Preet kiye pachhtaaye saajan
Posted on: June 19, 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 Holi-1940.
The film was made by Ranjit Movietone, Bombay. The director was A.R.Kardar and the Music was by Khemchand Prakash, who had taken over from Gyan Dutt in the beginning of 1940. The first paid composer of Ranjit was Gyan Dutt from 1937 to 1940. In this period he gave music to 15 films. Khemchand Prakash gave music to 20 films in his period from 1940 to 1945, when Bulo C Rani took over in 1945 onwards. The film cast included Motilal, Ishwarlal,Keshavrao Datey, Lala yakub, Mirza Musharraf, Khursheed, Sitara, Tarabai, Dikshit and Ghori and many others. Actually the major stars of this film , Motilal, Ishwarlal, Sitara and Khursheed were all well known singers. However it was strange that Ishwar lal sang in the voice of Kantilal and Khursheed got the playback of Kalyani in this film, without getting a single song for themself.
The year 1940 was the end of the first decade of Talkie films. From 1931 to 1939 most of the film music was made and sung by people who were experts in Classical Music. Classical music has never been the area of common people. It was born in Temples and nurtured in the Darbars of Kings and Nawabs. When film music relied heavily on classical mode, it became an imposition on the masses. Luckily, from the last 2 years of the 30’s, film music started changing and the emphasis shifted to traditional and Folk tunes over the classical.
1940 saw the emergence of Naushad with his first film “Prem Nagar”, as an independent MD. He is the one who advocated the combination of classical with Folk music and this was accepted by other MDs. More people now turned to film songs.MDs like Naushad, Anil Biswas, C Ramchandra, Saraswati Devi, Gyan Dutt, Pankaj Mullick and their followers in the later part of the 40’s changed film music upside down.
National Studios emerged from the merger of Sagar Movietone and Mehboob gave his blockbuster milestone film “Aurat”. Himanshu Rai died untimely and the reigns of Bombay Talkies came into the hands of Devika Rani. Ranjit brought more popular films from its factory. Though there were signs of slow death, New Theaters still continued with musical films. Prabhat brought its third successive Saint film ‘ Sant Gyaneshwar”. Wadias looked after their Stunt films with fearless Nadia and John Cavas.
In the south, S.S. Vasan started his Gemini Studios. Master Vinayak and P K Atre started Navyug Films. In August 1940, there was a big fire in New Theatres leading to heavy losses. The use of Harmonium was banned on A.I.R. Due to War Times, Raw Film controls were given to the Film Advisory Board. It also gave rise to Black Marketing of Raw film, in addition to already existing Rationing, and a new class of rich investors emerged in the film industry shaking its established Studio Systems and Culture.
The year 1940 made only 86 Hindi films, less than 100 for the consecutive third year in a row. Let us take a look at some important films of 1940.
New Theatres film Aandhi had good music and songs.
Bombay Talkies continued with Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitnis with the film Azaad, but it was not as popular as Jhoola, Kangan and Bandhan.
A dubbed foreign film -“Azadi E Watan” was the only Hindi film for which Malika Pukhraj had sung 2 songs.
Ranjit’s Achhut tackled a social evil, with good songs composed by Gyan Dutt.
A Stunt film of Shankar Vazare ” Aflatoon Aurat” had an English song in it.
Sagar’s last film ” Alibaba” by Mehboob was released. “Aurat” , a Landmark film by Mehboob for National Studios was the origin of its remake ” Mother India”’57’.
Film ‘ Bharosa’ by minerva was based on an Incest story.
Sirco’s offering ‘ Geeta’ had a crime story, with double roles of Chandramohan and Durga Khote.
Prakash Pictures film ‘Narsi Mehta’ had Sant Tukaram fame Vishnupant Pagnis and some good bhajans.
Film Usha Haran saw the Debut of Sitara Devi.
Film Zindagi from New Theatres had very good songs by Saigal.
The story of the film Holi-1940 was woven around two love stories of a Rich boy-Poor girl and the other of Rich girl – Poor boy. The story was….
The film starts with a Holi scene, with the people being drenched in colour. Sunder (Ishwarlal) is a poor man who lives with his mother and sister Kokila (Khursheed). Champa (Sitara Devi), an artist, is the daughter of a wealthy Seth (business man). Champa and Sunder meet and fall in love. Chand (Motilal), also from a rich family, lusts after Kokila. Sunder is framed by the evil Chand and his father (Keshavrao Date) on a robbery charge and he is caught by the police and put in jail. While he’s behind bars his sister is kidnapped by Chand, who wants to marry her. When Sunder is released from jail he is told about his sister being kidnapped. However, love for Kokila has changed Chand from the villainous character and reformed him. He is due to marry Kokila. Suraj, unaware of the change and the impending marriage, rushes in and stabs Chand. Chand is rushed to the hospital. While he’s battling for his life, the court procedures begin against Sunder. Finally, Chand turns up in court aided by Champa, to prove he’s alive. The film ends on a happy note, with the two pairs of lovers uniting.
