Thhaam ke dil main rah gayee sajnaa
Posted on: August 13, 2025
This article is written by Peevesie’s mom, 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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Hullo Atuldom
Acclaimed actress of the 1950s, who was much-loved even after she hung-up her acting boots in 1970, turns a year older-enters her 93rd year on this earth on 13th August. She was loved as much for her acting as her proficiency in dancing- she is a trained, disciplined Bharat Natyam dancer. Recently, in February 2024, at age 90, she took part in Raag Sewa performance series at Ram Mandir, Ayodhya, with a Bharat Natyam dance recital, and its video soon became viral on social media. She is a lady (from the older generation) who’s work I simply adore. The spark in her eyes when she is dancing is something out-of-this-world.
She was born in Madras (present day Chennai) to Mandyam Dhati Raman and Vasundhara Devi – an actress of the 1940s (herself). She was primarily raised by her grandmother Yadugiri Devi. At age 7, she was chosen to perform a classical Indian dance for Pope Pius XII while her mother was an audience, in 1940, at Vatican City. She learned Bharatnatyam from V. Ramaiah Pillai and Carnatic music from D. K. Pattammal, K. V. Narayanaswamy, M. S. Subbulakshmi, K. P. Kittappa Pillai and other such learned teachers of those times, under the guidance of her grandmother.
Recently, I revisited an episode of the Farooq Sheikh hosted TV show ‘Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai’ where the Guru, D.K. Pattammal, of this exponent of dance & music, has spoken fondly about her disciple. It can be seen in this video.
Today, we are celebrating the 93rd birthday of the living- legend Vyjayanthimala. As an actress she first faced the camera for the Tamil film ‘Vazhkai’ (1949) which went on to become a huge success. She reprised the role first in Telugu & then in Hindi (in 1951). It is to her credit that she learnt to speak both Telugu & Hindi so that she could dub her own lines.
Eventually, she went on to act in many Hindi films most of which were successful. All the films showcased her dancing talent across the genres of classical & folk; she was also comfortable with the western styles of dancing which our Indian films had in abundance-
tu mera main teri duniya jaley to jaley (Pyaar Hi Pyaar)(1969),
Chhoti si mulaaqaat pyaaar ban gayee (Chhoti Si Mulaaqaat)(1967),
Badan pe sitaare lapete huye((Prince)(1969)
and the song/dance number with the biggest fan-following ever
Eena meena deeka(Asha)(1957)
Of course her best known song & dance numbers are
Honthon mein aisi baat main daba ke chali aayi (Jewel Thief)(1967),
all her dances of ‘Madhumati’, ‘Nagin’, ‘Amrapali’, and a few 100 others.
Vyjayanthimala was cast as heroine to all the major actors of her time- Karan Dewan being her hero in her debut film. Pradeep Kumar, Bharat Bhushan, Suresh, Premnath, Gemini Ganesan (from South Indian films), Balraj Sahni, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Dharmendra, Sunil Dutt etc. were the actors she was usually paired with. We cannot overlook her films where Kishore Kumar was her hero; these were a category of their own. I would like to mention that here I have only spoken of her films in Hindi, I have zero knowledge about her films in Tamil or Telugu or Kannada; I read somewhere on the internet that there was a Kannada film in 1954 which though complete, never released. ‘Nazrana’, ‘Devdas’, ‘Ladki’, ‘Amardeep’ etc. were her films which had two or more heroines.
I would like to mention that in the 1959 film ‘Paigham’ Vyjayanthimala’s character Manju’s mother was played by her real-life mother Vasundhara Devi. Also, when I revisited the ‘Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai’ episode (that I have mentioned above), I found that her son Suchindra Bali has acted in a few films, one of which came in 2003 (Hindi) and another in 2007 (Tamil). He has done Cameos in two other films but is essentially a Law Graduate.
Considering that the danseuse/ actress has been retired from films since (almost) 1969 I thought that all songs featuring her or from her movies have been posted on the blog. I checked up to see if all her movies are already YYIIPPEEEEd. I landed up on this 1955 film “Sitaara’ which has eight songs that were written by Shakeel Badayuni and composed by Ghulam Mohammed. Lata Mangeshkar, Shamshad Begum and Mohd Rafi, were the playback singers used. The blog has the following six songs.
| Song | Date of post | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Nashe mein jo daulat ke ham dagmagaaye | 31 March 2011 | Lata Mangeshkar solo |
| Taqdeer ki gardish kyaa kam thhi | 19 June 2011 | Lata Mangeshkar solo |
| Masti mein jhoom jhoom jiyaa meraa gaaye | 16 July 2011 | Lata Mangeshkar solo |
| Thhandi hawaayen kaali ghataayen | 24 June 2015 | Md Rafi- Shamshad Begam duet |
| Jamuna ke paar koi bansi bajaaye | 20 December 2015 | Lata Mangeshkar solo |
| Ye duniya ki rail musaafir aage badhtee jaaye | 31 May 2023 | Md Rafi solo |
The actors in the film were Vyjayanthimala, Pradeep Kumar, Shashikala, Om Prakash, Gope, Jayant, Begum Para, Shyam Kumar, Amar, Helen, Protima Devi, Indira Bansal, etc. The film was produced by P.N. Arora & directed by S.K. Ojha. I could not find the YouTube link for the film, nor the synopsis anywhere on the internet, hence I can’t tell much about the story of the film. In fact, the video to today’s song is also unavailable, hence we cannot tell who is lip-syncing to Lata Mangeshkar’s voice, I would like to imagine that it is a song with Today’s Birthday Girl -Vyjayanthimala on screen.
Wishing you Lots of Good Health & Good Times with all your near and dear ones. Happy Birthday to the one & only Vyjayanthimala (Bali).
Song-Thhaam ke dil main rah gayee sajnaa(Sitaara)(1955) Singer-Lata, Lyrics-Shakeel Badayuni, MD-Ghulam Mohammad
Lyrics
Thhaam ke dil
main rah gayee sajnaa aa aa aa
kaisa chalaayaa tee eer
nainon mein bas gaye ae sundar sapne
manwa mein jaaa aagee peer
aaa aaa aaa
aaa aaa aaa
aaa aaa
balma jiya dhadke
o sainyya jiya dhadke
najar mat maaro jee
najar mat maaro jee
balma jiya dhadke
o sainyya jiya dhadke
najar mat maaro jee
najar mat maaro jee
ulfat kee duniya liye
chhote se man mein piyaa
ulfat kee duniya liye
chhote se man mein
naachtee aayee main to
chanda ke ban mein
naachtee aayee main to
chanda ke ban mein
?? jaao sitaaron
najar mat maaro jee
najar mat maaro jee
balma jiya dhadke
o sainyya jiya dhadke
najar mat maaro jee
najar mat maaro jee
dil dil se miley huye
kismat bhee raazee piyaa
dil dil se mily huye
kismat bhee raazee
pyaar mein laagee piyaa
jeewan kee baazee
pyaar mein laagee piyaa
jeewan kee baazee
chaahe jeet ho ke haar
o najar mat maaro jee
najar mat maaro jee
balma jiya dhadke
o sainyya jiya dhadke
najar mat maaro jee
najar mat maaro jee
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 13, 2025 at 8:53 pm
I had a crush on her when I was about 7 or 8 years old – after watching Duniya with my family!!!
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