Raja bitua mera mithhua meethhee bolee boley
Posted on: March 18, 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 Azad-1940.
The film was made by Bombay Talkies. Bombay Talkies was one of the premiere production companies of India in those times. Its films became very popular and the music was lapped up by the audience. There were other equally famous production houses like Prabhat Films,Ranjit studios and New Theatres of Calcutta, all churning out blockbusters. While Ranjit showed how to make money, Bombay Talkies added prestige to films.
Language in Hindi films was a great issue in those times and it is here that Bombay Talkies won hands down ! Prabhat films had its Hindi totally influenced by Marathi ( and hence was popular in western India), and New Theatres films had their Hindi straight lifted from books of Hindi Prachar Sabha- too pure ! It was only Bombay Talkies films which used the colloquial language of India- easily understood by the masses and acceptable to all classes equally. While Prabhat called it “Preet” , and New Theatres said ” Prem”, Bombay Talkies used the words like ” Pyar” and “Muhabbat” – a mix of Urdu and Hindi ( called Hindustani). Prabhat dialogues were too formal, while New Theatres’ were highly literary and Bombay Talkies used day to day language understood easily over the length and breadth of India.
Surprisingly, it was not by design. Himanshu Rai’s Hindi was not good. Whenever a new film story was read out to him, he would insist on simpler language so that he understood it. This culminated into the strongest point of Bombay Talkies films !.
Bombay Talkies was run in Hollywood style. Very systematic, disciplined and maintained a conducive atmosphere for best performance by all. All facilities were provided to the staff, with a common canteen for all- high and low. Bombay Talkies believed in recruiting talented people and also developing their own staff. From the beginning, it was considered a Heaven for Bangla artistes. But to its credit, it never neglected or denied opportunities to any Non Bangla artistes. This enabled the Film industry- in later years – benefitting with a variety of experts in all fields of cinema making.
In the initial period, Devika Rani used to be the Heroine in all films, but in 1939, Bombay Talkies invited Leela Chitnis to work in the film Kangan-39, opposite Ashok Kumar. The usual director Franz Osten had directed it. The film was a hit and Bombay Talkies went ahead with another film Bandhan-40. When the shooting of Bandhan started in late 1939, its Director Franz Osten and all other German Technicians of the studio were arrested by British police and interned at Deolali, near Nashik, Maharashtra. The film was then completed by the assistant director N.R.Acharya, who graduated to Director’s post. Even this film was a Hit. Yet another film was launched with the pair of Askok Kumar and Leela Chitnis, viz. Aazaad-40 and this film too was directed by N.R.Acharya.
In early 1940, Bombay Talkies’ expert writer and Himansu Rai’s long time associate Niranjan Pal left Bombay Talkies, and Sardendu Bannerjee, a noted Novelist from Bengal was recruited. However his first film Aazaad-40 did not click unlike other films of the lead pair. The film had a cast of Ashok Kumar, Leela Chitnis, Hansa Wadkar, Rama Shukul, Mumtaz Ali, Nazir Bedi, Ramchandra Pal, Nana Palshikar etc etc. The Music was by Saraswati Devi and Ramchandra Pal. Hansa Wadkar was new to Bombay Talkies, having worked as a Heroine in its earlier film ” Navjeevan-39″, opposite Rama Shukul. She had impressed the company and hence even in the film Aazaad she was paired opposite Rama Shukul again.
The lead pair was Leela Chitnis and Ashok Kumar. Earlier Ashok Kumar was paired with Devika Rani since 1936 and they did many Hit films together. Devika Rani or Leela Chitnis had joined films by choice. However, Ashok Kumar had never imagined that he would pursue a Film career. He had joined Bombay Talkies with the help of Sashadhar mukherjee, his Brother-in-law, as a Technical staff, after completing his degree education. But fate brought him to films. Everyone knows how.
But then Ashok Kumar’s case is not unique. The film industry has seen some more such cases, where the artists dramatically entered the filmline in different capacities. Take the case where one Motor Mechanic became a well known film Director (Sarvottam Badami) while the other became a famous poet, lyricist and a Director (Gulzar), a Navy aspirant was made a hero (Motilal), an International wrestler ‘acted’ in several films (Dara Singh), a Typewriter salesman became immortal singer actor (Saigal), an international dramatist and U.N.O. Executive wrote stories, songs and dialogues of Hindi films and acted too (Dewan Sharar), a Mathematician with a prestigious Tripose from Cambridge University and service in I.L.O. Switzerland became an actress in Hindi films (Shakuntala Paranjpye) and an Editor of Dance magazine with high education was taken out of a Bus queue and made a Hero of over 40 films (Ranjan). These are some examples how Fate changes the course of Life !
Leela Chitnis was senior to Ashok Kumar in acting. Azad-40 was her 13th film, whereas for him it was only the 9th film of his career. They did 4 films together. Their first film was kangan-39. Then came Bandhan-40. Azda was 3rd and last film together as lead pair was Jhoola-41. Three films were hits, but Azad-40 was an average film. Ashok kuar was a famous actor and a lot is written about him, so instead of writing on his bio etc, here are some unknown anecdotes about Ashok kumar.
