Tum chor ho haan haan chor ho
Posted on: July 15, 2022
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 film Giribala-1947.
This is one of those films, whose story and almost the whole crew came from Bengal. In the past also we have many such films.Right from the Silent films era, Calcutta has been making films and showing them in important markets. After the advent of Talkie films in 1931 itself, out of the 24 films that were released that year, as many as 7 films were made by Madan Theatres, Calcutta alone ! The rest 17 were made by different studios in Bombay. Surprisingly, there was no movie from New Theatres, Calcutta in Hindi, in the first year of Talkie films,i.e. 1931. Their first Hindi Talkie film ” Mohabbat ke aansoo” came only in 1932, but it was such a great flop that it probably did not cross Calcutta’s borders even !
In due course of time, Calcutta’s famous New Theatres became quite active and aggressive and presented hits after hits in Bangla and Hindi languages for successive years till about mid 1940’s. There were of course other 20-25 film making studios and film companies in Bengal during this period, but new Theatre performance outshone all others. One of the major strengths of Bangla films made in Calcutta, especially, New Theatres was that their films were based on famous works of literature, stories, novels and dramas in Bangla Literature. This made the base of the films so solid that other weak areas like language, dialogues, diction of speaking Hindi, too bookish conversations and too artificial acting were easily overlooked.
The use of stories of prominent authors in films started from the Silent films itself. Bengali people are very fond of reading. The poorest Bengali also would have few books in his cottage. In addition, Bengali are the people who love to remain in past glories. Added to this their extraordinary Regional pride – especially about their language ( they consider Bangla Language more important than even their Religion) made them see the films on their favourite stories with utmost love and liking, reliving in Nostalgia !
In the 1930s and the 1940s successful Bangla films were remade for Hindi audiences and for a bigger commercial market in india. Thus the Hindi audiencegot to see the best films contentwise. Songs based on ‘ Rabindra Sangeet’ were a novelty outside Bengal and these songs also became popular. Singers like Pankaj Mullik, Jagmohan Sursagar, K.C.Dey, Juthika Roy, Hemant kumar, kamla Jharia etc amde Hindi film and non film music popular all over India during the period of 1935 to 1960.
When Bangla films chose famous author’s stories for making films, can they overlook Rabindranath Tagore ? Impossible ! So, I was keen to know how many films in Bangla and other languages were made on Tagore’s stories. Luckily I came across a table of such details on the net. As per this table from Wiki,, a total of 52 films were made on Tagore stories. It also showed 11 independent Hindi films made on Tagore stories, without counting original Bangla and remade Hindi films. The film names I got are….
Milan-46 and Ghunghat-57 (Nauka Doobi)
Do Bigha Zamin-53 (Title based on Tagore’s poem Dui Bigha Jomi)
Kabuliwala-61 and Bioscopewala-2017 (Kabuliwala)
Uphaar-71 (Samapti)
Lekin-91 (Kshudhita Pashan)
Chaar Adhyay-97 (same name)
Patralekha-2012 (Tagore poem)
Mukti-2012 (Tagore poem) and
Darbaan-2020 (The child’s return)
Today’s film Giribala-1947 is also based on Tagore’s story of 1895. A silent film Giribala was made first in 1930. The 1947 Hindi film Giribala was also a remake of Bangla film of the same year. That explains the all Bangla cast and crew. The film was made by Bodhu Bose Productions, Calcutta. It was directed by Madhu Bose (1900-1969) – husband of actress Sadhona Bose. he acted in 1 silent film A throw of Dice-1930. He directed 6 Hindi films….Selima-1945, Bala ki Raat-1936, Kumkum-The Dancer-1940, Raj nartaki-1941, Meenakshi-1942 and his last Hindi film-Giribala-1947.
The Music Director was Kamal Dasgupta (28-7-1912 to 28-7-1974), who gave music to 17 Hindi films starting from Jawab-1942 to Phulwari-1952. The cast of the film was Indrani devi, Dhiraj Bhattacharya (who had also worked in the silent film Giribala-1930), Ahindra Choudhari, Rajlakshmi, Poornima, Vithaldas Panchotiya, Tulsi Chakraworty and others.
