The Faint Echoes of the October Revolution: A Centenary of the Capricious Philosophy in the Socio-political life!

Guest article by Shalan Lal

(No event in history has caused as much impact on the world of politics and ideas as the Russian Revolution of October 1917. And no revolution has strayed as much from its path, turning into a totalitarian regime and causing untold miseries on its people. The political edifice collapsed under its own weight, but it did have a romanticised sway on art, culture and literature for a long time.

The topic of this post is way beyond the scope of this blog, but Shalan Lal has a way of weaving many threads and transcending boundaries in her articles. She shared her first draft long ago, in time for the centenary of the revolution, but I had a lot of comments on her content and presentation. Anyone else would have given up, but she persisted and has redone the article substantially. After the politics, she quickly comes to the echoes of the October Revolution in our films and songs. This would stimulate and provoke, which she encourages liberally. I am happy to present Shalan Lal’s guest article commemorating the completion of a century and one year of  the October Revolution. – AK)    

The October Revolution occurred ‘One hundred and one’ years ago on 24 October 1917 in Russia, in Petrograd, renamed later on as Leningrad, and then renamed again, after the Soviet Project was dissolved like an air bubble in 1994, as St Petersburg or Petrograd. (And some say why the changes of Bombay to Mumbai, Madras to Chennai and Calcutta to Kolkata, Poona to Pune, etc. – ironically they all are the echoes of the Red Revolution!)

This seemed to be a practice in politics of many parts of the world. In  Tripura, a Lenin’s statue was knocked down by the jubilant BJP party workers after their victory in the last state election. Here is the picture of the Lenin’s statue being knocked down in the city of Belonia. After knocking down the statue the severed head of the statue was wickedly kicked about. A kind of anger expressed by supposedly civilized BJP members in the style of the knocking down of the statue of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after the fall of Iraq. Also the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha!

“To be perfectly blunt, this is an old story. New landowners of a country move in and do their best to obliterate all traces of the conquered land.”

Saddam Hussein statue. An empty niche where the Bamiyan Buddha once stood.

Lenin’s downfall in Belonia (Tripura) after the BJP success in Tripura state elections.

In several Eastern European countries, such as Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia,  governments inspired by  Marxist–Leninist ideology took power with Soviet assistance and overt intervention.  There were many communists in Germany, France, Spain and Portugal, wishing they would have similar October revolution in their countries. But the WWI stopped them. Spain had a long civil war and the King was overthrown.

In the east, Mao led similar revolution and became communist. Similar changeover happened in Korea, both North and South. Due to M.N.Roy’s Communist Party in Mexico, it spread and remained in the hearts of all the revolutionary fighters in the various states of Latin America to date.

In India, Socialist Party and Communist Party took inspiration from the “October”, henceforth known as the Communist Revolution. To some extent Congress also used some methods and ideas of the October and its ideologies. Gandhi, without realizing, had many anti-capitalist ideas in his philosophy. His famous Salt March was echoed in various hunger marches in Europe, England and Russia. His political fasts and abstentions also were the strategies used by the prisoners in England and France and the suffragettes were force-fed. His Khadi soot-kataai was part of John Ruskin’s Art and Craft Movement. John Ruskin was friendly to Marx. Gandhi came to London when Marx and Marxists were active. Gandhi was more influenced by John Ruskin’s ideology than the communist pamphlets distributed at the meetings and specially at the Hyde Park’s famous Speaker Corner.

After Indian Independence in 1947 and when the country became democratic republic, in the state of Kerala EMS Nambudripad, a Marxist Communist became the Chief Minister of Kerala.

He implemented two Marxist reforms: one in education and the other in the land reforms that had very lasting effect in Kerala. His rule did not last very long. But Krishna Menon, a hard-boiled communist, was a very close friend of Nehru from the time Menon was active in London. Menon founded Indian Film Society in London as far back as in the forties. He also created a hostel for the Indian students in London right behind the present Indian High Commission and created Indian students discussion forum. He was the second Councillor elected by the British people for the Borough of Camden in London. The other was the first elected in another Borough of London.

Later in West Bengal Jyoti Basu became the Chief Minister. He ruled for 23 years. He made communism accepted in Bengal and the states where Bengal influence flourished, like Tripura, Assam etc, but according to his critics he ran down Sonar Bangla state while other states flourished.

A new Order of thinking in socio-politics came and among many people, it dangled a kind of Utopia before their eyes. Some thought it was a panacea for all human problems. The book Utopia, written by Thomas More was studied by Karl Marx.

