Baiju Bawra
Encyclopedia
Baiju Bawra is an award-winning 1952 Hindi movie directed by Vijay Bhatt
Vijay Bhatt
Vijay Bhatt was a noted producer-director-screenwriter of Hindi cinema, who made such films as Ram Rajya , Baiju Bawra , Goonj Uthi Shehnai and Himalaya Ki God Mein .He founded Prakash Pictures, a film production company and Prakash Studios in Andheri East, Mumbai, which...

. It stars Bharat Bhushan
Bharat Bhushan
Bharat Bhushan was an Indian bollywood actor, scriptwriter and producer, who is best remembered for playing Baiju Bawra in the 1952 film of the same name. He was born in Meerut, and brought up in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh.-Personal Life:...

 and Meena Kumari
Meena Kumari
Meena Kumari , born Mahjabeen Bano, was an Indian movie actress and poetess. She is regarded as one of the most prominent actresses to have appeared on the screens of Hindi Cinema...

.

The movie is based on the legend of Baiju Bawra
Baiju Bawra
Baiju Bawra is an award-winning 1952 Hindi movie directed by Vijay Bhatt. It stars Bharat Bhushan and Meena Kumari.The movie is based on the legend of Baiju Bawra from the days of Mughal Emperor Akbar in India. Baiju is the son of a musician who also grows up to be a musician...

 from the days of Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

 Emperor Akbar in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. Baiju (Bhushan) is the son of a musician who also grows up to be a musician. He comes to believe that Tansen
Tansen
Mia Tansen is considered among the greatest composer-musicians in Hindustani classical music. He was an extraordinarily gifted vocalist, known for a large number of compositions, and also an instrumentalist who popularized and improved the rabab .He was among the Navaratnas at the court of the...

, the famed musician at the court of Akbar, is responsible for his father's death. The movie then follows Baiju's attempt to avenge his father's death by challenging Tansen to a musical duel.

The film was both a commercial and critical success and catapulted both its lead actors into stardom. Meena Kumari went on to win the first-ever Filmfare Best Actress Award
Filmfare Best Actress Award
The Filmfare Award for Best Actress is given by Filmfare as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to recognise a female actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role. The award was first given in 1954.-Superlatives:...

 in 1954, the first of four Best Actress trophies she won in her career. The film's music director, Naushad
Naushad
Naushad Ali was an Indian musician. He was one of the foremost music directors for Bollywood films, and is particularly known for popularizing the use of classical music in films.His first film as an independent music director was Prem Nagar in 1940...

, also received the inaugural Filmfare Best Music Director Award
Filmfare Best Music Director Award
The Filmfare Best Music Director Award is given by the Filmfare magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to the best composer/arranger of a soundtrack. This category was first presented in 1954. Naushad was the first recipient of this award for his song "Tu Ganga Ki Mauj"...

 for the song "Tu Ganga Ki Mauj"; this was Naushad's first and only Filmfare Award win.

Plot

Tansen is known to be the greatest classical vocalist
Indian classical music
The origins of Indian classical music can be found in the Vedas, which are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu tradition. Indian classical music has also been significantly influenced by, or syncretised with, Indian folk music and Persian music. The Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music...

 ever to have existed in India, and was one of the nine jewels (Navaratnas
Navaratnas
Navaratnas Nauratan was a term applied to a group of nine extraordinary people in a emperor's court in India...

) of Emperor Akbar’s court. Nobody could sing in the city unless he or she could sing better than Tansen. If this was not the case, he or she was executed
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

. Baiju Bawra is the story of an unknown singer, Baiju, who is on a mission to defeat Tansen in a musical duel to avenge the death of his father.

When Baiju is still a child, Tansen's sentry tries to stop Baiju’s father from singing, and in the ensuing scuffle, his father dies. Before dying, he extracts a promise from his son to take revenge against Tansen. Baiju gets shelter from a village priest and while growing up, falls in love with Gauri, the daughter of a boatman. He continues his musical education on his own, but gets so enamoured by Gauri's love that he forgets the promise made to his father to exact revenge against Tansen.

Later, a group of dacoits raid Baiju's village. With his song, Baiju persuades them against looting the village, but the female leader of the dacoits falls in love with him and asks him to follow them to their fort as a condition for their sparing the village. Baiju leaves with her, leaving the crying Gauri behind. In the fort, the dacoit leader, who is actually a princess living in exile, tells Baiju how her father’s serfdom had been usurped by someone and she was seeking revenge because the village too previously belonged to her father. The word “revenge” brings all of Baiju's memories back; he leaves the fort greatly agitated, and the princess does not try to stop him.

Baiju sneaks into the Mughal palace, where Tansen is singing. He is dumbstruck by the way Tansen sings, and somehow, the sword that was supposed to cut the maestro’s throat fell on the vina
Vina
-People:* Vina Bovy , Belgian operatic soprano* Vina Mazumdar , Indian academic and feminist* Vina Morales , Filipina singer, actress-Places:*Vina, Alabama, USA*Vina, California, USA*Vina , Serbia...

