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.
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Today’s song is from the film Laxmi Narayan-1951.
In the Hindi Film Geet Kosh (HFGK), you find mention of the Genre of every film like Social, Mystery, Family, Historical etc etc. During the 50’s decade 2 types of films were common, which were categorised as भक्ति प्रधान (Religious) and पौराणिक (Mythological). Most people do not know what the difference is between these 2 categories. Films made on stories from the Holy Scriptures like Ramayan, Mahabharat, Puranas and Vedas are called पौराणिक (Mythological) e.g. Ram Rajya, Bharat Milan, Ghatotkach, Shri Ganesh Vivah etc. Films made on the events connected with or the life of Saints or Bhakts are categorised as भक्ति प्रधान (Religious) e.g. Bhakta Dhruv, Mahatma kabir, Sant Tukaram, Bhakta Pundalik etc etc. One has to remember that Bhakti Pradhan or Religious films are not from Mythology, but Pouranik or Mythological films are religious films as they are connected with the principles of Religion.Laxmi Narayan is considered as the most ideal couple wherein Beauty and Wealth are combined with the Supreme Power. In our day to day life, a couple with very good looks and matching to each other is called a “Laxmi- Narayan” joda.
Today’s Film Laxmi Narayan-1951 was based on a story from Vishnu Puran. It is about how Laxmi and Narayan met and got united. It has the background of ‘Samudra Manthan’ or Churning of the ocean. In our Puranas, there are stories about the SAMUDRA MANTHAN. It is believed that Kamala or Laxmi emerged from this churning and Narayan married her. In all, 14 unique, magical and invaluable things came out of the ocean after this Samudra Manthan or Churning of the Ocean.
For your information here are these 14 objects-
1. Halahal-The Poison 2.Varuni-The wine 3. Kamdhenu-Magical Cow 4. Airawat-The Flying Elephant 5. Uchhaiswas-The 6 Headed Horse 6. Apsaras like Rambha,Urvashi, Menaka etc. 7. Kaustubh Mani- A powerful Diamond 8. Kalpavriksha-The Magical Tree 9. a Divine Bow 10. Chandra-The Moon 11. Ratnas or Gems 12. Laxmi or Kamala 13. Dhanwantari-The Gods’ Physician,with a book on Ayurved and 14. The Amrit- the drink that makes one immortal.
Here is the story of the film Laxmi Narayan (1951)….
Arishtanemi, the king of Danavas was ruining Mother Earth for his own sadistic enjoyment. He had polluted the waters of the rivers. All the Gems were thrown away in the sea and everywhere there was a tale of suffering. At the same time Bhuwanmohini, daughter of Bhrigu Rishi was in the bloom of her youth and many Kings and Gods were aspiring to marry her. Indra, the King of Gods and Arishtanemi were two aspirants competing with each other, while Bhuwanmohini herself wished to marry Lord Vishnu, thanks to the praise of the Lord by Narad. Indra took away Bhuwan with him against her wishes.
To take advantage of this situation, Arishtanemi started a Yagna with Bhrigu as his Purohit. From the holy fire of the Yagna emerged Vritrasura with whose help Arishtanemi conquered the kingdom of Gods. There Arishtanemi searched for Bhuwan but she had left Indra’s palace and sat alone on the top of a mountain and prayed to the Lord to come to her rescue. Having lost his kingdom Indra prayed to God Shankar for help to conquer Arishtanemi.
God Shankar told him that only one weapon could kill Vritrasura and that it was to be made from the bones of Sage Dadhichi. Indra went to Dadhichi and served him while power-mad Arshtanemi attacked Sage Dadhichi only to be burnt down. Indra got the weapon he wanted and won the battle with Vrittasur. Indra then went in search of Bhuwanmohini but unwilling to surrender to Indra she jumped down to the sea.
When Bhrigu learnt about this mishap he went to Lord Vishnu who was asleep and kicked him in the chest to wake him up. In anger he called out “How can you sleep sound when my daughter died crying out ? ” Lord Vishnu said,” dont worry, Oh Sage. She will come to me when time is ripe for the same. In the meanwhile let me massage your foot which must have been hurt when you struck me”. Later the Gods and the Danavas churned the great sea when Bhuwanmohini emerged as Laxmi radiant with wealth and Lord Vishnu accepted her as his consort. This union is famous in the Hindu mythology by the name LAXMI NARAYAN.
