Chhod chalee ghar tera baabul
Posted on: November 24, 2025
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, 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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‘Mere Bhaiyya’ (1972) was produced by Tarachand Barjatya under the banner of Rajshree Productions and was directed by Satyen Bose. The cast included Vijay Arora, Nazima, Suresh Chatwal, Anita Guha, Bipin Gupta, Durga Khote, Manisha, Manik Dutt, Tarun Ghosh, Shail Chaturvedi, Ram Singh, Murad etc. The film was based on a popular Marathi play, ‘Vaahato Hee Durvaanchi Judi’ (meaning in English: Offering the Sacred Grass) written, produced and directed by Bal Kolhatkar who also acted in the play in the role of the brother. The play was first staged in in 1964 and became very popular.
In this film, Nazima did the lead role with Vijay Arora though her character was that of the sister of Vijay Arora. Nazima has been known in Hindi film industry as ‘resident sister’ because she has performed sister’s role in many films:
‘Mere Mehboob’ (1963) – Rajendra Kumar’s sister
‘Ziddi’ (1964) – Asha Parekh’s sister.
‘April Fool’ (1964) – Saira Bano’s sister.
‘Ghazal’ (1964) – Sunil Dutt’s sister.
‘Aarzoo’ (1965) – Rajendra Kumar’s sister.
‘Dillagi’ (1966) – Sanjay Khan’s sister.
‘Aurat’ (1967) – Pran’s sister.
‘Anjaana’ (1969) – Rajendra Kumar’s sister.
‘Waaris’ (1969) – Jitendra’s sister.
‘Beimaan’ (1972) – Manoj Kumar’s sister.
‘Mere Bhaiya’ (1972) – Vijay Arora’s sister.
Nazima (25/03/1948 – 11/08/2025) was born as Mehr-un-nissa in Nashik to Nadir Shah and Sofia. Actor-singer, Husn Bano was the sister of Nazima’s father, thus her aunt while Aspi Irani, producer director was her uncle being the husband of Husn Bano. Theatre and film actor of the 1930s, Sharifa Bai was her grandmother. Nazima studied in Anjuman Islam Girls’ High School in Mumbai.
Due to the filmy environment in her family, Nazima started working in films as child artist under the name, Baby Chand. As a child artist, her first film was ‘Laila Majnu’ (1953). She was also seen in ’Biraj Bahu’ (1954), ‘Devdas’ (1955), ‘Garam Coat’ (1955), Parivaar’ (1956) and ‘Ab Dilli Door Nahee’ (1957) among others.
Nazima’s first film in an adult role was her uncle, Aspi Irani’s ‘Oomar Qaid’ (1961) in which she was the lead actor paired with Sudhir. Thereafter, she did secondary roles in ‘April Fool’ (1964), ‘Ghazal’ (1964), ‘Ziddi’ (1964) and ‘Aarzoo’ (1965). Her uncle, Aspi Irani once again selected her for the lead role in ‘Nishaan’ (1965) opposite Sanjeev Kumar which was his first film in a lead role. However, the film did not fare well at the box office. In the next one decade, she mostly got secondary roles.
In film industry, very few actors doing secondary roles get attention and admiration from the film audience. Nazima was one of them who is fondly remembered even today for her roles of sister and heroines’ close friend.
In 1976, Nazima retired from the film industry after her parent arranged her marriage with Captain Arshul Rehman, who was working in Merchant Navy. She kept herself aloof from the film industry in her post marriage period until her death on August 11. 2025 in Mumbai.
Reverting back to ‘Mere Bhaiyya’ (1972), unfortunately, the film is not available for viewing on any of the video sharing platforms. Since video clips of the songs are available, it is quite possible that the film may be available in VHS format. For the story of the film, I have relied on the synopsis of the story that is available on the film’s song book and a couple of short video snippets aggregating about 15 minutes of the film available on a video sharing platform. I had watched the Marathi play and find that the film’s story has followed the story presented in the play fairly faithfully. Even the character’s names in the play have been retained in the film. With these sources, the story of the film comes out as under:
Pandit Deodhar Sharma (Bipin Gupta) is a lawyer by profession and a widower who leaves with his two children, Subhash and Laxmi. Before her death, the mother has given the responsibility of looking after her brother to Laxmi. Deodhar is very conservative in his attitudes and is particular about his family reputation. He does not like Subhash’s friendship with Ranga, his schoolmate who is notorious in his school and has been rusticated. Hence, very often, Subhash is at the receiving end from his father. Both brother and sister love each other and would not like to hurt each by their actions.
