A Dreamy Song and Dance from Bhakta Dhruva (1947)

Posted by Richard S. on October 9, 2010

Posted in: Uncategorized. 14 Comments

Embedding disabled (why do people keep doing that?), but certainly worth the extra click. Such wonderful singing by Rajkumari and Amirbai, and delightful spring dances – especially when the peacocks show up!

14 comments on “A Dreamy Song and Dance from Bhakta Dhruva (1947)”

Vidur Sury on October 9, 2010 at 3:21 pm said:

Totally agree with you, BTW, could you please upload Teen Batti Char Rasta (1953) songs in YouTube?
Richard S. on October 10, 2010 at 7:19 am said:

Hi, Vidur. Maybe you don’t know this yet, but I never learned the art of properly separating and uploading videos from a DVD for YouTube. If you see a video in my upload section, chances are pretty good that it was originally from Tom :) , who is not a Sandhya fan. I am thinking that soon I might start uploading audio files for YouTube with slideshows or pics as the video part. If I do, it will be rare vintage songs, just like the type you’ve been doing, and maybe even Noor Jehan as well. :)

Regarding Teen Batti Char Rasta, there is another problem because most of my favorite songs from the film were actually on YouTube but were removed for alleged copyright violations. If they go up again, they might disappear pretty quickly once again. For some reason, there are still two song scenes from the film left on YouTube.

Vidur, are you having trouble finding the film? That would be ironic, since I found it very easily in NYC, and for a very cheap price too. :)
vidursury on October 10, 2010 at 8:36 am said:

I have found a site to buy the film (hope it remains in stock :) ) BTW, Iam going to Pune from 17th-22nd and also visiting the national film institute. Hope I get some films there! Also, do you have any luck finding Mela (1948), which is a very famous Dilip Kumar-Nargis movie? I don’t get it anywhere here and it is out of stock online.

Also, yesterday at S P Road and Koramangala, I managed to grab some vintage Tamil films, most of them featuring singer-actress Bhanumati, but I haven’t gotten to most of them as yet. I have this film, Bhakta Dhruv, and the singer recognition vintagemelodies provided was very helpful.
Richard S. on October 10, 2010 at 6:47 pm said:

I saw Mela a little while back, maybe a year and a half ago or so… The soundtrack is very good (that’s mainly why I bought it), but I had mixed feelings about the film. While I like gloomy ’40s tragedy more than a lot of people out there :), I found the tragic plot twists in this one to be a bit unbelievable at some point (a borderline “WTF” film), and the characters were not so great (especially not the villain, played by Jeevan, who seemed too much of a bumbling comedian at first to cause such dreadful things to happen later on). Dilip and Nargis were good, of course, and they both certainly knew how to weep.

I like Shamshad Begum singing for Nargis, and the Zohrabai song is great, plus some nice Mohammed Rafi. And Naushad’s music… I’ve had the soundtrack for a while and have listened to it separately a bunch of times.

I think it would be much more difficult for me to get those vintage Tamil films (though maybe when I go to Toronto…?) Hadn’t noticed this film Bhakta Dhruv (or Dhruva?) around yet either. (I’m in NYC right now, so maybe I’ll look for it.)
Hema on October 11, 2010 at 3:06 am said:

Nice. Where do you dig these up?
vidursury on October 11, 2010 at 11:19 am said:

I would be very thankful to you if you could try to share Mela or tell me where it is available, please? Iam also a fan of the songs and I share your favourite – the Zohrabai song. :)
Richard S. on October 13, 2010 at 8:07 am said:

Hema, thank you. I got this particular one because it was a new video out from one of my YouTube “Subscriptions.” So, I didn’t have to do much digging. :)

Vidur, maybe we shoudl get into a DVD exchnage sometime?

I found Mela at a DVD store in Jackson Heights, NY. I’ve seen it out from a couple of different companies. I can’t tell you who made the one I watched because I am not near my DVD shelf right now and probably won’t be until the end of next week. Have you tried searching (with any results)? I don’t know how some of these movies could be so available in stores in the U.S. but not in India, but I guess it works out that way sometimes. :)
Vidya Sury on October 13, 2010 at 8:49 am said:

Yes, I searched almost everywhere, but couldn’t get it. Mela and Anmol Ghadi are astonishing examples. If possible please try to share and do tell me what movies you have from the 30s and 40s, and yes, we could get into an exchange (although most of the movies I have are subtitles, sorry :( I have hopes of getting three more movies, Panna (1944)-Geeta Nizami, Sawan Aaya Re (1949)-Ramola (the heroine of Khazanchi) and Wahan (1937)-Shanta Apte ! :) Will tell you when I get them ;)
Vidur Sury on October 13, 2010 at 8:54 am said:

