Doston har haal mein ajee ye pet palnaa chaahiye
Posted on: October 28, 2024
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 the film Diwali ki Raat-1956.
This was a film in which singer Talat Mahmood acted as a hero opposite heroine Roopmala. Talat Mahmood (24-2-1924 to 9-5-1998) acted in 12 films from 1945 to 1958 and he also did a cameo role, singing a song-“Shukriya Ae Pyar Tera Shukriya“, of three and half minutes in film Aaram-1951. In his early career starting in Calcutta, he fell in love with a Bangla actress Latika Mullick. They got married on 20-2-1951. She was converted to Islam and was renamed Nasreen, who bore two children to Talat. As per a book by Manek Premchand, ‘Talat Mahmood – The Velvet Touch’, he sang 777 songs which included Hindi film songs, NFS and unreleased films etc. As per another source he sang 451 Hindi film songs from 259 Hindi films.
Two very good singers – and my favourites – spoiled their singing careers at the cost of fulfilling their misplaced aspiration of making it as a singing hero, when such times had died down after Saigal and Surendra. Mukesh ( 22-7-1923 to 27-8-1976 ) acted in 8 films from 1941 to 1956 and sang in 538 films, as per one source. I personally feel the acting bug did more damage to Talat than Mukesh. Of course a money-smart Talat made it up with innumerable foreign tours for concerts and singing jaunts with a party made up of musicians, singers and mimicry artistes.
Film Diwali ki Raat was produced by Vishandas Sapru and Ram Rasila, for their banner V.A.R.Productions, Bombay. The film was directed by Deepak Asha and the cast included Talat Mahmood, Roopmala, Shashikala, Gope, Ram Rasila (one of the two producers), Moti Sagar, S.Nazeer, Leela Mishra, Naaz and some others. Lyrics were by Madhukar Rajasthani, Naqsh Lyallpuri and Pt. Phani. The Music Director was the talented but not so famous Snehal Bhatkar.
Like the values of money and values of life changed in all these years, almost everything has changed nowadays. These changes have not come overnight, but like slow poisoning, the changes took almost 50 to 60 years to show their effect. The second world war and the independence era were the beginning when quantity started overpowering quality. The film industry was also not an exception. How good the acting or the music was, became secondary and how many films became the testing apparatus to judge the actor or the composer. Thus the simple but talented artistes fell behind and those who pushed hard or had the right connections (and the luck) went much ahead.
In the field of Music Direction, at least two names come to mind, who were talented but too simple to last in the neck to neck competition of the film line. One of them was Snehal Bhatkar (the other being – Jaidev). He was the MD for the film ‘Diwali Ki Raat’-1956.
White full shirt, ironed white pyjama, spectacles with big powerful lenses and the trademark white Gandhi Topi – he could easily be mistaken for a ‘Pandharpur Warkari’ (a regular pilgrim to Pandharpur) or a member of a ‘Bhajani Mandali’ or simply a middle class ‘Marathi Manoos’. Such was the appearance of one of Hindi filmdom’s talented, yet not so famous, music maestro VASUDEV GANGARAM BHATKAR or Snehal Bhatkar, as we all know him.
In the Hindi film music field there were some talented composers like Ghulam Mohd, Mohd. Shafi, Iqbal Qureshi, Daan singh, C Arjun, Ramlal, Sardar Malik, Ajit Merchant, Jamal Sen, Dattaram, Ganesh, etc. who could never reach the peaks of their careers. They really deserved success and fame, but luck did not favour them. Big banners never approached them and eventually the losers were the music lovers in India. These composers did not know, perhaps, how to sell their art. Maybe they never wanted to enslave music to gain name and fame, instead they preferred to settle for genuine service to music!
Snehal Bhatkar was one such composer. The maxim of simple living and high thinking never worked in this Mayanagari, but he had no regrets. Till the very end he was content with whatever God gave him, and whatever name and success he achieved.
He was born into and grew up in a family that was surrounded by traditional devotional music all around. In the lower middle class, the people had their entertainments in singing bhajans and doing kirtans in temples en masse.
Vasudev G. Bhatkar was born on 17-7-1919. He knew at least 100 bhajans by heart by the time he was in his 10th class. He was invited to sing in Ganesh Melas and other celebrations and soon became a well-known name in the locality. Because of his singing and skills in playing harmonium and other instruments, he got a job with HMV in Bombay. Here he used to give accompaniment on harmonium to big classical singers. At the same time, taking cognizance of his singing skills, many Marathi bhavgeets and bhajans were recorded by HMV. Some of them are popular in Maharashtra even today.