It was believed that Vladimir Lenin engineered the “October Revolution” on the foundation of Karl Max’s philosophy. Marx was a researcher-reader at the British Museum library, London and wrote many pamphlets and a big book called Das Kapital which became the Bible of the new thinking process called Communism. Writing a pamphlet was a fashion among the European Intelligentsia from the middle ages.

Lenin during the Russian Revolution

Das Kapital has many parents as philosophers and thinkers like Martin Luther the reformist, George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), and the Renaissance and Enlightenment in Europe all contributed in the making of Das Kapital.

In the October revolution, Lenin’s Bolsheviks (the party workers) on 24 October 1917 attacked the Winter Palace, the seat of Russian Royals called Romanovs for three hundred years, sacked and arrested the ruling King Emperor Nicolas II Tsar and his family, and later on cruelly killed one and all. The king had just joined the WWI and took his starving army to die in the trenches in huge numbers.

The Russian Royal family, the Romanovs
(Front, from Left: Maria, Tsar Nicholas,Tsarina, Prince, Alexandra,
Back row: Olga, Tatiana)

The 1917 execution of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II, and his wife Alexandra and his children at the hands of Bolsheviks to date is seen as an act of terror that became inlaid in the Communist thinking by non-communist people and they are usually repulsed away from Communism. The rules of Joseph Stalin, Mao, and the present and past rulers of North Korea etc. are all associated badly with Communism and using unlimited power over their people.

Thus new religion or philosophy established a byword “Communism”. Communism was seen as a rival force and a threat to the western capitalism for most of the 20th century.

Communism is a political and economic doctrine that aimed to replace private property and a profit-based economy with public ownership and collective control of the major means of production (e.g. mines, mills, factories, farms etc.) and also the natural resources of a society. It is thus a form of socialism – a higher and more advanced form, according to its advocates. Exactly how communism differs from socialism has long been a matter of debate, but the distinction rests largely on the communists’ adherence to the revolutionary socialism of Karl Marx.

Marx’s Bible Book; Engels, Marx & his daughters; Lenin’s Statue in Kolkata

In politics and social sciences, communism (from Latin Communis, “common, universal”) is the philosophical, social, political and economic ideology and movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of the communist society, which is a socio-economic ordered structure upon the common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money and the state.

The Reds, as commonly communists were called, had their theories on many established ideas and styles of life. On religion, literature, and arts they had saliently different views. Communism being the driving force for seventy years behind the ruling party, it created a new way of looking at everything cooked behind the “Iron Curtain”. They used the words like anti-social, enemy of the people, bourgeois – all to demean and demonise the idea, aims and objectives of the capitalist way of life.

The October Revolution spanned Marxist and Communist ideas all over the world. They also spread the aggressive practice of demonstrations, protest marches, and eventually masses taking over the establishments with violence etc. In the arts they encouraged revival of many kinds of changes, and art and arts became more public-oriented than catering for the conservative, elite and royal audiences. The new Russia, or Soviet Russia (Soviet means councils of common people), let flourish the Russian glorious ballet, music, painting and new art of film making, circus art, literatures etc. as long as these were not anti-government.

From the Indian point of view two Russian arts became influencing factors. The great Russian ballet dancer and renowned ballerina Anna Pavlov arrived in London and made it her home. This was a period in European dance and music that had usual themes that became fatigued and the artists were looking towards East for inspiration. Some dancers used ancient Egyptian themes and others were touching Far East. Anna Pavlov started looking for Indian dance themes.

At the beginning of the 20th century, dance in India was either locked in as “Daasi Attam” in the temples or became seduction vehicles of the red district ladies. Some religious mendicants or just beggars did dancing steps on the streets and earned their alms.

Uday Shankar was in London at the Arts School of the University of London, studying advanced level of art as he had done the basic degree at Bombay’s prestigious J.J. School of Art. His father was a Diwan (a minister) of a small principality in Rajputana, later on Rajasthan. Subsequently, he became an impresario and promoter of the Indian Arts in England and Europe.

Anna Pavlov met Uday Shankar. She trained him as a dancer and then she presented a cabaret like show called Radha and Krishna. She was Radha and he was Krishna. The show dazzled the London audience and went around Europe with stunning success.

