Badkamma Badkamma yakkad potau raa
Posted on: March 18, 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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Spy thriller as a genre of films has rarely been attempted during the first three decades of Hindi talkie films. The huge success of Eon Productions’ spy thriller films of James Bond series like ‘Dr. No.’ (1962), ‘From Russia With Love’ (1963), ‘Goldfinger’ (1964) etc when they were released in India prompted the Hindi film producers to make the films in this genre in the 1960s. The Indo-China war of 1962 and Indi-Pak war of 1965 created favourable situations for spy thriller films. Some of the Hindi films which were made especially during the second half of 1960s were ‘Farz’ (1967), ‘Spy in Goa’ (1967), ‘Spy in Rome’ (1968), ‘Golden Eyes Secret Agent 077’ (1968),’CID Agent 302’ (1968), ‘Aankhen’ (1968), ’Ham Saaya’ (1968), ‘Shatranj’ (1969) etc.
I had watched the first three James Bond films and some of the Hindi spy thriller films given above. Most of the Hindi spy thrillers were not the pure spy thrillers. They were mixed with romance of the lead pairs to suit the taste of the Indian audience. I can only say that a few of the Hindi films mentioned above were good attempts though they lacked in the technical superiority of James Bonds films.
‘Shatranj’ (1969) was one of such spy thrillers of the 1960s which was co-produced under the banners of Gemini Pictures and N N Sippy Productions. The film was directed by S S Vasan which was his last film as a director of Hindi films. The star cast included Rajendra Kumar, Waheeda Rahman, Mehmood, Madan Puri, Agha, Manmohan Krishan, Achala Sachdev, Shashikala, Helen, Kamal Kapoor, Rajan Haksar, Ram Mohan, Ratan Gurang, Shyam Kumar, Madhumati, Shammi etc. At that time, Rajendra Kumar had attained the image of of a leading star of social and romantic drama films. It was, therefore, surprising that both the productions houses took the calculated risk of casting him in a spy thriller. Also, I could not imagine how could Waheeda Rahman fit in a spy thriller. For these reasons, I had not watched this film when it was released. Recently, I have watched this film on one of the video sharing platforms as its songs were good and I was contemplating covering one of its songs in my write-up for the Blog.
The story of the film is as under:
An Army General Ko Lum of an enemy country (neither the enemy country has been named nor the face of the Army General has been revealed in the film until the last scene) is extremely angry with his group who have failed in their assignment to capture Jai (Rajendra Kumar) who has become a stumbling block in Ko Lum’s desire to dominate the world. He kills all of them with a mounted machine gun. He calls Com. Chang (Madan Puri) and Com. Leng (Agha) and orders them to find out this invisible Indian. Otherwise, they would meet the same fate as his group.
In India, Jai is spending time with children around a swimming pool of a five-star hotel in Mumbai and Suzie (Shashikala), a spy of Chang is clicking Jai on her camera. However, Amir (Mehmood) in the guise of an Arab accidentally push both Suzie and Jai in the swimming pool thus damaging her film role. She reports the matter to Chang who orders her to keep track of Jai in Mumbai. The Ko Lum orders Chang and Leng to visit Hong Kong and abduct the famous Indian dancer, Meena (Waheeda Rahman) and her mother (Achala Sachdev) who is in Hong Kong for her dance performance. The idea is to keep them as a bait for Jai who would surely come to the enemy country to free them during which he can be captured.
Meena and her mother are abducted in Hong Kong after Meena’s dance performance. They are brought to the enemy country and are confined to an underground prison. The Ko Lum’s men pressurise both of them to announce that they have defected to the enemy country out of their own will. While Meena’s mother refuses to agree, Meena, in order to avoid torture to her mother, agrees for the defection as well as to work for their Lotus Theatre as a dancer. The defections of Meena and her mother is publicly announced.
In India, Meena’s father, Thakur (Manmohan Krishan) in a press conference says that his wife and daughter would never voluntarily defect to the enemy country. Jai who is present during the press conference meets Thakur and assures him that he would bring back his wife and daughter to India within one month. He only wants a letter from him to prove them that he is there from India to help them. Thakur gives him not only a letter but also a family locket to be doubly assure them that Jai is a genuine person to help them to get out of the enemy country.
