Meri kya hai khata ye bataa de
Posted on: April 9, 2016
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.
Today’s song is from the film ‘Nirmal ‘-52. It is sung by Shyam Kumar and Geeta Roy. Music is by Bulo C Rani. The song was written by Moti B.A.. The cast of the film was Purnima, Amarnath, Mirza Musharraf, Shyam Kumar, Cuckoo etc.
The area I stay in Mumbai is Versova, which is full of film people. The current crop of film actors and others live in Lokhandwala Complex nearby, whereas Versova is an abode for the old timers. Areas like Seven Bungalows, Four Bungalows, Machhlimaar, Yari Road were the favourite locations for yesteryear artistes, after their retirement. Once upon a time Film stars used to live on Pali Hill, Bandra, Dadar, Pedder Road, Fort, Colaba etc. As the rates of flats skyrocketed, their Bungalows gave way to Housing societies and the crowd started moving towards western suburbs like Andheri, Santacruz, Parle, Gorgaon, Borivali, Malad etc.
Juhu and Lokhandwala are still Hot spots for the elite stars, but the other artistes preferred developing locations like Versova etc. When I first came to live in seven bungalows area, I never knew that old time comedian Bhudo Advani lived in the same society. At that time I was not into writing about old films. In an year’s time, Bhudo Advani died here. As is Bombay’s custom, I went to see their family, along with other neighbours. Rajkumari-the singer also stayed in this area, and also Mukri. But I came to know all this only 4-5-years ago.
When I first interviewed Ramesh ji, Bhudo Advani’s son, he told me that their family friend Mirza Musharraf’s daughter also stayed nearby. I took her address and reached her house. Her husband did not allow me to meet her, as they were Muslims. When I explained what I wanted, he expected some money. I told him that this is my hobby and I do not do this for money, he was very skeptic. However after my persistent visits to him, he relented.
Her husband, Mr. Khan,a production manager of Feroze Khan earlier gave me some information on Mirza Musharraf Agha.
The name of MIRZA MUSHARRAF may not ring any bells in the newer generation, as he was a comedian in the 1930s and 1940s-till the late 1960s.
During the 1930s and 1940s there were quite a few real comedians, who regaled audiences with their humour. Comedians like V.H.Desai, Ghory and Dikshit (the jodi like Laurel and Hardy), Mirza Musharraf, Bhudo Advani, Noor Mohd.Charlie, Yakub (he had travelled to 15 countries including UK and USA,before joining films) and Gope, Fatty Prasad and Durga Mota were much in demand for comic roles in films. With times, one by one, then all went into oblivion, giving way to newer set of comedians like Bhagwan, Sunder, Radhkishen, Mukri, I.S.Johar, Majnu,etc.
Artists fading away is a natural phenomena, but out of the above comedians, the end of Durga Mota was very pathetic and touching. Durga Mota or Durga Prasad was very fat and this fatness which fetched him name and fame in the industry also became the cause of his death. In 1947, there were riots everywhere. Durga was in Lahore. He wanted to come back to India like thousands of others. He came to Lahore station and boarded the train. Just then a frenzied mob came to the station and started killing the passengers. People ran helter skelter and saved themselves, but due to his fatness Durga Mota could not run and he was slaughtered on the station of Lahore itself.
Mirza Musharraf Hussain was born in a sophisticated educated family. He was very fond of writing Lyrics. He came to Bombay to write film songs and was employed by General films. Those days educated persons were eagerly employed by film studios. First he worked in small roles in Qazak ki Ladki-37, Prem Yatra-37 etc. He first wrote Lyrics for A.R.Kardar’s film “Baghbaan”-1938.
During shootings Kardar required an artist and Mirza was called up to fill up the slot,as per the studio norms. Mirza had no dialogues, but he exhibited excellent use of facial expressions and comic timing. This actually killed his dream of becoming a lyrics writer, because after that he was made a comedian and he got several films. As a comedian, Mirza worked from 1937 to 1979, working in over 120 films. His last film was Aulia-e-Islam-1979. He also directed a film called Dolti Naiya-1950. He sang in 4 films-Gharib ka lal-39, Piya Milan-45, Paak Daman-57 and Capt. Kishore-57. Of course in most songs he got only a few lines to sing.
