Gumba rumba gumba rumba gelo
Posted on: December 24, 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.
Today, December 24th, 2013 is 89th birth anniversary of Mohammed Rafi. This blog has a wealth of information on Mohammed Rafi. So I will be brief on his early life and confine myself to few points which have some relevance to the song I am presenting here. Suffice to say that Rafi was a great singer in making since childhood. At the age of 10, he started singing sufi songs immediately after hearing from a faqir who used to pass through the by-lanes of his residence every day. Rafi would follow him and sing with him. That was his beginning of his interest in singing. At the age of 13, he sang in front of a restless audience who had come to hear K L Saigal and enthralled them. At the age of 16, he did his first playback singing for a Punjabi film ‘Gul Bloach’ (1940). I am reminded of a colloquial Hindi proverb which I heard for the first time during my school days – ‘honhaar birwaan ko hot hai chikne paat’ (coming events cast their shadows before). This proverb proved right in the case of Mohammed Rafi became a legendary playback singer in Hindi films.
Rafi was the first playback singer in Hindi films who took his singing close to the actors on the screen. Listening and watching to most of his songs picturised on the main actors would give an impression that it is the actors who are singing and not Mohammed Rafi. Whether he sang a melancholic song like jaane kya dhoondhti rahti hai ye aankhen mujh mein or after many years, a joyful song like main jatt yamla paglaa deewaanaa, one would get a feeling that it is Dharmendra who is singing on the screen. One of the best analyses of Rafi’s playback singing for actors and the music directors has been presented by Javed Akhtar in the TV programme Classic Legend – Mohammed Rafi.
One of the best examples of the perfect blend of playback singing and acting is that of Rafi’s association with Shammi Kapoor. In fact, Mohammed Rafi was regarded as the voice of Shammi Kapoor in the same way as Mukesh was for Raj Kapoor. Shammi Kapoor made it sure that he would be present in all the recordings of his songs to brief Rafi as to how he would enact during the song picturisation. As revealed by Shammi Kapoor in his TV programme ‘Shammi Kapoor Unplugged’, on the schedule day of recording of the song aasmaan se aaya farishtaa, he could not attend as he was suddenly required to go abroad. When he returned, he got upset with film’s producer-director Shakti Samant for recording this song during his absence. Shakti Samant specified him by saying that he should first listen to the recorded song and if he has some reservation, he would arrange the re-recording of the song. After hearing the song, Shammi Kapoor was pleased with the song recording as Mohammed Rafi had sung the song exactly the way he had visualised. When Shammi Kapoor asked Rafi as to how he could do it, he coolly said that when he came to know that the song was to be picturised on Shammi Kapoor, he sang the song keeping in mind as to how Shammi Kapoor would enact the scene for the song.
On the occasion of Mohammed Rafi’s birth anniversary on December 24th, I have selected a song worthy of his image of a versatile playback singer. The song is ‘gumba rumba gumba rumba gelo’ from the film LIGHT HOUSE (1958) which he sang with Suman Kalyanpur. The song is composed by N Datta. The film was produced and directed by by G P Sippy. The main cast included Ashok Kumar, Nutan, Johnny Walker, Nigar Sultana, Naazi, Rajan Kapoor etc.
Only the audio clip of the song is available. Going by the wordings of the song, it looks like a party/club song. The highlights of this song are:
1. This song may be one of the rare instances where Mohammed Rafi has sung his lines in a super-fast speed. His voice modulation for this song has already led me to conclude that his lines in the song were picturised on Johnny Walker. Note how Rafi sings ‘ o maja le lo bhai’ in a Johnny Walker style.
2. I guess, for Suman Kalyanpur also, this song was one of the rare occasions where she rendered her part of the song somewhat in a sensual way. In fact, I first thought that the female playback singer was Asha Bhonsle.
3. It was one of few occasions where Sahir Ludhianvi was required to pen the fun filled party song with a positive vibes, temporarily shedding his image of a melancholic poet. In fact, in this film, he had penned two melancholic songs sung by Asha Bhonsle.
4. Finally, at the outset, ‘gumba’ and ‘rumba’ in the song appear to be nonsensical words. But few searches on the internet revealed some interesting background behind these words. ‘Gumba’ is an Italian slang normally used by Italian mafias for a close friend. ‘Rumba’ is derived from the Cuban Spanish word ‘rumbos’ which means party. But in a wider context, ‘rumba’ is used for a percussion based rhythm used in Cuban folk music. ‘Gelo’ is a Konkani/Marathi word meaning ‘went’. So these words make some sense in the context of a party song. Incidentally, I found that ‘gumba’, ‘rumba’ along with ‘dumba’, ‘lumumba’ were used in a Goan Konkani song. Probably, N Datta being a Goan may have suggested these nonsensical words to Sahir purely for fitting the rhyme structure of the song.
With this background, let us enjoy a fun-filled voice of Rafi in this song on his birth anniversary.
