Dil e gham naseeb kee daastaan
Posted on: April 17, 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 Guru Ghantal-1956. This is a very out of the way and uncommon title for a film. In 1937 also there was a film of the same title. When I was writing a post on a song from that film, a few years ago, I first encountered this word. I found out the meaning of this word then. If you separate the 2 parts of this composite word, you will get separate meanings like Guru=Teacher and Ghantal=Big sounding bell. However, together this word has a totally different meaning. It means a Cheater, a person who seems simple but is a person with bad intention of cheating !
The film was based on incidents found in day to day life. Open any Newspaper and you will find advertisements for some BABAs, Bengali, Kashmiri and of other varieties, Siddha Purushas, Gurus and Saints. They all claim ready solutions for all difficulties in this world. Innocent, foolish and gullible people fall prey to them and spend unlimited money.
This film is also based on such a story. GURU GHANTAL-1956 was a V K pictures film produced by R N Sharma and N K Kaushik. Directed by the veteran S M Yusuf, the film had music by Lachhiram Tamar. Film Guru Ghantal had 9 songs. These 9 songs were written by 4 Lyricists. Sarshar Sailani, Khavar Zaman, Pt. Gafil and Uddhav Kumar. The cast of the film was Motilal, Sheila Ramani, Usha Kiron, Jagdev, Ajit, Agha, Sunder, Mirza Musharraf, Sheikh, Kesari etc .
Rukmini Devi, wife of rich Carnival owner Raja Shyamdas has no children. Instead of going to a Doctor, she seeks all types of Babas,Gurus and saints. So much money is spent on them that Shyamdas had to stop studies and call his niece Leela from Bombay back to Khandala. Leela’s lover Ram, a jobless young man, thinks of a plan to teach a lesson to Rukmini Devi and gives an ad in papers that Saints Sachitanand and Parmanand ji have great power to solve any problem.
Leela’s brother Raja Ramdas sees this ad and is sent by Rukmini Devi to fetch them to Khandala. He goes to Bombay and meets Ram, who tells him his plan and Ramdas agrees to help him. Ramdas,while in Bombay falls in love with a CID girl-Kanan, who is after these fake Gurus and Babas to expose them.
Ram becomes Sachitanand, his friend is Parmanand. They all come to Khandala. While Ral and Leela and Ramdas and Kanan pairs are busy singing and running around trees in Khandala, all the Jewellery of Rukmini devi is stolen.
Investigations start and it is found that there is another thief who is taking advantage of all this situation. Kanan and Ramdas catch the thief Red handed while selling the jewellery. Ram and Ramdas reveal everything. Rukmini Devi learns a lesson for her life and agrees to visit a doctor for treatment.
While Ram-Leela and Ramdas-Kanan get married,the news that Rukmini devi is pregnant comes and everyone is happy.
In the Hindi film industry, there were two opposite trends, till about the 1960s. One was, Muslim actors/actresses took up a Hindu sounding name for their film careers. Almost 70 % Muslim artists changed their names. Stars like Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari, Ajit etc can be quoted in this category. This list is quite long. The opposite trend was, many Hindu Lyricists took up Muslim sounding Urdu names for their film careers. Some examples are Naqsh Lyallpuri (Jaswant Rai Sharma), Qamar Jalalabadi (Om Prakash Bhandari), Javed of Javed- Anwar (Manoharlal Khanna), Anjaan (Lalji Pandey) etc.
Lyricist Sarshar Sailani was also one such lyricist who was in reality Bhim Sen. Sarshar Sailani (12 March 1914 – 10 April 1969) was a lyricist, Story, Dialogue writer, Screenplay Writer, who was not much educated (not a graduate), but was a school teacher, used to participate in Mushairas. Motiram liked his shayari. When Motiram started his First film “Arsi” (1947), he invited Sailani to write story, song and dialogues for this film. Some songs became popular & Sailani jumped into the film line.
Sarshar Sailani was born on 12 March 1914 in Ludhiana, in Punjab. He was yet another Hindu writer, who took a Muslim name. His real name was Bhim Sen.
The film “Arsi” was made by Jeevan Pictures, Lahore. It was directed by Daud Chaand. All the 11 songs were written by Sarshar Sailani. This was his first film as a Lyricist. The owner of Jeevan Pictures, was Motiram Jain and he was a lover of Shayari and poetry. Interestingly, Sarshar Sailani acted only in one film & that is Arsi (1947).
