There are two famous Gulshan Kumars in Bollywood who, in their own way, did a great service to Hindi film singing. Gulshan and T Series is a saga waiting to be told on screen.
Gulshan Kumar Mehta, who assumed the cinematic name of Gulshan Bawra, wrote some terrific young-at-heart lyrics in the 1970s. His association with R D Burman especially yielded chartbusters, like Sanam teri kasam (the title song), Agar tum na hote (title song), Yeh vada raha (title song), Kasme vaade nibhayenge hum (Kasme Vade), Jeevan ke har mod par (Jhootha Kahin Ka) and Dilbar mere (Satte Pe Satta).
But Bawra’s most outstanding contribution to Hindi cinema was the patriotic Mere desh ki dharti from Manoj Kumar’s directorial debut Upkar.
The genesis of the song is interesting. Meri desh ki dharti happened when lyricist Gulshan Bawra and Manoj Kumar went to a shrine to pay their respects. When they returned from the shrine to their car, Gulshan was singing Mere desh ki dharti sona ugley… jawanon bhar bhar lo jholiyan… khushi se bolo boliyan.
Two years later, when Manoj Kumar made Upkar, he went to music composer Kalyanji and narrated the script. Manoj called Gulshan at home and told him the situation. Manoj recalled the lyrics he had heard Gulshan Bawra hum near the shrine. It had stayed in Manoj’s mind. He saw it as a great idea that needed to be improvised.
But Manoj didn’t like the line Jawanon bhar lo jholiyan, khushi se bolo boliyan. He removed it from the Upkar song. Instead, they 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 Manoj was adamant. 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.
Gulshan Bawra and Manoj Kumar were from the same village near Lahore (now in Pakistan). Manoj Kumar’s chief assistant Sikandar, was Gulshan’s cousin.
Gulshan Bawra is alive in every word of Mere desh ki dharti. That song is imperishable. When Mahendra Kapoor, 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.
