Aisa baagh lagaaya
Posted on: August 31, 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 film of the first decade of Talkie films in India – Moti ka Haar aka Pearl Necklace-1937.
The year 1937 was a year of Revolution for the newly started Talkie Film. Initially the films were mainly based on Folk tales, Parsi dramas and Mythological stories. 1937 was a year in which the Film industry was trying to drop its old skin and don a New Avtar. From this year, a variety of subjects were used to make films. If we briefly look at some path breaking, landmark films using Novel themes, we will understand how the film industry was attempting to change itself.
The newly established Minerva Movietone made a film on the importance and benefits of Celibacy in the film ‘Atma Tarang’.
Some artistes made their Debuts in 1937, like Ghulam Mohd.,MD for film Banke Sipahi, Comedian V H Desai in film Captain Kirti Kumar, Kishore Sahu in the film Jeevan prabhat, the eternal Mausi of Hindi films, Leela Mishra debuted in film Gangavataran. This was also a Debut film for Dadasaheb Phalke in making a Talkie film. David made his Debut in ‘Zambo-the ape man’.
Prakash films tried their hand at Stunt films with ‘Challenge’ and ‘His Highness’, using Veterinary actors like Dogs, Horses and a Motorcycle. Prabhat’s iconic film ‘ Duniya Maane na’ shook All India audiences with its story. Shanta Apte sang an English song in it. Bombay Talkies made its first and last Mythological film ‘ Savitri ‘ with Ashok Kumar and Devika Rani.
Gangavataran was a film made by Dadasaheb Phalke. It was his First, the only and his last Talkie film too.
Imperial made India’s first indigenously made First colour film-Kisan Kanya. With this film, however, Master Nissar ended his ‘Hero’ ship as an actor.
Wadia Movietone made India’s first songless talkie film,’ Naujawan ‘, facing the ire of its audience for ‘cheating ‘ them !
‘Zambo – The Ape man ‘ became the first Tarzan type Indian talkie film, beginning a new Genre !
Maadan theatres Calcutta pulled its shutters down with their last Talkie film’ Zinda Bhoot ‘.
1937 was real path breaking for 2 solid reasons….One, for the first time, Playback singing started in a Bombay film with ‘Mahageet ‘. The song was sung by Anil Biswas, its MD and it was filmed on Hiren Bose, in the role of a beggar, near a crematorium (Smashan Bhoomi), as per book ‘ Music without Boundaries’ by Dr. Ashok Ranade,pp183-186.
Secondly,for the first time, in an Indian film successful special effects were used in film ” Khwaab ki Duniya ” -a film by Prakash Pictures, based on the popular novel “The Invisible Man” by H G Wells. A Hollywood film by the same name was made in 1933. The trick scenes in this Indian film were as good as the Hollywood film. Credit goes to Babubhai Mistri for creating the actions of an Invisible man , on the screen. He was nicknamed ” Kala Dhaga ” after this film.
Here are some more films of 1937….
Atma Tarang…. Minerva movietone’s first film. A resounding flop. Only 20 people for the first show !
Anath Ashram….By New Theatres, Calcutta
Asiai Sitara….By Haribhai Desai. Remake of his own silent film of the same name. Jenabai Pawar, wife of actor Zunzar Rao Pawar, an Anglo Indian (Jena Lawson) was Heroine and she sang few Hindi songs also.
Banke Sipahi… Debut of Ghulam Mohd. as M.D.
Bhishma….First remake of a Tamil film of 1936. Music was by Mukhtar begum.
Bulldog….Indurani as heroine and singer.
Captain Kirti Kumar….Debut of comedian V.H.Desai
Dharam veer and Prem Veer….Both films by Huns Pictures of Master Vinayak.
Duniya Na Maane…. Prabhat film on social evil.
Gentleman Daku…Double role of Leela Chitnis.
Guru Ghantal…. Debut of Om Prakash (Uncredited)
Hurricane Hansa…. Nadia in Wadia’s stunt film.
Insaaf…. First film of total 7 films with the same Title.
Izzat, Jeevan Prabhat, Khan Bahadur, Khudai Khidmadgar, Kisan Kanya, Mahageet, Moti ka Haar, Naujawan, Pratibha, President, Qazzaq ki Ladki, Shadi ka mamla, Toofani Tarzan, Vidyapati and Wahan.
