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History

1931 The first song of the first talking film (‘talkie’) in any Indian language was Dé dé khuda ké naam pé pyare, tãqat ho gar dené ki./ Dé dé./ Kuchh chãhé agar to maang lé mujh se, himmat ho gar lené ki./ Lé lé. These are the complete lyrics of this song from Alam Ara. India’s first film song consisted of all of one verse. It was not issued on a gramophone disc, though India had had a flourishing recording industry since 1899, with singing stars like Gauhar Jaan and Janaki Bai .

Then which was the first Indian film song to be recorded and sold on a disc? In his book Mr. Ashok Da Ranade has argued in favour of the songs of the film Madhuri (1932). (See "Hindi Film Song: Music Beyond Boundaries," page 151, and also some subsequent pages).

However, scholar Dr. Narendra Shrimali has written on pages 70 and 71 of his doctoral thesis Music of Theatre and Hindi Cinema 1900 – 1950 that “the first ever Gramophone Record[s] of Hindi cinema was not N5622 but they were P13474 and P13542.”

Someone who modestly calls himself 2TKP has explained these numbers thus: [1], ‘N5622 refers to the record number on which the songs of film 'Madhuri' (1932) are available and P13474 / P13542 refer to the record number on which the songs of film 'Trapped' (1931) are available.’

Mr. 2TKP is excessively modest because he has uploaded the complete 3:21 song Phool Rahi Belariyaan Doley from the film ‘Trapped’ (1931) and settled the argument once and for all.

The ‘Geet Kosh’ provides independent corroboration as well as the additional details that you will find on Indpaedia. It gives us the titles of six songs from the film, three each sung by Durga Khote and Master Vasant.

(2TKP, we have learned, is Sudhir Kapur, a Delhi based music lover. All details pertaining to this song and much more are available on Atul Song A Day)

Two significant Hindi-Urdu songs from 1931

*Song*	Film	Music	Lyrics	Singer(s)
Dé dé khuda ké naam pé pyare	Alam Ara	Pherozeshah M. Mistri, HB Irani	?	Wazir Muhammad Khan
Phool raheeñ belariyaañ doley, bolé koyaliya…	Trapped (Farebi Jaal)	?	Master Vasant	Master Vasant

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.

Hindi-Urdu songs: 1931

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History

Two significant Hindi-Urdu songs from 1931

How these particular songs were chosen

See also

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For lists of popular Hindi-Urdu films

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