Shankar Jaikishan had probably done the greatest experiment in Jish Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai.

Shankar Jaikishan had probably done the greatest experiment in Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai.

Legendary musical duo Shankar Jaikishan had probably done the greatest experiment in the film Jish Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai. The film was released in 1960, and became everlasting hit.

Raj Kapoor produced the film while Radhu Karmakar directed it. Raj Kapoor in fact received the second filmfare award as the best actor for the performance of the film, the earlier being Anari. Shankar Jaikishan had the freedom of the using their number of musical instruments as the film demanded all of them.

Lata Mangeshkar’s songs “kya hua, o mujhe kya hua kya pata” and “o maine pyar kiya” was complimented by excellent background music. Mukesh’s song “hoto pe sachai rehti hai” started with a big projection of different instruments where Shankar Jaikishan again showed their class. In the song “hum bhi hai tum bhi ho”, there was excellent chord change during the antara. The song also had the participation of all the giants of music industry including Geeta Dutt, Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey, Mukesh, Mahendra Kapoor and others.

The other successful songs included “begane shaadi pe Abdulla diwana”, “o wasanti pavan paawan” and “pyar kar le naito phasi char jayega”. The last song in the film “a ab laut chale” was another grand experiment. There strong chorus appeal used in the song. While Mukesh song the solo, at every verse Lata sang her part in another tune and in another scale which merged together with the chorus.

If Shankar Jaikishan had remained sublime due to their western compositions and eastern classical creations in the other films, in Jish Desh Me Ganga Behti, their folk creations and chorus renditions had mesmerized the audience. The film and the music should be preserved for the immortal appeal and epic creation of the music by Shankar Jaikishan.

Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai created a trend of dacoit-oriented films.

Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai created a trend of dacoit-oriented films.

Raj Kapoor’s film Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai created a trend in bollywood films to make movies on the subject related to dacoits. Radhu Karmakar the famous cameraman of Raj Kapoor directed the film while Raj Kapoor produced it in the early 60s.

Just like any other film of Raj Kapoor, his character Raju was full of innocence. He helped the leader of the dacoits of Central India (father of Padmini), who was shot by the Police. Raj Kapoor gave him food and water, and Pran with his men brought both Raj Kapoor and their leader back to their area. Most part of the film was shot at Bheraghat in Jabalpur near Narmada falls.

Raj Kapoor was initially convinced by Padmini that the dacoits rob the money from the dishonest moneylenders and distribute it to the poor people. Raj Kapoor agreed to help the dacoits on that count. But when he went with the dacoits to a marriage party and saw that most of the members of the party were killed by the dacoits, he went and reported the entire matter before Raj Mehra, the police officer and told him that he would convince the dacoits to surrender before the police. But he also asked Raj Mehra to award least amount of punishment to the dacoits. All the dacoits were convinced by Raj Kapoor at the end of the film.

The biggest asset of the film lied in the powerful music of Shankar Jaikishan. In this film SJ used mainly folk tunes with powerful orchestration. Most of the leading singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Geeta Dutt, Mukesh, Manna Dey, Mahendra Kapoor, etc, were used. The music was superhit with successful songs like “kya hua”, “o maine pyar kiya”, “hoton pe sachai rehti hai”, “hum bhi hai, tum bhi ho”, “aa aab laut chale”, to name a few.

Padmini, the brilliant dancer previously had a glorious career opposite Shivaji Ganeshan in South Indian films. She almost gave her lifetime performance in the film Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai. Her dance performances were brilliant, innovative and unparallel. Pran also did extremely well in his character of the dacoit in the film. Nana Palsekar, Lalita Power and other character artists were also sublime in their respective roles.

Raj Kapoor won the film fare award for best actor for his performance in the film Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai, while the film won a number of awards under other categories. The film also had lot of social message. The dishonest section of middlemen in the country who tortured the lower middle class compelled innocent people to turn into dacoits. In that context the film depicted the picture of Indian society in the late 50s and early 60s. From that time onwards a number of films were made on the life of dacoits. Significant among them include Sunil Dutt’s film Mujhe Jeene Do, Dilip Kumar’s Ganga Jumna, to name a few.

Raj Kapoor had always been a trend setter. Even in respect of films related to dacoits he created a trend which many directors had followed after that time. The film should be restored for those purposes.