Tadap tadap kar aise aise
Posted on: May 1, 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 Usha Kiran-1952.
It had been just about 5 years since we got our Independence. The initial rush of Migration of Muslim artistes to Pakistan had slowed down, but it continued in a trickle till about early 1970s. The second line people who filled up these vacancies in the Hindi film industry were getting established by then.
One big issue came up and that was the backing out of those film financiers from film production, who had a lot of Black money made from the war years. It did have an impact on the number of films made, till new financiers showed up.
1952 was an year when production of Hindi movies was going through a lean patch. Increased costs of Film production, escalating rates of stars and music Directors, establishment of Star System in place of earlier Studio System, increasing taxes, decreasing number of Cinema Halls etc caused a worry in the film industry. Financiers with Black money were making films – in 1952 the number of Hindi films made went up to 105 from 97 of 1951, but dropped again to 98 in 1953. Most films were of lower quality. Because of superior music there were some great films too, but the situation was grave nevertheless.
Some Hit films like Aan, Baiju Bawra, Daag, Anand Math, Yatrik, Chhoti Maa etc. became popular with their music. Other films like Jaal, Anhonee, Sangdil, Maa, Bewafa, Aandhiyan, Bidya sagar, Ratnadeep, Nanhe-Munne, Mr. Sampat etc were good enough but not so good. Naushad and C.Ramchandra were competing acutely for the No. 1 rank and the audiences were gaining in the process, by their delightful music.
The Government suddenly became active, Censor Boards were closed from different regions and it was Centralised. The First ever Film Festival in India was held, in which 140 films from more than 20 countries were exhibited. Selected famous films were shown in all 4 Metro Cities. Bimal Roy shifted to Bombay and started his own film company.
Today’s song is from the film Usha kiran-1952. It was a film made by Malwa productions Bombay and the production of the film and its supervision was by the nawab of Kurval from Uttar Pradesh.
Those days, many kings and Nawabs got interested in making films. For some of them, the added attraction was the film’s Heroine. Some state chiefs, however, genuinely helped and encouraged Cinema as an art form. One such example was the Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur State.
He not only provided land and other concessions to film makers, but also established a film company called ” Kolhapur Cinetone” and later became a partner in ”Maharashtra Film Company” of Kolhapur, wherein, all the future Director/partners of Prabhat film company were working. He also made Kolhapur a film production centre and producers from Bombay came to Kolhapur for shooting their films. Kolhapur and its surroundings like Amboli Ghats were the favourites of Raj Kapoor and he did shooting of some of his films here.
The film Usha Kiran did not have the actress Usha Kiran in its cast but she was one of the leading heroines of those times.
Maharashtrian girls have always been in the forefront and Maharashtrians were the single largest community which provided heroines to Hindi films and sometimes Gujarati films too. Right from Kamlabai Gokhale, Vasanti (Ghorpade), Shanta Apte, Shanta Hublikar, Snehprabha Pradhan, Leela Chitnis, Durga Khote, Lalita Pawar to Nalini Jaywant, Meenakshi Shirodkar, Shobhana Samarth, Vanmala, Shakuntala, Jayashree, Sundarabai, Vatsala Kumthekar etc down to Nutan, Tanuja, Shashikala, Shubha Khote etc etc are testimony to the contribution of Marathi Heroines to Hindi film industry.
Slowly, the number of Marathi girls diminished over a period and today the number of Marathi girls can be counted on one’s fingers. Usha Kiran was probably one of the last batch of Marathi heroines in Hindi films.
The film was directed by Javed Hussain, music was by Pt.Hanuman Prasad (9 songs) and Manohar (2 songs) and 3 Lyricists. The cast of the film included Nimmi, Geeta Bali, Lalita Pawar, Altaf, Mazhar Khan, Cuckoo, S.Nazeer and many others.
To have Nimmi and Geeta bali together was a matter of surprise. Nimmi was then the symbol of a crying baby in every film, while Geeta bali represented a naughty, happy go lucky girl, always smiling. Geeta Bali was one of my favourite actresses.
In the last so many years- till 1980 – I must have seen hundreds of Films- Hindi, Marathi, English, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. In the Hindi films, I can not forget 3 actresses, who were Bubbly, playful, with innocent looks and with Natural acting talent. They were Meena Shorey, Nalini Jaywant and Geeta Bali. I enjoyed every film of these actresses, which I saw. It is difficult to forget the role and acting of Meena Shorey in film ” Ek thi Ladki-49″, or Nalini Jaywant in film ” Hum sab chor hain-56″, or Geeta Bali in film ” Aji Bas Shukriya-58″. These were all my favourite actresses. It is very unfortunate that they all met their deaths in very tragic circumstances.