Sorry, that was me. Also, if you wish I could help you upload songs from movies that I have. I just managed to put up a tribute to the Qawwali singer Kalyani in my earlier post, please see my blog.
Richard S. on October 16, 2010 at 7:22 am said:

Vidur, let’s exchange e-mails in a few days or next week, when I will be back near my DVD collection and my own computer. (I am posting from somebody’s old used computer with Windows 95 and no working CD drive. Ironic, isn’t it, that I can’t have access to favorite golden oldie songs right now because I’m stuck with a golden oldie computer.)

By the way, unfortunately, I have no films from the ’30s – so far, I’ve watched all my favorite scenes from the 30s online. My film collection begins at 1942. (But not with Khandan – oh, I would love to see that! :) )
Vidur Sury on October 16, 2010 at 7:39 am said:

Of course, also as I told you, even I will return from Pune on 22nd. What is your email id? Mine is vidursury@gmail.com. But I think Lal Haveli and Village Girl (have you gotten those yet, BTW?) have better stories than Khandan :) And my collection starts from 1932! I have the earliest available talkie – Ayodhyecha Raja starring Durga Khote, a Marathi film. I do have quite a lot of films from the 30s, mostly those of Shanta Apte or Shahu Modak. It would be great if you could buy movies online, you could get really lots (but without subtitles :( ). What are the other movies you’re looking for?
Richard S. on October 16, 2010 at 8:14 am said:

I need to get over my block about posting my e-mail on the blog. :) Actually, I will probably put it somewhere soon since so many people have asked. But it’s better to put the e-mail on with “[at]” in the middle rather than as the usual address, because of spam risk.

Anyway, since I commented on your WordPress blogs, you can find my e-mail address listed with the recent comments at the dashboard level. And I’ll send you an e-mail soon if I don’t hear from you first. Really! :)

I am ambivalent about buying old films without subtitles, since it is fairly easy to get video clips of the songs and it’s also much easier to find old movies without subs for free online… Even if I can’t find them online, I wonder how much it would be worth my while to watch a film without understanding the dialogue, when I can find the songs. (Though sometimes it is..). I also have a very limited budget, so I don’t scoop up films without mulling first.

The oldest one with subs that I have is Roti (1942), but that’s only because Memsaab asked a friend to subtitle a VCD and then uploaded the result for all to share. (See my post on that.:) ) And now a certain DVD-making friend is sending me a DVD copy of that soon. I think it’s a great film.

(Of course, I have older music downloaded… I listen to the Khazanchi soundtrack pretty frequently and also have some Noor Jehan going back to Baby Noor days. I think I have most of the soundtrack to Street Singer and a few other things with Kanan Devi too…)

The oldest movie that I could find with subs in a store is Ratan (1944).

But I’ve seen so many song clips from movies of the early ’40s and the ’30s, I feel as though I know them pretty well already. :) There have also been some Marathi films from the late 30s/early 40s available for viewing on YouTube – sometimes just a bunch of scenes, sometimes the whole thing.

Anyway, more on the subject later, on blog or over e-mail. Off to sleep now. :)
—————-
P.S. Look around the Bolly blogging community, and you’ll see most people know the films starting with the 1950s. A lot of people say they know very few ’40s films. So, I thought I had been delving into pretty early stuff compared to most people, but as you’ve pointed out, you’ve surpassed me by a decade – at least where whole films are concerned. :)
Neha Ribeiro on March 23, 2011 at 2:34 am said:

Hi folks,
This film was directed by my late grandfather, Shantikumar Dave. I’m trying to get a hold of any of his films for my mother. I’m in the U.S. and so far haven’t had much luck. I was so happy to see this & any help would be much appreciated.
S. F. Kapoor on June 29, 2012 at 11:34 am said:

To: Neha Ribeiro
Found a page that shows credit for some of the movies directed by Shanti Bhai:
http://cineplot.com/shashi-kapoor-i-filmography/
I am the kid who played the title character in Bhakta Dhruva. Your grandfather was the sweetest person with a heart of gold. I met his entire family @ his then residence near King’s Circle. He was a wonderful director & gave my small acting career started in the right direction. He, and Ramesh Saigal were my directors for many movies. Lots of good memories. The data part of the above page gives some info about me as well. If you can, send my kind regards to your entire family back in Mumbai! Good Luck & God Bless!!