Kothe pe jaa chhipa kyon
Posted on: April 7, 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 very old film- 92 years old, to be exact – Bala Joban-1934.
An obvious question comes to mind that when today’s readers do not know or even never heard about the old time actors, when the songs are absolutely old style which are not at all likeable and when the singers and the composers test our patience, why should we read about these films ?
These old film articles are not for entertainment purposes, but they are the records for the historical times, reminders of the artists who made the foundation of today’s film industry stronger and which give information on the bygone times, styles of music and singing etc. These matters are valuable and beyond any entertainment or monetary values !
Also remember that atulsongaday.me is perhaps the only Blog on the Internet which strives hard to promote such historically important notes of information for our posterity. If such articles are not written, maybe, some chapters of the early era Talkie films will vanish forever, only to regret in later times !
None of the present day writers on old films were present in those times, no one has seen these artists who are alive only in names and some photos. But the Historians dig information from various sources, old files, newspapers,old books, old citizens and such other information stores. Sometimes close relatives of old artists are interviewed and they open up their treasures of photos, cuttings of newspapers, advertisements, film booklets etc. During my last 15 years of intense involvement, many such relatives of old artists contacted me on their own and I got valuable material from them. All this is provided in our articles for historical ‘ keep-safes’ for our future generations. Who knows,by their times, these sources would have vanished !
Today’s film Bala Joban-1934 was made by Gandharv Cinetone, Bombay – owned by Baburao Patel, who became famous with his film magazine ” FILM INDIA” in later times. It started in April 1935 and was published till 1961. There are sites on the Internet which have preserved copies of such old film magazines, available free to interested readers. These issues are a big storehouse of information on the early Talkie period, films and the artists. Unfortunately, there is no information on today’s film, so we are greatly handicapped about its story and other details.
For many films of the first decade, even the film booklets are rarely available. All we know is that the film was directed by Baburao Patel himself and the Music Director was Badri Prasad Manik. The cast included Padma Devi, Marutirao pehalwan, Mubarak, Shirin, Gulab, Nandu Khote (father of Sholay fame Viju Khote and actress Shubha Khote and Devar of Durga Khote), Badri Prasad, Raja pandit (actor, director, producer and husband of actress Ratnamala) and many others. We will know more about some of the artists.
As the Talkie films started, the number of Anglo Indian Girls rapidly went down as most of them did not know Hindi nor could they sing. Only a few hard working Anglo Indian girls survived and progressed from silent to Talkie films, like Savita Devi (Iris Gasper)-who learnt Hindi/Urdu and singing,with efforts, Sulochana (Ruby Myers),Indira Devi(Effie Hippolet),Lalita Devi(Bonnie Bird),Pramila(Esher Abrahams),Seeta Devi(Renee Smith),Madhuri(Beryl Classen),Manorama(Winnie Stewart) etc.
Since singing was an important requisite,the field was now open to singing girls from Kothas,Tawayafs and professional singers.Reasonably good looks and singing ability was what made them actresses. These girls,who came from Kothas and professional singer families used the suffix ” Bai” to their names to differentiate their specialty. Thus you had Jaddan bai,Amir bai,Johrabai,Rattan bai etc etc.
Many young singing girls found Cinema as a place where they could get (catch ? ) a good Husband from a better family background,earning respectability(forget religion). Many starlets married Producers,directors,Actors,Singers and Composers,left acting and settled as respectable housewives. Some girls got Husbands from Nawabs and the Royalties,as they were patrons of Arts.
Many examples from the early era can be cited in this connection like
Gulab bai alias kamla devi married S.Fatelal-Dir. in Prabhat Films.
Jaddanbai married a Medical student and a Jahagirdar-Uttamchand
Fatima bai(mother of Alam Ara fame Zubeida) married nawab of Sachin,Guajarat
Sultana married Yusuf Laljee,Businessman and chief of Bombay Municipal corpn.
actress Sarojini(Roshan) married Nanubhai Vakil-producer/Dir (Their daughter was actress AZRA)
actress Indurani (Ishrat)-sister of Sarojini- married Ramniklal Shah-Prod/Director
actress Shirin bai married Nanabhai Bhatt (Their sons are Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt)
actress Zubeida of Alam Ara married Raja Dhanrajgir of Hyderabad-deccan
The other actress Zubeida (on whose life, film Zubeida – 2001 was made) married Maharaja Hanwant singh of Jodhpur etc.
