Inhi logon ne le leenha dupatta mera
Posted on: December 4, 2017
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.
The first gramophone recording of songs in India was done in November 1902. However, the records were marketed only in 1903. A cursory glance at the various issues of Society of Indian Records Collectors (SIRC) indicates that early gramophone recordings were confined mostly to songs sung by ‘Bais’, ‘Devis’, ‘Jaans’, ‘Begums’ etc who mainly belonged to professions like courtesans, dancing, private concert singers etc. In view of their background, they recorded mostly semi-classical songs in the genre of Thumri, Dadra, Ghazals, Bhajans, Hori, Chaiti, Folks music etc. These genres of songs were popular among the masses thanks to theatres where some of the above mentioned singers acted in the plays. The popularity of these songs gave gramophone recording companies profitable business opportunity.
With the advent of talkies in 1931, the genre of semi-classical songs found place in the films as well. And who could have sung such songs better than the popular ‘gramophone’ singers like Jahanara Kajjan, Mukhtar Begum, Begum Akhtar, Mallika Pukhraj, Mushtari Bai, Jaddan Bai, Waheedan Bai, Indubala, Kamala Jharia etc. They found avenue to become actor-singer in the films of the 1930s and 40s.
In the initial period of talkies, music directors were mostly from the theatre background. A cursory perusal of the available songs of the films released during early 1930s reveals that their song compositions were mostly influenced by semi-classical genres like ghazals, thumris, dadras, bhajans etc. Some of the songs in films during this period were customised based on the popular songs sung by the semi-classical singers. There are many such instances from 1930s through 1960s. I will not go into the detailed listing. They are still in vogue even now in the guise of remix songs. However, I wish to share a few of them from films of early 1930s which came to my notice while writing this article:
1. Lagat karejwa mein chot phool gajra na maaro re from the film MADHURI (1932) sung by Chanda Bai. Unfortunately, the gramophone record for this song was not issued. It is based on a traditional bandish in raag Bhairavi which I guess, Chanda Bai may have sung umpteen times during her association with Parsi Theatres in the 1920s. By the way, Chanda Bai was Begum Akhtar’s first inspiration to become actor-singer when she was barely 7 years old.
2. Raam rang rang le mann aatm rang rang le mann from the film BHARATI MATA(1932). Again, the song is not available. Probably, the gramophone record may not have been issued for this song. I strongly feel that this Hindi version song may have been based on a popular Bhajan in raag Yaman sung by Panditrao Nagarkar in Marathi musical play ‘Sangeet Tulsidas’ (1928). This bhajan was made more popular by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi in the later years.
3. hai kya kya jalwa bhara hua and deejo darshan mujhe bansi ke bajaanewaale from the film AANKH KAA TAARA (1932) were first recorded as non-filmy bhajans by Indubala in June 1931. Later, Indubala sang these two songs in the film.
4. Koyaliya mat kar pukaar karjewa laage kataar from the film JAWAANI KAA NASHA (1935) was sung by Begum Akhtar in the film but the gramophone record was not issued. Later, she recorded this Dadra in 78 RPM record as non-filmy song and also a fuller length (over 10 minutes) in concerts which was also recorded as non-filmy song, probably in early 50s.
My emphasis in this article is to show that the inspirations for the filmy songs especially during the early period of talkies, by and large, came from scores of non-filmy semi-classical songs which were recorded during 1902 to say 1940.
Now let me talk about one more inspired song, inhi logon ne le leena dupatta mera which became very popular in 1972 when the film PAAKEEZAH (1972) was released. The song is still popular as a mujra song. At that time, I was not aware that a similarly worded song was sung by Shamshad Begum in the film HIMMAT (1941) until 2012. I wrote an article on the song in the Blog on the next day of my becoming aware of this song. The song was also repeated in AABROO (1943). The credit for the lyrics went to Majrooh Sultanpuri, Aziz Kashmiri and Tanveer Naqvi, respectively in the order of the films’ names which appear above. Of course, all the lyricists have made some minor changes in the lyrics.
During the discussion on the article mentioned above, Arun ji had mentioned that this was a traditional song sung in kothas (by courtesans). I had also mentioned in my article that the Shamshad Begum’s version gave a feel of a kotha song. After about 5 years since I wrote the article, it is now more or less confirmed that this is indeed a traditional kotha song. For this, I thank Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji for making available the traditional version of the song on YT about three months back.
Today, I am presenting a non-filmy version of ‘inhi logon ne le leena dupatta mera’ (1921) sung in Dadra style by Akhtari Jaan of Lucknow, a courtesan. Other than this, I have no information on Akhtari Jaan. It seems, her name has been mixed up with that of Akhtari Bai (Begum Akhtar) on the internet.
The lyrics of Akhtari Jaan’s version the last stanza has somewhat different wordings as against wordings of Shamshad Begum version. I assume that Aziz Kashmiri has made changes in the last stanza in Shamshad Begum’s version. Akhtari Jaan has rendered the Dadra with aalaaps. The name of the music director is not known. With only harmonium and percussion as musical instruments, I guess even the tune may be a traditional one.
After listening to the four versions of this song, Lata Mangeshkar’s version of the song still remain popular due to a better voice, a better orchestration and the improved technical support available for the song recording.
This non-filmy song becomes the second oldest recorded song on the Blog.
Song-Inhin logon ne le leena dupatta mera (Akhtari Jaan NFS)(1921) Singer-Akhtari Jaan
Lyrics
aaa aaa aa aa
inhin logon ne le leena dupatta mera
inhin logon ne le leena dupatta mera
inhin lo..gon ne
inhin lo..gon ne
inhin lo..gon ne
inhin lo..gon ne
inhin logon ne le leena dupatta mera
haan
inhin logon ne le leena dupatta mera
na jaano ba..jajwaa se poochho
na jaano ba..jajwaa se poochho
jisne asharfi gaz deenaa dupattaa mera
haan
jisne asharfi gaz deenaa dupattaa mera aa
inhi logon ne le leenaa dupattaa mera
na jaano rangrejiya se poochho
na jaano rang
na jaano rangrejiya se poochho
jisne gulaabi rang deenaa dupattaa mera
jisne gulaabi rang deenaa dupattaa mera
aaa aaa aaa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa re haan
inhin logon ne le leena dupattaa mera
inhin logon ne le leena dupattaa mera
na jaano more sainyyan se poochho
na jaano more sainyyan se poochho
jisne bula ke maza leena deenaa dupattaa mera
jisne bula ke maza leena deenaa dupattaa mera
inhin logon ne le leena
aaaa aa
aa aa aaa
aa aa aa aa re haan
inhin logon ne le leena dupattaa mera
inhin logon ne
[mera naam Akhtari Jaan Lucknow se hai]
5 Responses to "Inhi logon ne le leenha dupatta mera"
December 5, 2017 at 3:34 pm
Sadanand ji,
The last line of the post says it all.
Many thanks for the research.
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December 5, 2017 at 4:41 pm
I hope no one gets offended by this video, if at all please maaf karo
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
December 4, 2017 at 11:16 am
This 1943 Aabroo version of ‘Inhi logo ne ….’ was picturized on the old time actor Yakub.!!!
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November 14, 2020 at 10:41 am
Amazing
Arulji I am big fan of your blog
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