Dekho dekho ji balam deke birha ka gham
Posted on: June 15, 2015
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.
THE VELVET MAGIC-TALAT DUETS ….Song No.-9
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Today’s song is from the film Bahu-55. It is sung by Talat and Geeta Dutt.
Talat Mehmood and Geeta Dutt have sung very few duets together. This is rather surprising because both of them were in their prime and in good demand during the period from 1948 to mid 60s. The statistics in this blog shows that they have sung at least 20 duets in 16 movies (including this song). This figure is higher than the statistics available elsewhere which states that they sang only 13 duets together in 10 movies.
Anil Biswas was the Mentor for both Mukesh and Talat, because he gave them the breakthrough songs which established their independent identities in the musical field. Both had sung a few songs prior to their breakthrough songs under Anil Biswas, but those earlier songs had not helped them. Actually Talat had sung 15 Hindi film songs before he sang the song of the film Arzoo, as per Talat’s official site run by his son. But the song from Aarzoo made his career in Hindi films.
Anil Biswas always used to say that whatever he had, his best was given to Talat by him. Not just “aye dil” but songs like ‘Tu chhed ek baar’, Nain mile nain huye bawre’, ‘Tera khayal dilse’, or ‘seene mein sulgate hain armaan’ still evoke melody in the heart even today. “There were only two singers who could do justice to sad songs – Mukesh and Talat”-thus spoke Lyricist Shailendra. That is the reason he wrote ‘Hai sab se madhur wo geet” for Talat.
When Talat sang his First Ghazal, ‘Chhaani jo khaaq hum ne” on Lucknow Radio, Lahore A.I.R. also invited him. Soon the senior manager of H.M.V. Mr. P.K.Sen, at Calcutta invited him and signed a contract for One year @ Rs. 30/- per record. He recorded 5 songs in this period. In 1941, his First NFS, “Sab din hot na ek samaan” was recorded. Talat was surprised to see that the great singer Pankaj Mullick was also present during his recording throughout and after the recording,Punkaj Mullick embraced him and gave im hhis best wishes.
When Talat came back to Calcutta for the second time after completing his Music degree from Lucknow, he was very keen to meet his Idol Saigal. To his good fortune, he had the opportunity to be present at the recording of Saigal’s song, “Do naina matawaare” from the film ‘My Sister”. Talat watched Saigal carefully to learn how to record a song. He also spoke to K L Saigal on that day.
Both Subal Dasgupta and Kamal Dasgupta-his brother recorded many Hindi and Bangla NFS by Talat in those days. His song, “Tasveer teri dil mera” sold one Lakh records in a short time. Even today this song captivates listeners with its magic. Famous Director P C Barua advised him to go to Bombay for better opportunities.
In Bombay, right from Arzoo-48 to Devdas-55, Talat and Dilip Kumar cast their spell on the movie going public with their sad songs. It looked as if they were made for each other. Songs from Arzoo, Tarana, Sangdil, Shikast, Daag, Devdas, Footpath were heard everywhere. Talat Mehmood had established himself firmly in the industry with these songs. It was during this time that he started acting and this made Dilip switch over to Rafi his playback songs. Naushad was also responsible for this shift as he never wanted Talat in his songs.
Talat had sung songs for most famous composers of the time like Naushad, C Ramchandra, Roshan, Anil Biswas, Madan Mohan, Shankar-Jaikishen, Salil Chaudhari, S D Burman, O P Nayyar etc. He sang for even less known composers like Sardar Malik, Naashad, Jamal Sen, Hafiz Khan, Ram Ganguly, Snehal Bhatkar, Sajjad Hussain etc.
S D Burman got his First Filmfare award for “Taxi Driver”, in which Talat had sung the famous song,”Jaayen to jaayen kahaan”. However he was not in much favour with S D Burman. For film ‘Sujata’, Dada composed a song, “Jalte hain kiske liye”. After hearing the song tune, both Asha Bhosle and his assistant Jaidev exclaimed, “A superb song fit only for Talat”, but Dada was not impressed. He avoided the subject. But when Bimal Roy also insisted for Talat,Dada could not refuse and gave that song to Talat. The song became extremely famous and even won the Film Journalists Award. One day dada telephoned Talat and said,” Talat, the song has become very famous. I knew you were fit to sing this song”. What Hypocrisy !
Today’s song is from the film ‘Bahu’-55. This was the First film as a Director for Shakti Samanta. Born on 13-1-1926, at Dehradoon, he completed his graduation from Calcutta in 1944. Coming down to Bombay he worked as Assistant in Bombay Talkies in 1948. Bombay Talkies was famous for helping Bangla artises. It was almost a Training centre for people coming from Bengal. Shakti Samanta was assisting Bibhuti Mitra and Phani Mujumdar, who did not know much Hindi. Shakti was his interpreter also. When Bombay Talkies closed down Shakti was jobless. At this time he got married to a girl of his mother’s choice. His wife proved to be lucky for him and he got the film Bahu in 55, Inspector in 56 and Sheroo in 57. Then he started his own banner, Shakti Films and made “Howrah Bridge”, with his favourite Ashok Kumar. This became a jubilee hit film and there was no looking back for him ever since.
