Jab tum hee naheen to kuchh bhee naheen
Posted on: March 15, 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.
|
Blog Day : |
6084 | Post No. : | 18880 |
Today’s song is from the film Doli-1947.
Made under the banner of All India Pictures, Bombay, the film was directed by S.K.Oza (his first directorial venture), and the music was by Ghulam Mohammad. The cast of this film included Wasti, Sulochana Chatterjee, Madhuri, Amar, Pratime Devi, Putli Bai, Shashikala, Jayant and many others.
1947 was a year no Indian can ever forget. Pakistan and India are two hostile neighbours in the South Asian Region, who vie with each other in a few fields. A great deal of excitement gets generated on either side of the border whenever the national teams of the two countries face off in cricket (these days) and Hockey (in the past).
But the one field in which India undoubtedly surpasses all other countries in the region, including Pakistan, is showbiz. In fact, India produces more films than even Hollywood while Pakistan’s film industry is yet to make a mark in the region.
History provides some explanation for this contrast. In undivided India, Lahore (then in the Punjab) was important as a showbiz centre. It had an established film-making centre. The first film ever to be made in a Lahore studio was Delhi Express (1935) and thereafter many Urdu and Punjabi films were produced from Lahore every year. The partition of India into two independent states – India and Pakistan, caused irreparable damage to film production in Lahore. Most of Lahore’s film producers were Hindus and as the city fell on the side of the Islamic state of Pakistan, they migrated to India. This deprived Lollywood, as Lahore is referred to in film circles, of much needed investment and expertise in film production and distribution.
Those days Lahore was called ”a supply source” for Bombay, as many actors and musicians shifted their base to Bombay from there. The list of such people is very long, but it will suffice to mention some well known names-
Noorjehan, Pran, Saigal, Prithwiraj Kapoor and his sons, Shyam, Dilip Kumar, Surinder, Karan Dewan, Dev Anand, Balraj Sahni, Singer Khursheed, Mumtaz Shanti, Veena, Begum Para, Meena Shorey, Suraiya, Manorama, Kamini Kaushal, Shyama(Khursheed Akhtar), A R Kardar, M Sadiq, Suresh(Nazim Ahmed), Amar, Chetan Anand, Zande Khan, Ghulam Hyder, Pt.Amarnath and his brothers Husnlal-Bhagatram, Hansraj Behl, S.Mohinder, Firoz Nizami, Khursheed Anwar, Khayyam, Vinod, Shyamsunder, Kidar Sharma, Krishna Chander, O P Dutta, Saadat Hasan Manto, Qamar Jalalabadi, D N Madhok, Tanvir Naqvi, Prem Dhawan etc etc.
Many of the actors and producers used to shuttle between Lahore and Bombay for their work.
And then the PARTITION took place in 1947.
In the communal frenzy, polarisation of artistes took place. Some Hindus shifted to Bombay and Some Muslims left for Lahore.At the actual time of Partition some artists were in Lahore for film work. They were B R Chopra, Ramanand Sagar, I S Johar, Gulshan Rai, Omprakash, Jeevan, O P Nayyar, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Naqsh Lyallpuri, Surinder and Prakash Kaur Manorama and Pushpa Huns. They all left Lahore hurriedly and reached Bombay Safely.
Same way many artists from Bombay left for Lahore and ALL of them reached safely.
some of the Directors who migrated to Pakistan were-
Syed Shaukat Hussain Rizvi, S M Yousuf, Najam Naqvi, Munshi Dil, Nakshab Jarachavi, M Sadiq, Zia Sarhadi, Sibtain Fazli(of Fazli Brothers), S T Zaidi , Zahoor Raja, Wali saheb, A R Kardar,Nazir,W Z Ahmed,Masood Pervez,Sharif Nayyar,Luqmaan,Dawood Chaand,Rakhan,Nusrat Mansoori,M H Qasim,Roop K Shorey,Butt Kasher,Barkat Mehra and Manto.