While Jai leaves Thakur’s house, Suzie follows him. He goes to his hotel room and informs his friend, Amir to put his face mask to hoodwink Suzie before he flies to Hong Kong on his way to the enemy country. Amir in the face mask of Jai dances with Suzie while the real Jai goes to the airport to catch a flight to Hong Kong. Afterwards, he takes a ship whose captain (Kamal Kapoor) is Jai’s friend. In the ship, he meets Salma (Helen) who is a dancer and his co-worker in his spy ring. He directs her to meet in a hotel in the guise of a cabaret dancer.
Once in enemy country, Jai disguises himself as Shinraaz, a businessman from Hong Kong. He attends the dance performance of Meena in Lotus theatre. It is his first guess that the dancer could be Meena for whom he is looking forward to meeting her. Next, being a Hong Kong businessman, he becomes friendly with Leng who allows him to drop Meena to her residence. During the drive, Jai clandestinely drops the family locket and the letter in her purse. After reaching home, she sees the locket and recognise him to be known to her father. Thereafter, Shinraaz often meets Meena on one pretext or the other including watching her dance performance in Lotus theatre. Eventually, Jai, now Shinraaz and Meena falls in love with each other.
Chang does not like Shinraaz meeting Meena quite often. He becomes suspicious of him. Jai thinks that it is the right time to hoodwink Suzie once more in Mumbai to make her believe that Jai is leaving Mumbai by helicopter to an unknown destination. Actually, it is Amir wearing Jai’s face mask who leaves Mumbai to join Jai in enemy country. Chang orders his team to forget about Shinraaz and concentrate on Jai who has left Mumbai.
The next target of Jai is to meet Meena’s mother who is in jail. He disguises himself as one of the jail staff by wearing their dress and meets Meena’s mother assuring her that he would free her from the jail and they would be back in India with Meena. When Jai goes out of the jail after cleaning the floor, Chang suspects him to be Jai. Since he has not seen Jai’s face, he calls Suzie to leave Mumbai to meet him in Moon Flower club to identify Jai.
Now it is ‘hide and seek’ game between Jai and Chang. Lastly, Chang threatens Meena if she does not disclose about what is the Jai’s plan, he would torture her mother. Once again, Meena succumbs to his pressure and tells him that one unidentified person had met and told her that he would free her mother out of jail today. At the same time, Suzie comes and tell Chang that Shinraaz is none other than Jai. An infuriated Chang orders surrounding Moon Flower Hotel where Jai and Amir were last seen. But Jai and Amir have already left the hotel. They overpower the jail security staff and get Meena’s mother released. But Chang abducts Meena when she was visiting Moon Flower Hotel to meet Jai.
Jai goes back his secret dungeon with Meena’s mother and Salma and tells the Captain to take them aboard the ship and wait for him. He also intercepts a conversation between Ko Lum and Ping (Shyam Kumar), his assistant to present Meena in person before him. Knowing that General Ko Lum does not allow anyone to look at him and failure to follow this rule invites death, Jai takes advantage of this system. He goes in the uniform of Gen Ko Lum with Amir as his ADC. They barge in the room where Ping is holding Meena. A fight between Jai and Ping results in the later getting seriously injured. That gives Jai and Amir enough time to escape with Meena through a speed boat to join the mother ship and get united with Meena’s mother and Salma for their onward journey to India.
This film can be entertaining for those who set aside their common sense and logical mind while watching. Of course, songs and dances are good reason to watch it as a musical film rather than a spy thriller.
‘Shatranj’ (1969) had eight songs written by Hasrat Jaipuri (4), S H Bihari (2), Indeewar (1) and Kiran Kalyani (1) which were set to music by Shankar-Jaikishan. Five songs have been covered on the Blog. I am presenting the 6th song, ‘badkammaa badkammaa yakkad potau raa’ rendered by Mohammed Rafi and Sharda. The song is written by Kiran Kalyani in Hindi-Telugu mixed words and is picturised on Mehmood and Helen. In the song, Mehmood addresses Helen as ‘Badkammaa’ whereas Helen calls Mehmood as ‘Yenkannaa’. ‘yakkad potau raa’ in Telugu broadly means ‘where are you going, come here’.
The context of this dance song is that Jai (Rajendra Kumar) works in disguise as a cleaning staff for a jail and meets Meena’s mother (Achala Sachdev). Chang (Madan Puri) gets suspicious about him. He along with his comrades are after him for questioning when he runs out of the jail premises and enters a cinema hall to watch the film after changing to his usual attire as Shinraaz. However, Chang thinks that Jai is somewhere around the premises. So, he calls for Suzie (Shashikala) who has already got acquaintance with Jai’s face in Mumbai. She comes to the Moon Flower Hotel in the disguise of a salesgirl where dance performance of Mehmood and Helen is already in progress. Suzie sees Jai with his friend Captain (Kamal Kapoor) among the guests and is trying to go out to report to Chang when she falls due to a deliberate obstruction created by Mehmood who works for Jai.
