Saraswati Devi (1912-1980)

"Piyu Piyu Bol Piyu Piyu Bol Praan Papihey Piyu Piyu Bol"

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Mein banki chirhiya banke bun bun boloun re"

The person who entertained thousands of music lovers with such enchanting composition of film songs
and private ghazals was none other than Saraswati Devi the most distinguished lady music director of
Hindi cinema and the first to introduce playback system for Hindi movies at Mumbai.

Khursheed Manchersher Minocher - Homji in real life was born in 1912 in a well to do
Parsi family. Her father was a businessman and a prominent figure of Parsi community of Mumbai.

She had a natural talent and love for music, realizing this her father made her study classical music
under Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande who was specialized in Dhrupad and Dhamar style of singing.
Later she joined Lord Morris College at Lucknow and studied music as her subject.

With the setting up of a radio station at Mumbai in late 20s she along with her sister Manek
gave musical performances regularly once every month, the programme known as the Homji Sisters
was very popular with the listeners. The songs were accompanied with few musical instruments sitar,
dilruba and organ.

The founder of Bombay Talkies, Himansu Rai who was looking for a good classicalist for his
movies, heard them on radio and got in touch with her and invited her to visit the studio where she was
shown the music room. He wanted her to take care of the music department and score music for his
movies and Saraswati Devi accepted the offer and took it as a challenge . Her sister Manek
had taken to acting for the films.

A question often asked whether she was the first female music director of Hindi cinema? Scanning
through the history of film music some names as; Mukhtar Begum, Gohar Karnataki who were classicalists
and rendered songs for movies during 1932 -33 are to be found, but unfortunately the credits for music
of those films are unknown. However, they went on to score music at a later period. Ishrat Sultana is another who scored music for Adal - E - Jehangir - 1934 but no songs were ever recorded for
gramophone. The names of Munni Bai and Jaddan Bai are also to be found but again the
songs never appeared on gramophone records and so she is considered the first among the female
music directors.

Her first assignment was for the movie, "Jawani Ki Hawa" - 1935 starring Himansu Rai's
actress wife Devika Rani and Najmul Husain . She had a tough time making them sing
and had to simplify the tunes and cover some areas with music instead of song as they were no singers
and play back was still not introduced .Her sister Manek took up a character role. Only one gramophone
record consisting of instrumental music from the film was recorded from this movie.

There was a big uproar and a series of protests in the Parsi community. The Bombay Talkies was a public company and had 4 of its board of directors from the Parsi community who wanted the Parsi girls out of the Talkies. It was the brave effort of Himansu Rai who defended them and to conceal their identity, Khursheed was given the name Saraswati Devi and Manek appeared in
titles as Chandraprabha.

"Jawani Ki Hawa" was followed by her first hit movie "Achut Kanya" - 1936. Ashok Kumar
who was a lab technician at the BT was replaced as hero against his wishes to act and sing under
pressure of Himansu Rai . He along with Devika Rani had to spend several hours a day for
many days rehearsing for a song before it was picturised. It was something like teaching a nursery rhyme.

The day the song " Kit gaye ho khewan haar " was to be shot on Chandraprabha she landed
with a sore throat, unable to sing Himansu Rai suggested Saraswati Devi sing from behind
the curtain and let Chandraprabha just move her lips. The first playback was thus recorded
successfully at Bombay but not before R.C. Boral of New Theaters, Kolkutta succeeded
earlier with songs in Dhoop Chaun. The most successful song of the movie " Mai banki chidiya
banke ban ban bolun re" was rendered / picturised on Ashok Kumar and Devika Rani.

Her catchy tunes became popular not only in India but even in London and the BBC chose the tune from
the chorus of film Janmabhoomi - JAI JAI PYARI JANMBHOOMI MAATA rendered by her
with chorus as a signature tune for its Indian News Service.

"Dekho hamrey raja ki aaj sagai hey", "Mein tou dilli sey dulhan laya rey" – Film Jhoola

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Himansu Rai passed away in 1940 and Devika Rani took the reins but was unable to
manage resulting in large exodus of artists and technicians. She continued with BT until Naya Sansar -
1941 scoring music for 20 movies by then. SN Tripathi was a brilliant student of Saraswati
Devi, an excellent player of violin. He assisted her in composing and arranging orchestra and he too
left BT to become an independent composer. Arun Kumar a cousin of Ashok Kumar who
had a voice resembling Ashok Kumar rendered many songs for her compositions including " Chana jor
garam " and " Mai to dilli se dulhan " . He worked as an associate composer for some of her movies
and later went on to score music independently, the notable being Parinita - 1953.

