Hisaab zara sunte jaana ji
Posted on: August 27, 2014
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a 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.
The best period of HFM’s melody was the 50s. Countless sweet melodies were brought out by talented composers. The whole atmosphere in India that time was highly conducive to the growth and spread of Indian film industry. newer markets were being added for overseas exhibition,thus making the actors and singers earn more.
Pehli Tarikh-1954 was a film always remembered by everyone for its most popular Kishore song,” Khush hai zamana aaj Pehli tarikh hai”. Radio Ceylon first broadcast this song on 1st October 1954 and then continued playing it-without a break-till 1st April 2008, when Radio Ceylon (SLBC by then) abruptly discontinued its Hindi commercial service.( later on it restarted-but woh maza nahin..)
Senior readers will surely remember the “RADIO DAYS ” of Radio Ceylon. For millions in this country, Radio Ceylon was not just a broadcasting station. It had a form and a personality. It was a companion who added a meaning to their lives, filled with vacant hours and has now left them with a host of memories.
Radio Ceylon Hindi service started before 1950. Hamid Sayani, elder brother of Amin Sayani was involved in Radio Ceylon in early days and Binaca Geetmala started from 1952. The announcers of radio Ceylon like Kamini and Vijaya sisters, Vijay Kishore Dubey, Gopal Sharma, Shiv Kumar Saroj, Sunil Dutt, Manohar Mahajan etc were household names. So were towns like Jhumri Talaiyya, Nanded and few others. Radio clubs cropped up everywhere. Radio Ceylon got the real boost when HFM stopped playing on A.I.R. in 1952.
It is popularly believed that the then Minister for info and broadcasting, V.B.Keskar was against film music, calling it Vulgar and that it was he who banned it on A.I.R.
But it is NOT TRUE !
It is true that Keskar was a Purist and disliked Hybrid Music (i.e. HFM ),but he did not ban it.
What actually had happened was that A.I.R. announced its revised policy in July 1952 which said,
1) Broadcast time for Hindi film songs will be reduced and
2)Dropping the custom of announcing the name of the Film of the song.
IMPPA or The Indian motion Picture producers’ Association was enraged at this loss of free advertisement opportunity for their films and the producers, in their capacity as Copyright owners, took away the A.I.R.’s licences for broadcasting film songs. Thus film songs disappeared from A.I.R.,replaced by sugam sangeet and classical music.
(Ref. ‘ Mourning the nation: Indian cinema in the wake of the Partition” by Bhaskar Sarkar,pp 57 ).
So, the truth is Keskar did not ban HFM, it was the producers’ association which withdrew licences to AIR, thus forcing them to stop HFM. We had a very interesting discussion on RMIM forum today on this issue. Dr.Surjit singh ji , like a magician, produced several old documents which proved that keskar was NOT the villain, but popularly he was held responsible by one and all. Radio Ceylon took the advantage of the situation and grew very fast starting programmes like Binaca geetmala and Lipton ke Sitare. They did yeoman service to popularise HFM in south east Asia.
Radio Ceylon’s transmitters were powerful and Boosters were installed in India. The famous Mountaineer Edmond Hillary wrote, ” Soon after Conquering the Everest, we turned on our Transmitter Radio and the First thing we heard was an Overseas broadcast of Radio Ceylon Hindi service-from more than 3000 miles away ! ”
Anyway, talking about the perennially popular song of Pehli Tarikh-54 played on every 1st of the month for over 50 years, some other gems from the same film are totally forgotten. Today we will hear another sweet song from this film, sung by Lalita Deulkar-wife of Sudhir Phadke,composer of this film.
LALITA was born in Bombay in 1924. She was not interested in acting or singing, but poor family conditions and father’s T.B ,forced her to earn a living by singing and acting. During 1940-45, she recorded many songs. One Mr. Dulerai Pandya, a Gujarati,owned ” The National Recording Co.Ltd.” in Bombay’s Fort area. There was a Tricolour shown on the labels of the records, hence this company was known as Jhandewali record co. V.Shantaram was also on its Board of Directors. Initially Prabhat and later Rajkamal film songs were issued on this Jhanda Chhap records only. The company had hired Datta Davjekar for Marathi and Avinash Vyas and Lallubhai Bhojak for Hindi and Gujarati songs. She recorded many Darya songs and Bhavgeets in this company. Along with her Gajanan Watwe, Jyotsna Bhole also recorded songs here. Some records named her as Lalita Devi. Once Saraswati Devi heard her and gave her chance to do small roles and sing in chorus of songs of Bombay Talkies films. Her Debut was made with the song “Aankhowale tu dekh ke chal” from film “Parbat pe apna dera”‘-44. it was a duet with Parshuram,under the baton of Vasant Desai.
