Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs

Kya kaha zara phir kaho

Posted on: October 19, 2020


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 other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

Blog Day :

4476 Post No. : 15980

Today, October 19, 2020 is the 25th Remembrance Day of Baby Naaz, one of the super child artists of Hindi films who has enthralled the Hindi cinema buffs with her memorable roles. She was a destitute child in ‘Boot Polish’ (1954), the young Paro in ‘Devdas’ (1955), an orphan girl in ‘Do Phool’ (1958), a teenage daughter caught in the marital discord of her parents, Guru Dutt and Veena in ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ (1959) and many more roles.

Baby Naaz’s life from her childhood days to teenager has been traumatic and unhappy. Baby Naaz’s undated interview which appeared in ‘Stardust’ magazine sometime in mid-1970 is an indication of how a child has been exploited by her mother by pushing her into Hindi films as a child artist depriving her of schooling and a good childhood to make the family’s life comfortable. In today’s world, Baby Naaz’s case would come in the ambit of child abuse by her mother. From the age of 4, she has been the bread winner for her family when she started performing as a dancer on the road side stage shows. At the age of 8, she became a child artist in Hindi films which continued till her adulthood. In this process, Baby Naaz struggled with her 3-4 shifts of shooting a day depriving her of a normal childhood.

Based on Naaz’s interview mentioned above and also on Khalid Mohamed’s article in ‘The Daily Eyes’- July 8, 2020 and an article which appeared in December 29, 2017 issue of ‘Jansatta’, the life story of Naaz has been sumarised below:

Baby Naaz, (Real name: Salma Baig) was born in Mumbai on 20/08/1944 in a poor family. Her father, Mirza Dawood Baig was a story writer who was trying his luck to sell his stories for Hindi films but was unsuccessful. He remained unemployed beside being a sickly person. Baby Naaz’s mother was an ambitious lady who pushed Baby Naaz to Hindi films as a child artist so that with her income, she can run the house and have a comfortable life. Her father was against his daughter working in the film. But due to the extreme financial problem faced by the family, he reluctantly agreed to his friend, Lekhraj Bhakri’s request to let her do a childhood role of Suraiya in ‘Resham’ (1952). Salma Baig was given a screen name, ‘Baby Naaz’.

Due to her busy shooting schedules, Baby Naaz could not attend the school regularly for which she was rusticated. For the same reason, she had no time for enjoying her childhood. On the other hand, there was constant fights between her father and mother. Deprived of a normal childhood with love and affection from her parents, Baby Naaz twice attempted suicide by jumping into a well at the age of 10 but was saved by her maid servant.

When Naaz was 12, her parents separated and she started living with her mother. About 4 years later, her mother remarried to a film cameraman and shifted to her husband’s house. Slowly, she realised that she was the sole bread winner not only for her mother but also for her lover who had now become her step-father.

Baby Naaz came into limelight as a child artist in ‘Boot Polish’ (1954) in which she played the role of a destitute child along with Master Rattan. She enacted the emotional scenes as well as comedy acts very well. The film was shown in Cannes’ International Film Festival in 1955 where both Baby Naaz and Master Rattan were tied to receive the special commendations from the Jury. With this, Baby Naaz became the most sought-after child artist and worked in a spate of films during 1954-59. Around 1960 onwards, Naaz started getting roles as a major, mostly as a character actor though in a few films, she had also got the lead roles in ‘B’ grade films.

During the shooting of ‘Mera Ghar Mere Bachche’ (1960), Naaz became close to Subbiraj, a nephew of Prithviraj Kapoor. Both of them had the second lead roles and decided to convert their closeness into a marriage. However, families from both sides were against this marriage. Their courtship continued for 5 years. It was during the shooting of ‘Dekha Pyaar Tumhaara’ (1963), in which they were in the lead roles, they got married during the outdoor shooting of the film in Pratapgarh Fort. They returned to Mumbai as a married couple.

After the marriage, Naaz felt for the first time that she had got the love and affection which she had missed in her childhood. After the marriage, Naaz had to cut down her assignments in the films due to household responsibilities. In the 1970s, she started working with Kalyanji-Anandji for their musical programmes as a compere. In the 1980s, she almost stopped acting in the films as she had become a dubbing artist for some actresses from the south especially for Sridevi.

After a traumatic childhood and teens, Naaz was happy with her married life. When the time came for her to enjoy a life of contentment with her husband and two children, a tragedy struck in her life. In 1995, Naaz was diagnosed with cancer which was on a terminal stage. She breathed her last on October 19, 1995 when she was 51.

Baby Naaz worked in around 125 Hindi films during 1952-86 of which she worked as a child artist in about 50 films. In the 1960s, Naaz got opportunity to work as a lead/second lead actor in ‘Lambe Haath’ (1960), ‘Mera Ghar Mere Bachche’ (1960), ‘Gangu’ (1962), ‘Dekha Pyaar Tumhaara’ (1963), ‘Chaar Darvesh’ (1964), ‘Rocket Girl’ (1965) and Chhaila Babu’ (1967). However, these films did not do well at the box office.