Some of the Actors/actresses were- Nazeer, Sadiq Ali, Masood, Sudhir, Santosh, Ratan Kumar, Najmul Hussain, Suresh and Nasir khan(both came back to India later), Sh.Mukhtar, M.Ismail, Ajmal, Gulam Mohd, Kumar, Ghori, Majeed, Shahnawaz, Himalayawala, Shyam Kumar, Allauddin, Shah Shikarpuri, Charlie, Nazar Faizi Noorjehan, Meena Shorey, Khursheed, Zeenat Begum, Asha Posley, Najma, Kalawati, Rehana, Swarnalata, Ragini, Bibbo, Renuka Devi, Geeta Nizami, Maya Devi etc.
Some from the music field were- Khursheed Anwar, Inayat Hussain, Rafiq gaznavi, G A Chisti, Ghulam Hyder, Firoz Nizami, Nissar Bazmi, Nashaad, Tufail Faruqi, Tanvir Naqvi, Faiyaz Hasmi, Iqbal Bano, Premlata,Khursheed,Zeenat Begum,Shevan Rizvi,Rasheed Atre,Fateh Ali Khan,Babul etc.
Some of the successful migrants there were- Noor jahan, Khursheed Anwar, G A Chisti, Nissar Bazmi, Firoz Nizami, Najam Naqvi, Nakshab Jarachavi, Sibtain Fazli, Wali Sahib, Manto, Rashid Atre, Sudhir, Santosh, Asha Posley, Shameem, Najma, Yasmeen, Ragini, Zahoor Shah, Shaikh Iqbal, Himalayawala, Nazar, Rafiq Gaznavi, Tanvir Naqvi, Iqbal Bano etc.
The unfortunate ones were-some of them- Meena Shorey, Ratan Kumar, M Sadiq, Charlie, Ghori, Kumar, Shaikh Mukhtar, Najmul Hussain, Neena, Kalavati, Maya devi, Gulam Hyder, Nashaad, Premlata etc.
Almost all the artists who shifted to Bombay prior to Partition did very well here.
(Notes-
1.All lists are only indicative and not exhaustive
2.Migrants means those who relocated during the period from 1947 to 1970.)
The rioting of 1947 set in motion irreversible, irrevocable migration. B R. Chopra and I S Johar were planning films in a big way in Lahore but had to run for their lives. Ramanand Sagar left in July, as did Gulshan Rai. Character actor Om Prakash (of Fateh Din fame, an all-time favourite skit relayed for years by Radio Lahore), comedian-bad man Jeevan and many others also left Lahore for Bombay. O P Nayyar recorded his immortal song Preetam Aan Milo/ Dukhia Jiya Bullai, Aan Milo at the His Master’s Voice studio in Lahore. He left Lahore only in 1948 when it became clear that people with the wrong religion were not going to return to their homes on either side of the Punjab. Writer Rajinder Singh Bedi escaped, sitting on top of a railway carriage carrying loads of Hindus and Sikhs out of Lahore. Song-writer Naqsh Lyallpuri began his literary career in Lahore as a journalist but had to leave in 1947. Punjabi singers Surinder Kaur and Prakash Kaur, and Pushpa Hans also left Lahore.
Migration in the other direction also took place. Nazir and his wife Suranlata, Noorjahan and her husband Shaukat Husain Rizvi, character actor Alauddin and many others headed for Lahore. Manto came in January 1948, music directors Ghulam Haider and Khurshid Anwar followed some years later and director M. Sadiq probably in 1969 or 1970. Meena Shori, Khurshid and Mumtaz Shanti also immigrated to Lahore. Some Pakistani actors in Lahore continued to use Hindu filmic names. Santosh Kumar (Musa Raza) and Sudhir (Shah Zaman), the two most famous heroes of the 1950s and 60s followed such practice. On both sides, initially considerable goodwill existed between the two film communities.
Some families were divided. Thus for example, while Nazir shifted to Lahore, his nephew K. Asif stayed on in Bombay. Kardar stayed on but his brother Nusrat Kardar and son Rauf Kardar returned to Lahore. While Suraiya, her mother and grandmother settled in Bombay, many of her other relatives shifted to Lahore. Rafi stayed on to reign supreme in Bombay while his parents and siblings were in Lahore.
