Tod na dena dil jod ke
Posted on: June 21, 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 the social film Albeli-1945.
There were 3 Same Title films in 1945, 1955 and 1974. To match it, there were 4 films titled Albela in 1851, 1971, 1990 and 2001. There was also Albela mastana in 1967.
This was a Talwar production, Calcutta film. Directed by its owner R.C.Talwar, it had music by G.A. Chishti. There were 2 lyricists – Shanti Swarup ‘Kaif’ and Chishti himself. HGFK, however, does not credit any song to any Lyricist or any singer. Thus, one has to depend upon his own judgement about the singer or believe the uploader’s mention.
The cast of the film was Ramola, Rooplekha, Manorama, Usha, Sunder, Heeralal and others. Film Albeli’s review came in the March – 46 issue of Film India magazine. As usual, Baburao Patel had nothing good to say about this film. The film’s story centred around the love affair of a street girl and a Gypsy boy, who is loved by two more girls. The film was released on 22-12-1945 at Central Cinema, Bombay. The story was by Talwar himself. Dialogues and Screenplay was by J.S.Casshyap. The film’s hero was Satish.
Despite all efforts, I could not get any information about this Satish. All that I know is he acted in 24 films-from Uski Tamanna-39 to Bus Conductor-59. He seems to have sung 33 songs in 22 films, from Sanskar-40 to Baghi Sardar-56.
Albeli-45 is perhaps the only film in which there were three Jew girls as Heroines – Ramola, Rooplekha and Manorama.
India is a country in which many religions co exist and thrive happily. India’s history says, it was Secular from times immemorial and it never prevented any religions from growing here. Indian culture believes that all religions are different roads to God. That is why India is considered a Heaven for other religions.
As per records, one of the first ever outside religious groups that came to India was Jews – who landed near Cochin, in Kerala, in the 6th Century. Islam came to India in the 7th Century and a Mosque built by the early visitors in 629 AD still exists in India. The Parsis came to India in the 8th Century. Such was the tolerance of the Indians, since the beginning. No wonder, these religions not only sought growth here but also prospered safely.
Muslims, Parsis and Jews joined the film industry, since its beginning in the Silent Era.
The number of artists given by one of the single Non Indian communities in those days was the Jews. The Jews came to India in 562 BCE and in 70 CE in two lots. They settled in various parts of India. It was the first foreign religion to come to India, even before Islam or the Zorostrian. There were 8 types of Jews, based on their locations in India.
- Cochin Jews
- Madras Jews
- Bene Israel Jews in Mumbai and Konkan areas
- Baghdadi Jews-Gujarat, Bengal and Eastern India
- South Asian Jews
- Bnei Menashe- NE states
- Bene Ephraim- Telugu and
- Delhi Jews- Punjabi
Though the Jews mingled freely and adapted themselves to the local atmosphere- maintaining and following Judaism-, the Jews who took up to Film Industry were only the Bene Israeli and Baghdadi Jews. A point to note was that no Jews from Kerala or Madras even entered the film line. It was only the Hindi films and that too mainly Jew women joined films.
The earliest recorded Jew girl to work as a Heroine in a film was Ruby Meyers ( Sulochana ). She acted in the silent film Veer Bala-1925, made by Mohan Bhavnani for Kohinoor Film company, Bombay. She went on working in films and became very popular. When the Talkie film age came, she contacted Imperial film co. to stake her claim, but was rejected as she was not fluent in speaking Hindustani. Learning from this, she took one year off and became an expert in Hindi and learnt singing too. She made a thumping entry with the Talkie film Madhuri-1932, in which she sang 4 songs also ! Hats off to the dedication !
There were other Jew actresses like Rose Musleah (Miss Rose), Lilian Ezra (Lilian), Marcia Soloman(Vimla), Rachel Sofaer(Arti Devi), Esther Abraham (Pramila), Rachel Cohen (Ramola), Sofia Cohen (Rooplekha), Sofia Abraham (Romilla), Irene Issac (Manorama), Patience Cooper, Violet Cooper, Susan Soloman(Feroza Begum), Florence Ezekiel(Nadira) and many more. Among the males- David Joseph Penkar wrote the story and dialogues of Alam Ara-1931, Actor David Cheulkar (David ), Ezekiel Penkar (Viju Penkar- Tarzan film Tarzan and the Cobra-88 and few more films) and Lily Ezekiel (Asha Bhende), Edvyn Meyers (Ezra Mir) and Pearl Padamsi are well known Jews. There were some male Jews in the Technical side also.
