Aag se na khelo baabu jee
Posted on: November 30, 2013
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
This is the 3rd song in “Gems from Obscure films” series. The film is GURU GHANTAL-1956. It was a V K pictures film produced by R N Sharma and N K Kaushik. Directed by the veteran S M Yusuf, the film had music by Lachhiram Tamar.
Hindi film industry is like an ocean, in the sense that as all rivers ultimately join the Sea, similarly people having talents and a desire to shine in the Film Industry ended up in Bombay, Lahore or Calcutta. North of Vindhyas,these were the major production centres for films before partition. Calcutta ,however, became a major regional languages centre by mid 50s and Lahore went to Pakistan after Partition. Thus only Bombay was left as the only place where these aspirants flocked. South of Vindhyas, Madras played this role efficiently, not only for Tamil but also for all southern languages films.
People from ALL corners came to this industry. An young man from the state of Kuthar in Himachal Pradesh started learning music from Ustad Noore Khan. When Lachhiram Tamar was 20-21, he reached Delhi and worked for H.M.V., singing songs for them and making commercial records. He also sang on A.I.R. Delhi. In fact the song programme of Delhi A.I.R. started first with Lachhiram’s songs only. Thus his name is engraved in history. In those days, Aziz Kashmiri used to do Talent Hunting in the North. impressed by Lachhiram, he was employed by Shorey studios on a salary of 750 /- p.m. Initially, he joined Anupam Ghatak for Champa-45 and helped Pt. Amarnath Batish ( elder brother of Husnlal-Bhagatram Batish duo) in Badnaami and Shaalimar-46. His first independent film as a Music Director was ARSI-1947. His first film itself celebrated Silver Jubilee and the songs became popular.
Unfortunately his good luck seemed to have deserted him after this and his subsequent 13 films did not become successful to that extent. Some of his films were Mohini, Director, Birhan, Guru Dakshina and Madhubala-50. Madhubala’s music was appreciated and he could have cashed in on this, but he was hospitalised with severe T.B.- which was a terrible disease those days. He fought bravely and recoverd fully during the next ten years. Even in this period he gave music to Ameer, Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Maharani Jhansi, Guru Ghantal and Hazaar Pariyan.
In his final round he gave music to Razia Sultan-61 and Main suhagan hoon-64. Music of both films was popular. After these film Lachhiram Tamar went out of sight and out of mind of the industry ! For ever !
This film,Guru Ghantal-56 was directed by S.M.Yusuf (Syed Muazzam Yusuf), who was originally from U.P. and started his career by assisting directors in various studios. He was one cine artist who migrated to Pakistan and became a very successful director there too.
After Partition, several artistes-heroes, heroines, Directors, Comedians, lyricists, Composers, Singers and character artistes migrated to Pakistan. Almost 90% of them failed there miserably. Some of them like Meena Shorey shone for a while but ended up in penury and anonymity. Exceptions were like Malika -e-Tarannum Noorjahan. The major chunk of successful artistes was musicians-composers like Khurshid Anwar, Nissar Bazmi, Nashad etc. Among the directors. S M Yusuf was the exception who succeeded. The migration of Cine artistes continued till 1965, when President General Ayub Khan banned Indian actors. Sheiikh Mukhtar-1963 and Kumar-64 were probably the last to migrate to Pakistan. Till then some artistes like Sheila Ramani,Nasir Khan, Pran, Manorama,composer Timir Baran etc went and worked in Pakistani films.
S.M.Yusuf started directing films in India from Bharat ke Laal-36. He directed 20 odd films like,Darban, Aina, Grihasthi, Saheli, Mehendi, Guru Ghantal, Bahurani, Maalik, Gujara, Hyderabad ki Nazneen, Bikhre Moti etc.
When he went to Pakistan, he made his first film there called Saheli,which was a frame by frame remake of his own Hindi film- Mehendi-1950. This film Saheli became such a great hit that it virtually grabbed all major awards including a Nigar award for S M Yusuf himself. He made about 15 films in Pakistan, before he died on 17-8-1994 at Lahore,from where he had begun his career !
