Saj dhaj ke jaaye goree pee kee nagariya
Posted on: May 20, 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 and a flop film – Pensioner-1954.
The film was produced and directed by actor Jagdish Sethi under his own banner, J.S.Pictures, Bombay. It was shot at Shrikant Studio, Chembur. The screenplay and dialogues were by Balraj Mehta and the music was by Hansraj Behl. The cast included Shyama, Ram Mohan, Jagdish Sethi, Ratnamala, Nimbalkar, Cuckoo, kathana, Jagdish Raj, Gulab, Amina bai (sister of actor B.Nandrekar), Cuckoo, Balraj Mehta and others.
When you say that ‘Colgate is No. 1 Toothpaste’, it does not mean that everyone in India uses Colgate. It only means that the majority of people use Colgate and hence it is called No. 1 toothpaste. The decade of the 1950s was known as’ The Golden Era of Film Music’. It did not mean that there were no films with mediocre or poor music. It only means maximum films had wonderful music. In this decade there were few – only few – films whose music was not famous, for whatever reasons. Today’s film was one such film.
In the war period from 1939 to 1945, the British Government in India had coaxed the filmmakers to make films which would help the war efforts. These were called ‘ Propaganda Films’ and the Government gave special subsidies and other concessions ( like extra quota of Raw Film at control rates) to the producer. During the 1950s the Indian Government wanted to boost the ‘Small Savings’ habit among the citizens. Some films were made upholding this scheme. Today’s film Pensioner-1954 was one such film.
However it did not click and flopped miserably. Reason one was, poor direction by a non-expert director- Jagdish Sethi and reason two was, poor music by Hansraj Behl, contrary to his earlier good music. Lilting music and a vast audience encouraged the industry. In such a situation most films had something to offer, hence almost every film was successful. But as is said, success does not come to all just because you are in the group. Films which had nothing to please the audience naturally became flops.
Today’s film is also one such flop film. First of all the story was over worked out and therefore was unbelievable. Too many coincidences do not happen in real life. The film ‘Pensioner’ tried to promote the Government’s efforts on the ” Small Savings” theme which was heavily promoted to make the banks self-reliant and people oriented. Many films used such promotional themes, but as a tool of entertainment, whereas ‘Pensioner’ story looked like a highly improbable and far stretched one to stress the importance of ” Small Savings”.
Let us now see what the film story was….
Karamchand wanted an extension in service but his company refused and he had to retire from service of 30 years.
He had never saved any money during his service. He was helping the needy to study, work and feed his family. For every needy person he had extended help. He earned a name and respect, but this alone can not be used to feed his family or get his motherless daughter married. He was now worried since his pension was not enough to run the house or face any difficult situation.
Unfortunately one day he met with an accident. A kind hearted young man-Mohan- took him to a hospital and informed the daughter-Neha. he also learnt about their poor financial position. Mohan was an officer in a big multinational company. He was all alone as his parents had died in his childhood. It was Karamchand who helped him to complete his education till the end.
Mohan contacted people who were helped by Karamchand and they pooled a huge amount as a fund to help Karamchand. By coincidence, the Hospital was owned by Dr. Purohit who was also helped by Karam chand. Thus his treatment became free and after he came out of the Hospital, Mohan arranged a big function to give him his new Bank passbook having a very big amount. Meanwhile love bloomed between Neha and Mohan and they got married. Karamchand also stayed with them.
One of the main defaulters of this failed film was Jagdish Sethi, the film’s Producer and Director. He was was born on 15-1-1903 at Pind Dandan Khan (Campbellpore) in Punjab. After matriculation in 1920,he graduated from Lahore. He was known as a fighter in college due to his dominating nature. He joined the film line as asstt. cameraman in Punjab film co. in 1928.
He went to Calcutta to work as an extra in New Theatres, came back to Bombay and worked in Alam Ara-31. He went back to New Theatres in 1933 and worked in films like President,Anath Ashram,Mukti, jawani ki reet,Ghar ki laaj etc.
He worked in about 85 films in his career. In Bombay he was famous as a person with changing moods. He did not have many friends. He worked in films made by Imperial,Amar Movietone, Maiden Films,New Theatres, Laxmi Productions (belonging to L V Prasad), Janak Productions, Filmistan etc etc.
He started his own J.S.Productions and produced and directed films like Do Dil-47,Raat ki Rani-49,Jaggu-52 and Pensioner-54. He amassed huge wealth. He was fond of Racing,Cards and Tennis. He was also a writer and published a book “Hichkiyan”-short stories on Film world. He died on 12-6-1969.
The most unlucky Debutante was the Hero of this film- Ram Mohan Sharma. Ram Mohan Sharma ,a young, handsome lad from Ambala. Born in Ambala on 2-11-1929, Ram Mohan Sharma was a graduate (B.A.) and had come to Bombay in 1945 in search of a career in Cinema.
The youngster, who was in his early twenties , with fair colour ,curly hairs & sharp features had approached him to get work in movies as an actor. Jagdish Sethi found him sincere and gave him a supporting role in Jaggu (52) ,which he was to make. The movie had very good music , scored by Hansraj Behl & it had moderate success ,when released. Later, Ram Mohan got small roles in few movies & in 1954 , Sethi Sahab took him in the romantic role opposite Shyama in Pensioner . The movie did not do well & it was the end of Ram Mohan’s career as Hero.
