Tumbak tumba tumbak tumba
Posted on: May 2, 2013
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Chaar Chaand -1953 was one of those non-descript movies which leave no trace behind them, once they go off the screen.
I had not seen this film and I did not get any information about this film anywhere on the net or in any books or magazines. With a star cast of B grade, like Shyama, Suresh, Bhagwan, Shaikh, Majnu, Cuckoo etc, even its production banner was not well known- Fine art films, Bombay.
Producer was F M Khan and the director was A.Kareem. Now this A kareem was a different type of person. He was first a Music director for some stunt films like, Toofani Teerandaz, Atom Bomb, Dhoomketu and Maya Mahal. Then he wrote lyrics and finally he tried his hand at Direction. In this film he also wrote lyrics to 8 songs out of 9 songs.
Though the film was not so successful, there was much more to this film, which was worth noting.
There were 2 Music Directors for the 9 songs of this movie. Nashaad composed 8 songs and and one song was composed by K.Manohar.
This film had created a sort of record. It used 12 playback singers for 9 songs !
Shamshad Begum, Jawer Hussain, Promodini Desai, Balbir, Madhubala Jhaveri, Asha Bhonsle, Premlata, Mubarak Begum, Shivram, Talat mehmood , Nargis and Satish Batra were the playback singers for the songs of this movie.
( Film Contract-2000 comes a close second with 10 playback singers for 10 songs)
Singer Jawer Hussain had himself given music to a film Daara-53. He sang only in Nashaad’s films. This Nargis was Nashaad’s first wife, who sang her first and last song in this film.
Satish Batra though mainly a singer had acted in 4 films like 24 Ghante, Dholak,Chalis Din and Paapi.
Premlata married Nashaad in the 60s and migrated to Pakistan along with him.
Pt.Shivram was himself a composer.
NASHAAD (original name Shaukat Hydari Dehlavi) was born in Delhi in 1917. He started his music career as a Music Director in films viz. Jeene Do-48, Suhagi-48, Toote Taare-48, Dada-49, Aayiye-49, Ghajab and char Chand-1953 in the name of either Shaukat Hydari or Shaukat Dehlavi.
Till he got the film Char chand-53, his financial condition was very bad.
Producer, Director and Lyricist Nakshab Jarachavi had a tiff with music director Naushad Ali, As a fallout of that, Nakshab called Shaukat Hyderi as a Music Director for his first film NAGHMA-1953. Nakshab changed his name to NASHAAD.
Since Naghma was a challenging and a prestige film, its songs were first recorded before the songs of Char chand. Further though Char Chand was passed by censors in july 1953, it was not released immediately. Naghma was censored in September and released immediately. It became a Hit film and its songs also very popular.
Although Char Chand was signed up by Nashaad when he was still working under the name of Shaukat Hydari,his name in that film also was mentioned as Nashaad, to take advantage of the popularity of the music of Naghma. However it did not help as Char Chand turned out to be a flop film. Its music though was very good indeed.
As Nashaad he gave music to Darwaza, Baradari, Jawab,Sabse bada Rupaiah, Shahzada, Jallad, Bada Bhai, Awara Shahzadi, Mehfil, Hathkadi, Zindagi ya Toofan, Main hoon Jadugar, Jara Bachke, Qatil, Flight to Assam, Pyar ki Dastaan, Rooplekha, Maya Mahal and Flying Man.
Nashaad could never repeat the magic of Naghma. he was many times criticised for copying tunes. His reply was-
” Although no one says it to my face, I know that there is a section in the film industry who decry my music as “a re-hash of familiar tunes.”
This amounts to a charge of plagiarism.
I have no defense, no apology, to offer, except to say that, if am a plagiarist, I am one unconsciously.
With only seven main notes, six ragas, thirty-six raginis and seventy-two sub-raginis, every “new” musical composition is bound to sound familiar in places.
Try to hum any popular film composition of today and then cast back your mind. Make a careful search for a parallel and you will easily find one in some celebrated songs of yesterday.
I believe in popular music, music which people will like, humming and singing it in their homes—in moments of joy or sorrow. I try my-best to keep my compositions free from complicated “alaps,” “tans” and those notational cascades which the man-in-the-street (who has no musical training) cannot easily remember and hum.
Film music, to be good and popular, must always be the result of team-work. The ego of the music-director as well as that of the lyric-writer needs to be suppressed completely, even to the extent of accepting suggestions from everyone in the unit.” (Thanks to Cineplot).
Around 65-66, he migrated to Pakistan along with his second wife Premlata. In Pakistan he was a ‘not so popular’ composer and gave music to some 15 films like Maikhana, Rimjhim, Suhag, Hill station, Ajmat, Iljam, Afsar etc etc.
He expired on 3-1-1981 at Lahore.