When he was at the peak of his career, a happy producer gave him a Bungalow at Versova free to him for living. Though Versova was then quite far off and sparsely populated, Mirza lived there like a king. The marriages of both of his daughters took place there.
Mr.Sanjeet Narwekar-the famous Film historian/journalist writes in his book, The story of Hindi Film comedy, about Mirza ” His specialty was interspersing his Hindi dialogues with English words-quite a curiosity in the pre-independence days. He was almost a permanent with V.M.Vyas and played cameo roles in a fairly long career.” According to Saadat Hasan Manto in his book, stars of another sky -whichever film he acted he used to be the darling of the Heroes. He was particularly liked by Kardar, K.Asif and Rafiq Ghaznavi.
He died somewhere in the early 80s.
Film Nirmal-52 was a special film for Lyricist Moti B.A., because this was his last film as a a Lyricist. Yogilal Upadhyaya aka Moti B.A. was born on 1-8-1919 at Devariya,UP. He did his BA in 1938 and MA in 1941, in addition to B.T. and Sahitya Ratna from Benaras University. He was scouted by Ravindra Dave and Sardar Ranjit singh-emissaries of Dalsukh Pancholi,Lahore. At that time he was working as a Journalist. He went to Lahore and stayed there for 2 years, enjoying company of writers, poets and major stars. He wrote songs for films like ‘Kaise kahoon’-45.
He came to Bombay and started writing songs for films like Subhadra, Bhakta Dhruv. Ek Kadam, Amar Asha etc. He was much in demand, but after Nirmal-52 he decided to go back to his hometown and teach. He taught Logic, English literature and History from 1952 to 1980. He wrote 4 books and won several awards. He died on 18-1-2009 at Devariya.
Some of his films were Saajan, Nirmal, Nadiya ke paar, Sindoor, Rimjhim, Raam Baan, Ram Vivah, Veer Ghatotkach, Rajpoot etc. Moti B.A. is one of the very few who left film world to pursue what he loved-teaching.
The hero of the film, Nirmal-52 was Amarnath(Bharadwaj). He is one of the “same name confusions” victims. There were two Pt. Amarnath Music Directors, 1 actor Amar, 1 actor Amarnath and 1 actor/Director (K.) Amarnath. This Amarnath started acting in 1939 with Kidar Sharma’s “Dil hi to hai”. Graduating from doing small roles he was made the Leading Man in Dalsukh Pancholi’s film “Patjhad”, started in 1947 opposite Meena (Shorey). Pancholi had to flee Lahore due to Partition riots, but he carried the negatives of Patjhad. Though the film was censored in India in 1948, it seems it was never released.
Amarnath starred as Hero in many other films,like Papiha re, Swayam sidha, Nai Bhabhi, Kamal ke phool, Sheesh Mahal, Jalte Deep, Nai zindagi etc. Then he switched over to side roles. In all, he worked in 79 films (CITWF data). His last film was Khiladi-68.
Today’s song, sung by Shyam Kumar and Geeta Roy, was one of the last songs penned by Moti B.A. ( I fail to understand, if he was M.A., why did he mention only B.A. with his name ? ). The lovely tune made by Bulo C. Rani will surely linger in your mind for quite some time. I am not repeating the story of Nirmal-52, as I had given it with the first song of this film posted few years back. This is the second song from the movie to appear in the blog.
