Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs

This article is written by Sudhir, 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 sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

ना जाने क्यों॰ ॰ ॰ होता है ये ज़िंदगी के साथ
अचानक ये मन
किसी के जाने के बाद
करे फिर उसकी याद॰ ॰ ॰

Aah, Shyama. . . the vivacious, bubbly, chirpy, charming Shyama. That is the image that the mind always carries, of this spirited young lady, so full of life on the screen. Some memories and some reflections are so firmly engraved in the mind that it simply does not register or acknowledge the passage of time and the passing of eras. That is the beauty of these memories – that their beauty simply never fades away.

My very first encounter with her was the song “Mujhe Mil Gaya Bahaana Teri Deed Ka” (film ‘Barsaat Ki Raat’, 1960). I saw this song on Delhi TV, most probably in some edition of the Chitrahaar program. Shama (Shyama) is on screen with Shabaab (Ratna), her younger sister in the film. There is an exchange that leads to certain wrong impressions. Being secretly in love with Amaan (Bharat Bhushan), Shama interprets that conversation to be in her favour. And this happy song of an assumed fulfilment of love is the outcome. The expressions and the rendering of this love song trickled right into the mind and heart of a very young heart, and the lady on the screen became a favorite crush of mine.

A few years later, I would get a chance to see this complete film. And my heart was both joyous and asunder. I got to see more of her scintillating performance, especially the qawwaali “Ji Chaahta Hai Choom Loon Apni Nazar Ko Main”, in which she is brimming with excitement and delight. She makes you feel the thrill that she is experiencing, going in for the kill of the opposite party in the qawwaali competition. Her performance simply takes you along that joyous path of the victory of her singing group over that of Chand Khan’s (Khurshid Bawra’s) group. But then, I was also sad that in the final outcome, she is not the choice of the person she adores and worships. The film ends with her being the loser in the game of love. My heart wept for her, for her love was true and silent, and it made the sacrifice in face of knowing that her beau’s heart is smitten elsewhere. This film remains an all time favorite in my heart.

Then came other films, viewed some years later during college days. Films from the previous three decades were mostly showing as reruns in morning shows (9am to 12 am). We used to skip the morning classes in the college to go visit these unknown unseen films, for the love of that golden era. In that time, I would get to see ‘Aar Paar’ (1954), ‘Shart’ (1954), ‘Chhoo Mantar’ (1956), ‘Makkheechoos’ (1956), ‘Bhai Bhai’ (1956), ‘Sharda’ (1957), ‘Bhaabhi’ (1957), ‘Lala Rukh’ (1958), ‘Zabak’ (1961) and many more. The ‘puppy’ crush was long over and done with, but Shyama was a favorite actress – always would be ready to go see an unseen film, especially if Shyama was part of the cast of actors.

She was born as Khursheed Akhtar, in Lahore. Her date of birth is stated differently in different online sources. The anniversaries table on our blog gives the date as 12^th June of 1935. Cineplot gives the date as 7^th June, 1935. In his book ‘Beete Kal Ke Sitaare’, Shri Sriram Tamrakar quotes her birth date as 12^th July 1933. There are other sources which are at variance with these dates too.

When she was two years old, her family moved to Bombay. Her father was a fruit merchant and had set up a shop in Byculla. With seven siblings, Shyama was part of a large family. School and studies never did interest her. Right from childhood, being a star on the silver screen was her dream. As a child, she had seen a film starring Ishwarlal and Khursheed (the famous singer-actress). She was very impressed by Khursheed’s singing and her acting. On seeing this role, a resolve started to form in her to become an actor. [Ed Note: This picture possibly could be ‘Shaadi’ (1941) or ‘Chandni’ (1942).]

As a young girl, she was quite mischievous and full of pranks. Her elder sisters would admonish her for being such a tomboy. In her own words (from an interview on Cineplot) she says that she always wanted a hungama, indulge in a little romance. But she was very disciplined and cultured too. She never smoked, or drank all her life. And she never appeared in a swimsuit throughout her career. She was very true to her Muslim upbringing and family traditions.

