Rukh pe powder lab pe surkhee
Posted on: June 27, 2025
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, 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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‘Ham Kahaan Jaa Rahen Hain’ (1966) was produced under the banner of Filmistan Films and was directed by Nitin Bose. The cast included Badri Prasad in a pivotal role with Nadira, Rajan Haksar, debutants Prakash and Neena, Abhi Bhattacharya, Leela Chitnis, Jagirdar, P Kailash, Murad, Brahm Bhardwaj, Janakidas, Raj Kishore, Narbada Shankar, Master Raja, Master Prakash etc.
The main theme of the film is that after nearly two decades of independence, the protagonist in the film, a grandfather is asking himself a question – where are we heading for? This question comes to his mind when he observes the decaying of the family values in terms of Indian culture and traditions under the influences of western culture while staying with the family of his son. The same question comes to his mind when he is attending a college function and observes the attitudes of the students toward their teachers. When he visits his son’s office, he is alarmed by the rampant dishonesty and corruption in the conduct of his business operations at the cost of general public. The protagonist’s wife taunts him that he alone cannot set the things right but he is relentless in pursuing his goal of bringing back the family values, teacher-student relationship on the lines of ‘guru-shishya’ tradition and the eradication of dishonesty and corruption. After facing a lot of troubles within his family, the protagonist sees a ray of hope within his family but at a cost of the death of one of his grandsons.
The story of the film in detail is as under:
Bhagirath (Badri Prasad) and his wife (Leela Mishra) make a visit from their native place to Mumbai to permanently stay with his son, Balraj (Rajan Haksar) and his family. Balraj’s wife (Nadira) shows her displeasure of her in-law’s visit without she being informed in advance. This itself is a first surprise for Bhagirath as he does not need to follow the formalities for visiting his son’s house.
Within a couple of days of his stay with his son’s family, Bhagirath observes that neither his son nor his daughter-in-law have time to be with children who have also gone out of control. Balraj is busy with making money in his business while his wife is busy in her social works. He also notices that the children do not have exposure to the family traditions and culture as their inclination is more towards the Western culture. His eldest granddaughter, Meena (Neena) often comes back home in the odd hours of night partying with her friends which include her collage mate, Vijay (Prakash). He is surprised that neither his son nor his daughter-in-law reprimand Meena for her indiscipline.
Bhagirath tries his best to correct his vagabond grandchildren by giving them the proper guidance but does not succeed. His son, Balraj fails to gauge his father’s feelings and let his children have their own ways because his first preference is how to make more money. There are supressed feelings in Bhagirath against his son and daughter-in-law for neglecting the traditional values of the family. Similarly his daughter in-law is also having her supressed view for his conservative attitudes. But for the sake of peace in the family, both of them refrain from openly making issues out of their generation gaps.
Meena has fallen in love with her college mate and college principal’s son, Vijay. But her father Balraj, unaware of this development, has selected a groom for Meena who is his business partner, Rasiklal (P Kailash) keeping in mind his business interest. Bhagirath and his wife do not approve of Rasiklal as he looks middle-aged for Meena to be her husband. Bhagirath comes to know about Meena’s love affair with Vijay. He calls Vijay at home and approves him for the marriage with Meena. This becomes a point of contention between Bhagirath and his daughter-in-law (Nadira) and their supressed feelings for each other come out openly.
The relationship between father and son becomes strained when Bhagirath comes to know that Balraj and his business partner, Rasiklal have been thriving in the business mainly due to dishonesty like food adulteration. During their arguments on this issue, Balraj in disgust tells his father that if he is not comfortable with his business dealings, he is free to leave his house. Bhagirath and his wife decide to leave their son’s house and stay elsewhere in the city for which Professor Vinod ( Abhi Bhattacharya) offer his house. His granddaughter, Meena, in order to avoid her proposed engagement with Rasiklal also decides to leave the house with her two younger brothers to join them.
At the beginning, Bhagirath finds it difficult to make both ends meet as he is a retired teacher. His grandsons having born with silver spoons find it difficult to adjust to their new life. He does not accept any monetary assistance from his son when he visits after knowing that his children are having a tough life. Professor Vinod manages to get Bhagirath some job to take care of his family’s sustenance.
In the meanwhile, in the college hostel, many students suffer from food poisoning resulting in some deaths. On checking, it is found that the groceries supplied by Balraj’s company to the college canteen is adulterated. A case is filed against Balraj for food adulteration. However, Balraj’s defence lawyer (Murad) makes a strong submission with manipulation of witnesses which makes the case tilted in favour of Balraj. Judge adjourns the proceedings to the next day for delivering the judgement.