, saddening Tansen. He said he could only be killed by music, and the pain that accompanies it. “Dip your notes in melancholy and I’ll die on my own,” he said. Baiju accordingly leaves the palace to learn “real” music.

Baiju remembers that when his father was killed, he was taking Baiju to Swami Haridas
Swami Haridas
Swami Haridas was a spiritual poet and classical musician. Credited with a large body of devotional compositions, especially in the Dhrupad style, he is also the founder of the Haridasi school of mysticism, still found today in North India. His work influenced both the classical music and the...

. He goes to see the Swami himself and asks for his guidance, informing him of his plan to take revenge against Tansen. Haridas tells Baiju that one must be in love to be a true musician, and thus Baiju must rid himself of all the hatred in his heart, but still gives him a vina and accepts him as his disciple. Baiju again starts his musical training, spending all his time in a Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

 temple, but his vengeful feelings never leave him. Nonetheless, he still reveres his guru
Guru
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...

, Haridas. After learning that his teacher had fallen seriously ill and was unable to walk, Baiju sings a song that so thrills Haridas that the master gets out of his bed and starts to walk.

Gauri, meanwhile, is so distraught over Baiju's departure that she is about to swallow poison. At that point, the princess who had taken Baiju from the village comes to her and tells her that she knows of Baiju's whereabouts. Gauri meets Baiju and tries to convince him to return to the village so they can be married; Baiju, however, refuses, as he feels he must take revenge against Tansen. At this point, Haridas arrives, and Baiju goes to receive him, once again leaving a crying Gauri behind. Haridas tells Baiju that in order to be a true singer, he has to feel real pain. Hearing this, Gauri decides to make a venomous snake bite her, thinking that her death would bring enough grief to Baiju that he would defeat Tansen. Baiju sees Gauri's lifeless body and goes mad, with the princess' attempts to get through to him being futile. Baiju instead goes to the Shiva temple and sings a heart-wrenching song condemning the God who had consigned him to his fate; the idol of Lord Shiva even begins to cry at Baiju's grief.

In his delirious state, Baiju reaches Tansen's city, singing the whole way. The residents fear for his life and call him bawra (insane), hence the title of the movie. Baiju is caught and imprisoned, but the princess raids the prison and releases him. However, both of them are caught by Mughal soldiers when they are escaping, leaving a musical duel with Tansen as the only way to save his life.

Emperor Akbar himself witnesses the competition. For a long time, both the singers proved to be equally good. Then Akbar suggests that whoever could melt a marble slab with his singing would win the duel. Baiju manages to do so and wins the competition, saving his own life and finally avenging his father's death. Tansen accepts his defeat graciously, and is in fact happy that there is someone better than him.

Gowri’s father was deeply upset when he couldn’t locate Baiju. The entire village was by now making fun of Gowri’s and Baiju’s love affair. Her father warned either Baiju be found, or Gowri should marry a village money-lender and in case she refused, he would commit suicide. Gowri couldn’t divulge Baiju’s whereabouts because she didn’t want him to know that she was alive. So she agreed to marry the money-lender.

Baiju came to meet her while she was getting married, but he was on the other side of Yamuna River and the river was in flood. The boatman refused him to take him to the other side. Despite not knowing how to swim, Baiju pushed the boat into the raging waters and started towing it. He started singing a scale and Gowri heard it. She started running towards the bank and everybody ran behind her. When she saw Baiju struggling with the boat, since she knew how to swim, being a boatman’s daughter, she jumped into the water to rescue Baiju. The boat toppled over and after a lot of struggle Gowri reached him. He urged her to go back and leave him because she knew how to swim and he didn’t. Gowri replied that they had promised to be together in life and in death, and she would be content with dying with him. They both drowned.

Cast

  • Meena Kumari
    Meena Kumari
    Meena Kumari , born Mahjabeen Bano, was an Indian movie actress and poetess. She is regarded as one of the most prominent actresses to have appeared on the screens of Hindi Cinema...

     as Gauri
  • Bharat Bhushan
    Bharat Bhushan
    Bharat Bhushan was an Indian bollywood actor, scriptwriter and producer, who is best remembered for playing Baiju Bawra in the 1952 film of the same name. He was born in Meerut, and brought up in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh.-Personal Life:...

     as Baijnath 'Baiju'
  • Surendra as Sangeet Samrat Tansen
  • Kuldeep Kaur as Daku Roopmati
  • Bipin Gupta
    Bipin gupta
    Bipin Gupta was an actor and artist of during 1930s and 1960s. He acted in several bengali and hindi movies.-Early life:He was born on 21st August, 1905 in Meerut 5th child of his parents, Trailokya Nath Gupta and Khemankari Devi. Later they shifted to Barrackpore. He did his schooling from...

