Aaye akelaa jaaye akelaa chaar dinon ka melaa
Posted on: March 1, 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 the film Akela-1941.
The film was produced by Kikubhai Desai, directed by Pesi Karani and the music was by Khan Mastana. The banner was Great Indian pictures, Bombay. The Lyricist for all 11 songs was P.L.Santoshi. The cast included Mazhar Khan, Bibbo, E. Bilimoria, Miss Moti, Hadi, Pratima Devi and others.
1941 was the first year in the second decade of the Talkie Era and it was the beginning of the emergence of a New film industry.
When Talkie started in 1931, for many years after that, the films were made by the people who had done work in the Silent films. These films had a spill over for the silent era artistes. Once the films started talking, most silent artists who could not speak Hindi or Urdu automatically disappeared. Thus started the influx of new actors who could speak Hindi and sing songs, in whatever way they could. Intelligent directors like V Shantaram, Bhavnani, Sohrab Modi, Chandulal Shah, Himanshu Rai, B N Sircar, L V Prasad and a host of Gujarati directors understood that the Talkie needs a different treatment than silent films. Music directors from stage dramas tried their hand in composing film music.
In the next 8-9 years, there was a perceptible change in the film making, acting, singing, and composing music in the films that were made. Quality artistes from the silent era continued for some more years – finally giving way to the new artistes. The 30s and the 40s mostly differed in film music and story contents. The new blood composers like Anil Biswas, C Ramchandra, Naushad, Ghulam Haider, K Datta, Hansraj Behl, Bulo C Rani, Gyan Dutt and many more replaced the Parsi, Marathi and Gujarati drama music to more acceptable lilting songs. Many musical films were made and some everlasting songs were composed by these people. At the end of the 1940s, one more major change in the film industry took place due to Partition. Let us see some important films.
JBH Wadfia became Chairman of the Film Advisory Board. He produced the First Sindhi film of the United India- ‘ Ekta ‘-1940. His film Court Dancer was also in English.
Asra– Debut of actor director N A Ansari.
Behan– Mehboob directed this film having an incest suggestive story.
Beti– 8 songs of Khursheed in this film. She was on top in the early 1940.
Chandan– Debut of S N Tripathi as an MD.
Chitralekha– First big success of Kidar Sharma. Mehtab’s bath scene caused a ripple.
Dhandhora– Actor comedian Charlie directed the only film.
Doctor– Pankaj Mullick gave excellent songs. First popular song with woof beats-‘ Chale pawan ki chaal ‘.
Jhoola– One of the most successful films like Kangan and Bandhan, starring Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitnis.
Kanchan– First composed song of Naushad-” Bata do koi”
Khazanchi– A milestone in musical revolution with Punjabi Theka, by Ghulam haider. Debut of Shamshad Begum in Hindi films.
Lagan– Saigal, as usual, gives good songs.
Mala– was remade as ‘ Amar-55’ with music again by Naushad only.
Naya Sansar– Story of Newspaper world. A novelty. Ashok Kumar’s famous cigarette smoking in films started from this film, solving his problem of ‘ what to do with the hands during acting’ !
Nirdosh– Mukesh sings his first song.
Padosi– Last film of V Shantaram before leaving Prabhat. A Landmark film. ” Kaisa chhaya hai ujala” is a popular chorus song.
Pardesi– Debut of actress Anjali Devi (not the southwali) with real name ‘Durgesh’.
Radhika– Debut of Nalini Jaywant.
Raj Nartaki– Ambitious Wadia film in English , Bangla and Hindi. Released in the USA by Columbia Pictures of Hollywood.
Sangam– Amritlal nagar’s first film as a writer. He did 18 films as writer and Lyricist.
Sikandar– A Magnum-Opus from Minerva. Chorus song- ” Zindagi hai pyar se” is very popular.
Taj mahal– Debut of Baby Suraiya as an actress.
Sasural and Ummeed were 2 films in which Noorjehan senior acted and sang. However these films are usually wrongly included in the filmography of Malika E Tarannum Noor jehan. She entered Hindi films only with the film Khandan-1942 at Lahore.
