Soorat e izhaar dard e dil naheen
Posted on: November 15, 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-Amrit-1941, made both in Marathi as well as Hindi at the same time.
The film was produced and directed by Master Vinayak.It had songs written by Pt. Indra and music was provided by Dada Chandekar. The cast of the film included Meenakshi Shirodkar, Lalita Pawar, Baburao Pendharkar, Dada Salvi, Master Vithal, Damuanna Malavankar, V.S.Jog, Master Vinayak and others.
1941 was the first year in the second decade of the Talkie Era and it was the beginning of the emergence of a New film industry. When Talkie started in 1931, for many years after that, the films were made by the people who had done work in the Silent films. These films had a spill over for the silent era artistes. Once the films started talking,most silent artists who could not speak Hindi or Urdu automatically disappeared. Thus started the influx of new actors who could speak Hindi and sing songs, in whatever way they could. Intelligent directors like V Shantaram,Bhavnani, Sohrab Modi, Chandulal Shah, Himanshu Rai, B N Sircar, L V Prasad and a host of Gujarati directors understood that the Talkie needs a different treatment than silent films. Music directors from stage dramas tried their hand in composing film music.
In the next 8-9 years, there was a perceptible change in the film making, acting, singing, and composing music in the films that were made. Quality artistes from the silent era continued for some more years – finally giving way to the new artistes. The 30s and the 40s mostly differed in film music and story contents. The new blood composers like Anil Biswas, C Ramchandra, Naushad, Ghulam Haider, K Datta, Hansraj Behl, Bulo C Rani, Gyan Dutt and many more replaced the Parsi, Marathi and Gujarati drama music to more acceptable lilting songs. Many musical films were made and some everlasting songs were composed by these people. At the end of the 1940s, one more major change in the film industry took place due to Partition. Let us see some important films.
JBH Wadia became Chairman of the Film Advisory Board. He produced the First Sindhi film of the United India- ‘Ekta‘-1940. His film Court Dancer was also in English. Asra– Debut of actor director N A Ansari. Behan– Mehboob directed this film having an incest suggestive story. Beti– 8 songs of Khursheed in this film. She was on top in the early 1940. Chandan– Debut of S N Tripathi as an MD. Chitralekha– First big success of Kidar Sharma. Mehtab’s bath scene caused a ripple. Dhandhora– Actor comedian Charlie directed the only film. Doctor– Pankaj Mullick gave excellent songs. First popular song with woof beats-‘ Chale pawan ki chaal ‘. Jhoola– One of the most successful films like Kangan and Bandhan, starring Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitnis. Kanchan– First composed song of Naushad-” Bata do koi.” Khazanchi– A milestone in musical revolution with Punjabi Theka, by Ghulam Haider. Debut of Shamshad Begum in Hindi films. Lagan– Saigal, as usual, gives good songs. Mala– was remade as ‘ Amar-55’ with music again by Naushad only.
Naya Sansar– Story of Newspaper world. A novelty. Ashok Kumar’s famous cigarette smoking in films started from this film, solving his problem of ‘ what to do with the hands during acting’ ! Nirdosh– Mukesh sings his first song. Padosi– Last film of V Shantaram before leaving Prabhat. A Landmark film. ” Kaisa chhaya hai ujala” is a popular chorus song.
Pardesi– Debut of actress Anjali Devi (not the southwali) with real name ‘Durgesh’. Radhika– Debut of Nalini Jaywant. Raj Nartaki– Ambitious Wadia film in English , Bangla and Hindi. Released in the USA by Columbia Pictures of Hollywood. Sangam– Amritlal Nagar’s first film as a writer. He did 18 films as writer and Lyricist. Sikandar– A Magnum-Opus from Minerva. Chorus song- ” Zindagi hai pyar se” is very popular.Taj mahal– Debut of Baby Suraiya as an actress. Sasural and Ummeed were 2 films in which Noorjehan senior acted and sang. However these films are usually wrongly included in the filmography of Malika E Tarannum Noor jehan. She entered Hindi films only with film Khandan-1942 at Lahore.
In the early years of Cinema, the Hindi film industry of Bombay was dominated by Gujarati and Marathi people. It was natural, considering that Bombay was located in Maharashtra and close to Gujarat. The Gujarati people had money, so many of them became producers, financiers, owners and distributors, never interfering with the making of films, but controlled the monetary part. Marathi people had talents in various categories like acting, music, direction, publicity etc. As the industry grew and got talents from every part of India, in due course the number of Marathi people diminished in the industry. During this period, the Marathi film industry was also very strong and the Marathi crowd of Hindi films shifted to Marathi industry.
