Bhagwaan mitaa de meree hastee ko mita de
Posted by: Atul on: January 9, 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 from a non descript C grade stunt film, Namumkin aka Impossible – 1946.
1946 was an important year in the history of Hindi films. This was the period when the impending Independence of India was on the Anvil and everyone knew that in the year 1947 it would take place. At the same time when the country was to be divided on the basis of Religion and another muslim country Pakistan was to come into existence. Many of the muslims in the film industry were excitedly awaiting their departure from India to the Utopia. This would, naturally, create a lot of vacancies in every department of film making. However, there was enough talent available in the remaining India to fill up the void. Hence from the year 1946 itself there were several debutantes. This made the year 1946 an year of Debuts of several new actors, directors, MDs, Lyricists etc etc.
The second World War had just ended, which had created inumerable millionaires, fed on black marketing and illegal trades in the war period. Many of them were keen on investing their ill gotten wealth in the film industry. Thus, there was no dearth of finances in the industry. From 1946 to around the early years of the 50’s, some of these ” novo-rich” persons provided finance. Some even tried their hand at directing films or even acting in it. Let us see what other things happened during this period.
By 1946 to 1950 old towers shook hard to crumble. The studio system almost disappeared. Film industry could now boast of people highly educated, talented and hard working. Even artists with International experience and success like Dewan Sharar, Shakuntala Paranjpye, actor Ranjan, Balraj Sahni etc contributed to Indian films. The old horse of Calcutta-New Theatres broke down and actors, directors and Music specialists from Bengal made a Bee-Line to Bombay, thus making it the strongest ever Hindi film centre.
1946 was also an year of consolidation, in a sense that due to the iminent Partition of India on the basis of Religion, agreed upon by Gandhi-Nehru combine, made Muslim artistes and filmmakers plan to pack their bags and move over to the new Utopia across the border. Their vacancies were to be filled up by the waiting second line of actors,directors and MDs. The film industry was to have a complete new look within 1-2 years and the beginning was from 1946. Thus the year was very important.
The year 1946 was a year which saw many changes in the film industry. The II world war had just ended. Rationing and control on many items had created Black marketing. This made many people Millionaires. The extra income started getting invested in Film making. The increased cost of Raw Films made filmmaking 7 to 8 times costlier. A film which was made in about 1 Lakh rupees in 1940, needed 8 Lakhs now. Studio system was waning and artiste rates increased in Lakhs instead of thousands.
In 1945, only 74 films were made. This number increased to 153 films in 1946. Further, in 1947, the film industry produced a record number of films – 181, but of course that was due to Partition. The quality of films was sacrificed at the cost of the quantity of films made in 1946. However, some quality films were made in 1946, indicating the changing face of filmmaking.
Film Dharati ke Lal-46 was made by IPTA people and it became the first film to be exhibited in Russia. Neecha Nagar-46 won the Grand Prix award in the French Film Festival. Film Dr. Kotnis ki amar kahani-46 was dubbed in English as ‘ The journey of Dr. Kotnis’. It was shown in the USA and then in the Venice Film Festival. Two musical films- Anmol Ghadi and Shahjahan were made in 1946.
Year 1946 also saw the Debut of several stars and artists ( 31, in different capacities). In fact one can call 1946 as the ” Debut year” of the Hindi film industry. See this….
Nirupa Roy debuted in film Amar Raaj-46
Nasreen (real name Zareena), daughter of Rafiq Gaznavi and Anwari bai had debuted in her first released film Shahjahan-1946.
Geeta Bali debuted with a dance in film Badnami-46
Geeta Roy sang her first film song in film Bhakta Prahlad-46
Balraj Sahni debuted in the film Insaaf-46. It was a small role,though.
K A Abbas-Director, Pt.Ravi Shankar-MD, Balraj Sahni as Hero and Damayanti Sahni as Heroine made their Debut in film Dharti Ke Lal-46
Meena Kapoor sang her first released Hindi film song in the film Eight Days-46. She also recorded her first Hindi film song in the film Door Chalen-1946, which was released later than the film Eight Days-46.
