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History

1939 The linguistic integration of India was a major issue even in 1939. Songs that had lines from five different languages, Mr Da Ranade points out, were common in the Lavani-Powada folk music of Maharashtra. The song Ata kashala udyachi baar from ‚‘Aadmi ‚‘ (1939) was, accordingly, in five languages. Biswas contributed the Bengali line, Kholo, aji kholo, nayan dwar. The Hindi section was Ab kis liye kal ki baat? (Multi-lingual songs would continue to pop up over the decades. In 1949 there was Yeh duniya roop ki from ‚‘Shabnam.‘‘)

The song Tarantarav, from the same film [Aadmi (1939)] consisted of India’s own form of scat singing—mouthing meaningless gibberish. Tarari rarari from Dastan (1950) took the scat tradition forward. In 1997 Nadeem-Shravan ‘were [ahem] inspired by’ Scatman John’s 1995 hit I am a Scatman and came up with the Westernised scat song ‘Pyar pyar karte karte’ for the film Judaai.

A note about the credits

‚‘‘1939 ‚‘‘ Who wrote the song Bhai hum pardesi log hameiñ kaun jãné? For the film Ek Hi Raasta? ‘Geet Kosh’ says, Pt. Indra Chandra. When Shalin Bhatt posted this song on YouTube he, too, gave the same information, but later had second thoughts and wrote, ‘The lyricist here is Kidar Sharma, not Pandit Indra Chandra.’ Indpaedia is sticking with the original.

21 significant Hindi-Urdu songs from 1939

Song	Film	Music	Lyrics	Singer(s)
Ata kashala udyachi baar	Aadmi @ Life is for Living	Master Krishna Rao	Munshi Aziz	[Song is not in ‘Geet Kosh’]
Kis liyé kal ki baat	Aadmi	Master Krishna Rao	Munshi Aziz	Shanta Hublikar
Kis liyé kal ki baat: Kañsãr rãkhiyãñ ghébar tare kãjé (Gujarati)	Aadmi	Master Krishna Rao	Jeetubhai Mehta	Shanta Hublikar
Kis liyé kal ki baat: Vékh chambé né pehlãñ pãiyãñ (Punjabi)	Aadmi	Master Krishna Rao	Abid Gulrez	Shanta Hublikar
Kis liyé kal ki baat: Mañchi-gañdh mainã mallé-pûvu laina (Telugu)	Aadmi	Prof. V.N. Bhushan	Prof. V.N. Bhushan	Shanta Hublikar
Kis liyé kal ki baat: Kholo aaji kholo nayan duwãr (Bengali)	Aadmi	Smt. N.C. Ganguli	Anil Biswas	Shanta Hublikar
Kis liyé kal ki baat: Inni-shé gãn-ttil veeNai-yin nãdmum (Tamil)	Aadmi	S. Ramameertham	Kalyan Sundaram	Shanta Hublikar
Tãrar nãñv nãñv	Aadmi	Master Krishna Rao	Munshi Aziz	Ram Marathe
Preet mein hai jeevan jokhoñ ki jaisé kolhu meiñ sarsoñ	Dushman	Pankaj Mullick (asstt: Hari Prasann Das)	Aarzoo Lucknowi	K.L. Saigal
Pyaari pyaari sûrato moh- bhari mûrato	Dushman	Pankaj Mullick (asstt: Hari Prasann Das)	Aarzoo Lucknowi	K.L. Saigal
Karooñ kya pandit niraas bhayi, diya bujhe phir sé jal jayé	Dushman @ The Enemy	Pankaj Mullick (asstt: Hari Prasann Das)	Aarzoo Lucknowi	K.L. Saigal
Bhai hum pardesi log, hameiñ kaun jãné? Na koi apna, na koi apni	Ek Hi Raasta	Anil Biswas	Pandit. Indra Chandra	Anil Biswas
Dekh zara dil kã darpan (Jisé kehta hai tû aa gayã)	Ek Hi Raasta	Anil Biswas	Pandit Indr	Anil Biswas
Kabhi neki bhi uske ji mein gar aa jaye hai mujhse (Raag Bhairavi)	Ghazi Salahuddin	Khemchand Prakash	Mirza Ghalib	Miss Kalyani
Shãlã jawaniyan mãné	Gul Bakawali	Ghulam Haider	Wali Saheb	Noor Jehan -
Chali Pawan Harso	Jawani Ki Reet	R. C. Boral	Arzoo Lucknowi	Kanan Devi
Radha Radha pyari Radha	Kangan	Saraswati Devi	Pradeep	Ashok Kumar, Leela Chitnis
Piya milan ko jana	Kapal Kundala	Pankaj Mullick	Pankaj Mullick	Pankaj Mullick
Zindagi ka saaz bhi	Pukar	Mir Saheb	Kamaal Amrohi	Naseem Bano
Meré manki bagiya phooli	Sant Tulsidas	Jnan Dutt	PL Santoshi	Vasanti, Vishnupant Pagnis
Main prem bagh ki panchhi [pakshi?], nit prem ki bãnî bolooñ	Sitara	Rafiq Ghaznavi	Munshi Dil	Khursheed

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: 1939

Contents

History

A note about the credits

21 significant Hindi-Urdu songs from 1939

How these particular songs were chosen

Raags in songs

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For lists of popular Hindi-Urdu films

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