Zabaan na kholnaa jee kuchh na bolnaa
Posted on: March 11, 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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Nanubhai Vakil (B.A., LL.B.) was an old timer in Indian film industry who commenced his filmy career as a director with a silent film in 1929. By 1932, he had directed as many as 21 silent films. His first talkie film as a director was ‘Narsinh Mehta’ (1932) which also happened to be the first talkie film in Gujarati. He has directed over 50 Hindi films most of which belonged to action, stunts, fantasy and costume genres of films. He directed his last Hindi film, ‘Alam Ara’ (1971) which he had earlier directed in 1956. In both these films, W M Khan donned the same role which he had done in India’s first talkie film, ‘Alam Ara’ (1931). He has also produced six Hindi films and W M Khan acted in all these films.
With over 50 Hindi films to his credit as a director, I was disappointed with the contents of ‘Kyaa Ye Bombay Hai?’ (1959) which Nanubhai Vakil produced and directed. Nishi and Maruti were in the lead roles supported by W M Khan, Prakash, Munshi Munakka, M Kumar, Tuntun, Jeevankala, Heera Sawant, Meena etc. He tried to make this film with an amalgam of action with comedy genres. The net result was that the film became a tame affair. The comedy was lackluster and the action was not to the level of even ‘B’ grade film.
Watching the first 10 minutes of this film gave me enough indication as to what to expect from the film. So, I watched the remaining part of the film reluctantly, spread over to 2-3 days. There is not much in the story in the film. In fact, the story is fit for a short film. What is added to make it a full-length feature film is some absurdities and nine songs which are out of sync with the story. However, a couple of songs are very pleasing to the ears.
The story of the film is as under:
The film starts with an aged Raja (Maruti) sitting with his grandchildren and other children who are requesting him to tell one of his many stories of his days in Mumbai. Raja agrees and starts telling a new story and the film goes in flashback mode.
Raja has a cousin, Ratan (Prakash) in Mumbai who wants to grab Raja’s property without harming his life. So, he devises a plan by which Raja is brainwashed in believing that he has a heart problem so that by its fear itself, it will make him closure to his death. Raja visits Mumbai to stay with Ratan along with his servant, Ghanshyam (Munshi Munnaka). After reaching Mumbai, Ratan arranges a taxi but Raja refuses to travel in a taxi out of fear arising out of his heart problem. Instead, he travels in a luggage trolley pushed by Ghanshyam. The trolley is hit by a passing car making it to travel by itself all over the places. Due to this, a passersby calls him mad which gives an opportunity for Ratan to admit him in a mental hospital on the advice of the passersby.
After few days, Raja runs away from the mental hospital and lands at Ratan’s place where he finds Ratan’s henchmen have kidnapped Seth Dharamdas (W M Khan) for forcing him to get his daughter, Rani (Nishi) married to Ratan. However, Raja saves Dharamdas by fighting with Ratan’s henchmen (No fear of heart ailment for Raja!). In gratitude, Dharamdas brings him to his house and gives him a room to stay within his house. Dharamdas introduces Raja to his daughter, Rani who has earlier accidentally met him in the swimming pool when he landed there with his trolley. Rani and Raja start liking each other. Raja joins her at the picnic she has arranged thus making them more closure than before.
Now, Ratan has one more problem with Raja to tackle as he is also in the contention to marry Rani. So, Ratan devises a plan to create a fear in Raja through his henchmen donning the grab of the ghosts making him believing that ghosts have surrounded him. Ratan feels that due to his perceived weak heart, Raja may die of heart-attack. But this attempt of Ratan goes futile. Ratan decides to once again kidnap Seth Dharamdas.
Raja has started realising that Ratan is a fraudster to grab wealth from Seth Dharamdas through forcibly marrying Rani. So, Raja and Rani rush to Seth Dharamdas’s house and find that her father has already been kidnapped. Raja visits Ratan’s house with Rani where Ratan with his henchmen are present. A fight ensues between Ratan’s henchmen and Raja who is supported by Ghanshyam, Seth Dharamdas and Rani. At last, Ratan’s henchmen are able to take control of all the four and confines them in a room.