Uday Shankar imbibed Indian dance and went to India and did a stock-taking of all the existing dances.  He did sketches of the temple arts and cave paintings etc. He created many dances and ensembles and changed the attitude of the Indians towards dance. Anna Pavlov visited India and presented her ballet shows and met Rukmini Devi and her theosophist husband. She inspired Rukmini Devi with many ideas and practical demonstrations and asked her to revive Indian dance.

Rest is history. Indian films were immensely benefited. Gone were the days when Mumtaz Ali, a street dancer, composed dances for the Bombay Talkies films.

RK Film Awara presented a mammoth three part dance which was spiritual at its heart. It was choreographed by Madame Simkie, an artist in the troupe of Uday Shankar, because Uday Shankar did not want to be associated with Hindi films which were then not respected as high arts.

Simkie’s above pictures are from the article by Minai Minai in her own blog in which she reviewed the documentary made on Simkie by her niece in 2010. In the comment section Mr Gaddeswarup, the renowned member of SoY, has commented on his search for the film Kalpana of Uday Shankar. (There is an exciting news for the serious lovers of cinema. ‘Kalpna’ which was considered lost and untraceable has appeared on the YouTube, fully restored and sub-titled, courtesy Tom Daniel. Richard has written an interesting post on the search for the film and the significance of its discovery. – AK)

Another great effect was due to the Russian film director and theorist Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein. He created a silent film, forever great, called “October: Ten Days That Shook the World” in 1927. My title has an echo of his title. The film became extremely popular all over the world because of its subject and the film art. Especially his mass scenes and madness in the masses’ behaviour, montage etc. in the film got appreciation from all levels of the audiences. He was invited by the Warner Brothers to make a film in Hollywood. Somehow, the theme was not appreciated and he did not make the film. But he lectured on many aspects of film making and did some advisory work to the Hollywood film makers. Stalin did not like his staying in America and he sent a nasty message to him to return to Russia.

V.Shantaram’s partners Damle and Fattelal Sheikh remade his silent film Gopal Krishna (1927) into a talkie in 1938, in which Krishna had a duel with his uncle Kans. The ordinary Gokulvasi people stormed the Kans palace which was very similar to the storming of the Winter Palace in the Eisenstein film October. (This is problematic. This familiar mythological story is from Krishna legend. Whether you take western Indologists or traditional Indian scholars, this predates the October Revolution by several thousand years. Can it be called carrying echoes of October Revolution?– AK)

V. Shantaram used many ideas, skills and techniques in many films after the films of Eisenstein. Google paid a tribute to V.Shataram by creating this doodle on their Home Page on his 116^th birth day in November 2017 .

Eisenstein’s book on the effects in the film art became very famous. The word ‘montage’ was freely used by the film makers in India. Many films produced in India, post 1938 had Eisenstein effect.

Communism soon came to India post-Russian Revolution in 1917. Some believed that it came through Manvendra Nath Roy. However in the Victorian period of India in many Indian states, the learned people wrote articles and discussed the new way to govern a state without Royal head.

Manvendra Nath Roy was an armed Bengali revolutionary who was charged with looting post offices, railway stations and often killing British officers and Indian officers who worked for the British Empire as early as the beginning of twentieth century. There is a definitive and comprehensive wonderful book called ‘M.N. Roy’ by V.B. Karmik who was his close follower. On the back of the dust cover of the book is written “Roy’s Journey through life from a Terrorist to a Humanist”. So there was a Valmiki in a Marxist world! Some of his followers say that the novel Pather Dabi written by Sarat Chandra was based on the life and revolutionary activities of M.N. Roy.

When the British rulers put a warrant on his head like many other revolutionaries, he fled from India in search of help from Japan and Germany which failed him. He went to America and like Marx read books in the famous Central Library of New York. But he was chased out by the American Secret Service. He arrived in Mexico at the time of the Bolsheviks Revolution in Russia. He was very impressed and created a Communists Party in Mexico, the first such outside Russia. Lenin was very impressed by him and invited him to attend the second Russian International Conference. He went and Lenin appointed him to create Indian Communist Party. Rest is history.

But he stayed on in Moscow and became an assistant to Lenin in executing various portfolios. After the death of Lenin, Stalin started purging, including killing of Bukharin and Trotsky. Roy left Moscow before his turn came to be arrested by the henchmen of Stalin. Stalin can be remembered only along with Ivan the Terrible, Changez Khan, Timur Lang, Hitler etc.

