Chhumak chhumak mora baaje ghoongharvaa
Posted on: August 9, 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 a social family drama film- Bahu Beti-1952.
The film was made under the banner of Baroda Theatres Limited, Bombay. It was directed by C.L.Dheer. he was the father of actor Pankaj Dheer, while it was produced by Sutlaj Dheer, mother of Pankaj Dheer. C.L.Dheer directed only 3 films. Today’s film, Zindagi-1956 and Aalingan-1974.
The music was by S.D.Batish – a cousin of Husnlal and Bhagatram. He later went to the U.K, where he worked for BBC and then migrated to the USA for good. Here he opened a Hotel and an Indian Music School . He also wrote several books on Indian music. His contribution in promoting Indian culture and music in the USA is praiseworthy.
The cast of the film included Geeta Bali, Amarnath, jaswant, Vijayalaxmi, Leela Mishra, S,Nazeer and others. Actor Jaswant is best known as Geeta Bali’s Brother-in-Law. He was married to Geeta Bali’s sister and father of the famous actress Yogita Bali. He was father-in-law to actor Mithun Chakraborty. and Grandfather to Mimoh Chakraborty, Rimoh Chakraborty, and Namoshi Chakraborthy.
His real name was Irshad Ali and he was a cousin of director Abrar Alvi. He changed his name when he came in films with Main Abla Nahin Hoon in 1949. Subsequently he came in mostly Geeta Bali starrers.
He had a wife and children in Pakistan prior to coming to India. When his career failed after just 5 films, he migrated back to Pakistan leaving behind his new wife and 2 kids ( Yogita Bali and Yogesh Bali) in India.
1952 was an year, when resurgent India was trying to organise itself as an Independent Nation. Jawaharlal Nehru had formed India’s first Government after the first General Elections. In the film industry also few milestones were reached.
The first ever international Film Festival was organised in Bombay. The fortnightly magazine FILMFARE was launched. A delegation of Indian film personalities visited Hollywood. Two colour films-Aan and Jhansi ki rani (released in 1953) were censored. Pakistan banned import of Indian films after an agitation of Pakistani Film artistes. Bimal Roy shifted his base from Calcutta to Bombay.
Besides this, Radio Ceylon played a major role in popularising Hindi Film Music almost worldwide. Radio Ceylon Hindi service started before 1950. Hamid Sayani, elder brother of Amin Sayani, was involved in Radio Ceylon in early days and Binaca Geetmala started in 1952. The announcers of Radio Ceylon like Kamini and Vijaya sisters, Vijay Kishore Dubey, Gopal Sharma, Shiv Kumar Saroj, Sunil Dutt, Manohar Mahajan etc were household names. So were towns like Jhumri Talaiyya, Nanded and few others. Radio clubs cropped up everywhere.
Radio Ceylon got the real boost when HFM stopped playing on A.I.R. in 1952.It is popularly believed that the then Minister for information and broadcasting, V.B.Keskar was against film music, calling it Vulgar and that it was he who banned it on A.I.R.
But it is NOT TRUE !
It is true that Keskar was a Purist and disliked Hybrid Music (i.e. HFM ),but he did not ban it. What actually had happened was that A.I.R. announced its revised policy in July 1952 which said,1) Broadcast time for Hindi film songs will be reduced and 2) Dropping the custom of announcing the name of the Film of the song.
IMPPA or The Indian motion Picture producers’ Association was enraged at this loss of free advertisement opportunity for their films and the producers, in their capacity as Copyright owners, took away the A.I.R. ‘s licences for broadcasting film songs. Thus film songs disappeared from A.I.R.,replaced by sugam sangeet and classical music.
(Ref. “Mourning the nation: Indian cinema in the wake of the Partition” by Bhaskar Sarkar,pp 57 and .https://www.livemint.com/…/In-1952-Hindi-film-songs-were-ba… ) So, the truth is Keskar did not ban HFM, it was the producers’ association which withdrew licences to AIR, thus forcing them to stop HFM.
We had a very interesting discussion on the RMIM forum on this issue, a few years back. Dr.Surjit singh ji , like a magician, produced several old documents which proved that Keskar was NOT the villain, but popularly he was held responsible by one and all.