Music directors Lachhiram called Sarshar Sailani for his next film Mohini (1947) & Shyamsunder called for Ek Roz (1947). Along with director Daud Chaand, Sailani also shifted to Bombay. However, after the Partition, Daud returned to Lahore but Sailani remained in India. He wrote lyrics in many movies, generally he got only low budget films, but he worked with some quality composers.
In all, he wrote 150 songs in 32 films. From 1960 onwards, after the film ‘ Bade ghar ki bahu’, he stopped songwriting and took up only story, dialogue writing, in which he did many good films. some of such films were Bewafa,Baaz,Barsat ki raat,Unpadh,Aayi milan ki bela,Aapki parchhaiyan,Ganga ki laharen, Majboor, Aaye din bahaar ke, Aman, Devar, Gunahon ka devta, kanyadaan,Aya saawan jhoom ke, Anjana etc.etc. His last film as a dialogue writer was Maa aur Mamta-70.
Sarshar Sailani worked with music directors like Pandit Amarnath, Anil Biswas, Pandit Govind Ram, Husnlal Bhagatram, Lachhiram, Hansraj Bahl, Roshan, Ghulam Haider, A. R. Qureshi, Chitragupt, Sardul Kwatra & Jaidev. Sarshar Sailani died on 10 April 1969 in Mumbai.
In today’s film, there were two Love-couples….Motilal and Sheila Ramani and Jagdev-Usha kiran. In 1956, while Sheila Ramani was just 24 year old, Motilal wasn already 46 year old. In Hindi films, there were few Heroes who got very young Heroines, some even making Debuts, in their films. Some examples are Ashok Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra etc.
Sheila Ramani was one of my favourite actresses in the 50’s. Though she never became a craze or or a high-demand artist, she was a good actress. Sheila Ramani (02 March 1932 – 15 July 2015), also known as Sheila Kewalramani, was an actress who was introduced into Bollywood by the film-maker Chetan Anand. She is known for her role in the movie Taxi Driver. She was born in Karachi, Sindh, undivided India, now in Pakistan and was one of the few actresses from Sindh to join the Indian film industry.
Sheila Ramani was born on 02 March 1932 in Karachi, Sindh, undivided India now in Pakistan as Sheela Kewalramani. She was married to Zaal Cowasji. She was the star in Independent India’s first Sindhi film “Abana” (Native land) released in the year 1958 and a then unknown teenager Sadhana played her younger sister. Movie starring Sheila Ramani, Shyam, Sadhana Shivdasani. The film is directed by Arjun Hingorani & Deepak Asha.
Former Miss Simla winner, Sheila Ramani made her film debut with Filmistan’s adaptation of the Bankim Chandra Chatterjee novel, “Anand Math” (1952), wherein she was billed as simply Sheila. She did another film with Filmistan that year, Badnam co-starring Shyama and Balraj Sahni. She had a bigger role in this one but did not make much of an impact on critics and audiences.
The filmmaker V. Shantaram’s notice Sheila Ramani and he cast her in two of his films, both of which released in 1953. One was “Surang”, where she is billed as Sheila Ramani, second to heroine Shashikala. The film wasn’t Shantaram’s best. The other film she did with V. Shantaram was better received ‘Teen Batti Char Raaste”, where she plays the Sindhi daughter-in-law of the house, which is a mini India of sorts with its occupants from different parts of the country. The big breakthrough, however, was still to come.
Sheila Ramani hit her peak with the Navketan produced urban crime drama, “Taxi Driver” (1954). She is the brightest spot of this film as the seductive Anglo-Indian club dancer, Sylvie, in love with taxi driver Mangal (Dev Anand), who doesn’t reciprocate her love. Ramani owns the film, easily outshining her more esteemed co-actors and makes the most of her meaty role. Of course, it helped that there were four wonderful solos in the film, composed by S. D. Burman, were filmed on her “Dil Se Milake Dil Pyar Kijiye…”, “Jeene Do Aur Jiyo…”, Dil Jale To Jale… and the climactic song, “Ae Meri Zindagi Aaj Raat Jhoomle.., during which she gives Dev Anand (and us) a great view of her bare shoulder.
Sadly though, Sheila Ramani’s career failed to take off as it should have considering the major impact she made in Taxi Driver. While, no doubt, she gave a sincere performance while being cast against type in Bimal Roy’s Naukri (1954).
