Lo aaya Johny laalten
Posted on: February 16, 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.
|
Blog Day : |
6422 | Post No. : | 19932 |
Today’s song is from a so-called ‘Social’ film, but actually a Murder and Mystery film – Laalten-1956.
The film was made by Harish Productions, Bombay and it was directed by Tara Harish, owner of the banner. Music Director was Hemant Kumar and his assistant was Ravi. There were 3 Lyricists, namely Indeevar, Shevan Rizvi and Qaif Irfani. The cast of the film included Geeta Bali, Motilal, Kanhaiya Lal, Mukri, Shammi, Harish, Mohan Choti, Uma Dutt and a host of B and C grade actors. The guest artiste was Bhudo Advani.
HFGK mentions the cast as per the film booklet and the boolet is as per the credits in the film. Normally, the senior leading star is mentioned first followed by the other lead star. It may be seniority of age or the number of films done. In this case, Motilal was 20 years older (DOB-4-12-1910) than the Heroine Geeta Bali (DOB- 30-11-1930). Laalten-1956 was Motilal’s 69th film, while it was only the 60th film of Geeta Bali. Still, her name was shown first. I wonder why ?
I had seen this film way back in 56/57, but till today its title is a Mystery for me. From the title, we had thought that it was a film about stopping a train with red light Laalten, but the film was a simple story of missing children in Kumbh Mela and their return to parents just before “The End” !
1956 was the Silver Jubilee year of Indian Talkie Films. This year, the most successful films were entertainers. There were of course some films carrying social messages. One of them was ‘Jaagte Raho’ (‘Ek Din Ratre’ in Bangla), which tried to bring out the upper middle class hypocrisy in a metro city like Bombay. Initially, the film did not make any ripples, but after it won International awards, it became very popular. (People of other nations have to tell us that our film is good !). A social message, excellent music and solid story – the hallmarks of an RK film were all there in it.
Then, the film ‘Ek Hi Raasta’ tackled the issue of widow re-marriage and acceptance of a new father by the child. Comedy entertainer ‘Nai Dilli’ emphasized the need for inter language marriages in India. Satyajit Ray’s ‘Aparajita’- the sequel to ‘Pather Panchali’ (1955), hit the screens in India after winning accolades internationally.
Musical entertainers like ‘CID’, ‘Chori Chori’, ‘Basant Bahar’, ‘Rajhath’, ‘Bhai Bhai’, ‘Funtoosh’ and ‘Inspector’ were quite popular. Amongst all these, a powerful tear-jerker like ‘Toofan Aur Diya’ from Rajkamal stood out. It also brought actress Nanda into limelight and made her drop “Baby” from her name.
Lovers of films had a great time in the 50s to enjoy Hindi films. Almost every film was entertaining and ” Paisa Vasool “. The decade in fact, provided films of almost every Genre- be it Family Drama or Fantasy, Murder Mystery or Mythological, Dance based or Music dominated, Historical or Biographical, Political or Comedy, Stunt or Saint, Adventure or Tragedy, Rural or City based, Hero oriented or Heroine dominated, Costume or Social. Just name it and you got them !
Ashok Kumar, Pradeep Kumar and Abhi Bhattacharya specialised in working in Crime, Mystery or Murder story films. Some such films that come to my mind off hand are 12 O’ Clock, Awara, Agra Road, Apradhi kaun,Baazi, Begunah, C.I.D., Detective, Faraar, Inspector, Howrah Bridge, Kala Pani, Khazanchi, Lambe Haath, Mr. X, Nau do gyarah, Police,Qaidi No. 911, Road No. 303, Singapore, Taxi Driver, Ustad etc etc.
Directors who specialised in such films were Guru Dutt, Vijay Anand, N A Ansari, Shakti Samanta and some more. Film lalten-56 was also one such Crime and Mystery film. It was directed by Tara Harish. This name is quite misleading. At first glance, it looks like a woman’s name. On second thoughts, one feels it must be a pair of persons like Krishnan Panju or Aruna Vikas. But this is the name of a single person, who was an Actor, producer, Director and a singer too !
Harish, also known as Tara Harish, was born on 23-10-1916 at Delhi. His real full name was Tarachand Anand Biharilal Mathur. He was distantly related to Motilal and Mukesh. His father died when he was just 3 year old. He was brought up by his brothers and uncle. He graduated in 1937. After trying and failing in a second hand car business, he decided to enter the film world and joined Sagar Movietone, where Motilal was getting established.
His first foray into films was in the film ‘ 300 days and after ‘. In this film, however, he was uncredited. He got roles in other films like Postman, Ladies only, Comrades, Service Ltd, Hum,Tum aur Woh, Ek hi Raasta, Civil marriage, Aurat, Nai Roshni, Vijay, Haqdar etc etc. He used to sing in the films. As a Hero his last film was Amanat-43.
