Chaley hum to mubaarak ho zamaane ko mita dena
Posted on: January 6, 2026
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 special song from a Muslim Social film – Darwaza-1954.
The film was produced by the famous writer of Urdu, Ismat Chugtai (21-8-1915 to 24-10-1991). She was the wife of this film’s director Shahid Lateef (11-6-1913 to 16-4-1967). His famous films were Naya Sansar-41, Jhoola-41, Anjaan-41, Ziddi-48, Arzoo-50, Fareb-53, Darwaza-54, Sone ki chidiya-58 and Baharen phir bhi aayengi-66. This pair of story writer, screenplay writer and producer- Ismat Chugtai and director Shahid Lateef worked in many films, including today’s film Darwaza-1954. The banner was Film India Corporation, Bombay. Music for this film was by Nashaad.
Film Darwaza-1954, true to its name, was the entry door for many artists. Singers Suman Kalyanpur and Sabita Bannerjee debuted as Hindi film singers with this film. Lyricist Khumar Barabankvi also debuted as a Lyricist with this film. The cast of the film was Shyama, Shekhar, Nazir Hussain, Leela Mishra, Neelam, Kumkum, Altaf (husband of Khurshid Jr, actress and singer as well as sister of Meena Kumari). Master Romi was a Guest artist.
Now coming to the point why I called today’s song ‘a special song’. This song is the first released film song of Suman Kalyanpur for a Hindi film. I know some eyebrows will be raised after reading this statement. Let me explain this phenomenon. Firstly, one has to understand that there is a difference between ‘the first recorded song’ and ‘the first released song’.
There is a confusion as to which is the first song of Suman Kalyanpur-is it from Darwaza or Mangu-both films of 1954. Actually she got the first opportunity to sing in the film Mangu, for which Mohd. Shafi was the composer. Half way through the film he was replaced by O P Nayyar. Shafi had already recorded 4 songs of Suman, but O P Nayyar removed 3 songs and retained only one Lori in this film. In this changeover,the film Mangu was delayed and finally it went to Censors and got a certificate No. 19040 (B) dt. 15-12-1954. Meanwhile Suman sang for Nashad in his film ‘Darwaza’ – 54 and this film was Censored on 29-5-1954, Certificate No-10937. Thus though she recorded her first song for Mangu,her first film to be released was ‘Darwaza’-54.
She sang 5 songs in this film. 2 were solos, 1 was duet with Talat Mahmood and 2 were Triades with Sabita Banerjee and Kamla. As per the record numbers, today’s song is her first recorded song (record No. N-50958) in this film. So, once for all this problem is solved. Our regular readers will recollect that similar problems had come about the First songs of Suraiya and Nurjehan also and these were solved on this platform only.
In her younger days, Suman was studying in J.J.School of Arts, in Bombay. Being a good singer she used to sing in college functions. One year, Talat Mahmood was the Chief Guest of her College Gathering. Suman sang “Eri main to prem diwani” from the film Naubahar-52. Talat was quite impressed with her singing style and he recommended her name to H.M.V.
In her career, Suman could sing just 5 songs with Talat…Darwaza-54, Mohabbat ki jeet-60, Pyar ki Dastaan-61, Shaahi Farmaan-61 and Teen Ustaad-61…all B and C grade films.
Suman Kalyanpur was a singer who had immense Talent but Luck did not favour her as much as she deserved. Not that she was a failure. On the contrary, she was quite successful, but did not get enough recognition. Her voice was similar to Lata’s voice, so she was always a replacement singer. Composers used her to get the Lata effect. In the film world, Mithun Chakrawarty was known as “poor man’s Amitabh” and Suman Kalyanpur was known as “poor man’s Lata”.
Many people feel that she got a raw deal in the industry and that lot of injustice was done to her. They feel she was isolated by few or some popular famous singers. But Suman, on her part, never felt that way. She never ever complained about anything. She was content and happy with whatever she got in her life.
