Ae dil e beqaraar bol
Posted on: September 14, 2012
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Shamim (also known as Shamim Bano and Shamim Kamal Pasha) was one of the female actors who was active in the 40s as a heroine/side heroine. She was the niece of Khursheed Bano, one of the top singer-actor of the 40s. I was not aware of Shamim until I found her name mentioned in Kidar Sharma’s autobiography ‘The One and Lonely Kidar Sharma’. There is a trivia mentioned in this book about selecting Shamim as the heroine of the film ‘Armaan’ (1942). Kidar Sharma insisted that Motilal and Shamim would be his hero and heroine for the film. Chandulal Shah, the owner of Ranjit Movietone said “ if you take Shamim, Khursheed will never work with you in any films as she is very jealous of her young and charming niece”.
During her filmy career in India, she worked in about 25 films during 1939-48, nearly half of which were under the banner of Ranjit Movietone and Bombay Talkies. Some of Shamim’s films were ’Fariyaad’ (1942), ‘Jwaar Bhata’(1944), ‘Sanyasi’ (1945), ‘Pehle Aap’(1944), ‘Nateeja’ (1947), ‘Sindoor’(1947) and ‘Toote Taare’ (1948). She was noticed as a potential star after the success of ‘Armaan’(1942), became a well known actor after the release of ‘Jwaar Bhata’ (1944) in which she was paired with Dilip Kumar and consolidated her position as a leading actor for her performance in a role of a widow in ‘Sindoor'(1947). Unlike Khursheed, Shamim was not a singing actor. The songs picturised on her in most of these films were sung by playback singers like Parul Ghosh, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Amir bai Karnataki etc. However, she did sing a few songs for herself.
After partition, Shamim migrated to Pakistan where she acted in a few Punjabi films and two Urdu films – ‘Shahida’ (1949) and ‘Aansoo’ (1950). The latter film was the first Urdu film made in Pakistan to complete a silver jubilee run. She married Anwar Kamal Pasha, the producer and director of this film and retired from the silver screen.
I have selected a song ‘ae dil-e-beqaraar bol’ from the film ‘Fariyaad’ (1942) sung by Shamim, for discussion. The song was penned by D N Madhok and set to music by Khemchand Prakash. The film was produced under the banner of Ranjit Movietone and directed by Jayant Desai. The star cast included Ishwarlal, Shamim, Mubarak etc. Only audio clip is available of this song but it is apparent that Shamim sang for herself in this film. After listening to this song, I felt that she could have been another potential singer-actor if music directors of her films had given her the opportunity to sing in her subsequent films.
Song-Ae dil e beqaraar bol (Fariyaad)(1942) Singer-Shamim Bano, Lyrics-D N Madhok, MD-Khemchand Prakash
Lyrics
ae dil-e-beqaraar bol
kaahe ko ashqbaar hai
ae dil-e-beqarar bol
kaahe ko ashqbaar hai
lut hi gayaa wo kaafilaa
kiskaa intezaar hai
lut hi gayaa wo kaafilaa
kiskaa intezaar hai
ae dil-e-beqaraar bol
kaahe wo ashqbaar hai
dil ko khilaa ke aaftaab
shabnam jahaan se mit gayi
dil ko khilaa ke aaftaab
shabnam jahaan se mit gayi
saawan bhi ro ke chal diyaa
achhi teri bahaar hai
saawan bhi ro ke chal diyaa
achhi teri bahaar hai
ae dil-e-beqaraar bol
kaaye wo ashqbaar hai
khatm huyi wo daastaan
beet gayi kahaaniyaan
khatm huyi wo daastaan
beet gayi kahaaniyaan
mit hi gaye wo silsiley
phir bhi tu beqaraar hai
mit hi gaye wo silsile
phir bhi tu beqaraar hai
ae dil-e- beqaraar bol
kaahe ko ashqbaar hai
ae dil-e-beqaraar bol
kaahe ko ashqbaar hai
6 Responses to "Ae dil e beqaraar bol"
September 14, 2012 at 9:40 pm
SHAMIM BANO was born as Shamim Akhtar on 11-10-1917 at Lahore.her father was a Trader/Businessman.The family was from an upper class and Shamim was a dreamy girl.She went to Bombay once with her father and decided that she will make a film career here.She convinced her parents and they all came down in 1938 and stayed at Bhendi bazar with a relative.
Her first film was BAGHI-1939.In this film she was a second Heroine,along with Mehtab.The Hero was Ashraf Khan(who later became a sufi saint and whose Urs is attended by many film personalities even today,including Dilip kumar,Mahesh Bhatt etc.)She sang her first song along with James Singh( who later became a Music Director JIMMY).It was a ‘Vishnu Cinetone ‘ film.her second film was Imaandaar-1939 as a Heroine with Anil Kumar.In this film she acted with Zubeida-the heroine of ALAM ARA.
Later joining Ranjit studios,she did many films and sang about 40 songs in all.
-AD
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September 14, 2022 at 9:29 am
Good Morning Sir,
It is always sweet to know about those good old golden days.
Thanks for sharing this invaluable treasure with us.
Regards
Uma
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
September 14, 2012 at 8:29 am
Thanks Atul for deciphering the words in the second stanza and a couple of other places in the song. I was struck on that for a long time.
As for the question mark?? in the second stanza, I still hear them as ‘aab ka’ and ‘achhi bhari’ though ‘ka’ and ‘bhari’ do not seem to fit well in the respective lines.
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September 14, 2012 at 6:59 pm
The lines might be :
dil ko khilaa ke ‘aaftaab’
shabnam jahaan se mit gayee
saawan bhi ro ke chal diya
achchhi ‘teri’ bahaar hai
aaftaab – Sun
Shabnam – dew
The word aaftaab is fitting nicely with the lines.
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September 14, 2012 at 7:32 pm
Now these two lines make sense.
Thanks for deciphering the words.
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