O chandrmukhee o mrignainee
Posted on: January 29, 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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‘Taqdeer Ki Tope’ (1939) was produced and directed by Vithaldas Panchotia under the banner of Shri Bharat Lakshmi Pictures. The cast included Master Nissar, Husn Bano, Vithaldas Panchotia, Jyotsana Gupta, Sultana Banu, Fakir Mohammed, Abdul Kabuli, Narbada Shankar, Master Gama, Shanti Devi, Aruna Devi etc. I have no idea about the genre of the film. I came across the name of the film while listening, for the first time, the audio clip of a song rendered by Master Nisaar. I found the song interesting because it is rendered by Master Nissar in the Hindustani semi-classical style. Before I listened to the song, I was under the impression that Master Nissar was an actor first and had to sing for himself as during his time, the playback singing system was yet to be evolved. But his voice sounded like a trained singer.
The filmy career of Master Nissar is one more of ‘rags-to-riches-to-rags’ story of the artists of Hindi film industry like Master Bhagwan, Khan Mastana, G M Durrani and many more. Master Nissar is regarded as the first super star of Hindi films of the early talkie era. Starting from a chorus singer and doing small roles in his uncle’s theatre, he became the lead actor in many popular plays produced by Madan Theatre, Kolkata. With the coming of the talkies, he became the highest paid actor in early 1930s. During his heydays, Master Nissar stayed in a big bungalow at Walkeshwar in South Mumbai owning a fleet of cars. He was the first Hindi film actor to own a Rolls-Royce car and the second user in Mumbai, the first being the Governor of Bombay. But by the end of 1930s, his acting career was relegated to doing character roles and further to small roles. By the start of 1950s, Master Nissar had to sell everything and shift to stay in a chawl in Kamathipura until his death in July 1980.
Nisaar Ali Mohammed Ali, later known as Master Nissar (05/03/1902 – 13/07/1980) was born in Delhi in a family of musicians. During his childhood, Master Nissar shifted to Bhopal where his uncle, Abdulah Jan had a theatre company. He joined in his uncle’s theatre as a chorus singer as well as doing small roles. He received singing training from Pandit Narayan Prasad Betab and Ustad Zande Khan. In the early theatre days, Master Nissar mostly acted in female characters doing the roles of Parvati, Seeta, Draupadi, Subhadra etc.
Impressed with his singing voice and the Urdu diction, Master Nissar was offered to work as a singer-actor by Agha Hashr Kashmiri, playwright and the poet in his plays which he wrote for Madan Theatre, Kolkata among others. Thus, Master Nissar started his full-pledged career in theatre in Kolkata. Some of his popular dramas were, ‘Shirin-Farhad’, ‘Laila Majnu’, Shakuntala, ‘Abhimanyu’ etc. Nissar mostly paired with Jahanara Kajjan in the dramas and later in silent films.
With the advent of talkies, some of Madan Theatres popular dramas and silent films were made into talkie films. ‘Shirin Farhad’ (1931) was Madan Theatre’s first talkie film with Master Nissar and Jahanara Kajjan in lead roles. During the same time frame, in Mumbai, Imperial Film Company was making ‘Alam Ara’ (1931) which was completed early and was released on March 14, 1931. Shirin-Farhad (1931) was released on May 30, 1931 with superior techniques and attained the status of a super hit film with 18 songs, most of which were rendered by the lead pair. Master Nissar and Jahanara Kajjan became the stars. Their next film from Madan Theatre, ‘Laila Majnu’ (1931) also became a super hit. In 1932, Madan Theatre came with another remake of their play, ‘Inder Sabha’ (1932) with Master Nissar and Jahanara Kajjan in the lead roles with as many as 71 songs. This film also became a super-hit and Master Nissar attained the status of a super star to such an extent that thousands of people used to rush to see him whenever he was seen in public creating a traffic jam. Master Nissar and Jahanara Kajjan worked together in some more films, ‘Shakuntala’ (1932), ‘Bilwamangal’ (1932), Chatra Bakawali’ (1932) and ‘Gulru Zarina’ (1932).
Sometime in 1933 Master Nissar shifted to Mumbai with an offer from Ajanta Films by producer-director, Mohan Bhavnani for a princely sum of Rs.3000/- per month. Later he joined Nanubhai Desai’s Saroj Movietone. In Mumbai, he worked as a lead actor in ‘Rangeela Rajput (1933), ‘Sair-E-Paristaan’ (1934), ‘Shah Behram’ (1935), ‘Misar Ka Khazaana’ (1935), ‘Punjab Lancer’ (1937) etc. In 1937, he worked in India’s first indigenously made colour film, ‘Kisaan Kanya’ (1937) in the lead role. With the advent of new actor-singers like K L Saigal and Surendra, who had also attained the star status, Master Nissar could not stand in competition with them. Also, playback singing system had also been introduced. Probably, ‘Taqdeer Ki Tope’ (1939) was his last film in a lead role.
