Baaje shahnaai ree banno torey angnaa
Posted on: August 15, 2025
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, 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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उर्मिले त्रिवार वंदन तुला (Urmile trivaar vandan tulaa) is a Marathi non-film bhajan rendered by Ram Phatak which I used to listen on the radio in my younger days. The meaning of the first line is ‘hey Urmila, my thrice salute to you’. The salutation by the poet is because she was an unsung character in Ramayan. She was the wife of Lakshman and younger sister of Seeta. When Ram was exiled along with Seeta for 14 years, Lakshaman decided to accompany Ram and Seeta to protect them during the exile. Urmila also wanted to join Lakshman. But she was asked by Lakshman to stay back and take care of his aged parents in Ayodhya during their absence. During those 14 years, Urmila is said to have slept continuously so that Lakshman can remain awake to protect Ram and Seeta.
I had forgotten about this Marathi song for a long time. While I was researching on Khayyam for writing a tributary article on the occasion of his 6thth Remembrance Day on August 19, 2025, I realised that his wife, Jagjit Kaur was the ‘Urmila’ in his life who sacrificed her aristocratic life to marry a struggling music director. While the selflessness of Urmila cannot be strictly comparable as Jagjit Kaur and her husband Khayyam spent their life together. But, apart from her aristocratic comfort, she sacrificed her playback singing career after her marriage with Khayyam sometime in 1954 in her own volition as she had said in her interviews. She did not seek playback singing assignments either from her husband or from others. Instead, she decided to assist her husband in whatever manner – either professionally or on the domestic front. She had said in an interview as late as 2019 that she recorded the song under Khayyam only because the scheduled playback singers did not turn up for recording the songs or the producers/directors of the films suggested her name for the songs.
Jagjit Kaur (01/11/1931 – 15/08/2021) was born in Kangmai village in Hoshiarpur district in an aristocratic family. Her father was one of the top leaders of Indian National Congress and was a musically inclined person. He allowed Jagjit Kaur to get trained in classical singing from Master Nathuram. Initially, she started singing on All India Radio, Lahore. After partition, she completed her graduation in Jalandhar. During this period, she become the radio singer at AIR. Jalandhar and Delhi.
After her graduation, Jagjit Kaur came to Mumbai with an intention of becoming a playback singer. She sang her first Hindi film song in ‘Gumaashta’ (1951) under the music direction of K Datta. Naushad had assured her the he would give her some songs in his forthcoming films. However, she got opportunity to sing three songs in ‘Dil-E-Naadaan’ (1953). under the music direction of Ghulam Mohammed who was the music assistant to Naushad. One of her songs, Khamosh Zindagi ko ek afsaana mil gayaa became popular. Her last film before her marriage with Khayyam was ‘Khoj’ in which she rendered one solo song under the direction of Nisar Bazmi.
Sometime in 1954, Jagjit Kaur married Khayyam against the wishes of her father who felt that his prospective son-in-law was a struggling music director. But it was her mother who convinced her father by saying that when both have decided to marry we should not become an obstacle. Her father reluctantly relented. The marriage was solemnised in a simple ceremony. Jagjit Kaur continued to practice Sikh religion till her last.
After marriage, Jagjit Kaur did not pursue the playback singing career. Her efforts was mainly concentrated in managing the household with a meagre income which Khayyam used to get from his small budget films. During this period, Jagjit Kaur had a small group of singers who used to give singing performances mainly of Punjabi folk songs. In one of her singing performances in Rang Bhavan in Mumbai, Ramesh Saigal had come to witness the programme. He liked her singing and offered her three songs in ‘Shola Aur Shabnam’ (1961) for which Khayyam was the music director. For the first time in this film, she rendered a melancholic song, phir wohi saawan aaya.
Jagjit Kaur’s immortal song which is also called as her signature song, tum apna ranj-o-gham apni pareshaani mujhe de do was supposed to be rendered by Asha Bhosle. However, Asha Bhosle could not make it to recording studio. Sahir Ludhianvi suggested Jagjit Kaur’s name. He had watched her during the rehearsal of the song she was carrying with Asha Bhosle. Perhaps, Sahir may have felt that she can render this song from her heart as he had witnessed the devotion to her husband despite facing financial hardship. Khayyam had to agree as Asha Bhosle’s last-minute replacement. Khayyam, in one of his interviews, had said in a choked voice that Jagjit Kaur is the quintessential “ardhaangani (wife) who exemplified the lyrics of this immortal song in his life. During the rehearsal of this song, Sahir Ludhianvi wrote the remaining couplet:
main dekhoon to sahi duniyaa tumhen kaise sataati hai
koyi din ke liye apni nigahbaani mujhe de do
[Let me see how this world will trouble you.
For few days, let me be your protector].
After Sahir Ludhianvi had worked with Khayyam for ‘Phir Subah Hogi’ (1958), he had become a family friend of Khayyam. I guess, Sahir Ludhianvi got the inspiration to write this couplet after observing Jagjit Kaur’s unfettered dedication toward her husband in the midst of his struggling musical career.
During the sabbatical years of Khayyam (1967-1974) when the family faced acute financial constraint, Jagjit Kaur made this song as her motto and supported her husband for the decision based on his principles. During this period, they were staying in a small rental flat devoid of any basic luxuries like refrigerator, car, maid servants etc. Jagjit Kaur was used to live in luxuries, being from an aristocrat family. But she adjusted her living in new environment. Khayyam had said in an interview that his wife has never made any demand both during his struggling years as well as during his successful years.