Roy arrived in Bombay in disguise as Dr. Mehmood and started meeting upper crust and elite people to create his party called ‘Radical Humanism’. He got good support from judges, professors, scientists, and film makers like Wadia Brothers. The outfit became very famous, but it was not good enough to challenge the Congress party. Roy dissolved it and made his organisation as ‘a work in progress of thinkers’ in politics called ‘Radical Humanists’.

In the Indian art and film world there were many communist co-travellers. JBH Wadia became a very close friend of Roy and his many films contained material that could be inspired by the October. There is a great researched book written by Rosie Thomas called Bombay before Bollywood: Film City Fantasies. Following is a condensed extract from it:

“Inspired by radical Marxist and humanist ideas of M.N. Roy, Jamshetji B Wadia left the Congress party and became a member of Roy’s ‘Radical Democratic Party’. He now focused on infusing his stunt films with social issues. Nadia starred in Lutaru Lalna (Dacoit Damsel, 1938), Punjab Mail (1938), Diamond Queen (1940) which dealt with women’s emancipation, close to M.N.Roy’s priority issue. The film became a great success at the box office and with the film critics. The Filmindia remarked “a thought provoking film that enlightens as well as entertains”.

JBH Wadia made Raj Nartaki (1941) with Sadhana Bose and Prithviraj Kapoor. The popularity of this film made classical dance popular in the Hindi films. His later films like Vishvas (1943), and Mela (1948) starring Dilip Kumar and Nargis became roaring successes. Even a gambler and speculator like Sardar Chandulal Shah had his heart in the reformation of the Indian society and faintly loved October like happenings showed in his films. The spirit of the October and communist thinking could be seen in many works of literatures and films of thirties, forties, fifties and sixties etc.

In many ways Jawaharlal Nehru was also impressed by the Russian works of the post-October as seen in his 5-year Plans.

The Bombay Talkies had more consideration for the small workers than top actors and their welfare in their day to day running of the Studio. In the last days of the Bombay Talkies the Workers were allowed to run the studio on a co-operative basis. Co-operative movement was Lenin’s creation. Sadly it did not work as the film Baadbaan (1954), the first and perhaps the last film of the co-operative idea, failed at the box office though the film was enthusiastically seen at the Roxy theatre and many theatres in the opening week in Bombay.

October Revolution also inspired projects like Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA). They had opened two wings of this idea, one in Calcutta and one in Bombay. IPTA at Calcutta created artists like Bimal Roy whose early film Udayer Pathe had a thick shadow of the October. His many later films had that touch as well. The other artists like Anil Biswas, Salil Chaudhari, S.D.Burman and many others always had communist thinking in their work. IPTA at Bombay had K.A. Abbas, Chetan Anand, Dev Anand, Goldie Anand, Balraj Sahni and many others including Raj Kapoor who often visited IPTA in his spare time. IPTA often had meetings to showcase films at the Opera House in Bombay.

B.R. Chopra and his brother Yash Chopra and many others had leftist thinking in them. Writers like K.A. Abbas and his associate Sathe, besides their own productions, provided stories and scripts to V. Shantaram, Raj Kapoor and other producers as well.

From the films like President (1937), Hum Log (1951), Awara (1951) to Do Bigha Zameen (1953), Pyasa (1957), Phir Subah Hogi (1958) through Sujata (1959) to Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) and many more films, Russian socio-political attitudes were seen coming through. After Awara, the music also used various influences along with chorus songs and musical instrument like accordion etc. The chorus songs were supported and allowed to flourish in the USSR as part of the collective culture.

Mehboob, the great film director whom a journalist called Cecil B(lount) DeMille of India as the title of his definitive book on him, had Hammer and Sickle as his trade mark. His film Aurat (1940) and its later remake Mother India (1957) had thick shadow of the Russian revolution and Russian film art. His many films had themes of rich against the have-nots. (These two are overtly socialistic films; besides there is a tendency to view ‘Anmol Ghadi’ and ‘Aan’ through this prism. Poor boy-rich girl became a common trope in Hindi films, but it would be quite a stretch to view them as inspired by socialistic ideas. – AK)

Poets and lyrics writers like Shailendra and Sahir Ludhiyanvi’s works were dominated by communist ideas.

I have titled this post as “The Faint Echoes of the October Revolution”. This is because the Indian films had capital invested by the Punjipati community and their main interest was to get their capital plus percentage on the profits. So the films had to have universal appeal and not dry Marxism.

