Dil le lo dil lene ko to le lo
Posted on: November 5, 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 unknown film called Suhagi-48. Yes, the title is Suhagi and NOT Suhag. It is rather an unusual and misleading title.
There is a cluster of titles around the word Suhag. There were 4 films as Suhag and also 4 films as Suhagan. There was a film called “Suhag raat ke Pehle” and then there were 3 films as Suhag Raat. 2 films as Suhag Sindoor. There were two films with funny titles like Suhag ka Daan and Suhag ka Balidan. And among all this cluster poor film Suhagi was hidden in a corner !
Made by Blue Art Pictures, the film was directed by A.Shakoor, who directed only one more film in his career- Paayal-48, also made by the same banner. Film Suhagi was produced by Ismaile Devjee and the MD was Shaukat Dehlavi.
1948 was a year in which all the industries-including film industry- were trying to come back to normalising their businesses. The new government had not yet changed any laws and rules, so there was peace on all fronts. The Black money which was being poured into making films was now used by Politicians and thus the film industry was almost back to genuine producers and filmmakers. Most of the famous studios were on the verge of ending the studio system and studio culture. Some big names like New Theatres, Prabhat, Sagar, Ranjit were now mere shadows of their earlier powerful existence.
While film makers lost an important topic of Patriotism( in a garb), they now concentrated on Indian culture, Mythology, History, Family values, Joint family importance, literacy and such development themes. This changed the face of films. However, stories based on Folk tales, Religion and Kings-Queens and evil Wazirs still continued with public patronage. Raj Kapoor emerged as a Director, Ashok Kumar became a middle aged Hero, Dilip and Dev prospered with love stories and young themes. Older Heroes, Heroines, Directors and character artistes started vanishing and a new crop of actors etc took over their mantle. Music was changing its tunes. Melody ruled over Lyrics now and Naushad, C Ramchandra, H-B, S – J, Madan Mohan and the likes of them started making names and films.
One major event that happened in 1948, was the entry of Southern producers into Hindi heartland, with a Bang, when S S Vasan brought his Magnum-Opus- ” Chandralekha”, with more than 600 prints for All India release. The extraordinary success of this film paved the way for other big production houses of the South, like AVM, L V Prasad etc. to push their Hindi remakes of successful Southern films into the Hindi markets all over India.
1948 was a year when the filmmakers breathed a sigh of relief, because now there was no restriction on making films openly on our Independence efforts or having songs of patriotism and Indian culture.
Film Shaheed made by Filmistan was based on the 1942 Quit India Movement. This was Dilip Kumar’s first Hit film.
Bombay Talkies made Majboor on the exit of the British from India. There was a song also describing it.
Internationally famous dancer Uday Shankar made ‘Kalpana’ glorifying different dances of India. It ran well in Calcutta, but other places it had a lukewarm reception.
Suhag Raat by Kidar sharma -his best in career- presented Geeta Bali (who resembled his wife Kamala Chaterjee), as a Heroine for the first time. She too did justice to her role.
Raj Kapoor established his RK Studio and made Aag with 3 heroines- Nargis, Kamini Kaushal and Nigar Sultana. He did not match them, but managed well with good songs.
Another Dilip film Mela was full of melodious songs. Suraiya’s Pyar ki jeet too was a musical.
Dev Anand’s Vidya and Ziddi made an impression. Kishore kumar sang his first song in Ziddi. Asha Bhosle sang her first solo in Chunaria. Anokhi Ada with veteran Naseem and Surendra was successful. Grihasthi, Pagdi, Gopinath, Nadiya ke Paar etc were other notable films.
Directed by A. Shakoor, the 1948 Hindi film Suhagi is an emotional-romantic musical thriller and family drama revolving around property greed, sacrifice, and a complex love triangle. The cast included Bharat Bhushan (Beli), Begum Para (Paro), Manorama (Kammo), Sadiq Ali, and Badri Prasad. The music was composed by Shaukat Dehlvi (also known as Nashad) with lyrics penned by Shevan Rizvi, Manzar Faizabadi, and Harif Janjibari.
The story of the film was….
The story begins with a dying mother who asks her stepson, Rahul, to take care of his younger stepbrother, Beli (played by Bharat Bhushan). However, driven by greed for the family property, Rahul plots to get rid of Beli and sends him away to another village under evil pretences.
