Zehar bhee khaayaa kunwe mein koodaa
Posted on: December 8, 2024
This article is written by Avinash Scrapwala, 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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# Superstar Child Artist – Junior Mehmood # 16
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This series on songs picturised on Junior Mehmood was started more than eight years ago. We started with songs sung by Mohd Rafi for Junior Mehmood and later on added more songs sung by other singers for Junior Mehmood.
At this juncture I would like to take readers back to the start of the series, i.e. what I had mentioned in my first post in this series.
The starting point of this series is a song from the ‘1972’ movie ‘Rivaaz’ and its song ‘lagey koi lottery koi jackpot lagey’.
After getting associated with this blog I intended to share this song which was in my memory since I had watched the movie ‘Rivaaz’ in my childhood days. But I do not remember who had performed on this song in this movie. So in ‘2015’ when I looked for the details of the song and saw that it was sung by Rafi Saab, I looked at the star cast of this movie. In ‘2015’ it was almost 38-39 years gap that I had watched this movie and I do not remember much of the movie except one song from it i.e. ‘jalaa do jaalaa do aag lagaa do’. I was expecting to find names like Mehmood, Rajendra Nath etc etc in the cast, but those names were not there. Finally when the video of this song began and Mukri appeared on the screen, I thought that this song was performed by him on the screen. But soon I realised that it was Jr.Mehmood who was lip syncing and performing in this song.
Jr Mehmood lip syncing and that too in a voice none other than Rafi Saab’s! That reminded me that he had also lip synced a song in “Do Raaste”. In this song, viz. apnee apnee biwee pe sabko badaa guroor hai Jr.Mehmood gets to lip sync in Lata Mangeshkar’s voice. Seeing that ‘Rivaaz’ was a film of 1972, one could say that Jr.Mehmood had grown up suffiently in three years’ time, so much so that he was getting to lip sync in a male voice by this time !
I had never gone through the details of the ‘biography’ of Jr.Mehmood in the past. The only thing I remembered about him was his roles in a few films in our growing years. He was not much successful in films as a grown up adult. Nevertheless, we all love him for the roles that he played those days and I think he was the Superstar Child Artist and Performer of those days. He must be the most lovable child artist in the industry of those days. So I was surprised on reading in Wikipedia that he had acted in over 265 films (in 7 different languages) and that he had produced and directed 6 Marathi movies. Going through this list of films and this song, a question formed in my mind– How many songs had Rafi Saab sung for him?
I searched and found one more such song. Then I found a link on YT that gave his biography. Then I kept searching for more. I came across some useful and many useless links during my searches. I also realised that his birthday date is not mentioned anywhere online, including in ‘Wikipedia’!
Well, was it possible to know more about Jr.Mehmood from the man himself?
Was it possible to talk to him and find answers to these questions?Information collected this way would be authentic, exciting and interesting too!!
28 January 2015 was a big day for me and it was like hitting a ‘jackpot’- perhaps for the first time in my life..
I got to speak to Junior Mehmood on that day! I greeted him, gave him my well wishes, and told him the purpose of my calling to him.
I briefly told him about our blog and about this article that I wished to do on him.
I also asked him about his ‘birthday’ etc. It was quite remarkable to notice how polite he was in his talk. He gave me a patient hearing while I was talking to him excitedly. After all, I was talking to a ‘film personality’ (and that too after so many years, nearly two decades after I briefly met with Gulzar Saab in 1996 at Kota-Rajasthan).
He was equally enthusiastic in telling me about all the songs that Rafi Saab had sung for him. I was trying to remember everything correctly as he was reeling them off.
He talked about these songs with great passion. He remembers his films and their details very well.
Junior Mehmood was a star attraction for people like me in our growing up years who were born in late sixties or early seventies. His movies that we get to watch in our childhood days were very entertaining and enjoyable. Many of these movies had songs picturised on Junior Mehmood and that was an additional attraction. These songs have been highly entertaining too. Junior Mehmood inspired by the dancing skills of his guru the great comedian actor Mehmood, had developed his style of dancing which was likened by all i.e. children as well as the grown-ups and adults watching his movies. Jr. Mehmood started his acting career at the age of eight. Unfortunately, the very first film which he got a chance to work in ‘Kitna Nazook Hai Dil’ (as mentioned by Junior Mehmood himself in an interview available on YT and other sources too) never got released and was shelved.
There is an interesting story of how Junior Mehmood got a chance to work in film and how he got the name ‘Junior Mehmood’ (this is narrated by Jr Mehmood himself and is available on a video sharing platform on internet).
