Chhoti Sethhaani ji
Posted on: November 8, 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 Safar-46. It was a Filmistan presentation which was the first film of C.Ramchandra in this company.
C.Ramchandra had worked in Jayant Desai Productions for the previous three years. He gave 5 jubilee films, Bhaktaraj-43,Zabaan-43, Manorama-44, Lalkaar-44, and Samrat Chandragupta-45 for this production house. He was getting only Rs.300 as salary. He had got married and needed more money now.
He came to know that K.L.Saigal was to come to Bombay from Calcutta to work in a Jayant Desai film. He was quite excited. However his joy was shortlived when he heard that composer Lal Mohammed ( assistant of Ghulam Haider in Lahore) was invited to give music to the Saigal film. He was terribly hurt. He went to Jayant Desai, the owner and asked for a raise in salary. C Ramchandra wanted Rs. 1000 pm, but Desai was prepared to raise his salary only upto Rs. 600. Finally C Ramchandra left the job, in a fit of rage.
One day he was met by Kavi Pradeep, who was looking for him. He took him to Shashdhar Mukherjee in Filmistan, who offered C Ramchandra a salary of Rs. 1000 pm and C Ramchandra joined Filmistan.
C Ramchnadra had heard quite a lot abot S.Mukherjee, who had a string of successful films behind him like, Kangan, Bandhan, Sansar, Kismet etc. A towering person like Himanshu Roy had guided him in the prestigious Bombay Talkies. Shashadhar Mukherjee ( 29-9-1909 to 3-11-1990) was a very clever person. He was a good judge of people. He had understood the fundamental truth for a successful film-a sound plausible story base and he was very careful about it. Filmistan had employed efficient and eminent writers like Kavi Pradeep, P.L.Santoshi, G.S.Nepali, Shahid Lateef, Saadat Hasan Manto etc. He consulted other literary giants also whenever needed. He always thought about what the public wanted and he offered them that. That was the secret of his success.
Identification and selection of the right personnel went a long way in the success of ilmistan. He recruited C.Ramchandra to Filmistan, as he was fully aware of his talent and capability.
C Ramchandra’s first film in Filmistan proved to be his best film so far. Not only it completed a Silver jubilee, but its songs like, ‘ kabhi yaad karke, gali paar karke’ and ‘ Chhoti sethaani ji ‘ etc became very popular. This film became the beginning of C Ramchnadra’s march towards the Number One position among music directors of HFM.
When I talk about film Safar-46,I invariably remember the film ” Maine Pyar kiya”-89. There are many similarities in both films.
First, both films were made by Big banners like Filmistan(safar-46) and Rajashri (Maine Pyar Kiya-89).
Secondly, the lead pair in both films were unknown and New comers. It was just the second film of Salman Khan-the First film as a Hero. His Heroine Bhagyashree (Patwardhan) was making her Debut with the film Maine Pyar kiya-89. In Safar-46, the Heroine Shobha was totally unknown and she was making her a Debut there. For Kanu Roy, this was the first film as a Hero.
The name Kanu Roy is generally confused with composer Kanu Roy. Actor Kanu Roy was a different person.
Kanu Roy (the Actor) was in reality a name for Nalini Ranjan Roy, born on 9-12-1912 at Jabalpore. He was very fond of acting and so landed at Bombay Talkies,a company started by two Benagalees- Himanshu Roy and Devika Rani. Those days many people from Bengal used to come to Bombay Talkies, but only the capable ones like Amiya Chakravarty, Shashadhar Mukherjee or Ashok Kumar etc could make their careers here. Kanu Roy started his acting career from the film Basant-1942. His name Nalini was sounding like a Girl’s name in Bombay ( there were already half a dozen Nalinis working in films those days), so it was changed and he opted for Kanu, his pet name in the house. Thus Kanu Roy came into films. Due to his good looks, he even became a lead actor in a few films. Nazrana-46 (UR) was one such film where he was working opposite Kamini Kaushal. Kanu Roy worked in about 40 odd films from 1942 to 1983 ( kisi se naa kehna). Kanu Roy also left Bombay Talkies along with S.Mukherjee and others and joined Filmistan. He was in many Filmistan films like, Munim ji, Nastik, Naagin, Jagriti etc. He acted in a Bangla film ‘Samar’too in 1950.
Kanu Roy (the Composer) gave music to very few films like Uski Kahaani-66, Anubhav-71, Avishkar-74, Tumhara Kallu-76, Grih pravesh-79, Mayuri-81 and Shyamla-79 which was re-censored in 1981 as Woh phir naa aayee. Some people and sites describe him as Geeta Dutt’s brother, but he was not her brother. Her brother was Mukul Roy. Kanu Roy, the composer died in Bombay on 20-12-1981.
Thirdly, the Director of Maine Pyar Kiya, Sooraj Barjatya was making his Debut with this film. ( Later on he made Hits like, Hum apke hai kaun and Hum saath saath hai etc.). For film Safar-46, the Director was Bibhuti Mitra-an import from Calcutta. It was just his second film. His first film ‘ Angoothis’-43 was a resounding Flop. Actually Ashok Kumar was its Hero and when Angoothi was released Ashok’s film Kismet was making records all over India. Film Angoothi ran only for 3 days and it was then withdrawn from theatres. Normally, in Film Industry,an unsuccessful Director is not touched even with a bargepole, but S. Mukherjee selected him as a Director.
