Phoolon mein chhup ke pyaar karen
Posted on: June 14, 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.
| Blog Day : | 6540 | Post No. : | 20348 |
Today’s song is from an obscure film Pamposh-1953.
The film was produced by Ambalal Patel for his own banner- Films of India, Bombay. It was directed by Ezra Mir and the cast was Moghali (Leela Kanade),Savi Multani, Rusi Patel, B.Bilimoria, Violet Smith and some others. lyrics of the 5 songs of this film were written by Manohar Khanna (father of M.D. Usha Khanna). The film had Music by….????
During the last few years, I have met the close relatives of many yesteryear artists and interviewed them. One thing I have noticed was that most relatives-close ones- did not know or were not sure of many matters. Sometimes they knowingly told wrong things to enlarge the image of the artist. So I learnt to check facts before including doubtful matters in the interview articles.
Out of many such cases, 2 cases can be quoted here. There was a singing actor Balwant Singh in the period of 1937 to 1950. After leaving films, he joined All India Radio for 4 years. During the interview, the close relative claimed that it was him who had created the A.I.R.famous signature tune, which is played, even now, before starting the station broadcasts in the morning. After Balwant Singh’s death, his relatives approached the Government to declare his name as the Tune Creator.
However, after the actual investigations, it was proved that the Tune was created by one Walter Kauffmann- a German jew refugee, who worked for A.I.R in 1938-39 itself. I have the Biography book on Walter Kauffmann, written by and gifted to me by Shri Amrit Gangar. It has all these details.
I have always been stating that History is never permanent. Whenever new evidence comes, history changes to that effect. Same is the case with Film History. It keeps on changing, whenever honest workers dig up new evidence with credible proofs. This is normal and Film History lovers have accepted it too. Occasionally – very occasionally or almost rarely, some such evidence comes out which no one had ever dreamt about and when no one had ever doubted the existing accepted matters as facts.
From the early 80’s or to be precise, when Harmandir Singh Hamraz ji published his HFGK for the 50’s decade, as the first in his series of many decades subsequently, we all had known that the Music Director of film Pamposh-1953 was Manoharlal Khanna – father of MD Usha Khanna, the second prolific woman composer for hindi films. (the first prolific woman MD was Saraswati Devi). It was mentioned in the HFGK and Usha Khanna too had repeatedly told so in her articles and interviews.
Usha Khanna’s case also seems to be like this. I carefully listened to her interview about her father, posted on RMIM and I found that she made claims which were not wholly correct about her father. One of the claims she always made was that it was she who actually had given music to film Pamposh, but her father’s name was credited. Actually neither Usha Khanna (who was barely 12 year old in 1953)nor her father M.L.Khanna had given music to film Pamposh-53. It is noteworthy to note that HFGK has a footnote for this film stating that ” The film booklet mentions MD’s name as MohanLal Aima and Cecil Mendoza”. Enthusiastic senior RMIM members worked furiously on this issue and dug up several proofs to arrive at a conclusion that MOHANLAL AIMA was actually the Music Director of film Pamposh-53.
Film Pamposh was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, France on 9-4-1954 with the French title “FLEUR DE LOTUS” (Lotus of Kashmir or कश्मीरी कमल ). In that also the MD’s name was given as MohanLal Aima. This film was made in English, French, Spanish,Italian, German, Hindi, Bengali and Tamil and had won high praise in Cannes, as per the French newspaper “LE MONDE”. This information is from the book ” The world of Ezra Mir” by N.J.Kamath, pub.2005.
I am not only impressed but also amazed to see how the active RMIM members coordinate while working on a research project. Some of the senior members, like Magicians, produce Links, Photographs, Book extracts, Paper cuttings etc. to add to the information.
Who was Mohanlal Aima ?
MohanLal Aima was born in a family of ‘Datatreya Kauls’ of Fateh Kadal, Srinagar, on 21-7-1922 . This area was across the Jhelum river and close to Syed Ali Akbar locality. His father , Pandit Ved Lal Aima had earned respect and goodwill in the society even with his modest means and simple living. The family got Aima nickname as some elder from this clan was a gifted osteopath (Waatangor) who cured many people with fractures and dislocations.
After completing his M.A. LLB, and a Diploma in Statistics, he was to join Bar and establish himself as an advocate, but contrary to that, he gave a surprise/shock to his family and the conservative Kashmiri Pandit society ( at that point of time) when he decided to opt for music and singing as his career. During those days, it was something like a rebellious act for his middle-class family. And he earned the nickname “Mohan Chhakri”.