Film Guru Ghantal had 9 songs and 5 of them put me in a dialemma which song to choose for today’s posting. Besides today’s song, he other 4 songs were,’hay kaise nazr takra gayi’-Geeta/Balbir, ‘ Hum aapke hain’-Rafi/Asha, ‘ Yeh kaise yog liya sarkar’ a Rafi/Geeta duet in 2 parts and a rafi solo ‘aansoo na baha’. These 9 songs were written by 4 Lyricists. The cast of the film was Motilal, Sheila Ramani, Usha Kiron, Jagdev, Ajit, Agha, Sunder, Mirza Musharraf, Sheikh, Kesari etc .
The film was based on incidents found in day to day life. Open any Newspaper and you will find advertisements for some BABAs, Bengali, Kashmiri and other varieties, Siddha Purushas, Gurus and Saints. They all claim ready solutions for all difficulties in this world. Innocent, foolish and gullible people fall prey to them and spend money unlimited.
Rukmini Devi, wife of rich Carnival owner Raja Shyamdas has no children. Instead of going to a Doctor, she seeks all types of Babas,Gurus and saints. So much money is spent on them that Shyamdas had to stop studies and call back his Niece Leela from Bombay back to Khandala. Leela’s lover Ram, a jobless young man thinks of a plan to teach a lesson to Rukmini Devi and gives an ad in papers that Saints Sachitanand and Parmanand ji have great power to solve any problem.
Leela’s brother Raja Ramdas sees this ad and is sent by Rukmini Devi to fetch them to Khandala. He goes to Bombay and meets Ram, who tells him his plan and Ramdas agrees to help him. Ramdas,while in Bombay falls in love with a CID girl-Kanan, who is after these fake Gurus and Babas to expose them.Ram becomes Sachitanand,his fried is Parmanand. they all come to Khandala. While Ral and Leela and Ramdas and Kanan pairs are busy in singing and running around trees in Khandala,all the Jewellery of Rukmini devi is stolen.
Investigations start and it is found that there is another thief who is taking advantage of all this situation. Kanan and Ramdas catch the thief Red handed while selling the jewellery. Ram and Ramdas reveal everything. Rukmini Devi learns a lesson for her life and agrees to visit a doctor for treatment.
While Ram-leela and Ramdas-kanan get married,the news that Rukmini devi is pregnant comes and everyone is happy.
Now let us enjoy this “Gem from this obscure film”-Guru Ghantal….
Song-Aag se na khelo baabu jee (Guru Ghantaal)(1956) Singers-Geeta Dutt, Agha Sarwar, Unknown male voice, Lyrics-Sarshar Sailaani, MD-Lachchiram
Chorus
Lyrics
Aag se na khelo baabu ji ee
lage to bujhe na baabu
o baabu
pyaar aisi aaga hai
jee pyaar aisi aag hai
pyaar jise kehte hain aen
jawaani ka suhaag hai
jawaani ka suhaag hai
aa aa
zindagi jo saaz hai ae
pyaar uska raag hai ae
raaag jo adhoora hoga
raaag jo adhoora hoga
rog ban jaayega
rog ban jaayega
hey
ban jaane do jee rog
bada mazaa aayega
bada mazaa aayega
aag se na khelo baabu ji
dil badi cheez hai
o baabu rakhna sambhaal ke
jee rakhna sambhaal ke
dil ko lagaana to
lagaana dekh bhaal ke
lagaana dekh bhaal ke
ulti chaal chalne waala aa
ulti chaal chalne waala
baazi haar jaayega
baazi haar jaayega
arre haar jaane do ji baazi
bada maza aayega
bada maza aayega
aag se na khelo baabu ji
tees maar khaan ho o
chaahe guru ghantaal ho
jee guru ghantaal ho
baazi jab pyaar ki hai ae
packit mein maal ho
jee packit mein maal ho
phookat ka pyaar kahin
phookat ka pyaar kahin
jootiyaan khilaayega
jootiyaan khilaayega
arre
khaane do ji joootiyaan
ji bada maza aayega
bada maza aayega
aag se na khelo baabu ji
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
November 30, 2013 at 9:33 am
So much information in this blog! Kamal hai.
LikeLike