Mere liye makaan mein joroo kee maaraa-maar hai
Posted on: March 30, 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 an obscure film Manorama-1944.
A film by Chandra Art productions, Bombay, it was directed by Jayant Desai and the music was by C.Ramchandra. This was his only 4th Hindi film as a M.D. (to start with, he had composed music for 2 Tamil Films.). The cast of the film consisted of Leela Chitnis, Ishwarlal, Charlie, Mubarak, Naseem Jr., Alaknanda and others.
The year 1944 was a time when the world knew that the end of World War II was near, however, till that time the Raw Film shortage was troubling the film makers in India. Black money generated through Black marketing was disturbing the industry. The cost of the filmmaking, which was about a Lakh or so in 1940, had escalated to 5 to 6 lakhs per film. Studio system was weakened due to individual production practices started by black money investors. Star salaries had inflated. Many stars worked on FreeLance basis. The law of war promotion movies was now forcefully implemented. Many producers made War propaganda movies to get the Raw Film at controlled rates. The Government had increased the Entertainment Taxes in Bombay, Madras, UP and CP areas, so the cost of Cinema tickets had increased. Prithvi Theatre was launched by Prithviraj Kapoor. Film artistes gathered under the leadership of EVR Naicker in Madras to form DMK party. M. Karunanidhi was a prominent leader.
In Spite of all this, some good Musical films were made in 1944. Saigal, who arrived in Bombay from Calcutta for good, made his second film in Bombay. New composers, New Heros and New heroines brought a variety of Genres of films made in 1944. Some of the major films of 1944 were….
Bhanwara – Second film by Saigal and Khemchand Prakash in Ranjit in Bombay. Made in just 9 days’ shooting for Saigal, by director Kidar Sharma. It was the second film for Monica Desai too (sister of Leela Desai and wife of Phani Mujumdar).
Bharthari – Last film in India by singer actress Jahan Ara Kajjan who sang her last 2 songs in it. She migrated to Pakistan in the wake of Partition. Very good songs in the film, especially ” Bhiksha de de maiya” by Amirbai and Surendra.
Chal Chal re Naujawan – First film from newly established Filmistan, by the deserters’ group from Bombay Talkies, led by S.Mukherjee and Ashok Kumar. Ashok Kumar sang 6 songs in it for the first and the last time for Ghulam Haider. His song ” Bolo Har Har Mahadev” was very melodious and popular.
Chand – Debut film of Husnlal-Bhagatram team. They were recommended by elder brother Pt. Amarnath, who was the first choice of D.D.Kashyap. After V.Shantaram and his team left Prabhat, this was an attempt by Prabhat to join the mainstream by opting for the first time Non Marathi star cast and Punjabi style musicians. 5 singers were used by H-B for 11 songs. A mild success film.
Daasi – it was a musical from Lahore by Pt. Amarnath- with his favourite Zeenat Begum.
Film Dost produced the evergreen Noorjehan song ” Badnam – muhabbat kaun karen” composed by Sajjad Hussain. This one song alone made them both immortal.
Draupadi – a feeble attempt by Baburao Patel to make a Heroine out of his secretary Sushila Rani.
Gaali – Another film by Sajjad, but with only 3 songs to him and 9 to Hanuman prasad.
Iraada – Pt.Amarnath brought Hemant Kumar as a Debutant singer.
Ismat – The first and the only film of the brothers Pt. H.P.Sharma and Pt. Govardhan pershad, as a composer team.
Jwar Bhata – Devika Rani’s discovery, Dilip Kumar’s first film. He was the side Hero and the Hero was Agha. Actress Mrudula also debuted as Dilip’s Heroine.
Krishna Bhakt Bodana – The only film of the Revolutionary Poet singer Master Vasant from Surat. Avinash Vyas, Shankar rao Vyas composed music, while S.N.Tripathi gave background music.
Musical film Lal Haveli – Only time when Noor Jehan and Surendra sang together under Mir Saheb.
Mann ki Jeet – W.Z.Ahmed brings new Heroine Neena, who sings in the voice of Debutante Sitara of Kanpur in all her films. Neena was a Non-Singer.
My Sister – Saigal goes back to Calcutta to complete a Musical film ” My Sister”. Pankaj Mullick gives excellent songs by saigal and others.
