Tu boley na boley
Posted on: July 11, 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 Apni Chhaya-1950.
The literal meaning of this film title is ‘our own shadow’. However, after reading the film’s story, one wonders what way this title is related to what happens in the film /. This is not the only example. There are several such misleading or confusing film titles. Maybe the producers were fond of fancy titles irrespective of the film’s content. It is also possible that there were changes in the film story during the shooting and thus the relation between the film content and the film title deferred like Ravan and Bibhishan !
The film, made by Chitralaya Ltd. Bombay was ably directed by P.L.Santoshi – who also wrote the lyrics for this film. During this time period Santoshi was completely enamored with one of his Heroines – Rehana. When I saw Santoshi’s name as a director, I looked into the cast of the film, but did not find Rehana’s name in the list.
The cast of the film was Sulochana Chatterjee, Balwant Singh, Radhakishen, Sajjan, Mumtaz Ali (Mehmood’s father), Ramsingh, Dulari, Neelam, Jawahar Kaul and others. The music was mostly by Husnlal-Bhagatram, except 2 songs which were composed by Pt. Hanuman Prasad (he discovered Geeta Roy in 1946).
By 1950, it was just about 3 years after we got our Independence. Many talented and gifted artistes from Film industry – composers, actors, directors, lyricists and technical people, chose to leave India, which once was their Motherland, to start a new life in a new born country, their country! The vacuum created by their exit was soon filled up by the then current, and the upcoming and aspiring artists in India. For that point in the history of India cinema, I would list the following as upcoming and aspiring artists :
– Composers: Shankar-Jaikishan, SD Burman, Madan Mohan, Roshan, Khayyam etc.
– Lyricists: Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri, Shakeel Badayuni, Majrooh, Rajendra Krishan, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, Sahir Ludhianvi etc.
– Singers: Rafi, Mukesh, Kishore, Talat, Manna Dey etc.
Female singers like Lata, Asha, Geeta etc filled up the void created by the departure of Noorjehan, Khursheed etc. And of course, many new actors and actresses also came up shining.
Another important change that took place was in the change in the story lines of films. There was no more need to use subtle, suggestive, double meaning dialogues to talk of independence and national integration – we had attained independence. The new storylines started relating to the new changes in the country. Internationally, in the cinema industries worldwide, stories of intrigue, mystery and crime were also becoming popular and the industry was quick to bring it to the Indian audiences. Towards this end, ‘Sangram’ was the torchbearer. Earlier too, stories of crime and mystery, in milder form were handled by the industry, but ‘Sangram’ was the first film wherein ‘crime’ was the hero and the male lead was an anti-hero.
However, in our culture, we must show that evil never wins and in ‘Sangram’ too, this point was emphasized, underlining another virtue that duty is more important than anything else. So the father shoots down the culprit son. ‘Sangram’ thus heralded a change in film concepts. Not that every subsequent film was a crime story, but it did make a bold statement of the New World.
in 1950 7 films were Hits. They were Samadhi, Babul, Dastaan, Jogan, Har Har Mahadev, Sangram and Beqasoor.
Other notable films were Sargam, Aarzoo, Aankhen, Sheesh mahal, Pehla Aadmi, Afsar, Mashaal, Bawre nain and Dahej.
The film’s Hero BALWANT SINGH was born in Pandoga village of Hoshiarpur on 9-12-1918 in a Jahagirdar’s family. He was quite rich. After training from Pt. Bhishmadev in classical music,he came to Bombay and joined Bombay Talkies at the age of 18 years.He first gave Playback in Jeevan Prabhat-37.In Nirmala-38 he acted and also sang a song.Then came Durga-39 where also he acted and sang. V.Shantaram cast him in Padosi-41 and his songs in this film were hits.
He was Hero in Darpan (1941),Swapna (1942),Malan (1943),Naukar (1943),Paraya Dhan (1943),Ashirwaad (1943),Collegian (1944),Dr.Kumar (1944),Bhanwar (1947,Hip hip hurray (1948) and Apni chhaya-(1950) etc. As a hero he sang less songs. His songs with Shanta Hublikar(Malan) and Parul Ghosh and Khan Mastana (Bhanwar) were very popular. He also acted in Nirmala, Vachan and Kangan.
In all, he acted in 18 films, sang 20 songs in 10 films and also wrote 6 songs in the film Sumitra-1949.
He married a girl from the royal family of Palanpur, Gujrat. After leaving films, he worked in All India Radio for 4 years. Then he settled in Ahmedabad, directing Dramas and Teaching music. Finally, he shifted to Ludhiana where, after a long illness, he died on 4-12-1985.
The film’s story was…..
In a certain village, Sukhiya is an orphan girl who grows up with her maternal uncle and his harsh wife. Sukhiya is beautiful but her marriage is fixed with a 60 year old person from another town. She is very sad but helpless. Ramnath is the village vagabond. He is unemployed and a rebel, but helps everybody and is a popular figure. He resents this marriage and goes and makes a scene in the marriage pandal, criticising the mama for taking money and marrying the poor Sukhiya to an old man. The people challenge him and in a fit of chivalry, he gets married to Sukhiya in the same mandap.
