Main to aa ke lut gayee
Posted on: January 21, 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 an imaginary (Kalpanik) film – Hatimtai ki Beti-1955.
The film was produced and directed by Nanubhai Vakil for his own banner Vakil productions, Bombay. Music was by A.R.Qureshi, assisted ably by the yesteryear’s composer, Damodar Sharma. Sharma was one of the well known Music Directors of the early era films. Among the old era MDs, Damodar Sharma was different, in the sense that his songs were always unlike those of his contemporaries. When you hear his songs, you will notice that difference. From 1934 to 1948, he gave music to just 41 films. All his films were C grade films made by Paramount, Liberty, Ramnik Productions, Mohan Pictures and others. After 1948, he stopped getting films, so he worked as assistant to MD A.R.Qureshi till 1964.
The cast of the film included Chitra, Mahipal, Daljit, Krishnakumari, Kamal, Kammo, Heera Sawant, Helen, Ruhi, Tun Tun, Naaz,Maruti, Sunder, Kesari, W.M.Khan and others. The guest artistes were Heeralal, Ram Singh, Al Nasir etc. Lyricists were Shevan Rizvi and Kaifi Azmi.
When I was very young and had just started taking interest in reading books and seeing films, I always felt that HATIMTAI is a girl’s name. This was because “Tai” in Marathi, means ‘Didi’ in Hindi. It was only after I read the book “Arabian Night stories”, that I knew that Hatimtai was a Male name !
Hatim-Al-Tai or Hatim-Al-Taeei was a 6th century Arabian Christian poet. He was adventurous and very generous. His name is mentioned in Arabian Night stories too. It seems a beautiful princess Husn Bano asked 7 questions and declared that she will marry only to whosoever answers these questions. A neighbouring king fell into her love and Hatimtai helped him find all the 7 answers. Hatim of Arabia was a Christian and a contemporary of prophet Mohammed,but they never met. He was famous for his generosity,wisdom,courage and hospitality. Later his son was converted to Islam.
Hatimtai’s story has always attracted the filmmakers from the silent movie times. There were 4 films titled “Hatimtai”. Then in 1933, the film ‘Hatimtai Was made in 4 parts,each a separate full movie. ‘Son of Hatimtai’ was made twice and ‘Hatimtai ki beti ‘was also made twice. Hatimtai films had plenty of magic,adventure,dance and drama with humour. Among Ç’grade films, Hatimtai films were very popular. ‘Hatimtai ki Beti Was made in 1940 and 1955,both the films were directed by Nanubhai Vakil. In the 1940 film Sarojini,Indurani,Anil kumar etc were in the cast. That film was produced very lavishly by Sagar Movietone. In those days it cost them Rs. 1Lakh 25 thousand rupees. The outdoor shooting was done in Agra and Fatehpur Sikri.
The Heroine Sarojini ( real name Roshan aka Ranee) was married to Nanubhai Vakil. Their daughter Azra was also an actress in the 60s and 70s. Her debut role in ‘Love in Shimla’-60 was quite memorable. The film’s other Heroine Indurani was Sarojini’s own sister and she was married to Ramniklal Shah. ( Similarly readers may recall that Nanabhai Bhatt was also married to a starlet Shirin. Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt are their children.) Actresses marrying the producers or Directors was a common occurrence in those days.
The book Arabian Night Stories describes the stories of only Alladin, Sindbad, Hatimtai, Alibaba and such other heroes and their adventures. Nowhere in the book it is mentioned about their families, sons or daughters. But our genius Hindi film story writers very generously provided them with Beta, beti and lovers. Thank God they stopped only at these relatives and did not create their Mausa, Fufa, Jeeja, Saala and other varieties of relatives – or else we would have had films like ” Alladin ka Fufa” or ” Alibaba’s Jeeja” etc.
If you take a close look at the cast in detail, you will find that there were about 10 female stars – 6 of them dancers and 4 comedians. This also indicates what the film was like. Full of dances, created humour and if still some space was available, scope for Hero and Heroine’s antics. But then in that era, most of the C grade action, stunt, costume and imaginary films were like this only. They tried hard to provide what their audience looked for ! Who was thinking about histrionics, meaningful stories or social messages ? All they came for was some ” Dil Tod ‘ dances, colourful costumes, Big sets, daredevil stunts and lilting music !. Now let us first see what the film story was…..
