Mere dil zindagee safar hai
Posted on: February 24, 2025
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, 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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‘The Killers’ (1969) with its alternative title ‘Ham Sab Qaateel Hain’ (1969) was produced by A V Mohan under the banner of Sangam Pictures and was directed by Maruti. The cast included Dara Singh, Ajit, Sheikh Mukhtar, Helen, Paul Sharma, Amar, Kundan, Bela Bose, S K Prem, Leela Chitnis, Maruti etc.
The story of the film is as under:
Police Commissioner (Paul Sharma) is disturbed by a spate of murders that has taken place, all victims being the loyalists of the disposed king of Vijaygarh. One more loyalist, Professor Ghosh (Amar) is also on his way to Mumbai, and he could also be the target of the killer.
Ajay Ghosh (Ajit), the son of Professor Ghosh receives his father at the airport and hugs him. At that very moment, Professor Ghosh collapses. A passerby, Vikram Singh (Sheikh Mukhtar) comes to his rescue and gets him admitted to a hospital. But in reality, Vikram Singh has kidnapped Professor Ghosh to get from him a letter of secret treasure of the ex-king of Vijaygarh. However, Professor Ghosh says that he has given that letter to his son, Ajay.
At Vikram Singh’s den, Shimpy (Ajit) a look alike of Ajay is enjoying in midst of club dancers, one of them being Kitty (Helen), a confident of Vikram Singh. Shimpy gets a new assignment from Vikram Singh to get the secret letter from Ajay. He goes to Ajay’s house and in a scuffle, Shimpy accidentally gets seriously injured. Before his death, he reveals to Ajay that he had come to collect the secret letter. By the time Ajay is soliciting further information from him, Shimpy is dead. Ajay decides to become Shimpy, being his look alike, to reach Vikram Singh which will lead him to his father’s whereabout.
The Police Commissioner is angry with his officers with the abduction of Professor Ghosh and the murder of his son, Ajay (in reality, Shimpy). He decides to assign the investigation of a series of murders to CID officer, Rajesh Verma (Dara Singh) who is known by his code name, Agent Q. He is holidaying in Delhi. He takes the flight to Mumbai. This information is relayed to Vikram Singh, who puts his henchmen to trail him after reaching Mumbai. However, Rajesh reaches the Police Commissioner’s office after successfully fighting with Vikram Singh’s henchmen.
Meanwhile Vikram Singh thinks that the secret letter must be with Ajay’s fiancée, Savita (Savita). He orders his henchmen to abduct Savita and bring her to Vijaygarh where he is currently stationed. On the other hand, Rajesh goes to Savita’s house to shift her with the secret letter to a secured place as her life is in danger from Vikram Singh’s men. However, Vikram Singh’s henchmen abducts Savita to Vijaygarh by making Rajesh unconscious. Rajesh, after regaining consciousness, finds the letter which he reads containing details of the secret which have been stored in an in a form of a note in an idol kept in a museum in Vijaygarh. Rajesh travels to Vijaygarh in a train in which Ajay now, Shimpy and Kitty also travels. Kitty becomes friendly with Rajesh while Shimpy is searching Rajesh’s brief case in his train’s coupe without any success.
Next day, Rajesh goes to the museum in search of an idol in which the secret letter of Professor Ghosh is kept. He gets hold of the letter but it contains some cryptic message, ‘killer’. Vikram Singh and his henchmen try to get the secret letter from Rajesh, but he hoodwinks them by traveling in a taxi. He gets to know from the taxi driver that an earlier passenger has visited Champa Bai’s house to get some information on a secret treasure of ex-king of Vijaygarh. Rajesh decides to meet Champa Bai (Lalita Kumari) who reveals him that one person had come to her to know the secret of treasure of ex-king of Vijaygarh. She says that once upon a time, she was the favourites of the ex-king of Vijaygarh and that secret is lying in a talisman of her son, Ranjit who works in a circus owned by Vikram Singh.