Until independence, this situation was in place. The Marathi film makers like Master Vinayak, V Shantaram, Bhalji Pendharkar etc made films simultaneously in Marathi and Hindi, from the earliest time of the film making in India. This trend, however, almost stopped completely, after the polarisation in 1947, except for few bilingual films made later, like ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji’ in 1952 and ‘Mahatma’ in 1953 which came in Marathi, and Hindi. ‘Mahatma’ was even made in English.
When making bilingual films in Marathi and Hindi slowed down, films were remade at Bombay in Hindi, from the hit films in Marathi. For example, a film ” Lagna pahave karoon” ( लग्न पहावं करून )-1940 was remade in Punjabi as ” Kudmai”-1941 and later in Hindi as “Barati-1954. Similarly, Marathi film “Tuzach” ( तुझाच )-1942 was dubbed in Hindi as ‘ Main Tera Hoon-‘ 1947 etc.
Film Amrit-1941 was based on a story by the noted, award winning Marathi writer V.S.Khandekar. The film was shot in and around a town in Konkan area- Malvan and also Goa. The lead star was Baburao Pendharkar and the Cameraman was Pandurang Naik-both part owners of Navyug Chitrapat Ltd. After this film they both left the company and started their own company-New Huns Pictures. After one year, even Master Vinayak also left to start his own Prafull Pictures.
The story of this film was…..
A complicated plot about class differences in a coastal Konkan village. It introduced a typical Khandekar character, the idealistic but dogmatic patriarch who becomes a victim of his own beliefs.
Here it is Bappa (Salvi), who monopolises the village palm trees from which toddy is made. He believes in fairness, not mercy. The story of his urban son Vilas (Master Vithal), his daughter Lata (Meenakshi) and her friend Sadanand (Master Vinayak) is interspersed with that of a drunken shoemaker Krishna (Baburao Pendharkar) and his wife Seeta (Lalita Pawar). Vilas, who covets the shoemaker’s wife Seeta, procures a new hut for them. He then starts having problems with his father and all the parallel stories converge when Vilas accidentally kills Seeta’s daughter.
Bappa, using his political influence, gets her innocent husband arrested instead and Seeta exploiting Vilas’s desire for her, retaliates by making him virtually her slave. Bappa eventually faces up to his moral responsibility in a tale that also warns against the Demon Drink.
The heroine of the film was Meenakshi Shirodkar. She was one of the few early female actresses who entered the films after their marriage. Some other such actresse’s names that come to mind offhand are Durga Khote, Renuka Devi, Neena, Leela Mishra, Nirupa Roy etc etc.
Meenakshi Shirodkar (16-12-1916 to 2-6-1997) Born Ratan Pednekar, Meenakshi joined the All India Radio as an artiste to work in the radio plays (1935). After her marriage to Dr. Shirodkar in 1936 she was approached by Pandurang Naik, one of the partners at Huns Pictures to act. Initially refusing to do so she made her debut with Brahmachari-38, after her husband was convinced of her potential.
She was renamed ‘Meenakshi’ by P.K. Atre. Her appearance on screen wearing a swimsuit created quite a stir in the thirties and was considered extremely bold for the period. The song ‘Yamuna Jali Khelu Khel Kanhaiyya Ka Lajata’ ( Yamuna bich khelu khel Kanhaiya, aao na), which was sung in her own voice was extremely popular amongst the youth of many generations to come. After retiring from major roles around 1950, she joined the Nutan Sangeet Natak Mandali and acted in several Marathi Sangeet Nataks like Mruchhakatik, Maanaapmaan, Ekach Pyala, Sanshaykallol, Saubhadra, Bhavbandhan, Udyacha Sansar etc etc.
Some people and a few internet sites say that actress Baby Nanda was the daughter of Master Vinayak and Meenakshi. This is not true. Susheela bai Wadkar was Vinayak’s wife and Nanda’s mother. Meenakshi was already married before joining films.
Filmography….
1938: Brahmachari (M), Brahmachari (H), 1939: Brandichi Batli (M), Brandy ki Botal (H), Devata, Mera Haq, Sukhacha Shodh, 1940: Ardhangi, Lapandav 1941: Amrit, Amrit, Sangam, 1943: Chimukla Sansar, Mazhe Bal, 1944: Ramshastri, Ramshastri, 1945: Badi Maa, 1952: Pedgaonche Shahane (Singer).
There was one actor who was in films since the Silent Era was Dada Salvi.
