Paapi papeeha re pi pi na bol
Posted on: March 21, 2012
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
During my younger days, I got acquainted with some of the popular music directors of the pre-partition days mainly through listening to some of their bench-mark songs on Radio Ceylon. Khwaja Khurshid Anwar is one of those names.
Post partition, he migrated to Pakistan and I lost track of his creative music. Most of the songs composed by him during the pre-partition days are now appealing to me more than they did during my younger days.
Khwaja Khurshid Anwar ( 21/03/1912 – 30/10/1984) was a multi-faceted personality – a post graduate in philosophy with gold medal, topper in Indian Civil Service (ICS) examination, music director, producer and director, screen play writer, a poet and a few more to his credit. He belonged to a highly educated family in which his maternal uncle was a civil surgeon and his father was a barrister in Lahore. The love for the classical music ran into the family as his father used to hold weekly classical musical concerts at his residence. It was in this sort of atmosphere that the young Khurshid developed a taste for Hindustani classical music.
It is stated that he did not get selected for ICS during the interview as his involvement in anti-raj activities in those days did not go down well with the British authorities. He was destined to become a part of film industry in the sub-continent.
He joined All India Radio, Lahore in 1939 as music programme producer. Later he was transferred to Delhi and then he shifted to Bombay (Mumbai) where he came into contact with some Hindi film personalities. A R Kardar gave him his first break as a music director in his Punjabi film KURMAI (1941). His first Hindi film as a Music director was ISHAARA (1943).
In all, he gave music to 10 Hindi films. He migrated to Pakistan in 1950 but came back to Bombay in 1952 on a short-term visa to composed music for NEELAM PARI (1952) which was his last Hindi film in India.
I have listened to about 20 songs of Khurshid Anwar on the internet and I have noted that his song compositions are simple with minimum orchestration, folk song based tunes reflecting the lighter shades of any genre of the songs – pathos, melancholic or romantic. So his song compositions are not ‘heavy’ on the listeners.
In Pakistan, Khwaja Khurshid Anwar ventured into producing movies some of which he himself directed. He also wrote story and screen play for some films besides giving music to films. He was active in Pakistani film industry between 1952 and 1982. He died in Lahore on October 30, 1984 after a protracted illness. As is often said, maestros are mortals but their musical creations are immortals.
On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Khwaja Khurshid Anwar on March 21st, I have selected one of his immortal songs ‘ paapi papihaa re pi pi na bol bairi’ from the film PARWAANA (1947) for discussion. This was my first acquisition of a Khurshid Anwar’s song in 78 rpm record (Record No. N-26895) in the early 70s ( also the last as I could not get other records of his music at that time). The song is sung by Suraiyya on the lyrics of D N Madhok.
As many as nine songs from this movie have already been discussed in this blog. I am surprised to find that this iconic song from the film is yet to be discussed. We are fortunate that a good quality video clip of this song is available on YT. Everything looks lovely in this song – young Suraiyya and her voice, folk musicg-based tune with simple orchestration set by Khwaja Khurshid Anwar on the equally simple lyrics of D N Madhok.
Audio
Video
Song-Paapi papihaa re pi pi na bol bairi (Parwaana)(1947) Singer-Suraiyya, Lyrics-D N Madhok, MD-Khurshid Anwar
Lyrics
paapi papeehaa re
ae ae
pi pi naa bol bairi
pi pi naa bol
paapi papeehaa re
ae ae
pi pi naa bol bairi
pi pi naa bol
nanhi si jaan meri
sun ke naa jaaye dol
nanhi si jaan meri
sun ke naa jaaye dol
pi pi naa bol bairi
pi pi naa bol
paapi papeehaa re
ae ae ae ae
pi pi naa bol bairi
pi pi naa bol
unko ye ghamand hai
main do nainaa maari re
mohe maan is baat kaa panchhi
main saajan ki pyaari re
unko ye ghamand hai
main do nainaa maari re
mohe maan is baat kaa panchhi
main saajan ki pyaari re
bhed hamaare ji ke
piyaa paas naahi khol
bhed hamaare ji ke
piyaa paas naahi khol
pi pi naa bol bairi
pi pi naa bol
paapi papeehaa re
ae ae ae
pi pi naa bol bairi
pi pi naa bol
chhed naa bhole bhaale panchhi
dukh bhara taraanaa
chhed naa bhole bhaale panchhi
dukh bhara taraanaa
unke jiyaa par laage thhes
gaa aisaa gaanaa
unke jiyaa par laage thhes
gaa aisaa gaanaa
pi pi naa bol bairi
haay haay bol re
haay haay bol
pi pi naa bol bairi
haay haay bol re
haay haay bol
paapi papeehaa re
ae ae ae ae
pi pi naa bol bairi
pi pi naa bol
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
March 21, 2012 at 10:42 am
Kamath ji,
Thanks for posting a song of Khurseed Anwar saab.
He gave music to 10 films in all,in India-1 Punjabi and 9 Hindi.
8 films were produced in Bombay and 2 from Lahore(before partition).
The Assistants he used in his films are –
For Kurmai-41 G.M.Durrani
Ishara-43 S.K.Prem
Parakh-44 Gadekar
Yateem-45 ”
Pagdandi-47 J L Mattoo
Aaj aur kal-47 Prem Dhawan
Parwana-47 M A Mukhtar
Singaar-49 Roshan
Nishana-50 Albuquerque
Neelam Pari-52 Sebastian
He used many singers in his films like Iqbal begum.Rajkumari,GMDurrani,Suraiya,Vatsala kumathekar,Kaushalya,Balvant singh,Ira Nigam,Nasim akhtar,Zeenat begum,Mun.Sultana,Geeta,Asha,Surinder Kaur,Lalita deolkar etc.
In Pakistan he gave music to 18 films,his last film being Mirza Jutt-1982.
-AD
-Credits-All the above info is from various articles of shri Surjit singh ji.
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March 21, 2012 at 11:12 am
Thanks for the statistics of Kursheed Anwar’s filmography at one place.
Are Iqbal Begum and Ira Nigam the same persons as Iqbal Bano and Ira Nagrath respectively?
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