Audio Clip :
Song-O gumba rumba gumba rumba gelo (Light House)(1958) Singers-Rafi, Suman Kalyanpur, Lyrics-Sahir Ludhianvi, MD-N Datta
Lyrics
gumba rumba
gumba rumba
gumba rumba gelo
o gelo
o gelo
o gumba rumba
gumba rumba
gumba rumba gelo
o gelo
o gelo
kal ki baaten kal tak chhodo
aaj mazaa le lo
mazaa le lo
gumba rumba
gumba rumba
gumba rumba gelo o
aaa
tujhe kasam hai
tujhe kasam hai
kyaaa
jahaan ka gham hai
o o aaa
tujhe kasam hai
tujhe kasam hai
kaaa
jahaan ka gham hai
dilwaalon ke iss mele mein
mauj mana lo yaaron
custom wustom culture wulture
sab ko goli maaro
dilwaalon ke iss mele mein
mauj mana lo yaaron
custom wustom culture wulture
sab ko goli maaro
muft milega dil ki gudiya
phir takhleef kyon jhelo
maja le lo
gumba rumba
gumba rumba
gumba rumba gelo
o gelo
o gelo
gumba rumba
gumba rumba
gumba rumba gelo
o gelo
o gelo
kal ki baaten kal tak chhodo
aaj majaa le lo
majaa le lo bhai
gumba rumba
gumba rumba
gumba rumba gelo o
aaa
nazaaren hain jawaan
nazaaren hain jawaan
aaa
tu gum ho kahaan
o o o
aaa
nazaaren hain jawaan
nazaaren hain jawaan
aaa
tu gum ho kahaan
khilen khilen murja na jaaye
ye phoolon ke chehre
in phoolon ko goonth ke pahno
sar par baandho sehre
khilen khilen murja na jaaye
ye phoolon ke chehre
in phoolon ko goonth ke pahno
sar par baandho sehre
duniyaa tum se khel rahi hai
tum duniyaa se khelo
majaa le lo haan
gumba rumba
gumba rumba
gumba rumba gelo
o gelo
o gelo
gumba rumba
gumba rumba
gumba rumba gelo
o gelo
o gelo
kal ki baaten kal tak chhodo
aaj majaa le lo
o majaa le lo bhai
gumba rumba
gumba rumba
gumba rumba gelo o
14 Responses to "Gumba rumba gumba rumba gelo"
December 24, 2013 at 10:20 am
Kamath ji,
Thanks for posting one of my favourites of the late 50’s.
N.Dutta had done many films for the Sippys,like’Mr.X,Light House,black cat,Chandrakanta etc. In each of these films we find atleast one song of western style. The 50s were the times of popularity of Rock N Roll music in India and composers like C.Ramchandra,S D Burman,N.Dutta and many others freely used this type of music in their compositions.
N.Dutta was,ofcourse ,from Goa,but for this film his assistants were the arrangers famous Anthony Gonsalves and Ramakant.This Trio from Goa must have together made this song by adding Goanese words. There is yet another song in this film starting with ‘Chima chima chim chima…’etc.
I really enjoyed the nostalgic song. Thanks.
-AD
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December 24, 2013 at 12:42 pm
Remember My name is Anthony Gonsalves. Thats the one.
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December 24, 2013 at 10:32 am
Our tributes to Rafi Saab on his birth anniversary.
– @ Kamath Sir – thanks for the article and exploring this song. i had also shared this song to Atul ji few months back and enjoyed it a lot. (majhe ek gaane gelo gelo gelo… 🙂 )
thanks !
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December 24, 2013 at 11:30 am
Sir,
Thanks for introducing this wonderful song. Heard it for the first time. Unknown songs are new additions for us, which never disappoint Rafi Sahab fans.
Thanks once again.
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December 25, 2013 at 4:10 am
This song has many ANOKHE BOL ,radio ceylone had special weekly programme called ANOKHE BOL,the title signature tune was taken from CHAAR CHAAND wordings are DUMBAK DUMBA ,in chouras.
What ARUNJI has written above is very correct,Many films of that era had one western song and N.DUTTA was very smart using his skill.I CAN WRITE ONE FULL ARTICLE ON ANOKHE BOL SONGS,almost every music directors has one or more ANOKHE BOL song/s to their credit.
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December 25, 2013 at 8:59 am
pareshdubey ji,
here is a link for you to read my article on ” Anokhe Bol ”
-AD
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December 25, 2013 at 11:23 am
kal ki baaten kal tak chhodo aaj majaa le lo…..
Merry X’mas and Happy New Year to all.
Sadanandji,
Thanks for introducing this song. I have seen and enjoyed few episodes of “Shammi Kapoor Unplugged”, specially “I Lost My Voice”.
Here is the clip that you have mentioned for all to enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTm5Bw1UzOE
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December 25, 2013 at 6:42 pm
N Datta’s name was Dattaram Baburao Naik and not Narayan Dutta as it is seen on the screen.In some films he composed under the name Datta Naik.
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December 25, 2013 at 6:48 pm
There are many sites (including some well known ones) that describe N Datta as Narayan Datta which is incorrect. This fact has been discussed in this blog many a times.
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December 26, 2013 at 3:25 am
Correct Arunji,I saw your article on ANOKHE BOL its quite long and detailed article .Thank you very much for the same.
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September 17, 2014 at 3:26 pm
Lovely write up Sadanand ji. And here is the link to the programme of Javed Akhtar on Rafi saab…
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September 17, 2014 at 6:26 pm
This link is already given in my write up.
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September 17, 2014 at 6:28 pm
Sorry Sadanand ji, i guess I missed the link :).
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
December 24, 2013 at 9:00 am
aaj maza le liya. Thanks Kamathji
For Johny Walker also, Rafi had a special voice suiting him
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