Yoon hee kar ke bahaanaa chalee aayaa karo
Posted on: January 10, 2025
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 a Costume C grade film -‘Shah Behram’-1955.
The film was made by Producer Mulkraj Bhakari, under the banner of Baharistan Productions, Bombay. The film was directed by a veteran of such genres – Nanubhai Vakil. He was not just a ” Vakil” (An Advocate) by name, but including him, most of the elders of his family were B.A.LL.B. advocates. It is another matter that he was inclined to make a name for himself in the film industry rather than practising Law in courts.
The cast of the film was Asha Mathur, Mahipal, Tiwari, Kammo, Kamal (wife of actor Maruti and mother of comedienne Guddi maruti), Prakash, Helen, Sundar and many others. Music was given by Hansraj Behl. There were 8 songs in the film sung by well known singers like Asha Bhosale, Mubarak Begum, Madhubala Zaveri and above all Talat Mahmood, who had sung 1 solo and 2 duets with Asha Bhosale.
Talat Mahmood (24-2-1924 to 9-5-1998) songs are my favourites and I have the backing of a large company of music lovers on this issue. His soulful,sad and melodious songs and everlasting duets are heard all over the world even today. Some of his duets with Lata,Asha,Shamshad and Geeta are very famous,but not many people are aware that Talat sang a wide variety of duets with many singers. From Suprova Sarkar in Calcutta to Hemlata in Bombay,Talat’s range of singers includedMubarak Begum,Sudha malhotra,Madhubala Jhaveri,Surinder Kaur,Suman Kalyanpur,Sulochana Kadam,Ameerbai Karnataki,Rajkumari etc among the females and Kishore kumar,Manna Dey, Mukesh,Rafi,Balbir etc among the male singers.
When he was in full form and sang hit songs, people would jostle to have his glimpse, but after he retired ( or was ignored ) from film singing, he was not only forgotten, but many rumours of how he was living in poverty were making rounds. Of course this was NOT the truth.
Shri Rajnikumar Pandya ji,a senior writer on film personalities and author of several books, who has won Gujarat State Sahitya Academy awards FIVE times, had gone to interview Talat Mehmood in the late 90s.
After finishing the interview, he was coming out of the posh 7 storied ” Sunbeam” apartments, when he met one of his younger friends. He asked, “Came to meet Rati Agnihotri ? ”
Pandya ji was shocked, he had never dreamt anything like this. He simply said, ” No No,I came to meet a great personality. ”
” What, some other great person also stays here ? Who ? ”
” Talat Mehmood “.
Even after hearing the name,the friend’s face remained unmoved.
Disgusted, Pandya ji said, ” Look here. Some time ago this was a beautiful Bungalow Sunbeam, belonging to Talat Mehmood. It was sold and this tower has come up. Rati stays in one of the flats, but Talat owns the Penthouse on the 7th floor. ”
The friend said,” but does he stay here ? I had heard that he is forced to do some small service somewhere. ”
Irritatedly, Pandya ji said, ” Do you see this big car ? It is Talat’s car. He stays in his Penthouse. Every month he has 2-3 stage shows, plus Radio and HMV Royalties come every month. His income every month is in Thousands. These are great people. Look at Rafi’s bungalow there. Now it has become a shopping centre. Do you think they are on roads ? ”
Friend said, “But I had read somewhere that Rafi’s wife does Tailoring jobs for survival. ”
Just imagine Pandya ji’s condition. With great restraint, he said coolly, “This is how rumours spread. Rafi family’s income must be more than Talat Mehmood’s income. Rafi’s children are in the USA. Why will Rafi’s wife do menial jobs ? They are very well off. ”
But then it is not the fault of this one man alone. It is true that most actors and singers from the first generation died in penury and poverty, but the subsequent generations became more cautious. They knew that film line life is for a few years only and they made provisions for their retired life. These days career periods have further shortened, due to heavy output of actors and singers. These days artists survive for a few years only and they wisely make provisions for their lives and are secure enough.
Talat Mehmood was born on 24-2-1924. His father owned an Electrical goods shop. BY 15th year, he completed his school and music education half way. He entered A.I.R. and on 8-12-1939, his first song was aired on Radio, for which he got sixteen rupees eight annas as fees. He continued singing on Radio, till the ” Talent Search Team ” of HMV identified him, took him to Calcutta and he cut 2 records. The first song was, “Sab din ek samaan” and the second was ” Tasveer teri dil mera behla na sakegi “. This song became All India popular. This was in 1941.
He came back to Lucknow. There he met Madan Mohan, a young man working on A.I.R. Madan Mohan was Raibahadur Chunilal’s son. R.B. Chunilal was the chief of Filmistan in Bombay. Both together started ” Amateur music Club” in Lucknow. In 1944,talat went back to Calcutta. He worked in 3 Hindi films- Rajlaxmi-1945,Tum aur main-47 and Samapti-49. He had also done one Bangla film as Tapan Kumar Sinha.
In 1949,Talat came down to Bombay. He sang his first Hindi song, in Bombay – teri gali se-in film Raakhi-1949, under Husnlal Bhagatram. Then came the big break. Anil Biswas gave him a song from Arzoo-1950 ‘ Ae dil mujhe le chal “. This became a hit song and Talat’s position in Bombay solidified.
