How was our lovely Bengal a hundred years ago? Its social structure, feudal systems, the British Raj and the nationalist movement.... all together, if one peeps through a window of time, he will observe a colourful portrait. The storyline that follows is an attempt of the same. Not credited to me, however, as the Bhawal Case is a very popular and widely published legal encounter of British Bengal, and it is claimed that there would be hardly any last generation Bengali who had not heard of the Bhawal Case.

Zamindari Estates were widely spread across Bengal in the British Raj, most of which had their ancestral roots in the Moghul Era. The Moghuls distributed rights of revenue collection to certain families, which later got established as the Zamindars, and the British continued almost the same system with some modifications like the Permanent Settlement of 1793. An estate called Bhawal was spread in today's Dhaka district of Bangla Desh, and was ranked very high among the Zamindari estates of Bengal, only second to the Nawab of Dhaka. The Zamindar of Bhawal was called "Raja" by the tenants and residents of the estate. The headquarter of the Bhawal estate was situated at Jaidebpur, north to Dhaka, today known as Gazipur.

Our story dates back to April-May 1909. After the demise of Raja Rajendra Narayan Roy Choudhari in 1901, the Court of Wards had acquired the estate. But Rajendra's wife, Bilasmani fought in the court and acquired back the rights of revenue collection from the Court of Wards in the name of her three young sons. Raja Ramedra, the Second Kumar of Bhawal was the second son of Rajendra and Bilasmani. Ramedra was a typical character as the sons of Zamindars used to be, and spent most of his time in hunting and wandering with a  group of flatterer-turned friends, rather that concentrating on education and affairs of the estate. He had acquired syphilis as a result of his lifestyle at an early age. In April 1909, Ramedra's health deteriorated, and the family decided to send him to Darjeeling for rest. Ramendra was accompanied by his wife Bibhawati, Bibhawati's brother Satyenrda Banerjee and a crew of servents.

However, the climate of Darjeeling could work no wonders for the Second Kumar, and on May 6, he was declared dead. A death certificate to that effect was issued by the British civil surgeon in Darjeeling. The party, including Bibhawati, her brother Satyendra and others returned to Jaidebpur after three days and post-death religious rites were performed. However, for quite some time, people heard and talked in private about the stories that the Second Kumar was not dead, and there was some mystery about the cremation of his body.

Days and years passed and the year 1921 dawned on Dhaka. A sanyasi appeared in Dhaka in the January of 1921, and soon rumours started spreading that the sanyasi was the Second Kumar of Bhawal, Ramendra, who was declared dead years back. After some months, the sanyasi visited Jaidebpur and met the sister of Ramendra, Jyotirmoyi and others in town. Upon cross questioning in a number of meetings and further insistence of Jyotirmoyi, the sanyasi agreed that he was Ramendra, and declared in a public meeting in May 1921, that he was the Second Kumar of Bhawal, who was said to be died at Darjeeling in 1909.

The news spread like fire, and the tenants of Bhawal Estate started flooding to Jaidebpur to see the glimpse of the sanyasi. The illiterate masses quickly believed that their Mayo Kumar had returned back from the kingdom of death. This obviously posed a challenge to the British administration of the Estate in particular and to the Bengal Government in general. Another few months passed and there was not a single person in Bengal who had not taken a side on the issue that whether the sanyasi appeared in Dhaka was really the Second Kumar of Bhawal or not. And then began one of the longest legal battle in the history of British Raj in India, the Bhawal Case.

So, what had happened in Darjeeling? According to one version, when Ramendra was declared dead, his body was taken for funeral by his servants. Meanwhile, a storm gathered and the servants took shelter of a nearby tree, leaving the body waiting for funeral. When the storm was over, the servants returned back to cremate the body and found to surprise of everyone that the body was missing. Taken aback, they set to fire the woods at the funeral place and declared that the body was cremated upon returning to the residence in Darjeeling. What happened to the dead body of the Kumar then? It was said that while the storm was going on, a group of Naga sadhus was passig nearby, who noticed that a man's body was lying on the funeral ground, but the person was not dead. The sadhus carried the body(Ramendra) with them and possibly brought Ramendra back to his senses, after an effort of three-four days. The sanyasi that appeared at Dhaka, later claimed as Ramendra, that he did not remember anything of his body being taken to cremation, after he lost his senses in the house at Darjeeling. Only thing he remembered, the sanyasi claimed, was that he had found himself among a group of Naga sadhus, when he had returned to his senses after a few days.

The sanyasi later offered a number of evidences to prove that he was the Second Kumar, Ramendra, but almost all of these evidences were controvertial. The sanyasi fought and won the cases in the court of law in India as well as in the Privy Council of London. Surprisingly, however, the wife of Ramendra, Bibhawati, did never in her lifetime believe that her husband had come back.

