Kehke bhi na aaye tum
Posted on: February 2, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
I was a bit surprised to note that Mohammed Rafi had to struggle for nearly 5 years to establish him as one of the leading male playback singers in Hindi film industry. It is said that he recorded his first song for a Punjabi film as early as 1942. It took him another 2 years to get his first song in a Hindi film ‘Pahele Aap’ (1944), a duet with Shyam thus beginning his long lasting collaboration with Naushad. It took another year for him to get an opportunity to sing his first solo song ‘ae dil-e-nakaam tamanna’ in ‘Hamara Sansaar’ (1945) followed by ‘teraa khilonaa toota baalak’ in ‘Anmol Ghadi’ (1946), the latter one under the baton of Naushad.
While Naushad introduced Rafi in Hindi films industry, in my view, it was C Ramchandra who facilitated his ‘take off’ in his singing career. Rafi got his first real break in solo playback singing in the film ‘Safar’ (1946) when he sang ‘kahke bhi na aaye tum’ under the music direction of C Ramchandra. This song became very popular and Rafi’s credential as a playback singer was established. I became aware of this song among many old Hindi film songs which were often played on Radio Ceylon’ s programme ‘Purani Filmo Ke Geet’. The popularity of his duet song with Noor Jehan ‘ yahaan badlaa wafaa ka bewaafai ke sivaa kyaa hai’ in ‘Jugnu’ (1947) gave further push to his singing career. Again, it was C Ramchandra who reposed confidence in him by giving him 6 songs (two solos) to sing in ‘Saajan’ (1947). Probably, C Ramchandra may have been instrumental in bringing the first Rafi-Lata duet song in the film ‘Shaadi Ke Pahale’ (1947) though officially, Karnad-Paigankar have been accredited as music director of this film who were his assistants.
I had read a trivia a few months back as to how C Ramchandra managed Rafi to give playback for Ashok Kumar in ‘Saajan’ (1947) in which Ashok Kumar wanted to sing for himself. The song in question was ‘hamko tumhara hi aasra’. Now the question was who will bell the cat as Ashok Kumar was not only the lead actor in the film, he was also one of the partners of Filmistan under whose banner this film was produced. C Ramchandra knew one weakness of Ashok Kumar that he used to become very panicky even on a small issue. So C Ramchandra deliberately kept the recording of this song on the day when communal violence broke out. He had already called Rafi in the recording studio assuming that Ashok Kumar would not able to make it to the recording studio. As expected, Ashok Kumar did not turn up for song recording. The other two partners of Filmistan – Shashdhar Mukherjee and Raibahadur Chunnilal gave a go head for recording the song with Rafi as non recording of the song would have delayed the picturisation of the song. When Ashok Kumar heard this song, he was so pleased that he requested C Ramchandra to record his remaining songs in Rafi’s voice.
Rafi got another boost to his singing career when all his 6 songs based on classical raagas and folk tunes in ‘Baiju Baawra’ (1952) became very popular. But C Ramchandra was not far behind in composing popular songs for Rafi. He gave one after another hit songs to Rafi like ‘apni chhaaya mein Bhagwan’ in ‘Insaaniyat’ (1955), ‘ye hasrat thhi ki is duniyaa mein’ in ‘Nausherwan-e-Adil’ (1957), ‘dekh hamein aawaz na dena’ with Asha Bhonsle in ‘Amar Deep’ (1958). In the 60s, C Ramchandra’s output as a music director had come down. During this period, he had some misunderstanding with Rafi as well. So 15 years of a successful collaboration with Rafi came to almost an end by which time other prominent music directors like Madan Mohan, O P Nayyar, S D Burman etc. had already started collaborating with Rafi in a significant way.
I have chosen for discussion a song from the film ‘Safar’ (1946) which, in my view, gave a real identity to Mohammed Rafi as a playback singer. The song is ‘kahke bhi na aaye tum’ written by Gopal Singh Nepali and set to music by C Ramchandra. The lyrics are simple so is the composition with minimal use of instruments. Yet Rafi’s rendering even at a young age with musical interludes alternating between flute and trumpet adds luster to the song and creates an effective poignant mood.