Both Subhash (Vijay Arora) and Laxmi (Nazima) grow up, so also the tussle between Subhash and his father. Subhash is an emotional person and has a streak of poet in him. He does not want to follow the dictate of his father blindly but wants to judge himself as to what is good and bad for him. Ranga (Raman Kumar) has been his close friend since his school days. And has been involved with some undesirable activities. With constant bickering from his father, Subhash has found solace in Ranga’s company. He honestly reveals to Laxmi that has been visiting a courtesan to watch her dance and feels that there is nothing wrong in watching the courtesan’s dance
Laxmi is torn between Subhash and her father. She tries her best to reconcile the differences between the father and son but fails. Because of her love for brother, Laxmi often save her brother from the wrath of the father by hiding the truth to him. She is torn between her father and the brother as she is unable to convince both of them.
One day, when Laxmi, after her marriage, has come to her father’s house for a short stay, she finds one Pathan is looking for Subhash as he has failed to repay the loan he has taken from him. She pledeges her necklace to Pathan which was given to her as a part of dowry. The sacrifice on the part of her sister awakens Subhash. He works hard to get back the necklace which he succeeds. Unfortunately, while returning home, a pickpocket steals the necklace from him.
Laxmi’s husband and both father-in-law and mother-in-law are very good natured and she has been treated very well. Whenever, Laxmi’s husband enquires about her necklace, she gives some or the other excuses. But she cannot hide the truth anymore and the truth is out. They are shocked as to why she has lied to them despite being good to her. As a punishment, Laxmi is sent back to her parental house.
Ever since Subhash has lost the necklace to a pickpocket, he has not returned home and his whereabout is not known to Laxmi. She is worried about him. One day, Laxmi’s in-laws visit Pandit Deodhar’s house and meet Laxmi to take her back. They realise that in the heat of the moment, they sent her back to her parental home which was a mistake.
Around the same time, Subhash comes home in a hurry and hands over her necklace which he has found in Ranga’s house when the police raided his house. He was missing from the house for many days because, at the time of police raid, he was arrested along with Ranga as an accomplished. He has taken a furlough from the police for a very short time to meet her before he is taken back to police custody. Subhash takes leave of Laxmi and requests her not to try to get him released because having spent much of his time in a bad company, he does not have the confidence of facing the honest persons. Pandit Deodhar, who was always critical of his son for his bad company with Ranga, this time, he decides to fight the case in the court as he is confident that his son is innocent.
The film had five songs written by Yogesh (3) and Som Thakur (5) which were set to music by Salil Chowdhury. Two songs have been covered on the Blog. I present 3rd song, ‘chhod chalee ghar tera baabul’ rendered by Lata Mangeshkar and picturised on Nazima. The song is written by Som Thakur. It is a ‘bidaai’ song which is played in the background. The context is self-explanatory in the lyrics as well as the picturisation of the song itself. Vijay Arora, Bipin Gupta and Anita Guha can be seen in the picturisation of the song.
Video Clip:
Audio:
Song-Chhod chalee ghar tera baabul (Mere Bhaiyya)(1972) Singer-Lata, Lyricist-Som Thakur, MD-Salil Chaudhary
Lyrics:
chhod chalee ghar tera baabul
piya ke ghar jaana baabul
piya ke ghar jaana
chhod chalee ghar teraa
hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
chhod chalee ghar tera
bachpan
meraa bachpan
tere dwaare aa ke khela
bachpan
mera bachpan
tere dwaare aa ke khelaa
chitvan
mann kee chitvan
dekhen beetee yaadon kaa mela
chal dee main to jaise panchhee
kar jaaye rain baseraa
chhod chalee ghar tera
chhod chalee ghar tera baabul
piya ke ghar jaana baabul
piya ke ghar jaana
chhod chalee ghar tera
ankhiyaan
geelee ankhiyaan
rimjhim rimjhim neer bahaateen
ankhiyaan
geelee ankhiyaan
rimjhim rimjhim neer bahaateen
sakhiyaan
pyaaree sakhiyaan
chalte chalte gale lagaateen
tan ke paas ujaala dekha
mann ke paas andheraa
chhod chalee ghar tera
maiyya
tulsee maiyya
kaise hogee sanjha baatee
maiyya
tulsee maiyya
kaise hogee sanjha baatee
bhaiya
mere bhaiya
kaise tujhko main samjhaatee
jaane tere is jeewan mein
kab ho naya saweraa
chhod chalee ghar tera
chhod chalee ghar tera baabul
piyaa ke ghar jaana baabul
piyaa ke ghar jaana
chhod chalee ghar tera
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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