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History

1937 Which was India’s—or at least Hindi-Urdu’s first songless film? Kanoon (BR Chopra/ 1961) loudly proclaimed that it was India’s second songless film. By then educated, middle class audiences, used to international cinema, were ready for such a film. Kanoon was the ninth most successful Hindi-Urdu film of the year, partly because audiences had been warned.

Which was the first songless film? Munna (K.A. Abbas/ 1954) has often claimed credit for that distinction. It was a low-budget art film, meant for a limited audience, so it could get away without songs. Correction. It had no songs that were sung and had verses. However, ‘prose songs’ were recited in the film. Anil Biswas scored the background music.

Wadia’s Naujawan (1937) set the Indian silver screen on fire, well, almost, by daring to do without songs in an era in which ‘it was a convention to have 10-20 songs in a film,’ as Wadia would later say. Audiences at Delhi’s Jubilee cinema smashed the chairs and flung the broken pieces at the screen, screaming, ‘Wadia has robbed us.’ The film had to be pulled off the theatres for a while.

Despite Kanoon’s relative success, the next songless film was made only towards the end of the decade. Ittefaq (1969) was produced by the same daring BR Chopra, though directed by his brother Yash (Raj) Chopra.

Sixteen significant Hindi-Urdu songs from 1937

*Song*	Film	Year	Music	Lyrics	Singer(s)
Man prem ki jot jala	Anaath Ashram	1937	R. C. Boral	Kedar Sharma	Umashashi, Pahari Sanyal
Be not like dumb, driven cattle	Duniya Na Mane	1937	Keshavrao Bhole	Longfellow	Shanta Apte
Samjha kya hai duniyAdãnã	Duniya Na Mane	1937	Munshi Aziz	Keshav Rao Bhole	Shanta Apte
Nadi kinaré baith ké aao	Jagirdar	1937	Anil Biswas	Zia Sarhady	Motilal, Maya Banerjee
Jeevan hai ek kahãni, duniya bhi ek kahani, tû kya hai maiñ kya?	Mahageet @ Eternal music	1937	Anil Biswas	Zia Sarhadi	Anil Biswas
Kaun desh hai jaana babu	Mukti	1937	Pankaj Mullick	Aarzoo Lakhnavi	Pankaj Mullick
Sanwariya man bhaya re ãñkh sé man meiñ samãyé ré	Mukti	1937	Pankaj Kumar Mullick	Pankaj Kumar Mullick	Kanan Devi
Sharabi soch na kar matwalé (dukh bharé)	Mukti	1937	Pankaj Mullick	Prem	Pankaj Mullick
Akhiyãñ jhapi mori (Raag Yaman Kalyan)	Prem Kahani	1937	Saraswati Devi	Jamuna Swaroop Kashyap ‘Nãtawãñ’	Saraswati Devi
Kyã ãñkhoñ ki lãli, botal ki pari bé-aab hui, bé-aab hui? (Kãfi)	Prem Kahani	1937	Saraswati Devi	Jamuna Swaroop Kashyap ‘Nãtawãñ’	?
Ek bangla bané nyara, rahé kuñbã jis meiñ sãrã	President	1937	Raychander Boral, Pankaj Mullick	Aga Hashra Kashmiri ?	K.L. Saigal
Prem ka hai is jag mein panth nirala (Raag Jaunpuri: snatches; Ek Taal)	President	1937	Raychander Boral, Pankaj Mullick	Aga Hashra Kashmiri	K.L. Saigal, Pahari Sanyal
Hello bachcho, aao main tumhein… ek raja ka beta	President (@ Badi Behen)	1937	Raychander Boral, Pankaj Mullick	Aga Hashra Kashmiri ?	K.L. Saigal
Darshan hué tihare	Vidyapati	1937	R. C. Boral	Kedar Sharma	Pahari Sanyal
Ek bãñs ki thî patli si nali (Ek din Raja né…) (Kãfi)	Vidyapati	1937	R. C. Boral	Kedar Sharma	Pahari Sanyal
Hamari nagariya mein aayé baso, Banwãri	Vidyapati	1937	R. C. Boral	Kedar Sharma	Kanan Devi

How these particular songs were chosen

India’s first—and Hindi-Urdu music’s only durable—hit parade began in 1954. Its creator, Binaca Geet Mala, issued annual lists for 1952 and 1953 as well. However, songs had been introduced in Hindi-Urdu films as early as in 1931, indeed, with India’s first talking film.

Which were the most popular Hindi-Urdu songs between 1931 and 1951? The internationally accepted way of finding out is to go through contemporary as well as later articles to see which songs were mentioned (‘cited’) most often.

Indpaedia’s volunteers spent almost 21 man-months combing through all sources that mentioned songs from the years not covered by Binaca Geet Mala. Around one-third of this time was spent sifting through and analysing fifteen sources that covered the period 1931-53. These included YouTube playlists, three encylopaedias of Hindi-Urdu songs and a scholarly history of Hindi-Urdu film music. Because very few songs were mentioned ‘often,’ the volunteers noted down every song that was mentioned at all. Less than half a dozen songs were omitted because they did not exist either on Saregama’s website, the Geet Kosh, YouTube or Hindi Geet Mala. Every song was cross-checked with at least one of these sites.

For more details please see Hindi-Urdu songs: methodology.

Annual lists for the years 1931-51 have been arranged in the alphabetical order, because no one knows the order of their popularity. However, this can be done.

The Indpaedia community will be grateful if some volunteer(s) check out on YouTube the songs mentioned on this page and rank them according to the number of times each song has been played. (Most, but not all, of these songs are on YouTube.) This contribution will be gratefully acknowledged in the volunteer’s name.

Raags in songs

Few film songs that have a root in Indian classical music remain faithful to a raag throughout their length. Indpaedia volunteers have sometimes mentioned raags even when there is merely a hint of that raag in a song. (‘Raag’ is frequently spelt ‘raga,’ while ‘taal’ is also spelt ‘tal.’)

Wherever a taal has been mentioned, it is the one verified by ChandraKantha.com, and sometimes the raags, too.

Hindi-Urdu songs: 1937

Contents

History

Sixteen significant Hindi-Urdu songs from 1937

How these particular songs were chosen

Raags in songs

See also

For lists of popular songs

For lists of popular Hindi-Urdu films

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