Shakti Samanta made 44 Hindi and 6 Bangla films, plus one Bhojpuri film. Some of his hit films were- Kati Patang, Amar Prem, An evening in Paris, China Town, Howrah Bridge, Aradhana etc. With Aradhana, he brought Rajesh Khanna to Limelight and superstardom. Later his relations with him soured and it was rumoured that he orchestrated the fall and decline of Rajesh Khanna from 1976 onwards.
Shakti Samanta won three Filmfare awards.
he died on 9-4-2009.
Film Bahu – 55 was essentially a family story. The story was a routine one. Here is the story-
Diwan Dinanath( Bipin Gupta) was shocked at his Bhabhi’s behaviour. True, the fireworks had slipped from Paro’s ( Usha Kiran) hands as she danced and his niece Sheela’s ( Shashikala) sari had caught fire, but it was so evidently an accident. Indeed, Sheela was Paro’s nearest and dearest friend. Enraged at Dinanath’s sympathy, Sheela’s mother taunted him to accept Paro as the bride for his only son, Basant ( Karan Dewan). Though momentarily taken aback, Dinanath accepted the challenge and drove straight to Paro’s mother.
The poverty stricken widow could not but accept the millionaire’s pressing proposal. Dinanath faced unexpected opposition from Basant. Basant had recently come into contact with a shrewd cabaret singer, Rita ( Alka), and imagined himself madly in love with her. This was a part of Rita’s plan to fleece him dry in collaboration with her paramour, Ajit. Though Basant had no desire to marry at the time, he did not have the courage to refuse his father.
Thus Paro was installed as the family’s Bahu, though Basant spent his wedding night with Rita and Ajit leaving Paro to weep alone. He had carried out his father’s wish and married Paro, but that was all! Things moved fast in this unhappy household, when unable to bear his son’s cruel treatment of the Bahu, Dinanath ordered Basant to leave the house.
Now came a stern trial for Paro. Sheela came to her with the horrible news Sheela was expecting a baby! She had placed her trust in a likable young man, Suresh (Pran), who had now deserted her. There was no alternative for the hapless Sheela but to commit suicide. Paro quickly planned to save Sheela and the family honour. She informed Dinanath that she was to become a mother, and requested she wished to go to a hill station for her confinement and of course, her friend Sheela would accompany her.
Time passed rapidly till the day when the overjoyed Dinanath welcomed his grand son home. Midst rejoicing and celebration, Basant returned home on hearing the news and openly denounced Paro. The child was not his- could not be his son! Dinanath waited for a denial, but Paro’s fate was sealed. Determined to uphold the family honour and shield Sheela, she allowed herself to be thrown out into the streets. . Leaving the infant in her mother’s care, Paro began a grim struggle to prove her innocence and win back her husband in the bargain.
Paro contacts Suresh,but he would not accept Sheela and the child. Suresh was doing illegal jobs. Paro,with the help of her Rakhi brother Raja, gets proof about Raja’s illegal work and confronts him. To avoid jail, Suresh finally accepts Sheela with his child. Seeing the child he is very happy and admits all his guilt to Dinanath and Basant.
Thus all misunderstandings are cleared and all is well. Basant has also realised the crookedness of Rita and accepts Paro as his wife.
Todays song was filmed on Paro and Basant i.e. Usha Kiran and Karan Dewan. Let us enjoy the duet of Geeta and Talat. It is written by S H Bihari. Its music is composed by Hemant Kumar.
This is the 9th song in the series. Next song will be the 10th and last song in the series.
Audio
Song- Dekho dekho ji balam deke birha ka gham (Bahu)(1955) Singers- Geeta Dutt, Talat Mehmood, Lyrics-S H Bihari, MD-Hemant Kumar
Lyrics
dekho dekho ji balam
deke birha ka gham
mera nanha sa jiya tadpana na
tose laagi re lagan
nahin maane mora man
mohe ankhiyaan milaa ke tarsaana na
dekho dekho ji balam
deke birha ka gham
mera nanha sa jiya tadpaana na
tose laagi re lagan
nahin maane mora man
mohe ankhiyaan mila ke tarsaana na
preet jo mose lagaayi se balamwa
dekho preet nibhaana
jeewan ki raahon mein akeli
mujhko chhod na jaana aa aa
mukh mod ke piya
mera tod ke jiya
meri nazron se door kahin jaana na
tose laagi re lagan
nahin maane mora man
mohe ankhiyaan milaa ke tarsaana na
tere bina o gori
laage na manwa aa
kaise tujhe bataaun
nis din teri yaad sataaye
pal bhar chain na paaun un un
tujhe chhod ke bhala
kahaan jaaunga bata
aisi baatein jubaan per laana na
dekho dekho ji balam
deke birha ka gham
mera nanha sa jiya tadpaana na
tose laagi re lagan
nahin maane mora man
mohe ankhiyaan milaa ke tarsaana na
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
June 15, 2015 at 11:02 am
Talat Mahmood – Geeta Dutt featured in 24 total songs in 19 movies.
Balance songs:
-Yeh Pyaar Ki Baaten (Baghdad, 1952)
-Raat Hai Armaan Bhari (Sangam, 1954)
-Saare Jag Se Nain Churaakar (Naag Padmini, 1957)
-Dil Ko Laga Ke Bhool Ki (Dr. Z, 1959)
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June 15, 2015 at 11:04 am
Thanks for this information.
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June 15, 2015 at 11:53 am
Thanks for the additional details.
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