Dixit and Ghori were the famous Comedy pair of the early era. They projected themselves on the lines of Laurel and Hardy…Hardy being Dixit. Later, Yaqub and Gope triede to project their image as Laurel and Hardy and still later Johar and Majnu tried to copy Bob Hope and Bing Crosby of Hindi cinema ! Let’s take a look at Dixit and Ghory- a very popular comedy pair of early cinema.
Manohar Janardhan Dixit was born on 12-11-1906 at Sinner in Nashik district,Maharashtra (Bombay state at that time.) His comedy career started with silent film ‘Sparkling youth’-1930. His first day of work in a film was 14-11-1929. He did 3 more silent films with Navjivan Films and then joined Ranjit studio. Here he met his mate Nazir Ahmed Ghori,born on 11-8-1901 at Bombay.He was the senior of the two,having started in 1927. He worked till 1931 in silent films of various companies and then joined Ranjit studio in 1931 Here too he did 4 silent films.
He paired with Dixit, first time in Char Chakram-1932,directed by Jayant Desai.The film was a terrific hit and the pair did many films together like, Bhutio mahal,Do badmash,Bhola shikar,Bhool bhulaiya,Vishwamohini,nadira etc. They worked together till 1947,doing solo films also in between. Unfortunately none of their films have survived and we know about their acting only through Photographs,interviews and articles. However Dixit’s solo films like Pehle aap-44,Jeevan yatra-46,Aap ki sewa mein-47 and Pugree-47 are still available.In film Pugree,his name was Ramu kaka and the very fat Dixit (222 pounds) carried the world’s smallest dog-Chikoo in the film.Later comedian Omprakash did this role in the remake of the film in Dil Daulat Duniya-1972.
Dixit acted in 66 Talkie films and 8 silent films in 17 years. He died on 29-6-1949 due to a massive heart attack. His partner Ghori migrated to Pakistan and did 8 films there till 1960,without much success. He too died on 9-12-1977 at Karachi.
One more interesting actress in the cast was Tarabai. She is none other than the elder sister of famous dancer actress Sitara Devi. Born in 1905, she was a good dancer. She started film career with Silent films like Malti Madhav, Bambai ki sethani etc. She started Talkie films with Vasantsena-31. She played the role of Princess Octavia in the film Yahudi ki Ladki-33, along with K L Saigal.
She acted in many films like Shehar ka jadu-34, Savitri 37, Narsi Bhagat-40, Sasural -41. She acted in film Haiwaan-40, along with her two other actress sisters,namely Alaknanda and Sitara Devi. This may be the First Hindi film, in which 3 sisters played roles in one film.
It seems the mother of Alaknanda and Tara was different from that of Sitara, but the father was the same-Pt.Sukhdev. Alaknanda and Tara were not their real names. In fact, the real name of Tara/Tarabai was Triveni.
She married co-star Marutirao Pehelwan, left films and they settled in Dhule,in Maharashtra. They started a Dairy business. Their son was the famous dancer Gopi Krishna. Marutirao was already married,but still Tara married him. His surname was Gawali (Milkman).
Soon they separated and Tara married a small businessman Sonthalia from Calcutta. We do not know why, but Tarabai returned to Bombay and started working in films. But now she was reduced to a Junior Artiste (Extra) and got only negligible roles. She lived in Bandra slum. There is no information about her after this.
Her son Gopi Krishna (real name Gopal )stayed with his maternal Grandfather, Pt. Sukhdev, who trained him in Dancing. Gopikrishna came to Bombay, with the name Gopikrishna Sonthaliya and stayed with Sitara Devi, but he was soon thrown out. He spent bad days, staying in chawl etc, before he became famous as a Choreographer and actor. ( some information from RMIM forum, with thanks.)
Today’s song is sung by Kantilal and Sitara. Enjoy this 85 year old duet by 33 year old Kantilal and a young 22 year old Sitara Devi….
Song- Preet kiye pachhtaaye saajan (Holi)(1940) Singers-Kantilal, Sitara Devi, Lyricist-D.N.Madhok, MD- Khemchand Prakash
Both
Lyrics
Preet kiye pachhtaaye saajan
preet kiye pachhtaaye saajan
preet kiye pachhtaaye saajan
preet kiye pachhtaaye
bhoolne waale yaad tihaaree
bhoolne waale yaad tihaaree
bisrat na bisraaye saaajan
bisrat na bisraaye
bisrat na bisraaye saajan
bisrat na bisraaye
preet kiye pachhtaaye saajan
preet kiye pachhtaaye
jab se nainaa lagaaye tose
jab se nainaa lagaaye tose
nain bhare rahte hain aen aen
nain bhare rahte hain
jab se man mein moh rachaayaa
man bhee bhar bhar aaaye ae ae
preet kiye pachhtaaye saajan
preet kiye pachhtaaye saajan
preet kiye pachhtaaye
main kehta hoon bhool re moorakh
main kehta hoon bhool re moorakh
man kahta hai haay
haay
ek baar mere angnaa mein
ek baar mere angnaa mein
mera saajan aaye
main kehta hoon bhool re moorakh
main kehta hoon bhool re moorakh
man kahta hai haay
haay
ek baar mere angnaa mein
ek baar mere angnaa mein
mera saajan aaye
preet kiye
pachhtaaaaye
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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