Only the audio clip of this song is available and I have no idea about the film’s details. I would request the knowledgeable readers to throw some lights on the film.
Song-Kahke bhi na aaye tum (Safar)(1946) Singer-Rafi, Lyrics-Gopal Singh Nepali, MD-C Ramchandra
Lyrics
kahke bhi na aaye tum
ab chhupne lage taare
dil leke tumhi jeete
dil deke hamhi haare
ham aas kiye jaate
tum pass nahin aate
jaana thhaa chaley jaate
milne ko chaley aate
kahke bhi na aaye tum
ab chhupne lage taare
dil leke tumhi jeete
dil deke hamhi haare
hamne thhaa tumhen maana
tumne hi na pehchaana
jab honaa thhaa begaana
tab kyuon kiyaa deewaana
kahke bhi na aaye tum
ab chhupne lage taare
dil leke tumhi jeete
dil deke hamhi haare
sunsaan huyi galiyaan
sab toot gayi kaliyaan
ab beet chalin ghadiyaan
par jaag rahin ankhiyaan
kahke bhi na aaye tum
ab chhupne lage taare
dil leke tumhi jeete
dil deke hamhi haare
13 Responses to "Kehke bhi na aaye tum"
February 2, 2013 at 1:49 pm
Kamath Sir,
Thanks for giving this informative write up on this wonderful song. I have heard this for the first time but it is a forgotten gem and I will hear it many times this weekend.
About C, Ramchandra and Rafi, there are total 83 songs sung by Rafi under C.Ramchandra. Between 1960 and 1970 there are no songs.
‘Insaniyat’ – 1955 has 11 songs by Rafi, which include 4 solos, duets with Lata, Manna dey and Chitalkar, 3 duets with Asha Bhosle.
83 songs include 5 songs in Telegu film ‘Akbar Saleem Anarkali ” (1977).
Regards.
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February 2, 2013 at 3:49 pm
Thanks for CR-Rafi collaboration songs. I was making a wild guess close to 100 songs.
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February 2, 2013 at 1:53 pm
I was always under the impression that this is Naushad’s gem, because it had all the ingredients of his flavour, and even I was sure this is from the movie Shabab. However a great composition and one of the early super hits of Rafi.
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February 2, 2013 at 1:55 pm
As per the excel sheet, the above song of safar is filmed on “Kanu Ghosh”.
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February 2, 2013 at 3:54 pm
Kanu Ghosh or Kanu Roy ?.
I had heard of Kanu Roy as an actor who also became music director in a few Hindi films.
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February 2, 2013 at 8:10 pm
Kamath ji,
The name is Kanu Roy who acted as a Hero to Shobha in this film.
HFGK also confirms this.
-AD
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February 2, 2013 at 6:12 pm
What a song!!! There will never be another Rafi.
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February 3, 2013 at 12:56 pm
This song had brought back the nostalgia, beautiful song. Rafi rocks.
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February 3, 2013 at 2:52 pm
Beautiful song !!
I think i have heard it on ‘all india radio’s urdu service programme’ (which used to be 10.30 to 11.30 pm), but that was many years back. Thanks for this Rafi saab’s gem Kamath Sir !!!
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September 17, 2016 at 1:34 pm
No body has noted the language of the song. I think, It is a song written in the simplest language and yet having all the poetic delicacy and subtlety at the disposal of the poet. One of the rare songs from this point of view. Nepali was a well-known Hindi poet and was extremely popular at kavi sammelan. He had close relationship with IPTA and although known as a lyricist of religious films, he never hid his leftist credentials.
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September 17, 2017 at 11:20 pm
I think Kanu Roy the actor is different from Kanu Roy the composer. Kanu Roy acted in Bombay Talkies and Filmistan films like Basant, Kismat, Safar, Mahal, Mashaal, Jagriti, Munimji, Tumsa Nahin Dekha.
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
February 2, 2013 at 11:26 am
NFS by Rafi kehke bhi na aaye mulaqat ko chand taare hanse khub kal raat ko go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ekURn_NOw4
Already sent to Atulji.
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