She was also closely associated with Kavi Pradeep , Lyricist who penned a large number of her
songs and also rendered few songs , prominent being ‘Piyu Piyu Bol " and "Mere Bichde Hue]
Saathi". Her association with Mumtaz Ali , Actor / Dance Director (Father of Mehmood )
for her songs related to dance is note worthy.

Later she scored music for 6 movies of Minerva Movietone - some alone and a couple with other
composers .She had the opportunity to score some real classical songs for Miss Jahan Ara Kajjan
the famous classicalist in film Prarthana - 1943, another notable film with Minerva was Prithvi Vallabh - 1943 along with Rafiq Ghaznavi .

She later took over independent assignments and the most notable was Aamrapali - 1945 which
had some good songs by Amir Bai Karnataki . With the changing trend in music and public taste
her popularity diminished although she continued for some more time, Usha Haran -1949 her last
popular film with 12 songs and 2 rendered by Lata Mangeshkar.

This was followed by Bachelor Husband - 1950 with Muhammed Ibrahim . After a lull of nearly
5 years she scored another movie with her old time student SN Tripathi for Inaam - 1955 but
her contribution was only one song for the movie. Her last movie was Babasa Ri Laadi - 1961 a
children movie. She later started teaching music, her sister Manek took up a job as a librarian.

In early fifties Habib Wali Muhammed while a college student participated in a music competition
conducted by HMV and won the first prize. The judges for the competition were Saraswati Devi and Naushad Sahib. HMV engaged her to score two ghazals for him and were recorded in his
voice. They became very popular and Habib Wali Muhammed earned a big name as a ghazal singer.

"Lagta nahein hey jee mera ujrhey diyar mein" - Bahadur Shah Zafar

"Yeh na thi hamari qismet ke visal-e-yar hota"- Mirza Ghalib




Saraswati Devi and her sister never married, having lost their family members in quick
succession they adopted a maharashtrian family of 6 children, educating them and even finding jobs
for couple of them. She along with her sister were seen walking on the beach and talking to children.

"Na Janey Kidhar Aaj Meri Nao Chali Rey", "Aaj mousam Salona Salona Rey"

"Chana jor gram baboo mein laya mazedar chana jor gram"

In later life she was living all alone in an apartment and one day she fell down from a bus and fractured her hip bone. The only help she got was from her neighbours and none of the film personalities ever came for her help. She passed away in 1980 at the age of 68.

"Ruk na sakho to jao tum jao tum jao", "Mere bichrhe hue saathi teri yaad sataye",




"Koi hum dum na raha koi sahara na raha" – song from film Jeewan Naiya – 1936 (originally by Ashok Kumar but was rendered many years later by his brother Kishore Kumar.)

Filmography -

1935 - Jawani Ki Hawa

1936 - Achut Kanya , Janma Bhoomi, Jeewan Nayya , Mamta & Miya Biwi ( 2 movies clubbed together )

1937 - Izzat , Jeewan Prabhat , Prem Kahani , Saavitri ,

1938 - Bhaabhi , Nirmala , Vachan ,

1939 - Durga , Kangan w/ RC Pal , Navjeewan .

1940 - Aazad , Bandhan both with RC Pal .

1941 - Jhoola , Naya Sansar. w / RC Pal .

1943 - Bhakt Raidas , Prarthana , Prithvi Vallabh w/ Rafiq Ghaznavi .

1944 - Dr Kumar , Parakh w/ Khursheed Anwar

1945 - Aamrapali ,

1946 - Maharani Mrinal Devi ,

1947 - Khandani ,

1948 - Naqli Heera

1949 - Usha Haran ,

1950 - Bachelor Husband w/ Muhammed Ibrahim ,

1955 - Inaam w/ SN Tripathi and

1961 - Babasa Ri Laadi (Rajastani)



[By "Kamalakar Pasupuleti"]

Another excellent article Reeth. Thanks a lots for giving a perspective on one of the most influential, yet forgotten in time, female composer of HFM.

Thank you

Best Regards
Parag

Most welcome parag