Naaheen boloon laakh manaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya
Posted by: Atul on: November 7, 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 a social film- Achhut-1940.
The film was directed by Chandulal Shah, owner of the banner Ranjit Movietone, Bombay. Music was by Gyan Dutt, who had joined Ranjit in 1937. Achhut-1940 was his 16th film here. He had already given music to 15 Ranjit films from 1937 to 1940. Lyricist was P.L.Santoshi. The cast included Gauhar (Mamajiwala), Motilal, Yakub, Mazhar, Vasanti, Charlie, Rajkumari and many others.
The year 1940 was the end of the first decade of Talkie films. From 1931 to 1939 most of the film music was made and sung by people who were experts in Classical Music. Classical music has never been the area of common people. It was born in Temples and nurtured in the Darbars of Kings and Nawabs. When film music relied heavily on classical mode, it became an imposition on the masses. Luckily, from the last 2 years of the 30’s, film music started changing and the emphasis shifted to traditional and Folk tunes over the classical.
1940 saw the emergence of Naushad with his first film ‘ Prem Nagar”, as an independent MD. He is the one who advocated the combination of classical with Folk music and this was accepted by other MDs. More people now turned to film songs.MDs like Naushad, Anil Biswas, C Ramchandra, Saraswati Devi, Gyan Dutt, Pankaj Mullick and their followers in the later part of the 40’s changed film music upside down.
National Studios emerged from the merger of Sagar Movietone and Mehboob gave his blockbuster milestone film ” Aurat”. Himanshu Rai died untimely and the reigns of Bombay Talkies came into the hands of Devika Rani. Ranjit brought more popular films from its factory. Though there were signs of slow death, New Theaters still continued with musical films. Prabhat brought its third successive Saint film ‘ Sant Gyaneshwar”. Wadias looked after their Stunt films with fearless Nadia and John Cavas.
In the south, SSVasan started his Gemini Studios. Master Vinayak and P K Atre started Navyug Films. In August 1940, there was a big fire in New Theatres leading to heavy losses. The use of Harmonium was banned on A.I.R. Due to War Times, Raw Film controls were given to the Film Advisory Board. It also gave rise to Black Marketing of Raw film, in addition to already existing Rationing, and a new class of rich investors emerged in the film industry shaking its established Studio Systems and Culture.
The year 1940 made only 86 Hindi films, less than 100 for the consecutive third year in a row. Let us take a look at some important films of 1940.
New Theatres film Aandhi had good music and songs, Bombay Talkies continued with Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitnis with the film Azaad, but it was not as popular as Jhoola, Kangan and Bandhan, A dubbed foreign film -“Azadi E Watan” was the only Hindi film for which Malika Pukhraj had sung 2 songs. Ranjit’s Achhut tackled a social evil, with good songs composed by Gyan Dutt. A Stunt film of Shankar Vazare “Aflatoon Aurat” had an English song in it. Sagar’s last film “Alibaba” by Mehboob was released. “Aurat” , a Landmark film by Mehboob for National Studios was the origin of its remake ” Mother India”’57’. Film ‘Bharosa‘ by Minerva was based on an Incest story. Sirco’s offering ‘ Geeta‘ had a crime story, with double roles of Chandramohan and Durga Khote. Prakash Pictures film ‘Narsi Mehta‘ had Sant Tukaram fame Vishnupant Pagnis and some good bhajans. Film Usha Haran saw the Debut of Sitara Devi. Film Zindagi from New Theatres had very good songs by Saigal.
The year 1940 was very important to India politically. After the II WW started in 1939, England had become not only bankrupt but also a weak country. They were now not in a position to continue governing so many countries under their control. In this situation Gandhi and the Congress became very aggressive and increased their activity. Gandhi continued advocating his favourite subjects, i.e. Harijan Uddhar and Village Development. Many film companies took advantage and made films on these 2 subjects – Untouchability and Village uplift.
Today’s film, the 1940 social-drama film Achhut, produced and directed by Chandulal Shah for Ranjit Studios, was a massive hit that directly campaigned against caste system atrocities and untouchability. The storyline unfolds through the following core narrative beats.
The story centers on Lakshmi (Gohar Mamajiwala), a young, kind-hearted girl from a Dalit (Harijan) family. While attempting to fetch water from a local temple, she faces extreme hostility from the temple priest (Pujari), who breaks the water pot over her head in an act of caste-driven rage. Devastated by this humiliation and consecutive social injustices, Lakshmi’s father renounces Hinduism and converts to Christianity, bringing Lakshmi into the faith with him. Her mother steadfastly refuses to convert, remaining a Hindu in the village along with their other child.
Seeking a better path, a wealthy businessman named Seth Haridas steps forward to adopt Lakshmi. He raises her alongside his own daughter, Savitri, ensuring that Lakshmi receives an excellent education and grows up in comfortable surroundings. As Lakshmi and Savitri enter adulthood, they both unwittingly fall in love with the same man—Madhukar, who belongs to a privileged, high-caste family. Desperate to secure Madhukar’s hand for his biological daughter Savitri, Seth Haridas weaponizes Lakshmi’s past. He betrayed her trust by informing Madhukar’s conservative family about her lower-caste upbringing, resulting in ill-treatment that drove Lakshmi out of the house.
Ostracized from high society, Lakshmi returns to her mother’s village. There, she crosses paths with Ramu (Motilal), the man to whom she had been betrothed in a traditional childhood arrangement.Reunited by circumstance and shared hardship, Lakshmi and Ramu form a unified front against the systemic brutality inflicted on untouchables. They lead a sweeping social rebellion against orthodox restrictions. Their message of equality successfully breaks through societal barriers, culminating in a historic triumph where they are finally granted open entry into the very temple that once shunned her.