Radio Ceylon took advantage of the situation and grew very fast, starting programmes like Binaca Geetmala and Lipton ke Sitare. They did yeoman service to popularise HFM in south east Asia. Radio Ceylon’s transmitters were powerful and Boosters were installed in India. The famous Mountaineer Edmund Hillary wrote, ” Soon after Conquering Everest, we turned on our Transmitter Radio and the First thing we heard was an Overseas broadcast of Radio Ceylon Hindi service-from more than 3000 miles away ! ”
The year 1952 also saw some of the outstanding musical films and films with some other importance. Scanning the 105 Hindi films that were censored in 1952, we find that the colour film Aan was made in Hindi, English and Tamil language versions. Anand math-first Hindi film of Hemant Kumar had few eternally famous songs by Lata, Geeta and Hemant himself. Aasmaan was the first film of O P Nayyar, from whose soundtrack, Radio Ceylon picked up one of its programme music. Then there was Anhonee. Baiju Bawra-a musical film which opened the doors of A grade films for its lead pair-Meena kumari and Bharat Bhushan, languishing in B and C grade films hitherto.
Film Chamkee for which actress Ragini came all the way from Pakistan, Film Jaal another musical. Jungle ka Jawahir-last film for the yesteryear stalwart composer Madholal master, who was murdered in his flat in Shivaji park, in 1990. Film Maa- first Hindi film of Bimal Roy in his Bombay career. Naubahar-a Roshan musical and Neelam Pari- Last film for migrator khwaja Khurshid Anwar, MD. Film Saqi,a musical and Sheesha-first film for Kumkum. Shin shinaki Boobla Boo-strange name film featured in the environs of a Far Eastern country. Film Yatrik-a Himalaya trek religious film by Pankaj Mullik, with some outstanding Bhajans and finally film Zalzala-in which Dev Ananad died on screen for the first time ( He never liked the idea,though). The only Next time he died on screen was in Guide-65.
1952 was an year which was going through a lean period for Hindi films. Increased costs of Film production,escalating rates of stars and music Directors, establishment of Star System in place of earlier Studio System, increasing taxes, decreasing number of Cinema Halls etc caused a worry in the film industry. Financiers with Black money were making films – in 1952 the number of Hindi films made went up to 105 from 97 of 1951, but dropped again to 98 in 1953. Most films were of lower quality. Because of superior music there were some great films too, but the situation was grave nevertheless.
Some Hit films like Aan, Baiju Bawra, Daag, Anand Math, Yatrik, Chhoti Maa etc. became popular with their music. Other films like Jaal, Anhonee, Sangdil, Maa, Bewafa, Aandhiyan, Bidya sagar, Ratnadeep, Nanhe-Munne, Mr. Sampat etc were good enough but not so good. Naushad and C.Ramchandra were competing acutely for the No. 1 rank and the audiences were gaining in the process, by their delightful music.
The Government suddenly became active, Censor Boards were closed from different regions and it was Centralised. The First ever Film Festival in India was held, in which 140 films from more than 20 countries were exhibited. Selected famous films were shown in all 4 Metro Cities. Bimal Roy shifted to Bombay and started his own film company.
In the last so many years- till 1980 – I must have seen hundreds of Films- Hindi, Marathi, English, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. In the Hindi films, I can not forget 3 actresses, who were Bubbly, playful, with innocent looks and with Natural acting talent. They were Meena Shorey, Nalini Jaywant and Geeta Bali. I enjoyed every film of these actresses, which I saw. It is difficult to forget the role and acting of Meena Shorey in film ” Ek thi Ladki-49″, or Nalini Jaywant in film ” Hum sab chor hain-56″, or Geeta Bali in film ” Aji Bas Shukriya-58″. These were all my favourite actresses. It is very unfortunate that they all met their deaths in very tragic circumstances.
Geeta Bali’s dancing eyes and her animated, expressive face which mirrored her soul were her most outstanding features. Yet life was snatched away from this vibrant personality at an achingly young age of 35.It is some consolation that Geeta crammed a lot into her short life: 80 odd films in a ten-year career. She married struggling actor-turned-megastar Shammi Kapoor and fathered two children: a son and a daughter. Today, she is remembered as a wonderfully natural actress and a fabulous human being.She was quite close to her sisters and brother. Her childhood pet name was KEETA.
