This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog.
Blog Day : | 4423 | Post No. : | 15836 |
Today's song is from the film Sarkar-1951. If this was the title from the times after year 2000, one would find this movie made on some Political subject. But the year was 1951, just 4 years after Independence.
When I was a young boy of about 8-9 years, like most others of my age, I too was very fond of reading stories of Kings and queens. As I grew up, slowly my interest in such stories waned. As I was exposed now to a bigger, wider and different world, my interests rested in many other subjects and after a few years, I totally started avoiding such stories.
Till 1947, there were 562 Princely states. After getting Independence,all these states were merged with India, but the kings retained their status as "Raj pramukh" or the Head of their states, albeit for namesake. Indira Gandhi abolished their Privy purses ( salaries) in 1971 and gradually the remaining status of these heads vanished completely. For thousands of years, Indians lived under some or the other Kings. No wonder their minds liked stories of Kings and Queens. This trait was precisely picked up by the filmmakers and they made films, practically in every Genre, woven around a kingdom or kings, queens and vaziers.
As the newer generation emerged from the Post-Independence period and became adults, they had neither any affinity nor interest in stories of Kings. Their world was wider and hence their film choices were different. By the end of the decade of the 60's, films woven around kings, kingdoms etc stopped being made regularly.
Now films were made on a variety of topics and themes. The film Genres of Action/Stunt, Costumes and Folk tales became nearly extinct and their place was taken over by crime, horror, music, comedy, action by Spl FX etc etc. The older generation audience compromised with the new changes and started enjoying the new types of films, based on day-to-day topics, called New Wave or Parallel Cinema.
The senior generation of actors who were known for their typical acting in Monarchical films, like Sohrab Modi, Prithviraj Kapoor, Premnath, Ajit etc, either disappeared with time and age or changed their style of acting. In due course of time, the entire set of old actors was replaced by New Generation actors. This is the rule of Times. Almost every 15-20 years, the set of actors and others like singers, composers,directors etc get replaced and suitable people take over.
Today's film is one of those films, which had a Monarchic story. It was produced by Ramniklal Shah, under his banner of Mohan Pictures, which used to make Action/Stunt, Costume and Mythological films. The film was directed by a veteran K.Amarnath (1-12-1914 to 14-5-1983), who had 34 films to his credit as a successful Director, from Matwali Jogan-36 to Voh din yaad karo-1971. He is known for well known films like Gaon ki gori-45, Mirza Sahibaan-47, Bazaar-49, Beqasoor-50, Bara Dari-55, Naya Andaz-56, Bada Bhai-57 etc etc.
Amarnath is also known for renaming Ajit ( from Hamid Ali Khan), for launching Saleem Khan (Salman khan's father and one of the famous Saleem-Javed story writers), Sanjay Khan, Minoo Mumtaaz, and Helen. Noorjehan did her last film in India-Mirza Sahibaan, under his direction.. He directed 3 Tamil films also. ( information from his site k.amarnath.com with thanks.)
The 9 songs from the film were written by Qamar Jalalabadi (9) and Mulk Raj Bhakri (3). The music was by Pt. Gobind Ram. The cast included Veena, Ajit, Shashikala, Ulhas, Usha Kiran, Murad, Cuckoo and many others. The story of the film Sarkar-1951 was....
Vikram was head of a Gypsy Group and he had brought up Vijay as his own son. Vijay was so versed in the art of handling swords, that even Vikram was forced to bend down before the swordsmanship of Vijay. . Vijay was son of the king of Ram Nagar who was killed by the usurper, the present king-this secret told by Vikram to Vijay when they actually reached the skirts of Ram Nagar. Vijay was furious to take revenge but Vikram advised him to take every step cautiously.
One night Vijay stealthily entered the palace and reached near the garden where the princess was witnessing a Dance. Cupid did his trick and without Caring to know who is who-Vijay and Princess became one is Love. Vijay returned to his Camp but his heart was with Princess Bella, the daughter of Vikram, who was also in love with Vijay, noticed this change but could not understand it. . Again next night Vijay went to the palace but he could not find the princess in the garden, in search of her, he reached her bed room. Princess was surprised to find him there but more she was pleased to meet him. Now Vijay realised the blindness of his love - he had given his heart to none other than the princess herself but he had to tell l her with a solemn heart that he had come to take off the head of the King-to take revenge of his fathers opposed him, challenged him Vijay was determined, he proceeded.
The prime minister also noticed the steps of Vijay-he drew his sword there was a duel between Vijay and the Prime minister. Hearing the noise, the king got up and saw a stranger in the Palace. Vijay thought best to flee away and he did. The King was surprised and became enraged to see an enemy in the Palace and that too with the Princess. He inquired from her but she could not satisfy him. King gave orders for the execution of the Princess. . When Vijay reached the Camp-Vikram and Bela found him bleeding-they smelt the wound of Love in his heart and Vikram instructed Bela to have a watch over Vijay.