Harish took up Direction with the film Beda Paar-44, a stunt C grade film, but soon he directed many social films also. In his career he directed 21 films. Some of his films are Toote tare-48, Ustad Pedro-51, Malhar-51 ( originally Harish was to be the hero, but he gave chance to Arjun), Daku ki ladki-54, Lalten-56, kali Topi laal rumaal-59, Do Ustad-59, Burmah Road-62. His last film was Awara Abdulla-63. Harish acted in 21 films. He sang 39 songs in 16 films ( stats by MuVyz). He established his own production company- Omar Khayyam Films. When he was directing the film Ustad Pedro-51, he changed the name of actress Nargis Rabadi to Shammi, since another more famous actress of the same name was already existing in films. Tara Harish died sometime in 1970.
The story of the film Laalten-1956 was…..
Seth Dhanrajmal lost his son Kumar and his late friend’s daughter Kiran in the Kumbha Mela stampede, after they were engaged. They both had identical Lockets in their necks. Johnny was a sweet Toy seller of the town, who meets, fights and becomes friends with local mawali Kumar.
One day Sethji discovers Kiron suddenly with the Locket. he is very happy. Now he is hopeful to get Kumar also some day. Eventually Kiron falls in love with the mawali vagabond Kumar. After singing a few songs together, Kumar is jailed for Gambling.
Meanwhile Deepak, a crook, finds the Locket and with that, impersonates Kumar- the lost son of Seth ji. Seth ji is very happy to get his son, but Kiron hates him. The vagabond Kumar comes back from Jail and learns about Deepak’s impersonation. Kumar meeta a person named Pershad in his jail visit. This Pershad knows everything about Sethji and the lost children.
Ko Ko, Deepak’s moll is betrayed by Deepak and wants revenge. She gives her statement to the Police, but she is murdered during the statement itself. Now Vagabond kumar and the Police, with help from pershad expose Deepak. Deepak is arrested. Now Pershad reveals that vagabond Kumar is the real son Kumar of Seth ji and as a proof he shows some birthmarks on Kumar and his old photographs. All’s well that ends well.
Film Lalten-56 had music by Hemant Kumar. Though he had started his independent career as a Music Director with the film Vachan-55, Ravi was still Hemant Kumar’s assistant in this film. In fact, they remained close to each other even after they operated as separate composers. Ravi and Hemant Kumar used opportunities to sing songs in each other’s films. The film Laalten had 8 songs and today’s song will be the 5th song to be posted here.
Here is a small note on one of the cast members- Mohan Choti….
Mohan Choti (1 January 1935 – 1 February 1992) was an actor who worked as a comedian in Hindi films. The name Mohan Choti came from a fictional character of the same name from the 1957 film Musafir, in which he plays a tea shop delivery boy who sports a “choti” or traditional lock of hair on the top of his head.
Mohan Choti was born as Mohan Gorakshakar to Constable Atmaram Gorakshakar in 1935 at Amravati, Amravati District Maharashtra.
He produced and directed two films — “Dhoti Lota Aur Chowpatty” and “Hunterwali 77”. He also opened a restaurant which was called “Sawal roti ka; Dhaba choti ka”. He also started an Atta distribution unit called “Choti Walla Atta”.
He died on 1 February 1992 at the age of 57. Mohan Choti acted in nearly 280 films from 1954 to 1994.
Now Listen to today’s fun song, sung by Geeta Dutt and chorus. Enjoy….
Song – Lo aaya Johnny Laalten (Laalten)(1956) Singer-Geeta Dutt, Lyricist- Indeevar, MD-Hemant Kumar
Lyrics
khaalo
toot jaaye khaalo
do aane mein ye gentleman
lo aaya johny laalten
lo aaya johny laalten
lo aaya johny laalten
lo aaya johny laalten
hey hey
ho ho
ha ha
kareegar
kareegar
lo aaya johny kareegar
bachchon ko bahlaane waala
putle roz banaane waala
kareegar
kareegar
lo aaya johny kareegar
kareegar ek hai upar waala
is duniya ka banaane waala
kareegar ek main hoon bachchon
dekho mera khel niraala
kareegar
kareegar
lo aaya johny kareegar
bachchon ko bahlaane wala
putle roz banaane wala
kareegar
kareegar
lo aaya johny kareegar
mere putle kabhee kisee ko thhaga naheen karte hain
maal paraaya chakh kar ke ye dagha naheen karte hain
uske putle upar gorey bheetar se dil kaala kaala
uske putle upar gorey bheetar se dil kaala kaala
kareegar
kareegar
lo aaya johny kareegar
bachchon ko bahlaane waala
putle roz banaane waala
kareegar
kareegar
lo aaya johny kareegar
wafaadaar hain kitne ye
??
inse seekho zara khade hona apne pairon par
inkee raah pe chalo to bachchon jeevan mein ho jaaye ujaala
inkee raah pe chalo to bachchon jeevan mein ho jaaye ujaala
kareegar
kareegar
lo aaya johny kareegar
bachcho ko bahlaane waala
putle roz banane wala
kareegar
kareegar
lo aaya joni kareegar
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
Leave a comment