Man ke baasee mujhko tere darshan kee pyaas
Posted on: October 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.
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Today’s song is from an obscure film called Aisa kyon-1947.
In olden days, there were 3 major film centres-Bombvay, Lahore and Calcutta. After 1947, all the Hindi film activity at Lahore shifted to Bombay. By mid 50’s even Calcutta almost stopped making Hindi films. Many Hindi speaking artistes in various disciplines of film making shifted to Bombay and finally Bombay became the only and the main Hindi film making Centre.
The year 1947 is a reminder not only for the Independence of India, but also for the upheaval that took place in the film industry that time. More than in any other industry in India, Muslims were plentiful, working in different sections and departments of the Hindi film industry. majority of them migrated to the newly formed Muslim Nation of Pakistan. This did create a lot of disturbance in the film industry. Right from the beginning of 1947, there were signs that soon the British would leave India – after dividing it into two Nations, India and Pakistan. When the month and date became known for the Partition, there was a great hurry among the filmmakers to complete their projects on hand and in process, compromising many factors like quality of the film, number of songs and such other things.
This resulted in the record number of films made in 1947 alone – 181 Hindi films and about 100 films in other languages in India. This was a record which remained unbroken till 1985, when 187 Hindi films were made. Thus from 1931 to 1985, this record remained unbroken for more than 50 years ! Obviously, this resulted in a big compromise on quality to achieve quantity with many films produced half heartedly. Most or rather many films made in 1947 remained obscure, unheard of and many flopped due to poor quality. Actually only few films were released in 1947, because many films were released in 1948 and 1949, with some films being released in Pakistan too.
Did you ever hear about films Amar Asha, Angoorbala, Attention, Barrister, But Tarash, Chalte Chalte, Chandrahas, Dagabaz Dost, Dehati, Ek kadam,Gaurav,Giribala, Heera, Intezar ke baad, Jhalak,Jurmana, Khaufnak aankhen, Lalaat, Mangalsutra, Moti, Sewa gram, Stage girl, Tohfa or Utho jago ? Of course not all films were below standards. Some of the landmark films were also made in 1947, like Shehnai, Mirza Sahiban, Jugnu, Saajan, Naatak, Meera, Elan,Aap ki sewa mein, Dard, Do Bhai, Neel Kamal or Parwana etc. However by and large the picture was like this only.
The film Aisa Kyon-1947 was made by Shri Raj Pictures, Calcutta. It was directed by A K Chatterjee (his only other Hindi film as a Director was Baba Taraknath-1980) and the music was by Anupam Ghatak. The cast of the film was Iftikhar, Radharani, Urmila, Pinky, Faiz, Tandon etc. Most people are not aware of the fact that besides New Theatres studio in Calcutta, there were many other film making studios in Calcutta. Hindi films were also made in Burma at that time by the indo-Burma productions.
Some of the studios based in Calcutta were East india film co., Madon Theatres, Aurora film corporation, Shree Bharat films, Laxmi pictures, Chitramandir, RBS Productions, Dev Datta films, Indra movietone, Kali films, Kamla Movietone, Moti mahal Theatres, Murli Pictures, New Popular Pictures, Quality Pictures, Radha film co., Sonoray Pictures, Star film co., Sunrise film co. and Tollywood studios. (source-Indian Cinematographers’ yearbook-1938) This is an old list of when many Hindi films were made in Calcutta. Of late, there must be a lot of changes now.
I have not seen this film, so I have no idea about its story etc. For the film’s Heroine-RadhaRani Calcuttewali, this was her last Hindi film that she acted or sang in. She continued her work in Bangla films, I suppose. This Radha Rani was one of the “Same Name Confusion ” pairs, as there was another Radha Rani-Bombaywali.
Same Name Confusion occurred when there were 2 or more artists having the same or similar names. It existed in Hindi films from 1931 to almost 1980’s. After this period, this problem nearly disappeared, because there were newer varieties of modern names (sometimes very strange too !) of artists and if any artist had a similar name, he would change his name before entering films (Like the method in Hollywood).
The problems of Radharani were peculier. The Bombaywali Radharani acted in films made in Calcutta and the Calcuttewali Radharani acted in Hindi films made in Bombay. Both Ranis sang songs in their films. However, with a long and hard research work in this case clarifications were procured. Here are the details of Radha Rani in this film….
