Meree sakhee bataa
Posted on: June 29, 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.
This article is his 1900th song post in the blog.
| Blog Day : | 6555 | Post No. : | 20402 |
This is my 1900th post on this Blog. This is the second fastest century. For the 16th century, it took me only 119 days, whereas today’s century took 127 days. For me, it is like a dream. I still can not believe that I wrote 1900 articles on this Blog alone. Add to it another 100+ articles on other blogs and sites. Add to it my 13 books published. Add to it scores of books mentioning me and referring to my writings. Add to it countless friends I have gained in the last 14 odd years. Add to it…..
The list would be too long. When I look back, I wonder how all this happened. After retirement, generally people find it difficult to spend time. Here I was, sometimes I had to strive hard to manage time to cope up with my work. At the age of 86 years, I could do all the above, in addition to my work as an Independent Director on the Board of Directors of two major Pharma companies. For this I thank The Almighty and pray that He continues to provide the required energy to me to go on further, till I am destined to be here.
Learning Computers at the age of 71 years and starting a new inning, totally unconnected to my earlier work and achieving new peaks in this field makes me a new Man !
Thank You God !
I received motivation and inspiration from great souls like Atul Besra ji, Late shri Harish Raghuwanshi ji, Late shri Rajni kumar Pandya ji, Surjit Singh ji, Shishir Krishna Sharma ji, A.K.Upadhyaya ji of songs of Yore, Sanjit Narwekar ji and many others to whom I bow in respect thanking them wholeheartedly. I was also lucky to get constant encouragement, appreciation and motivation from my family members, who feel proud of me. Thank you family !
In the journey of the last 14 years, I have devoted a lot of effort to dig out information on the unknown and the less known artists, films and songs of the past. I think my best contribution to the history of old films is about the ” SAME NAME CONFUSIONS “. I had found that this was one problem which troubled every student of film history (like me) and no work had been specifically done on solving this problem. My tireless efforts have clarified the SNC cases of about 150 film personalities so far.
Digging up History is a continuous process. None of the writers on old films were present when things took place in the 30’s and the 40’s. At least no one was in the age of understanding matters of films or writing about films. So, all historians have to depend on existing documents like old books, old papers and magazines and similar materials to get credible information. Since old information keeps on cropping up at several intervals, the film history keeps on updating itself. In some cases, new information proves the existing old information wrong. So sometimes old statements are proven wrong in view of the new evidence. Thus you will find that no book on film history is without a mistake.A MISTAKE TODAY WAS THE TRUTH UNTIL NEW INFORMATION PROVED IT WRONG ! It does not and should not reduce the credibility of the author in any way. Some of my own comments made in 2011 and 2012 were found to be wrong when new information became available. It happens to all. The readers must understand this.
In my last 14 years, I have written about hundreds of people, films and songs. In my Laptop, I have stored information of more than 2800 people and films. In the last 1900 posts here, I have never written a post without giving some information. I feel the reader must gain something when he spends time reading my post. I don’t claim that my posts had no mistakes…they had, but never made intentionally. I also make it a point to credit the source whenever I have taken information from somebody or somewhere. It is possible that I forgot sometimes but never knowingly. I do not feel ashamed to accept my mistakes. A mistake is a mistake, anyway. I never wrote on popular and well known artists like Dilip, Raj , Dev, AB, Meenakumari etc etc. I hope I have always given something new to readers in my posts.
Thank you Atul ji, Sudhir ji, my friends in the ATULITE group, and my co-travellers on this journey.
So, what’s next ?
I can only repeat the verse of Robert Frost………..
The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
and miles to go before I sleep
and miles to go before I sleep……
Today’s song is from the film Hangama-1952. As expected by my colleagues in the Atulite group, this is a film for which C.Ramchandra had given the music. Film Hangama-1952 was purely a Comedy film. It looked like C.Ramchandra had all the comedy films, while Naushad handled serious films. But both regaled India with their ‘ A’ grade music, upholding the title of ” Golden Era ” for the decade !
Hangama -1952 was made by Gope productions and the director was Ram Kamlani – the youngest brother of Gope. Music was by C.Ramchandra. His assistant for this film was Chick Chocolate – a leading arranger and instrumentalist. The cast of the film was Nutan, Nasir Khan, K.N.Singh, Davis, Gope, Yakub, Cuckoo etc with the Guest Artiste- Raj Mehra.
The comic pair of Gope and Yakub started from the film Patanga-1949. Then came Meherbani-1950 when the audience gave their acceptance to this pair. In the film Sagai-1951, it was clearly observed that they tried to copy the Hollywood comedians Laurel and Hardy. In the film Hangama-1952 too they created a comic havoc, liked by the audience. C.Ramchandra enhanced their importance by their songs on the screen. In this film too, ‘ meri sakhi bataa’ and ‘kahan chale sarkar’ were songs filmed on this pair and these songs became Hits.