Geeta Bali’s dancing eyes and her animated, expressive face which mirrored her soul were her most outstanding features. Yet life was snatched away from this vibrant personality at an achingly young age of 35. It is some consolation that Geeta crammed a lot into her short life: 80 odd films in a ten-year career.
She married struggling actor-turned-megastar Shammi Kapoor and they produced two children: a son and a daughter. Today, she is remembered as a wonderfully natural actress and a fabulous human being.
She was quite close to her sisters and brother. Her childhood pet name was KEETA.
True, Geeta’s reputation as an actress rests more on her performances than her roles. Natural, spontaneous and gifted with a spot-on sense of comic timing, she never really found a vehicle worthy of her talent. Largely a shade better than the movies she starred in, she frittered away her talents in B-grade films. Probably the fact that she was born into a family that had to struggle for sheer survival and the fact that she reached the top through sheer grit had Geeta stress on quantity rather than quality. Film lore has it that when mentor [filmmaker] Kidar Sharma first met Geeta, she was living with her family in somebody’s bathroom!
Geeta Bali (real name Harkirtan Kaur) was born in Amritsar on 30-11-1930, in a Sikh family, known for its religious and Scholarly traditions. Her father was a Sikh Missionary Preacher and travelled not only all over India, but also to Burma, Ceylon and Malaya. Due to frequent change of place, Geeta’s education was not consistent and it ended after 6th standard. When the family was in Kashmir, she joined the dancing and music classes. Keeta (her family nickname) did dance performances on stage in her schools.
When she was about 9-10 year old, she gave a public performance of her Dance in Lucknow. The puritans in their society objected, made a hue and cry and the pandal was burnt to stop her show. Such experiences made her very bold in life. While at Lahore, Geeta directly entered the A.I.R. office to get a music contract. She got it also. She used to participate in Children’s programmes.
Through her Dance Director in A.I.R., she got into a documentary “Cobbler” made by Shorey pictures. Impressed, she got a dance performance in the film “Badnami”-46 as well as Kahan Gaye-46 and Pancholi’s Patjhad-47, before moving to Mumbai. Impressed by her off-screen vivacity, Sharma cast Geeta in his Suhaag Raat (1948). Audiences related to her instantly and watched wide-eyed as she nonchalantly tossed her unconscious hero, Bharat Bhushan over her shoulder in a scene.
Soon, Geeta was inundated with contracts (that’s what they called film offers then). She accepted most. She won rave reviews even in supporting roles like in the 1949 Suraiya starrer Badi Behan and the Madhubala starrer Dulari. In 1951, she became a major star with Guru Dutt’s first hit, Baazi (she went on to do three other films under his direction). Geeta played a gangster’s moll with a golden heart to Kalpana Kartik’s conventional heroine. But Geeta played her role with such gay abandon that hero Dev Anand divulges, “People came repeatedly to theatres to see Geeta’s spirited dancing to Tadbeer se bigdi hui taqdeer bana de.
Next she worked with Raj Kapoor in Bawre Nain-50, Bhagwan’s Albela-51 and Navketan’s Baazi-52. Now there was no looking back. Geeta Bali went on to act in 80 films in her short career of just 14 years. She even sang a few lines in a song from the film Rangeen Raaten-56, with Shamshad Begum and Uma Devi. She worked with Prithviraj Kapoor in Anand math-52 and his sons Raj kapoor in Bawre nain and in many films with Shammi Kapoor. With Dev Anand she did Baazi, Faraar, Milap, Jaal, Zalzala, Ferry and Pocket Maar. She worked opposite Ashok Kumar, Motilal, Balraj Sahani, Prem Adib, Jairaj, Rehman, Bharat Bhushan, Abhi Bhattacharya, Kamal Kapoor, Karan Dewan, Shekhar, Sajjan, Amarnath, Jaswant and Suresh.
Some of her notable films were, Girls’ School-49, Dulari-49, Badi bahen-49, Nishana-550,Bawre Nain-50, Baazi-51, Albela-51, Zalzala-52, Raag Rang-52, Anand Math-52, Jhamela-53, Baaz-53, Daaku ki Ladki-54, Vachan-55, Miss Coca Cola-55, Jawab-55, Faraar-55, Bara Dari-55, Albeli-55, Pocket Maar-56, inspector-56, Coffee House-57, Mujrim-58, Jailor-58, Aji Bas Shukriya-58, Mr. India-61 etc etc.
Geeta proved she could do tragedy (Sharma’s Raj Kapoor starrer Bawre Nain) as well as play the lighthearted heroine to comedian Bhagwan in the super successful Albela. Albela’s swinging C Ramchandra composed songs like Shola jo bhadke and Sham dhale mere khidki tale made front-benchers dance with the stars and even fling coins on screen.
