Sheetal chaandni khili khili
Posted on: September 22, 2016
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.
Baburao Patel, the fiery editor of ‘Filmindia’ magazine ( later known as ‘Mother India’) was associated with Hindi film industry since 1931. During 1931-35, he directed 5 films – “kismet’ (1931, Silent film), ‘Sati Mahananda’ (1933), ‘Maharani’ (1934), ‘Bala Joban’ (1934) and ‘Pardesi Saiyaan’ (1935) . However, with the starting of his monthly film magazine ‘Filmindia’ in 1935, Baburao Patel appeared to have taken a long sabbatical from Hindi film industry to concentrate on his editorial work. He again joined Hindi film industry in 1944 as producer and director of the film ‘Draupadi’ (1944), to promote Susheela Rani as actor-singer. This was followed by another film ‘Gwalan’ (1946).
How did Baburao Patel get interested in promoting Susheela Rani as actor-singer in Hindi film industry? Thereby hangs a tale of Baburao Patel-Susheela Rani.
After completion of M. A. from Madras University, Susheela Rani (20/10/1918 – 24/07/2014) shifted to Bombay (Mumbai) to become a journalist. A chance meeting with Baburao Patel in a restaurant paved the way to join ‘Filmindia’ magazine as sub-editor. She was handling few important columns like ‘Pictures in the making’, ‘Bombay Calling’ and conducting interviews with celebrated stars. Most of the time, she used to write the articles and interviews in the pseudo name of ‘Hyacinth’. [I have read almost all the articles and interviews from 1942-49 issues. I felt that Susheela Rani’s write-ups were way above the standard of writings of other sections of ‘Filmindia’ magazine.]
Baburao Patel was highly impressed with Susheela Rani’s singing. He got her classical renditions recorded by HMV. Her singing was well received by the market. This coupled with his soft corner for her made Baburao Patel to produce and direct ‘Draupadi’ (1944) to promote her the actor-singer in the making, comparable with the singing actresses of that time – Kanan Devi, Khursheed Bano and Noor Jahan. It is said that all the songs sung by her in the film were beautifully rendered. I have heard two solo songs of her from the film and they were pleasant to my ears.
‘Draupadi’ (1944) did not create any ripple on the box office. ‘Gwalan’ (1946) was the next film produced and directed by Baburao Patel in which he again attempted to make her click as actor-singer. But the film failed at the box office. With this, Baburao Patel’s dream of promoting Susheela Rani as a prominent actor-singer was shattered.
I get an impression from her articles and her own interviews a few years back that Susheela Rani might not be having much interest in Hindi film industry. Hindustani classical music was her first love. This is borne out by the fact that soon after her marriage with Baburao Patel, she started formally learning the classical music from Ustad Alladiya Khan, Mogubai Kurdikar and Sundarabai Jadhav. With that, she started singing for Akashwani and Doordarshan and participated in major music festivals.
She continued to be associated with ‘Filmindia’ which later became ‘Mother India’. After the death of Baburao Patel in 1982, she ran the magazine for a couple of years and closed it down sometime in 1985. It is interesting to note that Susheela Rani completed LLB and LLM in the first division in her 60s from Bombay University and was enrolled as practicing advocate at Bombay High Court. She received many awards for her outstanding contributions to Hindustani classical music. In 2002, she was bestowed with Sangeet Akademy Award. [With some inputs from blogs of Shishir Krishna Sharma and Debashree Mukherjee].
Susheela Rani was born in a family of Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin. (CSBs have given many artists to Hindi film industry like Guru Dutt, Shyam Benegal, Suman Kalyanpur, Girish Karnad, Anant Nag, Leena Chandavarkar, Deepika Padukone, Isha Koppikar, Amrita Rao etc.). Her father was an advocate at Madras High Court. She did her graduation and post-graduation from Madras University.
After the death of Baburao Patel in 1985, Susheela Rani Patel was living alone in her bungalow ‘Girnar’. In her old age, she was looked after by her disciples. She left for heavenly abode on July 24, 2014 at a ripe age of 96.
DRAUPADI (1944) had Susheela Rani in the role of Draupadi who had also written the screen play. Other actors in the film included Chandramohan, Mazhar Khan, Surekha, Rani Bala, K N Singh, David, Badri Prasad, Kanhaiyalal, Leela Mishra etc. The film had 9 songs written by Pandit Indra which were set to music by Hanuman Prasad.