Rajesh rushes to the circus and is surprised to find Kitty. Rajesh takes her into his confidence and tells her that Vikram Singh, for whom she works is a notorious person indulging in anti-social activities and murders. She says that she has no other option as her father is in his custody. Rajesh assures her that if she leaves Vikram Singh and joins him in neutralising Vikram Singh, he can help her to live a normal life. She agrees and gives him whereabout of Ranjit. At the same time, she cautions him that Vikram Singh and his men would recognise him. So, she suggests him to become a circus artist. A circus show is going on which Kitty gives her dance performance along with circus artists which includes Rajesh in the guise of a joker. The audience includes Vikram Singh and his henchmen.
Vikram Singh gets suspicious about Kitty’s behaviour which suggests that she has fallen in love with Rajesh. To prove her loyalty to Vikram Singh, in his presence, she telephones Rajesh to meet her house. Vikram Singh orders his men to arrest Rajesh when he goes to meet Kitty. After overcoming the life-threatening adventure while driving, Rajesh meets Kitty and gets angry with her that she has deliberately invited him to get him trapped. She assures him that she really loves him and what she has done was under pressure from Vikram Singh.
So far, Rajesh has got the information about the secret treasure in a piecemeal basis. It is only Professor Ghosh who would be able to solve this puzzle by joining its loose ends. Kitty suggests that he should get himself abducted by Vikram Singh’s men so that he can reach to whereabout of Professor Ghosh. A trap is laid by which Kitty informs Vikram Singh that Rajesh is visiting a ruined house in search of the secret treasure. Vikram Singh puts his men under Shimpy to get Rajesh abducted. He put in the prison where Professor Ghosh is also locked up.
A mystery calls comes to Vikram Singh who tells him to bring Professor Ghosh to him at a ruined palace where a stone idol is kept to get it opened to know the secret of treasure. Vikram Singh, Shimpy and Professor Ghosh visit the ruined palace to meet the mystery caller, the killer. Kitty gets Rajesh freed from the prison who goes to the ruined palace. The mystery caller tells Vikram Singh to send Professor Ghosh to him to get the stone idol opened. Rajesh reaches the ruined palace and during the fight, Shimpy, now Ajay joins Rajesh and together they eliminate Vikram Singh and ‘The Killer’. Ajay unites with his father, professor Ghosh and Kitty joins Rajesh for a happy ending.
One of many loopholes in the story is that it is silent on what happens to Savita, the fiancée of Ajay who was in Vikram Singh’s custody. Probably, some scenes are missing in the film’s VCD. For the first time, I have seen in this film Dara Singh in immaculate western attire, giving a good performance in the role of a secret agent. He also looks great in his western attire. At the same film, in this film, Dara Singh looks horrendous while dancing to a song as a female, first in a saari and then in a churidar-kurta.
The film had six songs penned by S H Bihari (4) and Aziz Kashmiri (2) which are set to music by O P Nayyar. One song has been covered in the Blog. I am presenting the 2nd song, ‘mere dil zindagee safar hai’ sung by Asha Bhosle and Mahendra Kapoor on the words of Aziz Kashmiri. The song is picturised on Helen in a circus as a dance performer while other artists from the circus are on their assigned performances. Dara Singh has disguised himself as a joker in circus.
The context of the song in the film is that Rajesh (Dara Singh) has come to meet the son of Champa Bai who has the secret of treasure hidden in his talisman and works in the circus owned by Vikram Singh. Kitty (Helen) is going to help Rajesh. However, Vikram Singh, after getting the information about the presence of Rajesh has also come to the circus show, looking for the boy who has talisman on his neck.
The song is melodious, the lyrics are philosophical in nature. The song also gives an indication that Helen in the role of Kitty compares her life that of a circus artist who takes the risk on his life to keep happy the audience.
