O kalee matwaalee
Posted on: December 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 Special Film – Raj Laxmi-1945.
The film was made in Calcutta by M.P. Productions. It was directed by Premendra Mitra and the music was by 2 MDs namely, Robin Chaterjee and Dhiren Mitra. Lyricist was Suresh Chaudhari. The cast of the film included Kanan Devi, Chhabi Biswas, Poornima, Jahar Ganguly, Iftekhar Ahmed, Puri, Talat Mahmood etc etc.
I called it A SPECIAL FILM, because it was Talat Mahmood’s first Hindi film in which he sang a Hindi song. Earlier he had sung a few NFS and a few Bangla songs in Calcutta. The film was made in Calcutta by M.P.Productions, so everyone connected to the film was from the Bangla cine world.
The Bengali names are an enigma to me personally – Chhabi Biswas is a Male actor but Chhabi Roy is an actress ! Asit Sen is an actor but Asita Bose is an actress. Make a mistake in spelling and you change male to female effortlessly. During my service period, I visited Bengal every month. I always got confused with their names. What is commonly a female name in entire India, is a male name here. Thus Kamal, Vimal, Pushpa, Mrinal, Mridul, Suman etc are all males. Another issue is Bangla alphabets do not have an alphabet with the sound of short A ( अ ). Therefore, the pronunciation of a simple name like अरुण becomes ओरुण. Mamata- ममता becomes मोमोता etc. S.D.Burman always called LATA as LOTA ! I wonder what he called Talat…..TOLOT, perhaps ! Whenever I write or talk about Talat, I always remember what happened when Late Rajnikumar Pandya ji went to Talat’s house in Bombay for his interview.
“Haazir so Vazir ” and ” Out of sight is out of mind ” are two well known proverbs which describe the Hindi film industry. Those who are in the limelight- for whatever reasons- are the talk of the town. Those who are not heard about, seen or spoken about are not remembered, whatever their contribution to the industry. This is the experience of almost every film personality who retired and spent time away from the industry till their end.
Examples are many- Shamshad Begum, Mubarak Begum, Begum Para, Rajesh Khanna, Sitara Devi, Nimmi, Nanda, Waheeda, Asha Parekh, G M Durrani, Sajjad Hussain, K. Datta, Jagmohan Sursagar, Manna Dey, Kavi Pradeep….so on and so forth.
One more name is that of Talat Mehmood. When he was in full form and sang hit songs, people would jostle to have his glimpse, but after he retired ( or was ignored ) from film singing, he was not only forgotten, but many rumours of how he was living in poverty were making rounds. Of course that was NOT the truth.
Shri Rajnikumar Pandya ji,a senior writer on film personalities and author of several books, who had won the Gujarat State Sahitya Academy awards FIVE times, had gone to interview Talat Mehmood in the late 90s.
After finishing the interview, he was coming out of the posh 7 storied ” Sunbeam” apartments, when he met one of his younger friends. He asked, “Came to meet Rati Agnihotri ? ”
Pandya ji was shocked. He had never dreamt anything like this. He simply said, ” No No, I came to meet a great personality. ”
” What,some other great person also stays here ? Who ? ”
“Talat Mehmood “.
Even after hearing the name, the friend’s face showed no signs of recognition.
Disgusted, Pandya ji said, ”Look here. Some time ago this was a beautiful Bungalow Sunbeam, belonging to Talat Mehmood. It was sold and this tower has come up. Rati stays in one of the flats, but Talat owns the Penthouse on the 7th floor. ”
The friend said,” but does he stay here ? I had heard that he is forced to do some small service somewhere.”
Irritatedly, Pandya ji said, ” Do you see this big car ? It is Talat’s car. He stays in his Penthouse. Every month he has 2-3 stage shows, plus Radio and HMV Royalties come every month. His income every month is in Thousands. These are great people. Look at Rafi’s bungalow there. Now it has become a shopping centre. Do you think they are on roads ? ”
Friend said, “But I had read somewhere that Rafi’s wife does Tailoring jobs for survival. ”
Just imagine Pandya ji’s condition. With great restraint, he said coolly, “This is how rumours spread. Rafi family’s income must be more than Talat Mehmood’s income. Rafi’s children are in the USA. Why will Rafi’s wife do menial jobs ? They are very well off. ”
But then it is not the fault of this one man alone. It is true that most actors and singers of the first generation of HFM died in penury and poverty, but the subsequent generations became more money savvy. They knew that film line life is for a few years only and they made provisions for their retired life. These days career periods have shortened even further, due to heavy output of actors and singers. These days artists last for a few years only and they wisely make provisions for their lives and are secure enough.