During the second innings of Khayyam’s musical career, Jagjit Kaur rendered a few songs which were mainly wedding songs. They included kaahe ko byaahe bides from ‘Umrao Jaan’ (1981) and dekh lo aaj hamko jee bhar ke from ‘Baazaar’ (1982). kab yaad mein teraa saathh naheen was a swan song for both Jagjit Kaur and Khayyam as singers from the film, ‘Anjuman’ (1986).
With the professional success achieved in 1970s, Khayyam bought a flat in Dakshina Park in Juhu with a separate music room. But they still lived in a simple life avoiding extravagance. By nature, Khayyam was a junior version of music director, Sajjad Hussain in terms of his temperament, his rigidity and perfection which at times created problems for producer/ directors and singers. But Jagjit Kaur’s influence on him gave a sobering effects on Khayyam without much compromising his principles so that the situation did not go out of control.
In all the interviews, Khayyam acknowledged the role of his wife in shaping his musical career. Jagjit Kaur has revealed in one of her interviews that she never felt disappointed for not pursuing her playback singing career after the marriage. She said that she enjoyed assisting Khayyam in composition of tunes, orchestration, selecting singers and rehearsing with them which she felt was more challenging than playback singing. Throughout Khayyam’s music career, Jagjit Kaur was his muse. Because of her contributions, Khayyam had proposed to add her name, making a musica director duo, ‘Khayyam-Jagjit Kaur’ during his second innings. But she vetoed his suggestion. Khayyam on his part started giving credit to her, first as music assistant, followed by Assistant Music Director and towards the second half of 1980s as Associated Music Director.
After 16 years of the marriage, the Khayyam’s were blessed with a son, Pradeep Khayyam. He has worked in a film, Jaan-E-Wafaa’ (1991). Sadly, Pradeep passed away at the young age of 42 which devasted Jagjit Kaur and Khayyam. In memory of Pradeep, Jagjit Kaur had wished to create a charitable trust to help the cine artists and technicians in the film industries who were in financial difficulties. On his 89th birth day on February 18, 2016, Khayyam fulfilled her wish by announcing the charitable trust by contributing their entire assets worth Rs.10 crore.
When Khayyam was admitted in ICU in a hospital in August 2019 after a fall from his chair, Jagjit Kaur gave him constant company holding his hand in the hospital. She was so stressed out during this period that her blood sugar came alarmingly low forcing the hospital authority to admit her in an adjoining ICU unit. After she recovered, she was asked to go home and take rest. She was murmuring to film critic and filmmaker, Khalid Muhammad as to what Khayyam Saab will do without her.
Khayyam remained in ICU as he developed pneumonia and a lung infection. He passed away due to heart attack on August 19, 2019. After 1954, Jagjit Kaur was always with Khayyam. They rarely traveled out of Mumbai. Even if they were required to travel to Delhi or Jalandhar on family functions, they traveled together. After 64 years of togetherness, Jagjit Kaur was staying alone with every photographs displayed on the walls of their living room showing them together. Jagjit Kaur passed away on August 15, 2021, at her residence due to old-age related illness.
(Note: The life profile of Jagjit Kaur has been mainly drawn from various interviews of Khayaam and Jagjit Kaur which are available on video sharing platforms and articles in The Times of India, Mumbai Mirror, The Hindu, scroll.in etc).
On the occasion of Jagjit Kaur’s 4th Remembrance Day, I present a song, ‘baaje shehnaai re banno tere anganaa’ rendered by her with chorus from the film, ‘Chambal Ki Kasam’ (1979). The song is written by Sahir Ludhianvi which is set to music by Khayyam. It is pre-wedding song in which Farida Jalal is getting married and her elder brother, Raj Kumar who has escaped from the prison, makes a secret visit in the guise of a qawwali singer to meet Farida Jalal to give his blessing. After handing over the wedding gift, he escapes from the back door. The video song is interspersed with dialogues between Raj Kumar and Nirupa Roy and with Farida Jalal. The audio clip contains full song.
With this song, all the songs of ‘Chambal Ki Kasam’ (1979) have been covered on the Blog.
Audio Clip:
Video Clip (Partial):
Song-Baaje shehnaai ree banno torey angnaa (Chambal Ki Kasam)(1979) Singer-Jagjit Kaur, Lyrics-Sahir Ludhianvi, MD-Khayyam
Female choprus
Lyrics: (Based on Audio Clip):
baaje shehnaai ree banno torey angnaa
ho baaje shehnaai ree banno torey angnaa
baaje shehnaai ree banno torey angnaa
aaye hain baraatee leke saiyyaan tore dwaare
aaye hain baraatee leke saiyyaan tore dwaare
rang gaye goree tore saanjh sakhaare
rang gaye goree tore saaanjh sakhaare
hoy jhoom rahee bindiyaa khanak rahaa kangnaa
baaje shehnaai ree banno torey angnaa
gore gore mukhde pe ghunghta suhaave ae
gore gore mukhde pe ghunghata suhaave
aaj moree banno ko niharva na bhaave
aaj moree banno ko niharva na bhaave
haay laage mann goriyaa kaa sakhiyon ke sang naa
laage mann goriyaa kaa sakhiyon ke sang naa
ho baaje shehnaai ree banno torey angnaa
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 16, 2025 at 7:24 pm
Sadanand Ji,
Thanks a lot for this laudable post. I was touched by the life of Jagjit Kaur which I was hardly aware of. You have understandably given example of Urmila as preamble to writing about Jagjit Kaur . She is /was the best thing to happen to Khayyam in his life (himself an accomplished MD).
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August 17, 2025 at 11:03 am
Thanks Satish jee.
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