This trend continued in the industry even after things changed and educated and respected family people entered the industry. Now,one could see marriages were taking place between people of film industry itself like Rattanbai and Director Hafiz,Jyoti and Durrani, Nalini Jaywant and Virendra Desai, Noorjahan-Shaukat hussain rizvi, Meenakumari, Sardar Akhtar, Snehprabha Pradhan, Anil Biswas, Lalita Deulkar etc.
In later times, instances were Waheeda Rehman, Kishore kumar, Asha Bhosle, Hemant kumar, Manik verma, Premlata, Geeta Dutt, Rishi kapoor, Rajesh khanna, Amitabh Bachhan and Abhishek bachhan etc.
In the cast you find the name Shirin Bano. Yes, she too is one of the above listed artists who joined films to get a suitable husband and lead a respectable and comfortable life. Shirin, Shirin Bai or Shirin Bano was from a Tawayaf mother from Lucknow. Her father was a Tamil Brahmin- Ram Seshadri Aiyar, who worked as an Accountant with Kikubhai Desai ( father of Manmohan Desai) in his Distribution department.They were 5 sisters and 1 brother. Shirin joined films at an early age. Her first film was Maharani-34 in the same year she worked in Vehmi duniya, Sewa sadan and Bala Joban. In 1935 her films were Shamsher e Arab, Pardesi Sainya and Bambai ki Sethani. In 36, she worked in Top ka gola, Snehlata, Passing show and Azad veer. Khwab ki duniya, His Highness and Challenge from 37, State Express and Purnima in 38, Leather face and Hero No.1 from 1939. Total 18 films only.
Her youngest sister Meher Bano also joined films with the name Purnima ( she also married a Producer Director Bhagwandas Varma). Shirin married Producer Director Nanabhai Bhatt, who already had a wife and 9 children. They had 2 sons- Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt.
Today’s song is sung by the hero Maruti Rao pehalwan. He was originally from Kolhapur.
In the early era of talkie films, many wrestlers joined film companies. They worked mostly in action films. Some such actors were Baburao Pehelwan (he was the hero of Master Bhagwan’s stunt films; later on worked as a stuntman with fight master Azim Bhai), Vasantrao Pehelwan (he was the one who brought Indurani from Poona to Bombay; was a popular villain in stunt films), Nandram Pehelwan (very popular in silent films but fell on bad days in the talkie era), Sadiq Pehelwan, Maane Pehelwan, Amir Khan Pehelwan etc.
Marutirao Pehelwan (Surname – Gawali) was different. He was handsome, tall, well built, could act and sing well. He was selected for the hero’s role in the first Gujarati talkie film ‘Narsi Mehata’ (1932), made by Sagar Movietone. He acted as hero and other roles in about 40 films and sang 56 songs in 17 films. His first Hindi film was ‘Lanka Dahan’ (1933) and his last film was ‘Nao’-1948.
He married his co-star of many films – Tara (sister of Sitara Devi and Alaknanda), though he was already married. They left films and settled in Dhule, Maharashtra. Marutirao started a dairy business there. Famous dancer Gopi Krishna was their son. After Marutirao’s demise Tara had a terrible time. She stayed in Bombay slums and did many roles in films as an extra.
Besides acting in the film, Badri Prashad was also the Music Director of the film- Bala Joban-1934. It was his Debut film as a Music Director. He was a wonder in the annals of Hindi film history. There is no other known person in history who was an actor, lyricist, singer, Music Director, producer, Director and a Choreographer- all at the same time in his career. He was simply unique. There was no one else like him.
As Actor- 147 films ( I remember him in Albela-51, as Bhagwan’s father, in Bhagam Bhag-54 as Shashikala’s uncle and missing father of Nalini Jaywant in film Hum sab chor hain-56 )
As Singer- sang 11 songs in 7 films
As M.D.- 16 films ( Bala joban, Vishnu Bhakti, Fashionable India, Romantic India, Zambo the ape man, Swaraj ke sipahi, Badhe chalo, Yangrilla, Himalay ki beti, Double cross, Zambo ka beta, Jhuti sharm, Anuradha, Vanmala, Madhusudan and Zevar-42)
As Lyricist-1 film
Producer – 1 film
Director – 1 film
Choreographer- 22 films ( from Namoona-49 to Shoor veer-88)
BADRI PRASAD was born on 14-11-1902,in Benaras, UP. He started acting in Ramleela in the Bhelpura area in Benaras. From there he reached Calcutta, spent time with New Theatres and other studios and then landed in Bombay in 1932. His first film as an actor was Navchetan-1932..