I am presenting the first song ‘sheetal chaandni khili khili’ sung by Susheela Rani. The song is rare in the sense that none of the songs from this film was uploaded on YT until I made videos from mp3 clips of two songs and uploaded them on YT.
Enjoy the song of the semi-classical composition with simple lyrics.
With this song, ‘Draupadi’ (1944) makes its debut in the Blog.
Song-Sheetal chaandni khili khili (Draupadi)(1944) Singer-Susheela Rani, Lyrics-Pt Indra Chandra, MD-Hanuman Prasad
Lyrics
sheetal chaandni khili khili ee
mohe suhaani raat mili ee
sheetal chaandni khili khili ee
mohe suhaani raat mili ee
ek kiran mere naihar jaaye
bhaiyya mera sab sukh paaye
ek kiran mere naihar jaaye
bhaiyya mera sab sukh paaye
meri to hai aas yahi
meri to hai aas yahi
mere sajan ko dhoondh kahin
chanda re tu jaana wahin
chanda re tu jaana wahin
laana unko meri gali
gali gali
laana unko meri gali
gali gali
mohe suhaani raat mili ee
sheetal chaandni khili khili ee
mohe suhaani raat mili ee
chupke(?) praanon mein praan morey boley
kaun salona nainon mein doley
chupke(?) praanon mein praan morey bole
kaun salonaa
kaun salonaa
kaun salonaa nainon mein doley
chham chham chham chham aayi re pujaaran
piya milan ki aas lagi ee
sheetal chaandni khili khili ee
mohe suhaani raat mili ee
sheetal chaandni khili khili ee
mohe suhaani raat mili ee
5 Responses to "Sheetal chaandni khili khili"
September 22, 2016 at 1:42 pm
Atul ji,
Harish Raghuwanshi ji, in his e-mail to me, has pointed out that the film ‘Kismet’ (1932) was actually a silent film with Censor Certificate No.B-10432 dated 04/07/1931.
I request you to please amend the first paragraph as under :
“……associated with Hindi film industry since 1931. During 1931-35, he directed 5 films – “kismet’ (1931, Silent film), ‘Sati Mahananda’ (1933), ‘Maharani’ (1934), ‘Bala Joban’ (1934) and ‘Pardesi Saiyaan’ (1935) “
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September 23, 2016 at 4:48 pm
Susheela Rani Hanuman Prasad Pandit Indra-1944
Bandh Ke Rakhungi
Bhaiya Aao Mohan Bhaiya
Chamakta Hai Ang Saanwle Surang Rang
Gopala Meri Re
Kaun Bagiya Ke Mere Phool Churane
Maa Kisne Diya Bujhaya
Susheela Rani, Hansraj Behl Pandit Indra, Gwalan-1946
Lagat Nazar Tori Chalaiya with Mukesh
Nanhi Nanhi Bundiya Re
Bol Bol Gokul Ke Gwaale
Fariyad Kare Kisse
Gaye Jab Se Gopal
Gulnar Joban Rar Machaye
Mai To Dhundhte Dhundhte Haar Gayi
Mai To Hu Gori
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September 24, 2016 at 5:20 pm
She was the II wife of BP like all other a la V Shantaram etc
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
September 22, 2016 at 11:24 am
Sadanand ji,
Thanks for your article about Baburao and Sesheela Rani, giving some information about them.
In 2014, when a book on Sagar movietone by Biren Kothari was being published in Mumbai, i was one of the invitees for the function. Along with many personalities from Film world,Susheela Rani had also come there.
I had the honour of getting introduced to her in that function and I spent about 15 minutes talking to her. In that age of about 90-95 also she was quite enthusiastic and enquired about my work. I informed her about Atul ji and this Blog and our team.
During that day, I also met the son and family of actor/singer Surendra-one of the pillars of Sagar Movietone as well as some close relatives of Chimanlal-the owner of Sagar empire.
Your article reminded me of this incident.
Thanks.
-AD
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September 22, 2016 at 1:31 pm
Arun ji,
You are so lucky for personally meeting and talking to Susheela Rani and also having the company of many film personalities on the occasion of the release of the book on Sagar Movietone.
I have seen some of the photographs taken on that occasion in which many prominent film personalities including Amir Khan, Anil Kapoor, Vidu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani, Kailash Surendranath, Prasoon Joshi etc were present. There is photograph in which Susheela Rani is holding hands of Amir Khan.
Susheela Rani was 95 years of age at that time.
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