After singing songs in Valmiki-46 and Eight Days-46, she got a good break in film Saajan-1947. Her duet with Rafi, ” Humko tumhara hi aasra” is remembered even today. Film Nadiya ke paar-48 also had a duet with Rafi,” More raja ho, le chal nadiya ke paar” which was very popular. C.Ramchandra was MD for both these films. She sang in several other films like Bhakta Dhruv, Khidki, Jalan, Shaheed, Shakti, Vidya, Bedard, Daulat, Girls school, Jai Bheem, Roshni, Sanwariya, Shabnam, Apni Chhaya, Malti Madhav, Pahli Tarikh,Sajni etc.
She got married to Composer Sudhir Phadke (25-7-1919 to 29-7-2002),on 29-5-1949 at Poona. Their common friend Mohd. Rafi sang a specially prepared and meticulously rehearsed ” Mangalashtak ” ( an eight stanza marriage song in Marathi),in their marriage. After marriage she sang only in films of Sudhir Phadke. After Sajni-56, she stopped singing completely and became a devoted housewife. She died on 25-5-2010. Their son Shridahar Phadke is a well known Marathi singer and composer.
let us now enjoy her song from film Pehli Tarikh-1954. This song takes a fun look at the budget of a household if the lady of the house had her way. Qamar Jalalabadi, who also wrote lyrics of “Khush hai zamaana aaj pahli taarikh hai” comes up with equally funny lyrics in this song.
Song-Hisaab zara sunte jaana ji (Pehli Taareekh)(1954) Singer-Lalita Deulkar, Lyrics-Qamar Jalalbadi, MD-Sudhir Phadke
Lyrics
hisaab zara sunte jaana ji
hisaab zara sunte jaana ji
hisaab zara sunte jaana ji
hisaab zara sunte jaana
ji ji ji ji ji ji ji ji
pehli taareekh ko laaye balam tum
ek sau bees rupayye
ek hi din bas saath raha
kuchh bhi raha nahin palle
raha nahin palle
luta ik pal mein khazaana ji
luta ik pal mein khazaana ji
hisaab zara sunte jaana ji
hisaab zara sunte jaana
ji ji ji ji ji ji ji ji
paanch rupayye ka powder laayi
ek rupayye ki bindiya
teen rupayye ki honthon ki surkhi
aathh rupayye ki chunariya
chunariya
chunariya
kaajal ka solah aana ji
kaajal ka solah aana ji
hisaab zara sunte jaana ji
hisaab zara sunte jaana
ji ji ji ji ji ji ji ji
bees ki saadi
saath rupayye mein laayi apna suit
laayi apna suit
chaudah rupayye ke sandal laayi
liya zaalim ne loot
zaalim ne loot
bada mehanga hai zamaana ji
bada mehanga hai zamaana ji
hisaab zara sunte jaana ji
hisaab zara sunte jaana
ji ji ji ji ji ji ji ji
raste mein ik mili saheli
hotel huyi rawaana
piya tumhaari shaan ki khaatir
usey khilaaya khaana
khilaaya khaana
reh gaya aadha aana ji
reh gaya aadha aana ji
hisaab zara sunte jaana ji
hisaab zara sunte jaana
ji ji ji ji ji ji ji ji
powder surkhi bindiya saadi
inka zimma mera
ration
kapda
doodh
kiraaya
inka zimma tera
dekho ji kahin bhool na jaana ji
dekho ji kahin bhool na jaana ji
hisaab zara sunte jaana ji
hisaab zara sunte jaana
ji ji ji ji ji ji ji ji
3 Responses to "Hisaab zara sunte jaana ji"
August 28, 2014 at 9:43 am
Just wonderful, and very humorously appropriate!
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 27, 2014 at 6:35 pm
Congrats for this well researched article.
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