Aan basey pardes sajan hum
Posted on: March 23, 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 : |
6092 | Post No. : | 18896 |
Today’s song is from a very old film Comrades-1939.
The title of this film is somewhat misleading. Comrades was the common word used for Communist members. I too was confused with this title, but then I realised that a film on Communist ideology was not possible in British India. The film happens to be a story of three friends, 2 Boys and 1 girl. The film could have been titled Friends or Dosti or some similar title. Wish I was there to make this suggestion to the owners of Sagar Movietone !
When I started writing articles on old films in 2012, I did not have the Hindi Film Geet kosh volumes. Soon I realised the necessity to have them to get the film or song’s basic information from 1931 to 1980. So I purchased all the available volumes at a time. This made my work easier. Like me, all those having HFGK volumes, had one common problem. The problem was that for many films, details of singers or lyricists were not mentioned. This caused a lot of problems, for credit, while writing the articles. This was so mainly with the films of the 1930s and the 1940s films. From 1950 onwards the change was seen and in all later volumes the relevant information was mostly provided. For this lacuna in information on credits, there were some reasons…..
Initially for the first 5 to 6 years, the posters and the advertisements of Films indicated only the production company’s names, for example- ” The Imperial Company presents” etc etc. There was no mention of any actor’s names on the posters, though sometimes Photos were added.
The credit of getting the names of Artistes included on the film Posters and the Advertisements goes to the Superstar of those days-Sulochana (Ruby Myers). She was the most highly paid star of those days( Rs. 5000 p.m.) and she used to come to the studios by chauffeur driven car for her daily work ! One day, she saw a film poster of her film and was shocked to find that no names of any actors were mentioned on it. She exploded and threatened to stop work with all other artists, unless her and other main actors’ names were printed on every film poster and the advertisements. Due to her insistence,the producers started putting main actors’ names on the posters. Over a period, it became a regular practice. This was from around the year 1935 onwards.
However, this was NOT the case with Film records. Though song records of films started commercially with MADHURI-1932, these records, barring few exceptions, did not carry the singers’ name on them till almost 1949 !! A classic case in this connection is of the iconic song of Lata- ” Aayega Aanewala” from the film Mahal-1949. The name on this record is KAMINI-which was the screen name of Madhubala in that film ! Lata’s name was NOT mentioned on this record !!
It was probably from then onwards that the singers’ names regularly started appearing on the records. That is the reason most of the song records available from the 30s and the 40s are without names and one has to listen to them and guess the singers’ names.
Unfortunately, till recently,the Lyricist’s name was not mentioned either making it extremely difficult to credit the songs to any Lyricist. This is the case even in the case of some famous songs. Now of course all this information is available.
COMRADES -39 was a film directed by Nandlal Jaswantlal. It was produced by Sagar Movietone, which later became National studios before disappearing fully.
The film’s music was by Anil Biswas and the Lyricists were Dr. Safdar Aah Sitapuri, Zia Sarhadi and Kanhaiyalal. Kanhaiyalal is the same character actor who famously did the role of Sukhilala in Mother India-1957. He had also done the same role in the original film Aurat in 1940. This was a rare case,though not unique. For example,Jayant had acted in the same role in the original MALA-1941 and its remake AMAR-54. However so far this record is held by Vazir Mohammad Khan,who did the same Fakir’s role in Alam Ara-1931, Alam Ara-1956 and Alam Ara-1973. Not only this he had also sung the same song in 1931 and 1956 versions !
The cast of the film Comrades included Surendra, Maya Banerjee, Harish, Jyoti, Sankatha Prasad, Bhudo Advani, Jillobai and many others. This was a Debut film of actress Jyoti.
JYOTI ( real name Sitara Begum) was born in 1921 in a professional singer’s house in Agra-UP. Waheedan Bai was her elder sister. She was Nimmi’s aunt also.
She grew up in a musical atmosphere. She learnt the classical music of Agra Gharana.
Her entry into films was easy due to elder sister already being in films. Anil Biswas gave her first opportunity in Comrades-39 to act and sing 2 solo songs.
Then came Ek hi Raasta and Sadhana. She had also done Uski tamanna and Bhole Bhale in 1939.
Actually, she became famous after Aurat-40,in which she had 5 songs. Same year Pooja and Sanskar also added to her fame. In Sanskar,she sang with sister Waheedan Bai and also with Harish. Thus 1940 was a very lucky year for Jyoti.
In 1941,Darshan and Radhika, Jawani-42, Amanat-43. During 1942, there were rumours of bombing in Bombay. Jyoti got scared and stopped working for about 3 years. After much cajoling by Mehboob and Kardar she started working in 1945. Thus films Devar and Saathi in 46 saw her in films. Her voice had some resemblance to Parul Ghosh. She was not a great singer, but Anil Biswas supported her very much.
Jyoti was married earlier, but her husband had left her. In Bombay she fell in love with G M Durani. She married G.M.Durani-MD,Singer and Actor. Their married life was happy and long. They were an ideal couple.
