This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog
Today's song is from the film Refugee-1948. This film was made by Harishchandra Pictures and it was directed by Tara Harish. Lyricist was Pt. Phani and the music director was Ajit Merchant. The cast consisted of Urmila, Harishchandra rao kadam,Hamid (actor Ajit), Majnu (Harold Lewis), Dalpat Joshi, Sulochana Kadam and others.
This was a film depicting the life story of a Hindu refugee from Lahore, who comes to Bombay and his love story. Though Harischandra rao Kadam was basically an action/stunt film actor and director, this was his first and last attempt of making a social film. The film was not successful and Kadam went back to his comfort zone of stunt/action films. This Kadam was the one who gave the first opportunity of directing a film to Master Bhagwan and also to C Ramchandra as a Music Director of a Hindi film for the first time. That film was Sukhi Jeevan-1942.
1948 was an year in which, after the turmoil caused by the Partition, the film industry was trying to come back on track. While the year 1947 saw the highest number of films made-181 films, the Indian film industry did not suffer so much, even after the exodus of film artistes,,because the sheer number of majority in the films was Hindus.Additionally, the vacancies were immediately filled by the II line of artistes in every department, waiting for their turns. Thus 1948 made a respectable number of films- 149, indicating the inherent strength of the film industry.
Partition did some damage to India, but as there was a second line waiting to take over, the impact was negligible. However, Pakistan had to build a new film industry with the help of the migrant artistes in almost all departments of filmmaking. Once this generation ended their career, unfortunately there was not much of a second line to take over in Pakistan.
Here is an excerpt from a book “The Travels of Bollywood Cinema ” by Anjali Geeta Roy, in this connection…….
" The rioting of 1947 set in motion irreversible, irrevocable migration. B R. Chopra and I S Johar were planning films in a big way for Lahore but had to run for their lives. Ramanand Sagar left in July, as did Gulshan Rai. Character actor Om Prakash (of Fateh Din fame, an all-time favourite skit relayed for years by Radio Lahore), comedian-bad man Jeevan and many others also left Lahore for Bombay. O P Nayyar recorded his immortal song Preetam Aan Milo/ Dukhia Jiya Bullai, Aan Milo at the His Master’s Voice studio in Lahore. He left Lahore only in 1948 when it became clear that people with the wrong religion were not going to return to their homes on either side of the Punjab. Writer Rajinder Singh Bedi escaped, sitting on top of a railway carriage carrying loads of Hindus and Sikhs out of Lahore. Song-writer Naqsh Lyallpuri began his literary career in Lahore as a journalist but had to leave in 1947. Punjabi singers Surinder Kaur and Prakash Kaur, and Pushpa Hans also left Lahore.
Migration in the other direction also took place. Nazir and his wife Swarnlata, Noorjahan and her husband Shaukat Husain Rizvi, character actor Alauddin and many others headed for Lahore. Manto came in January 1948, music directors Ghulam Haider and Khurshid Anwar followed some years later and director M. Sadiq probably in 1969 or 1970. Meena Shori, Khurshid and Mumtaz Shanti also immigrated to Lahore. Some Pakistani actors in Lahore continued to use Hindu filmic names. Santosh Kumar (Musa Raza) and Sudhir (Shah Zaman), the two most famous heroes of the 1950s and 60s represented such practice. On both sides, initially considerable goodwill existed between the two film communities.
Some families were divided. Thus for example, while Nazir shifted to Lahore, his nephew K. Asif stayed on in Bombay. Kardar stayed on but his brother Nusrat Kardar and son Rauf Kardar returned to Lahore. While Suraiya, her mother and grandmother settled in Bombay, many of her other relatives shifted to Lahore. Rafi stayed on to reign supreme in Bombay while his parents and siblings were in Lahore.
There were some cross-religion marriages that created peculiar challenges. Raj Kapoor’s maama (maternal uncle) Mr Mehra married a Muslim, converted to Islam and stayed in Lahore. A unique case of reverse migration took place as well: poet Sahir Ludhianvi (Abdul Hai) left Lahore for India."
Following Partition in 1947, A. R. Kardar and his co-brother Mehboob Khan both left for Pakistan. However, according to Bunny Reuben, as quoted by Mihir Bose, they returned to India, but no reason was given for their return. Journalist and author of several books, Ambarish Mishra writes, " when I asked Kardar about his Pakistan visit, he told me that after the Partition, Mehboob immediately went to Pakistan. He was disturbed with the news of Hindu-Muslim conflicts in Bombay Film Industry. It was said that Hindus will not allow Muslims in the film industry - which was totally wrong and only a rumour. He wanted to get an idea about his future in this new country. He was keen on settling there. After a month or so, I went there. Being from Lahore, I understood that the film conditions were not conducive for our growth there, as nothing was in order. Everything was in a mess there. I convinced Mehboob somehow and we both came back for good. I told him, as long as Nehru was there, they had no problems in India." By coincidence, Nehru died and the next day Mehboob also died !
Film Refugee-48 is also an example of how the film industry reacted to the partition Blues. For the Music Director Ajit Merchant, this was his first film as an independent MD. Earlier he was working as an assistant to Ashok Ghosh and Anil Biswas. For actor Ajit (credited as Hamid), this was just his second film in a side role. Later he became the hero in the film Janampatri-1949. Singer Sulochana kadam (later Sulochana Chavan) acted for the first time. She acted in one more film and then settled as only a singer.