In the 1940s, Master Nissar started accepting character roles in films but did not get many roles. Probably, producers/directors, out of respect for his status, may have felt uncomfortable to offer him side roles. By the start of 1950s, Nissar remained out of work. He had to sell his bungalow and cars and shift to a chawl in Mumbai’s notorious Kamathipura area where he stayed with first wife and his sister. There are trivia of how he used to get small roles in the film during 1950s and 1960s.
Master Nissar started visiting film studios for getting even small roles. He used to visit every day to R K Studio to meet Raj Kapoor but the gatekeeper would not allow him to enter the studio premises. Since he was visiting almost every day, a message was sent to Raj Kapoor with his name. He promptly called him inside the studio. At that time, Raj Kapoor had decided to include songs for ‘Boot Polish’ (1953) by tweaking the screenplay. So, he created a situation for a song to be picturised on Master Nissar as the head of an Orphanage. The song was, tumhaare hain tumse dayaa maangte hain in which Rafi sings for Master Nissar. It is said that Raj Kapoor paid him for his role a significantly higher fee than what the role deserved.
Dilip Kumar has also helped Master Nissar in giving bit roles in his films like ‘Azaad’ (1955) in which Master Nissar was one of two main Qawwals in the song, marna bhee muhabbat mein kisi kaam na aayaa. He also got roles in ‘Kohinoor’ (1960) and ‘Leader’ (1964). But infrequent work in films was not sufficient to take care of his sustenance. One day, Sahir Ludhianvi found Master Nissar begging on the road near Haji Ali. He got down from his car and took him to B R Chopra who was making ‘Sadhana’ (1958). In this film, he is one of two Qawwals in the song, aaj kyun hamse parda hai in which Rafi sings for Master Nissar. Later, he did a small role in ‘Dhool Ka Phool’ (1959). Probably, in the 1960s and 1970s, Master Nissar may have done uncredited small roles in films.
During the making of ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ (1959), Guru Dutt wanted some junior artists for a scene for which the junior artists’ supplier sent a group of persons for Guru Dutt to select the junior artists for the scene. In the group, Guru Dutt found a face which looked familiar to him. He went to him and recognised him as Master Nissar. He took him to the shooting floor and made him to sit on his director’s chair. Guru Dutt did not select him as junior artist for the scene out of respect for him but requested him to watch the shooting for few days and give his suggestions. After the end of the day, Guru Dutt used to pay him honorarium after the shooting was over for the day.
According to actor, Chandrashekhar who was the President of Cine Artistes Association (CINTAA) for many years, Master Nissar was a religious person and did not smoke, drink or gamble. Probably, during his heydays, he lived his life lavishly with reckless spendings without providing for the future. Master Nissar had married four times, the first being his arranged marriage in his early age. Thereafter, he had three more wives, one of which was actress, Zebunnisa. However, he was separated from all his latter three wives. From his second wife, he had two sons and a daughter. It was his first wife who came to stay with him during his difficult years and remained with him till his death on July 13, 1980. (Note: The life sketch of Master Nissar is mainly based on Shishir Krishna Sharma’s video, ‘Beete Hue Din-115’).
The film had 12 songs written by Pandit Bhushan which were set to music by Brijlal Verma. Names of the singer are not known except for two songs which were rendered by Master Nisaar, the actor-singer. I am presenting the 1st song, ‘o chandrakukhi o mriganainee’ rendered by Master Nisaar. Apparently, this song is picturised on him.
This song reminded me more or less, of a similar genre of Hindustani semi-classical song rendered by Pandit Vasantrao Deshpande and Kum. Faiyyaz under the unique composition of R D Burman. The song is o mriganainee chandramukhi from ‘Rang Birangi’ (1983). Pandit Vasantrao Deshpande has rendered it elaborately with short taans, the hallmark of ‘Tappa’ ang of Hindustani classical genre. Also, in both the songs, the last stanzas of the songs have been rendered in high octave indicating more emphasis on the expression of love.
Audio Clip:
Song-O chandrmukhee o mrignainee (Taqdeer Ki Tope)(1939) Singer-Master Nisar, Lyrics-Pt Bhushan, MD-Brijlal Verma
Lyrics:
o o chandramukhee o mrignainee
mujh par itnee karunaa kar de
o chandramukhee o mriganainee
mujh par itnee karunaa kar de
mast mast raseele bolon kee
kaanon mein sudha varsha kar de
mast mast raseele bolon kee
praanon mein teree jyot jagee
mann magn huaa aur lagan lagee ee
praanon mein teree jyot jagee
praanon mein teree jyot jagee
mann magn huaa aur lagan lagee
aa rom rom mein ram jaa tu u u
aa rom rom mein ram jaa tu
jeewan mandir ujlaa kar de
jeewan mandir ujlaa kar de
o chandramukhee o mrignainee
main teraa daras bhikaaree hoon
main teraa prem pujaaree hoon
main teraa daras bhikaaree hoon
main teraa prem pujaa…ree hoon
man mandir ke ?? dar tere ae ae
man mandir ke ?? dar tere
sewak kee safal pooja kar de
sewak kee safal pooja kar de
o chandramukhee o mrignainee
mujh par itnee karunaa kar de
o chandramukhee o mrignainee…ee
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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