Tumhen dekha jab se ek nazar
Posted on: February 5, 2025
- In: "Nok-Jhonk" song | C Ramchandra Shamshad Begam duet | C Ramchandra songs as a singer | Duet | expression of love | Feelings of heart | Guest posts | Post by Arunkumar Deshmukh | Rare song | Shamshad Begam songs | Songs of 1940s (1941 to 1950) | Songs of 1949 | Yearwise breakup of songs
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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 Sipahiya-1949.
Many film artists – actors, singers, directors etc – have written their autobiography. If you take a look at all these, the females have more autobios than the males, for reasons not known to me. In my last few years of activity in the arena of old films, I have collected many books and have received many books as ‘Gifts’ from the authors. Among these, there are many autobios, including the autobio of C Ramchandra, music director of today’s film Sipahiya-1949.
Though C.Ramchandra is one of my favourite composers, I hesitate to say anything favourable about his autobiography. When we start reading an autobiography, we expect to find details about the writer’s career. In the case of a composer, we look forward to getting unknown information about his song composition, his music, his group people etc. On this count, this book fails miserably. The book is full of his exploits with gullible women, his experiences with different companies he worked in his early life and also about Lata Mangeshkar. The information ratio is 40 % about his career/music/songs and 60 % about things which have nothing to do about his musical life.
In this matter, the best autobiography is that of Leela Chitnis. She has provided a lot of information about contemporary studio life, people in this field and her career – how it took shape etc. Equally readable is the autobiography of actress singer Kanan Devi, titled ” My homage to all”. The book is true to its title. Reading this book, one gets a lot of information about Calcutta and Bombay’s film industry and about the key people in it. You get plenty of character sketches and anecdotes about the making of her films in Bangla and Hindi. I call such autobiographies “ideal”.
The only part of C.Ramchandra’s book I liked was the details about when, after the ‘Partition’, Lata and Noor jahan met for the first and the last time. He has described it in detail, but I will give it here, for readers’ convenience, in an abridged form. The part , originally in Marathi, is translated by me in English.
” C Ramchandra, Omprakash and his brother had floated a film production company,” New Sai Productions”, under which the first film was JHANJHAR. C Ramchandra was making music of Anarkali also at the same time. It so happened that C Ramchandra’s own film Jhanjhar was a flop and the music of Anarkali was epoch-making. C Ramchandra once disclosed that the famous song of Anarkali,” Yeh zindagi usi ki hai” was based on the tune of a Marathi Natyageet from “Sharada”- “Moortimant bhiti ubhi maj samor rahili”. Since the words were different no one noticed this then.
C Ramchandra and Lata had gone to Amritsar for the launch of Jhanjhar. From the hotel room, Lata made a call to Noorjahan in Lahore. C Ramchandra describes this event thus-“They spoke for atleast an hour or so. They exchanged not only stories but also sang songs on the phone. I was stunned and overwhelmed. I had never seen Lata so happy. Their friendship had crossed caste, creed ,religion and countries. After the phone call was over Lata said excitedly,” Ram we have to go to meet Noorjahan.”
To avoid passport formalities they had decided to meet in the “NO MAN’s LAND” which was about 35 miles from Amritsar. Next day we drove to that place.
Noorjahan came running and the two embraced each other like long lost friends. Both were weeping. All of us who were witness to this divine meet were overwhelmed and tears came to our eyes. Even the soldiers on both sides were weeping. After some time they sat chatting. We had food. They had brought specialities from Lahore and we from India. Noorjahan’s husband was also there. I shall never forget this scene in my life. A great testimony to the fact that Music can break any barrier. After a few hours we returned with wet eyes but with a divine and Unique experience indeed !”
Coming back to the film Sipahiya-1949, one of the names in the cast is that of Yakub or Yaqub. he was a roll-over from the silent era, but unlike many other roll-over actors, he established himself in the Talkie era with aplomb and created a niche for himself. he started as a hero but soon drifted to side roles, villain and a comedian.
Yakub Khan Mehboob Khan, known as Yakub, was a Hindi film actor born into a Pathan family, on 3-4-1903 in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India. He died on 24-8- 1958 after a career spanning thirty years in the film industry. He is best known for his comedic villainous roles. He commenced his career as an extra, but soon did roles as a hero and later as a villain. He became one of the most renowned screen villains, while achieving equal success in comedy and character roles. Yakub appeared in 13 silent films and in 137 Hindi Talkie films. In addition, he also sang 9 songs in 5 films,namely….Bulbul E Punjab-33, Muqabala-42, Mamaji-42, Aankh ki sharm-43 and Aabroo-43.
Yakub ran away from home at an early age, and did odd jobs such as a motor mechanic and table waiter before joining the ship “S. S. Madura” as a kitchen worker. He left the ship after travelling to various places, like London, Brussels and Paris, then returned to Calcutta where he worked as a tourist guide, among other jobs. He finally came to Bombay, now Mumbai, around 1924 and joined the Sharda Film Company.
During his travels, Yakub watched the films of Hollywood actors, and became greatly influenced by Eddie Polo, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Wallace Beery and later by Humphrey Bogart. Yakub’s first film was Bhalji Pendharkar’s silent Bajirao Mastani (1925), which also starred Master Vithal. It was produced by the Sharda Film Company. He joined Sagar film company and did 5 silent films. He was a part in the first Talkie film of Sagar – Meri Jaan. Thus his first talkie was Meri Jaan (1931), with Sagar Movietone and directed by Prafulla Ghosh, where he played the title role of the Prince. This film has also been credited as Romantic Prince. The film had Master Vithal, Mehboob Khan and Zubeida co-starring in it.