Lastly, the Music Director for Maine Pyar kiya-89 was Ram-Laxman, hardly a known name at all. For Safar-46,C.Ramchandra ws selected. he had done 10 C grade films and just 5 social films till then and his name was not yet become famous. In spite of this S.Mukherjee took the risk and trusted his talent, which he had judged correctly.
Despite the Actors, MDs, Director and the lead pair being either Unknown, making a Debut or less known, both the films became Hits- only because of Music. Both Music Directors, C.Ramchandra as well as Ram-Laxman became famous overnight and this became virtually the starting point of their ascent to the Top of HFM. What happened first with Safar-46 repeated itself after 43 years in the success of Maine Pyar Kiya-89 !!!
Safar-46 was a film that came up before the entry of Lata in C Ramchnadra’s career ( and life). Those days Binapani Mukherjee was his lead singer. The name Binapani is not understood by many. It is not Bina=without and Pani=water. The real meaning is Bina=Veena and Pani=Hands =One who holds Veena in her hands i.e. Saraswati.
Binapani was born on 17-10-1925,in a music loving family of Calcutta.Initial music training was by her grandfather Sheetal chandra mukherjee and and later from ustad Sageer Khan of Rampur.
C.Ramchandra gave Binapani Mukherji her playback singing break in “Muskurahat”-43. Her first song was-‘Hans le gaa le…’. It was a duet with CR. Then came Majdoor, Eight days, Darban, Rangbhumi,but she became famous after ‘Safar’-46.
Her most popular song-‘kabhi yaad kar ke,gali paar kar ke,chali aana hamare angana…’ was from this film, which was a duet with C Ramchandra. She also sang in Leela, Mulakat, Shahnayi, Samrat Ashok, Satyanarayan, Raaz ,Rumaal, Asra, Abla, Bhikari, Fariyad, Laajawab, Ghayal etc. Her last film was Gyan Dutt’s ‘Ghayal’-51.
Her voice was very sweet and was suitable for sad songs. It was somewhere between Uma Devi and Shamshad begum’s voice. She sang under C Ramchandra, Khemchand Prakash, Gyan Dutt, Hansraj Behl, Sardar Malik, Anil Biswas, S D Burman, H P Das, Premnath, Gulshan Sufi, Khursheed khan etc. etc.
After playback singing, she retired from film singing and taught music to aspirants throughout her unmarried life. She was staying in Bombay, with her brother.
There were 10 songs in Safar-46. Today’s song is the 6th song from the movie to be posted here. This is a typical C. Ramchandra style song sung by Chitalkar himself with Binapani Mukherjee. Let us now enjoy this song.
Song-Chhoti Sethhani Ji bolo laala hazaari ji (Safar)(1946) Singer-C Ramchandra, Binapani Mukherji, Lyrics-Gopal Singh Nepali, MD-C Ramchandra
Lyrics
chhoti sethaani ji ee
bolo laala hazaari ji ee
suno chhoti sethaani ji
tere firaak mein
hum to ho gaye badnaam
laala hazaari ji
tere bazaar mein
main bhi bik gayi bedaam
mukhda dikhaa ke
aankhen churaa ke
bachke na jaana gori
ho gori
mukhda dikha ke
aankhen churaa ke
bachke na jaana gori
ho gori
mehandi rachaa ke
bindiya lagaa ke
aayi hoon tori ??
sajan ghar ??
?? mori
jab raazi ho tum
to jhagde ka kya kaam
chhoti sethaani ji ee
bolo laala hazaari ji ee
suno chhoti sethaani ji
tere firaak mein
hum to ho gaye badnaam
bhaadon ki shaam hai ae
bhaadon ki shaam hai
honthon pe jaam hai
ab to aaraam hai ae
teri judaai ?? ankhiyaan bhigoyegi
ankhiyaan bhigoyegi
main to na jaaun
jo honi hai wo hoyegi
jo honi hai wo hoyegi
tum ho Chhaila main hoon Laila
tum ho chhaila main hoon Laila
dil thhaa
ab to tumhaare????
chhoti sethhaani ji
huhu
arre tere firaak mein
huhu
hum to ho gaye badnaam
huhuhuhu
badnaam ho gaye ham
3 Responses to "Chhoti Sethhaani ji"
March 18, 2018 at 3:04 pm
Very Nice Information on singer Binapani Mukherjee. Arunji, loved reading it. This information is from which book? I wonder why She didn’t get more opportunities later and had to retire.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
November 8, 2016 at 10:30 am
Dear Atul sir…. The write up of this song….is fantastic and cleverly written..with emotions, love and respect for great music directors, none other than the maestro C Ramchandra. I am really delighted.
On Tue, Nov 8, 2016 at 7:29 AM, Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs wrote:
> Atul posted: “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 et” >
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November 8, 2016 at 7:06 pm
Shrirammghe ji,
Thanks for your appreciation. It seems you are a great fan of CR. From your many earlier comments on this Blog also this was very clear.
I am glad that I could give you some pleasure with this article. Such comments from music lovers work as Tonics to us writers. Thanks once again.
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