prakash pictures of Bhatt brothers. Vijay Bhatt directed it and Vishnupant Pagnis (Sant Tukaram fame) had done the main role. The songs became very popular. The 1957 version was the 3rd film and the 4th film came up in 1985, in which Sudhir Dalvi (Sai Baba fame) had done the lead role.
I will not go into the details of Bhakti movement or the life story of Narsinh Mehta or describe the film story , because I have already done all this in one of my earlier articles on another song from this film. Interested readers can read it here .
Mumbai Gangout Report…Part 1
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Recently the much touted and eagerly awaited get together of the regulars of this blog took place in Mumbai on Sunday, the 20th November 2016, at Hotel Parle International,Vile Parle (E), Mumbai. This is one event which arouses curiosity in non-attendees and excitement for those who attend the meet-wherever it is.
After the First ever meet at Bengaluru ( where the new word GANGOUT was coined) somewhere in the mid 2014, the Regulars became very enthusiastic at various locations in India and meets were arranged in Mumbai and Bengaluru. In fact this was the 4th Gangout at Mumbai in last 3 years.
As far as Mumbai is concerned, so far, the meets are arranged to coincide the visit of one of our very popular members, Ms Khyati ji Bhatt from USA. This is actually a good reason for all of us to meet. Even in Bengaluru, the meets are arranged to get the advantage of our visiting members ( who, sometimes played Hide and Seek).
This time Khyati ji wrote to us well in advance, on the 26th August 2016, informing that she would be in India (Mumbai) from 9-11-2016 to 4-12-2016. I wonder if she endorsed a copy of her mail to Narendra Modi ji as well, because he arranged for a big gift of demonetization for her, on her arrival. I guess this unsolicited gift upset her shopping plans drastically,here in India. Of course all this was after she landed here.
when we received her mail in end-August, the Mumbai Regulars went into activity mode immediately, mails flew,phones rang and whatsapp messages were exchanged in plenty. Once it was decided to have a Meet, we started guessing about the number of people likely to gather here. We expected this time’s meet to have the biggest number of attendees so far. The enthusiasm of our members was very encouraging.
A circular about the proposed meeting was sent on 9-9-2016 and a choice of 2 dates was offered. Members desirous of attending, were supposed to select one date suitable to them. The offered dates were the 13th and the 20th November-both Sundays. After the deadline of 15th September, we were slapped with a dilemma ! There were equal choices for both dates !!. But only one date had to be fixed. Lot of discussions took place and we finally opted for the 20th November 2016. Accordingly, an E mail was sent to members informing them about the final selected date. We also requested the 13th walas to please adjust their programmes so they could also join others.
By the beginning of November, those who were sure had confirmed but suspense continued about the attendance of Avinash ji, Avadh lal ji, Raja ji and Atul ji. We were hopeful that Raja ji and Atul ji would make a surprise visit on the ‘D’ day. Raja ji clarified on his inability to attend later, but Atul ji kept everyone guessing till the last day.
Once the date was finalised, we started work on the venue. Bharatbhai and Sadanand ji contacted the Hotel, fixed the menu and also paid the advance. As per our list there were 9 Regular members plus we had invited 3 special guests. That would be 12 persons. There was still a doubt about Avinash ji,because in the past few times, he had to cancel his visits in the last minute. Due to this Bharat bhai had given him the pen name of ” illusive Avinash bhai” (elusive, I suppose !). However since he had made it to his Bengaluru meet just last month, I tended to think positively about his coming this time. In the same week I received information about his Train reservation also. He phoned me and confirmed his coming. But still…
The minimum required number for the Hotel booking was 17 persons ( why this odd number,I wondered) and we were only 12. We did not want our money to go waste. Bharat Bhai offered to invite some more of his friends -members of a Music group Sargam in Mumbai-. Some of them had participated in our earlier meet also. He invited 2 more making a total of 14. We kept 3 vacancies, with a hope of some surprise visitors at the last moment.
