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A note about the credits

Who wrote the song Yahan badla wafa ka for the film Jugnu? The Hindi Film Geet Kosh is silent about the specific song but tells us that the film’s lyrics were written by Asghar Sarhadi, B.A. and M.G. Adib. A very well-researched site called Atul Song A Day credits it to Tanvir Naqvi. There are two prints of the film on YouTube. The shorter one has no credits. The longer print informs us that the film’s lyrics were written by G. M. Adib and Azar Sarhadi.

27 significant Hindi-Urdu songs from 1947

Song	Film	Music	Lyrics	Singer(s)
Saawan ki ghata dheerey dheerey aana	Aage Badho	Sudhir Phadke	Amar Varma	Khursheed, Manna Dey
Paa laagooñ kar jori ré, Shãm mo sé nã khélo Hori (Raag Pîloo)	Aap Ki Sewa Mein	Datta Davjekar	Mahipal	Lata Mangeshkar (debut song)
Mohé bãñkã bãlam lagé pyara	Bela	Bulo C. Rani	DN Madhok	Zohrabai Ambalawali
Jab bãdal ghir ghir aayega	Dak Bangla	Naresh Bhattcharya [sic]	DN Madhok	Suraiya, Mukesh
Afsana likh rahi hoon	Dard	Naushad	Shakeel Badayuni	Uma Devi [later: Tun Tun]
O duniya ké rehnewalé	Dil ki Rani	Sachin Dev Burman	Yashodanndan Joshi	Raj Kapoor
Duniya meiñ meri aaj andhera hi andhera (Raag Darbãrî Kãnarhã)	Do Bhai	Sachin Dev Burman	Raja Mehdi Ali Khan	Mohammed Rafi
Mera sundar sapna beet gaya	Do Bhai	Sachin Dev Burman	Raja Mehdi Ali Khan	Geeta Roy
Mere piya to basé pardés ré, hãyén vasañt ritu kyoñ aayî (Kãfî)	Do Bhai	Sachin Dev Burman	Raja Mehdi Ali Khan	Geeta Roy
Chheen li humri hañsi, dé gayé rona hum ko	Duniya Ek Sarai	Hansraj Behl	Kedar Sharma	Zohrabai, Meena Kumari
Sawan beet gaya, mãyi ré, nahin likhi balam né chitthiyãñ	Duniya Ek Sarai	Hansraj Behl	Kedar Sharma	Meena Kumari
Panghat Pe madhu barsãyé gayo ri	Faisla	Anupam Ghatak	M.N.Pran	Kanan Devi
Piya milné naveli jãyé ré	Jail Yatra	Ninu Muzumdar	Ram Moorty	Raj Kapoor
Hamein to ere-e-gham mein kãtni hai zindagi apni	Jugnu	Feroze Nizami, B.A.	Azar Sarhadi, B.A./ G. M. Adib	Noor Jehan
Yahan badla wafa ka béwafai ké siva kya hai?	Jugnu	Feroze Nizami, B.A.	Azar Sarhadi, B.A./ G. M. Adib	Noor Jehan, Mohammed Rafi
Haath seené pé jo rakh do	Mirza Saheban	Bhagatram and Pt. Amarnath Husnalal	Aziz Kashmiri	Noor Jehan, G.M. Durrani
Dilwale! Dilwale! Jal jal kar hee mar jana	Natak	Naushad Ali (asstt: Ghulam Muhammad)	Shakeel Badayuni	Uma Devi Tun Tun
Mori bali umariya	Nateeja	Rasheed Atre	Nakhshab Jaarachvi	Zohrabai Ambalawali
Jeene ka dhang sikhaye jaa	Parwana	Khursheed Anwar	DN Madhok	Kundan Lal Saigal
Meré munderé na bol, jaa kãgã kãgã ré	Parwana	Khursheed Anwar	DN Madhok	Suraiya
Muhabbat mein kabhi aisi	Parwana	Khursheed Anwar	DN Madhok	Kundan Lal Saigal
Toot gayé sab sapne mere	Parwana	Khursheed Anwar	DN Madhok	Kundan Lal Saigal
Us mast nazar pe padi jo nazar	Parwana	Khursheed Anwar	DN Madhok	Kundan Lal Saigal
Hum ko tumhara heé aasra	Sajan	C. Ramachandra	Moti, B.A.	Mohammed Rafi, Lalita Dewoolkar
Aana meri jaañ…Sunday ké Sunday	Shehnai	C. Ramachandra	Pyare Lal Santoshi	C. Ramachandra+Meena Kapoor/ Shamshad Begum
Maar katãri mar jana (hameiñ kya pata thã)	Shehnai	C. Ramachandra	Pyare Lal Santoshi	Amirbai Karnataki
Kisiké madhur pyar mein	Sindoor	Khemchand Prakash	Nilkanth Tewari	Sushil Sahu, Naseem Akhtar

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: 1947

Contents

A note about the credits

27 significant Hindi-Urdu songs from 1947

How these particular songs were chosen

Raags in songs

See also

For lists of popular songs

For lists of popular Hindi-Urdu films

For raags and taals

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