Shair Aur Sargam

(Shailendra) Munimji (1955)

This movie was the maiden directorial venture of Subodh (Kumar) Mukherjee (later of “Junglee” and other popular films), brother of S. Mukherjee (Shashidhar), a co-owner of the Filmistan Studios. Subodh only wanted to produce this film but reluctantly ended up taking directorial duties. Filmistan ended up producing the movie. Nasir Hussain, a future famous producer and director himself who churned out several successful musicals to his credit, co-wrote the screenplay with the director. Hussain also co-wrote the dialogues with Qamar Jalalabadi, who was a renowned lyricist himself but didn't write any songs for this movie. In spite of hodgypodginess of the storyline, the movie became a huge hit thanks mainly to fine portrayals of the principals and its chartbusting music by Burmanda.

Dev's portrayal in the movie was full of light-hearted fun and he walks through his role in gay abandonment. He was nominated in the Best Actor Filmfare Award category but lost to Dilip Kumar (for “Azaad”). Nirupa Roy who played Dev's mother won the Best Supporting Actress Filmfare Award.

When I watched the movie recently, what I remember most was its evergreen and youthfully exuberant music by Burmanda. It is a tribute to Burmanda's genius that even after 58 years the songs have the melody and sweetness that are endearingly appealing and satisfying. The song “Jeevan Ke Safar” by Kishoreda became a runaway hit and still when you hear this it is simply invigorating. Another popular song was the triplet by Geetaji, Hemantda, and Thakur (supposedly great actor Pran himself), “Dil Ki Umangen”. It is an unforgettable song that is absolute fun to listen to with both Geetaji and Hemantda at their teasing pleasing best. But the story doesn’t end there. Lataji sang six solos, one better than the other. This album stands tall as one of the great musical achievements of Burmanda. He was not nominated for any awards for his glorious achievement. However, that year’s Music Director Award went to Hemantda, for his great music of “Nagin”.

Music director Madan Mohanji has a small supporting role in the film as the brother of the heroine. Also, if one watches the song “Zindagi Hai Zinda” closely, they can spot Simi Garewal, who later shared lead in few films, as one of the dancers in the group.

I am uploading songs from this album in three back-to-back posts. The first two posts contain all songs and a couple of specials. The third post contains several instrumentals of the song “Jeevan Ke SafarMein”.

Here are the songs

(Shailendra) Munimji (1955)

dear swarapriya
the song SHIVJI BIHAANE CHALE is penned by SHAILAINDRA NOT SAHIR JI as per HFGK
taiyab

(Shailendra) Seema (1955)

Amiya Chakrabarty was a brilliant director who made several memorable films. He was a political activist and was imprisoned by the British Government. He left Bengal for Mumbai and got start as a writer for the film "Bandhan (1940)". He made his debut as a director the very next year in1941 with the film "Anjaan". This starred Devika Rani and Ashok Kumar and was an average success. In 1944 he directed the film "Jwar Bhata" that introduced Dilip Kumar. Some of the movies in which he made his mark were "Daag (1952)", "Patita (1953)", Seema (1955)", "Kath Putli (1957)", and "Dekh Kabira Roya (1957)". He died at the height of his fame in 1957, only few days after "Kabira" was released, at the young age of 44.

Chakrabarty not only wrote the story and screenplay for "Seema" but also produced and directed it. The story of the film bagged the Best Story Award for him from Filmfare.

The movie belonged to Nutan. She had a very strong role and gave a brilliant performance. She goes through various stages of innocence, disgust, outrage, frenzied lunacy and devotional love with stunning consummate artistry seldom seen on an Indian screen. For her brilliant performance she bagged the Filmfare Best Actress Award. This was the first of many awards that she will earn in her career in her future.

Shubha Khote, who comes from a stage and film lineage (Durga Khote, for example, is her aunt), was introduced in this film. A graduate in English literature she was a noted athlete during her college days. She was a champion bicyclist in the state. The director made use of this talent of hers by introducing a bicycle chase scene that lasts nearly three minutes in the film.

The movie was a critical as well as financial success. Shankar & Jaikishan's music played a big part in this. Every song of the film became a huge hit. Mannada has one the most memorable songs of his career in this film, "Tu Pyaar Ka Saagar Hai". The song appears twice in the film, the second time only partially. But it does not have any new wordings, it simply is a repeat.

I am uploading this and other fine songs from this album plus several instrumentals in back-to-back three posts. The first two posts contain the songs from the film. The third post contains instrumentals.

Here is the first set of songs…

(Shailendra) Seema (1955)

Dear Swarapriya ji

Excellent post & brilliant songs.

Thanks for these lovely songs.

Instrumentals of "Tu Pyaar Ka Saagar Hai" from "Seema (1955)"...

The song "Tu Pyaar Ka Saaga Hai" from "Seema" became immensely popular. This led many instrumentalists to compose it on their respective favourite instrument. Here are some of these...

Great sharing, here is small contribution from me.

Tu Pyar Ka Sagar Hay - Violin

Duration 4.29
bit rate 128 kbps
Film Seema