The film was made by Sangeet Film Co. Bombay. The owner of this banner was Jaddanbai, who directed this film as well as gave music also. There are very few such cases where a director of a film was also its Music Director. Off hand I can quote only two examples – Badri Prashad and S.N.Tripathi from the older times. I am not aware of any such other examples from recent times.
Jaddan Bai was a woman of real substance. She had the guts, courage, skill and ability to stand alone in an era when Tawaifs were looked down upon and had no respect in the society. Not only did she prove her mettle but also ensured that all her children were well set in the film industry. Her biodata is very inspiring indeed.
JADDANBAI was born in 1892. She was the love child of Motilal Nehru and her mother Daleepabai, who was a beautiful Tawaif. Daleepabai was originally from a Brahmin family,but was abducted and trained as a Tawaif. Jaddanbai was picked up from a mela of kothewalas, when she was only 5 yr. old and was trained as a Tawaif.
A close look at the special feature of Nose in Nargis,Indira Gandhi,Pt.Nehru,Rajiv Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi will confirm the similarity in the Nehru clan feature. Jaddanbai used to tie Rakhi also to Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru. ( from an article by Rajnikumar Pandya ji.)
Jaddanbai started learning music under the Ustad Moinuddin Khan, Barkat ali khan, Chhaddu khan and Laabh khan. Though she was born in Benaras, she grew up in Allahabad, the Nehru’s home town.
She started singing gazals and soon became so famous that she cut several Gramophone records. She was invited by many kings and states like, Rampur, Indore, Gwalior, Bikaner etc. She was very popular. A Lahore based film maker, Hakim Ram pershad was also charmed by her singing and offered her a film role. At that time she was almost 40 year old, but she was not hired for her beauty but her singing. She did the role of Gopichand’s mother in this film. She was offered a role in film Raja Gopichand-1933, by Play Art Photo tone Co. of Lahore. She did that film and also did Insan ya shaitan, also in 1933, Sewa Sadan, Prem Pariksha and Naachwali, all in 1934 in Lahore and Karachi.
After these films, she decided that she had earned a lot so far and she wanted to enter the film business. She left the well earned fame and riches to relocate to Bombay to do a film career. Those days, Calcutta was for Bangla films, Lahore for Punjabi films and Madras for Tamil/Telugu films, so only Bombay catered to Urdu/ Hindi films. Naturally Jaddanbai’s choice became Bombay.
She started her own company – Sangeet Film Co. and produced ‘Talashe Huq’ in 1935, in which her daughter Baby Rani (later Nargis) made her debut. ( actually Baby Rani had also worked earlier in film Nachwali-34, but it was uncredited ). Jaddanbai was an actor,singer, director and she also gave music to few films. Thus she became the second female music Director(after Bibbo) in India.
As an actress her films were- Raja Gopichand-33, Insan ya shaitan-33, Sewa sadan-34, Prem Pariksha-34, Naachwali-34, Talash e huq-35, Hriday Manthan-36 and Madam Fashion-36.
She also Directed few films-Madame Fashion-36, Hriday Manthan-36, Moti ka Haar-37 and Jeewan Swapna-37.
As a Music Director,her films were-Talash e huq-35, Madame fashion-36, Hriday Manthan-36, Moti ka Haar-37 and Jeewan Swapna-37.
As a singer her famous songs were- pardesiya re jara-Naachwali-34
range mehfil na raha-Prem pariksha-34
Aaina rakh do -Sewa sadan-34
Dil me jabse kisi ka-Talash e huq-35
Khoone dil ka kahin-Hriday manthan-36 and
Ho pyala mad se bhara-Madam Fashion-36.
Her singing was very enchanting and even Saigal was her fan.
She had 3 husbands and 1 child each from every one.
First she married Narottamdas Khatri,the financer of her first film.He converted to Islam and became Bachhi Babu to marry her. She got Akhtar Hussain from him.
Her second husband was Ustad Irshaad Meer Khan, from whom she got Anwar Hussain.
Her third husband was Mohan Babu. This Uttamchand Mohanchand Tyagi was an orthodox Mohyal Brahmin from Rawalpindi. He was going to London for studying Medicine. He heard Jaddanbai’s singing and fell for her. Against all resistence from his family, he converted to Islam, became Abdul Rashid and married her. She had atlast found true love and till the end, they loved each others. He was known as Mohan Babu.He was handsome,rich and good natured. From him Jaddanbai got a girl child called Fatima Rashid or Baby Rani or NARGIS. It is believed that due to her love for Mohan Babu she adopted a Hindu name of Jaya Devi Tyagi also.