Video Clip:
Audio:
Song-Badkamma Badkamma yakkad potau raa (Shatranj)(1969) Singers-Mohammed Rafi, Sharda, Mehmood, Lyrics-Kiran Kalyani, MD-Shankar Jaikishan
Lyrics (Based on Video Clip):
Badkammaa
o Badkammaa
yemi ha ha ha ha ha ha
yemi braa
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha
Badkammaa Badkammaa Badkammaa Badkammaa
yakkad potau raa
yakkad potau raa
ikkad ikkad raa
aree yenkannaa yenkannaa yenkannaa yenkannaa
yakkad potau raa
yakkad potau raa
ikkad ikkad raa
ae chinnanmaa chinnanmaa chinnanmaa chinnammaa
yakkad potau raa
yakkad potau raa
ikkad ikkad raa
arre yenkannaa yenkannaa yenkannaa yenkannaa
yakkad potau raa
yakkad potau raa
ikkad ikkad raa re
oye jaane paashaa Badkammaa Badkammaa
ramjaane paashaa batkamaa Badkammaa
main aaj bajaane waalaa hoon
tere dil kaa taashaa Badkammaa
dil kaa taashaa Badkammaa Badkammaa
yenkanna
yenkanna
badkammaa
badkammaa
Badkammaa
o Badkammaa
yenkannaa yenkannaa yenkannaa yenkannaa
yakkad potau raa
yakkad potau raa
ikkad ikkad raaa
ae Badkammaa Badkammaa Badkammaa Badkammaa
yakkad potau raa
yakkad potau raa
ikkad ikkad raa
mere hosh udhaa de yenkannaa yenkannaa
uda daaloongaa
aankhon se pilaa de yenkannaa yenkannaa
pilaa daaloongaa
mastee mein dubaa kar dil ko mere
deewaanaa banaa de yenkannaa
deewaana bana de yenkannaa yenkanna
Badkammaa
Badkammaa
yenkannaa
yenkannaa
Badkammaa o Badkammaa
Badkammaa Badkammaa Badkammaa Badkammaa
yakkad potau raa
yakkad potau raa
ikkad ikkad raa
arre yenkannaa yenkannaa yenkannaa yenkannaa
yakkad potau raa
yakkad potau raa
ikkad ikkad raa
[dialogues]
tere sadke jaaun Badkammaa Badkammaa
tujhe apnaa banaaun Badkammaa Badkammaa
teree pyaaree pyaaree soorat ko
palkon mein chhupaaun yenkannaa
palkon mein chhupaaun yenkannaa yenkanna
chhupaa lo
Badkammaa
Badkammaa
yenkannaa
yenkannaa
Badkammaa o Badkammaa
yenkannaa yenkannaa yenkannaa yenkannaa
yakkad potau raa
yakkad potau raa
ikkad ikkad raa
o Badkammaa Badkammaa Badkammaa Badkammaa
yakkad potau raa
yakkad potau raa
ikkad ikkad raa
arre yenkannaa yenkannaa yenkannaa yenkannaa
yakkad potau raa
yakkad potau raa
ikkad ikkad raa
ae Badkammaa Badkammaa Badkammaa Badkammaa
yakkad potau raa
yakkad potau raa
ikkad ikkad raa
Badkammaa
arree Badkammaa
meree dil kee raanee
meree Badkammaa
mere hone waale bachchon kee ammaa
Badkammaa
haay
haay
Badkammaa
14 Responses to "Badkamma Badkamma yakkad potau raa"
March 18, 2025 at 11:58 am
This song reminds of the GUMNAAM (1965) song Hum kale ho to and a host of such songs were featured during the sixties. The popularity of this type of songs prompted other composers like Kalyanji Anandji with similar tunes in movies like DIL NE PUKARA ( Hum ko hone lagi ) and RAKHWALA ( Ye kaisa maine ) and HUM TUM AUR WOH !
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March 18, 2025 at 12:46 pm
Sadanand ji/Atul ji,
Being from Hyderabad, I know Telugu language.
Badkamma is a Deity in Telugu community and a festival is celebrated on her. However, generally a fat woman is called as ‘ Badkamma’ there.
The correct Lyrics, in my opinion, are…
Yakkad yakkad potau ra ( where are you going ? )
Yakkad yakkad potau ra
Ikkad ikkad raa ( come here , come here)
Since Shankar of S-J team was a Telugu man, he sometimes used Telugu words in their songs.