His elder son Wajid Ali Nashaad was a reputed Music Director and the younger son Amir Ali was a singer in films.
Today we will hear a song from his film Char Chand sung by Satish Batra and Nargis,his first wife. this is a fun song having Anokhe Bol.
Song-Tumbak tumba tumbak tumba (Chaar Chaand)(1953) Singer-Satish Batra, Nargis, Lyrics-A Kareem, MD-Nashaad
Male chorus
Female chorus
Lyrics
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
chhammak chhammak chham chhamaachham
chhanak chhanak chhaam chhamba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
haiyyo haiyyo
haiyyo hammak hamba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
tera mera jod nahin
tu thingni aur main lamba
tu ghaaslet ki laalten aur main bijli ka khamba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
tu ulfat ka deewana
main shama tu parwaana
ho mere dil ki aag bujhaade
lagaake seedhi bamba
seedhi bamba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
gaane mein hoon main ustaad
naach hain sare mujhko yaad
naach hain saare mujhko yaad
bharatnatyam manipuri taandaw kathak aur
rakhtoda aur kathakali balle or ramba samba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
chhammak chhammak chham chhamaachham
chhanak chhanak chhaam chhamba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
khaali khaali baaten hain
jhoothi jhoothi ghaaten hain
jhoothi jhoothi ghaaten hain
jhoothi jhoothi ghaate teri
jhuthi jhuthi ghaten hain
kaam kuch aisa kar ke dikhao ke
sab ko ho achambha
ho achambha
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
chhammmak chhammak chham chhamaachham
chhanak chhanak chham chhamba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
rab se patla haal hua hai
jeena bhi janjaal hua hai
jeena bhi janjaal hua hai
jeena bhi janjaal hua hai
ho
hum ??
dil hua lotpot
haye haay
kaise kahoon
rooth gaya
dil ka chaala phoot gaya
topi gayi dhoti gayi
juta gaya boot gaya suit gaya
sab kuchh gaya
koi hamko loot gaya
ban gaye hum to gudamba
ho gudamba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
hey
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
tumbak tumba
31 Responses to "Tumbak tumba tumbak tumba"
May 2, 2013 at 10:22 am
Ear-catching(!!) number from Nashaad!! Heard twice and tapped my foot! Thanks Arunji for a great start to the day.
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May 2, 2013 at 10:49 am
“Baradari” 1955, had the iconic Talat number and quite a few great songs. It was hard for me to believe in my early days that it was not Naushad, but Nashaad who had composed Baradari.Thanks for the writeup Arunji.
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May 2, 2013 at 11:27 am
In movie Kalka also, 12 singers were used for just 6 songs.
Regards.
May 2, 2013 at 11:34 am
I have never heard this film name. It is also not listed anywhere.Can you please give some details,like year of release,correct/full name,cast/Director etc. i will be obliged.
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Dear Mr Deshmukh,
Kalka is an off-beat movie of Shatrughan Sinha and Raj Babbar, made in 1983.
The movie was about the plight of workers in a coal mine.
It was produced by Shatrughan and Poonam Sinha and directed by Lokesh Lalwani.
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373956/
It also had Amjad Khan, Sudhir Pandey, Viju Khote, Nitin Sethi, etc.
Music was by Jagjit & Chitra Singh.
Songs:
-Bidesiya Re (Jagjit Singh,Vinod Sehgal,Ashok Khosla,Ghanshyam Vaswani,Anand Kumar C,Murali Mizhar)
-Darogaji Se (Shobha Gurtu)
-Kaise Kaise Rang Dikhaye Kaali Ratiyan (Jagjit Singh)
-Luchhe Baratiya Chale Aaye Dware (Kavita Krishnamurthy,Chhaya Ganguly,Shobha Joshi,Minu Purushottam)
-Ma Kali Bhajan (Shatrughan Sinha,Vinod Sehgal,Anand Kumar C,Murali Mizhar)
-Tarana (Jagjit Singh)
Regards.
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May 2, 2013 at 1:21 pm
Thanks for your info.
Kalki was not listed in the film list book of Hamraz ji and i had never heard its name ,may be because it was an offbeat film.
Anyway,thanks for this update.
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May 2, 2013 at 3:14 pm
It is not KALKI, it is
“KALKA(1983)” was a very good movie, (eventhough a little bit slow, grim & dark to watch), I had seen it on Doordarshan channel,(on May day,some 2 or 3 years ago), I think the movie was available on youtube.
Starcast:Shatrughna Sinha, RAaeshwari,Sarika,RAj babbar,Amjad Khan,Dinesh Hingoo, Nitin Sethi,Paintal,Sudhir Pandey, Masood Akthar,Mazhar Khan, Javed Khan,Kamu,Savita Bajaj
Picturised at real locations of Bihar, Bharat Coaking Coal Ltd,Dhanbad
Presenter:Smt.Shyama Devi Sinha
Production house:Ramayana Chitra Combines(Actor Shatrughna Sinha`s Home production banner)
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May 2, 2013 at 4:04 pm
Film ‘Lagaan’ (2001)
7 songs & 14 playback singers.