After all the arrangements were done and Meeting date was approaching, we got the first jolt. Nitin ji informed his inability to attend the meet due to a marriage in the family. We were barely recovering and Sudhir ji gave us a knock out punch. He had to cancel his coming due to his house problem. Raja ji too had informed about his not coming. Avadh ji finally said sorry. Hurriedly we invited 2 more guests. Now the number of Regulars was 7 and the number of guests was also 7. We still hoped about Atul ji since he had not yet informed about his yes or no.
In all this commotion, we realised ,luckily in time, that the Agenda was yet to be prepared. We three exchanged quick mails,calls and messages. Bharat ji offered to present a programme ” guess the song’ based only on listening to the prelude music. He also suggested another programme ” My favourite song”, for which he would require one song from every participant atleast 2 days in advance to be ready. We liked his idea and I quickly sent an E Mail to all members. It is very gratifying that everyone cooperated and Bharat ji got all 14 songs well in time ! In addition, I proposed to host a quiz programme.
There is a funny history to this Quiz Programme. When the first ever Gangout at Bengaluru was being planned, Raja ji had asked for suggestions on Agenda for the meet. That time I prepared a quiz programe and sent it to him.However, due to some reasons, this quiz could not be used in that meet. Later on when a meeting was scheduled in Mumbai in December 2014 ( which I could not attend), I sent this quiz to Sudhir ji to host it in that meeting. Even in that meeting, this quiz remained unused due to paucity of time. In the subsequent meets at Mumbai and Bengaluru and then again in Mumbai, this quiz programe was not used.
This time, however, I was bent upon hosting this quiz programme. So the final agenda with Bharat ji’s and my items was sent to all, 2 days in advance. I was sure that as many stalwarts are attending the meet the quiz would be enjoyed by all.
Then came the Sunday-20th Novembar 2016. In the morning, Atul ji in his posting on the Blog clarified that he was not able to make it this time due to work exigency. In my next post, I will describe about the proceedings of the Meeting and yes, I will also tell you what happened to the quiz programme this time. Till then we continue to enjoy songs on this Blog.
Today’s song is a beautiful Bhajan by Rafi. Many readers will immediately remember this Bhajan and enjoy it also. So, here it is……
Song-Jai Govinda Gopaala (Narsi Bhagat)(1957) Singer-Rafi, Lyrics-Gopal Singh Nepali, MD-Ravi
Lyrics
jai govinda gopaala
jai govinda gopaala
man mohan ghanshyaam kanhaiya
murlidhar nand ke laala
jai govinda gopaala
jai govinda gopaala
saagar mein tu gagar mein tu
tu paataal tu hi dharti
saagar mein tu gaagar mein tu
tu paataal tu hi dharti
man mein van me neel gagan mein
teri jyot jala karti
man mein van mein neel gagan mein
teri jyot jala karti
mere man mandir mein swaami
ee ee ee ee
mere man mandir mein swaami
tujh se hi hai ujiyaala
jai govinda gopaala
jai govinda gopaala
man mohan ghanshyaam kanhaiya
murlidhar nand ke laala
jai govinda gopaala
jai govinda gopaala
o o
o o o
o o
jiska koi nahin is jag mein
uska mitr kanhaiya tu
jiska koi nahin is jag mein
uska mitr kanhaiya tu
laaj bachaiya raas rachaiya
kaala naag nachaiya tu
laaj bachaiya raas rachaiya
kaala naag nachaiya tu
raaja ho ya deen bhikhaari
ho o o
raaja ho ya deen bhikhaari
tu hi sabka rakhwaala
jai govinda gopaala
jai govinda gopaala
man mohan ghanshyaam kanhaiya
murlidhar nand ke laala
jai govinda gopaala
jai govinda gopaala
jai govinda gopaala
jai govinda gopaala
jai govinda gopaala
jai govinda gopaala
