Kya sitam hai zulm hai bedaad hai
Posted on: December 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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Today’s song is a duet from the film Laila Majnu-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.
From the day filmmaking started in India, the filmmakers depended upon popular drama stories, Mythological stories and folktales of Love. During the silent film era also there were films made on age old stories of love like Laila majnu and Shirin Farhad etc.
There were films on Laila Majnu in 1922 and 1927 and films on Shirin Farhad in 1926, Subhadra haran in 1921, Prithviraj Sanyukta in 1930, Mirza Sahiban in 1929, Heer Ranjha in 1928, Sassi Punnu in 1928 and Sohni Mahiwal in 1928 (2 films).
After the talkie started, there were 2 films on Laila Majnu in 1931 (one made by Madan Theatres, Calcutta and the other by Krishnatone in Bombay), 1945, 1953, 1976, Laila in 2005, 1954 and 1984 and Majnu in 1935.
Other films on Love stories were…
Heer-Ranjha… Films made in 1931,32,48 and 1970
Mirza-Sahiban… In 1933,35,47 and 1957
Sassi-Punnu… In 1932,33 and 1946
Sohni-Mahiwal…In 1933,46,58 and 1984
Umar-Marvi…in 1942
Noorie-Tamchi…In 1934
Dhola-Maaru….1956
The story of Laila Majnu is too well known to repeat here. This film was made by Hind Pictures and was directed by its owner Nazir Ahmed with Nayyar. The music was by Rafiq Ghaznavi and Pt. Govind Ram (only 3 songs out of 11). The star cast was Swarnalata, Nazir Ahmed, M.Ismail, K.N.Singh, Gope, khaleel Ahmed and others.
I have written articles on films of the early cinema i.e. from the decade of the 1930s. In these articles, I have introduced a few unknown or less known heroes and heroines of those times, to our readers. Some of these are Vijay Kumar, Ram Singh, Shankar Rao Vazare, Gul Hamid, Prakash and heroines like Shamim, Nazma, Anjali Devi, Shahzadi, Menaka, Radha Rani, Meera Mishra, Meera Devi etc. Today also we will talk about yet another less known artist of the silent and early talkie films – Master Khalil Ahmed.
From the lot of the “brought forward” actors and actresses from the silent to the talkie films, two heroes were the true super stars. Master Khalil and Master Vithal. Since they had started their careers from the silent era of the 1920’s, they did not go beyond the 1940’s, when their competition increased and the newer breed of heros took over with ease!
Though the world’s first feature film, originally presented as a talkie ,’The Jazz Singer’, released in October 1927, it took about 4 years more for talkie films to come to India. When it did come in March 1931, there was tremendous enthusiasm amongst the film makers. Initially, however, there was skepticism in the minds of well established silent film makers. Famous filmmakers like Dadasaheb Phalke and even V Shantaram are on record having expressed their views that talkie films will not survive. However, the same people later on, not only supported the talkie, but V Shantaram became one of the best proponents of Hindi talkie films. Even Dada Saheb Phalke ended his career by making his only Talkie, ‘Gangavataran’ in 1937. (Leela Mishra had acted in it.)
The coming of sound to films changed film making for ever. Till then what was a fragmented production activity, slowly became an industry. Earlier, silent films were made at a cost of 8 to 10 thousand rupees. Now the talkie needed 15 to 25 thousand per film. Automatically, the hobbyists and poorer filmmakers disappeared. So did the acting crew who could not speak Hindi fluently or sing a song.
One finds that suddenly, there was a deluge of talented, creative and enterprising people from various professions and different backgrounds to take up the challenges of this new industry. The changing society in India is partly responsible for this deluge. Due to education and attraction to cities, many people were rapidly getting uprooted from their traditional occupations and they looked forward to these opportunities. For example a motor mechanic Sarvottam Badami became a sound recordist (and later, a director too) and a traditional carpenter like S Fattelal became the great set designer in Prabhat films. An ordinary poster painter, Baburao Painter became a director. Many such examples are available. The deluge was made up of producers, directors, sound recordists, writers, lyricists, singers, technical staff and of course the actors and actresses.
Among the first generation of heroes, namely Khalil, Sandow, Sohrab Modi, Master Nissar, Chandramohan, Prithviraj Kapoor, Motilal, Ashok Kumar, Master Vithal, Jal Merchant, Bilimoria brothers and Saigal emerged as the main players. Among actresses Mehtab, Bibbo, Kajjan, Gauhar, Sitara, Sita Devi, Zubeida, Cooper sisters, Sabita Devi, Leela Chitnis, Durga Khote, Devika Rani, Naseem, Jamuna, Kanan Bala etc. became popular.
Master Khalil Ahmed (variously mentioned as Khalil, Master Khalil, and Khalil Ahmed) was the first ever star of the silent era as well as talkie films from 1920 to 1940s. Born on 15-7-1903, he became a hero in Kohinoor’s ‘Gul E Bakavali’ (1924), opposite Zubeida. He was the first handsome and macho hero of those times. He acted with all top heroines of his time. Some of his 30 silent films are, ‘Kaala Naag’, ‘Kulin Kanta’, ‘Lanka Ni Laadi’, ‘Cinema Queen’ etc.