There are quite a few actors who were very lucky that they did not have to struggle at all to become a Hero in Hindi films. Actor Surendranath, B.A.LL.B is an excellent example. He joined Sagar Movietone straight as a Hero. Of course, he had the extra qualification that he could sing well. ( That is the reason Sagar was projecting him as a reply to Calcutta’s K L Saigal.). OK, Surendra had an asset, but what about Pradeep Kumar ? He came from Bengal and became a Hero in Hindi films directly. An exceptional case is that of Ashok Kumar. The Hero’s role was offered to him on a Silver platter ( not offered-thrust on him ! ) to start his Film career.
And yet there were actors who started directly as Character artists. For people like Kanhaiyalal, Asit Sen, S N Banerjee, A K Hangal or Harindranath Chattopadhyay etc, at least they were past their youth and hence took up character artist roles in films, but what about young, and good looking starting as an old man’s role to begin their film career ? One such actor was DAVID ABRAHAM.
David Abraham Cheulkar (21 June 1909 – 2 January 1982), popularly known as DAVID, was a Jewish Hindi film actor and he was a member of Mumbai’s Marathi speaking Bene Israel community. In a career spanning four decades, he played mostly character roles, starting with 1937 film “Zambo”, and went on to act in over 110 films, including memorable films like, Gol Maal (1979), Baton Baton mein (1979) and Boot Polish(1954) for which he was awarded the 1955 FilmFare Best Supporting Actor Award.
David graduated from the University of Bombay with a Bachelor of Arts degree in the year 1930. After a six year unsuccessful struggle to land himself a job, he decided to try his luck in the Hindi film industry by becoming a professional actor. During these years of struggle, he also managed to obtain a degree in law from the Government Law College.So, he was B.A.’, L.L.B.
Finally, on January 15, 1937, with the help of his close friend Mr. Nayampalli, a veteran character actor, he managed to land himself his first role in a movie. The movie was Zambo and it was being produced and directed by Mohan Bhavnani who was the Chief Producer of the Films Division of the Government Of India.
The role was that of an old man. David had sported ”Ërol Flynn” like moustache,which he had to shave off and put on a grey moustache and beard for the role. Thus his first role itself was of an old man. His second role in the film Double cross-38 was also of a senior Professor.
From 1937 to 1940 he was working in Bhavnani Productions in different capacities like Prodn. Manager,continuity clerk, Assistant Director, Clapper Boy, Telephone operator and as an Actor. He lost his job on 1-2-1940 and started work on a freelance basis.
David was actively associated with IPTA, a theatre organization and went on to be part of many Khwaja Ahmed Abbas’s films, including, Palme dór nominee Pardesi (1957),Shehar aur Sapna (1963), which won the 1964 National Award for Best Feature Film, Munaa and Char Dil Char Raahein.
Strongly associated with friendly uncle roles, David is best known for his portrayal of “John Chacha” in the 1954 hit and FilmFare Best Film Award winner and Palme dór nominee, Boot Polish, directed by Prakash Arora, for which he won the 1955 Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. The song “Nanhe Munne Bachche” from the film, picturized on him became a memorable song of that era.
In his prime, in the period 1959-1975, David was one of the best and the well-known anchors, Compère and a host of prominent award shows and other functions. In one of the speeches Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister, had said that any events of such nature would surely be incomplete without David’s speech.
He was involved in promoting sports, and later became India’s Olympic Games representative He was awarded the Padma Shri award in 1969 by the Government of India. His last film was Pavitra Ganga-84, released after his death. He never married and died on 2 january 1982 in Toronto, Canada of a heart attack at the age of 73.
It was well known that CR considered Anil Biswas as his Guru. Here is an anecdote about these two stalwarts…..Film Girls school-1949 has a very interesting History. As we know the film had 9 songs and there were 2 MDs-Anil Biswas and C Ramchandra (4 and 5 songs each).
This film was produced by Kavi Pradeep under the banner of Lokmanya Productions,Bombay. This was a company floated by him and Amiya Chakrawarty-director of this film. To understand the complexities of Girls school, we must go back a little. In 1942, Anil Biswas was invited by Ranjit @ 1500 pm and by Bombay Talkies @ 2500 pm. As National studio was winding up, AB wanted to make a change anyway, but due to the contract of National, he could not join Bombay Talkies openly. He ,however , gave music to film Basant-42 and the name of his brother in Law, Pannalal Ghosh was used as its MD.