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March 18, 2025 at 12:54 pm
Arun ji,
Since you have spent many years in Hyderabad, your deciphering of Telugu words as well as the meanings thereof must be correct. I am sure Atul ji will take note of them.
Thanks for your inputs.
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March 18, 2025 at 2:34 pm
I wanted add all of the above; about “Badkamma being a deity etc. And also about either Shankar or Jaikishan being from Andhra.
You had mentioned these facts in one of your posts a long time back. I think it was in the comments to the song from “Bambai Ka Babu”
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March 18, 2025 at 4:17 pm
Peevesie’s Mom ji,
Your memory is king size !
The discussion was on Bambai Ka babu song posted on 31-8-2008. My comments on it are from 2011. There were several information tit-bits about Telugu/Tamil/Hindi and Marathi same tune songs, by many others too.
You can see my posts on SOY on Songs copied from Marathi,Telugu and Kannada songs into Hindi, in separate posts, somewhere in 2013-14 for additional information.
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March 18, 2025 at 5:07 pm
Hello Sadanand Ji/ Atul ji!
This is Anita. I am a blogger too. I have been meaning to comment on the posts of this blog, which are extremely informative and useful. However, the impetus today was that the song you have written about was also researched at some point by me in a post (https://anitamultitasker.wordpress.com/2021/04/18/songs-with-a-regional-twist/). I have had the pleasure of meeting Sudhir Kapur ji once in Delhi.
I am reproducing the same here :
The entire Mukhda is in (somewhat unsophisticated) Telugu. The song has a strong Hyderabadi/Urdu tinge too. The rest of the song is in Hindi. Bathukamma means “Mother Goddess come alive” in Telugu.
Also, Bathukamma is a nine day floral festival in Telangana coinciding with the Navratri. The festival represents the cultural spirit of Telangana, symbolizing the patron Goddess of womanhood. The words mean – O Bathukamma, where are you going? Come here. The woman replies in the same vein – O Yenkanna, (a rustic name of Lord Venkateswara) where are you going? Come here. Since Shankar Singh Raghuvanshi had spent his impressionable years in Hyderabad, he had imbibed the local culture and that explains this composition. Rafi’s diction of the Telugu part is understandably not up to the mark. Sharada, the female playback singer, is a tad better. The lyricist Kiran Kalyani has not penned many songs. There is hardly any information available about her. But it is heartening to note that a female lyricist was commissioned for the song because there aren’t many out there.
It would be interesting to point out here that another song of the Shankar-Jaikishan duo – Naach Re Man Bathukamma – from Rajkumar (1964) also refers to Bathukamma. In this song, the goddess is being worshipped by the women of the tribe.
Anita
March 18, 2025 at 9:30 pm
Anita ji,
Thank you for enlightening about Bathukamma and Yenkanna.
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March 18, 2025 at 10:13 pm
A singer of one language, singing in another language is okay as long as the accent is accurate. But in this song, the singers failed miserably with very bad pronunciation, they should not have tried this. And in addition, I think it is ‘Bathukamma’ which is the name of Goddess Parvathi Mata and if so, it is much bad. Apologies. Regards Uma
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March 19, 2025 at 4:27 pm
Sadanand ji/ Atul ji,
I am happy to see so many comments on a song, after such a long time. I felt like the olden days when there used to be an average of 8 to 10 people commenting on most of the songs. Also nice to see some non-regular readers commenting. Are the times changing again ?
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
March 18, 2025 at 7:59 am
Oh! this song was yet to come on the blog!!!!
Such an entertaining song. The costumes of Helen & Mehmood were so well- coordinated: colours, patterns, over-the-topness etc.
Helen- Mehmood pairing has given us so many hit songs. People always spoke of Mehmood with Shubha Khote, Aruna Irani etc.
Also, the genius of Mohd Rafi is at work OMG!🤩
Just felt like drawing the attention to the “light eyes” that the characters of Shashikala and Rajendra Kumar sport.😁
thank you Sadanandji for this post
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March 18, 2025 at 12:47 pm
Peevesie’s Mom,
Thanks for your additional inputs on the song by way of your apt observations on the costumes used by Helen and Mehmood.
After the tremendous popularity of ‘Gumnaam’ (1965) song, Helen-Mehmood dance songs with Rafi’s voice to Mehmood had become a trend, One such song I recall is in ‘Pyaar Hi Pyaar’ (1968).
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