Ratan forcibly takes Rani with him in a car which is chased by the police team after Rani’s dog goes to Police station barking at the duty police indicating him of some serious incidence happened to the dog’s owner. On the way, the police intercepts the car. But Ratan and Rani have already escaped in their own ways. At last, police team arrest Ratan on the terrace of his building. Seth Dharamdas is freed. Raja and Rani unite.
The film comes to an end in the present mode when an aged Rani is seen admonishing Raja for telling his Mumbai stories in an exaggerated manner.
As mentioned earlier, the film is full of absurd scenes. For example, when Raja (Maruti) lands in Mumbai Central station, he travels in a three-wheeler trolley which has to be manually pushed by his servant because he is afraid to travel in a taxi due to his obsession with heart problem. His trolley gets hit by a car which makes it to move by itself all over the south Mumbai during which it is a miracle that it does not get hit by any vehicle on the way. Finally, the trolley with Maruti sitting in it plunges into a swimming pool. This is not the end of this absurd scene. After falling in the swimming pool, he swims and starts singing a song with Rani (Nishi) whom he has met for the first time.
The height of the absurdity is towards the end of the film when a fighting breaks out between Raja and Ratan’s henchmen. During the fight, Raja saves himself by jumping from the terrace with an open umbrella like a parachute and flies all over the place. To add further absurdity, after some time, Rani also joins him with the same umbrella. From the terrace of his building, Ratan fires at the umbrella from his gun forcing Raja and Rani to land on the terrace. Exactly, at that point, Ratan gets arrested by the police.
The film’s director has indirectly justified these and other absurdities in the film in the end by Rani admonishes Raja for narrating the story to the children in an exaggerated manner.
The film had nine songs written by Noor Dewasi which were set to music by Bipin Dutta. Three songs have been covered on the Blog. I am presenting the 4th song, ‘zabaan naa kholnaa jee kuchh naa bolnaa’ rendered by Geeta Dutt who sings for dancer, Meena Fernandez. It appears from saregama.com that this song was not released in audio format.
Among the actors playing musical instruments in the song under discussion, Maruti is playing mouth organ. My guess is that the man playing trumpet is Terrence Lyons whose Rock Band, ‘Ted Lyons and His Cubs’ used to feature in many Hindi films of 1960s. Another guess is that the dancer with Meena Fernandez from 0:34 to 0:40 is Robert D’Costa who later became a choreographer for some Hindi films.
Meena Fernandez started as a chorus dancer in early 1950s. She can be seen in as a solo dancer in films such as ‘Sujata’ (1959), ‘Bank Manager’ (1959) etc.
Video Clip:
Song-Zabaan na kholnaa jee kuchh na bolnaa(Kya Ye Bombay Hai)(1959) Singer-Unknown female voice, Lyrics-Noor Dewasi, MD-Bipin Dutta
Lyrics:
zabaan naa kholnaa
jee kuchh naa bolnaa
naa tum kaho naa ham kahen koi fasaanaa
zabaan naa kholnaa
jee kuchh naa bolnaa
naa tum kaho naa ham kahen koi fasaanaa
zabaan naa kholnaa
wafaa kaa dushman hai zindagee kaa
jo muskuraao to aag bhar de
dikhaao jisko ye seedhaa raastaa
wahee jalaa ke khaak kar de
zabaan naa kholnaa
jee kuchh naa bolnaa
naa tum kaho naa ham kahen koi fasaanaa
zabaan naa kholnaa
?? ?? andheraa hai raat bhar kaa
subah bhee hogee ye jaante hain
jafaa ke pehloo mein muskuraatee
wafaa bhee hogee ye maante hain
zabaan naa kholnaa
jee kuchh naa bolnaa
naa tum kaho naa ham kahen koi fasaanaa
zabaan naa kholnaa
jo aaj sab kaa sitaaraa ban ke
wo kal zameen ko karegaa sajdaa
uthhegaa ik din yakeen hai dil ko
jahaan kee aankhon se kaalaa pardaa
zabaan naa kholnaa
jee kuchh naa bolnaa
naa tum kaho naa ham kahen koi fasaanaa
zabaan naa kholnaa
jee kuchh naa bolnaa
naa tum kaho naa ham kahen koi fasaanaa
zabaan naa kholnaa
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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