He also led a group of boys that sang this song when Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and Sheikh Mohd Abdullah addressed a huge gathering at Palladium cinema Lal chowk Srinagar in November 1947 . This song was written by Maulana Masoodi, a close associate of Sheikh Mohd Abdullah during those days and it used to be played as an anthem song in official functions during 1948 and 1949.
He scored music for first full-length Kashmiri feature film MAENZRAAT. He scored music for Nadim sahib’s opera ‘Bombur Ta Yemberzal’ that was widely appreciated and shown to Russian dignitaries Nikita Khruschev and Nikolai Bulganin. during their visit to Kashmir. It was performed in early December, 1955 at Nedou’s Hotel , Srinagar by a galaxy of Kashmiri artists and singers. Marshal Bulganin was reportedly seen tapping his foot when the artists sang the Bomburo Bomburo. He also scored music for the Kashmiri version of the movie “Shayar e Kashmir’ Mehjoor”.
His tune for Nadim Sahib’s composition “Bomburo Bumbro Shyam Rang Bomburo” became popular in the entire length and breadth of the country after it was used in a Bollywood movie.
He scored music for Ezra Mir’s 1953 film “Lotus of Kashmir(Pamposh)”.It was produced by Ambalal J. Patel. He also scored music for “ROKO” a short telefilm produced for Door Darshan by M Y Bhat . It was telecast from four metros of the country sometime in1975 or 1976. He further gave music to the film “Kashmira”, produced by Children’s Film Society.
He was also commissioned by Muzaffar Ali as a music consultant cum co-composer for his aborted high profile film Zooni ( Story based on the life of Habba Khatoon ) . The music of the international version was to be done by Oscar winner Japanese composer, Riyuchi Sakamoto, while music for all the songs in Kashmiri was to be scored by Mohan Lal Aima. And the renowned fashion designer, Mary McFadden of New York had been engaged to design the costumes of the film.Muzaffar Ali had to put his project on hold due to widespread militancy in Kashmir. The shooting of this high profile movie with Dimple Kapadia and Vinod Khanna in lead roles had been started during the summer of 1989.
He was the Head of the Music section in Radio Kashmir, Srinagar from 1949 to 1964. Aima was sent as Director General, on deputation to Kabul for Radio Afghanistan. He became extremely popular there. Later he was transferred to New Delhi and Bombay also. During 1979, he lived in Seven Bunglows area of Andheri West in Bombay. He was always eager to help the visiting Kashmiri artistes and arranged for their staying free at Bombay.
Aima could play several traditional Kashmiri Musical instruments. In Bombay, he prepared a CD of kashmiri Devotional geets. It was named ” Man Pamposh”. It became very popular. In 1990, he was bedridden with Cancer and he died in Bombay.
The story of the film was…..
Pamposh is India’s first film in Gevacolor and tells the story of a deaf orphan Mogli who is adopted by the impoverished owner of a dilapidated houseboat Kassim. Though Kassim and his teenaged daughter Naseem take the orphan to their bosom his wife ill-treats the unfortunate child who is soon made into a household drudge. The little girl’s only escape is into the lap of Mother Nature where she meets butterflies, frogs and fish who become her friends and playmates. Her favourite story is that of the Frog King in whose palace there are no tears and everyone is happy all day long. In the lotus fields of Kashmir which is her playground she meets the Old Man of the Lake who befriends the lonely child. Then, one day, when her foster mother’s injustices cross all limits Mogli steals a canoe and goes into the lake in search of the Frog King’s palace, never to be seen ever again. It is a bitter-sweet tale relieved only by the romantic interludes between Naseem and her love Aziz.
The film was directed by Ezra Mir. Some of the Senior readers, in the bracket of 55 to 75 years of age would recollect the Indian Documentaries made by Ezra Mir, shown before almost every film in the theatres. Indian News Reel and these documentaries on various subjects were actually used as a facility to enter the theatre late and still catch the whole movie from the beginning. These documentaries were made mostly by Ezra Mir and the voice over used to be that of Pratap Sharma usually. ( his younger brother Mahesh Sharma was my good friend in those days).
Ezra Mir was one of the rare persons who worked in the famous Hollywood studios for a considerable time, before he came to India and got involved in making films here. He was also a rare person who, despite being in great demand in the commercial cinema, chose to join a Government organisation and did monumental significant work for the future generations. For a long time, I thought him to be a Muslim man, but at a much later date, I came to know that he was a Jew person.
