Baaje dil ke taar kare ye pukaar
Posted on: February 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 the film Sailaab-1956. Sailaab means Flood or Deluge.
The film was produced by Mukul Roy for his own banner M R Films, Bombay. Initially the film director was Ravindra Dave, but after shooting 4 reels, he left the film due to some serious differences with the producer. The rest of the film was directed by Guru Dutt. By that time most of the songs were also recorded. This happened in 1954 and the film got delayed to get censored only in 1956. The Film’s Music Director was Mukul Roy . His assistant was Kanu Ghosh. Lyrics were by Majrooh Sultanpuri-4 songs, Shailendra-2, Madhukar Rajasthani-1 and Hasrat Jaipuri-2 songs each. The cast was Geeta Bali, Abhi Bhattacharya, Bipin Gupta, Ramsingh, Smriti Biswas, Helen, Uma Devi and others. The Guest artist was Johnny Walker.
The Indian Film Industry and Indian Political system have one thing in common. They both try to promote their kith and kin into their own profession, where they have succeeded. One can understand if the children are handed over the reins of family business, which is run by many Generations. But Political Leadership or success in Acting or Singing is surely not a ‘business’. Their place is earned by doing hard work or by individual Good luck. Most of the people forget this and as if they are passing on the mantle or the Olympic Torch, they try to install their children in the seat which they have earned through hard work. The result, most times, is disastrous, because without hard work or extraordinary luck,it is difficult to succeed in these two professions.
We have seen many such cases in Politics as well as film lines. Successful Actors or Actresses tried to promote their sons/daughters, but most of them were flops. Barring a few cases of successes like Sanjay Dutt and few others, there are hardly any new generation successes. Kishore Sahu ( Naina), Leela Chitnis (Ajit), Balraj Sahni ( Parikshit Sahni), Raaj Kumar ( Puru ), Vasant Joglekar ( Meera), Hemen Gupta (Archana), Kidar Sharma (Ashok) and many more examples establish the fact that only a successful parent or a sibling is not enough to succeed in film line.
Same is the case with Music too. Just because the parent or a sibling was a known Musician or a Singer was not a guarantee to succeed. Cases of Amit Kumar (Kishore Kumar), Basant Prakash(Khemchand Prakash), Chandru Atma (C.H.Atma), Khalid Mehmood (Talat Mehmood), Varsha Bhosle( Asha Bhosle) are some of known examples of Kin failures.
We must add two more names Mukul Roy and Laxmi Roy- Brother and Sister of Geeta Roy-Dutt, to this list. In the film Sailaab-56, Mukul Roy was the producer and the Music Director, while Laxmi Roy sang one song. Mukul Roy was Geeta’s elder brother and Laxmi Roy was younger sister of Geeta Dutt. When Mukul Roy became a composer with his first film Bhed-50, he gave Laxmi Roy her first film song to sing. She was not a very good singer or her voice was not an extraordinary one.
MUKUL ROY(16-8-1926 to 8-11-2009) was the elder brother of Geeta Roy(Dutt). Born in Fareedpore in East Bengal(Bangla Desh) he learnt music from Haren Nandi,the famous classical singer.He came to Bombay in 1941.
In 1949, he gave music to BHED ( released in 1950) and DO BAHADUR-( released in 1953),but its songs did not click.In 1956,he produced SAILAB. First the director was Ravindra Dave, but after 4 reels, he was removed and the film was directed by Guru Dutt. Mukul Roy gave music to it and a song sung by Hemant and Geeta(separately)-Hai ye duniya kaun si,aye dil mujhe kya ho gaya became popular.Another song sung by Laxmi Roy,younger sister of Geeta Roy,-baje dil ki taar,kare ye pukar was also famous.
His luck in Hindi films ended with DETECTIVE-1958,whose songs were a hit,but he did not get any films after this.
He gave music to 2 Bangla films,Griha Pravesh and Kay hiner kahini in 1973. He also gave music to one Gujarati film.
In 1980 he produced “Patita” with Mithun Chakravarti, but the film was a flop. From 1948 to 1999 he settled in Poona and then shifted to Nashik.
He settled in Nashik, in Maharashtra and lived a bachelor life. He suffered from a slip disk till he died unsung on 8th Nov 2009.
With due respect to his talents, Mukul Roy depended too much on outside inspirations, rather than forming his own tunes.
