Dekh kar aankhen churaana kis’se seekhaa aap ne
Posted on: December 14, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, 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.
There are instances of Hindi film artists, especially of the 30s to 50s who rose to great heights in their filmy career but died as paupers and penniless. For instance, Chandramohan, the most handsome actor of his time who captivated the audience with his acting prowess (and also with his eyes) in films like ‘Amritmanthan’ (1934), ‘Pukar’ (1941), ‘Roti’ (1942), ‘Humaayun’ (1945) and ‘Shaheed’ (1948) died in 1949 in acute poverty at a young age of 44. It is said that his funeral expenses were borne by his close friend Motilal. But after 16 years of Chandramohan’s death, Motilal also died in 1965 almost penniless.
Both Chandramohan and Motilal were highest paid actors of their time. It is said that both of them commanded a fee of Rs.one lakh per film in the 40s. Both would not shoot for films on Sundays and holidays as they had to be at the Mahalaxmi Race Course on those days. Both spent their earnings on gambling and drinking. Master Bhagwan was almost in the similar category. In 1947,he was the owner of Jagruti Studios in Chembur. After the super success of his film ‘Albela’ (1951), he owned bungalows and a number of high-end cars. But after a spate of flop films in 1950s, he had to sell his studios, cars and bungalows and he had to work in films in bit roles for a living. He died almost penniless in a one room tenement in Central Mumbai in 2008. G M Durrani, playback singer also went through the same fate.
The case of Hafeez Khan, better known in Hindi film industry as Hafeez Khan Mastana or simply Khan Mastana was also similar to the examples given in the preceding paragraphs. His father Ustad Waheed Khan of Etawah Gharana was a well known sitar and surbahar player. He was the first musician to receive the Sangeet Natak Academy Award. Khan Mastana and his younger brother Aziz Khan received extensive training in sitar, surbahar and vocal music under the guidance of their uncle Ustad Inayat Khan (father of sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan).
With the decline in the patronages of Nawabs and Maharajas for Indian classical music especially during the independence movement, most of the classical musicians found it difficult to survive without the patronage of their masters. At this juncture, Khan Mastana decided to join Hindi film industry as a playback singer and music director. After some time, his younger brother, Aziz Khan also joined Hindi film industry as a music director. Since their father was against taking music as a profession in film industry, they changed their names as H. Khan Mastana and Aziz Hindi. A detailed information about Etawah Gharana to which they belonged is available here.
In due course of time, when Ustad Waheed Khan came to know that his sons were in Hindi film industry, he made his displeasure known to them. Both Khan Mastana and Aziz Khan returned to Hyderabad where the family was staying. While Aziz Khan took the father’s advice seriously and left the film industry forever to resume his training in vocal and instrument music, Khan Mastana returned to Hindi film industry after some time. By that time, things had changed in Hindi film music front and he was almost sidelined.
During his filmy career, Khan Mastana (a nick name given to him by another music director Mir Sahab for his vibrant nature ) composed music for about 25 films and he shared the credit with other music directors in some of these movies. He also sang more than 125 songs. He was most active as a playback singer and music director in 40s. As far as I know, he sang on himself (as singer-actor) in only one film ‘Muqabala’ (1942). The song was ham apne dard ka kissa sunaaye jaate hain.
It is said that during his heydays, he started spending money very lavishly and got into bad habits. With no assignments, his bad habits got worsened. He had to sell his flats and cars to raise money. Eventually, he started living in a chawl near Mahim Durgah in a very pitiable condition. He died in March 1972 as a pauper. What a sad end of a lineage from the Etawah Gharana. His nephew, Shahid Parvez Khan (son of his brother Aziz Khan) who is an accomplished sitar player of international repute is of the view that going by the recordings of his uncle’s Hindustani classical renditions and sitar/surbahar recitals available with the family’s archive, Khan Mastana would have become one of the leading exponent of Hindustani classical music.
Khan Mastana is one of my favourite playback singers. His voice texture gives an indication that it came out of hard training. Today, I am presenting a song ‘unki nazaron se koi nazare mila ke poochhe…dekh kar aankhe churrana’ sung by him from the film HANSTE REHNA (1950). The song was written by Farooq Qaiser and set to music by Wadhwa. I heard the name of this film as well as the name of music director for the first time. The film was produced under the banner of Rajan Pictures and directed by Mohammed Hussain. The star cast included Habib, Arvind Kumar, Mukri, Heera etc. I could not get any information about the film story except that it was a comedy film. From the casting, it looked like a B-grade film.
Only the audio clip of the song is available and audio quality is just fair if not good for listening to this soft song.
With this, ‘Hanste Rehna’ (1950) makes its maiden appearance in the blog.
