Rani – The Forgotten Raja of Indian Film Music

Rani – The Forgotten Raja of Indian Film Music

 

Guru Dutt’s classic movie Kaagaz ke Phool , a runaway of its time,  had a storyline based on how the film industry, notwithstanding the glamour quotient, was crassly materialistic and  remorseless towards failed icons irrespective of the heights they may have reached in their heydays.

The great masters who once strode tall, acclaimed and applauded, their pictures adorning huge canvas posters, are discarded once they have passed their prime. Guru Dutt himself, in real life had committed suicide while still young, even while at the peak of his professional achievement.  The reason for his taking such a harsh step though was not professional failure.

There have been many a superstar, hero or heroine,  who shone across the skies of the film industry only to be devoured by the blackhole of oblivion once their period of creative contribution had ceased.

An all time great amongst Hindustani classical singers was Mallikarjun Mansur, whose unique metallic voice enamoured him to music lovers across the country faced abject poverty he faced in the last days of his life. Mubarak Begum, AK Hangal and several others suffered the same fate.

Among these forgotten greats is the name of Bulo C Rani, once reckoned as the most successful Music Director of the Indian film industry and who rode the crest of success for a period of almost two decades.  

Bulo C Rani?  Who is this?  To the young minds of the present generation, the name rings no bell. But there had been a time when his  lilting and poignant music had embellished as many as sixty two films.

Born Bulo Chandiram Ramchandani at Hyderabad (Sindh), in 1920, Bulo earned early recognition as a singer in his hometown that his family encouraged him to move to Bombay and seek a future in the film world.

Bulo did sing a few songs but the big career ‘break’ for him came when he was selected as an Assistant to then leading Music Director Prakash Khemchandra,.  That job gave Bulo an insight into various facets of the film music industry,  especially its commercial side.  He was quick to learnt the ropes and gather ‘the skills to become a successful music director himself.

Though his first film ‘Pagali Duniya’ did not do very well, his second film,  Moorti,  was a hit with a song  ‘Badariya baras gayi us paar’.  This success brought in with it a deluge of films that kept Bulo busy for almost two entire decades.  These films included some renowned classics such as Dharti, Rajputani, Al Hilaal,  and Jeevan Saathi (with Ashok Kumar in the lead) to name a few.

Bulo pioneered singing of Qawwalis in films. Of these, ‘Humay to loot liya husn valon nay’, sung by Ismail Azad for the film ‘Al Hilaal’ was a hit and has remained popular even till this day. 

The best of Bulo’s music is perhaps what he directed for the film  Bilwamangal with its outstanding Suraiya number ‘Parwanon se preet seekh lee, shama se seekhi jal jaana, phir duniya ko yaad rahega tera mera afsaana’.   There was also  ‘CH Atma’s ‘Panghat pe more shyaam bajaaye muraliya’.   Another of his most memorable films was ‘Jogan’  starring Dilip Kumar and Nargis, and its two  immortal Bhajans ‘Ghoongat ke pat khol re tohe piya milenge’ and ‘ Jogi mat jaa, mat jaa, mat jaa’. Bilwamangal has a song  ‘Yeh Raat sitaron ki kuch yaad dilaati hai, kuch dil ko dukhati hai, kuch yaad dilaati hai’ sung by CH Atma which best represented the poignancy of the music of that age.     

 

Every leading singer of the 40s and 50s sang for Bulo – CH Atma, GM Durrani, Mohammad Rafi, besides Zohrabai Ambalewali, Amirbai Karnataki, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum.

Public taste for music then changed from old world sombre melancholic lilt to fast paced romantic songs and soon made the very genre of music that Bulo and others were masters to  became redundant.   Bilwamangal, released in 1954 and as mentioned, a huge success was however to be his last great mega hit.  Thereafter commenced the phase of gradual decline in the  number of films for who he received offers and in consequence,  Bulo’s fortunes declined. 

Though Bulo continued to be in ‘business’ for almost a decade thereafter and lend his music to some more films, the magic of the Bulo of yore, of his glorious days, seemed missing.   

With films drying up, the Chandiramanis came to directly face the harsh realities of Bombay life.  Their earnings not just waned but came brought the family to a pass where their house in Dadar had to be put up for sale and their relocating to a suburb in the distant fringes of the heartless metropolis.   

That Dadar house had been built by dint of Bulo’s hard work and was cherished fruit of his professional excellence.  Once a buzzing centre for intense creative activity, the house epitomized for Bulo the hey days of his success.  Being compelled to let it go  demolished Bulo’s self-esteem. He now just could not bring himself to face the world and he lapsed into friendless isolation. 

That self-imposed solitude came to an end when Bulo immolated himself on 24 May 1993. 

A doyen of his time thereby perished unsung and unlamented causing just no ripple in the minds of those in the very same world of Indian cinema of which he had once been a shining star.

The media which had given him banner headlines when he was at the peak, now seemed to lack space even to report his tragic end. Like so many other once glorious talents of the Film Industry, Bulo too slid into the crevasses of obscurity and olut of public memory.

Ironically, ‘Sunahre Kadam’, the last film for which Bulo directed music released in 1966 had a song rendered by Lata with the lyric ‘Mangne se jo maut mil jaati, kaun jeeta zamaane mein’.

Bulo C Rani lived and died to the beat and feel of his own outstanding creativity.