Hindi film industry’s growth in the early years of 20s to 40s was contributed by 2 major communities. One of them was the Gujarati businessmen who immediately identified this business as the future gold mine. The other major community was the Local Marathi, who lent their brain and hard work to this industry. As the time went by, people from Punjab, U.P., Bengal and other states of India joined hands to help this industry to prosper. However, till the mid 50s it was the Gujarati Sethias who poured the finances. Financiers like Sampat Sheth, Gokuldas Pasta, Manik Sheth Patel, Chunilal Munim, Mangaldas Parekh, Abdulali Yusufali, Mohd. Ali Rangwala, Chimanlal Desai, Bhogilal Dave, Mayashanker Bhatt etc only supplied the money, but never dabbled in other departments nor did they learn anything about the film making, more than what was needed to get some profits.
One person, however, was different. CHANDULAL SHAH. He not only put crores of rupees in film making, but also learnt the technique and art of making films, direction, building organisations of producers, developing political connections and what not. He did everything that was needed to become a successful filmmaker and a leader in the industry. That is why Baburao Patel called him “Sardar”. Chandulal Shah made his company Ranjit Movietone, a force to reckon with.
Chandulal Shah belonged to Jamnagar-Gujrat. He was born on 13-4-1898. He was into the cotton trade and used to visit Bombay frequently. Later he started working in Bombay Stock Exchange. He used to visit the Laxmi films, nearby to watch shootings. On one occasion, the director of a silent film ” VIMLA “-1925 fell very sick and on the recommendation of a solicitor friend, Chandulal Shah got an opportunity to direct the film. Impressed by his work style he was offered 2 more films. He left the Stock Exchange job and took up the film line completely.
From Laxmi,he shifted to Kohinoor Film Company, where he met actress Gauhar Jan Mamajiwala, who became his mate for the next 50 years till he died. Gauhar used to feature in his films. With Gauhar, he did GUNSUNDARI in 1927 and in 1934 (silent and Talkie respectively).
This film was a tremendous hit and it helped them to establish their own film company, Ranjit Movies in 1929. In the next 3 year’s time they made 39 silent films. After the advent of Talkie, they changed the name of Ranjit to Ranjit Movietone. Chandulal liked to do things only kingsize. Thus he established Ranjit studios with 4 large sound stages. He also hired around 300 people in the beginning. They made ,on an average, 6 feature films every year. His studio was an assembly line production house. At a time at least 5 to 6 films were being made in his studios. He had a big army of famous Actors, Writers, technicians, directors, Music directors etc. on his payroll.
Actors like Gauhar jaan, Bilimoria, Nirupa Roy, Motilal, Madhuri, Khursheed, and K L Saigal, Music directors like Gyan Dutt, Bulo C Rani, Khemchand Prakash etc, Lyricists and writers like Kidar Sharma, Pradeep, Saadat Hasan Manto and many others were on his Payroll.
Chandulal was very proud of his empire and used to advertise ” There are more stars in Ranjit than in the sky “. At the peak time, there were about 700 people employed in Ranjit and the Government had opened a Ration shop in his studio premises for the workers’ benefit ! Khemchand Prakash did 20 films in Ranjit from 1940 to 1945, Gyan Dutt 25 films from 1937 to 1943 and Bulo C Rani did 20 films from 1943 to 1954 here.
From 1929 to 1963 Ranjit made Silent films-31 Tamil-1 Marathi-1 and Hindi Talkie films 120, a total of 153 films. They were the second number, next only to New Theatres, Calcutta-with 161 films. Unfortunately due to a fire, except 7 talkie Hindi films, all other films were destroyed. Chandulal Shah was an active person. Besides filmmaking he took interest in many Cine Associations and also led delegations abroad. He was a keen Horse racer, better and a Gambler.
In 1944,in one day he lost ONE CRORE TWENTY FIVE LAKH rupees in cotton betting and that was the beginning of his downfall. He had to mortgage all his and Gauhar jaan’s properties, but it could not save Ranjit from ruin. He returned to Film Direction to make money and his First film after 14 years was PAAPI-1953. It had the hit pair of those times-Raj kapoor and Nargis. For the First time Raj Kapoor did a double role, but the film flopped. Clearly the times were bad for Chandulal. All his kundali was topsy turvy !
He tried 3 more films, all failed. His last film was ‘Akeli mat jaiyo’-1963.A man who ruled an Empire started travelling in local trains and buses. Chandulal Shah died on 25-11-1975.
Here is a song, sung by Gauhar and Gyan Dutt. Enjoy….
Song- Naaheen boloon laakh manaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya (Achoot)(1940) Singers- Gauhar Mamajiwala,Gyan Dutt, Lyricist- P.L.Santoshi, MD- Gyan DuttLyrics:
Naaheen boloonnaaheen boloon
laakh manaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya
naaheen boloon
naaheen boloon
laakh manaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya
Bansee bajaa ke naach nachaaye
?? bulaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya
Bansee bajaa ke naach nachaaye
?? bulaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya
madhur swar se vishv prem ka
geet sunaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya
madhur swar se vishv prem ka
geet sunaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya
Jamuna tat pe mujhe bulaaye
Jamuna tat pe mujhe bulaaye
aur chakhaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya
aur chakhaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya
naaheen boloon
naaheen boloon
laakh manaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya
haathh jod ke karat vinatiya
tumhen manaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya
haathh jod ke karat vinatiya
tumhen manaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya
meethhee meethhee baaten kar ke
meethhee meethhee baaten kar ke
man lubhaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya
man lubhaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya
naaheen boloon
naaheen boloon
laakh manaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya
naaheen boloon
naaheen boloon
laakh manaaye Krishn Kanhaiyya
Krishn Kanhaiyya aa aa
Krishn Kanhaiyya aa aa
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