O balam ae balam chhotee see jaan meree
Posted on: July 30, 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 Pagle-1950.
The film was made by Markari Productions, Bombay. It was directed by Pratima Dasgupta. The music director was V.G.Bhatkar aka Snehal Bhatkar. The cast of the film was Begum Para, Madhuri, Jahagirdar, Pratima Devi, Mubarak, David, Agha, Cuckoo and some others. I have neither seen this film nor I could get my hands on its story, but I believe this was a dual story of a failed love and true love pair.
The sudden and unexpected death of Saigal, followed by India’s partition had disturbed the entire film industry.The major centres – Calcutta and Bombay – both had benefited with the songs of Saigal. A large number of Muslim community, working in different departments of filmmaking, had migrated to Pakistan, disturbing the set up. Luckily, India had a very capable second line of talented artistes waiting in the wings. It took 2-3 years for them to show their abilities, thus the period of 1947 to 1950 was full of uncertainties and testing the new entrants.
These 3 years saw the rise and assured performances of the newer Music Directors like Shankar-Jaikishen, S.D.Burman, Roshan, Khayyam, Madan Mohan etc. They were ably helped by the lyricists like Sahir, majrooh, Shailendra, Hasrat, Shakeel Rajendra Krishna, RMA Khan etc. with their meaningful songs. Rafi, Mukesh, Talat, Manna dey, Kishore and Lata, Asha, Shamshad, and Geeta brought the Hindi film music on track and took the industry successfully into the “Golden Era” of HFM.
The film companies made some Milestone movies in 1950.
DAHEJ by V.Shantaram was a powerful comment on the evil custom of Dowry in India. The film- a tragedy- not only conveyed the right message but also paved the way to get an Anti Dowry Law enacted.
JOGAN, a Love story between a Hindu Nun and an atheist lover, made by Ranjit movietone had excellent songs and Bhajans.
SAMADHI, by Filmistan brought to light a familial conflict of ideologies between two brothers, with a background of Subhash Babu’s Indian National Army. Its song ” Gore gore, o banke chhore’ became an evergreen popular song.
BAWRE NAIN – the second film of the new Music Director Roshan had lovely songs. This tragedy film had Raj kapoor and Geeta Bali.
SARGAM was by Filmistan, but C.Ramchandra’s music made it his film and the songs to remember.
MASHAL, SANGRAM and MUQADDAR, though had good songs, could not save the sinking Bombay Talkies.
The most successful hit film was ” Har Har Mahadev“, a surprise Blockbuster. It heralded a surge of Mythological films for the next 10 years, with 124 Religious films.
Based on a world famous popular strong story ” The Inspector General”, the Hindi film AFSAR could not come up to its level, mainly due to Dev and Suraiyya’s private love affair during the making of this film. However two of her songs in the film became evergreen songs.
The year 1950 brought many Tragedy films and BABUL was one such film.
SHEESH MAHAL, ARZOO and PEHLA ADMI entertained the audience.
Some other good films were Dastaan, Aankhen, Beqasoor, Anmol Ratan, Dilruba, Gauna, Khel, Khiladi, Lajawab, Nirala, Nirdosh, Pyar and a few others which gave memorable songs too.
Film pagle revolved around the Sex Bomb of that time – Begum Para. She was also compared to Merilyn Monroe, but I feel that was too much of an imagination. By any standard, she did not come up to even 25 % of the charm of Monroe. In 1951, Begum Para (25-12-1926 to 9-12-2008) had posed for photographer James Burke for a Life magazine photo shoot. There is a popular belief that she appeared on the cover page of Life Magazine. In this connection, Dr.Surjit Singh ji, in his Musings No.32, dated 17-9-2017 says, ” People mentioned that Begum Para was on the cover of the Life magazine. I looked at all the covers on the internet. She was not there. Then, I went to the library and started looking at all the issues starting with 1949. Found her inside an Asia Special Issue dated Dec 31, 1951! So, she was in Life, but not on the cover. ”
Para’s last role was in the movie Kar Bhala in 1956. She was also offered to play Nigar Sultana’s role ‘Bahar’ in Mughal-e-Azam (1960). However, she refused to play the role because she considered it against her image. In all, she acted in 34 films in her career. She made a record comeback on the silver screen after 51 years, in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya in 2007 as Sonam Kapoor’s grandmother.
She married actor Nasir Khan, the younger brother of Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar. They had three children, including the actor Ayub Khan. Begum Para’s father Mian Ehsan-ul-Haq of Jalandhar, was a judge who joined the princely state of Bikaner, now northern Rajasthan, where he became chief justice of its highest court. Her husband died in 1974. Following her husband’s death, she briefly migrated to Pakistan in 1975. Two years later, she relocated back to India. She died in her sleep on 9-12-2008, at the age of 81 years.
I am not connected with any film star or a film society, except my short acquaintance with Chitragupt, MD, strictly involving his close relative, who was my friend. I have observed that the film people are very showy. In a group or a party they show off by wearing sometimes weird dresses too to attract attention. In their normal life also film people are very conscious of how they look or how to impress the onlookers.