Talat Mehmood was born on 24-2-1924. His father owned an Electrical goods shop. BY the age of 15 , he was halfway into his school and music education. He entered A.I.R. and on 8-12-1939,his first song was aired on Radio,for which he got sixteen rupees eight annas as fees. He continued singing on Radio ,till the ” Talent Search Team ” of HMV identified him, took him to Calcutta and he cut two records. The first song was, “Sab din ek samaan” and the second was ” Tasveer teri dil mera behla na sakegi “. This song became popular all over India. This was in 1941.
He came back to Lucknow. Here he met Madan Mohan, a young man working on A.I.R. Madan Mohan was Raibahadur Chunilal’s son. Raibahadur Chunilal was the chief of Filmistan in Bombay. Both together started ” Amateur music Club” in Lucknow. In 1944, Talat went back to Calcutta. He worked in 3 Hindi films- Rajlaxmi-1945, Tum aur main-47 and Samapti-49. He had also done one Bangla film under the name of Tapan kumar Sinha.
In 1949, Talat came down to Bombay. He sang the song- teri gali se-in film Raakhi-1949, under Husnlal Bhagatram. Then came the big break. Anil Biswas gave him a song from Arzoo-1950 “Ae dil mujhe”. This became a hit song and Talat got a firm foothold in Bombay.
Mukesh and Talat were great friends. When Mukesh was not getting work, it was Talat who pleaded with Salil Chaudhari and got Mukesh a song in Madhumati-58. This changed the life of Mukesh. Around 58-60, many rumours about Talat’s arrogant behaviour, his spat with Naushad etc were circulating. Not everything was true, however. He lost songs of Yahudi, but the Sujata song came his way, only due to Asha Bhonsle’s insistence with Burman da. Actually rumours and misunderstandings are a part of an artist’s career.
It is to the credit of Anil Biswas that he gave Talat self confidence about his own special Voice feature, (the tremor in his voice) and that proved to be his strength and USP too. The ‘Vibrato‘ or the ” LARGISH “- technical name for the vibrations in Talat’s voice ( Kampan-yukt ), actually became Talat’s treasure.
After Film songs stopped coming his way, Talat continued cutting private Albums and making stage shows in India and foreign countries.
Today we will listen to a song from his debut Hindi Film- Rajlaxmi-1945. The lead pair of this film was Kanan Devi and Chhabi Vishwas. This was a special film, because this was the First Hindi film in which Talat Mahmood sang his First Hindi film song, as a playback. I like most of Talat’s songs. He had a totally unique type of voice, having a Vibrato, and his style was very soft.
He sang only one song ( for a Sadhu) in this film. The other song credited to Talat in HFGK is a private-NFS- song and is mentioned by mistake in HFGK, because it was on the ‘Palti’ side of his film song record. But due to this, 99 % Blogs, sites and even Youtube uploaders still mention that private song (Tu sun le Matwale) also as from the film Raj Laxmi-1945.
One of the cast members is Iftikhar. Iftekhar Ahmed Sharif (22 February 1920 – 4 March 1995), often mononymously credited as Iftekhar or Iftikhar, was an actor who mainly worked in Hindi cinema. He is known for his film roles as a police officer.
Iftekhar was born in Jalandhar and was the eldest among four brothers and a sister. After completing his matriculation, Iftekhar did a diploma course in painting from Lucknow College Of Arts. Iftekhar had a passion for singing and was impressed with the famous singer Kundanlal Sehgal. In his 20s, Iftekhar travelled to Calcutta for an audition conducted by the music composer Kamal Dasgupta, who was then serving for His Master’s Voice. Dasgupta was so impressed by Iftekhar’s personality that he recommended his name to M. P. Productions as an actor.
Iftekhar made his debut in the 1944 film Taqraar, which was made under the banner of Art Films-Kolkata.
Many of Iftekhar’s close relatives, including his parents and siblings, migrated to Pakistan during the partition. He would have preferred to stay in Calcutta, but rioting forced him to leave Calcutta. Along with his wife and daughters, he moved to Bombay, where they struggled to make ends meet. Iftekhar had been introduced to actor Ashok Kumar during his time in Calcutta and contacted him in Bombay, gaining a role in the Bombay Talkies movie Muqaddar (1950). Iftekhar acted in over 400 films in a career that spanned from the 1940s through to the early 1990s.
