Sajnee chalo chalen us paar
Posted by: Atul on: November 9, 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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This song post marks the 100th song of actor-singer Surendra in the blog as a singer.
Today’s song is from an 86 year old film Service Limited-1939.
The film was made by Sagar Movietone, which was on the peak of its existence from where it was soon to fall down. If one falls down from the first floor, the injuries are not fatal and soon he returns to normal life but falling from the 20th floor, the life becomes unrestorable ! In 1939, Sagar had made 7 films, 5 of which became successful. Unfortunately, this was also the year when the downfall of the company took place. I will not repeat this painful process, which was triggered by the owner Chimanlal Desai’s gambling habit and his bad luck ! It has been discussed here several times. Sagar movietone closed and Chimanlal became a partner in National Studios. Later this too was abandoned by him and a new company- Amar pictures was started.
This was just one example, but the 1930’s decade was quite eventful. The 1930s saw the emergence of the Talkie in its beginning only with Aalam Ara-1931. The entire decade was experimental. The two major centres of Hindi film production,Calcutta and Bombay became the Utopia for the aspirants from far and near towns who thronged here to try their luck in this new form of entertainment.
Although the era of Silent Films had plenty of Anglo-Indian Heroines and uneducated but handsome Heros,the Talkie required knowledge of Hindi/Urdu,a flair for singing and good looks with acting ability. This gave opportunity for educated Indian men and women in the film industry.
While Calcutta made Bilingual films in Hindi and Bangla,Bombay was replete with films in Hindi/Marathi and occasionally Hindi/Gujarati films.
Doors were open to learned Dramatists,writers,poets,classical singers and stage actors. Bombay films initially had a Parsi/Gujarati theatre influence,but soon the powerful Marathi Theatre took over. Many production houses like Kolhapur Cinetone,Huns pictures,Prabhat films,Saraswati cinetone,Sagar Movietone,Ranjit Studios,Paramount,Sharada,Bombay Talkies,imperial,Bharat,Vishnu etc made films in Hindi/Marathi using mythological themes.
It was Navyug/Atre films,Huns pictures of Vinayak,Prabhat of Shantaram,Bombay Talkies,Saraswati and Kolhapur cinetones etc which dared to handle different topics for their films.Social,cultural and comedy films soon became very popular.As such in the 30s and 40s,India was undergoing an upheaval of values coupled with reforms in social,political and cultural lives,and it all showed in the films of that period. Films on social evils like,child marriage,Dowry,untouchability,alcoholism,prostitution, education and health problems were made with extraordinary reception from the public. Huns pictures of Vinayak handled these topics with comedy.
An important point to be noted here. Most of the films in the 30s and the 40s were based on existing stories,dramas or novels,so they not only had credibility but also a guaranteed acceptance by the audience. For this purpose noted writers were used. Alternatively,whenever possible,such personalities were invited to write the story,dialogues or s/plays.this was the trend in all language films like Hindi, Marathi or Bangla.
Writers like premchand,Bhagwati charan Verma (who wrote the story and dialogues of Kismet-1943) etc for Hindi,V.S.Khandekar,Atre,Phadke,madgulkar or H.N.Apte for Marathi and Bankim babu ,Sharat babu etc for Bangla films were used for their creations.
This trend diminished after the 50s and 60s and something called ” Story Department” was established in every production house,cooking up imaginary stories which were unbelievable and unpalatable,sometimes. This was also a major reason for lowering the quality of Cinemas.
From the time Talkie films started,90% of the films were based on Love themes only. Various permutations and combinations of Love Triangles were used. This film is also no different,but since it was the era of the emerging cinema,this subject or its plot had not yet become routine. till then.
Initially for the first 5 to 6 years,the posters and the advertisements of Films indicated only the production company’s names,for example- ” The Imperial Company presents” etc etc. There was no mention of any actor’s names on the posters,though sometimes Photos were added. The credit of including the names of Artistes on the film Posters and the Advertisements goes to the Superstar of those days-Sulochana (Ruby Myers). She was the most highly paid star of those days( Rs. 5000 p.m.) and used to come to the studios by chauffeur driven car,for daily work ! One day,she saw a film poster of her film and was shocked to find that no names of any actors were mentioned on it. She exploded and threatened to stop work with all other artists,unless her and other main actors’ names were printed on every film poster and the advertisements. Due to her insistence,the producers started putting main actors’ names on the posters. Over a period,it became a regular practice. This was from around the year 1935 onwards.
However,this was NOT the case of Film records. Though song records of films started commercially with MADHURI-1932, these records,barring few exceptions,did not carry the singer’s name on it,till almost 1949 !! A classic case is of the iconic famous song of Lata- ” Aayega Aanewala” from the film Mahal-1949. The name on this record is KAMINI-which was the screen name of madhubala in that film ! Lata’s name was NOT mentioned on the record !!