Vijay had no peace-he had to see the Princess-Bela allowed him to go but accompanied him. In the palace the Prime Minister had laid a plot-and the innocent lovers fell Victim. Vijay was arrested and thrashed into the dark cell where Sher Singh, loyal servant of the Late King, was locked up. They both came to know each other but were helpless. . Princess and Bela both tried to save Vijay from the execution- They secretly brought him out of the prison, but this was seen by the Prime Minister and he came to kill Vijay. Meanwhile the King too came there and the prime Minister killed the king and Vijay killed the prime Minister. Finally he and the princess get married and Vijay is crowned the king. All is well that ends well. [Source: Booklet]
The name AJIT evokes an image of a suited,Booted,suave,Corporate style Villain,who has a battery of assistants,typically named Michael,Robert,Peter and the like.He also carries a Black cat in his arms and moves with his moll, 'Mona Darling'. This villain does not do any bad acts himself. He would mix with the Rich and the Famous,till a poor hero exposes him. One can also recall the flood of " Ajit Jokes " in the 80s and the 90s.
Ajit (Hamid Ali Khan) was born on 27-1-1922, in Shahjahanpur-UP. His father was the personal driver of Hyderabad Nizam. Ajit completed education,sold all his books and ran away to Bombay,to become a Hero. After doing some secondary roles in Shah e Misr, Sikandar, Aap Beeti, Hatimtai and Sone ki Chidiya, he became a Hero first time in film JANAMPATRI-1949, opposite Sudha Rao. While doing film Beqasoor-50, Director K.Amarnath gave him his new name AJIT. Till then he was Hamid in the credits,
When he became a hero, Raj, Dilip, Dev and Ashok kumar were in the First grade. Among the second grade were the heros like Karan Dewan, Suresh, Bharat Bhushan,or Shekhar. Ajit looked manly with his height and masculine figure. He worked in 195 films, out of which he was the Hero in about 40 films. He did maximum films -10- with Nalini Jayawant. He was so much accustomed to call her Nalini, that few times he called his own foreigner wife (an Ava Gardener look alike ) as Nalini and enraged by this, she gave him the divorce.
His other heroines were, Madhubala, Geeta Bali, Vanmala, Begum para, Rehana, Kamini Kaushal, Bina Rai, Veena, Jayashree, Nimmi, Meena Kumari etc.
From Mughal e Azam and Naya Daur, he started doing side roles. In Naya Daur, he matched Dilip kumar by all standards. He delivered dialogues like ' Rajput jaan se jaate hain, Vachan se Nahin (Mughal-e-Azam) and ' Dosti ke naam pe thook diya toone, voh bhi ek loundi ke khatir' (Naya Daur) and the audience clapped !
From Suraj-1966 he turned a Villain and established his special brand of villainy. He modified and fine tuned the suave Pran's style further,which became his trademark. Ajit acted in 195 films. Ajit died on 21-10-1998.
Here is what " Independent" the London daily newspaper wrote in his obituary, on 27-10-1998-
" AJIT was Indian cinema's most successful villain. Acting in over 200 films in a career which spanned nearly four decades, Ajit delivered his outrageously evil, double entendre one-liners with a deadpan face which inspired a genre of outlandish jokes and eventually made him into a national folk hero.
With his Clark Gable-style pencil moustache and imposing physique, Ajit gave a twist to villainy in Bollywood, India's film capital city of Bombay. He ably portrayed the ruthlessly suave, archetypal thug constantly surrounded by an army of "heavies". He was invariably accompanied by a vacuous moll named something like Silly Lilly or Mona Darling and a side-kick called Robert or Mike.
In one of his movies he nonchalantly confines the hero, already beaten to a pulp and chained to a dungeon wall, to a living hell by ordering him to be dipped into a drum full of liquid oxygen. "The liquid will not let him live and the oxygen will not let him die," he cries. In another film he tells Mona Darling, "The password is `Legs'. Spread the word."
Ajit's dialogues were a hilarious mix of Hindi and pidgin English which captured the public's imagination and led to hundreds of Ajit jokes that are still in circulation today. In one such quip Ajit is asked by his sidekick Peter to suggest a name for his newly born son. "Call him Re Peter," comes the unblinking response. Ajit himself was vastly entertained by these jokes, which continued long after his retirement from films in the early Nineties. "I used to download them from the Internet and read them to him and he would laugh heartily," said his son Zahid Ali Khan. "
Today's duet is by Mohd. Rafi and Shamshad Begum. It is a good song.
