Vaazhga Vaazhga Paataliye - Paattaaliyin Sabatham

Vaazhga Vaazhga Paataliye:

 Among my early memories of childhood are of my father taking us to the Marina, and when we drove down the beach road, he used to point out each of the statutes that lined the promenade and question us on them… I remember that the statute that filled me with curiosity was the one of what appeared to be a group of men trying to lift something heavy….. Father informed us that it represented ‘Triumph of Labor”, and I always wondered what these unknown men were doing amidst the row of famed personages…

Years later when I became addicted to Tamil Film Music there was this song that was Vividh Bharathi’s anthem every May 1st , and though they were other regulars such as ‘Uzhaikkum Kaigale’, ‘Aandavan ulagathin mudhalaali’, etc , it was when listening to ‘vaazhga vaazhga paattaaliye', that the image of the statue on the Marina appeared unvaryingly in my mind..

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Vintage Tamil film music was blessed with an amazing variety of composers, lyricists and singers who vied with each other with their immense contributions. In addition to our local composers coming up with one immortal album after other, we have also had landmark Hindi films being dubbed to Tamil and the Bollywood composers adding vivid, exotic hues to the vibrant canvas. Songs from movies such as ‘Vaanaratham’, ‘Avan’ and ‘Aan’ that were dubbed from Hindi to Tamil were hugely popular in their time. Though Lata and Shamshad did untold damage to the language, and despite the inanity (for the most part) of the Tamil lines coaxed to fit into the tunes, I have listened to wizened old timers recall with relish how popular these songs were in those innocent years, and how much excitement they evoked when they were aired. Of course, after getting the Tamil songs of ‘Aan’ sung by Shamshad Begum and Lata, Naushad recorded the songs again with Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi and M.S. Rajeswari. And as for ‘Avan’, Shankar- Jaikishen had A.M.Raja and Jikki fly to Bombay to sing the songs that Mukesh and Lata had sung in Hindi. Lyricist Kambadasan seems to have been the one permanent fixture in these ventures.

Then it was the turn of Omkar Prasad Nayyar to try his hand in dubbing his songs in Tamil. The songs were from Baldev Raj Chopra’s 1957 classic ‘Nayaa Daur’, which was dubbed in Tamil and released in 1958 as ‘Paattaaliyin Sabatham’.

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Interestingly, B.R. Chopra was not the first producer to whom writer Akhtar Mirza narrated the story of ‘nayaa daur’. It was only after several filmmakers including Mehboob Khan and Raj Kapoor dismissed Mirza’s take on ‘man versus machine’ as an unimpressive documentary, that Mirza knocked the door of B.R. Films. B.R. Chopra fell in love with this story with strong socialist signals, and set about making the movie on a magnificent scale.

The story goes like this. Shankar is an honest, brave taangewaalah (horse-cart driver) who makes a living by driving the villagers to and from the nearby town. Kundan, the son of a businessman who owns the timber mill in the village puts the livelihood of hundreds of labourers in jeopardy when he brings in mechanized saws. Unmindful of the violent protests, he introduces a bus service at subsidized rates with the sole aim of rendering the taangewaalaahs redundant. And when Shankar goes to Kundan to voice his outrage, Kundan jeers at him and offers tauntingly to withdraw the bus service if Shankar in the horse-cart could overtake the bus in a race. After initial misgivings, the entire village rallies to assist Shankar in building a new road leading to a quicker route, and braving several hurdles in a thrilling Ben Hur-like sequence, Shankar wins all… the race, the challenge, and the livelihood of his clan…

Into this story of what on a cursory glance seems to be an unabashed drama of Luddism dogma, Mirza wove in a passionate trellis of friendship, love and above all, the triumph of human spirit. And even while letting loose his arsenal against the avarice of capitalists, Mirza emphasizes that he is not against modernization and mechanization as such. His only concern is that technological advances should take place after taking adequate care of people who would be displaced by the deluge of development. Thus at the time when Nehru’s Second 5-year plan driven by P.C. Mahalanobis focused on rapid industrialization, Akhtar Mirza had championed the cause of ‘inclusive progress’ through his ‘Naya Daur’, though he did not come out with a perfect solution. The reel characters of ‘Naya Daur’ have their real counterparts everywhere – the farmers of Nandigram threatened by the Special Economic Zone, our riendly neighbourhood grocer who had to shut his decades-old shop when Reliance opened its ‘Reliance Fresh’ Outlet right alongside… the relentless march of Progress…

The intense and brooding performance of Dilip Kumar as the chief protagonist Shankar fetched him the Filmfare Award. Beautiful Vyjayantimala as Rajni, the girl whom Shankar loves and who enlists the support of the entire village to help Shankar win the challenge, Ajit as Krishna, Shankar’s friend who turns his foe, Chand Usmani as Shankar’s sister Manju, Jeevan as the scheming and suave Kundan, Johny Walker as the journalist Anjaana who brings the media glare on Shankar and his cause, and little Daisy Irani as the impish Chikha were all well cast in their respective roles. O.P. Nayyar’s music, Kamil Rashid’s dialogues and Malhotra’s cinematography added tremendous value to the movie. Made on a budget of Rs. 17 Lakhs, a considerable amount that time and released on 15 August 1957, ‘Naya Daur’ was a runaway hit, recovering more than 70% of its production costs in the very first week of its release!