It was,probably,then onwards that the singers’ names regularly started appearing on the records. That is the reason most of the song records available from the 30s and the 40s are without names and one has to listen to them and guess the singers’ names. Unfortunately,till recently,the Lyricist’s name was not mentioned,making it extremely difficult to credit the song to any Lyricist. This is the case even in some famous songs. Now of course everything is available.
Today’s film ” Service Limited”-39 was a social cum crime cum mystery cum comedy film directed by Chimanlal Luhar, a well known director of those times. The music was by Anupam Ghatak, Lyricists were Zia Sarhadi and Pt.Indra and the cast included Surendra, Maya Banerjee, Bibbo, Yakub, Kalyani Bai, Harish, Kayam Ali, Bhudo, Sankatha and other Sagar’s regulars.
The story of the film Service Limited aka Sewa Samaj-1939 was….
The story of Service Limited-1939 was very interesting and a little ‘hat ke’ than the usual films of that era. The film was a commentary on existing laws which are inadequate to prevent crookery or stop them. The criminals take advantage of this lacuna and operate without getting caught. The film tried to suggest that the crooks should be given a dose of their own medicines !
Shobhana Devi (Maya Banerjee) is a young, beautiful and very rich girl whose father Seth Ramnath is murdered by a gang, by cheating him of lakhs of rupees. Jagmohandas(Yakub) is the chief of the gang which did this to Seth and Shobhana knew it. The law was unable to do anything without direct proof.
Her father had appointed a committee of 3 Trustees for her as guardians, consisting of a senior, Sir Motilal, his personal physician Dr. Mehmood and a young, brilliant Barrister Anil (Surendra,BA,LLB himself).
She decided to start a firm ‘Sewa Samaj’ or ‘Service Ltd’, to help the victims of this gang, whom the Police could not help. Barrister Anil, who loves her, helps her in this project.
Their first case is of a young girl Vasanti who is blackmailed by her ex-lover with her love letters. Anil meets Biharilal, the lover, as Vasanti’s bridegroom who wants to buy the love letters. In return Anil pays him with forged money. This money is forged by the Jagmohan’s gang only. Thus police arrest the lover.
The second case of Lady Sulochana and her stolen Necklace worth Two Lakhs,is also solved by giving the crooks a dose of their own medicine.
The third and final case is where Jagmohan’s goon has stolen a national Treaty copy to sell to an enemy country. With the help of Police Shobhana and Anil catch all the culprits and finally destroy Jagmohan’s Gang. Jagmohan is sent to Jail and Shobhana’s revenge is complete.
Anil and Shobhana unite.
One of the cast members was Kalyani Bai. who featured as a “Same Name Confusion” actress /singer, as there was another Kalyani Das, a singer/actress, operating in the same period. Hailing from Turkman Gate in Delhi, Kalyani Bai was born in 1916. Her real name was Zarina. She was passionate about singing from a very young age and subsequently started her formal training with Ustad Wazire Khan and in no time started singing for All India Radio and HMV. That era saw an influx of records made from the many Ghazals, Khyaal & Thumris that she had sung.
When a contact was made to her at her house situated in ‘Tekriwala bunglow’ on Dargah lane in Mahim (West), a few years back, Kalyani Bai said that with the advent of Talkie films the demand for well enunciated and melodious singers suddenly went up as till then playback hadn’t been the trend and actors would themselves have to sing the songs live in front of the camera. In the midst of this, one day, two brothers from Punjab saw her in a recording and came over to her house. They wanted to make a film with Kalyani. They agreed to all the conditions that Kalyani’s Abba put forth and hence Abba-Ammi along with their 15 children went on to Kolkata. This was during the Mid 30’s. Kalyani Bai was approximately 13 years old at that time. This film ‘Pardesi’, according to Kalyani, was completed halfway when a spat took place between the two brothers and the film had to be shut down.
As soon as B.N.Sircar, the owner of ‘New Theatres’ and R.C.Boral, the music director came to know of this, they called Kalyani and immediately employed her in their company at a salary of Rupees 250 a month. Since her nickname was ‘Kallo’, R.C.Boral gave Zarina a new name and henceforth she came to be known as ‘Kalyani Bai’.
Kalyani was featured in all the four films released by New Theatres in 1937 viz ‘Anath Ashram’, ‘Mukti’, ‘President’ and ‘Vidyapati’, here she not only acted alongside heavyweights like Prithviraj Kapoor, Trilok Kapoor, Uma Shashi, Jagdish Sethi, P.C.Barua, Kanan devi, Pankaj Mullick, K.L.Sehgal, Leela Desai, Pahadi Sanyal, K.C.Dey, and K.N.Singh, she also sang some songs for her characters in those films. Playback was in its initial phase and had just been introduced in 1935 by ‘New Theatres’ in their film ‘Dhoop Chhaon’. And in practice, it wasn’t the singer’s name (who had actually sung the song) that appeared on the music records but the name of the character of the movie on whom the song was filmed and since this practice continued for another one and a half decade, it is virtually impossible to verify the songs sung by almost all the artists of that era including Kalyani.