There were some cross-religion marriages that created peculiar challenges. Raj Kapoor’s maama (maternal uncle) Mr Mehra married a Muslim, converted to Islam and stayed in Lahore. A unique case of reverse migration took place as well: poet Sahir Ludhianvi (Abdul Hai) left Lahore for India.
Luckily, except for a few like Noorjehan, Khursheed Anwar and some others, the well established Muslim artistes like Rafi, Talat, Shamshad, Naushad and hundreds of others chose to remain in India. They prospered here and became popular in Pakistan as well.
After partition, this turmoil subsided after a short period in India and it was business as usual here, while in Lahore, Pakistan had to build up from scratch, but the Film Industry there too stabilised in a few years’ time. The base of Film industry in Pakistan was built by people who migrated from India. Migration from India to Pakistan continued till about 1970 for the pre-partition artists. In fact till about 1965 there was an exchange of artists from both sides to work in other countries, but after the 65 war, this working stopped completely.
Music Directors who left India after Partition had done very good work here. Composers like Nissar Bazmi and Feroz Nizami became exceptionally successful in Pakistan, but Nashad, Rafiq Ghaznavi and others were not successful to that extent. Khursheed Anwar, a very highly respected composer here remained a father figure even in Pakistan.
Partition did a lot of damage to both countries and the film industry. With so many artists leaving at a time surely affected the filmdom, but it also opened up new avenues for singers and new blood composers. Lot of writing has been done and hundreds of books have been written on this subject, but we are only concerned with the film industry conditions here, in 1947.
The year 1947 is a reminder not only for the Independence of India, but also for the upheaval that took place in the film industry that time. More than in any other industry in India, Muslims were plentiful, working in different sections and departments of the Hindi film industry. majority of them migrated to the newly formed Muslim Nation of Pakistan. This did create a lot of disturbance in the film industry. Right from the beginning of 1947, there were signs that soon the British would leave India – after dividing it into two Nations, India and Pakistan. When the month and date became known for the Partition, there was a great hurry among the filmmakers to complete their projects on hand and in process, compromising many factors like quality of the film, number of songs and such other things.
This resulted in the record number of films made in 1947 alone – 181 Hindi films and about 100 films in other languages in India. This was a record which remained unbroken till 1985, when 187 Hindi films were made. Thus from 1931 to 1985, this record remained unbroken for more than 50 years ! Obviously, this resulted in a big compromise on quality to achieve quantity with many films produced half heartedly. Most or rather many films made in 1947 remained obscure, unheard of and many flopped due to poor quality. Actually only few films were released in 1947, because many films were released in 1948 and 1949, with some films being released in Pakistan too.
Did you ever hear about films Amar Asha, Angoorbala, Attention, Barrister, But Tarash, Chalte Chalte, Chandrahas, Dagabaz Dost, Dehati,Ek kadam,Gaurav,Giribala, Heera, Intezar ke baad, Jhalak,Jurmana, Khaufnak aankhen, Lalaat, Mangalsutra, Moti, Sewa gram, Stage girl, Tohfa or Utho jago ? Of course not all films were below standards. Some of the landmark films were also made in 1947, like Shehnai, Mirza Sahiban, Jugnu, Saajan, Naatak, Meera, Elan,Aap ki sewa mein, Dard, Do Bhai, Neel Kamal or Parwana etc. However by and large the picture was like this only.
I have not seen this film, nor could I get any information about its story etc., but from the title of the film and the cast, it seems to be a family drama involving a Love Triangle. One name in the cast – Pratima Devi – attracted my attention. This is one actress who was seen in the role of a Mother for almost 50 years or so. However, despite my continued efforts no information on her was available anywhere.
Recently, I learnt from Facebook that there is an article on her on the site CINEMAAZI. Earlier, I had visited this site a few times and seen some information which I already had with me. But for Pratima Devi, I visited it again and I was shocked. Until a few months ago, this site was open to all, but now it has become a shop ! If you want to get any information from this site, first you have to become its member by paying Rs. 3000 for a year. Even then you can not copy the articles or take a screenshot. For an individual article on this site the cost is Rs. 15, to be paid in advance. This is something I have come across for the first time. Anyway, it is their choice. I found that there was an article on Pratima Devi. I made the advance payment and after several hitches, finally the article opened up.I had to copy by hand myself, but I did it. Here it is, in an abridged version, for our readers.
