Meera kahe bina prem se nahin milen nandlaala
Posted on: October 11, 2012
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
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Lesser known singers- Singer 6 (Binota Chakraborty)
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In the early era of films, the line between the various language films was very thin. Films were often made taking inspiration from other language films. Many times films were made on topics related to other languages. For example, films on Sant Tukaram, Dnyaneshwar, Sant Sakhu, Gora Kumbhar and even Namdeo-the saints popular in Maharashtra-were made in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages. Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films were also made on the lives of on Sant Tulsidas and Kabir.
Exchange of Themes, songs, tunes and even artists was very common. Thus we saw that M SSubbulaxmi, Ghantasala, P.Susheela, Jikki and others sang in Hindi films and Lata, Asha, Rafi, Talat, Mukesh and others sang in Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil and Telugu also.
This trend started from 1932 onwards. In 1932, there was a film MUFLIS AASHIQ which had 32 songs and included 1 Punjabi and 1 Bengali song. Again in film AADAMI-1939,Shanta Hublikar sang a song in seven languages -Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, Gujarati, Punjabi and Telugu. There was such a song even in TEEN BATTI CHAR RAASTA-1953 with Bangla, Tamil, Sindhi, Marathi, Gujarati and Punjabi languages. Shanta Apte had sung an English song in Duniya Na Maane-1937, after Devika Rani’s English song in KARMA-1933. Shanta Apte had sung a song in Tamil also when she went to Madras and acted in Tamil film SAVITRI-1941(In this film M S Subbulaxmi had played the male role of NARAD MUNI).
These were all stray incidences, but there was a singer who was born in Maharashtra, settled in Bengal and sang Bengali songs in Begali Films ! With a Bengali Name !!
We are talking about VINTA AMLADI aka BINOTA CHAKRABORTY.
The following account has been based on her interview as appeared in Harmandir Hamraz’s Listeners’ Bulletin No 134 of July 2007.
VINATA RAGHAVENDRA AMLADI was born on 9-8-1928 in Bombay. She had 3 sisters and 3 brothers. Her father Raghavendra used to play Tabla and her elder sister Hemlata sang classical music. She taught her singing. Once, when Vinata was about 15-16 year old, she sang in a private Birthday party, in which composer Sardar Malik was present. He was impressed with her singing and she was given an offer to sing songs in film RAIN BAERA, at a princely sum of Rs.250/-. After this film she also sang in the film Renuka-1947.
When she went to record songs with Sardar Malik, she met her future husband Krishna Chakraborty, who worked as a pianist in the orchestra.
She then met composer VINOD. She says-
“I was introduced to the sound recordist of Shourie films, at a song and dance group meeting. He in turn took her to VINOD. He heard his singing and included her in the chorus of a song of Lata in Ek thi Ladki-1949. Then he said, You have met me very late.N ow I have only one song left. You sing it. The song was “Dilli se aaya Bhai Tingu” from Ek Tthhi Ladki. The song became a super hit in those days.”
After this she did some Marathi films. In 1950 she got married to Krishna Chakraborty, against opposition from family and they moved to Calcutta and settled there. In 1952 Pankaj Mullick called her to sing a Meera Bhajan in film YATRIK. When she went to New Theatres for recording ths song, she was thrilled. Herr father was so happy with this song that they forgot the past and reunited. Pankaj Mullick sent her to Kamal Dasgupta and under his baton she sang some songs in Bengali films. By now her name had automatically become from Vinata to Binota in the Bengali style. As Binota Chakrawarty she sang songs in yet another Hindi film from Calcutta 25th JULY-1951.
In 1953 she came back to Bombay after her husband’s untimely death, to look after her ailing father. In Bombay she sang songs in Kasturi and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu-both 1954. Now she stopped getting songs and she retired. Nowadays,she lives in Goregaon.
Here is a song from film YAATRIK-1952. It is sung by Vinita Amladi aka Binota Chakraborty. It is a tradidional Meera Bhajan. Music is composed by Pankaj Mullick.
Song-Meera kahe bina prem se nahin miley nandlala (Yatrik)(1952) Singer-Vinita Amladi, Lyrics-Meera Bai, MD-Pankaj Mullick
Lyrics
Meera kahe bina prem se
nahin miley he nandlala
preet karna chaahee
prem lagaana chaahee
bhajan karna chaahee
saadhan karna chaahee re manwa
bhajan karna chaahee
bhajan karna chaahee
prem lagaana chaahe re manwa
preet karna chaahee
preet karna chaahee
saadhan karna chaahee re manwa
bhajan karna chaahee
tulsi poojan se hari milen to
main poojoon tulsi taad
tulsi poojan se hari milen to
main poojoon tulsi taad
main poojoon tulsi taad
patthhar poohjan se hari milen to
main poojoon pahaad
main poojoon pahaad
doodh peene se hari milen
doodh peene se hari milen
to
bahut vats baala
bahut vats baala
Meera kahe bina prem se
Meera kahe bina prem se
nahin milen nandlala
nahin milen nandlala
nahin milen nandlaaaala
17 Responses to "Meera kahe bina prem se nahin milen nandlaala"
October 11, 2012 at 12:13 pm
Long long back, when I used to stay at Goregaon and was commuting by train to work. I was humming few lines of a song, The elderly gentleman seating next to me asked if I new who the singer was of that song. When I told him that it was a song by Binota Chakraborty, which I had heard on Radio Ceylon that morning. He told me that She is his daughter, staying with him. We chatted and he gave me his address and invited me to his home. Unfortunately, I could not make it, and I still regret that I missed the opportunity to meet personally the talented great singer.