However, even in such a crowd, there were few simpletons. One such person was Music Director Snehal Bhatkar. White full shirt, ironed white pyjama, spectacles with big powerful lenses and the trademark white Gandhi Topi… He could easily be mistaken for a ‘Pandharpur Warkari’ (a regular pilgrim to Pandharpur) or a member of a ‘Bhajani Mandali’ or simply a middle class ‘Marathi Manoos’. Such was the appearance of one of Hindi filmdom’s talented, yet not so famous, music maestro VASUDEV GANGARAM BHATKAR or Snehal Bhatkar, as we all know him.
In the Hindi film music field there were some talented composers like Ghulam Mohd, Mohd. Shafi, Iqbal Qureshi, Daan singh, C.Arjun, Ramlal, Sardar Malik, Ajit Merchant, Jamal Sen, Dattaram, Ganesh, etc. who could never reach the peaks of their careers. They really deserved success and fame, but luck did not favour them. Big banners never approached them and eventually the losers were the music lovers in India. These composers did not know, perhaps, how to sell their art. Maybe they never wanted to enslave music to gain name and fame, instead they preferred to settle for genuine service to music!
Snehal Bhatkar was one such composer. The maxim of simple living and high thinking never worked in this Mayanagari, but he had no regrets. Till the very end he was contented with whatever God gave him, and whatever name and success he achieved.
He was born into and grew up in a family that was surrounded by traditional devotional music all around. In the lower middle class, the people had their entertainments in singing Bhajans and doing Kirtans in Temples en masse.
Vasudev G. Bhatkar was born on 17-7-1919. He knew at least 100 bhajans by heart by the time he was in his 10th class. He was invited to sing in Ganesh Melas and other celebrations and soon became a well-known name in the locality. Because of his singing and skills in playing Harmonium and other instruments, he got a job with H.M.V. in Bombay. Here he used to give accompaniment on Harmonium to big classical singers. At the same time, taking cognizance of his singing skills, many Marathi bhavgeets and bhajans were recorded by HMV. Some of them are popular in Maharashtra even today.
All this while, Bhatkar was looking for an opportunity to compose in films. Sudhir Phadke who too served in HMV and recorded some songs from 1943 to 1945, joined hands with Bhatkar and made a pair-Vasudev-Sudhir. In 1946, they got a film by Baburao Painter – Rukmini Swayamvar – for music direction. The problem was that due to his service in HMV, he could not openly work outside. Hence he only gave his name as Vasudev. After this film, the pair separated and Phadke went to give music to films like Gokul, Aagey Badho, etc. Due to financial constraints Bhatkar was unable to leave his job with HMV.
In 1941, Bhatkar had come to know Kidar Sharma while recording songs for his film Chitralekha, which he was making for Ranjit Studios. Sharma had just come from Calcutta to establish himself in Bombay. He had a knack of identifying talents. He first gave a chance to Bhatkar to sing some songs with Leela Sawant in his film Kaliyan (1944). After Rukmini Swayamvar, Kidar Sharma gave him his first break as an independent composer in his Neelkamal (1947), where Kidar Sharma launched Raj Kapoor and Madhubala in adult roles as the leading pair. Bhatkar used the name B. Vasudev. In the subsequent years Bhatkar used different names for different films like V. G Bhatkar in Sant Tukram (1948), Sati Ahalya (1949) and Pagle (1950), and Snehal in Suhaag Raat (1948) and Thes (1949). After doing Thes and Sati Ahalya, Bhatkar resigned from HMV.
Snehal Bhatkar and Kidar Sharma were very good friends. Kidar gave him Neki aur Badi in 1949. Meanwhile, Kidar Sharma met Roshan Lal Nagrath in some musical event. Sharma was terribly impressed with Roshan and wanted to give him a break in his film. At that point of time, Kidar had just started work on ‘Neki aur Badi’. He had a heart to heart talk with Bhatkar and Bhatkar gladly left the film for Roshan. Thus Roshan got his break with Neki aur Badi (1949). Roshan never forgot Bhatkar’s magnanimity in his life and always respected Bhatkar. In return Kidar Sharma gave Hamari Beti (1950) to Bhatkar. As he was a free bird now, Bhatkar started using the name SNEHAL BHATKAR from this film. Snehal was the short form of Snehalata, his daughter.
Snehal Bhatkar did many Marathi films and recorded many bhajans in Marathi, which are ever popular. He did 28 films in Hindi (including one unreleased film in the 50s) and 12 films in Marathi. Out of 27 released Hindi films, 9 were made by Kidar Sharma.