All this while, Bhatkar was looking for an opportunity to compose in films. Sudhir Phadke who also served in HMV and recorded some songs from 1943 to 1945, joined hands with Bhatkar and made a pair – Vasudev-Sudhir. In 1946, they got a film of Baburao Painter – ‘Rukmini Swayamvar’ – for music direction. The problem was that due to his service in HMV, he could not openly work outside. Hence he only gave his name as Vasudev. After this film, the pair separated and Phadke went to give music to films like ‘Gokul’ (1946), ‘Aagey Badho’ (1947), etc. Due to financial constraints Bhatkar was unable to leave his job with HMV.
In 1941, Bhatkar had come to know Kidar Sharma while recording songs for his film ‘Chitralekha’, which he was making for Ranjit Studios. Sharma had just come from Calcutta to establish himself in Bombay. He had a knack of identifying talents. He first gave a chance to Bhatkar to sing some songs with Leela Sawant in his film ‘Kaliyan’ (1944). After ‘Rukmini Swayamvar’, Kidar Sharma gave him his first break as an independent composer in his film ‘Neelkamal’ (1947), where Kidar Sharma launched Raj Kapoor and Madhubala in adult roles as the leading pair. Bhatkar used the name B Vasudev. In the subsequent years Bhatkar used different names for different films like VG Bhatkar in ‘Sant Tukram’ (1948), ‘Sati Ahalya’ (1949) and ‘Pagle’ (1950), and Snehal in ‘Suhaag Raat’ (1948) and ‘Thes’ (1949). After doing ‘The’s and ‘Sati Ahalya’, Bhatkar resigned from HMV.
Snehal Bhatkar and Kidar Sharma were very good friends. Kidar gave him ‘Neki Aur Badi’ in 1949. Meanwhile, Kidar Sharma met Roshan Lal Nagrath in some musical event. Sharma was terribly impressed with Roshan and wanted to give him a break in his film. At that point of time, Kidar had just started work on ‘Neki Aur Badi’. He had a heart to heart talk with Bhatkar and Bhatkar gladly left the film for Roshan. Thus Roshan got his break with ‘Neki aur Badi’. Roshan never forgot Bhatkar’s magnanimity in his life and always respected Bhatkar. In return Kidar Sharma gave ‘Hamari Beti’ (1950) to Bhatkar. As he was a free bird now, Bhatkar started using the name SNEHAL BHATKAR from this film. Snehal was the short form of Snehalata, his daughter.
Snehal Bhatkar did many Marathi films and recorded many bhajans in Marathi, which are ever popular. He did 28 films in Hindi (including one unreleased film in the 1950s) and 12 films in Marathi. Out of 27 released Hindi films, 9 were made by Kidar Sharma.
The song which made Mubarak Begum and Bhatkar famous in India was ‘Kabhi Tanhaiyon Mein, Hamari Yaad Aayegi’ from the film ‘Hamari Yaad Aayegi’ (1961). (This film was was originally named ‘Jawaan Mohabbat’). Actually this song was to be done by Lata Mangeshkar. Lata had already recorded two songs for this film. Due to her extremely busy schedule she was unable to do this song, so she suggested the name of Asha Bhosle. But Kidar Sharma, already upset over Lata’s refusal, opted for Mubarak Begum and the rest, as they say, is history. She imbued a unique character to this song with her special voice.
After 1960, the musical scene in India was undergoing drastic changes and there was no space for composers like Bhatkar, who used a minimum orchestra and dwelt upon melody. His films came in long intervals. Even Kidar Sharma left him after ‘Fariyaad’ (1964) only to return in ‘Pehla Qadam’ (1981). Finally Bhatkar did his last Hindi film ‘Sahme Hue Sitare’ (1994), which featured his son Ramesh Bhatkar, who was already a popular hero in Marathi film, stage and TV. This obscure film did nothing good to Bhatkar. After retirement Bhatkar devoted his time for children’s welfare and his original love – Bhajan Mandali singing.
Snehal or Vasudev Gangaram Bhatkar, together with cousins Devji Bhatkar and Panchambuwa Pandurang Shivalkar, was the founder member of ‘Vishwambhar Prasadik Bhajan Mandal’ in Dadar. It is still in operation after 50 years, with a new set of singers. Bhatkar was very kind hearted. Every year, during Ganapati festival he used to visit his ancestral village ‘Bhate’ in Ratnagiri district and participate in singing bhajans.
Lata, Talat and Mukesh were his favourite singers. Although Talat has not sung many songs for him, his song “Zindagi Kis Mod Pe Laayee Hamein” from ‘Diwali Ki Raat’ was very popular. When rehearsals for this song were being done, Bhatkar had used only tabla and sitar for the practice session. The producer who chanced upon this rehearsal was so impressed with this that he insisted on recording the song only with minimum instruments. So, this song has only tabla, sitar and another instrument for accompaniment.
