Manhar baanke bihaaree re
Posted by: Atul on: February 28, 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 a social film, with an intriguing title – Anban-1944.
Hindi film titles are sometimes funny and sometimes confusing. Funny, we can understand but confusing titles can cause problems. I can understand the same titles for films. There are hundreds of such examples. Same titled films can be found from 2 to 7 films. Yes. Film title ” Insaaf” was used for 7 films from 1937 to 1997 – one each in every decade !
When titles are similar but not exactly the same, they can still cause confusion. Here are some examples….. Aajkal and Aaj aur kal, Aarsi and Aarti, Shadi ke baad and Shadi se pehle, Agent 1-2-3, Agent 777 and Agent 999, Lagaan and Lagaam, Daanaa Paanee and Dana Pani etc etc.
Today’s film also falls in this category. There was a film called Aanbaan and this is Anban. For several years I was confused, but when I read in a Film magazine that this is Un-bun pronounced as “अन-बन ” (discord or rift in English), my confusion was cleared. (Aanbaan means dignity or pride in English).
‘Anban’ (1944) was a Bharat Productions film. It was directed by Niren Lahiri. He was born on 17-7-1908 in Calcutta. He started his directorial activity with Bangla film ‘Mahakabi Kaalidas’ (1942). His Hindi films are ‘Anban’ (1944), ‘Ban Phool’ (1945), ‘Arabian Nights’ (1946), ‘Vijay Yatra’ (1948) and ‘Shobha’ (1954). Niren Lahiri died in 1972. The Music Director was Gyan Dutt and the cast included Nargis, Pahadi Sanyal, Shah nawaz, Jahagirdar, Mubarak, David, Gulab, Sunalini Devi, Shobhana Samarth and others.
The film’s story was about King size Ego and its side effects on life. The story was…..
Madhav Pandit (Jagirdar) and Pandey (Shahnawaz) are very good friends, though their thinking is different. Pandit is old fashioned and traditional, having pride for Indian customs etc. Pandey on the other hand is a liberal person accepting the good in western culture, but not having anything against our old traditions.
Madhav Pandit has a son Yadav and two daughters – Madhavi (Shobhana Samarth) and Malati (Nargis). Pandey has one son – Vijay (Pahadi Sanyal). While Yadav and Vijay are good friends, Vijay has a soft corner for Malati. Eventually, their love blooms. They, together open a school in their town to train the new generation.
The elders fix their marriage also. Pandey wants to donate some amount to the school and so he makes some suggestions to the children. Pandit resents the suggestions. He also declines the donation of Pande. Both Pandit and Pandey have a heated argument, then a quarrel and they stop talking to each other.
The marriage of Vijay and Malati is broken. In his anger, Pandit marries his elder daughter Madhavi to an older, drunkard person – Ranjan ( Mubarak), who hails from a noble family. This marriage takes place against the opposition of everybody.
Not only this, but Pandit also fixes Malati’s marriage with an old jagirdar widower. One day Pandit’s son-in-law, Ranjan is caught red handed by Vijay, when Ranjan is selling his wife’s (Madhavi’s) gold ornaments for his drinks. Vijay fires him. Ranjan, as a revenge, goes and tells false stories to Pandit about Vijay, thereby spoiling his impression.
On the day of marriage, when the baraat is to come, it is found that Malati is missing. Not only that, even Vijay is missing. Pandit is shocked and very much worried for his daughter. Afraid that she might commit suicide, he is scared.
Meanwhile baraat arrives and the groom angrily blames Pandit for doing injustice to his daughter, when her marriage was already fixed. Pandit repents, meanwhile Vijay and Malati arrive. They are married by a priest in a temple. Pandey comes there and gives a lecture on controlling anger and false ego. Pandit realises his mistake. He begs everyone’s pardon and Vijay and Malati are married in the same place. The groom for Malati is on her side already, convinced by Vijay about their love. All’s well that ends well.
There were 2 senior artists in paternal roles in this film. One was Jahagirdar and the other was Shah Nawaz Khan. Film industry is full of strange things. People in this industry are prone to be influenced by good omens and bad omens. Once an artist is branded as unlucky, his career can not proceed further. This was more common in the early years. Examples are Music Directors C.Arjun and Daan Singh. They were branded as Unlucky, because their more films remained unreleased or incomplete than their released films. Though they had talent, their careers came to an early end. However, there is a case of an actor/director, who had proven disasters wherever he worked. Still, he kept on getting work and had a long career, ending with Government recognition. I am talking about Gajanan Jahagirdar.
We all know the famous actor and director Gajanan Jagirdar (real surname Jahagirdar. B. 2-4-1907 D.- 13-8-1988), but few know that he was branded ‘unlucky’. ‘Padosi’ (1941) was Jagirdar’s first film with Prabhat film company. By the time the film was complete Shantaram and his some friends left Prabhat making it crippled. Second time Jagirdar worked in the film ‘Ramshastri’ (1944) for Prabhat, the important partner Vishnupant Damle died and Prabhat almost collapsed. The third time Jagirdar worked for Prabhat in the film ‘Lokmanya Tilak’, the company was auctioned and closed down forever ! When Jagirdar worked for “Shahir Parshuram”of Mangal pictures, the company went bankrupt and closed down. In 1953, top production company Alhad Chitra employed Jagirdar for a bilingual film, ‘Mahatma’ (1953), not only the film flopped, it drowned the company and the Producer Datta Dharmadhikari came on the road. For survival he started a roadside kitchen !
Jagirdar started as a freelancer in the industry, in the film studios of Prabhat Films and Minerva Movietone and later acted and directed in a number of films post his accidental debut ‘Jalti Nishani’ in 1932. He was hand-picked by V Shantaram to act in ‘Jalti Nishani’ when actor DD Mane wasn’t able to say the Urdu dialogues on screen properly. And even though he was only 25, he enacted the part of a 75-year-old with aplomb.