Here is an adapted short interview given by Suman Kalyanpur to “Screen”, after her retirement. ( courtesy paklinks.in)
“Suman Kalyanpur’s voice was a good competition to Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosale monopoly. In some songs it is hard to believe that it is Suman Kalyanpur and not Lata.In retirement now for many years, Suman Kalyanpur remains the only female playback singer who made a sustained impact in the era of Lata Mangeshkar-Asha Bhosle dominance. A successful professional for four decades, she has won the Lata Mangeshkar award .
A housewife who was also a successful career woman, barely a tiny fraction of Suman Kalyanpur’s career was under her maiden name of Suman Hemmady, and arguably she was the first female playback singer of importance who balanced art and hearth.
Suman Kalyanpur perhaps recorded far less frequently than her talent deserved. Yet she spawned an enviable percentage of immortal songs and hits (mostly synonymous terms in those days), primarily in Hindi and Marathi films. But she also scored in devotionals, ghazal, Marathi bhavgeet, the occasional thumri and songs in Gujarati, Kannada (interestingly only under Hindi film composer Jaidev!), Bengali, Punjabi, Maithili, Oriya, Rajasthani, Assamese, Bhojpuri and many other languages, including Chhattisgarhi. Her legacy of priceless music continues to be heard by a legion of fans even as she lives like a recluse.
From the 1950s to the mid-’80s (her last hit song was Zindagi imtihan leti hai from the 1981 Naseeb for Laxmikant-Pyarelal, though she last recorded Saathi re o mere saathi for Bappi Lahiri’s Veerana in 1988) she had a fulfilling career. Suman was born on January 28, 1937 in Dhaka in East Bengal in undivided India where her family was based then. They shifted to Mumbai in 1943. In 1958, barely four years into her profession, she married industrialist Ramanand S. Kalyanpur.
“It’s not as if I have stopped singing just because I have not sung for films,” Suman Kalyanpur told Screen some years ago. “In any case, I never sang too many songs. In 1976 and 1977 I declined a good amount of work as I was preoccupied with my husband’s ill-health. And after that I never recorded for Marathi films as trends had changed. But I did occasional Hindi films, and my numbers from Badaltey Rishtey (Na jaane kaise with Rafi and Kishore) and Naseeb were hits. I also recorded for new composers like Rajesh Roshan (Jay-Vijay, Dillagi, Unees Bees, Ek Aur Sikandar), Bappi Lahiri (Waqt Ki Pukar besides Veerana) and Anu Malik (Aapas Ki Baat).”
“I like to look back and think whatever came to me was my destiny. I never had any burning ambitions and I think that I had a great career. I may have had 10 percent of the quantity of work, but a very huge percentage of my songs have become hits. Actually I never had any specific intention of becoming a playback singer, and one more factor could be that someone always accompanied me to the recordings, so that a certain kind of professional associate was kept away.”
She goes on, “I must add one more important point. I never sang cabarets, mujras or any songs with lyrics or situations wherein the visuals would have offended everyone’s and my own sensibilities and upset my joint family and my in-laws. In any case, I always felt that I could not do justice to those kind of songs. My skills and tastes were both towards soft, melody-based numbers.”
The Lata Mangeshkar Award is testimony to the fact, perhaps, that there is no acrimony between the Mangeshkars and Suman Kalyanpur. Lata and Suman even sang the duet Kabhi aaj kabhi kal kabhi parson in Shart under Hemant Kumar. At best, a certain vocal similarity and resemblance in style might have affected Suman’s career, or as she prefers to call it, her destiny.Suman’s interests include painting, embroidery, flower arrangement and gardening, and she was in the second year of Arts when she recorded her first song. “My family always loved music and I was quite fond of singing. Our neighbours included the famed Marathi musicians Keshavrao and Jyotsna Bhole. At one point I joined the music class in my school, where the famous music director Yeshwant Deo was a teacher. When I sang at a cultural programme in school, a relative of the Bholes was impressed and offered Yeshwant Deo and me a Marathi film called Shukraachee Chandani. My friends coerced me too. But the film never took off and after that I never sang in Marathi for a year.”