Today’s song is a duet sung by Seeta Kalyanpur and Moti Sagar. I do not know Seeta Kalyanpur. Perhaps a relative of Suman Kalyanpur, maybe.
In the Hindi film industry,there are 4 types of people.
The first type is those people,who join this industry,struggle very hard and succeed in fulfilling their dreams,for example Guru Dutt, Mehboob, Johnny Walker, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohd.Rafi etc. who are well known to all by now.
The second type of people are those who join the industry,struggle very hard ,do not succeed and leave dejected.
The third type is those people who have a filmi connection or a strong luck,who join,struggle a bit and succeed like for example,Raj Kapoor,Dev Anand,Dilip kumar,Rakesh and Rajesh Roshan,Anand Milind,Nanda,Nargis,Meena Kumari etc.
And….. the fourth type is those people who join the industry,struggle very hard and succeed partly,but end up doing something else,to keep them sustaining here.
The industry is full of people of the 4th type.People who come with dreams in their eyes,but end up doing something else.People who start as a Hero in 2-3 films,settle for side roles and finally character roles,like Dev Kumar, Sujit Kumar, Jeevan etc.
Not only this but we have examples where they started with something else and ended with a totally different thing and succeeded.For Example,Guru Dutt started as a Choreographer/dance Director (Lakharani-45) and ended up Actor/Director, Ashok kumar started as a Lab Technician in photography but became a great actor and Amiya Chakravarty who started as a Bangla Teacher and a Canteen Manager in Bombay Talkies,for which later he directed finest movies.
In olden days,when the Studio system was there, Artistes used to be employed on a monthly basis and they had to do whatever work was given as per their capability. For example,in Ranjit Studios over 700 people were on the rolls at one time(The Government had to open a Ration shop inside the studio premises for them) from where actors were made out of script writers and the Director wrote songs ! So people joined the industry with a mind prepared to do whatever job, just to succeed in their ambition.
MOTI SAGAR was one such person who came to the industry to become a Hero,but ended up doing sundry roles,singing songs,writing stories and scripts and producing films. He ,however, could not get great success in any of these and ended up being ‘Jack of all trades,Master of None’.
MOTI SAGAR was born in New Delhi on 16-4-1925, but graduated from Lahore. In Lahore he got interested in acting in films.Then he met Inayat Hussain and G.A.Chishti-the composers and he loved singing.He came to Bombay in 1946. His cousins Motilal, Mukesh and Tara Harish were already there in films. Harish and Motilal were established,and Mukesh was trying very hard.
Moti Sagar did a second hero’s role in MALHAR-1951. He sang his first song under Bulo C.Rani in GUL SANOBER-53 with Kalyani. Then came Pamposh, Shikar, Deewali ki raat, Makhichoos, Jai mahadev, Salgirah, Filmi duniya filmi, and Prerana. When he stopped getting songs and roles, he switched over to writing. He wrote stories for Badal, Lalkaar, Charas, Ram Bharose. He acted in 13 films. He directed 2 films,namely Prerana-84 and Tanya-94. He wrote songs also for the film Prerana-84. He sang 13 songs in 9 films. When this stopped he produced 2 films Hum Tere Ashiq hai and Badal. So, Moti Sagar was an Actor, Director, Producer, Lyricist, and a Singer.
After 1994, he retired.He died on 14-3-1999. Preeti Sagar is his daughter.She too was a struggling singer.
Let us now enjoy the duet…..
Both
Lyrics
phoolon mein chhupke pyaar karenik baar karen
do baar karen
sau baar karen
gupchup aankhen chaar karen
ik baar karen
do baar karen
sau baar karen
o o o o
o o o o
o o o
o o o o
o o o o o o
o o o
o o
thhakee huee aavaaz mein gaaoon teree lagan ke geet re
teree lagan ke geet re
uljhe uljhe taar hain dil ke
bikhree bikhree preet re ae
uljhe uljhe taar hain dil ke
bikhree bikhree preet re
aa aa aa aaa
ulfat ka ikaraar karen
ik baar karen
do baar karen
sau baar karen
o o o o o o
o o o o o o
kalee se khushboo juda naheen
deepak se patanga door naheen
door naheen
kaun ghadee hai jeevan kee
jo tere nashe mein choor naheen
aa aa aa aa
jeevan ko gulzaar karen
ik baar karen
do baar karen
sau baar karen
sau baar karen
aa aa aa
mil jul nayiya paar karen ik baar karen
do baar karen
sau baar karen
aa aa aa
miljul naiya paar karen
ik baar karen
do baar karen
sau baar karen
sau baar karen
sau baar karen
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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