In 1944/45 she and her sisters and friends, one day went to see the shooting of a film at a studio in Dadar (Bombay). The shooting of the film ‘Zeenat’ (1945) was in progress. The specific sequence being filmed was the now iconic all female qawwaali “Aahen Na Bharin, Shiqwe Na Kiye”. As luck would have it, Shaukat Hussain Rizvi, the director of the film, wanted to have more girls to join the singing group. He asked this group of onlooker young ladies whether they would like to join the filming of this song. Without hesitation, Khursheed raised her hand. Rizvi Sb picked her to join the group and play the dholak. In the video of this song, one can see her sitting in the second row behind the main singers, wearing a traditional cap, with a dholak in her lap. The young lady got a billing in the star credits as Baby Khursheed. She was just about 10 years old.

Her father was very upset that his daughter had made this impromptu decision, and was set against her joining films. However, her mother and her sisters prevailed upon him and calmed him to get his consent to permit her to work in films. So out went the school and studies, and the little Khurshid started her career doing child roles and extras. By her own estimates, she probably has appeared 80 films in which she was just an extra or a chorus girl.

‘Nai Maa’ is a 1946 film, which Shyama herself indicates as being her first formal role as a child star. The film is from the banner of Prakash Pictures – the production house of the Bhatt brothers – Vijay and Shankar Bhai. With the consideration that there already were two actresses named Khursheed in the industry, Vijay Bhatt suggested for her to change her name to avoid same-name-confusions. He thought of the name ‘Shyama’. The young Khursheed happily took it on, and this name turned to be her career and her destiny.

Getting seriously into small roles as a child and a teenage artist, she did two very important things. One, she refused to be disheartened by the long succession of bit-roles and being a supporting cast member. Two, she took on to get trained in music and dance, and spent a good slice of her developmental years under the tutelage of the famous Badri Prasad, the multi-talented artist active in the industry at that time. Her perseverance paid off. Her roles started to get more prominent, and her co-stars the more famous ones. She appeared as the younger sister to KL Saigal in ‘Parwaana’ (1947). The same year, she also appeared as the younger sister of Motilal in ‘Beete Din’. On to 1949, and she was now the younger sibling of actor Shyam in the film ‘Kaneez’.

In 1950, she got a very prominent role as the wayward younger sister of Shyam and Karan Dewan in the film ‘Chhoti Bhaabhi’. The title role was played by Nargis (paired with Karan Dewan), but the role played by Shyama was pivotal as the rebellious daughter in the family, who is on the verge of eloping with Yakub, a self serving con-man. Then came 1951 – she was paired as the love interest of Balraj Sahni in ‘Hum Log’; and the same year, she got to play a prominent role in ‘Taraana’ as the third part of the love triangle completed by Dilip Kumar and Madhubala.

It was in 1952 that she was able to belie the popular adage in the industry – ‘once an extra, always and extra’. But this graduation was not without its moments of anxiety and a heart stopping near miss. IS Johar was looking for an effervescent and a lively young new face as the lead for his maiden directorial venture – ‘Shrimati Ji’. Familiar with Shyama and her capabilities from their earlier films together viz., ‘Chhoti Bhaabhi’ (1950) and ‘Ek Teri Nishaani’ (1949), Johar chose Shyama from a list of over 100 candidates for the role. Shyama was excited and happy with this groundbreaking development in her career.

But a scare was still in store, and the career that we see, was almost never. A couple of reels had been shot. One day on the studio floor, one of the financiers was present. On seeing Shyama, he made a curt remark that this girl is too thin to impress in a leading role, and walked away. One can imagine the turmoil that followed, with doubts appearing in the minds of the entire team. Shyama herself notes that she went home and cried all night – here was a once in a lifetime break that suddenly became so close to slip out of her fingers. After the crying session was over, she pulled herself together and made a resolve to address even this issue. Next day, she went out to seek medical help. Whoever would think of a thing like a diet to ‘gain’ weight? She went on a crash diet to do exactly this – gain weight. In a short period of time, she gained a reasonable amount of weight, and went right back in to complete the film.

One more significant episode occurred in the year 1951. Shyama was filming for ‘Sazaa’; she was the second lead to Nimmi and again, the third vertex of the love triangle that includes Dev Anand and Nimmi. The director and cinematographer of this film was Fali Mistry. Affections developed between the two, and two got married. Her family would have preferred a Muslim son-in-law. Fali Mistry being a Parsi, her father did not accept her new venture in life. She did get support from her mother, who was present at the small and quiet ceremony for the wedding. Her father  did not communicate with her for years. Shyama mentions in her interview that the ice between them was eventually broken when she gave birth to her first son, and went to him to get his blessings.

