Independence Day 2021 Special: Manoj Kumar Speaks On India's Most Favourite Patriotic Song, Mere Desh Ki Dharti
The veteran actor-director Manoj Kumar remembers how the song Meri Desh Ki Dharti from Upkar was conceived
Mere Desh Ki Dharti from Upkar is one of the most popular
patriotic songs of our country. We got talking to actor-director Manoj Kumar,
who told us how the song was conceived. Talking about how it germinated, he
said, "Meri desh ki dharti (Upkar) happened when lyricist Gulshan Bawra
and I had gone to a shrine to pay our respects. When we returned from the
shrine in the car, Gulshan was singing Mere desh ki dharti sona ugley...
jawanon bhar bhar lo jholiyan... khushi se bolo boliyan? I kept quiet as he hummed
these lyrics."
The legendary filmmaker then elaborated how the song made
way to his film, Upkar. "Two-three years later when I made Upkar, I went
to music composer Kalyanji and narrated the script. I called Gulshan home and
told him the situation. I recalled the lyrics I had heard him hum near the
shrine? It had stayed in my mind? I saw it as a great idea that needed to be
improvised.
But I didn't like the lines Jawanon bhar lo jholiyan, khushi
se bolo boliyan? I removed it from my Upkar song. Instead we had Meri desh ki
dharti sona ugley ugle heere-moti. Both Kalyanji and Gulshan were hesitant.
They said the 'mukhda' of a song couldn't be of one line. But I was adamant.
An hour later Gulshan, who was sitting in the next room
jumped and said, 'This is great'. Every filmmaker while writing a screenplay
comes to a landmark point in the plot where he thinks a scene can be narrated
musically. That situation is given to the lyricist and explained. That was how
'Mere desh ki dharti' happened."
"I always had the lyrics first, then the tunes. Gulshan
had written another song Har khushi hai wahan in Upkar. He couldn't write the
whole song because he had to take my brother to college in Ajmer. Gulshan
himself told the media that the second stanza of Har khushi hai wahan was
written by Aziz Kaifi and Manoj Kumar," Manoj Kumar recalled.
Added Manoj, "Manoj and I were from the same village
near Lahore (now in Pakistan). My chief assistant Sikandar was Gulshan's
cousin. So we bonded much beyond cinema. Filmmaker Kewal Sharma, cricket player
Manmohan Sood, Gushan and I? we were good friends. Gulshan has only gone away
physically. He was a wonderful man. He was a friend to everyone, never
gossiped,"
Concludes Manoj, "Gulshan Bawra alive in
every word of Mere desh ki dharti.That song is imperishable. When Mahendra
Kapoor-ji, who sang Mere desh ki dharti, expired our former prime minister
Manmohan Singh said he would always be remembered for Mere desh ki dharti. It
hurts to know so many people connected with that song - Kalyanji, Mahendra
Kapoor and Gulshan Bawra - are no more."
Image source: Youtube/RajyaSabhaTv
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