Interestingly, the movie that raised pertinent questions on technology 50 years ago came under the spell of technological advances… coinciding with the golden jubilee of its first release the black & white classic ‘Naya Daur’ was re-released all over the country in August 2007…in Colour and with Dolby digital surround sound!

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1957 would remain an unforgettable year for O.P. Nayyar fans, for it was in that year that two of OPN’s best ever albums were released- one was ‘Tumsa Nahin Dekha’ and the other was ‘Naya Daur’. For ‘Naya Daur’, OPN crafted an album that glitters with gems of diverse allure- from Punjabi bhangra to Rock ‘n’ Roll to OPN’s famed horse-hoof beat, the album had them all, and OPN rightfully won the Filmfare Award for his work in ‘Nayaa Daur’.

Written by Sahir Ludhianvi, the songs were:

yE dEsh hain veer jawaanOn ka- Mohammed Rafi, Balbir & Chorus
rEshmi salwaar kurta jalidaar - Shamshad Begum & Asha Bhonsle
maang kE saath tumhara - Mohammed Rafi & Asha Bhonsle
udEn jab jab zulfEn tEri - Mohammed Rafi & Asha Bhosle
main bambai ka baabu - Mohammed Rafi
aana hai to aa raah mEin- Mohammed Rafi
saathi haath badhana - Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle & Chorus

It is well known that OPN never worked with Lata. In his earlier movies, Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum were OPN’s favored female singers. Though Asha had been in the field for a decade, it was when OPN gave her all the songs of the female lead in ‘Naya Daur’ that Asha metamorphosed from a crooner in B-grade movies to a unique singer in a league of her own. Thus ‘Naya Daur’ was a decisive milestone, the first major success that consolidated Asha’s fledgling career, a fact that the chanteuse readily admits. “My sister Lata Mangeshkar was shining. I was a new girl. It was my first big break. People recognized me after this film…” she recalled while releasing the digitally remastered album of ‘Naya Daur’ in 2007.

OPN parted ways with Mohammed Rafi and Asha in later years. But the history of Hindi film music will always have a place of pride reserved for OPN, and his glorious collaborations with Rafi and Asha…

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Swayed by the stupendous success of ‘nayaa daur’, B.R. Chopra got the movie dubbed in Tamil and released it in 1958 as ‘paataaLiyin sabatham’ (B.R. Films). Kambadasan wrote the lyrics for OPN’s tunes. The songs were:

thaainaadu idhE veeram migundhOrkkE - TMS & Seergazhi Govindarajan
angiyOdu nijaar aNindhu vadhaayE - T.V. Rathinam & P. Suseela
vaazhvil un kOrikkai pOlE - TMS & P. Suseela
undhan mugil suruL en munkoondhal - TMS & P. Suseela
naan bambaaiyin baabu - TMS
vaaraai neeyE, vaa pOtRi vaa - Seergazhi Govindarajan
vaazhga vaazhga paattaaLiyE - TMS & P. Suseela

Let us listen to two of the songs here.

‘vaazhvil un korikkai pole’ is the Tamil version of ‘maangke saath tumhara’. Shankar and Rajni enjoy an intimate ride on the horse cart, and sing these romantic lines. OPN had carved out an amazing number of songs based on this horse-hoof rhythm, and ‘maangke saath tumhara’ is perhaps the best of them…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB-QAjInsqk

‘Vaazhga vaazhga paataaliye’ is the dubbed version of ‘Saathi haath badaana’ . The song is a clarion call to the villagers to help Shankar build the road that will enable him to win the race.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INxSA-bXUyU

Having the unenviable task of penning lyrics that need to fit into the pre-set meter and matter, Kambadasan seems to have come out bruised and battered. The lines sound disjoint; the syntax seems bizarre in places. Yet, the songs are beautiful souvenirs of a distant past, for OPN’s tunes are mesmerizing, and the young TMS & Suseela bring a refreshing native flourish to the lines.

It is no wonder that these songs of ‘Paattaliyin Sabatham’ found immense popularity with the Tamil populace all over… I remember listening to them often in Vividh Bharathi even in the early 80s and they found frequent airtime in Ilangai Vanoli as well. I recall the famed Malaysian writer and Film critic Mu. Anbuselvan reminiscing fondly on the repeated requests for these songs in Malaysia Radio’s Penang station.

As Rabindranath Tagore once said, “Whatever we understand and enjoy in human products instantly becomes ours, wherever they might have their origin... Let me feel with unalloyed gladness that all the great glories of man are mine."

Happy May Day!

-Saravanan Natarajan