RADHA RANI ( CALCUTTA WALI) –
——————————–
This Radha Rani was born in 1903 at Jiaganj, Murshidabad in West Bengal. She was from a rich Marwadi family settled in Bengal for many generations. Her Bangla was very good.After the demise of her father, her mother established a Gopal ji Mandir at her residence.
Listening to kirtans from in house offerings and also from visitors, she developed a liking for devotional songs. She was trained by Keertania Harimakhan Das and then Manju Ustad. She was trained in Thumris and Ghazals by Ustad Dabeer Khan. She stayed in Behrampur to learn music.
She started giving performances. In one such performance the Zamindar of Jiaganj, Surendranath Singh heard her. Impressed with her, he brought her to Calcutta and she was exposed to theatre ,Radio and films. Her first silent film was Sreekant-30. Then she acted in several silent films like in which she worked with Debki Bose, Sabita devi, Dhiren Ganguly etc etc. She cut several private records for Hindustan Records company. She sang pala Keertan songs which became very popular.
New Theatres took her in ‘ Yahudi ki Ladki ‘-33. Subsequently she also acted in the film ‘ Kashinath-43’ from New Theatres. She acted in only films made in Calcutta and by Calcutta companies. She did many Bangla films.
Radha Rani also gave playback in 4 Hindi films,namely- Mukti-37, Nartaki-40, Aandhi-40 and Irada-44. She worked in Hindi films till 1947. How long she worked in Bangla films, I do not know. This Radha Rani expired on 22-8-1997 at Calcutta, at the ripe age of 94 years.
Filmography in Hindi- Silent films like Srikant-30, Flames of Flesh-30, Panchsakar-30, After the Death-31, Money makes what not-31 etc Talkie Films- Yahudi ki ladki-33, Daku ka Ladka-35, Daksha Yagnya-35, Kadkati Bijli-36, Khudai Khidamatgar-37, karmaveer-38, Kashinath-43, Shri Ramanuj-43, Kurukshetra-45, Baap-46 and Aisa Kyun-47.
After a long time, I found a vague storyline of the film Aisa Kyon-1947 on the Internet. Aisa Kyon is a 1947 Hindi emotional-romantic musical-thriller family drama film directed by A. K. Chatterji. The plot revolves around a romantic love story between two individuals from drastically different social backgrounds who wish to marry. However, their path to happiness is quickly derailed. A series of severe misunderstandings crop up between the couple, fracturing their relationship. A sudden, mysterious incident occurs that complicates their lives further, driving the film into its “thriller” territory. The couple faces immense trouble and separation, but fate ultimately plays a vital role in bringing forth the final consequences and tying the family back together.
The film’s emotional narrative was deeply intertwined with its musical score, composed by Anupam Ghatak. One of its notable tracks is the devotional/melancholic song “Man Ke Basi Mujhko Tere Darshan Ke Pyaas”, sung by the lead actress Radharani Devi herself.
The fim’s Hero’s name may surprise many readers…IFTEKHAR !
Iftekhar Ahmed Sharif (22 February 1920 – 4 March 1995), often mononymously credited as Iftekhar or Iftikhar, was an Indian actor who mainly worked in Hindi cinema. He is known for his film roles as a police officer.
Iftekhar was born in Jalandhar and was the eldest among four brothers and a sister. After completing his matriculation, Iftekhar did a diploma course in painting from Lucknow College Of Arts. Iftekhar had a passion for singing and was impressed with the famous singer Kundanlal Sehgal. In his 20s, Iftekhar travelled to Calcutta for an audition conducted by the music composer Kamal Dasgupta, who was then serving for His Master’s Voice. Dasgupta was so impressed by Iftekhar’s personality that he recommended his name to M. P. Productions as an actor.
Iftekhar made his debut in the 1944 film Taqraar, which was made under the banner of Art Films-Kolkata.