The Music director of this film was G.A.Chishti, who migrated to Pakistan in 1949. Though he was not a successful or known composer in India, he became a Legend in Pakistan and was extremely successful and respected too. He also became the First composer in Pakistan to give music to more than 100 films (158 films, to be precise).
G. A. Chishti’s real name was Ghulam Ahmed Chishti. He was born in 1905 in Gana chor, a small village of Jalandhar. He was fond of music from his childhood and in his early educational days, he used to sing “Naats”. When he came to Lahore, he met Agha Hashar Kashmiri, a well-known writer of the subcontinent who was a good composer too. He joined Agha Hashar as an employee on a salary of Rs. 50 per month. He got his early music training under the influence of Agha Hashar Kashmiri. After the death of Agha Sahab, G. A. Chishti joined a recording company and started the compositions. He produced some records of Jaddan Bai and Ameer Bai Karnatki.
G. A. Chishti started his career by composing music for the film Deen o Duniya in 1936, and in 1938 he had composed music for L R Shori’s film Sohni Mahiwal. After the success of this film, he moved to Calcutta where he had composed music for several films. Censor board banned one of his compositions Aik Shehar ki londya nainon ke teer chala geyi… from the film Shukriya in 1944.
Famous producer/Director R C Talwar had good relations with Chisti and Chisti had composed music for most of his films. After ‘Pardesi Dhola’-41(Punjabi),Talwar’s first hindi film was ” Khamoshi’-42. Then came Talwar’s Manchali-43,Shukriya-44 and Albeli-45. he also composed music for Kidar Sharma’s ‘Kaliyan’-44
One of the songs of film ‘Shukriya’-44,” Nainon ke teer” sung by Sunder was banned by Govt.,due to its vulgar lyrics.(This song is posted on this Blog). His other films were Zid,Yeh hai zindagi and jhooti kasme.Chisti decided to migrate to Pakistan and left in 1949. films like ‘Do Baten’-49 (completed by K P Sen),Nai Bhabhi-50 and Jawani ki aag-51 (completed by Harbux singh) were released after his departure.
In 1949, G.A. Chishti migrated to Pakistan, At that time the Pakistan’s film industry was in its primitive stage and its productions were generally unable to compete with the selected (imported) Indian films.
G.A.Chishti, a legendary music composer of Pakistani cinema can be categorized as one of the founders of Pakistani film music. He had already established himself in the pre-independence era. G.A. Chishti was firmly grounded in the Punjabi ang. He was particularly apt at weaving the design of influences around Punjabi music
G. A. Chishti started to compose the music of three films at a time, Sachchai, Mundri and Pherey. Pherey became a blockbuster after the release. It was not only the first successful film of Pakistan but the first silver jubilee hit too. It is said that G.A. Chishti composed all of the tunes of this film in only one day. Pherey had the following hit songs:
Menoo Rabb di sonh tere naal pyar ho gaya.. (Munawar Sultana)
Akhian laveen na, ve fer pachhtavin na.. (Munawar Sultana, Inayat Hussain Bhatti)
Ki keeta taqdeere, rol chhadey do heerey.. (Munawar Sultana)
Jai nain si pyar nibhana, sanu das ja koi thikana.. (Inayat Hussain Bhatti)
G.A. Chishti had a very long and successful career. He composed almost 5000 tunes. In Pakistan he had scored music for 152 films. He also had a poetic skill and was able to write poetry in Urdu and Punjabi. He had written the lyrics of almost 12 songs for films. G. A. Chishti was a very simple, affable and kind person. Due to his popularity and venerability, He was called “Baba Ji” in the film world. He had always composed the tunes to keep in view of the public-demand and this is a fact that his tunes are still very popular in public. He had composed some Urdu films too, but he was a specialist of Punjabi film music.
He died at the age of 89 by heart attack, on December 25, 1994, in Lahore.
Another less discussed actor in the film’s cast is Heeralal.
Hiralal (14 March 1912 – 27 June 1982) real name Hiralal Thakur, known mononymously as Hiralal, was an actor known for his work in Hindi films. Known for his performances as a character actor, he was called the ‘bad man of the Indian screen’ for his portrayal of roles with negative shades. Hiralal is a familiar face to every fan of vintage Bollywood as he played countless character parts, often as the villain, in literally hundreds of films both big & small. Hiralal worked in more than 200 Hindi & Punjabi films continuously until his death.