HATIM TAI KI BETI-1955 was a costume drama set in the Arabian style mode.Produced by Nanubhai Vakil through his Vakil productions,it was directed by Nanubhai himself.The MD was A R Qureshi (Alla Rakha Qureshi,the famous Tabla player and father of Zakir Hussain,tabla maestro). His asst. was Damodar Sharma- in the 30s and 40s,he himself was a well known composer. The lyrics were by Shevan Rizvi( 8 songs) and Kaifi Azmi (2 songs).
It is imagined ( it is declared just before the credits) that Hatimtai had 2 daughters.The elder is Jahanara,the queen of Shahbad and the younger is Roshanara,who is known for always feeding the poor and the needy. The Shaitan(Devil ) and his assistant Badi (बदी) can not tolerate Roshan’s goodness. They come and poison the food she distributes. All,including the queen,become sick.However due to her goodness Imaan and Neki come and all recover. Then the Devil’s team poisons Jahanara’s mind and she imprisons Roshanara.Meanwhile the neighbouring king of Turin proposes marriage of his elder son Salim with Roshan,but Jahanara wants to marry him. Same time Salim’s younger brother Aslam also wants to marry Roshan,so Salim withdraws and Aslam is married to Jahanara( as roshan). On the wedding night the truth is revealed. Aslam is imprisoned but rescued by his friends.
Now salim comes and is imprisoned by jahanara. Aslam comes with the army and rescues Salim and imprisons Jahanara. Roshanara comes and begs for pardon to repentant Jahanara.
King and queen of Turin arrive for the marriage,but Shaitan and Badi become snakes and bite salim and others. Roshan Ara prays to God and due to her good work, Imaan and Neki arrive and revive everyone. Finally Aslam and Jahanara and Salim and Roshanara get married.
How many of us know that the film’s Music Director A.R.Qureshi, who gave music to 42 C grade films from 1943 to 1964, was the famous Tabla Player Alla Rakha – father of the stylish and famous Zakir Hussai, the Tabla Nawaz ?
Ustad Allah Rakha, born as Allah Rakha Khan Qureshi, was born in Jammu and Kashmir on 29-4-1919. He was an Indian tabla player who popularised the art of tabla playing all over the world. Allah Rakha was born to a soldier, who later returned from the army and worked as a farmer after that to earn his bread and butter. Being the eldest of seven sons, his father did not expect him to learn music and opposed his idea of learning classical music
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Ustad Allah Rakha, as a young boy of 12 years, found the instrument fascinating while visiting his uncle in Gurdaspur. His inclination towards Indian classical music and the Performing Arts made him run away to Lahore for further learning, as he found little scope of learning the art-form in his home-town. Allah Rakha studied at the Punjab school of classical music (gharana) where he became a student of Ustad Mian Khadarbaksh Pakhawaji (Mian Quader Bakshi). He was trained to be a singer under Ustad Ashiq Hussain.
Allah Rakha was also associated with theater as he lived in Pathankot for sometime and worked for a theater company. In 1930, Allah Rakha worked at radio station in Lahore. According to reports, he moved to Delhi after six years, in 1936, to work with All India Radio. In 1940, he moved to Bombay and worked with Pandit Ravi Shankar and again on All India Radio. He was the station’s first ever tabla solo player then.
After which he even composed music for 42 Hindi films from 1943 to 1958. His first film as a MD was Mahasati Anusuya-43 and the last released film was Idd ka chaand-64. He even sang 14 songs in 7 films between 1942 to 1949.He worked mostly in films made by Hind Pictures, Magnet films, Sunrise films and Mohan studios of Dave brothers. Barring 1 or 2 films like “Bewafa”-52, he got only C grade stunt films or Muslim ibadat films. He gave music in 3 Punjabi Films Madari -1950,Fumman-1951, Jagga-1964. He gave BG music in PYar Ki Baatein 1951. He acted in Aabida- 1947. Uma Devi (Tuntun) first sang in Wamiq Azra-46 under MD A R Qureshi.
Ustad Allah Rakha had married twice. He was first married to Bavi Begum and had three sons, Zakir Hussain, Fazal Qureshi and Taufiq Qureshi and two daughters Khurshid Aulia née Qureshi and Razia. Razia served him in his later years and was like a constant companion to her father. She died after a routine cataract surgery and Allah Rakha could not cope with the shock of her death and immediately slipped into a coma and passed away within 24 hours on 3-2-2000. Zakir Hussain is one of the most renowned tabla players of India.
