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Two notes about the credits

1944 Who sang the song Maiñ in phooloñ ké sañg dolooñ for the film ‚‘Saugandh‘‘? Apparently the liner notes of the Hindustan Records’ album ‘Songs From The New Theatres Films’ say that it was Utpala Sen. According to ‘Geet Kosh’ Vimla 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.

1944 Who sang the song Do dilon ko yeh duniya milne nahiñ deti for the film Chand ? An urban legend has it that it was Roshan Ara Begum. However, all authorities, including the jackets of two different Saregama albums, credit Manju with the singing.

The Romanisation of the Urdu ‘q’

1944 Out of copious, but misguided, respect for Urdu/ Arabic, almost every writer on the internet has spelt kãtib in the song ‘Aye kãtib é-taqdeer mujhe’ from the film My Sister (Meri Baheen [sic]) with a ‘q,’ i.e. as qaatib e taqdeer.

Not correct. And if you want to learn some Urdu, here’s why.

Kãtib means ‘he who writes,’ and normally refers to a calligrapher, a writer, a scribe. In Urdu the word is spelt with a kaaf, not with a qaaf. کاتب, कातिब. No dot in the Devanagari version. The word belongs to the same family as kitaab (book), kutub (books), kutub-khãnã (a house of books: library or bookshop), kitãbat (calligraphy) and, above all, kãtib é-taqdeer (the writer of [everyone’s] destiny.’

The word qutub, as in the tower (mînãr), means ‘pole,’ as in the north and south poles. Let us not confuse the two words in an unnecessary effort to be more Urduised than the, well, kãtibs of Urdu.

Incidentally, this film was made in Bengal. In Devanagari its name has been spelt as baheen, rather than behen. The mãtrã of ee is never used while spelling behen.

India’s national song

1944 The book „Hindi Film Song: Music Beyond Boundaries“ informs us (p.213) that “C. Ramachandra composed music for ‘Sãré jahãñ sé achhã’ by Dr. Iqbal” for the film Sukhi Jivan (1942).

However, the Geet Kosh has not included India’s national song among the nine songs listed by it from the film. Nor has it included Dr. Iqbal among those who wrote lyrics for the film. (It has credited Gurudev Tagore with the lyrics of what became India’s national anthem shortly after, but obviously not because, it was included in the film ‚‘Humrahi‘‘ [1945].) If Mr Da Ranade is correct then his information is of national importance. But the closest pointer in the Geet Kosh’s list from „Sukhi Jivan“ is to two versions of a song called ‘Hindustãñ hamãrã, hai hum ko jaañ sé pyãrã.’

Not quite the same as ‘Sãré jahãñ sé achhã’

India’s national song was sung in a 1950 film—and then, over the years, in more films. The first such film was ‚‘Hindustan Hamara‘‘ (1950). The music was by Vasant Desai, while Gulraj led the chorus that sang the song. Dr. Iqbal was obviously credited with the lyrics.

In 1936 a parody of the national song had been sung in director Devaki Bose’ ‚‘Sunehra Sansar.‘‘ Vijay Kumar, B.A.’s lyrics were set to music by K.C. Dey and went, ‘Sãré jahãñ sé achhã sãbun [soap] banã hamãrã, hum kishtiyãñ [boats] haiñ is ki…’’