In the new village, Beli meets and falls in love with a sweet girl named Kammo (played by Manorama). However, the plot thickens when Kammo’s close friend, Paro (played by Begum Para), also falls deeply in love with Beli, creating an intense emotional conflict among the trio.
The drama reaches its peak on a wedding night. Realizing the tangled web of their feelings, Kammo selflessly steps in and tries to persuade Beli and Paro to elope so they can be together. Their escape is cut short by the villainous stepbrother, Rahul, who catches them and attempts to shoot Beli. In a final act of ultimate devotion and sacrifice, Kammo throws herself in front of the bullet. She dies in Beli’s arms, tragically uniting the two lovers through her ultimate sacrifice.
The narrative structure of Suhagi closely mirrors another prominent 1948 release, Suhag Raat, which shared a nearly identical plotline and featured Debutant Geeta Bali alongside Bharat Bhushan and Begum Para. Surprisingly, the names of Bharat Bhushan (Beli) and Begum Para(Paro) were the same in both films !
For the MD Shoukat Dehlavi of film Suhagi, it was only his second film as an MD. Do you know who this MD was ? He used 5 different names to compose music to 29 films in his career spanning from 1947 to 1965 in India. He composed 203 songs and also sang 3 songs in 3 films namely, Dildar-47, Aiye-49 and Baradari-55. His 5 names were 1. Shoukat Dehlavi, 2. Shoukat Hussain Dehlavi 3. Shoukat Ali 4. Shoukat Haidari and finally he took a permanent new name 5. NASHAAD.
I can remember only one more artist who had 5 names in her life. She was known as Qamar Sultana, Indira, Indu, Jaijaywanti and AMEETA !
After Partition, there was a rush to migrate to Pakistan and artists continued to shift there from 47 to almost 1950. Some artists like Noorjehan left immediately. There were few cases where some people borrowed money from friends and then left the country quietly, leaving the money lender high and dry. By about 49-50, almost everything was settled on both sides. The conditions in Lahore and Karachi had stabilised considerably for film making and lots of opportunities existed for film artistes there by mid 50s. That led to a second wave of migration to Pakistan at that time. Those who had continued in India completed their assignments here and went to Pakistan.
This type of Migration continued till almost mid 60s, when actor Kumar, MD Naashaad, producer actor Shaikh Mukhtar etc migrated to Pakistan. For the lucky ones, the talented ones and those who had preexisting ties in Pakistan sustained, prospered and were happy, but a few artists suffered heavily. Once a popular Heroine, Meena Shorey, one of the most handsome actors of his times-Najmul Hasan and the hopeful Shaikh Mukhtar spent their last days in utter neglect, penury, disillusionment and sorrow. Actors like Noor Mohammed Charlie regretted their decision to migrate, but it was too late. One of the later migrants was NASHAD, music director,who shifted in 1963 or so.
One of the cast members was Sadiq Ali. Sadiq Ali, was born on 6-10-1911 at Jalandhar, Punjab. His 2 cousins- Wazir Ali and Nazir Ali were famous Indian cricketers. Sadiq Ali completed his Engineering degree and worked in M.E.S. at Kanpur (Military Engg. Services). Due to strong desire to work in films and dramas, he resigned from his job after 5 years and joined Agha Hashr’s Drama company. When the company was closed, he joined The Burma Imperial film company at Rangoon. After a few small roles, he came down to Bombay.
After working in some smaller companies, he joined Minerva Movietone. Starting with khan Bahadur-37, he worked in Minerva’s Pukar-39, Sikandar-41, Phir Milenge-42, Prithwiraj Sanyogita-43, Parakh-44 (only directed by Modi) and Ek din ka sultan-45, also in Sandesa-39,Black out, Duniya tumhari hai, Phir milenge, Lieutenant, Ulti Ganga, Patharon ke saudagar,Jagbeeti,Nishana, Do Naina, Manjhdar, Mitti etc. In all he acted in 23 films. His last film was Ever Ready-46. After partition, he migrated to Pakistan.
First film in Pakistan was Judai (1950), Shaheena,Nazar and Zeenat). Other films include Shola (1952).Sadiq Ali was a very successful and famous actor before partition and got the title of Prince of Minerva. He acted in many films in India, but in Pakistan, Sadiq Ali could not be successful as he was in India. He was paralyzed in the 60’s and could be seen sitting with a Pan shop in Capitol Cinema lane, Karachi. He died on 12-7-1977 in Karachi. In his last days, he was seen begging on the road.
