Hey Babu, Hello Babu
Posted on: July 27, 2026
This article is written by Peevesie’s mom, 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 : | 6583 | Post No. : | 20477 |
Hullo Atuldom
‘Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin’ (1996 – release date was 7th June 1996) is a thirty year old film that was directed by Sudhir Mishra and produced by Mahesh Bhatt and Amit Khanna through PLUS Films. The story was credited to Sudhanshu Mishra; Sudhir Mishra’s brother, who passed away in 1995. The film was dedicated to his memory. Sudhanshu Mishra’s story was based on a real-life experience. While he was studying at FTII, Sudhanshu picked up a fight with a stranger and had to go into hiding when he learnt that the man was an underworld don.
In the film Aditya (Nirmal Pandey), an advertising executive, is the one who’s experience of one night forms the base of the story. He has a beautiful wife Pooja (Tara Deshpande; I think it was her debut in Hindi films) and a beautiful mistress Malvika (Smriti Mishra). The secret affair is the catalyst for much of the plot. Aditya gets into a scuffle with a bunch of gangsters led by Ramanbhai (Ashish Vidyarthi) To add to the tension, Ramanbhai is under duress because his colleague, Vilas Pandey (Saurabh Shukla) is after his life.
A small-scale gang war erupts in the city, a police Inspector Patankar (Ganesh Yadav) is changing sides faster than a chameleon, a rival gang lord Prafulla Kalia (Virendra Saxena) is offering deals and in the middle of all this — Aditya finds himself stuck. A fast-paced sequence of events happen in the span of one single night.
Nirmal Pandey, Ashish Vidyarthi, Smriti Mishra, Tara Deshpande, Saurabh Shukla, Deepak Qazir, Kishore Kadam, Ganesh Yadav, Manoj Pahwa, Murad Ali, Virendra Saxena, Akhil Mishra, Poonam Jha, Vijay Raaz, Seema Bhargava and R. Madhavan (for just a song, before his official debut in films in 2001) formed the cast.
The songs of the film were written by Nida Fazli and MM Kreem aka Keeravani (credited as Maragathamani in Tamil films) was the music director. SP Balasubramaniam, KS Chithra, MM Kreem (making his debut as a singer in Hindi) and Nagoor Babu (who sang in films under the name Mano, a name given by composer Ilayaraja) were the playback singers used. We can see that Keeravani has used all singers who are essentially South India born.
Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra, who features in this album as the only female voice, is better known as KS Chithra. I got familiar with her voice and command over musical notes sung at a fast tempo without missing a single beat, after my marriage and I migrated to South India. “Paadariyen Padippariyen” (sorry that this video is a little longish) was the 1st song that floored me. Over the years, I have learnt to appreciate this playback singer who is well-versed in the classical Carnatic form.
KS Chithra came into public vision in 1979 when she was a teenager. Her first songs were in Malayalam under the baton of MG Rahakrishnan and Ravi; who is credited in Malayalam films as Bombay Ravi. She was heard for the 1st time in Tamil films in a song composed by Ilayaraja in 1985.
The first Hindi film song recorded by KS Chithra was composed by SP Venkitesh in 1985, but the project and track were never commercially released. Her first officially released and widely recognized Bollywood song was “Saathiya Tune Kya Kiya” from the film ‘Love’ (1991), composed by Anand–Milind.
In a career span of nearly five decades she has sung in almost all Indian languages. In addition to Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu & Hindi and Sanskrit she has recorded in Odia, Bengali, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Awadhi, Marathi, Tulu, Badaga, Braj, Banjara, Urdu, Assamese, Gujarati, Manipuri plus in a few foreign languages.
Chithra is celebrated as the Little Nightingale of Indian Cinema, Nightingale of South India. In different regions, she is known by various affectionate titles: ‘Piya Basanti’ (incidentally, she sang a duet with the same title with Ustaad Sultan Khan in 2000) in North India, ‘Vanambadi’ (Indian Skylark) in Kerala, ‘Chinna Kuyil’ (Kuyil is Koel in Tamil) in Tamil Nadu, ‘Kannada Kogile’ (Kogile is Koel in Kannada) in Karnataka and ‘Sangeeta Saraswathi’ in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states. She is known for her history of collaboration with music composers like AR Rahman, Ilaiyaraja, MM Keeravani, Hamsalekha, and with the playback singers KJ Yesudas and SP Balasubrahmanyam over the years.