Then he worked as an assistant to some composers and gave music for the first time to Bala Joban-1934. Then came Vishnu Bhakti, Fashionable India,Romantic India, Badhe Chalo, Swaraj ke Sipahi, Anuradha, Double cross,Himalaya ki beti, Yangrila, Zambo the ape man, Zambo ka beta,Jhooti Sharm, Madhusudan, Vanmala and his last film as a composer was Zevar-1942.
Then he continued working in character roles. In 1949 he first did Choreography in Namoona-49. After that for the next 40 years he choreographed in films till his last film .
He continued acting till his last film Dhoop chaon-1977- a period of 44 years.
As a composer many famous singers sang for him, like Amirbai Karnataki, Noorjehan, Snehlata, Shyamsunder, Radharani, Sarla Devi,Ameena, Gauhar, E Rama Rao, Ramanand, Vatsala Kumthekar , Vimla Kumari,Iqbal Bibi etc etc.
Badri Prasad was a learned man with command over Hindi, Urdu, English and Sanskrit. He wrote many plays for AIR also. He had a very big collection of books in his house. He was called Pandit Badri Prasad, due to his expertise in Sanskrit.
He was a man of few words, so his fabulous career remained unknown and he was known only as a character artist.
He had 2 daughters. One daughter Surekha Pandit remained with him till his death. Surekha too was an actress, doing bit roles in films (Anupama, Mere sanam, Nartaki, Gaban, Sant Gyaneshwar, Mere Huzur,Aadmi aur Insaan, Saat Hindustani, Do dooni chaar, Shehar aur sapna,Aarti etc etc.). After marriage she was known as Surekha Parkar.
He died on 4-11-1988 at Bombay.
Note – There was another Choreographer Badri Prasad Awasthi, who was born on 4-4-1925. He continued being a choreographer in the 1990s also, after the older Badri Prasad died in 1988.
( Some information is used herein from the article on Badri Prasad by Surekha Pandit in Madhuri dated 1st May 1981, with thanks.)
Here is today’s song, sung by Maruti Rao Pehalwan – enjoy the old style singing….
Song-Kothe pe jaa chhipa kyon (Baala Joban)(1934) Singer- Marutirao Pehalwan, Lyricist- Not known, MD- Badri Prasad Manik
Lyrics
aa aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aa
Kothe pe jaa chhipa kyon
aa aa aa
aaja mere kabootar
haan haan
aaja mere kabootar
haan aan
aaja mere kaboo ootar
aa aa
aa aa han
ye chaak chaak hai dil
aa aa aa
aa kar zara rafoo kar
haan haan
aa kar zara rafoo kar
haan aan
aa kar zara rafoo oo kar
aa aa haan aan
teree galee mein qaatil
haan aan aan aan aan aan
teree galee mein qaatil
din bhar lagaate chakkar
haan haan
aan aan aan aan aan aan
?? nazar bhee
haan aan aan
hamse khafa ho kyon kar
haan haan
hamse khafa ho kyon on kar
haan aan aan haan haan
itna bhi kya akadna
aan aan aan aan aan aan
aakhir kabhee raham kar
haan aan haan aan
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
pyaasa hai ye musaafir
haa aa aa aa
ae husn ke samundar
haan haan
ae husn ke samundar
haan aan
ae husn ke samundar
haan aan
kothhe pe jaa chhipa kyon
haan aan aan
kothhe pe jaa chhipa kyon
aan aan aan
kothhe pe jaa chhipa kyon
aaja mere kabootar
haan haan
aaja mere kabootar
haan aan
aaja mere kaboo oo tar
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
April 7, 2026 at 8:50 pm
Good Evening,
Thanks for bringing so many, unknown artists to our light and knowledge.
Thanks for sharing knowledge.
Blessings
Uma🙏
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