Talat Mahmood heard her at a concert and put her in touch with HMV, where Suman took a voice-test. Composer Mohammed Shafi heard her and signed her for Mangu. But soon afterwards, the film went to O.P. Nayyar, and of the four songs that she had recorded, only one lori was retained, Koi pukare dheere se tujhe. She then sang for small-time composer Nashad, whom she calls “a great talent”, in Darwaza in which she had two solos, Aag lage is sawan mein and Chale hum to. Her breakthrough came with the song Meri preet mera pyar (Teerth-Yatra) in 1958.
“All my music directors had their own styles and strong points. All of them had something to teach and enhance my skills. If one music director’s songs were like basundi, another’s were like shrikhand. I must say that I was lucky to get memorable songs with every composer, including those who recorded only one or two songs with me, like Salil Chowdhury and R.D. Burman. Quantity-wise I sang most for Usha Khanna – over 100 songs – and Shankar-Jaikishan, for whom I sang over 50 songs that were mostly hits. Actually I am grateful to their assistant Dattaram, who employed my voice in almost 15 films like Shreeman Satyawadi and paved the way for Shankar-Jaikishan to call me. My last song for Dattaram, Sun le Bapu ye paigham from the 1969 release Balak was a major hit. My composers included Naushad, S.D.Burman, Roshan, Madan Mohan, Chitragupta, Shankar-Jaikishan, Kalyanji-Anandji, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and almost everyone else.”
“In Hindi films I was considered lucky for duets,” recalls the singer. The co-singers ranged from Mohammed Rafi and Talat Mehmood to Mukesh, Manna Dey and Kishore Kumar. “But it is a myth that I sang very few solos, and I don’t know why the media perpetuated it. Again, though I sang a lot for B-grade films, I still have a 70 per cent hit percentage.”
Suman did benefit when Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi did not record for a while in the early ‘60s, but that was a miniscule benefit in a truly illustrious career.
Suman’s first song in Marathi was the superhit Bhaatuklichaa khel mandala for Vasant Prabhu, for the film Pasant Aahe Mulgi. After that she never looked back for over 20 years. Putra Vhawa Aisaa, Ekti, Manini and Annapoorna were but a few of her memorable films. But even outside films, her hits are legion and include over 50 timeless gems of Marathi films, bhavgeet and bhaktigeet. ”
The story of the film Darwaza-1954 was….
Rashid( Shekhar), is a middle – class Muslim young man, just back from England after a long educational sojourn, whose father, MIRZA SAHEB (Nazir Hussain), finds himself as a poet but – being a poor indifferent versifier finds no appreciation least of all from his wife who is impervious to the beauties of her husband’s muse.
In the neighbourhood lives a poor, pious old woman. SAIDANIBEE( Amir Bano) and her beautiful young daughter, ZUBEIDA ( Shyama) with whom Rashid used to play when they were children. On his return Rashid makes an effort to resume this thread of friendship and, seeing that Zubeida carries bare wrists, tries to present her with a set of glass bangles, but discovers to his horror and dismay that she may not wear them because She is a widow, having been married and widowed during Rashid’s absence. From the lonely, sequestered life she now leads, he gleans that society has slammed the door of life in her face and that she must for the rest of her life continue to go without the love, affection, company and happiness which the enlightened Rashid considers every girl’s birth right.
Zubeida is practically a family member in Rashid’s house and helps his mother in her various domestic duties. She also ministers to Rashid’s personal needs. Rashid has a younger sister, Suraiya( Manju), whom her parents wish to give away in marriage to Jhumman(Altaf), a dissolute young man who acquiesces in the arrangement only because it depends on his inheriting the huge fortune of his mother. Rashid fights this match tooth and nail and makes an enemy of Jhumman who puts up the whole Mohalla against Rashid and Zubeida by spreading false, poisonous rumours.