The article is written by Shiraz Sharief, nephew of Pratima Devi. The real name of Pratima devi was Khairunnisa Suleiman. She was born in 1910 in Gujarat. She was the eldest of the 3 daughters of Suleman Shivji, who hailed from Gujarat. Later the family shifted to Bombay. Khairunnisa was married to a distant Khoja relative, but after a son was born, they separated and the son also died within a few days.
Once she went to Bombay Talkies, along with a friend who was giving a screen test there. The friend failed in the test, but Himanshu Rai offered a film role to Khairunnisa. However she declined the offer. Then Himanshu Rai gave her an open offer. After a few months her family’s financial condition became bad and she went to Bombay talkies for work. She was given the role of Ashok Kumar’s mother in the film Nirmala-1938. She was also given the new screen name of Pratima Devi, by Himanshu Rai. She did 5 films there and then joined Kishore Sahu’s film company in 1940.
Later she worked for Prabhat film company and then she became a freelancer. In her career, she was the standard mother to about every big actor like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Ashok Kumar, Raaj Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan and even to Omprakash also ! She worked in 127 films in all like Albela, Devdas, Paigham,Sangdil, jogan,Adalat, Parineeta, Seema, Daastaan, Dulari, pakiza etc etc. She was in many films of Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Ashok Kumar etc. She appeared in many films made in Madras.
During the film shooting of film Benaam-1974, Amitabh Bachhan came very late on the sets and all the actors were waiting for more than 6 hours. As soon as he came, Pratima Devi fired him openly. Amitabh apologised to her and all and after that he became the most punctual actor ever till today. Those were the days when seniors were respected. Her favourite directors were Mahesh Kaul and Shantaram. She was short tempered but good of heart. She was very fond of playing Rummy and every Sunday there would be a session at her house.
Today’s song is sung by Naseem Akhtar and Shamshad Begum an unknown female voice. Enjoy this 78 year old song….
Song- Jab tum hee naheen to kuchh bhi naheen (Doli)(1947) Singers- Naseem Akhtar, unknown female voice, Lyricist-Nazim Panipati, MD- Ghulam Mohammad
Lyrics
Hai sab kuchh lekin kuchh bhee naheen
hai sab kuchh lekin kuchh bhee naheen
jab tum hee naheen to kuchh bhee naheen
jab tum hee naheen to kuchh bhee naheen
tum paas thhey taare hanste thhey
ab wo hee sitaare rote hain
tum paas thhey taare hanste thhey
ab wo hee sitaare rote hain
badlee bhee ab to badal gayee
badlee bhee ab to badal gayee
saawan ke nazaare rote hain
saawan ke nazaare rote hain
le jaaun kahaan armaanon ko o o
o jab tum hee naheen to kuchh bhee naheen
tum hee naheen to kuchh bhee naheen
jise dhoondhh rahee hai teree nazar
jise dhoondhh rahee hai teree nazar
wo teree nazar se door naheen
wo teree nazar se door naheen
jise tu yaad kartee hai
aathhon pahar r r
jise tu yaad kartee hai
aathhon pahar
wo milne se mazboor naheen
wo milne se mazboor naheen
rah rah ke machalne waala dil
rah rah ke machalne waala dil
qaaboo mein naheen to kuchh bhee naheen
qaaboo mein naheen to kuchh bhee naheen
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
March 15, 2025 at 12:10 pm
Arun Ji
Thanks for the post. Good account of developments in film industry ( Lahore & Mumbai), around the partition times.
I could have never guessed Pratima Devi is Muslim by birth. Must have acted as mother in more films than Nirupa Rai 🙂
LikeLike
March 15, 2025 at 5:00 pm
Satish ji,
Thanks for your comments.
Even I was shocked to know that Pratima Devi was a Muslim. She did Mother’s roles in more than 100 films, while Nirupa Roy worked as Mother in about 50 films. However, Nirupa Roy did a variety of roles.
Nirupa Roy was a Heroine in 110 films, a mother in 50 films, a Goddess in 50 films, a suffering wife in 30 films and a Stunt girl in 10 films.
-AD
LikeLike