Aashiq agar hai pyaare kaudee na rakh kafan ko
Posted on: January 5, 2026
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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Today, January 5, 2025, is the 44th Remembrance Day of Ramchandra Narhar Chitalkar, popularly known as C Ramchandra as a music director and Chitalkar as a playback singer. He regaled the connoisseurs of Hindi film music with his melodious musical compositions in the 1950s and 1960s. He was the pioneer of introducing popular foot-tapping songs with western musical influence and western musical instruments like saxophone and guitar in his compositions as early as in the 1940s. At the same time, he was composing classical raag-based as well as folk-based songs. He was trained in Hindustani classical music for six years first under Vinayakbua Patwardhan and later Shankarrao Sapre.
Despite producing many melodious songs especially in the 1950s, it is unfortunate that C Ramchandra did not get any award – whether National Film Award or Filmfare Award as a music director. The first Filmfare Awards were announced in April 1954 for films released in 1953. But his film, ‘Anarkali (1953) was not in the reckoning for the best music director’s award. His film, ‘Aazaad’ (1955) and ‘Paighaam’ (1959) were nominated for the Filmfare Award in best music director category but did not win. But the fact remains that many of his melodious and rhythmic songs of 1950s are still popular among the current generation which itself is a great award to a creative genius.
On the occasion of the 44th Remembrance Day of C Ramchandra, I have picked up one of his films, ‘Insaaniyat’ (1955) for discussion in which he composed as many as 17 songs.
‘Insaaniyat’ (1955) was produced by Gemini Studio and was directed by S S Vasan. The cast included Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Bina Rai, Vijayalakshmi, Jayant, Jairaj, Agha, Shobhna Samarth, Badri Prasad, Mohana, Kumar, Ishwarlal and Zippi (chimpanzee).
Ashokmitran, the Public Relation Officer of Gemini Studio for a long time, in his memoirs, ’14 Years With Boss’ (2016) revealed that when ‘Insaaniyat’ (1955) was almost half-way through shooting, director, S S Vasan realised that the film was having many dull moments. To enliven the film, he brought the Hollywood celebrity ape, Zippy who could do roller-coaster and play piano. The cost of bringing Zippy from the USA and taking care of with his trainer in Madras was more than the combined remunerations paid to Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand for the film. When Zippy landed in Bombay (Mumbai) airport in June 24, 1955, on its way to Madras (Chennai) he was welcomed by Mohana with a flower garland (The picture is available to see online). She was to act with Zippy in the film. Zippy was also a big draw in Gemeni Studio with many VIPs rushing to see him.
‘Insaaniyat’ (1955) was one of the first film which I watched in the theatre in my childhood. Except the role of Zippy, the chimpanzee and the song, apni chhaayaa mein bhagwaan bithhaa de mujhe, I do not remember much about the film. After a gap of about 7 decades, I have recently watched the film which is nearly of 3 hour’s duration. Three things surprised me about the film. First, how did the debonaire Dev Anand accept the role in a costume genre of film with sword-fighting. This is one of his films which Dev Anand will not like his fans to watch him with a funny looking moustache. Second, there were a couple of song sequences in which Dev Anand got more exposure than Dilip Kumar. Perhaps, Dev Anand was compensated for the his less exposures in the scenes which Dilip Kumar had major presence. Third, the real star of the film was Zippy, the chimpanzee. Even after many years of my watching the film, people used to talk more about Zippy than the performances of Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand. Incidentally, for the first time, I realised that the mannerism and the style of dialogue delivery (fake laughter preceding the sarcastic dialogues) by Jayant as King Jangoora seems to have inspired his son, Amjad Khan while performing the role of Gabbar Singh in ‘Sholay’ (1975).
The story of the film is as under:
Bhanu Pratap (Dev Anand), a commander in King Jangoora’s (Jayant) army leads his troop in a village in a spree of lootings. Durga (Bina Rai), a village girl slaps Bhanu and challenges him that if he is really brave, he should fight to protect the citizens and not loot them. A shell-shocked Bhanu orders his army to retreat. Back to King Jangoora’s palace, Bhanu announces that he has decided to shun violence and looting and goes back to the village to work for the betterment of the villagers.
In the village, Mangal (Dilip Kumar) is in love with his childhood friend, Durga but he is too shy to reveal it to her. Bhanu is introduced to Mangal by the villagers who convince him that Bhanu has come to help the villagers. Mangal accepts Bhanu like a brother and with this, Durga also feels that Mangal and Bhanu can save the village from the oppression of Jangoora’s soldiers. Both of them train the villages in defending the village against the enemy. Gradually, both Bhanu and Durga fall in love with each other.
On the other hand, Mangal and Durga being the childhood friend, Mangal’s mother (Shobhana Samarth) meets Durga’s father (Badri Prasad) with a marriage proposal which he has no objection if Durga approves it. Back home, Mangal’s mother gives him a good news of his impending marriage with Durga and he is very happy. But when Durga’s father gives her news of the marriage, she reveals that she is in love with Bhanu. Durga’s father goes with her decision. After some initial disappointment, for the sake of Durga’s well-being, Mangal sacrifices his love for Durga and blesses Bhanu and Durga for their impending marriage.