Mukesh and Talat were great friends. When Mukesh was not getting work, it was Talat, who pleaded with Salil Chaudhari and he gave Mukesh a song from Madhumati-58. This changed the life of Mukesh. Around 58-60,there were many rumours about Talat’s proud behaviour, his spat with Naushad etc were circulating. Not everything was true, however. He lost songs from Yahudi, but the Sujata song came his way, only due to Asha Bhosle’s insistence with Burman da. Actually rumours and misunderstandings are a part of an artiste’s career.
It is to the credit of Anil Biswas who aroused Talat’s self confidence about his own special Voice feature, which proved to be his strength and USP too. The ‘Vibrato’ or the ” LARGISH “- technical name for the vibrations in Talat’s voice ( Kampan-yukt ), actually became Talat’s treasure. There was a time when Talat was in high demand, but he chose to act in films as actor-singer and that possibly gave away a wrong message that he was not interested in singing.
Talat started his career as a singer first,then became an Actor,then a singer and again an Actor and then again a Singer. All this jumping gave an impression that Talat is not serious with his career. This cost him dearly and he lost his place in film music sooner than his inevitable natural exit from Hindi film music,in due course of time. Talat accepted this in several interviews. Here are some parts of one of his interviews,as found on Cineplot (it has been edited by me for this article)…
“He was born into a highly cultured, but conservative, family in Lucknow. Music interested him to such an extent that he studied it as a subject in Lucknow’s Morris College. Often, he sang for the All India Radio, Lucknow. Later, he signed on with HMV. He had to go to Calcutta in 1941 for the recording sessions, which was when he was spotted by the famous New Theatre bosses.
Talatsaab was an extremely handsome young man. ” P K Sanyal of New Theatres wanted me to sign me on as an actor,” Talatsaab recalled his early days in Calcutta. “I had no objections, really. But my father was a bit upset, though he came around finally.”
Calcutta was the scene of hectic filming during the early 1940′s. Talatsaab’s first film, Raj Lakshmi, co-starred Kanan Bala and Chhabi Biswas. Released in 1945, the film did fairly well and was followed by ‘Tum aur Main’ With Kanan Devi and Samapti with Bharati Devi. Talatsaab had never trained as an actor. He performed by instinct and picked up tips by watching his co-actors on-screen.
“I enjoyed acting,” recalls Talatsaab. “And these were soft, romantic roles in films that had a number of songs. The films of this era followed the singing hero concept very closely.” But the handsome actor, at 22, faced a peculiar problem. Most of his heroines like Kanan Bala and Kanan Devi were older than him and the pairing, at times, looked distinctly odd.
During the late 1940s, the focus of movie making shifted from Calcutta to Bombay. Like several other young aspirants, Talatsaab also made the change. He was warmly welcomed; his reputation had preceded him. Music director Anil Biswas gave him a break in Arzoo and his playback singing for Dilip Kumar proved to be a major highlight of the film.
During the early 1950s, Talatsaab was sought after by every leading music director. He lent his voice to every single top hero, from Dilip Kumar to Bharat Bhushan. In 1951, he made a guest appearance in the Dev Anand-Madhubala starrer, Aaram, sitting at the piano as he rendered that memorable number,Shukriya shukriya. The film was not much of a success, but the song is hummed even today.
His first role as a hero in a Bombay film, though, only came in 1953. “(A R) Kardarsaab chose me as the hero for his film, Dil-E-Nadaan,” explained Talatsaab. Newcomer Peace Kanwal, the winner of a beauty contest organised by Kardar and the Kolynos toothpaste firm, was the heroine.
Dil-E-Nadaan was a soft, romantic triangle with Talat, the singer, being wooed by two women, Peace Kanwal and Shyama. The music score by Ghulam Mohammad produced everlasting hits like Zindagi denewale and Yeh raat suhani raat nahi.
Dil-E-Nadaan music became the rage. And Talatsaab became a sought-after hero in Hindi films. Then followed Daak Babu (with Nadira), Waris, Raftar (Nadira and Naaz) and Diwali Ki Raat (Roopmala, Shashikala and Leela Mishra). In the last mentioned film, the elegant Talatsaab played a taxi driver.
Well known director Satyen Bose directed him in the 1957 hit, Ek Gaon Ki Kahani (Mala Sinha). Producer S U Sunny – who had made the Dilip Kumar starrers, Babul and Udan Khatola – cast the singer-duo of Suraiya and Talat Mahmood in Maalik. The innovative Khayyam scored the music for Lala Rookh, a fantasy where Talatsaab starred with Shyama.
“I never did more than one or two films at a time,” Talatsaab recalled. “I also noted the difference between filming in Bombay and filming in Calcutta. Unlike the more artistic Calcutta where movies were made at a slow pace, Bombay was commercial. Life was hectic. Everyone was in his own world and was, of course, very professional.”
What kind of an impact did Talat Mahmood make as an actor?
