Chaai laaigo chaai laaigo…ye haseen chaand
Posted on: September 28, 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 fantasy film Gul E Bakawali-1963.
Most Indians have two common traits. One, they are religious and two, they believe in magic. Therefore most of the children liked the stories in which there was fantasy and magic. Ofcourse, I am talking of older times. These days children’s likings have changed and they like to play with modern gadgets, rather than reading books.
When I was in school, there was great demand from students for books on Vedic stories, fantasy and fairy stories, especially the Arabian Night story books in our school library. Students had to put their names on a waiting list for such books, though the library had multiple copies of such books. Once the books were taken home, other members of the family also read them with great taste and nostalgia.
Magic is one matter which attracted the young and the old equally all over the world. That is why there were so many books of stories of magicians, adventures and kings and queens. true to the skill of our filmmakers as good salesmen, films were made using famous fantasy stories. Some filmmakers had employed expert writers to cook up such stories based on famous characters and apply their imaginations to such stories.
Thus we find that while the famous characters were seemingly bachelors, the new age story departments created their families like awarding them sons, daughters and other relatives, making their second generations active in their films Thus son or daughter of Allauddin, Samson, Alibaba, Sindbad etc. were thrust upon the poor and helpless audience !
Fantasy stories and Fairy tales have been enchanting masses for centuries. This is because everybody wants a magic which will make him happy,seeking a solace in such stories.For several centuries such stories have been invoking the child in a man. GUL-E-BAKAVALI or the magic flower of the Bakavali Tree is supposed to do many things which are unimaginable. Let us see the history of this story which has mesmerised the film producers for many years.
Gul-e-Bakawali is a popular medieval romance in many versions.
The seventeenth-century poet Nawazish Khan was perhaps the first to write a Bangla version of Gule Bakawali, a story in verse about the love of Prince Tajulmulk for the fairy Bakawali.
The Sprinter catalogue records an Urdu Gule Bakawali written in verse in 1625.
In 1722, Sheikh Izzatullah, a Bengali, wrote a prose version, Tajulmulk Gule Bakawali, in persian. It is not known on which version Nawazish Khan based his poem.
There were several variant versions of Gule Bakawali, such as the poetic versions by Muhammad Mukim (1760–70), Muhammad Ali, Munsi Ebadat Ali (1840), Umacharan Mitra (1834), and Abdus Shakur, and the prose version by Bijaynath Mukhopadhyaya (1904). Kedarnath Gangopadhyaya wrote a play based on the story in 1978. Ebadat Ali’s Gule Bakawali is a dobhasi puthi.
The story was also popular in Urdu. Thus, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Munsi Nehalchand Lahori wrote a prose version titled Mazhabe Ishq (1803), and Dayashankar Nasim wrote a masnavi (poem) called Gulzare Nasim (1835).
* Gul-e-Bakavali was the first picture with the same subject as Silent film in 1924 directed by Kanjibhai Rathod and produced by Kohinoor films. *Jamna, Khalil, Fatma Begum, Noor Mohamed, Sabita Devi, Sultana, Usha Rani and Zubeida.
* The story was made as Silent film again in 1930 ( Vishnu, Gulab .. Dir Mohanlal Shah)
* Gul-e-Bakavali was made into Hindi films five times in 1932 (Ashraf Khan, Zaibunnisa.. Dir Anand Prasad Kapoor), 1947 (Feroz Dastur,Menaka, Rabab, Sanober..Dir Rustom Modi) 1956 (MG Ramachandran,Varalaxmi, Rajkumari…Dir Ramanna TR), 1963(Jairaj, Nishi.. Dir Jugal Kishore) and 1982( Feroz Khan , Amjad Khan … Dir Ravi (Kant) Nagaich )..
* The story was pictured earlier in Telugu in 1938 with title Gulebakavali directed by Kallakoori Sadasivaravu and starring B. Jayamma. and again pictured as Gulebakavali Katha in 1962 ( NT Rama Rao , Jamuna, Nagaratnam .. Dir Kamalakara Kameshwara Rao)
* There are two Tamil versions, one from mid 30’s by Soundararajan (Tamilnadu Talkies fame!) and another version in 1955 , directed and produced by T. R. Ramanna and starring M. G. Ramachandran, T.R. Rajakumari and G. Varalakshmi…
The earlier Punjabi version was released in 1938 (Baby Noorjehan , Ajmal , M Ismail … Dir Barkat Mehra) …
In Pakistan the story was pictured in 1961 (Ilyas Kashmiri, Jamila Razzaq .. Dir Munshi Dil .. Md Safdar Hussain ).