Trom the cast, I find Vithaldas Panchotiya a very versatile artiste who dabbled in several departments of filmmaking. Here is more information about him. Vithaldas Panchotiya ( 15 th October 1906 to 2-10-1987 ). Except those readers, who have a knowledge of early era Hindi films, it is unlikely that other readers might have even heard this name. In the early era, when the studio system was firmly established, the artistes employed by the studio had no specific duties. Anybody and everybody had to do what was needed by the company. Due to this many capable artistes became all rounders in film making.
Vithaldas Panchotiya was certainly one such person. He has been a Producer, Director, story writer, dialogue writer, screenplay writer, lyricist, Singer, Music Director and God knows what else !
Born in October 1906 in Vadnagar in Gujarat, he followed his father’s footsteps. His father worked in stage dramas and toured with the drama company. From the age of 8 years Vithaldas started acting in dramas. Later he joined Calcutta’s Alfred Drama company, owned by Madon Theatres Limited. He worked on a salary of Rs. 35 pm. While working in dramas, he established his own Gujarat Film company and produced 12 silent films in 10 years. Vithaldas first acted in the silent film ‘ Dhruv charitra’-1921. He learnt dance and music too. He acted , directed, sang songs and gave music also. He acted in Talkie film ” Muflis Ashiqe”-1932, claimed to be India’s first comedy film. He acted, sang and composed music for this film.
Being a staunch Gandhian, he used to participate in rallies etc. Some of his films were Hindustan-32, Insaf ki Tope-34, Gaibi Gola-35 ( he was the writer and the director too.He gave a break to Baby Noorjahan in this film.), Khudai Khidamadgar-37 aka Garib ki Tope, Takdir ki Tope-38 etc . As per one source, he acted in 35 films, directed 10 talkie films, sang 8 songs, gave music to 1 film and wrote Lyrics to 2 films. Additionally story, dialogues and screenplay writing were also done by him. Some of his films were, Shaikh chilli-37, Khush naseeb-46, Prabhu ki maya-55, Ghar ki numaish-49, Karmaveer-38, Raman-54, Jagriti-54, Hum sab chor hain-56, Basant 60, Bhagvat mahima etc.
I find it very difficult to know exactly how many films he did in various capacities in the 1930s, as there are conflicting claims by him and Master Fida Hussain. In a few cases the details in HFGK and what he claims, gets contradicted. Some of his films in the 40s are Ramanuj-43, Giribala-47, Grihalaxmi-48, Ghar ki Numaish-48 ( released only in 1962, with the title ‘ Jai ho muhabbat ki ‘ )
Thanks to information and statistical data provided by Shri Harish Raghuwanshi ji of Surat, we know that his Filmography consists of a total 11+ 26 films. The break up is-
11 silent films
25 Talkie films as Actor and 1 film as a writer only.
9 films as a Director
2 films as Lyricist and
2 films as Music Director
As per Muvyz data, he sang 37 songs in 8 films.
From 1951 to 1960, he did 13 films- mostly ( 9) for Filmistan. He directed 2 of them. After 1960 his work was reduced. The death of his 3 sons broke him emotionally. As a true Gandhian, it was his dream to make a film- Gandhi Sangram- on Mahatma Gandhi. He had done all the spade work and the Muhurat of shooting was also done on 2-10-1987, The Government had promised finance. Even Rajiv Gandhi promised him that. However nothing came to him and he died on 30-10-1996, with his dream unfulfilled.
His daughter Shradha used to work in Gujarati films. She too died in a Train accident in 2000. Her daughter Deepshikha is an actress.