Jyoti acted in 19 films. Her last film was Sati Vaishalini-59. She sang 38 songs in 12 films. Her last songs were in the film Devar-46.
Another less familiar name was that of the side hero Harish. Harish, also known as Tara Harish, was born on 23-10-1916 at Delhi. His real full name was Tarachand Anand Biharilal Mathur. He was distantly related to Motilal and Mukesh. His father died when he was just 3 year old. He was brought up by his brothers and uncle. He graduated in 1937. After trying and failing in a second hand car business, he decided to enter the film world and joined Sagar Movietone, where Motilal was getting established.
His first foray into films was in the film ‘ 300 days and after ‘. In this film, however, he was uncredited. He got roles in other films like Postman, Ladies only, Comrades, Service Ltd, Hum,Tum aur Woh, Ek hi Raasta, Civil marriage, Aurat, Nai Roshni, Vijay, Haqdar etc etc. He also used to sing in the films. As a Hero his last film was Amanat-43.
Harish took up Direction with the film Beda Paar-44, a stunt C grade film, but soon he directed many social films also. In his career he directed 21 films. Some of his films are Toote tare-48, Ustad Pedro-51, Malhar-51 ( originally Harish was to be the hero, but he gave chance to Arjun), Daku ki ladki-54, Lalten-56, kali Topi laal rumaal-59, Do Ustad-59, Burmah Road-62. His last film was Awara Abdulla-63.
Harish acted in 21 films. He sang 39 songs in 16 films ( stats by MuVyz). He established his own production company- Omar Khayyam Films. When he was directing the film Ustad Pedro-51, he changed the name of actress Nargis Rabadi to Shammi, since another more famous actress of the same name was already existing in films. Tara Harish died sometime in 1970.
The story of the film Comrades-1939 was……
Seth Madhavlal’s (Kaayam Ali) family is a typically happy and contented one. His wife Radha (Jillo) is a very loving mother and a devoted wife. His elder son Jatin (Surendra), younger son Kiran (Harish) and Rekha-an orphan girl, daughter of a distant relative play together and are very close with each other. They share everything and are ready to do anything for each other.
Eventually, all grow up. Now Rekha has become a very beautiful young girl and both the brothers,unknown to each other,love her. One day Jatin sees and hears Kiran expressing his love for Rekha. Jatin is shocked and also disappointed. He does not want to be an obstacle between them, so he decides to become a baddy. He starts dating Nirmala(Jyoti),an employee – Tulsidas’s daughter. Additionally he becomes very arrogant also. Everyone is hurt by his behaviour. One day he even returns home in a drunk condition.
The father admonishes him. After arguing with father, Jatin is thrown out of the house. He now becomes a thief and comes to father’s house to steal one night. Rekha confronts him and tries to reform him but he goes away.
Kiran has an idea why Jatin is doing this. Actually Rekha had turned him down saying that she loved only Jatin, but Jatin did not hear the full conversation that day. Nirmala is being slandered due to Jatin. To save her reputation, Kiran marries her, as he likes her too. Jatin is very angry and fires Kiran for deserting Rekha. Kiran explains everything to him and the clouds of misunderstanding are removed.
Jatin gives up all bad things, returns home and gets married to Rekha. Thus the Comrades remain friends for ever for the rest of their lives.
Enjoy today’s 86 year old duet by Surendra and Jyoti….
Song- Aan basey pardes sajan hum (Comrades)(1939) Singers-Jyoti, Surendra, Lyricist- Dr. Safdar Aah Sitapuri, MD- Anil Biswas
Both
Lyrics
Aan basey pardes sajan hum
aan basey pardes sajan hum
aan basey pardes sajan hum
aan basey pardes
seedhhe saade log yahaan ke
bholey bhaale log yahaan ke
seedhhe saade log yahaan ke
bholey bhaale log yahaan ke
phhate puraane kapdon mein ye
phhate puraane kapdon mein ye
chhupe huye raaje
sajan bin ?? basey pardes
haan
aan basey pardes sajan hum
aan basey pardes sajan hum
aan basey pardes sajan hum
aan basey pardes
dil ke suthhre mailee soorat
dil ke suthhre mailee soorat
ansuwan motee in kee daulat
ansuwan motee in kee daulat
dhanwaanon ke paaalanhaar
dhhartee ke ??
sajan hum
aan basey pardes
aa aa aa
aan basey pardes sajan hum
aan basey pardes sajan hum
aan basey pardes sajan hum
aan basey pardes
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
March 23, 2025 at 8:06 am
the story of this film seems to be the template for the Raj kapoor-Suraiyya starrer “Dastan” and numerous other films since. We always have people overhearing incomplete conversations & making their own conclusions. 😀
LikeLike
March 23, 2025 at 10:59 am
yes.
It is well known that impatient people always suffer (and provide stories to films !).
-AD
LikeLiked by 1 person