This film featured Jairaj and Nishi in the lead. NISHI KOHLI is the wife of the actor Rajkumar Kohli and mother of Armaan Kohli,the young actor. Not very beautiful and an ordinary actress, Nishi debuted in RAILWAY PLATFORM-1955 in a secondary role. Very soon she became heroine of many Stunt, Fantasy and action C Grade films. She acted in about 50 odd films before retiring.Lastly she was seen on TV at Dara Singh’s funeral, with her husband.
GUL E BAKAWALI-1963 was a Jugal productin film, produced and directed by Jugal Kishore. The music was by Hansraj Behl for 7 songs and the lyrics were by Prem Warbatney, Gulshan Bawra, Shyam Ralhan, Naqsh Lyallpuri and Noor Devasi. The cast included Jairaj, Nishi, Sunder, Sapru, Tiwari, Nazi, Kammo Tipathi ( it is the pet name of the comedian Kumud Tripathi) etc.
The story of the film was….
Long long ago a king was blessed with a son by his second wife,but the astrologer has warned him that if he sees his son’s face before he is 28 years,the king will go blind. So the king sends his queen and the newborn out of the kingdom. They go and settle in a jungle where the prince grows up. His name is Taj ul Mulk (Jairaj). After 26 years the king and his soldiers are passing through a jungle where this prince is living. By chance the king sees him and suddenly he loses his eyes. He realises that it is his son. The queen also comes there. The Raj jyotishi says that only the flower of the magic tree Bakavali or Gul-e-bakavali can bring back the king’s sight. One condition is that only his son should bring it.
The king has 3 sons from his first queen (Sunder,Kumud Tripathi and Maruti),but they are useless. However they promise the king that they will bring the flower and set out in its search. Taj ul Mulk also goes searching for it.
Once Taj and the three other sons meet and they tie Taj with ropes,loot all his money and leave him like that for jungle animals to eat. The princess(Nishi) of state Bakavali is flying on her magic carpet with her friends,when she sees Taj. They get down and release him. Taj and the princess fall in love and immediately sing a song or two to solidify the ties.
The Princess promises Taj to get him the magic Flower. While she is bringing the flower,the 3 evil sons steal it and run away. The princess is turned into a stone statue. When Taj learns about it,he follows the 3 Princes and gets the flower, brings the Princess to Human life and also brings back the King’s site.All’s well that ends well.
Today’s song is sung by Shamshad Begum and Minu Purushottam.
Here is some information on her, which I found on IMDB…..
Minoo Purushottam, – a name which is indelibly linked with Indian Music, entered the film world at a tender age of sixteen. As a tyro, Minoo took her first lesson in Classical Vocal Music from Pandit Laxman Prasad Jaipurwale, a well-known personality in the world of classical music. Born in an agriculturist family of Patiala (Punjab), on 20-11-1944, she acquired Bisharad (Bachelor of Arts degree) in music from an international city, Bombay, India.
Indian music was rapidly growing as a bridge towards world peace and friendship and at such a time, Minoo too burgeoned in her favourite field. Sri Sahir Ludhianvi, one of the greatest poets and well known music director Sri Roshan appreciated her talent and zeal and introduced her in Hindi films. ‘Taj Mahal’ , which is one of the top musical films of India, was the film where Minoo made her debut. King of Ghazals, music director Sri Madan Mohan, a cognoscente in special style of ghazal singing imparted his profound knowledge of music to Minoo. Thus, started her affluent mode of learning music under the coterie of all top music directors, namely, Laxmikant Pyarelal (Kranti & Daag), S. D. Burman (Baat Ek Raat Ki), O. P. Nayyar (Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi), Roshan (Taj Mahal), Bappi Lahiri (Arman), Jaidev (Do Boond Paani, Prem Parbat, Andolan), Ravindra Jain, Sonik Omi, Madan Mohan (Heer Ranjha, Ghazal).
Music is an art, which everyone can pursue and enjoy, making our life worth living. Minoo has contributed a lot to the music field by giving public performances not only in India, but also abroad with Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey, Mahendra Kapoor, Talat Mehmood, Mukesh. Minoo is a tremendous Ghazal artist of her own style.
Her melodious voice has attracted lovers of music like a magnet. By the gift of such a rare talent, bestowed upon her by the Almighty, Minoo has endeared herself to her thousands of fans. Gradually, Minoo acquired a sobriquet of ‘Nightingale’ from her fans. To quench the thirst of her innumerable fans, Minoo on her own has performed programmes of Ghazals and Bhajans. Minoo as a national and international artist has appeared on Television network programmes in India, Canada, U. S. A., and B. B. C. London on her visit to the west, time again.
Based on several decades of experience, she recorded many LPs of Ghazals and Bhajans with HMV, Music India like Ranj Mein Rahat, Rehe Guzar, O Salone Sanwaria, Bhakti Ras, Krishna Ras, Dashavatar, Vaishnava Bhajans (Gujarati), Man Mandir Mein Sai and Jago Jago Maa Jawaalapaa. Though she is not a linguist, has sung in her mother tongue Punjabi, Marathi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Sindhi and many other regional languages of India. She has gained a special insight into Hindi language and the lifetime ability to keep improving the range and effectiveness of music. She has been settled in Napierville, Illinois-USA for many years. She has opened a Music school there. Recently she has added new creations in Bhentaans and devotional and motivational music for her fans under her own company name O. B. USA.
This is a video song and I find that all female dancers in this video are fat, which is strange. Anyway, Enjoy the song with ‘Anokhe Bol’…..
Song-Chaai laaigo chaai laaigo…Yeh haseen chaand (Gul e Bakawali)(1963) Singers-Shamshad Begum + Minu Purushottam, Lyricist- Naqsh Llayalpuri, MD-Hansraj Bahl
Male chorus
Female chorus
Lyrics
chaai laaigo chaai laaigo jhingad jhingad jhingad jhingad
chaai laaigo chaai laaigo jhingad jhingad jhingad jhingad
o chaai laaigo chaai laaigo jhingad jhingad jhingad jhingad
chaai laaigo chaai laaigo jhingad jhingad jhingad jhingad
hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey
ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho
hey hey hey hey hey hey hey
hey ha ha ha ha ha ha
chaai laaigo chaai laaigo jhingad jhingad jhingad jhingad
chaai laaigo chaai laaigo jhingad jhingad jhingad jhingad
lar lela leer lala
lar lela lar le
ye haseen chaand aur ye raat kee bahaaren
chaai laaigo chaai laaigo jhingad jhingad jhingad jhingad
chaai laaigo chaai laaigo jhingad jhingad jhingad jhingad
saj raha hai chaandnee ka noor aasmaan pe
jhingad jhingad
jhingad jhingad
hum hain tere kah de humen pyaar kee jubaan se
jhingad jhingad
jhingad jhingad
roothh ker chale gaye jo hum tere jahaan se
jhingad jhingad
jhingad jhingad
dil kee mehfilon mein rang aayega kahaan se
chaai laaigo chaai laaigo jhingad jhingad jhingad jhingad
chaai laaigo chaai laaigo jhingad jhingad jhingad jhingad
lar lela leer lala
lar lela lar le
ye haseen chaand aur ye raat kee bahaaren
chaai laaigo chaai laaigo jhingad jhingad jhingad jhingad
chaai laaigo chaai laaigo jhingad jhingad jhingad jhingad
aasmaan pe chaand jagmaga ke so na jaaye
jhingad jhingad
jhingad jhingad
raat kaheen mastiyaan luta ke so na jaaye
jhingad jhingad
jhingad jhingad
jhoomtee bahaar gunguna ke so na jaaye
jhingad jhingad
jhingad jhingad
dil kee lagee dil ko aajmaa ke so na jaaye
ho chaai laaigo chaai laaigo jhingad jhingad jhingad jhingad
chaai laaigo chaai laaigo jhingad jhingad jhingad jhingad
lar lela leer lala
lar lela la le
ye haseen chaand aur ye raat kee bahaaren
chaai laaigo chaai laaigo jhingad jhingad jhingad jhingad
chaai laaigo chaai laaigo jhingad jhingad jhingad jhingad
hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey
ho ho ho ho ho ho ho
hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey
hey hey hey hey
kukdi taan
hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey
hey hey hey hey
kukdi taan
hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey
hey hey hey hey
humba hinga
hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey
hey hey hey hey
kukdi taan
hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey
humba neeta
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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