He featured in his first talkie film, ‘Draupadi’ (1931), made by Imperial, opposite Ermeline (aka Sudhabala ). Then came ‘Daulat Ka Nasha’ (1931), ‘Bharati Mata’ (1932), ‘Niti Vijay’ (1932), ‘Do Rangi Duniya’ (1933) and ‘Saubhagya Sundari’ (1933). In 1934 Khalil went to Calcutta on the invitation of East India Films. His first film in Calcutta was ‘Kismet Ki Kasauti’ (1934). Then he joined Tollywood Studio (Madon Theatres). Here his first film was ‘ Gaibi Gola’ (1935), in which Baby Noorjehan made her debut as a child star.
He was in great demand in Bombay also, so Khalil started doing films in Calcutta and Bombay, by frequently travelling between the two cities. This caused a lot of stress on him, but he always kept his commitments. During this period, he also got married and got children. He settled in Calcutta and travelled often to Bombay to do films there.
Khalil did different roles, including Hindu Gods. He never changed his name. In those days very few Muslim actors kept their real names. Incidentally, during his peak time, there were two more artists named Khalil. One was Khalil Aftab, who was a lyricist and he acted in the films ‘Dard E Dil’ (1934) and ‘ The Mill’ (1934) (this latter film was banned and was released later in 1936 as ‘ Ghareeb Parwar’). The other actor was Khalil Khan, who had acted in the film ‘Deepak Mahal’ (1940). In all, Khalil acted in 29 Talkie films. He died quite young, on 28-11-1947, at Calcutta. Too much travelling and stress must have taken its toll on him. He was only 44 year old. He left behind one wife with 5 children.
Khalil did 13 films in Calcutta – ‘Kismet Ki Kasauti’ (1934), ‘Gaibi Gola’ (1935), ‘Miss Manorama’ (1935), ‘Jawaani Ka Nasha’ (1935), ‘Divine Sacrifice’ (1935), ‘Raj Dulari (1936), ‘Bulbul e Iran’ (1936), ‘Parivartan’ (1936), ‘Adarsh Mahila’ (1937), ‘Aflatoon’ (1937), ‘Karmaveer’ (1938), ‘Abla Ki Shakti’ (1941) and ‘Merchant Of Venice’ (1941).
In Bombay, he did 16 films in Bombay – ‘Draupadi’ (1931), Daulat Ka Nasha’ (1931), ‘Bharati Mata’ (1932), ‘Niti Vijay’ (1932), ‘Do Rangi Duniya’ (1933), ‘Saubhagya Sundari’ (1933), Typist Girl (1935), ‘Shaitan Ka Paash’ (1936), ‘Khudai Khidamadgar’ (1937), ‘Kiski Pyaari’ (1937), ‘Kaun Kisi Ka'(1939), ‘Hamara Desh’ (1940), ‘Pyaar’ (1940), ‘Waayada’ (1940),‘Taj Mahal’ (1941) and Laila Majnu (1945)- his last film.
Khalil acted with most of the leading heroines of his time like, Noorjehan (Sr), Jilloo (Zulekha Ibrahim – she was known by Jilloo Bai in her later career), Kajjan- 6 films, Mushtari – 3 films (She died too young, in her teens only), Miss Rose – 2 films, Violet Cooper – 2 films, Radha Rani, Ram Pyari, Begum Akhtar (she was then known as Akhtari Faizabadi), Sulochana, Ameena, Leela Desai, Indurani, Gulab, Ermelin and Sheela etc. Khalil was very good natured and a popular actor among his co-stars and producers.
A Muslim by birth, he performed a variety of roles in films. His initial acting phase included roles of Shri Krishna and Shri Ram. Disenchanted by the communal riots during those times, he gave a speech in the Indian Motion Picture Congress, on 4th May 1939. Baburao Patel’s Film India published this extract from his speech- “I have played Hindu Gods in films. I worked under Hindu producers only. I am disturbed by these riots. I am popular among Hindus and Muslims. We are devotees of Art and Art has no religion.” Indian Film Industry is perhaps the only industry which is mostly a secular one, since its inception. Master Khalil Ahmed was an example of that.
Today’s duet is sung by Amirbai Karnataki and Rafiq Ghaznavi. Enjoy….
Song-Kya sitam hai zulm hai bedaad hai (Laila Majnu)(1945) Singers-Amirbai Karnataki, Rafiq Ghaznavi, Lyrics- Tanvir Naqvi, MD- Rafiq Ghaznavi
Lyrics
kya sitam hai zulm hai bedaad hai
kya sitam hai zulm hai bedaad hai
haan aan aan aan aan aan
main yahaan aur tu wahaan barbaad hai
main yahaan aur tu wahaan barbaad hai
kya sitam hai zulm hai bedaad hai
kya karoon kis se kahoon jaaoon kahaan aan
kya karoon kis se kahoon jaaoon kahaan aan
ab kafas hai main hoon aur saiyyaad hai
ab kafas hai main hoon aur saiyyaad hai
ek wo din raat tum thhey aur hum
ek wo din raat tum thhey aur hum
ab fakat gham hai tumhaaree yaad hai
ab fakat gham hai tumhaaree yaad hai
un sisaktee hasraton kee yaadgaar
un sisaktee hasraton kee yaadgaar
lab pe ik tootee hui fariyaad hai
lab pe ik tootee hui fariyaad hai
kya sitam hai zulm hai bedaad hai
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
December 1, 2025 at 9:02 am
Good Morning,
Good song, old is gold..
Thanks for sharing.
Blessings,
Uma🙏
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