Interesting, isn't it? A book entitled "A Princely Imposter?" published by Permanent Black, gives a lucid account of the Bhawal Case and the Secret History of Indian Nationalism, which is in fact the sub-title of the book. It is impossible to give all the details of this intersting chapter in the history of Bengal here, the book in itself is an excellent rendering and a must-read for every curious person.

Let us continue our journey through the tanga of some more rhythemic songs. Today I will begin with some non-Nayyar songs. Shankar-Jaikishan, the great duo of musicians were always tough competitors to Nayyar. Apart from being very good friends of Raj Kapoor and therefore composing some finest melodies for R. K. Films, S-J did a great job with Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor and Rajendra Kumar as well. I mention two tanga songs of Shankar-Jaikishan here.

The first one is from the film Aah. The peculiarity of this tanga song is that it is sung in an extremely sorrowful mood. Normally tanga songs are very romantic and jubiliant, with some inherent teasing and seducing included. But this song from Aah comes at a situation in the movie when the hero, Raj, is about to die due to his T. B. He wants to reach to the place of his lover before he dies....(inspired from Devdas, isn't it?) and so rides the tanga. Raj sits at the backside of the tanga, wrapped in his kambal, and as the tangawalla drives the horse, begins the rhythem and Mukesh's mellow voice follows, "Chhoti si Yeh Zindagani Re.... Chaar Din Ki Jawani Teri....". Incidently the song was picturised on Mukesh himself! In the original movie, Raj dies by the time the song ends and could not meet his lover. But the film collapsed on the box-office heavily. So Raj (Kapoor) changed the end to show that Raj does not die, rather gets cured due to love and affection by Nargis.......but in vain.....Aah remained a big failure of RK irrespective of some of the most remarkable compositions by S-J. (Remember Jaane Na Nazar and Sunte The Naam Hum.....!)

The second tanga song given by S-J is from the film Chhoti Bahen......"Main Rangeela Pyaar Ka Raahi....Door Meri Manzil...." A duet sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Suvir Sen. I know this as the only song sung by Suvir Sen, and in early days I mistakenly believed that it was the voice of Manna Dey. In this song, Suvir has mimicked some yoddling like Rafi from Maang Ke Saath, for driving the horse.

Ravi, who has composed some very fine melodies in the film Waqt, has a beautiful tanga song to his credit. Its from the film Vachan. Rafi and Asha compete each other to excel while singing "Jab Liya Haath Mein Haath, Nibhana Saath, Mere Sajana....".

If Ravi could compose such an excellent song, how Madan Mohan can remain behind? He has to his credit this evergreen song from film Sanjog...."Ik Manzil, Raahi Do, Phir Pyaar Na Kaise Ho..." Very tender voices of Lata and Mukesh and some finest pieces of accordian in his usual style.....Madan Mohan always gave us the best and nothing less than the best. A very delicate song indeed!

Salil Choudhari, the maestro of harmony has his own strong candidate. The movie itself was named as "Tangawali". Hemant Kumar, the favourite singer of Salilda and Lata have made this song immortal....."Halke Halke Chalo Sanvare....Pyaar Ki Mast Havaon Mein..." Out of all the tanga songs that I know, I would rate this one and the earlier one by Madan Mohan as the most romantic ones. I really can not select one amongst the two. They are so fresh, so lively even after listening for 1000 times.

But a post on tanga songs can not go without mentioning Nayyar, and therefore I have this tanga song of Nayyar today......"Zara Houle Houle Chalo More Saajana.....Hum Bhi Peechhe Hain Tumhare...." from Saavan Ki Ghata. Asha's voice, by this time has gained the seductive appeal after singing for Nayyar for quite some time....(Later Pancham developed that appeal to the fullest extent!) And therefore her voice perfectly expresses the adhering mood of a woman to her lover...."Pad Gayi Janab Main to Aap ke Gale...."

So that was the garland of six tanga songs for today. Lets remind some more tanga songs in the next and the last part to come.

Tanga Songs Part 1

Today I feel like remembering some Tanga Songs from our old melodies. Tanga songs are nothing but the melodious compositions with a background rhythem of a running Tanga.....(the horse cart). Most of these tanga songs were actually picturized with the hero/ heroine in the tanga.

The first name that comes to my mind when I start remembering tanga songs is obviously O. P. Nayyar. Nayyar was no doubt the king of tanga songs. In fact Nayyar was one of the trendsetters amongst our music directors. He had to establish himself against a fierce competition of Naushad, Shankar-Jaikishan and Dada Burman, who were at the peak of their popularity when Nayyar began to rise in the industry.

But more memories of Nayyar later......Today I will mention about some of his famous tanga songs.

