Phool se rukhsaar
Posted on: February 19, 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 the last and final song from the film Sindbaad the Sailor aka Sindbad Jahazi-1952.
1952 was a year which was going through a lean period for Hindi films. Increased costs of Film production, escalating rates of stars and music Directors, establishment of Star System in place of earlier Studio System, increasing taxes, decreasing number of Cinema Halls etc caused a worry in the film industry. Financiers with Black money were making films – in 1952 the number of Hindi films made went up to 105 from 97 of 1951, but dropped again to 98 in 1953. Most films were of lower quality. Because of superior music there were some great films too, but the situation was grave nevertheless.
Some Hit films like Aan, Baiju Bawra, Daag, Anand Math, Yatrik, Chhoti Maa etc. became popular with their music. Other films like Jaal, Anhonee, Sangdil, Maa, Bewafa, Aandhiyan, Bidya sagar, Ratnadeep, Nanhe-Munne, Mr. Sampat etc were good enough but not so good. Naushad and C.Ramchandra were competing acutely for the No. 1 rank and the audiences were gaining in the process, by their delightful music.
The Government suddenly became active, Censor Boards were closed from different regions and it was Centralised. The First ever Film Festival in India was held, in which 140 films from more than 20 countries were exhibited. Selected famous films were shown in all 4 Metro Cities. Bimal Roy shifted to Bombay and started his own film company.
Today’s film was produced by Balwant Bhatt for Deepak Pictures, Bombay. It was directed by his brother Nanabhai Bhatt. The king of melody, Chitragupt gave music to the film’s 8 songs, written by Anjum Jaipuri-4 songs, Shyam Hindi – 3 songs and just 1 song by Chand Pandit. The cast was Naseem Bano, Ranjan, Nirupa Roy, Pran, Bhagwan, Yashodhara katju, Urmila, Shakeela and others.
The name of Sindbad will remind you of the storybooks we have read in our childhood. Sindbad, Allauddin, Alibaba, Birbal-Akbar, Haatimtai, Gulebakavali, Vetal Pachisi and many such books have entertained the growing children for many generations in the past. I do not know what today’s generation of young children read. But then, do they read at all ? I guess these children see the stories on TV-not the ones I have mentioned here. Their Heroes are different.
I have seen the transition in reading habits across generations in front of my eyes. I read mythological, religious, Fantasy and Classic books. My daughters read comics of Phantom, Tom and Jerry, Walt Disney, The Big Five and finally Mills and Boon. Since I insisted on them, some classics like The kidnapped, Treasure island, Tom Sawyer, The Black beauty etc too were read. What I saw in my Grandchildren, I could never understand, By their times, in the early 90s, so many TV channels had started and several New Comic Characters emerged. Tom and Jerry, Mickey Mouse etc disappeared and strange characters like Pokomon etc became their staple TV diet.
I can not blame them. The whole world is seeing these changes and it is impossible to stop it now. But then one has to keep up with the Joneses too na ? The habit of reading books other than the Guide books is gone, so no question of reading the Classics. Religious stories are no more found. These books are not available in Book shops either !
In the film world also such changes took place. In the early era, only Mythological and Folk story films were being made. In the 40s however, social films were made in plenty. Some of them like Padosi or Elaan were truly revolutionary indeed. In the 50s, the Mythologicals made a solid comeback; in fact in the decade the tally was 10 Religious/Mythological films every month-which works out to almost one film every 3 days ! Fantasy, Historical and Biographical films too made an inroad. Sindbad, Alladdin,Alibaba ( and their entire clan like son, daughter etc) Haatimtai and other Arabian Night stories too were made in the 50s. But Alas ! It was like a Flame getting bigger before extinguishing. In the 60s and thereafter this Genre started disappearing and now I think, there is no trace of them at all !!
The story of Sindbad always attracted me. He was like the King Vikrama and Betal stories. Never tiring of doing the same things again and again. Thus Sindbad provided us stories of adventure and awe,in our childhood.