Song-Dekh kar aankhen churaana kis’se seekhaa aap ne(Hanste Rehna)(1950) Singer-Khan Mastana, Lyrics-Farooque Kaiser, MD-Wadhwa
Lyrics
aaa
aaa
aaa
unki nazron se koi ee
nazren mila ke poochhe
meri vinti hai zaraa aa
unse yeh jaa ke poochhe ae ae ae
dekh kar aankhen churaana
kis se seekha aapne ae
bijliyaan dil par giraana
kis se sikha aapne
haan aan
kis se seekha aapne ae
bijliyaan dil par
kaun jaa kar baagh mein
kaliyon se ab poochha karey
kaun jaa kar baagh mein
kaliyon se ab poochha karey
kaliyon se ab poochha karey
aapka ye muskuraana
kis se seekha aapne ae
aapka ye muskuraana
kis se seekha aapne
haan aan
kis se seekha aapne ae
bijaliyaan dil par
bulbulon ke geet mein
hota hai itna ras kahaan
bulbulon ke geet mein
hota hai itna ras kahaan
hota hai itna ras kahaan
itne meethe geet gaana
kis se saakha aapne ae
itne meethe geet gaana
kis se saakha aapne
haan aan
kis se saakha aapne ae
bijaliyaan dil par
sach bataa deeje hamen
bholi adaaon ki kasam
sach bataa deeje hamen
bholi adaaon ki kasam
bholi adaaon ki kasam
dil mein reh kar dil jalaana
kis se seekha aapne ae
dil mein reh kar dil jalaana
kis se seekha aapne
haan aan
kis se seekha aapne ae
dekh kar aanken churaana
kis se seekha aap ne
14 Responses to "Dekh kar aankhen churaana kis’se seekhaa aap ne"
December 14, 2013 at 9:39 pm
kamath ji,
I think AZIZ KHAN and AZIZ HINDI were two different persons.
Pankaj Raag describes them separately in his book, ‘Dhunon ki Yatra’.
Aziz Khan started with ‘Flying prince’-46 and ended with ‘Zamane ki hawa’-1952.
Aziz Hindi started with ‘Parivartan’-1949 and ended with ‘Chalta purja’-1958.
if you have any information,other than parvez khan’s info, I would like to know.
Thanks.
Aziz Khan must be mastana’s brother.
-AD
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December 14, 2013 at 10:09 pm
There is indeed some confusion between Aziz Khan and Aziz Hindi. Since Aziz Khan’s own son has mentioned as they are same, I have taken as correct.
But there one one discrepancy. He also says that after his father came to know about their connections with Hindi films, both went to Hyderabad some time in early 1950s. Aziz Khan did not join back the film industry. This means that at least Aziz Hindi of ‘Chalta Purja (1958) may be a different person unless the film was considerably delayed.
This is a matter which needs further investigation.
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December 15, 2013 at 8:28 am
Kamath ji,
Aziz Hindi gave music to Parivartan-49,Shoharat-49,Beevi-50(with Khayyam),Putli-50,Actor-51,Danka-54,Dhoop Chhaon-54,and Chalta Poorja-1958. So, you will see that Aziz Hindi had given music contineously,where as Aziz khan had stopped after Zamane ki hawa-52.
-AD
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December 15, 2013 at 9:53 am
Arunji,
You are right but he gave music under the pseudonym V Ramnath in Dushmani hence the confusion. Thanks
Aziz Hindi was MD of Actor-1951 also.
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December 15, 2013 at 10:35 am
Nitin ji,
I have also already mentioned film Actor-51. please see.
-AD
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December 15, 2013 at 3:29 pm
Thank you Sadanand-ji for bringing this unheard melody to light and thank you Nitin-ji, Arun-ji for all the clarifications. This is a great place to learn the history of Hindi film music.
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December 15, 2013 at 10:48 pm
The words in first stanza are :
kaun jaa kar baagh mein kaliyon se ab poochha karey
‘ aap kahiye ‘ muskuraana kis se seekha aapne
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December 16, 2013 at 6:43 am
Thanks for the correction.
I was struck up at these words as it sounded me as ‘aapke’ in both the places. Since grammatically ‘aapke’ did not fit with ‘muskuraana’, I retained it as ‘aapka’.
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June 9, 2016 at 5:09 pm
What a beauty!! Amazing voice! Rich, vibrant, expressive.Loved it.
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April 22, 2017 at 10:57 am
Video link is not working. New Video:
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=VC4MfwLigFk
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
December 14, 2013 at 8:55 pm
Kamathji
No wonder you have not heard Wadhwa’s name earlier since he is a one-film-wonder!!!
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December 14, 2013 at 9:32 pm
Nitin ji,
Wadhwa aka V.Ramnath was NOT one film wonder.
He had given music to ‘Dushmani-1950 also ,besides ‘Hanste Rahena’-1950. His 2 other films remained incomplete and disgusted,he left Bombay.
-AD
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December 14, 2013 at 10:01 pm
Thanks for the information.
I also thought of qualifying my statement of not hearing his name ‘unless he was known by a different name’. Monohar Lal Khanna was also one of such person who have assumed different names in some films.
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