On the same day, Balraj’s son who has been admitted in a hospital on account of the food poisoning, dies, making Balraj and his wife distraught. On the day of court judgement, Balraj confesses to the court that he and his partner Rasiklal are responsible for the food poisoning deaths. The film ends with the arrest of Balraj and Rasiklal.
The film had nine songs including two double version songs which were written by Qamar Jalalabadi and set to music by Basant Prakash. Six songs have been covered on the Blog. I present the 7th song, ‘rukh pe powder lab pe surkhee’ rendered by Mahendra Kapoor and Geeta Dutt. The song is picturised on Prakash and Neena. Raj Kishore among others is also seen. It is a picnic song.
There are two unusual features in this song. First, names of famous Hollywood actress, Shirley MacLaine, Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren and the popular English singers, Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Cliff Richard are mentioned. Secondly, the song contains five parody songs – three from English albums and two from Hindi films. Probably, this song may be the only instance of mix of Hindi-English parody songs. The English parody parts of the songs come in the second antara while parody songs from Hindi films covers the third antara. Prakash mimics Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Cliff Richard when their respective songs are picturised on him. The English parody songs appear to have been rendered by an unknown male singer and not by Mahendra Kapoor.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Rukh pe powder lab pe surkhee (Ham Kahaan Jaa Rahe Hain)(1966) Singers-Mahendra Kapoor, Geeta Dutt, Lyrics-Qamar Jalalabadi, MD-Basant Prakash
Unknown male voice
Female chorus
Male chorus
Lyrics:
ho o o o
o o o o
o o o
rukh pe powder
lab pe surkhee
fashion kaa pooraa hai zor
rukh pe powder
lab pe surkhee
fashion kaa pooraa hai jor
kaise haay
dil ko bachaayen
kadam kadam pe dil ke choron
ho o ho o
ho o
shut up you bore
rukh pe powder
lab pe surkhee
fashion kaa pooraa hai zor
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm
fashion mein tum
arre kam to naheen ho
Shirley MacLaine jaisee chaal
Brigitte Bardot jaisee aankhen
Sophia Loren jaise baal
arre jaa …aa
jaa jaa
chhodo jee
bekaar khushaamad
dhoondho jakaar koi aur
shut up you bore
rukh pe powder
o lab pe surkhi
fashion kaa puraa hai zor
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm
tumko milegaa
arre naa mujh jaisaa
dekho main singer hoon kaisaa
Elvis Presley, Little Richard aur Cliff Richard
hunh
ye sab mere aage paanee bharten hain
oh yes I’ve got a lot of living to do
a whole lot of loving to do
come on baby
to make a party takes two
oh yes I’ve got a lot of living to do
a whole lot of loving to do
come on baby
hey
jenny jenny jenny
won’t you come along with me
jenny jenny
o o o jenny jenny
won’t you come along with me
jenny jenny
o o o jenny jenny
you know that I love you
we could live so happily
you are the baby
you are the one
the young ones
darling, we’re the young ones
and young ones
shouldn’t be afraid
to live love
while the flame is strong
because we may not be the young ones
very long
arre jaa jaa
main na aaun
arre in baaton mein
dhoondho jakar koi oar
shut up you bore
rukh pe powder
lab pe surkhee
fashion kaa puraa hai zor
abhee naa jaao chhod ke
ke dil abhee bharaa naheen
naheen naheen naheen naheen
ke dil abhee bharaa naheen
aapkaa dil hai behayaa
ye to kabhee bharaa naheen
ha ha ha ha
pyaar aankhon se jataayaa
to buraa maan gaye
haal-e-dil apnaa sunaayaa
to buraa maan gaye
hamne ullu jo banaayaa
to buraa maan gaye
ha ha ha ha
aaine mein
arre soorat dekho
lagte ho tum bilkul chor
shut up you bore
once more
rukh pe powder
lab pe surkhee
fashion kaa puraa hai zor
kaise haaye
dil ko bachaayen
kadam kadam pe dil ke chor
o o o o
shut up you bore
welcome
rukh pe powder
waah
lab pe surkhee
fashiona kaa puraa hai zor
rukh pe powder
waah
lab pe surkhee
fashiona kaa puraa hai zor
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
July 4, 2025 at 6:10 pm
Very unusual song, indeed!
On Fri, Jun 27, 2025, 05:00 Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi
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