Jab se laage morey nainaa
Posted on: September 21, 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 very old film, His Highness-1937.
The film was made by Prakash Pictures, Bombay, who were intomaking B and C grade stunt and costume films, till they made Mythological films, starting with ” Bharat Milap”-1942 and their luck changed. This film, based on a Ramayana story became a Hit and Prakash Pictures found a Gold Mine !. They made another film on Ramayana – Ram-Rajya-1943 and this became a blockbuster, breaking many records all over India. The pair of Prem Adib as Ram and Shobhana Samarth as Seeta became All India famous and Prakash changed their production stance. They started making social and religious films which made them a successful film company.
The film His Highness-1937 was a Costume film. It had nothing new in the story except that along with the human star cast it also used animals like Dogs (Tiger and Tommy) and a Horse (Bahadur), which made some difference. Hitherto only the Wadia Movietone had used different types of animals in their stunt films. The film was directed by Balwant Bhatt. He was the elder brother of director Nanabhai Bhatt.
Balwant Bhatt was born at Porbandar,Gujarat 0n 13-1-1909. Balwant started his career by assisting Naval Gandhi in 1930-31 and then N.B.Vakil at Sagar Studios in 1932. He turned Director with the advent of Talkie films and joined Prakash Pictures with Actress-1934. His first film was Chalta purja-1932 and the last one was Nagin aur Sapera-1966. He directed 34 films, mostly stunt and C grade films. He directed some Gujarati films like Sansar Leela, Seth Sagsha, Divadandi, Snehlata etc. He was the producer of Dillagi-1942, Gunehgar, Alif Laila etc. Diwadandi-1950 became famous for its song-” Taari aankhni afini”, sung by Dilip Dholakia with music by Ajit Merchant. His film Mordhwaj-52 was the Debut film for Music Director Narayan Dutt. Balwant Bhatt died on 7-2-1965,at Bombay.
The music was by two Music Directors – Shankar Rao Vyas, a regular with Prakash Pictures and Lallubhai Nayak, who also acted in this film. The songs were written by Sampat Srivastava ‘Anuj’. The cast of the film included Jayant, Sardar Akhtar, Gulab, Shirin Bano, Umakant, M.Ismail, Lallubhai and many others.
As the Talkie films started, the number of Anglo Indian Girls rapidly went down as most of them did not know Hindi nor could they sing.Only a few hard working Anglo Indian girls survived and progressed from silent to Talkie films,like Savita Devi (Iris Gasper)-who learnt Hindi/Urdu and singing,with efforts, Sulochana (Ruby Myers),Indira Devi(Effie Hippolet),Lalita Devi(Bonnie Bird),Pramila(Esher Abrahams),Seeta Devi(Renee Smith), Madhuri(Beryl Classen), Manorama(Winnie Stewart) etc. Since singing was an important requisite,the field was now open to singing girls from Kothas,Tawayafs and professional singers.Reasonably good looks and singing ability was what made them actresses. These girls,who came from Kothas and professional singer families used the suffix ” Bai” to their names to differentiate their specialty. Thus you had Jaddan bai,Amir bai,Johrabai,Rattan bai etc etc.
Many young singing girls found Cinema as a place where they could get (catch ? ) a good Husband from a better family background,earning respectability(forget religion). Many starlets married Producers,directors,Actors,Singers and Composers,left acting and settled as respectable housewives. Some girls got Husbands from Nawabs and the Royalties,as they were patrons of Arts. Many examples from early era can be cited in this connection like
Gulab bai alias kamla devi married S.Fatelal-Dir. in Prabhat Films.
Jaddanbai married a Medical student and a Jahagirdar-Uttamchand
Fatima bai(mother of Alam Ara fame Zubeida) married nawab of Sachin,Guajarat
Sultana married Yusuf Laljee,Businessman and chief of Bombay Municipal corporation.
Actress Sarojini(Roshan) married Nanubhai Vakil-producer/Director (Their daughter was actress AZRA)
Actress Indurani (Ishrat)-sister of Sarojini- married Ramniklal Shah-Producer/Director
Actress Shirin bai married Nanabhai Bhatt (Their sons are Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt)
Actress Zubeida of Alam Ara married Raja Dhanrajgir of Hyderabad-deccan
the other actress Zubeida (on whose life, film Zubeida was made) married Maharaja Hanwant Singh of Jodhpur etc.