Dinkar Shivram Salvi (04 December 1904 – 29 October 1980) better known as screen name “Dada Salvi”, was an actor of the silent & talkie era of Indian Cinema. He was a part of the first Indian talkie film “Alam Ara” (1931). He has acted in 20 silent movies. He has worked in Hindi & Marathi movies.
Dinkar Shivram Salvi aka Dada Salvi was born on 04 December 1904 in a village Phansob in Ratnagiri, Bombay Presidency undivided India, now in Maharashtra. After completing his education, he joined the Police Department. During service period, he was taking part in plays. Shri Tipnis, a well known play master saw Salvi and advised to come to Bombay. Acting in plays became a part of his life, so he decided to leave the job and come to Bombay.
In Bombay, Tipnis introduced Salvi to K. B. Athawale, working as manager, actor, director in Excelsior Film Company owned by Seth Wazeer Aziz. The company was searching for talented actors and Athwale offered Salvi to join Excelsior Film Company on a monthly salary of ₹. 25. Salvi accepted the job & joined Excelsior Film Company.
Salvi’s first silent film was “Khoon-e-Nahaq” (1928) and became very popular. Looking to his potential in acting, The Imperial Film Company offered Dalvi work with higher monthly pay. After joining Imperial Film Company, Salvi acted in 20 silent films like Madanmanjri, Indira BA, Bhola Shikar, Cinema Girl, Hamara Hindustan, Raat Ki Baat, Khuda Ki Shan and many more. It is said, while working with Imperial Film Company, Salvi fell in love with his co-actress Sakhubai & later they married. Probably it was the first love Marriage of the first Maharashtrian acting couple of Hindi Films.
Salvi has worked with Jayant Desai in the film Poladi Pahelwan – Iron Man (1931) for Paramount Films. He also acted in Marathi films like Aut Ghatkecha Raja, Bhakta Prahlad, Chatrapati Sambhaji, Thaksen Rajputra under Dadasaheb Torne of Saraswati Cinetone. Salvi’s role in “Chatrapati Sambhaji ” as Sambhaji’s evil advisor ‘Kalusha Kabji’ won him great acclaim. Impressed with the acting of Salvi as “Kalusha Kabji”, Huns Pictures, Kolhapur, invited him to join them on a three figure salary. Salvi left Imperial and joined Huns.
“Premveer” (1937) was Salvi’s first film with Huns Pictures. This was a turning point in his career where he came to be associated with Master Vinayak & Marathi Films. Their team led to many wonderful performances. He was then seen mostly in Marathi Films with an occasional Hindi film. In Brahmchari, Salvi played the role of a father of the heroine. Salvi acted in Marathi films like Savangadi, Brandi Chi Batli, Devta and many more. Later Huns Pictures changed to Navyug Chitrapat and made Amrut (1941). Salvi then worked in many Hindi and Marathi films with Master Vinayak, V. Shantaram. After 1947, Dada Salvi mainly worked in Marathi films. Dada Salvi died on 29 October 1980 in Poona, Maharashtra.
Today’s song is sung by Meenakshi Shirodkar. My observations is that almost all Marathi artists had very poor knowledge of Urdu or Hindustani and they were always very uncomfortable with them. Only the Classical singers had the right way of pronouncing Urdu words, probably as they had training from Muslim singers. in today’s song also you will find this point as it contains urdu words.
Song- Soorat e Izhaar Dard E Dil naheen (Amrit)(1941) Singer- Meenakshi Shirodkar, Lyricist- Pt. Indra, MD- Dada Chandekar
Lyrics:
Soorat e Izhaar Dard E Dilnaheen
bejubaan hai dil
jubaan ke dil naheen een
mere kaise katenge akele ye din
mere kaise katenge akele ye din
main kunwaaree hoon
kaalee raat hai
main kunwaaree hoon
kaalee raat hai
kahoon kaase
sharam kee ye baat hai
main kunwaaree hoon
kaalee raat hai
main kunwaaree hoon
kaalee raat hai
more bachpan kee ?? mohe karde
armaanon se dil ko bhar de
baala joban ?? re
saaree sakhiyaan sidhaareen sasuraal re
haan
saaree sakhiyaan
aan aan aan aan aan aan
saaree sakhiyaan sidhaareen sasuraal re
bina jodee duniya mein bura haal re
bina jodee duniya mein bura haal re
bina jodee duniya mein bura haal re
haan
bina jodee duniya mein bura haal re
mere kaise katengee akele ye din
main kunwaaree hoon
kaalee raat hai
main kunwaaree hoon
kaalee raat hai
haan
main kunwaaree hoon
kaalee raat hai
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