Today’s song is a very melodious duet sung by Kalyani Das and Hemant Kumar. Kalyani Das was a part of Same Name Confusion pair of Kalyani Bai and Kalyani Das. Both sang in Calcutta. Kalyani Das was a playback singer who started her career in Hindi films from Calcutta with PC Barua’s ‘Jawaab’ (1942) and ended her playback singing career in Hindi films with ‘Iran Ki Ek Raat’ (1949). She also sang for a few films made in Bombay. To the best of my knowledge, she did not act in any films.
It is not so difficult to segregate ‘Kalyanis’ as both of them worked in Calcutta at different times. Kalyani Bai worked in films produced in Calcutta up to 1937 whereas Kalyani Das commenced her playback singing career from Calcutta from 1942 onward. She mostly worked for music director Kamal Dasgupta (8 out of 11 Hindi films in which she was playback singer). She sang 37 songs in 11 films….Jawab-42, meghdoot-45, Kurukshetra-45, Zameen Aasmaan-46, Prem ki Duniya-46, Bindiya-46, Manmaani-47, Giribala-47, Faisla-47, Swayamsidha-49 and Iran ki ek raat-49.
Let us now enjoy this very good duet.
Song-Tum chor ho haan haan chor ho (Giribaala)(1947) Singers-Kalyani Das, Hemant Kumar, Lyrics-Pt Madhur, MD-Kamal Dasgupta
Lyrics
tum chor ho
haan haan chor ho
haan haan chor ho
chor ho chor ho ji
tum chor ho
haan haan chor ho
haan haan chor ho
chor ho chor ho ji
tumne seekha hai dil ka churaana aa
tumne seekha hai dil ka churaana aa
aur chori chori
haan ji chori chori
dil mein aana
dil mein aana
tum chor ho
haan haan chor ho
haan haan chor ho
chor ho chor ho ji
meri galiyon ka
galiyon ka
meri galiyon ka
tumko pata hai
tumhen maaloom mera thhikaana
thhikaana aa
tum chor ho
haan haan chor ho
haan haan chor ho
chor ho chor ho ji
ye chori ka jhhootha iljaam hai
dil leke kiya badnaam hai
ye chori ka jhhootha iljaam hai
dil leke kiya badnaam hai
chor kehke hamen na bulaana
chor kehke hamen na bulaana
mere pehlu se
pehlu se
mere pehlu se dil bhola bhaala
tumne naina aa aa aa
tumne naina milaake nikaala
mere pehlu se dil bhola bhaala
tumne naina aa aa aa aa
tumne naina milaake nikaala
lutke ulte bane ae ae ae
lutke ulte bane chor hum hain
husnwaalon ke ye bhi sitam hain
lut ke ulte bane chor hum hain
husnwaalon ke ye bhi sitam hain
tumne jo kuchh kahaa
haan aan aan aan
tumne jo kuchh kahaa
hamne maana aa aa
hamne maana aa aa
maanaaa
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
July 16, 2022 at 6:36 am
Dear Guru ji,
Many thanks for keeping us all informed about Films from the distant past. Someday, all this information should form part of an Encyclopedia.
One small correction, though.
The Film “DO BIGHA ZAMEEN” was NOT based on a Story by Tagore. It was actually based on a Bagla Story “RICKSHAWALLA” written by Salil Chowdhury. Earlier, famous Director RITWICK GHATAK had wanted to make the Film in Bangla, but the Project never materialised.
The reference to Tagore only comes from the Title of the Movie. It was taken from a Poem written by Tagore “DUI BIGHA JOMI”, as part of his compilation “KATHA O KAHINI”, published in 1904.
With warm regards
PARTHA CHANDA
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July 16, 2022 at 12:14 pm
Partha JI,
I too had my own doubts about this, because I knew that Salilda had written the story, but since it was mentioned in the table, which I have mentioned in the post, I took it. Anyway, some connection with Tagore is there.
Thanks for confirming my doubt.
-AD
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July 16, 2022 at 12:25 pm
I have requested Atul ji, for making suitable changes in the post.
-AD
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July 16, 2022 at 3:43 pm
Correction done
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