Another interesting artist in this film is Manorama. During the course of the last 80 odd years, thousands of actors came to work in films. Most of them wanted to become Hero or Heroine, but could not make it. What does it take to become a Hero in a film ? ( Talking only for the period 1931 to 1970 please). Is it good looks ? Then how come Shaikh Mukhtar became a Hero ? or Ranjan ? High education ? Then how come Master Bhagwan became a Hero ? A God Father ? Then how come Motilal or Surendra became Heroes ? For girls too the same logic applies. In the early era, most Heroines were uneducated like Meena Shorey- who could not even sign her name. All aspirants were not Handsome or beautiful. I sincerely feel, it is neither Talent nor good looks, it is nothing but the Luck Factor, which helps in making a career in films. This explains why good looking, educated, 1 or 2 film’s Heros could not sustain themselves for long. Similarly, good looking girls like Vijayalaxmi, Bimla kumari, krishnakumari,Tabassum, Yashodhara katju, Shubha Khote, Shashikala etc could not continue beyond 3-4 films as Heroines.
In the 40s era, Manorama was one such actress. ( Interestingly, in the silent era and early Talkie films, there was another actress Manorama- who was an Anglo Indian, Winnie Stewart). She had good education, beautiful Punjabi looks, fine acting, but she could not go beyond 3 films as Heroine and had to contend with side and character roles in all her career. Manorama was born in Lahore on 16-8-1920,as Irene Issac Daniels, from a Punjabi father and Irish mother. She took good looks from the father. While a student, she did some child roles in films from 1926 to 1936 and as an adult, she debuted in Pancholi’s Khazanchi-41. She then acted in Himmat-41, Khandan-42, Zamindar-42, Poonji-43, Panchhi-44, Patwari-45 in Lahore. Here only she did Heroine’s roles in Khamosh Nigahen, Rehana and Shalimar- all in 1946. After partition, she migrated to India, but she got only side and character roles.
Meanwhile, in 1947, she got married to Rajan Haksar. After coming to India, shortly, their marriage broke. She had one daughter-Roopa from this marriage. Roopa tried her luck in films in 1970, without much success. Then she got married and settled.
Manorama grew in weight. Now she got comic or vampish roles. She did films like Ghar ki izzat, Johari, Hanste aansoo, Ek phool do mali, Shor, karvaan etc etc. In all she acted in 161 films. Her last film was Water-2005. She died on 15-2-2008. She perhaps, had the longest career among actresses-from 1926 to 2005, that is a cool 80 years ! Manorama was a highly respected person in the industry.Neetu singh,Madhuri Dixit,Ram Mohan, Ekta kapoor and others were her fans. Her famous films were Jhanak jhanak….,Half ticket,Budtameez,and Seeta aur Geeta.
Here is a song from this film. Enjoy….
Song-Dil le lo dil lene ko to le lo (Suhagi)(1948) Singers- Geeta Roy,Shaukat Dehalvi, Lyricist- Shevan Rizvi, MD- Shaukat Dehalvi aka NashaadBoth
Lyrics:
o ho ho o o o oaa ha ha ho o o o
dil le lo o o o
dil lene ko to le lo
dil le lo o o o
dil lene ko to le lo
dil se
dil se wafa bhee karna sun lo sun lo
dil le lo o o o
dil lene ko to le lo
wafa kehte hain aaj kisko
wafa ke maane to batla jaa
bas tujh se pyaar karna sadaa aa
sada aa aa
tujh ke hee ban ke rehna
thukraana na uske dil ko o o o
dil lene ko to le lo dil se wafa jee karna
sun lo sun lo
dil le lo o o o
dil lene ko to le lo
gar wo jee ham ke badle
aur pyaar kisi se kar le
aur pyaar kisi se kar le
thhukra do tum bhee usko o o o
dil lene ko to le lo
dil se wafa bhee karna tum
sun lo sun lo
dil le lo o o o
dil lene ko to le lo
kab samjha wafa ko zamaana
kab samjha wafa ko zamaana
wafa ka naam hai mar jaana
o o o o
dil ho jaaye tukde tukde
dil ho jaaye tukde tukde
yoon karna ?? yoon karna ??
kehte hain wafa hum isko o o o
bas bhool na jaana isko
dil se dil se wafa bhee karna tum sun lo sun lo
dil le lo o o o
dil lene ko to le lo
hmh hmm hmm
ho ho ho
ho ho ho
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