Wafaayen hamaaree na tum aazmaanaa
Posted on: March 21, 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 Diwani-1947.
This was a Minerva Movietone presentation. It was directed by Y.D. Sarpotdar – He was the brother of another director/producer nanasaheb Sarpotdar. He started his career in 1928 with Shri Balaji Films as a Cinematographer. He did 12 Silent films. When the Talkie started, his first film was Jeevan Natak-1935. He did 29 films till his last film – Karodpati-1961. This was the only film he ever directed in his career. The film’s Music Director was Gyan Dutt.
When I first looked at the film’s title, I thought it was Diwana. But when I realised that it was Diwani, I was rather surprised, because such titles about women were not very common. Usually titles about women are about their beauty, activity or authority etc., but rarely about bad aspects.
Curiosity prompted me to look for film titles which were derogatory to women and I sat with the Film Title Index Book by Hamraz ji. I hardly found any such title, except titles like Diwani, Bewafa, Chorni, Pagli, Hatyarin, Bhootni etc. On the contrary there were many film titles, for Males, with all bad names like Awara, Badmash, Bewaqoof, Bhikari, Chandal, Chor, Ayyash, Daaku, Darinda, Dagabaz, Gunda, Haiwan, Jungli, Janwar, Laalchi, Lutera, 420, Besharam, Anadi, Loafer, Beimaan etc.etc. This list is only indicative and not exhaustive, as I got exhausted from reading and noting such qualitative film titles for only males ! ये तो सरासर नाइनसाफी है !!
The cast of the film Diwani – 1947 was Mumtaz Shanti, Wasti, Husn Bano, Chandabai, M.Ismail and others. There were two Lyricists – Shams Azeemabadi and Shevan Rizvi. I am not aware of the film’s story. It was also not available in any film magazine of 1947, which, otherwise also were in shambles during the entire mid-1947, due to the political upheaval caused by the Partition Blues. Even the film booklets of many films in 1947 were not available.
I was always wondering about the Hybrid name of the film’s Heroine, Mumtaz Shanti, but never could solve this puzzle. When I was in College in the early 60’s, the name of the Administrative Officer of our College office was Mehboob Narayan-another Hybrid name. He was a Kayastha. In Hyderabad State, the local Kayasth community or ‘Lala ji’ as they were called, were loyal Knights of the Nizam for many generations and their names used to be such Hybrid ones, in few families. When someone got a child after many years of marriage, they kept such names in honour of a Peer or a Dargah.
When I got into serious study of old films and wrote articles, I finally solved the mystery of her Hybrid name. Mumtaz Begum was born in 1922 in village Dinga in Punjab (now in Pakistan). Her father’s name was Mumtaz and her Hindu mother’s name was Shanti. Her parents died in an accident when she was very small. She was brought up by her Hindu maternal uncle, who named her Mumtaz Shanti, in memory of her parents. I got this information from a 1946 issue of ‘ Directory of Film Personalities’- gifted to me by (Late) Harish Raghuwanshi ji in 2016, on my visit to him at Surat. Atlast, the mystery was solved !
One of the names in the cast is M.Ismail . Let us know something about this interesting actor . Besides being a devoted Chela of A.R.Kardar, Ismail’s role in Kardar’s marriage was unimaginable. M.Ismail was born on 14-5-1902 in a Jeweller family of Lahore. He was a very good designer and Calligrapher. M. Ismail was a resident of the Inner Bhati Gate in Lahore. Well built and fair complexioned, Ismail had blue eyes, and was quite attractive. Mian Abdul Rasheed Kardar (the famous A. R. Kardar), also belonged to the same area in Lahore. M. Ismail used to work as a golden calligrapher, while Kardar was involved in sketching and illustration.
They went to Bombay in 1927, and according to Ismail, he and Kardar played Kaedo and side hero respectively, in Imperial Company’s film Heer Ranjha. But conditions weren’t helpful, and the two young men had to return to Lahore. Fortunately, for them, during 1928, Premier Film Company started a film called Daughters of Today. Both Kardar and Ismail were inducted into the cast, but the film remained incomplete.
Later, Kardar learned production and became well known as a brilliant technician. Kardar established his own film making firm in 1930, called United Players Corporation, and cast Ismail in his early silent movies like Mysterious Eagle a. k. a Husn Ka Daku, which also had Kardar in a central role. Others in the cast were Gulzar Begum, Ghulam Qadir, Ahmed Deen and an American actress, Aeris Crawford. Ismail also acted in Kardar’s film, Safdar Jang, and both these early silent films were very successful. This led Kardar to cast him in Shepherd King (Gadariya) and Golden Dagger (Sunehri Khanjar). In those days, every film used to have an English title and an Urdu one.
Kardar’s marriage to Bahar has an interesting story, and M.Ismail had a role in it.
Sardar Akhtar and Bahar were sisters and were singers and dancers in Lahore’s famous Heera Mandi. They were known as Daari and Beharo. Bahar was very good looking. Kardar selected her as a Heroine for his film, opposite himself as a Hero and the shooting started. Kardar fell in love, but Bahar was guarded closely by her escorts and sister Sardar Akhtar. Kardar was wondering how to go about it. He opened his mind to friend M.Ismail, a 6 feet tall,and hefty friend. Ismail went to Bahar’s residence and lifted her on shoulders and brought her to Kardar. They hurriedly got married. Meanwhile Sardar Akhtar came to know this and made a Police complaint. The police came , arrested kardar and all shooting artists. He spent 2 days in Police custody. Then it was Bahar herself who gave in writing that she was an adult and she married Kardar by her consent only. Kardar and others were released then. Few years later Sardar Akhtar married Mehboob Khan and Kardar became his Co-brother.