The rich Russian literature directly and indirectly affected the great writers like Sarat Chandra and Premchand. Many stories of the Hindi, Bengali and South Indian films had a look like the Russian stories. The great Gemini film Chandrlekha had a cruel ruler in its theme and had socialistic ending. Both Manto and Upendranath Ashk started their literary career by translating Russian stories that reflected the general discontent of the Russian people before the revolution. There were many similar writers in other Indian languages as well.

I have chosen following films and their songs that had a touch of October Revolution.

1) Industrial India (1938): The film’s name is shockingly attractive. It had another name (Nirala India). The song is Main baagi hun, zamaane ko badal dungi. Composed by Anil Biswas and sung by Shobhana Samarth the heroine of the film. (There are three music directors in this film, the other two being Harishchandra Bali and Mushtaq Hussain. HFGK credits this song to Harishchandra Bali. The song does not seem to be available on the YouTube. – AK)

2) Gopal Krishna (1938): Prabhat Film Co. Director V. Shantaram, starring Shanta Apte and Ram Marathe as Krishna. Later on Ram Marathe became a classical singer and actor. Music by Master Krishnarao who also became respected in the classical musical theatre of Maharashtra.

Storming of the Kans Palace

The mythological story of Krishna turned into a revolutionary idea of have-nots against the cruel establishment. नाचत झूमत जायें -२ गोकुल को गोप सारे, a chorus song led by Shanta Apte, who was very pretty and had a sweet singing voice, who is joined by Parshuram and Ram Marathe.  Lyric by Pt. Anuj was composed by Master Krishnarao. (This song does not seem to be of storming of the Kans’s Palace, but of gopes going towards Yamuna for fun and frolic. – AK)

Naachat jhoomat jaayein Gokul ko Gope saare by Shanta Apte, Ram Marathe and Parashuram from Gopal Krishna (1938), lyrics SL Sivastava ‘Anuj’, music Master Krishna Rao

3) Aurat (1940): Directed by Mehboob, starring Sardar Akhtar, Surendra, Yaqub, Kanhaiyalal etc. Music by Anil Biswas, lyrics by Safdar ‘Aah’. Song Kahe karta der baraati

अ : काहे काहे करता देर बराती
को : देर बराती
अ : काहे करता देर
को : काहे करता देर -२
अ : जाना है तोहे पी की नगरिया

This is a chorus song led by Anil Biswas himself. The word baraati has more meanings than just a member of the marriage procession. As a singer Anil Biswas faintly disappeared in the forties. But he is remembered by his friend C. Ramchandra as he joined the recording of the song Jawani ki rail chali jaaye for the film Shehnai (1947). He and Anil Biswas both noticed a very thin girl (Lata Mangeshkar) in the chorus voice. (This information is from the autobiography of C.Ramchandra in Marathi called Mazhya Jiwanachi Sargam. If you listen to the song you can locate Lata’s voice and also the voice of Meena Kapoor).

Anil Biswas gave unique priority to the chorus songs in his films and later on many composers developed their own chorus songs. Chorus songs are Russian way of singing and it was central part of the IPTA training and productions.

Kaahe karta der baraati by Anil Biswas & chorus from Aurat (1940), lyrics Safdar ‘Aah’, music Anil Biswas

4) President (1937): Directed by Nitin Bose who became very famous for his directions during the period of the New Theatres. The film had a theme of industry and strike too, apart from the love triangle.

The film had Saigal as the lead actor and Leela Desai as the heroine. Music was by RC Boral and Pankaj Mullick. All the Saigal songs became very famous. Here is the most famous song from the film.

Ek bangla bane nyara sung by Saigal. The lyric is by Kidar Sharma. The song presents the dream house of all who are have-nots. The themes like ‘Roti, Kapada, Makan’ are the core of communists’ demands.

एक बँगला बने न्यारा
रहे कुनबा जिसमें सारा

सोने का बँगला, चंदन का जँगला
विश्वकर्मा के द्वारा
अति सुन्दर प्यारा प्यारा
एक बँगला …

इतना ऊँचा बँगला हो ये
मानो गगन का तारा – ३
जिसपे चढ़ के इंद्रधनुष पर
झूला झूले चाँद हमारा
भंडार होये लछमी के हाथों में सारा
पाए अब जी भर के सुख जिसने बिपत उठाई

5) Achhut (1940): This film was made under the banner of Ranjit Movietone by Sardar Chandulal Shah, not to be confused with Achhut Kanya by the Bombay Talkies of 1936. The story is written by Chandulal himself and directed by him as well. The film had pretty Miss Gauhar as the heroine, Motilal as the hero and other well-known actors. The music is by Gyan Dutt. The theme Achhut is something similar in Russia of peasants have-nots and ruling class. But in India it is mixed with religion for three thousand years. In India various saints tried to abolish it in the past. Guru Nanak Maharaj tried to rub out in his new Panth ‘Sikh’ religion but it is still there as the Sikh religion has Valmiki Panth for the Achhut, Chamar etc.