Mukul Roy got some inspiration from Western songs. The song “Do Chamakti Aankhon Mein” itself is almost a direct but pleasant adaptation of the Harry Belafonte hit “Jamaica Farewell”. There is a very good Rafi song “Chhodiye Gussaa Huzoor, Aisi Naaraazi Bhi Kya” that borrows its main body and interlude from “Bimbo” – a 1950’s Jim Reeves song. And then there is yet another Rafi-Geeta song “Aa Ja kar Lein Muqabla” that leans on the Spanish standard “Red Bull”. The Spanish Andre Rieu Granada original was made popular all over India because it was the Binaca Geet Mala signature tune all through the life of that programme.
The singer in today’s song is Laxmi Roy. Laxmi Roy was the younger sister of Geeta Dutt. When Mukul Roy became a composer with his first film Bhed-50, he gave Laxmi Roy her first film song to sing. She was not a very good singer or her voice was not an extraordinary one. So no major composers noticed her. Chitragupta gave her one song in Bhakta Puran-52 and 2 songs in Nayaa Rasta-53. Composer Vinod tried her with one song in Aag ka Dariya-53. S. N. Tripathi gave her two songs in Nav Durga-53 and lastly she sang one song for Mukul Roy in Sailaab-56.
Pramod Chakravarty, who became a well known Director and producer later on, was working as assistant to Guru Dutt in Sailaab. During its making Laxmi and Pramod got married and Laxmi’s singing career came to a close ! In all she sang just 8 songs in 6 films.
The story of the film Sailaab-1956 was….
Gautam (Abhi Bhattacharya), a rich young man goes to Assam to visit his father’s tea plantation. The plane in which Gautam is travelling is forced to make an emergency landing due to bad weather. Gautam gets hurt and suffers from amnesia. He falls in love with a young woman Kanchan (Geeta Bali) who responds to him even though she is part of a religious community that doesn’t allow its members to marry. Gautam’s father takes him back to Calcutta. Gautam’s mother dies and the shock of her death brings back Gautam’s memory. But as his memory returns he forgets Kanchan. Kanchan comes to Calcutta in search of Gautam and sees that he fails to recognize her. She returns to her community deciding to renounce the world. In time Gautam is able to recollect his association with her and he goes after her to Assam. The lovers are reunited.
The Heroine of this film was Geeta Bali. In the last so many years- till 1980 – I must have seen hundreds of Films- Hindi, Marathi, English, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. In the Hindi films, I can not forget 3 actresses, who were Bubbly, playful, with innocent looks and with Natural acting talent. They were Meena Shorey, Nalini Jaywant and Geeta Bali. I enjoyed every film of these actresses, which I saw. It is difficult to forget the role and acting of Meena Shorey in film ” Ek thi Ladki-49″, or Nalini Jaywant in film ” Hum sab chor hain-56″, or Geeta Bali in film ” Aji Bas Shukriya-58″. These were all my favourite actresses. It is very unfortunate that they all met their deaths in very tragic circumstances.
Geeta Bali’s dancing eyes and her animated, expressive face which mirrored her soul were her most outstanding features. Yet life was snatched away from this vibrant personality at an achingly young age of 35.It is some consolation that Geeta crammed a lot into her short life: 80 odd films in a ten-year career. She married struggling actor-turned-megastar Shammi Kapoor and fathered two children: a son and a daughter. Today, she is remembered as a wonderfully natural actress and a fabulous human being.She was quite close to her sisters and brother. Her childhood pet name was KEETA.
True, Geeta’s reputation as an actress rests more on her performances than her roles. Natural, spontaneous and gifted with a spot-on sense of comic timing, she never really found a vehicle worthy of her talent. Largely a shade better than the movies she starred in, she frittered away her talents in B-grade films. Probably the fact that she was born into a family that had to struggle for sheer survival and the fact that she reached the top through sheer grit had Geeta stress on quantity rather than quality. Film lore has it that when mentor [filmmaker] Kidar Sharma first met Geeta, she was living with her family in somebody’s bathroom!
Geeta Bali (real name Harkirtan kaur) was born in Amritsar on 30-11-1930, in a Sikh family, known for its religious and Scholarly traditions. Her father was a Sikh Missionary Preacher and travelled not only all over India, but also to Burma, Ceylon and Malaya. Due to frequent change of place, Geeta’s education was not consistent and it ended after 6th standard. When the family was in Kashmir, she joined the dancing and music classes. Keeta (her family nickname) did dance performances on stage in her schools.
