Aasmaan par hain jitne sitaare
Posted on: August 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 Dr.Z-1959.
When I first saw the title of this film, I thought it to be a Sci- Fi film. In the period of the 1950s and the 1960s many Sci Fi films from Hollywood were coming to India and our clever filmmakers used to grab the story matter. By making few changes in the story to protect themselves from legal action (like the film Begunah-1957), Hindi films were made by them. It is not that there was a shortage of good stories or there were no creative story writers in the industry, but many B and C grade filmmakers found this method profitable and saleable. In those days, a certain section of the film audience was devoted to such films.
However, when I found later – to my dismay – that this was just an ordinary crime story film mixed with a Love story, I was disappointed. looking at its cast, director and the Music director, one could easily guess the type of film that it was. The title of the film was supposed to arouse the interest of the fixed audience.
The title seems funny, isn’t it? Somehow, I find that the filmmakers give bizarre titles to their films sometimes.
Films with prefixes Mr. or Dr. were plenty. The earliest such Talkie film was ‘Mr. 420’ made in 1937. Later, ‘Mr. X’ was made in 1938. This was repeated in 1957 and 1984. ‘Mr. X in Bombay’ was made in 1964. ‘Mr. India’ came in 1961 and also 1987. There was a ‘Mr. Bechara’ in 1996, ‘Mr. Chakram’ in 1956, ‘Mr, Jhatpat’ in 1943, ‘Mr John’ in 1959, ‘Mr. Lamboo’ in 1956. ‘Mr. Romeo’ in 1973 and 1999. ‘Mr. Q’ in 1958, ‘Mr.Bond’ in 1992, ‘Mr. Azad’ in 1994, ‘Mr .Dynamite’ in 1947, ‘Mr. Murder’ in 1969, ‘Mr. Qartoon, M.A.’ in 1958, ‘Mr. Sampat’ in 1952, ‘Mr. Toofan’ in 1963, ‘Mr. 100%’ in 2005, ‘Mr. Badmash’ in 2009, ‘Mr. Bhatti on Chhutti’ in 2012, ‘Mr. Hot and Mr. Cool’ in 2007, ‘Mr. Lonely Miss Lovely’ in 2004, ‘Mr. Prime Minister’ in 2005, ‘Mr. Singh Mrs. Mehta’ in 2009, ‘Mr. White Mr. Black’ in 2007, ‘Mr. ya Mrs.’ in 2005, The most hilarious title in this category was ‘Mr. Khujli’ in 2007 !!!
Starting with ‘Dr. Madhurika’ (1935), it was ‘Dr. Ambedkar’ (1989 and 2000), ‘Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani’ (1946), ‘Dr. Kumar’ (1944), ‘Dr. Ramesh’ (1949), ‘Dr. Vidya’ (1962), ‘Dr. Z’ (1959) etc. There may be some more films like these, but I have only quoted some examples.
The decade of the 1940s and the 1950s was the period when stunt and action films were made in plenty. There were specialised actors, producers, directors, composers and even specialised audiences too for such films. Stunt and action films was a very sweeping name for a genre which included several types of sub-categories. When I started studying these films, I found one kind soul – Mike Burnum -who identified and classified stunt/action films made in India, into sub categories. For the information of our New esteemed readers, the different types within the generalised stunt/action films were…
Fantasy and Arabian Nights -92 films
Horror – 67
Jungle Thrillers (Tarzan/Zimbo/Zambo/Zangbo/Zingara etc)
New Century Horror films ( Horror films made after 2000)
Science Fiction
Chillers
Spies and Detective
Superheroes / heroines
Murder and Mystery
Sword Fighting and
Naag Films etc.
Though it was a C grade action film, HFGK mentions Dr.Z as a ‘Social’ film. Maybe, as it was not exactly a stunt film, the film may have been classified as a social film. The story of this film was just a one line story, expanded at convenience as per the needs of audiences.
Mahipal – a Police officer is after a gang of anti-national criminals, who want to steal a formula from a scientist, which can destroy a big country like India in just 2 minutes. He (naturally, compulsorily and as per the director’s instructions) falls in love with the scientist’s pretty daughter (Shakeela) to sing songs, when not on duty. The film ends on expected Happy Notes.
While such B and C grade films were being made for a specific section of the audience, let us take a look at what was the scene in the Hindi film industry in India at that time….
We had come near the end of the decade with the year 1959. It was about 12 years since the upheaval in the film industry with the mass migration of film artistes from India to Pakistan, post Partition. Even after that some movements were still going on with late goers. Fortunately normalcy had returned to the industry by that time, much faster than was expected by the world watchers. Unlike Pakistan-who had to build a fresh new industry in their country- our infrastructure was intact, the base was wide and solid and vacancies were filled up promptly, by artistes waiting in the wings.