In South Africa, Gandhi noticed that his wife was practising untouchability and tried to educate her against it. On return to India he lived in the ‘Bhangiwada’, an area where the cleaners of excrement lived. He gave Achhut a new name Harijan.

On the launch of the Chandulal Shah’s film Achhut, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, the iron man of India, stated on 23 December 1939. “If the picture helps India to remove this curse, it can be said to have helped India win Swaraj as untouchability is one of the chief obstacles on the road to freedom”. But it did not work to date. Dr. Ambedkar turned his people into Buddhist religion.

Marxism clearly states, all people are equal and their unequal state is created by the environment and by the unequal distribution of the resources. Here is a song in the voice of Miss Gauhar (She was the companion of Ranjit Studio boss, not to be confused with the legendary courtesan-singer Gauhar Jaan. – AK)

Door hato ji, door hato ji, chhodo raah hamari, suno ghanti hamari  by Miss Gauhar & others from Achhut (1940), lyrics PL Santoshi, music Gyan Dutt

The untouchables were made to walk with a bell ringing in their hands so their shadows would not fall on the upper class people and pollute them.

The film was hit at the box office. The Filmindia had generous praise in full review. Many people presently do not have a very high regard for the magazine. But the reference and the quotation is from an article from the magazine. So there is some value seen in Filmindia from its inception in 1935 till the death of Baburao Patel in the eighties.

6) Diamond Queen (1940)

This is a classic film from the Wadia Brothers with a huge success and was shown many times all through the forties in many theatres in Bombay.

This is an extract of an interview in the seventies with the Fearless Nadia, who was trained in shorthand typing to get a good job, but at the same time “I got very fat so I decided to reduce.” In order to lose weight, she took up dancing at a school run by a Russian dance teacher named Madame Astrova. Madame Astrova saw talent in Mary “because I was very supple and good despite being fat“. She was a member of Astrova’s dance/theatre troupe which travelled around India and was spotted by JBH Wadia and he goaded her to act as Nadia in his films.

“The plots of many early movies were just an excuse for stunt performance, but pretty soon Nadia also became a somewhat political figure — becoming a voice for Marxist and humanist social messages of JBH. For instance, in her blockbuster movie, Diamond Queen (1940), she not only beat up the evil owners of a diamond mine running on child labour, but also delivered a lecture on women’s rights and education being the path to freedom — the same kind of things that we talk about today. Her movie characters personified freedom, equality, and ironically, presented a picture of what the new Indian woman should aspire to be in a soon to be independent India”, Riyadh Wadia, great nephew of Mary Ann Evans aka Nadia and grandson of JBH, told australiaunlimited.com.

In the films of Nadia the following actors appeared as stock characters: Fearless Nadia, John Cawas, Sayani Atish, Kedarnath, Boman Shroff, Radha Rani, Sardar Mansur, Fatima, Dalpat, Kunjru and a horse named ‘Ghoda Punhaba da’, and a motor car that would start with a kick, and a motor cycle occasionally.

The film Diamond Queen (1940) had a chorus song, Bhai padho likho vidwan bano, Bharat ki sachchi shaan bano by Radharani, Mansoor and others, lyrics Munshi Sham, music Madhulal Damodar Master.

7) Zeenat (1945)

Zeenat was a Muslim social melodrama directed by Syed Shaukat Hussain Rizvi and starring Noor Jehan, Yakub, Majid, Himalayawala, and Karan Dewan. It was produced by Shirazali Hakim, Ramzanali and S. Lakhani. The film’s story and dialogues were written by Wajahat Mirza Changezi. The music was composed by Mir Saheb and Hafiz Khan while the background music was provided by Rafiq Ghaznavi. It was dominated by the presence of Muslims all around except for the nominal presence of Karan Diwan. This film and earlier film Khandan (1942) had impressive Muslim themes, remembered for the songs and music, and the helplessness superbly acted by Noor Jehan.