When she was about 9-10 year old, she gave a public performance of her Dance in Lucknow. The puritans in their society objected, made a hue and cry and the pendal was burnt, to stop her show. Such experiences made her very bold in life. While at Lahore, Geeta directly entered the A.I.R. office to get a music contract. She got it also. She used to participate in Children’s programmes.
Through her Dance Director in A.I.R., she got into a documentary ” Cobbler” made by Shorey pictures. Impressed, she got a dance performance in the film ” Badnami”-46 as well as Kahan Gaye-46 and Pancholi’s Patjhad-47, before moving to Mumbai. Impressed by her off-screen vivacity, Kidar Sharma cast Geeta in his film Suhaag Raat (1948). Audiences related to her instantly and watched wide-eyed as she nonchalantly tossed her unconscious hero, Bharat Bhushan over her shoulder in a scene.
Soon, Geeta was inundated with contracts (that’s what they called film offers then). She accepted most. She won raves even in supporting roles like in the 1949 Suraiya starrer Badi Behan and the Madhubala starrer Dulari. In 1951, she became a major star with Guru Dutt’s first hit, Baazi (she went on to do three other films under his direction). Geeta played a gangster’s moll with a golden heart to Kalpana Kartik’s conventional heroine. But Geeta played her role with such gay abandon that hero Dev Anand divulges, “People came repeatedly to theatres to see Geeta’s spirited dancing to Tadbeer se bigdi hui taqdeer bana de.
Next she worked with Raj Kapoor in Bawre Nain-50, Bhagwan’s Albela-51 and Navketan’s Baazi-52. Now there was no looking back. Geeta Bali went on to act in 80 films in her short career of just 14 years. She even sang a few lines in a song from the film Rangeen Raaten-56, with Shamshad Begum and Uma Devi. She worked with Prithviraj Kapoor in Anand math-52 and his sons Raj kapoor in Bawre nain and in many films with Shammi kapoor. With Dev Anand she did Baazi, Faraar, Milap, Jaal, Zalzala, Ferry and Pocket Maar. She worked opposite Ashok Kumar, Motilal, Balraj Sahani, Prem Adib, Jairaj, Rehman, Bharat Bhushan, Abhi Bhattacharya, Kamal Kapoor, Karan Dewan, Shekhar, Sajjan, Amarnath, Jaswant and Suresh.
Some of her notable films were, Girls’ School-49, Dulari-49, Badi bahen-49, Nishana-550,Bawre Nain-50, Baazi-51, Albela-51, Zalzala-52, Raag Rang-52, Anand Math-52, Jhamela-53, Baaz-53, Daaku ki Ladki-54, Vachan-55, Miss Coca Cola-55, Jawab-55, Faraar-55, Bara Dari-55, Albeli-55, Pocket Maar-56, inspector-56, Coffee House-57, Mujrim-58, Jailor-58, Aji Bas Shukriya-58, Mr. India-61 etc etc.
Geeta proved she could do tragedy (Sharma’s Raj Kapoor starrer Bawre Nain) or and play the lighthearted heroine to comedian Bhagwan in the super successful Albela. Albela’s swinging C Ramchandra composed songs like Shola jo bhadke and Sham dhale mere khidki tale made front-benchers dance with the stars and even fling coins on screen. Pug-nosed Geeta was no conventional beauty, but that transparent face and that smile constantly flirting on her lips made sure you couldn’t tear your eyes away from her.
Watch Geeta Bali in the Guru Dutt-directed Jaal (1952). Dev Anand, a cigarette-smoking smuggler on the run from the police, tries to entice morally upstanding heroine Geeta into his web. Geeta evocatively communicates her struggle against, and her eventual surrender to, handsome Dev’s seduction call Yeh raat, yeh chandni phir kahan Famously down-to-earth despite her star status, Geeta was the antithesis of the coy 1950s’ heroine. She often drove herself to her premieres in an open jeep. Those who knew her claim she was a Samaritan who touched the lives of whoever she met. She is said to have personally groomed Mala Sinha, then a newcomer.
To date, so many years after her death, her secretary Surinder Kapoor’s (Boney Kapoor’s father) productions begin with a shraddhanjali to Geeta Bali.