However, now the social atmosphere was different. People were not yet used to the sentiments of “we” and “they”. This necessitated changing topics for films being made. Big guns like Mehboob and B R Chopra did not touch upon “sensitive” issues. Instead, their stress was on entertainment and minor current social issues.
While entertainers like Dil Deke Dekho, Anadi, Love marriage, Bazigar,Bank manager, Bhai behan, Chhoti behen, Black cat, C I D Girl, Chacha Zindabad, Chandrasena, Circus queen, Commander, Didi, Do Gunde, Do Ustaad, Dr. Z, Fashionable wife, Guest house, Jaal saaz, Kali topi laal rumaal, Kanhaiya, Paigham, Qaidi No.911, Satta Bazar, School master, Shararat, came to entertain people, some specialised films too were made. Historicals like Tipu Sultan and Samrat Prithwiraj Chauhan were made. As usual, mythology was there too.
V. Shantaram, after 5 years, once again tried his hand successfully at making a film based on Dancing. Navrang not only had excellent Dances, but C.Ramchandra created his magic- albeit sans Lata-this time with Asha Bhosale. Guru Dutt’s dream film “Kagaz ke Phool” was a failure, just like Raj Kapoor’s dream film “Mera Naam Joker” a few years hence. Both films were prestigious films for these ace film makers and they had staked their own for these movies. The failure of these movies at the box office shattered their makers to the core. But such is the fickleness of the Indian audience !
Bimal Roy had his special touch in Sujata and Hrishikesh Mukherjee equalled his mentor with Anadi. B R Chopra made Dhool ka Phool discussing premarital pregnancy and the upbringing of a Hindu baby by a kind Muslim family. ( This same theme was stretched to another level, by him, 2 years later with Dharmaputra-61).
Social issues were touched in Paigham( owner vs. workers), Heera Moti (farmer’s problems), Satta Bazar ( ills of gambling). Khwaja Ahmed Abbas showed his ‘never say die’ spirit by making “chaar dil char rahen”, which as expected flopped despite good cast. S Mukherjee, Usha Khanna and Shammi Kpoor weaved magic with Dil Deke Dekho, which became a trend setter for Nasir Hussain and directors of his ilk, in the coming years. Goonj Uthhi Shehnai had music by the old stalwart Vasant Desai who proved to be as good as new !
The film was directed by Jaal and the music was by Manohar. The composer MANOHAR ARORA was a Punjabi music director who came from Siyalkot to try his luck in Bombay. His first film was ‘Raees’-1948. Then came josh-50,Rangeele musafir-50, Bhoole Bhatke-52,Jingo-52,Usha Kiran-52. His best remembered film was Chingari-55. Then came passing show-56, Mister Q-58, Dr. Z-59, Choron ki Baarat-60 and the last film was Do Dushman-67.
His name is mostly written as ” Manohar” only. This created a misunderstanding that he was Manoharlal Sonik ( of the Sonik-Omi pair), which is NOT correct.
The cast of the film was Shakeela, Mahipal, Heeralal, Helen, Sunder, krishna Kumari, Dalpat, Tun Tun, Nasreen (younger sister of Shakeela), Bhudo Advani, Mirza Musharraf and many others who were regulars in such films.
Let us now enjoy today’s 66 year old song sung by a 29 year old Geeta Dutt….
Song- Aasmaan per hain jitne sitaare (Dr Z)(1959) Singer- Geeta Dutt, Lyricist- Akhtar Romani, MD- Manohar Arora
Lyrics
aasmaan par hain jitne sitare
dil mein hain daagh utne hamare
ho na ho kuchh khabar tumko iski magar
hain ye bakhshe huye sab tumhaare
aasmaan par hain jitne sitaare
aas baakee rahee zindagee na rahee
shama jaltee rahee raushnee na rahee
aaj honthon pe baakee hansee na rahee
aaj pahlee see dil mein khushee na rahee
kaun bigdee hamaaree sanwaare
aasmaan par hain jitne sitaare
ajnabee raaste thhey hamen na bhale
hum chalen to badhe aur bhee faasle
lut gayee beraham aasmaan ke taley
jaane kitnee tamannaaon ke kaafile
khud hamaare huye na hamaare
aasmaan par hain jitne sitaare
phoonk de koi is chaandnee raat ko
jismein tarsen hum unse mulaakaat ko
loot le koi taaron kee baaraat ko
aag lag jaaye duniya kee har baat ko
dhoondte rah gaye hum kinaare
aasmaan par hain jitne sitaare
dil mein hain daagh utne hamaare
ho na ho kuch khabar tumko iski magar
hain ye bakhshe huye sab tumhaare
aasmaan par hain jitne sitaare
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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