Pug-nosed Geeta was no conventional beauty, but that transparent face and that smile constantly flirting on her lips made sure you couldn’t tear your eyes away from her.
Watch Geeta Bali in the Guru Dutt-directed Jaal (1952). Dev Anand, a cigarette-smoking smuggler on the run from the police, tries to entice morally upstanding heroine Geeta into his web. Geeta evocatively communicates her struggle against, and her eventual surrender to, handsome Dev’s seduction call Yeh raat, yeh chandni phir kahan Famously down-to-earth despite her star status, Geeta was the antithesis of the coy 1950s’ heroine. She often drove herself to her premieres in an open jeep. Those who knew her claim she was a Samaritan who touched the lives of whoever she met. She is said to have personally groomed Mala Sinha, then a newcomer.
To date, so many years after her death, her secretary Surinder Kapoor’s (Boney Kapoor’s father) productions begin with a shraddhanjali to Geeta Bali.
Shammi Kapoor entered her life when they worked in the quaintly named Miss Coca Cola and Coffee House together. On an impulse, Geeta played a small role of a man in Sharma’s Shammi Kapoor starrer Rangeen Raatein. On the film’s Ranikhet outdoor, Shammi and Geeta fell in love. Kapoor was a year younger to her and was not yet a star, but the twosome were hell bent on marrying each other. Geeta had worked with Shammi’s eldest brother, Raj Kapoor in Bawre Nain, and with his father, Prithviraj Kapoor in Anand Math. Shammi was unsure about their reaction to this match. But on August 23, 1955, with producer-director Hari Walia and friend Johnny Walker as witness, the couple were married at the Banganga Temple at 4 am.
Geeta continued to work after marriage in a few films like Sohrab Modi’s Jailor (1958), where she won raves as a blind girl. With Shammi Kapoor turning into a huge star and the birth of her two children Aditya (nicknamed Mickey) and Kanchan, she eased her workload.
The desire to do that one fulfilling role she would be remembered for prompted Geeta to attempt the production of a classic for herself. She started Rano, based on Rajinder Singh Bedi’s famous novel, Ek Chadar Maili Si, based on a widow’s remarriage to her brother-in-law. Upcoming star Dharmendra played her hero.
Geeta had not been vaccinated for smallpox, despite the fact that her father too had died of Smallpox. She had ignored repeated warnings in her childhood. She contracted the dreaded disease while shooting the film. The best care was given to her, but her fever apparently reached 107 degrees. Her doctor saw a picture by his patient’s bedside and asked who the pretty lady was. The disease had so wracked Geeta’s frail frame that he didn’t recognise her as the same person!
Geeta Bali passed away on January 21, 1965, leaving behind eight-year-old Aditya and three-year-old Kanchan in the care of a devastated Shammi Kapoor.
Ironically, she was cremated in Banganga, not far from where she was married.
( adapted from Rediffmail.com, books Star Portraits by Harish Booch and Stars of the Indian Screen by Baburao Patel, India Today, Yaadon ki Baaraat by Shirish Kanekar and my notes – with thanks.)
The story of the film Usha Kiran-1952 was….
The King’s trusted guard, Captain Kiran is given a secret mission to deliver some documents to the King’s brother in Tajgarh, where the rebels have raided some areas. He has to travel in cognito. The rebels are led by Ranbir, who comes to know about this mission.
He sends Beli, his sweetheart to lure Kiran and get all the documents. Before this, Beli has already accidentally met Kiran and lost her heart to him- one way only. She is happy and sad also to have this mission against Kiran now.
During his journey, Kiran meets Usha and both fall in love with each other. On the way, Kiran meets Ranbir who wants to fight with him, but Kiran avoids him and goes away. On his way, the rebels catch him and injured Kiran is thrown into a river. He is saved by a villager, who takes him to his village.
In that village, Kiran meets his lost mother after many years. She recognises him, but Kiran does not show that he has recognised her and goes away. All this is informed to Ranbir, He catches the mother and tortures her, but she does not reveal anything.
When Kiran knows this, he goes there but is caught and documents are taken from him. He is kept as a prisoner to be killed the next day. Ranbir prepares to go as a courier with the documents , to Tajgarh.
Meanwhile Usha reaches there, and meets Beli. Both, together with King’s loyal villagers attack rebels and rescue Kiran and his mother. Hearing this news, Ranbir tries to attack Kiran. There is a fight and Beli is killed while saving Kiran. In the fight, Ranbir is also killed by Kiran and all the rebels are arrested.
Kiran delivers the documents to King’s brother. Usha and Kiran get married. All is well with everybody….including the film audience !
Let us now enjoy this 73 year old song by Zohrabai Ambalewali….
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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