Sudhir Phadke debuted as MD in film Gokul-46
P L Santoshi as Director, Dev Anand, Rehman, Rehana and Kamla Kotnis debuted as actors in film Hum Ek Hai-46
Chitragupta did his first film as MD in Lady Robin Hood-46
Ram Ganguly became MD with film Maharana Pratap-46
Abhi Bhattacharya debuted in Hindi film Milan-46
Chetan Anand as Director, Uma Anand and Kamini kaushal as actresses debuted in film Neecha Nagar-46
Hansraj Behl debuted as MD with film Pujari-46
Madhubala(as Baby Mumtaz) sang her first song in film Pujari-46
Majrooh Sultanpuri wrote his first Hindi film song in film Shahjahan-46
S D Burman as MD and Kishore Kumar as an actor debuted with film Shikari-46
Snehal Bhatkar as MD in –Rukmini Swayamvar-46
Vinod as MD in- Paraye Bas mein-46
Indivar as Lyricist in –Double Face-46
Actress Tasneem in Kuldeep-46
Actress Shashi in-Neera aur Nanda-46
Baby Tabassum in- Nargis-46
Nigar Sultana in- Rangbhoomi-46
Cuckoo as Co-Heroine, as Kishori in- Sona Chandi-46
So, you will find the year 1946 was truly a year of change. The winds of Partition were already blowing and the second line of supplementary artistes was ready to replace the Migrators, after the Partition.
Today’s stunt film was directed by Nari Ghadiyali, a veteran in directing such films. The music was by Ayub Khan – a name never heard before or after this film. He might have been an assistant to some directors and migrated to Pakistan in 1947. The cast of the film was Prakash, Sharda, Fakir Mohd. Chandrika, Saguna and others. Though the cast and MD was unknown, some of the songs of this film by Shamshad Begum were quite good. 2 Less known singers, Gandhari and K.S.Ragi were also used in the 7 songs of this film.
I started seeing films in my early childhood in the late 40s. I was lucky enough to see many films of the 30’s too, in their second or third runs. By the mid 50s, the films from the 30s were gone but almost all films of the 40s were still available.
English, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu or Kannada- language was no bar as far as watching movies of these languages was concerned . Those were the days when 78 RPM records used to be played by Hotels on gramophone. This helped me to hear the latest songs. In the 1960s Posh hotels had JukeBox. Soon it became common and JukeBoxes were seen everywhere. You needed just a coin of 4 Annas to listen to your desired song on it. Usually 4 songs in a row were lined up and they could all be listed by putting 4 coins in it.
I liked Shamshad Begum songs from the beginning. Uneducated but immensely talented Shamshad was the reigning queen of the HFM in the 40s and till about ’55. Her seniors and co-singers bowed out, but she continued-first with C. Ramchandra, then with Naushad and later with O P Nayyar. Her Luck began to run out in 1950s and all the composers who previously supported her left her and started using the rising singing stars. From 1949 onwards, C Ramchandra was totally devoted to Lata, Naushad too had realised that the new crop of Heroines wanted only Lata and so he quietly went for her and O P Nayyar-when he found a soulmate in Asha, he simply forgot Shamshad and Geeta. So much for the “professional” composers !
In my opinion, two things went against Shamshad. One, in the early phase of Hindi cinema, the storylines of the films used to be very strong. Consequently, songs were inserted considering the need of the plot and to enhance the value of music in the film. As a result, songs were given to side Hero/heroines, special dancers or character roles. Naturally Shamshad sang for artistes than the Heroines. The singing Heroines sang their own songs. If an analysis is done, it will be seen that till about early 50s, 70% songs in a film were sung by artistes other than the Lead pairs.
It was only after the new crop of Hero/Heroines came and when they realised that songs can help them become popularity, they started demanding more songs on them in the films. Slowly,the ratio reversed and after 1955-56, 80% of songs were picturised on the Lead pairs and the rest-if any-on others. Thus singers like Shamshad, who sang for all and sundry found her singing opportunities dwingling. In those days, Lata very cleverly chose to sing only for the Heroines and according to her, for all ‘others ‘there were Asha, Geeta and Shamshad. This badly affected Shamshad’s career.
Secondly, when Lata came on the scene, the older generation female singers like Ameerbai, Zohrabai etc were already on the wane. Only Geeta and Shamshad were left. Geeta got all songs of Guru Dutt films. Additionally,the Bengali lobby of Burman, Hemant, Salil and A Biswas was in her support. Shamshad had no one to back her up. It was Naushad, who first indicated that he had tilted towards Lata, when Lata sang all songs of Andaz-49 for the heroines and Shamshad sang only for Cuckoo. next was C Ramchandra,when he fired Shamshad in front of the orchestra players when she could not sing to his satisfaction. She was so much hurt that she closed her song book and walked out. Normally, C Ramchandra would have apologised soon after, but this time nothing like this happened and Shamshad understood that everything was finished. ( Shamshad, however,in a later day interview denied that anything like this had happened). In case of O P Nayyar, in one of the interviews he gave in 2003 to Dr. Mandar, he admitted that “his lead singer” in those days prevented “others” from singing for him.