Incidentally, almost all online sources, including SAREGAMA mention the name of Usha Khanna as the second female singer. However, Usha Timothy, in one of her videos uploaded on a video sharing platforms, has mentioned that the song was sung by her along with Asha Bhosle. In fact, Asha Bhosle herself took her to O P Nayyar and recommended her for this song when she heard Usha Timothy recording a Marathi song for a drama, ‘Jai Jai Gauri Shankar’.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Mere dil zindagee safar ho (The killers)(1969) Singers-Mahendra Kapoor, Asha Bhonsle, Lyrics-Aziz Kashmiri, MD-O P Nayyar
Asha Bhonsle +Usha Timothi
Chorus
Lyrics:
aa aaa aa aaa aa aaa
aa aaa aa
la la la la la la la la
mere dil
zindagee safar hai
meree jaan
kal pe kyun nazar hai
dekh le aaj to nazaaraa
hans hans ke jee bhar ke
mere hamdam
mere dil
zindagee safar hai
meree jaan
kal pe kyun nazar hai
dekh le aaj to nazaaraa
hans hans ke jee bhar ke
mere hamdam
haa aa aa aa aa aa
haa aa aa aa aa aa
haa aa aa aa aa aa
haa aa aa
haa aa aa
haa aa aa
haa aa aa
ye jhoomtee bahaaren
ye dolte nazaare
ye jhoomtee bahaaren
ye dolte nazaare
ye dil fareb manzar
hai saamne tumhaare
zindagee aaj hai
kyaa pataa kal kahaan honge ham
mere dil zindagee safar hai
meree jaan kal pe kyun nazar hai
dekh le aaj to nazaaraa
hans hans ke jee bhar ke
mere hamdam
haa aa aa aa aa aa
haa aa aa aa aa aa
haa aa aa aa aa aa
haa aa aaa
haa aa aaa
haa aa aaa
haa aa aaa
ham zindagee se khelen
aur log muskuraayen
ham zindagee se khelen
aur log muskuraayen
duniyaa kee raushnee mein
ham apnaa dil jalaayen
zindagee aaj hai
kyaa pataa
kal kahaan honge ham
mere dil zindagee safar hai
meree jaan
kal pe kyun nazar hai
dekh le aaj to nazaaraa
hans hans ke
jee bhar ke
mere hamdam
mere dil zindagee safar hai
meree jaan kal pe kyun nazar hai
dekh le aaj kaa nazaaraa
hans hans ke
jee bhar ke
mere hamdam
mere dil zindagee safar hai
meree jaan kal pe kyun nazar hai
dekh le aaj kaa nazaaraa
hans hans ke
jee bhar ke
mere hamdam
haa aa aa aa aa aa
haa aa aa aa aa aa
haa aa aa aa aa aa
haa aa aaa
haa aa aaa
haa aa aaa
haa aa aaa
manzil naheen hai koi
manzil ko dhoondhte hain
manzil naheen hai koi
manzil ko dhoondhte hain
hai pyaar jiske dil mein
uss dil ko dhoondhte hain
zindagee aaj hai
kyaa pataa
kal kahaan honge ham
mere dil zindagee safar hai
meri jaan
kal pe kyun nazar hai
dekh le aaj kaa nazaaraa
hans hans ke
jee bhar ke
mere hamdam
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
February 24, 2025 at 1:21 pm
This is one of those songs rendered by Mahendra Kapoor in place of the OP’ s favorite Rafi. In the mid sixties Mahendra Kapoor emerged as a preferred and dependable singer for several composers such as Ravi, Kalyanji Anandji , C Ramachandra and even Madan Mohan and most of the songs were hits. Many of his duets with Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar are well remembered today and he rendered western numbers for OP with great style and gusto !
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February 24, 2025 at 7:35 pm
During his peak period of playback singing career, Mahendra Kapoor was mostly a replacement for Mohammed Rafi when Lata stopped singing duet with Rafi and O P Nayyar had a tiff with him in the later 1960s. In the late 1950s, B R Chopra had some issues with Rafi and he brought Mahendra Kapoor in his place. These incidences gave him opportunities to showcase his style of singing.
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