One of the understandings between Shyama and Fali was that she would continue to work in films. Apparently there were other suitors also, but as per herself, the proposals did not go further because the gentlemen did not agree to allow her to continue her work.

Through the 1950s, as well as early sixties, Shyama was in the top bracket of leading ladies in Hindi cinema. A golden period in her career, her popularity can be gauged by the fact that 82 of her films were released in the period from 1952 to 1960. In 1954 alone, 14 of her films came on the silver screen, and 13 in the year 1955. In all 27 films in a period of two consecutive years is a record in itself. An interesting aspect of her career has been that while she was in demand as the leading lady, she continued to do all kinds of roles, including second lead and even as a vamp. By her own admission, she was never too much hung up on being the leading lady, but was always more interested in the content of the role. In fact her only Filmfare award is for her performance in ‘Sharda’ in 1957 – as the best female actor in a supporting role. In the later part of 1960s, she transitioned into character roles and continued to work till the end of 1980s. Her last film as a character artist is ‘Hathyaar’ released in 1989.

Fali Mistry passed away unexpectedly in 1979, leaving behind a family of two sons and one daughter.

In the past 3, 4 days I was in travel myself, and was disconnected from the net for part of that time. Settling back after returning, as I processed through the email backlog, I got to see this message from Harish Raghuvanshi ji, informing about the sad demise of Shyama. She was 82, and as per her latest interviews some years back, she was quite satisfied with the full life she had led, and with her accomplishments on the silver screen.

As I sorted through the list of her songs as yet unpublished on our blog, searching for an appropriate song for this tribute, I came across this chirpy and playful song from the film ‘Ghar Basaa Ke Dekho’ from 1963. I had not heard it before. As I played this song, it struck me as so much Shyama herself, and I knew this is the song so suitable to go along with the write up about her. On screen, she leads the singing and dancing within a group of friends. Some of the faces are familiar, but I am unable to place any names. I request our knowledgeable readers and friends to help identify other actresses supporting Shyama in this song.

The words are from the pen of Rajendra Krishan and the lilting music comes from the mind of Chitragupt. The singing voices are of Suman Kalyanpur, Usha Mangeshkar and chorus. Shyama gets to lip sync most of the lines of Suman Kalyanpur, and the lines sung by Usha Mangeshkar are shared between more than one of the supporting ladies on screen.

A wonderful expression of a philosophy of life, that one can surmise from her interviews, was very dear to Shyama herself. The thought behind the bubbly vivacity in this song is just the same thought that first made her raise her hand unhesitatingly to Rizvi Sb’s query on who would like to join the filming of the group song (qawwaali song in ‘Zeenat’). That is Shyama.

Or to put it more correctly now – that was Shyama. Only the memories remain now.

bichhad kar chale jaao hum se kahin
magar ye na kehna mohabbat nahin

magar ye na kehna mohabbat nahin . . .

Dear Shyama, RIP – Rest In Playfulness, Always 🙂

[Acknowledgements: source material for the above article is referred from articles and interviews published on the blogs Cineplot, Beete Huye Din (by Shishir Krishna Sharma), Wikipedia, and a profile article in the book ‘Beete Kal Ke Sitaare’ by Shri Sriram Tamrakar.]

[Ed Note: This song also is a remembrance of Chitragupt; reviving memories of this prolific music director on the anniversary of his birth – 16^th November.]

