Phool le lo phool
Posted on: March 25, 2021
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 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.
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Today’s song is from an obscure ‘never heard of’ type film of the early times of the Talkie era – Kaun Kisi ka-1939. The film was made by Hindustan Cinetone. It was directed by Chimanlal Luhar, a talented person. He was a rarity in those days as he was a Science graduate. In times when there were very few educated people in the film industry, he was respected everywhere.
Director CHIMANLAL MULJIBHOY LUHAR ( 1901-1948) was a Chemistry graduate from Bombay University. He started writing as a critic and author in journals like Beesvin sadee, Navchetan and Bombay Chronicle. He joined the film line as a lab Assistant in Kohinoor studios in his early 20s. Soon he became a noted cameraman for several documentaries, with K.D.Brothers, Bombay,under a British cameraman of Prince of Wales’ official entourage. After a brief stint at Rajkot with Saurashtra Films and a longer one at Krishna Films-where he shot 20 films, he joined Sharada Studios with ‘Dagabaz Duniya-1926 and several stunt films by Master Vithal. He turned a producer for a few stunt films.
Later he was a partner in Sharda films and a Director with Sagar Movietone(1934-1940). From 1941 to 46 he worked for Prakash Pictures. He directed Sassi Punnu-32,Silver King-35 Talash-E-haq (first film of Nargis, made by Jaddanbai)-35, Do deewane, Kharab Jaan, Capt. Kirtikumar, Dynamite, Kaun kisika, Sewa Samaj, Saubhagya, Darshan, Station master, School Master, Uss paar and Bindiya. He died at the young age of 47 years,in 1948. He had established his own production outfit ‘Sun Art Pictures’ in 1943, but he made only 3 films with it -School Master-43, Uss Paar-44 and Bindiya-46, before he died, after a prolonged illness.
FILMOGRAPHY: 1932: Sassi Punnu; 1935: Silver King; Talash-e-Haq; 1936: Do Diwane/Be Kharab Jan; 1937: Captain Kirti Kumar; 1938: Dynamite; 1939: Kaun Kisika; Seva Samaj; 1940: Saubhagya; 1941: Darshan; 1942: Station Master; 1943: School Master; 1944: Us Paar; 1946: Bindiya.
The Music Director of this film was Rafiq Ghaznavi, Lyricist was Munshi Dil and the cast of the film was Padma Devi, Shobhana Samarth, Khurshid, Nazir Ahmed, Mubarak, K N Singh, Maruti Rao, Khalil Ahmed, Gope etc.etc. Most of these actors, director and the MD disappeared by the end of the 40’s, because many of them were the spill overs from the Silent Era. Except a few like K.N.Singh, Gope, Mubarak or Shobhana Samarth, none of the other names will mean anything to our readers in the age bracket of 40 to 60 years. The Partition further precipitated this condition and made matters difficult to track old artistes and get their information. Considering the poor conditions in India of preserving and documenting events, information and life stories of old time artistes, it became a Herculean task to collect information on such persons.
I have written articles on films of the early cinema i.e. from the decade of the 1930s. In these articles, I have introduced few unknown or less known heroes and heroines of those times, to our readers. Some of these are Vijay Kumar, Ram Singh, Shankar Rao Vazare, Gul Hamid, Prakash and heroines like Shamim, Nazma, Anjali Devi, Shahzadi, Menaka, Radha Rani, Meera Mishra, Meera Devi etc. Today also we will talk about yet another less known artiste of the silent and early talkie films – Master Khalil Ahmed.
From the lot of the “brought forward” actors and actresses from the silent to the talkie films, two heroes were the true super stars. Master Khalil and Master Vithal. Since they had started their careers from the silent era of the 1920’s, they did not go beyond the 1940’s, when their competition increased and the newer breed of heroes took over with ease!
Though world’s first first feature film, originally presented as a talkie ,’The Jazz Singer’, released in October 1927, it took about 4 years more for talkie films to come to India. When it did come in March 1931, there was tremendous enthusiasm amongst the film makers. Initially, however, there was skepticism in the minds of well established silent film makers. Famous film makers like Dadasaheb Phalke and even V Shantaram are on record having expressed their views that talkie films will not survive. However, the same people later on, not only supported the talkie, but V Shantaram became one of the best proponents of Hindi talkie films. Even Dada Saheb Phalke ended his career by making his only Talkie, ‘Gangavataran’ in 1937. (Leela Mishra had acted in it.)