His enactment of the role of an angry resentful son in Mehboob Khan’s Aurat (1940) made him popular to the extent that his acting in this film is considered as one of the finest performances in the Indian Cinema. During this film, Yaqub asked for a raise in his salary. When it was refused, he stopped coming for shootings. The director Mehboob insisted on having only Yakub, and so his demand was accepted and he got a raise.
The role was later performed by Sunil Dutt in Mehboob Khan’s famous remake of his own film with the new title Mother India (1957). Yakub’s popularity in those days can be gauged by the credit roll of films such as the S K Ojha directed Hulchul (1951), which had a star cast of Dilip Kumar, Nargis and Sitara Devi, where his name was credited as ‘…and your favourite, Yakub’.
Yakub was an “acknowledged master of comedy” along with other actors such as Johnny Walker, Gope and Agha, but their vast talent was unused, which was a “gross injustice”, according to the B. K. Karanjia’s co-edited book; “Genres of Indian Cinema”. His comic pairing with Gope and Agha was well liked by the audiences, and this caused the film-makers to use their combination in several films. The most prominent of such films were Sagai (1951), Patanga (1949) and Beqasoor (1950) with Yakub and Gope. Yakub, Prithviraj Kapoor and Chandra Mohan were in the highest pay bracket of their times. The triumvirate of Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor, who held reign in the Indian film industry from the late 1940s to the end of 1970s, has been compared to Chandra Mohan, Yakub and Shyam, who were at the top of the acting roster from 1930 to early 1950
Yakub directed three films; Sagar Ka Sher-37 and Uski Tamanna-39 in the 1930s, and Aiye in 1949. Sagar Ka Sher or Lion of Sagar, was the first film he directed as early as 1937 under the Sagar Movietone banner. His co-stars in this film were; Bibbo, Pesi Patel, Sankatha Prasad, Raja Mehdi and David. The music director was Pransukh M. Nayak. Uski Tamanna, also known as Her Last Desire, was made in 1939 under Sagar and directed by Yakub. The film starred Yakub, Maya, Bhudo Advani, Kaushalya, Sankatha Prasad, Satish and Putli. The music was composed by Anupam Ghatak. He directed his third and last movie, Aiye, in 1949 under the Indian Production banner. It had Sulochana Chatterjee, Masud, Jankidas, Sheela Naik, and Ashraf Khan along with Yakub. The music in this film was composed by Nashad (Shaukat Dehlvi) and was Mubarak Begum’s first film as a playback singer. Yakub’s second cousin Allaudin was the song recordist for this film. However, he lost money on this film and called it the biggest mistake of his life.
When Mehmood was a struggling artist, he would hang around Bombay Talkies waiting for Yakub to arrive. Yakub knowing his financial state would give him one or two rupees in the form of loose change. Yakub was a deeply religious person and was called Maulana by his friends
Yakub died in Bombay on 24-8-1958 at the age of 54 years. (adapted from the book ‘ Sagar Movietone ‘ by Biren Kothari, book Mehboob khan, wikipedia, book Ateet ke sitare, with thanks and my notes).
Today’s song is the last and final song from this film from the film Sipahiya-1949. The last 2 songs were very rare and not to be found on any social video media, for so many years. I got these from the generous and helpful Record collector Syed Zafar Shah ji. These songs were uploaded by our friend Sadanand ji Kamath, as usual. I thank both of them. With today’s song, the film will be YIPPEED !
Song-Tumhen dekha jab se ek nazar (Sipahiya)(1949) Singers-Chitalkar, Shamshad Begam, Lyricist-Rajinder Krishan, M D-C Ramchandra
Lyrics
Tumhen dekha jab se ek nazar
duniya se ho gaye bekhabar
ae jaan e jigar ek aur nazar
ae jaan e jigar ek aur nazar
kyun naam hamaaraa lete ho
ilzaam hamen kyun dete ho
kuchh aur kahaa to yaad rahe
hum khench nikaalenge khanjar
kuchh aur kahaa to yaad rahe
hum khench nikaalenge khanjar
ae jaan e jigar ek aur nazar
ae jaan e jigar ek aur nazar
yoon baat hamaaree mat taalo
chaaho to tukde kar daalo
hamen jaan ki parwaah zaraa naheen
haazir hai dil haazir jigar
hamen jaan ki parwaah zaraa naheen
haazir hai dil haazir jigar
ae jaan e jigar ek aur nazar
ae jaan e jigar ek aur nazar
is dil ke tukde kaun kare
jo roz jiye aur roz mare
ye roz roz ka jhagdaa hai
hum to kaatenge aap ka sar
ye roz roz ka jhagdaa hai
hum to kaatenge aap ka sar
ae jaan e jigar ek aur nazar
ae jaan e jigar ek aur nazar
sar kaat ke apne kooche mein
doraahe par rakhwaa denaa
anjaam buraa hai ulfat ka
anjaam buraa hai ulfat ka
uske neeche likhwaa denaa
anjaam buraa hai ulfat ka
anjaam buraa hai ulfat ka
uske neeche likhwaa denaa
anjaam buraa hai ulfat ka
anjaam buraa hai ulfat ka
uske neeche likhwaa denaa
tumhen dekha jab se ek nazar
duniya se ho gaye bekhabar
ae jaan e jigar ek aur nazar
ae jaan e jigar ek aur nazar
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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