Chithra is a recipient of 6 National Film Awards, 10 Filmfare Awards (South) and 43 State Government awards from 8 states of India including 18 from Kerala, 12 from Andhra Pradesh, 5 from Tamil Nadu, 4 from Karnataka, and 1 each from Odisha, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra governments. She was awarded India’s third-highest civilian honours Padma Shri in 2005 and Padma Bhushan in 2021 for her valuable contributions towards the Indian musical fraternity.
Chithra is the second female playback singer from India to have performed at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London in 2001 and her performance was applauded with much appreciation by a roomful of international audience. (Lata Mangeshkar was the first female playback singer) Her song “Kannalane (Tamil)/Kehna Hi Kya” from the film ‘Bombay’ (1995) was included in United Kingdom The Guardian’s ‘1000 Songs Everyone Must Hear Before You Die’ list.
Chithra, along with a Kerala-based satellite channel, Asianet Cable Vision (ACV), jointly launched a fundraising organisation, Sneha Nandana, to raise funds for the welfare of retired musicians who have lost their careers due to changes in the music industry. She launched this organisation on the occasion of her completion of three decades in the music playback industry. She said that the fund would provide help to the musicians with financial impediments and those suffering from health problems. A cultural event called ‘Chithra Pournami’ was held on 15 February 2011 at Thiruvananthapuram to celebrate the 30th year of her career and also to launch this organisation.
Chithra was born 27 July 1963 in the city of Trivandrum (now Thiruvananthapuram) of the Kerala state. Her father, Krishnan Nair was a school teacher and a music enthusiast who taught basics of music to all his three children [two daughters & a son] Her mother Shanthakumari was also a music teacher. So, as we can see ‘KS’ in her name stands for the names of her parents.
Today, on the occasion of her 63rd birthday we are having a song from the 30-year-old film “Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin”. On screen, the song is in a night club, where we see Nirmal Pandey has just walked in. Followed by Ashish Vidyarthi and his cronies. There is another set of people who look like those waiting for Ashish Vidyarthi. We also see Nirmal Pandey desperately trying to pacify his wife. The dancers who are lip syncing in SP Balasubramaniam and Chithra’s voices cannot be identified..
Song – Hey Babu, Hello Babu (Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin) (1996) Singers – KS Chitra, SP Balasubramaniam, Lyricist – Nida Fazli, MD – MM Kreem
Lyrics (Provided by Sudhir) :
hey baaboo. . .
hey babu
hello babu
jhoomo nacho chinta vinta chhodo ji
chho
do
ji
chho patey
tujhko mujhse
mujhko tujhse
wo deewaaren
todo ji
to
do
ji
ye saari laathi vaathi
goli voli
maara maari
sab ki aisi taisi jee
ye saari laathi vaathi
goli voli
maara maari
sab ki aisi taisi jee
dil ko dekar dil ko le lo
doori voori kaisi ji
hey babu
hello babu
jhoomo nacho chinta vinta chhodo ji
chho
do
ji
jivan hai maati ke jaisa
jaisa bhi chaahe sajaa le tu
chaahe bana isey darpan
chahe khilauna bana le tu
lafda nakko
jhagda nakko
ladke ko ladki chaahegi
jab tak main
jab tak tu
yun hi jawaani gaayegi
kaahe ki ye chillam chilli
dil se dil ko jodo ji
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
हे बा..बू..
हे बाबू
हैलो बाबू
झूमो नाचो चिंता विन्ता छोड़ो जी
छो
ड़ो
जी
जो पाटे
तुझको मुझसे
मुझको तुझसे
वो दीवारें
तोड़ो जी
तो
ड़ो
जी
ये सारी लाठी वाठी
गोली वोली’
मारा मारी
सब की ऐसी तैसी जी
ये सारी लाठी वाठी
गोली वोली’
मारा मारी
सब की ऐसी तैसी जी
दिल को देकर
दिल को ले लो
दूरी वूरी कैसी जी
हे बाबू
हैलो बाबू
झूमो नाचो चिंता विन्ता छोड़ो जी
छो
ड़ो
जी
जीवन है माटी के जैसा
जैसा भी चाहे सजा ले तू
चाहे बना इसे दर्पण
चाहे खिलौना बना ले तू
लफड़ा नक्को
झगड़ा नक्को
लड़के को लड़की चाहेगी
जब तक मैं
जब तक तू
यूं ही जवानी गाएगी
काहे की ये चिल्लम चिल्ली
दिल से दिल को जोड़ों जी
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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