This trend continued in the industry even after things changed and educated and respected family people entered the industry. Now, one could see marriages were taking place between people of film industry itself like Rattanbai and Director Hafiz, Jyoti and Durrani, Nalini Jaywant and Virendra Desai, Noorjahan-Shaukat Hussain rizvi, Meena Kumari, Sardar Akhtar, Snehprabha Pradhan, Anil Biswas, Lalita Deulkar etc.
In recent era instances were Waheeda Rehman, Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle, Hemant Kumar, Manik Verma, Premlata, Geeta Dutt, Rishi Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachhan and Abhishek Bachhan etc.
In the cast you find the name Shirin Bano. Yes, she too is one of the above listed artists who joined films to get a suitable husband and lead a respectable and comfortable life. Shirin, Shirin Bai or Shirin Bano was from a Tawayaf mother from Lucknow. Her father was a Tamil Brahmin- Ram Seshadri Aiyar, who worked as an Accountant with Kikubhai Desai ( father of Manmohan Desai) in his Distribution department. They were 5 sisters and 1 brother. Shirin joined films at an early age. Her first film was Maharani-34 in the same year she worked in Vehmi duniya, Sewa sadan and Bala Joban. In 1935 her films were Shamsher e Arab, Pardesi Sainya and Bambai ki Sethani. In 36, she worked in Top ka gola, Snehlata, Passing show and Azad veer. Khwab ki duniya, His Highness and Challenge from 37, State Express and Purnima in 38, Leather face and Hero No.1 from 1939. Total 18 films only.
Her youngest sister Meher Bano also joined films with the name Purnima ( she also married a Producer Director Bhagwandas Varma). Shirin married Producer Director Nanabhai Bhatt, who already had a wife and 9 children. They had 2 sons- Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt.
The other interesting name in the cast was Sardar Akhtar. The life story of Sardar Akhtar is very interesting. Sardar Akhtar was a Punjabi Muslim born in Lahore in 1915. Her mother was a famous singer on the infamous Hira Mandi Road of Lahore. Akhtar learned singing from her mother and also other ustads. Her younger sister Bahar Akhtar was beautiful and a good singer.
These sisters were famous as Daaro and Baharo in Lahore. Bahar was hired by United Players Corpn. of Lahore , as a Heroine in their film ” Qatil Katar “. Producer A R Kardar was also its Hero. They fell in love. Bahar was under strict surveillance by her mother, but with the help of a friend, Kardar abducted her and they were married. When this news reached her mother, Akhtar and her mother made a Police complaint against kardar. Kardar and his unit members were arrested and kept in a lock up for a few days for abducting a Minor girl. They were released when Bahar herself gave a statement in their favour. Kardar destroyed the negatives of his film to prevent Bahar from acting further in films.
After this episode Akhtar started working in dramas. She went to Calcutta and did a small role in the film Dhoop Chhaon-35. From there she came to Bombay and joined Saroj Movietone. She did films like Eid ka chaand, Roop Basant and Naqsh e Sulemani and earned a good name. She acted in films of Minerva and Wadia-mostly stunt action films.
Mehboob needed two Heroines for his film Alibaba.. He selected Waheedan Bai and Sardar Akhtar. Akhtar was the elder sister of Bahar-wife of A.R.Kardar. In an article in Filmfare dated 16-8-1957,Mehboob wrote “the moment I saw Sardar Akhtar, I fell for her and knew that one day she will be my wife.” Sure enough, he married her later.
Mehboob Khan gave her a big role in the film Aurat-40 and her image changed. She also did Mehboob’s film Roti, during which they got married on 25-4-1942.. It was during the shooting of film Aurat, Mehboob was attracted towards Jyoti- sister of Waheedan Bai and one of the cast of Aurat- and he started spending time with her, having Tea together, Lunch together etc. Sardar Akhtar noticed this and played her cards well. She encouraged Jyoti to accept outside film offers lest she would be out of circulation. Then she poisoned Mehboob by telling him that Jyoti was not a good girl and that she was more interested in outside film roles. Consequently, Jyoti’s role in the film Aurat was reduced. By the time the film Aurat was completed, Akhtar had fully influenced Mehboob and then insisted on getting married. He too wanted it and they got married just before the film was released.