Thirty significant Hindi-Urdu songs from 1944

Song	Film	Music	Lyrics	Singer(s)
Diya jisne dil	Bhanwara	Khemchand Prakash	Kedar Sharma	K.L. Saigal, Uma Devi
Hum apna unhéin bana na sake (Raag Khamãj/ Taal Keherwã)	Bhanwara	Khemchand Prakash	Kedar Sharma	K.L. Saigal
Kya hum ne bigãdã hai kyun	Bhanwara	Khemchand Prakash	Kedar Sharma	K.L. Saigal, Amir Bai
Muskurãté hué yooñ ãñkh churãyã nã karo	Bhanwara	Khemchand Prakash	Kedar Sharma	K.L. Saigal
Thukra rahi hai duniya	Bhanwara	Khemchand Prakash	Kedar Sharma	K.L. Saigal, Uma Devi
Chanda des piya ké jaa, saãjan hamré bhûlé hum ko	Bhartruhari	Khemchand Prakash	Pt. Indra	Amirbai Karnataki
Mora dheeré sé ghoonghat	Bhartruhari	Khemchand Prakash	Pt. Indra	Amîrbai Karnataki
Aayi, aayi, museebat aayi, musafir bhaag chalo	Chand	Husnalal- Bhagatram	Qamar Jalalabadi	Manju
Do dilon ko yeh duniya milne nahiñ deti (Raag Bheem Palãsi)	Chand	Husnalal- Bhagatram	Qamar Jalalabadi	Manju
Badnaam muhabbat kaun karé (Raag Bageshri implied)	Dost	Sajjad Hussain	Shams Lucknowi	Noor Jehan
Koi prem kã dé ké sañdésã, hãyé loot gayã	Dost	Sajjad Hussain	Shams Lucknowi	Noor Jehan
Saanjh ki bela, panchhi akela	Jwar Bhata	Anil Biswas	Narendra Sharma	Aroon Kumar, etc
Badariya baras gayi us paar	Moorti	Bulo C. Rani	Pandit Indra	Mukesh (debut song), Khursheed, Hameeda
Jalã patang to is mein qusoor kiska hai	Mumtaz Mahal @ Mumtaz	Khemchand Prakash	Wali Saheb	Khursheed Bano
Aye kãtib é-taqdeer mujhe (Raag Bhairavi/ Taal Keherwã)	My Sister (Meri Baheen [sic])	Pankaj Kumar Mullick	Pandit Bhushan	K.L.Saigal
Chhupo na chhupo na O pyari sajaniya	My Sister (Meri Baheen [sic])	Pankaj Kumar Mullick	Pandit Bhushan	K.L.Saigal
Do naina matware tihãré (Raag KalyãN/ Taal Keherwã)	My Sister (Meri Baheen [sic])	Pankaj Kumar Mullick	Pandit Bhushan	K.L.Saigal
Duniya mein hoon duniya ka talabgar nahin hooñ	My Sister (Meri Baheen [sic])	Pankaj Kumar Mullick	Pandit Bhushan	K.L.Saigal
Maiñ in phooloñ ké sañg dolooñ	My Sister (Meri Baheen [sic])	Pankaj Kumar Mullick	Pandit Bhushan	Vimla/ Utpala Sen
Chalé gayé chalé gayé	Pahele Aap	Naushad	D.N. Madhok	Zohra Bai
Moré saiyañ-ji né bheji chuñdri, rangoñ meiñ isé pyaar ké rang daar	Pahele Aap	Naushad	D.N. Madhok	Zohrabai Ambalawali
Aai Diwali aai Diwali, deepak sañg nãché patañga (Raag Bhairavi/ Taal Dadra)	Rattan	Naushad	Dina Nath Madhok	Zohrabai Ambalawali
Angdai teri hai bahana, saaf keh do hameiñ ki jaa jaa	Rattan	Naushad	Dina Nath Madhok	Manju
Ankhiyan milãké, jîyã bharmã ké chalé nahîñ jãnã	Rattan	Naushad	D.N. Madhok	‘Zohra Ambala’ [sic]
Jhoothé hain sab sapné suhane, moorakh man sach jaané	Rattan	Naushad	Dina Nath Madhok	Manju
Mil ké bichhad gai akhiyãñ, hãyé Rãmã	Rattan	Naushad	Dina Nath Madhok	Amîrbai Karnataki
Milké bichhad gai ankhiyãñ, hayé	Rattan	Naushad	Dina Nath Madhok	Amirbai Karnataki
Pardesi bãlam aa bãdal aayé, teré bina kachhu na bhayé	Rattan	Naushad	Dina Nath Madhok	Zohrabai Ambalawali
Sawan ké badalo	Rattan	Naushad	Dina Nath Madhok	Zohrabai Ambalawali, Karan Dewan
Muhabbat mein sãra jahan jal rahã hai, zameeñ to zameeñ aasmãñ jal rahã hai	Shahenshah Babar	Khemchand Prakash	Munshi Shams	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: 1944

Contents

Two notes about the credits

The Romanisation of the Urdu ‘q’

India’s national song

Thirty significant Hindi-Urdu songs from 1944

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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