Chaar dinon kee athhkheliyaan
Posted on: November 1, 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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6315 | Post No. : | 19553 |
Today’s song is from the film Aahuti-1950.
This unknown film was made by Sansar Movietone, Bombay. Produced by L.Shankar, it was directed by Kulbhushan. The story, screenplay and the dialogues were by a team of H.C.Jaiswal, G.Saran and L.Shankar. The music for the 12 songs of the film was given by D.C.Dutt. There is not much information available about D.C.Dutta, not even what the initials D.C. stand for.
All of us know that Lata Mangeshkar had to struggle very hard in her initial attempts to get into Playback singing in Hindi films. In her early struggle, 3 Duttas helped her. The first was of course Datta Davjekar who gave her the first opportunity to sing a Playback song for his film Aapki sewa mein-1947. The second was K.Datta or Datta Korgaonkar, who, after his favourite singer Noorjehan left India, took Lata under his wings and gave her songs. The third Dutta was this-D.C.Dutt. No information is available about him whatsoever, except what is printed in HFGK and its duplication in Pankaj Raag’s book “Dhunon ki Yatra”. Thanks to this, we know that his debut was through the film Sona Chandi-1946. Out of 12 songs of the film, only two were his and one of them was by Lata Mangeshkar.
This Lata song has a history. Film Sona Chandi was censored first on 19-7-46 and released. That time these 2 songs of D.C.Dutt were not there. In January 1948,when Gandhi’s death took place, many songs on Gandhi were recorded by many singers and composers. One of the most famous, popular and successful songs was “Suno suno aye duniya walo, Bapuji ki amar kahani” sung by Mohd. Rafi in 4 parts and recorded by its composer Husnalal-Bhagatram. In this spate, even D.C.Dutt also recorded a Gandhi song by Lata in 1948. producers of film Sona Chandi got this and one more song ( by Saroj Borkar) included in the film and the film was re-censored on 9-4-48. Thus an early song of Lata was in a film, because of D.C.Dutt.
D.C.Dutt later did some more films like, Sarai ke bahar-47, Dil ki Awaz-48, Anjana-48 ( he even acted in this film), char din ki chandni-49, Ram Darshan-50, Aahuti-50, Simba-51, Ranee-52 and lastly Sahil-59. Very surprisingly, after the film Sona Chandi-46, Lata did not sing a single song in any of his films. After 48-49, Lata had become a very busy and ‘in demand’ singer and she would sing only for established composers; we all know that she did not sing even in Madan Mohan’s debut film Aankhen-50, just because he was new. It is said that Lata had also not sung for Music Director Khurshid Anwar, when she learnt that he could not play any musical instrument.
The cast of the film included Mumtaz Shanti, Ranjit Kumari, Sapru, Kesari, Bikram Kapoor, Cuckoo, Ratan Gaurang, Indubala Tun Tun (Uma devi), Kathana and many others. By 1950, it was just about 3 years after we got our Independence. Many talented and gifted artistes from Film industry – composers, actors, directors, lyricists and technical people, chose to leave India, which once was their Motherland, to start a new life in a new born country, their country! The vacuum created by their exit was soon filled up by the then current, and the upcoming and aspiring artists in India. For that point in the history of India cinema, I would list the following as upcoming and aspiring artists :
– Composers: Shankar-Jaikishan, SD Burman, Madan Mohan, Roshan, Khayyam etc.
– Lyricists: Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri, Shakeel Badayuni, Majrooh, Rajendra Krishan, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, Sahir Ludhianvi etc.
– Singers: Rafi, Mukesh, Kishore, Talat, Manna Dey etc.
Female singers like Lata, Asha, Geeta etc filled up the void created by the departure of Noorjehan, Khursheed etc. And of course, many new actors and actresses also came up shining.
Another important change that took place was in the change in the story lines of films. There was no more need to use subtle, suggestive, double meaning dialogues to talk of independence and national integration – we had attained independence. The new storylines started relating to the new changes in the country. Internationally, in the cinema industries worldwide, stories of intrigue, mystery and crime were also becoming popular and the industry was quick to bring it to the Indian audiences. Towards this end, ‘Sangram’ was the torchbearer. Earlier too, stories of crime and mystery, in milder form were handled by the industry, but ‘Sangram’ was the first film wherein ‘crime’ was the hero and the male lead was an anti-hero.
However, in our culture, we must show that evil never wins and in ‘Sangram’ too, this point was emphasized, underlining another virtue that duty is more important than anything else. So the father shoots down the culprit-his son. ‘Sangram’ thus heralded a change in film concepts. Not that every subsequent film was a crime story, but it did make a bold statement of the New World.
The film companies made some Milestone movies in 1950.
DAHEJ by V.Shantaram was a powerful comment on the evil custom of Dowry in India. The film- a tragedy- not only conveyed the right message but also paved the way to get an Anti Dowry Law enacted.
JOGAN, a Love story between a Hindu Nun and an atheist lover, made by ranjit movietone had excellent songs and Bhajans.
SAMADHI, by Filmistan brought to light a familial conflict of ideologies between two brothers, with a background of Subhash Babu’s Indian National Army. Its song ” Gore gore, o banke chhore’ became an evergreen popular song.
BAWRE NAIN – the second film of the new Music Director Roshan had lovely songs. This tragedy film had Raj kapoor and Geeta Bali.
SARGAM was by Filmistan, but C.Ramchandra’s music made it his film and the songs to remember.
MASHAL, SANGRAM and MUQADDAR, though had good songs, could not save the sinking Bombay Talkies.
The most successful hit film was ” Har Har Mahadev“, a surprise Blockbuster. It heralded a surge of Mythological films for the next 10 years, with 124 Religious films.
Based on a world famous popular strong story ” The Inspector General”, the Hindi film AFSAR could not come up to its level, mainly due to Dev and Suraiyya’s private love affair during the making of this film. However two of her songs in the film became evergreen songs.
The year 1950 brought many Tragedy films and BABUL was one such film.
SHEESH MAHAL, ARZOO and PEHLA ADMI entertained the audience.
Some other good films were Dastaan, Aankhen, Beqasoor, Anmol Ratan, Dilruba, Gauna, Khel, Khiladi, Lajawab, Nirala, Nirdosh, Pyar and a few others which gave memorable songs too.
The film Aahuti-1950 had 2 Lyricists. One was Tandon Jodhpuri and the other was Neel Kamal. What ? You never heard the name of Neel Kamal, the very popular, famous and prolific lyricist ? All right. Have you ever heard the name of the lyricist whose name was Shyamlal Rai ? No ? What man, you have no knowledge of these lyricists. (just joking, take it lightly).
The Takhallus this lyricist had taken was INDIVAR (or INDEEVAR). Now you know ! In Sanskrit language, Indivar means Blue Lotus or Neel Kamal. Don’t feel bad. Even I came to know this only a few years back.
Shyam Lal Rai aka Indivar was born on 18-8-1924 at a small village Barua Sagar in Jhansi (U.P.) His childhood was full of tragedies. His parents and both brothers died in the epidemic of Cholera. At the age of 10 years, he was taken by his sister’s husband where he grew up. At 15 years of age, he joined the Freedom struggle. He even stayed in Gandhi Ashram in Nagpur. It was here that he first wrote a poem ‘ Kar de makaan khali, o kirayedar’, for which he was arrested and jailed by the British Government.
In 1942, he came to Bombay to write songs for films. His life is divided in 4 time zones. In 1946-1946, his first time zone he wrote the first film song for the film Double Face-46. In the next 11 years he wrote songs for 41 films, like Malhar-51, Sheesham-52, Baadbaan-54, Anurag-56 etc. He was given his first break by his “Same Name” holder Shyam Babu Pathak !
During his second time zone (1957 t0 1963), he turned to literature and wrote poems, stories etc. He even published a book of his poems. However, he also wrote film songs for about 30 odd films like Chhote babu-57, Jasoos-57, Madari-59, Sapera-61, Samrat Chandragupta-58 and parasmani-63 etc.
1964-1980…. His film Dulha dulhan-64 had popular songs. He wrote for many films and most of his songs became famous. This was his Golden period.
1981-1997….He wrote for New Generation composers. Many of his songs were meaningless, but they became popular because the era was like that. Tune, music, filming and the actors had become more important than meaningful lyrics.
He provided what was required.
Indivar was well educated. He was an expert in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi. Some of his songs from the 60 to 80 period were evergreen like songs of Poorab aur Paschim and SaraswatiChandra. Totally, he wrote about 2200 songs for more than 400+ films.
In 1975 he got the Best lyricist FilmFare award for Film Amanush songs.
He died on 28-2-1997.
Some of his memorable songs (the list is too long to give here) were….
Bade armanon se rakha hai….Malhar-51
Kaise koi Jiye….Baadbaan-54
Paas Baitho, tabiyat bahal jayegi….Punarmilan-64
Kasme Vaade Pyaar Wafaa- Upkaar-67
Oho re taal mile….Anokhi raat-68
Chandan sa badan- Saraswatichandra-68
Samjhouta gamon se kar lo….Samjhouta-73
Naino mein sapna….Himmatwala-83
and hundreds of more songs. (based on many sources, including an article in “Hindi filmon ke geetkar” by Anil Bhargav ji, with thanks.)
Today’s song is sung by Geeta Roy and Shanti verma. Enjoy….
Song- Chaar dinon kee athhkheliyaan (Aahuti)(1950) Singers- Geeta Roy, Shanti Verma, Lyricist- Indivar, MD- D.C.Dutt
Chorus
Lyrics
Chaar dinon ke athhkheliyaan
haan haan jee athhkheliyaan
ho ho jee athhkheliyaan
ho o o Chaar dinon ke athhkheliyaan
haan haan jee athhkheliyaan
ho ho jee athhkheliyaan
ho o o Chaar dinon ke athhkheliyaan
le jaayenge saajan
chhootengee ye saheliyaan
chhootengee ye saheliyaan
Chaar dinon ke athhkheliyaan
sakhiyon ne chhoree se goree banaa dee
dekho
goree banaa dee
mehndee lagaa dee aur haldee chadhaaa dee
dekhho haldee chadhaaa dee
jeewan ko rangeen banaayegee
teree ye rangeen hathheliyaan
Chaar dinon ke athhkheliyaan
haan haan jee athhkheliyaan
ho ho jee athhkheliyaan
ho o o Chaar dinon ke athhkheliyaan
ghoonghat nikaal ke dulhan chalegee
dekho dulhan chalegee
chanda se kah de ke badlee rahegee
dekho badlee rahegee
dekh chalo goree ?? na paaye
dil mein chhupee hai paheliyaan
Chaar dinon ke athhkheliyaan
haan haan jee athhkheliyaan
ho ho jee athhkheliyaan
ho o o Chaar dinon ke athhkheliyaan
chamkee hai teree kismat kee rekha
goree kismat kee rekha
apna bana jisko sapnon mein dekha
goree sapnon mein dekha
ab to manaanaa jee bhar ke
saajan ke sang rangreliyaan
Chaar dinon ke athhkheliyaan
haan haan jee athhkheliyaan
ho ho jee athhkheliyaan
ho o o Chaar dinon ke athhkheliyaan
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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