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October 11, 2012 at 12:25 pm
What a lovely experience you had.Thanks for sharing.
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October 11, 2012 at 12:34 pm
Can you shed some lights, on the subject ‘Binota’.
There was one ‘Binota Bose’ too.
I am bit confused. (I am 80)
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October 11, 2012 at 4:51 pm
Bharat ji,
VINATA got corrupted to BINOTA in the typical Bangla way.
The actual meaning of VINATA is ,I think,Vinayata or Namrata or in short may be obedient.
This is a very uncommon name in Maharashtra.The other similar names Namita,Namrata,Vinaya etc are more common.
Yes,there was a BINOTA BOSE too. She was a singer too.
-AD
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October 11, 2012 at 11:34 pm
Dear Arun Kumar,
A friend forwarded your blog today. The time difference was such that when I opened the mail , it was 5 am in California and what a refreshing experience was that! It made my day.
The Meera bhajan sung by Binota Chakrabarti has been my favorite since I saw Yatrik in early 1950s. I heard it through your blog after almost thirty years and all the memories camelback flooding. I remembered two more songs of Binotajee, which often played on AIR in 1950s- सावनकी रात पिया महुआका बन and रहे हो मनके मित हमारे. I was a teenager then and instantly fell in love with the voice and the singer- though I had never seen her or knew about her! The surprise of the century (through your blog) for me has been that Binotajee was a non-Bengali and that there are people like me who still love her songs. Thank you very much for giving me these precious moments to re-live and cherish.
Is it possible to have Binotajee’s address?
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April 11, 2013 at 8:41 pm
She is no more with us. I am her son-in-law. She had 1 daughter. We were so happy to see that some people still remember her. It is so touching for us…Thanks to everyone who posted here
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April 11, 2013 at 10:33 pm
Thank you, Deep Babu. You were blessed by her son as we are still the admirers of Binotajee’s talent.
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November 19, 2013 at 5:58 pm
The write-up is very informative and you deserve very many thanks.
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September 26, 2015 at 11:40 am
It’s heart-warming to see that Smt. Binota Chakravarti’s legacy still lives through this blog and by our fond memories of how she has touched our lives .I was recently exposed to her songs when I was requested to sing ‘Meera Kahe’ at a remembrance day function (which i will be doing on 17th October) and since then i have swept off my feet by her melodious vocals. I am thankful to you ,sirs, for sharing the lyrics. Hope i am able to do justice to this stalwart’s song.
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September 29, 2015 at 12:52 am
Dr Itolikar
So nice to hear that her songs are still being remembered after so many years. We would appreciate if you can share your rendition with us
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April 9, 2021 at 8:27 am
I love reading the posts on this site. I ran through the comments hoping on more information on Binota Chakraborty. Found two gems- Bharat Upadhyay meeting her father and her son-in-law, Deep Mukerjee responding to the comments. When did Binota Chakraborty pass on? Why not add this into a Wikipedia page?
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
October 11, 2012 at 7:24 am
Arunji,
Wish could say more than thank you for posting this song with informative write up. This is one of my fav Yatrik song/bhajan. I consider all Yatrik songs as bhajans.
I was not aware of the fact that Vinita Amladi is BC’s real name.
Thanks for finding the word tulsi taad for me. I could not get it even after using headphones.
The missing word ??? is prem.
Ninth line, prem karna chaahee is missing. (I know it’s just a typo)
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October 11, 2012 at 10:30 am
Khyati ji,
The lyrics of all the songs of my postings have been very kindly written by Atul ji and not me.Listening and writing of the lyrics has been taken care of by him,for me and has been a great help to me,while I am churning out everyday one singer’s story.
-AD
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October 11, 2012 at 11:40 am
Yes Arunji, I agree with you. Atulji has written so many informative write ups for songs I have sent. Mera kaam to bahut aasaan hai. Just listen to the song, write the words and then send it to him. He searches all available info about the song and writes a beautiful post. Thank you Atulji for giving us this pleasure.
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October 11, 2012 at 5:27 pm
Khyati ji,
I think there is a mix up.The entire write up and selection of song is mine,while Atul ji has been very helpful to me doing the tedious job of listening and writing lyrics of the song. Thanks to his efforts to make my posts look complete.
-AD
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October 11, 2012 at 11:09 pm
Arunji,
What I wrote was from my part that I only send Atulji the lyrics then he writes the post/information spending so much valuable time of his. Mujhe ye pata hai ki aap post likhte ho aur Atulji gaana likhte hai. Sorry for the confusion, created by my comment.
I really enjoy each and every new singer, you are introducing to us. Waiting for more posts from you eagerly. 🙂
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February 14, 2017 at 3:24 pm
Dear Arunji ,
Sorry to bring up an issue after such a long interval . While you have mentioned that BINOTA CHAKRABORTY sang a song in “KASTURI” (1954) , the Credits in the Film itself refers to a BINOTA MUKERJI .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZBnZKMsJc0
I would like to believe the song picturised on Helen is sung by BC , but in view of the Credits in the Film , a clarification is in order and perhaps you may like to explore further , just to clear the confusion .
With warm regards
PARTHA CHANDA
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