Thereafter, while Sheila Ramani did a slew of films in the 1954-56 period, barring Railway Platform (1955), where she played a princess vying with simple village girl Nalini Jaywant for Sunil Dutt’s affections, and Funtoosh, reuniting her at Navketan with director, Chetan Anand, and actor, Dev Anand, as a solo heroine this time, none of her films were A-1 productions.
Some time in 1955, Sheila Ramani went across the border to Pakistan to act in a film there. She was invited by the film’s producer, who was also an uncle of hers, Sheikh Latif. The film was called Anokhi (1956) and it was a remake of the Hollywood film, The Fabulous Señorita (1952). The film had already been remade in India as “Albeli” (1955) with the inimitable Geeta Bali taking on the Rodriguez role. However, Anokhi, which was released in Pakistan on January 21, 1956, proved to be a disappointment both critically and financially.
One actor with whom Sheila Ramani co-starred frequently was P Jairaj. Their films include Sultana Daku (1956), Mumtaz Mahal (1957) & two films “Bhagwan Aur Shaitan” (1959) and “Return of Mr. Superman” (1960).
Shiela Ramani’s last few films were undistinguished and were largely B-films like Jungle King (1959) and the much, much delayed Awara Ladki (1967), where she starred opposite Sudesh Kumar, besides the already mentioned Bhagwan Aur Shaitan and Return of Mr. Superman. She also played a supporting role in the Lekhraj Bhakri directed Manoj Kumar &
Ameeta starrer, “Ma Beta” (1962).
Sheila Ramani was reduced to obscure films. ‘Awara Ladki’ (1967) was her last film.
Sheila Ramani got married to industrialist Jal Cowasji in 1963 and gave up working in the film industry. The couple had two sons, Rahul and Zal. Among the few people she kept in touch with from the film industry thereafter was her “Taxi Driver” co-star, Kalpana Kartik. After her husband’s death in 1981, Ramani migrated to Australia sometime later in the decade. Health issues saw her returning to India in the new millennium and she spent the last few years of her life in the hill station of Mhow in Madhya Pradesh, bed ridden and wheelchair bound, and was even said to be battling Alzheimer’s disease.
Sheila Ramani died on 15 July 2015. She was in her early 80s. Ramani was suffering from multiple old-age related ailments and was in coma. She was also affected by Alzheimer’s disease. She died in her childhood home on the Post Office road in this cantonment town of Mhow, Madhya Pradesh. Ramani’s husband Jal Cowasji, a noted industrialist, died about three decades ago. She was survived by her two sons Rahul and Zal.
Sheila Ramani was undoubtedly the ‘it’ girl or the oomph girl of Hindi Cinema of the 1950s. She will always be remembered for her sizzling club dancer act in Chetan Anand’s Taxi Driver (1954) co-starring Dev Anand. Even today, the mere mention of her name immediately brings to mind Taxi Driver and Sylvie singing “Ae Meri Zindagi, Aaj Raat Jhoom Le, Asmaan Ko Choom Le…” (The post has information from an article by S.Sarvaiya ji, book-Cinerang by Isak Mujawar, Cineplot and my notes. Thanks to all).
Now, enjoy an almost 70 year old song from this film….
Song- Dil e gham naseeb kee daastaan (Guru Ghantaal)(1956) Singer- Asha Bhonsle, Lyricist- Sarshar Sailani, MD- Lachhiram Tomar
Lyrics
dil e gham naseeb ki daastaan
koi sun sake na suna sakey
wo lagaayee aag naseeb ne
jisey koi bhee na bujha sakey
dil e gham naseeb ki daastaan
ye milee wafa kee saza hamen
ye milee wafa kee saza hamen
wo bichhad ke phir na mila hamen
na milee kaheen vo dawa hamen
ke jo dard e dil ko mita sakey
wo lagaayee aag naseeb ne
jise koi bhee na bujha sakey
dile gham naseeb ki daastaan
na vo dil raha na vo aarzoo
na vo dil raha na vo aarzoo
na vo gul raha na wo rangboo
na vo rangboo
na vo dil raha na vo aarzoo
na vo gul raha na vo rangboo
karen kyun na maut kee justju
jo kaheen karaar na pa sakey
wo lagaayee aag naseeb ne
jise koi bhee na bujha sakey
dil e gham naseeb kee daastaan
dil e gham naseeb kee daastaaaaan
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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