They did not have any issues but they adopted Saajid khan, child star of the film Son of India-62. After Mehboob’s death in 1964 May, Akhtar lived alone, occasionally visiting Sajid Khan, who had settled in the USA.
Sardar Akhtar did 44 films. Her last film was Raahat-45. However, she did small roles in films Hulchal-71 and Bandhe Haath-74. Sardar Akhtar sang 92 songs in 27 films. Considering that she was not a regular or playback singer, her 92 songs were highly creditable. Not even 50% of her songs came on gramophone records. During one of her US visits, Sardar Akhtar died there on 2-10-1984. She was a devotee of sufi saint Ashraf khan, her co-star of many films including Roti-42. (information used in this post is culled, with thanks,from various sources like ‘Sapnon ke Saudagar’ by Vithal Pandya, Kamlakar P.’s Blog, wiki, Filmdom-1946, ‘Mehboob Khan’ by S.Kinikar and my notes).
The story of the film His Highness-1937 was…..
When the king of Rajnagar dies, the Queen (Gulab) discovers that he had bequeathed the throne not to her mad son Pratap (Umakant), but to their nephew, the young Prince Kirit (Madhav). This made the queen very angry.
Captain Dilip (Jayant), Kirit’s bodyguard, takes the boy and his animal pals, Tiger (Dog Tiger) and Bahadur (Horse Bahadur), on an outing along with servants Ram (Lekhraj) and Rahim (Chhotejan). A group of ruffians surround Dilip and Kirit and attack them, knocking Dilip unconscious, and kidnapping Kirit. Bahadur gallops away to inform Ram and Rahim while Tiger takes off after the goons. Meanwhile, back at the palace, the aged prime minister (Jal Writer), Princess Asha (Sardar Akhtar), and Asha’s maid Kala (Shirin), are told of the kidnapping. Kala then overhears the queen planning to place the blame on Dilip for the kidnapping, thus doing away with him. Kala finds and informs Dilip that it is safest if he stays away from the kingdom for the time being.Tiger finds Kirit but is unable to free him. However, the dog is able to lead Dilip, on horseback, to the cabin where the prince is being held. Dilip, Tiger and Bahadur put up a good fight against the ruffians, but the crooked Jalim Singh has Dilip arrested. Jalim attempts to take off with Kirit, but Ram and Rahim are able to rescue him.
The queen learns that the prince has been saved by some unknown persons and arranges that the boy should be found and killed, and that the killer will be appointed Prime Minister. Her plan is foiled by a masked man and eventually Kirit is returned safely to the palace.
But with Dilip having vanished, the minister must find someone else to play bodyguard. The Queen suggests her loyal follower Captain Ajaya (M. Zahoor), but the minister disapproves of that choice. When the Queen starts to form another dastardly plan, the mysterious masked man makes an appearance and cautions her to take no actions against Kirit. But the Queen soon ignores the warning and arranges a plot to frame the minister for some crime, thus leaving Kirit with no protection. But she didn’t count on the involvement of Asha, Kala, Tiger, Bahadur and Tommy (Dog Tommy) in trying to save the life of the child prince. (Thanks to pedrotheapebomb.com) .
Here is a song from this film, sung by Rajkumari (Dubey). Enjoy….
Song –Jab se laage morey naina(His Highness)(1937) Singer- Rajkumari , Lyricist- Sampatlal Shrivastav ‘Anuj’, MD- Shankar Rao Vyas and Lallubhai Nayak
Lyrics
Jab se laage morey naina
Jab se laage morey naina
parat naaheen mohey chaina
parat naaheen mohey chaina
?? daras ??
Jab se laage morey naina
Jab se laage morey naina
parat naaheen mohey chaina
parat naaheen mohey chaina
?? daras ??
birah jwaalaa ?? jalaaawe
birah jwaalaa ?? jalaaawe
hot vyaakul praaaan
hot vyaakul praaaan
bholee bhaalee main hoon baalaa
bholee bhaalee main hoon baalaa
prem se hoon anjaan
prem se hoon anjaan
Jab se laage morey naina
Jab se laage morey naina
parat naaheen mohey chaina
parat naaheen mohey chaina
?? daras ??
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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