Bollywood

Suneel Darshan’s Shakalaka Boom Boom is said to be inspired by Amadeus (1984) about the rivalry between two musicians. However, years before this one, Bollywood had produced Baiju Bawra (1952) about the defeat of legendary musician Tansen, by young Baijnath or Baiju. The film directed by Vijay Bhatt, starred Bharat Bhushan as Baiju, Meena Kumari as his beloved Gauri and Surendra as Tansen — one of the navratnas (nine gems) of Emperor’s court. Legend had it that nobody could sing in the city unless he could sing better than Tansen, or he was executed. The arrogant Tansen demanded silence as he worked on his music. When his guards try to curb a group of bhajan singers in the street, the leader of the troupe is wounded in the scuffle and before dying he makes his son Baiju promise to avenge his death. The orphaned Baiju is adopted by a village priest and befriended by a boatman’s daughter Gauri with whom he falls in love. One day the village is attacked by a gang of bandits led by a female Roopmati (Kuldeep Kaur), who is actually a princess in exile seeking revenge against the usurper of her father’s kingdom. That reminds Baiju of his own mission and he goes to Tansen’s guru Swami Haridas (Rai Mohan) to learn music. The guru tells him he cannot learn music with hate in his heart. Baiju goes to a Shiva temple and does music sadhana on his own. Baiju’s self-attained knowledge is so great that when he sings before the guru, the sick man recovers. He tells Baiju that he is now ready for attaining greater glory. With Roopmati’s help Gauri finds Baiju and begs him to return to the village, but he refuses because his mission of revenge is still not accomplished. The guru tells Baiju that he would become a truly great singer if he could feel pain. Gauri knows that losing her would cause Baiju the most grief and she gets bitten by a snake. Believing Gauri to be dead, Baiju’s song of anguish makes the statue of Shiva shed tears. In this crazed (bawra) state he reaches the capital, and is imprisoned according to the law that states that he either sing better than Tansen or die. Roopmati’s attempt to rescue him fails and now comes the musical battle between Tansen and Baiju which will decide who is the greater singer. Emperor Akbar (Bipin Gupta) himself witnesses the great duel. Both the singers are evenly matched. Then Akbar says that whoever can melt marble with his singing will be the winner. Baiju wins the legendary jugalbandi and requests the Emperor to allow everyone to sing in the city and to pardon Tansen. The story ends tragically, however, as trying to reach Gauri across a flooded river to stop her from marrying another man, Baiju drowns. And Gauri drowns with him while trying to save Baiju. The film had fabulous music by Naushad—immortal songs like Tu Ganga Ki Mauj, Mohe Bhool Gaye Sanwariya, Man Tarpat Hari Darshan Ko Aaj, Aaj Gaawat Man Mero, O Duniya Ke Rakhwale and Jhoole Mein Pawan Ki Aayi Bahar. The huge success of the film saved Prakash Studios from shutting down. It was Meena Kumari’s first major role as leading lady, after years of struggling in B-grade action films. It also made a musical star out of Mohammad Rafi. Movielore has it that Naushad wept when Baiju Bawra was premiered at Mumbai’s Broadway cinema. When Vijay Bhatt asked him why he was crying, Naushad said that when he first came to Mumbai, he slept on the pavement opposite the theatre. “It took me 16 years to cross this street,” he said. Interesting TriviaEminent classical vocalists Ustad Amir Khan and Pandit D.V. Palusker did the playback for Tansen and Baiju in the competition.The memorable bhajan Man Tarpat Hari Darshan Ko Aaj was written by Shakeel Badayuni, composed by Naushad and sung by Mohammad Rafi—all three Muslims. The film won Naushad the first ever Filmfare award for best music director and Meena Kumari won the first trophy for Best Actress. Bhatt had wanted to cast Dilip Kumar and Nargis as the leading pair in the film, but both were unable to do it. Tabassum as a child star played the young Meena Kumari.

Original post by manisha