Jr Mehmood was born as Naeem Sayyad on 15th November’1956 to a middle class family living in Mumbai. His father was an Engine Driver in railways and the family used to live in the railway quarters at Antop Hill Mumbai. Including Naeem they were six siblings – four brothers and two sisters. His elder brother used to do photography on film sets and would share the happenings on the films sets among family members which little Naeem would to listen with interest and anxiety. His eagerness to watch a shooting of film took him with his brother on the set of a movie.
During one such occasion when a child artist working in this movie ‘Kitna Nazook Hai Dil’ was not able to remember and deliver a dialogue, little Naeem watching the shoot from the crowd reacted ‘kya itni si line nahin bol sakta’ 😊
The director of the movie take a look and ask little Naeem if he can deliver the dialogue and perform to which he immediately accepted and deliver a performance that impressed everybody present on the sets. And soon the word of mouth spread the talk of the ‘potential’ this little child was having. Watching film personalities on sets little Naeem started mimicking the various actors /artists and performing on dance numbers especially on this one from ‘Gumnaam-1965’ – ‘ham kaale hain to kya huaa dilwaale hain’ …Little Naeem thus started receiving offers to act in movies as a ‘child artist’. And he got a chance to work with the great actor Mehmood in the movie ‘Suhaag Raat-1970’. During the shoot of this film he got a chance to work and interact with Mehmood who was also impressed by the potential little Naeem was having.
It so happened that Mehmood Senior was to celebrate his daughter Jinny’s first birth anniversary and wherein he invited almost all present on the sets of ‘Suhaag Raat-1970’ except little Naeem. Little Naeem was hurt a lot and he told Mehmood Saab that since his father was not a big film personality he (Mehmood Saab) had not invited him. Going further he also told Mehmood that given a chance to perform in this party he will definitely ‘rock’ the party – aapki poori party hilaa doonga – by performing on Mehmood’s own ‘ham kaale hain to …’. His performance in this party left everyone amazed and Mehmood called his father and advise him to send little Naeem for a training and guidance under him and Mehmood also gives his name to little Naeem as ‘Junior Mehmood’, yes, the only one we have in our film industry.
Thus, started the era of Junior Mehmood in Hindi movies and he entertained people a lot for almost five-six years (till he attained adulthood) if we consider his golden period in Hindi Movies. His first released film was ‘Naunihaal-1967’. In the ‘1968 movie – Brahmachari’ he performed on Mehmood’s famous ‘ham kaale hain to kya huaa dilwaale hain’ from ‘Gumnaam-1965’’. It was after ‘Brahmachari’ that he shot to fame and this movie also pushed his career further in Hindi movies and he became the most loved child artist during those years. He was among the few personalities possessing the imported cars (Impala) in Bombay during those years and he was only eleven years old at that time.
In 1971 he again copied the antics of his Guru – Mehmood’s famous ‘Mehbooba mehbooba bana leo mijhe dulha’ (from ‘Sadhu Aur Shaitaan-1968’) in the movie ‘Johar Mehmood in Hong Kong’. Mehmood and I.S. Johar were in the main lead in that movie. We also saw him imitating Mehmood’s ‘Hamjoli-1966’ act in the song ‘birha ki rain sooni sooni sejariya’, which was covered in the previous article in this series.
In the movie ‘Baalak-1969’ he copied Shashi Kapoor’s ‘Affo Khudaa’ from the 1965 movie ‘Jab Jab Phool Khile’. (This can be watched here ). Then, we have the song ‘aisaa banoonga actor main yaaron’ in the movie ‘Ghar Ghar Ki Kahaani-1970’ where we can watch Jr Mehmood doing a ‘Shammi Kapoor, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Mehmood’ act. During the years 1967 to 1970 he acted in as many as twenty-three movies.
I have so far presented fifteen songs in this series which are picturised on Junior Mehmood. Here I would specially like to mention that since my first talk with him in ‘2015’ I always used to call him on his birthday and also in between I shared with him whenever I present a song of his on this blog. And during these discussions only I came to know the many other songs picturised on him which I was not aware of. It was because of his generous nature that he was always willing to share and respond to the calls of people like me. He was one of those rare kinds of ‘generous person’ which we rarely find in society nowadays. Last year in ‘2023’ when I was planning to share the song ‘Maalan dil le gayee re maalan dil le gayee’ I had discussed with him around the same time in the month of October’2023. Then on 15th November’2023, I send him message on his birthday too and he acknowledged well as he did every time. Then after a week or so, I read in the news about his ‘suffering from cancer and his wish to meet actor Jeetendra and Sachin’. I was shocked to read all this and couldn’t believe it, since nowadays there is a possibility of fake news and fake photos. On 7th December’2023 I had texted him wishing a speedy recovery from his illness. But that was not possible then since he had detected with stage-4 stomach cancer (which I got to read then). He responded with the ‘Namaste’ emoji image to me. This was the last I interacted with him at 16:26 hrs on 7th December’2023. The next morning on 8th Decmber’2023 Junior Mehmood passed away ending his journey on this planet and leaving behind the memories of his films that he acted in.