Can you ever imagine Ashok Kumar on screen without a cigarette ?-barring his early films, that is. He was not only a chain smoker in real life but in almost all his films,Cigarettes were an inseparable part of his persona on screen. You will be surprised that from his first film, Jeevan Naiya-36 till Jhoola or Anjaan in 1941, he had never smoked. However he always felt that his hands were in an awkward position in his films.He really did not know what to do with his hands.
While doing the role of a Journalist in film ‘Naya Sansar”-41, opposite Renuka Devi ( in the credits of the film, her name was First and Ashok Kumar’s was second), first time he held a cigarette in his hand. This actually changed his life. His acting became natural and he felt relaxed and happy doing his roles. From then on Cigarettes became an integral part of his reel and real life. He got Asthma due to smoking, but he never quit smoking. He reduced it to just 90 cigarettes a day-on doctor’s advice !
From 1967, Ashok Kumar started doing character roles from the film ‘Meherbaan’-67. In that film he is shown as a chain smoker. His daughter in Law( shashikala) shows him how smoking is destroying his health and wealth and in the film, he quits smoking forever. However in actual life he never stopped smoking.
How many of us know that Ashok Kumar has done roles in Mythological films and Historical films ? Ashok kumar did the role of Satyawan in film “Savitri’-37, opposite Devika Rani and then became Abhimanyu in film “Uttara-Abhimanyu”-46, opposite Shanta Apte. He acted as Humayun in the film “Humayun”-45. Ashokkumar looked funny in these roles. Famous film Journalist Badri Kanchwala( second husband of Amirbai Karnataki) says, “In Humayun-45, there was a scene in which Ashok kumar runs with a spear in his hands. Those days,Ashok kumar used to look quite feminine and so this scene used to evoke loud laughter in the theatre ridiculing him”. Filmistan had announced a film on Lokmanya Tilak,with Ashok kumar as Tilak. Thankfully,the project was shelved and Lokmanya Tilak and the Indian audience were spared !
The famous writer Saadat Hasan Manto writes in his book ” Stars from another sky”…
” in his first film, Ashok got Rs.75 as salary but by the 5th film, his salary became 250 rupees. After taking money from the cashier, Ashok was terrified. He had a small flat of only 2 rooms. He was worried that if a thief comes to know that he has so much money, what will happen to him ? So, he hid the money under his mattress in the night. The next day, he went to the Post office and deposited that money in his account !”
Ok, more about Ashok Kumar some other time.
The story of the film Azad-1940 was……
Azad was a story of three friends and the age-old conflict of conservatism v/s Modernism. Vijay(Ashok Kumar) is a wealthy young collegian with modern thinking and rebellion against bad customs.Loknath is a conservative while Jagdish is oscillating between the two.
One day they come across a girl Jamuna(Leela Chitnis) hunted by a badman. Loknath and Jagdish stay away, but Vijay rescues her and takes her home. She is stamped as a fallen woman, but Vijay knows she is pure and courageous.They fall in love, marry and go away to another village Ratanpur,to avoid trouble from society.After 25 years, Jagdish settles as a Lawyer in Calcutta. He has one motherless daughter Seeta(Hansa Wadkar),who is rescued from Train dacoits, by Anand ( Rama Shukul), the Doctor son of Vijay. Jagdish calls him home and learns that he is Vijay and Jamun’s son. He is in a dilemma now.
However love triumphs and the youngsters finally get married in presence of Vijay,Jamuna,Jagdish and Loknath.
I have some sweet memories of meeting Ashok Kumar in person and spending a few hours with him in his bungalow in Bombay. That was when I was heading the Veterinary Medicine Division of Glaxo Laboratories, in 1982. We wanted to make an Audio visual film to promote our Veterinary products.
In those days, Bombay-Poona road around Lonavala, was full of Poultry Farms on both sides of the road. One of the biggest Poultry farms in that area belonged to Ashok Kumar, the film star. To get this interview for our A.V. Show, with prior appointment, our team led by me and the Chief Cameraman Mr. Sharma, went to his bungalow in Chembur, Bombay. We met him and completed our shooting and interview. He insisted that we had our Lunch also there. We spent almost 4 hours with him talking about his poultry farm and of course his film career too ! I have many photographs of that day with me.
Here is a song from the film Azad-1940, sung by Leela Chitnis. Enjoy….
Audio
Video
Song-Raaja bitua mera mithhua meethhee bolee boley (Azaad)(1940) Singer-Leela Chitnis, Lyricist-J S Kashyap, MD-Saraswati Devi
Lyrics
hmm mm mm hmm mm mm
meethhee bolee boley
raaja bitua mera mithhua
meethhee bolee boley
kisne raaja tumhen banaaya
kisne meethha bol sikhaaya
kisne raaja tumhen banaya
kisne meetha bol sikhaaya
maa ne
jab chaukey mein baithh banaoon main cheezen
achhee achhee
tum baabu ka jee behlaao
kar baaten meethhee meethhee
maa ko iklee chhod kaam par
jaate hain jab baabu jee
baat banaa kar maa ka sab dukh
door bhagaate betu jee
betu jee
raaja bitwa mera mithhua
meethhee bolee boley
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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