Asha Bhosle …. playback singer (as Asha Bhonsle)
Vasundhara Das …. playback singer
Kishori Gowariker …. playback singer
Shankar Mahadevan …. playback singer
Lata Mangeshkar …. playback singer
Udit Narayan …. playback singer
A.R. Rahman …. playback singer
Sadhana Sargam …. playback singer
Shaan …. playback singer
Sukhwinder Singh …. playback singer (as Sukhvinder Singh)
Srinivas …. playback singer
Anuradha Sriram …. playback singer
Vaishali …. playback singer
Alka Yagnik …. playback singer
With ARR, this type of statistics are common.
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May 2, 2013 at 5:19 pm
Thanks,nahm ji.
Looks like Chaar Chand record was held exclusively till 1983,then it was shared with Kalka and in 2001 it became a joint no.2 after Lagaan. This is also subject to any other new information that may crop up later.
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May 2, 2013 at 7:12 pm
The song “Tumbak Tumba” was played as a title song for some time on Radio Ceylon on every Monday at 9.00 p.m. in programme called “ANOKHE BOL ” Announcers like Gopal Sharma,Manohar Mahajan, or
Shiv Kumar Saroj use to present the said Programme in which songs having anokhe bol were broadcasted. for 15 minutes.
Fatehal Damanii
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May 2, 2013 at 7:33 pm
Its not just A R Rahman, its just the way of doing things in this new era. Every album lists the details of all technicians which would include the names of keyboard players, piano players, tabla players and so on. So before when they would just list “chorus”, Rahman’s movies would list all the background singers as well – Pallavi, Noel, G V Prakash, etc. like in movies like Bombay.
Besides, all new movies have 4-5 different music directors, and they would each bring their “own” singers, so u have plenty of singers per album.
Many of these movies will have plenty of songs on the soundtrack, while most of them might not even appear in the movie! For example, Traffic Signal (2007) – its soundtrack features likes of Bhupinder, Hariharan, Chitra, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Ustad Sultan Khan, Vinod Rathod, and so on…. total 18 singers! I’m sure if a more through research is done, a movie with more number of singers might be out there somewhere!
My favorite such movie however is Biswajeet’s Biwi Aur Makaan (1966).
Asha-Lata-Usha-Rafi-Mukesh-Manna-Talat-Hemant!
This has to be the best collection of singers ever assembled for a movie soundtrack! Now, only if they had used Kishore Kumar also. That would have been just perfect!
Besides above distinguished folks, they also have: Bula Gupta, Ghulam Mohammed, Jayant Mukherjee, Joginder and S Balbir. So that makes it 13 singers total used in a 1966 movie.
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May 2, 2013 at 7:43 pm
bluefire ji,
Thanks for your great info. I was really not aware of these things happening nowadays.In the days of commercialism,advertising names of contributors may be a necessity to proclaim greatness !
With this new information,the record of 12 PB singers in Char Chand was broken in 1966 itself.
Thanks,once again.
-AD
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I dont know about ‘Bombay’ credit list, but the ‘Lagaan’ list I found from imdb website. I mentioned this fact in the song post of ‘baar baar haan bolo yaar haan’ that there are 14 playback singers used in this movie. As for these 14 names, barring 2-3 they all are established playback singers. Maybe some of them are playing instruments also alongwith singing a few lines. And somebody like Sonu Nigam is missing from this list.
Maybe we should consider it a record only if a film album is by a single MD and not a mixture of different private albums and songs(re-recorded for film use or not).
Is it possible that in a hindi film with only one playback Singer singing a decent no.of songs ? Anything is possible so yeh bhi ho saktaa hai.
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May 3, 2013 at 4:03 am
No one’s disputing your mentioning of Lagaan soundtrack, Nahm. So, relax! 🙂 I was just talking about current music scene in general.
Fyi, official Lagaan soundtrack has only 13 singers. Sadhana Sargam features only in the movie version. And there is no Sonu Nigam in this movie.
A filmmaker has the right to choose however many number of actors/dancers/story writers, etc. Same goes with singers and music directors. So an officially released soundtrack is what it is. We cant make up our own rules 🙂 We can however choose what we like to listen or discuss, for example, this blog focusing on 40s-60s mainly.
Its unclear to me what ur last sentence means, the way its phrased. Do u mean to say what would be the record for a maximum number of songs for a movie with only one single playback singer?
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I know Sonu Nigam was a regular with ARR during the period when ‘Lagaan’ was made, that is why I mentioned he is not there in this list. Again my point is that It is more genuine in case of ARR because he prefers to use many singers in one film soundtrack. Other film makers are doing this (using different MDs ) to have variety in the soundtrack.