Song – Jidhar Jee Mein Aaya Udhar Hum Chale (Ghar Basaa Ke Dekho) (1963) Singer – Suman Kalyanpur, Usha Mangeshkar, Lyrics – Rajendra Krishan, MD – Chitragupt
Suman Kalyanpur + Usha Mangeshkar
Chorus

Lyrics

jidhar jee mein aaya
udhar hum chale
jidhar jee mein aaya
udhar hum chale
hamen duniya se kya
wo marey ya jaley
wo marey ya jaley
hamen duniya se kya
wo marey ya jaley
wo marey ya jaley

jinki kismet mein aish likha hai
aish karte hain aur jeete hain
jinki kismet mein aish likha hai
aish karte hain aur jeete hain
aah bharna hai jinki kismet mein
aah bharte hain ashq peete hain
zindagi kya hai ek hungaama
ek hungaama roz ho jaaye
kehkahon ke bagair kya jeena
zindagi kehkahon mein kho jaaye
jidhar jee mein aaya
jidhar jee mein aaya
udhar hum chale
hamen duniya se kya
wo marey ya jaley
wo marey ya jaley
hamen duniya se kya
wo marey ya jaley
wo marey ya jaley

aadmi ko mili hain kyon aankhen
dekh le jis qadar nazaare hain
aadmi ko mili hain kyon aankhen
dekh le jis qadar nazaare hain
baag tera hai phool tere hain
aur tere hi chaand taare hain
zindagi naam hain bahaaron ka
hum bahaaron ka ras nichodenge
zindagi ek baar milti hai
ek armaan bhi na chhodenge
jidhar jee mein aaya
jidhar jee mein aaya
udhar hum chale
hamen duniya se kya
wo marey ya jaley
wo marey ya jaley
hamen duniya se kya
wo marey ya jaley
wo marey ya jaley

zindagi teri ek hulchul hai
raqs hai saaz hain taraana hai
zindagi teri ek hulchul hai
raqs hai saaz hain taraana hai
ik jagah par qayaam kya karna
har chaman tera aashiaana hai
ek pal bhi na fikr mein beete
muskuraata ja geet gaata ja
aur duniya jo raah mein aaye
ek thokar usey lagaata ja
jidhar jee mein aaya
jidhar jee mein aaya
udhar hum chale
hamen duniya se kya
wo marey ya jaley
wo marey ya jaley
hamen duniya se kya
wo marey ya jaley
wo marey ya jaley

———————————————————-
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————————————-

जिधर जी में आया
उधर हम चले
जिधर जी में आया
उधर हम चले
हमें दुनिया से क्या
वो मरे या जले
वो मरे या जले
हमें दुनिया से क्या
वो मरे या जले
वो मरे या जले

जिनकी क़िस्मत में ऐश लिखी है
ऐश करते हैं और जीते हैं
जिनकी क़िस्मत में ऐश लिखी है
ऐश करते हैं और जीते हैं
आह भरना है जिनकी क़िस्मत में
आह भरते हैं अशक पीते हैं
ज़िंदगी क्या है एक हंगामा
एक हंगामा रोज़ हो जाये
कहकहों के बगैर क्या जीना
ज़िंदगी कहकहों में खो जाये
जिधर जी में आया
जिधर जी में आया
उधर हम चले
हमें दुनिया से क्या
वो मरे या जले
वो मरे या जले
हमें दुनिया से क्या
वो मरे या जले
वो मरे या जले

आदमी को मिली हैं क्यों आँखें
देख ले जिस कदर नज़ारे हैं
आदमी को मिली हैं क्यों आँखें
देख ले जिस कदर नज़ारे हैं
बाग तेरा हैं फूल तेरे हैं
और तेरे ही चाँद तारे हैं
ज़िंदगी नाम हैं बहारों का
हम बहारों का रस निचोड़ेंगे
ज़िंदगी एक बार मिलती है
एक अरमान भी ना छोड़ेंगे
जिधर जी में आया
जिधर जी में आया
उधर हम चले
हमें दुनिया से क्या
वो मरे या जले
वो मरे या जले
हमें दुनिया से क्या
वो मरे या जले
वो मरे या जले

ज़िंदगी तेरी एक हलचल है
रक़्स है साज है तराना है
ज़िंदगी तेरी एक हलचल है
रक़्स है साज है तराना है
इक जगह पर क़याम क्या करना
हर चमन तेरा आशियाना है
एक पल भी ना फिक्र में बीते
मुसकुराता जा गीत गाता जा
और दुनिया जो राह में आए
एक ठोकर उसे लगाता जा
जिधर जी में आया
जिधर जी में आया
उधर हम चले
हमें दुनिया से क्या
वो मरे या जले
वो मरे या जले
हमें दुनिया से क्या
वो मरे या जले
वो मरे या जले