Shammi Kapoor entered her life when they worked in the quaintly named Miss Coca Cola and Coffee House together. On an impulse, Geeta played a small role of a man in Kidar Sharma’s Shammi Kapoor starrer Rangeen Raatein-1956. On the film’s Ranikhet outdoor, Shammi and Geeta fell in love. Kapoor was a year younger to her and was not yet a star, but the twosome were hell bent on marrying each other. Geeta had worked with Shammi’s eldest brother, Raj Kapoor in Bawre Nain, and with his father, Prithviraj Kapoor in Anand Math, Shammi was unsure about their reaction to this match. But on August 23, 1955, with producer-director Hari Walia and friend Johnny Walker as witness, the couple were married at the Banganga Temple at 4 am.
Geeta continued to work after marriage in a few films like Sohrab Modi’s Jailor (1958), where she won raves as a blind girl. With Shammi Kapoor turning into a huge star and the birth of her two children Aditya (nicknamed Mickey) and Kanchan, she eased her workload.
The desire to do that one fulfilling role she would be remembered for prompted Geeta to attempt the production of a classic for herself. She started Rano, based on Rajinder Singh Bedi’s famous novel, Ek Chadar Maili Si, based on a widow’s remarriage to her brother-in-law. Upcoming star Dharmendra played her hero.
Geeta, had not been vaccinated for smallpox, despite the fact her father too had died of Smallpox. She had ignored repeated warnings in her childhood. She contracted the dreaded disease while shooting the film. The best care was rushed to her, but her fever apparently reached 107 degrees. Her doctor saw a picture by his patient’s bedside and asked who the pretty lady was. The disease had so wrecked Geeta’s frail frame that he didn’t recognise her as the same person!
Geeta Bali passed away on January 21, 1965, leaving behind eight-year-old Aditya and three-year-old Kanchan in the care of a devastated Shammi Kapoor.
Ironically, she was cremated in Banganga, not far from where she was married. ( adapted from Rediffmail.com, books Star Portraits by Harish Booch and Stars of the Indian Screen by Baburao Patel, India Today, Yaadon ki Baaraat by Shirish Kanekar and my notes – with thanks.)
Here is the last Hindi film song of Laxmi Roy in her career. Enjoy….
Song-Baaje dil ke taar kare ye pukaar (Sailaab)(1956) Singer- Laxmi Roy, Lyricist- Hasrat Jaipuri, MD- Mukul Roy
Lyrics
haaye re haaye re haaye haaye
baaje dil ke taar kare ye pukaar
nas nas mein pyaar bhara re
o o
kitne baar naheen samjhe pyaar
ajee main to haar gayee re
baaje dil ke taar kare ye pukaar
nas nas mein pyaar bhara re
o o
kitne baar naheen samjhe pyaar
ajee main to haar gayee re
haaye re haaye re haaye haaye
kehtee hain aankhen meree dil ka fasaana
lagee ko na jaana tumne lagee ko na jaana
kahti hai aankh meri dil ka fasana
lagi ko na jaana tumne lagee ko na jaana
baaje dil ke taar kare ye pukaar
nas nas mein pyaar bhara re
o o
kitne baar naheen samjhe pyaar
ajee main to haar gayee re
haaye re haaye re haaye haaye
bolen adaayen tumse kitne haseen ho
main to yaheen hoon lekin tum to kaheen ho
bolen adaayen tumse kitne haseen ho
main to yaheen hoon lekin tum to kaheen ho
baaje dil ke taar kare ye pukaar
nas nas mein pyaar bhara re
o o
kitne baar naheen samjhe pyaar
ajee main to haar gayee re
haaye re haaye re haaye haaye
kab se chhupaaye hoon main seene mein baat ko
aaye na nindiya mujhko jaagoon hoon raat ko
kab se chhupaaye hoon main seene mein baat ko
aaye na nindiya mujhko jaagoon hoon raat ko
baaje dil ke taar kare ye pukaar
nas nas mein pyar bhara re
o o kitnee baar naheen samjhe pyaar
ajee main to haar gayee re
baaje dil ke taar kare ye pukaar
nas nas mein pyaar bhara re
o o
kitnee baar naheen samjhe pyaar
ajee main to haar gayee re
haaye re haaye re haaye haaye
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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