The great singer thought for a while and then candidly admitted, “Listen, I was not competing with stars like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand or Ashok Kumar. But, in those days, soft, romantic films were appreciated and singing heroes like me could do well.” His films were not box office bonanzas. Neither were they disasters which disappeared without trace, days after their release. Three of his films – Waris, Sone Ki Chidiyaand Ek Gaon Ki Kahani – were much-appreciated hits.
Talat Mahmood’s major drawback was that, quite often, he held himself back in crucial romantic scenes. His self-consciousness showed. He could not essay violence and comedy. But he was adequate as an emotional actor. And he had a large female following.
From 1956, Talat Mahmood regularly went on foreign tours. The concerts – held in the UK, the US, the Gulf and even the distant West Indies – were superb. But as he acted in films and spent months abroad on concerts, music directors and producers had to look for other playback singers. As a result, Talatsaab lost out on some memorable films like Madhumati.
Some of the music directors felt that, having turned actor, he would not be easily available as a playback singer. As Talatsaab’s son, Khalid, explained, “Also, Father would never ask for favours. Nor would he undercut anyone. He was, and is, a thorough professional and a gentleman.”
By the mid-1960′s, film music had changed. Shammi Kapoor, with his boisterous Yahoo image, had arrived. There were fewer opportunities for a voice like Talatsaab’s. But the concerts continued, so did the recording of private ghazals. The government honoured him with a Padma Bhushan and Doordarshan made a documentary on him . ”
When Talat started his acting career in Calcutta his first film was Rajlaxmi-1945. He was given a role of a Sadhu in this and he sang his Debut Hindi Film song “Jaag musafir jaago”. His acting in this film was below par. His second film was Tum aur main-1947. Here too he had a side role and just one duet with Suprova Sarkar. In his 3rd film at Calcutta- “Samapti”-1949, he became a singing hero for the first time.,opposite the veteran Bharati Devi. Talat had 2 solos and 2 duets with Suprova Sarkar again. In the period 45 to 47 and 47 to 49 he sang some Hindi and Bangla NFS. He sang in Bangla with the name Tapan Kumar.
Talat acted in 13 films in all – Rajlaxmi-45, Tum aur main-46, Samapti-49, Aram-51, Dil E Nadaan-53, Waris-54, Daak Babu-54, Raftar-55, Diwali ki Raat-56, Ek Gaon ki Kahani-57, Sone ki Chidiya-58, Maalik-58 and Lala Rukh-58. Talat sang 451 songs in 259 films.
After Film songs stopped coming, Talat continued cutting private Albums and making stage shows in India and foreign countries. Talat died on 9-5-1998.
The story of the film Shah Behram-1955 was …..
It was a fantasy a la Arabian style. Kohkaf was a paradise-like kingdom where there was only happiness and joy. One day its king is turned into a statue suddenly due to a curse and the courtiers start searching for another king. Dev Safed suggests Shah Behram’s name but Quamus opposes the calling of Shah Behram,a mortal king of Faris. However Shah is called as a guest of angel Gandok. Shah comes but falls in love with HusnaBanu,daughter of Qamus. Meanwhile the evil Vazir in Faris usurps the throne and arrests the queen.
The rest of the film is about how Shah Behram redeems this situation, regains his empire and how the statue is returned to the King of Kohkaf.
There was another film Shah Behram in 1935 also.
Here is today’s song, a duet by Talat Mahmood and Asha Bhosale. Enjoy this 75 year old song….
Song-Yoonhi kar ke bahaana chalee aayaa karo (Shah Behram)(1955) Singers- Talat Mehmood, Asha Bhosle, Lyricist- Asad Bhopali, MD- Hansraj Bahl
Lyrics
yoon hee kar ke bahaana chalee aaya karo
chalee aaya karo
chalee aaya karo
mujhe har roz mukhda dikhaaya karo
dard e dil kee hansee na udaaya karo
na udaaya karo
na udaaya karo
jaao jaao na baaten banaaya karo
meree jaan tumhen mere sar ki kasam hai
ae ae ae
meree jaan tumhen mere sar ki kasam hai
muhabbat bahut hai
mulaakaat kam hai
ae ae ae
tum mere paas aa ke na jaaya karo
yoon hee kar ke bahaana chalee aaya karo
tumhen meree majbooriyon kee khabar kya aa aa aa
tumhen meree majbooriyon kee khabar kya
sitam ho rahe hain meree jaan par kya
aa aa aa
jhoothhee jhoothhee to kasmen na khaaya karo
jaao jaao na baaten banaaya karo
muhabbat mein ye waqt aata rahega
aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa
muhabbat mein ye waqt aata rahega
zamaana yoon hee zulm dhhaataa rahega
aa aa aa aa
kabhee shiqwa na honthhon par laaya karo
yoon hee kar ke bahaana chalee aaya karo
kisee bhee tarah aake mil jaaungee main
aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa
kisee bhee tarah aake mil jaaungee main
jahaan tum kahoge waheen aaungee main
aen aen aen
meree raahon pe aankhen bichhaaya karo
yoon hee kar ke bahaana chalee aaya karo
jaao jee jaao na baaten banaaya karo
dard e dil kee hansee na udaaya karo
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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