Normal life thus becomes impossible for the widow and her daughter and they are compelled to put an end to their life but a last-minute dash by Rashid knocks over the cup of poison she has prepared for herself and she is rescued out of a horrible fate. Rashid, meanwhile has succeeded in his right to save his sister from the clutches of Jhumana and has got her married secretly to a young, noble hearted but impecunious friend of his Ahmed (Jagdish kanwal). In desperation, Jhumman sets in motion a series for events whose ultimate effect, however, far from serving his ends, is ruinous to him and he finds himself in Police lock up, ushering in happy endings for all concerned. (But I was wondering why this film was titled Darwaza ? )
The Lyricist of this film was Debutant Khumar Barabankvi. Khumar Barabankvi (15 September 1919 – 19 February 1999) was the pen name of this Urdu poet and lyricist from Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, India. His real name was Mohammed Haidar Khan. His ghazals are sung by many famous singers such as Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, K. L. Saigal, Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Jagjit Singh and many other singers.
Khumar Barabankvi’s real name was Mohammed Haidar Khan, but he wrote under the takhallus (pen name/ nom de plume) of Khumar, which means intoxication. The word comes from the Arabic root ‘Khum’ which means a jar of wine. He was born on 15 September 1919 in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh. He found a poetic environment in his family during his childhood. His father, Dr. Ghulam Haider, wrote salaams and marsiyas under the pen name ‘Bahar’. His uncle ‘Qaraar Barabnkvi’ was a well-known poet of Barabanki who guided Khumar in young age and did Islah (corrections) to his poetry. His brother Kazim Haider ‘Nigar’, who died in early age, was also a poet. Khumar completed his high school from Government College, Barabanki. He then moved to Lucknow for his Intermediate classes where a romantic turn in his life made him quit education and start writing love poetry.
Khumar Barabankvi had a melodious voice and soon became popular in Mushairas (poetry reading live events). He also got acquainted with the poet Jigar Moradabadi and remained in association with him for a long period. His ghazals and voice made him a favorite in Mushairas. Jigar Muradabadi and Khumar Barabankvi were known to guarantee the success of any mushaira with their poetry as well as their melodious voice and style of recitation. Khumar was an ardent supporter of classical ghazals like Jigar Moradabadi.
Khumar has written some famous songs for Hindi films like Baradari (1955 film), ‘Saaz aur Awaaz’, Love And God (1986) directed by K. Asif etc. He worked closely with noted composers like Naushad and Nashad among others. He wrote all the songs for the film ‘Saaz Aur Awaaz’ produced by Naushad in 1966 and wrote some songs again for the film Love and God (1986 film) for which Naushad again composed music. Khumār Barabankvi died on 19 February 1999.
Here is Suman Kalyanpur’s first released Hindi film song from today’s film Darwaza-1954. Enjoy….
Song- Chaley hum to mubaarak ho zamaane ko mita dena (Darwaaza)(1954) Singer- Suman Kalyanpur, Lyricist- Majrooh Sultanpuri, MD-Naashaad
Lyrics
chhoote tumse to lo hum sabse naata aa aa
tod jaate hain aen
galee tumne kahee thee ee
hum ye duniyaan chhode jaate hai
chaley hum to mubaarak ho
zamaane ko mita dena
chaley hum to mubaarak ho
zamaane ko mita dena
bas itnee aarzoo hai
tum hamen dil se bhula dena
chaley hum to mubaarak ho
zamaane ko mita dena
hamaare dukh bhare dil ko tumhee ne zindagee dee thhee
hamaare dukh bhare dil ko tumhee ne zindagee dee thhee
tumhee ab apne hanthon hamko mittee mein sula dena
chaley hum to mubaarak ho
zamaane ko mita dena
hamaare baad aansoo mat bahaana aa ke turbat par
hamaare baad aansoo mat bahaana aa ke turbat par
uthhe jab dard pehlu mein zamaane ko dua dena
chaley hum to mubaarak ho
zamaane ko mita dena
bas itnee aarzoo hai
tum hamen dil se bhula dena
chaley hum to o o o
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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