Many of Iftekhar’s close relatives, including his parents and siblings, migrated to Pakistan during the partition. He would have preferred to stay in Calcutta, but rioting forced him to leave Calcutta. Along with his wife and daughters, he moved to Bombay, where they struggled to make ends meet. Iftekhar had been introduced to actor Ashok Kumar during his time in Calcutta and contacted him in Bombay, gaining a role in the Bombay Talkies movie Muqaddar (1950). Iftekhar acted in over 400 films in a career that spanned from the 1940s through to the early 1990s.
His brother, Imtiaz Ahmed, was a famous TV character actor of PTV (Pakistan Television), especially Afshan and Tanhaiyan. Like many of the older character actors who populated the Bollywood universe of the 1960s and 1970s, Iftekhar had been a lead actor in his youth during the “golden age” of Bollywood, in the 1940s and 1950s. His roles ranged from father, uncle, great-uncle, grandfather, police officer, police commissioner, courtroom judge and doctor. He also did negative roles in Bandini, Sawan Bhadon, Call Girl, Khel Khel Mein and Agent Vinod.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Iftekhar graduated to playing uncle, father, and what came to be his speciality: police inspector roles, doctor or senior advocate. Generally he played “sympathetic” characters but, on occasion, he played the heavy. One of his most memorable roles was as Amitabh Bachchan’s corrupt industrialist mentor in Yash Chopra’s classic Deewaar (1975). Another of Iftekhar’s classic roles was as the police inspector in Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer. It was a small part, but the scene where Iftekhar reprimands the near-hysteric Amitabh Bachchan for taking the law into his own hands is incredibly powerful. Another important role as a police officer was played by him in the 1978 hit film Don. Some of his major roles came in Rajesh Khanna films such as Joroo Ka Ghulam, Mehboob Ki Mehndi, The Train, Khamoshi, Safar, Raja Rani, Ittefaq, Rajput and Awam.
Besides Deewaar and Zanjeer, Iftekar had character roles in many of the classics of 1960s, 1970s, 1980s Bollywood cinema: Bimal Roy’s Bandini, Raj Kapoor’s Sangam, Manoj Kumar’s Shaheed, Teesri Manzil, Teesri Kasam, Johny Mera Naam, Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Don, The Gambler (1971 film), Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se (1978) and Sholay, to name but a few.
Apart from Hindi films, he appeared in two episodes of the American TV series Maya in 1967 as well the English language films Bombay Talkie (1970) and City of Joy (1992).
Iftekhar married Hannah Joseph, a Jewish lady from Calcutta, who changed her religion and name to Hina Ahmed. They had two daughters; Salma and Sayeda. Daughter Sayeda died of cancer on 7 February 1995. He couldn not bear this loss and he too died within one month, on 4-3-1995.
Here is a song, sung by Radharani of Calcutta, from today’s film. Enjoy….
Song- Man ke baasee mujh ko tere darshan kee pyaas (Aisa Kyon)(1947) Singer- Radharani (Calcuttewali), Lyricist- Not known, MD- Anupam Ghatak
Lyrics :
Man ke baaseeman ke baasee
mujh ko tere darshan kee pyaas
man ke baasee
man ke baasee
mujh ko tere darshan kee pyaas
man ke baasee
man ke baasee
teree jyot jagee hai tan mein
teree yaad basee hai man mein
teree jyot jagee hai tan mein
teree yaad basee hai man mein
man ke baasee
tu hee tu hai ae
tu hee tu hai ab jeewan mein
tu hee tu hai ab jeewan mein ae
tera jag jag mein vaas
man ke baasee
tera jag jag mein vaas
man ke baasee
mujh ko tere darshan kee pyaas
man ke baasee
man ke baasee
?? ankhiyaan rogee
??
ankhiyaan rogee
??
ankhiyaan rogee
??
ankhiyaan rogee
kaun badhaaye ae
kaun badhaye tujh bin more
?? kaun badhaye tujh bin more
man ke baasee
???
man ke baasee
mujh ko tere darsan kee pyaas
man ke baasee
man ke baasee
teree jyot jagee hai tan mein
teree yaad basee hai man mein
man ke baasee
tu hee tu hai ae
tu hee tu hai ab jeewan mein
tu hee tu hai ab jeewan mein ae
tera jag jag mein vaas
man ke baasee
tera jag jag mein vaas
man ke baasee
mujh ko tere darshan kee pyaas
man ke baasee
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