The hero of the film Akela-1941 was Mazhar Khan. The film was not the usual love or romantic story, but a different type of story of a lonely unmarried man who helps a girl to get married where she wants. Mazhar Khan was born on 18-10-1905, in the princely state of Dhar in M.P. After Matriculation, he joined the Police force due to his build and height, but soon he was fed up and resigned. He straightaway headed for Bombay looking for work in films. Director Durga Prasad Mishra took him to Imperial studio and he did about 19 Silent films starting with Challenge-1929, at a salary of Rs. 60 pm, which was 10 rupees more than his Police job.
When Talkie films started, he went to Calcutta, joined New Theatres and worked with K L Saigal in ‘Subah ka Sitara’-1932. For East India Film co.,he did ‘ Ek din ka Baadshah-33’and Raat ka raja-34 in which he did 8 roles in the film. After a few more films, he returned to Bombay and worked in Ranjit and Minerva Movietone films. His career best role came in 1941 in Shantaram’s Padosi, in which he did the famous role of Hindu Friend Thakur, while Gajanan Jagirdar did the role of his Muslim friend. In the prevailing tense communal atmosphere in the country those days,this film was hailed as a milestone depicting lifelong friendship of a Hindu and a Muslim. In all, he acted in 44 films.
His wife was a Hindu and she had freedom to remain as Hindu and do everything like Pooja etc. He had one son, Anwar.
In 1942, he became Director and did Meri Duniya-42, Marvi-42, Yaad-42, Badi Baat-44, Pehli Nazar-45, Sona-48, and Dil ki Duniya-49. His noteworthy films were Noorjehan-32, Bharosa-40, Padosi-41 and Uljhan-42. This role was that of a Blind singer-like K C Dey. His last film was Usha Kiran-52. He died on 24-9-1950, before its release.
The story of the film Akela-1941, as given in the September-1941 issue of Film India is…..
Budhwa (Mazhar Khan), a blacksmith by profession, leads an honest life. He is successful in his venture. His ugly appearance does not fetch him a life partner and he is too shy to woo one. He has his companion, Kalwa who assists him in his work. Both of them are content and happy with what they are until Chelkaka, a bird fancier, brings up the question of Budhwa’s marriage.
Budhwa, at first, is diffident but soon warms up at the prospects of getting a life companion. He agrees to the marriage. Chelkaka finds him a nice girl Maina (Bibbo) who is already in love with Vasant Thakur (E Billimoria), a young jagirdar of the place.
However, against the wishes of Maina, the marriage with Badhwa is fixed by her parents. On the wedding night, Maina runs away to meet her lover Vasant Thakur and to have a tryst with him. Unfortunately, Vasant cannot keep his words to Maina due to ruses used by her cousin Seeta (Miss Moti) who is also in love with Vasant.
Now Maina cannot go back to her parents as she has been outcast by the community. She ultimately decides to go back to Budhwa and spend her life in the service of Budhwa as repentance for what she did for him on the wedding night. Instead of walking to Budhwa’s house, fate takes her to him by way of an accident. Budhwa, without knowing the identity of the victim, treats her like his sister. In the meanwhile, Vasant has agreed to marry Seeta despite his love for Maina.
Once again, Chelkaka, the bird fancier, comes into the picture to know about the Maina who has taken shelter in Budhwa’s house without revealing her identity. Maina explains the whole story to Budhwa. After knowing her side of the story, Budhwa rushes to Vasant who finds him at the altar ready to get married to Seeta. In the climax, the dirty tricks played by Seeta are exposed and she confesses her wrong doings. Maina gets back Vasant. Budhwa is once again alone (akela) and this time without his work companion, Kalwa.
One of the actors in the cast is E. Bilimoria. New readers may not have much information about this old time actor. In the early era of the Talkie films the Bilimoria brothers were very famous. First it was D (Dinshaw) and then came E (Eddie) Bilimoria. Eddie was born at Bilimora,in Gujarat, in 1900. At the age of just 13 years he ran away from house to Kirkee (near Poona), to his uncle, to become a Fireman in Railways. Here, he became a Door keeper in a Cinema house and also learnt operating the film projector. Due to ill health, he was brought to Bombay.