Shamshad being too gentle and straightforward gave up the fight too meekly, in my opinion. Even her last attempt to remain in Limelight with a ‘Shamshad Stage Show’, did not bear ant fruits as she did not do any follow up after that, due to her self respect.
In my opinion, Shamshad could have continued for another 8 to 10 years easily if only she had fought it out, but it was not to be and a vibrant, youthful, solid voice disappeared from the musical scene. I feel that it was not she but millions of lovers who were the losers because of her ouster from the music scene. All of us know that Shamshad became All India famous after ‘Khazanchi’-41 songs-a film made in Lahore. She specially came to Bombay, on Mehboob Khan’s invitation, to sing songs of the film Taqdeer-43-a debut film for Nargis. Here is an account in her own words, as to how ‘Taqdeer’ happened . This is an extract from an interview of Shamshad Begum, taken by our own Gajendra Khanna ji. Full interview is on his site http://www.shamshadbegum.com. Thank you, sir.
” It was all thanks to the insistence of Mehboob Khan. He was one of the biggest directors of the time. His films like Jagirdar(1937), Deccan Queen(1936) and Aurat(1940) (which was a milestone) were very popular and some people used to call him Father of Indian Cinema crediting him for his contributions to it. He had heard my songs in Khazanchi and was planning Taqdeer with Motilal and a debutant Nargis as the lead actress. He told his secretary to take my bookings. He told him, Saahab yeh artist book nahi hoti(This artist doesn’t take bookings). He asked him the reason for that. The secretary told him that the singer’s possessive father doesn’t reply and doesn’t let her leave Lahore. Mehboob sahab would not be deterred and he came all the way to Lahore to convince my father.
It was a really big thing that one of the biggest producer-directors ever came there to get a new singer to sing for his ambitious movie! He told my father, “Yeh abhi chhoti hai. Bologe baith jaao to baith jaayegi, jo kahoge maan legi. Aapne usse kuen ka mendhak banaya hua hai. Woh to samudra ki machchi hai. Samudra mein daaloge to wahaan bhi tairegi. Aap isse ijaazat nahi denge to jab yeh badi hogi to aapko apna career na aage badhne ke liye zimmedaar maanegi.”(She is young now and will do as you say. She is capable of making a mark in the ocean, why do you want to keep her in a well. If you don’t allow her to spread her wings now, she will blame you when she is older).
My father understood his point and gave permission. Mehboob sahab promised to arrange for a house, car and servant for me which he did. I was offered Rs 300 per song for the movie. I came to Bombay to sing for this movie. All the songs were sung by me and became very popular. I promptly ran away back to Lahore after singing the songs. “
Let us now listen to a song of this obscure film, sung by Shamshad Begum. Enjoy….
Song- Bhagwan mita de meree hastee ko mita de (Naamumkin)(1946) Singer-Shamshad Begum, Lyricist- A.Kareem, MD- Ayub Khan
Lyrics
bhagwaan
bhagwaan mita de
meree hastee ko mita de
bhagwaan
bhagwan mita de
meree hastee ko mita de
tootee huyee kashtee ko meree aa ke duba de
tootee huyee kashtee ko meree aa ke duba de
bhagwaan
bhagwaan mita de
meree hastee ko mita de
barbaad hua ghar
na raha koi thhikaana
barbaad hua ghar
na raha koi thhikaana
ab thokaren khaane ko kahaan jaaoon bata de
ab thokaren khaane ko kahaan jaaoon bata de
bhagwaan
bhagwaan mita de
meri hastee ko mita de
is duniya mein aane kee gunaahgaar huyee hoon
is jurm kee ab tu mujhe jo chaahe saza de
bhagwaan
bhagwaan mita de
meree hastee ko mita de
duniya mein bhala kya tera insaaf yahee hai
duniya mein bhala kya tera insaaf yahee hai
din raat jo rota hai
usey aur rula de
din raat jo rota hai
usey aur rula de
bhagwaan
bhagwaan mita de
meree hastee ko mita de ae
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
January 9, 2026 at 10:12 pm
Good Evening,
Very beautiful song.
Old songs are always a delight.
Thanks for sharing.
Regards and blessings,
Uma🙏
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