     as Shahenshah Badshah Akbar
  • Manmohan Krishna as Shankar Anand
  • B. M. Vyas as Mohan
  • Mishra as Narpat
  • Radha Kishan as Ghasit Khan
  • Kesari as Ganjoo
  • Rattan Kumar as Young Baijnath
  • Baby Tabassum as Young Gauri
  • Rai Mohan as Swami Haridas
  • Bhagwanji as Baiju's Father
  • Nadir as Hathi Singh
  • Ramesh as Sohil Khan
  • Krishna Kumari
    Krishna Kumari (actress)
    Krishna Kumari is a noted Telugu actress of the 1960s and 1970s. She was a leading actress and competed Savitri and acted alongside great legendary actors N.T.R, A.N.R etc. She acted in Tamil movies too. She has done many films in Kannada too that also with the kannada veteran Dr...

     as Vasanti
  • Sitaram Tikaram as Athavale

Music

The plot centered around music, so it was a necessity that the movie's soundtrack be outstanding. Renowned Bollywood music director Naushad
Naushad
Naushad Ali was an Indian musician. He was one of the foremost music directors for Bollywood films, and is particularly known for popularizing the use of classical music in films.His first film as an independent music director was Prem Nagar in 1940...

 and lyricist Shakeel Badayuni
Shakeel Badayuni
Shakeel Badayuni was an accomplished Urdu poet, lyricist and songwriter.-Early life and background:Shakeel Badayuni was born in Badayun, Uttar Pradesh...

 created memorable songs for the movie, with all but one being based on Hindustani classical melodies (raga
Raga
A raga is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music.It is a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is made...

s). Esteemed playback singers Mohammad Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar
Lata Mangeshkar
Lata Mangeshkar is a singer from India. She is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over six and a half decades. She has recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional...

, and Shamshad Begum
Shamshad Begum
Shamshad Begum is an Indian singer who was one of the first playback singers in the Hindi film industry.Begum was born in Amritsar, Punjab. She was a big fan of K.L. Saigal and watched Devdas 14 times...

, and renowned classical vocalists Amir Khan and D. V. Paluskar lent their voices to the score.

Amir Khan was a consultant for the music. The result was a critically acclaimed movie soundtrack. Famous songs from the movie include "O Duniya Ke Rakhwale" (based on Raga Darbari
Darbari Kanada
Darbari Kanada, or simply Darbari, is a Hindustani raga in the Kanada family, which is thought to have originated in Carnatic music and brought into North Indian music by Miyan Tansen, the legendary 16th century composer in emperor Akbar's court...

), "Tu Ganga Ki Mouj" (based on Raga Bhairavi), "Mohe Bhool Gaye Sanwariya" (based on Raga Bhairav with traces of Raga Kalingda), "Man Tarpat Hari Darshan Ko Aaj" (based on Raga Malkauns
Malkaush
Malkaush is a raga in Indian classical music. It is one of the most ancient ragas of Indian classical music. The equivalent raga in Carnatic music is called Hindolam, not to be confused with the Hindustani Hindol.-Etymology:...

), "Aaj Gaawat Man Mero" (Raga Desi), and Jhoole Mein Pawan Ki Aayi Bahar (based on Raga Pilu
Pilu
Pilu is a raga of Indian classical music. It is mostly used in light-classical forms, like the Khayal, of north Indian classical style.-Aroha & Avaroha :Arohana'P 'N S g m P N S''N S G m P N S'S G m P D S'S R m P N S'Avarohana...

). Naushad won the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director, his first and only win.

The film also established Mohammad Rafi as the top playback singer in Hindi films, a position he held until roughly 1971, and regained in 1977. The songs Rafi sang for the film, including "Man Tarpat Hari Darshan Ko Aaj" and the most famous "O Duniya Ke Rakhwale", went on to become smash hits.

Tracklist

Awards

  • 1954 Filmfare Award for Best Actress - Meena Kumari
    Meena Kumari
    Meena Kumari , born Mahjabeen Bano, was an Indian movie actress and poetess. She is regarded as one of the most prominent actresses to have appeared on the screens of Hindi Cinema...

  • 1954 Filmfare Award for Best Music Director - Naushad
    Naushad
    Naushad Ali was an Indian musician. He was one of the foremost music directors for Bollywood films, and is particularly known for popularizing the use of classical music in films.His first film as an independent music director was Prem Nagar in 1940...


Remake

A remake of the film was announced on November 2010. It will be written, directed and produced by American-Indian writer Krishna Shah. Aamir Khan
Aamir Khan
Aamir Hussain Khan is an Indian film actor, director and producer who has established himself as one of the leading actors of Hindi cinema....

 has been approached to do the role of Baiju Bawra
Baiju Bawra
Baiju Bawra is an award-winning 1952 Hindi movie directed by Vijay Bhatt. It stars Bharat Bhushan and Meena Kumari.The movie is based on the legend of Baiju Bawra from the days of Mughal Emperor Akbar in India. Baiju is the son of a musician who also grows up to be a musician...

. A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...

has been roped in as the music director. The film is currently in pre-production.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK