Pyaar badhha ke o morey raajaa
Posted on: November 3, 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 comedy film Chand Tara-1945.
1945 was the year when the devastating II World War ended and the film industry heaved a sigh of relief. Many irksome regulations were relaxed. There was no force now to make Propaganda films for war, no shortage of Raw Film and plenty of Finance available through black money, generated during the war times. However, the year saw only 73 Hindi films made.
One of the most successful and famous film directors of Hindi films- Bimal Roy had a beginning in 1945. He was the director of the Bangla film “Udayer Pathe”, based on the story by Jyotirmoy Roy. It was remade in Hindi as ” Humrahi”. Both versions became Hit films. Thus a cameraman and editor Bimal Roy emerged as a big name in Hindi films. He got this opportunity as New theatres, Calcutta had dried up with its ace and famous directors, who left the company and had marched towards Bombay, even when NT was downhill. This film was also noteworthy because Tagore’s “Jana Gana Mana” was used in the film Humrahi-1945, which later on became India’s National Anthem (though it was written by Tagore to please and welcome King George V, on his visit to India in 1911).
Zeenat was another film whose music became popular, especially the All Women qawwali “Aahen na bhari”. Shashikala and Shyama faced the camera for the first time in this song.
Noorjehan’s “Village Girl” was a Hit, due to Shyamsunder’s melodious songs. Mohd. Rafi started his playback from this film with G.M.Durrani. Earlier he had sung a song in a chorus in film pehle Aap and few Punjabi films.
Lata Mangeshkar’s first Hindi song in a Hindi film was in the film ” Badi Maa”.
Mukesh also sang his first playback in Pahli Nazar.
Saigal’s first film in Bombay-Tadbir was made by Jayant Desai.
2 Films on King Humayun were made. one by Mehboob was Humayun and the other was Ek Din Ka Sultan by Sohrab Modi.
Other successful films were Laila majnu, Lakha Rani (Guru Dutt was the Choreographer in this film), Moorti, Panna Dai, Phool (K.Asif), Chaand Chakori etc.
Devika Rani got married to Russian Painter- Roerich, left Bombay Talkies and settled in Himachal Pradesh, shifting to Bangalore after a few years.
Noor Mohd. Charlie, a famous comedian of that period, was the Hero of the film. The heroine was Swarnalata.
Films made with comedians as the lead actor are not new to Hindi films, in the films made after the 1950s, as there were very talented and capable comedians like Master Bhagwan, Kishore Kumar, Johnny Walker, Mehmood etc. With the advent of multitalented Heroes in the 1970s decade onwards, the role of comedians shrunk considerably, because the Heroes themselves did the comedy scenes, Actors like Amitabh bachchan were known to do comedy scenes very effectively. By the end of the 20th century, the tribe of specialist comedians disappeared totally on whom alone films could be made or sold.
1945 was the period when Noor Mohammed Charlie was at the peak of his popularity. He not only sang his songs, but he also became a Hero in a few pictures and stories were amended to give him more scope in the films. In the 1950s and the 1960s, this honour went to comedian Johnny Walker. Thank God, he did not sing songs ( though he spoke in his chirpy voice in some songs). Mohammed Rafi compensated enough for him by having a special style of singing and a special voice for Johnny Walker songs.
These days everyone likes the comedy of Amitabh Bachhan. His many films became Hits due to his comedy work. Today most of the Heroes do the comedy part in the film themselves. But till 1970, there used to be a separate slot for a comedian.
Today’s generation knows comedians like Paresh Raval, Anupam Kher etc. For them older comedians are Johnny Lever, Satish Shah or Rajpal Yadav. Before that, they can think of Johnny Walker, Mehmood, Keshto Mukherjee, Asit Sen, Dhumal, Jagdeep, Asrani or Deven Verma. But the art of Comedy had started much earlier, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comedians like Ghori, Dikshit, Fatty Prasad, V H Desai, Bhudo Advani were famous. Amongst all the comedians of that era,there was ONE superstar of Comedy- NOOR MOHAMMED CHARLIE.
Noor Mohd. was born on 7-1-1911 at Ranavav, near Porbandar, Gujarat, in a Memon family (Later, comedian Mukri was also a Memon from Konkan area). Not interested in studies, he was very fond of seeing films, even by stealing money from house, at times-if need be. He was sent to Bombay and worked as an Umbrella Repairer in a shop. His desire to become an actor was so strong that one day he straightaway went to the Imperial Film Company’s owner and asked for a job. In the tradition of those days, he was asked if he could sing… His reply was,” I can sing, act, ride, run, fight, cry, laugh, quarrel, dance, play or swim”. He was hired instantly at a salary of Rs. 40 pm.
From 1925 to 1931 he did 9 silent films. In one of these films he did the acting of Charlie Chaplin. It became so popular that he made this get up his Trademark and developed Toothbrush Moustache ,like Charlie Chaplin. he also added ‘Charlie’ to his name. He did his first talkie film ” Zarina” in 1932 and then there was no looking back.
Initially with Sagar Movietone, he shifted to Ranjit and did 17 films with Ranjit. He became so famous and Popular that films were sold in his name. He was the First superstar amongst the comedians. He started to get special songs shot on him in almost every film-much before Johnny Walker in the 1950s. He sang his own songs. He left Ranjit and was the first actor to become a ‘Free-lance’ breaking the Studio system.
Some of his films and songs were famous all over India. In the film Sanjog, he sang ” Palat,tera dhyan kidhar hai “. This line became so famous that young boys in colleges used this line for calling girls,in those days. In the film Dhindhora, he sang ” ek do teen char panch chhe saat aath nau dus gyara bara,teri nazar ne mujhe mara”. ( Raj Kapoor used ‘Ek do teen aaja mausam hai rangeen’ and later Madhuri Dixit’s “Ek do teen” was very famous.) In the film Taqdeer he sang- “Thank you mention not” and ” I am very very Sorry”. This too became popular.
There was a time when Charlie drew more salary than even Prithwiraj kapoor ! He did about 62 films in all. He was the Hero opposite Swarnalata in Chaand Taara-45, hero opposite Leela Chitnis in Ghazal-45 and hero opposite Chandraprabha (Saraswati devi’s sister) in Dulha-46.
He directed only one film, while in Ranjit-Dhandora-41. Charlie sang 36 songs in 15 films.
After partition he opted for Pakistan. he did 6 Urdu, 2 Sindhi and 1 Punjabi films there but was not popular. He came back to India in 1960, but by then here too the position had changed. He did 3 films here. His last film in India was Ranjit’s last film ”Akeli mat Jaiyo”-63 and then that was the end of his film career and that of Ranjit studios too. Due to Visa problems, he had to leave India. He went to the USA to live with his son, who had a dairy farm business. He had 6 sons and 6 daughters. Only 1 son-Latif Charlie became an actor In Pakistan. (He died on 19-7-2011). Charlie came back to Pakistan when his wife expired, but later he himself died in Karachi on 30-6-1983.
If he had not gone to Pakistan, who knows he would have prospered here. Mehmood and Johnny Walker considered him as their GURU and have copied his actions in films many times. Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt were also his fans. His film Manorama-44 was remade as Manchala in 1953 with Agha in his role. Thokar-39 was remade as Mai Baap and Taqdeer-43 was remade as Duniya ka Mela, with Mehmood in Charlie’s role.
When he died in Pakistan, no film personality from the Pakistan Film industry attended his funeral. He died unsung !
The film was made by Asiatic Pictures. It was directed by Mahesh Chandra. Lyricist was Swami Ramanand and the music was by Gyan Dutt. The cast of the film wasCharlie, Swarnalata, Jagdish Sethi, Indira (Wadkar), pesi Patel, Ghori, Kesari and others.
The story of the film ‘Chaand Taara’, appeared in a film review in the Film India magazine of that year. The reviews of Film India were generally highly critical and in my opinion, highly biased. Additionally, the review did not give details about films which Baburao Patel did not like, while films which he liked were given a detailed review.
In the case of this film, Film India missed out on the essence of the film. The story was by Nanu Patel, dialogues by Pt. Indra and direction by the veteran Mahesh Chandra. When Raju, the hero, faces the charges of cheating people and committing a crime, he boldly tells the king, “Huzoor, I was cheating people and making money in your kingdom for such a long time, right under your nose, but you never came to know about it and you never stopped me doing that. Is it not your failure and a crime against your people who trusted you ? If I am guilty, so are you equally in this case.” In our national scenario, this is a highly pertinent observation. When scams of thousands of crores of rupees were being made, few years back, what was the Government doing? Like those who tolerate injustice are equally guilty, so are those Governments who allowed such crimes.
I was surprised to know that comedian Noor Mohammed Charlie was in the lead role paired with Swarnlata. But after reading the plot, it became clear to me as to why Charlie was chosen as a lead actor for the film. It was a slapstick comedy film. The synopsis of the film’s story, based on the review published in December 1945 issue of FILMINDIA is as under:
Raju (Charlie), a village boy, is studying in a college. But he fails in the college examinations every year. Fed up with his failures, he returns to the village and bluffs the villagers about his status. But he is soon exposed by the villagers. In the village, Raju has his sweetheart named Ratan (Swaranlata), the daughter of the Village Chief (Jagdish Sethi). Raju’s father (Ghulam Rasool) is already debt-ridden and Raju is in need of money. So he decides to leave the village with a companion in search of some avenue for earning money.
Raju devises a way out to earn money. He acts as a Prince and goes to a neighbouring state which is in shambles. He imposes a toll for all vehicles passing through the state and collects a good amount of money. This goes on for sometime until Ratan comes there in search of Raju. She finds him in the company of Lata (Indira), the Dewan’s daughter. The usual complications come in the story and Raju is exposed. He is condemned to be run over by a motor car as a punishment. At the last moment, the King (Pesi Patel) melts after witnessing the melodrama enacted by Ratan and Raju is saved. The story comes to a logical end with Ratan accepting Raju.
Here is a duet by Amirbai and Charlie. Enjoy….
Song- Pyaar badha ke o morey raaja mujhko bhool na jaana (Chaand Taara)(1945) Singers- Amir Bai Karnataki, Charlie, Lyricist-Swami Ramanand, MD- Gyan Dutt
Both
Lyrics
Pyaar badha ke o morey raaja
mujhko bhool na jaana aa aa
mujhko bhool na jaana aa aa
tujhe na bhooloonga o moree raanee
dushman ho chaahe zamaana
dushman ho chaahe zamaana
meree soyee preet jagaa ke
do dilon ko ek banaa ke
meree soyee preet jagaa ke
do dilon ko ek banaa ke
yaad rahe bas itna tumko
dil se na bisraanaa aa aa
dil se na bisraanaa
thhaanee hai ab aage badhhoongaa
sab ke shoe ab tight karoonga
thhaanee hai ab aage badhhoongaa
sab ke shoe ab tight karoonga
mere bhee
naheen naheen naheen naheen
tum to banogee dil kee raanee
jab main banoongaa Raana
tum to banogee dil kee raanee
jab main banoongaa Raana
Raana
Raana
mujhko bhool na jaana aa aa
mujhko bhool na jaana aa aa
pyaar badha ke o morey raaja
mujhko bhool na jaana aa aa
mujhko bhool na jaana
tum ban jaana saajan chanda
main ban jaaoon chakoree
tum ban jaana saajan chanda
main ban jaaoon chakoree
dil mein tum ko qaid karoon phir
daal prem kee doree
dil mein tum ko qaid karoon phir
daal prem kee doree
khila hua jab phool banoon main
bulbul ban tum gaana
khila hua jab phool banoon main
bulbul ban tum gaana
gaana
gaana
mujhko bhool na jaana aa aa
mujhko bhool na jaana aa aa
pyaar badha ke o morey raaja
mujhko bhool na jaana aa aa
mujhko bhool na jaanaa
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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