3. Ramayana Devotional Movie Songs
In the genre of the devotional movie, Ramayana retellings have been popular right from the beginning of cinema. Among the earliest feature films was Dadasaheb Phalke’s Lanka Dahan or “The Burning of Lanka” (1917). Once sound came in, during the independence movement, film songs often carried political messages. A good example is Vijay Bhatt’s Ram Rajya “Rama’s Rule” (1943), the only movie Mahatma Gandhi watched and approved of. Focus of this section is the influential Hindi movie, Sampoorna Ramayana, produced in 1961 by the Wadia Brothers’ studio Basant Pictures, which set standards for the industry as many of the personnel involved went on to work for later devotionals. The director, Babubhai Mistry, was a master of special effects. He helped develop the iconography of the post-independence mythological and was later consulted for Ramanand Sagar’s 1987 television series, which is still the gold standard to which new movies and series are compared. The music director was Vasant Desai, who worked for many of Shantaram’s movies and is known for adapting Maharashtrian tunes for the cinema. The lyricist was Bharat Vyas (1918–1982), who specialized in bhajans, and wrote also for Mistry’s 1965 Mahabharat. This section features the analysis of two popular songs from this movie.
Link to film: https://indiancine.ma/KBV/player/01:31:12.340 (song 1 @1:20 hrs, 2 @ 2:16 hrs).
Bolo Sabhī Jay Rām
Film: Sampoorna Ramayana 1961
Director: Babubhai Mistry
Actors: Mahipal as Rama, Pal Sharma as Hanuman
Singer: Mahendra Kapoor
Music Director: Vasant Desai
Lyricist: Bharat Vyas
Link to the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFm3KjmdnP8
Introduction
The first song analyzed here is from the Setu-bandhana or “Bridge-building” episode: Rama’s helpers, the monkeys and bears, are building the bridge across the ocean to Lanka to free Sita. Hanuman (Pal Sharma), leads this “work song” as the monkeys are forming a chain gang to throw rocks inscribed with the two syllables of the name Ra-ma into the ocean. The stones do not sink but drift on the water combining to constitute a floating bridge, over which the army can march into Lanka. The inscription of the rocks is not mentioned in the Mānas, but is a beloved detail in multiple folk retellings of the story.
Lyrics, Transliteration, and Translation
सिया-वर रामचंद्र की जय बोलो सभी जय राम बने सभी का काम । और सब नाम झूठे यही तो नाम साचा ।। | Siyāvar Rāmcandra kī jay! bolo sabhī jay Rām bane sabhī kā kām, aur sab nām jūṭhe yahī to nām sācā. | Glory to Siya’s groom Ramcandra! Everbody say: “Glory to Ram!” Everyone will gain success. All other names are false, His is the only true name. |
ओ श्रद्धा हो इस बल में न प्राण जगे निर्बल में । नाम का जादु देखो पत्थर भी तैरे जल में ।। | o śraddhā ho is bal men na prāṇ jage nirbal men, nām kā jādū dekho patthar bhī taire jal men. | If it weren’t for faith in His power, how could the powerless rise up? Behold the name’s magic: even a rock floats on water! |
संकट सब के पल में टले तूफ़ानों में नांव चले । अरे जगमग प्रभु कृपा से आँधी में भी दिया जले ।। | saṅkaṭ sab ke pal men ṭale tūfānon men nānv cale, are jagmag prabhu kṛpā se āndhī men bhī diyā jale. | Everybody’s trouble gone in an instant: A boat saild on amidst storms! By the grace of God, flickering, A lamp keep burning amidst a gale! |
“रा” में बड़ी शक्ति है “म” में बड़ी मुक्ति है । भवसागर तरने की भई एक यही युक्ति है ।। | “rā” men baḍī śakti hai “ma” men baḍī mukti hai, bhavsāgar tarne kī bhaī ek yahī yukti hai. | In the “Rā” lies great strength, in the “ma” lies great liberation. To cross the ocean of existence, this really is the only means. |
कण भी था बन गया रवि कविता ही बन गया छवि । मरा मरा मरा राम रट के डाकू भी बन गया कवि ।। | kaṇ bhī thā ban gayā ravi kavitā hī ban gayā chavi, marā marā marā rāma raṭke ḍākū bhī ban gayā kavi. | A mere speck became the sun! Poetry became his splendor! Chanting, “marā” turns into “Rama!’ Even a robber became a poet. |
(Gratefully acknowledging www.hindigeetmala.net)
Wordlist
परिपूर्ण pari-pūrṇ [S.], adj. 1. quite full, brimful; entire, complete; replete. 2. quite satisfied, fulfilled.
वर var [S.], adj. & m. 1. adj. best, choice; excellent, fine. 2. m. also fig. -वर. boon, blessing; best (of); gift (chosen by recipient). प्रियवर, m. dear one, dear friend. 3. bridegroom; husband
श्रद्धा śraddhā [S.], f. 1. faith, reverential belief (as in a deity); implicit confidence. 2. reverence, veneration.
निर्बल nir-bal [S.], adj. weak.
पत्थर patthar [prastara-], m. 1. stone. 2. a precious stone. 3. hailstone. 4. fig. anything troublesome, trying, &c. 5. sthg. useless, unserviceable
तैरना tairnā [tirate × pratirati], v.i. & v.t. 1. v.i. to swim; to float. 2. v.t. to swim over or across.