The song which made Mubarak Begum and Bhatkar famous in India was ‘Kabhi Tanhaiyon Mein, Hamari Yaad Aayegi’ from the film Hamari Yaad Aayegi (1961) (This film was was originally named Jawan Muhabbat). Actually this song was to be done by Lata Mangeshkar. Lata had already recorded two songs for this film. Due to her extremely busy schedule she was unable to do this song, so she suggested the name of Asha Bhosle, but , already upset over Lata’s refusal, Kidar Sharma opted for Mubarak Begum and the rest, as they say, is History. She imbued a unique character to this song with her special voice.
After 1960, the musical scene in India was undergoing drastic changes and there was no space for composers like Bhatkar, who used a minimum orchestra and dwelt upon melody. His films came in long intervals. Even Kidar Sharma left him after Fariyad (1964) only to return in Pehla Qadam (1981). Finally Bhatkar did his last Hindi film Sahme Hue Sitare (1994),which featured his son Ramesh Bhatkar, who was already a popular hero in Marathi film, stage and TV. This obscure film did nothing good to Bhatkar.
After retirement Bhatkar devoted his time for children’s welfare and his original love-Bhajan Mandali singing.
Snehal or Vasudev Gangaram Bhatkar, together with cousins Devji Bhatkar and Panchambuwa Pandurang Shivalkar, was the founder member of ‘Vishwambhar Prasadik Bhajan Mandal’ in Dadar. It is still in operation after 50 years, with a new set of singers. Bhatkar was very kind hearted. Every year, during Ganapati festival he used to visit his ancestral village ‘Bhate’ in Ratnagiri district and participate in singing bhajans.
Lata, Talat and Mukesh were his favourite singers. Although Talat has not sung many songs for him, his song “Zindagi Kis Mod Pe Laayee Hamein” from Diwali Ki Raat (1956) was very popular. When rehearsals for this song were being done, Bhatkar had used only Tabla and Sitar for the practice session. The producer who chanced upon this rehearsal was so much impressed with this that he insisted on recording the song only with minimum instruments. So, this song has only Tabla, Sitar and another instrument for accompaniment.
Though there were many melodious songs composed by Bhatkar like, Khusro’s ‘Lakhi Babul More Kaahe Ko Deenha Bides Re’ sung soulfully by Mukesh in Suhaag Raat (1948); ‘Ro-oge Pachhtaoge’ by Mukesh and Rajkumari in Thes (1949); Lata’s ‘Chanda Tumko Laaj Aa Aayee’ from Bhola Shankar (1951); Suman Kalyanpur’s ‘Haal-e-dil Unko Sunana Tha’- Fariyad (19)64, except Kidar Sharma no other big banner producer opted for Snehal Bhatkar. Maybe his compositions were not so simple for a common man to hum or sing, although they were quality songs.
Despite several melodious songs Bhatkar was never counted amongst the first line composers. Kidar Sharma returned to him in 1980, but by that time Snehal Bhatkar was already on a descending track.
SNEHAL BHATKAR, a talented but sadly not much applauded composer, died peacefully on 29-5-2007 at his Dadar home. (originally written by me for and published by “Sangeet ke Sitare” on 27-8-2013)
Now enjoy today’s 75 year old song, sung by a 32 year old Zohrabai Ambalewali….
Song- O balam ae balam chhotee see jaan meree (Pagle)(1950) Singer- Zohrabai Ambalewali, Lyricist- Kabil Amritsari, MD-V G Bhatkar aka Snehal Bhatkar
Lyrics
O balam
ae balam
chhotee see jaan meree
nanhee see jaan meree
nainon ke teer na maar
na maar balam
nainon ke teer
o balam
ae balam
chhotee see jaan meree
nanhee see jaan meree
nainon ke teer na maar
na maar balam nainon ke teer
bantee(?) hain kaise chaandnee raaten
chaandnee raaten
bantee(?) hain kaise chaandnee raaten
chaandnee raaten
hotee hain kaisee pyaar kee baaten
hotee hain kaisee pyaar kee baaten
o o o o pyaar kee baaten
o o o o main kya jaanoon tera pyaar
na maar balam nainon ke teer
o o o o main kya jaanoon tera pyaar
na maar balam nainon ke teer
O balam
ae balam
chhotee see jaan meree
nanhee see jaan meree
nainon ke teer na maar
na maar balam
nainon ke teer
main hoon naaree laaj kee maaree
main hoon naaree laaj kee maaree
teree nazar ke waar ??
teree nazar ke waar ??
chhed na beech bazaar
na maar balam nainon ke teer
chhed na beech bazaar
na maar balam nainon ke teer
O balam
ae balam
chhotee see jaan meree
nanhee see jaan meree
nainon ke teer na maar
na maar balam
nainon ke teer
toone jo meree bainyya maroree
toone jo meree bainyya maroree
keh doongee sabko say sorry
keh doongee sabko say sorry
maan le(?) meree thanedaar
na maar balam nainon ke teer
maan le(?) meree thanedaar
na maar balam nainon ke teer
O balam
ae balam
chhotee see jaan meree
nanhee see jaan meree
nainon ke teer na maar
na maar balam
nainon ke teer
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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