Her elder son Akhtar kept away from the family, became a Director, but later started his own business away from these people. Anwar Hussain and Nargis entered films.
Jaddanbai was very well read,cultured and a social person. She died on 8-4-1949.
I tried very hard to get the film’s story content but no luck. One book fleetingly mentione that a Moti ka haar (Pearl Necklace) is given to a wife. After few days, she finds it to be a fake one. Later it is found out that the real one was stoles and a fake was replaced by a thief etc. The cast ofthe film was Mehtab, Ashiq hussain, Anita Devi, Mirza, Shyamlal, Baby Rani (Nargis) etc etc.
The hero of the film The hero of the film Moti ka Haar-37 was Ashiq Hussain. Not much information is available on him, except that he hailed from U.P. and that he was educated up to Matriculation, in those days. He was one of the young and good looking heros of those days. He acted in 25 films, starting with Jaddanbai’s film Talash E Haq-35 and his last film was Utho Jaago-47 – a film produced by actress Shehzadi. After the film was complete, they got married and later migrated to Pakistan. There, Ashiq Hussain turned into a full time producer and made many films. Unfortunately no information about him in Pakistan is also available. Ashiq Hussain sang 32 songs in 13 films.
Ashiq Hussain, trained in the Jankiprasad Kathak Gharana of Banaras, abandoned a thriving career and fame in the Hindi film industry. A unique project that is trying to find his roots in Pakistan.
Here is the remarkable tale of Ashiq Hussain — a transcendent dancer and film star of India in the 1930s and 1940s — now forgotten.
At the time of the Indo-Pak partition, Ashiq Hussain and his brothers, who were all musicians or dancers, uprooted their families from rural Rajasthan and migrated to Lahore. His last film Utho Jago was released in 1947 when he was just thirty-eight and still in his prime.
Ashiq Hussain — who was recognised by the title ‘Nritya Samrat’ — was trained in the Jankiprasad Kathak Gharana of Banaras. On the eve of his departure, he handed the torch of this Gharana to an outstanding student — eighteen year old Hazarilal, who he’d raised like a son.
Yasir Abbasi, famous writer adds….
Ashiq Hussain (real name: Bhoore Khan) was essentially a Banaras gharana-trained Kathak dancer, and was given the title ‘Nritya Samraat’. His cinema journey started with Vishnu Cinetone and he went on to act in many films under different banners in the 1930s-40s period. Some more information on him can be found here.
Here is a song from this 88 year old film, sung by a 28 year old Ashiq Hussain. Enjoy the old style song….
Song- Aisa baagh lagaaya (Moti Ka Haar)(1937) Singer- Ashiq Hussain, Lyricist- P L Santoshi, MD- Jaddan Bai
Lyrics
Aisa baagh lagaaya
haan aan aan
aisa baagh lagaaya
phoolon mein jiske chhup kar ke ye
phoolon mein jiske chhup kar ke ye
mera man muskaaya
aa aaa aa
mera man muskaaya
jismein meree raanee ne aa
koyal ban kar gaayaa aa aa
jismein meree raanee ne aa
koyal ban kar gaayaa
aise phool khilaaye maine
aise phool khilaaye maine
jo na kabhee murjhaaye
sundar
khil khil kar muskaayen
haan aan aan
aayen
sab kaliyan ye bolen aen aen aen
kaliyan ye bolen aen aen aen
kaliyan ye bolen
kabhee daalee daalee jhoolen
kabhee daalee daalee jhoolen
sab kaliyan ye bolen aen aen aen
kaliyan ye bolen aen aen aen
champa kee kaliyaan
kunjan kee galiyaan
champa kee kaliyaan
kunjan kee galiyaan
dekh sabhee dukh bhoolen aen aen
dekh sabhee dukh bhoolen
hum swarg ko chhoo len
jhoolen
hum swarg ko chhoo len
jhoolen
sab kaliyan ye bolen aen aen
kaliyan ye bolen aen
haan aan
aisa baagh lagaayaa
aan
aisa baagh lagaaya
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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