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A note about the credits

1942 The song Pãyal jham jham bãjé from the film Basant is not among the 9 tracks from the film listed in the Geet Kosh. Perhaps the film’s title music, a chorus headed by Pannalal Ghosh (or the duet Balam dheerey bol koi sun lega) was meant. Incidentally, Anil Biswas claims to have composed the songs though the film’s literature credited the legendary Panna Lal Ghosh as the composer. Biswas claimed that Ghosh was brought in only for the background music and the orchestration.

1942 Whose is the female voice in the song Raja beti kekarala from the film ‚‘Saugandh‘‘? Apparently the liner notes of the Hindustan Records’ album ‘Songs From The New Theatres Films’ says that it is Indrani Roy. According to ‘Geet Kosh’ Shanti is the singer. Normally one should unquestioningly accept what an album’s credits say. However, when a song is reissued sixty years later, credits are not always accurate and ‘Geet Kosh’ normally has a lower margin of error.

Thirty significant Hindi-Urdu songs from 1942

Song	Film	Year	Music	Lyrics	Singer(s)
Pãyal jham jham bãjé (Raag Sohini)	Basant	1942	Pannalal Ghosh	Pyare Lal Santoshi	(prob. Parul Ghosh, Arun Kumar)
Umeed un sé kya thi aur kar voh kya rahé haiñ	Basant	1942	Pannalal Ghosh	PL Santoshi	Parul Ghosh
Nayan-heen ko raah dikha	Bhakt Surdas	1942	Gyan Dutt	D.N. Madhok	K.L. Saigal
Chandni raat aur tãré khilé hoñ	Bhakta Surdas	1942	Gyan Dutt	Dina Nath Madhok	K.L. Saigal, Khursheed
Din se dugunee ho jaye ratiya hayé	Bhakta Surdas	1942	Gyan Dutt	Dina Nath Madhok	K.L. Saigal
Madhukar Shyam hamare chor (Raag Bhairavi/ Taal Keherwã)	Bhakta Surdas	1942	Gyan Dutt	Dina Nath Madhok	K.L. Saigal
Maiya mori mai nahi makhan khayo	Bhakta Surdas	1942	Gyan Dutt	Dina Nath Madhok	K.L. Saigal
Nain-heen ko raah dikha, Prabhu (Raag Darbãrî Kãnarhã/ Taal Keherwã)	Bhakta Surdas	1942	Gyan Dutt	Dina Nath Madhok	K.L. Saigal
Nis din barsat nain hamare	Bhakta Surdas	1942	Gyan Dutt	Dina Nath Madhok	K.L. Saigal, Minder
Panchhi bãwara chãnd sé preet lagayé (Raag Kédãr/ Taal Keherwã)	Bhakta Surdas	1942	Gyan Dutt	Dina Nath Madhok	Khursheed
Qadam chale aagé man paachhé bhaagé (Raag Dés/ Taal Keherwã)	Bhakta Surdas	1942	Gyan Dutt	Dina Nath Madhok	K.L. Saigal
Raen gayi ab hua savera	Bhakta Surdas	1942	Gyan Dutt	Dina Nath Madhok	K.L. Saigal
Sar pe qadam [?] kee chhaiyã muraliya bãjé re (Raag Bhairavi/ Taal Keherwã)	Bhakta Surdas	1942	Gyan Dutt	Dina Nath Madhok	K.L. Saigal, Rajkumari
Shri Ramchandr kripãlu bhaj mana (Raag Hamîr/ Rûpak Taal)	Bharat Milap	1942	Shankarrao Vyas	Goswami Tulsidas	Chorus
Ai chand chhup na jana, jab tak main	Jawab	1942	Kamal Dasgupta	Buddhi Chandra Agrawal ‘Madhur’	Kanan Devi
Door desh ka rehnewala	Jawab	1942	Kamal Dasgupta	Bekal	Kanan Devi, Asit Baran
Hum aankh macholi kheleinge	Khandan	1942	Ghulam Haidar	The film’s lyrics were by	Noor Jehan
Maar gayi ré hamein teri nazariya	Khandan	1942	Ghulam Haidar	i) M. D. Taseer	Noor Jehan
Tu kaun si badli mein merey chaand?	Khandan	1942	Ghulam Maider	ii) Nazim Panipati	Noor Jehan
Urh ja panchhi urh ja	Khandan	1942	Ghulam Haidar	iii) D. N. Madhok	Noor Jehan
Roothna pyar meiñ	Mehman	1942	Khemchand Prakash	Dina Nath Madhok	Bulo C. Rani
Garibon par daya karke bada ehsaan karte ho	Roti	1942	Anil Biswas	Dr Safdar ‘Aah’	Ashraf Khan
Rehné laga hai dil meiñ andhéra teré baghair	Roti	1942	Anil Biswas	Behzaad Lucknowi	[Begum] Akhtari Bai
Ulajh gayé nain-vã, chhooté nahiñ chhutãyé	Roti	1942	Anil Biswas	Aarzoo Lucknowi	[Begum] Akhtari Bai
Voh hans rahé haiñ, aah kiyé jaa raha hooñ maiñ	Roti	1942	Anil Biswas	Aarzoo Lucknowi	[Begum] Akhtari Bai
Raja beti kekarala	Saugandh	1942	R. C. Boral	Pandit Natwar	Shanti / Indrani Roy + Asit Baran
Voh hum ko bhûlé lékin hum kaisé bhool jayeiñ (Kãfi)	Saugandh	1942	R. C. Boral	Pt. Natwar	Shanti
Panchhi ja peechhey raha hai bachpan mera	Sharda	1942	Naushad	DN Madhok	Baby Suraiya
Sãré jahãñ sé achhã	Sukhi Jivan	1942	C. Ramachandra	Dr. Iqbal	(Geet Kosh only mentions ‘Hindustan hamara hai, humko jãñ sé pyara hai’ penned by M.R. Kapoor)
Arman tadapté hai	Zamindar	1942	Ghulam Haider	DN Madhok	Shanta Apte

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: 1942

Contents

A note about the credits

Thirty significant Hindi-Urdu songs from 1942

How these particular songs were chosen

Raags in songs

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For lists of popular Hindi-Urdu films

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