Debaki Bose - Kanan Devi , ( Chandrasekhar & Krishnalila .)
Kamalakar Pasupuleti
received the greatest admiration from the fans of NT films .
My very good friend Dr Sreenivas Paruchuri of Germany asked me a
couple
of months back whether any movies directed by Debaki Babu have been
released on DVD/ VCD . His interest in NT movies especially the ones
directed by Debaki Bose has special academic interest . I donot know
for sure how many of them are available in Indian market.Someone in the
NG can help on this matter .
I have not seen any of the movies directed by him but had many
of the discs from his films . As I go thru the discography of Kanan
Devi
I find films like Vidyapati , Sapera were great hits and had very good
songs composed by moestro RC Boral . Nartaki - 1940 was another great
movie
w/o Kanan Devi and had excellent music by Punkaj Mullik .
Chandrasekhar and Krishnalila I think were his B grade films
with very good music by Kamal Das-Gupta .Many fans were ignorant of
these
two movies .I was little surprised to find the names of Kanan Devi and
Kamal Das-Gupta on the discs as I heardthe songs for the first
time in early 1970's .
I wrote to Shri Dalbir Singh Parmar of SLBC who had a fine
taste for vintage songs . He admitted while playing a song of
Kanan Devi on Purane Filmi Geet that the discs of Chandrasekhar
and Krishnalila were not available with SLBC and would be happy if
I can record some of them and mail him . I had no such facility with
me in 1972-73 and couldnot do it.
I really wonder why such a great director failed to do justice
for Chandrasekhar and Krishnalila .
Was this the beginning of his fall from fame ?
- kp
jyotiprakasguha
I have Vidyapati and Nartaki. I don't know whether any of DKB's early
films have been made on CD/DVD.
Chandrasekhar (B) has been one of the major hit films of Kanan-DKB. Ashok
Kumar coming to Bengal for his first Bengali film also contributed to
this.It had two very good duets of Kanan/Ashok Kumar also. The Hindi
version did not get that popularity and to me the songs (for both versions
composed by Kamal dasgupta)were not appealing.
Krishnaleela again had a good run in Bengal. I do not know about the
outside Bengal response. The songs here were not upto the KamalDasgupta
standard definitely (I am yet to hear SAWAN KI RANI AYEE JHULAN MEIN).
I would not say that DKB failed to do justice to these two films.
Popularity wise they did not have a great all India appeal, this has to be
admitted. I have seen Chandrasekhar (B)and liked it. I have not seen
Krishnaleela.
These two films were definitely not a fall from fame for DKB. In 1959, he
gave us Sagar Sangamey starring Bharati devi which won the President's
Gold for Best Film. His 1955 film Bhalobasa (B) starring Suchitra Sen was
a hit also. In 1953, he directed "Bhagaban Shree Krishna Chaitanya (B)",
again a major hit with very popular songs . Music was by Kamal Dasgupta.
The lead p[layers were Vasant Choudhury, Suchitra Sen, Pahari Sanyal, KC
Dey. His film in 1956, Chirakumar Sabha (B), based on a Tagore story, was
not a very big hit, but in 1958 he directed Nabajanma (B) again a major
hit. His last in 1961/62 was Arghya and I beleive it did not do very well.
Debaki Bose's films in the 50s were all Bengali and naturally was lost in
the all India market.
Jyoti Prakash Guha.
P.S. By the way, DKB's son Deb Kumar Bose has directed the first manipuri
film in India-Matangi Manipur. He now leads a retired life.
Kamalakar Pasupuleti
about
them probably due to poor coverage on film magazines .
As far as Hindi movies are concerned a movie which had gone
practically
un-noticed was Shri Ramanuj - 1943 despite excellent music by Anupam
Ghatak .
The film had beutiful chorus songs based on kirtans and I am sure the
voice of AG can
be heard in some of them , beside it had very good songs by Radharani .
A serious researcher on RMIM who wish to remain un-identified
had dug up
a relatively unknown movie ' Swarg se sunder desh hamara ' - 1945 .
The geet kosh mention the names of 2 artists as Padma Devi and Biman
Banerjee .
No further details are available about MD - Lyricist etc . The film was
produced
by Indrapuri Productions , Bombay . I am sure you can throw some light
on this movie .
His another hindi film Ratnadeep - 1952 was just a
moderate hit and
had 2 bhajans in the voice of Kum Juthika Roy which were heard for
sometime .
Another hindi movie Kavi - 1954 was the greatest blunder
as it failed
miserably at the box office . Dr Babu Rao Patel of Film India wrote in
an article
VM Vyas welcomed Debaki Bose and his troop of assistants with garlends
and
hosted many parties in his honour but the day Kavi was released he
along with his
assistants disappeared and were later traced in Calcutta .
Its music by moestro C Ramchandra failed to impress and is
now forgotten .
- kp
Kamalakar Pasupuleti
Satish Kalra
news:1102904697.4...@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Thanks a lot for info on his Bengali movies , we are less informed
> about
> them probably due to poor coverage on film magazines .
