Daaman kisi ka chhod diya haaye kya kiya
Posted on: November 7, 2015
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, 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.
Forgotten Melodies of the 1940s – 4
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I have been looking for some rare songs which are generally not available on YT. Some of them are gems which are required to be brought to the notice of the wider section of the admirers of Hindi film music. Thanks to some of the collectors of old Hindi film songs and also thanks to internet technologies, such gems can now be stored in mp3 format and easily shared. One of the websites which has become a kind of a store house of old Hindi film songs in mp3 format is Dr Surjit Singh’s Website. With a large collection, the attendant problem is in searching for the required songs/films. One must be extremely patient in searching for the required songs or films as the records of mp3 clips have not been maintained in any particular order as of now.
But the bigger frustration for me is when after spending hours in searching, I get a rare song but not many details about the film and the song are available. But in the end, it is the satisfaction of discovery that matters. Take, for instance, the song ‘daaman kisi ka chhod diya haaye kya kiya’ from the film SHAHZADI (1947) which I located in the above-mentioned website only three days back. After spending almost a day to get the details about the film, I could get to know only two things about the film at the end of the day. First, the film was made under the banner of Shalimar Pictures and second, the film belonged to costume genre. No other details such as star cast and the name of the director is available to the best of my knowledge. The film is not available on VCD/DVD.
The film had six songs but the names of the playback singers for all the six songs are not mentioned. There is a mention of poet Josh Malihabadi as lyricist for only one song. For the rest of the songs, name of the lyricist is not mentioned. S K Pal was the music director. Those days, among others, Josh Malihabadi and S K Pal were in the pay roll of Shalimar Films owned by W. Z. Ahmed.
It is surprising that W Z Ahmed, the owner of Shalimar Films who was known for the high publicity blitz of all the movies he produced, did not seem to advertise this film. From the archives of FILMINDIA magazine of the 40s, I have noticed that the central spread page of the magazines (2 pages in the middle of the magazine) often used to carry the aggressive advertisements of either the announcement of new films or the release of the completed films of Shalimar Pictures. I guess, there must be some story behind the absence of publicity for the film ‘Shahzadi’ which I am not aware. Is it something to do with W. Z. Ahmed’s migration to Pakistan ‘lock stock and barrel’ in 1947?
I am presenting a melodious song in ghazal format ‘daaman kisi ka chhod diya haaye kya kiya’ from the film SHAHZADI (1947). As mentioned earlier, the names of singer and lyricist are not known. The song is composed by S K Pal.
Who was the singer of this song? Probably, I would have got some hint if I had known the female cast of the film. Since the film was made under the banner of Shalimar Pictures, the first name that comes to my mind is Sitarabai Kanpuri. I find the voice in the song, more or less resembling with that of her songs in ‘Man Ki Jeet’ (1944), ‘Meerabai’ (1947) ‘Pagree’ (1948) and ‘Rasheed Dulhan’ (Unreleased film of 40s). It is worth noting that when Neena joined Shalimar Pictures as a heroine, W. Z. Ahmed wanted a new playback singer suitable for Neena’s voice. So he selected Sitarabai of Kanpur after hearing her singing on a radio programme. Since then, Sitarabai Kanpuri was under exclusive contract to sing only for films made under the banner of Shalimar Pictures. But her name was not mentioned in the 78 RPM records for the songs she rendered. Instead the song was attributed to the film’s heroine, Neena. Sitarabai Kanpuri’s contract with Shalimar Pictures ended when W Z Ahmed migrated to Pakistan in 1947.
So as of now, I am inclined to believe that the playback singer of this song is Sitarabai Kanpuri until it is proved otherwise.
Since the audio clip of the song under discussion was not available on YT, I have created an audio clip out of mp3 clip downloaded from Surjit Singh ji’s Website.
This is one of those songs where the singing, the poetry and the composition have blended very well to produce a melodious song.
Audio
Song-Daaman kisi ka chhod diya haaye kya kiya (Shahzaadi)(1947) Singer-Sitarabai Kanpuri, MD-S K Pal
Lyrics
daaman kisi ka chhod diya
haaye kya kiya
haaye kya kiya
daaman kisi ka chhod diya
haaye kya kiya
haaye kya kiya aa
khud apne dil ko tod diya
haaye kya kiya
haaye kya kiya
daaman kisi ka chhod diya
haaye kya kiya
haaye kya kiya
ruswaayi(??) ne (??) thha aa
unke jamaal ka
?? ne parang(??) thha aa
unke jamaal ka
?? ne?? tod diya
haaye kya kiya
haaye kya kiya
daaman kisi ka chhod diya
haaye kya kiya
haaye kya kiya
saahil ke paas aate hi ?? ki tarah
saahil ke paas aate hi ?? ki tarah
kashti ko maine mod diya
haaye kya kiya
haaye kya kiya
daaman kisi ka chhod diya
haaye kya kiya
haaye kya kiya
baithhe bithhaaye behte huye aansuon ke dhaar
baithhe bithhaaye behte huye aansuon ke dhaar
aankhon ?? diya
haaye kya kiya
haaye kya kiya aa
daaman kisi ka chhod diya
haaye kya kiya
haaye kya kiya
7 Responses to "Daaman kisi ka chhod diya haaye kya kiya"
November 7, 2015 at 2:35 pm
Sadanand ji,
As we all know, there were only 2 Sitaras. 1. Sitara or Sitara Devi who was an actor singer dancer , all in one. 2. Sitara Kanpuri.