True, Geeta’s reputation as an actress rests more on her performances than her roles. Natural, spontaneous and gifted with a spot-on sense of comic timing, she never really found a vehicle worthy of her talent. Largely a shade better than the movies she starred in, she frittered away her talents in B-grade films. Probably the fact that she was born into a family that had to struggle for sheer survival and the fact that she reached the top through sheer grit had Geeta stress on quantity rather than quality.
Shammi Kapoor entered her life when they worked in the quaintly named Miss Coca Cola and Coffee House together. On an impulse, Geeta played a small role of a man in Sharma’s Shammi Kapoor starrer Rangeen Raatein. On the film’s Ranikhet outdoor, Shammi and Geeta fell in love. Kapoor was an year younger to her and was not yet a star, but the twosome were hell bent on marrying each other. Geeta had worked with Shammi’s eldest brother, Raj Kapoor in Bawre Nain, and with his father, Prithviraj Kapoor in Anand Math, Shammi was unsure about their reaction to this match. But on August 23, 1955, with producer-director Hari Walia and friend Johnny Walker as witness, the couple were married at the Banganga Temple at 4 am.
Geeta had not been vaccinated for smallpox, despite the fact her father too had died of Smallpox. She had ignored repeated warnings in her childhood. She contracted the dreaded disease while shooting the film. The best care was rushed to her, but her fever apparently reached 107 degrees. Her doctor saw a picture by his patient’s bedside and asked who the pretty lady was. The disease had so wracked Geeta’s frail frame that he didn’t recognise her as the same person!
Geeta Bali passed away on January 21, 1965, leaving behind eight-year-old Aditya and three-year-old Kanchan in the care of a devastated Shammi Kapoor.
Ironically, she was cremated in Banganga, not far from where she was married.
Here is a 73 year old song, sung by an young 22 year old Geeta Dutt……
Song- Chhumak chhumak mora baaje ghoongharva (Bahu Beti)(1952) Singer- Geeta Dutt, Lyricist- Kaifi Azmi, MD- S D Batish
Lyrics
chhumak chhumak mora baaje ghoongharva
ghoongharva
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
chhak sainyya ho baalamva
chhumak chhumak mora chhumak chhumak mora
chhumak chhumak mora baaje ghoongharva
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
Chhak sainyya ho baalamva
mukh dekh mera lalachaaye piya
solah singaar lubhaaye jiya
maathe pe bindiya maang sindurva nainan sohe kajarava
chhumak chhumak mora chhumak chhumak mora
chhumak chhumak mora baaje ghoongharva
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
Chhak sainyya ho baalamva
bainya gahat(??) hai
dar laagat hai
bainya gahat(??) hai
dar laagat hai
chhedat natkhat mohe
raar kare
mora tod gajarava
raar kare
mora tod gajarava
kah sab dard gamarava(?)
chhumak chhumak mora chhumak chhumak mora
chhumak chhumak mora baaje ghoongharva
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
Chhak sainyya ho baalamva
gaal pe laalee sharam see aaye
ang ang muskaaye
gaal pe laalee sharam see aaye
ang ang muskaaye
nain nasheele chitaban baanke
bhola jiya bharmaaye
ho o kaahe marat naina baan piharva
kaahe maare ho naina baan
chhumak chhumak mora chhumak chhumak mora
chhumak chhumak mora baaje ghoongharva
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
Chhak sainyya ho baalamva
chhumak chhumak mora chhumak chhumak mora
chhumak chhumak mora baaje ghoongharva
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
chhak chhum
Chhak sainyya ho baalamva
3 Responses to "Chhumak chhumak mora baaje ghoongharvaa"
August 13, 2025 at 10:29 pm
Good Evening,
Old is gold always.
Thanks for sharing.
Blessings
Uma
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 9, 2025 at 10:53 am
Arun Ji
Thanks for post. As usual lots of interesting info.
What I read for the first time is that Keskar did not ban HFM on AIR and that producers withdrew license to broadcast, and moved to Radio Ceylon
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August 9, 2025 at 11:21 am
Satish ji,
I am glad that you got new information from my post. One of my books also contains this information.
Thanks.
-AD
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