Song-Meri kya hai khata ye bata de (Nirmal)(1952) Singers-Shyam Kumar, Geeta Dutt, Lyrics-Moti B A, MD-Bulo C Rani
Both
Lyrics
meri kya hai khata ye bata de ae
meri kya hai khata ye bata de ae
phir chaahe rula de mita se saza de
meri kya hai khata
sach hai dil maine tumko diya
dil ke badley tooone kya hai diya
toone kya hai diya ye bata de ae
toone kya hai diya ye bata de ae
phir chaahe rula de mita de saza de
meri kya hai khata
yaad hai jo kasam toone khaayi thhi
bewafa kya teri ye wafaayi thhi
bewafa ham ya tum ye bata de ae
bewafa ham ya tum ye bata de ae
phir chaahe rula de mita se saza de
meri kya hai khata
pyaar ki meethhi meethhi wo baaten
pyaar ki meethhi meethhi wo baaten
chaandni raaton ki mulaakaaten
chaandni raaton ki mulaakaaten
meri khushiyaan mujhe tu lauta de ae
phir chaahe rula de mita de saza de
meri kya hai khata
jab se hai ?? galiyon mein jaana
tab se(?) mujhse na aankhen milaana
jab se hai ?? galiyon mein jaana
tab se mujhse na aankhen milaana
apne dil se waham ye mita de ae
phir chaahe rula de mita de saza de
meri kya hai khata ye bata de ae
phir chaahe rula de mita de saza de
meri kya hai khata
6 Responses to "Meri kya hai khata ye bataa de"
April 9, 2016 at 11:00 am
Another good article that I enjoyed reading. Nice to know details of Mirza Musharraf (I noticed him last in film Jab jab pool Kaile) whom I like for his English Hindi translation of dailouges, a unique feature that was copied by Ajay Devgun in a recent film directed by Rohit Shetty.Also u mentioned about my favorite writer Sadat Hasan Manto whom I came to know through the book you mentioned in the artical. While changing my Bus at Delhi’S Red Fort bus stop on way back from Delhi University in 1968 I saw a person selling books and magazines on the ground adjacent to bus stop.I saw this Manto book and since it had pictures of film stars I purchased it I did not know any thing about Manto then like so many others at that time.I really enjoyed the writing.Then after sometime I read a story of his in a magazine .The story was Hattak (insult).After that I started looking at book stores in con naught Place now Rajiv Chowk for his books and was thrilled that I was able to buy two books of Manto who today is a well known writer whose stories are used for stage plays and I was happy to meet a young college girl in this year book festival buying Manto books and she informed me that Manto’S stories are in the text books.That’s Arunji
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April 9, 2016 at 1:12 pm
Ashok Mehta ji,
Thanks for your detailed comments.
I am glad that youliked the article.
After Manto went to Pakistan post Partition he spent his days very sadly. He always remembered his Bombay days. He was neither respected nor cared for in Pakistan. His last days were,I believe, spent in mental asylum, where he died.
After his death, he got lot of publicity for his literary works and several books were published. Pathetic !
-AD
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April 9, 2016 at 6:43 pm
Mirza always ready to show off his English language prowess.
As he passed his MA in 1941; but the name Moti BA zabani ho gaya thaa
Shyam Kumar also sang in
Sanjog (1943)
Ratan (1944)
Pahele Aap (1944)
Chhamiya (1945)
Sanyasi (1945)
Mamta (1952)
Chacha Chaudhary (1953)
Guzara (1954)
Tilasmi Duniya (1962)
Moti BA also penned in
Sindoor (1947)
Saajan (1947)
Nadiya Ke Par (1948)
Hip Hip Hurray (1948)
Ram Vivah (1949)
Rim Jhim (1949)
Veer Ghatotkach (1949)
Rajput (1951)
Kisi Ki Yaad (1950)
Ladki (1953)
According to one site for Ek Kadam, Avtar Visharad and for Amar Asha, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Kabil Amritsari and Kavi Nanak were the lyricists
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
April 9, 2016 at 10:11 am
V interesting presentation about palatable duet and all related artists.
Glad to know about many old artistes living near Varsova. I spent my childhood at Khar where hordes of film personalities resided.We use to roam barefoot from Pali Hill to Irish Park to have glimpses of movie idols. Nostalgic !Ty for this lovely article.
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April 9, 2016 at 1:07 pm
Bharat ji,
Thanks for your appreciation.
-AD
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December 29, 2016 at 7:48 pm
My Mamaji was born in 1927.He would see one film every day and as many films in a day if and which he liked. He was a great lover of the comedians mentioned in your write-up and may be some more.He once told me that Mirza Musharraf, the comedian, was somehow related to the family of Gen. Musharraf of Pakistan. It is a fact which can easily be verified by some young enthusiast.
kanti Mohan Sharma
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