Hiralal was born as Hiralal Thakur on 14 March 1912 in Lahore, the Punjab Province, undivided India, now in Pakistan. He was the second of three children of Parvati Devi and Sunderlal Thakur, a businessman. His other two siblings were older brother Pannalal and a younger sister who died at age three. Hiralal completed his education in Lahore and grew up watching and being influenced by the character of Ravana in the Ram Leela plays.
Hiralal married Darparani in 1945 and had five sons and a daughter. The sons were Krishna, Kamal, Prem, Ajay and Inder. Apart from his mother tongue Punjabi, Hiralal could speak fluently in Hindi, Urdu and English.
Hiralal also took part in the independence movement and became an activist with the Indian National Congress when he was 14. He was later associated with the group of political & social workers that included Lala Lajpat Rai and Bhagat Singh, before moving into a career in films in 1928.
Hiralal began his career in silent films with A.R. Kardar’s “Safdar Jung” which was released in 1930, his second film ‘Daughters of Today”, actually released to movie theaters first, in 1929. He was under contract with United Players Corporation and made several more silents for them before making the transition to sound and moving on to other studios for films like Pavitra Ganga (1932), Seeta (1934) and Blood Feud (1935). Some of his notable fantasy, sci-fi and horror films include Khuni Jadugar (1939), Arabian Nights (1946), Mehbooba (1954), Hatimtai Ki Beti (1955), Roop Basant (1955), Sakhi Hatim (1955), Shah Behram (1955), Indra Sabha (1956), Shan-e-Hatim (1958), Dr. Z (1959), Dr. Shaitan (1960), Jadoo Mahal (1962), Flying Man (1965), Gumnaam (1965), Sindbad, Alibaba & Alladin (1965), Love and Murder (1966), Sheba & Hercules (1967), Alibaba (1976) and many more.
One of Hiralal’s sons, Inder Thakur, was an actor who appeared in a few Hindi movies in the 1980s like “Nadiya Ke Paar” (1982). Inder was also a model & fashion designer. He, along with his wife and young son died in the tragedy of Air India Flight 182 on 23 June 1985. Hiralal died on June 27, 1982 & survived by his son, Krishen Hiralal Thakur.
Here is a duet by Zeenat Begum and Satish. Enjoy….
( Information is culled from articles ”Shalom Bollywood” and ‘The rise and fall of Jews in Bollywood” from Weekly news dated 6-4-2013, wiki, HFGK, muVyz,Film Directory-46, S. Sarvaiya and my notes).
Song- Tod na dena dil jod ke (Albeli)(1945) Singers-Zeenat Begam, Satish, Lyricist-Shanti Swaroop Kaif, MD-G A ChishtiBoth
Lyrics:
Tod na dena dil jod ke aetod na dena dil jod ke ae
na jaana na jaana mukh mod ke
mukh mod ke
dil tod ke
mukh mod ke
dil tod ke
tod na dena dil jod ke ae
tod na dena dil jod ke ae
na jaana na jaana mukh mod ke
mukh mod ke
dil tod ke
mukh mod ke
dil tod ke
jeevan ek hamaara
tan man ek hamaara
jeevan ek hamaara
tan man ek hamaara
donon prem deewaane
haan haan
prem deewaane
ho ho prem deewaane
saathi na jaana ab chhod ke
saathi na jaana ab chhod ke
na jaana na jaana mukh mod ke
mukh mod ke
dil tod ke
mukh mod ke
dil tod ke
tod na dena dil jod ke ae
tod na dena dil jod ke ae
na jaana na jaana mukh mod ke
mukh mod ke
dil tod ke
mukh mod ke
dil tod ke
preet kee reet nibhaana
haar ko jeet banaana
preet kee reet nibhaana
haar ko jeet banaana
jaanee
chhod na jaana
haan haan
chood na jaana
o ho
chhod na jaana
chhod na jaana dil tod ke ae
chhod na jaana dil tod ke ae
na jaana na jaana mukh mod ke
mukh mod ke
dil tod ke
mukh mod ke
dil tod ke
tod na dena dil jod ke ae
tod na dena dil jod ke
na jaana na jaana mukh mod ke
mukh mod ke
dil tod ke
mukh mod ke
dil tod ke
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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