One day he went to Imperial Studio to meet his brother Dinshaw. Mistaking him to be Dinshaw, make-up was done to him and he played a role in the film ‘Punjab Mail’. Then onwards he started working regularly in films. As a Hero his first silent film was ‘Raj Ramani’. He worked as Hero in 7 Imperial films and 10 films of Ranjit Studio. His Heroines were Putli, Shanta, Sultana. Madhuri, Padma, Panna and others. When Talkie films started he was Hero in 32 films made by Ranjit, opposite Gauhar, Shanta, Kamla, Mehtab, Madhuri and Sitara etc. He worked in 15 films opposite Madhuri only. Fencing, shooting and horse riding were his specialties as a stunt Hero. He was the First in India to wear Cowboy dress in stunt films.
Char chakram-32, Miss 1933-33, and Nadira-34 were his Hit films. In the film ‘ Sipahi ki sajni’-36, he jumped into Sea from a flying plane, without using a duplicate. Daredevil stunts were his hallmark. There were hundreds of stitches on his body. After 1939 he stopped getting Hero roles, so did other character roles. After 1953, he was reduced to only an Extra. He did acting till 1973 and then took up a job in a Fridge and AC shop. He stayed in a flat in Kemps corner in Bombay. His last days were not very happy. E.Bilimoria died on 18-2-1981 at Bombay.
He acted in 73 Talkie films, directed 1 film ( sone ki chidiya-48) and also sang 4 songs in 4 films. His first film was Radha Rani-32 and last was Honeymoon-73.
( adapted from ‘Inhe na Bhulana’ by Harish Raghuwanshi, with thanks.)
Today’s song is by one Shamo. I have no information about her at all. However the song seemed to be familiar with its Mukhada. I remembered a song with almost the same Mukhada. It was sung by Talat Mahmood for the film Dosti-1954. The mukhda was “Aaye bhi akela, jaye bhi akela, do din ki zindagi hai…”. It had become very popular. But even that song had a borrowed tune from an old Punjabi film “Lachhi”-1949, as per Hansraj Behl.
Let us now enjoy this 84 year old song by Shamo….
Song-Aaye akela jaaye akela chaar dinon ka mela (Akela)(1941) Singer- Shamo, Lyricist- P L Santoshi, MD- Khan Mastana
Lyrics
Aaye akela
jaaye akela
aaye akela
jaaye akela
chaar dinon ka mela manwa
chaar dinon ka mela
aaye akela
jaaye akela
aaye akela
jaaye akela
chaar dinon ka mela manwa
chaar dinon ka mela
kab tak rehta
kaun kisee kaa
kaun kisee kaa
kaun kisee kaa
kab tak rehta
kaun kisee kaa
kaun kisee kaa
kaun kisee kaa
rishtaa naataa jeete jee kaa
rishtaa naataa jeete jee kaa
jhoothh(?) ka hai
jhoothh(?) ka hai
jhoothh(?) ka hai ye jhamelaa
roop(?) ka hai ye jhamelaa
chaar dinon ka mela manwa
chaar dinon ka mela
chaar dinon ka mela manwa
chaar dinon ka mela
aaye akela
jaaye akela
aaye akela
jaaye akela
chaar dinon ka mela manwa
chaar dinon ka mela
jhoothha apna aur paraayaa
jhoothh kee hai dhan daulat maayaa
jhoothha apna aur paraayaa
jhoothh kee hai dhan daulat maayaa
jaane waalaa kyaa le jaaye
jaane waalaa kyaa le jaaye
aane waalaa kya hai laayaa
aane waalaa kya hai laayaa
samajh(?) koi albelaa
samajh(?) koi albelaa
chaar dinon ka mela manwa
chaar dinon ka mela
chaar dinon ka mela manwa
chaar dinon ka mela
aaye akela
jaaye akela
aaye akela
jaaye akela
chaar dinon ka mela manwa
chaar dinon ka mela
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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