After her marriage in 1963, Naaz restricted her film appearances by choosing the films in which the roles interested her. I find that post-marriage, most of the films in which she acted belonged to big banners and under good directors like M Sadiq in ‘Bahu Begum’ (1967), Sateyn Bose in ‘Raat Aur Din’ (1967), Lekh Tandon in ‘Jahaan Pyaar Miley’ (1969), Manmohan Desai in ‘Sachcha Jhootha’ (1970), Dulal Guha in ‘Dushman’ (1972). Hrishikesh Mukherjee in ‘Phir Kab Milogi’ (1974), Asit Sen in ‘Bairaag’ (1976), B R Chopra in ‘Karm’ (1977), Basu Chatterjee in ‘Sheesha’ (1986) etc.

On the occasion of the 25th Remembrance Day of Naaz, I present a song from ‘Gangu’ (1962) which was one of her films with a lead role for her. The film was directed by Promod Chakravarty. The song is ‘kya kaha zara phir kaho’ which is a duet sung by Subir Sen and Geeta Dutt. The song is written by Prem Dhawan is picturised on Chandrashekhar and Naaz which is set to music by Kalyanji-Anandji.

Video Clip:

Audio Clip:

Song-Kya kaha zara phir kaho (Gangu)(1962) Subir Sen, Geeta Dutt, Lyrics-Prem Dhawan, MD-Kalyanji Anandji

Lyrics

kya kaha zara phir kaho
aji kya kaha zara phir kaho
koi sun lega aji chup raho o
koi sun lega aji chup raho o

kya kaha zara phir kaho
koi sun lega aji chup raho
koi sun lega aji chup raho

tum na kaho to nigaahen kahengi
tumhaari ye bahki adaayen kahengi
tum na kaho to nigaahen kahengi
tumhaari ye bahki adaayen kahengi
youn na sataaya karo..o
koi sun lega aji chup raho o
koi sun lega aji chup raho o

kya kaha zara phir kaho
koi sun lega aji chup raho
koi sun lega aji chup raho

ki hai mohabbat to kaisa chhupaana
na ho jaaye dushman kahin ye zamaana
ki hai mohabbat to kaisa chhupaana
na ho jaaye dushman kahin ye zamaana
duniya se youn na daro..o
koi sun lega aji chup raho o
koi sun lega aji chup raho o

kya kaha zara phir kaho
aji kya kaha zara phir kaho
koi sun lega aji chup raho o
koi sun lega aji chup raho o

8 Responses to "Kya kaha zara phir kaho"

Sadanand Ji. Thanks for the post on Naaz. Her role in Boot Polish is unforgettable.
I haven’t heard this song before. It has good appeal.

Like

Satish ji,
Thanks for the comments.
I did not expect a film with the title ‘Gangu’ will have a melodius song which is yet to be covered in the Blog. For me also, I heard this song for the first time.

Like

Sadanand ji

“Basu Chatterjee in ‘Takreeb’ (1985) etc”., Which movie are we referring to, I haven`t heard this movie of Basu chatterjee HELP !, must be a type ?

Like

Prakashchandra ji,

Thanks for pointing out.

I do not know as to how ‘Takreeb’ (1985) has ‘landed’ in my draft. It was not only the wrong film, but the spelling was also incorrect. It may be due to some mix-up with the film list for some other article.

The correct name of the film is ‘Sheesha’ (1986), directed by Basu Chatterjee. I regret for the oversight.

I request Atul ji to correct the name of the film.

Like

Thank you for this remembrance day post of Baby Naaz. The story of the tough life of a child artist, is saddening.

I remembered the bengali song from ‘Anubhav’, by Subir Sen. I see that the https://atulsongaday.me/2020/05/26/sedin-dujone-dulechhinu-bone/
is posted as part of your series, which I had missed.

Regards.

Like

Nahm ji,
When I read her interview, I felt very sad. She was deprived of her normal childhood. When everything had well settled in her life – a good marriage with two children and the life moving smoothly, she was not there to enjoy it. It is the sadness which made me to write this article.

Like

Sadanandji
Thank you for this biography of Baby Naaz. She was very pretty. I think she danced well in the “Lajwanti” “Chanda mama mere paas aana”.

Like

Peevesie’s Mom,
At first, I took Naaz to be a dancer just like Minu Mumtaz, Jeevankala etc. She had danced in ‘Chaar Darvesh’ (1964) and ‘Nadir Shah’ (1968) among other films. When I watched some of her films in which she had lead/second lead roles, I realised that she was a sensitive actor too.

Naaz would have become a great actor if her mother had planned her acting career properly. Naaz had said in her interview that her monther’s greed for money forced her in accepting even small roles at a time when she was getting lead roles in the films in early 1960s.

Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

What is this blog all about

This blog discusses Bollywood songs of yesteryears. Every song has a brief description, followed by a video link, and complete lyrics of the song.

This is a labour of love, where “new” songs are added every day, and that has been the case for over FIFTEEN years. This blog has over 18300 song posts by now.

This blog is active and online for over 5000 days since its beginning on 19 july 2008.

Important Announcement

(© 2008 - 2024) atulsongaday.me The content of this site is copyrighted and it may not be reproduced elsewhere without prior consent from the site/ author of the content.

Total number of songs posts discussed

18337

Number of movies covered in the blog

Movies with all their songs covered =1425
Total Number of movies covered=4960

Total visits so far

  • 16,523,384 hits

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,007 other subscribers

Bookmark

Bookmark and Share

Category of songs

Current Visitors

Historical dates

Blog Start date: 19 july 2008

Active for more than 5000 days.

Archives

Stumble

visitors whereabouts

blogadda

blogcatalog

Music Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory