Ae raat tere saathhee
Posted on: January 16, 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 C grade Costume film – Naqabposh-1956.
The film was produced by N.Buli and it was directed by a debutante Ram Pahawa, who had been an assistant to many directors hitherto. This was the only film that he directed and after this, he returned to being assistant to directors again. There were two MDs, Dhoomi Khan and Ramlal (Chaudhari). The cast of the film was Chitra, Manhar Desai, Kumkum, Kamal, Leela Mishra, Gope, Bhudo Advani, Fazlu, Anwar Hussain, Maruti and other regular stunt film artists.
This was a usual King, Queen, a relative’s mutiny to usurp the throne and a hooded benevolent rebel, a love affair, a handful of comedy scenes and an eyeful of dances. Nothing special about this film. The story of the film Naqabposh-1956 was ….
Sultan Ahmed Ali was a popular king,but his nephew Murad was an evil person. Murad wanted to usurp the Sultan’s throne at any cost. One day he and his mistress Niloufer invite the Sultan for a Dance party to lure him. Finding that he is not getting lured, the Sultan is murdered by Murad. He then tries to get maximum supporters and declares himself as the Ruler.
The Sultan has a son, Nisar,who was more interested in writing Shayari and singing songs. The Sultan, fed up with this, throws the prince out . The Prince too happily disappears among the common people to pursue his liking.After the Sultan is killed, his loyal Vazir sends a few people to search for Nisar. The Queen also sends Kamaal and Jamaal to find him. No one knows where he is. However,Kamaal and Jamaal meet a happy go lucky poet/singer Aman who loves Noor.
All of a sudden, there appears a Naqab Posh- a hooded bandit, who helps the poor and punishes the oppressors. Murad’s army harasses the common people and extracts taxes. They also indulge in looting and abduction of girls. The Naqab Posh tries to rescue such girls and also fights with the army people. Murad orders his capture but no one can catch him.
Murad suspects that this Naqab posh may be Prince Nisar. he plans to capture him with deceit and succeeds. Naqab Posh is sentenced to death. However, Jamaal, Kamaal, Noor and others help the Naqab Posh to escape. He assembles his own supporter army and confronts Murad. In the final fight the naqab posh defeats and kills Murad. Then it is revealed that the Naqab Posh is none other than Prince Nisar himself.
The happy citizens crown him as a king and Noor becomes the queen.
One of the Music Directors of this film was Ramlal. This is a case in which, despite giving popular quality songs in two consecutive films, for no reason, a good and talented Music Director never never secured A grade in his career. That is Luck !
Ramlal ( Chaudhari) was born on 15- 12-1922 in the holy city of Benaras. He learnt music from Bade Ramdas ji in Banaras Not much details of his childhood or his music education are known. He was 5, when he took to learning the flute and the tabla. Very soon, he would also learn to play shehnai. He didn’t or couldn’t concentrate on studies, as learning music became a passion with the young lad. He probably attended school only till the fifth class, and then dropped out, to spend more time on his first love.
At the age of 17, he left his native place and travelled to Bombay, in search of opportunities to work in the film industry. An unknown name, and an unconnected person, the early years were a struggle and he just survived on the passion of his art. Ram Ganguly’s brother brought him to Prithvi Theatres. Prithviraj Kapoor recognized the talent in the young man, and assigned him as an assistant to Ram Ganguly, who was then in-charge of the music department at Prithvi. His work spoke for itself. When Raj Kapoor launched his first film, ‘Aag’ (1948), and Ram Ganguly was directing the music for that film, Ramlal was working as his assistant. The sweet and melodious sounds of flute that we hear in the songs of this film especially in “Kahin Ka Deepak Kahin Ki Baati”, “Zinda Hoon Is Tarah Ki Ghame Zindagi Nahin”, “Raat Ko Ji Chamken Taare, Dekh Balam Mohe Akhiyan Maare”, “Na Aankhon Mein Aansu, Na Hothon Pe Haaye”, “Kaahe Koyal Shor Machaye Re, Mohe Apna Koi Yaad Aaye Re” – is all the handiwork of Ramlal.
With the success of the music of ‘Aag’, he started to get more recognition in the industry. He also got his first assignment as an independent music director for the film ‘Taangawaala’ around 1949-50. The lead pair in this film was Raj Kapoor, a well known hero by that time, and the newcomer, Vyjayanthimala. It is stated that six songs of this film were recorded. But then the film itself was canned, never to be released. The fate of the six recorded songs is uncertain. Or maybe not.
Ramlal continued to work as a musician, assisting many music directors like Vasant Desai, Pt Shivram, RC Boral, C Ramchandra, Naushad, Ghulam Mohammed and more, with his expertise with flute and shehnai. Recognizing this talent, V Shantaram invited him over to Rajkamal Kalamandir as a salaried musician. Ramlal left Prithvi and started working for V Shantaram.
By the mid 1950s, he again started to get opportunities for independently directing music. In 1956 came ‘Naqaabposh’ in which Ramlal composed two songs. The remaining six songs of this film are composed by Dhoomi Khan. The song “O Re Dilwaale” sung by Asha Bhosle, was composed with Arabic orchestration, and became popular. The same year also saw the release of ‘Husn Bano’ for which Ramlal was the independent music director. It is stated in one of the references, that the unused songs of the unreleased film ‘Taangawaala’ were used in this film by Ramlal. The film ‘Husn Bano’ played for a Silver Jubilee in Kanpur (a run of 28 weeks) and the song sung by Lata, “Pyaar Karne Ka Aaya Bahaana” became very popular in its time.
As we scrutinize the list of his films and songs in Geet Kosh, we find that his name appears in two different ways – ‘Ramlal’ and ‘Ramlal Heerapanna’. In his younger days, Ramlal used to wear a diamond (heera) in one ear and an emerald (panna) in the other ear. On the sets of ‘Husn Bano’ (1956), the staff and co-workers started calling him by the nickname Heera Panna. When the director Akku and the producer HL Khanna heard of this on the sets, they too started calling him by this name. And the producer went ahead and ensured that in the credits of the film, the name appeared as Ramlal Heerapanna. The name stuck, and was used by Ramlal on and off in some movies.
Ramlal continued a slow career, with independent work coming to him infrequently. After ‘Husn Bano’, his next film was ‘Naag Lok’ in 1957, directed by Babubhai Mistry. After ‘Naag Lok’ his next independent outing was ‘Maya Machhendra’ in 1960, also with Babubhai Mistry. In between, as he continued to work with Rajkamal Studios. Working with C Ramchandra on the film ‘Navrang’ (1959), the sound of his shehnai is playing in many songs. Especially the song “Tu Chhupi Hai Kahaan” – the interludes in this song are constructed around the shehnai of Ramlal. This song became one of the most popular songs of that year.
Another big success of the year 1959 was ‘Goonj Uthi Shehnai’. The main artist in the film for shehnai vadan was Ustad Bismillah Khan. Ramlal worked with Ustad ji on many pieces of shehnai music in the film. In one of his interviews Ramlal himself notes sadly that although he acknowledges the prowess of Khan Saab, but his own contribution was totally ignored in the film credits – a regret that Ramlal carried against Vijay Bhatt, the producer.
After ‘Maya Machhendra’, another hiatus of three years, but now came the best of his work. There is one film in 1963, ‘Raj Mahal’, which is a film produced under the banner of Shri Meenakshi Productions of Madras, with the lead pair as Anjali Devi and MG Ramachandran. Most likely, this must have been a remake of a successful Tamil film. Not much is known about this film and its music is not yet traceable in public domain.
With the work done for ‘Navrang’, V Shantaram finally gave a full charge to Ramlal for his next production – ‘Sehra’, released in 1963. The music of this film is a watershed event in the life and career of Ramlal. The songs of this film became hugely popular, and continue to be so even more than five decades after their initial release. Each and every song is familiar to the lovers of Hindi film music. In this film, Ramlal brought in Rafi to lend his voice to the playback, something that V Shantaram, for reasons of his own, had avoided for many years. As one of the anecdotes tells us, the song “Taqdeer Ka Fasana. . .” was initially recorded in the voice of Mahendra Kapoor. Ramlal was not satisfied with what was supposed to be the final take. He sought a private meeting with V Shantaram, and pleaded and convinced him to try Rafi Sb for the same song. Grudgingly, Shantaram agreed to do one recording. After the recording was done, there remained no arguments to make. The version rendered by Rafi Sb was included in the film.
