सुखी जीवन

A modestly mounted 1942 social drama co-directed by the actor-director Bhagwan and Harishchandra. The film's plot drew only average notice in its day, but it carries an outsized place in Hindi-film-music history as the picture that launched the composing career of Ram Chitalkar — the man the world would soon know as C. Ramchandra.

Lyrics for the film were written by M. R. Kapoor. The score's most-remembered moment is its setting of Allama Iqbal's patriotic verse 'Sare Jahan Se Achha' — rendered here as 'Hindustan Hamara' — which Chitalkar composed in two versions for the film. The rest of the soundtrack is a set of straightforward filmi numbers in the early-1940s idiom: devotional appeals, romantic laments and light-romantic duets.

Ram Chitalkar — born Ramchandra Narhar Chitalkar — had drifted through the industry as a bit actor and an assistant in the music departments of others before Bhagwan, his friend, handed him a full film of his own. Sukhi Jeevan was that film, and it converted Chitalkar from a journeyman into a composer to watch.

Sukhi Jeevan is the film that gave Ram Chitalkar his first real notice as a Hindi-film composer. When Bhagwan decided to make the picture in Hindi, it was taken for granted that 'Ramchandra Chitalkar' would score it; the film did only average business, but the music was appreciated and Chitalkar finally had his foot in the door of the Hindi industry — the door that would open all the way to Albela (1951).

Though the film itself is largely forgotten, Sukhi Jeevan is a permanent footnote in every account of C. Ramchandra's life as the title where the composer first announced himself in Hindi cinema. His long, fruitful partnership with Bhagwan — which culminated in the runaway hit Albela — begins here.