This Sindbad, unknown to himself, did a lot of good to composer Chitragupta also. Chitragupta (Shrivastav) started in 1946 but had to wait till 1952 to get an All India Hit music. His music in this film-Sindbad the Sailor-1952 became extremely popular. The songs, especially the duet by Rafi and Shamshad- “Adaa se jhoomte huye “, were hummed by everyone. In fact all the songs were so good that,I am sure,if Binaca Geetmala was there during those days, these songs would have remained on “Pehli Paydaan” for a long time. ( However,the song ‘Adaa se jhoomte hue’ had a suspicious similarity to the song “abhi to main jawaan hoon” from Afsana-51. Only the mukhda was similar sounding.)
The lead pair of this film was Ranjan and Naseem Bano. The Hero Ranjan was not a handsome fellow by any standards ( he was just tolerable) and not a good actor by every standard. Naseem Bano was famous as a Beauty Queen of the 40s. Later her daughter Saira Bano also got this title from promoters. This pair looked very odd. I remember a similar case when the original Hunk of Hindi Films-Shaikh Mukhtar was paired with the beautiful Begum Para in a few films. This prompted the critics to call them “The Beauty and the Beast“. Naseem was 36 year old and Ranjan was 34. It was her 19th film and it was his 5th film. Naseem did only 2 more films before she retired. Anyway, she was not getting any films and she wanted to develop the career of her daughter- Saira Bano.
Sindbad is a character from the stories of “Arabian Nights “or “One Thousand and One Nights”. The original name Sindbad was changed to Sinbad by American film makers and this created some confusion in the minds of people about its spelling. The stories of Sindbad, along with that of Alibaba, Alladin, The 3 Apples, The 3 princes and the 3 princesses etc were very popular all over the world. This may be one of the very few books in the world which was translated in most languages, across the continents. For hundreds of years these stories have entertained the young and the old all over the world.
Sindbad, the fictional sailor, Hero of the story is of Middle East origin. He was supposed to live in Baghdad. He voyaged in the seas east of Africa and south of Asia. He encountered fantastic adventures by going to Magical places, meeting Monsters and experiencing supernatural phenomenons. Originally Sindbad was not a part of the 14th century manuscript of Arabian Nights. It is a later addition and first appeared in the collection in 1937 in Turkey. The first English translation of Arabian Nights was by Richard Burton ( not the actor ) in 1885.
The frame story of Sindbad is- In the reign of Haroon Al Rasheed, a poor porter ( coolie) feels tired and sits on a bench in the garden of a rich person. There he complains to God why there are rich persons who do nothing and poor persons who toil all day. The rich person hears this and calls the porter inside his house. After providing him food etc. they start conversation and learn that names of both are same – SINDBAD. The rich Sindbad tells him how he became so rich and describes his 7 sea voyages one by one. Thus starts each voyage story in detail and in First person. Surprisingly, Sindbad’s is the only story about a sailor’s voyages in the entire 1001 stories of The Arabian Nights !
In India, the first silent film on Sindbad was made in 1930, by Sagar Film Company titled “Sindbad the sailor “Actor Raja Sandow was the Hero of the film. The first talkie film on Sindbad, surprisingly, took a long time to come. It came only in 1946 as “Sindbad the Sailor”-46. Stut film actor Prakash was the Hero and Leela the Heroine.Alibaba and Alladin had taken a lead over Sindbad in filmmaking. Personally, I like Sindbad first, then Alibaba and then comes Alladin in that order.
The story of this film,as given by our Sadanand Kamath ji was….
” In this film I guess the story of Sindbaad has been tweaked. Ranjan plays the role of Sindbaad, on his voyage to replenish his wealth. During his voyage, he comes across a kingdom where he falls in love with Princess Zulekha (Naseem Bano), the daughter of the Sultan. This is not liked by his Vazir, Razamaq (Pran) who wants the princess Zulekha to himself with an eye on the Sultan’s kingdom. So, Razamaq plots to sideline Sindbaad. He with the help of a magician and a courtesan Haseena (Nirupa Roy) overthrow Sultan. Sindbaad is captured and is put in a torture cell. However, courtesan Haseena has a change of heart when she starts appreciating Sindbaad of his true love for princess Zulekha. She helps Sindbaad to escape but at the cost of her own life. Sindbaad escapes with Zulekha and organises his forces (mainly his armed sailors). In the final climax of the naval battle, Sindbaad sinks Razamaq’s ship in which he and his magician die thus restoring the kingdom to Princes Zulekha and Sindbaad uniting with her.”
