Aankhen keh gayin dil ki baat
Posted on: March 31, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Most of of the present generation of music lovers may not remember Shiv Dayal Batish ( S D Batish), the classical musician, vocalist, playback singer and music director. During his filmy career in 40s and 50s, he composed music for 19 films (including 2 films with his pseudo name of Nirmal Kumar) and sang about 100 songs. His music compositions for Hindi films are generally labelled as Lahore style of Hindi film music which was used by Lahore based music directors like Pandit Amarnath, Pandit Govindram, Master Ghulam Haider, Shyam Sundar, Khurshid Anwar etc. S D Batish was the cousin of other Batish brothers – Pandit Amarnath, Husnlal and Bhagatram. It is said that originally, the family surname was ‘Vats’ ( or Wats) which became ‘Vatish’ and then to ‘Batish’.
Apart from being a trained vocalist and musician, S D Batish undertook a lot of research in classical music and published scholarly work on raga based music in his later years,. In 1965, he joined BBC at London and contributed in building up its library of vocal and instrumental music. In 1970, he migrated to USA on an invitation from University of California, Santa Cruz to teach music. He made Santa Cruz, California his home and established Batish Institute of Indian Music and Fine Arts there. During this period he did some scholarly works including that on Carnatic and Hindustani ragas. He remained in California till his death in July 2006.
S D Batish became a well known singer when khaamosh nigaahen ye sunaati hain kahaani from ‘Daasi’ (1944) became very popular. One of his songs which I like is jalaakar aag dil mein zindagi barbaad karte hain from ‘Toofaan’ (1964). Of course na to kaarwaan ki talaass hai from ‘Barsaat Ki Raat’ (1960) in which he sang with Manna Dey and others singers became an iconic qawwali of Hindi films. Incidentally, S D Batish sang for himself in this qawwali.
S D Batish sang a song ‘ aankhen keh gayin dil ki baat’ for the film LAADLI (1949) which is yet to be discussed in this blog. The song was written by Dr Safdar ‘Aah’ Sitapuri and set to music by Anil Biswas. Perhaps, one of the most popular songs from this film tumhaare bulaane ko jee chaahtaa hai kept this beautifully rendered song under its shadow.
LAADLI (1949) was produced under the banner of Variety Pictures and directed by J P Advani. The star cast included Jairaj, Sulochana Chatterjee, Kuldip Kaur, Sulochana (Ruby Mayer), Ramesh Sinha, Narbada Shankar etc. The film had 11 songs written by 5 lyricists – Dr Safdar ‘Aah’ Sitapuri, Behzad Lucknawi, Nazim Panipati, Chandra Shekhar Pandey and S H Bihari. Only one song from this movie has been discussed in this blog in the past.
Song-Aankhen keh gayin dil ki baat (Laadli)(1949) Singer-S D Batish, Lyrics-Safdar Aah Sitapuri, MD-Anil Biswas
Lyrics
aaa
aankhen keh gayin dil ki baat
aankhen keh gayin dil ki baa..aat
do kaali matwaali aankhen
wo kaali matwaali aankhen
jinki anokhi ghaat
aankhen keh gayin dil ki baat
aankhen keh gayin dil ki baat
le gaye sab kuchh ek nazar mein en en
de gaye sab kuchh ek nazar mein
de gaye sab kuchh ek nazar mein
jiski tamannaa mein jeete thhe
mil gayi wo saugaat
aankhen keh gayin dil ki baat
aankhen keh gayin dil ki baat
le gaye dil aur dil ki kahaani ee ee
le gaye dil aur dil ke kahaani ee ee
de gaye phir ek peer suhaani ee ee
ek peer suhaani ee ee
le kar dil kaa chain de gaye
binaa neend ki raat
aankhen keh gayin dil ki baat
aankhen keh gayin dil ki baat
do kaali matwaali aankhen
wo kaali matwaali aankhen
jinki anokhi ghaat
aankhen keh gayin dil ki baat
aankhen keh gayin dil ki baa..aat
2 Responses to "Aankhen keh gayin dil ki baat"
April 3, 2013 at 7:35 am
There is one more memorable song by Pt. Shiv Dayal Batish in film:Kaise Kahoo 1964 : Manmohan man mein ho tumhi along with Suman Kalyanpur and Rafi saab
LikeLike
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
April 1, 2013 at 2:17 pm
Dear Kamathji, many thanks for the information that S D Batish was related to another musically strong Batish family. Also the fact that Batisn is derived from Vaish. Today, how many will remember SDB?
LikeLike