With the success of ‘Sehra’, Shantaram’s confidence grew, and he assigned the next film also to Ramlal. The film – ‘Geet Gaya Patharon Ne’ (1964) brought together Rajshree, Shantaram’s daughter and the debutante hero Jeetendra in leading roles. The film, built around the classical arts of music, dancing and sculpture, was a good hit for the year, and yes, its music became very popular, in its time, and continues to be so. The film boasts of such iconic gems as “Tere Khayalon Mein Hum. . .” and “Jaane Wale O Mere Pyaar. . .”; with of course the title song taking the lead – “Saanson Ke Taar Par, Dhadkan Ki Taal Par. . . Geet Gaya Patharon Ne”. For this song, Ramlal got Kishori Amonkar to sing one solo version for the film.
And then, suddenly, there is silence. There is no more music that comes from Ramlal. References talk about a film titled ‘Tyaagi’ that he started to produce himself. The project went nowhere, and led Ramlal to the state of penury. From a location like Colaba, Ramlal was forced to move to a chawl in Girgaum (in Grant Road area). His later years are a story of hardships and neglect. By the time the 1970s came on, he was without any work for the remainder of his life. It is a perplexing enigma as to how he reached that state of affairs, immediately after two very successful films in two successive years, and that too from a major banner in the industry. I read somewhere that the contract with Shantaram was not allowing him to take up work from outside and Shantaram was not giving him any work, after the Rafi episode in film Sehra. However, it is not confirmed by other sources, so far.
Music director Ramlal composed music for three Kannada films, viz. ‘Daaha’ (1979), ‘Dombara Krishna’ (1979) and ‘Balu Aparoopa Nam Jodi’ (1978). This is also confirmed by the articles sent by Harish ji, as well as a reference in the book ‘Dhunon Ki Yatra’. His name appears in credits of one of the films as ‘Ramlal Sehra’, no doubt referring to his most successful and popular film. He composed 51 songs in 7 Hindi films.
His wife, Rita, an Englishwoman, was his sole companion in those years. Hailing from Bangalore, she fell in love with his music and his passion, and the two got married against the wishes of their parents. But she stayed with him through the tough years, living in the small chawl, and working with a social service organization to make ends meet at home. In an interview after Ramlal passed away on 4-7- 2004, she recounts the later years, the health problems faced by Ramlal, and the inability of the couple to financially manage the required healthcare. Ramlal passed away due to neglected healthcare, as it was too expensive for their means. They had a daughter-Sangeeta.
(Information collated partly from an article by Sudhir Kapoor ji, articles provided by Harish Raghuwanshi ji, book ‘Film Sangeetkar’ by Yogesh Yadav, ‘Rahen na rahen hum’ by Shantaram Mankikar, HFGK, muVyz, book- ‘Dhunon ki Yatra’ by Pankaj Raag and my own notes- all with thanks).
Let us now listen to this 69 year old song sung by Asha Bhosle , from this film….
Song- Ae raat tere saathhee (Naqaabposh)(1956) Singer- Asha Bhosle, Lyricist- Hasrat Jaipuri, MD-Ram lal (Chaudhari)
Lyrics
Ae raat tere saathhee
hmm hmm mm mm
hmm
ae raat tere saathhee
hmm hmm hmm mm
hain chaand aur taare
wo kya karen ke jis ke
chhoote har ek sahaare
ae raat tere saathhee
hmm hmm hmm mm
hmm hmm mm mm
hmm mm mm
hmm mm
dekha hai jab se unko
aa aa aa
hmm hmm hmm mm
hmm mm
dekha hai jab se unko
bechain hain nigaahen
aabaad hai ye duniya
soonee hain dil kee raahen
unkaa hee naam le kar
unkaa hee naam le kar
aansoo mere pukaaren
wo kya karen ke jiske
toote har ek sahaare
ae raat tere saathhee
hmm mm hmm mm hmm mm
jo ho sake to jaa kar r r
hmm mm hmm mm
hmm mm mm
jo ho sake to jaa kar
ae raat unke kehna
koi tadap raha hai
ye baat unse kehna
din apnee zindagee ke
din apnee zindagee ke
hmm mm
kaise koi guzaare
wo kya kare ke jis ke
toote har ek sahaare
ae raat tere saathhee
hmm
ae raat tere saathhee
hm mm mm
hon chaand aur taare
wo kya kare ke jis ke
toote har ek sahaare
ae raat tere saathhee
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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