I rang on his phone on 8th December’2023 after getting the news of his passing away, as I couldn’t believe it first. My call was not attended. But I received a call from another number where his son spoke to me and confirmed the news. I find the same generousness in him as his father while talking to me and accepting my condolences.
Today on this blog here we pay our tributes to Junior Mehmood on his first ‘Remembrance Anniversary’.
This is the first post in this series which appears when the actor is not among us. Under this series ‘Superstar Child Artist – Junior Mehmood’, today I present a song from the movie ‘Munimjee-1972’. It was through the actor himself that I came to know about this song and the name of the movie. I still remember what he said to me during my last discussions with him, when I told him that whenever I visit to him we will discuss and compile the list of all his songs. He told me …
“ढूंढिए ढूंढिए और भी मिल जाएँगे … “
Yes, we will definitely have songs of him and songs of others but we will rarely have a person like him …
In this series, we have posted songs sung by Mohd Rafi, Hemlata, Shanti Mathur, Asha Bhonsle, Sushma Shreshtha, Lata Mangeshkar, Suman Kalyanpur, Shamshad Begum and Sarla Kapoor. Today we add one more singer i.e. Ranu Mukherjee who has lent her voice to Junior Mehmood in this song. We have Junirr Mehmood and Jayshree T performing on screen in this song. We can see that this song in the movie is shown as part of a stage program of ‘Junior Mehmood and Party’ doing a ‘Laila Majnu’ act. We can see Ramesh Deo, some child artist and others (which I am unable to identify) in the picturisation of this song. Lyrics for this song has been credited jointly to Hasrat Jaipuri and Neeraj. Music is composed by Usha Khanna and Ranu Mukherjee is the singer for Junior Mehmood.
Let us enjoy this song now…
Video
Audio (Shorter)
Song-Zehar bhee khaayaa kunwe mein koodaa (Munimjee)(1972) singer-Ranu Mukherjee, Lyrics-Hasrat Jaipuri+Neeraj, MD-Usha Khanna
Lyrics
zehar bhee khaayaa aa
kunwe mein koodaa aa
patree pe soyaa aa
maut se uljhaa aa
maut naa hamko aayee
lekin aankh ladee to
mar gayaa
zehar bhee khaayaa aa
kunwe mein kudaa aa
patree pe soyaa aa
maut se uljhaa aa aa aa
dil meraa le gayee
naazuk ek haseenaa
dekhaa naheen thhaa
pehle aisaa nageenaa aa aa
dil meraa le gayee
naazuk ek haseenaa
dekhaa naheen thhaa
pehle aisaa nageenaa aa aa
kaale kaale baalon waalee
gorey gorey gaalon waalee
motee motee aankhon waalee
meethhee meethhee baaton waalee
ho o o
pyaar ne maaraa aa
yaar ne maaraa aa
phool ne maaraa aa
haar ne maaraa aa
maut naa hamko aayee
lekin aankh ladee to
mar gayaa
zehar bhee khaayaa aa
kunwe mein kudaa aa
patree pe soyaa aa
maut se uljhaa aa aa aa
ud gayee mere dil kee thhee wo mainaa aa
rotey rotey paagal huye ye nainaa aa aa
ud gayee mere dil kee thhee wo mainaa aa
rotey rotey paagal huye ye nainaa aa aa
neele neele pankhon waalee
peele peele rangon waalee
jheene jheene (?) angon waalee ee
jaadoo ke tarangonwaalee
ho o o o ho
heer ne maaraa haa
teer ne maaraa haa
dard ne maaraa haa
teer ne maaraa haa
maut naa hamko aayee
lekin aankh ladee to
mar gayaa
zehar bhee khaayaa aa
kunwe mein kudaa aa
patree pe soyaa aa
maut se uljhaa aa aa aa
4 Responses to "Zehar bhee khaayaa kunwe mein koodaa"
December 9, 2024 at 12:20 am
Unbelievable!!!! It is a year already
Missing this superstar Child Star/Actor
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
December 8, 2024 at 4:55 pm
Avinash ji,
We had read about your association with Jr Mehmood earlier. It was nice to recollect the same. Good post. As usual, he is energetic and entertaining here. But, a female singer on a teenager is little weird, especially in a sensuous dance number. This is the same MUNIMJI with the famous Pani mein jale… song, right?
On Sun, 8 Dec, 2024, 4:32 pm Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of
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December 14, 2024 at 4:28 pm
Thanks for reading this post and commenting on it Sir jee.
Yes, this is the same ‘paanee mein jaley …’ film ‘Munimji’ 🙂
Regarding the female singer for the teenager actor we have to accept the director’s decision 🙂
thanks and regards,
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