The first song that may come to even a layperson's mind is.....
Maang ke Saath Tumhara Maine Maang Liya Sansaar.....from Naya Daur. Year 1957. The song is picturized on Dilip Kumar and Vaijayanti Mala and that has made it extremely pleasent. This pair gave a number of hits and probably Naya Daur was the hittest of all of them. The singers are Rafi and Asha.....Naya Daur was the beginning of Nayyar's long term association with Asha, and Rafi was always a favourite singer of Nayyar. It is interesting to note that Nayyar seldom used the voice of other singers. To the extent that he used Rafi's voice for Raj Kapoor...(a very rare phenomenon!) in the film Do Ustaad (Raj and Madhubala). So in Maang ke Saath, Rafi and Asha have been just at their best!

Next, the title song of Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon......It begins with the lyrics...Bandaa Parwar, Tham Lo Jigar.......A solo by Rafi picturised on Vishwajeet(!). Most of the Vishwajeet's movies used to be crap, barring excellent songs composed by his music directors! This song is in similar lines, and the pieces of Saarangi match so well with Rafi's soft voice, that the song remains fresh even after listening so many times.

The third song is not credited to Nayyar but inspired from him.....I am talking about Tushar Bhatiya's "Ilo Ilo" from "Andaz Apna Apna". A tune of Nayyar so lively, so virile that even after two generations, it could express perfectly the romance of Amir and Ravina. In fact Tushar based other two songs of the film "Yeh Raat aur Yeh Doori" and "Dil Karta Hai Tere Paas Aaoon" on the typical Nayyar styled, which created a lot of fun and helped the movie in becoming a smashing hit.

We go back to the Nayyar era and remember his another hit of the year 1956. It was Tumsa Nahin Dekha of Shammi Kapoor and Amita.There are two tanga songs in this movie. The first one is "Kisi Na Kisi Se", a solo by Rafi. The orchestration of this song is louder than ordinary tanga songs, yet Nayyar has maintained the basic tanga rhythem in it. And then the naughty title song, "Yun To Humne Laakh Haseen Dekhe Hain....Tumsa Nahin Dekha". Again a perfect tanga song, picturised on Shammi and Amita in tanga, with Shammi seducing Amita in his own style and she hitting on his forehead.......too cool!

Well that was the first lot of five Nayyari tanga songs....there are more to follow, and mind you, Nayyar did not have the monopoly of tanga songs. There are other music directors who have their own share. But more of it later.

There were a number of masters of melody in bollywood. Among the top of them was Madan Mohan. A genious by nature, Madan Mohan always composed chaste songs. It is hard to find a cheap song given by Madan in his long tenure.

Gazel master as he was known, Madan Mohan composed a lot of gazels for different situations in movies. Most of them were made immortal by the voice of Lata Mangeshkar, and some by Talat Mehmood. Madan - Lata is a special combination of hindi film history pages. Of many songs sung by Lata for Madan, I today remember this one from the film Jailor: Hum Pyaar Mein Jalne Walon Ko....

I dont know whether the purists classify this song as a gazel......it comes very close to gazel, metered on similar tunes, but not in a classical gazel format.

After initially intermingled pieces on piano and flute, there is a superb pickup using violin that touches one's heart, and then the immortal voce of Lata comes.....but have you ever noted a small piece of flute that comes before lata's first lines.......

Hum pyaar mein jalane walon ko chain kahan....
haye aaram kahan...
Hum pyaar mein jalane walon ko......

The tunes start making us feel in heaven by now, first the piano and then a large orchestra with violinists.....and then the first stanza comes.....

Preet ki andhiyaari manzil mein chaaron or siyaahi.....
Preet ki andhiyaari manzil mein chaaron or siyaahi.....
Aadhi raah mein hi loot jaye is manzil ka raahi.....
is manzil ka raahi...
Kaaton par chalane walon ko chain kahan.....
haye aaram kahan...
Hum pyaar mein jalane walon ko....

Again the pianist following so beautifully, exactly the note where lata finishes her stanza, and again the scintillating pickup with violin comes. Throughout the song we experience beautiful countermelodies at the background. Madan Mohan has shown that he was the maestro of this technique.

Lata continues with the second stanza...

Bahalayen jab dil na bahale to aise bahalaye....
Bahalayen jab dil na bahale to aise bahalaye........
She reaches to peak of her voice by this line, in her classic style..

Gham hi to hai pyaar ki daulat yeh kahakar samajhaye...
yeh kahakar samajhaye...
Apna man chhalane walon ko chain kahan.....
haye aaram kahan...
Hum pyaar mein jalane walon ko....

By the time the song is over, we are mesmerized........ I remain unable to speak whenever I listen to this song! Can't just decide what is great....the lyrics of Rajinder Krishna, the voice of Lata or the tunes of Madan Mohan.... and I feel that is the true symbol of a maestro!