He has no job and to survive the couple decides to go to another town and try their luck there. Ramnath really prospers and gains not only name and fame but also lots of money. They have a son. When so much money is there, bad people flock automatically. Banka babu gets friendly with Ramnath and gets him addicted to wine and women. He takes him to another town to enjoy. Poor Sukhiya and her son leave the place and go to another town. Her son Prakash grows up and falls in love with the rich Zamindar’s daughter Jyoti. But despite their love affair, Jyoti’s marriage is fixed with Ramnath by Bankelal. On the day of the marriage, Prakash enters the mandap and starts creating nuisance by criticising the Zamindar and Ramnath-without knowing that he is his father.Ramnath remembers everything of his past, is full of remorse and gets Prakash married to Jyoti. Sukhiya comes forward and all meet together for a happy end to the film.
The Music Director of this film was Husnlal-Bhagatram. Here is an extract about them, from my latest book…..
” Bhagatram was the elder brother, Husnlal was the younger brother. Have you anytime wondered why the younger brother’s name comes first in this pair ?
Normally, when a pair of brothers is referred, it is the elder brother’s name that comes first. For example, Ram-Laxman or Balram – Srikrishna or even Kalyanji – Anand ji, Jatin-Lalit or Anand-Milind. For many years, this matter was bothering me, but I could not find any justification for this unusual way of pairing. I was sure that there must be some story behind this.
The Blog ” Songs of yore ” published the second part of Husnlal-Bhagatram post on 11-8-2017, based on the interview of Dinesh Prabhakar, son of Husnlal and Ms. Nirmala Devi, wife of Husnlal. During her talk, Nirmala Devi explained the reasons for calling the pair as Husnlal-Bhagatram, in spite of Bhagatram being the elder one and more experienced of the two. Bhagatram had already given music, individually to 9 films, in the late 30s and early 40s, before the pair was formed. Her statement answered my long awaited query about the unusual name of the pair. Here is the related portion of her interview….
” The 90-year old Shrimati Nirmala Devi is an amazing lady. She still has a razor-sharp memory and superb knowledge of music and music personalities of that era. She gave me a lot of interesting information, not available elsewhere – for example, the reason why the younger brother Husnlal’s name comes first in the duo’s name. Her talk also revealed that other family commitments, too, in Delhi were contributory factors for their decline in the film music.
Shrimati Nirmala Devi speaks about her husband (late) Pt Husnlal….
“DD Kashyap, who was directing Chaand (1944) for Prabhat Films, wanted to engage Pt Amarnath based in Lahore, who was a towering figure in music. As he was heavily preoccupied, he strongly recommended his younger brother Pt Husnlal who was staying with him and assisting him in Lahore-based films of Pancholi and others, assuring Kashyap that Pt Husnlal was no less talented than him. Pt Amarnath was like a father-figure to his younger brothers, especially to Pt Husnlal. A music session was organized to demonstrate Pt Husnlal’s talent. Kashyap was highly impressed. When it was time for Pt Husnlal to proceed for Poona/Bombay, Pt Amarnath, out of concern for his kid-brother, suggested to Kashyap to also engage Pt Bhagatram with him. Kashyap expressed difficulty in arranging the payment for two as the contract was already made out. Pt Amarnath assured him that he should not bother about increasing the fee, but the two brothers must work together. Thus it was that Bhagatram got appended to Husnlal, forming the duo HB. ” Another reason why the younger brother’s name preceded the elder brother was simply the aesthetics – Husnlal-Bhagatram sounding better than the other way around. (Thanks to Blog “songs of yore” for this additional information.)”
Here is a 75 year old song, sung by a 20 year old Meena kapoor, from this film. Enjoy….
Song-Tu boley na boley (Apni Chhaayaa)(1950) Singer-Meena Kapoor, Lyrics-P L Santoshi, MD-Husnlal Bhagatram
Lyrics
tu boley na boley
tu boley na boley
nigaah teree boley haan haan haan
nazar teree boley ho ho ho
sajan mere bholey o bholey
tu boley na boley
tu boley na boley
nigaah teree boley haan haan haan
nazar teree boley ho ho ho
sajan mere bholey o bholey
tu badaa bhola re
dil daghaabaaz hai
jitna bhee raaz hai
tu badaa bhola re
dil daghaabaaz hai
jitna bhee raaz hai
aankhon se kholey
aankhon se kholey
nigaah teree boley haan haan haan
nazar teree boley ho ho ho
sajan mere bholey o bholey
tu boley na boley
tu boley na boley
nigaah teree boley haan haan haan
nazar teree boley ho ho ho
sajan mere bholey o bholey
tu kahey na na
nigaah kahey haan haan
tu kahey na na
nigaah kahey haan haan
main teree ho loon
tu mera ho ley
tu mera ho ley
main teree ho loon
tu mera ho ley
tu mera ho ley
tu boley na boley
tu boley na boley
nigaah teree boley haan haan haan
nazar teree boley ho ho ho
sajan mere bholey o bholey
tu boley na boley
tu boley na boley
nigaah teree boley haan haan haan
nazar teree boley ho ho ho
haan haan haan
ho ho ho
haan haan haan
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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