The coming of sound to films changed the film making for ever. Till then what was a fragmented production activity, slowly became an industry. Earlier, silent films were made at a cost of 8 to 10 thousand rupees. Now the talkie needed 25 to 50 thousand per film. Automatically, the hobbyists and poorer film makers disappeared. So did the acting crew who could not speak Hindi fluently or sing a song.
One finds that suddenly, there was a deluge of talented, creative and enterprising people from various professions and different backgrounds to take up the challenges of this new industry. The changing society in India is partly responsible for this deluge. Due to education and attraction to cities, many people were rapidly getting uprooted from their traditional occupations and they looked forward to these opportunities. For example a motor mechanic Sarvottam Badami became a sound recordist (and later, a director too) and a traditional carpenter like S Fattelal became the great set designer in Prabhat films. An ordinary poster painter, Baburao Painter became a director. Many such examples are available. The deluge was made up of producers, directors, sound recordists, writers, lyricists, singers, technical staff and of course the actors and actresses.
Among the first generation of heroes, namely Khalil, Sandow, Sohrab Modi, Master Nissar, Chandramohan, Prithviraj Kapoor, Motilal, Ashok Kumar, Master Vithal, Jal Merchant, Bilimoria brothers and Saigal emerged as the main players. Among actresses Mehtab, Bibbo, Kajjan, Gauhar, Sitara, Sita Devi, Zubeida, Cooper sisters, Sabita Devi, Leela Chitnis, Durga Khote, Devika Rani, Naseem, Jamuna, Kanan Bala etc. became popular.
Master Khalil Ahmed (variously mentioned as Khalil, Master Khalil, and Khalil Ahmed) was the first ever star of the silent era as well as talkie films from 1920 to 1940s. Born in 1903, he became a hero in Kohinoor’s ‘Gul E Bakavali’ (1924), opposite Zubeida. He was the first handsome and macho hero of those times. He acted with all top heroines of his time. Some of his 30 silent films are, ‘Kaala Naag, ‘Kulin Kanta’, ‘Lanka Ni Laadi’, ‘Cinema Queen’ etc.
He featured in his first talkie film, ‘Draupadi’ (1931), made by Imperial, opposite Ermeline (aka Sudhabala ). Then came ‘Daulat Ka Nasha’ (1931), ‘Bharati Mata’ (1932), ‘Niti Vijay’ (1932), Do Rangi Duniya’ (1933) and ‘Saubhagya Sundari’ (1933). In 1934 Khalil went to Calcutta on the invitation of East India Films. His first film in Calcutta was ‘Kismet Ki Kasauti’ (1934). Then he joined Tollywood Studio (Madon Theatres). Here his first film was ‘ Gaibi Gola’ (1935), in which Baby Noorjehan made her debut as a child star.
He was in great demand in Bombay also, so Khalil started doing films in Calcutta and Bombay, by frequently travelling between the two cities. This caused a lot of stress on him, but he always kept his commitments. During this period, he also got married and got children. He settled in Calcutta and travelled often to Bombay to do films there.
Khalil did different roles, including Hindu Gods. He never changed his name. in those days very few Muslim actors kept their real names. Incidentally, during his peak time, there were two more artists named Khalil. One was Khalil Aftab, who was a lyricist and he acted in film ‘Dard E Dil’ (1934) and ‘ The Mill’ (1934) (this latter film was banned and was released later in 1936 as ‘ Ghareeb Parwar’). The other actor was Khalil Khan, who had acted in film ‘Deepak Mahal’ (1940). In all, Khalil acted in 28 Talkie films. He died quite young, on 28-11-1941, at Calcutta. Too much travelling and stress must have taken its toll on him. He was only 38 year old. He left behind a wife with 5 children.