After Partition, 10 to 20 million people became refugees on both sides, with at least 10 million people losing their lives. This was easily the largest Refugee crisis in the world. India was the only country which has faced Refugee problem several times in recent history. In 1937, Burma was separated. First ruled by Japan and then the Thais. Finally the British ruled it and Burma was free on 4-1-1948. Every time lakhs of refugees came to India. At Least 2 names can be quoted- Helen and V.K.Naidu, MD, who were Burma refugees. Ceylon's independence in 1948 gave us refugees. Bangladesh refugees still give us trouble though Bangladesh was formed in 1971. Pondicherry in 1954 and Goa was liberated in 1961, without much refugee crowds, which were manageable.
The film's Heroine Urmila is a name having Same Name Confusion. Urmila Sr.and Urmila Bhatt are two Urmilas. This film's Urmila ...You will find the name Urmila- in some films she is named as Urmila Devi, and Urmila Gupta also. She was not a very good looking actress, but she compensated for it with her good acting. Urmila Gupta was born on 31-3- 1921 at Panja Sahib, Rawalpindi district of United Punjab. Her father, who was a Civil Contractor, died when she was only 5 year old. She did not get much education but could read and write as well as talk fluently, Urdu, Hindi and English.
She started her career with a small uncredited role in the film Mirza Sahiban-33. She was the younger sister of Mirza in this film. After some more small roles, she got her major role in the film Aansuon ki Duniya-36. After this, she did not look back and did Punjab Lancers-37, Talwar ka Dhani-38, Kahan hai manzil Teri-39, Hurricane special-39, Flying Ranee-39, Desh Bhakt-40, Sasural-41, Sajjan-41, Mere Sajan-41, Naari-42, Das Baje-42, Call of youth-42, Badal -42, Apna Paraya-42, Tamasha-42, Kirti-42, Salma-43, Bansari-43, Refugee-48 etc etc. Urmila got married to Vinod Talwar, a businessman and stopped working in films, for some time, maybe for raising a family. She resumed working in films and acted in another 20 odd films till 1952. She had sung 12 songs. In all, she worked in about 55 films.
Now something about the Producer, actor of this film, Hero of many stunt films, was Harishchandra Rao (Kadam). He was born in Bhuj, Gujarat on 11-8-1910. He did early schooling in Bhuj, but his family shifted to Karachi, due to financial debacle. He did Cycle repairing work and completed his matriculation by the age of 18 years. He joined a Touring film company. Once, while in Bombay he was watching the film shooting in the Paramount company. Suddenly, the director offered him a role in the film. Thus he entered the films. From 1932 he did few silent films.
He joined Shankar Bhatt's Prakash Pictures and worked in their first Talkie, " Bambai ki Mohini "- 1934. He was with Prakash, upto 1939, doing stunt films inside and outside also. He did some films for Wadia too, in between. Finally he started his own company, '' Harishchandra Productions ". He continued to work as an actor, director and producer. He sang a few songs also.
Some of his films were Daulat, Naujawan, Rangila mazdoor, Rangila jeevan, Sukhi jeevan, Lehri jawan, Inaam, Sone ki chidiya, Refugee, Durban, Laat sahib, Tamasha etc etc He worked in about 42 films.
His brother Chandrarao Kadam was also a stunt actor. He was known as Stunt King. He had his Chandrarao Films. He acted, directed and produced films. The brothers were friendly with Master Bhagwan and gave him preference in their films, till Bhagwan started his own company- Jagriti films. Later on Chandrarao floated his own Chandivali Studio in Bombay suburb, which is still actively run by his progeny.
Today's song is a qawali, sung by Ram kamlani and chorus. Though the uploader of this song claims that Mukesh is also one of the singers, I did not find this song in the Mukesh Geet Kosh. The singer obviously must be one from the chorus itself.
Song- Hamen ghar sanam ke to jaana manaa hai (Refugee )(1948) Singers- Ram Kamlani, Lyricist- Pt. Phani, MD- Ajit Merchant
Chorus
Lyrics
hamen ghar sanam ke to jaana manaa hai
hamen ghar sanam ke to jaana manaa hai
miley raah mein to bulaana manaa hai
miley raah mein to bulaana manaa hai
hamen ghar sanam ke to jaana manaa hai
arre haaye ulfat jataayen to kaise
arre haaye ulfat jataayen to kaise
usey daagh dil ke dikhaayen to kaise
zabaan par muhabbat ka laana manaa hai
zabaan par muhabbat ka laana manaa hai
hamen ghar sanam ke to jaana manaa hai
hamen ghar sanam ke to jaana manaa hai
miley raah mein to bulaana manaa hai
haaye bulaaana manaa hai jee
bulaana manaa hai
hamen ghar sanam ke to jaana manaa hai
hamen ghar sanam ke to jaana manaa hai
muhobbat ka naatak
kabhi hum jo khelenaen ae aen
mohobbat ka naatak
kabhi hum jo khelen
ke ghar saamne uske ghar ke jo le le
museebat hai phir bhi
ke gaana manaa hai
museebat hai phir bhi
ke gaana manaa hai
museebat hai phir bhi ke gaana manaa hai
agar geet gaakar rijhaayabhi usko o o o
rijhaaya bhi usko
bahut gidgidaakar kar
manaaya bhi usko
to wo baat dil ki
jataana manaa hai
to wo baat dil ki jataana manaa hai
hamen ghar sanam ke to jaana manaa hai
hamen ghar sanam ke to jaana manaa hai
miley raah mein to bulaana manaa hai
ulaaana manaa hai jee
bulaana manaa hai
hamen ghar sanam ke to jaana manaa hai
hamen ghar sanam ke to jaana manaa hai
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