Allah Rakha’s son Zakir Hussain grew up to be another legend in the country. Zakir Hussain has also been honoured with the Padma Shri in 1988 and the Padma Bhushan in 2002, by the Government of India. The honour that was bestowed upon his father by the Sangeet Natak Akademi came to him as well in 1990. Hussain has been working in films and on albums in India as well as abroad. Hussain owes his career to his father, who had made sure that he remained focused on this art-form.
Ustad Allah Rakha had established the Alla Rakha Institute of Music in Bombay in 1986 and imparted his knowledge of the instrument to all his disciples in the institute. Allah Rakha and sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar brought classical Hindustani music to Western audiences as well. He was honoured with the Padma Shri Award by the Government of India in 1977 for his contributions to elevate the reach of tabla playing as an art form across the globe. Later on, Sangeet Natak Akademi also honoured him.
Ustad Allah Rakha and sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar brought classical Hindustani music to Western audiences as well. Their partnership reached legendary heights with performances at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and the Woodstock Festival in 1969. The two performed together in many festivals and elevated the respect and popularity of tabla playing as an art form. Other than Pandit Ravi Shankar, he also worked with renowned Kathak dancers like Sitara Devi and Birju Maharaj.
Ustad Allah Rakha found fans not only in India but abroad as well. Reportedly, American percussionist, the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, was his huge fan. Hart always tried to learn from him even from single visits that Ustad used to make to his country. Hart was also quoted saying, “Alla Rakha is the Einstein, the Picasso; he is the highest form of rhythmic development on this planet.”
Other than the Grateful Dead drummer, Mickey Hart, Ustad Allah Rakha inspired George Harrison from The Beatles as well. Both of them performed together for a Concert for Bangladesh in 1971. Mickey Hart also collaborated with him for Rolling Thunder in 1972. The picture we have here is of Hell’s Angels member Terry The Tramp with tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha as they were set to perform together at the Monterey International Pop Festival, June 17th, 1967. He had collaborated with many prominent rock groups.
While Ustad used to generally team up with Pandit Ravi Shankar for his performances, he once collaborated with jazz drummer Buddy Rich for an album, Rich à la Rakha in 1968. Some of his greatest works have been in the form of albums Improvisations, West Meets East, Album 3 (with Ravi Shankar, Yehudi Menuhin, Jean Pierre Rampel, Martine Gelliot), Angel (1976), Master Drummers with Zakir Hussain (1991), Tabla Duet, Chhanda Dhara (1994), Ultimate in Taal-vidya, Magnasound/OMI (1996).
Here is a duet of Shamshad Begum and Balbir from this film. Enjoy….
Audio
Video (Longer with one extra stanza)
Song- Main to aa ke lut gayee (Hatimtai Ki Beti)(1955) Singers- Shamshad Begum,Balbir, Lyricist- Shevan Rizvi, MD- A.R.Qureshi
Lyrics
haaye main to aa ke lut gayee
hoye main to aa ke lut gayee
duniya ke mele mein
main to aa ke lut gayee
haaye main to kar ke mohabbat
hoye main to kar ke mohabbat
pad gayee jhamele mein
main to aa ke lut gayee
zulfen kaalee
gaal pe laalee
main matwaale re ae
haan aan aan
husn ka sajda lene aaya ek sawaalee re
haan aan aan aan
haaye tujhe qaid kara doon
hoye tujhe qaid kara doon
apne tabele mein
tujhe qaid kara doon
apne tabele mein
main to aa ke lut gayee
aankhen meree
teer chalaayen
zulfen daalen jaal
haan aan aan aan
aashiq ban ke aaya hoon main
sun le mera haal
aa aa aa aa aa
haaye muaa chhede dekho
hoye muaa chhede dekho
mujhko akele mein
muaa chhede dekho
mujhko akele mein
main to aake lut gayee
duniya ke mele mein
main to kar ke mohabbat
pad gayee jhamele mein
main to aake lut gayee
uskee khaatir baabul chhoda
chhod diya iraan
haan aan aan aan
dil bhee lele
sar bhee lele
lele meree jaan
haan aan an aan
ho mujhe aaj baha de
haaye mujhe aaj baha de
?? ke rele mein
mujhe aaj baha de
?? ke rele mein
main to aa ke lut gayee
duniya ke mele mein
main to karke mohabbat
pad gayi jhamele mein
main to aake lut gayee
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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