The cast of the film was Meena Kumari, Mahipal, S.N.Tripathi,Urmila, B.M.Vyas, Amarnath,Sulochana, Vasantrao Pahilwan and many others. Meena Kumari, in her film career had initially worked in C and B grade Mythological and action films. Meena Kumari had done several Mythological and costume films before Baiju Bawra took her high up and above other Heroines. In films like Veer Ghatotkach-49, Shri Ganesh Mahima-50, Laxmi Narayan-51, Hanuman Paataal vijay-51 and Alladin aur Jadui Chirag-52 she had Mahipal as her Hero. In her later years, she always hid her earlier film Heroes. Many artistes hid their first films after they became big stars. here are some examples….
Gulzar’s first song was not from Bandini – 63, as is claimed by him, in every interview. He has written lyrics in films Choron ki Baraat-60, Diler Haseena-60 and Shriman Satyawadi-60. He wrote these songs as Gulzar Deenvi. But he also wrote lyrics in the film Kabuliwala-61 and Prempatra-62 in the name of Gulzar. Even then he claims Bandini-63 as his first film- which is wrong.
Born on January 9, 1934, in Amritsar, Mahendra Kapoor spent the majority of his childhood in Mumbai, where he claimed top honors in the All-India Murphy-Metro Singing competition – 1957, for Newcomers. His victory captured the attention of filmmaker Raja Nawathe, who used him in 1958’s Sohni Mahiwal. This also caused a controversy, because the contest was for new comers and Mahendra Kapoor had already sung songs in several films like Madmast-53,Madhur milan-55 Lalkar-56 and Heer-56 and also his first solo song in film Diwali ki raat-56. When confronted Later on, he gave some lame excuse that he had not got any payment for that song etc etc.
Mala Sinha came from Calcutta to make a career in Bombay films. In Calcutta she worked in a Bilingual film ‘Chitrangadha-54’ in Bangla and Hindi. In 54 again,she did her first film in Bombay, Badshah-54, then came Hamlet-54, Riyasat-55 and Ekadashi-55. In all her interviews, Mala Sinha always quoted “Rangeen Raten”-56 with Shammi Kapoor as her first film in Bombay. She was ashamed of revealing that in film Riyasat-55, her Hero was Mahipal and in film Ekadashi the Hero was Trilok Kapoor. She always hid this fact. There are many Heroines who want to hide their struggling days. For example,in film “Professor”-62 Shammi Kapoor’s Heroine was Kalpana. Though touted as her first film,her first film was Pyar ki Jeet-62, opposite Mahipal- a fact which Kalpana always hid from everyone.
Even comedian Johnny Walker,who is supposed to have made a beginning with Baazi-51, had earlier worked in “The last message or Aakhri paigham”-49. However this fact is not told by anyone. Not only actors,but even singers do this. They hesitate to say that they first sang for C grade films. Take the case of Sudha Malhotra, who used to declare Arzoo-50 as her first film, under Anil Biswas,but she never told that earlier she had sung 3 songs in film Aakhri paigham-49, under the baton of Abid Hussein Khan, a less known composer.
It is very unfortunate that once the artiste becomes famous, he tends to forget his humble beginning with a less known film or a composer. This is because they are ashamed of it. Shri Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji, famous collector and a film Historian, rues that they do so. He feels the blame also goes to people who take their interview, because the interview takers do not do proper homework. Many times they do not know anything and simply listen to whatever is told by the artiste.
Film Laxmi Narayan-1951 was directed by Nanabhai Bhatt, an expert in such films. The film was made by Homi Wadia’s banner- Basant Pictures. The film had Mahipal as the film’s Hero. Inn mythological films Mahipal, Manhar Desai, Shahu Modak and Prem Adib were the popular Heros.
Mahipal or Mahipal Singh or Mahipal Bhandari (24 November 1919 – 15 May 2005) was a film actor who worked in Hindi cinema mostly in stunt films like Parasmani, Zabak, Cobra Girl, Jantar Mantar, Arabian nights themed movies such as Alibaba, Aladdin And The Wonderful Lamp, Roop Lekha, Sunehari Nagin, and Hindu mythological movies like Sampoorna Ramayan, Ganesh Mahima, Veer Bhimsen, Jai Santoshi Maa. He is known for playing the iconic role of Lord Vishnu, and his two avatars, Lord Rama and Lord Krishna in lot of various puranic, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavata Purana based movies, besides playing Tulsidas and Abhimanyu, and is also best known as the lead in V. Shantaram’s Navrang (1959), and the songs “Tu Chhupi Hai Kahan Me Tadapta Yahan” and “Aadha Hai Chandrama Raat Aadhi”. He acted in several well-known films of the 1950s and 1960s including V. Shantaram’s Navrang (1959) and Babubhai Mistry’s Parasmani (1963).