There were two films ‘ Panchhi’ and ‘ O Panchhi’ with average songs.
Panna – A war propaganda film based on the ” Mata Hari” story, with a new Heroine Geeta Nizami. MD Amir Ali died before the film was released. The credits in the film dedicated the film to Late Amir Ali.
Perhaps the best music was by Vasant Desai to film ” Parbat pe apna dera”. Vanmala and Ulhas excel in acting in a story of sexual repression. All songs are excellent, especially Amirbai’s song ” Pareshan hoon main” is simply divine.
Lastly, the Best one. Record breaking musical ” Rattan” gave superlative songs by Naushad. Barring 2 songs by Manju, the other 8 songs were all Hits. Rattan gave 200% returns on the film and song records, to the Producer.
from the scene of the 1944 films, one can easily see how it was difficult for a newcomer like C.Ramchandra to establish himself. Still, he was doing very well and his name had spread in the industry by now. After his first Hindi film-a stunt film-” Sukhi Jeevan”-1942, he was offered a job by Jayant Desai. From the 1943 film Muskurahat, he did 5 films for Desai. All films were successful. CR was proud of his achievement. Under the banner Jayant Desai productions, one more Saigal film-Tadbir-45, with Suraiya in the lead was to be made.
One day CR heard a rumour that the great singer Saigal is coming to make a film here. CR became very excited that he would get an opportunity to compose music for Saigal. But he got a shock when he heard that, not he, but one Lal Mohammed (assistant of Ghulam Hyder in Lahore) was being called for that assignment, C.Ramchandra not only was upset but felt hurt too. He went to Jayant Desai and said-
” My salary must be increased”
” How much ?”
” One Thousand Rupees per month”
Jayant was not ready for 1000. He offered a maximum of 600. He also told CR that there was an opportunity to compose for Saigal, but C.Ramchandra was not ready to accept anything less than 1000.
Finally,C Ramchandra said,” Increase it to 1000 or else….”
Jayant Desai was furious.He asked,” Or else…What ?”
C.Ramchandra said,” Or else,I will quit”.
Without flapping an eyelid, Jayant Desai coolly said,” OK. Your account will be settled in an hour. Stop work and pack up.”
C.Ramchandra was stunned,but the arrow had already left the bow !
C.Ramchandra became jobless and also lost an opportunity to compose music for Saigal. But his luck was strong. After a few days ,Kavi Pradeep took him to Filmistan and he was appointed there on a salary of Rs. 1000 pm. In Filmistan, C.Ramchandra gave several Hit musicals like Safar, Shehnai, Nadiya ke paar, Shabnam, Samadhi, Sargam,Anarkali, Nastik etc. If Jayant Desai had not removed C.Ramchandra from his company, he would not have reached the heights of his fame and success later on.(Translated from CR’s autobiography in Marathi).
Today’s song is sung by Charlie, i.e. Noor Mohd. Charlie.
1944-1945 was the period when Comedian Noor Mohammed Charlie was at the peak of his popularity. He not only sang his songs, but he also became a Hero in a few pictures and stories were amended to give him more scope in the films. In the 1950s and the 1960s, this honour went to comedian Johnny Walker. Thank God, he did not sing songs ( though he spoke in his chirpy voice in some songs). Mohammed Rafi compensated enough for him by having a special style of singing and a special voice for Johnny Walker songs.
These days everyone likes the comedy of Amitabh Bachhan. His many films became Hits due to his comedy work. Today most of the Heroes do the comedy part in the film themselves. But till 1970, there used to be a separate slot for a comedian.
Today’s generation knows comedians like Paresh Raval, Anupam Kher etc. For them older comedians are Johnny Lever, Satish Shah or Rajpal Yadav. Before that, they can think of Johnny Walker, Mehmood, Keshto Mukherjee, Asit Sen, Dhumal, Jagdeep, Asrani or Deven Verma. But the art of Comedy had started much earlier, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comedians like Ghori, Dikshit, Fatty Prasad, V H Desai, Bhudo Advani were famous. Amongst all the comedians of that era,there was ONE superstar of Comedy- NOOR MOHAMMED CHARLIE.