After Alam Ara opened the way for talkies, Ismail became even more popular. In Kardar’s Hoor e Punjab, an adaptation of Heer Ranjha, Ismail again played Kaedo, the intriguing ice uncle of Heer, which he repeated yet again later, in film Heer Siyal, with his characteristic style. His other films in India include Alif Laila, Dekha Jaega, Mast Faqeer, Raja Gopi Chand, Prem Pujari, Watan Parast, Sohni Mahiwal, Laila Majnoon, Zamindar and others. In all he acted in 16 Talkie films. He even sang 7 songs in 3 films.
Muhammad Ismail (M. Ismail) was considered as the harbinger of cinema in Northern India. A charming and rustic personality, M. Ismail was endearingly called Bhaiyya Ji in film circles. Ismail performed the roles of kind-hearted, forgetful, careless and sometimes cynical men to perfection. He also performed villain’s roles in many films. M. Ismail, with his motor mouth, his sagging cheeks, and his prominent and protruding jowls, utilized a tremendous range of expressions, which aided him in doing old men’s roles at very early in his career.
In 1948, M. Ismail came to Pakistan, and immediately got offers from seniors like Nazir, whose films, Pherey, Larey, Anokhi Dastan and Shehri Babu included him in their cast. His first film here was Hichkole-49. Observing his work, another promising and experienced director, Anwar Kamal Pasha offered him some good roles. His films, Ghulam, Gumnam, Qatil, Inteqam and others were the earliest hits of Pakistan. Luqman also cast him in Patan, and Mehbooba was another one that was appreciated.
Similarly Nazeer Ajmeri’s Qismat and Paigham, Munshi Dil’s Hasrat and Ishq e Laila and S. M. Dar’s Saltanat and Dulla Bhatti were also amongst his famous movies. His other films were Darwaza, Subah Kaheen Sham Kaheen, Patey Khan, Piya Milan Kee Aas, Jameela, Bara Aadmi, Zehr e Ishq and many others. M. Ismail was a charming person, with a rural simplicity and a very forgiving disposition. Endearingly called Bhaiyyaji in the industry, M. Ismail’s roles of good hearted, forgetful, careless and sometimes cynical man were the best that he did. But, in many films, he performed a perfect villainish role, including the earlier mentioned, Hoor e Punjab, which had a historic role of Kaedoo. This one was only bettered later, by that most sterling artiste, Ajmal, who made Kaedo legendary with his gestures in Khwaja Khurshid Anwar’s Heer Ranjha.
In Yamla Jat and Khazanchi, in India, he did very fine title roles, while K. Asif’s Phool portrayed him as an old hakeem from Turkey, which he did to perfection. As a villain in Indian film, Wamiq Azra, he presented an individual style, with his full facial expressions. By full facial expressions means that most artistes use the eyes and the forehead, but M. Ismail, with a tremendous mobility of his motor mouth, his sagging cheeks and his prominent and protruding jowls, used a tremendous expanse of his face, which aided him in doing old men’s roles very early in his career.
In those days, there was much importance of finding a characteristic face for films and not handsome or beautiful faces, which is the trend today. That was the reason that more such fine artistes were available to the screen. In Nazeer Ajmeri’s Qismat, he played a unique role of a man, who is too forgetful to even remember his own name. It was the most hilarious performance from a truly talented actor of his times. M. Ismail got a Presidential Award for this role in Qismat.
His last film in Pakistan was Maan jawani da-76- released after his death. He died on 22-11-1975 at Lahore.
( The article is based on information from Filmdom-1946, Cineplot, Pakistani site-pakmag, book ‘Nakli Chehre’ by Vithal Pandya ji, muVyz, HFGK,Gopal Pillai ji and my notes, with thanks to all).
Today’s song is a 78 year old duet sung by G M Durrani and Ameerbai Karnataki. Enjoy….
Song- Wafaayen hamaaree na tum aazmaana (Deewaani)(1947) Singers- G M Durrani, Ameerbai Karnataki, Lyricist- Shevan Rizvi, MD- Gyan Dutt
Both
Lyrics
wafaayen hamaaree
na tum aazmaana
na tum aazmaana
na badlenge hum
chaahe badle zamaaana
badle zamaana
wafaayen hamaaree
na tum aazmaana
na tum aazmaana
na badlenge hum
chaahe badle zamaaana
badle zamaana
wafaayen hamaree
naheen aasaan rasm e mohabbat nibhaana
naheen aasaan rasm e mohabbat nibhaana
abhee tumne shaayad naheen humko jaana
abhee tumne shaayad naheen humko jaana
nigaahen mila kar nazar na churaana
nigaahen mila kar nazar na churaana
na badalenge hum
chaahe badle zamaana
badle zamaana
wafaayen hamaaree
naheen dil mein chheda gaya hai taraana
naheen dil mein chheda gaya hai taraana
tumhaaree jabaan par humaara fasaana
tumhaaree jabaan par humaara fasaana
ye raaten ye baaten
ye raaten ye baaten
ye mausam suhaana
ye raaten ye baaten ye mausam suhaana
na bhoolenge hum bhi na tum bhool jaana
na bhoolenge hum bhi na tum bhool jaana
na badlenge hum
chaahe badle zamaana
badle zamaana
wafaayen hamaaree
kya wafa ka hamaaree naheen aitbaar
sirf do din ka hai ye jawaanee ka pyaar
hum jawaanee bhee kar denge tum par nisaar
kya karoge bataao agar dil na maana
dil to pahle heei se hai nazar ka nishaana
dil to pahle hee se hai nazar ka nishaana
na badalenge hum
chaahe badle zamaana
badle zamaana
wafaayen hamaaree
na tum aazmaana
na tum aazmaana
na badalenge hum
chaahe badle zamaana
badle zamaana
wafaayen hamaaree
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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