This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog.
Blog Day : | 5063 | Post No. : | 16977 |
Today's song is from the film Simba-1951.
The film was made by Comedy Pictures. The director was Mohammed Hussain and the music was by D C Dutt. The cast of the film was Baburao, Krishnakumari, Shaikh, Bimla, Indira, habib and others. I have not seen this film but from the photos and the posters of this film it appears to be a kind of a distorted take on a Tarzan-like story.
Hindi films have been making attempts to bring films on this ever popular story worldwide, since the first decade of the Talkie films. Films were made like Zambo-The Ape man-1937 and Zambo ka Beta-1939. Tarzan has been masqueraded in Hindi as Zambo, Zimbo, Zingaro, Simba etc and also films were made using Tarzan name directly. As many as 21 films were made with the name Tarzan. True to Indian generosity and tradition, Tarzan has been gifted with a son, a daughter, a Mehbooba and a Jalpari ! He is combined with Gorilla, King Kong, Delialah, Hercules, Magic lamp and what not. I am sure the original Tarzan would have jumped with pleasure with so many companions ! Such films came mostly in the 60's decade and the usual heroes were Azaad and Dara Singh, in the main role. Heroines were immaterial.
These C grade action and stunt films are truly 100 % entertainment. Only condition was that you must lock up your brain and forget any body part above your shoulders, before seeing these films. The greatest misuse of " Cinematic Liberty" was to be found in those films. But honestly, the current New generation has really missed out on something out of this world !
Entertainment at best was provided by these C grade stunt and action films of the 40's, 50's and the 60's. I know, because my childhood was nurtured on the full dose of such films. I was seeing films from the age of 9-10 years or so. That was around 1949-50. I was the officially appointed chaperone or the chies guide and guard of the older generation group when they went to see Mythological films in a theatre. Other times, I used to see action films and musical or social films etc. Old films of the 40's were shown at reduced rates of 4 annas, 6 annas etc. in theatres screening them as " Morning Shows" from 10 to 1 pm. I had no qualms seeing any film -be it Marathi, Hindi English, Telugu, Kannada or even Bangla. I was lucky to see films of the 40's, because later on they simply disappeared !
Some people feel seeing and enjoying C grade films is below dignity and childish. It was neither, in my opinion. Sense and cause of enjoyment is as different to individuals as are the natures of all the people. You can't find similarity exactly. It is like the definition of Beauty. Shakespeare had said " Beauty lies in the beholder's eyes ". To each his own. There are millions of people worldwide who like such films and that is why such films were made. Without demand would such films be made ?
Nowadays ofcourse, such films- C grade stunt and action films are not made. Due to advanced techniques and SFX science, one can show any unimaginable trick or scene in seconds, so who needs Fight masters and DareDevil action heroes like master Bhagwan, Baburao pehelwan, Kamran, Ranjan, Fearless Nadia and their ilk ? Furthermore, action on the screen is now diversified and branched into several stereotypes.
An American - Mr. Michel aka Mike Barnum runs 2 Blogs on the Internet, namely Pedro the Ape and cinemajadoo. Most people are totally unaware of such Blogs run by an American-Mike Barnum ji. On his Blog Mike has written on at least 100+ only C grade action and stunt films alone. He has made classification by different Generes also, like Jungle films, Mystery films, Murder films, Horror films etc etc. There are Photos, posters, cast details, film stories and short Bios of unknown C grade artistes. Once you go to his Blog, you get lost for a long time. It is a great work, involving a neglected Genre of Hindi films, which was once upon a time, a very popular film variety for certain audiences. I thank him profusely for this service. Thanks, Mike Barnum ji.
The decade of the 40s and the 50s was the period when stunt and Action films were made in plenty. There were specialised actors,producers, directors,composers and even specialised audiences too for such films. Stunt and Action films was a very sweeping name for a Genre which included several types of sub-categories. When I started studying these films, I found this kind soul - Mike Burnum -who identified and classified stunt/Action films made in India, into sub categories. For the information of our esteemed readers, the different types within the generalised Stunt/Action films are...(in descending order of number of films made....)