Themes like these used to be explored by the Muslim writers, actors, musicians and others . Credit for this goes to what was called ‘Progressive Muslim Group’. It was seen as a bright star among the Muslim society. It might have been started by the establishment of Aligarh University which created facilities for education for Muslim men and women. The ‘Progressive Muslim Group’ had all great socialist and communist Muslim thinkers and writers in it.  However, the activities of the progressive Muslims suffered a roadblaock by the end of the forties as Pakistan was created on religious basis. The work of the progressive Muslims disappeared as terror arose by the Ayatollah movement in Iran.  The situation has worsened with the spread of the idea of Islamic State.

In this context the song बुलबुलो मत रो यहाँ आँसू बहाना है मना is very poignant and important and tell us that the state of Muslim women is not going to change for a long time. But presumably the state of even the Muslim women in the states, formerly under the Soviet Union, is quite progressive. I recently saw an International Women’s Football match and the team from Kazakhstan was divinely skilful.

बुलबुलो मत रो यहाँ आँसू बहाना है मना
इन क़फ़स के क़ैदियों को ग़ुल मचाना है मना

छोड़ कर तूफ़ाँ में ये मल्लाह कह कर चल दिया
डूब जा मझधार में साहिल पे आना है मना

मैं हूँ वो फ़रियाद जिस का सुनने वाला चल बसा
मैं हूँ वो आँसू जिसे दामन पे आना है मना

Bulbulo mat ro yahan aansoo bahana hai mana by Noorjehan from Zeentat (1945), lyrics Mahrul Qadri, music Hafeez Khan

8) Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani (1946)

In one of his rallies Jawaharlal Nehru appealed to the fresh graduates from medical colleges that China was in trouble as it was invaded by Japan and Indian doctors must go and help the wounded Chinese soldiers. Four young doctors decided to go to China. Among them was one Dr Shantaram Kotnis from Sholapur. They all went and helped the wounded soldiers, but Dr Kotnis stayed on carrying on his work. He married a Chinese co-nurse but sadly he caught a disease from a wounded soldier and died there.

On this story K.A. Abbas wrote a novel titled ‘One that did not come back’. Shantaram decided to make a film on the bravery of Dr Kotnis. K.A. Abbas and his associate Sathe wrote the script. Diwan Sharar wrote the lyrics and Shantram made the film that became immortal and was used again and again by the Indian government to show that the relationship with China was very good. When Japan invaded, China had Mao Tse Tung as the Communist leader of China.

Zindagi zindagi, zindagi koi sapana nahin is a chorus song led by Khan Mastana, and composed by Vasant Desai. In the song common people were shown in various shots to suggest that Dr Kotins was going to China which had already adopted communism as they fought against Japan. There is a song Nai dulhan, nai dulhan, main hun nanhi nai dulhan sung by Jayshree. It is in Chinese melody. This song might have been an inspiration for Madan Mohan who composed a chorionic song for the dream sequence of Bhagwan in Gateway of India (1957) in which Chinese children sing along. Madan Mohan had some Shantaram connection. When he came back from the WWII, he was looking for a break in the film world. Shantaram made a film in 1944 called Parbat Pe Apana Dera in which he gave a small role to Madan Mohan.

Zindagi zindagi koi sapna nahin by Khan Mastana & chorus from Dr Kotnis Ki Kahani (1946), lyrics Diwan Sharar, music Vasant Desai

9) Hum Ek Hain (1946): Toot gaya meri mata ka sapna toot gaya

The film was made by the Prabhat Company and the theme was about the exploitation of farmers by zamindars and communal harmony. This can be seen as an allegorical film referring to the Independence Movement.

Toot gaya meri mata ka sapna toot gaya by Zohra Ambalewali from Hum Ek Hain (1946), lyrics PL Santoshi, music Husnlal-Bhagatram

10) Hum Log (1951)

This is an overtly communist film with the face of Balraj Sahni. He did not have to do much acting. He continuously talked pointedly about the discontent of the family equating to the state of political situation. Fantastically brilliant dialogues and energetically acted out by all actors and vividly directed by Zia Sarhadi. Roshan composed superb music to the lyrics written by Vishwaitra Adil and Uddhav Kumar.

The songs of great Roshan shone. Chali ja chali ja in Lata’s voice, Dil ki pareshaniyan in the voice of Mukesh, and the chorus song Gaye chala ja, ek din tera bhi zamana ayega in the lead voices of Lata Mangeshkar and GM Durrani – all are magnificent.

The Bollywood films during that period would not have gone any further in the communist subject as they all got caught on the lovey dovey dopey ‘Laila Majnu’ escapism.