When I saw actor Pran’s name in the cast of this film, I remembered that Versatile actor Pran’s first Hindi film – as a Hero – was Khandan-1942 in Lahore. He again acted in another film of the same name, Khandan-in 1965. In the 1942 film he was the Hero, but in the 1965 film he was a Villain. He did exactly the opposite in another film of the same name. In the film Aan Baan-1956 ( Ajit-N.Jaywant), he was a Villain, but in the 1972 film Aan Baan (Rajendra kumar-Rakhi) he did a benevolent person’s sober role in this film ! Pran acted as a Villain in the film Chingari-1955(Shekhar-N.Jayawant) and also in the film Chingari-1989 (Sanjay Khan-Leena Cghandavarkar).
Pran did roles in many remakes of his films. When he came to Bombay from Lahore in 1948, he got roles in films Grihasthi, Ziddi and Chunaria. In 1948, two of his Lahore made films – Birhan and Barsat ki ek raat – released in India. In both these films, he was the Hero, but in India, he started as a villain in his first 3 films. Kishore Sahu remade the film Grihasthi-1948 as Film “Ghar Basake Dekho”-1963. In this film Pran did the same role as in the 1948 film. Comedian Gope had made a film “Malkin” in 1951 (Gope and Yakub). His brother Ram Kamlani remade this film as “Biradari’ in 1966 (Mehmood and Kanhaiyalal). Pran was the villain in both the films.
In his 66 years of career, Pran did a variety of roles. Besides acting in remakes and same title films, he also worked in 2-3 generations of actor families. In the film Rajkumar-1964, he worked with Prithviraj Kapoor. With Raj Kapoor, he did films like Aah, Chori chori, Jis desh mein Ganga behti hai etc etc. He worked with Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor also. In 1973, he worked in the film Rikshawala, with Randhir Kapoor and in the film Bobby, with Rishi Kapoor. Thus he worked in 3 generations of the Kapoor family.
Pran worked with Naseem Bano in the film Sindbad the sailor-1952 and worked in many films with Saira Bano-her daughter. He worked with Mumtaz Ali and Mehmood. Pran acted with Sunil Dutt and Sanjay Dutt. He also worked with Dharmendra and Sunny Deol.
There was no other versatile actor in the Hindi film industry ever again.
Here is the film’s last and final song, sung by Shamshad Begum. With this song the film gets Yippeed. Enjoy the song ….
Song-Phool se rukhsaar (Sindbad The Sailor)(1952) Singer-Shamshad Begum,Lyricist- Anjum Jaipuri, MD- Chitragupt (Shrivastav)
Lyrics
o o o o
phool se rukhsaar
phool se rukhsaar wai
abroo mein humsaar(?) wai
aankhen hain talwaar wai
husn mazedaar
aag hai mehfil mein lagee ee ee
aag mere dil mein lagee dil mein lagee
aag hai mehfil mein lagee ee
aag mere dil mein lagi dil mein lagi
ban gaye hain hum m m m m
ban gaye hain hum tere ishq ke beemaar
ishq ke beemaar wai
abru ye dumdaar (??) wai
aankhen hai talwaar wai
husn mazedaar
ghair pe hai kyun nazar r r
le hamaaree bhee khabar
hamaaree bhee khabar
ghair pe hai kyun nazar r r
le hamaaree bhee khabar
hamaaree bhee khabar
hum bhee hain ae jaaneman
ae jaaneman
ae jaaneman
hum bhee hain ae jaaneman
taalib e deedaar
taalib e deedaar wai
abru ae humdaar (?) wai
aankhen hain talwaar wai husn mazedaar
ae mohabbat ke chaman n n n n
soorat e laal e yaman
soorat e laal e yaman
ae mohabbat ke chaman n n n n
soorat e laal e yaman
soorat e laal e yaman
aaye hain dar pe tere
dar pe tere
dar pe tere
aaye hain dar pe tere
dar pe tere
aaye hai dar pe tere
dil ke khareedar
dil ke khareedar wai
abru ye humsaar
aankhen hain talwaar wai
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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