His brother, Imtiaz Ahmed, was a famous TV character actor of PTV (Pakistan Television), especially Afshan and Tanhaiyan. Like many of the older character actors who populated the Bollywood universe of the 1960s and 1970s, Iftekhar had been a lead actor in his youth during the “golden age” of Bollywood, in the 1940s and 1950s. His roles ranged from father, uncle, great-uncle, grandfather, police officer, police commissioner, courtroom judge and doctor. He also did negative roles in Bandini, Sawan Bhadon, Call Girl, Khel Khel Mein and Agent Vinod.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Iftekhar graduated to playing uncle, father, and what came to be his speciality: police inspector roles, doctor or senior advocate. Generally he played “sympathetic” characters but, on occasion, he played the heavy. One of his most memorable roles was as Amitabh Bachchan’s corrupt industrialist mentor in Yash Chopra’s classic Deewaar (1975). Another of Iftekhar’s classic roles was as the police inspector in Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer. It was a small part, but the scene where Iftekhar reprimands the near-hysteric Amitabh Bachchan for taking the law into his own hands is incredibly powerful. Another important role as a police officer was played by him in the 1978 hit film Don. Some of his major roles came in Rajesh Khanna films such as Joroo Ka Ghulam, Mehboob Ki Mehndi, The Train, Khamoshi, Safar, Raja Rani, Ittefaq, Rajput and Awam.
Besides Deewaar and Zanjeer, Iftekar had character roles in many of the classics of 1960s, 1970s, 1980s Bollywood cinema: Bimal Roy’s Bandini, Raj Kapoor’s Sangam, Manoj Kumar’s Shaheed, Teesri Manzil, Teesri Kasam, Johny Mera Naam, Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Don, The Gambler (1971 film), Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se (1978) and Sholay, to name but a few.
Apart from Hindi films, he appeared in two episodes of the American TV series Maya in 1967 as well the English language films Bombay Talkie (1970) and City of Joy (1992).
Iftekhar married Hannah Joseph, a Jewish lady from Calcutta, who changed her religion and name to Hina Ahmed. They had two daughters; Salma and Sayeda. Daughter Sayeda died of cancer on 7 February 1995. He couldn not bear this loss and he too died within one month, on 4-3-1995.
Today’s song is composed by Robin Chaterjee. Robin Chaterjee ( real name Rabindranath Chatopadhyaya) was born on 8-1-1914, at Calcutta. His name is not too well known to Hindi film lovers, though he was very famous in Bengal, where he composed several NFS and film songs. For many years he assisted Anupam Ghatak,MD. He even sang in the chorus for New Theatre’s film Adhikar-1938. However he was not so successful in Hindi films.
His first Hindi film was Rajlakshmi-1945, wherein he gave the first opportunity to Talat Mahmood to sing a Hindi film song. Till then he was singing Bangla NFS and film songs with the name Tapan kumar. His next film was Tum aur main-1946 which had very good songs by Kanan Devi. Then came Voh Dono-1947 and here Sandhya Mukherjee gave good songs. Robin Chatterjee gave music to 14 Hindi films,namely – Rajlakshmi-45, Tum aur main-46, Voh Dono-47, Sabyasachi-48,Ratnadeep-51, Pehli Shadi-53, Firdaus-53, Shobha-54, Majboori-54, Africa-54, Dhake ki malmal-56, Miss Toofan mail-58, Police Station-59 and Chimney ka Dhuvan-1973…this was a much delayed film. He also gave music to a Bhojpuri film- Saiya se kar le milanwa-1966. Robin Chatterjee died on 2-4-1976 at Bombay at the age of just 62 years.
Let us now listen to a song by Kanan Devi and an uncredited unknown male voice, from this film. Enjoy….
Song-O Kalee matwaalee (Raaj Laxmi)(1945) Singer-Kanan Devi, Unknown male singer, Lyricist-Suresh Chaudhary, MD-Robin Chatterjee
Female chorus
Lyrics
o kalee matwaalee
o kalee matwaalee
o matwaale phool
van ke praanee
van ke saathhee
tujhe na jaaoon bhool
deewaane rakhna mujhse pyaar
deewaane rakhna mujhse pyaar
khil gayee ee man kee phulwaaree
khil gayee ee man kee phulwaaree
raah hamaaaree
ho gayee ujiyaaree ee
khil gayee man kee phulwaaree
raah hamaaaree
ho gayee ujiyaaree ee
raah hamaaaree
ho gayee ujiyaaree ee
hans hans mujhko bula raha hai
ek naya sansaar
deewaane rakhna mujhse pyaar
deewaane rakhna mujhse pyaar
o kalee matwaalee
o kalee matwaalee
o matwaale phool
dariya mein phir jwaar aaya
uchhal uchhal kar geet sunaaya
dariya mein phir jwaar aaya
dariya mein phir jwaar aaya
uchhal uchhal kar geet sunaaya
chalee hamaaree prem kee naiyya
chalee hamaaree prem kee naiyya
dol dol us paar
deewaane rakhna mujhse pyaar
deewaane rakhna mujhse pyaar
o kalee matwaalee
o kalee matwaalee
o matwaale phool
van ke praanee van ke saathhee
tujhe na jaaoon bhool
deewaane rakhna mujhse pyaar
deewaane rakhna mujhse pyaar
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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