संकट saṅ-kaṭ [S.], m. 1. a dire difficulty, strait; dire misfortune. 2. danger; an emergency, crisis. 3. hard place: a pass (in mountains)
पल pal [pala-1], m. 1. a partic. measure, esp. one of time: a moment, an instant. 2. [× H. palak] the eyelid. —~ में, adv. in (the space of) an instant.
टलना ṭalnā [ṭalati], v.i. 1. to be moved, to move away; to retire, to withdraw; not to appear. 2. to give way; to draw back (from, से: as from a commitment); to shrink (from). 3. to turn (from, से), to give up (as a habit).
जगमग jagmag [cf. H. jagmagānā], f. & adj. 1. f. dazzling light, &c. 2. adj. dazzling,
भव bhav [S.], m. 1. existence, life. 2. birth, origin. 3. the world. 4. a title of Śiva. भव-सागर, m. the ocean of life or of existence; the present life.
युक्ति yukti [S.], f. 1. joining; connection; union; combination. 2. application, use; practice, usage. 3. appliance, means, device. 4. expedient; trick; stratagem. 5. fitness, suitability. 6. dexterity, ingenuity; skill. 7. policy. 8. reasoning, argument; inference
कण kaṇ [S.], m. 1. a particle, small fragment, granule; a grain, seed; drop. 2. facet (of a cut stone). — ~ मात्र, adv. merely a fragment, or particle (of)
कविता kavitā [S.], f. 1. poetry. 2. a poem.
छवि chavi [S.], f. 1. beauty; grace, charm; graceful form. 2. brilliance; lustre; splendour. 3. image, picture (of a person: see छबि; also fig.)
Song Analysis
The song evokes adbhuta rasa, or marvel at building a bridge across the ocean, as well as the energy of heroism or vīra rasa, as the scene ends with Rama (played by Mahipal) and his army crossing to Lanka. The lyrics effectively drive home the miracles (jādu) that the name of Rama can work, with a refrain promising success for all. Stanzas of four short (12-mātrā) lines, rhyming AABA, subsequently illustrate how with God the impossible becomes reality. The song starts with a verse contrasting the word bal “power” and its Sanskritic opposite nir-bal “weak” to make the point that Rama’s name has the power to invigorate the weak. It continues with such contrastive imagery about the name’s power to make stones float on the water, to guide boats safely through troubled waters, to keep lights burning in a storm.
The lyricist uses several forms of sound play (shabda-alankāra), such as alliteration (anuprāsa) of j- in the first line (jage, jādū, jal) and assonance, continuing playfully the end rhyme -al men of the first stanza in the beginning of the second stanza before that shifts the rhyme to -ale. With such foregrounding of sound, it follows naturally that the lyricist ascribes to each of Rama’s name’s two syllables the special power of bringing liberation by constructing a path to cross the ocean of existence to come out safely at the other end. Here the story’s bridge-building has become a metaphor for each life’s own creation of crossings.
The last stanza offers the concrete example of none else than Valmiki, the sage who is considered the original composer of the Ramayana story. It briefly alludes to the story that the saint was converted from a life of sin and robbery when induced to chant the mantra “marā” meaning “killed.” When recited fast, “marā” turns into its opposite the name “Rama,” which can work its transformative power.
The rhythm of the song evokes also utsāha bhāva or “vigor,” which underlies the rasa of vīra or “heroism,” which the monkeys will need to tap into when they arrive in Lanka. Overall, this song works well to inspire the audience to march out of the theater invigorated and united in a spirit of collaborating for a good cause.
Given music director Vasant Desai’s Maharashtrian roots, one wonders whether he was moved by the popular Marathi radio show Gītā Ramayana that had been broadcast only a few years before in 1955–56 from the new All India Radio center in Pune. That song cycle was composed by the Marathi poet Gajanana Digambar Madgulkar, whose lyrics were published the very next year. The show went on to a successful performative trajectory especially for the director and singer Sudhir Phadke, but well beyond. Some of its songs circulated popularly. Among children, this was the case particularly for the monkey song Setu bāndhā re sāgari “The Bridge is built over the ocean.” The refrain of Bolo sabhī also starts with the slogan Sitavara Ramacanda kī jay, which was repeated again and again in the refrain of the radio song.
Discussion Question: What aspects of the popularity of Hanuman come out well in this fragment? How can it still speak to audiences today?
Sources/Further Reading:
Aklujkar, Vidyut. 2004. “The ‘Radio-Active’ Gītā-Rāmāyaṇa: Home and Abroad.” In Ramayana Revisited, ed. Mandakranta Bose. 259–74. New York: Oxford University Press.
Dwyer, Rachel. 2006. Filming the Gods: Religion and Indian Cinema. London: Routledge.
Leslie, Julia. 2003. Authority and Meaning in Indian Religions: Hinduism and the case of Valmiki. Aldershot and Burlington VT: Ashgate.
Databases:
Sampoorna Ramayana: https://indiancine.ma/KBV/info (last accessed on April 10, 2025).
Lanka Dahan: https://indiancine.ma/CI/info (last accessed on April 17, 2025)
Lanka Dahan clip: https://indiancine.ma/CI/player/00:01:00 (last accessed on April 17, 2025).