Jagirdar began acting on the stage as a young child. As he grew older, he formed Arun Players, a theatre group which enacted plays like Harindranath Chattopadhyay’s ‘Returned from Abroad’ to Anton Chekhov’s ‘The Cherry Orchard’.
Not bound to any one studio, he worked as a freelancer for most of the major film studios of the time — from Prabhat Films to Minerva Movietone. At Prabhat, he began with writing the English inter titles for films. He also taught the Prabhat artistes Urdu dialogue delivery. He assisted Bhalji Pendharkar for a bit and directed a few films like ‘Begunaah’ (1937) for Master Vinayak’s banner Hans Pictures. Later, he moved on to work as a scenarist (screenwriter) for Minerva Movietone’s ‘Meetha Zahar’ (1938) and ‘Divorce’ (1938). He also worked with filmmaker PK Atre, both as actor and director in a few films.
For V Shantaram’s last film with Prabhat Films, the famed director took up the issue of communal tension in the country. Jagirdar played the Muslim character Mirza, while Mazhar Khan played the Hindu character, Thakur in the bilingual. ‘Padosi’ was a critical and commercial hit at that time.
‘Ramshastri’ (1944) was a landmark bilingual film on Peshwa Madhavrao’s chief justice and one of the last classics produced by Prabhat Films. The film went through three directors — Raja Nene, Vishram Bedekar shot portions of the film before Gajanan Jagirdar, who was playing the lead character Ramshastri Prabhune, took over to finish it. It is said that V Shantaram also directed parts of it.
In Asit Sen’s ‘Apradhi Kaun’ (1957), Jagirdar played a double role as two brothers Shrinath and Dinanath. It was a fantastic opportunity for the actor. As the wealthy Shrinath who has inherited all of the ancestral property, Jagirdar was cool and composed. Meanwhile, as the down-on-his-luck brother Dinanath, Jagirdar transformed himself and his body to differentiate the two. Jagirdar acted in 147 films, directed 17 films and wrote 13 songs in film ‘Sant Tulsidas’ (1934).
Prior to his career in films, Jagirdar was also a teacher and later also taught acting. He became the first principal of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in 1960, but resigned after a year. He wrote two autobiographies that were published in 1971 and 1986. Additionally, he also wrote a book on acting which explored Konstantin Stanislavsky’s method to the craft.
The actor Shah Nawaz Khan, known only as Shah Nawaz, was born on 18-9-1906 in Hyderabad Deccan. His father was a Major in Hyderabad’s Nizam Army. During his school education, he used to act in dramas. After Matriculation, he joined the Govt. Service in Hyderabad state. He was, however, keen on joining films and dramas. After 5 years, he left the job and started a Motor car business. In that connection, he would visit Bombay often and try his luck at different studios. Finally, his efforts bore fruit and he got a Villain’s role in the film Bharat ka laal-36, in which he was listed as S.Nawaz. It was a stunt film made by the Kadam brothers (Harischandra rao and Chandra rao Kadam), with Master Bhagwan as the Hero.
After this, he never went back to Hyderabad. Then came his films Daulat-37, Toofani khazana-37, Rangila Mazdoor-38, Jungle king-39, Sardar 40 etc etc. In 1940, he joined Bombay Talkies and worked in films. He was apparently in Devika Rani’s camp. He was seen in Punarmilan-40,Bandhan-40, Jhoola-41, Naya Sansar-41, Kismet – 43 and Hamari Baat-43.He also worked in Masterji-43, Police,Parakh and Anban-44, Zeenat, Bhaijan and Humayun-45 and few more films. In all, he did 35 films in India. In 1948, Shahnawaz migrated to Pakistan. He was welcomed there. He did 41 films in Pakistan (32 Urdu and 9 Punjabi). Some of his films were quite famous like Aansoo-50, Sassi-54, Ayyaz-60 etc. Shahnawaz died in Karachi on 18-6-1971. His last released film was Nek Parween-75.
Here is a song from today’s film Anban-1944, sung by Durrani, Amirbai and Hamida Banu. Enjoy the song….
Song- Manhar Baanke Bihaaree re (Anban)(1944) Singers-Amirbai Karnataki, Hamida Bano, G.M.Durrani,Lyricist- Pt. Madhur,MD- Gyan Dutt
Lyrics
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree re
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree ee
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree re
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree ee
kaisee ye jodee yaaree pyaaree re
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree ee
kaisee ye jodee yaaree pyaaree re
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree ee
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree re
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree ee
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree re
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree ee
murlee mein priya jee ka sargam
Raadhe naache chham-chham chham-chham
murlee mein priy jee ka sargam
Raadhe naache chham-chham chham-chham
isee naachte isee devee ke
Mohan bane pujaaree
isee naachte isee devee ke
Mohan bane pujaaree
Mohan bane pujaaree
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree re
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree ee
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree re
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree ee
aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
sudh budh kho kar badal diya hai
Shyam ne apna naam
Shyam ne apna naam
sudh budh kho kar badal diya hai
Shyam ne apna naam
isee liye duniya kehtee hai
in ko Raadhe Shyaam
isee liye duniya kehtee hai
in ko Raadhe Shyaam
prem raaj mein huye baraabar
Narayan aur Naaree
prem raaj mein huye baraabar
Narayan aur Naaree
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree re
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree ee
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree re
Manhar Baanke Bihaaree ee
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
February 28, 2026 at 9:10 pm
Good Evening Sir,
Very lovely duet. It is strange, being a good singer, how Durrani Ji could not hit the singers parade.
Thanks for sharing lovely song.
Blessings
Uma🙏
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