Mumbai based Sardar Chandulal Shah, owner of ‘Ranjit Movietone’, was so impressed by Kalyani’s singing and acting skills that as soon as her contract with new theaters was over, he called Kalyani to Mumbai and employed her at Rupees 800 per month. The 1937 release ‘Toofani Toli’ was Kalyani’s first movie to be screened under the banner of Ranjit Movietone. The film was directed by Jayant Desai and Gyan Dutt was its Music composer. Kalyani sung three songs for this movie.
In 1938 Ranjit Movietone made a total of 8 films under its banner of which Kalyani sang and acted in 4 viz. ‘Billi’, ‘Gorakh Aya’, ‘Prithvi Putra’ and ‘Secretary’. Gyan Dutt was the composer and Pyarelal Santoshi was the lyricist for all of these films. . In the year 1939 of the 4 films that were screened under this banner, in ‘Nadi Kinare’ Kalyani acted as well as sang a duet. She also acted and sang in the film Service Limited- 1939, made by Sagar movietone.
After parting ways from ‘Ranjit Movietone’, Kalyani appeared in movies like ‘Super Pictures’ ‘Kanyadan’ (1940), ‘Mohan Picture’s’ ‘Jadui Kangan’ (1940), ‘Muslim ka laal’ (1941) and ‘Jadui Angoothi’ (1948), ‘Tarun Picture’s’ ‘Prabhat’ (1941), ‘Sunrise Picture’s’ ‘Ghar ki laaj’ (1941), ‘Ghar Sansar’ (1942), ‘Malan’ (1942) and ‘Maa Baap’ (1944) and ‘Radhika Picture’s’ ‘Pyara Watan’ (1942) where she not only played a range of roles from that of a heroine to a vamp, but she also sang many songs for these films. one that predominates all is the first film-qawaali of the history of Indian Cinema ‘aahein na bharin shikve na kiye’ (‘Zeenat’-1945 / Lyrics : Nakhshab / Music : Hafeez Khan) sung with Noorjehan and Johrabai Ambalewali in which Shyama, Shashikala and Shalini were seen on the big screen for the first time ever.
After her marriage in the year 1948, Kalyani left aside the ostentatious world of glamour and completely immersed herself in her domesticated life. After a number of decades she was once again seen in movies like ‘Aaja Sanam’ (1975), ‘Prem Kahani’ (1975), ‘Aakhiri Sajda’ (1977) and ‘Salaam-E-Mohabbat’ (1983) where she played a number of small character roles but her comeback films couldn’t bring back the magic that once was and she bid her final farewell to the big screen and spent the rest of her days quietly with her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. Her husband had passed away very early on and her son, working as a spot boy in films, barely managed to keep the household running. Although she had some relief in the form of a pension of Rupees 750 per month through the ‘Gandhi Welfare Trust’ set up by Richard Attenborough, Kalyani could never rise above the financial difficulties of livelihood till the very end.
In spite of all the pains and troubles that she faced, she never uttered a single word of complaint. And it was this decorous and dignified nature of hers that even superstars like Dev Anand and Sunil Dutt always showered her with the utmost respect. And then on 1st October 2009 at the age of 87, this remarkable artist of her era took her final journey.
( KALYANI BAI, from the 30s and the 40s, was traced to a small Tenement in Tekriwal Bungalow,in the lane near Mahim Dargah, in Mumbai by the famous Film Historian,writer and journalist Shri Shishir Krishna Sharma. He interviewed her on 21-2-2004. The above edited Biography of Kalyani Bai is based on his writings in http://www.beetehuedin.blogspot.in. I thank Sharmaji for this.)
Here is a duet sung by Surendra and Maya Banerjee. Enjoy….
Editor’s note:With this song, Surendra is now reached 100 songs in the blog as a playback singer.
Song-Sajnee chalo chalen uss paar (Service Limited)(1939) Singers- Surendra, Maya Banerjee, Lyricist-Pt.Indra, MD- Anupam Ghatak
Both
Lyrics
Sajnee
sajnee chalo chalen us paar
sajnee chalo chalen us paar
retee main mahal banaayen
retee main mahal banaayen
sajnee chalo chalen uss paar
us rang mahal mein rasiya
us rang mahal mein rasiya
hum tum rang manaayen
hum tum rang manaayen
haan aan aan
tum hum rang manaayen sajnee
tum hum rang manaayen sajnee
chalo chalen us paar
sajnee
chalo chalen us paar
dariya kee lahren aayen
dariya kee lahren aayen
hum machhlee ban bah jaayen re
hum machhlee ban bah jaayen
jab sang chalen hawaayen
jab sang chalen hawaayen
hum panchhee ban ud jaayen
hum panchhee ban ud jaayen
na nazar kisee ke aayen
sajnee
chalo chalen us paar
na nazar kisee ke aayen
sajnee
chalo chalen us paar
sajnee
sajnee
chalo chalen us paar
sajnee
sajnee
chalo chalen us paar
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