He was born on 24-11-1919 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, where after his schooling, he graduated in literature from Jaswant Government College Jodhpur. Thereafter, he worked in the theatre before migrating to Mumbai in the early 1940s.
He made his film debut in the 1942 film Nazrana. However, the film didn’t work, thereafter he wrote lyrics for four films. He went on to work with directors such as Sohrab Modi and later with the Wadia Brothers, Homi Wadia and J. B. H. Wadia, however, it was his work with V. Shantaram that got him lasting acclaim. He worked in several mythological and historical films with actresses such as Nirupa Roy, Mala Sinha and even Meena Kumari.
Mahipal was never counted as an A category actor and so, leading actresses who started their careers with Mahipal in the lead were ashamed of revealing or accepting this fact. For example, In all her interviews, Mala Sinha always quoted “Rangeen Raten”-56 with Shammi Kapoor as her first film in Bombay. She was ashamed of revealing that in the film Riyasat-55, her Hero was Mahipal. She always hid this fact. Similarly, A grade Heroine Meena Kumari also had done several Mythological and costume films before Baiju Bawra took her high up and above other Heroines. Films like Shri Ganesh Mahima-50, Laxmi Narayan-51, Hanuman Paataal vijay-51 and Alladin aur Jadui Chirag-52 had Mahipal as her Hero. In her later years, she always hid her earlier film Heroes.
He also did a series of fantasy films based on Arabian Nights, including Alibaba and 40 Thieves (1954), Jennie (1953) ,Aladdin Aur Jadui Chirag (1952) and Alibaba ka Beta (1955), which gave him popularity even in the Gulf countries. Later in his career, he switched to character roles, and appeared in films such as Jai Santoshi Maa (1975), a 1970s hit.
He wrote 13 songs in 4 films, namely Mali-44, Aap ki Sewa mein-47 (Lata Mangeshkar’s first playback song was written by Mahipal in this film), Mere Laal-48 and Adalat-48. Mahipal acted in 131 Hindi films. He had also worked in Marathi, Rajasthani and Assamese films. His first film was Nazrana-42 and the last film was Amar Jyoti-84….a career spanning 42 years. He worked with Shakila in 18 films, with Anita Guha in 11 films,With Shyama in 6 films, and in 4 films with Nirupa Roy. He worked with Meena Kumari in 4 films. He is the only actor in Mythological films who sang a song on screen in the role of Shri Ram, in the film Hanuman Pataal Vijay-1951.
He died in Mumbai of cardiac arrest, at the age of 86. He was survived by his wife Akkal Kunwar and daughters Sushila Jain and Nirmala Oswal. (Thanks to book Inhe na Bhulana by Harish Raghuwanshi ji, wiki and my notes).
Now let us enjoy the lovely song sung by Geeta Roy….
Song-Gayee birha ki raat aaya hai naya prabhat (Laxmi Narayan)(1951) Singer- Geeta Roy, Lyricist- Ramesh Pandey, MD- S.N.Tripathi
Lyrics
gayi birha ki raat
aaya hai naya prabhat
chale aao piya hamri nagariya mein
chale aao piya hamri nagariya mein
gayi birha ki raat
aaya hai naya prabhat
chale aao piya hamri nagariya mein
chale aao piya hamri nagariya mein
leke milan sandesa
aayi ghata ghanghor
ghata ghanghor
leke milan sandesa
aayi ghata ghanghor
chhum chhana chhana chhum naache man mor
naache man mor
chhum chhana chhana chhum naache man mor
naache man mor
aake mukhda dikhaao
bhola man samjhaao
piya cham cham chamak bijuriya mein
cham cham chamak bijuriya mein
gayi birha ki raat
aaya hai naya prabhat
chale aao piya hamri nagariya mein
chale aao piya hamri nagariya mein
aao adhron ki meethi muskaan bano
muskaan bano
aao adhron ki meethi muskaan bano
aao tan mein samaao piya praan bano
ho piya praan bano
aao tan mein samaao piya praan bano
ho piya praan bano
khule mandir ka dwaar
liye phoolan ka haar
haaye thhak gayi tumhri dagariya mein
thhak gayi tumhri dagariya mein
gayi birha ki raat
aaya hai naya prabhat
chale aao piya hamri nagariya mein
chale aao piya hamri nagariya mein
aao jeevan mein aaj sukh chain bharo
aao dukhiya jiya ki dukh tapan haro
aao sapne suhaane aaj pooran karo
aao devta hamaare daya hum pe karo
ho daya hum pe karo
aao prem ki lata mein muskaao ithhlaao
phool ban ke hamri phulwariya mein
chale aao piya hamri nagariya mein
chale aao piya hamri nagariya mein
chale aao piya hamri nagariya mein