Khalil did 13 films in Calcutta – ‘Kismet Ki Kasauti (1934), ‘Gaibi Gola’ (1935), ‘Miss Manorama’ (1935), ‘Jawaani Ka Nasha’ (1935), ‘Divine Sacrifice’ (1935), ‘Raj Dulari (1936), ‘Bulbul e Iran’ (1936), ‘Parivartan’ (1936), ‘Adarsh Mahila’ (1937), ‘Aflatoon’ (1937), ‘Karmaveer’ (1938), ‘Abla Ki Shakti’ (1941) and ‘Merchant Of Venice’ (1941).
In Bombay, he did 15 films in Bombay – ‘Draupadi’ (1931), Daulat Ka Nasha’ (1931), ‘Bharati Mata’ (1932), ‘Niti Vijay’ (1932), ‘Do Rangi Duniya’ (1933), ‘Saubhagya Sundari’ (1933), Typist Girl (1935), ‘Shaitan Ka Paash’ (1936), ‘Khudai Khidamadgar’ (1937), ‘Kiski Pyaari’ (1937), ‘Kaun Kisi Ka'(1939), ‘Hamara Desh’ (1940), ‘Pyaar’ (1940), ‘Waayada’ (1940) and ‘Taj Mahal’ (1941).
Khalil acted with most of the leading heroines of his time like, Noorjehan (Sr), Jilloo (Zulekha Ibrahim – she was known by Jilloo Bai in her later career), Kajjan- 6 films, Mushtari – 3 films (She died too young, in her teens only), Miss Rose – 2 films, Violet Cooper – 2 films, Radha Rani, Ram Pyari, Begum Akhtar (she was then known as Akhtari Faizabadi), Sulochana, Ameena, Leela Desai, Indurani, Gulab, Ermelin and Sheela etc. Khalil was very good natured and a popular actor among his co stars and producers.
A Muslim by birth, he performed a variety of roles in films. His initial acting phase included roles of Shri Krishna and Shri Ram. Disenchanted by the communal riots during those times, he gave a speech in the Indian Motion Picture Congress, on 4th May 1939. Baburao Patel’s Film India published this extract from his speech- “I have played Hindu Gods in films. I worked under Hindu producers only. I am disturbed by these riots. I am popular among Hindus and Muslims. We are the devotees of Art and Art has no religion.” Indian Film Industry is perhaps the only industry which is mostly a secular one, since its inception. Master Khalil Ahmed was an example of that.
I could not get any information about this film, its story or other details. I was surprised that this song was available on the You Tube channel. The song is sung by Khurshid, Nazir Ahmed and chorus. With this song, film Kaun Kisi Ka-39 makes its Debut on this Blog.
Song-Phool le lo phool (Kaun Kisi Ka)(1939) Singers-Khursheed, Nazeer Ahmad, Lyrics-Munshi Dil, MD-Rafiq Ghaznavi
Chorus
Lyrics
Phool le lo phool
Phool le lo phool
aayi basant ki saari bahaar
joban barsaaya hai singaar
ae man ??
jhoole jhool
ae man ??
jhoole jhool
Phool le lo phool
Phool le lo phool
kaisa ?? hai tera singaar
phoolon mein lipti ho jaise talwaar
madam jee sadqe
hum donon ??
joban ke badle
hum donon ??
haaan
aankhon mein teri daaloon dhool
aankhon mein teri daaloon dhool
Phool le lo phool
Phool le lo phool
aayi basant ki saari bahaar
aayi basant ki saari bahaar
gali gali par barse phuhaar
gali gali par barse phuhaar
aayi basant ki saari bahaar
aayi basant ki saari bahaar
baaghon se maalan laayi sandes
baaghon se maalan laayi sandes
aate hain preetam apne des
hey ae ae es
aate hain preetam apne des
sun sun kaliyaan sej sajaawo o o
sun sun kaliyaan sej sajaawo o o
phool bechaaron ho na malool
phool bechaaron ho na malool
Phool le lo phool
Phool le lo phool
aayi basant ki saari bahaar
aayi basant ki saari bahaar
kali kali par barse ??
kali kali par barse ??
aayi basant ki saari bahaar
aayi basant ki saari bahaar
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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