Life goes on and he decided to accept any role offered to him & soon he was a known name in the film circle . In Do Behne (1959) ,which had Shyama in a double role, Ram Mohan enacted the role of villain, which gave his career a big boost as a bad man. Later he came in contact with Sunil Dutt & Nargis & forged a permanent friendship with them. Although Ram Mohan mostly got roles of tough characters ,inside he was soft hearted .He was a member of film artists association. He requested Sunil Dutt Ji who was feeling depressed after Nargis Ji passed away, to help the ‘Have Nots’ of the film industry.
Virtually an encyclopaedia of the film industry, Ram Mohan knew every technician, junior artists as well as old & forgotten artists ,who needed help. Whenever they both were free ,they used to visit the ailing artists in Hospital or their residences ,to give them moral / financial support. Rajan Haksar ,who was in a charity hospital ,after failure of his kidneys ,both benevolent persons visited the hapless artist to boost his spirit . Ram Mohan was confidant of Asha Parekh ,the kind hearted lady who was president of the Artists Association & they together helped many artists ,who were in dire need of assistance.
Ram Mohan was Vice president of CINTAA ( Cine and TV artists Assn.) for 4 years and Secretary for 6 years. Ram Mohan Ji had a high reputation everywhere and when he came to know about the miserable condition of A. K.Hangal, he met a political leader & arranged the financial help through Maharashtra Govt ,on a regular basis. At the time of bereavement, he made it a point to help the family till all religious formalities were over. Everyone in the film industry used to address him as Ram Mohan Ji ,to show their genuine respect to him.
In his career of more than five decades ,Ram Mohan Ji appeared in more than 250 movies ( the number varies from 240 to 277),mostly in negative roles .He did not believe in self publicity & did his philanthropic work quietly. Ram Mohan Ji , was keeping indifferent health for the last six months, when his pillar of strength ,his life partner passed away. Ram Mohan Ji also followed suit & breathed his last on 6th December 2015 .
Ram Mohan had 3 sons and 1 daughter, all very well settled in life. Ram Mohan Ji, always will be gratefully remembered by thousands of anonymous film artists who were helped by him . His memories will be cherished by his admirers ,who loved his work on and off the screen . Truly, to find people like him, in this era is a rarity. Let us hope his selfless work will inspire other persons connected with the film industry to help their less fortunate colleagues and the tradition of Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam set by him will continue. He found an admirer in Gulzar Sahab ,who always referred to him as Ram Mohan Ji. Please see the credit titles of Ijazat, where his name is mentioned as Ram Mohan ji. ( Thanks to Blog – Beete hue din, and Shri M.N.Sardana ji , for some of this information).
There is yet another name in the cast, which is not known to many….Balraj Mehta. Born on 22-4-1918 at Lahore, Balraj Mehta was the son of Sukh Dayal Mehta – Superintendent in the Commissioner’s office at Lahore. He completed Matriculation from Central Model High School and B.A. from Dayal Singh College of Lahore in 1939.
He was active in the Students’ union and held the General Secretary’s post of Punjab University Students’ Union, in 35-37. He organised the All India Student Federation conference in 36/37. He was a born Leader. He was interested in acting on stage. In 1944, he founded Indian National Theatre (I.N.T.), which is a very famous institution in India now also. He wrote, directed and produced its first stage drama ” Aawaaz’ in 1945.
By now he was married and needed to earn money. He joined the film line. He acted first in ‘ Dulla Bhatti’ in 1939-40. Then came Sajjan-41,Panna-44, Parakh-44, Patharon ka Saudagar-44, Gulami-45 and lastly Pul-47.In the period 1944-45, he also became Secretary of Film Artistes’ Association and served it for a long time. In 1947, he entered Politics. After Independence, he became a journalist. After this I found his name in the cast of films, Pensioner-1954, 26th January -1956 and Ayodhyapati-56 and then as a Director of film Trunk Call-1960. He had also written the story and dialogues of the film Pensioner-1954. However, there is no information about him after this.
Here is a song from this film, sung by Madhubala Jhaveri and chorus. Enjoy….
Song-Saj dhaj ke jaaye goree pee kee nagariya (Pensioner)(1954) Singer- Madhubala Jhaveri, Lyricist- Udhav Kumar,MD- Hansraj Behl
Female chorus
Lyrics
Saj dhaj ke jaaye goree
pee kee nagariya aa
pee kee nagariya aa
pee kee nagariya
chhod ke baabul kee mahal atariya
Saj dhaj ke jaaye goree
pee kee nagariya aa
pee kee nagariya aa
pee kee nagariya
bachpan kee sakhiyon se naina churaa ke ae
bachpan kee sakhiyon se naina churaa ke
bhaabhee aur maiyya ka jiya tadpa ke ae
jiya tadpa ke ae
nainon kee ?? gagariya
chhod ke baabul ke mahal atariya
Saj dhaj ke jaaye goree
pee kee nagariya aa
pee kee nagariya aa
pee kee nagariya
chamke hamesha tere maathhe ka teeka
chamke hamesha tere maathhe ka teeka
barah maheene rahe mausam khushee ka
mausam khushee ka
hans hans ke beete teree saaree umariya
chhod ke baabul ke mahal atariya
Saj dhaj ke jaaye goree
pee kee nagariya
pee kee nagariya aa
pee kee nagariya
pee kee nagariya aa
pee kee nagariya
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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