11) Awara (1951): Hum tujhse muhabbat kar ke sanam rote bhi rahe and hanste bhi rahe

Raj Kapoor’s film Awara became very popular in Soviet Russia. The Soviet Russia established artistic relationship with the Indian film artists. The first delegation of the Indian artists invited to visit Soviet Russia was led by Raj Kapoor. Among them were Nargis, Balaraj Sahani, Nirupa Roy, Dev Aanand, and many others. At various meetings Raj Kapoor sang his own songs from Awara and other films. The delegation became very popular and there were many more exchange visits to each other countries.

Often some critics said the film Awara became popular because the Soviet states like Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan etc. near to India had historical relationship with India. But in the sixties a delegation of students came to London and I met them. As soon as they knew I was an Indian some of them sang the Awara song. This delegation was all from the western states of Russia.

The film Awara had the communist Marxist theme – ‘The environment, and not the birth, makes the fate of the people.’

Hum tujhse muhabbat kar ke sanam rote bhi rahe hanste bhi rahe by Mukesh from Awara (1951), lyrics Hasrat Jaipuri, music Shankar-Jaikishan

12) Do Bigha Zameen (1953)

This film is an all-time great classic showing the harsh reality of the world of zamindars who exploited and cheated the poor people shamelessly. This film was produced and directed by Bimal Roy who was very influenced by the Russian Revolution. His music director Salil Chaudhari too belonged to the IPTA. This film had wonderful music and songs. The lyrics were written by Shailendra who worked as a Railway engineer in the workshop at Matunga, Bombay and read poems in the workers’ monthly meetings. All the songs in this film became very famous.

The song Bhai re, Ganga aur Jamuna ki… Dharati kahe pukar ke, a chorus song in the lead voices of Manna Dey and Lata Mangeshkar is in tune with this subject.

Bhai re, Ganga aur Jamuna ki… Dharati kahe pukar ke by Manna Dey, Lata Mangeshkar & chorus from Do Bigha Zameen (1953), lyrics Shailendra, music Salil Chaudhary

13) Baadbaan (1954): Aaya Toofan in the voice of Hemant Kumar, Music Timir Baran and S.K. Pal

The film was made to save the Bombay Talkies as the workers took over and made a co-operative. All the songs were good and actors gave good, solid performance. But the Co-op did not work well and the Bombay Talkies went into oblivion. Make a note that the Co-Op is the idea of Lenin who believed that co-operative movement will bring comprehensive wealth and progress in the society. There was an art film made about the milk co-operative that would solve the problem of farming and food in India.

Aya toofan…Kaise koi jiye by Hemant Kumar from Baadbaan (1954), lyrics Indivar, music Timir Baran & S.K. Pal

14) Boot Polish (1953): Nanhe munne bachche teri mutthi mein kya hai by Rafi, Asha Bhosle and others, lyrics Shailendra, music Shankar-Jaikishan

Raj Kapoor became responsible for building a relationship with Soviet Russia. I choose the above song not from Awara, but from the film Boot Polish. This song has an appeal that children have their future in their own hands and not in the hands of the adults, society or the governments. So children have better future than becoming the street urchins, a very Marxist thinking!

15) Phir Subah Hogi (1958): Title song Woh subah kabhi to ayegi

Phir Subah Hogi (1958) was a very communist film with the ending song Woh subah kabhi to ayegi, a great composition of Khayyam to match the poetry of Sahir Ludhiyanavi in the voices of Mukesh and Asha Bhosle, that tells about the Communist Dream in melancholic and depressed notes.

The film was based on the great novel Crime and Punishment written by a Russian literary giant Fyodor Dostoevsky, one of the major writers whose writings depicted the miserable state of the Russian society before the Russian Revolution.

If one looks for, there may be many more films and songs that have ‘communist feel’.

I finish my journey into the October Revolution and its faint echoes in the Hindi films and songs. But the SoY readers may find there could be many more appropriate scenes and songs in the Hindi films than my choice. So I wish you well for looking for the gold and diamonds in the dust.

Now as an epilogue I want to say that this way of looking at the songs and scenes in the Hindi films is more satisfying than just getting hooked on the syrupy sweet juice in the songs. I am aware many observations I have made are contentious; AK has already recorded his  contrary comments on some aspects. In the spirit of free debate I present my article before the erudite readers of the SoY for discussion, observations and comments.

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer: The illustrations are taken from Wikipedia. The song links have been taken from the YouTube only for the purpose of enjoyment of music lovers. The copyright belongs to the respective owners.