Noor Mohd. was born on 7-1-1911 at Ranavav, near Porbandar, Gujarat, in a Memon family (Later, comedian Mukri was also a Memon from Konkan area). Not interested in studies, he was very fond of seeing films, even by stealing money from house, at times-if need be. He was sent to Bombay and worked as an Umbrella Repairer in a shop. His desire to become an actor was so strong that one day he straightaway went to the Imperial Film Company’s owner and asked for a job. In the tradition of those days, he was asked if he could sing… His reply was,” I can sing, act, ride, run, fight, cry, laugh, quarrel, dance, play or swim”. He was hired instantly at a salary of Rs. 40 pm.
From 1925 to 1931 he did 9 silent films. In one of these films he did the acting of Charlie Chaplin. It became so popular that he made this get up his Trademark and developed Toothbrush Moustache ,like Charlie Chaplin. he also added ‘Charlie’ to his name. He did his first talkie film ” Zarina” in 1932 and then there was no looking back.
Initially with Sagar Movietone, he shifted to Ranjit and did 17 films with Ranjit. He became so famous and Popular that films were sold in his name. He was the First superstar amongst the comedians. He started to get special songs shot on him in almost every film-much before Johnny Walker in the 1950s. He sang his own songs. He left Ranjit and was the first actor to become a ‘Free-lance’ breaking the Studio system.
Some of his films and songs were famous all over India. In the film Sanjog, he sang ” Palat,tera dhyan kidhar hai “. This line became so famous that young boys in colleges used this line for calling girls,in those days. In the film Dhindhora, he sang ” ek do teen char panch chhe saat aath nau dus gyara bara,teri nazar ne mujhe mara”. ( Raj Kapoor used ‘Ek do teen aaja mausam hai rangeen’ and later Madhuri Dixit’s “Ek do teen” was very famous.) In the film Taqdeer he sang- “Thank you mention not” and ” I am very very Sorry”. This too became popular.
There was a time when Charlie drew more salary than even Prithwiraj kapoor ! He did about 62 films in all. He was the Hero opposite Swarnalata in Chaand Taara-45, hero opposite Leela Chitnis in Ghazal-45 and hero opposite Chandraprabha (Saraswati devi’s sister) in Dulha-46.
He directed only one film,while in Ranjit-Dhandora-41. Charlie sang 36 songs in 15 films.
After partition he opted for Pakistan. he did 6 Urdu, 2 Sindhi and 1 Punjabi films there but was not popular. He came back to India in 1960, but by then here too the position had changed. He did 3 films here. His last film in India was Ranjit’s last film ” Akeli mat Jaiyo”-63 and then that was the end of his film career and that of Ranjit studios too. Due to Visa problems, he had to leave India. He went to the USA to live with his son, who had a dairy farm business. He had 6 sons and 6 daughters. Only 1 son-Latif Charlie became an actor In Pakistan. (He died on 19-7-2011). Charlie came back to Pakistan when his wife expired, but later he himself died in Karachi on 30-6-1983.
If he had not gone to Pakistan, who knows he would have prospered here. Mehmood and Johnny Walker consider him as GURU and have copied his actions in films many times. Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt were also his fans. His film Manorama-44 was remade as Manchala in 1953 with Agha in his role. Thokar-39 was remade as Mai Baap and Taqdeer-43 was remade as Duniya ka Mela, with Mehmood in Charlie’s role.
When he died in Pakistan, no film personality from the Pakistan Film industry attended his funeral. He died unsung !
Today’s song is sung by Charlie. I thank Abhay Jain ji of USA, for providing this song and our Sadanand Kamath ji for uploading it for me, as always. Enjoy the song….
Song-Mere liye makaan mein joroo kee maara maar hai (Manorama)(1944) Singer-Charlie, Lyricist-Deepak, MD-C Ramchandra
Lyrics
Mere liye makaan mein
mere liye makaan mein
joroo kee maara maar hai
mere liye makaan mein
joroo kee maara maar hai
mujhko to ek chaahiye
mujhko to ek chaahiye
auron ko chaar chaar hai
auron kee bigdee ban gayee
mujhse kaha ke phir gayee
auron kee bigdee ban gayee
mujhse kaha ke phir gayee
auron ke bill chuka diye
auron ke bill chuka diye
mujhse kahaa udhaar hai
mere liye makaan mein
joroo kee maara maar hai
mujhko to ek chaahiye
auron ko chaar chaar hai
Shree Krishn bhagwan kee jai
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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