1. Fantasy and Arabian Nights-92 films
2. Horror - 67
3. Jungle Thrillers (Tarzan/Zimbo/Zambo/Zangbo/Zingara etc)
4. New Century Horror films ( Horror films made after 2000)
5. Science Fiction
6. Chillers
7. Spies and Detective
8. Super heroes/ Heroines
9. Murder and Mystery
10. Sword Fighting and
11. Naag Films. etc etc.
In today's film cast you will find the name Baburao. Now this is not a complete name. There were several Baburaos in the film industry like Baburao Painter, Baburao Patel, Baburao Apte, Baburao Pendharkar, Baburao Pehelwan etc. But a regular fan of action films knew that in such films Baburao means Baburao Pehelwan.
Baburao Pehelwan, hailed from Kolhapur – famous for wrestlers due to royal patronage from King Shahu Maharaj. He started his career with the Wadias as an extra doing small roles and as a duplicate for Fearless Nadia. Master Bhagwan picked him up from there and made him a hero in his stunt pictures like, ‘Badla’ (1943), ‘Madadgaar’ (1947), ‘Laalach’ (1948), ‘Jalan’ (1948), ‘Bhedi Bungla’ (1949) etc. After the eclipse of stunt and action films, by the 60s, he joined fight master Azeem Khan’s team as a fighter and a duplicate. In the film ‘Howrah Bridge’ (1958) he was Ashok Kumar’s duplicate in the final scene, where he is to climb the Howrah Bridge.
Baburao Pehelwan operated in an era when there was a spate of actors calling themselves “pehelwan”. They were in great demand in stunt and action films. At one time there were actors like Baburao Pehelwan, Vasantrao Pehelwan, Sadiq Pehelwan, Nandram Pehelwan, Maane Pehelwan, Amir Khan Pehelwan. There was one more actor in the 30s named Marutirao Pehelwan. He was a handsome person. He was the hero in the first Gujarati talkie film, ‘Narsi Mehta’ (1932). He married his co-star of many films Tara, elder sister of dancer Sitara Devi. After retirement, Marutirao Pehelwan settled in Dhule in Maharashtra and opened a dairy. World famous dancer Gopi Krishna was their son.
Today's song seems to be a dance number. It is sung by harish, Shaikh and chorus.. Sheikh was a Comedy actor in the 40s,50s and the 60s. He has acted in 170 films,as per Muvyz stats. He sang 10 songs in 8 films as per HFGK (Daulat ki duniya-47, Fifty Fifty-UR, Nakli Baap-49, Jiya Raja-49, Dushman-50, Simba-51, Hatimtai-56 and Naagmani-57).
He was essentially a B and C grade film comedian, so his name is not known to most people. Sanjeev Narvekar's book, "Eena meena deeka" gives very little information about him. In his hey-days, he was popular in a class of people who were regulars of stunt, fantasy and action films. He was a fixture in almost all Wadia films. He was the main on screen singer in the iconic qawali, "Humen to loot liya milke husn walon ne" from the film Al Hilal-58. (It was the 5000th song on this Blog)
He directed 2 films, Shahnaaz-48 and Mr.Toofan-63. He started his career in Hindi films with Pakke badmash-39. Before that he had acted in a Marathi film "Netaji Palkar-39"by Bhalji Pendharkar (info from CITWF). His last film was Aadamkhor-85. No information is available on his life anywhere.
Song- O Sheena o Sheena (Simbaa)(1951) Singers- Harish, Shaikh, Lyricist- Farukh Qaisar, MD- D C Dutt
Lyrics
Ding ding o gola
ding ding o gola
gori gori
pyaari pyaari
o sheena
gori gori
pyaaree pyaaree
o sheena