Sitara Kanpuri or Sitara of Kanpur or Sitarabai Kanpurwali was born in Cawnpore(Kanpur-UP) in 1923 in a courtisan’s family and so her father’s name is not known.
She did not have formal schooling,but sang wonderfully.she started singing on Radio.She was an expert in Bhajans,Thumari and Gazals.
W.Z.Ahmed,who was also from Kanpur heard about her singing,heard her once and took her to his office in Bombay.She was so excited that without delay,she put her thumb on the contract put forth.The contract restricted her to sing only for Ahmed’s Shalimar studio productions for 10 years. She sang her first song,’nagari meri kab tak’ in Mann ki jeet-1944 for Neena ( real name Shahida-she was the wife of the brother of Renuka Devi the actress. She was a plain simple house wife,who was lured by Ahmed and made actress Neena and his wife. One can read this juicy story in Manto’s book),who was Ahmed’s wife.Later sitara kanpuri also sang in prithwiraj sanyukta-46 and Meerabai-47.In the free times she was allowed to do private jalsa for her living.
After Partition,Ahmed and Neena left for Pakistan,taking with them all the prints of their films(like most others who left India) and Sitara Kanpuri was free to sing free lance now.She sang in Pugree-48,Aparadhi-49 and Rasheed Dulhan -50.
After this she simply vanished into thin air !
As you have rightly said, S K Pal was on Shalimar’s rolls. Hence in most Shalimar films MD was SKP and songs were by Sitara Kanpuri. Though one finds that on some of these records the name is given Tara Lucknowi,however, W Z Ahmed,in his visit to India had confirmed that these songs were sung by Sitara Kanpuri and accordingly Hamraz ji has rightly mentioned her name at all places,in HFGK. ( by coincidence, Sitara Kanpuri had a younger sister named Tara)
There were NO 2 Sitaras as suggested by Nitin ji.
Sitara Devi is mentioned as Sitara, Sitara Devi and Sitara bai also in her early films,but she is the same. One can read Sitara Devi’s interview on Beetehuyedin also .
I am severely pained to see how some people spread wrong info,due to ignorance and half knowledge, in their enthusiasm.
-AD
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November 7, 2015 at 3:16 pm
Arun ji,
I know you had explained it in the Blog and also elsewhere. But the confusion about two Sitaras continues. I have seen a couple of YT uploads where the audio clips carry the pictures of Sitara Devi but the songs are of Sitarabai Kanpuri.
To put it in short :
1. Sitara Devi ( Actress-singer and Kathak dancer)
2. Sitarabai Kanpuri or Sitara Kanpur (playback singer).
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November 8, 2015 at 5:49 pm
Sitara Devi (Kathak) was born in Calcutta. She could not have been born in Kanpur too. The other Sitara was born in Kanpur and hence called Kanpuri.
BTW her elder sister, Tara is the mother of famous kathak dancer, Gopi Krishna.
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November 8, 2015 at 9:37 pm
Sitara Devi had 2 sisters. Eldest was Alaknanda, next was Tara Devi and the youngest was Sitara Devi.
Tara Devi who was also an actress,married another actor Marutirao pehelwan. They both settled in Dhule in Maharashtra, where pehelwan started a Dairy Farm. Their son was Gopi Krishna.
Tara was Sitara kanpuri’s sister. She has no connection with Gopi krishna.
Tara and Tara Devi are two different persons.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
November 7, 2015 at 10:19 am
Sitara Kanpuri also known as Sitara Devi{different from her namesake Sitara Devi(Kathak legend)} also sang in Aabroo-1943 and Holi-1940
S K Pal
Ek Raat (1942)
Prem Sangeet (1943)
Ghulami (1945)
Meerabai (1947)
Bhishma Pratigya (1950)
Sagar (1951)
Maa (1952)
Tamasha (1952)
Pyase Nain (1954)
Dhola Maru (1956)
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November 7, 2015 at 10:36 am
Nitin ji,
Songs in Holi (1940) and Aabroo (1943) were sung by Sitara Devi who also acted in these films.
S K Pal’s filmography is incomplete. How can you miss ‘Man Ki Jeet (1944) among others?
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November 7, 2015 at 1:02 pm
You already covered/mentioned the film.
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