Though there were many melodious songs composed by Bhatkar like, Khusro’s “Lakhi Babul More Kaahe Ko Deenha Bides Re” sung soulfully by Mukesh in ‘Suhaag Raat’ (1948); “Ro-oge Pachhtaoge” by Mukesh and Rajkumari in ‘Thes’ (1949); Lata’s “Chanda Tujhko Laaj Na Aayee” from ‘Bhola Shankar’ (1951); Suman Kalyanpur’s “Haal-e-Dil Unko Sunana Tha“- Fariyaad (1964), no other big banner producer opted for Snehal Bhatkar, except Kidar Sharma . Maybe his compositions were not so simple for a common man to hum or sing, although they were quality songs.
Despite several melodious songs Bhatkar was never counted among the first line composers. Kidar Sharma returned to him in 1980, but by that time Snehal Bhatkar was already on a descending tract. SNEHAL BHATKAR, a talented but sadly not much applauded composer, died peacefully on 29-5-2007 at his Dadar home.
The director of this film was Deepak Asha. For many years, I was thinking that it was the name of a couple. I tried to search for more information from many books and several Internet sites etc, but to no avail. Then I got an idea. The producers were Sindhi, so I tried the Sindhi Vishwakosh and there I found a small note on Deepak Asha.
His real name was Dharam Kumar Tolani. He was born in 1919. He directed many Hindi, Sindhi and Punjabi films. He also acted in some of these films. In Hindi he directed these films…..Jalte Deep-1950, Ghamandee-1955, Diwali ki Raat-1956, Abana-1958, road No. 303-1960, Captain Sheroo-1963, Sarfarosh-1964, Son of hatimtai-1965, Ek saal pahle-1965, Rustom kaun-1966 and Chale hain Sasural-1966. He acted in film Laadli-1966 and 3 other Sindhi films. He died on 28-7-1993. A chowk in Mulund, Bombay is named after him.
The story of film Diwali ki Raat-1956 was….
Rajaram is a wealthy businessman. He lives with his widowed sister Sharda and only daughter- Leea. She is engaged to marry Lalit,son of Seth Dhaniram,a rich but crooked person. Rajaram loses all his money in speculation and can not return money taken from Dhaniram. Seizing the opportunity Dhaniram takes over his Bungalow and throws him out,breaking the engagement. Rajaram,Sharda and Leela go and stay in a one room chawl. Leela becomes friendly with Anupkumar(Talat) and Roopa. One day Rajaram disappears. Once again Dhaniram takes over the chawl and throws Sharda and Leela on the road. They are helped by their old servant. After 12 years pass,Rajaram returns having earned a lot of money. He regains his Bungalow from Dhaniram and forces him to announce Leela and Lalit’s marriage. Leela, who is now in love with Anup, revolts,but to no avail. Roopa,who secretly loves Anup, helps them in getting united and all ends in a happy situation.
Film Diwali ki Raat aka Taxiwala -1956 had 10 songs. Snehal Bhatkar had given a chance to Mahendra Kapoor to sing his first ever solo film song in this film. Today’s song is a rare combination of Talat Mahmood and S.Balbir, with chorus. Let’s enjoy this song now….
Song- Doston har haal mein ajee ye pet palnaa chaahiye (Diwaali Ki Raat)(1956) Singers-Balbir, Talat Mehmood, Lyrics-Naqsh Llayalpur, MD-Snehal Bhatkar
Lyrics
aa aa aa
doston
har haal mein
ajee ye pet palnaa chaahiye
haan aan aan aan
aur pet palne ke liye ae ae
ajee meter ko chalna chaahiye
meter ko chalna chaahiye
aa aa aa
doston har haal mein
haaan aan aan aan
doston har haal mein
ye pet palnaa chaahiye
ye pet palnaa chaahiye
aur pet palne ke liye
meter ko chalna chaahiye
meter ko chalna chaahiye
haa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
arre waah jiyo pyaare
Taxi duniya hai apnee
Taxi apnaa ghar bhee hai
haan aan aan aan
chalte phirte
ajee apne dhandhe mein
meree jaan darr bhee hain
kya darr hai bhai
aaa aa aa
aa aa aa
aap kee jo ladkhadaahat se
kaheen takraa gayee
kaheen takraa gayee
to bin bulaaye jaan par
samjho museebat aa gayee
wo bin bulaaye ??
samjho museebat aa gayee
wo bin bulaaye ??
samjho museebat aa gayee
samjho museebat aa gayee
haan aan aan aa aa aa aa
rukiy
eis kaam mein
kya karnaa chaahiye bhai
ajee hardam sambhalnaa chaahiye
hardam sambhalnaa chaahiye
aur ?? ke liye
metre ko chalna chaahiye
metre ko chalna chaahiye
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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