Mangal arranges the wedding of Bhanu with Durga. On the same day, Jangoora sends his army to the village for looting as a punishment for desertion by Bhanu from his army. However, Mangal and Bhanu having already trained the villagers, repulse Jangoora’s army and protect the village. Jangoora send his spies in the village and abducts Bhanu by deceit. He is imprisoned and awaiting his death sentence the next morning. However, Mangal, Bhola (Agha) and his Zippy manage to snick into the palace in the guise of the Chinese traders and later as the soldiers of Jangoora and get Bhanu released. Mangal instructs him to immediately take care of Durga and the infant son who are left unprotected.
In the meanwhile, Durga with her infant son wanders in search of Bhanu as she suspects that it is Mangal who has deliberately failed to protect him from Jangoora’s soldiers so that he can now have her. Durga now unprotected, Jangoora’s soldiers abducts her infant daughter and take her to the palace. Jangoora has now a trump card as he expects Bhanu will fall in his trap while trying to get his infant daughter released. Bhanu leads the uprising of villagers and rushes to the Jangoora’s palace fort. Jangoora with Bhanu’s infant son in his hand, warns Bhanu to get off the fort. Otherwise he will throw his child to the ground. Before he does that, Zippy climbs the fort, snatches from Jangoora the child and runs to hand over to Mangal.
Unaware of what has happened to Mangal, Bhanu and villagers enter the fort by breaking its gate. After a long sword-fight with Jangoora, Bhanu kills him and villagers rejoice as they are now free from the cruelty of Jangoora. Bhanu returns to his house in a joyous mood to inform her of their victory over Jangoora. But soon the celebrations turn into a gloom as he sees a seriously injured Mangal in the lap of his mother. While saving Durga’s daughter, Mangal had to fight with Jangoora’s soldiers during which he gets seriously injured. However, he still manages to run away from the soldiers through forest and hands over infant daughter to Durga before he dies in the lap of his mother.
The Film had 17 songs written by Rajinder Krishan which were set to music by C Ramchandra, Ten songs have been covered on the Blog. On the occasion of his 44th Remembrance Day today, I have picked up a song, ‘aashiq agar hai pyaare kaudi na rakh kafan ko’ rendered by Chitalkar (C Ramchandra) and Mohammed Rafi. In this this song, Chitalkar sings for Dilip Kumar while Mohammed Rafi songs for Agha. However, in the video clip, there are a couple of lines where Dilip Kumar lip sync in the voice of Mohammed Rafi. The video clip is of a shorter version while audio clip has full version. The song precedes with an unknown voice who has tried to replicate the voices of Dilip Kumar and Agha. The song is composed in a qawwali style.
The context of the song is that Bhanu (Dev Anand) has been abducted by the spies of King Jangoora (Jayant) by deceit and he is imprisoned awaiting his death. Mangal (Dilip Kumar) and Bhola (Agha) plan to enter Jangoora’s fortified palace to free Bhanu. So, both Mangal and Bhola come at the gate of the palace as street singers. After the end of their singing performance, they mingle with the crowd, get themselves changed into the Chinese traders and enter the palace.
The song contains a major part of the famous she’r of Dagh Dehlvi:
main ne us ke saamne pahle to khanjar rakh diyaa
phir kaleja rakh diyaa dil rakh diyaa sar rakh diyaa
Audio Clip (Full):
Video Clip (Partial):
Song-Aashiq agar hai pyaare kaudee na rakh kafan ko (Insaaniyat)(1955) Singers-Chitalkar, Mohammed Rafi, Lyricist-Rajinder Krishan, MD-C Ramchandra
Both,
Lyrics (Based on Audio Clip):
bol bol
arre bol jamoore teraa naam
kabhee Lakshman kabhee Ram
arre waah re waah teree shaan
waah re waah teree shaan
aadhee supaari aur aadhaa paan
khaata kya hai mera jamooraa
bhaang, afeem, dhatooraa
o waah beta waah
waah beta waah
arre aashiq hai tu pooraa
aashiq agar hai pyaare
kaudi na rakh kafan ko
aashiq agar hai pyaare
kaudi na rakh kafan ko
kaudi na rakh kafan ko
kaudi na rakh kafan ko
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aa aa
dil kee khushee ke khaatir
dekhoon jo maal dhan ko
arre aashiq agar hai pyaare
kaudi na rakh kafan ko
ek aaye
ek jaaye
ek aaye
ek jaaye
arre duniyaa hai ik saraai
jeena hai chaar din to
phir kyon ye haay haay
haay
haay
phoolon ko loot joban
aa chal chalen chaman ko
phoolon ko loot joban
aa chal chalen chaman ko
aa chal chalen chaman ko
aa chal chalen chaman ko
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aaaa
aashiq agar hai pyaare
kaudi na rakh kafan ko
aashiq agar hai pyaare
kaudi na rakh kafan ko
aa aa aa aaa
awwal awwal unke aage
jaa ke khanjar rakh diyaa
phir kaleja rakh diyaa
dil rakh diyaa
arre sar rakh diyaa
haay haay haay
arre kya kya rakh diyaa
ham ye boley
yaa hamen duniyaa se rukhsat keejiye
jo naheen manzoor
apne ghar mein rahne deejiye
arre kisne inkaar kiyaa hai
tashreef laaiye
tashreef laaiye
aaiye aaiye
dheere se aaiye
aashiq agar hai pyaare
kaudi na rakh kafan ko
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
January 5, 2026 at 8:43 am
C Ramachandra was one of the successful composers of the fifties but could not be at the top during the sixties due to various reasons. Insaniyat was one of his several hit films of the fifties and quite a few songs were popular in it. Thanks for remembering him in this forum.
On Mon, 5 Jan, 2026, 7:30 am Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of
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