Finally when AB joined Bombay Talkies, there were already 2 groups there. One was led by Devika Rani and Amiya Chakraborty and the other was led by S. Mukherjee along with Ashok kumar, Gyan Mukherjee, Pradeep etc- a total of 15 artistes. AB was invited by Devika Rani and that too at 2500 pm,when Pradeep was getting 1500 pm. This irritated Pradeep to no end and he started troubling and finding faults with Anil Biswas. However Anil Biswas gave excellent music to film Kismet and then everyone was happy as the film celebrated jubilees everywhere.
With this background,Anil Biswas joined Girls school as a MD, mainly due to Amiya who knew his calibre. Kavi Pradeep being a producer and a Lyricist started interfering with Anil Biswas’s work and criticising him at every opportunity. AB was fed up. He had already recorded 3 songs and a solo by Lata , ” tum hi kaho,mera man udas kyun na rahe” was to be recorded. Anil Biswas had taken C Ramchandra as his assistant for this film. Though CR was already a popular and well known composer himself, still due to sheer respect for Anil Biswas, he had accepted to be his assistant here. When the tune for Lata’s solo was made, Pradeep passed caustic remarks about it being not so good. There was an altercation between Anil Biswas and Pradeep and Biswas quit then and there and went away.
Automatically, C Ramchandra had to take over as MD for the balance songs. Pradeep was very happy. Next day recording of Lata’s solo song took place under the supervision of C Ramchandra, as planned. Later when Lata came to know that Anil Biswas had left and C Ramchandra had replaced him,she was very angry and said that she would not have recorded the song had she known about AB’s exit. She objected to CR’s taking over and complained to the Artistes association too. (Remember, at that time Lata and CR’s relations had not formed yet, Lata was still with Husnlal.)
Later on in 1954, when O P Nayyar replaced Roshan for Mehbooba-54, Lata took up the issue with the MDs’ association. Anil Biswas was the chairman that time and OPN was boycotted. That time Lata quoted the film Girls school incident to prove that she is “highly Principled” ! (Info used in this article is from books Sagar Movietone,Journey down melody lane, Ritu aaye Ritu jaaye, my notes and Marathi book Anil Biswas with thanks).
Here is a duet By Rafi and CR. It is one of the 4 such songs sung by these two. Enjoy….
Song- Meree Sakhee Bataa (Hangaama)(1952) Singers- Rafi, C Ramchandra, Lyricist- Rajindra Krishan, MD- C RamchandraLyrics:
meree sakhee batakya bataaoon
meree sakhee bata
teree pi bin kaisee guzree raat re
kya kahoon piya
are bhai kuchh bhee kah do
kya kahoon piya
ankhiyon mein katee meree sagree raat re
meree sakhee bata
teree pi bin kaisee guzree raat re
kya kahoon piya
ankhiyon mein katee meree sagri raat re
meree sakhee bata
meree sakhee se hui taqraar
chhod gaye gharbaar
meree sakhee se hui taqraar
chhod gayee gharbaar
raat hui to yaad sakhee kee aayee baarambaar
raat hui to yaad sakhee kee aayee barambaar
man pachhtaaya
jee bhar aaya aa aa
man pachhtaaya
jee bhar aaya
mat poochho baat re
meree sakhee bata
teree pi bin kaisee guzree raat re
kya kahoon piya
ankhiyon mein katee meree sagree raat re
meree sakhee bata
main bhor bhaye tak jaagee
mohey zara neend na laagee
main bhor bhaye tak jaagee
mohey zara neend na laagee
main soch soch ho gayee baawariya
kaahe sajan se bhaagee
main soch soch ho gayee baawariya
kaahe sajan se bhaagee
mujhe ghadee ghadee kahe mora jiya aa aa
mujhe ghadee ghadee kahe mora jiya
teree paapan jaat re
meree sakhee bata
teri pi bin kaisee guzree raat re
kya kahoon piya
ankhiyon mein katee meree sagree raat re
meree sakhee bata
teri pi bin kaisee guzree raat re
kya kahoon piya
ankhiyon mein katee meree sagree raat re
meree sakhee bata
5 Responses to "Meree sakhee bataa"
June 29, 2026 at 9:17 am
Arunkumar ji,
Hearty Congratulations on yet another century.
Awaiting 2k now.
Apart from your relentless search and research on lesser known aspects of various artists, big and small, you are a huge inspiration to all readers to keep moving.
Many many Thanks.
mahesh
June 29, 2026 at 10:35 am
Heartiest Congratulations on reaching post number 1900. Every post written with a pit of passion & information. Thank you for all your enlightening posts
Now 2k is within touching distance
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
June 29, 2026 at 8:17 am
Arun ji,
Hearty congratulations for achieving the record 1900 posts, on the Blog, full of rare information about the bygone film artists.
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June 29, 2026 at 9:34 am
Thanks.
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