I meant it would be a record if a film has decent no of songs (5-6) and only one singer singing them all. It is possible that s this has happened sometime in the history of HFM.
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May 3, 2013 at 11:23 am
nahm ji,
Just one singer singing ALL 6 to upto 10 songs in a film has happened several times in Hindi films and is no novelty.
Take Shamshad begum in Khajanchi or Geeta Dutt in Jogan. Lata and Asha must have done it atleast a dozen times,I am sure. Even Mohd. Rafi has done it, I am sure.
Lata in Patrani and Raajdhani,both 56 films.
Asha Bhosle in Sudarshan chakra-56
These are just off hand examples.
-AD
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Sir,
What I mean is if all songs in a film are sung by only one playback singer and no one else. For e.g. if in ‘ Jogan ‘ (1951), as you say Geeta Dutt has 12 solos, but there are 2 solos of Shamshad Begum and one solo for Talat Mehmood too.
I am talking about a single playback singer only for a films songs. At least 5-6 songs would be a decent no. for such a example. It might have happened. I thought, as you say it is possible for ‘Jogan’, if there was no one else except Geeta Roy/Dutt. So I checked Jogan song list.
http://myswar.com/album/jogan-1950
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May 3, 2013 at 12:16 pm
Here u go:
13 solo by 1 singer:
http://myswar.com/album/meera-bai-1947
Not sure if there would be another example. Would keep looking. If im not mistaken, this is Sitara Kanpuri, and not Sitara Devi as mentioned on myswar.
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I thought also it could be possible in ‘Meera’ but there are two singers in Meera (1979). Good work, and thanks for looking. Do let me know if you find more such examples.
Thanks and regards.
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May 3, 2013 at 2:13 pm
Some of the films I could get where All songs are by ONE singer are-
Draupadi-44 All 9 by Susheela Rani
panna-44 All* Rajkumari
Zid-45 All 8 Sunder
Bela-47 All 10 Zohrabai Amabalawali
meerabai-47 All 13 by Sitara Kanpuri
poonji- all 10 Shamshad begum
Nadaan-43 all 6 Noorjehan
Ratnaghar-55 all 5 Lata
Teerandaz-55 all 6 Lata
Halla Gulla-54 all 9 by Rafi+Asha
Aurat-53 all 9 by Lata
Poonam-52 all 9 by Lata
There will be some more.it is a time consuming exercise.In most cases 1 or 2 are with some other singers.
-AD
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Sir,
Thanks a lot for finding so many movies. Just goes to prove my ignorance , I thought there would be some movies like this. Already the list is in 2 digits.
I see that some of the films are still to feature in the blog. It seems like a good idea to pursue such films songs.
I can very well understand it must be tedious to go through all song lists. I am grateful to you to finding so much, and regret the inconvenience.
Thanks and regards.
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May 3, 2013 at 8:22 pm
nahm ji,
Hamraz ji has done a great job of listing ALL the songs from 1931 till 1980,so far,in 5 volumes with singers’ names etc. Therefore it is easy,though time consuming,to get any information.
BTW in Akela-63 Asha has all 6 songs to her.
-AD
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May 2, 2013 at 7:50 pm
one song is very popular in ” char chand” [ hai ye wohi aasma aur hai wohi zami.]
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May 4, 2013 at 4:59 pm
Namaskar Arunji.
A wonderful and informative post. I liked the article and the song. Thanks Arunji for triggering a cascade of information.
If my memory serves me well, I think in the Hindi remake of the Tamil film Meera, M S Subbalakshmi had sung 19 solo songs, one duet with V Nagaiah, one with Radha Sadasivam. Besides two solos were sung by Radha Sadasivam. Please correct me if I am wrong. I intend to use the songs and information in my future write-up on ‘ Multiple version songs- Tamil to Hindi- Remakes’. Your inputs will be useful.
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May 4, 2013 at 7:22 pm
Venakataraman ji,
There were 2 films on Meera in 1947.
1. MEERA featuring MS Subbu Lakshmi ji, had total 18 songs.
15 were solos of MS,1 was a duet of Radha and MS,one was a duet of V.Nagaiah and MS and 1 song remained uncredited.
2. MEERABAI,featuring actress Neena had 13 songs.
11 were solos and 2 were with chorus,All songs were by
Sitara Kanpuri,who was contrated for 3 years with Shalimar Pictures of Poona,as a voice for Neena in all her films.
-AD
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May 5, 2013 at 1:18 pm
Than you Arunji.
I believe the other song which remained uncredited was ‘Asharana sharaney shyaama harey’ sung by S Sama (?) and Radha. I am not sure about the male singer.
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
May 2, 2013 at 10:13 am
He was pioneer in anokhe sabda and comedy songs
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