>
> As far as Hindi movies are concerned a movie which had gone
> practically
> un-noticed was Shri Ramanuj - 1943 despite excellent music by Anupam
> Ghatak .
> The film had beutiful chorus songs based on kirtans and I am sure the
> voice of AG can
> be heard in some of them , beside it had very good songs by Radharani .
>
> A serious researcher on RMIM who wish to remain un-identified
> had dug up
> a relatively unknown movie ' Swarg se sunder desh hamara ' - 1945 .
> The geet kosh mention the names of 2 artists as Padma Devi and Biman
> Banerjee .
> No further details are available about MD - Lyricist etc . The film was
> produced
> by Indrapuri Productions , Bombay . I am sure you can throw some light
> on this movie .
>
> His another hindi film Ratnadeep - 1952 was just a
> moderate hit and
> had 2 bhajans in the voice of Kum Juthika Roy which were heard for
> sometime .
The (social) magazine Sarita (in Hindi) also used to review a few films in
its monthly issues, using a five-star rating method: One star for Poor; Two
for Average; Three stars for good; Four for Very good; and five for
Extra-ordinary.
To the best of my recollection, Ratna Deep remains the only film to have
ever received a 5-star rating in Sarita's reviews.
Later, some more films have been made on similar themes, like Atma Ram (with
slight variations) *ing Shatrughan Sinha; or with only slight similarities,
Hum Dono (1961).
>
> Another hindi movie Kavi - 1954 was the greatest blunder
> as it failed
> miserably at the box office . Dr Babu Rao Patel of Film India wrote in
> an article
> VM Vyas welcomed Debaki Bose and his troop of assistants with garlends
> and
> hosted many parties in his honour but the day Kavi was released he
> along with his
> assistants disappeared and were later traced in Calcutta .
> Its music by moestro C Ramchandra failed to impress and is
> now forgotten .
>
> - kp
>
The film, Kavi, was not an average success even, I agree. But some of its
songs gained popularity, esp. "tere raaste pe ham ne ik ghar banaa liyaa
hai...."; "ham karke muhabaat ye samajhe rone se hansii kuchh duur nahiin";
and "main pii ke nahiin aayaa....". The last one recieved a fairly decent
amount of air waves on Radio Ceylon, and it was on Binaca Geet Mala for
quite a few weeks, though it never reached the top rung.
--
Happy Listenings.
Satish Kalra
jyotiprakasguha
Agreed. Shri Ramanuj and Swarg Se Sundar Desh Hamara were lost. I did not
mention them because they were prior to the movies under discussion.
In Bengali Ratnadeep (1951) was a very big hit. Later made with Hema
Malini and Girish Karnad, the same story had negligible effect. Debaki
Babu's Hindi version apart from the Juthika Roy songs also had very good
ones by Geeta Dutt (Roy)and Talat Mahmood.
The same applies to Kabi (1949)in Bengali. The music was by Anil Bagchi
and the songs are popular even today. I have not heard any song from the
Hindi version made in 1954.
Jyoti Prakash Guha.
Abhay Jain
"Satish Kalra" <Satish...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:y7qdnd-amvK...@comcast.com...
>
> The (social) magazine Sarita (in Hindi) also used to review a few films in
> its monthly issues, using a five-star rating method: One star for Poor;
> Two
> for Average; Three stars for good; Four for Very good; and five for
> Extra-ordinary.
>
> To the best of my recollection, Ratna Deep remains the only film to have
> ever received a 5-star rating in Sarita's reviews.
>
Trilok Jetly's "Godan" also received 5 star rating by Sarita.
AJ
Abhay Jain
"Abhay Jain" <aba...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:lQUxd.3716$_s7....@fe08.lga...
Trilok Jetly was the director. Godan was based on Novel by Munshi Premchand.
It starred Raaj Kumar, Kamini Kaushal and music by Pt. Ravi Shankar.
Kamalakar Pasupuleti
news:28d7178c677b91d7...@localhost.talkaboutthemusic.com
> Dear KP,
> I have Vidyapati and Nartaki. I don't know whether any of DKB's early
> films have been made on CD/DVD.
> Chandrasekhar (B) has been one of the major hit films of Kanan-DKB. Ashok
> Kumar coming to Bengal for his first Bengali film also contributed to
> this.It had two very good duets of Kanan/Ashok Kumar also. The Hindi
> version did not get that popularity and to me the songs (for both versions
> composed by Kamal dasgupta)were not appealing.
The two solos of Kanan Devi ( Ghazals ) are excellent
compositions by Kamal Das-Gupta .I do love them a lot though
they are hard to find .
Krishnaleela had some songs composed by Anupam Ghatak .
I am trying to find which of them were scored by him .
- kp
--
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Kamalakar Pasupuleti
>
> "Abhay Jain" <aba...@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:lQUxd.3716$_s7....@fe08.lga...
> Trilok Jetly was the director. Godan was based on Novel by Munshi Premchand.
> It starred Raaj Kumar, Kamini Kaushal and music by Pt. Ravi Shankar.
>
> AJ
Godan was a popular movie with excellent music by
Pt Ravi Shankar . His another great music score was Anuradha .